Tsukino Usagi
They get nearly two weeks without incident after Jadeite's apparent death. Apparent, because Ami doesn't believe he's actually dead. She's the only one who thinks so, merely because there was no body left behind, but the rest of them are under the impression that Jadeite won't be returning to bother them any longer. On one hand Usagi is glad. The idea of fighting Jadeite always made her nervous, and she dreaded their encounters. But on the other hand, if the enemy appears it isn't going to be something they're familiar with, and that makes her scared. Better the enemy you know than the enemy you don't, after all. Waiting for something to go wrong leaves Usagi edgy, though she tries to distract herself with video games and manga. Luna chides her to work harder on her studies, but Usagi isn't willing to give up the game just yet.
Today, she feels like hanging around the school. Lately Luna has been hounding her to start her training again while they've got the break, and it's gotten to the point where the cat won't let a moment go by without bringing it up. Her only respite is when she's a school, or doing schoolwork. Hence the reason she's decided to hang back this afternoon. Luna is probably waiting at the arcade to pounce on her, and Usagi isn't in the mood today.
So she heads up to the roof. It's become one of her favorite places, lately. Being so high up with the wind blowing through her hair reminds Usagi of when she jumps from building to building as Sailor Moon. Not to mention she likes being able to watch the other students down below because they all look so tiny.
A commotion on the tennis courts draws her attention, the chatter of the accumulated crowd interrupting her peaceful ruminating. She scowls and walks over to the section of roof overlooking the courts to see what's going on. Members of the tennis club – boy's and girl's – are challenging one girl, though Usagi doesn't recognize her. But she does recall hearing about a tennis champion at their school. Apparently there's a tournament coming up or something like that. Usagi doesn't understand what the big hype is all about.
She almost turns away from the scene, curiosity satisfied, when an odd figure catches her eye. He stands out from the gathered crowd of students, being far older than the rest and dressed in a fashionable yellow shirt and white pants, and that's not even mentioning his long, wavy brown hair. Usagi watches, confused for a number of reasons, as he approaches the court fence and then jumps right over it. Usagi's eyes widen in surprise and she leans against the roof's fence to get a better look, but from this distance she can't see a thing. She turns and hurries for the stairs, making her way down to the ground floor as quickly as she can. Once she hops down the last remaining stairs she heads right for the tennis courts, hoping to catch the guy while he's still there.
By the time she reaches them the gathered crowd is quiet and Usagi wonders what just happened. She spots Osaka standing at the gate and makes her way over to the other girl, hoping she'll be able to answer Usagi's questions. She nudges her classmate in the shoulder, startling her out of her staring at the court. "What's going on?" she asks. Out of the corner of her eye she sees the man hand his racket off to another girl on the court while the tennis star prepares to serve.
"I-I don't know," Osaka admits, her gaze straying back to the man. "He just got on court and hit Rui-niisan's serve back at her."
Usagi's eyes narrow as she looks between the figures on the court. The man is watching Rui, who must be the tennis star, and when Usagi glances at her she gets a bad feeling about the intense look in the girl's eyes. She serves, hitting a hard ball straight past the girl opposite her. The crowd cheers, and it seems to snap Rui out of whatever funk she was in because she immediately starts smiling. Then she looks around for the man, but he's already walked off the court.
Usagi, realizing Osaka is too engrossed in the practice matches to be of any real help, easily walks away to follow the man. There's just something about him that pings her instincts, and not in a good way. She heads for the school's gates, spotting a flashy red sports car parked on the opposite curb. The man is just getting into the car. Usagi watches him the whole time until the car is speeding down the road and out of sight.
She worries at her lip with her teeth as she tries to think about what she just saw. What happened was definitely odd – no normal person just casually jumps over a 15-foot fence like that – but whether it was abnormal enough to be worth investigating was another issue. But just as she starts trying to rationalize why leaving it be would be fine, she gets a notification from her communicator. She pulls the device from her pocket and glances at the screen where a message from Rei is displayed.
Sailor Mars 15:35
Luna says meeting at Hikawa Shrine 16:00
Usagi sighs as she pockets the communicator. 'Might as well head over,' she thinks before doing just that, thoughts of the unusual man slipping from her mind.
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Ami is the last to show, just a couple of minutes after Usagi arrives, and once they're all comfortably seated in Rei's room Luna begins the meeting. "I have some information to share with you all," the cat starts. The three of them look at her expectantly. "Firstly, we have confirmed that the Dark Kingdom is after energy, human energy to be specific. The only thing is, we don't know what they want to do with this energy."
"Take over the world?" Usagi throws out, resting her head on her hand. It's just begun and she's already bored.
"Obviously," Ami mutters in response.
"How?" Rei asks.
"My guess is they have a weapon of some sort," Luna says, shooting a scowl at Usagi and Ami though neither girl is particularly perturbed. "But at this point all we can do is speculate, and prevent them from gathering energy."
"Which we've been pretty successful about so far," Usagi points out.
Luna nods in agreement. "Yes, and we need to keep it that way. Which brings me to my second point: I think you girls need training." Usagi groans – just the topic she'd been trying to avoid today – but Luna pays her no mind. "Your last fight with Jadeite has only made it more obvious that none of you have much experience with combat, and that can become an issue as your enemies grow stronger. Ideally it would be best for you to train individually and as a team, but we'll have to see what we can manage."
Ami makes a face that Usagi mentally agrees with. "I don't think I like the idea of combat training."
Luna gives her a narrow-eyed look. "Do you like the idea of dying?"
Ami opens her mouth, most likely to retort, but Rei quickly speaks up to stop the argument before it can start. "Where would we even get training? Did you have something in mind?"
"Ah, well," Luna begins a little sheepishly, "I hadn't, actually, though I have been looking at some of the gyms downtown. That's where Usagi had trained before, so I thought it might work well again."
"But let's not forget the gym I was going to was trying to steal everyone's energy," Usagi reminds her.
"Yes, but I'm sure that won't happen again," Luna mutters. "I need you girls to be on the lookout for anything you may be interested in." Ami rolls her eyes and Luna scowls at the genius. "It's your life at stake, Ami-chan, not mine. I'm just doing my best to keep you girls alive." Ami's lips thin with her displeasure but she doesn't say anything else, and after a moment of staring Luna continues the meeting. "As of yet we still have not determined the face of our new enemy, so all we can do is prepare for when they strike. I've got the computers constantly scanning for anything abnormal, so I want you girls ready for anything."
"There is one thing," Ami pipes up once Luna finishes, and when she has their attention she continues. "I have yet to determine whether this is definitely abnormal, but I have been picking up an elevated energy signature concentrated in a singular area, which I've identified as Juuban Public Middle School."
Something about that rings in Usagi's mind, and she thinks back to what she'd witnessed earlier. "How new are these readings?" she hears herself ask before consciously deciding to speak.
Her comrades turn their attention to her. "Earlier this afternoon was when I recorded the first spike," Ami answers.
"Did you see something, Usagi-chan?" Luna asks.
Usagi chews her lip for a moment before deciding to share what she saw. "There was a man at the tennis club's practice today. Normal looking, but he cleared the court's fence in one jump and then challenged the star of the team, and beat her. Afterwards there was something…off about her. I tried to follow when he left but he took off in a fancy sports car."
"Do you think there's a chance this man caused the energy spike?" Rei asks.
Ami shrugs. "No idea. Spikes in energy aren't as uncommon as you'd think. If I had to guess I'd say they occur when someone feels hyped or really intense emotions. Despite the high output, it's too early to determine whether the reading is good or bad, but I'll continue to monitor it for any changes."
Luna nods. "Good. Keep us updated if anything does."
"Obviously," Ami repeats.
Luna ignores the girl. "Then I think that's all we needed to discuss. You girls are dismissed for the afternoon, but continue to think about what I've said. I'm serious about getting you girls training."
"Yeah, yeah," Usagi replies as she stands, Rei doing the same. "Well, I'm off then." 'To the arcade,' she adds mentally, but she isn't about to tell Luna that.
"Goodbye, Usagi-chan," she hears Rei say as she leaves the room. "Ami-chan, are you going to stay here to work?" the girl continues, but Ami's reply is lost as Usagi moves too far away to hear. Luckily for her, Luna isn't following, so Usagi wastes no time heading right for the Crown Game Center to salvage her afternoon, thoughts of training and new enemies wiped from her mind.
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Usagi isn't bothered for the rest of the afternoon as she plays the new Sailor V video game, and it's a pleasant change from the norm. Every moment she spends in Luna's presence the cat, when not hounding her about her homework or training, is warning her about being vigilant for new enemies, and it's just too stressful, in Usagi's opinion. The cat doesn't need to remind her; she's well aware their job isn't finished and there may be a new attack any day now. Just because she isn't actively showing her stress doesn't mean she isn't feeling it. But in Usagi's opinion, there's nothing she can do about it right now, so why worry? Both Ami and Luna are looking out for things, and she's paying attention – well, half paying attention – to the energies around her, so there's no reason to get worked up.
When the sun starts to go down and Motoki begins to close up the arcade Usagi decides she's loitered long enough and should probably start heading home. With a quick stretch and groan she heads out, throwing a casual farewell to the college student before leaving the shopping district. It's been a while since she was able to just do nothing for so long. 'But how long will this peace last?' she wonders to herself, thoughts from earlier that day intruding despite her intentions.
She frowns, suddenly irked. The thought of returning home seems unappealing now, especially since there's a good chance Luna will be waiting there for her. Usagi isn't in the mood for another lecture, especially after the meeting from today, so she turns down the alley on her left, intending on taking a long detour back home, if only to put off the inevitable a little longer.
In the silence of the residential district it's easy for Usagi to get lost in her thoughts, try as she might to avoid it. But something about that afternoon has stuck in her mind, and some part of her knows that things are going to be changing soon. That man…he is not an ordinary man, Usagi is sure of it. 'Will he end up being Jadeite's replacement?' she wonders, vowing to keep an extra eye out for him or that car of his.
Just as she thinks this, a loud streak of red shoots down the road in front of her. Usagi blinks incredulously. "No fucking way," she mutters incredulously. 'I mean, it's not like he has the only red sports car in this town,' she argues with herself. 'And what would the odds be that's him right as I'm thinking of him?' She shakes her head. "It's fine," she has to verbally tell herself, forcing her feet to continue towards her house.
A moment later there's a sharp spike in energy that even Usagi can feel, limited as her energy sensing abilities are. "Shit," she curses, taking off in a run in the direction she'd seen the car speeding. From there she relies on the massive energy output to guide her towards the sports arena situated in the neighborhood. The back lights are on over the tennis courts so Usagi heads right for them, easily jumping over the fence around the building. When she arrives she takes a moment to observe the situation.
The court is empty save for four figures, one Usagi recognizes as the girl from her school earlier. There's an oddly intense look in her eyes as she taunts her two opponents for failing to catch her receive. Her two opponents watch her carefully, almost backing away to the exit. Oddly enough, Osaka is there as well, saying something to her friend, but they're the only ones present, to her displeasure. She hadn't even seen a red sports car at the front of the building. If that man from today is involved – which she suspects he is – she has no way to prove it.
Rui snaps something and swings her racket forward, a thick energy shooting from its face to knock Osaka and the men off their feet into the bushes at the back of the court. Usagi hears a couple of groans, but none of them get back up. Then Rui's energy spikes even further and Usagi watches a dark figure rise up from the racket. The energy output spikes to an all-time high as it starts to take shape, only dying down once it's fully formed and standing over Rui's prone body. She – it? – is pale, wearing a full black body suit with red accents. The pointed red nails don't escape Usagi's notice either.
'Shit,' Usagi thinks as she palms her transformation brooch. There's no time for her to call the others, so she can only hope that Ami is paying attention to her computer and noticed the energy spike. "Moon Prism Power Make Up!"
When the warm feeling fades she steps out onto the court, and for a moment they eye each other up, both waiting for the other to make a move. Usagi doesn't know what to do; should she just go for her tiara and try to kill it? But she doesn't want to provoke it into attacking, especially without any backup, and somehow she gets the feeling this one won't be like the monsters they've faced before. Finally, she decides to talk to it. Perhaps that way she can learn something interesting.
"I don't know what you want with Rui-senpai, but I won't allow whatever this is to continue," she proclaims, hoping there's no one nearby to hear her. It sounds stupid enough in her own ears. "I am the Guardian of Love and Justice, Sailor Moon. In the name of the Moon, I'll punish you."
"Sailor Moon, eh?" the creature – that sounds distinctly female – growls. "Your energy will belong to our great kingdom!" Then she generates a racket of flames, and in the center is a concentrated mass of flaming energy. She doesn't hesitate to swing it at Usagi.
She jumps to the side, easily dodging the projectile. "Well that was rude," she mutters dryly, feeling a little comforted. Then an explosion behind her rocks her forward, nearly making her lose her balance, and she quickly rethinks her previous thought. A glance back shows a small crater where the projectile had landed and subsequently exploded. 'Yikes,' she thinks. 'I hope Osaka and those guys are okay.' But she can't spare anymore thought to their well-being as the monster launches another projectile at her. She dodges again, this time prepared for the explosion as she doesn't even stumble. It's a little warm at her back, but nothing she hasn't experienced before.
"So I see you can dodge," the monster remarks, grabbing the racket with her other hand. "Take this!" Another flame appears, launching itself at her, but then almost instantly afterwards another is forming and launching. Usagi's eyes widen as she dodges the first, only to quickly dodge another and another and another. She can't stop moving if she doesn't want to get hit, and the monster's aim is scarily accurate.
Usagi is just starting to wonder which of them will tire first – and she has a sinking feeling it'll be her – when one of the explosions hits a little too close to her and she loses her balance, face-planting into the court with an undignified yelp. She pushes to her knees a moment later, but when she looks back to the monster another projectile is already heading for her. She barely has time to throw herself to the side, but even then it catches on her unprotected leg. Usagi has to swallow back a pained shout when flame bites at her flesh, exploding a second later. The smell of charred flesh permeates the air and Usagi has to swallow heavily, afraid to look at what's happened to her leg.
She isn't given much longer to worry about it, anyways. The monster doesn't stop its attack, and in the next moment Usagi feels a searing pain in her side before she goes flying back, hitting the chain-link fence with a clatter. She gasps in pain as she hits the ground, but she can't do more than that. Just trying to turn her head to watch the monster is a struggle but Usagi eventually manages it...
...right in time to see booted feet stop before her. Then a sharp-nailed hand is reaching down to grab her by her collar and she's dragged up to the monster's eye level. It sneers in her face. "Well, Sailor Moon, looks like this is it for you. I think your energy will do nicely for the Dark Kingdom." Then its hands start glowing, not with the red of its flames but instead a bright blue light, and then Usagi starts to feel her energy draining away. Slowly her struggles in the monster's grip cease as she loses the energy and will to fight, and darkness starts encroaching on her sight.
'Is this it?' she wonders. 'Will this new enemy be too much for the Guardians?'
Then she feels weightless for a moment as the monster lets out a squawk of rage, only to be enveloped by a soothing warmth moments later. She blinks hazily and sees black cloth in front of her gaze. 'I know this feeling,' she thinks as little by little the warmth starts to fill her and her energy returns to her. "Tuxedo Mask," she mutters.
"Sailor Moon, you need to pull yourself together," he tells her.
"Just…one more moment," she replies. "You're warm."
Tuxedo Mask pauses before haltingly continuing. "The monster is stunned for now, but it won't be much longer. You don't have any more time."
Usagi feels a gentle push at her back and distantly realizes Tuxedo Mask is trying to stand her up on her own. She winces when the weight hits her injured leg and shifts to stand more on her left, though the pain is barely lessened. Breathing also hurts, she comes to realize, and starts taking more shallow breaths. But it doesn't hurt nearly as much as Usagi would've expected it to, she's surprised to realize. She knows her healing factor is supernatural, especially when she's transformed, but to have regenerated this quickly…even she can tell it's abnormal.
Hesitantly, she glances back at Tuxedo Mask, a curious thought crossing her mind. 'Could it be because of him?' she wonders.
"Now, Sailor Moon, hurry!" he says when he notices her attention.
Caught, she turns back to the monster, who's starting to regenerate the fiery racket from before. Her side twinges at the sharp turn, but she ignores it to grab for her tiara. The movement comes naturally to her now and she doesn't hesitate to attack. "Moon Tiara Action!" Her tiara shoots across the court, easily breaking through the monster's fireball to hit it dead on.
For a moment Usagi is relieved this whole ordeal is over as she catches her tiara when it returns. That feeling is quickly shot down when she realizes the monster isn't dying, or disappearing, for that matter. If anything, it looks majorly weakened, but certainly not like it's about to keel over. "What?!" Usagi gasps, taking a hesitant step back. Her tiara has never failed her before now – at least, not when she's managed a direct hit – so why not this time.
Before she can start to panic too much, she feels Tuxedo Mask step up behind her and place a reassuring hand on her shoulder. Warmth starts to fill her again, and the feeling is almost distracting enough that she misses what he says. "Again, Sailor Moon!"
She blinks and has to mentally shake herself back into the present. "Sure," she mutters. It's as good an idea as any. "Moon Tiara Action!" Thankfully the monster is weakened enough that it doesn't bother to attack again, let alone dodge, and she hits it squarely once more. She watches intently to see what will happen now, but to her relief the monster's form starts to dissipate back into the black wispy form it was before. "Thank fuck," she says, breathing a sigh of relief.
Until she hears a groan of pain behind her. Usagi turns, confused, to see Tuxedo Mask kneeling on the ground behind her, and a moment of panic flashes through her. "Tuxedo Mask?" she asks. 'Did he get hit? When?' she wonders as she moves over to him.
"It's nothing," he groans, though the way his form starts flashing makes Usagi think otherwise. Before she can approach him, though, she hears two other voices calling her name.
"Sailor Moon!"
She turns to find both Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury running towards her, clearly concerned. Usagi lets out a frustrated huff as she looks between her friends and Tuxedo Mask, only to do a quick double-take as she realizes Tuxedo Mask has vanished. "What?" she mutters, just moments before her fellow Guardians reach her.
"Sailor Moon, are you okay? Oh my god," Rei gasps, getting a good look at her injuries. Usagi tries to smile reassuringly, but it falls a little short when she comes to realize she can no longer hold herself up and starts to collapse to the ground. Only her friends' quick reflexes keep her from falling over, and instead she's gently lowered until she's lying on the rough court.
"This doesn't look good at all," Ami mutters, frowning over Usagi's body. Her goggles have been activated and Usagi can see diagrams and words flickering on the screen but she can't tell what any of it says. "You've got some serious third degree burns; this isn't something I can take care of with a first aid kit."
Usagi can see her reach a hand out towards her side, gently moving parts of her uniform aside to get a full glimpse of the wound. Surprisingly, the touch doesn't sting like she would have expected it to. In fact, it feels almost cooling. She says as much to her comrade.
Ami frowns down at Usagi, turning her hand over to look at it curiously. "Cooling, you say?" she muses. "I wonder…" she begins thoughtfully before trailing off. "This might sting a little," she warns.
Usagi doesn't have even a moment to wonder what that can mean before Ami is placing her hand fully on the wound at Usagi's side. She lets out a yelp as it does, in fact, sting, Rei doing the same from her other side, and yet Ami is undeterred, an intense look of concentration on her face. And then the sting starts to fade, and a look of wonder replaces her expression.
"Are you…?" Rei trails off before Usagi can say a thing, but Ami doesn't respond. Slowly but surely the pain in her side starts to fade away until there's not even an ache. Only then does Ami pull her hand away and look at the other girls. Usagi sits up without any help, marveling at the fact. When she looks down, there's only a slight discoloration on her skin to show where she was injured through the tear in her uniform.
"You healed me," she remarks. "I didn't know you could do that."
Ami nods, though she looks more tired than she'd been previously. "Neither did I until just now. But if you think about it, it's really not all that surprising given the mythology around Mercury."
"Honestly, I don't care what it is but I'm grateful for it," Usagi chuckles, suddenly relieved. Rei makes a noise of agreement as Ami moves to take care of the wound on her leg – which looks about as bad as Usagi had been expecting, so she quickly averts her gaze. It catches on Rui, who's still prone on the ground a few feet away from them. Usagi frowns in concern. "Do you think she'll be okay?"
Rei notices where she's looking and gets up to approach the other girl. She studies her for a moment and takes her pulse, before eventually nodding. "She just seems to be exhausted."
"If that was her energy I was reading earlier, I'm not surprised," Ami remarks as she heals. "She'll probably be fine after resting for a bit."
"Are we going to just leave her here, then?" Mars asks, walking back over to them.
Usagi shrugs as Ami finishes up with her leg, standing as well with the other girl's help. "We might as well. What else are we going to do with her?" she asks.
Rei nods. "I suppose you're right."
"We should head back to the temple, if you're feeling up for it," Mercury suggests, though her tone makes it sound like she isn't up for it. "I think we need to have a meeting about tonight."
Usagi nods and the trio starts to head out, though Usagi can't help but quip, "Sailor Mercury, suggesting a meeting? Should I be shocked? Isn't this going to cut into your study time?"
The blue-haired girl scowls lightly, though the quirked corner of her lips tells Usagi she's well aware of the irony of her suggestion. "Don't make me regret healing you," she lightly threatens, before quickly growing serious and pausing, bringing the trio to a stop just outside of the sports complex. "Normally I'd agree that this can wait for tomorrow, but I get the sense that what happened tonight was far from normal. I don't know when the enemy might strike again, but if it's tomorrow I want to be prepared."
"You mean energy stealing monsters isn't far enough from normal for you?" Usagi asks, trying to lighten the mood, but Ami's stern expression doesn't falter. She sighs. "I know, and I'm concerned."
"Let's get back, then. Perhaps Luna will have some insight for us," Rei suggests, and they soon take to the rooftops. Like this it only takes them a dozen minutes to make it across town to the Hikawa Shrine, and Usagi can already see Luna waiting for them at the gate. They land just before her.
The cat's expression furrows in concern as her gaze flits over Usagi, lingering on the tears in her clothes, before she solemnly nods. "Inside, girls." Then she turns to lead them to their usual meeting spot in Rei's room. Usagi nods and starts to follow, dropping her transformation as she does. Ami and Rei do the same behind her. They're oddly silent as they settle themselves around the table they'd been at not even 12 hours before. This time the atmosphere is far more serious. "What happened, Usagi-chan?" Luna asks. All three of their eyes are on her.
Usagi takes a deep breath to gather her thoughts before she starts to explain what happened this evening up until Sailor Mercury and Mars joined her. "I never saw what caused that thing to appear from Rui-senpai's racket, but I'd be willing to bet anything it had to do with that man from earlier today. The car I saw today was probably his. I don't have any verifiable proof," Usagi admits semi-reluctantly, "but we should still be wary."
"I'm not saying I doubt your abilities, Usagi, but I agree," Ami speaks up. "For now, we should treat this man as an unknown variable, and stay out of his way until we have proof one way or the other. That would be the safest option, I think."
"Understood," Rei intones solemnly.
"I'll keep a lookout for him, and try to track his movements," Ami continues.
"As will I," Luna adds. "Now that we know the enemy is active again we need to be more vigilant than ever. You're lucky, Usagi-chan," she says, looking at the blonde. "If Ami-chan hadn't discovered her power when she did you might've been left severely injured. You need to be more careful."
"I know," Usagi agrees, taking the chiding without complaint. "But I think these monsters are stronger than the ones Jadeite threw at us," she adds, not intending it to be an excuse. "It took my tiara two strikes to vanquish it."
Luna nods. "This is concerning," she admits, sounding worried. "I think it would be best if we refrain from engaging the enemy without backup from now on, even if it means waiting to attack. I don't want any of you girls to end up seriously injured again, even if Ami-chan can heal you now."
"Guess we'll have to take that training seriously now," Usagi remarks, shooting a teasing look at Ami.
The girl rolls her eyes in response. "Fine, I'll do it. But I'm not going to like it."
"Why am I not surprised?" Usagi grins.