Tsukino Usagi

Usagi blinks in surprise when Osaka sits herself down in the chair in front of her first thing the next morning. "His name is Sanjoin Masato and he's an entrepreneur. Apparently he goes and finds promising athletes and artists to support as a patron, and he approached Rui-niisan so she could play in bigger tournaments. Isn't that so nice of him?" she blurts out, her eyes bright with adoration.

"Um, yeah," Usagi replies.

"Oh, I'm so glad you understand," she continues, not at all bothered by Usagi's lack of enthusiasm. "Yumiko and Kuri think he's weird, but they just don't get how nice he is. It takes a very generous man to want to sponsor so many people."

"You seem very enthusiastic about this man," Usagi remarks, and is rewarded by her classmate flushing brightly before her.

Osaka's gaze shifts bashfully to the side. "Am I? I just can't get him out of my mind, after seeing him yesterday," she says. "Is that weird?"

Somehow Usagi gets the feeling that her response will be very important to Osaka, though she can't fathom why. She hesitates before responding. "I…I'm not sure. I don't think so?"

It must be the right response because Osaka brightens. "Thank you so much, Tsukino-san. You have no idea how reassuring it is to hear that. I thought I was going crazy," she says with a chuckle. "Sorry about unloading all that on you, I just had to talk to someone."

Usagi manages an awkward grin in response. "No problem."

"I'll see you later then," she says, standing to head back to her desk with a cheery wave at Usagi.

Usagi watches her go in stunned incredulity. 'Is this what having friends is like?' she wonders, blinking to get her thoughts back in order. 'Regardless, Osaka has given me some pretty useful information.' As she thinks she pulls out her communicator from her bag's pocket, opening her messages and creating a conversation with Ami.

Sailor Moon 07:49
Sanjoin Masato

She receives a response moments later.

Sailor Mercury 07:49
What?

Sailor Moon 07:50
tennis court guy

Sailor Mercury 07:50
I'll see what I can find.

Satisfied, she returns her phone to her bag and waits for Sakurada-sensei to arrive. Hopefully by the end of the day Ami will have come up with something.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Ami is waiting at the gates when Usagi leaves school later that day and, figuring the other girl wants to talk about the man she mentioned earlier, she approaches. As soon as she's joined her Ami starts walking off, though it only takes Usagi a moment to realize they're heading towards the Hikawa Shrine. When they've put some distance between them and most of the other students heading home Ami finally speaks up. "I sent you the report on Sanjoin," she begins abruptly. "You can read all the details, but for the most part there's nothing particularly outstanding about the guy. He moved to the area recently and he's got a decent sum of money, apparently. But otherwise nothing of note."

"Did you dig into his background?" Usagi asks as she swipes through her phone, looking for the report Ami mentioned. It's situated at the top of her inbox, succinctly titled 'Sanjoin Masato Report.' Usagi flags it to be read later.

"There wasn't much to dig into," Ami sounds reluctant to admit. "It was as minimal as it could be."

Usagi shoots the other girl a sly glance from the corner of her eyes. "Minimal enough to be obviously fake?"

Mizuno matches it with a look of her own. "Minimal enough that we still can't rule out that he's just some innocent passerby that happened to be in a suspicious place at the wrong time."

Usagi pouts and grumbles halfheartedly but doesn't bother trying to convince her any further. She knows the genius well-enough to know that nothing but undeniable proof won't convince her otherwise. With nothing else to talk about, she glances around the walking center for something of interest. Ami isn't really prone to small talk, she's found. But then her gaze catches on someone walking towards them and Usagi can't help the grimace that twists at her expression.

Ami notices and shoots her companion a curious look. "What?" Usagi opens her mouth to reply, but Ami is speaking again a moment later. "Wait, I've decided I don't care."

"Ass," Usagi hisses at her companion – friend might still be a bit of a stretch, even if they are on a first-name basis now – shooting a glare at the other girl. She almost misses the man walking by her, and she would have if he hadn't turned around to speak to her.

"Well, would you look at that?" a familiar voice says, and Usagi immediately frowns hearing it. "Guess we can walk without running into each other. I'll be expecting a similar performance the next time we meet, so don't disappoint me bun-head."

"Hey!" Usagi snaps, spinning around to glare at the boy. "Was the comment really necessary? Because I was having a nice day."

"Not 10 seconds ago you were insulting me," Ami remarks, her tone amused as she joins the conversation. "Oh, Chiba-kun, how nice to see you again."

"Mizuno-san."

Usagi pauses and looks incredulously between the two. "Wait, you know this jerk, Ami?" she says with a rough gesture in the boy's – Chiba, apparently – direction.

The genius shrugs. "Luna and I ran into him last night," she replies dismissively, though Usagi nearly busts a nerve imagining Luna interacting with that guy. But then Ami shoots a calculating glance at Usagi, a suspicious glint in her eye and Usagi immediately knows she isn't going to like what she says next. "Was this the guy you were telling me about?"

Usagi's eyes widen as she gapes at her comrade, indignant betrayal flooding her. She tries to sputter out a denial, but it's overshadowed by Chiba's chuckle. "Were you talking about me, bun-head?" he asks, giving her a considering look.

She can't help the flush that covers her face. "It's Tsukino Usagi! And no, I was definitely not, because you said you didn't care!" she practically shouts, pointing a finger accusingly at Ami.

"Did I?" the genius asks innocently. Usagi shoots a glare at the genius but Ami is unaffected. "You should have mentioned he was cute, then I might've paid more attention," she teases, her gaze narrowing as she sweeps a look at Chiba.

"Wh-What?! No! He's not cute!" Usagi blurts out quickly, flushing again. If she's honest, Chiba isn't that bad on the eyes – not that she'll ever admit it out loud – but he's been an annoying jerk and she's far too stubborn to forgive his teasing. Yet. Maybe if he made it up to her. Not that she wants him to, of course.

Ami, oblivious to her internal dilemma, smiles brightly in that devious way of hers. "Great! Then you won't mind if I steal him." She sidles up to Chiba under Usagi's stunned gaze, hooking an arm around one of his as she looks up at him. "Want to go to a café? I'm in the mood for some pastries, how about you? My treat," she asks, her tone dropping to a more…seductive level.

Chiba spares a single glance to Usagi before looking down at Ami. "Uh, sure, why not?" he replies haltingly.

Usagi has to mentally kick herself in order to verbally protest, "Hey, wait!" she calls to Mizuno, who's already started leading Chiba away. "We were headed somewhere," she reminds the girl.

Ami waves a dismissive hand in the air without ever looking back. "Just tell them I'm busy. Homework and studying, blah blah, you know."

"Hey," Usagi tries to protest one last time, but they're already down the block by then, leaving Usagi by herself. "Dammit, Mizuno," she grumbles, pissed. "Like hell I'm gonna lie to Luna and Rei. You can take the lecture." She makes a move to continue to Rei's place, only to pause a moment later.

'Ami was definitely flirting with that guy,' she thinks to herself, and for some reason it turns her gut. 'She's making a mistake, I just know it. There's something about him…I can't just let her do this by herself. What if she gets into trouble? I need to follow them.' Nodding assuredly to herself, Usagi turns on her heel and starts off in the direction Ami and Chiba had went, pulling out her communicator as she does. Opening up the device, she navigates to the map application and zooms out on her location. Ami's little Mercury symbol is steadily moving a couple blocks ahead of her own moon. Usagi grins as she briefly pockets the item whilst pulling out another – her Disguise Pen.

.

Mizuno Ami

Ami figured there was a 90% chance Tsukino was going to follow them and grinned to herself, momentarily forgetting the body she was dragging with her. Chiba was quiet as he let her lead them, which made it easy for her to get lost in her head.

If Usagi was following them she would likely be watching, so obviously Ami had to give her a good show. Messing with the other girl was highly amusing, and for some reason this boy incited the most interesting reaction from her. She would drag the reason why out of him during their "date."

She ducked into the first cutesy little café shop she noticed and picked a table within easy view of the large front windows. She spared a single glance outside but couldn't spot a head of blonde hair; Tsukino must not have caught up yet. Finally she turned her attention to the man across from her.

'Mamoru Chiba,' she thinks. 'He really isn't that bad looking. Could be my type, if he weren't a 2nd year high school student,' she muses, her gaze slowly traveling over his figure. He seems to be doing the same at the moment, anyways.

"So," he begins hesitantly, "why exactly am I here?" She raises an eyebrow in response. "Somehow I get the feeling you're not actually interested in me," he elaborates a moment later.

Ami grins. "Caught that, did you?" she replies with a question of her own, then shrugs. "No, not really. But I am interested in fucking with Tsukino; you're just my excuse to do so."

"Ah, I get it now," he says, leaning back with a grin of his own. "She does have the most interesting reactions."

"How exactly do you two know each other?" Ami asks, propping her head up on her hands, elbows resting on the table.

Chiba shrugs. "We've run into each other a couple of times. Literally."

Ami quirks an eyebrow. "That's it?"

"Yeah. We meet, I tease her for something, she snaps back and storms off usually."

Her brows furrow as she thinks. 'There was probably minimal flirting, if any. That doesn't explain why Tsukino seems so interested. Is she really interested? She did get flustered when I teased her for talking about him. There must be some attraction there, at least on her part. A reluctant crush? Or maybe it never occurred to her until now? Either way, there's something on her end that I can still mess with.'

"So," Ami begins, smiling again to increase the likelihood of Chiba agreeing with her, "how would you feel about pretending to go on a fake date to mess with her?"

Chiba pauses, giving her a calculating look. "Why are you so sure she'd get riled up by something like this? I highly doubt she cares?"

Ami scans the shop again, but there's still no sign of blonde pigtails anywhere. Discretely she pulls out her communicator, opening up the map. She immediately notices the moon symbol not too far from hers, though the map is too zoomed out to accurately determine where exactly she is. But before she can even select it the icon vanishes from the map and her gaze narrows in annoyance. She pockets the device and looks back at her companion, who's patiently waiting for an answer. She smiles again to hide her annoyance. "I think she cares more than you think she does," is what she says.

Chiba spares a moment to glance around dubiously, clearly looking for Tsukino but not seeing her. Ami does the same; she knows Usagi is around, just not exactly where. There are six other patrons in the café with them. Two are clearly on a date, three appear to be college students studying, and there's one girl sitting in the back drinking by herself with a book open on the table before her. She would almost be suspect, if she weren't a brunette in the T.A. Academy uniform.

'But…' Ami starts to reconsider as a thought occurs to her, 'if Tsukino could disguise herself…' Almost immediately she discards the idea. 'Though possible, it's highly unlikely she's managed to dye her hair and obtain a new uniform since we left her. She's probably just peeking from somewhere nearby.'

"I don't think so," Chiba says, doubt clouding his tone.

Ami shakes her head dismissively. "Trust me, she is. Now, what flavor milkshake do you want to share?" she asks, no longer giving him the option to decline.

.

Tsukino Usagi

Usagi heaves a sigh of relief as Ami pockets her phone without making a fuss or glancing over in her direction. She'd totally forgotten that the other girl could just as easily figure out her location as she could and had to quickly shut off her phone to prevent the genius from realizing she was in the shop with them. So far, her disguise seemed to be working. Ami had barely given her a passing glance the last time she'd looked around, and Usagi could barely restrain her gleeful grin at getting one over the genius.

She took another sip of her cream soda and idly flipped a page in the English workbook she definitely wasn't reading. So far the couple hadn't done anything but talk, and Usagi wished she could hear what they were saying. She's pretty sure she saw her name one or twice from Mizuno, so she knew they were talking about her and it made her skin crawl imagining what they could be saying about her.

When a large chocolate milkshake is brought out to the table Usagi nearly loses her cool choking on her spit. She has to quickly duck down when Ami glances over in her direction and pray the other girl hasn't noticed anything odd. She doesn't glance over at them after that, too nervous about catching Ami's attention to try and look – not to mention, she doesn't want to see them sharing the milkshake; that'd be gross – until she hears them stand. Even then she only briefly glances over to check that it's them before looking back down. She'll give them a couple of minutes maybe before following; wouldn't want Mizuno to see her leave, but she can't wait too long or she'll lose them now that her communicator is off.

As soon as she leaves the shop she ducks into the nearest alleyway and changes her disguise again, just to be on the safe side. She wouldn't put it past Ami to be watching still. She trails them all the way to some large park nearby, but when they get in one of those romantic boats Usagi has to settle for watching from the lake's edge. "Damn Mizuno," Usagi grumbles, leaning dejectedly on the railing. "She knows I'm following them. She's totally messing with me now." 'Or she's actually interested in the guy,' her mind traitorously supplies, causing something in her gut to twist. There's just something she finds…wrong about Ami with Chiba, though she can't put her finger on what exactly it is.

Before she can really contemplate her gut feeling a massive flock of birds flies overhead, along with a swarm of squirrels and small critters. Usagi yelps as they rush by her, jumping up onto the railing to avoid touching them. On the lake, the birds fly so close to the water it creates waves that rock the boat Ami and Chiba are on, knocking them over, but Usagi can't spare any concern for them. A man is approaching and Usagi can feel the dark aura surrounding him, his energy spiking to levels even she can recognize.

"Not good," she mutters, hopping down from the railing to quickly run into the trees. The animals don't follow, but she can sense the energy heading her way. At the very least, hopefully the guy will leave Ami and Chiba alone. As soon as she reaches a decent-sized clearing she pulls out her brooch and shouts, "Moon Prism Power Make Up!" A second later the monster steps out.

.

Mizuno Ami

They're sitting quietly in the boat when all of a sudden Chiba doubles over with a grunt of pain. Ami's eyes widen and she immediately starts trying to catalogue symptoms, but there's nothing externally she can see and nothing that could possibly have triggered an attack so she has no idea what to do. "Chiba-kun?" she asks, confused and a little concerned at the same time. "What is it?"

Suddenly a large group of birds is flying above their heads, so close that Ami ducks down to avoid being hit. Chiba does too, and their combined movement is enough to rock the boat. When they both try to correct their movements they end up throwing each other off and flipping them both into the water. Submerged, Ami pauses a moment to clear her head of the brief panic before starting to swim for where she remembered the dock to be. She can feel Chiba's movements in the water beside her as he does the same.

Ami splutters when she reaches for the dock, struggling for a second to haul herself up until Chiba grips the back of her shirt and lifts her the rest of the way. She mutters an absentminded thanks as she picks herself up and rushes over to her things. She has an inkling she knows what happened but wants to confirm just to be sure. Hiding her bag with her body so Chiba won't see the computer – not that he's paying attention, still lying over by the edge of the dock – she quickly scans the area. It takes milliseconds to pick up the elevated energy signature a mere dozen meters away, and she knows she has to go. "I'll be back!" she shouts to Chiba, just so he doesn't try to follow her, before heading off to where she saw the energy coming from.

She tears through the trees until she comes upon the clearing, stopping just before the tree line. Sailor Moon is already there facing off against the monster, and for a second she smirks knowing Usagi was definitely following them to have arrived so quickly, but then shakes it off to focus. Usagi will need her help, if her report from the last monster is anything to go by.

"Mercury Bubble Spray!" she shouts, filling the area with a thick cloud of fog. Then she activates her goggles to help find her way over to Sailor Moon. She taps the girl on the shoulder, startling her, before whispering, "I knew you were following us."

"Shut up," the other girl hisses. "Do you have any idea what to do?"

"Your tiara?" Ami suggests. "I have no offensive attacks, so it's either that or wait for Sailor Mars to arrive."

"Where is she?" Usagi asks, grabbing for her tiara as the mist starts to thin. Ami scans the area and gestures when she spots the monster. Its outline is vaguely visible, just enough that Usagi should be able to get a decent shot in.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

Ami watches closely as the tiara hits the monster, taking special care to record its energy levels before and after. They're outclassed – and it's clearly obvious when the monster doesn't immediately disintegrate like it should – but Ami wants to know exactly how outclassed they are.

"I've found you!" it snarls through the pain of being hit by the attack. Before either of them can react rope vines are reaching out to trap them. Ami grunts as they hit her and then start to squeeze, forcing her arms painfully tight against her side. In another couple of seconds it starts getting very hard to breathe.

"Sailor Mercury?" Usagi gasps, just as trapped as she is.

Ami twitches her fingers in response, but save for creating another Bubble Spray she's got nothing. How many times does she have to tell them she has no offensive attacks? It's times like this that she really hates that aspect of her abilities. Really, there's only one option for them right now? 'Sailor Mars!' she mentally shouts, trying to reach the other girl. Hopefully Luna picked up on the energy spike on whatever it is she uses to monitor things and has already told the miko, though Ami won't hold her breath – the vines do that for her enough as is.

"Ugh, this…sucks!" Usagi snaps beside her, her expression twisted in anger as she struggles in the bonds. Then she stills, and Ami watches to see what the other girl will do. She barely blinks before Usagi is throwing herself backwards as far as she can, jerking the monster forward a step or two to compensate. But she doesn't accomplish much more than that, and now she's stuck on the ground.

Either way the monster isn't happy, and with a howl she summons small critters to crawl and bite at Tsukino. Ami grimaces and tries calling Rei again because like hell is she going to try that as well. 'Sailor Mars!'

"You called? Mars Fire Soul!" The flame burns through the area and the vines holding the two, snapping them easily. Ami immediately starts shifting to loosen them enough so they fall to her feet before running over to help Usagi pull them off herself.

"New plan?" she asks as she sits up, breathing quickly to catch her breath.

"Working on it," Ami mutters in annoyance. The three of them stand together against the monster, who watches them warily. 'The usual, I suppose,' she mentally tells the other two. After receive subtle nods of confirmation, Ami quickly acts. "Mercury Bubble Spray!" As soon as she does Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars jump to the side, Ami doing the same to avoid the new rope vines the monster launches at them.

She doesn't see their movements but she can hear when Rei tags the monster with a talisman, shouting, "Evil spirit, be exorcised!" Usagi attacks a moment later.

"Moon Tiara Action!"

This time after the monster takes a direct attack it doesn't keep moving, instead starting to disintegrate where it stands. Ami heaves a subtle breath of relief now that it's over. "That sucked! I've got tiny bites all over me from those stupid animals," Usagi complains, her figure visible now that the mist has cleared again.

Ami vanishes her goggles and gives the girl a once over. Indeed there are several tiny red marks all over her skin, though if she looks close enough Ami can spot some of them already starting to heal. No need to use her healing power then. She drops the transformation. "I have to head back to Chiba-kun; he's probably wondering where I went," she says as she turns to leave.

Rei looks vaguely surprised to hear this as she does the same, but Usagi turns exceptionally red – not the reaction Ami was expecting, but amusing all the same. "Hey, wait!" she hears the other girl call as she starts to follow her back to the lake. "Why are you going out with that guy? He's suspicious!" she proclaims.

Ami shrugs nonchalantly. "He's cute, and pretty smart, too. Why not?" she teases the girl, glancing over at Usagi to see her reaction to her words. She's still a little flushed, though she does look vaguely uncomfortable as well – 'what could that mean,' Ami wonders – though behind her Rei just looks amused. Ami isn't surprised she's sticking around, what with the fuss Tsukino is making.

"I mean," Ami continues, "don't you ever wonder what's beneath –"

"Mizuno-san, there you are!" a voice calls out, interrupting her words – but judging by how both Usagi and Rei have turned bright red they know exactly what she was going to say – as Chiba jogs up to the trio. "I was concerned when you were gone for a while. Are you okay?" His brows are furrowed and his gaze has dropped somewhere down her middle. Ami looks down and realizes there's still some bruising left around her arms. She hides them behind her back and flashes a bright smile at the boy in the hopes of distracting him.

"Yes, I'm alright," she replies. "Just took a little tumble in the forest, but I'll be fine." She doesn't miss the way his gaze narrows, glancing between her and Usagi – who has similar marks on her own arms that haven't fully vanished either – but to her relief he doesn't say anything. "Well, I had a wonderful time, Mamoru-kun," she says sweetly, just to irk Usagi – the girl twitches when she uses his given name, interesting. "We should do this again sometime," she continues.

He flicks another glance between her and Usagi. "Hmm, yeah, if I see you around," he half-heartedly agrees. Ami knows he spoke deliberately, and though it amuses her – he does like teasing Usagi, does he not? So why wouldn't he be interested in playing with her any more – she isn't going to push for more than he's willing to give.

She shrugs in acceptance. "Alright. Don't be a stranger then," she says, and with a wave turns and starts to head out of the park. She knows Usagi is gaping at the two of them, but it doesn't take the girl long to gather her senses and start following Ami, Rei not far behind her. She catches up a moment later.

"What was that –" she begins, but Ami talks over her.

"I've taken some data readings from the fight that I'll analyze later this evening, so I should have a solid report by tomorrow afternoon. We can meet at Rei's place to discuss it," she says. "I'll see you two then." When she turns to start heading back to her apartment, neither of the two girls follow.