Mizuno Ami
Ami is just stepping out of the bookstore, having checked her watch and realized she was going to be late to their meeting, when she noticed the girl running drop one of the folders she was carrying. She blinks as they take off down the sidewalk, neither of them noticing the dropped item. Curiosity has her approaching, picking up the folder to take a peek. There's a label at the bottom proclaiming it property of Studio Dive, and an address to return it to. She shrugs and tucks the folder under her arm. She'll get to that later, or maybe have Usagi do it after the meeting she's already late to.
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Tsukino Usagi
Her ire grows the longer it takes Ami to show up at Rei's place. They've already been fed snacks and drinks – and finished them – and the blue-haired genius still has yet to show up. "Text her again, Luna," she grumbles to the cat seated adjacent to her.
"We'll give her a bit longer, Usagi-chan," she says, though her eyebrow twitches with her annoyance.
'That's fair,' Usagi thinks, given she'd had the cat text her not five minutes ago. But she's so very bored, and she really wants to tell the girls what she learned last night. Mizuno will have to eat her words when she reveals that she was right about Sanjoin Masato. If she would hurry up and get there.
Five minutes later – during which Usagi managed to convince Luna to send her another text – Ami shows up without a hint of remorse. "I had things to do," she says when Usagi pesters her about her tardiness. She sets the folder down beside her and Usagi can't help but notice it.
"What's that?"
Ami shrugs. "Don't know, haven't looked. Some girl dropped it. Hey, do you want to drop it off for me?" she asks.
Usagi gives her a look. "Maybe if you hadn't been late I'd be more inclined to help," she says, turning up her nose.
Ami rolls her eyes. "Fine. So what did you discover last night?" she asks, getting right to the point of the meeting. No sense in wasting any more time.
"Well," Usagi begins, sitting up straighter as a grin cracks across her face. "Our new enemy is named Nephrite, who confirmed himself that he is indeed Sanjoin Masato. So, not to be petty or anything, but…I told you so."
"Very mature, Usagi-chan," Luna scolds half-heartedly. Usagi doesn't let it get to her, still too proud that her intuition was right.
"Is there anything else?" Rei asks, her throat a little hoarse but at least she's not coughing anymore. "Did you get to talk to Tuxedo Mask at all?"
Usagi freezes, her mind immediately going back to their conversation the night before. 'There's a connection between the two of us…' she remembers him saying. Her smile starts to falter as she considers her question. She had definitely learned some things, but…for some reason she doesn't want to tell them about it. She's shaking her head before consciously deciding to do so. "No, we didn't really get to talk much while we were hanging for our lives," she lies. "Thanks for nearly killing me, by the way," she continues, and it distracts them as she'd hoped it would. Ami is, of course, indignant that she saved their lives, though Usagi argues that she wouldn't have had to if she hadn't knocked her off the ledge in the first place.
The meeting devolves from there, and once Luna intervenes to silence Ami and Usagi the former gets up, gathering her things in a huff before departing. Usagi doesn't stay much longer since Rei still looks like she needs a good nap, and she and Luna end up leaving not long after. Of course, Luna ends up going her own way when she says she wants to look into Sanjoin Masato herself, so Usagi ends up heading to the arcade. It is summer break, and she's got nothing better to do.
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Mizuno Ami
Ami almost entirely forgets about the folder she picked up until it's 8 PM and she's on her way back home. She looks down at the folder with mild annoyance. She could take it home and mail the damn thing, but that would require going to the post office and paying money, which is far more effort than just delivering it herself. The address doesn't seem to be too far from her place anyhow. Of course, there might not be anyone there, but she can at least leave it around or in the mail or something and someone will find it tomorrow. She's got things to do then; like hell is she going to take away that time to drop it off.
So with a sigh she starts heading back. The address puts the studio closer to the center of town, but it's not one she's familiar with. When she thinks she's close enough she has to pull out her communicator to look at the map for directions the rest of the way. It tells her there's only a couple more blocks, which she's glad to realize. This whole trip has been fucking tedious.
As she's walking, though, the loud noise of a very fancy car moving very fast comes up behind her and Ami can't help but look over disdainfully. She's of the opinion that people who drive flashy cars like that are usually compensating for something or trying to show off their wealth because they have nothing else going for them, and she's curious which this one may fall under. She doesn't see much more than a glimpse of the driver as the car flashes by, but what she does see she recognizes from the reports she'd been staring at earlier that day.
Sanjoin Masato.
A frustrated groan escapes her as she realizes this will have to take precedence over her delivery. She ducks down the nearest alleyway. "Mercury Power Make Up!" Once her transformation is complete she jumps to the rooftop and starts running in the direction Sanjoin's car had been going. It's fortunate for her it's loud because that helps her keep track of it even though she can't see it. She follows the car all the way to a quieter neighborhood where it eventually stops to idle in front of a building. It takes her a moment, but Ami places the location as the address of the studio where she'd been heading earlier herself. She waits on a nearby rooftop to watch what Sanjoin – Nephrite – does.
He gets out of the car dressed in some semi-fancy suit and top and heads inside. She activates her goggles so she can vaguely see what's going on, registering two heat signatures in the building. The other must be his new target, she assumes. They linger close to each other for a bit before she reads a minor spike in dark energy, which she assumes is Nephrite using whatever power of his that will eventually trigger his target's transformation. He doesn't stay long after that, and as he walks out of the building she catches him muttering, "All that's left is to lure the Sailor Guardians here."
For a moment she debates what she wants to do. He's stronger than her, without a doubt, so confronting him would be a spectacularly bad idea especially without Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars there with her. On the other hand, this could be an opportunity to question him about his plans. But that's if Nephrite is in a talking mood and doesn't just outright attack her.
In the end the decision is taken out of her hands as Nephrite gets into the car without ever noticing her presence. For half a moment Ami contemplates following him again, if only to see where he hides out, but the chance to see the beginnings of his latest plan is too good an opportunity to pass up. Silently she drops down to the street, her transformation fading away as she approaches the darkened studio. There's a light on inside, though she already knows there's still people there. Shifting the folder in her hands, she quickly formulates a plan and approaches.
She gently knocks on the door to draw the attention of the two girls inside, plastering a fake smile on her face when the girls turn towards her. "Hi, um, is this Studio Dive?" she asks, feigning doubt.
The girl closest to the door walks over, a hesitant smile on her face. "It is. How can I help you?" she asks politely.
She holds out the folder to the girl, explaining, "I found this on the sidewalk earlier today."
A relieved expression crosses her face as she takes the folder, opening it to peer inside. "Oh, thank you! We've been looking all over for these. They're very important."
Ami turns up the smile. "It's no problem," she says.
The girl's companion walks up behind her, a bland expression on her face, and the girl turns to her with a smile. "Ah, Hiromi, you should thank her. She found the pages you lost earlier." But the other girl doesn't seem to hear a word she says, walking straight into the room beside them and closing the door with a firm click. The girl before Ami grimaces and immediately starts making excuses. "Sorry, she just has a lot of work to do, so she's sort of out of it…" she chuckles nervously. "Oh, you should come around again!" she suggest brightly. "I'd like to show you around as a way of saying thanks."
She looks so expectant, Ami knows she's going to end up agreeing. She doesn't want to, but if anything perhaps she can turn the venture into an opportunity to study Hiromi, since she's clearly Nephrite's next target. Perhaps she can distract her with Usagi and Rei's presences while she scans things. She smiles pleasantly at her. "Sure, I'd love to," she says with fake cheer.
"Wonderful!" the girl beams, though Ami sees her gaze cut to the side to where Hiromi vanished into the other room.
"Well, I ought to get going now," Ami says, quickly making her excuses so she can finally head home. She'll have to write up a report for the others and she doesn't want to linger here any longer than necessary. The girl introduces herself as Tadashita Kazuko, Ami doing the same, and they briefly make plans to meet up the next day before Ami is finally able to leave.
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About an hour before she'd planned to meet up with Tadashita she sends out a text to the other girls asking them to meet up at a nearby café so she could tell them her plan for her upcoming investigation. She was pleased when both of them, plus Luna, showed up almost exactly on time. She gestured for them to join her at the outdoor table she'd claimed earlier.
"So you already know who the next target is?" Usagi asks, her voice lowered since they're outside and people are still wandering by.
Ami nods. "Her name is Matsuno Hiromi and she's an animator at Studio Dive, who's currently working on the new Sailor V anime."
"Are you sure?" Luna asks, her head just poking over the table from where she sits in Usagi's lap.
"Very sure," Ami confirms. "I watched Nephrite trigger the activation myself."
All three of their eyes widen in surprise at hearing that. "You did what?" Usagi exclaims loud enough to draw the attention of some nearby people.
"Ami-chan," Luna scolds, "you should have been more careful. What if Nephrite had seen you and challenged you to a fight? You should have called us for backup."
"Nephrite didn't notice a thing," she said dismissively, taking a nonchalant sip of her strawberry smoothie. "And now we have the perfect opportunity to monitor her for any changes."
"How?" Rei pipes up.
Ami grins. "That folder I found last night happened to belong to Studio Dive, and after returning it Hiromi's friend Kazuko invited me to come back to watch them for a bit as thanks."
Usagi's eyes widen in excitement as she realizes exactly what that means. "We're gonna get to go to the studio where they're making Sailor V?! That's awesome."
"We'll be there working, Usagi-chan," Luna is quick to tell her, lest she grow too enthusiastic. "You won't have time to fool around."
The blonde teen pouts, leaning back in her chair. "Yeah, yeah, Luna, I know," she grumbles.
"It'll still be interesting, I think," Rei says. "When are you going to the studio?" she then asks Ami.
She checks her watch. "Ten or so minutes. We should probably start walking. It's a little ways away from here."
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When they arrive at the studio Usagi and Rei are immediately distracted with the animators and their work, though Ami makes sure to keep an eye on Matsuno…only the girl isn't there. A quick glance around the workspace shows the girl isn't anywhere. While Tadashita and another animator are busy with Usagi's questions she discreetly taps Rei's shoulder to grab her attention. The quiet girl looks over at her with an eyebrow quirked and Ami quickly whispers, "Do you still sense an evil presence here?"
Her eyes close as she concentrates, her brow furrowing briefly. Ami's eyes flit across the room in the meantime, though she can't sense a thing. She'd been trying to figure out what her comrades were talking about when they mentioned sensing evil presences, but Ami just couldn't get it. She didn't feel a thing, bad or good, and it was a bit of a disappointment. It rankled in her mind that there was something she couldn't understand that Usagi and Rei could, but at least she had her minicomputer to make up for it instead of having to rely on one of them. But at times like this she can admit it is much quicker and slightly less conspicuous.
"Yes," Rei finally replies, opening her eyes. Her gaze immediately zeroes in on a closed door towards the entrance of the studio. "She's in there."
Ami nods to show she understood. "We need to draw her out," she decides. "Can you try to act a little more enthusiastic about all this? If we cause enough of a ruckus she might come out."
Rei's eyes widen in surprise. "Are you gonna try and trigger her transformation here?" she whispers urgently.
The girl who'd invited Ami has started shooting curious glances towards them and Ami knows they can't talk much longer without drawing suspicions. "If we can trigger it early she might not be as tough as normal. Go," she quickly explains before gently nudging Rei back towards Usagi, who's already doing well when it comes to the fangirling. Then she turns her attention to Tadashita. "So…" she starts awkwardly, anxiously looking for something to talk about. "Your friend from last night, she's not here?"
She grimaces in her seat across from Ami. "She is, but she's been a little…intense lately, so she's working in the quiet room right now."
"Is she okay?" Ami asks, feigning concern. "Did something happen recently?"
"I don't know," Tadashita answers with a slight shake of her head. "She's only been like this for a day or so. I'd say it was stress from this movie, but she's done a lot of work for her scenes so I'm really not sure."
Ami's about to press for more information when a door suddenly slams open, startling several people though Usagi seems unfazed. Matsuno storms out of the quiet room heading straight for her companions who were just gushing over an animator's drawings. Her expression is stormy as she regards the two girls. "Can you two shut up?!" she snaps, startling both Usagi and Rei with her intensity. "Can't you see we're trying to work here? Keep the noise down! It's distracting me."
"Hiromi!" Tadashita scolds, though her protest goes unheard by the other girl.
"We're sorry," Rei immediately apologizes, clearly cowed by the other girl. Usagi has a stubborn glint in her eye, and though she doesn't apologize she has quieted down. 'At least she knows better than to go starting fights with civilians,' Ami thinks.
Tadashita, however, doesn't seem afraid of confronting Matsuno as she stands from her seat to approach the other girl, a stern expression on her face as she meets Matsuno's impassive one. "Hiromi, that's no way to talk to our fans. They just came to show their support."
Matsuno lets out a derisive snort. "They're probably just here for cel drawings and autographs."
"That's not true!" Tadashita argues. "They've been perfectly polite. But you –"
Whatever she's about to say next is interrupted by the phone ringing. Most of the animators turn to look at the sound, though Matsuno is the one who approaches to answer. Unfortunately, they can only hear her side of the conversation though Ami assumes it must be the director on the other end, given how closely everyone is watching Matsuno. After a moment listening to the other person talk, she suddenly smirks. "While I have you on the phone…" she begins, "in the last scene, I think I'm going to kill off Sailor V!"
Ami's pretty sure that everyone in the office can hear the director's reaction to that. Immediately whispers break out amongst some of the animators, and even Usagi and Rei share glance. She approaches her friends while Matsuno expounds on her reasoning for doing so. Ami listens with half an ear, but she doesn't need to know what Matsuno was like before to know that what she's saying is a bit off for her. Ranting about darkness and death…it fits with the abnormal behavior other targets had displayed.
"Is this what you were hoping for?" Rei whispers to Ami when she's joined them. She nods. "I can sense the turmoil of energy within her rising."
"Not long now then, I expect," she remarks, watching Tadashita and Matsuno argue back and forth about anime. Finally the other girl storms off, and Ami shares a look with her companions. There's a clamor from the animators who are clearly upset with Matsuno, but Tadashita holds them off before following after Matsuno herself. With a nod of her head, Ami leads the other girls to follow as well.
Outside on the street, there's no sign of where Matsuno went, but it's not enough to fool Rei's senses as she immediately spots the other girl up on the roof. Tadashita immediately rushes off to follow, though Ami would've preferred to keep her out of this, and they have no choice but to follow. When they get to the roof Matsuno stands opposite them, her aura bright around her.
"Hiromi…" Tadashita pleads, clearly confused by everything that's happening.
"Kazuko, you think you're better than me," Matsuno sneers. Tadashita tries to protest but Matsuno keeps speaking over her. "You let it go to your head just because you've got some talent. But now I'm the one who's inspired. I've surpassed you, as long as I have this pencil!" She holds a pencil aloft in her hands and Ami knows this is the object Nephrite corrupted to start this whole process – and oddly enough, she notices, Kazuko seems to recognize it.
It starts to glow, the blue and pink stripes around the pencil standing out brightly in the night before they slide right off the pencil and take form over Matsuno's prone body. There's two of them this time, one shades of red while the other is shades of blue. They have matching cropped tops and bikini skirts in their respective colors, the cut and style of the clothing mirroring one another. Ami doesn't need to be a genius to know they're a matching set, which means they're likely more powerful than any of the monsters they've faced yet – the only question is whether they should be considered more powerful because they're together, or because individually they're stronger monsters. Either way, she knows they need to be extra careful.
Tadashita gasps in shock before immediately fainting. Ami shrugs her reaction off. At least now they won't have to worry about her seeing them transform. "Perhaps we ought to transform now?" Usagi suggests, and both Ami and Rei nod in agreement.
"Moon Prism Power Make Up!" "Mercury Power Make Up!" "Mars Power!"
Usagi steps forward once they've all changed. "I won't let you get away with trashing this great anime!" she declares, and Ami barely resists the urge to roll her eyes. "I am Sailor Moon, and in the name of the Moon I'll punish you!"
"In the name of Mercury, douse yourself in water and repent!" Ami chimes in.
"And in the name of Mars, I'll chastise you!" Rei adds.
The monsters flash identical smirks as they regard the Sailor Guardians. "Let's see…" the red one begins.
"…If you can win against us?" the blue one finishes. "See this?" she says, and they step apart and turn to reveal their long tails tied together. "The two of us are tied together by fate. In other words…"
"…you people cannot defeat us!"
Ami narrows her eyes on their tied tails, activating her goggles just to be sure of their claims. "I don't think I need to tell you guys that we need to split them up," she mutters to her companions.
"Obviously," Sailor Moon mutters. "My tiara might work."
Ami has her doubts about that, given the tiara has yet to be effective on its first strike, but before she can voice her concern the red monster gets into position to attack and Ami's attention is drawn. She can't help but note the position is similar to the one Sailor Mars takes when using her Fire Soul…and her suspicion is confirmed a moment later when the monster unleashes an attack remarkably similar to Sailor Mars' own.
They split apart as they dodge, Ami scooping up Tadashita's unconscious body as she rolls to the side to protect the girl at the cost of minor burns to her arm. She grits her teeth in an attempt to block the pain and takes a brief look. It's barely a 2nd degree burn – there's only minor blistering, though the shoulder of her uniform is ruined – so Ami is confident that she can keep going with minimal problem. Luckily Usagi and Rei have taken the opportunity to try and distract them, giving her time to calm herself and place Tadashita in a spot where they hopefully won't have to worry any further about her.
Looking back at the fight, Ami immediately notices that her comrades are having a hard time keeping up with the monsters' attacks. The two keep alternating attacks – the blue one launches ice shards, and given the red's almost identical attack to Mars, it makes her wonder whether she can do something like that as well, but that's a problem for another day – giving Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars no chance to pause and gather themselves. While she's still relatively unwatched, Ami does the one thing she's confident she can do: "Mercury Bubble Spray!"
She doesn't know how long the fog will last if these monsters really are capable of replicating their moves so she can only hope her comrades are taking advantage of the respite, no matter how brief. With her goggles she can make out the monsters and her comrades' positions, Rei and Usagi relatively close to where the blue monster stands while the red is midway between Ami on the opposite side of the roof from her friends, possibly looking for her.
All of a sudden she hears a noise not unlike the sound of skin hitting skin, and she has a brief horrifying thought that someone – probably Usagi – just flat out punched one of the monsters. But sure enough, through her goggles she can make out one of the monsters stumbling back with a pained noise right before it's yanked forward again with a startled cry. There's an inarticulate noise of anger from the other before the fog vanishes unnaturally fast as the area heats uncomfortably. In the next moment Ami assesses the situation – Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars look to be grappling with the blue monster, who's down on the ground with most of Sailor Mars' weight pinning her down – and before she consciously realizes the other monster is about to attack she's charging forward, throwing her own weight at its turned back. The move pushes it a bit further away from its pair, straining their connected tails so they both let out pained yelps, their forms taught.
Ami will be the first to admit she's not the strongest of girls, even with the unnatural strength granted to her as Sailor Mercury, but she is quite the quick thinker and she knows that if she can keep the tension on their tails the monsters will have a harder time fighting back against being pinned. If they can't fight back, then Sailor Moon will have an easy shot with her tiara. Unless they release each other's tail, which would be the most logical move, in Ami's opinion, but if her assumption about their combined power is correct then it would leave the monsters weaker, which is also a good thing for them.
They must have some sense of self preservation, or perhaps they aren't as tied by fate as they led the Guardians to believe because a moment later Ami is suddenly rolled as she overbalances, falling on her bad shoulder with a cry of pain as the tension in the monster's tail that she'd been bracing against is gone. "Pollux!" the monster underneath her screams, momentarily distracted by her companion abruptly releasing her tail. Ami jumps back at the monster – 'Castor?' she wonders, reminded of the mythical pair – forcing it into the ground with her weight but the monster has nothing holding her back now and it turns into a proper scuffle.
She's pushed back, something hard – its forehead – cracking into her nose and Ami immediately knows it's broken. The monster lunges over her, wrapping its hands around her throat. The temperature at her throat starts to rise as the monster channels its fire power into its hands, and Ami knows that if her companions don't intervene soon she's going to have hand-shaped burns on her neck.
But Usagi and Rei must be having an easier time of it against Pollux because she soon hears Usagi's voice cry out, "Moon Tiara Action!" A scream of pain follows, and the monster at Ami's neck is distracted enough by her partner's demise that her grip loosens just slightly enough that Ami finds the strength to break her grip completely and buck her off. "Again, Moon Tiara Action!"
Ami has to shield her eyes at the sudden bright light inches in front of her as the monster is obliterated, but once the dust settles next to her she slumps over from exhaustion and pain. She has no idea what state her companions are in right now, but she feels utterly beat. "Sailor Mercury?" she hears Rei ask, her heels clicking on the tile as she approaches.
"I'm alive," she rasps in reply, her throat a little sore. She brings her uninjured arm up to idly rub at it, concentrating just enough to heal the slight burns – nothing like her shoulder – away. She knows she needs to take care of that as well – rubbing the blister on the cold tile simultaneously soothes it and aggravates it painfully – and she finds herself reluctant.
"Do you need help with that?" Usagi asks, concern evident in her voice.
Ami opens her eyes, quickly scanning her two comrades for injuries, but she can't find anything more major than some scrapes and bruises and decides they're perfectly capable of taking care of themselves. "Just a moment."
"You may not have one," Usagi replies. "What's her face looks like she's about to wake up, and we should get out of here."
"Fuck," Ami groans, "fine, help me up and we'll go somewhere else. This isn't going to be quick." Usagi bends to get Ami's good arm around her shoulder and heave her up so she's at least standing, and once she's got her feet underneath her Rei carefully wraps an arm around Ami's waist, taking extra caution to avoid her shoulder.
"We can head to the Shrine," Rei suggests. "It's closer than your place and you can stay the night if you need to." Ami almost bemoans going so far but quickly holds back any complaints. If she can tackle a monster with the shoulder she can endure a couple of minutes of travel. With a nod she silently agrees and the girls quickly get to moving before the two animators awaken.
Author's Note: I apologize if there's any glaring errors in there, we've caught up to stuff I'd written previously so I was trying to get this done today and I probably didn't go back and edit as thoroughly as usual. But I'll fix it later.