Chapter 4 – Crowning Humiliation
It had involved going out through a side window and sneaking away through some very prickly bushes, but they'd managed to escape the party zone and avoid the authorities, who were occupied trying to sort out the situation with the missing handcuff keys. Rei grimly considered that it might almost have been worth getting arrested if she could have embarrassed her bastard of a father, who was on another one of hypocritical 'family is what keeps the country together' kicks for re-election. She could see the scandal sheets now. 'Conservative politician's daughter arrested playing kinky games with gaijin.' Her father would have had kittens and Kaidou-san…
Makoto, on the other hand, was simply grateful to have gotten away relatively unmolested and pleased that Umino had not suffered death by linebacker.
Neil had seemed a little embarrassed at being out in public with their cuffs and had tried to gently broach the subject, expressing concern about what other people might think seeing them cuffed together. Makoto simply rolled her eyes and chuckled. A group of handcuffed young people wouldn't cause a stir unless they danced through the street naked to the sounds of a brass band. In fact, with everything that the denizens of Tokyo had seen over the years they simply tended to blow off anything they didn't want to see…and that included eight foot tall purple scaly monsters, be they cardians, droids, daimons, phages and any other name the monsters called themselves…most currently wraiths, unless said monsters were actually throttling or draining them of their energy at the time.
Still, she found Neil's old-fashioned concerns for their reputations quite endearing. He was sweet and seemed to have a quiet personality, which suited her just fine. She didn't mind silence much, probably due to living alone for so long. Quiet that would have driven Minako round the bend fit her like a glove. As for Jed, she didn't figure that he'd be embarrassed by much of anything. He defined the concept of brash, wrapping it up in a good looking blond package. She much preferred the quieter Neil, though, to Jed's somewhat overbearing boisterousness.
Rei, on the other hand…
"Do we know anyone who can get these off of us?" she demanded, breaking out of dismal thoughts of her father and his assistant.
Neil considered the question. "I know someone who might be able to help. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try."
Reaching to his belt, he plucked free the cell phone clipped there and punched in a number. Seconds crept by and it became clear that whoever he was calling was not either picking up or had their phone turned off entirely. He left a message instead, requesting his friend call him back ASAP.
"Well, now what?"
"I'm hungry. Let's get something to eat," Jed suggested breezily. "Anybody know someplace good around here that's open at this hour?"
Rei and Makoto exchanged looks. There was only one place, of course.
Ten minutes later they were entering the Crown Fruit Parlor, trying to look casual. They quickly seated themselves at their usual table. Furuhata Unazuki, who had heard the bell ring as they entered, hurried over with menus since the girls had newcomers with them who probably couldn't recite the entire menu forwards and backwards. That in and of itself was rare, since the girls usually were only in together, occasionally with Mamoru. And they were never there at such late hours. She practically dislocated her jaw, however, dropping it when she spotted the silver rings connecting the men and the women.
"Oh my gawd… kinky!"
"Unazuki. Don't start."
The pert little red-headed waitress laughed out loud, laughed until she sagged weakly against the booth for support while she wheezed and gasped for air. "Do you two…have any…idea how much…my innocent-seeming…yet ecchi brother would…love a picture…of this?"
Slowly she regained her composure, though she looked like she was about to begin laughing again at any second. "Jeeze…I think he dreams at night about stuff like this when he's not dreaming about Reika and Sailor Senshi in micro-fuku."
Jed laughed out loud as Neil's, Mako's and Rei's faces went scarlet and they hid behind their menus. "No such luck. It's just a…um…college prank gone wonky. We're just waiting on a friend of his to get these off." He glanced at the menu briefly. "I'll have an extra-large melon cream soda and some of the house special buns and…"
Neil felt his gorge rise a bit at the combination, but he realized there was a more pressing concern. He never got a chance to mention it, though, as Rei snapped out, "You might want to go easy on the food and drink, baka, until we're out of these cuffs. Because I am not going to go…" Her cheeks pinkened slightly. "Well, just lay off the heavy liquids."
She flicked a quick, pointedly bland glance over at Unazuki, not quite meeting the other girl's gaze. "Small tea please."
"Make it two," Makoto mumbled, trying not to laugh because she knew it would set Unazuki off again. When Neil declined anything, Unazuki bolted through the kitchen doors. The muffled sound of uncontrolled laughter was politely ignored by everyone at the table while an uncomfortable silence reigned. A few minutes later, her face red but sober, Unazuki returned with their orders which she passed around and left them to their own devices.
"So…"
"So…"
Silence had its way for another long moment until Jed, who couldn't take it any more, shot the paper straw wrapper at Rei, who let out a squawk as it bounced off her cheekbone. "That is so juvenile!" she spluttered.
"Well, we're all young. If we can't be juvenile now, then when?" And he tossed a napkin at her with a laugh.
His antics broke the ice, although Rei remained a little bit stiff until he offered her first choice of the fresh buns and asked everyone to tell him about themselves. They chatted easily for at least an hour or so, lingering over their drinks and cheerfully trashing their least favorite professors and discussing their classes.
Makoto explained that she was in the Culinary Arts program, wowing the others with blood-chilling tales of knife skills classes gone spectacularly and gruesomely bad. Rei explained how she was studying religion and music, the two divergent paths astounding the men. Jed volunteered that was studying business marketing and languages with an eye toward going into Pacific Rim trade. He was an exchange student from America. Neil offered up the tidbit that he too was an exchange student, there to study astrophysics. Makoto was so impressed she choked on her tea. Astrophysics. He was SMART!
"So you're an exchange student…from where?" she managed once she stopped aspirating tea and coughing so hard.
"Yes," he replied as Rei pounded her on the back lightly. "From Canada…"
"Your Japanese…is pretty good."
"Not as good as yours," Neil said conversationally. "So where are you from?"
Makoto stared at him, then blinked once. "Um…I'm Japanese."
It was Neil's turn to blink as he ran his gaze over her searchingly. "Seriously?"
She sighed, knowing what he was seeing. A peaches and cream complexion (heavy on the cream), coppery red-brown curls and a height that was taller than many Japanese men. She looked about as stereotypically Japanese as leprechauns but a hell of a lot larger.
"I was born here, but I'm told I resemble distant relatives," she answered a bit testily. That was surely the truth, as far as it went, she thought. Reincarnation, 625,000,000 kilometers and approximately a thousand years were definitely distant.
He flushed slightly as he registered her somewhat frosty tone. "I'm very sorry if I offended you, Makoto-san. Truly. I did not mean to be rude." Neil decided to fall back on his mother's rule that if you're not sure if you've offended someone, apologize anyway. It couldn't hurt and it usually helped.
The sincerity in his tone shamed her. "I'm sorry," she muttered, shredding her napkin into tiny pieces. "It's just that I'm a little sensitive about that. I don't, you know, blend well. I'm too tall."
He brushed his fingers over hers and gazed down into her verdant eyes intently. "You look just fine from where I'm sitting."
'Oh he's good…' Rei noted a familiar starry-eyed quality to Makoto and behind her cup she smiled knowingly.
"You said you were in Culinary Arts. Did you make those cookies earlier?" Neil grinned as she nodded. "They were terrific, and I say that coming from a background where there was but one cookie, the almighty chocolate chip. My dad might even change his mind about that, though, if he tasted some like yours."
'Oh he's REALLY good…' Makoto ducked her head, fiddling with her cup, as a pleased blush colored her cheeks. A lovely, fluttering warmth that had nothing to do with tea was building in her stomach and it was wonderful. Neil, realizing he was making headway, moved on heedlessly. And as always happens at such moments, he promptly stuck his foot in it.
"Your folks must really be proud of you."
The abrupt pallor that leeched the color from Makoto's face alarmed Neil, as did her suddenly somewhat broody smile. "I like to think so." She stirred her tea, momentarily lost in thought.
'Uh oh…said something wrong here. BIG TIME!' He looked desperately at Rei, who quickly scrawled something on a napkin and pushed it into Neil's hand below the table. When he read it, he swallowed hard, crumpling the napkin in a ball and stuffing it into his pants pocket. Jed arched an eyebrow, but said nothing, as Rei pinched him when he opened his mouth. He winked, letting her know he'd gotten her unspoken message. Some subject changing was definitely in order.
"So," he asked in a conversational tone, as if inquiring about the weather. "What's the deal with all the monster and sailor senshi sightings? You guys are local, so please do explain. It's some of the weirdest stuff I've ever heard of, but everyone around here acts like it's no big deal."
Rei wasn't sure whether to be relieved that the conversation had moved away from Mako's deceased parents, a subject which always depressed the younger woman, or appalled that it had moved onto senshi. Still, she could have kissed him, almost, for making a topic change of any kind.
"Well, basically it isn't a big deal," she answered, trying to sound flippant. "Nobody really pays attention unless they're the one being attacked because it's so common and they figure the senshi will take care of the problem."
Neil squeezed Makoto's hand, pleased to see some color starting to seep back into her face. "What monsters?" he asked, truly curious, "And what's a sailor senshi?" It was a phrase he hadn't picked up in his language studies over the years.
"Oh man, you've gotta get out of the observatory more!"
Jed helpfully began spilling all the knowledge he'd gleaned on the subject since he'd arrived in Japan. "They're soldiers. But not like in camouflage or with guns. People say they're these gorgeous women who wear these strange outfits…sort of a combination of a sailor fuku and a cheerleader's mini skirt, I guess, and heels. They supposedly go around fighting all kinds of monsters using magic elemental powers like fire and lightning and water and such. There's supposed to be one for each planet, except Earth, oddly enough, and the Moon. But according to the guy in my dorm, who fancies himself as the senshi fan to end all senshi fans, he says that the ones for Uranus, Neptune, Saturn and Pluto all just disappeared a while back. He said only Mercury, Venus, Mars, Moon and Jupiter have been seen recently."
Makoto quickly took a sip of her tea, risking having it go down the wrong pipe again, taking refuge in the action as she tried to figure out what to say. Jed's facts were correct, as far as it went.
Michiru and Haruka had taken Hotaru off for a much-needed vacation after defeating their latest enemy while they tried to figure out how to handle her rapidly changing body, which was aging abruptly. Meanwhile, the ever dutiful but enigmatic Setsuna had resumed her duties at Gates of Time, warning them they'd have some clean up to handle ("with some help from the Earth in the end," she'd said) for a while. The Inner Senshi had been doing just that ever since. It had been a rare occasion for them that they'd managed to do away with the enemy directly and quickly, but had to mop up after him. For it was as if the boss had seeded Tokyo with wraith generators and they kept popping up, at least two a week for the last six months. Usually, however, they were nothing the Inners couldn't handle working together…though things had gotten a little sticky around midterm exams. Fortunately midterms were now over and the wraith tide had seemingly been ebbing as well.
Evidently Jed's dorm-mate was pretty good at the research he did on the senshi. Rei was biting her lip anxiously. She nearly drew blood when she heard Jed say, "The guy from my dorm says the one in red, from Mars, is totally hot, and, no pun intended, she shoots fire arrows. How cool is that?"
Neil looked truly intrigued. "Is this true? Really? Or is it one of those a friend of a friend knows this guy who knew a kid who knew someone who saw them after having a few too many type of things."
"It's true," Unazuki piped up, startling Makoto and Rei as she dropped their check on the table. "The senshi are absolutely real. I should know. They've rescued me more than once."
She puffed out her chest proudly, while Rei and Makoto groaned low in their throats, completely mortified. Especially Makoto, who'd come within a hairsbreadth of being seriously smooched by Unazuki when she'd had her pure heart stolen. It was not one of her favorite memories. Evidently Unazuki had forgotten that part, though, and was enjoying her fifteen minutes of fame in the eyes of Jed and Neil. "They're heroines!"
That got Jed's attention. "That's so cool that you actually saw them. So what do they look like? Everyone says they're gorgeous, but nobody ever gets a picture. You'd think someone would get a picture in a world that's filled with cameras."
"They're really pretty, I guess," Unazuki said, tapping her finger against her jaw thoughtfully. "Though there's a kind of glow around them that's really bright so it's hard to see details exactly. It's kind of hard to explain, but that's probably what mucks up the photos, since there are lots of people who've tried to photograph them. Or maybe it's magic. I don't know. I can tell you that they each look different, though. Two are blonde and one's kind of reddish-brunette and one's…"
Makoto's green eyes shot wide open in sudden alarm. They did not need this. If Unazuki were to put two and two together…or in their case, five, she might actually figure out the identities of the Sailor Senshi. And she was enough of a walking target as it was. Unazuki was very nearly as bad a draw for the enemy as Naru. Everyone who came to town tried to get her, it seemed, necessitating senshi intervention.
"Unazuki," Rei, interrupted, slapping down a couple of bills in what amounted to payment of their check and a VERY large tip. "Why don't you take this? We ought to be going so you can close up. It's getting kind of late."
Through long association Rei knew that Unazuki wouldn't take offense at the action, though the girl did look a bit surprised. However, she was distracted by Rei's comment about the time and glanced down at her watch, shaking her head when she realized the younger woman had a point.
"Oh. You're right." Unazuki stepped back so that the couples could wriggle out of the booth. "It's already five minutes past closing time anyway. And if I'm too late, Motoki will have my head. He still acts like I'm a junior high kid, sometimes. Good night then," she murmured, bustling off to get a tray to clear off their table.
Makoto frowned, first at her cup, then at Rei. "Why'd you pay for everything? At least let me pay for my tea."
An airy hand wave from Rei blew off Makoto's offer. "No way. I know your funds are tight, whereas my father, the pompous ass, just tried to bribe me playing dutiful daughter and posing for another pretty political photo op. So I've got some spending money right now. Don't worry about it." She paused and winked at Makoto, who looked like she was working up to another objection. "Look, I know you like to pay your own way, but fight me on this out of false pride, and I'll do worse. I'll have Minako drag you shopping tomorrow and buy you a whole new outfit ON ME."
"Okay. Jeeze…manipulative much?" Makoto crumpled up her napkin, tossing it at Rei.
"Somebody's got to keep an eye on you, my tough friend. None of us is an island."
Makoto coughed and then an impish twinkle danced in her eyes. "Just remember that some day in the future, oh butter-inner. Turnabout is fair play, you know."
Neil was busy re-calling his friend, but to no avail. He looked up apologetically. "I don't know what to say. He's usually really good about returning calls. Maybe his battery died." He hesitated for a moment. "So is there some place we can go? I mean, I think at this point a locksmith's our only hope, but we'll never get one at this hour."
"We can't go to my place," Makoto shook her head vigorously. "I'm in the girls' dorm. As it is, I'll probably catch heck from Chryso-san, the RA, for not telling her I'd be gone." She pulled a face, thinking of the annoying cat-eyed woman, known as Beryl the Bitch by most of the freshman, who seemed to enjoy making their lives hell for her own kicks. An idea dawned, though, and she swiveled her head around to catch Rei's eye.
"How about the temple, Rei-chan? There's room since Yuichiro-kun left to visit his family and I know you've got extra futons. Your Ojiisan won't get too mad if we show up this late. At worst he'll grumble a bit and then start teasing us."
"Well…Yuichiro's actually due back tomorrow, but since it's just for one night, it will be alright, and I guess there's really no other choice," Rei agreed. "With any luck 'Jii-chan'll remain asleep anyway. Follow us, boys. Next stop, the Hikawa Jinja, the oldest Shinto shrine in Tokyo and, luckily for us, my home and soon to be your crash pad."