Usagi had not slept well. She stared up at the ceiling with contempt as her alarm beeped indecently. She shut it off, expression unchanging.
"Good morning, Small Lady!" Diana chirped, ever cheerful. Usagi could not share the sentiment. She was tired down to her very soul after the previous day and night's events. The broken compact loomed in her mind. She sighed.
"Diana," she said, "I think I need a 'me' day."
Diana seemed a little confused.
"It's been a long week," Usagi continued, "and I'm going to treat myself. At least a little."
Usagi prepared to face the day, and checked her wallet; she wasn't in dire straights yet. Diana on her shoulder and her cracked compact in her pocket she set a course for the Crown Game Center. She needed something familiar, and that would have to do. The outdoors helped boost her spirits a little, even if it was damp out, and she enjoyed a leisurely walk around.
Though she'd eaten breakfast, her sweet tooth was sharp, and she was drawn to a cute little bakery that she happened to pass by.
"Can I help you?" the girl behind the counter asked as Usagi looked over the options in the case. Some small cookies caught her eye. Cute and cheap - perfect!
"Could I get a half-dozen cookies, please?"
"Certainly!" the girl chirped.
The transaction was quick and easy, and even just the ambiance of the bakery lifted Usagi's move.
"Thank you very much!" she called to the girl as she left. Walking down the sidewalk, she quickly succumbed to the temptation of the cookies and took a bite. They were delicious, and somehow… nostalgic?
Usagi was just out of sight of the bakery's windows when the proprietor stepped out from the kitchens.
"Who was that?" she asked the young girl working the register.
"Oh! Ms. Kino! I didn't know you were listening! I don't know who that was. I've never seen her around before."
"Huh," Ms. Kino accepted, "The voice sounded familiar, was all."
The game center was the same and different all at once. It had been a few years since she last visited old Tokyo, so the game cabinets were different and some furnishings had been replaced, while others were starting to show their age. Usagi was drawn easily and inevitably to a Sailor Moon game, hoping to try her luck. There was something funny to her about playing this game, with off-brand versions of monsters she'd encountered, and Sailor Moon didn't even have the right weapon! It may have been some bastardization of the spiral heart moon rod, but it was hard to tell. She tried and failed to do very well at the game. Perhaps she had too much on her mind. But still, the game obliged her and dropped a prize.
Usagi looked the sudden gift over. That was odd, she didn't think the game was supposed to do that. It had given her… something. Something predominately pink, with a heart about the size of her palm on the top. The heart was decorated with a crescent moon, following the curve on one half of the heart. She looked the prize over some more; was it a pen? A flashlight? Pointless kitsch?! It did look a lot like the game's off-model weapon…
"The game gave you something too?"
Usagi jolted at the perky voice beside her. She looked over to find a girl sitting one cabinet away from her, smiling. She had blue hair tied up in a tight bun, and had somehow managed to master the casual-chic look. Usagi was sure the loose-fitting top draped lazily over her shoulders was a very purposeful fashion statement.
"It gave me this neat pen!" the girl explained, holding up something that looked far more like a pen that whatever it was Usagi was holding. It was a light blue device, decorated on one end with a star. Emblazoned on the star was a symbol Usagi didn't recognize: almost identical to the symbol for venus, but the cross on the bottom was attached to a diamond, not a circle or a heart as it would usually be. Usagi's interest in the symbol must have been evident, because the girl went on.
"Do you want to look at it?"
"Only if you don't mind!" Usagi responded quickly.
"Sure, take a look!"
The girl handed the pen over and Usagi looked for any signs of something unusual. Nothing leapt out, maybe this was just some knock-off sailor guardian merchandise.
"I'm Kiyomizu Yuko, by the way."
"Shizukesa Usagi," Usagi returned as an introduction. "I just moved here," she added quickly, before Kiyomizu could ask any questions.
"Cool! I've lived here my whole life," Kiyomizu Yuko explained, "though sometimes I feel like I've lived other places, too."
Suddenly, some how, some way, Usagi's mother's voice echoed through her mind:
"Make some friends!"
"Uh, w-would you like a cookie?" Usagi asked, holding the bag out, "I got them from a bakery a few blocks away. They're pretty good."
"Ooh! Are you sure?"
"Yeah," Usagi assured her, "sharing is caring, right?"
"Aw, you're so nice!" she beamed, taking a cookie. "Wow, these are wonderful! Oh, are they from that new bakery? Ah, what's it called… Sazanka Pastries! I've only been once, but it looks so good! Sweets are my favorite, so I try to keep tabs on all the best places to stock up."
"I like sweets too," Usagi admitted, "probably more than anything else! If it weren't for cavities and gaining weight, I'd probably eat nothing but sweets."
"You know what? You can call me Yuko," the girl decided, "all my friends do, and if you share cookies with me, you're my friend!"
"Really?" for a brief moment Usagi's heart leapt at having any friends at all, "Thanks so much! You can call me Usagi."
"Great! Thanks for the cookie, Usagi!" her colorful kids' watch beeped at her. "Whoops! Time to get home! See you around?"
"Of course!" Usagi smiled. She'd need to come back to the arcade.
With her new friend gone, some change wasted, and an odd, pink something in her hand, Usagi headed home, her heart a little lighter than when she woke up that morning.
Kiyomizu Yuko was often the first or the last person in the Crown Game Center every day, and on rare occasions she was both. This morning, she was early. She was very comfortable with the near-silence of the game center, with only the soft beeping of the cabinets to keep her company. She had once again reached that one point of the Sailor Moon game that always tripped her up when she heard a muttering. One ear kept drifting toward the quiet conversation, even as she tried to concentrate, and when that one darn boss finally did her in again she resorted to full-on eavesdropping. She was no stranger to pretending to play while listening in on conversations, that was how she picked up on a lot of the latest nerd-gossip, but this was a far more serious tone.
"…spike in the energy readings, as strong as the potential haul from ten ordinary humans. You're sure it's worth it?"
An even lower, staticky, inaudible voice responded, but what was said she couldn't know.
"Understood. I'll release a culture."
Yuko's interest was piqued, and she crept towards the voice. She hesitated when a strange squelching sound reached her ears, but she rounded the corner just in time to see a flicker of light and a humanoid form rise from a puddle of dark blue slime. She didn't think, she didn't act, she couldn't help it: Yuko screamed.
Usagi froze, toothbrush jammed into the back of her mouth.
"Something's wrong," she said. Though, through the mouthful of toothpaste it came out more like "Shumshushs hrong." With the ease of adrenaline mixed with years of experience she threw on real pants to replace her pajamas and a hoodie over her pajama top, forcing her feet into comfortable shoes and running out the door, Diana sprinting beside her, the pink hunk of plastic from the arcade clutched in her mouth.
Usagi found in herself an innate sense of where the danger was, stronger than she'd ever felt before, and hurtled herself towards the game center. Was this a normal part of being a guardian? Did Sailor Moon feel this tug every time a creature appeared? Rattle of her compact in her pocket caught her ear, and a knot formed in her stomach. Would she even be able to transform? What if she couldn't? The worries bubbled in her mind even as she raced towards the fight.
Yuko's heart was beating hard and fast in her chest as she was backed up against an arcade cabinet, the slimy creature looming over her. She was out of places to go; the creature's gangly, goopy arms could catch her witchier side she tried to dodge. There was a warmth in her pocket. The creature flicked an arm and it hardened into a sharp edge, its shape becoming almost like pixels. The arm was slashed in her direction, loosing a projectile that, once lodged in the cabinet just beside her, seemed familiar. There was something heating up in her pocket. Yuko dodged another attack before it dawned on her: it looked just like the projectiles that tough Sailor Moon boss threw! Down to the limited colors and the squared, pixelated edges!
The heat in her pocket could no longer be ignored. It felt almost like an overheated laptop battery burning into her leg. She reached in for the root cause of the problem and found the light blue pen that the game machine had given her the day before. The symbol emblazoned on the star-tip was glowing brightly, and it somehow filled her with new resolve. Yuko dodged to one side of the monster, somehow catching it off-guard, and some powerful, unknown knowledge from the back of her mind pulled words from her mouth:
"Pallas star power, make up!"
A warm, tingling, surge of power consumed her, feeling somehow like sliding into a warm bath and plunging into an icy lake all at the same time, and Yuko stood transformed before the creature in a blue sailor guardian's uniform. The monster froze, startled, and Yuko took a moment to take in her new look. But, with a roar, the creature shook off its surprise, flinging another projectile at her. Yuko yelped, jerking away from the attack.
Usagi rounded the corner and bolted down towards the game center, heart racing in her chest. The question still burned in the back of her mind: what if she couldn't transform? What could she do without her powers? And then the moment was upon her and there was no more time to think. Her compact was broken, she had crossed the threshold of the game center, and there was another creature, poised to attack. The sound of the sliding door and her pounding feet was enough to get the creature's attention, and it turned on her, growling. Usagi felt more helpless than she ever had since becoming a sailor guardian. The monster's smooth, glinting eyes stared her down, imbued with a deep menace, and she had no powers, no magic, nothing and no one. She was utterly alone.
"Pallas bubble pop!"
A ball of water came up behind the creature and smacked it in the back of the head, bursting painfully against it.
Enraged, the monster turned and flung a sharp weapon at its assailant, throwing her into the wall.
"Yuko!" Usagi yelped, recognizing the girl. "Hey!" she shouted, gaining the creature's attention, "Don't hurt my friend!" she barked, running at it and leaping into the air. Her leg swung around and her boot made contact with the creature's mushy face.
She landed on her hands and knees. The creature let out a moan of pain. The white of her gloves registered in her mind.
"I transformed," she realized, "I transformed!" she beamed at Diana, before the monster tossed a projectile at her, barely missing her head. Usagi squeaked in terror and ducked over to Yuko. "Yuko? Yuko, are you ok?"
"Whu-? I- I'm fine, yeah," Yuko stammered.
"Ok, good." Content that her friend would be alright, Usagi took hold of her tiara and faced the monster. "In the name of the moon, past, present and future-"
A pixelated arm snapped out and smacked the tiara from her hand, sending it flying across the game center.
"Uh-oh."
The monster roared, lunging towards her, and reared back in startled pain, a gash across it's face. Usagi's eyes followed the gash to another white rose, stuck in the floor tiles.
"Sailor Neo Moon! Now!" barked a male voice.
"Now what?!" she shot back at the white-clad man of mystery. "I'm not even sure where the tiara is!"
"Small lady!" Diana chirped, tossing her the pink stick.
Usagi gripped the stick and looked up at the monster. There was nothing else for it. The words bubbled up in her throat and she forced herself to her feet, pointing the strange object at the monster.
"Sweet moon heart escalation!" a burst of pink exploded from the heart and moon on the top of the stick and Usagi stumbled slightly from the recoil. As the creature crumbled she caught the motion of the white, masked figure and dashed out onto the sidewalk, hoping to catch him.
The sidewalk was empty.
Usagi heard the door whish open again and turned to find Yuko, Sailor Pallas, looking at her expectantly.
"Sailor Neo Moon, right?" she prompted. She looked different in her uniform. Her hair was no longer just up in a bun, but there were four braids hanging off her head, tipped with spheres.
"Yeah," Usagi replied.
"So, uh, could you explain what's going on?"
"Sure," Usagi assured her as a strange tingling crept down her arm, gaining her attention. Her glove was unravelling, and as she looked closer her boots were falling back down into her normal shoes. The transformation was wearing off. "But, let's go inside, ok?" she offered, herding Yuko back into the game center.