I woke up from my strange dream. I had been having it for a while. I tried to pay attention as much as I could so that I could try to understand what it meant but I just couldn't find the meaning. I knew that there was a Princess Kakyuu that the Starlights hung around with but never a Seiyoku or whatever. And I never saw the face of this Seiyoku so I can't tell who she is. And what do they mean by awakened? I had other dreams that were strangely real like this one about me becoming 'Sailor Anonymous'. Maybe they meant I would become her. But I doubted it.
I knew all about the Sailor senshi. I was watching the news for homework one night and news flash came on talking about a girl in Japan called Sailor Moon who had saved people from a strange creature that day. I was fascinated and my teacher assigned me to learn all I could about her. Eventually, an anonymous person started to give information about Sailor Moon and all her comrades and from then on I was hooked, finding out everything I could about these strange heroes.
I stopped thinking and decided to downstairs and see what was for breakfast. But when my dad said those fatal words I forgot all about how hungry I was.
"YOU WHAT!!!" I yelled at the top of my lungs. "I got transfered to Tokyo, Japan. I thought you would be happy!" my dad said. He had gotten a promotion and the area he now had to work in was in Tokyo. Now for a 16 year old, American girl to have to move out of her state is bad enough, but the country! The continent! This was going a little too far. It's not like I was moving to New Jersey or Oregon or Canada. I HAD TO MOVE SO FAR MY FRIENDS WOULD HAVE TO GO ON A PLANE TO VISIT ME!! This was unacceptable.
"Dad! I'm 16, I have friends, a life, and a reputation. You can't just yank me out of all that to go to another world!!" I tried to explain. Hopefully my truthful reasoning would be enough to make him understand my side of this debate. Unfortunatly I was not so lucky.
"Annie, if I don't take this job I'll be fired. Now it's your choice. You either move to Japan with the family, move into one of your friend's houses, or force me to get fired and we live on foodstamps."
Well, I couldn't really argue with that. I had no choice but to go. I knew none of my friends parent's would be able to adopt me because all my friends had three or four little siblings and I didn't want to live on foodstamps so we packed up and left three months later.
Saying goodbye wasn't easy. Laura, Beatrice and Margaret were all going to miss me a lot. Sure, I could email and IM them but it's not like seeing them. Each of them gave me big hugs and made sure that I gave them my new address and phone number. I was really going to miss good old San Fran.
Then I realized that I didn't know any Japanese!! Ididn't know how well they knew English over there, but my dad claimed that most people spoke English fluently due to their jobs. I couldn't yet support that statement though.
We moved to my new house in late August so school would be starting soon. I thought about how hard it was going to be to fit in. I wondered if I would live near anyone my age, or if any of them liked the Three Lights, who was a big idol group over there, or if I would even be able to understand the teacher.
Luckily for me, my new next door neighboor was exactly my age. She was 16 just like me. She had long blonde hair in pig-tails and at the top of her head were two buns on either side that looked like dumplings. As we were unpacking the moving van, she came over and introduced herself.
"Konichiwa! Watashi wa Tsukino Usagi." Me and my parents stared blankly at her.
"Oh! You're American! Sorry. What I was saying was, hi I'm Usagi Tsukino. Nice to meet you," she spoke English this time. It was heavily accented but at least I could understand her.
"Nice to meet you, too," I said. "My name is Annie Mouses."
"Well, why don't you come over to my house for the afternoon. The plane ride here must have been long. My mom makes great cookies." Tempted by the sweets after the long journey, I accepted.
"So what brings you to Tokyo?" Usagi asked when we got to her room.
"My dad got a promotion that transfered him here. That's great and all but I can't see my friends anymore." I replied.
"Oh. That's ok. We can be friends!" she said cheerily. I was glad to hear that. I was going to need all the English speaking friends I could get.
For a while we talked about all kinds of things like embarassing moments and our childhood. Then I was looking around her room and spotted two picture frames on her dresser. One was of Usagi and a guy, probably her boyfriend, and another with her and another guy. In the former, Usagi was squeezing the guy's arm ad resting her head on him. She looked thrilled to be with him. In the latter, the guy had his arm draped over Usagi's shoulder. He held up a peace sign on his other hand and had a big smile on face. Usagi wore the kind of face that showed that you cared deeply for the person but they tended to get on your nerves. Then, on close inspection I realized just who was in the second picture.
"Seiya!!!!!!!" I shouted. That's right. My new friend Usagi Tsukino had a picture of her and Kou Seiya, LEAD SINGER OF THE THREE LIGHTS, on her bedroom dresser!!!!!!!! "OH MY GOSH WHERE DID YOU GET THIS!?!?"
When I asked this, Usagi got a strange look on her face and then answered, "Oh he went to school with us last year." I was surprised she sounded so calm while she was telling me this.
I was a HUGE fan of the Three Lights. They were my favorite singers of all time. They sang a few songs but my favorite was their signature song Nagareboshi He (or Falling Star) which was about a lost princess. They had English songs but their original sound was a lot better. Of course I think you can guess who my favorite of the group was. Hint: His name starts with an 'S' and he is the lead singer and he is cute and he has long black hair... ^-^
I said to Usagi, "You don't seem too thrilled about it. If I were you I would treasure that photo and guard it with my life! Why so down?"
"Well," Usagi started, "It's really hard to think about Seiya since he and the rest of the Three Lights...moved away. We were really close and in all that was going on during...school and life and everything, Seiya was a best friend to me."
"Oh, I had no idea," I said sympathetically, "Do you have any idea at all where they moved to?" I really wanted to know. I mean it's not like they could have left this planet so it wouldn't be impossible to try to find them and maybe I could take Usagi to see him. Little did I know.
"Well, I know one thing," Usagi said, "And that's that it's impossilbe to visit them." Her eyes shifted to her dresser where there was a little pink brooch shaped like a bear with a moon on the stomach. It was cute but the look in her eyes showed that it had sentimental meaning to her. Tears welled up in the bottom of her eyes so I quickly changed the subject to get her mood up.
"So who's that?" I asked pointing to the other picture on her dresser. The guy she was with there looked nice and I could see by the look on Usagi's face in the picture that they were very close also.
"Oh!" Usagi said in a sort of rejuvinated way. Changing the subject works every time. "That's Mamo-chan, my boyfriend. His full name is Mamoru Chiba but I like Mamo-chan better. He went to study abroad in America last year but he came home for the summer and is going back during the year."
"So he's older than-" I started to say but Usagi interupted with a scream.
Suddenly she started speaking rapidly in Japanese. I heard her say something about Mamoru then she turned to me to say in a calmer English, "Oh, I was supposed to meet Mamo-chan in the park a half hour ago and I'm just so freaked out that he's going to be so mad at me!!!"
"Well, I guess I'll leave then." I said kind of glum. I should have left anyway. There was a lot of unpacking to be done. But Usagi wouldn't let me leave. First she asked me for my opinion on her outfit and then she asked me what jewelry and perfume she should wear.
"You should come with me Annie-san," Usagi said when she was sure she was ready to go. "You could make two friends in one day. Mamo-chan is easy to make friends with."
Well I just couldn't refuse. As long as he spoke English I could be friends with him. Sailor Moon taught the world that everyone could understand each other despite everything, and I strongly believed this concept.
"Ok, sure. I'll go. But are you sure? I mean it is your date." It was true what I said. I didn't want to intrude on a romantic situation.
"Oh, it's totally ok. Now let's go before I'm even later," Usagi said very rushed. I could see that despite the nice person that Usagi was there was a flake underneath. This I could relate to.
"Ok, let's go!"
When we came to the park we saw Mamoru sitting on a bench. "Usako!" he said, "Who's your friend?"
"Mamo-chan! Sorry I'm late," Usagi replied with a quick bow of her head to Mamoru. "This is my new friend Annie who moved here from America today."
"Nice to meet you Annie-san," Mamoru said nicely. I guess Usagi was right about that. He was a nice guy. You could just see it in his eyes. That and...something else...
"Likewise, Mamoru," I replied politely. I bowed but I guess for too long because Usagi started to jab me with her elbow. So I stood up straight kind of embarresed.
"You'll get used to it Annie-san," Mamoru said.
Then I started to hear this very soft beeping sound like a pager or somthing and Usagi looked at her wrist. "Uh oh," she said and she looked at Mamoru. She turned around and started talking in Japanese to her wrist. Then she and Mamoru nodded to each other with determined faces. Usagi turned to me and said, "Do you mind if we leave, like, right now?"
"No not at all," I said kind of disapointed. I thought this would be my chance to see some of the wonderful city of Tokyo but if Mamoru and Usagi had private business to attened to then I had to let them go. We could go exploring some other time.
"Thanks so much! See you around!" Usagi replied as she and Mamoru ran off. I watched them until they were out of sight. Then I turned to go, but something inside me told me to go and follow them. I knew it was wrong but I couldn't resist the urge so I went.
I followed them down and up all sorts of places. Mamoru and Usagi turned up one street and they climbed up the stairs to a small temple. I folowed them up and hid in a bush.
Up there, there were 10 girls. The seven taller ones were standing in the back and the three smaller were in front. I looked at each one and felt that I had seen them somewhere before. One had long blonde hair with a large red bow at the top, one had brown hair in a pony-tail, one had long black hair, one had short blue hair, one had short blonde hair, one had shoulder-length wavy blue hair, and one had long very dark green hair with a small bun on the back of head with the rest of her hair flowing down. In front of them, one had pink hair in the same style as Usagi only with shorter hair, one had shoulder-length black hair, and one, who looked about two, had red hair in the same style as Usagi's also only with curly-cues instead of pig-tails and hearts instead of dumplings.
Usagi went up to the girls and asked started talking in Japanese.
The girl with the blue hair answered.
Usagi spoke again. My biggest problem in Japan: When people didn't want me to know something they spoke Japanese.
The short blonde haired girl then said something.
So familiar...they all looked like people that I had seen somewhere before. And when Usagi said, "Mina, henshin!" everything became clear.
"Mercury Crystal Power..."
"Mars Crystal Power..."
"Jupiter Crystal Power..."
"Venus Crystal Power..."
"Saturn Planet Power..."
"Uranus Planet Power..."
"Neptune Planet Power..." "Pluto Planet Power..."
"Moon Crisis..."
"Chibi Chibi Crystal Power..."
"Moon Eternal..."
"Make UP!" they shouted in usnison. I couldn't believe my eyes as I watched them transform. It was something I would never they were transfomed Mamoru took out a rose, gave it a sniff, and became Tuxedo Kamen.
I couldn't just stop following them here. I had to see where they were going. I followed them until they stopped at some street. When we reached there we could all tell who the enemy was. He was floating and wearing a black business suit.
"Ah, Sailor senshi. Boku wa Xyoz." He continued to speak in an evil tone with a sinister laugh at the end.
Sailor Moon started shouting at the person. Then she began an introduction. "Aito sagino!"
"Sailor Bishousho Senshi!" shouted the rest of the senshi.
"Sailor Moon!" said Sailor Moon. "Tsukini kawaite, ohshokyo!"
Xyoz spoke again beginning with another laugh.
"Mars Flame Sniper!" Mars shouted and in a flash of fire, Mars's Flame Sniper flew through the air.
"World Shaking!" shouted Uranus at the same time that Neptune said, "Deep Submurge!" and Pluto said, "Dead Scream!" The three outer senshi's and Mars's attack hit Xyoz directly and I thought it was already over.
"Sailor Moon!" everyone said at once. Sailor Moon stepped forward with her tier."Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!!" shouted Sailor Moon as she waved her tier around.
But lo and behold nothing happened! I was shocked. The only time Sailor Moon's tier didn't work was on Galaxia. "Oh no!" I said quietly. But not quietly enough because Xyoz spotted me.
"Eh? Nani sore? Daredomo?" Obviously he was asking who I was. I wasn't about to answer so I just stood to run.
Suddenly a bubble surrounded me and lifted me up to Xyoz's height. Then I felt a zap go through me and I screamed. I then felt hatred and anger like never before. All I wanted to do was destroy eveything! It was way too wierd. But there was nothing I could do about it.
"Star Serious Laser!" was the next thing I heard and I was back on the ground with all my emotions back. I looked up to see the one who saved me but I couldn't hold my head up. I layed down and looked from an upside down point of view.
"Yoru no kurai amistu ranuite..." said one voice.
"...jiuno taiki kakerukeru," said another.
"Mistuno seinaru nagareboshi," finished the last voice.
"Sailor Star Fighter!"
"Sailor Star Maker!"
"Sailor Star Healer!"
"Sailor Starlights," they said in unison. "Stage on!"
"Sailor Starlights," I whispered. They were the allies who helped the Sailor Senshi of this planet in the war with Galaxia. At first they hadn't seen like they wanted to help but in the end they protected Sailor Moon and helped her.
I noticed a look on Sailor Moon's face that was like the look of someone who had just seen a ghost. It seemed like she didn't believe that they were here even though they were.
They jumped down from where they were standing and joined the group of senshi. Fighter looked at Sailor Moon and Sailor Moon couldn't take her eyes off of Fighter. Where have I seen Fighter before...? I thought.
Then Tuxedo Kamen picked me up and said, "I'll take her back to the temple. You keep fighting."
Sailor Moon was barely loud enough to be heard when she said, "Ok." She was in shock for some reason. At first I thought it was because she couldn't believe her tier didn't work but I was wrong. I was wrong about a lot of things that day. And was going to be wrong for a long time to come.
Tuxedo Kamen took me back to the temple and laid me on a bed. At the temple I met Luna, Artemis, and Diana the three cats. Luna had dark fur, Artemis had white fur and Diana had a mix in between. I guessed she was their daugther. All of them had a cresent moon on their forehead.
I wished that this was a dream and I would wake up in my new bed. Or better, in my American bed.
"I wish I could be a Sailor Soldier and be able to help the other senshi. I've always wanted to know what it's like to be part of the senshi," I said. I always dreamed that I was a Sailor Senshi. It was one of my deepest darkest secrets and dreams.
"Well I think your dream is about to come true," and this is really wierd to say but, Luna said. That's right, Luna the cat. And in perfect English.
"Yo...yo...you can ta...ta...talk!?!?" I said in shock.
"Yes we can," said Artemis, "And it looks like your going to learn more than that. See that sign on your forehead?" He notioned my forehead with his nose.
"No..." I replied. Then I looked at the mirror in the room. There was a magenta 'A' in the center of my forehead. "OH NO! That guy did something to me!!!!"
"No, no you're ok," said Diana. "You're just a Sailor Senshi like you said you wanted to be."
Now I knew it was a dream. I would dream that someone would tell me that I was a Sailor Senshi. They would say something like, 'You are Sailor Anonymous, the senshi of something-or-other.'
"You are Sailor Anonymous," said Luna. "At least that's what your sign says."
And I knew it right there and then that it was just another of my crazy fantasies. "Please just wake me up now. After the Sailor Anonymous part I know what happens. You give me the locket, I transform and then it's all over," I said dissapointed.
"I think not," said Luna. Then she jumped on me and scratched me.
"YOW!!!!!!!!!!" I wailed. But amazingly enough I remained where I was. "Huh?? Why didn't I appear in my bed? WHAT'S GOING ON!?!?!?!?"
"Like Luna said you are Sailor Anonymous," said Artemis. "You are destined to fight on the side of justice with all the other Sailors."
"Oh...my...gosh" I said exasperated.
"You have to go and fight. The senshi are going to need your help," said Luna. And with that she did a blackflip in the air and a locket appeared on the bed, just like the one in my dreams.
I grabbed the locket. "I know what to say. Anonymous Crystal Power, MAKE UP!" In a flash of light and color I was transformed into Sailor Anonymous like in my dreams. My costume had a magenta skirt, bow, tiara jewel, boots and collar.
"Well you and Tuxedo Kamen better get going. The girls are in need," Artemis said.
"Good luck," said Diana and Luna at the same time, and on that note we left. Tuxedo Kamen led the way, because I didn't know the way yet.
When we got there everyone stared at me. "Tuxedo Kamen, you're back!" called Sailor Moon. "And who are you?" She pointed at me. I guessed it was time to introduce myself.
"I have no planet as my guardian diety, but I am Sailor Anonymous. I am all for love and if your not on my side then I'll punish you in the name of...something I haven't yet figured out," I called. "Wow! That came out of no where."
"Sailor Anonymous!? Another senshi?" Sailor Moon was confused. "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. Sailor Anonymous, use your powers."
"Ok," I said. I felt a wave of something strange come over me. I started to do all kinds of cool moves and I said, "Unknown Power Beam!" In a flash of magenta light the beam hit Xyoz hard and knocked him out.
"Anonymous Occluded Blast!" I yelled as a follow up attack. A magenta wind almost blew Xyoz away.
Xyoz lay on the ground. "Now Sailor Moon!" I called. But at first Sailor Moon just stood there wondering if she should use it because it failed last time. "Sailor Moon you better see if your tier will work now before Xyoz wakes up again."
"Ok," Sailor Moon said discouraged. "Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!!" A light shone from the end of the tier but it was no use. Xyoz was completely unharmed.
I was so mad that we couldn't beat this guy. Suddenly a transformation pen appeared before me. "Use this," a mysterious voice said, "by shouting Psuedo Crisis Metamophisis."
"Wait! Who are you?" I asked rather scared.
"There's no time to explain," the voice answered. "Just do as I say!"
Well this seemed like our last hope, so I shouted, "PSUEDO CRISIS METAMORPHISIS!!" I was transformed into a different Sailor senshi. I had a costume similar to Sailor Moon's except still in my purple theme. Poofy sleeves, long gloves, layered skirt. Then my locket came off of me and grew into a tier similar to Sailor Moon's. My locket was replaced with small gold heart brooch.
"Sailor Psuedo!" shouted Sailor Star Fighter in shock. "You're here?" I guess I looked puzzled because then she said, "There's no time to explain the past now. Quickly, attack Xyoz."
"No wonder she was missing when we came back to Kinmoku," Sailor Star Healer said.
"Ok...sure," I said not knowing exactly what to do. Then I grabbed the tier in front of me. "Ok let's do this! Golden Star Sparkling Power Heal!!" I shouted. I watched as a blinding light hit Xyoz hard. He lay there for a minute, very still. Then he got up and cursed.
He began to shout in Japanese and then disappeared in a cloud of smoke.
"What did he just say?" I asked confused.
"Something along the lines of, 'I'll be back you Sailor brats! This is definitely not over! THE UNKNOWNIVERSE WILL PREVAIL!!!!!!!!'" replied Maker.
"Well, let's go back to the temple," said Sailor Moon depressed, surprised, and in a strange way defeated at once. "We've got a lot of explaining to do."