It was a beautiful morning. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming. On days like this — "Aaaaah! I'm late again!" Cried Minako jumping over a railing on her way to school with the toast from breakfast hanging out of her mouth.

Hunter was following her on Artemis's behalf. That cat was so impatient with her behavior. Plus, he did follow Minako the day when they found her, so it was kind of Hunter's turn to keep track of her.

"I am Hunter Schwab, nice to meet you! Properly, this time, hehe. I am sixteen years old by physical standards and I am well over 4,000 years old. You may also know me as Vendryne Balys, the Dragon God. My birthday is June 30th, which makes me cancer. My favorite food is salmon. And my least favorite food is potatoes. I was sent here along with my buddy, Artemis, by our boss to safeguard the Earth. Our partner is an incarnation of Venus, the Goddess of Love and Beauty, and she fights as the Guardian of Love and Justice: Sailor Venus."

Minako bumped into his monologue. "My codename is Sailor V!" She intervened.

Just to Hunter's luck, Artemis also decided to butt into the monologue. "But Mina, the girl who SHOULD be taking up the mantle of Sailor V is a repeat offender in the areas of tardiness, eating in class, and napping during lessons. On top of that, she detests studying. She's as far from a guardian of justice as the Moon is from a turtle or beauty is from the beast. *sigh.*"

Minako was upset at that last part. "Excuse me! Who are you calling a BEAST?!"

Hunter face-palmed himself as he began to grow impatient with the foreseen bickering between the girl and the cat. "Aye, aye, aye…" He mumbled.

Minako crossed her arms and huffed. "Guys, for YOUR information, I haven't decided that I'm even going to do this "Guardian of Justice" thing!"

Artemis's jaw fell to the ground in shock at hearing those words. "What the…?! You've been CHOSEN alongside Hunter! You two are the only ones who CAN do it! We need you two together! Why wouldn't you want to?!" He said frantically. "Well…' Began Minako. "For one thing, there's that outfit. The costume! It's sort of uncool, and it's SO drafty." Artemis gawked at her. "Plus, I don't like the idea of working for free."

Hunter then remembered her in her uniform. He didn't see anything wrong with it. Matter of fact, he thought Minako looked so much more sexy and cute than she did in her regular uniform.

"Umm… Schwabie?" Asked Minako. Hunter faced her. "Yeah?"

"Do you think that?"

Hunter then realized he said his thoughts out loud. "Oh, um… I can explain!" He began waving his hands in front of him.

Minako laughed at him. He stared at her laughing and smiling face. It drew him in, and for the first time in a long time, he genuinely smiled. He focused his ears on her laugh. 'Such a harmonious sound.' He thought internally this time.

Artemis watched the two. "Unbelievable…" He groaned. Minako stopped her laughter and turned to run off. "Oh! Sorry, Artemis! I'm gonna stop by the arcade! Buh-bye!" As she began to run she stopped in her tracks and turned back around. "Schwabie! Have you been to the arcade? Want to come with me?" She asked. Hunter stood quietly for a moment, before shrugging. "Sure, why not? I haven't been to an arcade in ages." He said.

'And by ages, I mean for thousands upon thousands of years. In another universe…'

The arcade was interesting, to say the least. Hunter didn't have the urge to play any video games as he previously thought about himself. So all he did was buy a drink and sat down next to Artemis, who, at the moment, was watching Minako play Street Fighter. Much to Schwab's surprise, he didn't expect Street Fighter to exist in this world.

"You act so much like a boy, Mina." Said Artemis. "You love video games, you're not afraid to go to the arcade alone." He began to stretch, as Schwab looked at him with a striking gaze that Artemis didn't see. "You're rough around the edges, quick to start a fight, you eat like a pig… the only good thing about you is your athletic ability."

Minako heard every word that came out of his little mouth and turned to him angrily. Teeth bearing. "Well look who's talking, you sissy. You say all that to my face?"

"SISSY?!" Demanded Artemis. Hunter couldn't help but laugh at the poor cat's reaction to the insult, but then again, he insulted Minako.

Minako calmed down and began to speak again. "Well, Artemis is a GIRL'S name, isn't it?"

"She's right!" Said Hunter coming into the conversation. "The Maiden Goddess of the Hunt and Moon, and sister of the sun god, Apollo. Artemis."

Artemis stared at the two. "Guys!! I'm impressed! Mina, where did you learn that?" He asked. Minako pointed to another game that was a Greek Mythology side scroller. "It was in this video game. See? Games can be educational." Artemis lowered his head and began shaking. "Mina…you are THROUGH going to the arcade, effective TODAY!! You will go straight home and learn how to be a GUARDIAN OF JUSTICE!!" He yelled in pent-up rage.

Hunter grabbed Artemis by the mouth and picked him up into his arms. "Dumbass! If people find out you're a talking cat…they'll haul you away and do tests on you. And then they. Will. Kill. You." He whispered into the cat's ear, which squirmed in his grasp.

Minako looked kinda nervously at Schwab as he held Artemis. His sky-blue eyes were striking when they had a purpose, that purpose right now being holding Artemis so close he could crush the cat, but they were striking nonetheless. Sometimes, when Minako stared into his eyes, the same as hers, she could almost sense a sadness in them. She wondered about his story during those few moments. Trying to take her mind off the young man and the cat in front of her, she went off to find another game called "Lovely Fight."

"Now. Let's see!" She said searching through the many different arcade games. Eventually, she found it. "Here it is! This game is what I came here for! Now it's time to get the high score!"

Hunter had finally let go of Artemis. The two had followed Minako to her destination. Upon seeing the game Hunter couldn't understand what was so special. It wasn't his type. "Lovely Fight? A fighting game? What's so interesting about that?" He asked.

Minako beamed enthusiastically. "Yup! Look at the powered armor on this warrior woman! Isn't it cool?" Hunter continued staring at it. "I guess…" Minako continued. "The thing is, I keep trying and trying! But there's this one guy I just CAN'T beat! See? Look at that." She pointed at the screen so Hunter could follow her finger. "When you get a high score, your name shows up on the ranking screen." Hunter looked closely at it, scanning it. "Rank 2: Minako. Rank 1: Taku."

"This Taku guy! He ALWAYS gets the highest score! And it's ALWAYS way higher than anybody else's!" Minako began to rant, as Hunter continued looking at the screen. She was right. This guy's score was unbelievably high. Even for video game standards.

Something clicked in him then. Looking away from the screen he looked out the arcade's windows to see it was getting late. "Hey, Minako. You better get home." He said. Minako looked back and forth between him and the sky outside. He was right. She better get home, or else her mom would belittle her.

Artemis had already left when the two exited the doors to Crown. "Want me to walk you home?" Asked Hunter politely, inhaling the evening air. It was so sweet. Then again, it was the middle of Spring. Minako looked at him, then away from him. "No. If my dad sees you, I'll never hear the end of it." She said straightforwardly. Hunter's face downed a bit and it turned emotionless. "Alright then. Tomorrow is Saturday so… I'll meet you at the arcade…?" He asked.

"Of course!" Replied Minako as she began to run off to her home. "Goodbye, Schwabie!" She waved.

Hunter watched as her form disappeared behind the horizon. He summoned the Spirit Gem before him, its little egg-shaped form hovering above his right palm. His nails around it like claws. "Take me to Nibiru." He ordered the gem, as his body disappeared in a small flash of golden light.

—

The next day, Minako stormed into the Crown Game Center filled with determination. "Okay! I'm trying again, today!" She exclaimed, balming her fist. She played her way through Lovely Fight with all she had, but unfortunately, she didn't make much progress.

"Grrah! Taku is first AGAIN?!" She said calmly. "400 thousand points?!" She said again. Calmly. Minako balled her fist. "Here I FINALLY broke 200 thousand… Dang It! I can't TAKE it! Who is he, anyway?" She demanded although she did not receive an answer.

Her focus on the game was broken when she heard a couple nearby. "You lose." Teased a boy. "Oh, stop!" Replied his girl, as they played around the crane games. Minako couldn't help but huff.

For the first time in her life, she felt so lonely.

"Awww. There's something not quite satisfying about coming to the arcade alone." She whispered. 'Schwabie said he was going to meet me here today. Where is he?' She asked internally, looking around the arcade. She then proceeded to walk away from the game and went to a young man, around Schwab's age to get some change that she then used on a crane game, winning a little cat plushie that looked exactly like Artemis in the process as she grew more irritated at the couple next to her.

"The faint aroma of a fragrant floral hair mousse. A forbidden sailor uniform. Long, straight hair. A high-pitched voice. Those things don't belong here. Since time immemorial, the video game arcade has been a bastion of solace for solitary men who have no hope of forming real relationships."

A man grunted.

"And yet — and I don't know when it started — this sanctuary has begun to be defiled by the clingy mollusk-like creature that is the "couple." The number of casual games with warm color schemes has gone up. And to top it all off, now women are coming in unaccompanied!"

The man watched as Minako walked away from the crane game, the couple shocked by her trophy and attitude.

"That woman is no pushover!!" He grunted.

Artemis and Hunter entered the arcade to see Minako playing games. She looked a bit agitated. "Video games, huh?" Artemis groaned. "She needs to train to be a guardian of justice."

"But that girl's not going to learn anything if we teach her the normal way." Said, Hunter. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes in thought, as Artemis picked up a transformation pen that he summoned in his mouth. Eventually, Balys came up with an idea. "Using Mina's beloved video games… That might be a good idea." He said.

Artemis looked back and forth between the Dragon and Venus. "Yes, Balys. Let's try it."

"You go get everything set up. I'll stick around with Mina." The two then went their separate ways across the building.

Hunter approached Minako, who was distracted playing a crane game. He watched from behind her shoulder that she was trying to get a little bunny plush, but failed. She groaned in frustration at her failure. Turning herself around Minako was startled by Hunter standing silently behind her. "Where were you?" She demanded. "You're late!" She crossed her arms and huffed at him, making a cute angry face.

Schwab rubbed the back of his head. "I was busy with something last night, and then Artemis wanted to talk with me today, so I'm sorry that I was late…" He said, staring at her face, trying to suppress a laugh at the cute little angry gaze.

Minako suddenly dropped her angry gaze and turned towards another game happily. "Come on! Play something!" She encouraged him.

They played for what seemed like two hours. Hunter had ordered them some drinks and snacks and got to know each other a bit more. Mostly, it was Minako who opened up the most about herself, while Hunter kept a lot about himself, close to himself. Minako, however, didn't notice why it was so. She didn't even notice that he was doing it on purpose. After all, she talked a lot more than he did. But she got a good deal out of his interests though. Video games, working, reading, drawing, music, working out, and he enjoyed playing games of Catch if anyone was willing to play with him. She also learned that he enjoyed time alone, and walking. It was relatively easy to understand.

Artemis meanwhile, during their whole two hours together, had pulled a gigantic box into the back of the arcade. He was out of breath. "This should do it! Guess I should leave a manufacturer's tag on it." He said, putting tags that said Sailor V on it.

Furuhata came to the back of the Arcade to see the box Artemis, who had quickly left, had put in place. Confusion and curiosity filled Furuhata as he approached the box. "A new game delivery?"

As the evening began to set in, Furuhata installed the Sailor V game in the arcade. Minako and Schwab had enjoyed a nice lunch as he did so. Once they had completed their meal, Minako quickly took notice of the new machine.

Surprise filled her as she stared at its starting screen. "A Sailor V video game?!" She squealed. Hunter had to cover his ears at the squeal of her voice. He didn't like loud sudden noises. Furuhata had taken notice of the ordeal. "Hey, Mina-chan! That's our newest game! You and your boyfriend should try it out!"

"HE'S NOT MY BOYFRIEND!" Minako yelled at him, embarrassed.

"SHE'S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Schwab yelled out, pissed off.

"WE'RE NOT DATING!" They yelled in unison.

Furuhata stood still at the two, hand held up like he was being held at gunpoint. Other people at the arcade stared at them as well. Minako huffed and went to play the new game. Vendryne was too pissed off at the moment to follow her. So he began leaving.

Before Minako could sit down on the stool in front of the game, she felt the lack of her partner's presence. Turning around she saw Vendryne storm angrily out the Arcade doors. Minako quietly watched him, as Furuhata went up to her. "I'm sorry Minako, I shouldn't have assumed you two were dating." He said, rubbing the back of his head. "Is he your brother?"

Minako looked at him, but before she could speak, Artemis appeared and meowed at her.

"Hehe. Don't worry about it." She waved Furuhata off, turning her attention back to the Sailor V game. "I can't believe there's a Sailor V game." She said playing through the side-scroller. As she played she ended up dying from an enemy smite. The GAME OVER screen filling in. "Aww. I died."

"Oh? Guess you're not so hot after all." Artemis grinned and teased, to which Minako growled. In the distance, other people complained about Minako hogging the game to Furuhata who shrugged and explained to them that he didn't know where it even came from.

Meanwhile, Artemis praised Minako. "Good, good! You're getting better, Mina!"

Minako pointed to the screen in contemplation at his praise. "You think so? I don't know — I keep playing and playing, but I never feel like I'm getting close to the end. I can't figure out a pattern either, it's really hard."

"YOU'LL be the one to determine the end of the game, Mina." Said Artemis with a wink.

"Me?" Minako pointed at herself.

Suddenly she felt a presence behind her. As she turned with a gasp she expected Hunter to be there, but instead, it was two boys. "Oh, you want the Sailor V game? Here you go. Sorry for hogging it!" She said retreating from the game.

Minako wandered the Arcade. She passed a game and took great notice of it. "Oh yeah, this game! I haven't played Lovely Fight in forever! Let's do it!" She exaggerated. It was when she started the game that she became confused by her playthrough.

"Huh? I'm doing it! I'm doing it! What happened?! This is incredible! My score just goes up and up and up! Beating enemies is a piece of cake!!" She said to herself in a hype.

"I did it!! 590 thousand points." For the first time, Minako was ranked #1.

Minako was happy. "I BEAT HIM! I finally beat Taku! I have a high score!! I'm a born gamer!!" She called, as everyone gathered around her in praise.

"Unforgivable!" Yelled a man across the arcade.

"Oh! What's that dark corner of the arcade?" Asked Minako taking notice of the sudden yell. Furuhata approached her. "Oh, them? They're regulars. They've been coming here for ages. They're not the cheeriest bunch. But they say they're a group of people who truly love video games." He explained. "I think they formed a club."

Taku, who was the one that yelled, began to approach Minako. Towering over her menacingly. "Minako, or whatever your name is. Who would ever believe that YOU would surpass the high score of the great gamer Takurô Taku Ôtaku! And with that smug look on your face, as if you've ruled over this arcade for the last hundred years!!"

Minako stepped back, confused and scared as he continued his approach. "You won't fool me with your long hair, or your high-pitched voice, or your sailor uniform!" He continued. "It's not uncommon for a fanatic to use a woman's name. But to think you would go THAT FAR to hide your true identity"

He then yelled. "IT IS UNFORGIVABLE! TAKE OFF YOUR CLOTHES! I KNOW YOU'RE A GUY!!"

Minako and Artemis ran in panic. "Wait, wait, WAIT! Artemis! What is going ON here?! This can't be real!"

Taking shelter behind a counter, Artemis summoned the transformation pen. "He's… NOT an enemy." Artemis said.

Boss's voice came through the pen. "Hmm, I think he's just a video game junkie. There's only one way out of this! Mina! Use your compact! It has the power to transform you into a human of any age, personality, profession, or status! You need to get away from him!!"

Minako pulled out her compact. "I can change into ANYONE?! Really?!" She proceeded to hold the compact high above her and called out; "CRESCENT MOON TRANSFORM!! CHANGE ME INTO AN ARMORED WARRIOR. WOMAN POWER -RANGER STYLE!"

Once the transformation was done, Minako looked like the main character from Lovely Fight. Standing tall and proud upon the countertop. Taku took notice and had a nosebleed. "Incredible! I knew you were no ordinary human being! It's like you stepped out of the screen!"

Then he became a horny otaku. Tackling Minako to the ground. He began to sniff and assault her.

Suddenly in one fell swoop, Taku was punched in the face. Body flying into one of the arcade machines. Minako looked up at her savior. "Hunter?!"

"Mina! Hurry, transform!" He said.

The two then summoned their respective tools: Minako, the Compact, and Schwab, the Spirit-Gem.

Hunter's body glowed, and Minako called out: "MOON POWER TRANSFORM!" In a blinding light emerged the 7-foot dragon of Vendryne Balys, and Sailor V.

"Codename: Sailor V! I am the Guardian of Justice, the beautiful guardian in a sailor suit! Sailor Venus has arrived along with her partner Vendryne Balys, Dragon-God!!" Sailor V called out addressing herself and her dragon buddy.

Everyone in the arcade stood in awe. "Sailor V? From that video game?! So THAT'S Sailor V!! And she has a dragon pet?!" They called out.

Vendryne sneered. He didn't like being called a "pet." Sailor V however rambled cutely about how everyone stared in awe at her. "I think I like this! Maybe this Guardian of Justice thing isn't so bad after all!" She exclaimed.

Suddenly she felt her skirt being lifted. "Incredible! This is well-made! What's it like on the inside?" Said Taku being a pervert. He was suddenly launched into a wall by Balys's tail being swatted against him. "Don't touch her!" Demanded the dragon.

Artemis jumped onto a nearby arcade game looking over the entire scene. He held his head down. "Oh, brother… this is going to be more complicated than I thought."

"Run away!!" Called Sailor V as she ran out of the arcade, the dragon crawling his way like a massive dog behind her. Once outside Sailor V hopped on his back. Assuming she wanted what he assumed, Vendryne spread his wings and took flight.

—

"Hates to lose, loves attention, can make a quick getaway. Mina might make a good guardian of justice… Such was Artemis' thoughts." Said Hunter Schwab sitting next to Artemis on a bench at the park the next day. He looked down at his friend's annoyed body language and bared teeth. "Patience. Patience." He petted the tomcat. Artemis seemed to calm down and think more comfortably.

Hunter smiled and then looked up at the afternoon sun in the sky. A brilliant ball of golden light that shines brighter than all else and has no equal. From this moment, Vendryne will liken himself to a second sun…

His thoughts then went to Minako, as he continued to pet Artemis.