So I've decided to embark on a little mission, which is to rewatch an episode of S every day (or as often as I can manage, with midterms coming up) and then write a sort of follow-up with Usagi and Mamoru (when appropriate). And just to be nice, I'll add a little recap of the episode for those of us who actually do their work instead of spending all their time rewatching Sailor Moon.
So without further ado, here's episode 90 (which is the sub number, of course).
Recap: Rei has a dream prediction the destruction of the world. The first Daimohn appears and tries to steal her pure heart. Sailor Moon/gang intervene, but the Daimohn breaks her brooch and she is DE-TRANSFORMED. *gasp* The Daimohn is destroyed by two mysterious people in sailor fukus, and there is much rejoicing when Rei's heart is returned. Also, Usagi gets a five percent on her English test, and Mamoru suggests not dating for a while so she can focus on studying. Hehehe. It's just too good of a set up.
Disclaimer: NOT MINE. WHICH IS WHY I'M USING THIS WEBSITE. NOT TOO HARD TO FIGURE OUT. ARRGH. CAPS LOCK.
He practically fell over as a huge BANG rattled through the apartment. "DAMMIT, MAMO-CHAN, OPEN THE DOOR!"
Mamoru hastened to comply and found a red-faced Usagi, her pigtails mussed, her odangos lopsided, her school bag still hung over her shoulder. She looked like she could have murdered him right there just with mental telepathy – although, he thought fleetingly, she probably had no idea what telepathy was. And anyway, when was the last time someone died of a voice screaming bloody murder inside their own heads? He shook the thoughts away quickly; the realization of the new enemy was getting to him.
"S-something wrong, Usako?" he asked tentatively.
"Oh, you've got some NERVE!" she screeched, stomping past him and hurling her books at the floor. "Is something wrong, oh, no, everything's wonderful, except that Rei-chan's heart was sucked out of her chest by some new youma who broke my BROOCH! How in the hell am I supposed to transform?" She beat her fist consistently into the wall. "And I couldn't – beat – that – Daimohn! Why couldn't I beat that Daimohn?! EURGHH!" She slid down the wall, her forehead resting against it, her calves quivering in a very tense squat. "And I got a goddamn five percent on my test," she grumbled. "What a day."
"Doesn't sound so great," Mamoru agreed, cowering ever so slightly by the door.
"And who the hell were those – those people who gave Rei-chan's heart back? How did they beat the youma? Are they helping us, or are they just… do they just want the same thing as the youma?" She drew in a heated breath. "UGH! THIS IS RIDICULOUS! I'M SICK of all this, I JUST FINISHED with those RAPISTDARK MOON PEOPLE and their STUPID DEATH PHANTOM, and CHIBIUSA'S GONE, and…" Fuming, she pressed her palms against the wall as well.
He said nothing, afraid she might aim for his jugular if the wrong words slipped out.
Finally, she mustered the control to say, "Mamo-chan."
"Usako," he countered pleasantly.
"Why can't things stay over for once?" she muttered, more to herself than to him. "Why can't one enemy just be defeated and give us a breather before we have to head right back out again and do it all over? What if I can't beat them this time? I can't even transform now and even if I could, I'm not – I'm not ready. I'm not strong enough, Mamoru!"
He was frankly surprised she hadn't burst into tears by this point, but perhaps her rage was slightly distracting. Distractedly, he shoved a hand into his hair. "Remember how we decided to let things play out?" He bit his lip with the uncertainty he refused to let into his voice. "It'll work. That's one advantage to glimpsing the future, you know – you're going to defeat these enemies, because you are strong, Usako. So much more than you think you are."
Her breaths were shallower now, and she tilted her forehead slightly to glance up at him. "I'm tired of it. I'm flunking the ninth grade. Why can't they find a new Sailor Moon who understands English?"
He laughed a little and detached himself from the door. "Because they need you. You're the only one who can do it." He took a few steps toward her, now that she didn't seem so eager to tear his head off, and sat beside her on the floor. "And you're going to do it, Usagi. You always do. I know we just fought off the Dark Moon, but we've got to keep going." He sighed. "And besides, even if we weren't much use today, we're always there to back you up. I'm always there."
She gazed up at him, wide-eyed and tragic. It took his breath away, which made him feel rather guilty, since he probably ought to be focusing on the impending battles ahead of them and not how gorgeous those eyes were. "You're always of use," she whispered. "You always intervene, just at the right time. How do you do that, anyway? How do you know just when I need you most?"
He tried to ignore how his stomach swooped at the utter devotion in her earnestness, and chuckled casually. "Magnetism?"
Usagi tilted her head, a slight frown on her brow. "How do you mean?"
"I was kidding, Usako."
"Oh," she said miserably. "I should have known." She slid off her feet and sat facing him and the wall. "Mamo-chan, why is it that when I don't study, I barely get a single question right, and when Rei-chan doesn't study she gets an eighty? It's not fair."
"People have different talents," he replied lightly. "Rei isn't the most uplifting person to be around, now is she?"
"Oh, but she is!" Usagi looked up at him, her face lined with sincerity. "Or she can be. She really cares about her friends, Mamo-chan, but she's too embarrassed to say it. She really does want to be loved, and she really does love us."
He had to laugh at that; she was just too adorable. "That's just what I mean, Usako. The number of times she's made fun of you, and still you don't think twice before defending her. You have to be the most loyal person I've ever come across, and that is a rare gift."
A pink tinge perked up her cheeks. "That's a nice thing to say."
"It's true." He reached across the small hallway for her bag, and found the crumpled up paper. "S what do you say we go over this and prevent a relapse of these kinds of scores?"
"Eurgh, Mamo-chan," she whined. "I hate English!"
"I know," he grinned. "And I happen to know quite a bit about English. Come on." He took her by the wrist and hauled her to her feet.
"But you know everything," she said, nonplussed, following him into the kitchen where she deposited her bag on the table.
He smirked. "Convenient, but irrelevant. Today is English only. Where's your book?"
She fished the textbook out of her bag and opened it to the failed chapter; he examined the content half-heartedly while noticing her absent stare at the oven.
In an attempt to refocus her, he said, "Let's see what your mistakes were, first off."
"I don't want to fight," Usagi murmured, in a very non-focused sort of way.
He leaned over and hugged her drooping odangos to his shoulder. "One thing at a time, Usako. You can take on as many youma as you want after school tomorrow."
"Mamo-chan, do you even listen?" Suddenly she was bristling again, her entire face tense with indignation. "I – DON'T – WANT – TO – FIGHT."
He gaped back at her, at a loss for words.
Her shoulders drooped just as abruptly and her forehead crashed to the table. "You didn't mean it that way, did you?" she mumbled.
Mamoru bit back a resentful "Of course not!" and said quite simply, "No, I didn't."
"I'm sorry," she groaned, her nose squashed into the smooth wood. "I'm such a pain to be around. I should leave you alone."
"Usako," he said warningly.
"I always get mad at you or cry on you and you never even have anything to do with it," she sighed. "Well, mostly. You can kind of be a jerk when you want to, though."
"That's my talent." He automatically reached out and rubbed her back.
"But you don't even want to date me anymore!" Usagi wailed.
Mamoru groaned. "I just don't want you flunking out of junior high school! I'll help you all you want, but as for your preferred more frivolous engagements, I think those would do better on hold."
She grunted.
"Your concentration isn't at its peak, I assume?"
If she had been in her usual high spirits, she would have crowed back, "What gave you that impression, you baka?!" in her singular sarcastic-infuriated-jovial way. Instead, she muttered, "No."
"Do you want me to take you home?"
"No."
"Do you want to look over your test?"
"No."
"Do you want me to shut up?"
He thought he saw a grin pull at the corner of her mouth. "No."
"Then what the hell should I do?"
"Nothing."
Bewildered and resigned, he went to fish out some of his own notes from the desk in his bedroom. By the time he returned to the kitchen, she was snoring gently: one arm supporting her head, the other drooping limply onto her knee.
Typical Usako, he thought fondly as he attempted to organize his rather jumbled notes. When in doubt, fall asleep.
So what do you think? Worth continuing?