Hey, everybody! Long time, no update! I'm very sorry about that. :( Mamoru and Usagi just got a little worn out for me, and I didn't want to force something boring and uninspired on you - you deserve better. :) Thanks for your patience!
Episode 109
Recap: Minako is depressed because her pure heart hasn't been targeted, so she runs around donating blood everywhere she can to purify herself up (gotta love that logic?). Eugeal does end up targeting her, but Minako runs away with her pure heart (while cackling maniacally, I might add) and she ends up trapping Eugeal, Usagi, Haruka, Michiru, herself, and a Daimohn in a parking garage. Usagi, Michiru, and Haruka are forced to reveal their identities and transform to fight. Usagi's attack and Eugeal's fire buster thing meet head-on, but Usagi still manages to destroy the Daimohn. Then there's a lot of "They're who?" "Haruka-san?" "Michiru-san!" when the other Senshi show up. The end.
He had fully mastered the art of exiting his classes only minutes before they concluded in order to avoid certain overzealous females who tended to "gravitate" in his direction. It was only natural, then, that he jumped a little when he saw a blonde girl sitting on the bench just outside the building. Girls could be downright terrifying when they wanted to be.
Leaning his shoulder into the door, he squinted. "Usako?"
Her head turned as soon as she heard the door click open, and she jumped up, waving, when she saw him. "Mamoru!" she called out unnecessarily.
He slung his bag more securely over his shoulder and slunk over to her. "You know my schedule?" he asked skeptically, incredulously.
Her face flushed rosy pink. "Mamo-chan, I was right."
His eyebrows rose of their own accord.
She quickly scanned the area for bystanders and leaned up on her toes to whisper, "Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune! I – was – right!"
"Haruka?" he mouthed. "Michiru?"
She nodded.
He stared at her for a moment, feeling the questions rise behind his eyes, seeing the answers hidden in her own. The door creaked open behind them, making them both jump as a small stream of students trickled into the humid summer evening. "Maybe we should –" Usagi began. But he was a step ahead of her, already heading off toward his car, and she had to break into a jog to catch up with his significantly longer legs. She trailed behind him as he cut through the grass to the tiny, packed students' lot, where he had managed to squeeze his car just next to the curb.
Usagi frowned, noting that she couldn't get in on the passenger's side. "Mamoru, this isn't really a space."
"Mm," said Mamoru, smiling placidly. "Well, I happen to be a step ahead of the police. Do you see a ticket?"
Her lower lip jutted out. "No, but – "
"In fact," he interrupted, unlocking the car door, "I have a strong feeling that if I'd waited around for another, say, two minutes, I might very well have a fine to pay." He tried to bite back a smirk, but it was proving difficult. "Wait there."
She backed obediently onto the grass as he inched the car out of the extremely tight parking job. Rolling down the passenger's window, he grinned at her. "Get in the car, Tsukino-san. You have a lot of explaining to do."
She bounded onto the pavement and cracked the door open before slipping into her seat. Brightly, she smiled up at him, and he felt rather cowed at the pure, undiluted sunlight that poured from her very skin. "Hi, Mamo-chan," she said cheekily.
"Hi, Usako." He jerked down on the gas and whizzed out of the lot, dodging other students as Usagi yelped and clutched at her seat belt.
"Mamoru-bakaaa! Give me a little warning next time!" She glanced over her shoulder at the pair of girls who were glaring daggers at Mamoru's rear tires. "I don't think those girls will forgive you anytime soon."
"They're used to it," he replied smugly. "Chiba Mamoru, scourge of the underworld."
"You pride yourself on that, don't you?" Usagi scowled.
His grin widened. "Absolutely. Oh, look who decided to show up after all." He nodded politely to the police car currently entering the parking lot before he pulled out onto the road.
Usagi groaned in sheer disgust. "You are despicable."
"Is it my fault I'm so accurate?" he asked mildly.
"You're so damn stuck up about it, though! It's – it's…" She took one of her distinctive pauses, in an attempt to utilize her reluctantly growing vocabulary. "Insufferable! Anyway, since when could you see the future?"
He shot her a deadened look.
Usagi flapped her hand impatiently. "Okay, but I mean trivial things like parking tickets! Last time I checked you didn't dream about those."
"Maybe I did. Maybe the perfect timing appeared to me in a dream, so I knew exactly where and for how long I could park."
"Bakaaa!"
"I've been branching out," he deadpanned finally.
Her eyebrows twitched, rabbit-like. "You have?"
"Turns out that if you don't test your powers, they don't expand." He looked at her pointedly.
"You're mocking me, aren't you?"
"Not mocking, exactly. Just saying that you ought to know."
"I didn't know psychic powers worked that way."
"Well, don't we learn something new every day?"
She growled, deep in her throat, and scrunched down in her seat. "You're such a jerk."
"And proud of it. Now how the hell did you find out about Uranus and Neptune?"
She massaged at her eyes. "Minako."
Well that was the last thing he was expecting. "Minako?"
"I already told you about how much she wanted a pure heart, and Eugeal came after her today."
He stared, open-mouthed, at the road. "Then why didn't I sense that?"
"Too busy focusing on parking tickets?" Usagi suggested.
He scratched his nose idly. "Yeah, maybe. Alright, so you defeated the Daimohn, and then – "
"No. Minako took her heart and ran."
"She did what?"
"Don't crash the car, baka! I said, she took her heart and ran from Eugeal, and I followed her!"
"But – you can't just run with your own pure heart!"
"Minako can," Usagi said dully. "But then I got cornered in a parking garage with Eugeal and Mina, and suddenly Michiru-san and Haruka-san showed up, and I was thinking, 'Why would they be here unless they were Uranus and Neptune', you know? And then I had to transform, I had to, and they did too, and that was that."
"OH!" Mamoru yelled suddenly, his foot jerking on the gas pedal. Usagi screamed and gripped her seat in pure terror as the car lurched forward for a moment.
"God, you baka, what the hell was that about?"
"Sorry," he said quickly, running his tongue over his lips. "You know that wall we were talking about before – the one that keeps you from realizing who everyone is? It just clicked. So I see it now. Wow. It is obvious, isn't it? Doesn't that kill you? I mean who the hell else has hair the color of Michiru-san's?"
She was quivering all over. "I won't get behind the wheel until I'm thirty, and it'll be all your fault," she said through gritted teeth.
He chuckled. "I thought you were the adventurous type."
"Adventurous does not mean 'enjoys near-death experiences', alright?"
He had to hand that one to her. "Still, if we crashed, I bet they could bring you back to life three times over, what with all the blood Minako's been donating."
Usagi grinned. And laughed. And laughed, and laughed, until she was gasping for air. "Why is she so crazy?"
He loved seeing her like this – completely off the wall, out of control, hysterical. It lit up her eyes with a thousand different colors he never saw at any other time. "Minako is a special type of person," he replied seriously. "A very particular strain of pure heart." He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. "So Eugeal knows who you are now?"
"Yeah," said Usagi, suddenly sober. "Yeah, I guess so." Defiantly, she stared out the window. "It doesn't matter. We'll defeat her, anyway."
He was far too vain to say anything close to 'That's my girl,' but he couldn't help thinking it, just a little. And what was so wrong with that, anyway? She was his, wasn't she?
She glanced sidelong at him and grinned another bright smile, and he knew that yes, she was. He simply wouldn't allow anyone else to have her.
"But maybe, Mamo-chan," she said, "you could focus less on evading police, and more on whether Eugeal's about to slit my throat."
He shuddered slightly at the thought, almost missing how she sat up straighter after the usage of the word 'evade'. Lord, she was adorable. "Funny. Usually I'm the cynic."
"I know."
"That might not be a bad idea, though."
She brightened visibly. "I know that, too."
"Hey, Usako?"
"Yeah?"
His hand twitched towards hers, but instead he cleared his throat. "Sorry I almost crashed."
"Twice," she said, cheerfully. "That's okay. If we were dead, I might be a little angrier."
He nodded, the very image of solemnity. "I'll keep that in mind."
"And Mamoru?"
"Hm?"
She reached out and snatched his hand possessively from the steering wheel. "I thought you were all through with being shy."
He grinned as her fingers intertwined with his. "Can't really help it, Tsukino-san. Sorry."
Usagi harrumphed a little. "And all those girls mistake that for politeness? Gentleman-li…ness? You know, if that's a word?"
"Which it's not."
"Shut up, baka."
"Maybe I just put up a good act."
"Maybe they're all just deluding themselves."
"Agreed," he said darkly. "It's not my fault I'm so wickedly handsome."
She snatched her fingers back, irritated. "You are so stuck up!"
"U-sa-ko," he sighed. "I'm jok-ing."
She stuck her nose in the air.
Surreptitiously, he slid his hand over to her knee and let it rest there.
She settled her fingers over his, rather grudgingly. "Baka," she said fondly.
He laughed.
Crazy enough for you? :P
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