Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon
The Second Story

AN: So I was talking Sailor Moon with my friend Midnight, and we were bitching about the general lack of PGSM outers fic. So we decided to write one. Enjoy.

London, Summer, Two Years Ago

Michiru didn't know what to expect from meeting Aino Minako. She guessed that the teen-pop-sensation would be a force to be reckoned with, a powerful egomaniac with her own way of doing things. Michiru was used to dealing with people like that, because she herself was a musician of the most normal and mundane variety. As far as she knew, however, Aino Minako had no idiotic hang ups that kept her from performing to the best of her ability, and she was not a drama queen.

Michiru's only problem was that she had this pesky Sailor Senshi thing hanging over her head constantly and she had no idea when she would have to drop everything to go run off and take care of another one of those monsters. It was better, far better, knowing that she had someone she could talk to about the problems of being a senshi, but Haruka was still somewhat miffed at her for not mentioning the whole 'magical girl' thing. Michiru thought that that was rather unfair of Haruka, as Haruka had kept her secrets as well, but she allowed Haruka the petty pleasure of being angry.

Still, it was nice to have someone to talk to. Haruka had a lot of opinions about Sailor Pluto's stoic silence about the oncoming destruction and the past life that Michiru herself agreed with. It was downright obnoxious dealing with Pluto most of the time, and Michiru didn't really know how exactly she was supposed to go about telling Pluto to just shut up and come clean with them. Setsuna, at least, seemed to want to help them, but her moments of lucidity around the incredible force of her past life's personality were intermittent and Michiru had given up looking for help from her.

Asking to speak to Setsuna, or just telling Pluto to get the stick out of her ass, as Haruka had tried the other night, however, had just resulted on more stonewalling.

Michiru hoped that meeting with Aino Minako, so clearly Sailor Venus and leader of the Princess' guard, would force Pluto into acting. Perhaps they could get some information out of Aino Minako that they could not learn from their own cryptic leader. The treat was not that important, apparently, as the senshi leader was not sticking close to her leader at all times. Michiru didn't understand why they'd been called upon as senshi if the threat was not all that serious. She remembered from the past that they'd had different missions than the inner guard, but it didn't explain why the inner guard was so clearly not actively guarding their princess.

Her manager had arranged to meet her at Aino Minako's hotel so that they, along with the idol and her own manager, could start to work out the details of what exactly any collaboration between the two of them would mean. The meeting was scheduled at Aino Minako London headquarters, a hotel where the idol could remain anonymous while she worked on her next album.

Why the idol wasn't working in Japan was completely beyond Michiru, but she put on a brave face and paid the extra money to take a cab to the hotel, as the tube did not go anywhere near the hotel where the meeting was. Haruka would most likely grumble about the expense when it came time to pay the bills, but it wasn't as if they didn't make money, it was just that they were saving to get a bigger apartment, in a better neighborhood. That, on top of the fact that they still were not sure what exactly they were going to be doing in a week – a month – or even a year from now. With the silence approaching, they would have to be near the princess and her guard, for the enemy would be attracted to her light, to the purity of her soul. It would be up to the two of them to protect the princess, using whatever means necessary.

Michiru was frankly worried about meeting Aino Minako, for she was not sure that she would be able to hide her identity from the girl. Somehow, she was positive that she should keep such a thing to herself, unless the idol herself brought it up. There was a sense, and just that, a sense that she got from Pluto, that the inner guard were not currently active as Sailor Senshi. Michiru was not sure that she believed that hunch, but it was there, all the same.

She checked into hotel security and was almost instantly escorted up to the penthouse suite, where a rather frazzled-looking Japanese woman was sitting outside a firmly closed door, a cell phone clutched in her hands. She was messaging someone with a ferocity that Michiru had never seen before, and she suddenly wondered if this was Aino Minako's manager.

The woman's head perked up when Michiru walked into the room, and hastily stood up and started to bow, catching herself just barely in time to see Michiru's amused smile. "I'm sorry," the woman said in Japanese. "I'm not used to being in the west."

"Don't worry about it," Michiru replied, easily slipping into Japanese. She bowed as well, a bit deeper and more formally than the woman across from her. "My name is Michiru Kaiou; I have an appointment with Ms. Aino to talk about some possible collaboration." She looked around, her manager was nowhere in sight, but it made sense as the man was habitually late to everything. She didn't think that he'd be on time for his own wedding, if such an arrangement was left up to his sense of time alone. "It seems that my manager is not here yet, however."

The woman's eyes flew to her cell phone - it was more of a PDA, really - and she nodded after a moment of hastily keying through data. "Ah yes, Kaiou-san, we've been expecting you and your manager. I trust you found the place alright?"

Michiru nodded, "I've lived here all my life, so it was no problem." She paused for a minute, and then looked hard at the woman. "What was your name again?"

"Oh? I'm just the manager's secretary. No one important really, my name's Yamada Kazoko. Aino-san's manager out for coffee and Aino-san's holed up in her room with one of her friends." The woman bowed apologetically once more. She had that annoying habit of the Japanese, not meeting Michiru's eyes, no matter how hard Michiru tried to look her evenly in the eyes. What was polite in one culture, however, was very rude in the other. East and West, it seemed, never did really see eye to eye on these things. "Normally, I'd show you right in, but it seemed as though Aino-san wanted a few minutes before she met with you. Do you mind waiting?"

Michiru shook her head. She was used to waiting. It seemed that it was all that she and Haruka did these days. Pluto had hinted that a certain event was going to trigger their direct involvement in the conflict, but that she wasn't exactly sure when it was going to happen. Apparently, seeing the threads of time was not something that any amateur could do, and Pluto wanted to make sure that she wasn't wrong like she'd been in the past.

The door that Yamada Kazoko had been sitting in front of banged open and a rather annoyed looking girl stalked out, followed by a very flustered-looking Aino Minako.

Michiru tried to keep her gasp quiet, but it escaped her lips almost too quickly for her to catch the reflex. Here were two warriors, women who carried themselves with the grace of many years of training and battles. They didn't seem to notice Michiru, or anyone else for that matter, it was as though the world was focused right on the two of them, and nowhere else.

Michiru's eyes narrowed as she watched the two of them. She couldn't remember this fierce-looking woman with fire in her eyes from the past, but Michiru guessed that if Aino Minako was Venus, that this girl was most likely Sailor Mars. You never saw one without the other, after all; and it looked as though the thousand year time gap in between incarnations had done little to hide the tension, just barely below the surface, between the two of them. She hid a smile behind her hand and prepared to pretend that she didn't understand Japanese at all. It seemed as though the secretary was doing the same thing.

At the door, the fiery young woman paused and turned back to face the room, her hair swinging into her face and obscuring her features. From what Michiru could see, she was very pretty, and very annoyed.

Aino Minako ground out, "Reiko, wait." Michiru could tell that it had taken her a lot to say the words, as Sailor Venus had never been one to back down from a fight. It was strange to see something like this; a side of the girl she'd expected to meet that was nothing like her expectations. "Hear me out."

"Why? You'll just say the same thing you always do, Mina." The woman's voice was sensual, and Michiru could feel the hair on the back of her neck pickle as she suddenly found herself very interested in her fingernails. There was power behind Mars' voice, and a lot of hurt that Michiru recognized. Venus had scarred this woman deeply, and it was clear by the way that she held herself and spoke around the idol.

Michiru wondered what she'd done.

"I'll come home soon, I promise." Aino Minako's tone was quiet as she spoke. She raised a hand up to rest on her cheek and looked thoughtful for a moment. "I rather miss Japan."

The other woman huffed quite spectacularly, folding her arms across her chest in such a way that only seemed to accentuate just how annoyed her body was. God, Michiru thought, this girl should be an idol right alongside Aino Minako, she carries herself like someone who hasn't a care for anyone, but really cares for everyone so deeply that she doesn't even realize it.

Rather like Haruka, when you thought about it.

"You just miss Usagi stalking you." Mars shot back. Michiru was positive she was Mars now, for she remembered arguments just like this, all through the past life.

Aino Minako put her hands on her hips and smiled. "Number one fans do that, Reiko, its normal. What's not normal is when you follow me halfway around the world to yell at me."

Mars looked away. Michiru could see a slight flush on her cheeks and she wondered if there was something more going on between the two of them. The way that they kept on glancing at each other and hurriedly looking away was usually a surefire sign that there was attraction lying just below the surface of the relationship. Michiru wondered if they even saw it yet.

"Whatever..." Mars straightened up, "Look, I had a layover so I came to see you, but it looks as though you're busy."

"I wouldn't want to be rude." Aino Minako seemed to notice Michiru for the first time then, and Michiru shook her head and shrugged. She had all the time in the world today.

"International Idol has to keep up appearances."

"Always." A gentle brush of fingers and the fiery woman was gone. "Goodbye Rei," Aino Minako whispered quietly.