Disclaimer: All characters and locations belong to their respective owners.

3.
You Gotta Friend in Me

Rei didn't stop walking. She didn't pause to mutter apologies for bumping into passersby treading the halls, didn't cast a second glance when she brushed shoulders with a man and he called her vulgar names behind her back. She kept going until she saw the elevators and rushed inside before the doors could close on her.

She suppressed the button for the lobby, pushed the tip of her finger against it until the skin turned white with pressure. Come on. Come on, dammit. Move already…!

It did. There was that sensation again, a feeling of riding in a drop tower that breached the Earth's atmosphere but never quite got back down. Rei wished the steel box would go faster, wished she could punch a hole in it, take the jagged edges in both hands tear it wide and open so she didn't have to grab some sucker's throat and squeeze the life out of him. She wished she could do a lot of things right now, wished she was stronger and didn't feel like this—

The bell dinged. Rei flew from the cage, rounded the backless couches and its occupants, and homed in on the entrance. Once she went through the revolving doors, she weaved between a pair of cars parked on the curb of the cul-de-sac, crossed the island, and toward the goldenrod frame of the Subaru Legacy. She fumbled around in her pockets, swore aloud as she unzipped her purse and groped blindly for the ring. Finally she fished it out, jammed the key in the hole and popped the locks. She tossed both keys and purse onto the passenger seat, dropped behind the steering wheel, and slammed the door.

Rei exhaled harshly and put her face in her hands, ran her fingers through ink black tresses. Usagi…why oh why did it have to be Usagi? Why did it have to be Usagi and not someone else, maybe a junkie who bailed on her one-hundred plus hours of community service, or a thief who had a penchant for slipping through the law's grasp like that Sly Cooper character? Anyone with less heart and soul would have made a better victim than kind, fussy Tsukino Usagi.

She screwed her eyes, sniffed hard as the sting in her nose pinched uncomfortably and her throat closed with thickness. She couldn't face the Senshi, couldn't face Mamoru, in this weak, pathetic state. What would they think of her? Would they blame her for running away? Would they be mad that she didn't bother to stay and listen to what they had to say? For all they knew a youma and not a human could have been responsible for the attack, an otherworldly creature more powerful and intelligent unlike any blindly obedient monster they'd ever fought. All the Senshi had to approach this situation delicately, but surely they could do without one soldier, right? Surely they didn't require the likes of Hino Rei the coward, the weak-willed, the faint of heart…?

No! No, they'd never think of her that way! Never in their right minds would they proceed without a fellow sister-in-arms by their side. Everyone was human. Everyone had their moments of weakness. No one was perfect. No one had the power to bottle all their pain and anger and sorrow without losing their sense of self in the process. The Senshi would understand. Mamoru would understand. So would Usagi.

But they were without a leader, and without Usagi to guide them they were running in circles like headless chickens they were now. What were they going to do? Where would they start? Officer Teguchi said so himself that there was no physical evidence, nothing that would point them on their way to the yellow brick road. So where could they start? Four Guardians Park was a good place to look, but the area was cordoned by yellow tape and blue uniforms with their overly cautious German Shepherds. Besides, how much information could you glean from one location, considering how small it was? What could they extract from a patch of wild, untrimmed grass? She didn't think the force had the technology to scrape DNA into a Petri dish, more or less ship it to the labs in Tokyo for results.

She banged her fists against the wheel. Damn that attacker! Damn him and his cunning ways to the lowest, darkest reaches of Hell! If she ever caught a peep out of the police the person's identity, she was going to transform into Sailor Mars and light that dirty mother—!

Knock-knock-knock.

Rei looked to her left. There was a girl standing next to the car, a pretty thing with yellow irises and hair wrapped at the ends like drills. She was tapping on the window, knock-knock, and twirling her hand in a circular motion. Roll it down, she seemed to say.

Rei did; she snatched the keys from the passenger side, turned it in its slot, and pressed the button below the stick-shift. The glass disappeared into the vehicle as a shark fin diving back into the brine. "Yeah?" she asked the girl. "What is it?"

"Are you okay?" said the girl, carefully enunciating her words with gentle inflection.

"What does it look like?" Rei bit sharply. "Why does it matter to you? It's none of your business."

"I know…but I couldn't help noticing as I was passing by. You seemed rather upset, so I thought I would stop to offer my condolences."

"Condolences?" Rei parroted dumbly. Then it dawned on her, and her ire only served to rise in a pit of roaring flame. "The hell you're trying to play at? You don't know what's going on. You don't even have the right to make assumptions on things that don't concern you."

"I mean you no ill will," the girl persisted, aggravatingly unflappable to the soldier's demeanor. "I heard someone had been sent to the hospital, but I'm rather new in the area so I apologize if I'm coming on too strongly."

You think? Rei wanted to tell the girl. She was tempted to roll the window back up, start the engine and leave her behind, coughing up a storm as the wheels kicked back a cloud of exhaust and burned rubber. And why not? It was best if no one but the police got involved. That, and if non-magical peoples couldn't solve it, this was a situation only the Senshi could tackle. Civilians like this kid had their own problems to deal with. Didn't she have anything better to do? Judging from the white jacket and the tartan skirt, she should be in class by now.

Rei sighed and put a hand on the wheel, looked the kid straight in the eye. If that's how she was going to be, so be it. Rei could use a refresher. "What do you want?"

The girl didn't miss a beat. "Why don't we go somewhere more private?"

"You're the boss." She rolled the window up, got out. Locked the car and turned to the kid, hands stuffed in pockets. "Go on. Lead the way."

The girl smiled. "Okay. Oh, by the way, I'm Tomoe Mami."

"Hino Rei. Now are we gonna cut to the chase or are you wanna let the whole world in on the party?"

Mami nodded. "You're right. Let's get moving. Follow me."

Rei tagged behind the girl, stayed by her shoulder two steps away. They left the parking lot and started down the sidewalk going eastbound. Traffic passed them by at a moderate pace, some of the drivers probably all too aware the cops were on the prowl for any suspicious activity. The extra security didn't stop pedestrians from tending to their own needs; to them it was just another work day, another school day. Time cards had to be punched every few hours and tests had to be finished by the end of the allotted hour. It was a normal day.

If only that were so, Rei thought with a frown. When she looked back, the hospital was no longer in sight. Wonder what this Mami chick has in mind….

She got her answer ten minutes later. They approached a path of cobblestones riding up the crest of a hill like a chocolate-coated snake. There was a bed of azaleas on one side and a copse of smooth maple with an exquisite rock garden on the other. An arch stood sentinel at the start of the path, legs wrought iron and sign cracked ceramic. Three Angels' Haven, the sign read.

Rei's stomach clenched. Of all the places the kid could have chosen…why did it have to be a local park? Tell her you don't want to be here. Ask her if there's somewhere else she'd like to go. But she did say Mami was the boss. Hard as it was, she couldn't refuse the stranger's request. Maybe a little heart to heart will do the trick.

There was an ice cream truck trundling up the street. Mami ran ahead and gave a piercing whistle that stabbed the air like a spearhead. The truck stopped and from the window a man wearing a garrison cap poked his head out. Curious, Rei picked up the pace.

"Rei, what flavor would you like?" Mami asked her. "I'm getting strawberry. There's chocolate, vanilla, azuki—"

"Do you have pistachio?" Rei asked the man.

"No, I'm sorry. I'm all out."

"What about matcha? Do you carry it?"

"That I do."

"Matcha it is."

Mami paid for the ice cream, then in a surprising gesture took Rei by the hand and led her into the park. It was a quaint, woody little area, more spacious and bigger than Four Guardians Park. A playground came into view as they climbed the hill, occupied by rambunctious children and watchful parents.

Benches were few and between, but there was one by a koi pond nestled in the shade of a hackleberry tree. Mami motioned them toward it and let go of Rei's hand to sit. "Is this a good spot?" Mami asked.

"Yeah, it's fine," Rei replied as she joined the girl at her side. She stared at her ice cream cone, smelled the faint, crisp tang of the powder.

"You alright?" Mami murmured quietly, putting a reassuring hand on her shoulder.

Rei sighed heavily. "…Yeah. Yeah, I'm cool. It's just that…well, my friend loves ice cream. A lot. So much that one time, when she tried applying for Dairy Queen, she listed cake as her hobby." She chuckled at the incredulous look on Mami's face. "I'm not kidding. I told her it was a stupid thing to do, that she needed to be mature, but she said she had a better chance if she was being sincerely honest. Funny thing is, she got a call from the store manager a week later saying she got the job." She shook her head, a wistful smile on her lips. "That Usagi…she's something else. I can never tell if she's being serious or trying to pull a fast one on me. Maybe when she wakes up and is given the A-OK, I'll go to the bakery and buy her the biggest, priciest chocolate cake they've got…."

"Is Usagi the person everyone is talking about?"

"The very same." Rei took a moment licking the ice cream melting on the cone. "I got a text message from a friend of mine when I woke this morning to tune in to the news. I didn't believe it at first, so I turned on the television and waited for the typical bull to run its course. And sure enough, as soon as the station came back from commercial they were all over it." Rei tilted her head back, stared somberly at the iron grey clouds. "I thought I was having a bad dream – you know, the kind where you wake up and go about your day as you usually do, 'cept somewhere down the line you realize this isn't real, this isn't what happens when you're aware enough to tell fact from fiction. That's how I felt after I pinched myself and knew it hurt, because as far as I know you can't feel pain in dreams. I had to see Usagi for myself."

"How is she?"

Her shoulders slumped. "I…I don't know. I didn't stay long, couldn't stand seeing her hooked up to the machines and the IV drip in her arm." She looked at Mami, world-weary but determined. "She's my best friend. I'd do anything for her. But knowing the attacker hasn't been caught, compounded with the fact the police can't find any cold hard evidence…it pisses me off."

"It hasn't even been a day. You need to give them time."

"I can't just sit here knowing the bastard's still out there. Something has to be done."

"But it's not going to happen today." Mami swept an arm at the wooded area. "These trees didn't grow in one day. Those adults at the playground were children then, their children fetuses growing in the womb, and these koi eggs. It takes time – and patience – for the results you see now, and it's going to take even more time when the adults become the elderly, the children the adults, and so forth. It's part of our development as human beings."

"I understand," said Rei, "but I don't want to wait. I want those results now."

"At this point in time you don't have a choice. It's best if you – and your friends – stay off to the side and let the force do their job." Mami popped the tip of the cone in her mouth, chewed, swallowed, and turned her face to a ray of sunlight peeking through the canopy. Rei saw there was a plastic sunflower clipped to the hair above her ear, an egg-shaped topaz adorned in the center.

There was something odd about that piece….

Mami noticed. She put a hand to the plastic rim of a petal and smiled. "Do you like it?"

"Huh?" It took a moment for the thought to register. "Yeah, it looks nice on you. Where did you get it?"

Her eyes flickered with an emotion that moved too fast for Rei to decipher. "A friend gave it to me for my birthday two years ago during school. We were having lunch under a blooming sakura when she presented it." She looked away, fingers tracing the curve of the gem. "I miss her very much."

"Where did you live before you came to Azabu Juuban?"

"Mitakihara."

"I never heard of it. Where's it at?"

"It's northeast of here, about a two-hour drive."

Rei whistled. "That's pretty far. You ever thought of going back to see your friend?"

"Sometimes," Mami trailed off, lowering her hand, "but I can't. I'm afraid she might have forgotten me."

"In two years' time? If your bond is as close as you say it is there's no doubt in my mind your friend would forget a kind person like you." Rei felt her cheeks flush, but nonetheless she continued. "And what you did for me today, I can't forget either. So…thank you. I…kinda needed it."

Mami nodded. They sat for a while, silence punctuated now and then by the sound of prepubescent laughter and the wind rustling in the leaves. The cloud cover above shifted, spilling more liquid sunshine on their laps, into the rippling koi pond. The air was filled with the song of fork-tailed swifts.

Mami rose to her feet. "I should get going. I need to finish getting settled in at the apartments."

"By apartments, do you mean Crossroads down by the high school?"

"Yes."

"You want me to drive you there?" Rei stood and tossed the rest of the ice cream cone into the koi pond; not much left, but the little buggers were already over it. "I don't feel like going back to the hospital, and I don't have anything else to do besides going to a couple classes later this evening."

"I think I'll be okay."

"Sure about that?"

"I'll find my way eventually. I can take care of myself." She smiled prettily, and Rei knew for certain the girl wasn't lying through her teeth, even if she did look like a target repulsive chikan would go after. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Hino Rei. Please do take care of yourself; if not for me, then for Usagi." She turned and walked away.

"Wait," Rei sauntered up and put a hand on her shoulder, prompting the kid to cast a curious glance. "I live near the Crossroads apartments, a block down the street in a Shinto shrine. The Hikawa Jinja. Stop by whenever you like. I can show you around."

"I would like that. If I should I ever be in need of someone, you'll be the first I'll go to." Mami reached over and lowered Rei's hand, the motion fluid with the grace of a delicate princess. "Until we meet again."

Rei watched her go. She wasn't a bad kid, that Tomoe Mami. A sweet girl, actually, if a little lonely. That was understandable; every kiddo that moved to a new neighborhood or prefecture reacted in similar manners. That would change; with time, Mami will be exploring outside her comfort zone and into unknown territory which soon become as familiar as the lines on the back of her hands. All it would take were time and patience.

Rei laughed. Just a few minutes ago she wasn't so keen on the idea. She still didn't want to putts around and wait for the police to make an announcement. She still wasn't in the mood to visit Usagi any time soon. But her heart felt a little lighter, her burden less troublesome.

Maybe there was hope.

Maybe Usagi would wake up and tell the cops everything they needed to hear.

Maybe.

Rei began the trek back to the hospital, and afterwards home.