"Chibi Moon!" Tutu's voice rang out in the quiet studio. The fighting had ceased before she arrived, the entire studio covered in paint and clay and broken easels. Her voice cracked in panic as she stared at her roommate's lifeless form. This was exactly what they had feared. The spinner had turned things deadly and Chibi Moon had gotten caught in the fray.
Fakir leaned against the wall just outside the classroom. There was no way he could've prepared for this.
"She shouldn't have gotten in the way!" Oniel fussed. "She wasn't involved in this!"
"You shouldn't have been so aggressive!" Kyusuke shouted from the opposite side.
"How can you blame this on Oniel!?" Daemon hissed.
"Enough!" Momoko shouted. "We're all to blame! This isn't what was supposed to happen, this isn't what I wanted at all! I just wanted to take down Team Oni!"
"We just wanted that damn goody-two-shoes Momoko to lose!" Ogretta shot back. "This... it wasn't supposed to end like this!"
Fakir watched the scene in shock. Chibi Moon had attempted to stop the fighting but something had gone terribly wrong. There were no signs of blood, just lots and lots of paint. But Chibi Moon still hadn't moved, her Kaleidoscope and Carillion both fallen from her hands, laying lifelessly on the floor.
The words thrown back and forth over her lifeless form were enough for him to recognize at least one of the stories at play. "I know this story. It's Momotaro," Fakir quietly informed Tutu, "but this isn't how it ends. Momotaro defeats the Oni with his band of friends. But it may be the second story that's causing everything to go wrong, and the one who knows it is down."
Fakir had seen some bad things during his time in the previous story, but none had quite reached this level. "Approach her. I'm going to write you a new power." He ducked back into the shadows.
Tutu glanced worried over her shoulder, but she trusted Fakir. She trusted him and his writing ability. She trusted his heart. Step by step, the ballerina approached her fallen friend. The fighting had quieted again, neither side wanting to strike first again. To the left was certainly the Oni, the unusual people in bright colors with white and black markings on their faces. They sported horns and large teeth and other features that painted them as particularly intimidating despite being currently covered in paint.
To the right was Momoko and her group. Chibiusa had mentioned two of her friends had been also pulled into Gold Crown Town, and they were easy to pick out next to Momoko. It also was pretty easy to tell Momoko was now playing the role of Momotaro given her name and the aggressive stance she was taking against the other side.
As Tutu took another step, she felt it, the power of words pulling at her being. She didn't fight them. They were Fakir's. She could hear his voice in her mind, feel the warmth of his heart as he gifted her with more power than she had before. A sudden releve, Tutu leaned forward in a deep arabesque, outstretching her arm delicately towards the fallen Chibi Moon and Helios still leaning over her.
"This fighting will only result in tragedy," she informed them, the words spilling from her lips like ink across a page. "But these actions are not your own. You are all greater than the pulls of war and aggression." Good wording, Tutu thought to herself. "But these battles do not have to end so violently."
Tutu shifted her weight, pulling her outstretched leg to the front and curling her arms out, one above and one to the side. She tilted her head slightly to the side, closing her eyes before reaching both arms upward. "Please release all your hatred and replace it with hope. Let me dance for you."
This was a first. Normally she danced with the source of the story, but this time, she had another goal in mind. She could hear Fakir's desires were the same as hers. She didn't want this to be the end of Chibi Moon's tale. Tutu suddenly stepped forward into fourth position, quickly releve-ing and spinning in fouetté turns. Over and over, she turned, plied, then spun again.
Roses began to form at her feet, lilies soon thereafter. They spread outward, covering the back of the studio with their flowers and vines like an entire garden suddenly springing to life. The flowers bloomed and opened as the people around her had suddenly begun to regain control of their own decisions. She continued to spin and spin and spin, winding the hope and love the people in the art studio truly had for one another.
Slowly, the brooch underneath Chibi Moon began to glow a brilliant pink warm light. Her clothing burst into pure light, transforming into her layers of pink princess dress. A crescent moon appeared on her forehead.
"Princess Small Lady Serenity," Helios sat back on his feet as she began to stir.
"A moon princess?" Kyusuke observed. "Princess Kaguya? Like in that ballet?"
Tutu suddenly stopped her turns, winding her hands over her head and extending a hand. "Princess Small Lady Serenity, will you dance with me?"
SL Serenity stirred, pushing herself up from the ground. She patted her chest for a moment, feeling her heartbeat once again. She peered up, seeing Tutu extending her hand. This entire time she'd been here, she'd never once danced with Tutu. She never really considered herself graceful or able to dance, but she'd taken dance lessons from Fakir and even Mr. Cat. She also knew that this was part of Tutu's ability to dance with anyone.
SL Serenity glanced back towards the entrance. Through the doorway, she could barely make out Fakir in the shadows. She took to her feet, taking the extended hand in her own. She began to move as if she'd always known how a pas de deux even worked, the magic of Tutu's dance guiding her own. She could feel her strength returning to her, the life returning to her eyes and the hope to her heart.
The classroom watched on in awe at the grace and life of the dance, the hope between the two of them inspiring and calming. Duplicates formed among some of the fighting, quickly turning into leaves even without Tutu's touch. They had cast off their own story, creating their own path willingly and writing a new ending to Momotaro.
Fakir slumped down against the wall. He'd run out of pages, but fortunately there were just enough to give this story a better ending.
...
Night had fallen and the fighting had completely stopped. They'd claimed the garden gazebo as their own to meet up and discuss the events that had transpired in the classroom. They also wanted to offer Chibiusa a warm celebration for her safe return to them. They sat around the hearth in the gazebo, warming their hands and marshmallows.
"Maiden, I cannot apologize enough, I was unable to protect you." Helios knelt before Chibiusa.
"Helios, you did everything you could," Chibiusa shook her head. "I'm just glad you weren't hurt in the process." She rubbed at her shoulder. Her body still felt sore, but after that ordeal, she honestly couldn't blame it for shouting back at her.
"I still don't actually understand what happened," Fakir shook his head. "You were covered in paint, but nothing should've affected you like it did."
"It shouldn't have," Chibiusa shook her head. "It's like one moment I was standing in the middle of the fight, getting splattered with paint, clay, and paint brushes, then the next, I felt like the life was being torn from me, like something was pulling it away."
"Do you think the spinner was trying to kill her?" Duck worried.
"I'm not entirely certain," Fakir shook his head, "but I would reason that he wanted to make it look like the fighting from the story had caused it. Momotaro was a pretty violent story."
"The second one at play was The Battle of the Ape and the Crab," Chibiusa informed them. "In most versions, nearly everyone in the story dies."
"QUAAAAA!" Duck clamped a hand over her mouth. "Gee that sounds pretty scary."
"Fortunately you all arrived before everyone began an all-out brawl and ended the story as it was meant to be," Chibiusa added. "Your writing is really powerful, Fakir, especially when you channel it through Princess Tutu."
"Duck is the only thing I can write about," Fakir admitted. "It just ended up being more powerful than I had expected. That form you took..."
"That's me still," Chibiusa admitted, pulling the crispy marshmallow from the stick. "My full name is Usagi Small Lady Serenity. Chibiusa's just a nickname. That's what I look like when I'm at home in the 30th century. When I'm not in the palace, I look like this. I like to be a normal girl when I'm not being a princess."
"Hey, look at that, we're both princesses!" Duck laughed.
"We are!" Chibiusa smiled.
"And you really looked like a Princess Kaguya," Duck added. "Everyone in the room seemed to think you were with that crescent moon on your forehead."
"I guess I did," Chibiusa nodded. "I'm just... I'm really glad that you two were able to revive me. I really didn't want my story to end like that. And I got to dance with Tutu. I don't think I've ever danced like that before, not that I'm sure that I could again."
"That was half Tutu and half Fakir making that happen," Duck admitted with a laugh.
"Speaking of which," Fakir stood up, extending a hand to Duck. "I believe I promised you a dance."
Duck flushed red.
"I want to see you both dance!" Chibiusa cheered them on. It was nice to see something happy after everything that transpired. Everything hurt. Everything felt painful. But she was alive again and now she wanted to see them dance. "Please dance for us!"
"Well I uh..." Duck stammered, taking his hand. Ever since this story began, she had wanted to dance with Fakir again, but something had always come up. Each time, Fakir had said he would dance with her, not Tutu, but something still always interrupted them.
"Gee." She leaned into him as he extended their paired arm. He lunged into a plie while she extended a leg back into an arabesque, using his hands to stabilize and support her movements. "How could I say no?"
He shifted his weight, wrapping an arm around her waist as she stood straight once again. In a swift movement, he picked her up as she leapt up into a grand jete. As he turned, she held the pose gracefully. It was like how they had danced in the lake. Admittedly, Fakir had missed that dance. It was something he couldn't do after they'd returned to their true forms, as dancing with an actual duck didn't work out all that well. If they were to conclude the story, he'd get at least one last dance in with her.
Chibiusa and Helios watched in awe as the two danced together. She was certain that Duck was a much better dancer than she thought she was when Duck actually put her heart into it. Right now, Chibiusa could feel the warmth between them, the passion in their moves. It felt different than the awkward duckling in Mr. Cat's classes.
"I think I've gotten better," Duck admitted as he set her back on her feet. She turned to face him as he wrapped his hands around her waist, she wrapped hers on his shoulders.
"Don't ruin the moment." He leaned forward in a deep lunge as she slid into a split on the ground.
"You're mean, you know that?" Duck teased.
Chibiusa leaned into Helios. For a day that almost ended in tragedy, the night was turning out to be pretty nice.
...
"You want to what?!" Chibiusa stared at Momoko, Kyusuke, and Sorano in surprise.
"You missed the whole thing!" Sorano pushed his glasses up his nose. "There was this girl, Sailor Chibi Moon. She tried to stop the rivalry between us and Team Oni."
"And suddenly, she died," Kyusuke added with emphasis.
"That sounds terrifying!" Chibiusa exclaimed, pretending to not have been there.
"But then a ballerina princess came in!" Momoko gushed. "She was really pretty! She spun and spun and spun and revived the fallen Chibi Moon, turning her into a princess too!"
"It's a pretty good story, right?" Sorano nodded assuredly. "We've talked it over with Team Oni. We're going to do a joint project with them. They'll be creating art for the first part with all the fighting, and we're doing art of the revival."
Chibiusa was speechless.
"See, I knew she'd be on board with this!" Momoko hugged her friend. "We'll win this art contest for sure, teamed up with our greatest rivals and friends, Team Oni!"
Chibiusa still wasn't sure what to say, but at least the two teams had become friends and the war between Momotaro and the Oni had come to a close.
...
Author's notes
The stories here are definitely a mishmash. We have Momotaro on one side (and I couldn't resist playing on Momoko's name) and The Ape and the Crab. Both of them in their original forms were pretty violent. The first was an epic tale involving great battles while the latter was a tale of revenge. There are also hints of Princess Kaguya that have been present since the story began.
Poor Chibs seems to have been caught in the middle of these violent stories. Was Chibiusa specifically targeted in this story or was she just in the wrong place at the wrong time? Hm. I do wonder.
I couldn't resist the cute epilogue in this chapter. We need some cute after what has happened.
