Chapter 24-Chibi Chibi

A.N. At this point, Mamoru is already "dead" with his star seed taken out. Slowly Chibiusa was erased from the timeline. Status of Crystal Tokyo unknown…

One day, a mysterious child dropped from the sky. With bright red hair and two pigtails, she looked a lot like Usagi. Her arrival triggered something unexpected.

I was out shopping with Hotaru that day. Setsuna was out of town, investigating the origins of all the sailors arriving on Earth. Haruka was away on business, competing in the Japanese Touring Car Championship. It was just the two of us.

While at the Azabu Juban Shopping Town, we ran into a very panicky Usagi. She was looking around, frantically calling someone named "Chibi Chibi". Usagi's mom was also there, looking just as worried. Seeing us, Usagi ran toward us and asked if we have seen her little sister, Chibi Chibi.

For as long as I had known Usagi, I have never heard of a younger sister. What was going on? I didn't know how to respond to that, so I asked Usagi what was Chibi Chibi wearing.

"She's about this tall," Usagi gestured, "and she was wearing a white shirt with a huge red bow. Oh and blue skirt. Wait, you haven't met my little sister yet. Just imagine me tiny, red hair instead of blonde hair, and my odango was shaped like a heart."

None of that made any sense until a very small child appeared behind Hotaru. She looked to be about two years old, at most. Usagi picked her up and formally introduced her to us. Usagi's mom came over and took the child while crying with relief at finding her lost child.

Once her mom was out of earshot, Usagi said we need to have another scouts meeting. "It's about Chibi Chibi. Anyway, my mom is calling. I will see you guys later."

Later that night, Hotaru and I went over to Rei's temple and met up with the rest of the scouts. They were already deep in discussion. Apparently, I wasn't the only one that had just met Chibi Chibi. The scouts knew Usagi longer than me and they had no idea. Usagi arrived late and she sat down without saying anything. Rei and Mina were firing questions at her, but she stayed silent.

Finally, she took a deep breath and sighed. "I don't know who she is. I found her wandering alone, in the streets yesterday but before I could take her to the police, she disappeared. When I got home, she was sitting with my parents, watching TV. I don't know how she did this, or if she did this, but she changed the memories of my entire family. They all think she was their youngest child. Freaked out, I pulled out the photo albums. I wanted to prove to them that it was all trickery…..All the photos had her in them. Our family shots. Her baby pictures. Me holding her when she was just a baby. All the photos were changed. My parents thought I must have hit my head or something. I quickly changed my tune and told them I was just joking with them…"

"Something is very strange here. I just searched through the hospital records. There was no birth certificate for Chibi Chibi. If she had used magic to change people's memories, she only did it to your family. And you weren't affected because you had powers yourself." The ever resourceful Ami offered an explanation.

Everyone fell into silence after that. I pulled out my mirror to see if any new evil had arrived and I came up with nothing. Rei said she did a fire reading earlier and there was nothing too.

Mina stood up suddenly, almost flipping the table. "Does anybody feel like we have gone through this once already? When we were battling the Wiseman. I feel a sense of Déjà vu." Everyone started to nod, slowly. "Michiru, the Wiseman battle happened one year before we met you."

"Then this is getting stranger and stranger. I didn't feel a sense of Déjà vu, but I felt like I had forgotten someone important." I said to the scouts. Sitting beside me, Hotaru gasped.

"Me too, mama. I feel like I have forgotten someone. When I saw Chibi Chibi today, I felt really sad. I didn't understand it. But…I don't remember. I thought maybe it was someone from my past life that I had forgotten. Now, I am pretty sure it is someone from this life that I had forgotten." Tears started to well up in Hotaru's eyes. "Mama, how could I forget? How could we all forget?"

As I tried to comfort Hotaru, I could feel a cloud of gloom overcasting the room. Usagi looked like she was about to cry too.

"Michiru, why don't you take Hotaru home first? It is getting late. Usagi, you too. You need to go home and keep an eye on your family and Chibi Chibi. Mako, Rei, Mina and I will stay behind and go through the records. The computer just came out with some analysis. Thanks to the hair sample you provided." Ami patted Usagi's back gently. "Now I just need one more thing before you go." She said as she plucked a few hair from Usagi.

That night, I slept in Hotaru's room. The two of us squeezed into a tiny kid's bed and I gently soothed her to sleep. I didn't sleep much that night. Hotaru kept waking up from her nightmares. Each time, I would sing her back to slumber, only to have her wake again. And again. The long night dragged on until dawn.

When I woke, Hotaru was not in bed anymore. Figured she must be watching TV in the living room, I went to look for her there. I stopped and had to do a double-take, when I saw a pink-hair girl sitting on the couch, with her back facing me. Two pigtails. Ridiculously pink hair.

"Good morning, Mama." Hotaru turned and smiled awkwardly.

"What. Did. You. Do. To. Your. Hair?" I went to the trash can and found an empty box of temporary hair coloring. I bought it last year for Halloween when I wanted to dress up as someone. I didn't remember who anymore but it wasn't important.

"I saw her in my dream last night. The girl we all forgot. She had two pigtails and she had pink hair. Her favorite color was pink. I think we were very good friends…."

I knelt down and looked at my daughter. She did a horrible job of dying her hair. She had also accidentally dyed half her forehead and all of her fingers. I saw a trail of pink footprints coming out of the washroom.

"I am sorry, Mama." Following my gaze, she just realized the mess she made.

I pulled her into my embrace and I stroke her new pink hair. "It's okay, Hotaru. This is your way of trying to remember, isn't it?" She nodded against my shoulder. A slight tremble from her body betrayed the fact that she was crying again.

My sense told me that the forgotten girl was an integral part of our Sailor senshi family. Hotaru said the girl was about her age. Did we have another kid fighting with us? What happened to her? Chibi Chibi's power seemed to be able to alter people's memories. Did she have something to do with this?

That night, Haruka came back to a pink-haired daughter and a pink-haired wife. To make Hotaru feel better, I went out and bought more hair dye. I let her color my hair and pull my hair into two pigtails. We looked ridiculous but I was finally able to see some smiles on my daughter's face.

The next morning, Ami informed us of the results. "Good news, Chibi Chibi is not Usagi's child. Bad news, her DNA was almost identical to Usagi's. She was mostly human but there were some anomalies in her chromosomes."

Whoever she was, she had inserted herself into the middle of our Sailor family. Usagi carried her everywhere, fiercely protective of her. We all eventually came to get used to her, as we all felt that familiar warmth radiating out of Chibi Chibi. She did remind us a lot of our princess.