Notes: Episode 167, "The Nightmare Shards Scatter! The Return of the Queen of Darkness" (Or, "The one where the girls are in high school and Nehellenia comes back.")

Episode 167

"How do you think you did on the test?"

Usagi groaned long and loud to the blue sky above. The blue sky did not groan back, but Mako thought it seemed sympathetic.

Mako certainly was.

"Usagi-chan …" Ami began.

"No tests! Tests are bad and I'm saying no to them!"

Mako laughed, but quietly. Ami had that look in her eye, and it wouldn't do to catch her attention. Not that it was a huge worry with Minako about to leap in as a champion of the No Tests faction, but Mako was learning how to pick her battles.

Or at least she was learning not to pick this one.

She half-listened as Minako and Usagi tried to convince Ami that tests weren't important and shouldn't be allowed to happen to poor young maidens with busy schedules and video game needs. The sun was bright and warm and felt good on Mako's face. A little too hot, technically, but she liked it. It was comforting.

And okay maybe a bit hotter than she thought. Mako ducked under the shade of the tree and rubbed at her leg, burning from where the sun was hitting her skirt directly. She still wasn't quite used to the dark navy of this new school uniform. One thing to be said for her old brown skirt: no burned legs.

Otherwise, Mako didn't miss it at all.

"Of COURSE I take tests too! What do you think I do all day?"

Rei's voice preceded the realization that Rei herself had finally arrived, which seemed about right. Mako gave her leg a final brush and rejoined her friends. Contentment was on order for today. Sometimes that came from Rei and/or Usagi and/or Minako doing their thing, sometimes not. Mako wasn't sure which would it would be this afternoon, but with a smile and a shrug at Ami, she positioned herself to break it right the hell up if this was a Sometimes Not day.

"I don't know!" Usagi yelled back. "Probably be Rei-chan at everyone!"

Rei opened her mouth. No sound came out and she frowned. "What does that even mean?"

Minako sashayed by, flipping her hair at Rei with deadly accuracy. "I figured you paraded through the halls like this." She took another huge step forward then dragged her toe along the ground behind her. Mako winced as Minako aggressively threw first one shoulder forward, then the other. She looked like she was about to seriously hurt herself. And if she didn't, Rei probably would.

Next to Mako, Ami sighed heavily. "It was just a geography test."

Before she could respond, Mako locked eyes with Minako. Minako widened her eyes and jerked her head almost imperceptibly, but there was no mistaking it. Mako knew what she must do.

As the words bubbled up, Mako was happy that today was a Sometimes day.

"Rei-samaaaaa!" she squealed in a high-pitched voice and lunged at Minako.

Usagi, who was already howling with laughter, pitched forward and would've landed face first on the ground if she hadn't latched on to something for support. That support happened to be Rei. She boiled with fury and righteous indignation while a cackling Usagi scrabbled to remain upright. She kept lilting to one side as Usagi tried to hang on, half pulling Rei's uniform jacked off in the process.

It was all the encouragement Mako and Minako needed.

"Away, peasant!" Minako declared imperiously, trying to brush Mako aside.

When the tips of Minako's fingertips grazed the back of Mako's hand, she let out a gasp. "Oh!" Mako cried, clutching a fistful of her shirt with both hands. "Rei-sama touched me!"

Mako was in the process of swooning – quite a decent performance, she felt – when Rei marched by with an expression that was so similar to Minako's impression of her that Mako couldn't sure it wasn't on purpose.

"You're idiots," Rei said, "and I'm leaving."

Usagi trailed after her, half giggling, half wheezing. "But Rei-sama!" she barely got out before the laughter took over again.

"This is going to be a long year," Mako heard Ami say to herself as she followed them.

Mako turned to Minako and couldn't help but echo the grin she saw there. They exchanged a high-five, subdued for decorum's sake, grabbed their bookbags and followed.

By the time they'd gone a few blocks, the whole thing had (mostly) been dropped, and the girls were happily distracted by the new fashions on display in the store windows they passed.

"Ami-chan, Ami-chan!" Minako grabbed Ami's arm and Ami yelped as she was yanked toward a display. "That dress would be so cute on you!"

"Oh wow, it would!" agreed Rei.

"I wanna see!"

There was a flash in the widow behind Mako as Usagi ran past, all the way from the crepe stand five stores down. Clearly the ginzuishou bound them not only in life and death, but also in cute outfits.

"You have to try it on!" Usagi demanded, despite Ami's blushing and stammered protests quite to the contrary.

Well that wouldn't stand. Mako hadn't seen the dress in question yet, but she was already completely confident that Ami would indeed look adorable in it. "C'mon, Ami-chan!" she said as she approached her friends. "You should totally—"

The words stopped, like the sentence had been clipped with a pair of scissors. Mako had turned to look at the dress – the incredible dress that had apparently been created by angels specifically for Ami – but had caught her reflection instead.

Not just her reflection, but her reflection alongside the others.

It hadn't seemed like much of a thing at first. Just a passing thought way at the back of her mind. "Rei-chan sure stands out in her different uniform."

Then that thought gave way to the next. "I don't."

School had started weeks ago, but with all the excitement of that, and all the trouble of what happened after, it just hadn't occurred to her until this moment.

Mako didn't look different anymore.

The force of it punched into her. She felt her heart swell and her throat constrict. The image, that beautiful image, began to swim out of focus. Mako blinked rapidly to clear her vision, and that was enough to break the spell.

Chaos surrounded her. She couldn't have zoned out for more than a few seconds, but apparently that was long enough.

Usagi clung to Ami, chanting "Fix it, fix it, fix it!" in an increasingly panicked voice. Quite heedless of being in the middle of a busy shopping street, Ami had her computer out and was typing furiously.

Mako whipped her head around to Rei, who had an ofuda ready and was clearly about to use it. Possibly on Mako. Mako's brain quickly reported back that she did not want this to happen.

A flash of gold caught Mako's eye and she instantly recognized it as Minako's wand.

The hell was going on?

"The hell is going on?!" Mako demanded, which seemed enough to jolt everyone out of battle readiness.

"Mako-chan?" Usagi whispered hopefully.

"Yes?" replied Mako.

Usagi yanked Mako almost in half so she could peer into her right eye. "I don't see any gold!" she said, though it sounded more like an accusation.

Mako wasn't sure how to respond. "Good?"

"Hrrrm," Usagi muttered. She released the bow so Mako could stand up again, but kept glaring at Mako's eye like she was daring it to betray her. Just the right eye. Whenever she'd glance at Mako's left eye, she'd smile in grateful relief, then shift back to glaring at the right again.

It was weird.

Mako looked to the others, who had gathered around Ami. Rei kept her ofuda out and ready while Minako waited for Ami to finish typing. When the computer beeped, Ami nodded once and snapped it shut. "No trace of Nehellenia."

Everyone visibly relaxed. Everyone except Mako. "Nehellenia," she said in a flat tone. "Really."

"Well you looked in mirror and got all funny!" Usagi said. Her voice was muffled, and it was only then that Mako noticed she was being hugged. Powerless in the face of such things, Mako wrapped an arm around Usagi, who squeezed Mako tighter.

"We just wanted to be sure," added Ami sheepishly.

What could Mako do? She wrapped her other arm around Ami's shoulders.

Rei stood next to Ami and Minako joined Usagi. They all stood facing the storefront window and their reflections stared back. "What happened?" Rei asked.

Mako felt it wash over her again. She hugged Ami and Usagi tighter and tried to find the words.

"I look like you guys," she finally managed to say.

She wasn't sure it was enough. It didn't feel like enough. But it must've been pretty okay, because Rei and Minako pulled their line into a circle, and then everyone was hugging everyone else.

Mako loved her Juuban High school uniform.

"You should transfer and look like us too, Rei-chan," Minako suggested.

"No thanks," Rei replied.

"Aww, why not?"

From somewhere in the pile, Mako heard Usagi gasp. "Rei-sama touched me!"

"THAT'S why not," Rei said, struggling to make herself heard over the laughter.