In the last chapter, we saw two Negaverse Generals arguing with each other in front of Queen Beryl. We also saw people associating with each other in the Crown Arcade, often not pleasantly, in certain cases. We even had Keitaro visiting that place at the behest of several people who he lived with at the Hinata Apartments. Then we had Jadeite making his plans before Nephlyte began acting on his own. Finally, we saw Jadeite launch his next plan of attack which Earth Knight and others eventually opposed and defeated.
In this next chapter of the story, we will continue to see more of the rivalry between Jadeite and Nephlyte and their respective youma supporters, but not a great deal more of it. For a few yet-unseen characters will first appear in this chapter, including another one of Darien's future teammates. Who she is, I won't yet say, so you'll have to read on to know who she is. But hopefully, you'll come to find her quite interesting, once you begin to get to know her, in time.
We will also see more of Serena, Usagi, Darien, and Mamoru, among others. And I assure you, they won't necessarily be arguing all the time when they're near each other in this chapter. But there may still be some of it when certain others are not around them, of course.
Many other characters still have to appear, but not yet. I don't want to flood chapters too soon with too many new characters at a time, so I'm spacing out their first appearances for quite a while yet. I'll probably be introducing a few new characters at most, on average, per chapter, for most of what might be roughly equivalent to the first season of Classic Sailor Moon, at least in terms of the original North American Dub.
I plan on having 40 episodes per season, meaning chapters, and hopefully 200 chapters written if and when I'm ever able to finish this series. And before you ask, folks, Haruka and Michiru WON'T be together, as many may put them together in their stories, if and when they appear. If they're anything to each other, they're just going to be friends and/or cousins and/or classmates, and possibly fellow Sailor Senshi, at best, to each other. So don't even ask for me to put them both together as anything other than the above, for I'll NOT put them together as anything other than the above-listed things, if at all. I'm very much against stories primarily featuring certain kinds of character-related pairings, if at all. So they most definitely WON'T be present for most, if not all, characters in this story and its related series, at least, any more than they might have to be, if at all, folks. And if the Starlights happen to ever appear, they'll only be females, for sure.
Well, I suppose that's enough to write about for now, before I start getting to the events of the next chapter for this story here. I hope you all do enjoy this story, and will continue to read it as it develops and comes out from time to time, of course. And, as always, I look forward to any reasonably-expressed comments about its chapters, whether for previously-posted ones or later ones, including this one, people, so please do not be afraid to comment, if and when you like, on what you may see from time to time in this story, if and when you like. Take care, all, I hope, and I hope to hear back from many of you very soon, after this chapter goes live, if not before, then, for sure. TUS out.
Molly Baker - High school student, 14 years old, reddish-brown hair often worn with a bow, green eyes, often wears casual clothes often in various colors, likes fashion and she has known Serena for quite some time already in her life. Loyal friend to her closest friends, very knowledgeable about jewelry and certain other related items due to the fact that her mother and Naru's mother both work at and co-own a jewelry store in Tokyo, good student to a degree, interests include singing and fashion, has one sister and two parents, more details to be revealed later. (01/01/1976)
Naru Osaka - High school student, 14 years old, reddish-brown hair often worn in a braid with woven-in ribbons or in a bun, green eyes with a more teal-like color to them that are also slightly darker than Molly's own eyes, a bit more into jewelry-related things than into fashion or singing than Molly is, has known Usagi since they were both in second grade, longer than Molly has known Serena in hers, very loyal to her closest friends, and usually a bit more boy-crazy than Molly is, has known both Molly and Serena since 1988, when their respective families moved to Japan within days of each other, also a good student, interests include jewelry, jewelry-making, cosmetology, and photography, also has one sister and two parents like Molly does, more details to be revealed later. (01/01/1976)
Eryn Kesell - High school student, 17 years old, wavy red mid-back-length hair often worn neatly braided, medium green eyes, often likes wearing a lot of 'nerdy' clothing, often moody, often easily confused, excellent artist, short-tempered, and socially awkward, interests include painting, quilting, and reading, more details to be revealed later. (03/08/1973)
Dark Dreams?
Wildly gyrating arms. A weaving and bobbing head loudly smacking a headboard and almost completely splitting it. Feet flailing and kicking a footboard nearly halfway across a bedroom. A sleeping man writhing on a still-collapsing bed, sweating heavily, as a clock fell onto the floor near him. Other furniture now damaged or destroyed in his bedroom, some of which had some roses unexpectedly stuck into them at various angles. And broken lights on the floor near the bed, now in a somewhat less-illuminated room, as the man suddenly woke up in what was left of it.
It took Darien a few moments to get his bearings. He was now in a darkened room, his head and arms and feet were hurting, and his bedroom was in a shambles. He sat for a while in the remains of his ruined bed, which had collapsed. He got out of bed, and slowly staggered to the master light switchboard for his bedroom before flipping its main system's switches. Fortunately, it hadn't been damaged. However, several lights on its secondary circuit had been broken when they'd fallen on the floor or been damaged by flying roses thrown by Darien while sleeping.
Once the lights came on, while still shading his eyes temporarily, he soon located a phone elsewhere in his room. He then somewhat gingerly picked his way through the debris now scattered between his bedroom's main door and the remains of his bed, until he could get over to that phone easily enough. This all happened after a brief visit to his nearby bathroom, once the lights were on.
He then racked his brain briefly to think of who he might call to try and help him figure out what had just happened in his bedroom, at least. Motoki and Mamoru soon came to mind, but nobody else did. Or at least as of the current time, anyway, nobody else did besides them.
Minutes later, they both showed up at his apartment, and let themselves in. For he'd given them each keys not long before the present time, so that they could get into his apartment whenever necessary. They got in using Motoki's key. They quickly found him sitting as calmly as possible in one of the three strangely still-undamaged chairs in his bedroom.
To say that they were neurojumbled, so to speak, at his bedroom's current appearance would be a massive understatement. At least 99 percent of the time, even after first meeting Wanderer and Seeker and awakening as both Earth Knight and Tuxedo Mask, he almost obsessively maintained and kept clean his apartment. And that had only lessened slightly, perhaps even to a still-microscopic degree in his now-complexified double life, ever since his first superhero-type fight almost three weeks earlier.
"What in the world happened here? It looks like a typhoon or something hit your bedroom, somehow," said Motoki, after seeing all the quite-unexpected damage and destruction in Darien's bedroom.
"And what in the Galaxy happened to you? You look like you've somehow been through a boxing fight," added Mamoru, once he had then noticed Darien's injuries.
Darien said, "Honestly, I don't know. But I do know that I have a splitting headache. And my head and arms and feet are hurting and maybe even injured." He was finding it hard to focus on them with his eyes as they neared him here. But he could still hear them clearly enough. Even while trying to block out his current pain and while sitting in his chair.
"Okay, then, let's see what we can do for you, Darien," said Mamoru, moments later. "Motoki, see what you can find for medical supplies we can use here. If he's anything like me to a sufficient degree, they should be on a shelf about waist-high in a tall cabinet in his bathroom, if memory serves me well enough here."
"Yes, I believe that's where I keep them, you two," mused Darien, unintentionally speaking such out loud, because of the pain he was now feeling.
"While you do that, I'll try to check Darien out. Although he'll probably have to go to the hospital at some point, I think."
Motoki nodded, before setting off for Darien's bathroom. Then Mamoru lifted Darien, with his consent, and put him on his back for now, before taking him to his apartment's living room area and pulling out one of the convertible couches there. That done, Mamoru carefully set Darien on it, so as not to make his injuries worse, if he could possibly avoid doing so at all.
Minutes later, Motoki found them in the living room. With Darien's consent, Mamoru and Motoki removed his sleeveless round-necked shirt, because he couldn't do it himself now. They saw many bruises and cuts all over his chest, abdomen, and back. "Oh, my," Motoki finally said, about two or so minutes later, after seeing them all sufficiently well as they now were.
"What?" asked Darien, not yet knowing about the cuts and bruises all over his torso, both in front and in back.
"You have cuts and bruises all over your torso now, even on your back," said Mamoru. "And yet, you don't know how you may have gotten hurt?
"No, don't have the foggiest idea, believe it or not."
"And your face isn't much better, from what we can currently see, Darien," added Motoki.
That said, Darien then let them work on him as best as he now could, while he also tried to remember how he could have gotten quite injured and all, before waking up. While they were both working on him, Wanderer and Seeker unexpectedly came out of his television. Yet neither Motoki nor Mamoru saw them or heard them doing so, for their backs were currently facing it as they both continued to work on Darien. He didn't say anything about them either. Simply because he was in considerable pain while his friends were both working on him here, at least.
Wanderer and Seeker went invisible long enough for them to sneak into Darien's bedroom. After which, they appeared again in his bedroom as they normally were. They only spoke after taking in all the damage and destruction that was now present in his room. Wanderer was the first to speak, and he said, "It's begun, for sure, now. He must have been dreaming of the Silver Millennium again. And most likely various battles that happened near the end of it, I think, based on how many roses are sticking out of things here."
"It's going to get even worse, isn't it?" asked Seeker, a few moments of silence later.
"Yes, unfortunately. Not only is he dreaming of the Silver Millennium, and most likely at least one someone he knew back then, but he must now also be remembering certain hard times then. It's going to get much worse. For these roses are not yet fully-bloomed. It's going to be increasingly rough for him as he and others begin remembering things from back then. Even after he starts getting allies for a team of heroes. I wonder how long it will be before others start to remember the Silver Millennium as well." He then briefly examined a few of his feathers, while also trying to think here about what might happen next for Darien and others in the future.
"If a Zoisite is involved here, probably not long as well. Rumor has it that our enemies may not be entirely united, either. For I think I heard a few monsters complaining about Jadeite, when they likely didn't even know I was around near them. And they mentioned someone named Nephlyte, if memory serves me well enough here." Seeker then rubbed his chin a few times, before continuing to speak. "It seems to me that the Negaverse is also quite interested in that building complex, and might want to make it their base of operations here in the Tokyo area, if they can. If that is so, then Darien and others, including us, are certainly going to need help defending it from potential hostile forces or groups, and perhaps even from various criminal organizations, at that."
Minutes later, both Wanderer and Seeker became invisible again, and returned to Darien's living room. By the time they did, Mamoru had told Motoki to take Darien to the hospital to get his injuries looked after better than the two of them had been able to here. Also, Mamoru had told Darien that he would try to cover for Darien at college today in several classes, especially in a journalism class taught by one Kenji Tsukino. Kenji Tsukino was Usagi's father, and he taught classes one day a week at Keio University, when he wasn't working as a magazine editor for a moderately-sized and still-young magazine. That day alternated between Monday and Tuesday from one week to the next, when college was in session at Keio.
Darien asked, as Motoki helped him get out of the pulled-out bed and begin making his way back to his bedroom, "Mamoru, Serena will be expecting to run into me when she rushes to school, I think, this morning. What do you have in mind, then?"
"Well, she's going to miss you today. I do have an idea, though, that I think might interest you," said Mamoru.
"And that is?" asked Darien, as he and Motoki arrived at his bedroom door again here and Mamoru opened it for them all.
Once the three were back in Darien's room again, Mamoru said, "I'll need to borrow one of your motorcycle jackets this morning, so I can trick Odango Atama #2 into thinking I'm you! Once she leaves, I'll change back into my green blazer. Do you think the girls will know they've been tricked when I see them later on?"
Minutes later, after Darien was dressed in some hastily-picked out casual clothes, "I don't know, Mamoru."
"You do want to challenge her, don't you, in at least one way, if and whenever you can, Darien?"
"Of course. If she's challenged by others mentally, at least, then she might be forced to think more and to pay more attention to more important things in life, I think," commented Darien.
"And same thing for Usagi, as well, perhaps?" questioned Mamoru.
"Certainly, Mamoru-san," grimaced Darien, unable to hide his discomfort. Darien and Motoki then left for Juuban General Hospital. Mamoru began cleaning up the apartment as they left, and realized it wouldn't be an easy task to complete. He didn't stay long, because he still had school to attend that day. He picked Darien's favorite jacket off a chair as he left to carry out his planned pre-school trickery. It, whether successful or not, would change many lives, and not just in Tokyo either!
After Mamoru left, Wanderer and Seeker became visible again, and ate some food and drank some water earlier provided for them. As they did so, Seeker said, while then eating some watermelon, "For the boys, at least, this won't ultimately end well, I think."
"No, I don't think so either," agreed Wanderer, as he sipped some of his water.
"Do you want to watch over Mamoru or over Darien today?"
"I'll watch Darien. You can't fly like I can, so I'll watch Darien as best as I can today."
"Very well. Keep me posted if anything happens I should know about, then."
"See you later. You won't be able to watch Mamoru while he's at school, so you should see if you can find out what our enemies are planning next, and let me know if you learn anything. Supposing you can, of course, that is."
They parted for the rest of the day once they finished their breakfasts, with both leaving Darien's apartment through the still-on television.
Meanwhile, Sylvia and Rolando had met up while walking to CTA from their residences in SEST. Due to the cooler weather, they wore light jackets over their school uniforms. Rolando had on a St. Louis Cardinals baseball jacket, and she an Israel-themed one, along with matching caps or hats.
She asked, "The attacks in Tokyo are awful, aren't they?"
"I think they're going to continue to get worse, and that Earth Knight may eventually need help from others to deal with them better, somehow. For at least the past few nights, I've begun to dream of what appears to be a earlier time in history, for some yet-unknown reason. And the things I've been seeing in those dreams don't seem to be happening on Earth, or located on Earth either, at times. Nor do many of the people in the dreams seem to be from Earth, periodically. In these dreams, I often seem to be looking through another person's eyes. And he seems to look a lot like me, strangely enough. Although I don't really know why that might be the case." Rolando then rubbed his chin with one hand, and adjusted his glasses with another, before continuing to speak. "Those dreams seem almost like memories or visions or something, though I can't tell you why they do, Sylvia. Or at least I can't yet, anyway, if I ever will be able to tell you why."
"Maybe it's reincarnation, but you don't believe in it, right?" she asked, without the slightest hint of sarcasm.
"That is correct." For him there was no doubt in his mind about such matters.
"Still, it's a bit strange though. So, if it isn't reincarnation, what do you think it is?" asked Sylvia, but didn't wait for a reply, having suddenly spotted something out of the corner of her eye. She instantly withdrew a small camera from a pocket of her jacket, and whipped it up to her eyes, snapping four quick pictures before whatever she'd seen disappeared.
"That's something I haven't quite figured out yet, if I ever will. Not only that, but I'm often seeing a young girl or woman who looks a lot like you, and I still can't understand why, if I ever will. And she seems to like the man whose eyes I seem to be looking through often, from what I can currently tell, at least a little bit, if not a lot. These dreams I'm having of late are puzzling me quite a bit every so often, I must admit." He readjusted his Cardinals' cap.
They walked in silence until they got to the main entrance for the school's main building. They took off their jackets, and set off in different directions to put them in their lockers. They wouldn't see one another until the lesson before lunch. "See you later, Rolando," Sylvia said, but he had already gone, locked in thoughts of his puzzling dreams.
They crossed paths again on the way to their Spanish lesson. Rolando was keen to continue their earlier conversation, but was careful to whisper. Who knows who might be listening? Sylvia also had been thinking about what he had said. She moved closer to him, keen to hear what he had to say.
He said, "I think we're eventually going to have to fight alongside Earth Knight, against the alien monsters, for a while. Although I still can't tell you why I think that might happen, perhaps, I think we will find ourselves fighting them as more than mere spectators from time to time. Both of us, in fact. And I don't think that once we do, we will be able to avoid fighting monsters for quite some time, strangely enough, either."
"Yes, this is going to take some time. How long do you think? Will we be old and gray by the time this awful war is won?" She touched Rolando's hand for reassurance. He let it rest there a second before pulling it away to readjust his glasses.
"About four or five years, maybe? I'm not really sure, if we both ultimately can't avoid having to fight monsters for much longer alongside Earth Knight, to be completely honest here, Sylvia."
After school, they spent a little time with each other. Both on CTA's grounds and not on them, before parting again. After they parted, Rolando thought, while walking back home, 'It may not be more than a few weeks, I suspect, before we have to fight monsters, Sylvia, unfortunately. But if that's the case, hopefully we'll be able to have a bit more peace for ourselves, at least, before then. Evil is lurking about, and it will need to be dealt with as quickly as possible, for sure.'
When he got back, he went right to his room, and didn't come out until it was time for supper. After which, he went for a walk that he expected wouldn't take more than an hour or so, with Emily's permission. While still out walking, he saw Sylvia and a number of others. But he only recognized Sylvia, who was herself out and about, with her own parents' consent in hand. When he first saw her, she was then entering an arts and crafts store somewhere in Juuban. But he was still too far away from her to call out to her, in any case. Even if he wanted or needed to, anyway, at the present time.
So he continued walking, hoping that she'd be okay while she was away from her own home as well. He pensively walked through Juuban, and came to a certain furniture store in it, not long after seeing Sylvia enter the store she'd entered. In English, that store's name might perhaps translate best as "Globally Classic Furniture Emporium," but he wasn't entirely sure about that. Or at least he wasn't right now, anyway. He saw lamps, beds, and other assorted furnishings through its windows, and decided to check them out for a bit. At least for potential later inclusion in one or more of his current or future stories, anyway, in terms of somehow describing such items in them well enough. He didn't know yet that trouble would arise there, and that he'd not be the only one there when it did, if at all. But he'd learn that soon enough, in any case.
After he entered what'd often be called GCFE in English, or GKFE in Japanese, he browsed for a little while, before then unconsciously wandering there. He wandered into another part of the store without meaning to, and he felt quite weird almost immediately. The room swam for him, and he fell unconscious.
Meanwhile, Mamoru walked to where Darien had once told him Serena would encounter him on her runs to school. When he heard her coming, he quickly hid behind a tall sign, making sure Darien's jacket was around himself exactly as Darien was known for wearing it. When she was close enough to him to try and trick her into thinking he was Darien, he suddenly stepped out from behind the sign, and continued walking as if he was just a normal passerby.
Serena was in a mad hurry. Breathless, she kept up her pace. She couldn't be late. Not today. Even though she saw him walking towards her, she couldn't stop herself from crashing into him. Both of them fell to the ground, back to back. Her briefcase landed by his side. Her left shoe was somewhere behind her, as well, while her right was barely staying on her other foot. "Hey, Meatball Head, don't you ever watch where you're going?" Mamoru asked, beginning to try his trickery on her.
"How dare you call me Meatball Head, you Conceited Jerk?" She slowly got up from the ground keen not to make eye contact with the idiot who had caused her such embarrassment. Now where was her briefcase?
Mamoru was finding this quite hilarious. How could she not have guessed who he was? "Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!"
"What's so funny, Mophead?" She shot a very perplexed look his direction, not yet knowing why he was hyena-laughing here now.
"If you don't know, then too bad! And if you can't figure it out, then you're missing something, and it's not just school you're going to be missing in a bit, ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!" He continued to laugh almost uncontrollably, starting to hold his sides, before noticing where her briefcase was now, and grabbing it up with one hand.
"Ooh, you brat! You just had to remind me of school!" she shouted, as she began to gather her briefcase and shoe. She managed to recover her left shoe which was dangerously close to the gutter. But before she could pick up her briefcase again, he already had gotten to it. He put his foot down on it, grinning like the Cheshire cat.
She quickly put her shoe on, once she realized this, and said, "Your foot is on my briefcase, and I need it back now."
"My foot? If you want my foot, it's going to cost you three coffees at the Crown, at the very least." He finally was able to stop laughing and holding his sides, as he joked with her.
"Not your foot, you bookish freak! I mean my briefcase, or are you as brainless as coal?" she shot back, beginning to get real exasperated with him, as she also began to try and figure out how to get her briefcase back easily enough and quickly enough to keep her from getting in a lot more trouble with her teacher for being late to school.
"Nope, I'm studying to be a doctor. If I am, I can't be as brainless as you may think, for it's much more complex than your baby books are." He began pretending he was a gorilla rocking a baby, to see what she'd do next here, while also seeming to waltz at the same time.
"I'm no baby! I'm old enough to go to school!" she yelled, once she realized what he was apparently suggesting to her, by now rather incensed at his mocking attitude around her where they both still were here.
"What school? Elementary school, perhaps?" he mocked, with a rather smug look on his face, and while also secretly thinking, 'Let's see how long it takes her to give up here in this particular argument we're having now. And let's see how late she ultimately will be, when she finally does so.'
"High school, and I really don't have time for your sarcasm now, you brat!" she shrieked, even as school bells then began to sound about six blocks away from where they both were here.
"Oh, but you have time for Sailor V, don't you?" He then knelt down only long enough to remove his foot, so that he could raise her briefcase until it was held well over his head and well out of her reaching range now, even if she stood on her tiptoes here.
"How would you know about Sailor V?" she screeched, like an angry banshee.
"Who doesn't, if they're halfway intelligent about various video games? But is she real or just a fictional character someone made up to scam babies out of their allowances, Meatball Head?" he asked, while then pretending her briefcase was like a helicopter's rotors, but still not relinquishing his total control over it.
"She has to be real! I've heard of her many times and read of her many times. My Dad even says she's real, but he can't tell me more about her for some reason, it seems."
"Maybe he made her up, or his friends did, to trick little kids and make them think everyone's out to get them if they don't behave or something."
"I'm not buying you at least three coffees to get my briefcase back, or even buy your foot, jerk!"
He chuckled, before then saying, "I suppose this briefcase is now mine, then. Okay, let's see what I get to keep now, if so." He pretended to be interested in its locking system, as she then began to panic here quite a bit, for reasons he didn't yet know here, and hoped she could steal it back from him before he might figure it out and perhaps open it up to see what was inside it.
Twenty seconds later, at most, she came up with a real gutsy plan. Although she really didn't know if it'd work yet, of course. She briefly pretended to begin walking away, drawing his serious laughter and a big grin, when he thought he'd won against her now. And then he nonchalantly turned his back on her, as if there was somewhere else he needed to go. Which was actually the case, even though she didn't yet know that now. Turning his back on her was a big mistake on his part here, for sure. For when she was quite sure he'd apparently forgotten her here, she suddenly spun, and stealth-charged him, before taking him down with an explosive sweeping low kick to the back of his knees from slightly behind him and to one side. That made him fall, and fly about five feet away from where she'd unleashed her kick, until he was able to catch himself with his hands. But his grip on her briefcase was now lost. And before he could recover in time, she'd snatched up her briefcase and was already over half a block down the same street, traveling at least twice as fast as she'd been running before unexpectedly colliding with Mamoru minutes earlier.
He didn't get up for a few moments, due to her unexpected kick, and thought, 'I hope she doesn't typically do this to Darien, if at all, either now or in the future,' while still in the position that Serena had left him in moments before. He rose from it seconds later, with a bit of effort, and gathered up his own things, before going back behind the sign that he'd hidden behind earlier, changing out of Darien's jacket, and putting it in a place where only Darien would be able to find it later. He then departed the now-memorable location of his just-ended encounter with Serena, before going to the corner where Usagi often crashed into him on her own way to school, about another block or two closer to Crossroads Junior High.
"Haruna-sensei's going to give me detention!" shouted Usagi, already ten minutes late for school and nearly out of breath. He hid briefly behind a sign, waiting for her. As self-conscious as ever, he whipped out a mirror to check and see if his hair was looking good after his collision with Serena. She picked up her running pace. Collision was unavoidable. Plowing into him at full speed, Usagi made them fly through the air and both landed with big crashes. Her on her hands and knees, turned slightly towards him, and him lying almost prone on one side, facing her.
"You know, Odango Atama," said Mamoru, once he'd recovered from his second collision with a girl that morning, "we really have to stop meeting like this."
Usagi quickly shot up, at that detested nickname, and said, "Stop calling me that! I'm Usagi Tsukino, not Odango Atama."
"Not even MY Odango Atama?" he teased, while then rolling onto his front and pushing himself up to a kneeling position.
"I'm not an Odango Atama! And even if I ever were, somehow, I sure wouldn't be yours, if I could help it!" She furiously started to shake a fist at him, about five feet away from him, as he continued to stand up.
"Your hair looks like Odangos. Maybe I should taste them, hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee." Seconds later, he was standing fully, and beginning to walk towards her here. She still hadn't found her briefcase after their sudden collision a few moments earlier, either.
"You can't eat hair, or even taste it, Mamoru-baka! Besides, it would be especially gross and disgusting for someone to eat, or even taste, a person's hair!" He diverted her attention, with a secret tossing of some pebbles then hidden in his pocket, before snatching her briefcase away, while it was still diverted for a few seconds, and hiding it behind his back.
"Even if they look like delicious cheese-covered odangos?"
"Even if they might look like them! Ooh, you're impossible!"
"Thank you for telling me you think I'm cool and handsome," said he, as he unexpectedly shot a wide grin at her for a few seconds before just as suddenly sticking his tongue out at her for that long as well.
"I never said that, you baboonish oaf!"
"But your eyes certainly seem to think so, for they're apparently liking how I fill out my blazer and all."
"As if! You wish, Chiba-baka! Get a life, and stop picking on teenage girls like me, for instance!"
"Many teenage girls seem to think I'm rather good-looking, and all, it seems to me. I've had MANY girls wanting to date me at school for a number of years, even while I was still in high school."
"I highly doubt that!"
"Just ask your precious 'Onii-chan,' then, if you don't believe me. I'm sure he'd tell you the same things about me, if you asked him. For we have very few secrets, if any, between us both now, in our lives, for sure. We've known each other for a long time now in our lives," he said.
"Maybe so, from what little I know of you both, at least in relation to each other. But you're STILL impossible, and definitely NOT good-looking, for sure."
"Other models I've worked with in the past seem to think I am, Odango Atama!"
"Stop calling me that!"
"Why? It suits you perfectly! Besides, you know you love the nickname a lot, I'm sure!"
"I do not!"
"We'll see. In the meantime, don't you think you'd better get to school now? You're already at least fifteen minutes late, I think."
"Ooh, you just had to remind me of school, you no-brained doctor wannabe! Wait a minute, where's my briefcase? I need my briefcase. Otherwise, I'm really going to get it for sure."
"Maybe it landed in a pot of spaghetti nearby somehow, or something else?"
"Chiba, there are no restaurants around here, or at least no outdoor cafes. And we're not near any large bushes or anything else that might hide it here well enough. Are you trying to scam me here?"
"Now why would I do that? I've got more money now than your parents might ever give you for allowances in the next ten or so years, if not fifty, I think. Why would I need to scam you to get what I want, whatever that might be?"
All of a sudden, she caught a glimpse of her briefcase behind his back, when he unconsciously raised one hand to keep his sunglasses on his nose before they could suddenly slide off it. At that glimpse, she said, "Give me back my briefcase now, or I will hunt you down and make you pay somehow, if I can."
"You don't know where I live. And I'm not telling you, at least for now, unless you agree to let me be your tutor so that you can get better grades in school. You're already doing poorly in many of your classes, it seems, from what I've heard about you lately, from any number of other people. I haven't pried, but I have overheard others talking about you before, in various places, for sure."
"I don't need a tutor, I need my briefcase back! Give it to me now, or you will feel my wrath, and you will know it IN SPADES by the time I finally get done with you, I'm sure."
"Fine, but this isn't over, by a long shot. See you around, Odango Atama! Try not to fail any more tests again today, if you can! Until next time, then, hee-hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!"
After he handed her back her briefcase, and left her, she then dagger-looked at him, and especially his quickly-withdrawing back, for a few moments, before she finally realized that she was now about twenty minutes late to her first class. A few seconds later, at most, she furiously resumed her mad rush to school and really hoping she'd somehow avoid detention for being as late as she'd now be here. About the only chance that she might be able to avoid that was if her teacher was in a good mood from being asked out on a date by anyone, and that wasn't always the case for Haruna Sakurada in her life.
Minutes later, Mamoru was at school again, on the Keio University campus. He made it there minutes before his first class with Usagi's father as his professor, but didn't yet know that Usagi was his daughter. For Kenji Tsukino hadn't generally shared information about his family with any of his students, if and when he didn't have to, ever since he'd first begun teaching part-time at Keio. Motoki had not yet arrived, but Mamoru expected him to arrive on Keio's campus shortly after arriving on it himself.
When Mamoru arrived in the necessary classroom, most of his classmates for his day's first class were already in that room. Not Darien, and not a few others, but most of them were there by the time he arrived in it. Professor Tsukino soon took roll call, and didn't hear Darien respond. He silently wondered where Darien was at the present time, for a few seconds, but then continued to take attendance here. That done, he soon began his lecture, and lectured for about fifteen minutes before putting his now-present students to work on a new assignment he was now giving them.
The class's now-present members went right to work as soon as they were allowed to do that here, and began planning out how they were each going to complete their now-given assignment. That assignment was to find something interesting to write about somewhere in the area between Yokohama and Tokyo, and write an article about what they found to write about, no matter what it was, as best as they each then could here. The assignment in question would be due at the end of October, and graded within two weeks of that time.
As Mamoru was beginning to consider several ideas for his own response to the just-given assignment, Professor Tsukino unexpectedly came up to him, as he was also sitting at a table near one wall of the classroom everyone was in here. "Yes, Tsukino-sensei? Is there something I could perhaps help you with?"
"Mind if I ask you a couple of quick questions, Chiba-san?" asked Kenji, a middle-aged man with still-dark short hair, of roughly average height, weight, and build. A semi-concerned look was on his face, as he asked his question of Mamoru here, as well.
"School-related or personal?" queried Mamoru.
"Both, to a degree, actually," said Kenji, as he readjusted his glasses on his nose.
"Fine, ask your questions, but I reserve the right not to answer them, if I might so choose. Within reason, of course, Professor," said Mamoru, as he set his mechanical pencil down next to the notebook he'd been writing in when Professor Tsukino had come up to him moments before.
"First question is this. I noticed that Shields-san hasn't shown up for this class today, for some reason. I was wondering where he might be now. Might you know where he is now?" Kenji was still keeping that semi-concerned look on his face, and that remained the case until a few more seconds had passed after he'd asked Mamoru where Darien was now.
"Last I saw him, he was being taken to the hospital by a mutual friend of ours. I can't tell you why, but I doubt that he'll be able to attend any classes today at Keio. Hopefully he'll be able to get out of the hospital soon. And I suspect that he just might, somehow, in very short order. Although I can't tell you why that is, unfortunately." Mamoru kept one eye on Kenji, and one eye on his paper, as if to better remind himself of where he was so far with his current assignment.
"It's not like him to miss classes here, from what I've heard and seen of him in the past," mused Kenji, unintentionally saying that out loud, but only Mamoru heard him do so clearly enough here. "He seems to be tired more often of late, though. Do you have any idea why that might be the case?"
"No, Professor, I don't. I do spend time with him every so often, mind you, because we are good friends to each other. But I don't share an apartment with him, so I don't really know what he does when we're not near each other, generally," said Mamoru, with a now-wondering look on his face here, after hearing Kenji's latest question here.
"Well, my daughter Usagi seems to think something's off about him, for some reason, but I don't know why. She's mentioned seeing both him and you at the arcade that the Furuhatas run elsewhere in Juuban, to be honest. But she hasn't really said more than that about the both of you, if anything at all, Chiba-san. And my wife Ikuko and I have both tried to respect her privacy as much as possible, et cetera. But if any of my students for my classes here at Keio may be having a problem, and I can possibly help them, I need to know what might be the problem. That's if it's at all possible for me to know it somehow, without invading their privacy needlessly, so that I can then perhaps try to help them out as best as possible, somehow," explained Kenji, while then nervously running one hand back and forth through his roughly chin-length short black hair for a few seconds.
At that information, Mamoru silently thought, to himself, 'Uh, oh! Potential problem here! If Odango Atama's father is my Professor, then I better hope she doesn't tell him how badly I've already treated her in the past. For he most definitely just might have my head, so to speak, if he ever finds out! I really don't know if she ever would tell him, of course, but I sure hope she doesn't!' Aloud, he then said, "Understood, Professor Tsukino. Now if there's nothing else you want to talk about here with me before the end of the class today, I'd really like to get back to work on this assignment, please."
"Nothing further at this time that I have to ask you here, I think. I'll let you get back to work on your task here, then, Chiba-san." Moments later, Kenji left him alone again, and went to periodically check on other students who were now present in the class. Mamoru was left alone for the rest of the current class period. And once he left its assigned classroom, he didn't see Kenji again for the rest of the current day at Keio.
Meanwhile, as Mamoru was at Keio, Serena and Usagi eventually met up with each other, and got to talking with each other about their mornings. They related their earlier encounters with Mamoru to each other, as soon as they each could. But that didn't happen until lunchtime, at sufficient enough depth to spend a lot of time talking about it with each other. They only barely mentioned it upon their first meeting with each other outside Haruna Sakurada's classroom, and not at considerable length at that time.
When they finally were able to talk about it sufficiently well, both Molly and Naru were with them, at a table on the roof of their school's main building. For the weather had improved during the day near and on school grounds from what it had been like earlier that day. First Serena talked about her encounter with Mamoru. When she was done, all three of her current companions were quite surprised with what she'd done to Mamoru before regaining sufficient control of her own briefcase then. Although none of the four yet knew it had been Mamoru that she'd encountered instead of Darien then, in truth.
They talked for a few moments about what'd happened earlier, before Usagi related her own tale about her encountering of Mamoru earlier. By the time she was done telling about it, Molly and Naru were both looking at their best friends, and at each other, quite a bit. Finally, Molly spoke, while looking at Naru's now-wrinkling and apparently now-contemplative face here, "Girls, I think you've been had this morning. And I suspect that Naru here agrees with me, if I'm not too mistaken here."
"Oh, is that so, Molly-chan?" asked Usagi.
"You seem to both have recalled a certain scent from when you crashed into the people you said you crashed into this morning. From your tellings of your respective crashes, it seems that only one person was at both crash sites, if we're not too mistaken here," said Molly.
Serena thought for a moment, then said, "The scent I smelled seemed to be of hot cocoa mixed with garlic and bananas, somehow, when their breath hit me as I ran into them this morning."
"Strange. For some reason, I think the same was true for me as well," said Usagi, moments later, once what Serena had just said registered sufficiently well in her own mind as well.
"Not only that, it seems to me that I didn't smell roses for as long as I often do, when I crash into a certain someone at times, either running to school or not, come to think of it," added Serena.
"What do you mean, Moon-san?" asked Naru, now curious about what was on Serena's mind here.
"Well, Mophead's black jacket often has a lingering smell of roses on it, for some yet-unknown reason or reasons, if I remember correctly. But I didn't seem to smell it very easily, if at all, this morning."
"I see. And you're curious about that, no doubt," said Naru.
"You better believe it, Osaka-san." She thought for a moment, then said, "Someone must have decided to play a trick on us."
"If so, then who? Not many men we can think of who might be able to do it well enough, and look enough like another person to fool girls like us sufficiently well," commented Usagi.
"Not many people, except those who go to the Crown, might call us Meatball Heads. And not many might call us Odango Atamas, either, it seems, Tsukino-san."
"And not many might look like those who do so, either, if I get your drift well enough, Moon-san?" asked Usagi, as she began to mentally put the pieces together that she now had, as best as she then could.
"That's right. So either it's Darien trying to trick us, I think, or Mamoru."
"But you both can't go find them both now, of course, to be totally sure here, one way or another." commented Molly, as she finished her homemade lunch here and threw away her trash from it. Naru did the same, leaving Serena and Usagi alone, not much later, for the rest of their current lunch period.
Once they were both alone with each other, then, Usagi asked, "What do you think we should do next, first chance possible, then?"
"We find Furuhata-san, and see if he'll tell us anything more about both Darien and Mamoru, while we begin to try and find out who tricked us. And while we begin plotting our response here, as well, of course."
"Okay, but we don't just rush into things here, for once. If you're right, we have to be careful, quite careful, so that the boys won't likely know what hit them before it's too late for them to stop what we might be planning with each other. Fair enough?"
"Yes. Revenge, if needed, will hopefully be sweet. But we'll just have to see if it will be, of course."
Lunch soon ended, and they had to attend various classes for the rest of the current school day. Whether they shared them or not, they had to go to them, or potentially get in trouble. As expected, they both ended up in detention after school, due to their earlier late arrivals at school, but didn't have to stay the full time, in truth. For Haruna Sakurada finally let them leave after getting a written note suddenly inviting her on a date from one of the other teachers for Crossroads Junior High about halfway through detention.
Once released from detention, both girls quickly left the school's grounds for the Crown Arcade. But when they got there, Motoki wasn't actually there. His sister Unazuki was, but he wasn't. She said that Motoki was at the hospital. But she didn't specify why, nor did she specify which hospital he was then at, either.
So Serena and Usagi both eventually had to part from each other, even if they didn't really want to at the present time. They were both moderately disappointed that they still hadn't figured out what was going on entirely, or exactly who had tricked them like they had that very morning. But knowing them, they'd not likely rest needlessly until they'd found out what they then could about certain events of it.
Meanwhile, back at the Hinata Apartments, Shinobu was about to leave them for school with Mei Narusegawa, who was nine days younger than her biological first cousin/stepsister Naru. While Naru often wore her hair down to about her waist, when not at school, Mei would normally wear hers at about chin-length, more or less, in pigtails and buns, with bangs hanging down on either side of both ears. Both wore their school's currently-active uniform for girls. Naru had already gone with another tenant to their own school elsewhere in the Hinata City area, a girl by the name of Ema Maeda. And a fifth resident had already gone to her own school in it, one Motoko Aoyama.
Keitaro, on the other hand, wouldn't need to go to Tokyo University just yet on the current day, even though a few of his other tenants had already left for their own classes there. He came into the kitchen as Shinobu handed her some lunch to have later at school. Mei saw them, and gave him a big smile, before saying, "You look really nice today, Keitaro. If you weren't married already, I would perhaps glomp you, for I do like men wearing suits a lot of the time."
"Well, I have a meeting this afternoon with my advisor at Toudai. And I want to look like I care about what they have to say. Especially because I'll likely need their help to convince their wife to publish some of my work in one of their manga collections in the near future, Mei-chan. If I can get even more publicity for my artwork and writing, at least, then perhaps I can do some needed things around here, for both the Annex and this building, at least, with part of the money I might earn when it's finally published. Kaolla's really been wanting to upgrade her lab here, and she can't do it all by herself, even with Molmol's help, as well." He moved to where some tea had just finished boiling, and poured himself a cup of oolong tea.
He began sipping his tea while also beginning to read the just-delivered morning issue of the Japan Morning Post, among other items he'd often read while having his breakfast most mornings, once a napkin was over his suit's collar and front. Shinobu quickly provided him with some eggs and a roll, along with butter, milk, and some cereal. He smiled at her, as Mei said, "Interesting, Keitaro-san. I hope it goes well for you, then, of course. Now I think I'd best start heading out the door," even while stashing her lunch in her backpack, and slipping said backpack onto her back without any problems at all in doing so.
Once she was gone, Keitaro asked, "Are we still on with the plan to meet me at GCFE later tonight, once we both get clear of school sometime today? Or perhaps hit the Crown on the way there?"
"Yes, as far as I know, I have the late afternoon to early evening free to spend with you. Haruka-san has agreed to watch the triplets while we go do some needed shopping for items to put in our room here," said Shinobu, as she then briefly decided to sit down next to him for a quiet moment here, and maybe even share some of the blueberry and grape-flavored milkshake she held in one hand with him while she did so here. Those triplets being Keitaro's almost 14-month-old first cousins Kanako, Kagome, and Komazuaki, at that.
"Good to hear." She moved closer, and laid her head on his shoulder for a few seconds, before moving her milkshake closer to them both, and more towards him than it now was. She then took two straws from a pocket of her skirt, and inserted them into the shake, leaning one straw to his side of the glass, and one to hers.
"Keitaro, would you mind helping me have this shake before I have to go?" she asked, while keeping one eye on a nearby wall clock, and also making quite sure that she had everything with her that she'd have to have that very day when she was still at school during it.
"Sure, why not?" He dipped his head, and two minutes later, at most, the glass was empty, just before she swung her face up to his, and smacked a quick kiss on his lips while rising from the table and leaving the room behind without even looking back on her way out it. The kiss was very tasty and very pleasant to him, once it registered fully in his mind, and it drew a beaming smile seconds after that. He thought, 'I'm a very lucky man to have a wife such as her in my life!'
He stayed where he was for about another fifteen minutes before finishing his breakfast and reading some more of the paper he'd been reading, among other things. Once done, he left the room behind, and left a note behind for the next person who might come into the kitchen, asking them to do the dishes here as soon as they could.
Minutes later, he was on a train to Tokyo, heading to Toudai for his meeting. He hoped it'd go quite well. But he didn't really know his advisor's wife very well yet. So he wasn't absolutely certain that she'd agree to publish several of his stories in manga form anytime soon yet.
Keitaro soon met with his advisor Kansuke Baisotei, and they discussed his plans for after his eventual graduation from Toudai. Keitaro eventually said that he hadn't yet decided whether he wanted to be an archeologist for his living or a manga creator, but that he was leaning towards the second possibility at the present time. Kansuke thought about that, before then saying, "The manga business is very difficult to get into, Urashima-san, for a living. But with how well you draw, there may be prospects for you yet in it. Although you still have much to work on, when it comes to your drawings. You are good at figures of people, and I don't know why or need to know, but your background scenery skills will largely need to improve in quality for them significantly, or your chances of getting published may not be as high. Miyoko likes some of your work that I've shown her before with your permission, but she still thinks much the same as I do."
"So it's not likely that I'll be able to make it into one of their manga collections in the near future?"
"I didn't say that. She is definitely interested in seeing what else may come from you soon. But at this time, you're not quite good enough to make their next manga collection which is due to be published in a few weeks. However, she is willing to sponsor your entry into an arts class next semester here taught by another faculty member here, because she knows you still need some financial help with college costs here, especially with a young wife now for yourself."
"But?"
"Know this, Urashima-san. This arts class will be much more challenging and much more difficult than any other arts class you may have yet taken in your life. And only the best artists will pass it. The requirements are very difficult to achieve, and 95 percent of those who take it do not pass, most of the time. You also will be competing for possible publication in Toudai's summer manga collection against about 300 others, with 300, more or less, of you broken up into groups of roughly 60 students apiece, on average. Most groups only yield two or three winners, on average, at most. Some only one, even. If you are among the five percent who successfully pass the class, you may very well be published within a year. The professor in this class will accept no excuses whatsoever. If you are ever late to class, or absent from it, without a good enough reason, you will automatically fail the class and be kicked out of it that same day. And you will have to wait until the class is offered again the following year to try passing it again. So are you interested in this class?"
"Let me talk to my wife and tenants, and get back to you on that, please."
"My wife and I will need an answer about it by October 3, Urashima-san."
"You'll have it, I promise, by the end of this week, or at the very latest, next Monday, Baisotei-san."
"Fair enough. Talk to whatever people you have to about this. But don't wait too long to give me your answer about it, otherwise you will miss this opportunity for another year. Understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"Very well, then, I believe we both have other things to do now. I look forward to visiting Hinata City soon with my wife and children, and visiting your hot springs, with you and your wife's permission, along with the permissions of your tenants, of course."
"Let's discuss that at another time, okay?"
"Very well, we can wait to discuss that, then. But this other matter can't wait long."
"Noted. Good day, then, sir."
With that said, Keitaro then left Kansuke Baisotei's office and went about his remaining school-related business at Toudai for several more hours. He finished his last class around 3 pm, and then left the campus, before heading to Juuban, once Shinobu joined him minutes after he left Toudai's campus again at a little sweets shop not far from it.
Shinobu met up with Keitaro around 4 in the afternoon, and both soon found themselves in Juuban. Not long after that, they were at the Crown Arcade, and eating some food that Motoki had just provided them with, in the restaurant part of the Crown.
After Motoki had dropped off Darien at the hospital, he'd gone to Keio and attended what classes he could on the current day. However, he'd missed his first two classes, due to having to see that Darien was attended to as needed after arriving at the hospital. He'd called the instructors for those classes just before his first class was due to start, and told them what he needed to tell him. They each talked to him for a few minutes apiece, and granted him permission to miss their two classes that morning, for once. However, they normally wouldn't give anyone such permission, if they didn't have to. And Motoki knew this. He would not take this permission lightly for either professor, and he never had to date since entering Keio as a student for the first time. Nor for any other professor he'd yet had as a Keio student, at that.
The rest of his day before he returned home went fairly well for him. And he even checked on Darien, or at least tried to, after leaving the Keio campus behind for the rest of the day. However, when he did, and came to Darien's room at the hospital, Darien was nowhere to be found, but a rose was left on his hospital bed, with a note on a single sheet of paper attached with a bluish-green ribbon. The note said, once its text became currently visible only to Motoki, strangely enough:
"Motoki, take this and hide this in your safe at home. Along with any other roses or notes you may oddly find in any unexpected places, in the future, until we meet in person. When Sailor Moon finally appears at the Crown, whenever that is, give all the collected roses and notes to her that you may have at that time. Sincerely, Tuxedo Mask."
Motoki thought about the note and rose more, even after following Tuxedo Mask's instructions to the letter. He didn't know why the note and rose had appeared on Darien's hospital bed, but they had. Also he thought about Darien's yet-unexplained disappearance, and wondered where he might be. A search of the entire hospital revealed no sign of him anywhere in them, nor had the police yet found any trace or hint of where he might then be, and none had been found by the time that Motoki had left for Keio to attend the rest of his classes there.
After attending to both discovered items as instructed, he went downstairs and went to work at the Crown, as usual. And it was a fairly packed Arcade and Restaurant by the time he showed up downstairs for work. He got a quick update from Unazuki about how things were now for either part of the Crown, and soon was working hard serving patrons already present and those who were entering it.
It was still quite packed in both areas by the time that Shinobu and Keitaro entered the Crown Arcade, and found themselves at a table in it, courtesy of Unazuki. Minutes later, they'd ordered what they wanted from the Crown from Motoki, and received their ordered items from him as well.
For her, she had a nice chicken and rice-based meal, along with some cinnamon tea. And for him, he had two slices of four-cheese pizza to go along with a bowl of beef stew and a tall glass of chocolate milk.
They spent a few minutes eating in silence, before Shinobu finally spoke here. She asked, "How did the meeting with Baisotei-san go today?"
"It may be a while before some of my work gets published for profit as part of a manga collection, Shinobu, unfortunately." He took a bite of some of his pizza, then a spoonful of stew, before beginning to tell her many things about his day, and listening to her for a while as well.
As they were both still conversing, and having their meals together, it was at this time that Serena and Usagi, along with Molly and Naru, entered the Crown Arcade, and made straight beelines for Motoki, who was behind a counter in the restaurant half of the Crown. He smiled at them all, as was often his wont with various patrons of the Crown. But they were not very pacified after he did so. Or at least Serena and Usagi weren't here, anyway.
"Yes, ladies?"
"Onii-chan, we need to talk to you as soon as possible," said Usagi.
"About?"
"Certain boys you know," said Serena.
"I know many boys, Moon-san."
"They mean Chiba and Shields," said Molly.
"What about them?"
"Seems they decided to tick off Tsukino-san and Moon-san somehow," answered Naru.
"And,?"
"They believe one of the two of them, if not both of them, tried to trick them this morning," said Molly.
"I see. And?"
"They want to know if you might know anything about it, or anything that you are willing to share about them, so that they can plot their revenge against both boys better, somehow," said Naru.
Motoki studied the faces of all four girls, before eventually saying, "I might know something, but I can't tell you yet, or at least not here." Just then, he caught a wave from another table, and said, "We'll have to talk later, and won't be able to talk long enough until after this place clears out sufficiently, at least, I'm sure."
"You will tell us more about what you know later? Is that correct?" asked Usagi.
"When and where I can, yes. But I can't tell you certain things yet, mind you."
"Fine, we'll wait. But be prepared to answer as many of our questions as you can, as soon as possible, then, Furuhata-san," said Serena.
"Fair enough." Without another word, then, Motoki left to attend to the necessary table here as needed.
Moments later, the four girls went to the arcade part of the Crown and played games there for a while. As they left, Shinobu said, "You seem to recognize two of them, Keitaro."
"I do. Those two were here the last time I was here. The names of the blondes are Usagi Tsukino and Serena Moon, while their friends are Naru Osaka and Molly Baker. I've heard of them even at Toudai from several of my classmates there, for your information. Classmates who often go there to hang out, even." He indicated which girl owned each name, in turn, one at a time. And he told Shinobu all that he currently knew about them all, and certain others they'd often associate with at the Crown. It wasn't much, but at least it was something.
After he did so, Shinobu said, "Seems they're a lot like Kaolla or others we know in a number of ways to me, Keitaro."
"But they're still their own people, for good or for bad, as we all are."
"That's good, I think," said Shinobu, minutes later, once she finished the last of her meal, even her tea.
It was at this time that Mamoru walked into the Crown, projecting an air of apparent mental superiority here, not yet knowing that both girls that he'd tried his earlier trickery with were now in the Crown as well. Motoki, who was now slightly turned away from the counter he was about to wipe down again, lifted his head and turned towards the door at the sound of bells, and thought, as soon as he saw Mamoru, 'Oh, no! I've got to do something before the girls see him here.'
Seconds later, he reached behind the counter, and grabbed the first thing he could randomly grab behind it. Which was a five-pound bag of wheat flour, before he suddenly wound up and pitched it directly at Mamoru, hoping that it would split open and obscure him from the sight of the girls who were leaving the Crown's arcade part for the restaurant part of it, somehow. As it rainbowed towards Mamoru, it grazed the nearest overhead light fixture enough to cause a few rips to begin appearing in the bag on the non-floor side of it. As it sailed through the air, those rips spread, and split the bag enough to start showering the floor below and the fortunately-unoccupied tables with flour from it. The bag burst completely upon contact with Mamoru's temples. And he fell onto his back and posterior mere seconds later, while he was still hidden by the flour and all now in the air around him, now partly out of it mentally.
While he was still hidden from everyone else's sight, Motoki quickly whisked him into a back room, and deposited him there, before carefully checking to make quite sure that Mamoru would ultimately be okay after being hit by a flying bag of flour. It wasn't five minutes more before Mamoru said, "Motoki, explain. Use small words. Explain now."
"The girls may be onto you here. I don't know much at this point, but I do know they aren't happy. I had to hit you with what I did to keep you out of their sight for now. I will talk to you later. We still have a packed house, so to speak here."
"Don't you tell them anything about me that they have no business in knowing. Or about him."
"I'll do my best, but I can't make any promises beyond that."
"Motoki, …." Mamoru trailed off, apparently with a dangerous undertone to his voice now, but not actually wanting to do any real harm to Motoki, seeing as Motoki was one of a very rare few quite close friends of his in his own often-lonely life.
"We'll talk more later. In the meantime, you stay here and rest, and relax. I'll be back as soon as I can, I promise, Mamoru." With that, Motoki then left, locking that back room behind him when he did, at least for a while. He'd return later to let Mamoru out, as soon as he then could.
Shinobu asked, as soon as the air was clear enough again, seconds after Motoki returned to the restaurant half of the Crown, "What just happened here, Keitaro?"
"Furuhata-san seemed to panic as soon as he saw Chiba-san entering the Crown. From what I gather, he didn't seem too happy about it, especially after he realized Tsukino-san and her friends were leaving the arcade part of this place and coming back in here. I think after realizing they were, and after seeing Chiba-san, he wanted to try to keep the girls from seeing him. So he threw a bag of something, and shrouded the area between Chiba-san and the girls so they couldn't see him easily enough. And now I don't know where he secreted Chiba-san. Or at least I don't know yet, anyway, if I ever will."
Shinobu thought for a moment, then asked, "How much longer do you think it will be before we can be off again here?"
"I just have to finish my stew and my milk here, and then we can go. Payment is already arranged here, so we can go right away, once we finish. Unazuki-san and others will clear our table after we leave."
Minutes later, they left the arcade, and resumed their shopping with each other. At a few stores, they bought a few things, and even arranged later delivery for them, if necessary, as they shopped. They continued to shop for a while longer, up until they entered GCFE. While they were shopping there, however, both were suddenly struck on the backs of their heads, and rendered unconscious almost immediately after being struck by unknown items or even assailants. Once unconscious, they were both brought elsewhere in the store as well.
Meanwhile, as Shinobu and Keitaro were still at the Crown with each other, Eryn Kesell was trying to find an album by U2, which wasn't easy in Japan. She had long been a fan of Bono, ever since before leaving Ireland some three years before. Her cousin had told her about an album of theirs called The Joshua Tree, but finding it was proving impossible. It was the only one of six U2 albums to date that she'd not yet been able to acquire for herself. She caught sight of her reflection in a store mirror. How different she looked to everyone around her! It wasn't only her red hair and green eyes, but she hadn't quite gotten the hang of Japanese fashion.
She scanned the nearby store racks, but was unable to find it. No matter how much she looked for it, she couldn't find it. So she looked for other music she might like. Remembering something one of her aunts had told her earlier that year, she began looking for an album called Selena, by an American singer named Selena Quintanilla. And she soon found it, along with other similar music, elsewhere in the store. Eryn bought five albums in cassette form recorded by various artists. After buying them, she continued shopping in various other stores in Juuban.
Heading home, pleased with her purchases, she spotted an ancient Celtic tapestry in a furniture store. On it was a symbol of Limerick. How was this possible? She stepped inside, eager to find out if she could afford it.
She thought for a moment, wondering if she could trade some of her paintings or quilts for it. The very worst the store's proprietors could do was to say no.
On her way towards the said tapestry, a sheathed dagger caught her eye. She turned to get a better look at it, and saw that it was covered with sun-related symbols reminiscent of ones she'd often seen back home in Ireland. That piqued her interest even more, and she began moving towards it, wondering how much it'd cost, and how old it was.
Eryn reached out and touched the sheathed dagger. A funny feeling began to stir in her heart and mind, and it caused her to take hold of it. She began to stumble under its weight, mostly colliding with pots, stools, and tables, until she was up against the mysterious, ancient tapestry. Before she could fully regain her balance, the tapestry strangely seemed to ripple behind her, and limbs grabbed her, drawing her into it.
At 6 pm local time, Jadeite appeared in a back room of GCFE, and asked how things were proceeding with his next plan to gather energy for the Negaverse from multiple humans at once. The leading youma now present met with him in that back room, and said, "We unfortunately do not yet have enough captives here to fully power our energy-collection and energy-delivering devices that will send the gathered energy back to the Negaverse, General Jadeite. We only have 94 percent capability, at the moment. And we can't launch the attack before 7 pm local time, at the earliest, because this store doesn't close to customers until then on Mondays by humans' reckonings of time. We don't want to tip off anyone needlessly about what we might be doing, so we can't launch our attack until then, or people might wonder what's going on here."
"I see. Then grab the next six people you can, at least, and see how much energy you can get from them before this store's usual Monday closing time. Simple as that. If any people resist, then render them unconscious and take them, anyway, if you can. We must launch as soon as possible after 7, if not right at 7. I want us all to be out of here by 9, at the latest, if at all possible. If any snooping animals show up before 7, capture them or kill them, if at all possible. Same thing with any humans who might do the same, if you can. I'll be back in about an hour to check on your progress, before we launch our attack."
A few brief moments of conversation more, and then Jadeite left. Several nearby youma, including the main one he was just talking to, then began carrying out his orders here, as best as they then could. Several lured a grandfather, a mother, and two children into the store by showing the adults some lamps in the store's main window. And the children came along with the adults as well, not yet knowing any better, if they ever would in their lives.
They also grabbed Sylvia, who thought she was talking to Rolando, at about 6:20, as she was passing by the store on the way to another one nearby. But a youma had taken on his appearance, and sounded almost exactly like he normally would, except for a bit of apparent hoarseness at the moment. The youma invited her into the store to see a row of old books on a shelf that looked to be at least as old as the books on it, and she was rather reluctant, but she still found herself going into GCFE, as if she was unconsciously being drawn there for some yet-unknown reason. Even if she didn't really want to go into the store, for the most part, she still was doing so.
Before the part of her that didn't want to go in the store could then fight back and somehow escape, however, the youma that had drawn her into the store suddenly knocked her out from behind her, by hitting her in the back of the head. That done, they took her to where all the other current captives were, and began attempting to drain her life energy here.
About ten minutes after that, Reika Nishimura and a few of her female friends passed by the store as they were making their way to the Crown by a different route than usual, because they were currently on a shopping expedition of their own after their college classes had ended for the day about an hour earlier. Before they could avoid it, then, they were also captured by youma who'd been pretending to be various inanimate objects or various animals that might sometimes appear in places all over Tokyo, at least. After they all were, they were quickly brought to where everyone else was then being held.
And not only they were captured, but two other women were, in the process, for they were too near Reika and her friends for them to not be noticed as well. Most specifically, those other two women they captured were Haruna Sakurada and Patricia Haruna, who were both out to look for new outfits they could each wear on their next dates with two other teachers at Crossroads Junior High.
About half an hour after Reika, Reika's friends, and the two teachers were then captured by various youma, it was finally 7 o'clock. Two youma masquerading as the store's proprietors then flipped over the wooden and metallic sign saying "Open" on one side and "Closed" on the other in multiple languages or closed and locked the main doors to the store moments later, once the now-returned Jadeite gave them the go-ahead to do so. And then the one who closed and locked the main doors also drew the main window's curtains, as it was normal for the real proprietors to do the same when they closed the store for the night after it had been open on a normal day of business.
Five minutes later, Wanderer, invisibly flying above the nearby streets to the store, detected an energy transfer beginning to occur about half a mile to the northwest of his current position and about fifty feet below him. He immediately told Darien, who had been resting on a bed inside Wanderer aft of his head and mouth, and Darien immediately transformed. Seeker rose from that bed as well, and he'd do the same once they were at the furniture store and where they needed to be in it.
Wanderer landed on the roof of the necessary building, and then he and Seeker disguised themselves as they often did on Earth Knight's fighting uniform for a little while. Down several fire escape stairwells Earth Knight then went, until he found a side entrance to the store. Little did he yet know that certain others he might eventually meet also were doing the same, if at all, though.
He made a successful entry into the store, but not long after he did, he found the first of many youma appearing to oppose further ingress into the store by him. When he did, he didn't make any speeches this time, and those youma soon forced Seeker and Wanderer off Earth Knight's fighting uniform, and into the fight as well, once it was clear that their assistance would then be needed.
Among the youma that he was now facing in the fight were Krosilais, which were roughly otter-sized quadrupeds that often could shock their opponents or shoot acid at them. Other youma revealed themselves as certain other yet-unidentifiable kinds of youma to Earth Knight or any of his allies, whether known or not to him as such. Including some small bird-like youma, at that, even.
It took about fifteen minutes for Earth Knight, Wanderer, and Seeker to clear the room where Earth Knight had first encountered youma in the store of youma. That done, he spent only a few moments checking for possible captives there. Finding none, they quickly moved to the next room he could find easily enough. It took another ten minutes for the trio to clear that room as well of youma.
It took clearing two more rooms of youma to find out where all the now-present captives were being kept. And as soon as that happened, Earth Knight and his animal allies went there as quickly as they could, although they all were encountering quite significant enemy resistance to their movements and efforts in the fight.
Fortunately, as they moved towards the now-required place elsewhere in the store, others were drawing away a good number of youma and dealing with them every so often. Even if they didn't actually have certain superhero-type abilities of their own, at least as of the current time, they were drawing away those youma and fighting them as best as they then could, often using various weapons and devices of assorted kinds.
Earth Knight and his allies, whether animal or human, were tested considerably more as they moved towards where all the captives were then being kept, and even took some hits, some of them major ones, on their ways there. For instance, Wanderer took a major hit on his left wing, but kept going. Even though he'd probably be hurting for a while, if he didn't get the area where he'd been hit taken care of quickly enough as needed by Darien later, or someone else, supposing that Darien couldn't take care of it well enough yet. Earth Knight had several cuts raked across his torso, but nothing particularly deep. Although he might be hurting for a while from feeling claws raking across it periodically during the fight.
As youma got killed and/or destroyed, the rooms he and others had brightened up, and such was still the case here, even in the room that many captives were now being held in. As more youma continued to fall during the fight, more and more captives began to become visible to those battling those youma. As they were, several of Darien's yet-unidentified allies began to rescue a large number of them as best and as quickly as they could. As they did, the youma also got weaker, because they were being cut off from nearby energy sources, and from energy-collecting devices still present in the store. That soon led to youma being dealt with quicker and quicker as even more time passed.
Eventually, only a few captives were still present where the fight was still going on. Before the last of the youma was finally defeated, Jadeite teleported away with as many of his still-surviving youma and as much energy as he could then escape the store with, after seeing that his energy-collecting and energy-delivering devices were being hit by those opposing his youma, whether they were intentionally being hit or not during the current fight. He managed to get away with fifty youma of assorted sizes, shapes, and kinds, but all his other youma were ultimately destroyed before that happened for him, along with about 11.2 percent of the energy that had already been gathered. The remaining energy was returned to their proper owners as various youma were periodically killed and/or destroyed in the fight, unfortunately for the Negaverse.
But at least he had managed to hold onto a sizable amount of energy this time that he and his youma had been collecting for a while. Which might buy him some more time to try to deal with certain potential rivals or whatever in the Negaverse, and also more time to try to think of other possible plans he could try later on Earth, in time. Queen Beryl certainly wouldn't be very happy at all that he'd just lost hundreds, if not thousands, of youma in this particular battle. But maybe the energy he was able to get away with this time might somehow appease her enough for her to then let him continue to work on his plans to gather even more energy for the Negaverse towards awakening Queen Metallia later on.
After the last youma was either eliminated or had been teleported away, Earth Knight soon saw Hitomi and others near her wearing masks over their faces. Hitomi said, without revealing her civilian identity at this time, "Well done, Earth Knight. You're getting better, but you still have a long way to go before you'll be able to better avoid various attacks from various youma in the future. Nice to see you both again, Wanderer and Seeker. Keep watching over him, and perhaps he'll eventually come to remember his past, if you stick as close to him as you each both can."
She thought for a moment, then remembered something, even as she knelt to check on one of the former captives here, and said, as that captive seemed to be starting to stir, "Don't forget to keep Sunstriker and its sheath with you as often as possible in the future, young lady," once she noticed the dagger now sticking out from underneath that young lady. She had already checked others now in the room, most specifically Sylvia and then Rolando, among others, but had only touched Sylvia and Rolando more than a few seconds apiece, unlike the other ones she'd already touched before kneeling to check another former captive here. She'd just noticed the dagger, so she then decided to touch that young lady for more than a few seconds as well. She brushed her fingers across that person's forehead as she said those words about Sunstriker and its sheath in an almost inaudible voice to them, still in Darien's presence here. Then she said, "Look for the Sunbeam Crystal, until you find it, and you'll begin to find many answers to questions you have asked for many years in your life, in time, once you do."
Moments later, she departed the scene of the battle, along with several others then with her, but not before handing him a slip of paper with writing in English, and telling him to look at it sometime later, when possible, in a secure location. He nodded, and watched her and her associates leave as well, for a few moments, before turning to leave as well. Just before he left the room, however, along with Wanderer and Seeker, he and they all suddenly detransformed without meaning to there. For they all actually couldn't maintain their current transformations any longer due to the effects of the now-ended battle on them all here. When they did, and as three of the former captives finally woke up enough, they all saw Earth Knight and his animal allies each reverting to their normal appearances. Sylvia and Rolando recognized him almost immediately afterward, a few seconds before they all left the room behind, but Eryn wouldn't do so just yet. It would still be a little while before she'd be able to recognize that Darien had been fighting as both Earth Knight and as Tuxedo Mask easily enough. But she definitely would do so eventually, in any case, whether anyone knew she would or not for a little while, if not a long while.
Sylvia and Rolando eventually spotted each other, and then she came to where he now was, before asking how he was. He said, "I've been better, for sure, Sylvia."
"So have I, of course," said Sylvia, as she then began looking around them more and more. Seconds later, she gasped, and asked, "Do you see who I see, Rolando?" She pointed in a certain direction, towards two other former captives who were now stirring.
He looked, and said, "They look like the Urashimas. But why would they be here now?"
"Probably the same reason you came to the store, if I don't miss my guess too much. What drew you into the store here?"
"Lamps, beds, and other assorted furnishings. Including writing-related sets and scrolls, et cetera, if memory serves me now well enough."
"Yes, those kinds of things might interest you quite often, and have, no doubt, in the past," she nodded, giving him a smile, as she unexpectedly touched a hand with one of hers. He didn't resist the touch here either, as he began rising to a near-standing position.
She began doing the same, and they quickly moved to the two former captives they'd just seen, before she said, "Yes, these two are Shinobu and Keitaro, Rolando. Let's help them sit up, as carefully as we possibly can here."
Moments later, Keitaro and Shinobu were fully conscious, and aware that they were being checked out by Rolando and Sylvia as necessary and as appropriate here. Shinobu was the first to speak here, and she said, "What happened here, you two?"
"We got attacked, evidently, Shinobu-san," said Rolando, once he was quite certain that Keitaro was sufficiently with it mentally where they now were.
"More monsters?" asked Shinobu, now somewhat concerned.
"Yes, more monsters. Don't feel too bad, I was knocked out too, as was Sylvia here."
"And Keitaro?"
"He's fine. In fact, he's within arm's reach of you, and slightly behind you," said Sylvia.
Shinobu turned, and saw her husband just behind her, as Sylvia had just said, and he was now showing an apologetic face to her when she saw his face, which still had a few bruises on it from where he'd fallen on it after being hit in the back of the head, like she'd been earlier. "Sorry I couldn't shield you entirely from the monsters behind us, Shinobu. They came upon us too fast before hitting us like they did. I still have a bit of a headache now."
"So do I, believe it or not. Have we any more need or desire to shop again tonight, then?"
"No, Shinobu, I think not."
"Then let's go home. Anyone know what time it is, by any chance, then?" asked Shinobu, as she began rising from a semi-kneeling position where she now was in the store.
Eryn, by now, had fully regained consciousness, and pushed herself up into a standing position. Taking a second or two to regain her focus, she said, "Almost 9:15 pm."
"That late? We should have already been home by now, perhaps, then," said Shinobu, as she began looking for the items that she and Keitaro had decided to buy from GCFE by the time they'd been captured like they had been earlier.
"I'm late. My parents are going to kill me," said Eryn, as she walked towards Shinobu and the others.
"You seem familiar to me, somehow," said Sylvia, suddenly, as she looked at Eryn here.
"As do you two to me. I think I recognize one of you from the Quilting Club, and the other from the Paper Staff, at CTA."
"Yes, I do quilts from time to time here," said Sylvia. "My friend here is Rolando Volois, and my name is Sylvia Wakefield."
"Ah, yes, so I was right," said Eryn, as she brushed some of her red hair out of her eyes. The hood of her sweatshirt fell down, revealing the collar of her green and gold blouse and the rest of her braided wavy hair. "Cool. My name is Eryn."
"Pleased to meet you," said Rolando, a few seconds later, after he and his current companions had each taken in Eryn's current appearance in her sweatshirt, blouse, knee-length denim skirt, and CTA-required shoes.
"I'm sure we'll be seeing more of each other in the future," Eryn said, although she couldn't explain why she was so sure. Their faces already seemed familiar. Their paths seemed already to be joined.
"Yes, I seem to be getting that feeling as well," mused Keitaro. "Me too," chorused his wife, Rolando and Sylvia. They looked at one another in astonishment. It was time to leave. They bade one another farewell and left the room.
The store's proprietors were now conscious. Eryn decided she still wanted the tapestry and the dagger, and sorted out a trade. Rolando paid for the writing-related sets and scrolls he'd seen earlier, and arranged for their delivery sometime later that week to his family's home. Sylvia negotiated a suitable price for the set of old books she'd seen, but didn't let Rolando see the names of each such book, hoping to surprise him later with them, when he would least expect her to do that for him. As for Shinobu and Keitaro, seeing as they both were basically already loaded up with various prior purchases, they both quickly arranged delivery of the items they couldn't currently bring back home with them here. After all necessary payments, trades, or arrangements had been made, the five teenagers departed for their respective residences.
Meanwhile, as Darien headed home, alone, he found himself stopping by the Crown. By now, Serena and Usagi had finally given up on dealing with either he or Mamoru for the time being, and Motoki had let Mamoru out of the back room that he'd temporarily stashed him in to keep the girls away from them. And Seeker and Wanderer had gone back to his apartment together, after he told them he needed to walk for a while to think about a few things in silence. Reluctantly, they let him do that, but told him that if he wasn't back at his apartment by 10, they'd find him again, and bring him back to it, whether he liked it or not.
When he walked in, the Arcade was completely empty and cleaned up, and only two people were left there, those two people being Motoki and Mamoru. He heard almost immediately, "We're likely in trouble now, Darien, all of us," said Motoki.
"Oh, what happened?" asked Darien, as Motoki quickly set a coffee cup in front of him once he was seated in his usual seat at the counter.
Mamoru and Motoki then spent the next fifteen to twenty minutes telling Darien all that had happened after he and Motoki had left his apartment that very morning. By the time they were done, Darien was not very happy. He soon told them as much, and said that now things might be even tougher for them with the girls they often argued with. He also hoped that they'd be able to somehow deal easily enough with any possible future plans for revenge that the girls might have in mind for at least Mamoru and himself, if not also Motoki. Motoki was probably safe from any possible forms of retribution that the girls might eventually try to exact from certain boys, at least for now, because they both liked him a lot. But Mamoru and Darien, at least, probably weren't, at the current time. So Darien was definitely not happy at all to hear about what was the case now in relation to Serena and Usagi, at least.
Eventually, though, so as not to get his still-new animal allies too upset here and now, he had to leave the Crown behind for the rest of the night. But on the way out, he heard Mamoru say, "You should have a new bedroom set by the end of the week, if all goes according to plan. I heard someone say, after the Odango Atamas left, that they've already arranged delivery of it to your apartment, but I didn't see their faces, sorry to say, Darien. Sounded like an older woman of indeterminate age, however, as far as I could then tell. Until it arrives, though, sleep on your foldaway bed in your living room. And don't worry about the costs of your hospital visit today, either. They said they were taken care of as well, come to think of it."
With that said, Darien nodded at both of his friends, before leaving the Arcade behind for the rest of the night. When he got to his apartment, both Seeker and Wanderer were both waiting for him. He arrived just before 10, and carefully changed into a new shirt and a pair of shorts to sleep in, before pulling out the required bed and falling asleep almost as soon as his head hit one of the pillows already on it. And so he slept.
End of Chapter Five
I'm very sorry for taking so long to finally post this story's fifth chapter, to be completely honest with you all. But life certainly does often get quite in the way of many people's plans at times, of course, everyone, in certain ways. The part of this chapter where Mamoru tries to trick both Serena and Usagi during this chapter may possibly be considered creepy, to a degree, in certain ways, I fully admit. But it may be necessary, to better help the further development of this story, and future events in it and/or potential later stories here.
I have some considerable concerns related to it, at least, for sure, of course. But you people must also remember that even in most known canon versions of Sailor Moon to date, the main couple's members, whether they were/are dubbed/subbed/translated or not, at least while in their civilian forms, didn't/don't generally get along well very often, if at all. Seeing as that is also the case currently in this story, it may still fit sufficiently well here, like it or not. So at least for now, unless I edit that part out later, it has to stay in, it seems.
However, their feelings for each other will change, over time, as appropriate and possible, for I do want to stick at least somewhat to canon, in terms of their relationships, when it comes to Serena and Darien and to Usagi and Mamoru, if possible. While I may not exactly follow canon in regards to them, at least in certain ways, they will still come to want to see more of each other, in time, I'm sure, at times.
That is enough to talk about for now, I think, in direct relation to the main couples here. Things will begin to happen that will further set up certain potentially future events and/or associations between various characters in this story, at least on the civilian side of many things. There will definitely not be an actual battle for Earth Knight in the next chapter, but important things will still happen in it, for sure. What those things are, you'll have to wait and see, of course.
Until next time, then, folks, I shall close this, and patiently await your clean, courteous, and constructive commentary on it. I will try to have at least the next chapter or two up within the next month or two, at the very latest, if not more than just one or two chapters by the end of August or September. Shalom. TUS out.