SailorStar9: This is Chapter 5 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Disclaimers: I own nothing, except for the plot bunny.

Chapter 5: Ami, Kai, and the Midday Mercury

"Morning." Kai hurried over to the starting point of the town's quiz rally to meet up with his partner. "I'm sorry." He caught his breath. "Mom took a while to prepare lunch."

"It's alright." Ami assured. "Let's do our best together today. I'll go register right now."

"Me too." Miwa popped in, pulling his unnamed partner along.

"By the way, Miwa, did you bring your brains along?" Kai joked.

"Here is the first question." The emcee voiced, his assistants opening up a piece of paper. "There is a star here using 10 matchsticks. Using the same 10 matches, please make a different star. Now if you figured out the answer, please tell the attendant inside the booth over there. If you are correct, you'll be given a piece of paper with the next destination."

"I don't know." Kai pouted.

"Shall we go?" Ami smiled, offering her hand.

"You figured it out?" Kai blinked.

"It'd be nice if I'm right." Ami replied.

Entering the booth, Ami swept away the matchsticks to rearrange them to form the kanji character for 'star'.

"Correct." The attendant nodded. "Here." He handed over the pass and stamped the registration pass.

"Your shop is part of this too, Maki-san?" Kai blinked, their next stop was the arts-and-crafts store.

"Here's the question." Maki started. "To make ice, you need to wait a while after putting water in the freezer. But to make ice back into water, there is one way to do so in an instant. Now, what should you do to make it happen?"

""You pour really hot water onto it." Kai replied, after a while.

"But I think that will still take more than a second." Ami reminded.

"Toss it into the fire?" Kai suggested.

"Incorrect." Maki smiled.

"May I borrow this?" Ami inquired, picking up a pencil. Writing the kanji character for 'ice', she then rubbed out the top left-hand mark to make 'water'.

"Correct." Maki applauded.

"One left." Kai remarked, the pair having gone through the rest of the obstacles. "Sensei." He blinked, spotting their homeroom teacher when they arrived at the tenth booth in their school. "What are you doing here?"

"Since many students from our school have entered, I decided to help out a bit." Chiharu-sensei replied. "Now, this is the final question." She declared, Kai having shown their registration pass. "You hand can't fit into the bottle." She placed a flask with a ball in it on the table. "Please take the ball out of the bottle without breaking the bottle or turning it over. First, the two of you play jaken. The winner of the game will be answering the question." She added, after Kai won the game.

"I got it!" Kai beamed, after a while. Placing the bottle under the water cooler's spout, he began to fill it up. Immediately the rubber ball floated to the surface, and Kai picked it up between finger and thumb. "I got it!"

"That's correct." Chiharu-sensei confirmed. "Here." She affixed the final stamp.

"Shall we go?" Ami asked. "Let's see, the final destination is…"

"The park." Kai looked over her shoulder at the map.

"There was some place like this here?" Kai wondered, the pair entering the forest behind the park.

"Apparently, it's somewhere around here." Ami mused, pulling out the map. "Mercury…" she looked up at the ice planet, unaware that she was nearing the cliff.

Kai turned and was about to speak when he saw his partner teetering on the edge of a sheer drop-off, eyes closed and expression peaceful. "Ami!" he was too late to pull her back; his momentum was too great. All he could do was wrap his arms around the limp girl and shield her body with his as they tumbled down the cliff.

"Kai!" Ami sat up, recalling the brunette had shielded her from the fall.

"Are you alright?" Kai asked. "You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"

"I'm fine." Ami assured.

"I'm glad." Kai smiled and tried to get up, only to sit back down due to his injured leg.

"Your leg…" Ami noticed the bloody laceration. "All because I was dazed…"

"I'm fine." Kai told her, pulling her into a hug. "Seeing you cry makes me even sadder." He cupped her face. "Can you walk? That's right." He dug out the plaque. "This was hidden between the trees."

"Has everyone finished already?" Ami wondered, looking up at the moon that was peeking from behind the trees.

"But we should do our best together until the end." Kai encouraged.

"Kai!" Miwa hurried over to the pair, Ami supporting the injured brunette. "What have you been doing?" he scolded.

"Kai got hurt." Ami explained. "It's my fault."

"Taku…" Miwa sighed. "Get to the medic tent." He instructed, thumbing the medic booth. "Seriously, those two…" he shook his head as Ami took Kai to the medic tent.

SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.