"What's going on?" Naru asked nervously. Her mother turned, face becoming illuminated as she faced the light. She gave Naru an evil, predatory smirk. Suddenly she leapt at Naru, knocking her down, hands pinning her against the floor by her throat. Naru cried out in fear. Her mother only laughed in response. Naru clutched at her mother's wrists, impotently trying to prise them loose.
"Stop! Stop, please! I can't breathe... can't breathe..."
Naru jolted upright, gasping for air. She was in her room. She was in bed. She could breathe. Her mother wasn't a monster trying to kill her.
She looked down at her hands, relaxing them as she saw she was holding onto the duvet with a death grip. They were still shaking a little though. She drew another ragged sigh of breath, dropping back onto the pillows and staring up at the ceiling. She'd thought the nightmare would fade over time, but it was as vivid as ever. It was messing with her ability to sleep properly - she'd even found herself nodding off in class once or twice.
Naru glanced over at the alarm clock. Quarter-to-Six. Not much point going back to sleep then. Pulling the covers off the bed and shuffling into her slippers, Naru went to collect her school uniform from the dresser.
Naru noticed Usagi's pining expression as she tucked into her lunch. "What's wrong?" she asked through a mouthful of curry. Usagi spluttered, caught in the act. "What? Oh, uh, it's nothing."
"Usagi," Umino piped up, wandering over. "If you've finished your lunch already, you can have some of mine!" He proffered his bento box - or what was left of it in any case. Still, Usagi wasn't one to turn down free food so-
"Well uh.. actually that's fine, no thanks, Umino"
Naru almost choked on her mouthful of rice. "Are you alright?" Naru asked Usagi, looking at her with concern.
"I'm fine, I'm fine," Usagi said reassuringly. Then, leaning over to whisper to Naru, "I'll tell you once we're out in the courtyard, when Umino's not around."
"Fair enough," Naru said with a nod.
"So what's the matter?" Naru asked as Usagi joined her, Yumiko and Kiyomi under the tree. Usagi twiddled her thumbs awkwardly.
"Well, you see... I've put on quite a bit of weight recently," she admitted. "Trying to do something about it, but I'm just having such a hard time not giving in."
"Oh, so you're on a diet," Naru said.
"I understand," Kiyomi said consolingly, "I'm having a hard time too."
"We know," the other three said sagely.
"Why don't you try swimming?" Yumiko suggested to Usagi. "That'll get you thin."
"She can't swim very well though," Naru countered. Kiyomi meanwhile was still on her original train of thought.
"I've tried fasting and just eating pineapple, but the effect doesn't last very long. I've tried several things, you know."
"We know," the other tree repeated, nodding. Kiyomi had an on-again-off-again relationship with diets. She'd try something new for a fortnight, shed a kilo or two, and then snap right back to where she started. Still, at least she stayed fairly practical with her sporadic weight-loss fads.
"Losing weight by falling in love would be the perfect diet," Yumiko mused aloud, clasping her hands together wistfully.
"You haven't actually been in love though," Kiyomi pointed out.
"What are you getting at?" Yumiko asked with a frown.
"It's okay," Kiyomi said with a 'consoling' pat on the shoulder. "We can't help the way we're born."
"You're the last person I want to hear that from," Yumiko muttered.
"Speaking of diets," Naru said to Usagi as Kiyomi rolled up her sleeves with a grin and prepared to playfully duke it out with Yumiko, "Ms Haruna's gotten quite thin recently."
"Really! How?" Usagi asked.
"Not sure." The two of them glanced across the courtyard at their english teacher, making her way across school with a spring in her step.
"She doesn't look that much thinner," Usagi observed, a little unconvinced.
"You can't tell because she's wearing clothes. Look at these!"
Naru and Usagi jumped at Umino's sudden apperance, a pair of photos in hand. He eagerly displayed them to Usagi one after the other.
"See, this is before..." he gave her a picture of Ms Haruna lifting weights at a gym, "And this is after." Another picture, this time of Ms Haruna in the middle of an aerobics routine, looking noticeably trim. Umino looked quite pleased with himself. Naru meanwhile, gave him a deadly frown.
"Umino... where did you get these pictures?"
"Honestly Usagi," Naru said between breaths as Umino high-tailed it round the corner of the building. "Umino takes sneaky photos of the teacher, and your biggest concern is which gym they were taken at?"
"Of course - did you see those photos? We have got to get in on that!"
Naru wanted to object to Usagi's sense of priority but was too out of breath to argue. "We'll take a look on the way home, okay?" That would probably appease Usagi - the mere sight of gym equipment would probably make her faint.
That afternoon, Kiyomi and Yumiko joined the two friends in scouting out the place.
"This is it," Usagi proudly annouced, "This is the gym Ms Haruna goes to."
"Joining a gym's a bit expensive though..." Naru said in a vain attempt to try and dissuade Usagi. Sure enough, she'd latched on to the large billboard-like video screen above the gym.
"Oh look, look! It's Rie Gotou! She's so cute!"
Well, no arguments there, Naru thought to herself as the advert repeated its advertising pitch. Still, there was no way they could afford-
"..Right now at Gym Shapely, we're having free introductory memberships!"
"Did I hear that right?" Usagi asked, beaming like a kid in a candy store. Even Naru was interested now.
"Nothing cheaper than free," she observed. "Come on, let's go!"
"So how come you're coming along, Naru?" Usagi asked as the girls dropped their bags in the changing room and began pulling out their gymwear.
"Thought I might give it a try," Naru replied, teasing the bow of her school uniform loose. "Worst case scenario I get worn out and decide the exercise isn't for me." She was trying to play it off like it was no big deal, but honestly, she'd been thinking about doing something like this for a while - she'd just been a little too embarrassed to admit to wanting to shed some weight. Usagi pulling them all in here had given her a great smokescreen.
The incident with Midnight Zero had got her thinking. She was being too passive, just sitting around waiting for happiness to just fall into her lap. Wishing on stars and love charms. Maybe it was time to try a different approach.
"All set," Usagi said as she finished wriggling into her sports jumper. "Everyone else?" the others nodded.
"Alrighty, let's go get 'em!" Naru declared as the four girls made their way out of the changing rooms.
"Welcome to Gym Shapely," a satin-smooth voice said. Naru's looked up, and her heart skipped a beat. "I'm the instructor here." The young man in front of them was breathtakingly handsome, with this warm, compelling smile. The others seemed similarly stricken.
"Um, uh... we're new here," Usagi stammered, fidgeting with her fingers. The instructor nodded in understanding.
"Please, come this way."
Naru was already following along before he'd finished the sentence.
The instructor split the girls up between the other coaches in the gym, overseeing proceedings and occasionally spurring them on. They were all professionals, bustling the girls between exercise machines without giving them a chance to sit down in between. The workouts were quite intensive, and Naru's muscles were complaining loudly within the first half-hour, but she stuck it out - after all, it wasn't as if she was going to be here long term. And then, as she continued soldiering through the rountines, she seemed to hit a plateau - a point where the tired limbs and shortness of breath faded into the background.
This must be that second-wind thing, she thought to herself. And to her surprise it felt... good. She was tired, but it was actually a bit of a rush. And every time she felt herself wanting to call it quits, she pulled herself back on track. Think of the kilos, she thought to herself, think about how great it'll feel when people start asking if you've lost weight. Seems hard now, but you'll get to the end and think "wow, that didn't take long". And indeed, she found the time flashed by, so that when she finally noticed Usagi wasn't in the gym, she couldn't be sure how long she'd been missing.
"Hey, where's Usagi?" she asked Yumiko, taking a short pause in her exercise cycle session.
"Huh? She was on the rowing machine just a minute ago."
"You there," the instructor said, looking over at Naru. "You won't get beautiful if you just stop. You're off to a good start, keep it up."
"Yes, right!" Naru said, blushing slightly at being caught out, before going back to the exercise cycle and doubling down. "Beautiful. Will be beautiful," she said to herself, enjoying the little thrill of adrenaline she got from it. This was great. This was fun. She could get used to this.
"Okay, that's it for today!" the instructor announced, clapping his hands together. " Naru relaxed, heaving in breaths as she wound down from the workout. "You did well, everyone. Now to finish off, we'll have you showered with our Shape Ray."
"Shape... Ray?" Naru asked inbetween breaths. The instructor simply smiled and beckoned for them to follow. He led them out of the main gym and down a flight of stairs to a room down at the basement level. The lighting here was dim, and maybe it was just exhaustion from the workout, but Naru found herself having a little trouble focusing on the equipment down here. The instructor stopped in front of a row of pod-like vessels below the room's central light.
"You'll get inside these," he said, indicating the pods. Naru frowned. She could help feeling like there was something off about this... she couldn't quite place a finger on it though. Her mind was still fuzzy from the exercise. Still, she was fairly certain this was odd. The others seemed to think so, as they all hesistated.
"If you're exposed to the Shape Ray for a mere five minutes, you're looking at 10 kilograms of weight loss," the instructor continued, indicating Kiyomi. "Even you thin ones can shed 3 kilos."
Now that was an impressive claim. And normally Naru would be incredulous but, well... she'd seen the photos of Miss Haruna.
"So this is how she did it," Naru mused. And if it was just five minutes in what was effectively a tanning bed... what was the harm in giving it a go?
"Alright, count me in," Naru said, stepping forward.
She must have overworked her muscles during the exercise routine, because when Naru clambered out, she was feeling very groggy and tired. Her arms ached and her eyes were refusing point-blank to focus on anything for more than a second.
Should've gone a little easier, she thought to herself.
"You look stunning," the instructor said warmly, and as tired as she was, Naru couldn't help but glow a little inside. "Be sure to come back again tomorrow."
"Sure thing," Naru said vaguely, making her way out of the Shape Ray room. She was beginning to change her mind. Maybe she would think about staying on at the gym after the free sessions. Her mum surely wouldn't object to her being more active. Yes, that was it. She'd ask her mother about it tomorrow, once she was sure she was in this for the long term.
"...but then, something happened?" Miss Yamada asked. Naru nodded.
"Turns out that gym? Yet another front for... whatever it was Sailor Moon was fighting in those early days." She had to be careful there. She'd almost forgotten that the general public weren't as up-to-speed on Sailor Moon as she was. Officially Sailor Moon was just a crime-stopper, like Sailor V. The fan following who kept tabs on reports of Sailor Scout activity had pieced together a few more odds and ends, and it was rumored that her enemies were supernatural in nature, but Naru was fairly certain she had the most knowledge of the Dark Kingdom of anyone who wasn't a Scout. Frankly, she wished she wasn't.
"I'd imagine that put a damper on your fitness ambitions?"
"Didn't it just," Naru said with a weak smile. "Nothing like turning up to your second session at a gym only to find out Sailor Moon just saved your teacher from the phony gym instructor who was probably drugging gym members or something. I don't know, I never read about it in the newspapers. Too busy stressing out about how similar it was to the brooch incident." Naru looked up at the ceiling as she remembered something. "Come to think of it, that was about the time I started skipping out on PE class. Huh. Only just made that connection." But then, she added to herself, not like you being slow on the uptake is news.
"We're running a bit short on time," Miss Yamada said, glancing at her watch. "Same time on Thursday?"
Naru nodded, picking up her schoolbag. "See you then."
Miss Yamada click-clacked her pen as Naru left the counselling office. She was definitely opening up now. Still not being completey open with the counsellor, she could tell, but she didn't want to push Naru too far. She was fairly certain she'd yet to reveal the underlying cause of her anger issues.