Standing before the image of the night sky where he performed his divinations, Nephrite considered what move he should make next. He'd almost been able to secure a capture of the schoolboy who had managed to elude even Zoisite, though the boy had still managed to escape with the aid of Sailor Moon and her fellow Guardians. Sailor Moon seems to be the one mainly looking after him. It would seem I need to deal with her first.

Calling upon Regulus, in the constellation Leo, Nephrite had soon managed to determine that Sailor Moon seemed to care deeply about Tuxedo Kamen, an ally of hers that seemed to appear and disappear whenever he was needed. There was also his counterpart, Golden Kamen, who was revealed to in fact be the very schoolboy the Dark Kingdom had been searching for. It was a rather troublesome development, that, but as Zoisite had decided to take on the capture of the schoolboy in addition to his search for the Rainbow Crystals, Golden Kamen would truly be his problem.

As Nephrite returned his attention to Tuxedo Kamen's interactions with Sailor Moon, he noticed the way the both of them seemed to care deeply about each other; he could use that.

"Nephrite, Queen Beryl wishes to see you," Zoisite said, sounding about as self-satisfied as he ever did.

It was rather more annoying than usual, considering Zoisite's own lack of progress in capturing either the Rainbow Crystals or the schoolboy.

"Nephrite, you don't seem to be making much progress in gathering human energy," Queen Beryl said, once he and Zoisite stood before her once again.

"The universe wasn't created in a day, Your Majesty," he said, not particularly in the mood to have his methods questioned, especially in light of the new plan that he'd been about to put into motion.

"Don't be so insolent, Nephrite," Queen Beryl snapped. "I might have given you leeway, since your youma have been so willing to make efforts to capture the schoolboy when he appears before them, but don't think that means you're any safer from your fate than Jadeite was from his."

"I'll keep that in mind," he said, already teleporting back to his mansion as he turned from Queen Beryl's throne.

He had far more important matters to concern himself with than Queen Beryl's impatience; matters were more complicated than she realized, and the situation clearly called for more than simply youma.

~SM~

Humming softly as she made her way out to the front mailbox, Usagi blinked in surprise as she found a message addressed to her in particular. Opening it, even as she turned to make her way back to the house that she shared with Trevor-nii and the rest of their family, Usagi struggled to smother a laugh as she made her way back to her room. She had to tell Trevor-nii.

Mamoru-baka had just given her enough material to tease him for the rest of the year!

Calling out a greeting to Mom, as she hurried up to her and Trevor-nii's room, Usagi grinned widely as she arrived.

"Trevor-nii, you have to see this!" she said, waving the letter at her big brother to get his attention, before settling down on her bed to read it out load. "Mamoru-baka must really be desperate for a girlfriend if he's going to all this trouble," she said, grinning as she tucked the letter into her schoolbag for the day.

As much as she wanted to go right out to tease Mamoru-baka for thinking that she wouldn't remember that he was Tuxedo Kamen, she and Trevor-nii would have to get through school for the day.

"Trevor-nii, you remember where Mamoru-baka lives, right?" she asked, as the pair of them made their way to school together.

"I do," he said, looking curiously over at her. "You want to talk to him about the note he sent you?"

"Something like that," she said, smiling to herself as the pair of them made their way into their first class of the day.

Trevor-nii was obviously curious about what she planned to do when the pair of them met up with Mamoru-baka after school, but he'd just have to be patient. Once they got to class, Usagi had to bite her lower lip to keep herself from laughing out loud in front of the entire class. It looked like Mamoru-baka had sent out love letters to all of the girls in Haruna-sensei's class. Even Naru-chan had gotten one.

She looked a lot happier than any of the other girls in class, and Usagi found herself wondering who Naru-chan was thinking about. She didn't think Naru-chan had ever met Mamoru-baka, or at least not long enough to have such a lovesick look on her face at the thought of him. It was kind of weird to think about, that Naru-chan might have someone special in mind; someone she thought might have been writing to her, instead of Mamoru-baka and his desperate search for a girlfriend.

Usagi kept an eye on Naru-chan through class, wondering who it was that had left that hopeful smile on her friend's face…

Once class was over and she and Trevor-nii could leave for the day, the first thing she did was ask Trevor-nii to lead her to the apartment where Mamoru-baka lived. On their way there, though, Usagi caught sight of Mamoru-baka in the Crown Game Center where she'd spent so much time with Motoki-nii.

"Oi, Mamoru-baka!" she called, grinning as she made her way over to the crane game he was playing, holding the love letter out in front of his face. "What do you have to say for yourself?"

"That's not my handwriting, bun-head," Mamoru-baka said, glaring at the note as she held it out to him, yanking it out of her hand so that he could get a closer look at it. "How many other people got this?"

~SM~

"Every girl in class," Usagi-chan said, a look on her face that seemed to say that she was actually starting to realize just how strange this whole situation was.

The fact that the girls of her entire class had gotten love letters from someone pretending to be him – or at least, the identity he took on while he was fighting against the Dark Kingdom – probably meant that whoever had the idea of impersonating his alter ego was one of their enemies, trying to lure them into a trap.

"So, this might be one more of the Dark Kingdom's traps?" Usagi-chan asked, leaning in closely, once the three of them had finished talking about what had happened at her school.

"Yeah, and it sounds like we should stake out the MS Mall if we want to have a chance at stopping them," he said, looking up at the pair of them; things were a lot more serious than he'd thought, if someone was putting out bait like this.

Trevor-kohai was the first to turn and follow him, and as Usagi did likewise, Mamoru could only hope that Motoki-kun wouldn't find what he'd seen too strange. Then again, Usagi did spend a lot of time there, so he was probably used to strange people coming and going quickly. As the three of them made their way to the MS Mall, Mamoru could only wonder how the three of them were going to be able to stake out the mall in the first place.

He hadn't thought about much more than the fact that someone from the Dark Kingdom seemed to be impersonating him for the sole purpose of luring a bunch of innocent girls into either a fight or just a trap; he wasn't about to let that happen, of course. But, now that the three of them were on their way, Mamoru could only wonder if Trevor-kohai would have any ideas to keep them from being noticed.

Not only by the people all around them in the mall, but by mall security, and whichever of their enemies might have been staking out that very same mall.

"Come on, we're almost there!" Usagi-chan whisper-shouted to the pair of them, waving them over to a hidden alcove just outside the main building.

"Stop being so obvious, bun-head," he said, pausing for a moment to check if anyone was looking over at them, then making his way over to where Usagi-chan and Trevor-kohai were standing. "Trevor-kohai, do you know how we'll be able to stay out of sight?"

"I know how to do this, Mamoru-baka!" Usagi-chan snapped, taking out some kind of strange, chubby pen, of all things. "Moon Power, change us into a group of mall security guards!"

A curtain of shimmering light settled over the three of them, and as Mamoru felt a light tingle over his skin as the light faded away, he looked down to see that he truly had ended up in the uniform of an MS Mall security guard.

"I guess you do know what you're doing, bun-head."

She gave him an annoyed look for that, and Mamoru bit the inside of his cheek; he always did seem to trip over his words, whenever he ended up spending time with Usagi-chan.

~SM~

Narrowing his eyes as he looked into one of the stores, Nephrite turned at the sound of a young girl's voice, calling out one of the aliases he used when out among the troublesome humans who might have otherwise become too curious about him.

"I'm Naru Osaka, from the Juban Middle School Tennis team," the girl said, and Nephrite wondered for a moment why she would bring something like that up, before he recalled just where she would have recognized him from.

"Ah, I remember you," he lied; she was just one more human, in the end. "Are you here shopping?"

"Yes, I am," she said, looking down at her feet for a lingering moment. "Um, do you mind if I ask you a something?" He tilted his head slightly, inviting the girl to continue. "Are you Tuxedo Kamen?"

"What?" he demanded, shocked, then quickly schooled his expression so that she wouldn't begin to suspect him of anything. "What makes you think that?"

"Oh, there's no reason," she said, looking away as her face turned red once more. "I just thought it might be nice if you were."

Does she know that I used Tuxedo Kamen's name on those love letters? Nephrite found himself wondering; true he had sent them to the schools in this area, but none of the other girls had come out to investigate him in return. Is it possible that this girl is Sailor Moon?

"I'm sorry for asking you such a weird question, Sanjoin-san," the girl said, still looking rather flustered.

"Naru?" he asked, catching the girl's attention just as she seemed about to leave.

"What?"

"I'd say you're the sweetest girl at Juban Middle School," he said, leaning lightly against the right-side corner the pair of them were standing beside.

"Really?" she asked, cheerful energy coming off of her in veritable waves.

"I've been interested in you for awhile now," he said, smiling as he laid his right hand on her shoulder. "I'll see you tonight," he called back, turning to leave.

If that girl truly was Sailor Moon, she would be certain to appear before him tonight.

~SM~

As the three of them made their way through the mall, keeping an eye out for anyone in the same kind of uniform he'd described seeing Zoisite wearing when he'd been attacked by the man, Trevor couldn't help but wonder how all of this was going to end up happening. He'd also made sure to describe Zoisite's appearance as well as he could, since he knew better than a lot of people that clothes could be easily changed. But, for all that he'd already done, Trevor was still worried.

Still, he could hardly deny that he, Usagi, and Mamoru-sempai had done everything they could to make sure that they'd all come out of this next battle all right.

As the day ended and all the shoppers lingering in the mall began leaving through the various exits, Trevor looked up to meet Mamoru-sempai's gaze, and the two of them joined up to search for Usagi.

"I spotted Naru-chan," Usagi said, as soon as the pair of them had made their way over to where she was. "She looked like she was talking to some guy."

"We're not here for your friend's love life, bun-head. We're here to make sure no one else gets caught up in the Dark Kingdom's trap," Mamoru-sempai snapped, before Trevor could say anything.

"Was she talking to anyone we know?" he asked, moving further into Usagi's line of sight.

"No, it just looked like some guy with long hair," Usagi said, as the three of them checked to make sure that none of the actual guards were close enough to spot them and wonder what they were doing. "Still, it looked like Naru-chan was going to come back tonight, too."

"We'll have to look out for her while we're here, then," he said, as the three of them moved into a quieter corner of the mall.

"Yeah, we will," Mamoru-sempai said, as the lights in the mall began to shut down. "But we'd better get out of sight before anyone spots us. The mall's going to be closing soon."

"Yeah," he said, casting a last look around, making sure that there was no one close enough to overhear what the three of them were saying.

As more and more of the lights around them began shutting down, he, Usagi, and Mamoru-sempai all pulled out their various transformation devices. Leaping lightly up into the rafters, as his transformation into Golden Kamen completed itself and left him feeling stronger and more aware in the wake of it, Trevor felt the others transforming along with him. Standing with Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Moon, Trevor smiled slightly.

The pair of them smiled back, and the three of them crouched in the rafters to wait for the Dark Kingdom to spring their latest trap.

~SM~

"Tuxedo Kamen?" Naru called, making her way into the darkened mall.

She couldn't help but wonder just where Sanjoin-sama was going to be, since he'd been the one to send out all of those love letters in the first place. She wanted nothing more than to see him again, even though she still didn't quite understand why he'd been so surprised when she'd asked him if he was Tuxedo Kamen. So, as she kept walking, calling out to him as she did, Naru decided that she would ask him about that, too.

As she walked even deeper into the darkened mall, the lights suddenly snapped on, and Sanjoin-sama himself appeared at the top of a nearby escalator.

"I'm glad you came," he said, as he rode the escalator down to the level she was standing on.

"You really are Masato Sanjoin-sama!" Naru exclaimed, having recognized his voice from when he was talking to her, just this afternoon; he seemed a bit surprised to hear that, but she smiled all the wider. "Yes, that voice and that presence definitely belong to Masato Sanjoin-sama!" she exclaimed, feeling all the happier that she'd managed to guess right.

"You truly like Masato Sanjoin that much?" he asked, and now the escalator had nearly carried him down to her level.

"After what you said earlier today, I've become a captive of your love," she said, knowing that Usagi-chan would have laughed, and that Trevor-kun would have probably given her that concerned big brother look he usually used when he thought either of them was doing something risky.

Or course, he mostly used that look on Usagi.

Before anything else could happen, someone grabbed Naru's shoulders and pulled her away from Sanjoin-sama. Looking over at who had just done that, Naru saw that they were dressed in a tuxedo. With their golden mask and their shorter, red-lined cape, Naru realized that this had to be Golden Kamen. She didn't know why Golden Kamen would take her away, since Tuxedo Kamen seemed to be an ally of his, if not actually his friend.

It was really strange.

~SM~

Narrowing his eyes, as he found himself faced with both Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen, Nephrite growled deep in his throat. First that schoolboy had managed to escape him yet again, and now this. It was infuriating.

"A monster who toys with the pure hearts of young girls will never look good in a tuxedo!" Sailor Moon snapped, glaring at him.

"And I won't forgive you for abusing my image to trap innocent girls," Tuxedo Kamen declared, glaring at him and holding out that cane of his that he and that schoolboy counterpart of his both seemed to possess.

"I hardly need your forgiveness," he snarled in return, gathering himself for the fight that was clearly about to begin.

Discarding the disguise he'd worn to this place, Nephrite leaped back up to the level where the pair of them were standing.

"So, you're a part of the Dark Kingdom, just like Zoisite," Tuxedo Kamen snapped, hidden eyes tilted in what was clearly a furious glare of his own.

"I am Nephrite, one of the Dark Kingdom's Four Kings of Heaven," he scoffed, hovering in the air as he gathered energy to himself to strike. "Hear me Regulus, in the constellation of Leo, who shines in the southern skies! Lend me your strength!" Summoning the celestial beast, he set it upon Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen, while he turned to search for the schoolboy that always seemed to be following them.

~SM~

After he'd escorted Naru-chan out of the mall, Trevor had turned to make his own way back in. Usagi and Mamoru-sempai had stayed behind, to delay their enemy and make sure he couldn't try to attack Naru-chan again, and Trevor could only hope that she would be able to make it back home safely. Hurrying back towards the sound of fighting, Trevor caught sight of what looked like an actual, pastel-colored lion.

Forcing himself to keep moving, knowing that if he stopped to gawk even for a moment he'd have a much harder time making himself start moving again, Trevor threw a trio of yellow roses at the lion bearing down on Usagi and Mamoru-sempai. Driving the lion back, and drawing its attention so that it would stop attacking the pair of them, Trevor met up with them and they all turned to face the lion again.

"Is Naru-chan safe?" Usagi asked.

"She is," he said, nodding sharply.

"That's good to hear," Mamoru-sempai said, glancing back at him briefly, before they all turned their attention to the lion again. "He says his name's Nephrite," Mamoru-sempai said, moving closer so that the pair of them were less likely to be overheard by Nephrite himself.

Usagi tried to use her Moon Tiara Action, but the lion that Nephrite had summoned seemed tougher than any of the youma that any of them had faced, and just ended up being knocked to the side.

"What?! Why didn't it work?" Usagi exclaimed, looking at the lion as it rose back to its four feet.

"Nevermind that, we have to get some distance!" Mamoru-sempai said, as the three of them gathered together again.

"Up to the second level?" he asked, keeping his eyes on Nephrite and the lion he'd summoned, just to make sure it wasn't about to attack them while they were talking.

"Yes," Mamoru-sempai said. "Nephrite seems to be trying to herd us back towards the elevators; we can't let him carry out whatever plan he has for us."

"Aren't the other Senshi going to be here soon?" Usagi asked, as the three of them leaped up to the second level again.

"I contacted them, but something-"

Leaping apart, as Nephrite's summoned lion landed almost directly in the middle of their huddle, Trevor could only hope that Rei-san and Ami-san would be here soon. The three of them could clearly use the help.

~SM~

Narrowing his eyes, as he caught sight of the human girl who had been so interested in the man he had presented himself as that she had been willing to follow him even to this remote place. He could use this; considering all the work that the schoolboy had put into evacuating her from the mall to begin with, the schoolboy would clearly be just as swift to try to aid her once more. Watching from above as the girl made her way deeper into the mall, Nephrite watched from the air as she proceeded on her way.

Directing his projected Constellation of Leo, Nephrite herded the schoolboy to the edge of the second level that he, Sailor Moon, and Tuxedo Kamen had leaped up to, knocking him back down to the main floor. The first thing the schoolboy saw, of course, was the girl he likely thought he had saved traipsing right back into danger again. It was only natural that he would try to save her again.

Feinting an attack on the girl again, Nephrite forced a connection between the two of them, touching the schoolboy's forehead just above the golden mask that gave the schoolboy his other name. Calling the Constellation of Leo back to his side, just in time to deflect a trio of red roses thrown by Tuxedo Kamen, he grabbed for the schoolboy before he could fall to the ground. However, Nephrite found himself stymied by a fog bank cutting off his vision.

~SM~

Grabbing Trevor-nii before Nephrite could try to attack him again, Usagi hugged him, dragging him away even as he changed back from Golden Kamen to her sweet, kind older brother.

"Ami-san is covering us while Rei-san escapes with Osaka-san," Mamoru-baka said, leaning in close as the pair of them ran alongside each other. "How's he doing?"

"It looks like Nephrite managed to drain his energy, but he'll probably be okay after he sleeps," Usagi said; at least, she hoped her older brother would be all right, since he'd been so quick to risk himself for Naru-chan's safety.

"That's good to hear," Mamoru-baka said, sighing softly in what Usagi figured was relief.

"Yeah," she said, heading up to the roof of the mall to meet up with Ami-chan and Rei-chan.

~SM~

"After Nephrite boasted about defeating Sailor Moon, and yet here he is after failing to kill her or any of the Sailor Guardians," Zoisite said, his presence no less annoying than his constant attempts to undermine him. "I suggest you sentence him to the Eternal Sleep as well."

"I'd hardly go making suggestions if I were in your position, Zoisite!" Queen Beryl snapped. "While Nephrite may have failed to capture the schoolboy, he did drain a great deal of energy from him. The capture of the schoolboy was your responsibility, as well as finding the Silver Crystal. I suggest you remember that, before I sentence you to the Eternal Sleep!"

Smirking, even Queen Beryl dismissed him and he returned to the mansion he had been using for his divinations, Nephrite immersed himself back in his divinations once more. It seemed that Naru Osaka would be his next target; the human whose energy had peaked, and so would provide the greatest potential harvest for the Dark Kingdom. Still, there was the obvious problem of the Sailor Guardians, who seemed to be rather close to the girl; the schoolboy would be little trouble, and given the clear connection between the two of them, it might even prove to be to his advantage.

Humans are truly foolish creatures, after all, he mused, smirking as he conjured an image of the schoolboy and Naru Osaka both.