Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, Sailor Moon or any of the characters. Danny Phantom is the sole property of Butch Hartman, Nickelodeon and Viacom International. Sailor Moon is the property of Naoko Takeuchi and Kodansha.
A Phantom's Love and Courage
Chapter 13: Another Gathering of Heroes: Getting To Know New Comrades
Danny and Makoto soon arrived to an ice cream shop, one what the tall girl recommended.
"Furuutsu Paara Kuraun?..."Danny read the sign.
"It's pronounced Furūtsu pārā Kuraun, but in English you can call it the Fruits Parlor Crown. It's a great shop. Me and my friends come here whenever we can..."Makoto said.
Danny smiled.
"Okay, let's check the Fruits Parlor Crown!..."He said, and they soon went inside.
The two teenagers soon made their orders. Danny got a simple strawberry ice cream cone and Makoto ordered a chocolate-cherry swirl.
They were soon seated at a nearby booth and began to enjoy their ice cream.
"Wow. You weren't kidding. This stuff rocks!..."Danny said as he took another bite of the ice cream.
Makoto smiled at that.
"Told ya..."She said, smiling as she kept eating her own.
After a few minutes, they began chatting again and both being careful not to spill their frozen treats. Danny especially didn't want to make a mess as he didn't have access to a laundromat at the moment.
"So...uh...Makoto?..."Danny asked, looking shy right now.
"Yes? What is it Danny-kun?..."Makoto asked, smiling.
Danny gulped a bit, feeling his weak-knee reaction around girls acting up.
"You got this, Fenton. Just act normal and don't say anything stupid. No one knows you here and you can't ruin it by acting weird to the first pretty girl you've met in Japan that treats you like you're not a freak or loser!..."He thought, trying to calm himself down.
"Uh...well...why don't you tell me more about yourself?..."He asked, more like a guess.
"More about myself?..."Makoto asked, blinking.
"Yeah, I mean...I mean...this is technically like our third meeting and I barely know anything about you besides your name. Although it is a really nice name though..."He said, hoping that he wasn't coming across as a huge dork.
Thankfully, the tall and pretty girl smiled and him and simply thought he was funny. If anything, she seemed to like he was comfortable with her.
"Well, what would you like to know?..."She asked.
"Well...anything really. Anything you are comfortable sharing with me, that is..."He said, giving her his full attention.
"Well, like I said...Makoto Kino. I'm 14 years old..."She said.
"Same as me..."Danny said, glad that they have in common.
"Looks like it..."She said with a giggle.
"Anyway, what do you specifically want to know about me, Danny-kun?..."She said, humoring the ghost boy with a playful cutesy tone in her voice.
Little did she know, that cutesy tone was very appealing to him.
"So, what are your interests, your hobbies, your dreams?..."Danny asked, wanting to get to know her.
"Well, my hobbies are cooking and baking, gardening, shopping and practicing martial arts..."She began.
"I also enjoy playing video games, listening to music, reading and sometimes doing flower arrangement...and I also enjoy dancing and ice staking from time to time..."Makoto answered the boy.
"Huh? Well, I'm not really surprised about the cooking, since I still can't get that amazing lunch you made out of my mind to be honest. Same with the way you used your martial arts to teach those thugs a lesson..."Danny commented, still impressed.
"It's like you were a real life Supergirl, only not a blonde, not that that's the only hair color I like..."He said, making her giggle.
"Thank you. It's always nice to hear someone praise my cooking. The same with my fighting skills, although I've never been compared to one of my favorite comic book superheroes before. Granted, there's some manga characters I'd like to be compared to..."She said.
"I can say you're certainly super in many ways... like with how you look right now..."Danny thought, feeling light right now.
She was very beautiful as she looked up and thought to herself.
"As for my dream, well...I am still kinda working on making it into a reality someday..."She said in a thoughtful way.
"I would either like to have my own bakery, a sweets shop or restaurant when I am older...or run my own flower shop...or maybe even a combination of the two. I still haven't decided yet..."She said.
"So...you wanna run to open your own food business, flower shop or some combination of the two, huh? That sounds pretty cool, wanting to have your bakery or restaurant or sweet shop. Owning a business is a pretty impressive goal to have...Danny commented.
"My friends Rei and Ami say that I'll need to make up my mind on which goal that I want to pursue first. Kind of hard to pick so soon..."Makoto said.
"Well, whichever you decided on doing, I'm sure you will do great. After all, if your flower skills are as good as your cooking skills, you don't have anything to worry about..."Danny said, truly believing that Makoto has what it takes to achieve any of these goals.
"That's kind of you to say, Danny-kun..."The tall girl said, not meeting his eyes for that moment.
"I'm not just being kind, I'm serious. If you really want it, then go for it. Once you give your all then you'll be glad to take the chance to do it..."Danny said, meaning it.
"T-Thank you..."She said, blushing a bit.
Danny smiled as she admired her while she wasn't looking.
"She really is something else. If it wasn't for the fact that I won't be here after me and the Sailor Guardians beat this new threat then I'd spend more time with her...and it wasn't because a girl like this would save me without even knowing me. I just might have to perfect my Japanese and move here..."He thought, finding he was having better luck with this girl than back home.
"He really is being a kind friend. I'll be sad when his vacation is over and he has to go back to America..."Makoto thought as she started to get curious about him.
She had no idea she was having better luck with this boy than usual.
"I thank you for that...But enough about me, tell me about yourself..."Makoto asked, wanting to get to know her new friend better
"Well, I'm from Amity Park and I go to Casper High. My hometown is pretty much like any other town in my country, with one exception that I won't bore you with..."Danny said, deciding not to mention anything unneccesary.
"My hobbies are video games, watching movies about horror, superhero, comedy, adventure, fantasy and Sci-fi, astronomy, and bowling, I am interested in astronomy and my dream is to one day be an astronaut and work for NASA..."Danny answered as the tall girl smiled.
"That sounds nice, being an astronaut is a very exciting career..."Makoto said.
Danny smiled at that.
"Thanks. I'm still trying my best to working up to that goal, not that I'm in a hurry as I have stuff to do..."He said, not completely exaggerating that detail.
"Might wanna wait a while before I admit what I do..."He thought.
The two teenagers continued to talk and get to know each other better.
Both feeling their new friendship grow bit by bit as they shared more facts about their lives and experiences.
Later
After the ice cream, the two teenagers left the establishment and kept chatting.
They were exchanging stories of their lives and both were laughing at what they heard.
"Are you serious? So this quote on quote Football jock in your high school secretly collects teddy bears?..."Makoto said with a giggle.
"Yeah, I found this out later during a party of his..."Danny said, leaving out the parts where he fought off ghosts during that time.
"Well I don't think that I can top that, but there was this one time where one of my best friends was taking care a baby for a mother that fell ill with her boyfriend..."The tall girl began, giggling.
"So throughout half the whole day she was babysitting, she didn't realize that the baby was boy the whole time, because the baby had such a feminine sounding name. Once she changed the diaper, she got a massive surprise..."Makoto said as Danny chuckled.
"For real?..."He asked.
The tall girl nodded.
"Positive. She was really in for a shock when Manami finally got his diaper changed and saw for herself..."She said.
The boy shorter than her kept laughing.
"At least he didn't need to pee..."He said, chuckling.
The two kept walking and sharing stories with reasonable editing to protect their respective secret heroic identities. They had no needs to know of that, not yet at least.
Danny soon realized what this might look like from an outsiders perspective and felt his face get warm as he let a thought get to him.
"If anyone saw this, they would probably think that we're on a date...not that I'd mind something like that to be honest. But I wonder what she might think about how we might look to others right now?..."Danny thought, feeling pretty bashful at the moment.
"If Usagi and the others saw this, they would accuse us on being on a date again...not that it wouldn't be nice getting ice cream with a boy on a date...but I wonder how he would think about the way this friendly outing would look to others? He probably only wants to be friends. Just like the other guys..."She thought, unaware of the boy's true feelings.
A severe case of irony.
"Something up?..." Danny asked, seeing the look on her face.
"Hmm? Oh... I was... just thinking... Watashi ga tabete iru aisukurīmu wa totemo oishīdesu..." She said, going from English to Japanese.
Danny's smile remained still.
"Come again?..."He asked, confused.
"I said that the ice cream I'm eating is pretty tasty... why?..." She asked.
Danny noticed the time, seeing getting dark, and then noticed that his necklace was running low on power once he got a good look at it.
"Are you kidding me?! Now?!..."He thought, realizing that he'd better leave or he'll have a lot more to explain to later on.
"I...uh...better go now Makoto. My...uh...parents are probably wondering where I am right now..."He said, trying hard to act normal.
"Oh, really? Well that's fine. I should be getting home by now too..."Makoto said, feeling a bit disappointed that their time to hangout together was cut so short.
"Sorry..." He said.
"Bye Danny. I hope that we see each other real soon...before your vacation is over..."She said, until she had a great idea light up in her head and halted the ghost boy before he left.
"Hang on! Before we part ways for now, why don't I give you my contact info? That way you and I can keep in touch even if your vacation ends..."She said.
"A tall, super hot girl is willing to give me her phone number? Even if this probably isn't for the reasons most would do, this is already better than my usual track record back home! Awesome!..."He thought, excited.
"Sure!..."He said as he quickly pulled out his cellphone.
The two teenagers exchanged numbers and both teens were beaming with joy at having a way to reach each other.
"Score!..." They thought in unison.
"Arigato, Danny-Kun..."Makoto said as Danny realized that the charm wore off.
"A-Aritgato, Makoto!..."Danny waved back before he left as the charm was wearing off.
Makoto blinked at his sudden hastiness.
"What's with him?..."Makoto wondered she Makoto stared back at her cellphone and smiled brightly.
Her heart skipped a beat, along with a noticeable blush around her cheeks. She just exchanged information with a boy.
"A boy gave me his number... and it wasn't out of pity..."She thought, happy.
Seeing that it was getting late, the tall girl decided to head home. Hoping to having enough time to my herself dinner then running a bath before bedtime.
"I'll call later..." She said to herself, before heading for home.
Later
Danny managed to sneak back to his motel room and charged up his necklace.
He was frustrated.
"Darn it, and just when it was getting good. I still don't get why Clockwork left me with a charm necklace that has such a limited time frame. So inconvenient..."He muttered.
He thought about Makoto, smiling at the idea of being around her.
"Hot, tough, nice... and a good cook. She's the full package in one. The only girl who comes close is Mina. Those are two reasons I wish this stupid thing lasted longer..." He said to himself.
He then mentally debated between the two.
Makoto was tall, strong, tough but also really kind, cool, fun, talented and brave. She has the whole package in his eyes.
Minako, on the other hand, was shorter, cute, perky, and definitely shines with her own unique charm and style. She would definitely be on par with some of the A-list girls back home, but she was a lot nicer and sincere than them by a long shot.
Sure, she might be a little...well, eager but he did like her too. Almost as much as he liked Makoto, even if they seemed to be different kinds of girls.
One thing that they did have in common, is that they are both of them were out of his league, yet they also seemed to enjoy his company. However, Makoto was the one gave her number, albeit because he just saw her. It seems the tall girl was the one who took his thoughts up the most.
The two beautiful girls he met would have to wait, for he had another group of women to meet.
"The sooner I earn their full trust and stop this threat, the sooner I can find Makoto, maybe Mina, and spend some time with them before I have to go home..."He thought.
The ghost boy soon fell asleep, unaware of what tomorrow will bring and how it'll effect the lives of all our heroes.
Or that he'd see the two sooner than he thought.
Elsewhere
Makoto was at home and was in the middle of an online meeting with her friends.
They were all going over what they will do tomorrow when they come across Danny Phantom again.
As usual, Rei was still wary of the ghost boy, but Minako couldn't be more excited.
"I can't believe it, we actually get to work with THE Danny Phantom-san! I feel like I'm about to live out one of my most favorite of fantasies and I can only hope it sends with us being an item..."Minako said, looking thrilled.
"One that, if were not careful, could turn into a nightmare soon enough..."Rei muttered, quickly a childish glare from the blonde with the red ribbon in her hair.
"Cut it out you two, this is serious. We need to figure out what were going to do and discuss with that Danny Phantom tomorrow about this new threat!..."Luna nagged while Usagi was busy drying and brushing her hair after her bath.
"So, what should we do with Danny Phantom to get ready for what's heading our way?..."Usagi said.
"Yeah, that's a good question Usagi. It'll be quite difficult to prepare for a threat we don't even know about, and even more so with someone that we've never worked with before..."Ami said, being as serious as ever.
"I guess we'll just have to wait till we all meet him again tomorrow morning then. Hopefully, he will be someone we can rely on..."Makoto said, since she didn't see any other way around this.
"Hopefully he'll say yes to going out with me..."Minako said in a dreamy way.
Her friends all rolled their eyes and sighed at her fangirl behavior.
"She really has it bad for him. I just hope that she doesn't let it go to her head..."Makoto thought, thinking of the ghost boy.
"Well, he is cute..." Makoto said to herself, while her blonde friend got the wrong idea.
"Hey! Don't think about it! I call dibs!..." Minako went childishly.
"Come on... Minako-chan. He's cute, but there's another boy I have my eyes on right now..." Makoto admitted.
"Really? Who? That boy we saw you with?..." Usagi asked.
"What? Another one?..." Minako asked, looking intrigued.
The tall girl was flustered right now.
"Eh... long story. One I don't wanna share yet..." Makoto said, blushing a bit.
"Besides... I still don't think he'd be interested that way, since I'm too tall..."She thought, feeling insecure.
"I wonder what Mamo is doing right now? I just hope he's thinking of me right now..." Usagi thought to herself, missing him.
The Sailor Guardians continued their meeting, until one of their feline friends noticed that it was getting really late now.
"Well... since we have nothing further to discuss... we should call it a night..." Artemis said.
"Yes please..." Makoto said.
Makoto soon turned off the computer and decided to go to sleep early tonight, feeling tired.
She was unaware of what tomorrow will bring or what will happen the next time she crosses paths with the infamous half ghost superhero.
The Next Day
Danny had woken up around 8 in the morning.
His necklace was already charged up and he felt pretty well rested. He managed to take a quick shower and left the motel room to get some breakfast.
He stopped by a nearby diner and got something called a hamburger steak with an egg on top.
Danny knew that he was still currently in a completely different country and decided not to question the eating habits of the local residents and simply sat down and chowed down on breakfast.
"If Sam were here, she'd flip out at how anti-vegan this is..."He thought as he took another bite out of his meal.
Later
After eating what the ghost boy admitted was a very enjoyable morning meal, he soon flew to Juuban Park, and he waited for his new allies to arrive.
He checked his watched and saw that it was 9:55am.
"Looks like I'm early for once..."He said, happy to not be late.
After a few minutes of waiting, the Sailor Guardians soon appeared.
All but one seemed friendly upon reaching him.
"Hi..."Danny waved in an awkward manner.
"Hi there..."Jupiter said.
"Salutations..." Mercury said.
"Hi, Phantom- San. I was hoping to see you again..."Venus said, waving happily at him.
"Hi there..."Moon said, speaking for the entire group.
"I'm here..."The ghost boy said, rubbing the back of his head in nervousness.
"Okay, let's just exchange numbers and get onto business..."Mars said in a bossy way, wanting to get this over with.
"You know that there's a nicer way of say that, right Mars?..."Moon pointed out.
Mars huffed and ignored the blonde pigtailed leader's remark.
"I guess I'm not a total chick magnet..."Danny thought, already knowing that the dark haired Sailor Guardian didn't seem to trust him.
"Let's show numbers now..." Mercury said to lighten the mood.
The girls exchanged their numbers with him, and Danny did the same. All the while, he found this situation to be one in a million.
"I've been in Japan for less than a week, and I've already exchanged my number with six super hot girls in short skirts. This would, under different circumstances, probably be the best day of my life!..."Danny thought as he took a look at the numbers.
He didn't notice in time one number looked very familiar.
"So, let's go over what to do about the...genius loci you mentioned?..."Moon asked, still a bit confused on some certain details that he told them before.
"Right, let me start explaining again from the beginning..."Danny said, as he recalled what he told them yesterday.
FLASHBACK
Last Night
"Okay, here's the story. Clockwork and that green haired lady told me that a group of beings from another time will be invading our dimension in the next few days, determined to disrupt our future. He called them Genius Loci..."Danny explained.
"A what?..."Moon asked, confused.
"A Genius Loci is a type of spirit located with a specific location..."Mercury explained.
Danny nodded.
"She's right and according to Clockwork, these guys are bad news. It's also very possible that they all know everything about you girls and your abilities..."He said.
"Why us?..." Moon asked.
"Apparently, because you girls will have destroyed a few of them in the coming years, so I guess future versions want payback..." Danny explained.
"So... this is a revenge plot? They want to destroy us before we even had a chance to defeat them?..." Mars asked, alarmed.
"Yup..."The ghost biy said.
Sailor Moon frowned.
"Typical..."She muttered, having been through this routine with bad guys before.
End of Flashback
Present Time
"So, how do we defeat these things?..." Mercury asked.
"I dunno, beats the heck out of me..." Danny said with a shrug.
"You came all this way and you have no idea how to defeat them? What good are you?..." Mars questioned harshly.
"Okay... first off... drop the attitude. I did not come all this way just for one of you to act all haughty... and I don't mean hottie like attractive, I mean haughty like a bad attitude..." Danny said flatly.
All of the guardians sans a scowling Mars chuckled at her expense.
"He's got you there..." Moon said.
Mars crossed her arms and looked away, refusing to justify her comment with a response.
"Second, that's the main reason I was given this mission, to help you prepare..." Danny said.
"Oh, I see your point..." Moon said.
"Well then, how are we going to prepare?..." Mercury asked.
"Well, if they fight anything like Smiley did yesterday, that'd be a good starting point..." Danny said.
"So... would they fight like you? As in flying and stuff?..." Venus asks.
"Maybe... I guess that'd explain why he wanted me to do it..." Danny reasoned.
"Let's spar..."Jupiter said suddenly.
"Uh...come again?..."Danny asked.
"If we're gonna work together, it would help if we see for ourselves what you're made of and how well you can do on the battlefield..."Jupiter said, as she cracked her knuckles in a little bit of excitement.
"Uh...Jupiter, is that really necessary?..."Venus asked, concerned that things might get ugly soon and Danny would not want to work with them.
"Relax Venus, we'll this spar will only be for us to test out just how strong Danny Phantom really is. If he's up for it, that is..."Juptier said.
"We could see for ourselves what he can do, though it might be a risk..." Mercury said.
"I say that she should do it. We need to be sure that we can count him not to hold us back during whatever this threat is..."Mars said, ignoring that Venus glared at her.
"You're a meanie!..."She yelled, but Jupiter spoke uo again.
"This is all just for fun and training, plus I am curious to see just how strong you really are. So, what do you say?..."Jupiter offered.
Danny thought about it and figured that this is probably the best way for everyone to see that they can depend on him.
'I've never really spared with anyone before. Most people I fight usually wanna destroy me, but this is the first time that someone actually just wants to do it for fun. Okay..."Danny agreed.
"I was hoping you'd say that..."Jupiter said, smiling.
Danny smiled back, as the other heroes were wary as the spar was about to begin.
All the while, trouble seemed to be heading their way...in more ways than one.
Oh boy.
-To be continued-
Next time on A Phantom's Love and Courage
Heroes From Across the Pacific: Affection Behind the Fists
A/N: Me and NeoMark would like to thank Jay The Average Fanboy for helping with this chapter. You rock :)
REPLIES to my loyal and totally awesome reviewer:
Luiz4200: Sorry, no spoilers. I guess that we will have to wait and see what happens.
RonaldM40196867:
1) Sailor Galaxia.
2) I would say her impulsiveness and jumping headfirst into situations.
Invader Johnny: :)
Jebest4781: Thank you :)
Simm36: Gracias :)
:) I hope you enjoyed this! Remember to read and review :)