"Yuichiro?!" Rei stuttered out as if she just had seen a ghost, while SunTzu looked at her and said man gave her his brightest and smuggest grin.
"O-hisashiburi desu ne, Rei." The shaggy looking guy responded as SunTzu's eyebrow shot up so high on his face that anybody who would have seen it, would have been afraid that it would shoot above it's head.
"Yes Rei, Yuichiro-kun is back. He just arrived here half an hour ago." Rei's grandfather chimed in, with a satisfied grin, his hands tugged into the obi of his priest's clothes.
SunTzu's insides began to cramp as he watched his Rei unable to neither speak nor take her eyes off of that man.
"Rei? Who is this man?" SunTzu asked her, trying to keep his voice as neutral as he could.
It took a moment before she answered, eyes still fixed on the other man, making SunTzu fill up with jealous rage inside.
"SunTzu, this is Yuichiro." She finally broke her stare and looked at SunTzu. "My Ex-Fiancé."
SunTzu had been shot, choked, beaten to a pulp, slashed, thrown through windows and metal doors, mentally drained from the Force and his very own life energy, by anything ranging from Daimons, over to Senshi to a literal Force Deity but what he just had heard hurt him in a way that succeeded that all.
"And this guy is?" The man named Yuichiro asked and SunTzu had to fight down the urge to run over to the other man and break his neck in a swift move of an outburst of rage.
Rei could sense the sudden spike of rage beside her and for a moment she was really worried that SunTzu would do something stupid. But could she blame him? SunTzu might have been what she always called a suicidal maniac but at his heart he genuinly loved and cared for her above all and she knew her staring and her inner conflict wouldn't have been hidden from him. A flash of her telling Minako that it was over because he, Yuichiro, was back shot in front of her inner eye. And it stung. She knew it was wrong. She knew she loved SunTzu, she loved him deeply. She knew what SunTzu meant for her, the love, the support, the protection.
Yomi, would she ever had become Senator without his mental support? Not even speaking about how many times SunTzu had saved her life. SunTzu had even been the reason she had become Cosmic Sailor Mars.
But for the love of all things Rei just couldn't shake those feelings running through her right now. Yuichiro, the first man she genuinely had loved, the man who had made her a woman, the man she had decided once to marry, the man she even gave Minako's love up for. Pain shot through her temple, her heart and her soul. Why of all times now?
If he would have gotten here just a month ago, she would have told him to go to hell. But right now, after everything that happened lately, after Rago and that vision she had, seeing her former lover caused feelings inside Rei to stir up she wasn't ready to feel, not wanting to feel.
"This… this is SunTzu. My boyfriend." She stated, hoping her voice wouldn't give away her nervousness.
"Oh granddaughter, don't say things like this, can't you see that your Yuichiro is back." Grandfather Hino said, not even savoring a glance to SunTzu.
Just like he had been throwing through a window by a Yuuzhan Vong Warrior these words crashed into SunTzu and in this moment something inside him broke. He closed his eyes and wheezed. Maybe it was his consciousness in an act of self preservation, maybe it was his boiling rage or maybe it was just his heart shattering but forgotten was the ring in his pocket.
"I guess your grandpa is not ready for my introduction. Take this." He handed Rei the gifts for the old priest and turned around.
"Whe… what are you doing?" Rei asked as he walked away.
"I'll be doing something useful. Don't wait for me!"
As he walked away with forceful steps and passed through between the Koronians that had stopped sweeping and looked to the ground in what probably was shame, Rei yelled after him.
"SunTzu!?"
But the pilot didn't even seem to notice.
As soon as Crystal Tokyo's First Knights feet reached the first step of the stairs leading down from the Hikawa Shrine, he spoke into his chrono, which also served as communicator, and to his starfighter.
"AICA, cease all training operations and head back to base immediately. I hope you're armed and ready to roll."
SunTzu walked away from the shrine and as soon as he had the chance waved a taxi over, which took him to the Base.
He and AICA, or rather Hotaru flying AICA, arrived almost at the same time. As soon as the A-Wing was in it's hangar, SunTzu walked up to it and began to change into a flight suit, that was stored in one of AICA's storage compartments.
In the meantime Hotaru had climbed out of the cockpit.
"What's the matter, why did you order us back from training?" She asked as she watched SunTzu close his suit, not looking up. Also she noticed that he pulled out something from the tailored suit he had packed into the compartment and stowed it into his flight suit.
And then the Senshi of Silence, her psychic powers pretty keen as well, could feel the immense rage inside her superior.
"Are you okay, SunTzu?" She asked, her voice giving away her worrying.
SunTzu finally looked up to her and tried his best to force a smirk while he grabbed his helmet and closed the storage space.
He walked past Hotaru and gave her a headpat.
"Just having a day that doesn't go as planned."
And then SunTzu swung himself into the cockpit.
Hotaru took a few steps back, wondering what had happened to him, while AICA slowly lifted off.
As soon SunTzu had AICA carefully hovered out of the hangar to not endanger Hotaru, he gave maximal thrust and shot into the sky.
Rei looked on as SunTzu was leaving the temple, knowing she should ran after him. Knowing she should chase Yuichiro off the shrine for good. Knowing that she should tear her grandfather a new one for letting Yuichiro in again.
But somehow she couldn't.
"What's up with this guy?" Yuichiro finally asked and as SunTzu disappeared on the steps she turned around.
"What are you doing here?" She asked her ex in an angry voice.
"Hey, why so unfriendly, Rei? I was in the neighborhood and decided to pay old Hikawa Shrine a visit."
"Rei, don't be so harsh. Yuichiro is a visitor and old friend."
"Old friend? Grandpa, he left me weeks before our wedding. Because he needed to find himself." She spat out and smoke began to rise up from her.
"And I can assure you that I did find myself. Listen Rei, I wanted to come and apologize for all the pain that I caused you. Care for a little talk in private?"
Rei Hino, Sol's Senator and Senshi of Fire, knew she should have said no.
"Do you really think what you did is forgivable? Ever?"
"Listen, it would take an immense weight from my chest to at least apologize and tell you why I left." The brunette man motioned for them to walk a bit.
Rei thought about it for a second before she sighed.
"Fine, you have one minute."
They walked away a few meters until they were out of earshot.
"Shoot it." Rei said.
"Listen, i know I can never make up what I did back then. Especially since it was the second time I did it, but I really didn't know who I really was or where I was going. Please know that my feelings for you never changed. On all my travels, no matter where I was, you were always on my mind."
Rei held her hand up to stop his talking.
"Stop it! Do you really think you can just come back here after four years and everything will be back like it used to be?"
Yuichiro swallowed hard.
"I never thought it would be like that, although I wished for it. And apparently you moved on. A foreigner even."
"German. SunTzu is German, and I don't think that Love knows borders, if you want to start with that."
"That's not what I meant, it's just not what I expected from you, Rei."
"Leaving me alone, for the second time, so close to our wedding, and expecting me to not move on? What was it that you expected then? If you at least could have warned me before you were just gone overnight. All that you left me was that short letter. And to let you know, SunTzu is doing everything for me, he would never, ever abandon me. And I moved on otherwise as well, I'm not just a student and a Miko anymore. I don't know if you heard it yet but the Galaxy is at war and we Senshi are on it's frontline."
"I know. And I know that you're even a Galactic Senator now. It was actually what made me come here. At your inauguration speech you talked about a very special guy that couldn't be there and I thought you meant me."
Rei snorted, this was too much.
"I meant SunTzu. He couldn't be there because he doesn't run away from his duties. Like other guys."
"Listen Rei, I am deeply sorry for what I did, I never wanted to hurt you."
"But you did hurt me! Listen, I'm getting tired of this conversation. I have better things to do, so I guess it's better you go now."
With a sad face Yuichiro looked to the ground.
"Alright then." And he nestled something out of his pocket. "Believe it or not it was great to see you again. If you ever want to talk over about what happened or about us, or just go for a coffee, here's my number. I'm staying at one of my family's apartments in Shinjuku."
Rei knew she shouldn't have taken the number but she took the piece of paper with the numbers nonetheless.
"I don't think I'll ever want to talk to you again but whatever."
"Later then, I guess." Yuichiro said with a forced smile
"No, i don't think so. Sayonara Yuichiro."
Yuichiro nodded and walked away, the same way SunTzu had taken before.
As she walked back her grandfather looked at her curiously.
"Why is Yuichiro already going? Didn't you two had to talk about a lot of stuff?"
Rei just shot him a cold glare and the old man finally understood how much of a line he had crossed today.
"Listen Rei…" Rei cut him short with by walking past him and holding up a hand.
Angrily she tromped into her room and after closing the door loudly, as loud as it was possible for a traditional Japanese door she laid down on her bed, head dropping hard on the pillow.
She had an immense headache now.
A Galactic Senator shouldn't have to go through stuff like this. And I think I really fucked up when it comes to SunTzu.
She was angry and sad, disappointed in her grandfather for not keeping his promise to at least get introduced to SunTzu without making a scene. And then there was also that small, tiny part somewhere inside her that felt a thrill that Yuichiro was back.
After trying to gather herself for a few moments and deciding against calling SunTzu, as he had seemed so angry that she wasn't sure if he would attend her call anyway without cooling off a bit beforehand, she pulled out her phone and called her best friend.
"Senator Hotness, how did it go? Are gramps and SunTzu already best buddies and severly discussing your dowry by now?" The lively Blonde took the call.
"Minako, where are you?" Rei said and in her voice Minako could immediately hear that something was wrong.
"Why? I'm at the studio. That something went wrong? Did Grandpa not like SunTzu?"
"Worse." Rei replied.
"What happened Rei?"
"Yuichiro was here. Just as we arrived, he was here, visiting my grandfather."
"Yuichiro!? Are you fucking kidding me, Rei!?"
"No, I'm not. He really was here. And it made SunTzu spin his heel and leave. He really was angry and upset."
Rei was sure that the First of the Senshi on the other end facepalmed right now.
"Please tell me, you sent Yuichiro to hell. Please, Rei."
"I… I told him farewell. But…"
"But what, Rei?"
"I had very mixed feelings seeing him again."
"Oh God, Rei. Okay, stay where you are, I'm coming over. I think someone has to ream you out."
Meanwhile SunTzu had left behind Earth's atmosphere and was rushing into space.
To AICA's question what was going on and why her sensors reported her that something wasn't right he hadn't answered. Instead he had asked her for the nearest battle.
"I have a small patrol under attack from a pirate, or rogue Imp group, near the border of the Core and the Core Worlds. They're asking for help but the Fleet has nothing available to help them right now." The female AI came on after a moment.
"That just changed, give me the fastest course. And AICA we take a course that you computed."
"Affirmative, if we don't end in a star, we could be there in around 1,5 hours. If we directly jump from the CTE.
"Hit it." SunTzu ordered and the black snub with the grey stripes was in hyperspace before it even had passed the moon.
Minako immediately took off to Rei's place. Taking the subway she had her face hidden behind a face mask as lots of people did in Japan. She wasn't in a mood for any interaction with fans or people that noticed her. A very rare thing for the blond whirlwind.
As soon as she got out at the station she pulled out her cell phone and made sure she was out of earshot of any listeners. She hated why she had to call their group genius up now, but as First of the Senshi she had a duty to fulfill.
"Ami. There could be a problem. A huge one."
SunTzu fell out of hyperspace near an uninhabited system at the borders of the Core Worlds and the Galaxy's Core.
The patrol, which had been attacked consisted of a Frigate and two corvettes and was chased by an Immobilizer 418 Cruiser, preventing their retreat, and a Vindicator Class Cruiser and their fighter and bomber detachments. The frigate's own squadron was tangled into dogfights with the former imperial Ship's starfighters while the two corvettes tried their best to keep the enemy's bombers at bay.
The three Galactic Alliance Ships were fleeing from the rogue Imperial troops, their sublight engines giving everything they got, but all three ships already showed signs of damage and their shields were almost failing.
But then something happened, something unbelievable. Some of the GA's crewmen on the three ships and some of the snub pilots would later say what they had seen had been a ghost.
The sensors detected a single fighter falling out of Hyperspace but it was immediately gone again and the sensor operators had bigger problems as to calibrate their systems new, as suddenly a multi-lock-missile shot out of the dark of space and vaporized six Tie-Fighters.
Two pairs of advanced EMP-Missiles followed and suddenly the enemy's Capital Ships were sitting ducks.
Another missile strike followed, another multi-lock-missile that destroyed a great lot of the offensive weapons on the Immobilizer-Cruiser before a pair of Proton Torpedoes hit it's bridge and ripped it off from the ship.
Now a yellow light was visible, shooting away from the badly damaged Cruiser while shooting another pair of torpedoes at the Vindicator, damaging it's hull.
That was a sign for the Alliance's ships and they turned about and opened fire on the cruisers, mostly on the Vindicator as the Immobilizer was done for with several breaches in it's hull and with it's bridge structure missing.
One of the corvettes was a Corellian Gunship and the captain of the ship now let every concussion missile he had left on his ship rain down on the Vindicator in one long, single salvo.
Meanwhile that black Starfighter with the yellow shield around it, took out more enemy snubs in a speed and efficiency that seemed unreal.
Not even five minutes after the starfigher had arrived the battle was over, and what at first seemed as a doomed recon mission now had been turned into a total victory for the Galactic Alliance Fleet.
The patrol tried to reach the mysterious starfighter that had turned the battle via radio, but the A-Wing didn't answer.
And as suddenly as it had arrived it was gone again.
One hour later AICA fell out of Hyperspace at the Coruscant Trade Exchange, right at the space station that marked the jump point to the Sol System.
While he let AICA hover in place, SunTzu took a deep breather, flying this attack had exhausted him.
But he had kept his word to himself and did something useful. He had saved hundreds of lives of Galactic Alliance personnel while helping to destroy an important enemy asset with the attack on the Immobilizer.
He pulled his helmet's visor up and took a moment to look at the stars. After a moment he pulled the etui with the ring out of his flight suit's pocket and gazed at it in his hand.
Maybe next time then…
Suddenly an incoming holo call, broadcasted further into AICA's cockpit, pulled him out of his thoughts. When he saw who it was he attended it after quickly storing the small box with the engagement ring in one of AICA's small cockpit storage departments.
"Mate, wot the fook? I've been waiting hours for news now. And I can't even reach you on your bloody phone."
"That's because I'm not even on Earth, Haruka."
"What do you mean not on Earth? You guys already went to ya bloody honeymoon after you gave Rei the ring?"
SunTzu took a moment to answer.
"I didn't ask her. When we were supposed to meet with her grandfather her ex, ex-fiancé to be precise, showed up."
"WHAT?! That Yuichiro-guy?"
"Yeah, and while Rei couldn't take her eyes off of him anymore her grandfather decided to not even look at me. I left then."
It happened very rarely, but right now even Haruka Tenoh had problems to find words.
Before she could reply something SunTzu spoke again.
"I'm sorry, I getting another call in, it's Ami. Probably wanting to know why I took my starfighter and left the planet. I'll talk to you later. Bye Haruka."
"Bye. Keep ya head up Mate."
SunTzu ended the call and took the call from Ami.
Michiru was sitting in a large room in their apartment, which acted as their atelier and was playing her violin when she heard what was probably the loudest and longest "Fooock!" that Haruka had let out in the last few years.
"Captain, would you care to explain to me why you left the planet? And where you were?" Major Ami Urawa, Head of the Intelligence Service of the Royal Kingdom of Crystal Tokyo, asked her friend and comrade SunTzu, no hello, no how are you before. She seemed to be tense.
"Good evening Ami, how are you? It's nice that you're so concerned with my leisure activities." SunTzu replied in a way to friendly voice before he continued in a way sharper tone. "And I'm pretty sure you do know where I am at right now and where I went to, at least if you really wanted to know. I can tell you the same as I told Rei, when I left the Shrine today, I was doing something useful. And now I'm on my way back to Earth with the great desire to get shitfaced."
SunTzu heard Ami take in a deep breather and was preparing mentally for the ass chewing she would give him as he just had taken the starfighter, although it was his possession now, and left Earth to fight somewhere in a battle.
"I'm glad to hear you're on your way back then. And through all that irony I'm supposing you are at least unharmed."
Ami surprised him with the rather opposite on what he had thought she would say.
He had to swallow hard to reply.
"Thank you Ami. I apologize, I had a hard day so far."
"I heard of that. I'm sorry."
"Yeah, me too."
"Of course. Let me know if you need someone to talk to."
"I let you know but right now, I guess I'd rather be a bit on my own. But let me know if you got any work for me, I wouldn't mind keeping myself occupied."
"Okay, I'll see about that. Goodbye, and don't drink so much."
"Don't worry, I got myself under control. Bye Ami."
SunTzu looked at the stars for another moment before he turned to AICA.
"Let's go home."
After scolding her best friend for letting her boyfriend leave like that and pleading to her to not contact Yuichiro, Minako had left the Shrine again.
Ami had informed her that SunTzu had been away from the planet and Minako told Rei, that she might want to head over to the Palace and welcome him back as a sign that she still cared.
Rei immediately had approved of the idea.
As AICA, piloted by SunTzu, now set in to land at her hangar, the pilot could see that a red Porsche and a dark green Lexus were parked in front of it.
Rei and Sailor Pluto were standing next to each other in front of their cars and observed SunTzu's approach. Rei was smoking a cigarette.
"You really had to transform?"
"You know there are certain precautionary measures to be taken if SunTzu could be in a state of instability."
"Which he is not. He's just angry and I'm the one responsible for this. No need to let the Kingdom or the Galactic Alliance fiddle in our private lives."
"Listen Rei, I'm not here to invade both your privacies. I'm just here to make sure he's not a threat."
"Like I couldn't do that on my own."
"Could you Rei? Hotaru officially requested to step down from the duty to neutralize him in case."
"Sets, you are like a big sister to me but could you please stop saying things like that? It's SunTzu we're talking about, not some kind of experiment that went wrong."
"I know Rei, but you do know we have duties to fulfill. I'm not too happy about it either, he's a good friend to all of us and a great father figure for Hotaru. But you do know we cannot manage to loose him to Chaos."
Rei sighed.
"I know. I just wished we wouldn't have to make such an affair of state out of all of this."
In this moment AICA flew past them and landed in the hangar and both women followed the starship with their gazes. None of them could sense an aura of chaos, anger or other things which would speak for SunTzu being unstable.
"As you said, I'm like your big sister and I'm not gonna judge you. But I heard what happened and I can imagine the rundown which Minako already gave you. So, as your big sister, be aware of your actions, Rei. We're at war and you are a Galactic Senator. You cannot allow yourself to get caught up in your private life. You know that I know very well what I'm talking about."
That said she detransformed and got into her car.
As Setsuna started her car's engine, Rei closed her eyes and took a deep breather.
And then she walked into the hangar.
Inside SunTzu had just shut down AICA's engines and was running some post flight checkups. He had seen the two cars and decided to stay inside the hangar. He wouldn't go out and make a step towards Rei, he hadn't been the one that did anything wrong.
Suddenly the Canopy opened.
"AICA, could you please close the canopy again. I like the peaceful solitude in here."
"Leave it open." Rei's voice came in, as well as the click the heels on her shoes made on the concrete floor as she walked towards the starfighter.
SunTzu had shot her a side glance and then forced himself to look into the consoles in front of him.
"Let me guess. You were out there, fighting someone, somewhere."
"The enemy slays innocent, I slay the enemy."
She nodded, of course he had been in combat.
"And you? Done with drooling over your ex?"
"I was not drooling. I was… just very surprised… shocked to see him."
SunTzu's head now turned towards her.
"And did the shock turn in joy spending the afternoon with him and your grandfather?"
Rei had walked up next to AICA now.
"For your interest, I didn't spent the afternoon with Yuichiro, I just made it sure that he knows I'm with you and then told him to leave. And I haven't talked to my grandfather since then, but he oughta know how angry I am."
"If you say so."
"I'm here, aren't I? Here with you, not with anybody else. And I came as soon as I heard that you would get here." She looked at him for a moment.
"But it's cool, if you want to stay mad and jealous, I'm just gonna go home again." She continued.
"I'm not jealous. This guy has nothing on me."
"Oh, now you're not jealous anymore."
"Again, that guy has nothing on me."
"Oh come on, what's next, telling me how good you are at stuff? Men are all the same. I guess I'm really going home now."
SunTzu looked over to her.
"I don't need." And then he smirked before he continued. "I bet he can't do this."
And suddenly an invisible force lifted Rei up and she let out a small scream of surprise as she was raised into the air and a few moments later was hovering over SunTzu in his pilot seat, their faces centimeters apart.
Rei could see how much SunTzu had to concentrate and how much energy it costed him to use the force to lift her up.
Everything for a good show, right TopGun? But I have to admit this is one unique trick.
SunTzu had been exhausted after the fight and he needed his last bit of strength to pull this but he really had the urge to proof to Rei that there was nobody else like him.
"I see your party tricks are getting better TopGun."
And then Rei pulled her arms around his neck and pulled her face onto his, crashing her lips on his. This made SunTzu loose his concentration and Rei plumped onto him. It didn't hurt as they had been just a few centimeters apart and it also didn't make Rei and SunTzu break their kiss.
"Baka, you really needed to make a scene like that?" She purred in between kisses.
"Did you have to stare like this at him." He said with a moan in between as she let her mouth trail down the side of his throat.
"And you could have at least told me, that you were engaged before."
His hands were already wandering underneath her dress now.
"I don't live in the past my love." She said and kissed his lips again, their mouths opening, their tongues searching for each other's.
"Ahem, guys?" AICA suddenly came on.
"AICA, I already told you, when me and Rei are alone in the cockpit, like this, switch to standby." SunTzu angrily remarked while Rei was kissing his throat again and his hands just had slipped up her dress.
"I was in standby but there's two individuals closing in. From their movement patterns I'd say it's Hotaru and Chibiusa."
SunTzu let out a big sigh.
"Maybe we should rethink the whole thing with having kids one day." He told Rei while the Senator pulled down her dress again and tried to fix her hair.
When the two young Senshi arrived inside the hangar a few moments later they saw how Rei and SunTzu both climbed out the cockpit. And both were looking a bit tousled.
"Hey you guys? Did we come at bad time?" Chibiusa said as she and Hotaru walked up to the couple.
While SunTzu did look a tad bit pissed Rei was very sweet with them though.
"Absolutely not. What brings you girls here?"
"Oh, we heard SunTzu was back and we wanted to ask if we could borrow AICA." Chibiusa replied.
"Let me guess, Helios is off duty." Rei asked with a knowing smile.
"Exactly." The pink haired heiress began to smile as well.
"Take her. Me and TopGun wanted to go home now anyways. Didn't we?"
"Yeah! Yeah, sure." SunTzu nodded.
Instantly after he said that, Rei took his hand and pulled him out of the Hangar.
"Fly cautiously guys." Rei said as goodbye to the two teenagers while Hotaru and SunTzu both nodded at each other.
As soon as the two adults had left the hangar Chibiusa leaned in to Hotaru.
"That didn't look like these two were arguing."
Hotaru nodded, and mentally made a note to check for any moist spots on the pilot seat before sitting down.