The two ravens of the Hikawa temple, Phobos and Daemos, sat loudly cawing on a high tree and looked down curiously on the interesting spectacle, which offered itself some meters below them on this sunny day.
There was indeed a completely new constellation of superheroes gathered, since a white talking cat and the Senshi of the planet Venus had joined this exclusive secret club only a few days ago. Artemis was the one who opened today's discussion as he raised his voice to those present
"Sailor Soldiers, it is time to share with you the knowledge Minako and I have gained about the Imperium Silver Crystal."
He cleared his throat briefly, then continued with an apologetic look he gave to the small black feline sitting right next to him.
"First of all, Luna, I must apologize for blocking your memories and therefore preventing you from remembering Minako and me. We've been watching the developments surrounding our enemy for quite some time, but have always made sure that we could have helped you at any time if needed."
With an understanding nod, Luna let Artemis continue with his speech.
"However, for various reasons, it was absolutely necessary for us to remain undetected by the Dark Kingdom. Recently, however, things have changed very quickly, especially since Zoisite began searching for the Rainbow Crystals. Apparently, the Dark Kingdom was able to get enough energy from the people to reveal the secrets surrounding the Imperium Silver Crystal. As you may know, it once formed the most important element of the Moon Kingdom. It gives the owner incredible power once he is able to fully release its energy. As far as I know, it is even possible to destroy an entire planet with this crystal!"
He could hear the girls draw in their breath sharply at his words. Artemis now fixed Sailor Mars as he continued to explain
"As you have witnessed, there has been a major energy burst that we have been able to trace back to Starlight Tower thanks to Ami's abilities. This leads us to believe that someone was able to obtain all the Rainbow Crystals in that location, but it definitely did not work to create the Imperium Silver Crystal as such from it. The energy we detected was simply too low for that."
Artemis now put on a very serious face and continued again with his explanations.
"Whoever has the Rainbow Crystals in their possession now is obviously not aware of the fact that it takes some kind of activation process, or "key" if you will, to obtain the Imperium Silver Crystal in the end. This fact gives us hope that there is still a possibility of getting the Rainbow Crystals back before the Imperium Silver Crystal appears. The only question is...who should we start our search with?!"
Questioning faces looked towards Artemis, who now narrowed his eyes and launched into a daring proposition
"Luna and I have come to the conclusion that either the Dark Kongdom has all the crystals or..." - he was interrupted by Luna, who was now looking at Usagi with a slight frown
"Tuxedo Mask!"
This loudly spoken suspicion struck the blonde girl deep in her heart.
"Nooooo, no way!" she exclaimed abruptly, literally taking up a fighting stance in defense of her beloved hero. "He's on our side! He's not bad or evil at all, you don't believe that, do you?" In a desperate, almost hysterically pleading voice, Usagi turned to the other warriors, who could only give her a slightly helpless, indecisive look back.
Luna took advantage of Usagi's emotional outburst and immediately challenged what her protégé had said.
"Then tell me Usagi," she hissed at the blonde girl in front of her "What makes you think he could be a trustworthy person after all? He may have saved you a few times, yes... but lately he's gotten pretty aggressive when it comes to the Rainbow Crystals!"
"I ... I ... I jus... know, okay? I..."
Usagi was unable to finish justifying her masked superhero when a most strange, disturbing vision suddenly appeared to her; Mamoru, transformed as Tuxedo Mask, was lying in his own blood on the floor of Starlight Tower's surveillance room, mortally wounded. Usagi couldn't stop him from closing his eyes, so she cried out in utter despair to her comrades-in-arms before everything around her went black
"Endymion!"
Fortunately for her, she fell directly into Makoto's arms, who was standing right next to her and reflexively caught her. Honestly horrified, Rei looked to the unconscious Usagi and immediately ordered in her inimitable commanding tone
"Hurry, bring her in to me!"
Without wasting any more time, Makoto grabbed the blonde Sailor warrior onto her back and carried the unconscious girl into Rei's room.
Several minutes passed, but Usagi - who now lay almost motionless in the black-haired miko's bed - still remained unconscious. Three highly concerned girls and two no less concerned cats gazed spellbound at the blue-haired genius checking Usagi's vitals with her super-mini computer
"Endymion," Usagi whimpered abruptly as tears gathered under her thick lashes, on the verge of leaving her closed eyes.
"She'll be better soon, don't worry." Ami had just finished examining Usagi and closed her computer with a light sigh. "Something must have just completely overwhelmed her, abruptly draining her of a great deal of energy. I can't detect any dark energy around us, though." With a questioning look to the others, she continued "I'm seriously worried that Usagi's subconscious is hiding something from her that just broke through."
Serious, slightly perplexed faces looked towards her. Ami placed her hand gently on Usagi's forehead. Awakened by the gentle touch, Usagi slowly opened her tear-stained eyes. She blinked away the salty drops for a moment and then looked around the room in slight wonder. Finally, her gaze lingered on Luna, who stared at her with a deep frown
"Usagi... Who is this Endymion?"
"Who?" Usagi stood up cautiously, visibly confused at Luna's strange question and still slightly dazed from her faintness "Endymion? What do you mean by that, Luna? What happened anyway?" She seemed completely clueless and now cast a questioning glance at the rest of the group.
"I guess that doesn't make much sense now, Luna."
Artemis looked the black cat in the eye and suggested with a chastened expression on her face
"Usagi had better spend the rest of the day in bed. She seemed too exhausted just a few minutes ago and even now she looks slightly disoriented. We need strong warriors for the coming battles against the Dark Kingdom. Why don't you update her later when we finish our meeting here, Luna?"
"Usagi, how are you?" Ami asked the blonde girl kindly as she once again pulled out her mini computer to give the blonde warrior a thorough checkup
"I don't know, I'm still a little dizzy, but I'm not too bad."
Ami smiled understandingly at Usagi and said as she placed her hand on Usagi's forehead again "I think Artemis is right. It's better if Usagi goes home now."
Usagi nodded slightly to her and slowly walked towards the entrance.
Just before she opened the door to the room, she turned to the others, showing a faint smile to her team.
"If there's anything else, just get back to me, okay?"
'I need to see him!'
Usagi ran like hell down the stairs of the Hikawa shrine as soon as she was out of sight of her allies.
Badoom badoom badoom badoom!
Again there was this crazy, loud heartbeat in her chest. Just the thought of him, it made her heart beat faster.
'I have to meet him and tell him that we still have a real chance to get the Imperium Silver Crystal.'
Even though everything seemed too overwhelming for her right now... So swift their departure from the others seemed. So mercilessly this terrible vision had burned itself into her innermost being. As inexplicable as this unalterable certainty was for her, that Tuxedo Mask could never in her life be the evil one in this whole tangle; Usagi HAD to get to him! Now!
That's how much she hoped everything would be okay. It just had to. Everything was somehow good and safe with him.
"Mamoru."
Her voice carried his name through the wind as she ran through the streets of her beloved part of town, which had seemed so utterly different to her since the events at Starlight Tower.
Everything had changed all at once.
--
"Give her some time on her own, Luna,"
Ami gently stroked Luna's head and looked at her with an understanding smile. "I'm sure Usagi will share her secret with us when she's ready. In the meantime, we should find out more information about a possible activation process for the Imperium Silver Crystal."
Luna returned Ami's suggestion with a hesitant nod of her head. She was still worried, wondering who this Endymion could be that her blond protégé had mentioned in her troubled sleep earlier.
For it was not at all the first time she had heard of this particular name.
--
As soon as she had reached the park, Usagi began to shiver. That horrible image of a dying Mamoru, which she had visualized in her head before she fainted, was still there and refused to make room for carefree, happy thoughts. Was she perhaps just worrying too much? After what had happened a few days ago, it wasn't really a big surprise that Usagi was a bit confused lately... and actually was stuck in the middle. The lies she had to tell everyone around her all the time, they weighed heavily on her.
She was aware that the warriors and the cats had a slight suspicion that there was something Usagi didn't want to tell them, but she just couldn't reveal herself to them. Especially not since, for some reason, Luna seemed convinced that Tuxedo Mask might be the enemy. Which he definitely wasn't. But how could she possibly convince everyone otherwise? That Tuxedo Mask was trustworthy. That he could be counted on, always! That in truth he was so... lovable.
At least she was sure she could trust him and be honest with him. To him, she didn't have to tell lies. He knew who she was in reality. He knew her biggest secret and had shared his with her.
Unfortunately, at the same time, Mamoru was the very one who confused her the most at the moment.
"Mamoru."
While still caught up in her reverie, she suddenly met the gaze of the black-haired, handsome man walking straight towards her
"I always thought this place would be better spent in nice company instead of with my study books."
His Ozan blue eyes looked a little mischievous at his comment. That smile that curled around his beautiful lips. Mamoru really was absolutely adorable, and yes, she had noticed it the first time they met.
But the real realization that he was much more to her than she wanted to admit was when they both posed for the artist Yumemi Yumino. There was a certain warm, yearning feeling deep inside her that she began to develop for him. It happened just at the moment when she furtively looked up at Mamoru while sitting next to him on a small wooden bench in Yumemi's cozy living room. Dangerously close.
His profile showed nothing but purest perfection, but was also clouded by a hint of arrogance and a veil of seriousness. But at the time, two things kept her from becoming more intensely involved with Mamoru Chiba; her friend Rei and his alter ego Tuxedo Mask, for whom she had been enchanted from the very first glance. At least the fact that Mamoru was Tuxedo Mask didn't stand in her way now. But there was still Rei...
Today, however, everything was so different from Yumemi back then. This time, it wasn't a situation where they had been put together by chance, but this was something they both wanted. So much. Him and her. In this park.
Alone.
"Yes, it's very nice to be here," Usagi immediately felt the heat rise to her face and wasn't sure if she really meant just the park when she said it. Mamoru kept his smile and he pointed to a small bench that was right in front of a beautiful lake, a bit off the path.
A small wooden bench it was, to be exact. Very similar to the one from Yumemi's cozy living room.
"The view of the lake is picturesque and even more beautiful if you take a seat over there." He awkwardly took her small wrist and led her to the wooden seat.
Usagi took a seat next to Mamoru and immediately tried to break the ice between them by simply saying whatever first came to her mind.
"I didn't know you liked to spend so much time in parks. Whenever I've run into you, it's actually either been at the Game Crown Center, in front of some store made by the Negaverse, or somewhere else on the streets of our part of town!"
Mamoru gave her an amused look and lightly replied, "Well, I actually spend quite a bit of my free time in parks. However, I then prefer to lurk in tall trees and occasionally rescue a certain blonde Sailor warrior with my alter ego. The reason you're more likely to encounter my civilian identity on the streets might be because I'm pretty busy there, constantly bumping into a certain clumsy and sassy schoolgirl with funny pigtails."
"Jerk."
There it was again.
His outrageous, incomparable baka way of teasing her whenever he even got the chance. Mamoru really was a grandmaster at it. Somehow, though, she had missed those familiar exchanges over the past two days.
"You really can never say anything nice to me." Usagi pursed her lips into a saccharine pout, crossing her slender arms in annoyance.
"I'm really sorry, but I can't turn it off so easily, Usak... Usagi. Every time I see you, something comes up inside me that brings out the worst in me."
He ran his fingers through his hair nervously, feeling a little uncomfortable about being so open with her at the same time, "So how was the meeting with the warriors anyway?"
Usagi was still slightly miffed, but gratefully accepted the invitation to bring up another topic, "Mhm, quite enlightening. Luna - that's my talking cat, by the way - thinks your alter ego is the enemy. Artemis - also a talking cat, but with white fur and a new ally of ours, along with Sailor Venus - has given us hope that whoever possesses the Rainbow Crystals is apparently unable to form the Imperial Silver Crystal without the proper activator or key. Much the same as we had already suspected. Overall, all the warriors are behaving far too friendly towards me. Therefore, I strongly suspect that they think I am hiding something from them."
She could see the change in his eyes, even as he continued to maintain his smile, "Oh okay, that's ... um ... interesting indeed."
Mamoru was worried and unsure how to proceed with this information now. Apparently Usagi was better at keeping secrets than he thought. He had quite assumed that the rest of the Sailor warriors already knew of his true identity.
"So aside from the two talking cats, I'm guessing that the girls you usually spend your free time with at the Game Crown Center are the other Sailor Warriors. Is that correct?"
Usagi looked at Mamoru somewhat incredulously. He didn't seem the least bit taken aback that his own girlfriend Rei was also a member of the Sailor team.
If she was his girlfriend at all! Usagi quickly collected herself and then told Mamoru.
"Ohhh yes, of course! Ami, Mako, Rei and Minako, she just joined us, along with her cat Artemis. I'm sorry I haven't really told you all this yet. We've all become very good friends, so it's not the easiest thing to do right now... lie to them I mean... and they even chose me to be the leader of the Sailor team!"
Usagi half-slammed her hands over her head in exasperation at the thought.
A mischievous laugh tugged at Mamoru's lips. "Come on Usagi, I personally doubt you're capable of keeping a secret to yourself for any length of time. You're as open as a book."
Before she could say anything back to his supposed insult, he quickly continued,
"I would interpret their behavior as trusting you. That's why they're leaving you alone for now and giving you time. You are a wonderful and spirited person with a big heart for those you care about. At least that's what I see in you."
When he had uttered that to her (quite loudly, in fact, it was supposed to stay in his head forever, but it had slipped right out in some inexplicable way), he noticed the blush rise to his face and he averted his eyes from her, embarrassed.
Usagi was completely perplexed. What had Mamoru just said to her?
"Oh, I didn't think about that it that way." She gave softly. "Mhm Mamoru?" Usagi tried to steer the conversation back to her mission around the Rainbow Crystal. Safer ground and so, "Do you think I should tell the others who you are? Honestly, I'm very worried that Zoisite will soon find out that we made it out of Starlight Tower. And then he'll come after you, and... you haven't completely recovered from the last fight with him and..."
before she knew it, Usagi suddenly felt his strong arm around her small shoulder.
That was definitely a very good reason to get violent heart palpitations again!
Badoom badoom badoom badoom!
"Usa, I know what you're trying to tell me, but please don't worry,"
Mamoru didn't want to make her feel like he was in mortal danger. At least not any more than was usually the case with him. Because of course Zoisite, along with that other General Kunzite, would want nothing more than to see him die. Preferably still particularly agonizing.
"If it comes to a fight with the Dark Kingdom soon, I will do my best not to get involved in it ... But you must also do me a favor."
He leaned toward Usagi and tapped her forehead with his index finger.
"Please do your best so that there is no reason for me to have to intervene in the battle and save the damsel in distress."
"Pah! As if I ever needed help! May I kindly remind you that it was ME who got us both out of Starlight Tower!"
Usagi was almost relieved to find herself back on the familiar verbal battlefield with Mamoru. Not that she would complain if he kissed her now or anything like that.
No no, not at all!
"I'm just saying," Mamoru grinned and put his arm around her little shoulder a little tighter, making Usagi suck in a sharp breath. Now her heart was really racing!
Badoom Badoom Badoom Badoom Badoom!!!!!
"I'd rather live a little longer so I can spend more time with a certain meatball head."
"Don't call me that!"
If he hadn't still had his strong arm around her, Usagi would have exploded...how could he be so sweet to her one moment and so stupid the next?!Good God, she cried out inwardly at his impossible behavior, but at the same time wanted to throw herself at him and make him...
"Okay, okay!" Completely abruptly, Mamoru let go of his arm from her and raised both hands up defensively, "I guess I just got used to that nickname, I'm honestly sorry Usak...Usagi."
With almost every sentence he said to her, Usagi had to admit that she was learning a new facet of his fascinating character. Everything was still so completely new between them, but somehow also sweet and it just felt so right. As if it had always been like this between them... but there was still something in the room, about which Usagi finally needed clarity. Even if she had already received so many clear hints, nevertheless... she gathered all her courage and looked at the unmasked hero of her dreams with a serious face.
"What does Rei actually say about you wanting to spend more time with me than with her?!"
"Rei?"
Now Mamoru was honestly taken aback and absolutely could not comprehend the mention of her name in this situation.
"What does Rei have to do with this?"
"Well, because... she's... something like your... girlfriend?"
Usagi could hardly believe that she had finally had the guts to address Mamoru directly about his relationship with Rei, and promptly earned a completely uncomprehending expression from him
"Say... Since WHEN have I been dating Rei?"
"Uhh, don't you?"
"No!"
it came back from him full of conviction, as if shot out of a pistol. Mamoru looked more than serious all of a sudden. Complete sincerity was found in Usagi's eyes as he slid his hand under her chin and lifted her face to his
"I have no idea what's going on between your two blonde topknots, but before you jump to any conclusions again, if I'm having coffee with someone or walking in a park, why don't you talk to me directly? Besides..."
Now Mamoru was getting dangerously close to her. Startled, she noted that his lips were just a breath away from hers. He almost whispered his next words giving her a shiver down her spine
"The one who is my girlfriend will receive very definite proof from me that she holds that exclusive title."
Not much was missing and Usagi's heart would explode on the spot. But Mamoru was still Mamoru and old habits obviously couldn't be stopped so quickly, because instead of kissing her, he grabbed one of her topknots and pulled it with an amused laugh.
'That jerk!
"When you finally stop making fun of my unique hairstyle as well as my grades in school all the time, I'll ignore the fact that you have really terrible taste in fashion sometimes!"
Usagi declared annoyed, crossing her arms and curling her lips into a sweet pout. When he gave her a questioning look, she continued, sighing loudly, "I mean that ugly green jacket, of course ... now come on, please!"
Her almost artificially annoyed expression suddenly caused Mamoru to burst into almost unstoppable laughter. He wiped the tears of laughter from his face and finally stood up. With an amused tone in his voice, he remarked
"Well then, Tsukino Usagi, I would be very pleased if you would do me the honor of accompanying me to the Shinjuku mall tomorrow to transform my bad taste in fashion into the good taste that my alter ego claims for himself. You just have to understand that I often have to face the conflicts that owning two different identities inevitably brings."
"Are you asking me out on a date?"
Usagi attempted to succinctly sum up what Mamoru had just thrown at her in rather woolly terms after all.
"If that's how you want to take it, then I'd say 'YES, I do'"
His shining eyes gave her the final confirmation that the former Mamoru baka and at the same time long-term crush Tuxedo Mask in personal union was completely honest with her and actually wanted to go out with her.
Aaaaand... he was single!!!
With that, Rei really didn't seem to play any role in Mamoru's love life. Hope sprouted in Usagi as he looked at her with that loving gleam in his eyes.
"I think... I'd like that a lot. Okay."
Usagi realized at that moment that for the first time in her life, she was going on a real, proper date. And then with, of all people, the person she had called her arch nemesis just a few days ago and who, in this short time, was about to become the most important person in her life. Usagi was more than curious to know more about Mamoru Chiba.
So much more.