Standing before Queen Beryl again, Nephrite found himself both curious and rather annoyed. He was curious as to just how that schoolboy had managed to evade one of his youma yet again, and he was rather annoyed that he'd done so.
"Nephrite, have you made any progress in eliminating the Sailor Guardians?"
"Please, leave the matter of the Sailor Guardians and that schoolboy to me," he said.
"You may continue your efforts against the Sailor Guardians, Nephrite, but I intend to assign Zoisite to hunting down the schoolboy," Queen Beryl said.
Narrowing his eyes as he saw Zoisite teleporting in, his usual swirls of petals appearing around him, Nephrite turned back to Queen Beryl once more.
"If that's your will, Queen Beryl," he said, resisting the urge to glare at Zoisite; the man was annoying enough without giving him a reason to be moreso.
"You really do seem to be having trouble with those Sailor Guardians, Nephrite," Zoisite drawled, sounding as amused with himself as he ever did. "Maybe you should let me help you with them, too."
"I can handle the Sailor Guardians on my own," he said, turning to teleport back to the mansion he had created for himself when he established himself in the human world to begin his hunt. Turning as he found Zoisite teleporting in next to him, Nephrite glared. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh, don't be like that, Nephrite," Zoisite said, annoying smile still firmly in place. "Now, what can you tell me about this schoolboy you've been chasing. Is he cute?"
"This is what he looks like," he said, showing an image of the schoolboy that Queen Beryl had taken such an interest in. "Now leave me, Zoisite," he said, turning away so that he could begin preparing to search for the next human who would provide the energy the Dark Kingdom needed.
~SM~
The next morning, when she and Trevor-nii woke up and got ready for school, Usagi found herself with enough time to sit down and actually enjoy her breakfast for once. Sure, Shingo-chan had an annoyingly smug look on his face, but Usagi was determined to ignore him.
"Shingo-chan, I heard that Mika-chan won a French doll making contest," Dad said, smiling at Shingo-chan in particular.
"Wow, really?!" Shingo-chan exclaimed, almost bouncing in his seat as he smiled.
"Wasn't Mika-chan's mother a well-known doll maker?" Mom asked, taking a sip of her morning coffee.
"Like mother, like daughter," Dad said, with a cheerful smile.
Grinning, Usagi held out the spoon from her morning tea to Shingo-chan. "Shingo Tsukino-san, how does it feel to have a famous best friend?" she giggled. "A best friend who just so happens to be a cute girl?"
"Usagi!" Shingo-chan grumbled, shoving her as he got up from his chair to leave.
"Reporting live from the Tsukino Residence, this has been the news, we now go to Trevor-nii with the weather," She said, prompting Trevor-nii to laugh softly.
"Come on, Usa-ko," Trevor-nii said, as the pair of them stood up from the table. "We should get to school before we end up being late."
Laughing softly, stopping for a moment so she and Trevor-nii could eat the rest of their breakfast and pick up their respective lunches, she and Trevor-nii left for school. All the while, Usagi couldn't help but wonder who was going to end up being the next target of the Dark Kingdom and their youma. She'd talk to Trevor-nii about it later; she didn't want anyone else to suffer like Rui-chan, Shinokawa-san, and Akiyama-sensei.
Still, as long as the Dark Kingdom was here, someone was going to end up being targeted by them, though she and Trevor-nii weren't the only ones who had to fight them; not anymore.
The pair of them caught up to Naru-chan on their way to school, and even though Trevor-nii ran the pair of them all the way, they still just managed to get there in time. Classes proceeded as they usually did, and Usagi found that even though the work she had to do was still hard, it was at least normal. She'd been having less and less of that in her life as the attacks from the Dark Kingdom continued.
"Wow, you guys really do like to cut things as close as you possibly can, don't you?" Naru-chan asked, chuckling as the three of them left the school building behind.
The sound of small feet running up to them drew her attention to a pair of kids who seemed to be about Shingo-chan's age, and Usagi turned with a smile on her face.
"What's going on?" she heard Trevor-nii ask, just before she could ask the same thing. "Is Shingo-chan okay?"
"He's really sad," one of the little girls said, a worried look on her face. "The other kids were being really mean, and one of them pushed him down, and he landed on the doll that Mika-chan made, and then she ran off when he tried to talk to her."
She shared a long, speaking glance with Trevor-nii, and the pair of them hurried off after the pair of girls from Shingo-chan's school.
~SM~
He could really only hope that he and Usagi would get to Shingo-chan's school in time to do at least something for their younger brother, but as he and Usagi hurried over to the school that Shingo-chan and Mika-chan attended, Trevor found himself more and more unsettled for a reason that he couldn't quite name. He couldn't have explained it, not even to Usagi herself, but there was some creeping feeling following what felt like just behind him. As soon as he and Usagi actually made it to Shingo-chan and Mika-chan's school, the feeling that had been following him grew even stronger.
He didn't time to do much more than call out to Shingo-chan, before something slammed into his left side, knocking him tumbling across the schoolyard. The sounds of shouting from Usagi and all of the children gathered in the schoolyard grew further and further away as Trevor found himself tossed, rolling and tumbling, across the sidewalk and nearly into the wall surrounding the school. Bracing himself against the wall, forcing himself back to his feet, Trevor looked up to see someone in a uniform that looked so much like Jadeite's that he was almost completely certain that they were just as much a part of the Dark Kingdom as he had been.
~SM~
With Zoisite dedicating himself to the capture of that schoolboy that Nephrite himself had previously been hunting, Nephrite had re-dedicated himself to searching for those humans who would provide the most energy for the Dark Kingdom. Finding himself drawn to Orpheus, in the constellation Lyra, Nephrite found his attention being directed to a young human girl by the name of Mika Kayama. It seemed that she would be his next target.
Wondering for a moment if Zoisite would be able to capture the schoolboy with the vast reserves of energy that had managed to escape him at every turn, Nephrite turned to leave the mansion where he had based himself.
~SM~
When Aniki had been knocked across the schoolyard by what had looked like some kind of weird blast of sakura petals, Shingo hadn't known what to do. Usagi, dummy that she was, had thrown herself on top of him, even though anyone could have seen that the attack had been aimed at Aniki in the first place. Still, Usagi had dragged him home as soon as Aniki and whoever was attacking him had vanished over the wall of the school, and now all Shingo could do was wonder what was happening to Aniki, and where he'd ended up.
He could only hope that Aniki was going to be all right.
Forcing his thoughts back to the letter he was writing, wanting to at least try to comfort Mika-chan after everything that had happened with those other stupid kids when that jerk had knocked him over when he'd been telling the rest of them to stop teasing her like a bunch of jerks, Shingo tried to focus. Mom and Dad had called the Police already, even though Usagi had been acting weird about it, but she'd at least come around when that weird cat of hers had come into her room.
He still didn't really like the cat, but at least the cat hadn't tried to bite him or anything; as long as that black cat stayed away from him, Shingo was willing to tolerate what she seemed to be doing for Usagi.
Sighing as he crumpled up the latest, failed draft of the letter he was trying to write to Mika-chan, Shingo wondered if Aniki was okay, and when he was going to come back.
~SM~
Bracing his cane against the hail of sakura petals that his attacker – who'd gone so far as to introduce himself as Zoisite, who was from the Dark Kingdom just the same way Jadeite had been – fired at him, Trevor extended it before he could be blown through the window of the building he'd ended up in front of during the course of their fight.
"Hmm, I can definitely see why Nephrite's been having so much trouble with you, schoolboy," Zoisite said, and Trevor had the strangest feeling the man was grinning down at him from atop the lamp post where he was standing.
Throwing another of the yellow roses that he's found himself with what seemed to be an infinite supply of, in an effort to give himself at least some kind of breathing room, Trevor quickly dodged out of the way of another retaliatory blast of sakura petals. Launching himself across the street with the aid of the extending cane he'd also ended up with when he transformed into Golden Kamen, Trevor looked around for a break in the crowds still surrounding the pair of them.
Sure, some of them seemed to have the sense to leave as fast as they could, but there were still enough people crowding into the street where he and Zoisite were fighting that Trevor still had to worry about protecting them, too.
Just as he was about to launch himself across another street, after he'd shielded a fleeing group of people from a crystal spike that Zoisite had thrown at them, Trevor felt a strong grip on his face.
"Time to sleep, little schoolboy."
Zoisite's voice was the last thing Trevor heard, before he felt his head slam into the sidewalk…
~SM~
Trying to take Shingo-chan's mind off of what might be happening to Trevor-nii, Usagi had suggested that the pair of them go visit Mika-chan, to try to make her feel better about what had happened to the doll she'd put so much work into.
"I'm really sorry about what happened to your doll, Mika-chan," Shingo-chan said, setting down the cup of tea Mika-chan's mom had given him when the pair of them had arrived at her and Mika-chan's house.
"It's okay, Shingo-kun," Mika-chan smiled. "I guess I didn't know what to do, when those mean boys pushed you down, so I ran away. I'm sorry, too."
Before anyone could say anything else, the sound of the doorbell drew their attention.
"Who's that?" Usagi asked, turning to look toward the front door.
"I'd better get that," Mika-chan's mom said, making her way out to the front of the house, leaving the three of them to wonder just what was going on. When Mika-chan's mom came back into the living room, Usagi tilted her head at the sight of a tall, chesnut-haired man walking next to her.
"Good afternoon," the man said, bowing slightly. "My name is Masato Sanjoin," he said, bowing slightly. "I'd hoped to speak with Kayama-chan and her mother. Are you two friends of hers?"
"Yeah, Mika-chan and I have been really close since we started going to school together," Shingo-chan said, then he sighed. "But some mean kids broke her doll today, so I came over with my sister to try to make her feel better."
~SM~
As he spoke to the pair of humans who seemed to be close friends with the human that the stars had designated as his next target, Nephrite found himself rather pleased. Knowing that there was someone that Mika Kayama could focus the energy she was going to be giving to the Dark Kingdom, once his youma was fully prepared to harvest it, was rather pleasing.
"I'm sorry to hear about that," he said, knowing that it would truly be best to ingratiate himself with these humans before he acted. "I had been hoping to see your work for myself. Do you think I might be able to get a look at some of the dolls you've made before?"
"What do you think, Mika-chan?" the child's mother asked, turning to look at the girl.
The girl glanced to the boy who had brought his sister to her home in an effort to comfort her, ducking her head slightly before she quickly agreed. Smiling briefly as he followed the girl into her workspace, Nephrite glanced back briefly at the girl's mother as she fell into step with the pair of them. True, he'd hardly been expecting to be left alone with the girl, yet it seemed that those friends of the girl's had indeed earned such trust.
It was interesting, but hardly the point of his visit.
Catching a glimpse of the small shape on what seemed to be the main work table that the girl used, he took note that the form seemed more than slightly familiar: there was a more than a passing resemblance to the schoolboy that Queen Beryl was so interested in.
"Mika-chan, are you making that for Shingo-chan?" the child's mother asked, a cheerful smile on her face.
"Yeah," the girl said, a smile on her own face as she went to pick the doll up to study it for a long moment. "Shingo-kun was so nice to me today, and he's always talking about how kind his older brother is and how much he loves him, so I thought I'd make him a doll he'd like. You know," the girl smiled, picking up the doll she had clearly put a great deal of time and energy into. "To thank him."
"May I see it?" he asked, knowing that this would be the perfect focus for the energy that he was going to harvest from the girl.
"Oh, sure," the girl said, handing over the unfinished doll so that Nephrite could examine it.
Jumou, my loyal youma, build Mika Kayama's energy to its limit, before taking it all away! Feeling Jumou settle into the doll that Kayama had presented to him so easily, Nephrite allowed himself a small, tight smile. "I'm sure your friend will be pleased to have something so special made just for him. But, would you mind making me ten like this?"
"Ten?" the girl's mother asked, sounding more than a little surprised.
The girl herself, however, having taken back the doll was now under the influence of Jumou, and was hence a great deal more interested in the prospect of not only finishing the work she had already started, but of creating more just like it.
"Yes, I think I'd be able to sell them rather easily," he said, smiling slightly.
"You know, I'll be holding an exhibition this Saturday," Kayama's mother said, clearly having moved past whatever unease she had previously been feeling. "Mika-chan's other works will be there, too, of course. I do hope you'll come."
"Can I invite Shingo-kun and his family?" the child herself asked, turning with an excited expression on her face.
Nephrite was more than pleased to see such a thing; Jumou was doing good work already.
~SM~
After she'd offered Shingo-kun and Usagi-nee – along with Shingo-kun's Aniki, who didn't seem to have come for some reason – invitations to the exhibition that Mom was holding on Saturday, Mika found that she didn't want to do anything but head right back to her work room. The doll that she had been working on for Shingo-kun wasn't going to finish itself, after all! She also had to work on all of those other dolls for Sanjoin-san, of course.
Smiling to herself as she thought about the doll she'd been making for Shingo-kun, Mika turned as Mom made her way into her workroom.
"Wow, you already managed to finish Shingo-chan's doll?" Mom asked, as she made her way over to the table where Mika had been working. "That's great! But, you really need to go to bed now. Remember, you still have school tomorrow."
"I'm fine, Mom," she said, turning back to her worktable and the second doll of Shingo-kun's Aniki that Sanjoin-san had wanted her to make for him.
One of the ten, at least.
"Mika-chan, you'll be able to get back to your work tomorrow," Mom said, coming over to actually pull her away from the work she'd been doing.
"Go away, Mom!" she shouted, knocking the woman aside as she turned back to her work table. "I'm just fine."
Picking up the doll of Shingo-kun's Aniki she was making for Sanjoin-san, Mika found herself smiling wider as she made it. She didn't quite know why, but she felt really happy while she was making it. Even though she wasn't going to be giving any of these to a boy she liked, Mika couldn't help but want to work on them. It almost felt like she needed to work on them.
Picking up the doll and the carving tool she'd been using, Mika got right back to work.
~SM~
"Come on, Aniki!" Shingo-chan called, grinning cheerfully back at him as he continued pulling him along. "I've got to tell Mika-chan that you got back okay!"
"All right, Shingo-chan," he said, grinning.
Mamoru-sempai, who'd managed to both track him down and drive off Zoisite without involving Usagi or any of the other Sailor Senshi, had brought him back to his house and managed not to get into a fight with Usagi when the pair of them had met. Mom and Dad had been curious to meet his upperclassman, but for his part Trevor had been more concerned about the way Mamoru-sempai always seemed to trip over his own tongue whenever he and Usagi were in the same place.
Still, he'd managed to smooth out enough of the rough edges between the pair of them that the pair of them had managed to have at least a civil conversation, so that was at least some kind of an improvement.
"Kayama-san, is something wrong?" he asked, looking up to see the woman slumping against the front door of her own home.
"Oh, Trevor-kun, Shingo-chan," she said, looking wearily up at them. "I'm glad you're here. Maybe you can convince Mika-chan to stop working so hard."
"She's overworking herself?" he asked, feeling a chill of familiar foreboding; he didn't like the thought that someone else had been caught up in the Dark Kingdom's schemes, but that seemed to be what was happening.
"She's been working for two days without any sleep," Mika-chan's mother said, a look of desperate worry on her face as she wrung her hands.
"We can go check on her for you, Kayama-san," he said, offering his hand to help her up.
"Yeah, we'll get Mika-chan to go to bed, Auntie," Shingo-chan said, smiling easily. "Don't you worry."
Kayama-san thanked them, but as he and Shingo-chan made their way inside the Kayama residence, Trevor couldn't help but be concerned. The way Kayama-san had said Mika-chan was acting fit all too well with the new pattern that the Dark Kingdom seemed to have established. Unlike Jadeite, who had seemed to be content to lure random people to a place that he and his youma had prepared beforehand and then drain their energy, these new attacks seemed to be targeted.
It was becoming clear that, whoever was in charge of the Dark Kingdom's energy collection schemes this time, they were a lot more restrained than Jadeite had ever been.
When he and Shingo-chan made it to Mika-chan's room, Shingo-chan was the first to knock.
"Mika-chan, are you all right?"
~SM~
Turning at the sound of Shingo-kun's voice, Mika smiled slightly as she picked up the doll she'd finished – not the first one, of course, since that one was special and she wanted to keep it close – and made her way over to the door where Shingo-kun and his Aniki were both standing.
"Here, Shingo-kun, I finished the doll I promised you," she said, handing over the finished doll.
"Mika-chan, your mother is really worried about you," Shingo-kun's Aniki – who she'd really only seen in pictures before; he really did have as kind of voice as she'd been expecting, and his eyes looked just the same – said, soft brown eyes looking at her with a worried expression. "She says you haven't been sleeping."
"I guess I might sleep better if you stayed here with me, oniichan," Mika found herself saying.
She hadn't quite meant to say anything like that, but as Shingo-kun's Aniki came over to talk with her, Mika picked up the first doll she'd made to show to him. She'd dressed it in the kimono that Shingo-kun's Aniki had been wearing in the first picture Shingo-kun had shown to her when he'd been talking about his older brother. When Shingo-kun's Aniki looked at it, he really did seem to understand how special the dolls she was making were.
Shingo-kun left with the doll she'd given him, and Mika pulled his Aniki over to sit next to the table where she was working.
"Come sit with me, Oniichan," she said, smiling as she turned to look at his face; it helped to have a live model, rather than just working from the pictures that Shingo-kun had given her. Turning at the sound of someone knocking at the door, Mika sighed. "Oniichan, could you take care of that?" she asked, hand briefly clenching around the carving tool she was using.
"Sure," he said softly, getting up from his chair, though the first doll she'd made was cradled in his left arm; it was really kind of cute.
~SM~
When Shingo-chan had gotten home from Mika-chan's house, the first thing that Usagi noticed was that he'd come back alone, and then she spotted the doll he was holding. It looked a lot like Trevor-nii, but there was something about it that she didn't quite like.
"Shingo-chan, where's Trevor-nii? I thought the both of you went to visit Mika-chan together," she said, side-eyeing the doll Shingo-chan was carrying.
"Oh, he decided to stay with Mika-chan while she worked," Shingo-chan said, smiling slightly as he looked down at the doll in his hands.
It looked like Trevor-nii, wearing the kimono he'd worn during last year's fireworks festival, but Usagi was more concerned about the look on Shingo-chan's face as he held the doll he'd been given. It reminded her too much of the looks on Shingo-chan and Trevor-nii's faces when they'd been hypnotized by those Chanela things that one of the youma that Jadeite had sent out had created.
She'd have to talk to Luna-sensei before she did anything drastic, of course.
Making her way back to the room that she and Trevor-nii had shared for so long, Usagi sat down on her bed.
"Luna-sensei, I have a bad feeling," she said, as the cat sat down next to her.
"So do I," Luna-sensei said, sitting up. "That doll Shingo was carrying had the feel of the Dark Kingdom all over it. Trevor might have gotten himself targeted along with that friend of Shingo's."
"Yeah," she said, biting her lip. "I should contact the rest of the girls; they're going to need to know about this."
"You should also contact Mamoru," Luna-sensei said; Usagi winced. "He's friends with Trevor, so he's going to want to know about this, too."
"I guess," she said, not particularly happy about the thought, but knowing that Mamoru-baka would probably want to be involved with all of this.
He and Trevor-nii were friends, after all; even if she still didn't like that he'd turned out to be Tuxedo Kamen.
~SM~
When she'd finally managed to finish more than half of the dolls that Sanjoin-sama had asked for her to make, Mika reached over to stroke Oniichan's soft hair; he really was a good inspiration for all of the dolls that she had been making. She'd been able to create a bunch of new outfits for the dolls she was making, with Oniichan here so she could see how the colors of the outfits would look against his skin and hair. Oniichan had also been able to keep Mom from bothering her so much.
She didn't need sleep, she needed to keep working until she'd finished the last of the dolls that Sanjoin-sama had asked for her to make; Saturday was coming, and she was going to have to be ready for it.
Humming softly to herself as she got back to work on the dolls she was making of Oniichan, in all of the outfits she had designed for him, Mika reached over to pet Oniichan's soft, black hair again. Saturday was coming in just a few hours, and she was going to have to be ready for it. Maybe Sanjoin-sama would be there, and she could show him all of the work she'd been doing right away!
Once Saturday had finally come, Mika and Oniichan both packed up the finished dolls she'd made and brought them all to the Juban Museum, where the doll exhibition was going to be held.
~SM~
Narrowing his eyes as he made his way into the Juban Museum, Mamoru Chiba searched for any sign of Trevor-kohai. It sounded like his friend had gotten entangled with the Dark Kingdom; the same Dark Kingdom that had been attacking Juban for so long, apparently, before he'd been brought up to speed on everything that was going on. Or, at least before he could actually recall being brought in on things.
Apparently, he'd been helping the Sailor Senshi without knowing it since Sailor Moon had first shown up to fight the Dark Kingdom.
Still, as he made his way deeper into the maze of doll displays that had been set up inside the Juban Museum, Mamoru found his gaze settling on a chesnut-haired man with cold, blue eyes who also seemed to be on his way through the Museum. There was something about him, an unsettling sort of familiarity, that only grew stronger as the pair of them drew closer. Mamoru didn't even remember what he'd said, as the pair of them passed each other by, but he did say something.
Forcing those strange thoughts out of his mind, Mamoru turned his attention back to his search; he'd been told that the rest of the Sailor Senshi were here, as well, so Mamoru knew he'd at least have backup if he ended up needing it.
The sudden chill of foreboding pushed him to hurry toward the back of the showroom, and after checking to make sure that he wouldn't end up being caught or stopped by whatever kind of security the Juban Museum would have out during this exhibition, Mamoru opened the door. Catching sight of Trevor-kun, slumped in a chair next to where the girl who seemed to be the actual target of the Dark Kingdom's efforts seemed to be putting the finishing touches on a doll that looked more than a little like him, Mamoru called out to him.
Mamoru didn't have time to do much more than notice the other doll, the one that was cradled in the crook of Trevor-kun's left arm, before something exploded from the doll's shadow, enveloping the room for a long moment. The girl, who had clearly been the target of the Dark Kingdom, collapsed to the carpeted floor with a scream. Trevor-kun… barely reacted, even when the disembodied hands of what seemed to be some kind of animated mannequin reached out to restrain him.
The first hand closed over his face like a blindfold, a second pair appeared to firmly restrain his wrists, and a final pair closed around his ankles.
Having previously signaled the Sailor Senshi with his position as soon as he'd found Trevor-kun, Mamoru dodged out of the way as the animated mannequin attacked him with the detachable parts that made up its body. Sailor Mercury and Sailor Mars were the first to arrive, but Sailor Moon was close behind them. The fact that the youma they were currently fighting had Trevor-kohai as a hostage made things a lot less simple than they could have been, but then it also seemed to give Sailor Moon even more resolve at the same time.
It fit, since she was his little sister.
After Sailor Mercury had managed to locate the youma's weak point, Mamoru helped to hold its attention while Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars destroyed it with a combination of fire and what looked like some kind of a glowing disc. Catching Trevor-kohai as the disembodied hands that had been restraining him vanished, Mamoru smiled as his friend's soft, brown eyes fluttered open.
"You're safe," he said, in response to the confused expression that had been overtaking Trevor-kun's face as he'd started to wake up from whatever kind of trance he'd been in after the youma had gotten to him. "The youma's gone now."
"I'm glad," Trevor-kun said, though he still sounded like he wasn't fully awake, for all that his eyes were open.
~SM~
When she and Trevor-nii had made it back home again, Usagi smiled as she heard the sound of Shingo-chan and Mika-chan talking in the living room. She was glad that destroying the youma hadn't made anything bad happen to the doll of Trevor-nii that Mika-chan had made for Shingo-chan. She'd have been really said about that, and Mika-chan would have probably been sad, too. She'd worked really hard on it, even if a lot of that work had been because of the Dark Kingdom.
"I'm glad that Shingo-chan and Mika-chan are happy again," she said, smiling as she sat down on her bed next to her older brother.
"I am, too, Usa-ko," Trevor-nii said, though there was still a worried expression on his face. "And, I'm sorry for being so much trouble."
"It wasn't your fault, Trevor-nii," she said, reaching out to take his right hand in both of hers. "Don't worry about it."
Trevor-nii didn't answer, but since he still seemed worried about what had happened, Usagi felt a renewed resolve to protect him. It was clear that the Dark Kingdom was going to keep going after Trevor-nii until they were all defeated. So that was what they were going to have to do; that was what she was going to have to do.