The next day, after she and Trevor-nii had managed to get back home and get some actual sleep, Usagi found that she couldn't quite settle back into their regular routine the way she'd done so many times before. Even as Trevor-nii carried her to school on his back, Usagi found her thoughts drifting back to Nephrite and Jadeite, and forward to how they might be able to help Zoisite and Kunzite.

"Sorry about almost running into you!" Trevor-nii shouted, brining Usagi's thoughts firmly back to where the pair of them were and what Trevor-nii was doing. "Enjoy the rest of your day!"

The feel of Trevor-nii stumbling briefly worried her, at least until Trevor-nii used a brief blast of that golden energy she'd seen him use so many times to bounce himself back to his feet almost without missing a step, and all the while barely slowing down.

"Wow, Trevor-nii!" Usagi said, smiling. "You're getting really good at that!"

"I've been getting a lot of practice," Trevor-nii said, grinning back at her, though he seemed a little sheepish.

Hugging Trevor-nii more tightly, knowing that he was just worried about what might happen to them all, now that they had saved Nephrite and Jadeite, and were now aiming to save Zoisite and Kunzite, too. Usagi worried about that sometimes, too, but she also tried not to think too much about that. Once she and Trevor-nii had made it to school together, Usagi climbed down and let herself relax at least a little.

Sure, there was still the chance that Zoisite would try to attack them at school, the way he'd done before, but since she and Ami-chan were both there to help Trevor-nii, Usagi was sure that the three of them would be enough to at least hold Zoisite off until Rei-chan and even Mamoru-baka could come and help them.

The first half of the day seemed to crawl by as slowly as it always did, but finally it was time for lunch! Grabbing Trevor-nii's right arm, she pulled her older brother along, already eager to sit down in their favorite spot and start eating the lunch that Mom had packed for her, Usagi made her way out to the schoolyard along with all of the rest of the students of her and Trevor-nii's class. Just as she'd managed to settle down and begin opening up her lunch, however, Usagi caught sight of another girl.

She had long, wavy brown hair tied up in a high ponytail on top of her head, but what Usagi noticed first about her was that she was all alone.

"Come on, Trevor-nii," she said, standing up and pulling her older brother over to where the other girl was sitting, all alone, with no one to talk to or keep her company. "Hi!" she called, as she and Trevor-nii settled down closer to where the ponytailed girl was sitting. "I'm Usagi Tsukino, and this is my big brother Trevor," she said, smiling widely, even as Trevor-nii chuckled softly in that way he did when he thought she'd done something cute or funny.

"I'm Makoto Kino," Makoto-chan said, sounding a little surprised to have the pair of them sitting with her, but not mad or anything. "It's nice to meet the both of you."

"Oh wow, is that your lunch?" Usagi found herself asking, feeling a wide, cheerful smile pulling at her lips. "It looks so yummy!"

"Would you like to have some?"

"Wow!" she exclaimed. "Thank you, Mako-chan! Oh," she said, realizing what she'd just said. "Do you mind if I call you Mako-chan?" she asked.

"It's all right," Mako-chan said, smiling as she handed over a rice ball each to the both of them. "I don't mind. Not many people here wanted to talk to me, so it's nice to be with the two of you."

"Why wouldn't people want to talk to you, Mako-san?" Trevor-nii asked, as Usagi bit into her rice ball, even as she found herself wondering just the same kind of thing.

"Most people seem pretty intimidated by how tall I am," Mako-chan said, sighing as she looked down at the yummy lunch that her mom had probably packed for her.

"But, you're such a nice person," Usagi said, feeling sad that no one else could understand what a kind person that Mako-chan was. "And your Mom makes such great food!"

"Actually, I made all of this food myself," Mako-chan said, and Usagi couldn't quite help blinking in surprise.

"Wow, you're a really good cook, Mako-chan!" she exclaimed, "Maybe you could teach me how to cook, or maybe you could just make it for me," she said, giggling as Trevor-nii chuckled softly.

~SM~

Once the pair of them could leave school for the day, Trevor chuckled as he found Usagi leading them right back to the Crown Game Center. Usagi had been quick to invite Mako-san to come along with them, of course, and Trevor found himself more than a little curious about just how she and Usagi would get along. Sure, at the moment the both of them seemed to be getting along well enough, with Usagi asking Mako-san just why it was that she wasn't wearing the school uniform that the rest of the girls in their school were wearing.

Mako-san said that it was simply because her original uniform suited her better, which hadn't been the answer Trevor had been expecting, though it did seem to suit the kind of person Mako-san was revealing herself to be.

It turned out that Motoki-san wasn't working when the three of them arrived, so Usagi and Mako-san started playing one of the Sailor V games, while Trevor himself sat down an people watched.

"Usagi-chan, Trevor-kun!"

"Ami-san, Rei-sempai!" he called back, making his way over to Usagi as their two groups met up. "What are you guys doing here?"

"Luna-sensei said she had a strange feeling about that girl you both met," Ami-san said, once she'd checked to make sure that there was no one close enough to overhear what they were saying.

"What kind of a feeling?" he asked, leaning in closer. "What did her aura feel like to you, Luna-sensei?"

"Hmm," the cat said softly, rubbing her chin with her right front paw. "It felt a little like the aura I felt from you, Trevor-"

"That's great!" Usagi exclaimed, cutting off anything else that Luna-sensei might have wanted to say. "Come on, I'll introduce the both of you!"

As his younger sister did just that, Trevor found himself sharing an expression of exasperated commiseration with Luna-sensei. If there was one thing that he could say for Usagi, it was that she would always be willing to speak her mind whenever she was sure about something. Reaching out to gently stroke Luna-sensei's head, Trevor smiled softly as Ami-san and Rei-sempai spoke to Mako-san.

He hoped that they would all have the chance to become friends, if only so that Usagi wouldn't end up feeling bad for the way she'd been so eager to bring them all together to begin with.

Leaning back against the nearby wall, not wanting to block anyone else who might have been interested in playing one of the games, Trevor found himself smiling all over again as Mako-san scratched under Luna-sensei's chin, leaving the cat mewing in a way that sounded happier than he'd heard from the cat in awhile. The sound of an interested crowd drew his attention, however, before any of them could say anything else.

Turning with the rest of his friends, Trevor found himself watching as someone played one of the crane games at the back of the arcade. For a moment, he found himself wondering why so many people seemed interested in what was happening, but the large bag full of prizes from the crane game – and the way that he just kept winning more and more – answered the question before Trevor could do more than think it.

The crowd seemed more interested than disapproving, and Trevor thought that might have been because of how hard and frustrating it was playing crane games if you actually wanted to win prizes.

The people gathered around the crane game all seemed absorbed in the amount of prizes that he'd been steadily winning, but for his part Trevor found himself curious about just how he was managing to win so consistently. He'd tried to play more than his fair share of crane games, and hadn't managed to win anything more than the occasional, small prize. He could hear the people gathered around calling the boy playing "Joe the Crane Game Troll", and while he thought that was kind of rude, it didn't seem like Joe was taking any notice of it.

He was a lot more focused on how it was that Joe was managing to claim the prizes from the crane game he was playing; it looked like he had some kind of a power of his own, though it just seemed like he had some kind of telekinesis, instead of the stranger and more varied powers that Trevor had been discovering for himself.

When he, Usagi, and Mako-san all left the Crown Game Center, Trevor found that he hadn't been the only one thinking about Joe, though it seemed that he was the only one thinking about the kind of abilities that Joe had been demonstrating.

"He reminds you of someone you love?" he asked, after Mako-san had finished speaking.

Mako-san hummed softly, clearly lost in thought, though the look on her face was some strange mix of happiness and wistful melancholy. "He's just like the man who broke my heart."

Before anyone could say anything else – though Usagi looked like she'd been about to – the sound of what seemed to be a far-off scream drew their attention, and Mako-san ran off as soon as she seemed to have realized what the sound meant. He and Usagi, meanwhile, took a moment to process what might be going on, before hurrying after Mako-san. Trevor knew that it was more than likely to be another attack from the Dark Kingdom, so he had the brief thought to transform into Golden Kamen before he and Usagi found themselves confronted by either Zoisite or Kunzite.

But, Usagi didn't seem to be concerned about that, and he knew that no one could have explained Golden Kamen appearing beside an ordinary schoolgirl like Usagi, so Trevor stayed in his normal form, too.

~SM~

When she heard the shouts of those two nice younger kids she'd met on her first day of school – Usagi, and her older brother, Trevor – Makoto found her attention drawn away from the strange man she'd been fighting. The strange, dangerous man who had been attacking her and Joe vanished suddenly, leaving Makoto with only the pair of younger kids that had clearly followed her. Smiling as she saw the pair of them trying to help Joe, who'd clearly been hurt by whatever that man had been doing to him, Makoto hurried back over to the three of them.

She'd originally been about to chase the man who'd attacked Joe, but he'd vanished so completely that Makoto knew she wouldn't be able to find him unless he came back on his own. Still, Makoto promised herself that she would be ready if he did.

"Are you all right?" she asked Joe, even though one of the younger kids had probably asked him that before; she'd been too far away to hear anything, but that did seem to be the kind of people Usagi and Trevor were.

The kind of people who helped others without giving a single thought to themselves.

"Get away from me!" Joe snapped, almost leaping back to his feet. "All of you just mind your own business!"

Joe walked off before anyone but Usagi could say anything else, but Trevor went to pick up the bag of crane game prizes he'd dropped, while Makoto herself followed Joe.

~SM~

When Mako-san had run off, Trevor only had a moment to wonder why Joe had sounded so angry at him and Usagi when they'd just been trying to help him. He also wondered what it was about Joe that reminded Mako-san so much of the boy from her past; and why she seemed so eager to reconnect with someone who reminded her of something that sounded so sad.

He and Usagi quickly chased after Mako-san and Joe, since Luna-sensei had sensed the presence of someone from the Dark Kingdom; Trevor couldn't help wondering if it had been one of Nephrite and Jadeite's friends, or if another of the Dark Kingdom's youma had been attacking Joe for his energy.

When he and Usagi managed to catch up to the pair of them, Trevor still found himself wondering just what it was about Joe that reminded Mako-san so much of the boy she'd known. And just why it was that she was so interested in the person who seemed to have hurt her so much. Still, Trevor knew that he couldn't really ask that kind of question of someone he'd just met.

He couldn't really help being curious, though.

He and Usagi found Mako-san in front of a café, looking in through the glass sliding-door, and Trevor kept an eye out while Usagi spoke to her. There was still the chance that the Dark Kingdom agents – whether it was one of Nephrite and Jadeite's friends, or just another of their youma – would try to attack again. So, Trevor knew that he would have to be prepared for that.

"Trevor-nii, he looks like he's hurting. We should go help him," Usagi said, leaning in close and sounding like she was trying to keep her voice low enough that Mako-san wouldn't overhear what they were saying.

Still, the look on Mako-san's face suggested she'd heard it almost perfectly, and Trevor thought that that might have been another reason that Mako-san insisted on going into the café so quickly. The other reason, of course, seemed to be the melancholic memory of the love she'd once had with the boy something about Joe reminded her of. Trevor didn't know just what it was about Joe that reminded Mako-san of that unnamed boy, but he still found himself wondering about it.

Still, for the moment, all Trevor could do was hope that he and Usagi would be in time to help Joe with whatever it was that seemed to be hurting him.

As he, Usagi, and Mako-san all made their way over to the table where Joe was sitting, Trevor noticed that the other boy didn't seem particularly pleased with their presence. In fact, Joe seemed almost angry to see the three of them. Still, he was also the one beckoning them inside, so Trevor could only wonder for that handful of moments he, Usagi, and Mako-san spent making their way through the maze of tables and booths inside the café.

"I guess I should thank you little kids for trying to look after me," Joe said, though he didn't sound particularly grateful. "Don't any of you get me wrong, though: I was perfectly fine on my own!"

"I'm glad to hear that, Joe-san," he said, before Usagi could start yelling at Joe the way she really seemed to want to.

"Yeah. Anyway," Joe continued, turning to Mako-san with an expression that suggested he'd dismissed the pair of them from his mind entirely.

Given how badly Usagi seemed to want to slap him, Trevor thought it would be best if the pair of them waited outside. He said as much to Mako-san, and then left with Usagi, all while listening to his younger sister's half-voiced grumbling as the pair of them made their way back outside.

"I can't believe how mean he was, Trevor-nii!" Usagi snapped, folding her arms as she all but collapsed back down onto the edge of the planter just outside the café's large, front windows.

"I know, Usa-ko, but I don't think you yelling at him would have done any good," he said, just as Luna-sensei jumped off of his younger sister's left shoulder.

"I sense the presence of the Dark Kingdom!" the cat exclaimed, her tail standing straight up and her ears pulled back. "Makoto and that other boy you met are probably in danger! You should both transform, quickly!"

~SM~

When that same, strange man who had attacked her and Joe earlier today attacked the two of them again, the first thing he did was use some kind of strange power – almost the same kind that Joe had demonstrated just a little while earlier, though Makoto wasn't going to be callous enough to say anything like that – to blast her over the side of the booth where the pair of them had been sitting. Forcing herself back to her feet, just in time to watch Joe running out of the café, pursued by the man who had attacked them not so long ago.

Sighing, wondering if Joe had run away from her because he didn't want to be with an oversized girl like her, or if it had been just because he was being chased by that strange man.

When she'd managed to catch up to Joe and the man attacking him, Makoto found herself suddenly in the presence of not only her hero Sailor Moon, but also Golden Kamen, the one who'd been helping her for so long. It was so great! But, the fact that she'd only managed to catch sight of them both for a few moments before that same man who had attacked the pair of them in the café just a bit ago appeared in front of them again.

Sailor Moon and Golden Kamen jumped apart as the man who'd attacked her and Joe suddenly turned his attention to them, and Makoto quickly found herself standing over Joe in an effort to protect him from… Whatever that strange man chasing Joe had wanted from him.

Makoto found herself more than a little curious about what that might have been, but she also knew that the man would have to hurt Joe for her to find anything out, so she tried as best she could to protect him from whatever that man might have been planning.

~SM~

As Zoisite flung out his arms, Trevor found himself forced to brace both himself and Usagi against a sudden torrent of sakura petals and the conjured winds that propelled them. Crouching down, Trevor dug his cane into the ground and looked around for Joe and Mako-san. Joe's screaming, however, drew his attention before Trevor could do more than begin to look for Mako-san.

Zoisite seemed to have done something to him, if the way he was hunched over and screaming was any indication, but before Trevor could do anything more than wonder just what it was that Zoisite had actually done, Joe transformed into… What looked like some kind of Sentai mascot, or oversized Gatchapon figure, really. Trevor only had a moment to wonder about that, before Zoisite had sicced the creature that had once been Joe on him.

The strange voice of the creature that had once been Joe only seemed to be able to say one thing – Gamecen – what seemed to be the new name that Joe had been given when Zoisite had attacked him.

~SM~

As Makoto found herself forced to watch from the sidelines as Sailor Moon tried to protect Golden Kamen from the monster who had once been Joe, she could only clench her fists and wish that she could do something – anything! – to help the pair of them. Or that she even knew what was going on at all. The sudden appearance of the cat that Usagi had been carrying around on her shoulder, standing in front of her with what actually seemed to be a worried look on its furry face.

When the cat started talking, Makoto couldn't help wondering if she was somehow still dreaming.

"You're one of the Sailor Senshi we've been searching for!" the cat exclaimed, pointing to something on the ground with its right, front paw. "Take this Transformation Pen, and call out Jupiter Power Make Up! Quickly!"

Taking the pen as the cat slapped it across the ground to her, Makoto raised it and called out the phrase that the cat had told her to use. Feeling a rush of strange energy through her, Makoto turned her attention back to the strange creature who had once been Joe. She didn't know if he could still feel the attacks that Sailor Moon and Golden Kamen were making on him, or even the one that Makoto herself was going to be making, but she hoped that he was at least going to be all right.

Not only because he reminded her so much of the boy she'd once known – the boy who'd broken her heart – but because he was a person, and he deserved to live.

~SM~

"Sailor Moon, use the Moon Stick to heal Joe!" Luna-sensei shouted, once Trevor-nii had managed to free her from what looked way too much like a claw from the crane game that Joe had been playing that first time that she, Mako-chan, and Trevor-nii had met him.

"Right!" she called back, gathering herself and raising the Moon Stick over her head.

Healing Joe in the same way she'd healed Jadeite, Usagi found herself wondering just how Zoisite had been able to turn Joe into a youma in the first place, and if there might be a way that she and the rest of the Sailor Senshi could protect anyone else from Zoisite and however he was turning ordinary people into youma. Usagi decided that she would go as Nephrite-san about what had happened to Joe, since he was a lot more likely to know about what the Dark Kingdom was doing than anyone else.

And, since he and Jadeite were staying together, she could ask him if Nephrite didn't end up knowing.

"Makoto-chan, you're the fourth Sailor Senshi: Sailor Jupiter!" Luna-sensei said, and Usagi turned to look back at Mako-chan.

She really was dressed in a green version of the Senshi uniform that Usagi had seen on Ami-chan and Rei-chan before, and Usagi found herself smiling as she saw it.

"I'm glad to have you with us, Mako-chan," Usagi said, smiling brightly, before becoming serious again. "Luna-sensei, we should talk to Sailor Mars," she continued, before anyone else could say anything.

"Yes, we should tell her that the fourth Sailor Senshi has been discovered, and we're going to need you to start making plans to protect the Princess."

"Wait, why me?" she asked, stopping in her tracks, just as she'd been about to turn and start making her way toward the Hikawa Shrine where Rei-chan lived.

"Being able to use the Moon Stick means that you are the leader of the Sailor Senshi, Sailor Moon," Luna-sensei said, as the three of them all managed to start walking again. "You're going to need to lead our efforts to find the Moon Princess, and to protect her once we have."

"Ah, I guess I wasn't really expecting that," Usagi said, looking down at the Moon Stick that she had used twice by now, and found herself wondering just what kind of person the Moon Princess would end up being.

Usagi hoped that she would be a kind person, but there was really no way of telling until Usagi had met her; and besides that, that kind of thing was for later. Right now, Usagi wanted to find out what Nephrite and Jadeite might know about what Zoisite had been doing.

~SM~

When she and Usagi had made their way to the Hikawa Shrine, Makoto had found herself meeting another pair of girls who were both friends with Usagi, and also seemed to be a part of the battle against the Dark Kingdom that Makoto had found herself a part of, as well. Ami-san and Rei-san both seemed as nice as they had the first time she'd met them, so that was good.

When the four of them all met the men Usagi had been wanting to talk with, Makoto found herself with the strangest feeling of déjà vu. It wasn't the same feeling she'd had when she saw a boy who reminded her of the one who'd broken her heart, but almost… Almost as though she was meeting an old friend.

But Makoto was sure that she'd never met either of them before.

They also had strange names – Nephrite and Jadeite – and Makoto couldn't help but wonder where the two men had come from, and why they were hiding in such a heavily-warded room at the Hikawa Shrine. It was strange, but there must have been a reason for it.