[Scene: A swamp in the Dark Kingdom. The only light is radiating from the slightly phosphorescent pools, but Zoi's eyes are now well suited for darkness. Kunzite and Zoi are walking hand in hand among the giant vines and carnivorous flowers]

Zoi: It figures I'd wake up feeling miraculously better on my last night here.

Kunzite: Oh, but what a night it was...

Zoi: ...and now I have to go back to school.

Kunzite: [serious] You don't have to go back, you know. You can stay here and live with me forever.

[The idea is too tempting. Zoi has to remind himself that he and Kunzite are ageless and immortal, while his time with his family and friends is fleeting.]

Zoi: I'd love to. But I really can't. Not until I'm older. My mother will be flying in from Italy soon to see me for my birthday...This is a woman who wants to press charges whenever the drive-through doesn't give her the correct change. I don't think she'll respond well if she learns her fifteen-year-old son ran away from home to live with his much older boyfriend in this outer-dimensional Boschscape.

[Kunzite shrugs to indicate that is not a problem, as far as he's concerned]

Zoi: Besides-You were the one who wanted us to have a "normal relationship", remember? Just two typical teenagers falling in love for the first time?

Kunzite: [grave] That's before I realized we'd have to spend hours and sometimes even days apart from one another.

[Zoi would laugh, but he knows exactly what he means]

Zoi: [fighting back tears] In two years and one month I will be eighteen. Then we can come and go whenever and wherever we want, without creating any problems. Two years is not a long time. It will pass in the blink of an eye. You said so yourself.

Kunzite: [soothes back a lock of Zoi's hair] It doesn't sound like you are trying to convince me of this. You sound like you are trying to convince yourself.

Zoi: I am.

[Kunzite draws Zoi close and kisses him. They kiss for a long time. When they part, they are standing in a secluded spot outside Hen Tie High, dressed for school.]

Kunzite: When and if you change your mind , you're always welcome to stay. I don't need a reason.

Zoi: [hugs Kunzite] Don't tempt me.

[They hold hands before parting, and Zoi wipes away his tears away as he heads to class]

[Later at lunch...]

[Zoi takes his seat at his usual table with Umino, Naru, and Usagi. Usagi is looking miserable, which is understandable, since Mamoru has been absent all day.]

Zoi: Mamoru's still sick?

Usagi: [sorrowful] Yeah...or so his aunt claims...I wouldn't know, myself.

Naru: [smiles at Zoi] Glad to see you're back.

Zoi: So what did I miss?

Umino: I've got a date! With a girl!

Zoi: [smiles] That's great.

Umino: [frantic] You have to help me. I don't want to scare her away. I asked Naru what I should do and she said "be yourself" and we all know that that's not going to work.

[Zoi sneaks a peek at Naru. Naru's looking bitter, staring at her lunch with her jaw clenched and a vein standing out on her forehead.]

Zoi: I'm the wrong person to ask about girls.

[He glances at Minako's table. She and her followers are eating together, wearing matching jackets with the words 'C'est La Vie' on the back. Occasionally they give him stares of mistrust. Zoi's surprised to see Ami has joined their group.]

[It seems the other girls have given her a makeover. She's wearing a short skirt, thigh highs, makeup, and blue nail-polish. Her black bob has been bleached and dyed blue. She pulls out her smartphone, and the other girls crowd to have a look]

Zoi: I see Ami's has joined Minako's gang.

Umino: Yeah. Apparently she's taking a very active role in it, too.

Zoi: [narrows his eyes] An active role in what, exactly?

Naru: They call themselves guardians or something like that.

[Zoi wonders if those girls are all reincarnated moon guardians. The count is right, and he vaguely remember Kunzite mentioning parallels with their current incarnations]

Naru: For a while they were coming to school all beat up. With cuts and bruises and everything. Like they were in a girl's fight club, or something.

Zoi: A fight club? Isn't Ami a bit small for that sort of thing?

Umino: It's not like that. They're more like hall monitors gone bad. They don't start fights, they keep the peace. A few days ago Ami found out a gang was selling meth outside the elementary school and they put a stop to it, real quick...I'm surprised your father hasn't mentioned them to you.

Zoi: Yes, well... my father shelters me to an alarming degree...[looks at the guardians, who still eye him with distrust]...anyway, it doesn't sound like they're doing anything too bad.

Naru: [nods] They're annoying goody two shoes for a gang.

Umino: Except they cut class a lot.

Naru: Oh. Yeah...[leans closer to whisper]...The Hen Tie football team was on their way to the state playoffs, but ever since Makoto's joined Minako's gang, she hasn't even been been to practice...The coach was furious, but Minako had a word with him, and now Makoto only shows up for games when Minako wants her to.

Umino: [nods] Ami was supposed to go to Germany next semester to study abroad, to intern at a spine clinic, but she decided to stay here, instead... Nobody is giving her grief about it either...Minako had a long talk with her mother and that was the end of it.

Zoi: [alarmed] That doesn't sound like a gang... It sounds like Minako is running a cult!

Usagi: [distant] Oh, and Mamoru still hasn't called me.

[Zoi turns his attention back to a very sad Usagi]

Naru: We've started up a study group, since you and Mamoru have been out sick all week. I've talked Usagi's mother into let her meet us at the Crown so we can study over parfaits.

Umino: [sighs] It's been an uphill battle.

Naru: Umino!

Umino: What? She's hopeless!

Usagi: [mopey and unoffended] How am I supposed to focus on math while I'm pining for my Mamoru? He still hasn't called me. [Looks at Zoi hopefully] Will you call him for me?

[Zoi feeling beyond awkward at the memory of his final moments around Mamoru. He'd rather not talk to him. But he is concerned, since Mamoru became sick before Zoi, and he's not back in school.]

Zoi: I think, at the moment, he'd much rather talk to you.

Usagi: Oh, come on. Pleeeeaaasee? [near tears] He doesn't want to talk to me at all, and I need to find out why.

[Zoi Sighs profoundly. He can't imagine Mamoru would want to talk to him either]

Zoi: Fine, I'll give him a call. Right after school. But don't expect much.