Language is poetry in motion: Hotaru and Chibi-Usa won't be silenced!
April is a time of new beginnings. The climate grows more gentle. Springtime kicks off by showering every flowering tree with clouds of beautiful white or pink blossoms. Lover birds whistle sweet songs to each other, hoping to snuggle close together in their nests.
Devout Christian worshippers celebrate the rebirth of the Messiah…
Without equal in the great events that rule the month of April, however, is the grand celebration that each year prompts millions of children and adults to start the daily migration from their homes to the grand temples of humanity's emancipation from nature.
This illustrious recurring auroral exodus is a celebration of everything that has improved the living conditions of individuals throughout the history of mankind.
For countless years this great worldwide exploit occasioned tears, groans, rage, laughter, and broad blushing smiles.
This highly eminent happening is, of course, the feast of knowledge known to all as the start of the school year!
In a certain classroom on the top floor of Juban Public High School, 26 fifteen-year-old boys and girls were patiently seated at their desks dressed in their minty fresh blue-and-white ensemble of skirts and shirts with a handsome red bow over their proud chests.
Drumming the rhythm of a song on the wooden surface of her desk with her fingers, Hotaru Tomoe lazily looked around at the similarly indolent activities of her classmates.
The eyes of the black-bobbed tomboy landed on her quietly chatting friends Yuna Nakano and Emi Hayashi, who were sitting a row behind her and two desks to her right.
"By the way, Emi-chan?" Yuna interjected into their conversation with a jovial smile. "Would you mind sliding your English textbook a little to the right when class starts, please? I'm afraid I forgot to pack it in my schoolbag this morning. Teehee."
"I was so grateful when we learned of our seating arrangement for the school year," Her friend with the red bow in her dark-brown ponytail deadpanned. "Sitting next to each other will make things so much more convenient."
Hotaru chuckled to herself at the nonplussed reaction of her tall geeky blonde friend who smiled a thank you at Emi when the shorter girl slid her textbook to the top right corner of her desk with a giggle so Yuna would be able to read along during class.
The tall black-bobbed stoic cast a look at the firm back of her green-haired friend Hikari Kimura who sat right in front of her.
Her senpai in Juban Public High School's Pink Pika Tennis Club was somewhat absentmindedly fidgeting with her pencil.
Hotaru was glad she wasn't the only one who felt strangely nervous about the first lesson they would receive from their homeroom teacher.
Her fingers continued their rhythmic "thumb thumb thumb thumb" on the table as the time for class to start drew near.
In sync with the drum of her fingers, the fifteen-year-old thought she could distinguish another sound in the hallway.
A sound that seemed to grow louder.
Thumb thumb thumb thumb thumb thumb thumb thumb thumb thumb thumb thumb thumb
The door was pulled open with restrained vigor and a beautiful and stylish young woman with a bright smile whose sapphire eyes tried their best not to look at anyone in particular walked into the room before closing the door behind her.
"Good morning class 1-3," Kaito Nagahasu cheerfully greeted while resting her briefcase on top of her desk and opening it to slip out her textbook English.
"Good morning, Sensei!" The whole class greeted the young woman with the large dark-purple braid after getting up from their seats.
Kaito allowed her eyes to wander over the face of each student, already being aware of who sat where.
"Please be seated," She smiled and nodded.
Hotaru and her classmates slowly sat down again. Their hands fondled their textbooks as they watched the woman in the white frilled shirt and short green skirt standing behind her desk in front of them.
"I hope everyone had a nice and refreshing spring break," Kaito Nagahasu said. "I see that a few students whom I remember with a slightly more modest appearance if I passed them by when occasionally finding myself in the buildings of the middle school last year have taken full advantage of the more lax dress code allowed in Juban Public High School. Nice earring, Sato-san."
"Thank you, Sensei," Makoto Sato grinned while rubbing the back of his head.
"Those rainbow hairpins look adorable on you, Mori-san."
"Thank you, Sensei," Stout Mio Mori muttered with a blush while touching one of the pins in her long loose black hair.
"It's true what they say," Emi whispered to Yuna. "She can already tell everyone apart."
"Then with your well-rested youthful minds and new public images, I hope you are all ready for us to learn a wonderful poetic language together.
I know that to many of you, English can seem like a bother and a chore to invest your time and attention in. Still, I always ask my students to reflect on this little question: How boring can a language that traveled all around the world and spread its usage over every continent really be?"
Kaito saw several students shrug and smile as if to say: "I guess she has a point."
"Think of the English explorers, Sir Francis Drake and David Livingstone," The woman energetically appealed to her class. "English poets like Shakespeare and Emily Dickinson. English generals and admirals, like Horatio Nelson and the Duke of Wellington. English authors, like Charles Dickens and Alan Moore. And of course the English musicians, like John Lennon and Syd Barrett.
The English language shaped much of the world we live in, even if that is not so obvious in our everyday lives.
Please take your textbooks at the first reading assignment."
Hotaru opened her English textbook, looking in the index to find the assignment:
"The following is an excerpt from the novel Shogun by British author Clavell James-san," her teacher expanded on the introduction written above the text. "Clavell-san fought the Empire of Japan in WW2 and was imprisoned on Java where he was fed barely enough to stay alive and experienced conditions that crippled his mind and body for years.
After getting discharged from the army seven years later, his path led to a career in the entertainment industry.
Shogun is one of Clavell-san's historical novels, taking place in Sengoku Era Japan. In it, the English sailor Blackthorne John-san is shipwrecked and captured by the local daimyo Yabu Kasigi-san and starts a slow path in which luck, cunning, and the machinations of warlords guide him to a position as Samurai at the side of the future Shogun, Toranaga Yoshi-san.
This excerpt details Blackthorne-san trying to ease his mind as to his future after release from imprisonment.
Tomoe-san? Would you do us the honor of reading out loud?"
Momentarily transfixed by the request, Hotaru swallowed and glanced aside, where Yuna showed her a thumbs-up and mouthed the words: "Fight on, Hotaru-kun".
English wasn't the black-bobbed stoic's strongest subject, to put it mildly.
A more accurate description would be to say that if results from Hotaru's final exams for the previous year were to be used as inspiration for the surface of a natural world, this would result in a fairly level terrain with one extremely deep valley.
Tilting her textbook toward herself with both hands, Hotaru hemmed and began to read:
"Stoup wurrieng abbott it. Atownzand melleian thicks cen hepp'n bevuur thuse thick oscar…"
"Oh my," Kaito reacted with shock while Emi cast a pitying look at her friend.
"Atedal weef ur en ortcake, ur yo… cat yurship and sel ewe…"
The fellow feeling and commiseration shared between the students in the classroom at that moment didn't have its equal in the entire history of Juban Public High School.
One student openly wept in pity for the unflinchingly savage atrocities committed on the English language in the following minute and a half.
"Thank you for your effort in trying to bring Clavell-san's words to life, Tomoe-san," Kaito tactfully concluded the reading assignment. "Can you tell me if you felt you had some difficulty with any part of the text?"
"I feel like the entire text was pretty hard," Hotaru sweatdropped with an embarrassed chuckle.
"Mm-hmm," Kaito nodded. "I noticed that you may need some help. But that is nothing to feel bad about, since that is exactly what I am here for."
Hotaru confidently smiled at the cheerful wink her teacher showed her.
"Nishimura-san?" Kaito Nagahasu appealed to a slender girl with neat long light-blonde hair who sat at the back of the class. "If you can read the text out loud I'm sure it would be helpful for Tomoe-san to see how to improve where she had trouble."
Rina Nishimura was visibly perturbed by the request. But for an entirely different reason than Hotaru was.
Knowing like everyone in class that Rina had an obsessive adoration for English novels and poetry, her black-bobbed classmate turned to face the girl and listened intently.
Sitting upright with a slight blush on her face, Rina read in a clear light beautiful voice:
"Stop worrying about it. A thousand million things can happen before those six months occur. A tidal wave or an earthquake, or you get your ship and sail away, or Yabu-san dies, or we all die, or who knows? Leave the problems of God to God and karma to karma. Today you're alive and here, and blessed with good fortune. Look at this sunset, it's beautiful, no? This sunset exists. Tomorrow does not exist. There is only now. Please look. It is so beautiful and it will never happen ever again, never, not this sunset, never in all infinity. Lose yourself in it, make yourself one with nature, and do not worry about karma, yours, mine, or that of the village."
Yuna and Emi were positively enraptured by Rina's melodic voice alone.
"You would hardly know she is Japanese to hear her recite like that," The latter whispered to her friend.
"Yep. Rina-chan is something else. She could become a movie star if she wanted to."
These kinds of observations bothered Rina as much as they pleased her whenever she overheard them. Rina by nature didn't like to stand out after all. The girl generally felt happier having her friend Chiyuri Otsuka play lightning rod to divert any unwanted attention than standing in the spotlight herself. Chiyuri - to the regret of both friends - was seated on the diagonally opposite side of the classroom however, and Rina's inherent beauty and passionate knowledge of the English language meant that she was bound to stand out in English class.
To everyone in school, Rina Nishimura was known as the quiet pretty girl who sat reading novels or poetry books during lunch break or was otherwise happily led around by her more outgoing and dazzling friend as they interacted with the various groups of male and female friends in school who were invariably overwhelmed by the feisty cheerleader-personality of Chiyuri Otsuka.
Just like they could be spotted together every day at school, the two friends went home together after their first day of school.
Because to Rina, her school life was the happiest time of her day and Chiyuri provided her with the strength to face what came afterwards.
"What a hilarious teacher Nagahasu-sensei is," Chiyuri laughed as she and Rina walked along the last of a series of shops. "To come in and start our English lesson without introduction only to realize she had to assign cleaning duties etc afterwards before our history teacher came in to start his lesson."
"It seemed like having homeroom totally slipped her mind," Rina laughed as she looked at her joyful friend with the long black hair.
Her heart already began to sink, however, because they arrived at the fork in the road to the left that led Chiyuri to her own house.
"Anyway, we had a fun first day of school, didn't we, Rina-chan? Hang in there and I'll come and pick you up to go to cram school after dinner."
"Alright, Chiyuri-chan. See you soon" Rina waved as her friend walked on.
From that point on, just like during her last year in middle school, Rina walked home cast in gloom.
It didn't used to be like this. Back when she was in elementary school, Rina felt happy at home. She didn't yet have to experience the cold derisive remarks of her mother and the wildly disproportionate outbursts of rage from her father.
She also hadn't yet discovered the joys of English literature, which balmed her heart after each treatment that made her fear her family hated her.
When going home cast in such gloom, Rina couldn't help feeling like the heroine in a Victorian novel. She wouldn't allow such thoughts, however, since she had enough pride not to want to prove her mother right.
But perhaps today, Rina might be somewhat justified in feeling herself a heroine from historical European literature, since the gloom that hung over her attracted the attention of a somewhat dated and less than benign gentleman who at that moment carefully observed the girl from the corner of the street as the sun slowly sank over Minato Ward.
His leather boots and beige breeches visible underneath his long dark-green overcoat, the mysterious man whom passersby evidently did not notice dug his wide-sleeved arm into the fabric of his wide garment.
"Yearning for the distraction of knowledge as a means to escape the vicissitudes of daily life," The man muttered to himself with a low clear voice. "A soul so eager to stray from the path of righteousness and industry would perhaps be well-suited to baptize our venture."
From the inside pocket of his coat, the man brought forth his hand again and opened it to reveal a palm-sized gray ball of clay.
With casual carelessness he dropped the ball onto the asphalted street and retraced his steps, leaving the curiously pulsating object behind.
"I wish you Godspeed in procuring our first piece of merchandise, Kurzweil," The tall scholastic stranger voiced his hopes in parting from the lump of clay
Naively unexpectant, Rina entered the hallway of her home.
"Hoho! It sounds like our Lady of Britain returned from school!" A ridiculously venomous voice thundered from the door leading to the living room.
Rina's heart started to pound as if she was a hare under fire.
From the living room, a woman in her forties with a short brown ponytail appeared while wearing a white shirt and a long blue skirt.
"Aren't you ashamed of yourself, little Princess?" Rina's mother grinned with wildly glowering eyes.
Rina frightendly let her eyes wander from her mother's hostile face to the framed pictures of pop legend Oda Kazumasa, concert tickets her mother had held on to, and even a shirt of the man's Captain Tsubasa character namesake, which decorated the walls of the hallway.
"What did I do wrong?" The teen stammered while feeling frustrated by the injustice of the usual hostile treatment.
"Didn't I ask you to collect your dirty clothes for the laundry yesterday evening?!" Rina's mother pompously demanded. "Or didn't you hear me perhaps because your head was buried in one of those ridiculous poetry books?!"
"I did hear! I asked if it was okay to bring my clothes down after school and you hemmed so I thought it was okay."
"Oh, you were going to treat me to the pleasure of washing your clothes after school?! Why thank you, Miss, but I already took your laundry down myself!"
"But I told you I was going to do it!" Rina whined. "If you didn't…"
Rina fell silent when a burly man in a gray business suit entered the hallway carrying his briefcase in his right hand.
"Good evening," Her father threateningly rumbled as he passed his wife and daughter by on his way to the living room. "What's the damn noise about? I could hear the two of you shouting from the genkan."
"Mother was angry because I didn't bring my dirty laundry down for her to wash," Rina timidly started. "But…"
Placing his leather briefcase on the surface of his desk behind the wall to his right, Rina's father held up his left hand.
Somehow when her father got angry it seemed to Rina that the entire living room fell into a tense hush.
Just in front of the man was a brown three-seating sofa facing the television set against the wall. On either side of the sofa was another brown two-seating sofa.
To the far left were the dining room and the kitchen.
Tears forming in her eyes, Rina saw her father turn around slowly and face her while her mother entered the living room with him.
"I asked your mother why the two of you were shouting!" Akihito Nishimura bellowed. "If I come home after a hard day's work I would like people not to make things harder than they need to be! Let your mother answer the question so I know what's going on!"
Rina's heart shrank as her father waved his hand at her.
"You know what?! Forget it! I don't even want to know! Go to your room and come down when your mother calls you for dinner! You spoiled child! It's always something! Get out of my sight!"
Shaken by another row, Rina ran up the stairs and opened the door to her room.
Stepping inside, the girl closed the door behind her and wiped her tears as she placed her briefcase on her desk.
"I better prepare my schoolbag for cram school and fill my bag for school with the books I'll need tomorrow," The girl muttered while sniffing piteously.
Hanging her coat inside the closet to the left of the door, Rina saw in the laundry basket between the closet and her desk that her mother had indeed emptied it. A single sock remained in the basket, however.
Standing in the breeze of the half-open window to her right, Rina wondered if she should bring the sock down when she was called for dinner.
The danger was that she could provoke another outburst if she did that.
Feeling spiteful towards her parents, she decided that she would bring the sock to the laundry room the next morning before school
But wasn't there also a shirt she left on her bed that morning?
As Rina turned to look at her bed, her blood froze in her heart.
Covered by her light-green blanket it seemed like a man was lying in her bed.
Her eyes wide with fear, Rina's right hand slowly moved towards the doorknob.
"Golem…" The man in her bed seemed to mutter.
Having found the doorknob without letting her eyes stray from the figure in her bed, Rina's hand jerked the door open.
But at that moment, the blanket was shaken from her bed and a wall of clay was launched towards her.
Mei Nishimura walked from the living room into the hallway, her mood half-recovered from the angry outburst that resulted from the frustration she had bottled up all day.
Truth be told, Mei was not much of a mother. That isn't to say that she didn't love her daughter, but as Rina grew up, Mei increasingly felt that her job was done and that Rina and her school should take care of the parenting by themselves going forward.
Mei thought Rina should by now "get" how her mother handled the daily routines of the housekeeping without being told.
After all, if Mei had a plan in her head, shouldn't that plan be obvious to her own daughter who lived in the same house as her?
Her husband understood how things should be without being told at least. That is if he didn't forget his own head half of the time and exploded into a rage because he hadn't left things where he thought he left them.
It sometimes felt to Mei as if she had to do everything for the three of them.
Oh well, things would work themselves out eventually without having to spend too much thought on them.
"Rina-chan!" The woman called out from the bottom of the stairs. "Dinner is ready!"
Mei waited, but there wasn't a sound of movement.
"Rina-chan! Dinner!"
Then to Mei's horror, a large gray figure stumbled down the stairs dressed in a Victorian Era maid's uniform and wearing the face of her daughter on its bald clay head. The horrible thing had a red number 24 etched on its forehead.
"Don't say another word, My Lady! Kurzweil is here to serve those who lack the ability to properly communicate their desires!"
Overcome by fear, Mei screamed her lungs out while the golem scooped her up in his arms and ran into the living room.
Under the gathering darkness outside, Hotaru wandered carefree through the street where Rina's household was situated with Chibi-Usa by her side.
Both were still dressed in their Juban school uniforms, the latter had a beige coat over her shirt while her taller friend had a thin blue vest on.
"I don't understand why you couldn't ask Nishimura-san to tutor you at school though," Chibi-Usa spoke up.
"Ah… Rina-chan always has Chiyuri-chan hanging around her like a titanium shield. It's impossible to approach her because Chiyuri-chan almost always acts like a go-between."
"I see…" Chibi-Usa grimaced.
"That's why I thought it would be more convenient to visit Rina-chan's house in the hope that I can ask her directly," Hotaru shrugged while carrying both of their schoolbags over her shoulder.
"Aren't you collecting a lot of tutors?" the girl's pink-haired friend grinned. "After school, you go to the tennis club. Then you run home for dinner because you don't want to go without Haruka-kun's cooking. Then you have cram school. And every two days you meet up with Ami-chan who tutors you in chemistry. When exactly do you sleep?"
"I discovered I need very little sleep actually," Hotaru chuckled. "Which will come in handy when tournaments start."
Arriving in front of the door to Rina's house, Chibi-Usa rang the doorbell, unaware that they were being watched.
"When are you expecting Nishimura-san to tutor you anyway?" Chibi-Usa asked.
"I don't know," Hotaru grimaced. "Look. All I know is I want to improve in English. I might someday want to study abroad or I might want to take up an internship at a foreign hospital. I don't know. It's starting to bother me that I suck at this language and I want to improve."
Hearing shouts coming from inside the house, Hotaru and Chibi-Usa shared a concerned look.
"Sounds like trouble," Chibi-Usa remarked. "And nobody came to open the door even though I rang a few times now. Let's see if our help is needed."
Hotaru watched how her friend conjured the Chibi Moon Kaleido Scope from the inside pocket of her coat and moved closer to shield the girl from view.
"You know, I noticed this before: You have the unsettling habit of casually intruding on people's privacy. And I don't like you using the Chibi Moon Kaleido Scope to break into people's homes."
"You're not my mother," Chibi-Usa huffed. "And we need to get in if these people are in danger and need our help."
Using a fraction of the rod's power, the two teenagers stealthily entered the house.
Taking off their shoes in the genkan, they entered the hallway where they gazed at Mei Nishimura's collection of Oda Kazumasa memorabilia before moving towards the closed door to the living room.
"Alright," Chibi-Usa whispered while taking the doorknob in hand. "I'm just going to throw a sneaky peek inside and if there's trouble we'll transform."
"Right," Hotaru nodded, wearing a stern expression on her face. "I'm ready if you are."
Slowly Chibi-Usa opened the door at a draft.
To her amazement, the pinkette saw a large clay figure in a classic black-and-white maid's apron feeding a distressed man who was strapped to a brown sofa by way of a bunch of white ribbons with a baby bottle while a woman who was strapped to another sofa was having her nails done and had a pacifier in her mouth.
Slowly and carefully Chibi-Usa closed the door again.
"Hahaha!" The thirteen-year-old chuckled while rubbing the back of her head. "Yes… I think we better transform."
"Shouldn't we let Usagi-chan and the others know?" Hotaru asked as she stood ready to transform with her lip rod in hand.
"Never mind that," Her friend smirked while waving dismissively. "This is my chance to show my moronic mother that I'm old enough to have my own adventures."
Assuming the stance to use her Chibi Moon Compact, a startled Chibi-Usa comically flinched at the sight of the ominous cold glare with which Hotaru regarded her.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to disrespect disabled people. I know you don't like that kind of stuff. Haha. Don't be so scary, Hotaru-kun. I won't use such words again. Haha," The pinkette giggled nervously while stepping away from her friend and holding her hands up in a defensive gesture.
Her purple Saturn crystal appearing and the sign of Capricorn blazing on her lip rod to which the crystal attached, Hotaru raised her hand while her fingernails glowed a deep purple and gripped the lip rod in her fist, shouting: "Saturn Crystal Power, Make Up!"
Waving the lip rod in front of her face, Hotaru's lips were dyed purple while a golden tiara with a white gem in the middle appeared on her forehead.
Dancing with the lip rod around her body, the Senshi of Death and Rebirth was showered in purple water which formed her white leotard and indigo neckerchief with a burgundy bow over her breasts that sported a purple heart in the middle, her segmented white shoulder pads, her indigo skirt and the long burgundy bow on her back, and her white gloves and laced indigo boots.
The purple wave washing from her, majestic Super Sailor Saturn posed grimly with her Silence Glaive in hand.
"Moon Cosmic Power, Make Up!"
Chibi-Usa waved her hand over the Pink Moon Compact, revealing a pink heart-shaped crystal inside.
Being bathed in the pink light from the crystal, a fiery red moon crescent appeared behind her.
The thirteen-year-old gracefully danced around with her arms lifted high while the glowing red crescent spun in the opposite direction.
Pink ribbons twirled around Sailor Chibi-Moon's body and formed her white leotard, her pink neckerchief, and her red bow with the pink heart in the middle.
As she stretched out her arms to the sides, pink ribbons enveloped them and formed her white gloves.
Her dance culminated in a pirouette while pink ribbons formed her pink high heels.
The red crescent wrapped around Sailor Chibi-Moon's waist to form her blue-and-red bordered white skirt with a long white bow on her back.
Lastly, Sailor Chibi-Moon's tiara appeared on her forehead, and her white hairclips appeared over each odango.
With a large pink heart appearing behind her, Super Sailor Chibi-Moon struck a pose in a wide left-leg-forward A-stance with her left hand on her left hip and her right arm parallel to her left leg.
As the pinkette relaxed her pose, she groaned and sweatdroped without struggling while Sailor Saturn pulled a Captain Tsubasa shirt over her head.
Inside the living room, Kurzweil just finished feeding Rina's father and ran with the empty bottle to the kitchen to wash it.
"I won't waste time doing the dishes!" The creature in the maid's uniform shouted. "And afterward I'll give you a nice clean shave, Nishimura-san!"
A terrified Akihito shook his head while his fearful eyes stared at his equally helpless wife.
Then the door to the hallway was thrown open.
A tall young woman with a black bob entered the living room followed by a cute pink-haired girl about a head shorter, dressed in a T-shirt Mei recognized from her collection.
"Take a break from work once in a while to consider the feelings of the ones your effort is dedicated to!" Sailor Chibi-Moon exclaimed to the surprise of Kurzweil, who interrupted its task in the kitchen and arched its clay neck to try and see what was happening in the living room.
"Nobody benefits from a household that tears itself apart because its members don't understand each other!" Sailor Chibi-Moon continued while she and Sailor Saturn slowly walked into the living room and passed by a confused Mei and Akihito in search of their assailant.
"There it is!" Saturn pointed at the golem who sweatdropped apprehensively while placing the clean baby bottle in the cupboard.
Her friend immediately struck a pose, raising her chin and standing with her left shoulder towards Kurzweil while crossing her arms.
"The members of this household will no longer be victimized by you!" Sailor Chibi-Moon warned Kurzweil while the teen pointed her left finger at the golem and rested her right hand on her right hip in a fluent motion. "I am the pretty soldier Chibi-Moon, and I will punish you!"
"And I will restrain you," Sailor Saturn added while stoically standing by her friend's side.
"Language will not be restrained!" Kurzweil shouted while conjuring a shelf-worth of dictionaries with razor-sharp pages and throwing them at its adversaries. "It is free to develop and evolve organically!"
Chibi-Moon's eyes grew wide as she prepared to evade the projectiles, but Saturn simply raised her glaive.
"Silence Wall!"
The books harmlessly fell to the floor in a heap as they bounced against the invisible orb Sailor Saturn created around the creature.
"Wait! What is going on?!" An unnerved Kurzweil stammered while staring around itself.
"What do you suppose that 15… 14 on its forehead means?" Sailor Saturn asked while she walked over to the living room and started to untie her classmate's parents.
"I don't know," Sailor Chibi-Moon replied while glaring at their opponent. "But I doubt we should allow it to reach 0."
"Thank you," Akihito Nishimura said while his wife was being liberated. "Please help our daughter. She's inside that thing!"
"Nothing to grease the tongue like some exquisite marmalade!" Kurzweil exclaimed while throwing a slew of glass jars filled with the preserve at the pinkette.
Chibi-Moon observed the golem without passion as the glass jars bumped up against Silence Wall and broke on the floor.
"This creature is kind of weak, isn't it?" The pinkette deadpanned.
Having freed Mei and Akihito, Sailor Saturn joined her friend's side again while glaring at their foe.
"You said it, Sailor Chibi-Moon," She sternly spoke. "I think this creature is all talk!"
"You still need to improve your English," Chibi-Moon sweatdropped while looking up at the taller girl.
Saturn hung her head with a sigh.
"Now now, Ladies!" Kurzweil bellowed while holding its hands up in a defensive gesture. "Let us not resort to violence! We are all civilized ladies and gentlemen! Would it not suit our common interests better if we discussed this matter with some tea and biscuits to refresh ourselves?! Perhaps even a pint of ale or a glass of rum would do us good!"
"It's all yours, Sailor Chibi-Moon," Saturn said with crossed arms while Rina's parents looked on frightfully from the back of the living room.
Activating the pink crystal on her Moon Kaleido Scope, Super Sailor Chibi-Moon held the pink scepter aloft in her right hand before bringing it behind her back while pointing at the golem with her left hand.
A rainbow appeared behind the pinkette.
Super Sailor Chibi-Moon brought her right hand forward again and held the Moon Kaleido Scope horizontally before her face while closing her eyes to focus the energy of the scepter.
When two small pink wings appeared on the scepter, she opened her eyes while moving her left hand from the base of the scepter to its tip.
Then she held the scepter overhead and aimed it at the golem with her extended left arm as a guide.
Getting down on her left leg while supporting herself on the high heel of her right leg, Super Sailor Chibi-Moon lowered and extended her right arm holding the Moon Kaleido Scope while slowly pulling her left arm back.
A fiery red aura appeared behind the pinkette and she jumped up while exclaiming: "Moon Purifying Meditation!"
A bright light shot from out of the Moon Kaleido Scope and hit the golem as Super Sailor Saturn dissolved her Silence Wall around the creature.
Without further ado, the golem melted from Rina's body while singing: "Salvation!"
Mei and Akihito ran towards their daughter to catch her in their arms before her unconscious form hit the floor.
Beside Rina's body, a small gorgeously enameled porcelain humanoid figure fell on the floor with smoke rising from it.
"Rina-chan! Please wake up, Rina-chan!" Mei wept while caressing the forehead of her daughter.
"Sweet Rina-chan," Akihito whispered. "Rina-chan? Please be safe."
Slowly Rina opened her eyes to behold the concerned and distraught faces of her parents gazing at her with hopeful eyes.
"Father?" The blonde weakly whispered. "Mother? What happened? Is it gone?"
"Oh my sweet girl," Mei wept in relief as she hugged her face to her daughter's cheek.
"The monster is gone, Rina-chan," Akihito smiled. "Don't worry. Sailor Moon defeated it."
"Sailor Moon was here?" Rina asked in a somewhat stronger voice while trying to find the heroine's shape in the living room.
All she saw where a tall black-bobbed tomboy and a graceful pink-haired young teen showing her a smile and a wink before taking their leave.
"Poor Rina," Mei smiled while pulling her daughter up with her. "I think it would be best if you stayed home after dinner when Chiyuri-chan comes to collect you. After what you went through I don't think it's wise to attend cram school today."
"I agree," Rina's father nodded. "And I think you better stay home from school too. Tomorrow at least."
Rina was amazed at the love and care shown her. It had been so long since she felt appreciated by her parents like this.
But the thought of spending the evening with her changeable parents still worried her.
"I would like to go to cram school though," The girl stammered. "I think I would feel more safe if I saw my friends after having been spooked by that creature."
Mei and Akihito shared a look.
"What if we ask Chiyuri-chan to keep you company in your room if she doesn't mind skipping cram school for today?" The latter asked.
"And tomorrow we'll clean the house together and make yours and Father's favorite dinner," Mei smiled at her daughter.
Rina nodded uncertainly.
"I'm sorry for having been so nasty to you, Rina-chan," Mei grimaced. "You were right: I did nod my consent yesterday about you bringing down your laundry when you got back from school today. But I forgot all about it because I was distracted by thinking about the preparations for Aunt Shinobu's birthday party later this month."
"And I was angry because a colleague at work made another unreasonable request for the sale he wanted my cooperation on," Akihito sighed. "It's just that I get so worked up by any problem at work during the day and I feel like everything goes wrong by the time I get home."
"I want to help you out all I can," Rina said. "But I get afraid when you shout at me. I don't know what you want from me when you get angry and make nasty comments."
"I understand, my sweet girl," Akihito smiled. "We'll see if we can find ways to help each other going forward. Now first let's get these books and glass jars cleaned up. Those girls made quite the mess."
Back outside the two heroes of the day were already on their way after having detransformed in the genkan.
"Can you believe they thought I'm Sailor Moon?" Chibi-Usa huffed as she walked home with Hotaru. "Don't I look more different from her than ever now?"
"What's with the changes in your transformation anyway?" Her friend inquired.
"Oh? It's just because I mastered this form without the help of Helios in the future," Chibi-Usa somewhat apprehensively explained away the matter.
"I see," Hotaru shrugged.
"What are you going to do now?" Her friend asked. "You didn't ask Rina to help you out as a tutor?"
"Oh? I figured I'd best leave her in peace after what happened to her today. I'll wait a few days before I ask her for help."
Chibi-Usa looked ahead as they continued on their way. Then a sly grin appeared on her face.
"Shingo-kun gets good grades for English…" She suggested.
"No thanks," Hotaru replied with a worried look. "I love my boyfriend too much to risk our relationship like that."
An athletic clean-shaven man in gray trousers and a blue jacket over a white-and-black striped shirt watched the merrily laughing friends walk away from him in the darkness of the street.
Following at a snail's pace, he pulled out a small notebook from his breast pocket and scribbled down quickly:
"The new threat was dealt with by Super Sailor Saturn and Super Sailor Chibi-Moon.
Identities reconfirmed beyond doubt: Tomoe Hotaru-san and Tsukino Chibi-Usa-san.
Origin of the new threat: As yet unknown."