The Hikawa Shrine, placed on the lovely cherry hill temple, fortunately was not that far away, so Mamoru and Diana arrived when most of the action had taken place but the battle wasn't over yet.
Since Diana couldn't Mamoru convince that the Artemis T disguise would work, both had agreed to hide in a big tree which granted them a good overlook about the happening.
Diana frowned when she only saw Sailor Mercury and Luna standing at a crossing road in front of the shrine.
"Where are the others?"
"Well, I think they should come back from a different dimension any moment." Mamoru muttered under his breath while he had his gaze directed to Luna and Amy.
"Do you really think that we will find the Light of Hope today?"
Diana sighed by his question and gave him a sincere look.
"Frankly speaking, no, I don't have any clue but I am full of hope!" She winked at him and got up from her current position. "You know what? I'll go down to Luna and will watch the situation from their perspective."
Highly concentrated, she prepared herself to jump and with a high accuracy, she landed gracefully on the ground in front of the tree.
Mamoru stayed in his current hiding and while he was watching the situation he had been experienced already, he began to reflect the recent developments.
It had been a couple of months now since Mamoru and Diana had started to spend their life's in the past. So far they had been quite unsuccessful with their mission of finding Galaxia's Star Seed which could prevent the world to end up into pure chaos in the lifetime Mamoru actually emerged from.
That's why, Mamoru started to get more and more impatient with the whole situation as such.
The fact that he shared his life with Usagi now didn't make the situation easier as they were more living together as brother and sister, so far away from what Mamoru was really feeling for her.
It was more than sure that he couldn't stay away from her much longer. They were meant for each other and Mamoru didn't want anything else but his old life back. Somehow.
As he was deeply sunken in his thoughts, he didn't realize a gentle pressure against his leg at first.
"Chibi"
This exclamation finally got him out of his reverie and he was more than surprised to see a little girl standing next to him on the branch.
She wasn't older than perhaps two years, had bright red curly hair, which was fumbled together into two heart shaped buns onto each side of her head.
Her eyes were as blue as the sky and if Mamoru wouldn't have known better, he would have said that this girl looked like the toddler edition of Chibiusa's assistant with the dark pink hair.
"Uhh...who are you?" He managed to utter through his face mask.
"Who are you?" The little girl repeated by smiling sweetly to him.
"Well, I asked first." Mamoru pursed his lips behind the white fabric.
"Asked first." He got as a reply.
"How could you climb up this tree?" He confronted the girl, already expecting a repeat of his question as an answer.
Instead, she remained smiling and pointed at a little folded white umbrella in her tiny hand. All of a sudden, she passed by him, took another three hops and opened the thing which rather now looked like a parasol.
Before Mamoru could say anything else to her, a loud bang resounded and both turned to see the five o' clock bus coming back from the strange negaverse dimension it was absorbed to before.
Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars and Tuxedo Kamen exited the bus and right in the moment when the senshi of the Moon spoke to the masked super hero with little hearts in her eyes, Mamoru recognized a golden glowing, coming from the stomach of the little girl who was still standing in front of him.
Cheerfully she turned her attention back to Mamoru and waved at him. With squeaking a further "Chibi", she jumped and floated softly to the ground.
Mamoru was dumbfounded. He had seen a lot of strange things throughout the last one and a half years but this toddler must have been a magic creature, Mamoru concluded silently to himself.
Some moments later, the little grey cat was back on the tree. She sighed deeply and explained.
"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was exactly like what you've told me already. Ray knows about her alter ego and everybody got saved by you and Amy. Lets go home."
She declared and got slightly surprised by seeing Mamoru starring down to the ground.
"She's gone!" he said.
"Who?"
"The little girl with the red hair. Haven't you seen her?" Mamoru finally made it out of his state of shock and looked at Diana who gave him a bewildered expression in return.
"Mamoru, what are you talking about?"
He narrowed his eyes when he said
"Come on, lets go back to the Tsukinos. I'll explain it on our way then."
Diana snapped with her little paw and Mamoru was dressed back in his casual outfit.
After a while of walking through the district of Azabu-Juban, Mamoru had told the light grey feline everything of his first acquaintance with this magical little girl.
Diana frowned while she was safely carried by the raven haired man.
"Could it be that she has something to do with the Light of Hope?"
"I have never seen her before and she looks as if she would be a second Chibiusa or the toddler version of her assistant Kousagi."
While he was walking he heard someone calling his name behind him.
"Oi Mamoru!"
Since this was his name and he was sunken into the conversation with Diana in his arms, Mamoru stopped and without thinking, he turned around to the one who had called him by his real name.
"Holy crap!"
Was his instant reply once he realized that he just had made a huge mistake.
"That's not my name."
The sandblonde man tilted his head to the side and grinned mischievously at him.
"Sorry, Motoki. I guess I was just daydreaming."
Mamoru hurried to say and kindly greeted his best friend.
"Don't worry, I'm not holding grudges." He winked at him. "Fancy a coffee?"
There were two Mamorus fighting internally; One said, "Of course, let's have a nice chat and get out of this damn confusing mess." The other commented, "I'll cause a lot of chaos if I accept the invitation."
The second lost.
"Sounds like a great idea and is exactly what I need right now."
He put on the most innocent smile he had in place and willingly followed Motoki into the game crown arcade.
When both were sitting in a booth, having their cups of hot black coffees in front of them, Motoki started speaking.
"Seriously, I am not mad at all. It's been a while since we had the pleasure to chat. I am so grateful that we are having this little holiday break, otherwise I probably would have gone insane."
He took a tiny sip of his still almost boiling beverage and continued
"Strangely enough, I thought I would spend this time only with Reika but she's busy with a new study project and decided to work during her free time and so I ended up in the arcade once again."
Mamoru could see the slight disappointment crossing his best friend's face and was slightly surprised that he didn't recall from his memories that Reika had started at this early stage of her relationship with Motoki to take care of her own business instead of taking care of her boyfriend.
He liked Reika very much but he felt sorry for his friend in this moment.
„I'm sure she can make some spare time for dates with you. I know how demanding a study can be but where's a will, there's a way." He stated with a firm voice and thus, Motoki's gaze lightened up a tiny bit.
"You are right. What are you going to do with your free time?"
That was an easy question and since Mamoru had lived this already, he was able to give Motoki an honest reply.
"Learning" he muttered under his breath and took a sip from the coffee as well. Motoki's next question almost made him choke on his drink.
"How boring. Why don't you find yourself a nice girlfriend, too?"
He couldn't hide his blush and desperately wished Motoki would think Mamoru's face was this deep red because of the strong coffee.
He didn't do him this favor but put on a sly smile.
"Oh, have I stroke a nerve? Spit it out, what's going on in your love life?" The blonde bartender eyed him now very curiously.
"Well, it's complicated." That wasn't a lie but didn't satisfy Motoki at all.
"So you've finally met a girl, haha! He clapped his hands together enthusiastically "Who is she? Do I know her?"
Mamoru really had to think of an appropriate answer. He didn't hear or noticed at all when Diana started meowing by carrying a suspicious urgency.
"Kind of. I cannot say much about it, sorry. My life is not easy at the moment and I guess I have to sort out some things at first in order to consider further steps."
That wasn't a lie either and Mamoru perceived the feeling that he could make this unintended bump in with the past self of his best friend to turned out into something good instead of into a pure chaos.
Unfortunately his humble wish was not going to be granted at all.
"Oh come on, you are my best friend. We don't have any secrets between each other, particularly not when it concerns girls." Motoki crossed his arms and continued "Why don't we make a double date and you introduce your girlfriend to me and Reika?"
'Great, what shall I do now? It's impossible to tell Motoki that I come from the future and I don't want to manipulate his mind with Artemis T. Why the heck did I agree to this coffee? How can I get out of this situation?'
Mamoru was desperately thinking of a good strategy to escape this upcoming chaos he'd cause his past self when an idea occurred to him.
Motoki was still waiting for an answer to his suggestion when Mamoru sighed deeply and finally uttered.
"Her name is Ray. She's friends with Usagi."
Now Motoki seemed to be rather shocked.
"A friend of...Usagi? How come? I mean...I thought that it would be...someone else?!" He stammered and his voice was full of concern.
"As I told you, it's complicated and I'd like you to keep this topic out of our conversations if possible, okay?"
Mentally, Mamoru high fived with himself that he was that smart to involve the dark haired miko since she really had the impression that they were dating for a while until he found out about Usagi's true identity.
"Yeah, okay. Sorry Mamoru. I'm confused but I'll accept what you just said to me."
Somehow, Motoki seemed changed. It almost looked as if he'd be very disappointed about Mamoru's choice.
He didn't have to think about this any longer, Mamoru was on a mission and therefore, he had to focus on the new information he had received today and needed to discuss things further with Diana at home.
"Thanks" he uttered and got up. Motoki frowned and had another question for his best friend when he took a closer look at the cat on Mamoru's arms.
"I didn't know you have a new pet. What's her name?"
"Oh, that's Diana. She...she is the cat from one of my neighbors who recently moved in. I met her on the streets and wanted to bring her back home." He lied and was actually quite happy about being so smart again with his creative reply.
Motoki put on a grin which seemed to be free of any doubts concerning the story Mamoru had told him. He made his way out of the arcade and waved back to his best friend.
When he had made a few steps, he heard Motoki calling after him again.
"Oi Mamoru!"
He turned around and saw the sand blonde man standing in front of the arcade. With a bewildered look he said
"That's not the way to your apartment."
"Oh well you see" he hurried himself to explain "I just wanted to go to the Hikawa shrine at first."
By saying this, he left back a suspicious Motoki who gave him a long gaze he could sense in his back when he continued to go to the direction where Usagi and her family lived.
"Seriously, you are a bad liar, Royal Highness" Diana giggled and received an irritated gaze back.
"What do you think I should have done?"
He huffed back at her but suddenly froze when he saw a raven haired man with a black turtle collar shirt, a pair of lilac chino trousers and an - admittedly - ugly green jacket approaching him and Diana.
This was a situation Mamoru didn't want to experience at all while he was in this time.
'It is still a stupid idea, this time traveling.' He grimly stated in his mind and prepared himself to make acquaintance with his one and a half years younger self.