Kenji and Ikuko had truly not exaggerated when they told Mamoru at the beginning of the short trip that this was one of the most romantic places in the world.
After a drive of just under twenty minutes, during which they hadn't exchanged a word, Usagi and Mamoru rounded a corner and both immediately held their breath as the incredibly impressive restaurant came into view.
As if it had come straight out of a fairy tale, this palace, bathed in bright moonlight like a small jewel, was nestled in an evergreen pine forest.
'It looks almost like Elysium here.'
Mamoru thought reverently to himself and quickly glanced at Usagi, who appeared just as astonished by the fabulous sight as he was.
"Wow, this is... quite impressive!"
There was suddenly something dreamy, wistful in Usagi's eyes. She seemed to feel his gaze on her because she quickly turned to him and immediately sank into his ocean blue eyes.
Caught staring, Mamoru blushed slightly and finally cleared his throat as he stopped the car in front of the entrance.
"How come? Have you never been here with your parents?"
"No, it was always their annual rendezvous, as they used to tell Shingo and me." Usagi spoke rather absently and quickly unbuckled her seatbelt. "I think now is a good opportunity to discuss 'this' in this breathtaking restaurant," she said, looking at him and alternately pointing her finger at him and herself.
Mamoru just grinned in response and got out of the car. He walked around the car and gallantly opened the passenger door. As Usagi was about to get out, an older woman suddenly appeared in front of them, accompanied by a young man in a doorman's uniform who bowed politely.
"Ahhh, Usagi Tsukino. It's so nice to finally meet you in person. Your mother just called and told me that you'll be having the romantic candlelight dinner in her place tonight... and what a charming, handsome boyfriend you've brought along!"
The woman purred with delight, clapped her hands excitedly, and gave Mamoru a benevolent, sincere smile. Before either of them could respond to her mistaken conclusion, the woman had already taken Mamoru's car keys and was heading toward the entrance. Over her shoulder, she looked back kindly at her guests.
"Please follow me inside... Tsutomu, take care of the car, please."
She tossed the keys to the young man, who promptly got behind the wheel and started the engine as soon as Usagi and Mamoru entered the restaurant.
It was not only impressive from the outside but also immediately appealed to the couple as soon as they set foot inside and looked around.
'From the inside, it looks almost like a miniature version of the Crystal Palace from Crystal Tokyo.'
Mamoru thought to himself and felt a slight suspicion that the future crystalline building of the Neo Silver Millennium must be based on a particular memory of Usagi.
"Your parents have booked our finest private room as they do every year. Please come in."
The woman trilled and lifted a heavy red velvet curtain aside. She led the supposed lovebirds joyfully into a small room that looked like the coziest and most beautiful living room they had ever seen in their lives.
The light came only from candles scattered throughout the secret spot. Dark bookshelves with a fine selection of fairy tales bound in thick leather invited reading. The red velvet chaise longue matched perfectly with the curtain, which seemed to shield this almost enchanted place from the outside world. The centerpiece was a heavy, dark oak table already set with the finest glasses, plates, and cutlery. Soft, romantic piano music played in the background, filling the air with a significant amount of romance. Mamoru immediately sensed that this was the perfect setting to spend a wonderful, unforgettable time with his beloved Usako.
Aside from the fact that there were a few things that needed to be discussed before they could proceed with the romantic part of the evening... if there would be any romantic part left after that.
"So, I'll leave you now. Make yourselves comfortable and have a drink. I'll be back with the first course shortly."
The woman didn't wait for a response from the couple but disappeared silently behind the curtain, leaving Mamoru and Usagi alone.
"Oh thank goodness, I'm really starving!!!"
A slight grin crossed Mamoru's face. It seemed so familiar and at the same time so comforting to see Usagi immediately plop down on an empty chair and focus loudly sighing on the upcoming meal. She grabbed a large bottle of water that stood in the middle of the table and poured herself nearly half the contents into her glass. She seemed to completely ignore the fact that they had come here to sort out all the chaos Mamoru had caused by his journey to this time. He, therefore, had to ensure he regained her attention as quickly as possible and steered it towards a clarifying conversation.
"Um, I guess this would be the right moment to continue what we talked about on the beach."
He began bravely, also sighed, and sat down on a chair opposite her. Tense, he first closed his eyes. This conversation would demand a lot from him. He had only one chance to somehow set things right again. At least partially. Usagi fundamentally trusted him, he felt that. At least she didn't let his presence spoil the upcoming menu because when he reopened his eyes, the blonde girl in front of him was busy downing her full glass of water in a few gulps. She noticed Mamoru's slightly questioning look and then offered a light apology.
"Oh, uh... sorry, I guess I just got distracted by this impressive ambiance here, sorry. But I'm so ravenously hungry, I can't think clearly. If I don't get something to eat on my plate within the next few minutes, I'll probably have to eat you."
Usagi blushed slightly at her confession, causing Mamoru to burst into laughter. She was definitely the master of breaking the ice, and as they were still giggling, Usagi's fervent wish was fulfilled, and a huge platter of sushi was briskly placed on the table by the woman, who was evidently the restaurant owner.
Mamoru let Usagi devour one piece of sushi after another before he intended to give her a brief overview of the current situation in a few words. However, before he could even begin his explanations, Usagi had already asked the first question.
"What happens in the future?" she said, busy chewing on two cucumber-filled maki sushi.
"Well, as I said... it's complicated." Mamoru hedged, grabbing a few pieces of nigiri from the platter himself to avoid explaining any details. But Usagi didn't let go, swallowed her bites, and before she stuffed two new sushi into her mouth, she pressed on.
"Are we an item there or what? I mean," her sky-blue eyes pierced him with a probing look, "you said you loved me."
Mamoru wrestled with himself and was suddenly unsure whether it would really be best to tell her the whole truth. After a few seconds of staring back, he made a decision regarding her question.
"To be honest, before I came back to the past, I had just proposed to you."
A piece of cucumber flew through the air as a reaction to his honest answer, landing on Mamoru's empty plate. Usagi struggled with the rest of the sushi she was trying to swallow when Mamoru had revealed the truth. Still coughing heavily, deeply flushed, and with wide-open eyes, she fumbled for the water bottle to pour another large amount of the liquid into her empty glass.
"Okay, so... uh, we are... engaged?!"
His non-verbal response was a confirming nod, coupled with a gaze tinged slightly with sadness. Yes, they were engaged and wanted to spend their future together. But that wasn't possible right now because he was essentially dead. Usagi interpreted this melancholy in his expression somewhat differently.
"Oh wow... please don't take this the wrong way, but from my perspective, it sounds more than unrealistic that this will ever happen to us in almost two years. I mean... I'm just fourteen, you can't stand me, plus you're with Rei, and there's absolutely nothing connecting us." Usagi shrugged slightly helplessly and drank half of her full glass of water.
"That's not entirely true, to be honest." Mamoru began slowly but was immediately interrupted by Usagi.
"Besides, there's someone in my life whom I really appreciate. He helps me every time the Dark Kingdom tries to defeat me, and he's pretty much the opposite of you... uh... I mean... the opposite of you when you act like a complete jerk towards me... well... uh..."
Usagi stammered the last part as something started working in her brain. Mamoru could see in her eyes that she was about to put two and two together. Suddenly, her eyes widened in complete horror.
"Don't tell me, you're... you're not Tuxedo Mask, are you?!"
"And here it comes... the second course of our lovebirds' candlelight dinner."
The older woman chirped cheerfully while busily setting a new platter of steaming hot curry rice on the table. She happily took away the now empty sushi plate and disappeared behind the curtain two seconds later.
Mamoru was grateful for this distraction and quickly thought about his options; telling Usagi that he was Tuxedo Mask would not be easy to prove since he couldn't transform into his alter ego.
Without his star crystal, it was impossible to become the masked superhero in a tuxedo. He had already tried several times shortly after arriving in the past. It also wouldn't make sense to tell Usagi that she was the Moon Princess everyone was searching for, and it wouldn't be a good idea to reveal his second hidden identity, Prince Endymion, to her. This was all more than complicated and would likely only lead to more chaos in the past.
Suddenly, a new idea formed in his mind. Why this name came to him just now must be due to that strange TV show Usagi had once convinced him to watch on several VHS tapes. She was a huge fan of the guy and had jokingly told Mamoru that he reminded her of him. Even Diana seemed to have thought of this guy when she recently, with Artemis T's help, magically created that weird costume for him. Mamoru decided to try a slightly modified truth. What could go wrong?
Once they were alone again, Mamoru leaned over the table and explained to Usagi, who seemed perfectly distracted by the steaming hot food once again,
"I have a hidden identity called 'Moonlight Knight.'"
"Moonlight Knight?" Usagi was now confused, poking at the curry rice with her chopsticks.
"Yes, that's right. I am also an ally of yours, but I haven't acted yet because Tuxedo Mask is quite good at rescuing the damsel in distress whenever needed." He winked at her but flinched when Usagi suddenly came to a completely wrong conclusion. Triumphantly, she waved her chopsticks in the air.
"So, it's Motoki! He's Tuxedo Mask... oh, I knew it!!!"
"What? Damn it, no, he absolutely is not!" Mamoru almost shouted at Usagi, who was visibly surprised by his sudden outburst.
"I'm sorry, Usako, this must be a bit confusing for you - 'a bit?' - but there is a... very good explanation for why you won't find out Tuxedo Mask's true identity." Mamoru took a deep breath before continuing. "Tuxedo Mask is not entirely a flesh-and-blood hero; rather, he is nothing more than a... humanoid... psychic... projection. Moonlight Knight might not be as... cool compared to Tuxedo Mask, but I am sitting here in front of you, and I feel quite alive."
'... oh God, what nonsense am I talking about?!'
he added mentally, shrugging somewhat helplessly.
It was obvious that Usagi was now completely lost and didn't really understand Mamoru's strange explanation as she shoveled the curry rice into her mouth with the same passion she had devoured the first course.
"So, it's not Motoki," she finally managed to state, her mouth full of rice.
Mamoru took a deep breath and finally explained, slightly annoyed,
"No, of course, he is not Tuxedo Mask. Motoki has nothing to do with it, and we need to keep him out of all these problems, just like your family, your friends like Naru, Umino, and anyone who could be harmed by the enemy."
His eyes darkened as he saw Usagi had stopped eating and was staring at him in disbelief.
"I just want you to trust me. There are a lot of things I can't tell you because it would be too dangerous to know right now. And I want you to keep my presence in this time a secret... you can't even tell Luna about all this."
He took her hands to emphasize the urgency of keeping the secrets he had told her so far.
"I just want to find what I'm looking for here and save our world. I'm doing all this for-"
"Chibi"
Both froze and looked into each other's eyes, puzzled.
"Chibi Chibi"
They heard it again, and Mamoru immediately looked around to find the source of the strange noise, but aside from him and Usagi, the room was completely empty.
Suddenly, the heavy velvet curtain that covered the entrance to the private room moved, and the little girl Mamoru had seen a few months ago on a tree in front of the Hikawa Temple cheerfully hopped into the room, followed by the older woman, who was just as confused as the couple sitting at the table.
"I didn't know Ikuko was already a grandmother!"
Everyone stared at the little girl in astonishment. Compared to the rest of the group, the red-haired girl didn't care about her unexpected presence and happily jumped onto Usagi's lap, starting to shovel curry rice into her mouth as if it were the most normal thing in the world.
Before Usagi could react, Mamoru narrowed his eyes and quickly explained to the restaurant owner,
"Thank you for finding her. She must have followed us, and I think it will be best to take her back to the hotel right away... Usako, let's go, okay?"
Without giving her a chance to object, Mamoru grabbed Usagi's hand and took the little girl into his arms.
"Thank you for this extraordinary time and the great food we had. We will definitely recommend you and come back someday." He quickly spoke to the woman and made his way out with a perplexed Usagi and the little girl.
As they stepped out of the restaurant, Usagi finally managed to speak.
"What is going on here? Is this what connects us? Is she... our child?!" Usagi pointed to the little girl, who smiled at her, and suddenly she froze as she realized what she had just said.
Mamoru looked thoughtfully at the toddler, who returned his gaze curiously.
"I honestly have no idea who she is, but she is definitely involved in this whole thing."
"Phew... and I thought that you and I... I mean... come on, she's a bit older than one or so... if you're from two years ago, that would mean that we really... uh... maybe even that night... well, so she's not our daughter."
Usagi scratched her head in embarrassment, sighed deeply, and tried to refocus.
"And what are we supposed to do with her now? We can't take her back to Mom and Dad... how am I ever going to explain who she is?"
Suddenly, Usagi's eyes widened, and she turned her gaze back to Mamoru.
"How is it that my parents believed your whole story about the distant relative?!!!"
Mamoru cleared his throat and pulled the small white cat-face ball out of his pocket, still looking at his future wife.
"As I said, it's all very complicated, but thanks to this little ball called 'Artemis T', I am able to manipulate people's thoughts." Mamoru shrugged and then threw the ball into the air, shouting loudly,
"Artemis T - transform!"
A loud bang was followed by a bright pink cloud. After a few seconds, the view cleared, and in front of the three stood a white car seat.
"He can also transform into any object you can imagine," he added dryly.
Usagi could only marvel as Mamoru set the little girl down and climbed into the car to install the seat in the back.
"My transformation pen is really nothing compared to your white cat ball!" she admitted honestly and also got into the car.
Once the car doors were closed and Mamoru had started the engine, he glanced at Usagi and asked,
"So... we will need to come up with a story that explains this girl's presence as simply as possible. Any ideas?"
Usagi turned to the little girl, who was safely sitting in her white car seat in the back, busily inspecting her reflection in the car window. A few moments passed as her eyes dreamily rested on the mysterious child, until her gaze softened and she turned back to Mamoru. Usagi took a deep breath and explained to her newfound fiancé from the future,
"I probably understand only one percent of what you've told me about your mission so far, and to be completely honest, I still don't understand why you're really here... but... I trust you and will help you as best as I can to find what you're looking for... so"
She took another deep breath and finally spoke her thought out loud,
"Take your Artemis T and tell my family that we are married and that she is our daughter."