From the corner of his eye, Mamoru saw a small figure literally drop out of thin air, from above, and crash onto Azula who, consequently, collapsed onto the ground. The red-haired girl shrieked as the hard cement greeted her back. When she opened her eyes, she faced a little girl who couldn't look more than five years old staring right back at her with big green eyes.
"Uuh…" Azula opened her mouth but no words came to mind for the first seconds. Even Mamoru was speechless at the sight of the little girl who remained over Azula. "Did a kid just...fall on me from the sky!?" Azula soon found her voice though, and it was loud.
"I didn't fall…" the girl pushed her short, curly ginger hair behind her shoulders. She looked at Azula with such a puppy-dog face that Azula couldn't really find it in her to be that angry.
"Azula, are you okay?" Mamoru began to wonder if the cracking noise had been Azula's actual body when it hit the ground. He bent down beside his friend and reached out to grab the small girl but, not really knowing her, he stopped midway.
"Kid, get off me!" Azula snapped and the small girl gasped from surprise. "Didn't you hear me!? Get the hell off! I'm not a bouncy house!"
"Azula...she's just a kid…" Mamoru scolded lightly but the small girl finally paid him attention.
"Azula?" she repeated in her high pitched voice and quickly looked at Azula again. "Is that your name? Azula?"
"Oh, sure, fall on me, and then ask for my name," Azula rolled her eyes. "I'm Keena Azula and if you don't get the hell off me in the next second you're gonna find a very angry adult." But the girl quickly clung onto Azula like her life depended on it. Azula remained with a straight face and only flickered her eyes to Mamoru. "Mamoru, get her off me...or I'm going to snap."
Mamoru believed her. He reached once more to pull the girl off her but this time the girl herself let go of Azula and clung to him next. Azula took her opportunity to scramble up to her feet lest the girl feel like strangling her again. She huffed and huffed as she dusted herself off but resigned to having her favorite blouse marred with dirt on the back.
"Are you frikin kidding me, what the hell is going on?" Azula muttered but she received a warning, small finger in her face.
"You shouldn't say bad words," the girl scolded.
Azula laughed quite loudly. "Oh, great, so now after you fall on me you lecture me? Little girl, who the hell are you and where are your parents? I'd like a quick word with them."
"My Mommy and Daddy are far, but you're not supposed to say bad words," the girl seemed very adamant.
Before Azula truly fumed, Mamoru stepped in. "What's your name?"
The girl swayed on her feet and answered obediently. "Reyna."
"Is your cousin here…?" Mamoru wondered and he and Azula looked around the near vicinity in case any adults were worryingly looking to Reyna.
"No, she's far away too," Reyna replied calmly. "Can I get food?" she tugged on Azula's hand but the red-haired snatched her arms into a crossing gesture. Reyna sadly pouted.
"I've got some words…"
"Azula, she's a kid," Mamoru thought he wouldn't need to remind her but he forgot she was bad with children.
"And she fell from thin air!" Azula threw her hands in the air. "For all I know, she could be part of Senka's tricks!"
At the mention of the name Reyna gasped loudly and shook her head. "Not her! Not her!" she cried, startling the other two.
"What are you-"
"NO!" Reyna screamed and ran away from the two.
"What the…?" Azula was left bewildered. She scratched the side of her head. "Mamoru, did that sound like she…"
"Knew something about Senka?" he finished for her. That had been his exact thought.
With one glance between each other they rushed off to go find the small girl. She didn't appear to be hiding because just two minutes later, Azula and Mamoru found her sitting on a bench all on her own. Her small, ginger curls fell just over her shoulders as she gazed up at the sky. Her hands were neatly folded over them.
"Maybe you should let me do the talking," Mamoru suggested to Azula but she knew that was his nice way of telling her to keep her mouth shut. He cleared his throat just as he neared Reyna.
She gasped again and jumped off the bench. Thinking she would make another run for it, Mamoru reached out for one of her arms. "Hey, look, we're not going to hurt you. We're friends...yeah? Chiba Mamoru-" he gestured to himself then moved his hand to Azula behind him, "-and Keena Azula are your friends."
Reyna's green eyes flickered between the two for a minute. "She doesn't like me," she said sadly and nodded to Azula.
The girl in question released a small breath when Mamoru threw her a look. "She fell on me," Azula said between gritted teeth.
"Azula is just...upset...because you sort of surprised her," Mamoru was able to accommodate rather nicely.
"I didn't mean to," Reyna said with big green eyes that were clearly filled with guilt. "The voices didn't tell me how to land right…"
"Voices?" Azula repeated. "What voices?"
Reyna looked down and quietly answered, "The voices in my head."
"Hear that, Mamoru?" Azula jabbed an elbow into his side. "She hears voices...in her head."
Mamoru's response was his elbow jabbing onto her side. She threw him an offended look that he ignored. He bent down in front of Reyna again. "You're going to have to be more specific, Reyna."
Reyna raised her head and put on her puppy face, at least that's what Azula believed. Reyna said no more and simply hugged Mamoru.
"Oh my God," Azula rolled her eyes. "She knows something…"
Mamoru agreed with her but he liked to think he had more tactics than her. "We should get her to Luna or something…" because it was clear the girl had no parents around there.
"Are you kidding me? You've still got a date with Usagi and you are not cancelling that," Azula reminded him, and adamantly too.
"Usagi!?" Reyna pulled away from Mamoru and gazed up at Azula with wide eyes.
Both teenagers were now even more suspicious of the girl. They definitely couldn't leave her out of sight.
"Look, I can...look after her...or whatever…" Azula offered and yelped when Reyna rushed to hug her legs. "Seriously, she's just gonna hug every time we speak?"
"Azula, are you sure you can handle this?" Mamoru knew Azula was capable of a lot of things but babysitting wasn't one of those.
"Yeah, she's like 5. I can take her," Azula shrugged.
"I don't know…"
"You're not cancelling and that is final." Azula then looked down at Reyna who was still hugging her. "And you...you gotta stop." Reyna slipped a small teethy smile and raised one hand up for Azula to take. "I'm not taking your ha-"
"Azula," Mamoru went, giving her a look.
"Fine," Azula snatched Reyna's hand and made a motion of it. "Happy?"
"I am," Mamoru smiled a little. It wasn't everyday he got to see a purely annoyed, uncomfortable Azula.
"Go!" Azula pointed him to leave but as he went off, he laughed at her.
Reyna tugged on Azula's hand, reminding that she was still indeed with her. With a sigh, Azula looked around the park one more time - hoping to find the parents of the kid - but found no one was running around looking for a lost child. No alternatives left Azula to just bring Reyna home with her. Along the way, she called for Luna and Artemis and told them they were required immediately. Azula thought that leaving Reyna out of the base under the arcade was a cautious move. If anything, Reyna could be in league with Senka.
Get ahold of yourself, she's a child, Azula told herself. Least that's what Mamoru kept saying.
~0~
Since neither Azula's father nor sister were home, it was pretty simple getting Reyna in. She brought Reyna inside the apartment and before Azula could start asking questions, Reyna ran straight to the kitchen.
"Hey, no!" Azula shut the door and chased after Reyna. "Get out of there!"
Reyna was already trying to climb up the counter to grab a jar of Keiko favorite cookies. Azula yanked the girl off her feet - finding out in the process that Reyna was pretty light - and brought her back to the kitchen table.
"You can't climb counters! First of all, that's dangerous! Second of all-"
"I'm hungry," Reyna rubbed her stomach sadly.
Azula gave a long stare at the girl before giving in. Maybe food would soften Reyna up enough to answer questions. "Fine. Go sit at the table and do not move. Got it?"
Reyna beamed and nodded her head. "Aha!" she ran for the nearest chair and pulled it out to sit on it.
Azula went back to the kitchen to see what she could give the girl. She didn't exactly know much about kids. After all, she'd been an only child between her parents and then had an older step sister. She never had the need to interact with small children.
Reyna turned out to be a proper eater. Azula was a bit impressed, mind you, of how neatly Reyna ate. She knew by observations that kids tended to be messy, loud eaters. Reyna had ate neatly and quietly despite having Azula stare at her from beginning to end. By the time Luna and Artemis showed up, it was night out.
"You're late," Azula said once the cats hopped onto the nearest chairs.
"Shadow research," Artemis said plainly to excuse them.
Reyna gazed from one cat to the other but there was no indication that she was scared of the talking cats. In fact, there seemed to be a twinkle in her green eyes.
Luna noticed the same as Azula and decided to simply play nice. Like Mamoru, she thought Reyna was a simple kid. "Where did you come from little one?"
"Um…" Reyna pulled her hands from the table and set them over her lap. "My house…?"
"Well, yes," Luna tried going along with the child talk, "But I meant where do you live? Where are your parents?"
There came that flash of guilt in Reyna's face. She gave a meek shrug of her shoulders. "I-I think they're still at home...I-I don't think...they know where I am...yet…"
"So you snuck out," Azula assumed because that was the face of a runaway child. It explained particularly a lot so far. "And now you feel bad about it."
"The voices told me I had to go," Reyna continued explaining quietly, her high-pitched girly voice making it almost impossible for Luna and Artemis to get suspicious. "S-someone needed me. As a future Sailor Guardian it was my sponsibility to help."
"You're a Sailor Scout!?" Azula nearly fell over.
"She's far too young," Artemis said instantly. "You said future guardian…"
Reyna nodded her head. "My Mommy says I'm still too young. But I can do it. I can save people too. And I'm gonna do it" she ended up shouting like someone had already voiced their disagreement. She hopped off the chair and ran for the nearest bedroom - which turned out to be Azula's - and slammed the door.
Azula ran after but found the door was already locked. She banged on it and shouted for Reyna to open it. "You can't lock yourself in my bedroom!" she tried the doorknob in vain.
"Azula…" Luna called and, because there was no point in battling against the locked door, Azula turned back for the cats.
"Who the hell does this kid thinks she is?" she jerked a thumb in her bedroom's direction.
"We're going to have to keep a very close eye on her," Luna warned like Azula didn't know that.
"She knows about Senka, okay? You should have seen how crazy she got when I mentioned her at the park. Reyna is hiding something and I'm gonna figure it out," Azula huffed and crossed her arms.
But neither Azula nor Luna for that matter, could ever have known that things were already moving against them. Somewhere in the world, something was awakening. Out in a forest during a storm, two bright and blue eyes shined in the midst of darkness. The ice capsule around them cracked as the figure began to move.
~0~
30th Century: Crystal Tokyo.
A clan of villainous youth gathered in their spaceship that towered over a beautiful, green planet Earth. Their malicious eyes gazed over the planet with nothing but intent to end the humans plaguing it. Their upside down crescent moon on their foreheads all marked a significant unification between them. It marked their superiority, their grandness, everything that made them better humans. And soon the humans would know it.
Behind them a figure hidden under a purple cloak appeared. His hands, which were the only things visible to the group, repeatedly hovered over a crystal globe. "The child has taken the bait as planned," Wiseman declared, much to the joy of the others.
The Black Moon Clan had been awaiting the perfect moment to attack Crystal Tokyo.
"With the distraction, an attack should be child's play for you all."
Each member of the Black Moon Clan smirked.
Author's Note:
I'm going to skip the reasons why it's been so long since I updated and just apologize. I'm so sorry! Hopefully, that doesn't happen anymore!
For the review: Thankfully, I updated now and I hope the story still keeps people interested! :)