"I really do like Motoki! He's so open and friendly, and he treats you like you're something truly special, and he's so funny… oh my God, I wish my future husband would have all the same amazing qualities as my Motoki."

Kousagi giggled dreamily next to Mamoru as the two strolled through the rush-hour-marked streets of Azabu-Juban in the late afternoon.

"Future husband, huh? You're way too young to be thinking about marriage already!"

Somehow, Mamoru was quite bothered by the thought that this cheeky girl beside him might, in the near future—say, the next 20 years—tie the knot with some random guy. Even though it sounded completely irrational, protective, fatherly feelings for Kousagi surged within Mamoru in that moment with startling clarity.

"Too young? Pfft, not at all! Mom was exactly my age when she met you!"

Before Mamoru could respond to this highly alarming remark, the topic was abruptly interrupted as Kousagi froze in place, right at the same spot where she had frantically searched for her white cat ball that morning.

This time, however, her full attention was on a single, slightly crumpled piece of paper lying on the sidewalk.

Kousagi stepped closer curiously and picked it up. With wide eyes, she stared at the hand-drawn picture.

"What's wrong, Kousagi? Oh," Mamoru said, recalling Usagi's quirky little story at the sight of the couple in the drawing. "Are you into fairy tales?"

"Fairy tales? FAIRY TALES?!" Kousagi looked at Mamoru, utterly flabbergasted.

She took a deep breath and slowly counted to ten in her head.

No, no, there was simply no point in forcing Mamoru to remember his true self. That beautiful, magical, millennia-spanning love story between him and her mother, which, even in her time, was as magical as it was unique in this universe.

But maybe it would be easier as a team to jog his memory a bit? When Kousagi saw the initials U and T on the back of the paper, she asked Mamoru with an innocent expression,

"Uh, say, Mamoru. Do you happen to know the artist of this beautiful masterpiece?"

Mamoru raised his eyebrows slightly in surprise.

"Oh, haven't I mentioned her yet? The picture is by Usagi Tsukino, though I prefer to call her by her nickname, Odango Atama. It suits her weird hairstyle. This morning, she tried to tell me a fairy tale while showing me a bunch of these drawings. I suspect it's some kind of hobby of hers."

"Odango-WHAAAAT?????" Kousagi was beyond shocked. How could her father's younger self stoop to naming the distinctive features of the royal family's female members like that? It was practically an insult to majesty and would be harshly punished in the world and time she came from. At least with years in the dungeon or something. Kousagi had to point out Mamoru's massive faux pas immediately, or he'd soon be a head shorter. At the very least.

"Mamoru, I… I wouldn't do that if I were you."

"Do what?"

"Couldn't you come up with a nicer nickname for Usagi? Maybe something that suits her personality rather than her hairstyle? You might honestly regret it one day."

Slightly embarrassed, Mamoru ran his hand through his pitch-black hair.

"Uh, well, to be honest, I do have another nickname for her, but I'm definitely not telling you, you nosy girl!"

Mamoru knew he'd reacted a bit too harshly. But this topic was really sensitive; no one, especially not Kousagi, was allowed to know the special name he'd started calling Usagi in one of his confusing dreams.

He usually had several of those dreams a week.

In them, he was a different person. Not in the usual dream way, like flying or being insanely rich. Rather, Mamoru "lived" an entirely different life in these dreams. He was surrounded by many more people, most of them middle school girls for some strange reason he hadn't figured out yet. One of them was Usagi. But he didn't call her by her name, and certainly not Dumpling Head, Moon Face, or Odango.

He called her Usako.

And this Usako was definitely more than a friend to him. In those dreams, he had feelings for her that lingered uncomfortably in reality when he woke up in the morning, finding himself in his usual loneliness. It was crazy, but it almost felt like he knew exactly what love was and how it felt in his dreams.

With her.

Even more unsettling was that Mamoru deeply enjoyed his dreams! But he definitely didn't want to share any of that with his new roommate Kousagi out on the open street. And anyway, it wasn't reality—it could only be a fantasy his subconscious had created to help him escape his loneliness, even just a little.

So he put on an exaggeratedly determined face, hoping Kousagi wouldn't pester him further with her questions.

It seemed to work, as with a quick shrug, she only said,

"Ahh, whatever, as long as you stop insulting her awesome hair buns—they're super stylish and totally in trend. Just look at Baby Spice from the Spice Girls, she had that hairstyle too back then… oh, oops, never mind, they don't come out with that earworm hit 'Wannabe' until 1996, sorry."

Mamoru just rolled his eyes at her chatter and continued walking back to the apartment undeterred.

"By the way," Kousagi, who wasn't great at staying quiet, said as she caught up to him, "I heard there's a super cool hologram show opening tomorrow. Look, I grabbed this from the arcade!" With that, she pulled a small flyer from her skirt pocket and waved it meaningfully in her hand.

Mamoru snatched the paper and frowned.

"A virtual reality theater?"

"I'd looove to see that! You can shoot monsters with lasers! That's insane!!! We don't have cool stuff like that back home, and since Mom banished Chaos and there's been peace on Earth, I can't even transform into a warrior. That's so unfair. I want to hunt villains too, at least virtual ones. And there's a coupon for twenty percent off the ticket price. Maybe we could go together tomorrow? It's way cooler than a disco, and with a bit of luck, we'll crack the high score. Pleeease?"

Kousagi gave him puppy-dog eyes, dramatically underscoring her plea with a prayer-like gesture.

Mamoru took a moment to think about her suggestion.

'I could spend the day with Motoki. It's the only day in forever that he has off, and we could have a nice meal, talk about work and university, drink that delicious coffee they serve at that cute little fruit parlor, and just enjoy life. Or I could go with Kousagi to the VR theater.'

Those strange fatherly feelings welled up again as Kousagi hit him with a double dose of puppy eyes, fluttering her long lashes.

"Do I even have a choice?" he asked weakly.

"No, hooray! You're the best!!!"

The decision was made in Kousagi's favor, and less than sixteen hours later, Mamoru found himself at the end of a massive queue in front of the new virtual reality theater.

He sighed deeply, already dreading the prospect of standing in the blazing sun for probably over an hour, waiting to enter the show. Waiting wasn't exactly Mamoru's strong suit. Kousagi, on the other hand, was the complete opposite.

"Waaah, oh my gosh, a real queue! This is so awesome!"

She squealed with delight as if she'd won the lottery, clapping her hands in excitement at the sight of the enormous crowd.

'This craziness seems totally normal for her,' Mamoru noted in his thoughts, sighing deeply.

"I'd only ever heard about it and never thought I'd get the chance to do it!"

"Do what?!"

Kousagi took her white backpack off her shoulders and plopped it cheerfully on the ground. She unzipped it and pulled out some steamed buns, two drink pouches, and a huge bag of sweet popcorn.

"Queuing, what else!"

Mamoru gave the bag a puzzled look and frowned when he noticed a cat face on the back. "Is that your white ball you call Artemis T?!"

Before Kousagi could answer, Mamoru's attention was diverted as he spotted a certain blonde Moon Face at the edge of the crowd. She seemed to be busy strangling the small black cat in her arms.

"Speaking of cats," Mamoru muttered absently, but he quickly collected himself. Determination filled his gaze. Apologetically, he said to his companion, "Kousagi, could you start queuing without me? I have something to take care of."

"Uh, yeah, sure."

Kousagi was surprised by his reaction and could only watch as Mamoru strode purposefully toward a girl. He said something to her that Kousagi couldn't hear, but time seemed to stop, and the heavens opened as the girl with the familiar-looking hair buns turned to Mamoru and looked into his eyes.

'No way, that can't be true, can it?'

Suddenly, Kousagi was overwhelmed by a deep sense of homesickness.

"Mama," she said, tears welling up in her eyes. She desperately wanted to run to Usagi, throw her arms around her slender frame, and sob loudly. Aside from her father, she hadn't seen a familiar face in this time, and seeing her mother's younger self here filled Kousagi with longing.

But just as she was about to leave her spot in the queue, she stopped short.

It might have been barely noticeable to anyone else, and Kousagi couldn't make out a single word of their heated discussion, but she had seen her parents together a million times. They were completely in their own world. The bond of their legendary soulmate connection might have been a bit faint in this time, but it was still there, enveloping Usagi and Mamoru like a protective cocoon against the outside world.

Watching their younger selves standing there, barely older than Kousagi herself, warmed her heart.

"Ahh, young love," she sighed dreamily. But she was abruptly snapped out of her sentimental mood as a dark, unfamiliar energy dangerously approached her parents. In an instant, a red-haired girl and a boy with orange hair appeared next to Mamoru and Usagi. Both were wearing middle school uniforms, and it almost seemed like they all knew each other.

"Who the heck are those two, and why is that ugly red-haired brat clinging to my dad?"

Kousagi bared her teeth and rolled up her sleeves, ready to intervene and get rid of these intruders as quickly as possible, but she was interrupted by a shout that cut through the air above her head.

"Luna!"

"Huh, I know that voice?!"

Kousagi whipped her head around.

"W-what? They're here too????"

The small black cat ran right past Kousagi and leapt joyfully into the arms of the blue-haired girl behind her.

There they were, in the flesh, in full color. The four mighty inner Sailor Guardians: Sailor Mars, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Venus, and Sailor Jupiter. The protectors of the solar system and the personal guard of Neo Queen Serenity. For as long as Kousagi could remember, they had protected her family.

Suddenly, another thought struck Kousagi.

'They're smart, especially Sailor Mercury, and if they see me, they might put two and two together, and the entire space-time continuum could collapse! Or something like that.'

Quickly, Kousagi jumped out of the queue and squeezed into a small nook between two buildings to avoid the approaching warriors. She clutched her white cat backpack tightly and squinted her eyes in deep concentration.

"Artemis T, transform me into… anyone but me!"

In a fraction of a second, a pink cloud enveloped Kousagi, and moments later, it revealed a young man. Blue jeans, a turquoise shirt, black horn-rimmed glasses on his slightly acne-prone face, and short, curly brown hair made it nearly impossible to tell that a girl from the future was inside this body. Kousagi grimaced at her reflection in a window as she inspected herself.

"Great, young Grandpa Kenji. Could it get any worse?"

She didn't have long to sulk over Artemis T's interpretation of her wish, though, as the Sailor team was about to take their place at the end of the queue. Quickly, Kenji-Kousagi pushed her way in front of the group and eagerly pricked up her ears.

"This is the best thing that could've happened to me. I'm getting unfiltered gossip straight from the Guardians! All the juicy details, maybe even stuff about my mom I'd never otherwise find out! What if they spill embarrassing secrets? What do they think of Mom? How do they live? And how do they feel about constantly saving the planet from doom?! Wahhh, this is so exciting. I can't mess this up!"

Kousagi was determined to eavesdrop as much as possible and had more or less forgotten her plan to follow her parents and the two strangers. Somehow, they had managed to skip the kilometer-long queue and slip right into the theater.

Kousagi would need at least another hour to get through the VR theater's doors and check on Usagi and Mamoru, but she was more than optimistic about making the long wait highly productive.