Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Chaos no Ageshio (Tides of Chaos) ❯ Episode 3: A peaceful day! Usagi's friendship with Sulia. ( Chapter 3 )

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Chaos no Ageshio

(Tides of Chaos)

by P.H. Wise

key:

" " represents Japanese

< > represents English

* * is telepathy

. o O ( ) is thoughts

and [ ] is panda signs, which won't be appearing in this story.

Episode 3: A peaceful day! Usagi's friendship with Sulia.

Being an account of Usagi and Sulia's trip to the local video store...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

#"... Details are sketchy, but from the information we've received from the police, the Prime Minister was killed late last night by an unnaturally intense fire. Due to both the lingering disruption in the local mana field surrounding the home of the late Prime Minister and the fact that the flame did not spread beyond his body, the MHT believes that the crime was committed by a powerful Newtype. More on this story as it develops..."#

Makoto shook her head and turned away from the wall-mounted television. She was shocked to hear of the death of the prime minister, of course, but what alarmed her far more than that was the fact that Usagi, Mamoru and Rei had been at the mansion just hours before the murder - the Princess had been in danger, and none of them had known it. She was unable to dwell on this for long, however, as another order came through, delivered by her newest waitress.

A very odd girl, that new waitress. She had spent over half an hour chasing a mouse that she saw in the kitchen. She was also a hard worker, and seemed to enjoy waitressing... even if she did tend to attract hostile mecha from time to time. The restaurant had been doing fairly well as of late, and for that reason Makoto was glad of the extra help.

Once she had finished the cooking of the newest order, Makoto headed out into the main room of the restaurant to take her lunch break, leaving the cooking to her assistant cooks.

That was when Makaino Ryu walked into the restaurant.

"I'll handle this one, Nuku. Why don't you take a break?" Makoto said, heading over to take Ryu's order. 'He looks just like my sempai!' she thought to herself as she stared at the poor man, a dreamy look on her face.

Ryu quickly grew uncomfortable beneath her gaze and directed a frown her way. "Hey, cut that out," he said, "I hate it when old ladies stare at me."

Makoto's eye began to twitch. "You look NOTHING LIKE HIM." she announced. "Nuku, you wait on him." With that she stalked out of the room, resembling nothing so much as a cat that's had its tail stepped on.

******

When Sulia arrived at the Tsukino residence, neither Mamoru nor Usagi were home. There was, however, a note on the door which read: "Sulia-san, sorry, but we're going to be a little late. The door's unlocked, so come in and make yourself at home while you wait. Signed, Usagi." Sulia was quick to follow the instructions left for her. She opened the door, and in she went.

Leaving the guest-gift that she had brought on the kitchen table, Sulia decided that it would be best to take care of her most urgent business first. When nature calls, it is unwise to ignore it.

On her way back to the living room from the restroom, Sulia noticed that the door to the bedroom was open. She stopped short, curiosity rising within her mind and doing war with the thought that it was perhaps not very polite to explore someone's home while they were not there with you. Unfortunately, her curiosity won, and the moral urge was sent to a POW camp where it was slowly tortured to death.

Peeking her head through the door, she took a look at the room. The bedroom itself was not particularly remarkable. What DID catch Sulia's eye was the book that lay open on the king sized bed. That is to say, the diary that lay open on the king sized bed.

"Don't do it, Sulia-chan!" said Chibi-Tenshi-Sulia as she appeared on Sulia's right shoulder. "It's wrong to look at other people's diaries!"

"Go for it, Sulia." said Chibi-Mamono-Sulia (complete with devil wings and horns), who appeared on the left shoulder. "No one will ever know. What's the harm?"

"Chigao! It's WRONG!" exclaimed Chibi-Tenshi-Sulia.

"Hey, when did we even get one of you?" replied Chibi-Mamono-Sulia, eyeing Chibi-Tenshi-Sulia suspiciously.

"The office sent me in last week." said the Tenshi-Sulia, turning up her nose slightly. "Apparently Sulia's previous conscience wasn't doing such a good job."

*somewhere out there, a tiny winged hamster sneezed*

"I'll show you who's doing a good job!" exclaimed the Chibi-Mamono-Sulia as she produced a pistol and unloaded six shells into Chibi-Tenshi-Sulia's forehead. The chibi-angel twitched a few times before falling from Sulia's shoulder.

Her internal debate settled, Sulia nodded to herself. She grinned mischievously (yes, THAT grin. The grin that says "I'm doing something wrong and getting away with it") as she opened the diary and began to read.

Some time later, Sulia was startled by the noise of a car pulling up in the driveway. Quickly replacing the diary in the spot she had found it, Sulia rushed out of the room and headed for the front door - it was time to make it seem as though she had just arrived.

Mamoru and Usagi came walking in through the front door just as Sulia had settled herself into an appropriate 'just arrived' position. Upon seeing her, Mamoru frowned, but Usagi just smiled and said, "Ah, Sulia-san! Sorry we're late. Have you been waiting long?"

"It's alright, Usagi-san. Mamoru-san. I only just arrived a moment ago, myself." said Sulia, smiling nervously and hoping very much that neither of them could see the Chibi Police cars arriving.

A group of policemen climbed out of the cars and handcuffed Chibi-Mamono-Sulia. "Evil Sulia," one of them said as they led the little akuma away, "You're under arrest for the murder of Good Sulia. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be used against you in a court of law..."

Sulia sweatdropped heavily, growing more and more nervous as the arrest played itself out. If either Usagi or Mamoru took any notice of such a blatant ripping off of 'Excel Saga,' they at least had enough sense not to react to it.

******

~'Chiba Mamoru,

~ How have you been since you went back to Japan? Thank you

~ once again for your assistance in our work. Thanks to you, our

~ research is finally beginning to bear fruit. Already we've made

~ great advances in the areas of tactical weaponry and the nature

~ of subspace as it relates to time and space. We may actually be

~ able to travel through time soon! Yet despite the impressive

~ strides we have been making, we have hit a bit of a snag as of

~ late.'

Mamoru blinked slightly as he noticed the sentence 'We may actually be able to travel through time soon!' begin to fade from the paper. A few moments later, he found that he could no longer remember why he was staring at the line that had been left blank for some reason by whoever had written the letter, so he continued to read.

~ Although, as we assured you before, we only intend to use

~ our science for peace, we've managed to produce a weapon that

~ harnesses the planet's mana field. We're calling it the Magma

~ Buster. Unfortunately, we have been unable to patent the device

~ as of yet. Apparently, there is already a similar device

~ registered with the international patent office. Imagine our

~ surprise when we found that someone had already devised a way

~ to harness the earth's mana field as a weapon back during the

~ mid-90's! When we attempted to press our claim, a red-haired

~ woman showed up at our door with a lawsuit. You know, it's

~ strange, but I feel like I should know her for some reason. She

~ seems to recognize me, at least. Oh well.

~ In any case, everyone here at the lab says hello and wishes

~ you well, and I've been authorized to formally invite you to

~ come and work with us.

~

~ Best Wishes,

~ S. Tomoe

Mamoru sweatdropped. It sounded like Tomoe-sensei needed his help, but he was not about to pack up and go. He had promised Usagi that he wouldn't leave her behind again, and he was pretty sure that she had no interest in moving to Germany. But the rest of that was just odd... a patent already in existence? A red-haired woman? Who in the world?

Mamoru's sweatdrop grew tenfold. No, it could NOT be 'that woman.' No chance. Shaking his head and feeling slightly embarrassed for thinking such ridiculous thoughts, Mamoru set the letter down on the coffee table before sitting down on the sofa and pulling out a book to read as he waited for Usagi and Sulia to return with the movie that they had gone to rent.

******

"Thanks for coming with me, Sulia-san." Usagi said.

"Don't mention it," said Sulia, a smile on her face as she entered the movie store just a step behind Usagi. Several of the employees glanced at Sulia as she entered, and one called out, "Konnichi wa, Sulia!" in a cheerful voice.

"Konnichi wa," Sulia replied, nodding to the person who had greeted her.

"You know the people here, Sulia-san?" Usagi asked.

"Hai! They're people I know from America. I'm very surprised to see them working here, though! I'll have to get in touch with them later, and find out how they've all been."

Half an hour later, Usagi and Sulia found themselves in line waiting to check out.

"So," began the customer at the counter. "Can you tell me what movies are coming out soon?"

The clerk put on a cheerful smile and did her best not to glare at the customer as she said, "The new release schedule is printed on the banner right behind you, sir."

The customer blinked, turning around to face the banner. After studying it for a few minutes (and holding up the line for just as long), he said, "So the Miyazuki(1) film, when does it come out?"

Through some miracle, the clerk managed not to kill the man, though her smile certainly did slip. There it was, printed on the banner as clear as day, yet the man somehow did not see it.

It was another five minutes before the man finally rented a movie and left the store, at which point there was a collective sigh of relief from the workers.

******

"Ah, I'm sorry, ma'am, but you need a membership to rent from this store." said the clerk.

Usagi sniffled, her eyes beginning to tear up.

Sulia sweatdropped. "Matte, Usagi-san, don't cry! It's REALLY easy to get a membership!"

Usagi blinked and looked at Sulia curiously. "Hontou ni?"

"Hontou," Sulia replied before turning to the clerk. "Can we have an application for a new account?"

"Hai!" said the clerk, handing Sulia the application. "Please fill it out to the side and then come back to the counter once you're ready."

Usagi began to sniffle. "You mean we have to go through that line again? Waaaaaaaah! It's not fair!" By the time she was done speaking, tears were streaming from her eyes.

Ignoring Usagi for the moment, Sulia frowned at the clerk. "This is the wrong form. We want an application for membership, not an application for employment."

The clerk blushed heavily and apologized, taking back the one form and handing a second document to Sulia. "You're in luck!" she said, "This is the last one we have. We'll have to print some more."

"Ne, you see, Usagi? It's not so hard." said Sulia, turning around to face... empty space. "Usagi? USAGI?"

"What? OH, gomen, Sulia-san!" said Usagi, putting away the manga she had produced from her purse. "I got bored and thought I'd read..." she trailed off as she noticed Sulia's 'I am not amused' look. "Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Here, Usagi. If you want to rent the movies, you have to sign this." said Sulia, handing Usagi the form she had been given.

"I don't have to give anything else? Not even a phone number? Just sign my name?" asked Usagi as she signed the paper.

"Nope, all the rest will be taken care of automatically." said Sulia, smiling cheerfully once again.

"That's really convenient!"

"Isn't it?"

******

"Ah, Usagi-san," Sulia began, seeming a bit uncomfortable, "I was wondering..." she trailed off. "No, never mind."

The movie had ended just a few moments later, and Sulia was now getting ready to depart. They had ended up renting the latest romance movie. Though you may not think so, gentle reader, you have seen this movie yourself many times. It featured a nice and supposedly girl who loved a total jerk and a nice and supposedly smart boy in love with the nice girl who never seemed to notice him. Eventually the nice boy and nice girl fall in love (but not before taking an unnecessarily long time to do so). Then the nice boy does something that looks bad at first glance. The nice girl, if she really is as smart as she's supposed to be, should be able to figure out that it's not what she thinks. Unfortunately, the movie is an idiot plot: that is, a movie that would be over in 5 or so minutes if everyone in it were not an idiot. After the false crisis (the apparent breakup of the couple) comes the false dawn, where it seems like everything is resolved, after which we are presented with a new situation and a new resolution that are the real crisis and real dawn. And they all lived happily ever after.

In any case, Usagi was not one to ignore the needs of others, so when Sulia said 'never mind,' she naturally became curious about it. "It's ok! Please tell me, what were you going to ask?"

"Well... I have three boxes that I just don't have any room for at the moment. I'm unpacking still, and I have lots of stuff, and there won't be room for these boxes at my house for about a week or so. I was wondering, could I use your garage to store them until then? It wouldn't take longer than a week."

Mamoru frowned at that. "I'm not sure that's such a good idea..." he began, only to be interrupted by Usagi, saying, "Hai! It'd be no trouble at all!"

Sulia smiled. "Arigatou, Usagi. Mamoru."

******

"Usako," said Mamoru a few minutes after Sulia had departed, "I really don't trust that woman."

Usagi smiled, resting her head on Mamoru's shoulder. "Daijobu, Mamo-chan. Sulia is a good person."

Mamoru opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off by a sudden change in the programming appearing on the television.

#"We interrupt this program to bring you this special news bulletin. We regret to announce that three additional government officials have been found dead today, each one encased in a block of solid ice. The MHT has vowed that they will not rest until they bring the killer and/or killers to justice!"

Mamoru frowned. "I don't think this is going to turn out for the best, Usako." he said worriedly.

Usagi said nothing at all in return, but instead just sat there on the couch, continuing to rest her head against his shoulder. He found that he didn't have the heart to move her, and eventually they fell asleep.

*** END OF EPISODE 3 ****

- Author's notes -

1 - "Oh, you mean the SHINING!"

"Shut up, boy, do ye want me to get sued!?"