Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Neptune: Year One ❯ XI ( Chapter 13 )

-Neptune: Year One-

Disclaimer: I do not own the series Sailor Moon or the character Sailor Neptune. Both are owned by Naoko Takeuchi.

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-XI-

Miyuki sat alone on the park bench, ignoring the cold and the snow all around her as she fumed. When she and Michiru had first met, the freshman couldn't stop blushing under her gaze. Now though, it was like there was an invisible distance that had somehow built up between then. It both hurt and frustrated the junior, and she had no idea what she might've done to cause it.

"Is this seat taken?"

Miyuki looked up to see Elsa Gray standing over her, wearing a pretty blue jacket. She shrugged her shoulders and moved down a bit. "So what brings you out here?"

"Well," Elsa began, "I was supposed to catch tonight's play, but of course I missed the first bus. So I had to hire a taxi, and by the time the taxi driver got the directions right it was too late."

"Too late? You still could get in to watch the rest of the play."

Elsa shook her head. "No, I tried. The theater doors are all locked."

"Locked?" Miyuki asked a little surprised, "Why would they lock all the doors?"

"I don't know, but I do know that it's freezing out here. Look, there's a coffee shop open just around the corner from here. Why don't we both go there to wait until the show is over. My treat."

Miyuki shrugged her shoulders. "Sure, why not." Getting up, she looked back at the theater, frowning at the memory of how she'd left things between her and Michiru. "Elsa, do you suppose everything's going okay with the play tonight?"

Elsa smiled, "Trust me, I'm sure everything's going fine. Now come on, let's get out of this winter wonderland and into a warm building."

Miyuki nodded, following Elsa as she led the way.

--

Michiru began to whimper. The chains and shackles were locked onto her, and they weren't giving no matter how hard she struggled. She could hear movement coming towards her, and looking up she could see the head of the giant snake youma as it set its hideous yellow-green eyes on her. It started to come towards her even as she tried to edge away, fear gripping the girl's heart as she saw the daemon open it's cavernous mouth to show off its fangs. She closed her eyes as fear gripped her, and let out a scream.

The daemon suddenly stopped as the glowing green astrological symbol for Neptune appeared on the young teen's forehead, and a wand seemed to emerge from out of nowhere and floated between it and the girl. Michiru opened her eyes and, seeing her henshin wand floating before her, was almost as confused as the daemon. "W... What..."

"Dead Scream."

The words were whispered, and were almost inaudible to Michiru's ears, but the next thing she knew a glowing purple orb hurdled just above her head and hit the daemon head on. Instead of disintegrating, however, it split the thing apart into the various smaller snakes that made it up. The slithering creatures seemed to fly out everywhere from the blast, one of them even flying up to the balcony and landing on Zultan.

"Aaaa!" the witch screamed as she tried to get it off of her. "Get it off me! Get it off!" As she flailed around in a panic, she knocked the spotlight over. The overheated spotlight infused with Death Buster technology landed with a crash, setting the carpet on fire.

Behind the stage, Michiru turned to look over her shoulder to see Sailor Pluto coming towards her. The Guardian of the Time Gate silently touched her staff to the girl's chains. Almost immediately all the locks opened, freeing her. "Pluto-sama, how..."

"Let's just say I'm good at locking and unlocking," Pluto answered.

Michiru stood up, kicking her legs loose of the chains. Looking back over, she could see her wand still floating above the ground. "My henshin wand."

"You summoned it," Pluto explained quickly. "It responded to your fear and appeared. Now," she began as she pointed her staff at the back stage door, causing it to open on its own, "Run."

Michiru was surprised. "What?"

"I'll no longer try to force you to accept your fate against your will. I didn't destroy the daemon, and before too long it'll reform. I'll take care of it. Get out, call for help."

"Call for help? But what about you, and what about the wand? I..." she stopped as she took a few sniffs, "Is that smoke?" Even as the words left Michiru's mouth, the theater's sprinkler system kicked in, a blaringly loud fire alarm ringing throughout the auditorium.

"It's none of your concern anymore," Pluto responded as the cold water began to cascade down, causing her dark emerald hair to cling to her tanned skin and Sailor fuku. She turned around, her face grave as she began to walk out onto the stage with her staff held in a defensive position.

Meanwhile, Zultan had left the balcony and was making her way to the lobby. She was soaking wet from the sprinkler and angry as hell. She didn't see who attacked the daemon, but then she didn't need to. The only person she knew with that kind of power was Sailor Neptune. Obviously the aquamarine little shit had somehow survived the daemon at the fair. As she ran into the ladies' room, she vowed to herself that it wasn't over between them. That brat had made it personal, and if it was a war she wanted it was a war she'd get.

As the Death Busters car crashed through the ladies' room wall out into the parking lot, Sailor Pluto watched silently as the snakes began to join together once more. She was surprised by the fact that the daemon reduced itself to individual snakes rather than simply dissolve to dust, and she didn't know what it would take to finally destroy the thing. As the sprinklers continued to rain down and the alarms continued to blare, she prepared to attack once more.

Unfortunately, she didn't notice that the tail of the giant serpent was forming behind her. It wrapped around her ankles and, with a tug, caused the Senshi to fall to her side. Her Time Staff was knocked out of her hands and rolled away as she was yanked up, dangling upside down from her legs as the snake opened its mouth and dislocated its jaw, intent on swallowing Pluto whole.

"Deep Submerge!"

A sea-green ball of energy enveloped the daemon, once more reducing it to smaller serpents. Sailor Pluto quickly reached for her Time Staff.

"Dead Scream."

The individual snakes disappeared, to be replaced by a book on snakes of the world. A pod then came out of the book and crumbled to dust. Pluto turned to see Sailor Neptune standing under one of the sprinklers, the young Senshi watching the heart crystals descend back down to the students and audience members they'd originally come from. "Michiru?"

"I've found her," she said, her voice raised in order to be heard above the fire alarm. "I've found Uranus."

Pluto's eyes widened. "Uranus..."

"I'm not going to fight you anymore," Neptune continued as she came over, "Nor am I going to try to escape destiny anymore. I can't, not after seeing her."

Pluto was unsure what to say. "I... I understand."

Both Senshi became aware of sirens from outside the building as the fire department responded to the fire alarms. "Pluto," Neptune said as Takayo began to moan on the ground near her, "In my previous life, back when we were in that moon kingdom you talked of, we were friends right?"

Pluto nodded her head. "Hai."

"Good. Then as a friend, do you have any advice on how to end a relationship?"

Pluto stared silently at Neptune for a few seconds before a smile slowly formed on the Time Senshi's face.

--

The next day, Miyuki left after her final classes were over and walked down the freshly shoveled path to the greenhouse. After she'd left Michiru at the theater last night, some sort of fire broke out. Apparently smoke inhilation caused those in attendance to suffer wild hallucinations. When she'd found Michiru to check on her, the freshman seemed more distant than ever as she said they should talk things over at the greenhouse. A cold wind whipped past her as she opened the door and saw the freshman waiting expectantly for her.

Michiru sat on a chair next to a flower pot. As Miyuki managed a smile, Michiru smiled demurely back before looking away uncharacteristically. "Michiru-chan, I'm here. What's this all about?"

Michiru motioned to a chair next to her. "Sit, please."

"That bad?" Miyuki quipped as she sat down.

Michiru took a deep breath and looked at her sempai. "Miyuki, you're a wonderful person. You're sweet and caring, and..."

"You're dumping me, right?"

The younger girl was taken aback. "Miyuki..."

"Spare me the bull shit Michiru," Miyuki said as she stood up. "I've noticed you no longer being there for me as much, saw how you've lost that spark in your eyes you used to have when we were together. What was it, Michiru? Were you just experimenting with me, to see if you liked girls or not?" she asked, tears starting to well up in her eyes. "Or was it fear of what others would say if they learned? Or maybe the whole Catholic guilt thing got to you and you're afraid of Hell. Is that it?"

Michiru slowly shook her head, her own eyes starting to water up. "No," she managed to get out. She'd never meant to hurt her sempai so much. God, why did this have to be so hard?

"Then why?" Miyuki pleaded as her tears began to work their way down her cheeks, "Just tell me why."

Michiru couldn't bare her sempai's gaze. "There's... someone else," she muttered. A second later, an open hand slapped her across her cheek, causing the artist to turn her head and wince in pain. Miyuki said nothing after slapping her, her lower lip quivered as she wept. Wiping the tears from her eyes with the back of her hand, she left the greenhouse.

As the door shut behind Miyuki, Michiru buried her face in her hands and wept.

The next day, Miyuki went into Principal Ichi's office. Shortly thereafter, Miyuki was removed as Michiru's onee-sama.

--

"Read 'em and weep Hironari-kun. I've got my learner's permit."

"Whoa. I don't know how you managed it at your age Haruka-kun, but congratulations."

"What are you talking about? My birthday's January twenty-seventh, the most they did was wave a few weeks." Haruka was grinning from ear to ear as she ran her fingers across the hood of her white convertible. "Come on, it's Saturday. Let's go for a ride."

"Heh, thanks but no thanks," Hironari said as he held up his hands. "If you drive anything like you run, the safest place for me to be is here in the garage."

Haruka laughed good naturedly. "Good grief Hironary-kun, if you're this bad about me behind the wheel of a car I can only imagine what you're reaction will be when I get my first motorcycle."

"Motorcycle?" Hironari asked incredulously.

Still laughing, Haruka sat behind the wheel and turned on the ignition. Pulling out of the garage, she was oblivious to the girl bundled up in the Dark green winter jacket, whose hood was up and whose light blue scarf covered everything but her deep blue eyes. She watched Haruka drive past her as she pushed an aquamarine lock of hair out of the way. She'd been watching Haruka from a distance for close to three weeks now, sometimes as herself and sometimes bounding from rooftop to rooftop as Sailor Neptune. She'd accepted her fate, and with every glimpse of the blonde she accepted it anew. As she watched Haruka drive around the corner, her heart ached to be in the car with her.

Michiru turned around and headed for the bus depot. She didn't know when, but sooner or later the opportunity would present itself for them to meet. Until then, she'd watch and wait.

-To Be Continued-