Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Pretty Soldiers ❯ Act 14 - black • moon • koan : Sailormars ( Chapter 14 )

       It was a beautiful day. Birds chirping, people talking, the city abuzz.
       And Usagi staring down the barrel of a gun.
       Whoever the girl was, she was obviously insane, and possibly insanely rich to freely be wielding such a weapon. "You must be deaf in this time! I want the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou, do you understand? The holy stone!"
        Mamoru, frozen in place, stared in disbelief as an eight-year-old waved the gun menacingly in his princess's face, forcing her eyes to cross. He should have been doing something amazingly heroic, possibly stupendous, but as ordinary Chiba Mamoru, he felt like lead. Funny how he never realized how much love could scare the shit out of you and leave you so totally helpless.
        Usagi whimpered as she felt the barrel edged into her right nostril, obviously meant to be intimidating. Unfortunately, it only caused a chain reaction best described as a massive explosion and forceful evacuation of the mucus membranes.
       Basically, she sneezed.
       Snot spewed into the girl's face, and she, completely disgusted and taken unaware, pulled the trigger as she recoiled backwards. The sound of the shot mingled with the scream Usagi cut loose with, holding her nose as it again erupted. It was a rather nasty, disgusting scene after all of the heavy romance of a few minutes prior, and Mamoru could do nothing more than catch the pink-haired menace as she bounced into his arms for the second time.
       Flowers and a little "BANG!" flag hung limp from the moist barrel of the gun.
       They were plastic, adding further insult to injury.
       "A toy…? You threatened us with a toy?" he slowly stated, holding the girl at arm's length. Resisting a sudden urge to shake her, he looked past her to see Usagi lying on the ground, whimpering but alive.
       As he checked in on his ladylove, the girl, obviously very well practiced at this, wriggled and squirmed her way right out of his hands. She bounced off the concrete into an immediate run, dropping the useless toy at his feet as he yelled "Hey! Come back here, you little troublemaker!" in his best adult, authoritarian voice. Obviously he had a lot to learn, as she just kept hauling ass deeper into the park, followed by, incredibly, the cat head at a quick hover.
       She ran fast for a little girl, too.
       Staring after her, he never noticed Usagi crawling up until she used his tie to haul herself to her feet. Yanked down rather painfully, he gasped and choked as she cried out for sympathy for her own plight. "Mamo-chan, Mamo-chan! Who was that? Did you hear, she wanted the Ginzuishou! How does she know about it!"
       "….air…."
       "And she threatened me with a gun! A gun! Mamo-chan!"
       His pleas for air gurgled into some sort of incoherent babble. She released his tie suddenly, realizing what she was doing, and managed to calm herself down as he forcibly yanked the knot open and took a blessed breath of air. Massaging his neck, he eyed the odango-haired blonde as she did her worried, impatient little dance. "Calm down, Usako, the gun was fake. It looked real enough, but she didn't plan on hurting us!"
       "A GUN, Mamo-chan!"
       "Usako, it was a toy…" he sighed, wincing as his Adam's apple protested. "That girl, with such a similar hairstyle, are you sure you don't know her? Maybe she's family you've forgotten about."
       The look she gave him stopped him dead, hand frozen in the act of providing relief. "I think I would remember family members with illegal weapons and pink hair! Also, little kids who fall under that category! Be serious, Mamo-chan!"
       He held up both hands in forgiveness. "Gomen nasai. But she acted as if she knew you, or even, us."
       "Well, if she knows about the Ginzuishou, she has to be an enemy!"
       She looked resolved on that matter, and she assumed what he took to be an assertive pose. "Only a new enemy would know of the Ginzuishou and want to take it in such a violent way! No one else but us knows of it!"
       "No one?"
       "No one! …..except Chouko-kun."
       "'Chouko-kun'?"
        "Well, he's a boy at my school, he had that sculpture exhibit, and he was blind, but now he can see, and he was an artist in the Silver Millennium, and he remembers-"
       Kami-sama, this was giving him a headache. He massaged his forehead as he had his neck, closing his eyes in a moment of patience. "You mean others were reborn as well? Usako, any of them could know of the stone, and want to resume fighting for it again."
       He watched her pause in mid-breath, the realization blossoming in her face. "….but…why would they want it? The people of the Silver Millennium were peaceful and kind!"
       "Hai, but being reborn has placed them into a position of quicker mortality, Usako. They aren't citizens of a beautiful utopia, living centuries long. They're just normal human beings, of a normal life span, and they could be quite angry if they remembered what the Ginzuishou can - and once did - give them," he replied calmly. For him, this observation was nearly clinical and hardly personal; after all, in both of his lifetimes he had been a pitiful human. But Usagi had been not only a princess, but The Princess; the carrier of the blood of the white moon, she who would inherit the entire galaxy, and with it, immeasurably long life. She had barely known strife until Metallia's brainwashed horde had attacked, and the idea of fighting over a couple of extra centuries of life had been alien to her. He hated to admit, personally, that she had been extremely naïve.
       She began to nibble at her thumbnail, crystal blue eyes downcast. Her babbling excitement of a minute ago had been completely forgotten in this, her sudden depression. He marveled at how fast she could switch gears, so entirely the innocent despite everything that had happened. "Usako…perhaps, the girl is just confused. If she is a reborn Silver Millennium citizen, it could just be a submerged memory or personality." With the gentlest touch he pulled the odango-haired blonde against his chest, holding her. "I bet she's in the playground area right now, confused and wondering why she acted so rashly."
       "Do you think so, Mamo-chan?" Usagi murmured, absentmindedly ripping off a good chunk of her nail with her teeth.
       "Sou yo. I did the sleepwalker routine myself, ne?" The dark-haired prince chuckled at the memory, slowly stroking a long ponytail of her hair. "The memory doesn't come all at once unless forced; it usually trickles out over a period of time, and you re-enact events, people. Daijoubu, Usako. She'll be alright."
       Her nuzzle against his chest was inspiring a whole slew of quite wicked memories of his own. She was lightly pried away, and he bent to collect his pile of books, the felt box. "It's close to dinnertime, isn't it? Maybe I should walk you home."
       Usagi tipped her head up, staring at the sky's mixing colour scheme. "Ara, it is! And my tummy's been so quiet all this time. I never even realized I was hungry!" she burbled joyously, obviously over her shock. "But shouldn't we go look for her, just in case she's lost, or hurt?"
       "There's always a policeman wandering around, they'll find her. And seeing us again could just make her problem worse; it's best to forgot this." So saying he held open his arm to her, to draw her against his side. Smelling the clean scent of her hair was heaven; he nuzzled against her head until she squealed, walking so close as to be one person all the way home.

      Metallia was gone.
       After a millennium, the sailor soldiers of the Silver Millennium were reborn for the sole purpose of destroying the threat, of once and for all ending the terrible violence and death brought on by the entity. With its climax came the inability for four of them to become soldiers again, but it didn't matter; their entire reason for awakening had been fulfilled. Peace was sure to come.
       Of course, that would have been simplistic. For what is a sailor soldier but an eternal warrior, constantly going on to the next battle?
       Even now, another loomed. Though it was full-grown in another era, in 21st century Tokyo it was merely a seed, and on a planet of darkness and cultured hate, it had been born. Sipping wine from a crystal glass, the man who had helped nurture it sat on that planet's throne, though it was more ceremonial than truth, for their numbers, already few, had diminished greatly amidst the treacherous, native population.
       Nemesis, the tenth planet, was an unforgiving refuge.
       Amidst the darkness that permeated even their castle, the man they considered their prince was a blot of white. Hair like swan's feathers hung past his chin, inviting; but his eyes were piercing, cold. He lounged in a uniform of white decorated with curlicues of blue, pure white down to his shoes and flowing cape lined with lavender silk. The only hint of darkness on his body was a pair of black crystal earrings, heavy in their fittings of gold, and a black crescent sigil, inverted on his forehead. "And you've finally registered a reaction from the Ginzuishou, Saphir?"
       Silk and velvet was his voice, and it mingled with the dark to create something wholly erotic in the sweeping expanse of the room. He could have captured the attention of hundreds with a simple poem. But the man who stood next to him had an uninspiring voice, one that was well used to boredom and being ignored. It was almost impossible to tell that they were brothers, the man in white and this second male.
       A blue shirt darkened to its deepest tone was immaculate on his skinner frame, along with white pants and grey gloves - all the better to not touch anything, to contaminate it or himself. His equally sapphiric hair was neatly trimmed short, showing his bare earlobes and marked forehead. "Hai, Demand nii-san. It was a small reaction, but enough; it still lives, in the area of Tokyo."
       "Excellent." Demand held up the wineglass to the meager light that burned above their heads, swirling the vintage inside slowly. Taken with them on their crusade it was the last of its dregs, and he intended to savour every drop. "Then it means our hunch was correct. If the rabbit has the crystal in the past, she obviously intends to find the sailor soldiers."
       As he took another tiny sip, the air in the castle was violently disturbed. Behind Demand formed what appeared to be a body in monk's robe and hood, legs folded as they hovered well off the ground. Hands without true physical definition slowly gestured around a crystal ball, much in the same way Beryl had done. The light the crystal gave off was enough to highlight the folds of fabric, but not enough to even hint at what lay beneath the hood. "The rabbit has the fake stone, the stone of light and longevity, and that is what I desire. With it destroyed, our Jakokusuishou will be the ultimate power of death."
       "And without it protecting them, we can crush the queen and her devils and begin the cycle again, properly," another male added, tipping back his own glass. His hair burned like fire in the room, a wild twisting poof of pure red. He wore the same heavy gold and black earrings Demand had, though they looked slightly ridiculous along with his fatigue brown vest and camo pants tucked into boots; he looked like an effeminate man who had raided an Army surplus store.
       "Rubeus, you put it so eloquently!" the female to his right laughed, touching her fingers coyly to her lips. She kept an aloof distance from all three men, though her aggressive stance indicated that she considered herself an equal. Green hair fell in waves to her knees, its curls complimenting her pair of earrings nicely. Her dress was a darker shade of green, nearly emerald in hue, with a decoration of large green stones looping down the chest in gaudy fashion. Matching gloves to her upper arms and high-heeled boots to the knee completed the look. She, as well as Rubeus, bore the black crescent sigil.
       Demand gestured for quiet with the barest motion of his hand; like well-trained monkeys, they all shut up. He held his glass for an obvious toast, and he smiled at the clink of crystal as they did the same. "To restoring the proper order, and the greatness of humanity."
       "And to destroying the infinite vessels who disrupted everything!"
       They drank.
       When they had left to pursue their holy cause, they had taken with them very few believers. After all, who wanted to give up longevity and peace for death and chaos? Many people sneered at them and turned away, leaving a scant group of them to flee. With Demand chosen as their prince for having led them so far, he more than anyone else felt his hatred for the utopia of Earth as he watched his followers from that blue planet slowly die.
       And out of them all, only four remained.
       One of them stepped forward now, having kept quiet as her superiors drank and toasted and schemed. And if her four betters dressed in an unusual manner, her frilly purple tutu and striped bodysuit, high heels and purple hair - styled into a pair of cat ears - put them all to shame. On her widow's peak was a large gemstone brooch, not in the least bit complimentary to her black moon mark just beneath it. Hideous, all of it; it would have been a far kinder thing to simply say she had dressed in pitch darkness and never saw the mirror.
       "Demand-sama," she began, cooing indulgently with a rather pretty voice. "The Ginzuishou is powerful, and it is felt by us, the four sisters who have followed you faithfully. Allow us to go to Earth and procure the rabbit, and servants for our cause; even now, I have a way to take them unaware. Give us this job, Rubeus!"
       Behind her stood three shadowed forms, obviously her sisters. They crept close to the purple frilled woman in agreement as Rubeus nodded, laughing shortly. "Of course, Koan. We could entrust this to no one else! Begin the operation as you see fit, Code : 001 we shall call it! Operation: Recruit. Find the rabbit, procure the Ginzuishou!"

      "Maa-ma, tadaima-aa! I'm hungry and wasting away for lack of food!"
       As usual, Usagi's entrance was neither quiet nor slow. Her shoes were pried and kicked off her feet and into the corner, her socked toes shoved into a pair of fuzzy white bunny slippers. Onto the stairs she vaulted, taking them two at a time as usual, to do a dancing dive into her bedroom. She was intent on throwing her case into a corner, to be forgotten until tomorrow, stripping her uniform off for a comfy pair of pajamas, and simply vegetating until dinner.
        What she got was a near-collision with a stranger in her doorway.
       Pigtails of two colours tangled together as the two thumped into a pile of dirty laundry and one lone pillow, her school case bouncing hard on the floor and clicking open. Various papers spilled and fluttered everywhere as Usagi finally screamed, staring into a pair of familiar, angry pink eyes. "MAAAMAAA!"
       She flung the offending child onto her bed, gathering her rage into one big secondary harangue, when she caught sight of her room at large. Slowly did details present themselves to her, like the dresser drawers askew, seemingly drooling clothing over their lips. The piles of laundry that had migrated from the hamper to the door, in a single file line. Her closet doors shoved wide open, hangers empty, their shirts and dresses dangling precariously or simply fallen to the ground. And Moriya's boxes overturned, their contents scattered to every corner of her room.
       Beyond rational speech, she stared. This was now becoming something like an episode of a science fiction show, one of those strange American imports where people wore silly jumpsuits and paused after each word and had weird ears. This just didn't happen in a sane, orderly universe, and even though her conscience was telling her snidely that her universe was not in the least bit sane, nor orderly, she was violently shocked.
       And the pink-haired child sat on her bed, crouched rather, staring at her as if she were the cause of it. The anger simply radiated from her petite body, wide pink eyes gone narrow and focused. It was all the more terrible simply because she should have had an innocent, carefree smile to go along with her heart-shaped, sweet face. "I know you have it, Tsukino Usagi."
       "Have what! Are you some sort of crazy terrorist!" Usagi stammered in return, turning her entire body away. "You don't just barge into my room like this!"
       "I want it," the girl said slowly, acting as if Usagi hadn't even spoken. "The Maboroshi no Ginzuishou, I told you. You have it, and I want it!"
       Mamoru's calm explanation of half an hour ago died a very violent death.
       Usagi flung herself across the floor, grabbing the girl by her ankle as she tried to move out of the way. She hauled the girl up into her arms, holding her tight as she kicked and yelled, and proceeded to stomp towards her door. "Invasion of privacy, breaking and entering, I don't care what Mamo-chan said! Mama!" she yelled down the stairs. "Mama, don't you notice intruders in our house?!"
       Stomping down the stairs like a maddened bull elephant, she entered the living room with the wriggling, pink-haired child firmly tucked into her arms. But she stopped dead at the sight of her mother sitting calmly on the couch, her father next to her in the loose suit he had gone to work in, both relaxed. Shingo sat on the floor, staring at the TV, and he, along with her parents, seemed totally calm about the fact a round cat's head hovered next to the set. Beeping, no less, and emitting other quiet, unusual noises.
       "….nani?"
       Then, a minute later: "That thing is in our house, and no one has a problem with that!?"
       Ikuko said, "Tsukino Usagi, put your cousin down this instant!"
       That cinched it. She had saved the entirely wrong dimension, and even now, her true world was missing a certain odango-haired blonde and no worse for it. Her hold slackened, and the girl dropped onto the floor with a grunt, crawling hastily to the shelter of Ikuko's open arms. Once there she celebrated her victory by sticking her tongue out.
       Dumbfounded, Usagi just stared.
       Then she said, "My cousin? Of what family? Of what millennium! I've never seen that little brat before in my life until today!"
       "Yare, yare, nee-san, you're getting dumb in your old age!" Shingo snickered. "She was here just last year, for your birthday, remember?"
        "My birthday," she responded flatly. "Of course. How could I forget that ridiculous cotton candy head."
       Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Luna in a conveniently shadowed corner, obviously waiting for her to come home. At the questioning tilt of the feline's head, she pointed rather suddenly at the free-floating ball. "Then what's that? No normal toy can do that!"
       Ikuko heaved an angry sigh, cuddling the girl as lovingly as she once had Usagi. "Her father is an inventor, Usagi. She has many toys that do unusual things, and he made it after seeing Luna a few weeks ago. That's why it looks so silly and like your bald-spot kitty. Now stop being a pest and a crybaby, and leave your cousin, Chibi-Usa, in peace!"
       "Chibi-Usa?"
       "Hai, hai, her name is Usagi as well! We call her Chibi-Usa, because there is two of you, and she's obviously younger. Have you hit your head in gym class?"
       The odango-haired blonde had lost the battle, and the entire war along with it. Acknowledging defeat, she backed out of the living room and went back up the stairs, growling beneath her breath with every step. Behind her she could hear Luna padding rapidly to follow, though neither of them dared speak until they were in the safety of the bedroom.
        Once there, Usagi gathered her breath, intending to scream. But Luna silenced her with a wave of her paw, demanding she tell her what happened; and so Usagi did, with heavy emphasis on her injury, which even now could cripple her, and including Mamoru's guess as to the child's knowledge. "But to take it to this level, Luna! Only Chouko-kun knew who I am as Tsukino Usagi, and only because we go to school together. How can she find me like this?"
       "The pertinent question is how does she know of the Ginzuishou, period!" Luna snapped, staring at the closed door. "Mamoru-san had a very educated guess for an answer, but I sense that isn't it. And for her hair to be so similar to yours, Usagi-chan…! No one in the Silver Millennium but you and your mother wore such ponytails."
       Usagi began to pick up her destroyed room in a sort of controlled frenzy, silently outraged at the up-until-now unnoticed sight of her jewelry box opened, the contents spread across the table and onto the floor. "She was looking for the holy stone, Luna, in my room. But how did she get in! And why is mama and papa acting like this is normal for her to be here?"
       She dropped everything to pick up her jewelry, untangling a knot in one of her necklace chains, as Luna said, "I don't know. When I came back from the Crown, she was here, and your mother was showing her photo albums. Her strange magic has infiltrated even personal mementos, because she was in several of those pictures with you, Usagi-chan!"
       "Masaka!" The odango-haired blonde shut the jewelry box with a click, glaring at the fingerprint smudges on her mirror. "I've never seen her before today, but to do this so thoroughly…Luna, was anything saved from the control center?"
       The conversational switch was sudden, but of importance.
       In movies and TV, such clandestine places were always destroyed and rebuilt quickly. Not so in the case of their control center, which had been utterly exposed by the last fight against Beryl. With their entire mission laid bare to the world, and with workers coming within the week to begin repairs, Luna and Artemis had no choice but to destroy everything. They could never possibly move it all in time, and they had no suitable place; and to have such technology fall into the wrong hands would be disaster.
       With Minako's help, they had slagged everything once the necessary files had been saved onto common disks. Fire had been simple enough to melt everything down into that slag, leaving the impression of old consoles stored in a basement, forgotten and destroyed during the storm.
       Luna knew why she asked. "Iie, Usagi-chan, merely the stored data itself. A wealth of planetary maps, password-protected files, languages from the other kingdoms long fallen into disuse, stories and fables. Most of it is useless to us, information we didn't even know existed in the memory. And I couldn't search for the girl's identity now, not without a connection to a phone line."
       "Of course," Usagi mumbled sullenly, plumping her pillow. "And how can we find out who she is, Luna? All she does is attack me and ask again and again for the Ginzuishou!"
       "Which is safe in your new brooch, ne?"
       "Mochiron! I don't need to take it out." With a light touch she opened the brooch right there on her bow, revealing the shining crystal snug in the center.
       Seeing it forced the cat to relax several notches, and she settled back onto her haunches. Through half-lidded eyes she watched Usagi bustle through the room, more animated in her clean up than she usually was; normally, it took a promise of food or a threat of none to get her to even vacuum the rug. But with her personal space violated, she had to put it all back in its place again, never mind that she would destroy it herself later.
       Moriya's personal possessions, so obvious on the floor, were lovingly scooped up and set back in the boxes. But one CD was set aside, and as Luna watched curiously, it was put into her small player and turned on. Whoever the singer was, he had a nice voice; Usagi hummed to the unfamiliar language as she cleaned. "Who is this, Usagi-chan?"
       "I'm not sure, but Moriya played them a lot. She always liked listening to them when she was having a bad day. I think she said it was a bunch of different people. But it's always pretty, isn't it?"
       Holding the box, Usagi could remember watching her friend one day as she played the CD. So lively, she had mimed the guitar in the air, singing along in a lusty yet softer version of the man's voice: "In this silent garden, shadows fall like rain, draws me even closer, caresses me with pain….the bitter angel's kisses, cold upon your heart…Christabel is falling, she always….she always…."
       Dancing like children in the empty bedroom, and Usagi had never understood the words, though she recalled them perfectly. It was such a sad song, that much was obvious, but so pretty. And how it always managed to make her happy eluded her.
       She managed to maintain her peace of mind until dinnertime, when she was forced to confront the physical truth at the table. But at least she abstained from throwing anything at the girl. It was a small victory.

      It was a cloudy day, a colour-dampening, overcast gray that sapped Ami's casual mood as she walked to school. Her stomach just this side of full from her breakfast of two meat sandwiches, she was forced to run with a cramp as she was caught in the downpour, soaked within seconds. Along with many other students, one of whom she recognized as Makoto, she nearly skidded into the front foyer of the building, wet shoes sending several onto the floor. Mud was everywhere.
       "Ohayo, Ami-chan," Makoto burbled cheerfully from beneath a soaked mop of auburn, hopping on one foot as she switched shoes. Many were cursing as they lost their balance and stomped socked feet into the growing lake of water, but she managed to keep herself upright for both.
       Ami had to lean against the lockers to switch her own shoes, a practical solution many completely ignored. "Ohayo, Mako-chan. I don't recall the weather forecasting rain."
       "No one knows what to forecast, supposedly."
       That was definitely true; though Metallia was destroyed and gone, her influence had yet to completely die. Most likely the weather would be normal in a week or so, but for now, it was doing an undecided dance. Even that morning before work, her mother had complained that the weatherman had been predicting completely wrong weather for the past several days which was, on reflection, true.
       So today it was rain, when sunny, clear skies had been forecasted.
       At least there was no freezing hail yet.
       Walking together, the tall brunette and the blue-haired genius made an unlikely pair, made even more unusual as Iretsu fell into place beside them. It had become a customary, if uncomfortable - for them - daily routine of respect. "Lady Jupiter, Lady Mercury," he said quietly, as was his way. "Ohayo gozaimasu."
       "Chouko-kun, we're your classmates now, not soldiers," Makoto would always, invariably, respond.
       "But you are the lady soldiers who saved us from death, and for that, you deserve respect," he would calmly say back.
       Even his usual cheer and complete innocence of authority was gone, replaced by a sort of determined nature along with his sight. Usagi was far too kind to tell him to bug off, but even she usually tried to avoid him now; he was an uncomfortable reminder. She could deal with being a reincarnated princess in the abstract sort, but having it constantly shoved in her face was just this side of painful.
       But Makoto and Ami ended up running into him, no matter what they did. And people were noticing how he deferred to them so suddenly, and were most likely spreading vicious rumours in their small groups. It hurt, and it worried them, and as always, they returned the greetings quickly, wanting to put as much space between them as possible.
       At the door of Usagi's room, they could see the odango-haired blonde talking animatedly to Naru, gesturing wildly. When she saw them she waved, smiling widely. Naru repeated the careless motion, though whatever she said was obviously meant for Usagi only, because she began to laugh. "It's amazing to see Usagi-chan so happy after her ordeal," Ami murmured.
       "Hai, but she deserves it, most definitely. And it's cruel to think that she can still transform, but we, as guardian soldiers, gave up our pens." Makoto sounded wistful, surprisingly; but in her newfound identity, she had found a sort of peace. It gave her meaning, even in the cruelest sort of irony due to her powers.
       And with the city still in the process of rebuilding, reminders of their fight lingered at nearly every turn. Many buildings had been damaged, ranging from a loss of a few roof tiles to broken and shattered windows and missing sections or rooms. The junior high school itself was relatively unharmed, though a few windows were boarded over, and the large clock in the courtyard was silent, its face shattered. Shibakouen had been all but obliterated, a cheery Minako had reported, leaving the entire faculty and student body frantic to find temporary schools.
       Every day, the news kept making up stories.
       The entire world was experiencing a major case of denial.
       Having school continue the very day after the world had gone mad was a good example of that very denial, with cream on top. Several businesses had opened as well, trying to lure customers, and many people had indeed gone out and binge-shopped. The Americans had apparently decided to blame it all on a major weather system over on their side of the world, and Japan had basically done the same.
        Ami wanted to scream every time she heard of a "worldwide El Niño" that had so destroyed the world's weather. Didn't anyone wonder why riots had started so suddenly, or why people had been so spontaneously violent? Errant weather didn't inspire such massive emotional shifts as Metallia had done on a global scale. And it certainly didn't produce such obvious vandalism or accidental deaths.
       It had also inspired a massive surge of church and temple visits, as Makoto had dryly noted. People who were not taking the weather excuse at face value were convinced the world had survived the Apocalypse, or Gehenna, or whatever their particular religion called the end of the world; flocks were becoming devoutly religious. Several Christians had been standing on the street corner as the tall brunette had walked by, handing out tracts - written in English, no less!
       Bells began to ring for first hour, and the two parted ways to run hastily for their classes. With the end of the school year looming, they had to work extra hard. One more year in junior high, and they had to face exams for high school, or, if they decided to not go, the entrance into the work force and adult society.
        And they were indeed worked hard up until lunchtime, with Makoto stuck in a windowless classroom and unable to daydream, and Usagi far more scatterbrained than usual, and Ami digesting the normal amount of information and then some with ease. Despite death and rebirth, it was a normal school day, and all three were happy to be released into the courtyard to put some food into their stomachs.
       Though the first thing Usagi greeted her friends with was, "I've been invaded!"
        Not thinking before she spoke, she didn't realize just how silly that sounded until the silence continued for several minutes. Then, as Ami reached to touch her forehead, testing for fever - because invasion apparently meant sickness to the blue-haired genius - she amended, "My house, I mean. Not me me, but my home's been invaded by some crazy kid!"
       "That makes infinitely more sense," Ami said mildly.
       Sitting down in their normal spot beneath one of the larger trees, Usagi opened her lunch and speared a slice of cucumber before she shrugged sheepishly. "Gomen, gomen. But it's true! This weird little girl with pink hair and my odango invaded my house and ransacked my room! She pointed a gun at me in the park and threatened me for the Ginzuishou!"
       Pausing with a bit of octopus halfway to her mouth, Makoto lifted both eyebrows in a most comical pose. "The Ginzuishou? How could she know about it?"
       "I don't know! Mamo-chan thinks she's some reborn Silver Millennium citizen with her memories slowly coming out, but I think she's an enemy or at least insane." Nodding her head firmly she began a serious of rapid strikes at her rice, shoveling it into her mouth.
       "That's always possible. After all, Chouko-kun is aware of it, and who we are," Ami noted, watching her princess eat with a strange fascination, completely ignoring her own lunch of two carefully wrapped sandwiches.
       Makoto ate with gusto as well, though she was nowhere near as piggish. Popping a piece of tuna into her mouth and chewing, she clicked her chopsticks in the air. "I'll bet she's your child from the future, Usagi-chan, and she came back in time because everything's been destroyed, and she needs our help, because we're sailor soldiers, and our future selves are unable to continue fighting!"
       Both girls just stared at the tall brunette for a long moment.
       "….Mako-chan, are you watching those strange American TV shows again?" the blue-haired genius finally muttered.
       "Na-ani? I thought it was a good idea!"
       "Be serious, Mako-chan!"
       The odango-haired blonde giggled despite herself, before tilting her box back to empty the last few grains of rice and cucumber into her mouth. Swallowing down a wad of food large enough to burst her pipes open, she stole a sip of Makoto's fruit juice. "That's impossible, Mako-chan," she burbled, mouth full of juice. "I would never have a kid like that! Besides, how do you get pink hair out of blonde and black?"
       "Good point," Makoto amended.
       Ami rolled her eyes skyward in what was fast becoming her trademark gesture, taking a neat bite of her sandwich. Chewing thoughtfully, she sipped at her bottle of water and swallowed it all, properly chewed, before speaking. "But this is still a serious event, Usagi-chan, Mako-chan. For a child to know of the Ginzuishou like this, and to threaten Usagi-chan for it? That is definitely abnormal."
        Wrangling her juice back, Makoto took a good stiff swallow of the stuff. "Too bad our peace couldn't last. The kid's an enemy, or running from one, I bet. This calls for a serious strategy meeting with Rei and Minako after school!"
       "See, Mako-chan agrees with me! Enemy!"
       The blue-haired genius just sighed, finishing her sandwich. "I said 'abnormal,' not 'enemy.' Must everyone jump to the worst conclusions?"

       Tokyo had seen far more ruin, and it had survived.
       Even the day after, the buses continued to ruin; the bullet trains sped along their tracks, amazingly vacant as people hesitated to come out. Stores were open for business promptly at seven in the morning, and those who dared had come out boldly, from young to old, to purchase what they needed.
       Half of the city had lost telephone and electricity and water, but had it back almost completely by the next twenty-four hours. Construction crews were everywhere, rebuilding and patching up. There was a sense of good fortune everywhere, as few people had actually died in the chaos, and almost no major building had been damaged beyond repair. Many of the older generation, those that had lived through the Second World War, claimed their Emperor had proved his divinity by sparing their great city. A small group had sprung up, demanding the evacuation of the foreign Americans, the obliteration of the treaty, and a return to imperialism.
       The pink-haired child observed all of this as she stood on one of the observation decks of the Tokyo Tower, its lowest open to the public as usual - the higher echelon had lost half of its railing - and swamped with tourists and revelers. Lost in the shuffle of bodies, she stared forlornly out from between the rails, clutching her curiously beeping toy in her hands as a honeymooning couple from Texas, having been stranded once Metallia had spread, frantically took pictures above her.
       That was how she felt herself; like a goggle-eyed tourist, unsure of what to look at first.
       For her, this was not the Tokyo of her childhood.
       In her mind she saw the significantly shrunken borders, skeletal buildings left unused and vacant for centuries. Tokyo proper didn't encompass half of the Tokyo of the 21st century; so many people were still asleep or dead. Adults far outnumbered children, and commerce and trade had only begin a decade ago as people spread out on their own, exploring the wilderness. She had heard fleeting tales of a "primitive" America, cities long since moldered and over grown and toppled into the dirt.
       Everything was so much more opaque here, imposing and sterile.
       Hugging her toy, she didn't notice the crowd thinning behind her, having taken their fill of the city from above. All she knew was that she was alone, and afraid, and that grown-ups didn't have fear; and that she was not at all like her mother. Adults didn't cry, either, but she began to do so all the same, great gulping sobs as she rocked on the concrete. "Mama…mama…."
       "Yare, yare, imouto-chan, what's wrong?"
       The ball did a frantic sort of maneuver, flying right out of the child's hands to float in front of her, bobbing like a protective balloon. Crawling up, the girl affected what she knew was a petulant, angry look, balling her chubby fists as she stared up at the lady who had spoken. "Leave me alone."
       "That's rude of you. A young lady such as yourself should be above that," the woman replied mildly, leaning against the railing.
       Her conviction wavering, the child said, "I am a lady."
       Shaking her head slightly, the woman smiled. "Then how would a lady properly greet someone who merely inquired after her health?"
       "Ano…." At a loss, the pink-haired girl thought for a long moment. Her mother, bowing gracefully to everyone, demanding neither worship nor overt respect, always gracious and thoughtful to the needs of others, came to mind. Using that as her model, she bowed, then, recalling another way of greeting, curtseyed. "Gomen nasai, if I have offended. I'm quite well."
       "It's a start." Tilting her head, the woman motioned with her hand for her to continue. "And what is your name, imouto-chan?"
       "Usagi Small-Lady Serenity. But the family I've been…I mean, my family, calls me Chibi-Usa, though I'm not chibi at all." The last was stated with a definite pout, the pink-haired girl folding her arms and slouching into them as if to hide.
       As the lady chuckled, the girl who had essentially named herself effectively as Chibi-Usa stared blatantly. Clad in black from head to toe, including the round-lensed sunglasses over her eyes, and the leather fedora on her head, she stood out; but it was her height that made her especially unusual. She had to be at least six feet tall, if an inch, quite obviously a foreigner.
       She crouched down to Chibi-Usa's level then smoothly, bowing effortlessly despite her halved position. "Well, Chibi-Usa, my name is Alex. Is there any reason a young lady like yourself is all alone up here, or will you let me walk you home to this family of yours?"
       "A-a-le-ku-su," Chibi-Usa said slowly, puzzling out the sharp contours of the woman's foreign name. "Are you an…American?"
       "I was, yes."
       Her toy had stopped beeping and had, in fact, resumed a neutral floating position. Obviously, the lady was not a threat. Seeing this, Chibi-Usa took the toy back into her arms, hugging it close. "I guess so. I wanted to see the city from up high again."
       Standing straight, Alex motioned for the pink-haired girl to walk first. "It's a sad sight, isn't it? But the city will rebuild. It always does, ne?"
       Chibi-Usa smiled exuberantly as she walked ahead of the tall American, aware that she was being treated as an intelligent adult, not as a child. It was an exhilarating feeling, as always, and she responded, "Mochiron! Tokyo is an eternal city. Mama says it was born through dreams and love, and it will continue on through those dreams."
       "Your mother sounds like a good woman," Alex said idly.
       The child fell into silence, disturbed just as quickly as she had been exalted. Noticing this, the tall American said nothing else, except to prompt her for directions. As a hand rested on her pink-haired head, Chibi-Usa felt the urge to cry again, biting it back - literally, as she bit her lip - as the bus rumbled up in front of them. Ushered up into the bus, she realized she should have been more wary of a stranger, but it was so easy to forget where she was.
       So very easy.
       No buses such as this existed in her city, and its strange rumble began to lull her to sleep. With her toy in her arms she slumped against Alex's arm, closing her eyes; as she drooled on the leather of the woman's coat, she dropped it. Rolling and beeping, it was stopped by Alex's booted foot as she wormed her arm free, cuddling Chibi-Usa's head in her lap. "Sleep well, imouto-chan," she murmured.
        Easier still to cuddle into this lap, warm and safe. Beneath her chubby hands, tough denim turned into silk; the hand that cupped her head was untouched by blister or callus, being unused to strong labor. Her mother, so beautiful and strong, was holding her now, and telling her how much she loved her, how like a young lady she was becoming. "Mama, will I become such a great and gentle lady when I grow up? Like you?"
       "And why would you not?" Teasing, her mother lightly tugged at the thick curl hanging at her ear, letting it bounce and spring into place again.
       Snuggling deeper into the hollow of her mother's legs, she felt a sense of peace returning. Her rational, conscious mind, unattached to the dream, reminded her that she had not touched her mother in weeks; and her peace began to falter. "I…I can't be as ladylike as you, mama, no one can! To be named 'Small Lady' and to be so childish…."
        Now there was intense heat creeping up her legs, and she realized that the window had been broken, blown inwards. The hand on her head tightened, forcing her to look up at the specter that her mother, laughing, had become. "Of course you can't, you foolish child! Where were you when I needed you? Surely a lady would not have run away!"
       "Iie…I wanted to help!"
       "A mere child like you? Baka. No daughter of mine is so cowardly!" Leering lips melted off her mother's face as the pink-haired child screamed bloody murder, watching her beautiful body putrefy atop the bed. Trapped beneath her hand, she could smell the stench, so thick it was cloying and choking, and she recalled a similar scent that had so disgusted her….
       Screaming in her destroyed dream world, her physical body was almost eerily calm.
       And oddly enough, though Chibi-Usa had no recollection of telling her where the Tsukino house was, she found herself waking up as the woman walked through the front gate, carrying the sleeping child in her arms. The toy dutifully floated behind her, and she seemed to expect it to keep pace with her.
       Noticing her awake, Alex set the pink-haired girl onto her feet, holding her steady as she wobbled in the aftermath of sleep. Holding onto her jeaned leg for a strange sense of comfort, the memory of the nightmare fading fast, Chibi-Usa ignored the opening of the door, and Ikuko's cry of "Chibi-Usa-chan! Where have you been, I've been so worried!"
       "She was watching the city, Tsukino-san, nothing to worry about," Alex replied casually. Ikuko stared at her strangely, blinking her eyes rapidly as if confused.
       Chibi-Usa, still clutching at the woman's leg, yawned widely. "Ne, Ikuko-mama, did I miss supper?"
       Ikuko shook her head, waving her hand to brush away the fog that seemed to have taken hold of her mind. "You came home just in time! Just like Usagi, you seem to have an inner sense as to when food is being served, and I had to cook extra for all of her friends…oh!" she exclaimed then, staring up at the woman. "Would you eat with us? As gratitude for bringing Chibi-Usa-chan home safely, of course!"
       "I ate a full meal before leaving my home, Tsukino-san, but thank you for offering. If so many of your other daughter's friends are at the table-"
       "Iyaa no, it's no trouble, I know what you'll say!" Ikuko took Alex's hand, pulling her over the doorframe by coercion rather than force. "You must accept something for such a good deed!"
       "Please, Tsukino-san, accept my apology, but I really must be going." There was a noise like thunder upstairs as Usagi, presumably, was doing some mad hopping dance in her room. Either that, or bull elephants had taken up residency.
       Ikuko frowned as a bit of dust fell between the two of them, and she rolled her eyes momentarily upward. Chibi-Usa stared up as well, though she had long ago abandoned Alex's leg to honor the ritual of taking off her outdoor shoes, exchanging them for newly purchased white bunny slippers. "Usagi can be such a child," Ikuko finally sighed.
       The tall American laughed quietly. "Is she the older sister? She sounds quite spirited." Fingers lifted to tuck up a thick strand of hair that had escaped her hat as she added, "And I have a feeling she'll be displeased to find another mouth eating her food, ne?"
       "Please stay." Chibi-Usa spoke it so softly that both women barely heard the words; merely sound.
       "Gomen nasai, imouto-chan, but I really have to be going," Alex repeated in a gentler tone, and, bending down, ruffled Chibi-Usa's bangs.
        Behind the pink-haired child beeped her toy, rolling in the air. Though she looked hurt at the refusal, she put on a bright smile as she snatched the toy up. Beginning to dribble it rapidly, she said, "Ne, ne, I know a magic trick! I want to show it to you, for being an adult to me."
       As both women watched, she let go of the ball, letting it fly up one last time. It turned into a plain white umbrella, which she caught and held, preparing to open it. Once she caught it, she began to sing in an uncertain child's voice, a trembling brook that would one day, no doubt, be a beautiful soprano. "Abracadabra, abracadabra…
       "Abracadabra! Pon!" She snapped it open to release flower petals into the air, live doves that beat their wings uncertainly in the enclosed space. Ikuko gasped, clapping her hands at the spectacle, while the tall American merely nodded.
       "Ne, do you want to see some of my magic?" Alex said, crouching in front of the pink-haired child. When she nodded, a hand lifted to wave in the air, empty. For such a normal trick, it didn't take much more than slight of hand to produce the white card she then held out, caught between fore and middle fingers. "Simple card tricks, imouto-chan, but it's always the simple magic that wins out."
       She gave the card to Chibi-Usa, who stared intently at the strand of hair that had again fallen from beneath her hat. "You have red hair," she stated rather rudely.
       "Doesn't everyone?" So saying, Alex straightened up, accepting the open door from Ikuko. "If you ever want someone to talk to, Small Lady, my door is open; your dreams sound interesting." Smiling, she closed the door behind her on the way out, as the sound of stampeding feet thundered down the steps from the second floor.

       Two hours before that, they had all met at Usagi's house, after a flash session of phone calls, bus rides, and communicator mishaps. With the Crown game center no longer an optional meeting place, they had chosen the coziness of Usagi's bedroom, which was large enough to accommodate them all in comfort.
       Plus, Ikuko liked to bring snacks up for them periodically.
        Double bonus.
       Chibi-Usa had managed to escape the crowd, which had pissed Usagi off to no end; she had wanted to parade her around to prove she hadn't lost her mind. Even she was having trouble believing herself now as she described the pink-haired child for Minako and Rei, including her sudden entrance and the floating head that followed her around.
       Rei had rather flatly stated, "Are you sure you didn't get brain damage in the last battle?"
       "Of course not! She really did fall from the sky!"
        Minako, lounging across the odango-haired blonde's messy bed, laughed. "Maybe she's your evil twin clone, out for world domination!"
       "With PINK HAIR?"
       "So they mixed the colour wrong, it can happen!"
       Scattered around the room, the girls had taken pillows from the bed to sit or lie on as they took positions on the floor, with Usagi curled up in her desk chair, flanked by Artemis and Luna on the desk itself. The low table was piled high with dishes from her mother's snack assortment. And in front of the two felines, lined up neatly on the desk, was an assortment of four wrist communicators and new transformation pens.
       Luna had neglected to mention their existence when telling Usagi of their salvation efforts from the Crown, obviously, a thing Usagi had sourly noted.
       The feline had blithely replied it had been classified, and besides, she had wanted it to be a surprise. Telling Usagi secrets was like entrusting her with a literal, full, cookie jar.
       For an hour they had argued, finally accepting Usagi's description simply from Luna's assertion that yes, the child existed. Floating head that looked suspiciously like her and all. "Ikuko-san has a convincing explanation for even the contraption following her around. Whatever she did to Usagi-chan's family, it's a strong magic."
       "Why would she had a floating toy that resembles you, though, Luna?" Ami had queried, holding the pillow in her lap. "To have such an object must be a strong clue, and with her unusual hairstyle you described…maybe Mako-chan's right, and she is Usagi-chan's child from the future."
       "Usagi-chan, you haven't had any kids before you met us, have you?" Minako added.
       Fuming, the odango-haired blonde finally just flung a pillow at the other blonde, folding her arms in a pout. "No! I still say she's an evil enemy out to get the Ginzuishou for some sinister purpose!"
        Makoto, lying on her back with legs folded and stretched out, sighed. "Which is a great idea, Usagi-chan, but who would she be working for in the first place? Metallia was destroyed, the Dark Kingdom died with her. Is it an entirely new threat?"
       "And how do we handle it, that's the question," the dark-haired shrine girl announced solemnly, sitting straight with her back against the wall. "With Luna and Artemis guiding us, we knew who the enemy was when we awoke, because they were our enemies a millennium ago. They were familiar to us. Now, we're working blind, facing something entirely new. How can we fight this time, stronger transformations or no?"
       "We watch her." Minako was unexpectedly blunt in saying this, to which both felines nodded in approval. "We find out what she wants our holy stone for, and then, we can plan strategy. It all rests on this kid."
       "That's easy for you to say, Minako-chan!" The odango-haired blonde slumped back in her chair with a sigh, her stomach rumbling. Snacking did not alleviate her hunger, it just calmed it down for a few minutes, and she began to eye the door. "That brat keeps running off before we know she's even gone. Mama is frantic trying to keep watch on her, and the kid sticks close to her when she isn't running away."
       And then, she added dramatically, "I'm starving."
       "Of course," Luna blandly drawled. "The kami would be killed in surprise if you passed the hour without a rumble of hunger or a whine for food."
       Usagi calmly stuck out her tongue, checking the clock next to her bed. "It's almost dinnertime, and all of you are staying, right?"
       "Would your mother let us escape without eating?" Ami said, sounding quite serious.
       "Her mother wouldn't let the Emperor himself leave without sitting down to supper first!" Makoto laughed, sitting up. "And it's a wonderful thing. All of us should have mothers so caring, ne?"
       Had Makoto her mother still, her friends might have taken offense; but they knew what she meant, and nodded in unison. "My mother would cook like that, for anyone who was in the house," Rei said softly. "Until she was too weak to cook…."
        "My mother is too busy at the hospital, but my father liked to cook simple meals for all three of us, when we were together." Ami stared off at the wallpaper pattern as she spoke, hugging her pillow tighter.
       "Maa, my mama says papa and I are lucky most nights that she cooks at all," Minako snorted. "Papa amounted to nothing, as far as she's concerned, and though she's a housewife she isn't pleased with it. But she cooks for us, and makes good food."
       Usagi, staring between her friends, suddenly frowned. How was it that she seemed to have such good fortune and family, and that her friends were lacking? "Papa works for the newspaper as a photographer, and they own the house we live in, so we could be comfortable," she said slowly. "Mama was an office lady for the paper, which is why they were given the house, and she became a house wife when she was pregnant with me. But she said she was always happiest making life easier for others, and being good and kind."
       "In any lifetime you have it easy," Rei commented a bit stiffly. "First as a princess, and now, in a house practically free…."
       "But if I could, I would ask you all to live with me, minna!" Usagi interrupted. "All of you are my allies and my friends, and deserve this fortune as well! That's why mama is so happy to cook for all of us, because it brings joy."
       Hm, food. They could see the gleam in her eyes even as she made her heartfelt speech. The call of the dinner table. Now amused, they watched as she gave up all pretense of patience and bolted from her chair, apparently having said her piece. They followed her at a much slower pace, laughing amongst themselves as they heard her yell down at her mother. "Food first, everything else second," Ami noted.
       "Mochiron! You can't be a strong soldier without solid meals!" Minako agreed, ignoring the look her feline companion gave her.
       Usagi stopped so suddenly on the stair that all four nearly walked right into her, and they stared at the pink-haired girl in shock. She stood there so casually with her back to them in front of the closing door, as if she had lived in the house her entirely life, that it dumbfounded the girls into silence. It didn't help that Ikuko was saying something to the girl, acting as if she had indeed always existed in the Tsukino family, and was not, in fact, some crash-landed adolescent.
       "Masaka, she really does exist!" Makoto squeaked softly.
       "Of course she does!" Usagi grumbled, stomping down the rest of the way to stare down at the pink-haired girl. In her hand she held a white card with neat black script, and she crushed it to her chest as the odango-haired blonde tried to blatantly read it. "You have everyone convinced, don't you…."
       "Tsukino Usagi, leave your cousin alone and clean up for dinner! Stop being rude to your guests in such a manner!"
       The odango-haired blonde grimaced, staring through slitted eyes as Chibi-Usa walked off proudly, having won the battle.

       Of course, a pink-haired, precocious pain in the ass didn't stop the Earth from revolving.
       It was a fact Rei lamented as she stood in front of the Diet building holding her school case, a plastic ID card clipped prominently to the handle to show that she did indeed have a reason for being there. Today was the day she, and her chosen partner, were to interview some candidates attempting election to the position of Prime Minister, for a project on Japanese politics. She had been an obvious choice, but the other girl….
       In the course of a week she had died, been reborn, and had been humiliated in front of her schoolmates. The dying part she had at least had a choice in, but her humiliation had consisted of being picked at random to help the supernatural occurrences study group booth, and being given the task of fortune telling. Working alongside a group of people she considered to be flat-out nutcases had been bad enough, but being a legitimate phenomenon herself in a school where the unusual was either heretical or a sign from God on top of that had done her in. Had she been the graffiti type, she would have painted "Freak Show" on the booth sign and be done with it, because she had certainly felt that way.
       The main source of her humility was now finally running up the sidewalk, the very antithesis of the ladylike T A behavior Rei herself exuded flawlessly. Blonde hair streaming and tangled, one calf sock wrinkled down around her ankle, Sarashina Kotono raced across the last crosswalk to come to a panting stop next to the dark-haired shrine girl, gasping out an apology that was heartfelt, if mangled by heavy breathing. As benefited the chief of that kooky group, she was bubbly, vivacious, and, as far as Rei could see, as much a space case as the UFO phenomenon she studied.
       Of course, having to interview serious candidates alongside someone like Kotono was not the real reason for Rei's distress that time had not stopped, and that this day had arrived in due course.
        That honour belonged to the man who was being touted as the likely winner.
       With that thought, the dark-haired shrine girl lifted her chin as she stared at the doors of the building, sensing rather than seeing as Kotono straightened herself up. "Ne, Hino-san, isn't this exciting? To interview the people who might lead the country soon, it's immensely important that we get the entire story!"
       "Hai, hai…exciting. Talking to people who honour nothing over the political world…" Rei murmured, purple eyes narrowing in a flare of anger. And she had just brushed off those two associates of her father not too long ago; most likely they would be here, fluttering around him like flies around an elegantly suited pile of shit, to be crude about it. To be on the safe side, she mentally recited a mantra for calm thoughts, strengthening her against the coming assault.
       Kotono danced a few steps ahead to open the door, both girls stepping into the air-conditioned comfort of the Diet. Their school shoes clicked deliciously on the clean floor as they walked, only to be joined suddenly by one of the younger politicians. "And are you two the girls from T A Girl's School?" he queried after doing the appropriate bowing and greeting.
       "We are, we are! Sarashina Kotono and Hino Rei, prepared for the story of a lifetime!" Kotono chirped, unaware of the frigid stare her partner was giving her. A stare marked by an obvious tic in the left eye as the politician seemed to panic, realizing who stood in front of him.
       "Hino…are you Hino's daughter? Of the Democratic Liberal Party?"
       Grinding her teeth, she forced a smile that was more feral than polite, but it was all she could muster. "That would be me, yes. Are you aware we're already late for our interviews, and that this useless conversation is making it worse?"
       When in doubt, bring out the bitch. Everything in her demeanor conspired to frighten the poor man, and it worked without a hitch, in its usual manner. Faced with possible exclusion by one of his party's top members over insulting his daughter, he began to babble about meaningless, silly things as he ushered them hastily to the correct door. Kotono, apparently not in the circle of gossip at school, looked confused and surprised at the man's reaction. Ignoring her questioning stare, Rei looked stone-faced ahead, chin held high.
       Behind the doors was a conference room, one of many, and as they were opened to allow the girls to enter, every politician stood up around the table. After being clipped down to a select few candidates, the girls were left with only six to interview, and at the very head of the table stood an equally stony Hino, in parade rest.
       When the two stood in the same room, the resemblance was uncanny. Though the elder Hino had glinting, wily brown eyes instead of his daughter's purple, he had the same sort of facial shape, all high cheekbones and sharp chin. His black hair was beginning to grey only slightly at his temples, and he was almost wrinkle-free. Most people could not peg him as a man in his later years. "Sarashina Kotono, of the T A Girl's School, welcome to our meeting. Hino Rei, daughter mine, welcome."
       "Hajimemashite!" Kotono bowed flippantly, nearly whacking Rei in the back of her knees as she brought her arms - and her school case - up with an extravagant gesture. "I'm privileged to be here!"
       This was already descending into a lower region of hell, and going fast.
       Wondering again just what she had done to be so punished, Rei bowed as well in a neat fold at the waist, proper as always. "Hajimemashite, father, my father's associates." And as always, she ignored the subtle nod of approval from her father on her etiquette, and flatly ignored the puppy-eyed stares from his group of worshippers, all vying for her attention.
       One of them finally took the initiative and slunk forward, pulling out one of two empty leather chairs, obviously for Rei to sit in. But to her sudden amusement - and it made sense, as she was closer - Kotono darted into the space, taking the seat with a sigh of pleasure. "Arigatou! A gentleman who holds out chairs for a lady!"
       Embarrassed, he pushed it in for her. The dark-haired shrine girl pulled out the other chair on her own as he was occupied, and settled into it. This time, however, as her father showed his disapproval, she regarded him with a haughty lift of her chin and a cool, appraising stare, holding it as the rest of the room sat. Then she said, "Kotono-san, perhaps you should explain exactly what we've come to do, so there's no confusion."
       "Ne? Oh, me?" Kotono burbled, looking confused herself. But she recovered, bringing her case up onto the table to click its latches open smartly. Inside was the usual lump of schoolbooks, a notebook, a ballpoint pen, and, of all things, a large blown-up picture of Morning Musume. Removing the notebook and pen, the blonde smiled widely for the assembled politicians who were regarding her as some sort of interesting bug. "Well, for our school project, we've come to interview all of you. The questions will vary on what your plans are for the government once you win, how you think the government is being run now, why the treaty we honour with the United States is still noteworthy, and what you think of UFOs."
       "Kotono-san!" Rei hissed from between clenched teeth.
       "It's research," she said in a mild conversational tone in reply.
       Now the group was staring at the blonde as if she had just mutated into sort of interesting, ten-foot-tall bug with neon landing lights. One, obviously more liberal than his fellow politicians, chuckled somewhere near the back of the room. Someone else sneezed.
       And it was of no surprise that the elder Hino was the one who stood first for questioning. If there was a current leader in the Japanese political world, it was her father. "Sarashina-san, you may ask me your questions. But go easy on me, I am only a politician."
       Canned laughter from the colleagues. Kotono was the only one who had a truthful spout of mirth at the dry joke, though she did seem to note his humour. Pen held at the ready, she then asked, "Hino-san, what are your plans to effectively halt the economic downfall Japan is in? Only ten years ago we were a powerful force in the world economy!"
       "And how do you expect to save it, when the United States seems to be unwilling to truly help?" Rei added, neatly folding her legs beneath the table.
       She didn't notice the young secretary until she was right up next to her, setting a mug down full of strong tea. But as her father began to answer the question with a subtle evasion of the United States comment, she looked up to ask the woman to take the mug away and stopped. Smiling coldly, the secretary moved down the table, pouring coffee and tea, ignoring the way Rei was staring at her.
       After all, it wasn't every day that Rei saw someone sculpt their flamboyantly purple hair into a pair of cat's ears.
       Finally looking away, she realized Kotono was nudging her lightly with the tip of her pen. Half of the page in front of her was covered in hasty scrawl, obviously shorthand of Hino's first answer. Now, it was Rei's turn to ask a question, though she was temporarily unnerved by the calculating look her father was giving her. Angrily she met his stare. "And what do you think of families? How should they deal with this economic spiral?"
       Her father coughed delicately into his hand, ostensibly to clear his throat. "They should be thrifty as always, as is the Japanese way. Husbands should work as hard as they ever did, saving their earnings for a good life in old age. Spending should not be advised against, however, as women should do their part to urge the economy on."
       "So you think women are nothing but housewives and shopping addicts," Rei said sharply, though softly; Kotono wrote half of her statement before she realized what had been said, and paused. "Useful only to keep a house clean and their husband well-fed. All else is secondary."
       "Wives should indeed keep their husbands happy," her father replied calmly; it was an old argument, and in the current crowd, he was loathe to verbally expose his anger. "A husband has a duty to work for his house and his family, and he keeps them alive. A wife should be thankfully for this, and do what she can to make him comfortable-"
       "At the expense of happiness!"
       The outrage on Rei's face was clear as her father turned his gaze away, effectively dismissing her from the discussion. His look rested on Kotono, obviously waiting for her to take up the questioning, though she was staring between father and daughter in utter confusion. And she wasn't alone; half of the table seemed completely shocked at the argument.
       Behind the elder Hino stood the secretary, holding her two pots of tea and coffee. Her smile was that of a viper's, bemused at the strong emotions he was radiating at his daughter's breach of etiquette. In a crooning voice, she said, "Hino-san, do you think you are a good man?"
        "Nani?"
       "What did she just ask Hino?"
       "How dare she!"
       The entire table erupted at the blasphemous question, a swell of noise filling the void left after the argument. Rei began to stand up as the woman turned her smile on her, and she felt the power that the woman held, malicious and evil, and instinctively she thrust back with her own. A power not unlike hers, it nonetheless repelled her.
       As she felt her aura shoved back into her, her father's answer came clear as if he had shouted it into her ear: "I am a good man as respect demands."
       The secretary said: "And I can see the moment of your death, Hino-san. I can tell it to you."
       "No!" Rei forwent all pretense of etiquette and lunged past Kotono, arms outstretched. But even as her classmate screamed, startled at the maneuver, a whole new brand of chaos erupted as several people began to inexplicably burn where they stood.
       "You know me for what I am, my sister spirit of flame!" the secretary laughed, darting out of the way. His associates immediately flanked the elder Hino as the charred corpses began to smolder on the floor and against the table, igniting the wood. "If you join me in my subterfuge, a great reward will be yours!"
        The doors had been thrown wide open. In the mass of bodies, Rei was lost, pushed by frantic hands into the hallway as the fire alarm sounded. Sensitive to the flames, she could feel each new person explode, and she fought her way outwards to grab onto a bolted-down bench. When she stood on the seat, she could see over the crowd to where flames had begun to curl out of the meeting room, highlighting a woman with a familiar pointed head. Flanked by humanoid, blank-faced creatures, she pointed towards Rei and released a funnel of white-hot fire.
       Without thinking the dark-haired shrine girl dropped, feeling the intense heat as it slammed instead into a brass plant holding suspended from the ceiling behind her. She couldn't call for help in such a dense crowd; instead, she hit the small emergency button on her wrist communicator, and leapt off the bench and into the nearby bathroom, nearly missing another attack. The door, however, was not so lucky, and as she slid on her ass across the tiling, she watched as the metal fixtures effectively welded it shut.
       Time for that later. As the bathroom had only a few stalls for more serious evacuations of personal solids, she did a quick peek under each door, making sure no one was standing on the bowl in hopes of hiding. One hadn't been flushed, much to her chagrin and olfactory health, but they were empty.
       Summoning her transformation pen, still so brand new it sparkled, she held its unfamiliar weight in her hand. It was of a different design, though still simple and red; a sort of crown design at the top braced the large yellow star that topped it all of, bearing four red stones and her planetary sigil. But she could feel the power locked inside, trembling for freedom. Holding it up, she chanted, "Mars Star Power, Make Up!" and let the transformation take over, momentarily orgasmic in the thrall of such a boost of energy.
       Finally released, she teetered for an emotional minute on her heels.
       And she was then very aware of the eerie silence that had taken over outside of the door.

       "No, I will not buy you that! Stop touching that! And that!"
       Usagi was ready to tear her hair out at the roots. Chibi-Usa stared at her balefully, the source of her continuing problems, as she removed her hand from a doll she had been admiring. Neither girl had asked to be sent out on a shopping errand for Ikuko, yet here they were, forced into close proximity inside a small toy store.
       The errand was a relatively simple one; one of Ikuko's nieces had a birthday coming up. Said niece wanted a doll, a particular doll, sold at a particular store on the other ass-end of Tokyo, two hours bus trip from the Tsukino household. Since the two 'cousins' had been sniping and generally making each other miserable all day, they had been kicked out together in what Ikuko had regarded as a good way to enforce goodwill between them.
       It obviously was not one of her better ideas.
       So far Usagi had been lectured by a policeman to take better care of her 'sister' (he had come up on her calling Chibi-Usa a dangerous threat to society), nearly hit by an old woman for telling Chibi-Usa to get lost, and accused of stealing when the pink-haired child put a manga prominently in Usagi's shopping bag at a store she had purchased nothing in.
       If both made it home alive, it would be a miracle.
       Chibi-Usa was also amazingly adept at totally ignoring the odango-haired blonde's continuous questioning, ranging from "Why are you here?" and "How did you know about the Ginzuishou?" to "What are you hiding!" With each stop, Usagi grew more raucous about it, her mood not helped in the least by the five large bags she was now carrying.
       So intent was she on balancing, yelling, and generally carrying on like a pissy raccoon with its tail caught under a tire, that she didn't realize Minako stood next to her until the blonde took two of her bags away. "Konnichi wa, Usagi-chan!"
       "Minako-chan!" Startled, Usagi was not at all prepared for the sudden loss of weight, and she nearly toppled over as she lost about five pounds. "What are you doing here?"
       "I was following a cute American, but he was meeting his girlfriend here, apparently," Minako sighed dramatically, looking forlornly towards a short, blond-haired male who stood, irrationally enough, next to a abnormally tall Japanese woman. "And then I saw you and the pink love child-"
       "Stop calling her that!"
       Shrugging in her normal careless fashion, Minako set the bags on the floor. "Have you found anything else out from her?"
       Following the pink head as it wandered down aisle seven, Usagi frowned. "Iie. She still refuses to tell me why she's even here, and what she's hiding. And that day she vanished, mama still keeps talking about it, and the strange American who brought her home. An ally?"
       "That could be possibly," Minako said slowly, watching Chibi-Usa emerge from aisle five far more covertly than her associate. "A child like her couldn't be working alone. But still, we have no reason why…"
       Standing alone in the fashionable toy store, several stuffed animals began to beep variously mangled versions of a popular J-pop song around them. Shrieking at the sudden noise, Usagi dropped her bags and slapped her hands over her ears, though Minako eased into a protective stance immediately. It took them a minute to realize their communicators had gone off, and another two to realize the damned things had set off the toys as well.
       The abysmal noise stopped once they checked their communicators. Though it was just a signal for help, it also began mechanically reciting coordinates that kept changing every other second, sometimes so fast that the numbers began to blur together. "The red light is flashing…does that mean Rei is in trouble?" Usagi asked.
       "We don't have time to figure it out!" Minako said assertively, running down the aisle, leaving Usagi and her bags behind. For once, however, realizing the importance of speed, Usagi didn't bother trying to gather them up with her, and instead followed Minako empty-handed. Even when she remembered that she had left Chibi-Usa alone, she assumed the child would find the bags and stay with them.
       She never expected the pink-haired girl to follow them out of the store.
       The Diet building was luckily not very far, maybe fifteen minute's run for a strong runner. For the two blondes, for whom running was not a very natural method of travel, it took about twenty five. And for Chibi-Usa, with her short legs and definite lack of running experience, it took far longer. The only way she knew where they disappeared to was the sight of Ami running from the opposite direction as the building came into view. Ducking behind the far wall of the building, Chibi-Usa watched as the blue-haired genius went inside.
       She immediately followed, a sense of mounting excitement spurring her on.
       What she saw was a scorched series of hallways, carpets and benches destroyed, and shapes that were recognizable as bodies only in the vaguest sense still smoking on the floor. She began to tremble violently, feeling the scream building in her throat as the smell hit her nostrils. It grew into a faint keening as a few began to move, moaning in extreme pain.
       In the shelter of an outcropping wall, Minako had already transformed into Sailor Venus, Ami into Sailor Mercury. Makoto had not made it yet, or was already in the battle that was loudly, if muted, waging within a far off conference room. Usagi was even now touching her brooch, its gleam catching Chibi-Usa's eye as she fought hard not to be sick.
       The power that it released soothed her stomach and soul, and she was left stunned in its wake as the three soldiers ran down the hall. "Masaka…!"
       Of course, she followed them, even more determined than before, her path zigzagging through the literal maze of bodies. Stumbling over several of them was a given, and even though silent tears were coursing down her cheeks, she made it without sobbing even once, and was rewarded by a burst of flame through the swinging doors that nearly took her head off.
       That was a good enough reason to scream in her opinion.
       Inside, the soldiers heard the noise as merely that - noise. The entire room had been slagged, and melted seats conspired to make each soldier slip every other step. Mars was staying upright by sheer force of will, screaming her attack with a hoarse voice as the secretary merely returned each one with her own flame.
       Leaning against the wall next to the two doors and the emergency exit were dozens of bodies, many still breathing. Obviously seeking shelter from the chaos, half of them had been wounded or killed when the room had been slagged. The elder Hino, dazed, bleeding from several wounds, and missing half of his upper suit, was still crouched next to the emergency exit along with many of his collegues, watching the fight in pained silence. One or two feebly cried out support to the frantic soldiers.
       "Who is this lady, anyway!" Jupiter yelled over the noise. Gathering the lightning to her hand, she flung it around softball style with a sharp snap of her wrist. It had barely left her fingers when it was blocked by one of the purple-haired woman's blank faced creatures. Taking the blow, it shuddered violently from the electricity, exploding into shreds.
       All of them were then rocked off their feet as several hanging light fixtures finally let go above their heads and slammed into the floor with a collective hundred pounds of force. Only the secretary remained standing - or hovering, depending on your position, as she was literally an inch off of the ground. And laughing at them.
       "Is this the power of my sister spirit? So weak, like a match's flame?" As they watched, her suit skirt changed into a frilly tutu and pink and purple striped bodysuit, her high heels elongating only slightly. The hair unfortunately remained the same, if slightly frizzed from the electricity and heat in the air. From casual clothes to antisocial ballerina, it was a slightly disorienting switch, if not downright rude on the eyes.
       It was Venus who said, flatly, "Did you even bother to look in the mirror this morning?"
       Obviously, making fun of the woman's fashion was a no-no. The sudden rage on her pretty face was frightening, disfiguring. She screeched incoherently, though her volley of fireballs were fizzled by Mercury's sudden call of "Shine Aqua Illusion!" and the sweeping funnel of water that followed.
       "How dare you mock me! I am Koan, the most powerful of the four sisters of the Black Moon! My flame burns hotter than anything my kindred spirit, Sailor Mars, can handle!"
       The spiral of flame that followed was indeed hot, and powerful. The red-clad soldier screamed in agony as she was thrown back against a wall, encased in the raging inferno. Her fellow soldiers could do nothing but stare in horror; even Mercury's water did nothing but steam once it got close. Venus' chain melted to golden liquid within feet.
       "Sailor Mars!" A cane extended from above, where Tuxedo Kamen balanced on what metal beams had been untouched. But even that failed, as half of it simply melted away as Mars screamed even louder. Then, the beams he stood on gave way from the stress and additional weight, and he dropped.
       Landing next to his princess, he grabbed her hand before she could protest and pulled her out of the way of another gout of flame. Mercury unleashed her water, Jupiter her lightning, hoping to electrocute the crazed woman, but she simply leapt away. "Mere children's tricks! Is this how the sailor soldiers of the 21st century fight?" Koan crowed. At her gesture, several of her remaining allies rushed the sailor soldiers, fingers curled into claws. "Droids, make yourselves useful!"
       "How can we stop Mars from burning?!" Sailor Moon cried, holding onto Tuxedo Kamen's hand in a death grip. "Rei-chan….oh, Rei-chan…!"
       "Taking Koan out might do the trick!" Venus yelled into the princess's ear, letting loose with a Crescent Beam. It burned a hole through Koan's tutu, and that had been the closest shot so far. Venus cursed rather intricately, aiming again.
       The dark-haired prince held Sailor Moon close, clutching her hand as he said, "And how can you stop her? None of your attacks even phase her!"
       "But Mars is burning!" the odango-haired blonde screamed, feeling her helplessness acutely. Her hand was hot in his, despite their gloves separating their skin; and as she looked around, she saw the glow.
       "Concentrate, Sailor Moon!" someone cried, most likely Venus, though she couldn't tell. "Your power is stronger than this!"
       Tuxedo Kamen's eyes were wide behind his mask as the light grew intense between them. It hurt the eyes, but it was such a spectacular sight that even Koan halted her attack to stare. Thickening and becoming solid, the light formed itself into a rather decorative rod between their hands, bejeweled and rather regal, and looking like no useless sort of weapon.
       Nevertheless, it had power; Sailor Moon could feel it. Everyone could.
       "I know this too!" she whispered, taking it from her prince's hand. "The moon rod…my mother's royal scepter at court!"|
       "A useless toy!" Koan raged.
       "A stronger power than you!" Sailor Moon retorted, swinging it around. "And now you have no choice to release Mars! Moon Princess Halation!"
       Again, she knew what to do instinctively. Even as she spoke, the light blasted from the orb at the end of the weapon, hitting Koan dead-on. The purple-haired woman had time enough to scream before she was obliterated, protecting her face uselessly. Her droids shuddered and stopped, like wind-up toys losing their steam. A direct hit from Jupiter and Venus destroyed them all to the last one.
       But Mars was not released of her torment.
        And beside her now was a red-haired man, smirking arrogantly at the astounded soldiers, "And you defeated Koan? Amazing that the sailor soldiers are so powerful even in this time! But as you can see," he said, motioning to the screaming dark-haired shrine girl, "You've still lost the fight."
       "Crescent Beam!" Venus released the attack before he had even finished talking. He repelled it with a wave of his hand, sending the blonde diving to the floor beneath the impact of her own energy with a short scream.
       Jupiter took an aggressive step forward, charging her own attack. "Release Mars, or you won't be leaving under your own power!"
       A light punched down through the roof, surrounding Mars in a brilliant glow. Above they could see a perfectly round hole in the ceiling that spanned several floors, and it was up through this light that the dark-haired shrine girl was taken. "Mars! Sailor Mars!" Mercury cried, echoed by her companions.
       "My name is Rubeus, sailor soldiers. Assuredly, I'll be seeing you again." Laughing, Rubeus floated up through the hole with ease, deftly avoiding the lighting and water that smashed into the wall just below his feet.
       Screaming, Sailor Moon was held tight by her prince, fighting against him as the roof was ripped away by the force of the ship flying away. Chunks of the floors below rained down onto them as they saw what looked to be a perfect example of a flying silver saucer zoom up into the clouds. The few conscious survivors were clutching their ears as the blonde's voice reached a fever pitch. "Sailor Mars, Sailor Mars! Iie, Sailor Mars!
       "SAILOR MARS!"