Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Unmei no Hoshi ❯ Episode 3: Motorsports to Obakeyashiki ni bangohan! ( Chapter 3 )

Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon: Unmei no Hoshi

Destiny of Stars

by P.H. Wise

key:

< > indicates Japanese speech

" " indicates English speech

' ' indicates thoughts

Episode 3: Motorsports to Obakeyashiki ni bangohan!

(Motor sports and Dinner at the haunted house!)

It's the weekend, and time for the races...

Key: Speech surrounded by < > is intended to represent Japanese.

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

*click*

~~ Minako sat at her desk, lost in thought. 'It's good that I beat the

~~ maiden enemy Debrine last time, but everyone's still overweight and

~~ haven't returned to normal. I'm at a loss. And that mysterious man

~~ who appeared.. who on earth could he be? Even through his mask, I

~~ knew; he likes me. He was looking at me.'

~~
~~ The teacher looked out at the class, trying to decide who to call

~~ on... "AINO!! What was the name of the military commander of

~~ Takeda, who lost the Battle of Nagashino on May 21st of the third

~~ year of Tenshou's reign!?"

~~
~~ Minako stood up and exclaimed, "I know, I know! Just like Superman,

~~ Gekkou Kamen, Ninja Kamui, Golgo 13, or Captain Harlock, or

~~ the Terminator, he was kind of young. The man who came to save me

~~ was surely my prince!"

~~

~~ There was a looong silence.

~~ ...

~~ ...

~~ Finally, the teacher said, "... Buckets! Hallway! Now!"

*click*

~~ Announcer: "Do you often experience periods of sadness? Do you

~~ often sing or whistle, just for fun? Does emotional music have

~~ quite an effect on you? Do you feel sometimes like age is against

~~ you? Then, my friends, you need Serenity! All of these famous

~~ people are members of the Church of Serenity..."

~~

~~ *the screen displays images of various movie stars, idorus and

~~ such*

~~

~~ Announcer: "and for a small fee to pay for a slight brain

~~ augmentation, you can be too! Come and embrace the joys of

~~ Serenity!"

~~

~~ *the screen displays a quiet, tranquil creek, its clear,

~~ clean waters gently flowing along the creek bed. All is

~~ at peace.*

~~

~~ Announcer: "Serenity: in search of a world... of Clean."

~~

~~ (at this point a teeeeny subtitle appears on the screen that

~~ scrolls by almost too rapidly to be read: The Church of

~~ Serenity is neither affiliated with nor sanctioned by the

~~ Crystal Tokyo Government)

"Yare yare. That's quite enough of THAT."

*click*

~~ There was a creak above, and a sandbag plunged down, right at the

~~ King in Yellow's head. He lithely dodged to one side and looked up.

~~ "Ahh, the missing one of the unholy trinity must be perch..." He

~~ never finished. Even as he looked up, there was a blur and the sound

~~ of feet pounding against boards, and then Rei came out of the

~~ darkness. She didn't put the Elder Sign around his neck; she slammed

~~ him full force on the back of the skull with it. (1)

Arashi sighed. This sucked. There was absolutely nothing on that she wanted to watch, and she had left her collection of movies back at home in Crystal Tokyo. Absently munching on another handful of popcorn (taken from the bowl that she held in her lap), she changed the channel.

*click*

~~ A gasping gurgle from the soldier's writhing mouth as he tumbled

~~ to the golden sand at his feet, and wormed agonizingly in his death

~~ bed. Grignr's emerald green orbs glared lustfully at the wallowing

~~ soldier struggling before his chestnut swirled mount. His scowling

~~ voice reverberated over the dying form in a tone of mocking mirth.

~~ "You city bred dogs should learn not to antagonize your better." (2)

Her eyes wide with horror, Arashi just barely managed to change the channel before her mind snapped like a rubber band that's been stretched too far. 'What the hell!?' she thought, trying to get the image of Ginger the Barbarian out of her mind before it rotted, 'Did that Barbarian's voice just... SCOWL!?!?'

*click*

~~ "EY! You just killed my favorite worshiper!"

About then, Haruka entered the room. As she walked up behind Arashi's chair she asked, "What are you watching, Hime-chan?"

Arashi shook her head and shut off the TV before turning around. "Nothing, papa. There's nothing good on TV."

"You bored?"

Arashi nodded.

Haruka smiled faintly. "Why not come with me, then?"

Arashi blinked, "Ano, where're you headed?"

"Didn't I tell you about it the other day? I'm in the big race today. Want to come?"

Arashi brightened at that. At last, an escape from the sheer weight of boredom that accompanied sitting around the house! "Sure! Thanks, papa! Hang on a minute and I'll get ready! I can invite someone to meet us there, right?" Without waiting for an answer, she took off running for her room, leaving a slightly bemused (and slightly amused) Haruka in her wake.

******

The race-track was rather crowded with people that day. It seemed that quite a large number of people had turned up once it had been announced that Tenoh Haruka - Sailor Uranus, would be participating in today's race. The race track had been built about ten years after the and of the Ice, and was laid out as follows: a short straight-away followed by a series of quick turns, then a long winding section leading back the other way. This was followed by a long curved section of the track in the shape of a 'c' which deposited one on a final straight-away that led to the finish line. The stands stretched from about half way through the final straight-away to half way through the first straight-away.

Two teenagers walked side by side through the entrance to the race track. One male, the other female. While this in itself was not an unusual occurrence, these two stood out, as they were clad in the school uniforms from Japan's most prominent school - the Crystal Tokyo Institute for the Paranormal. They were Shiro Tetsuro and Shiro Kazuko.

Kazuko was a fairly beautiful young woman, and despite having shoulder length natural blonde hair and big blue eyes, was in fact, Japanese (unusual hair colours were becoming more and more common these days - when a good third of your classmates have naturally green, pink, purple or blue hair, no one is really going to think that blonde is particularly odd, regardless of the ethnicity of the person in question).

Her twin brother, Tetsuro, while also having an appearance that would be considered attractive, looked absolutely nothing like her (save that he too was Japanese). He had black hair, soft brown eyes, and a very pleasant--almost innocent looking-- face. Right now, however, his seemingly innocent face was showing some signs of annoyance.

"Remind me why we came out here, would you?"

Kazuko frowned at her brother. "We're here to see the legendary Sailor Uranus in action, baka. Tenoh Haruka is participating in the race today."

Tetsuro nodded faintly. "I know that.. but why did you have to drag me along? I was supposed to go to a movie with Alice-chan today."

Kazuko shook her head. "Don't mix Japanese terms with English, ni-chan. It makes you sound like a baka."

Tetsuro sweatdropped. "Pots and kettles, nee-chan."

Kazuko flushed red with embarrassment. "Ahehehe... right..." 'Damn him.' "Come on, ni-chan. How often do you get a chance to see one of them in person? We might even be able to introduce ourselves to her as friends of Arashi! And besides, I already called Alice and told her you couldn't meet her today."

Tetsuro blinked slightly. "You told her I couldn't come...?" He shrugged. "All right, if it's that important to you... hey, wait a minute, since when were we friends with Uranus and Neptune's kid?"

Kazuko sweatdropped. "Ano... well, Arashi DID invite me to come.. even if we aren't exactly 'friends'.."

And so Tetsuro and Kazuko argued as they made their way through the crowd, heading for the grandstands, from where they would be able to watch the upcoming race.

"Ano, nee-chan? Why would he invite you, anyway? Didn't you get into a fight with him the other day?

"Yeah, I did."

Tetsuro frowned. "Then tell me truthfully; why are we here?"

Kazuko shrugged. "I don't have any idea."

Tetsuro's frown deepened. "Do you mean to say you canceled my date with Alice and dragged me all the way out here... on a whim?"

Kazuko thought about that for a moment and then nodded. "Yep, that's about right."

Tetsuro facefaulted. "You know..." he said as he recovered, "I've always wanted to be an only child."

*Biiidah!*

"Whatever. I'm out of here."

Kazuko glared at the departing form of her twin until a familiar voice sounded nearby. "Kazuko-san!"

Kazuko turned towards the source of the voice. There, standing only a short distance away, was Tenoh Arashi.

Today, Arashi was wearing a set of Chinese style silk clothing which consisted of a green short-sleeved shirt, black pants, and a pair of black slippers. The outfit was very Ranma-esque (indeed, she had matched the image intentionally just to see how many people would 'get it'. Very few actually did.) "Thanks for coming! I was kinda afraid that you wouldn't show up."

Kazuko shrugged. "I had nothing better to do."

With that, the two girls went and found their seats. They talked for a while as they waited for the race to start. The conversation was an odd one for Kazuko. Her normal topics of conversation with other girls were, in the following order, gossip, clothes, and guys. Arashi, however, seemed to have practically zero interest in the first two of those topics.

The red-haired girl had grown up surrounded by a great abundance of material things. Now for some people, this would result in the peculiar condition known as 'being spoiled rotten'. In Arashi's case, however, something very like that and yet distinctly different had occurred. She had become rather... well, jaded in that regard. Her attitude towards clothing and the like tended to be along the lines of, "Oh. Another cute dress. How nice." Put simply: when it came to clothes, she didn't particularly care. Over-abundance of material things over a long period of time had produced in Arashi a completely apathetic response: Arashi was completely incapable of appreciating such finery. And so far as the gossip went . . . it's hard to be interested in the local gossip when you've never even heard of the people being gossiped about.

Kazuko never got a chance to ask about the third topic that her conversations tended to revolve around, something at least vaguely related to it did come up, which will be told of a bit later. During the conversation they changed over from English to Japanese, as both of them were more comfortable with their native language. It would be tiresome indeed to attempt to give a word for word transcription of their conversation, but I will set down an abbreviated version.

"<So do you do any magic, Arashi-san?>"

"<Spells? Nope. I'm really fast, though, and I can manifest a battle aura.>"

Kazuko smiled faintly. "<I noticed.>"

Arashi giggled.

"<How about you? I mean, not including the Sailor Terra stuff.>"

Kazuko shrugged. "<I have a little. I'm trying to learn more, though. My sensei says that being Sailor Terra interferes with it, but I don't see why that would be.>"

Arashi nodded. After a short pause, she decided to change the subject. "<Ne, Kazuko-san, what sort of music do you like?>"

"<Rock and Roll. My favorite singers are Idol Angel Mami-Mami, Hayashibara Megami*, and ... eeto ... Paul McCartney! How about you, Arashi-san? What sort of music do you like?>"

*note: yes, that IS spelled correctly. What, did you think I meant 'Megumi?' ;)

Arashi looked thoughtful for a moment. "<Well, I like almost all kinds of music, but I like classical music best.. I play duets on the violin with my mother, sometimes. Even better is when my Otousan plays a piano accompaniment! Oh, and there's also the Three Lights. I like them better than classical music.>"

Kazuko pikupikued. "<Who are the Three Lights?>"

Arashi gasped. She had NOT just heard that, NO way. Was her Yaten-kun so far gone into obscurity that even people from Japan didn't know who the Three Lights were anymore!? Intolerable! "<The Three Lights were the greatest! They were an idol group in the days just before Galaxia-sama showed up!>"

Kazuko raised an eyebrow. "<Galaxia-sama?>" She had never heard of anyone named 'Galaxia'.

Arashi nodded. "<Hai. Densetsu no Senshi, Sailor Galaxia. She was possessed by Chaos when she showed up on Earth, and the Starlights had...>"

Kazuko shook her head, "<Never mind." she said, interrupting Arashi. "... So what's so great about the Three Lights, then? They're some boy-band from before the Cataclysm... so what?>"

Arashi tried very hard not to glare at Kazuko for insulting her favorite band. "<Like I said, they're the greatest! Especially Yaten-kun! He's really cute, and he's got a great voice...>" Arashi sighed and trailed off for a moment, a dreamy look on her face. "<Yaten-kun...>"

Kazuko sweatdropped. "<Ano... Arashi?>"

Arashi blinked. "<Gomen. .. That's not the only thing that's great about them, of course. Their music has this certain quality to it.. it's hard to describe. It.. Shines. You can tell that there's something special about it when you hear it.>" She shrugged, "<That's not even the most interesting thing about them, though. It turned out that they were a group of Senshi from another solar system.>"

"<Um... wait, these were guys, right?>"

"<Yep.>"
"<And they were Senshi also?>"

"<Yep.>"
"<Er... so how did that work? I thought all Senshi were emale?>"

Arashi nodded. "<That's true.>"

Kazuko scratched her head. "<Ano... that doesn't add up.. what, did they change gender when they transformed or something?>"

Arashi gave a thumbs up. "<Bin-bon!>"

Kazuko sweatdropped. She hadn't QUITE expected THAT answer. "<I... see... how do you know all of this, if you don't mind my asking?>"

Arashi just *looked* at Kazuko.

"<Oh, right. Your parents told you.>"

Arashi nodded. "<Jupiter too. And Odan... uh, I mean, Serenity-sama.>"

Kazuko gave Arashi a strange look at that, but didn't comment on whatever it was that she had been about to say in the place of 'Serenity-sama'.

At this point, the race began, which brought their conversation to a temporary halt. Kazuko couldn't help but marvel at Haruka's skill in motorsports; she didn't just win the race, she left the competition in the dust, riding her motorcycle across the finish line a full thirteen point three five one seconds before any of the other racers. Arashi cheered loudly for her for her Otousan throughout the whole race, of course.

******

After the race had ended and the majority of the crowd had begun to depart, Arashi turned to Kazuko and said, "<Ne, Kazuko?>"

This was not the first thing that she had said since the finish of the race, but again, an attempt to transcribe their rather long conversation word for word would not be practical.

"<Nani?>" Kazuko asked.

"<Want to come over for dinner?>"

Kazuko blinked. "<To your house?>"

Arashi nodded. "<Yeah.>"

Kazuko thought about it for a moment. "<.. even after I hurt you yesterday, you want to invite me over for dinner?>"

Arashi nodded.

"<.. Ano, why?>"

Arashi shrugged, "<I figure the best way to deal with an enemy is to make them a friend.>" 'Even if you are a fangirl,' she thought to herself.

Kazuko smiled, shaking her head incredulously. "<A friend, huh? You're very weird, Tenoh-san. .. Sure, I'll come. Where do you live?>"

Arashi smiled. "<112 Ocean Avenue.>" (3) She paused. "<..Well, now we can go ask my papa if it's OK!>"

Kazuko sweatdropped. "<Ano... you didn't already ask your parents?>"

******

Haruka and Michiru were waiting at the car. Haruka leaned against its hood, while Michiru stood a few feet away. The car itself was one of the new hovercars, and a convertible, and bore a suspicious resemblance to a Porsche.

"So what did you think?" Haruka asked.

Michiru tilted her head and half-smiled. "Don't you think it was a bit much? You didn't have to humiliate the other racers."

"I didn't humiliate them, I just made sure that they knew I was better than them. In front of an audience."

"That's called humiliation, Haruka."

"Oh, is that what they call it?" Haruka asked, a smirk on her face. "Well, I can't do any less than my best, can I? How would that make them feel?"

Michiru lifted an eyebrow. "But weren't you holding back in the race just now?"

Haruka didn't miss a beat. She laughed and leaned in close to Michiru as she said softly, "I can't hide anything from you."

The two women gazed into each other's eyes for a moment, each one just enjoying the presence of the other. Haruka silently marveled that it was possible to find such joy simply by being with one another; it was a moment of contentment for them both.

"Otousan!"

The moment passed them by, but neither Haruka nor Michiru were particularly annoyed by that. The voice of their daughter brought them fully back to the here and now (as opposed to the 'drowning in each other's eyes' that they had been doing a moment before [and tended to do a lot, actually]), and they turned to look in the direction that Arashi's voice had come from.

The red-head in question was making her way through the crowd towards them, accompanied by a blonde girl who was about the same age.

"Ah, okaasan, when did you get here?" Arashi asked when

she spotted Michiru.

Michiru smiled. "I took the limo, Arashi-chan."

Arashi blinked. "Oh, right. I didn't know we had one."

"You never asked."

"Hai."

"Hey Hime-chan," said Haruka, a grin on her face, "So what did you think?"

Arashi looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, it was a bit much. You didn't have to humiliate the other drivers, Otousan."

Haruka sweatdropped, and Michiru's expression became ever so slightly smug.

"AraArashi-chan, who's your friend?" asked Michiru. (4)

Arashi sweatdropped faintly, trying for just a moment to figure out if her mother had run those two words together intentionally or if it had simply been a case of speaking quickly. She decided it wasn't worth worrying about and gestured towards the blonde girl who was with her. "This is Shiro Kazuko. Kazuko, this is my mom, Kaioh Michiru, and my dad, Tenoh Haruka."

Kazuko nodded faintly, not entirely sure of what to think of Arashi calling Tenoh Haruka 'dad'. "<Hajimemashite. Douzo Yuroshiku,>" he managed to say, remembering to bow a few seconds later.

Michiru smiled and returned the bow. "<Hajimemashite. Douzo Yuroshiku.>"

Haruka did likewise.

"Anyway," said Arashi, "Is it OK if Kazuko comes over for dinner?"

Haruka frowned slightly. "Isn't she the girl who you got into a fight with the other day? When you came home with all those bruises?" The look she sent towards Kazuko was not altogether a pleasant one.

Kazuko sweatdropped and tried unsuccessfully to sink into the ground.

Arashi nodded. "Yeah. So?"

Haruka blinked, her anger fading. "Well, I never thought of it that way." she said, and that ended her objection.

Michiru compressed her lips down to a thin line before speaking to Haruka. "Anata, don't forget. Dinner at the Marsh's."

Kazuko blinked slightly. 'Anata'? She had not known that Senshi Uranus and Senshi Neptune had THAT kind of relationship, but in hindsight, it made sense. It also shed some light on why Arashi would refer to Haruka as 'dad'... no, wait, Haruka was a girl, so that still didn't make sense. With a shake of her head, she decided it wasn't important enough to worry about.

Haruka blinked. "Oh, that's right, Hime-chan, we were invited to have dinner at the Marsh's tonight."

"Oh... those are the representatives of the U.S. Government that you two are doing negotiations with, right?"

Kazuko blinked. "Er.." she began, about to say something along the lines of 'thanks anyway', when Arashi interrupted.

"Well, can Kazuko come with us?" Arashi asked.

Haruka thought about it for a moment before glancing at Michiru. Michiru nodded. Haruka then smiled and shrugged, saying, "I don't see why not."

"Thanks, okaasan, Otousan." said Arashi.

Michiru smiled. "Don't mention it."

It did not take long for the four to board Haruka's hovercar.

As Haruka started it up, it lifted off the ground and began to float about a foot in the air. She then gunned the engine, and, although it was technically impossible for a hovercar to 'peel out', it somehow managed to do so anyway before it blasted away down the street like a rocket.

******

"Well," said Arashi as she and Kazuko stepped through the front door of the house, a grin on her face, "This is my house. Smile, Kazuko: you've just stepped on to Japanese soil."

Kazuko nodded, glancing about. She thought it was very strange that the Tenoh-Kaioh home did not have the kind of grandeur one would normally expect in a home of its size. Somehow, it managed to seem both classy and lived in at the same time (without being dirty or messy). "It's very nice." she said as she took off her shoes.

Arashi shrugged. "I guess so."

Kazuko quirked an eyebrow at that. "You guess so? Arashi-san, most people would kill to have a house like this."

Arashi merely repeated her shrug. Kazuko's eye twitched slightly. "Right." she said (at length), "So where's your room?"

"Oh, that's upstairs," said Arashi as she kicked off her own shoes and then put them in their place by the door, "Here, follow me, I'll show you."
With that, the two headed up the spiral staircase.

Arashi's room was large - about 150 square feet - but fairly empty, all things considered. It was positioned on the front of the house, providing a very nice view of the turnabout out in front of the house and of the driveway going back into the woods beyond it. Her single sized bed was beneath the window. Next to it was a desk, on which sat her CD player and collection of CDs. Prominently visible among this collection was every album ever released by the Three Lights, including an autographed copy of their, ahem, 'hit single' Nagaraboshi He (given to Arashi by Mizuno Ami for her fourteenth birthday).

Also on the desk were several photographs in frames. The first showed Arashi standing with her parents with the Crystal Palace in the background. Another showed Arashi and Hotaru standing side by side, both smiling widely. The third showed Arashi standing next to a tall brown-haired girl, and the last one was apparently a group shot showing all of the Senshi in their civilian forms, plus five others. The first of the five was a younger Arashi, who was standing with Haruka and Michiru. The second was the brown-haired girl seen in the third picture, who was standing with Makoto. The third was a dark haired little girl with reddish eyes, who was standing next to the brown-haired girl. She seemed a few years younger than Arashi and the brown-haired girl. The fourth addition was Chibi-Usa, who was a toddler at the time the picture was taken, and the last was a little girl who looked suspiciously like Minako.

The room had a large walk in closet, wherein most of Arashi's clothing was stored. Several posters decorated the walls, several of which were of Yaten of the Three Lights. Of the three posters that didn't depict Yaten Kou, one bore the image of a popular idol, and the other two were of miscellaneous anime. Next to the desk was a book shelf, filled with books from the middle down and empty save for one or two movies from the middle up, on top of which was a TV and DVD player.

Kazuko took all of this in silently as she peered about.

"Well, this is my room," said Arashi, "My parents have the other bedroom."

Kazuko shook her head incredulously. "I guess when you said you liked the Three Lights, you weren't kidding."

Arashi smiled faintly and shrugged. "Why would I have been kidding?"

"Er, never mind. So who are these people in the pictures? I mean, besides Serenity and her court. Your group of friends?"

Arashi glanced at the pictures on her desk. "Sorta. The little one is Serenity-sama's daughter. Most people call her 'Small Lady', but we call her Chibi-Usa. The brown-haired one is Yuu-c . . . er, Yuubiko, I mean. She's Mako.. Jupiter's daughter. The one with the blonde hair and blue eyes is Eris. I don't know her very well at all."

"Eris?"

"Yeah, she's Senshi Venus' daughter. Apparently she MEANT to say 'Eros,' but she never gets that sort of thing right... in any case, the last one is a friend of Yuu-chan's. I don't remember her name, though. I think she's like . . .

"Tomoe Mirai." Kazuko said, glaring at the picture.

"Oh yeah, that was her name! Do you know her?"

Kazuko nodded. "We've met," she said, not sounding pleased at all.

"I take it she's not a friend of yours, then?"

"..."

"... Is she really that bad? She seemed nice enough when I met her."

"YES, she's really that bad! I can't even begin to tell you how annoying she is . . . just because she was adopted into Sailor Saturn's family, she thinks she's so great! I can't stand her superior attitude. Even though she might not say so, I can tell she doesn't like me just because I can transform into Sailor Terra, but SHE'S the one who's dressed as Sailor Saturn every time there's been any sort of occasion to wear costumes for the last four years in a row! SHE barely even has enough power to justify her going to CTIP. All SHE can do is..." She began to mutter at this point, and whatever she had intended to say about what Mirai can do was incomprehensible. Left unsaid were things like, 'And she gets all the attention, when I should be the most popular one...' It didn't even occur to Kazuko that since Arashi had arrived in Boston, she had been replaced as the center of attention here as well.

Arashi sweatdropped, feeling distinctly uncomfortable at hearing this girl badmouth an acquaintance of hers behind said acquaintance's back. "Right.." she said, "Er, I guess I have a hard time believing that anyone in Big-Sister-Hotaru's family could be THAT bad..." 'not to mention that the things she mentioned cast Kazuko in a worse light than Mirai...'

"Big-sister-Hotaru?" asked Kazuko, attempting to change the subject.

Arashi grimaced. "Well, I don't want to say 'Hotaru-ne-chan' when I'm not speaking in Japanese. It sounds stupid to mix Japanese phrases with English."

Kazuko looked uncomfortable for a moment (as she was one who mixed Japanese phrases with English quite frequently) before she asked, "But who is Hotaru?" The unfriendliness in her voice was fading away now that they were no longer on the subject of Tomoe Mirai.

"Sailor Saturn."

Kazuko blinked. "Waitaminute, Sailor Saturn is your sister?"

"Again, sorta. My parents raised her. We're not actually related, though. She still calls them 'mama' and 'papa' sometimes, but..."

"Ah, gotcha... oh, I've been meaning to ask you, why is your name Tenoh, and not Kaioh? Are you in some way related to Senshi Uranus but not to Senshi Neptune, or what?"

Arashi shrugged faintly. "I dunno. From what I've heard, they didn't like the idea of hyphenating my name... and they decided that they liked 'stormy heaven king' better than 'stormy sea king'. I'm not really sure why. I guess you could call me Kaioh Arashi if you really wanted to."

Kazuko smiled, "What about Tenoh-Kaioh? Or maybe just Tenkai?"

Arashi gagged. "Tenkai? You have GOT to be kidding me. What kind of a name is that?"

Kazuko couldn't help but laugh. "Yeah, you're right. It DOES sound pretty stupid." (5)

*In a nearby dimension, a certain OTHER red-headed daughter of Haruka and Michiru sneezed*

The two fell silent then for a moment... until suddenly, Kazuko's entire manner changed. She grew somewhat agitated and glanced around as if looking for a clock. When she found none, she turned to Arashi and asked, "Ano, what time is it, Arashi-san?"

Arashi checked her watch. "About 3:00. Why?"

"Yatta! There's still time! I don't want to miss it! Quick, can I use your TV?"

"Er... sure."

As soon as she had the permission that she sought, Kazuko moved so fast to turn on the TV that Arashi wasn't entirely sure if she had bothered to cross the intervening space at all. Once the TV was on, Kazuko's hands flew across the controls, and a second later, the television arrived at her target channel just as the title music for Sailor V was beginning to play.

'Ugh,' thought Arashi, grimacing at the sight of what now filled her TV screen, 'It's obaa-chan's show.' For Kazuko's sake, Arashi didn't raise a fuss about the choice of programming. As she suffered in silence, she quickly realized that this was the episode where Sailor V fights Chuu-Chuu, the giant mosquito-woman.

~~ "For donating blood, I get rewarded with juice," said Minako. "But

~~ if I go to the hospital, I'll get money! Isn't this blood donation

~~ pamphlet lovely!? If you collect enough stamps, you can get a gold

~~ bar!"

~~

~~ Artemis sighed.

~~ 'It's embarrassing, having her for a soldier of justice,' he

~~ thought. 'Oh, if only Hikaru-chan was Sailor V...'

~~

~~"Artemis!" calls Hikaru, dressed in a sailor suit and mask. "Thanks

~~so much for your support today! I'll never forget your kindness!

~~Here, I got you the green tea you like."

~~Hikaru sits on a porch wearing a kimono, with Artemis curled up next

~~to her.

~~"Nice wind, isn't it," she says. "Peace is wonderful. Oh, a

~~mosquito..."

~~She gently picks it from Artemis's fur.

~~"I'll turn on the mosquito-repellent incense."

~~

~~ Abruptly, Minako hit Artemis on the back of his head, which brought

~~ him out of his day-dream rather quickly.

~~

"Oh no, a mosquito," said Arashi. "They're even getting inside the command center!"

~~ "Oh no, a mosquito," said Minako. "They're even getting inside the

~~ command center!"

~~

"You just hit me, didn't you..."

~~ "You just hit me, didn't you..."

"No I didn't! If it bit you,"

"Arashi! Cut that out!"

Arashi frowned sullenly and fell silent. She HATED this show, and Minako obaa-chan had inflicted it on her more times than she could count. She was almost at the point where she could actually quote every line from almost every episode, word for word. "Sorry." she said.

~~ "No I didn't! If it bit you, you'd itch, so I killed it for you!

~~ Anyway, are you listening to what I'm saying? Why don't we have a

~~ system here too, where if I help out somebody, I get a reward!

~~ Otherwise, I won't feel like doing it. So, Artemis, today I helped

~~ out somebody three times! For a reward, how about ~~ giving me a new

~~ item!"

~~

~~ "I will not!" said Artemis.

~~

~~ "What!?" said Minako. "Do you mean there aren't any more items!?"

~~

~~ "Actually, I was prepared to do that, but I decided not to. I'm not

~~ giving one to someone like you!!"

******

Around 5:00 that evening, the Tenoh-Kaioh family, plus Kazuko, headed over to the Marsh's house. Though nowhere near the size of the state that had been given to the visiting diplomats from Crystal Tokyo, it was a good two stories. It had little in the way of a front yard, but it did have a wooden fence that blocked off a sizable area behind the house for a back yard. The style of the architecture was Victorian (a common style in Neo-Boston), and the materials used were primarily wood and stone.

Robert Marsh answered the door, well dressed as ever. "Ms. Tenoh, Ms. Kaioh, welcome! Come in, come in!" he said, his voice full of warmth.

As the Tenoh-Kaioh family entered the house, followed closely by Kazuko, Michiru presented Robert with a small gift; a bottle of fine wine. "Thank you for having us, Mr. Marsh."

Robert smiled, taking the gift with an expression of gratitude. "It's my pleasure! And please, call me Robert, all of you."

As Michiru and Robert exchanged pleasantries, Arashi frowned and whispered to Kazuko, "Hey, doesn't he remind you of those weird people that have been hanging out around the school lately?"

Kazuko blinked, looked at Robert, and then whispered back. "What people?"

Arashi shook her head. "Nevermind."

"Hime-chan, this is the man that we're dealing with in the negotiations for the trade agreement. Robert, this is our daughter, Arashi."

Robert blinked faintly and looked at Arashi. "Daughter?" he asked cluelessly.

Arashi laughed. "Yep. It's nice to meet you, Mr. Marsh."

Robert nodded faintly, looking from Arashi to Haruka and back. "I can see the family resemblance." And indeed he could. Although it was technically impossible for Arashi to really be the daughter of Tenoh Haruka and Kaioh Michiru, Haruka and Arashi at least looked enough alike that they could be taken for mother* and daughter.

*Of course, considering the way Haruka dresses, it's more likely that they'd be taken for father and daughter.

Not for the first time, Arashi wondered if it was really worth it to be imitating her papa's style of dress. After a moment, she decided that yes, it was worth it, and that she really wouldn't be terribly comfortable wearing dresses. "Thanks," said Arashi. She gestured towards Kazuko. "This is my friend, Kazuko Shiro."

Kazuko bowed. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Marsh."

Robert nodded. "And you as well." With that, he headed for the kitchen, calling out, "Steven! We have guests. Come greet them."

The inside of the house was fairly spacious. The entryway opened out into a large living room. To the left, spiral staircase was visible, leading to the second floor and the various hallways and bedrooms. To the right, a hallway led to the kitchen and the dining room. The far wall of the living room was taken up mostly by a sliding glass door, beyond which a fairly large swimming pool could be seen. A lovely green lawn surrounded the swimming pool and took up most of the rest of the yard, save for a few spots in which fruit trees of various types grew.

After a few seconds had passed, Robert's son descended the spiral staircase. He was perhaps 16 years old, and was very handsome, with short brown hair, blue eyes and a warm smile. Kazuko went starry-eyed almost immediately.

Arashi shook her head. 'YatenYatenYatenYatenYatenYaten-kun..'

"Ah, here he is. Everyone, this is my son Steven."

Introductions were finished fairly quickly and without further incident. Well, ALMOST without further incident. Steven reacted in the same way that his father had when told that Arashi was Haruka and Michiru's daughter. "Daughter?" he had asked incredulously. Arashi nodded, growing slightly annoyed. She usually didn't care what people thought... but this guy was cute. Haruka grinned and whispered to Arashi that maybe she shouldn't dress the way she did if she didn't want people to mistake her for a boy. Arashi responded with a fiercely whispered, 'Urusei!' In any case, they were all soon seated around the dinner table.

The dinner went by fairly quickly for the first half. Robert, Haruka, and Michiru talked for some time, the latter two occasionally involving Arashi in the conversation. Both Haruka and Michiru were fairly reserved throughout the dinner, occasionally exchanging glances and wishing that this were over. They could both sense that there was something seriously wrong in this house, but had yet nothing that they could act on.

Robert's son, Steven, was strangely silent for the first half of the dinner. He spent most of it staring at Kazuko. At least, until she met his gaze, at which point he blushed and looked away. This most curious behavior repeated itself several times during the course of the dinner.

The third time it happened, Arashi giggled and whispered to Kazuko, "Looks like love at first sight to me."

Kazuko blushed profusely, which caused Steven to quirk an eyebrow. He hadn't heard Arashi.

Eventually, Steven and Kazuko got into a conversation, which Arashi readily joined. In the course of the conversation, the girls learned that Steven was sixteen years old, didn't have a girlfriend, was a sophomore in high school, and had an interest in magi-tech theory and research. His favorite foods were cheeseburgers and french fries, and he disliked the popular style of the day: retro-thrash. Things went fairly smoothly until...

"'scuse me, Mr. Marsh?"

Robert raised an eyebrow. "Hmm?"

"Where's the restroom?"

Robert blinked. "Ah, up the stairs, third door to the left."

"Thanks." That said, Arashi stood up from the table and headed for the restroom.

******

On the way back downstairs, Arashi noticed something out of the corner of her eye; a faint blue light, emanating from beneath a doorway just down the hall. She glanced at the doorway, then towards the stairs, then back to the doorway. After a few seconds of indecision, Arashi's curiosity overcame her. She crept up to the door, and then, carefully, opened it and peered into the room that lay beyond.

The room was bathed in the watery light, the shadows of the room undulating along the walls, as if the room were underwater. The room was a bedroom, and the light came from a hand mirror that lay on a desk in the corner of the room. Arashi approached the mirror, mesmerized. Distantly she knew what it was; a mirror of true seeing - a magical device which reflected only the truth. You could also use it as a scrying device if you knew how. Outside of Crystal Tokyo, they were rare. *Very* rare. She herself had only seen one once before. Despite their potential usefulness, the people who kept such mirrors usually kept them for a rather mundane reason: their beauty. Arashi had always thought that a silly reason to keep such a device. Yet now, as she peered at this mirror's glowing surface, Arashi found that she no longer considered it such a silly reason after all.

Breathlessly she reached out to touch it, and as her index finger brushed its surface, it seemed to ripple like the surface of a pond. Slowly, a symbol took shape amidst the ripples - a stylized spiral bordered above by a horizontal straight line, and below by a horizontal wavy line.

She found the image to be profoundly disturbing, and yet, very familiar. So focused was she on trying to discern where she had seen that symbol before that she did not notice someone entering the room behind her until a cold, clammy hand touched her shoulder, and an equally cold voice croaked, "You should not be here."

Arashi turned around slowly. When she saw the thing that had spoken to her she screamed at the top of her lungs and fled the room. The thing that had frightened her so did not follow.

******

When Arashi's scream sounded through the house, Haruka and Michiru leaped to their feet, henshin wands out. Arashi came barreling down the stairs, slipped, and then slid across the floor for a foot or two before scrambling to her feet and running into the kitchen, a look of horror on her face.

Kazuko stared at Arashi in shocked silence. Somehow, she just couldn't reconcile the entirely normal female scream that she had just heard with the image of the ridiculously tomboyish red-head that had just entered the room.

Michiru caught her in a hug as Haruka got between her family and the door to the kitchen, determined to stop whatever it was that had terrified Arashi from getting anywhere near her again. Arashi shuddered in her mother's embrace, saying, "It was very dark, and there was a monster... some kind of monster upstairs! It was horrible!"

Haruka raised her pen and took a deep breath... but before she could call out her transformation phrase, Robert yelled loudly, "WAIT!"

Haruka lowered the wand and glared at him. "Explain." she said.

Michiru's eyes hardened as she turned to look at Robert, waiting for his explanation, while Arashi struggled to hold back tears.

Robert sighed heavily. "I should have warned you.. my daughter.. she has a 'condition'. She was born severely deformed.. severely deformed, but we love her all the same. Arashi must have run into her upstairs. In the dark, and not having expected such a thing, I can imagine that it would have been quite a shock. But.. she is NOT a monster."

Michiru's eyes softened as she heard the explanation.

Arashi shook her head, clearly not believing Robert's explanation.

The terror of that meeting in the water-lit room was still too raw, too intense. She rubbed at her eyes to wipe away the tears that were forming there before saying, "... I think I'll wait in the car. I'm not hungry anymore... I'm sorry, Marsh-san. I'm sorry.. please tell your daughter that I said I was sorry, OK?"

He nodded. "I'll tell her."

The rest of the dinner was eaten in silence.

******

As Arashi left the house and went to wait in the car, Kazuko sat at the table, feeling increasingly uncomfortable. Her friend, the one who had invited her to come, was no longer present here. As such, she felt out of place. After a few minutes, she gave Steven Marsh a half-hearted smile, and then got up and went out to join Arashi in the car. Once there, she found Arashi staring up at a window on the upper floor of the house, an expression of fear on her face.

"<Ano, Tenoh-san?>"

Arashi blinked, looking to Kazuko as if it were the first time she had ever seen her. Kazuko found that she didn't care for that look one bit. "<H... hai?>" the red-head asked.

"<Are you OK? You look pretty shaken up.>"

Instead of answering, Arashi simply shuddered and pointed. Kazuko looked. An odd sort of watery light was coming from the window that Arashi had been staring at, as if there were an indoor pool inside the room that lay beyond it. That, of course, was impossible. The house wasn't big enough for that sort of thing. But what made Kazuko's breath catch in her throat was not the light, but rather, the form silhouetted against the window. Although she couldn't be sure, she thought that she could make out its eyes. Prodigious, bulging eyes, pale, and lit from within with an ominous blue-white glow.

Kazuko shuddered.

******

When the dinner had finally ended, Steven Marsh had gone up to his room (which was, coincidentally, right next to the room from whence the watery light had shone) and was now peering out his window, watching in silence as Haruka's hovercar pulled out of the driveway and drove away.

Because he was focused on the departing vehicle, he didn't see a tall woman with dark green hair step out of the shadows across the street from the Marsh residence. She too was watching the vehicle depart. When it had vanished down the road, she turned her gaze towards him for just a moment.

Suddenly overcome by a feeling that he was being watched, Steven frowned and cast his gaze about, seeking whatever might be causing this feeling. He saw only the empty street. 'I'm jumping at shadows,' he thought.

A faint breeze stirred the drapes, and as he felt its touch upon his face, he sighed. 'They were both kinda cute,' he thought, 'Especially Kazuko. Arashi was ... a bit too much of a tomboy.' He wasn't aware of the fact that he had just mentally voiced the understatement of the century. Steven shook his head. 'I wish SHE hadn't frightened them away.'

******

Meanwhile, Robert slowly walked up the house's lone flight of stairs. That had very nearly been a disaster. He made a mental note never to invite Senshi into his home again.

A nearby door opened, and a shadowed figure stepped out into the hallway. "Father," it croaked, "That girl looked into the mirror of true-seeing."

Robert frowned, gazing at his daughter. She looked... inhuman. Fish-like, almost: she had prodigious bulging eyes, palpating gills on the sides of her neck, and her skin was an unhealthy green-gray.

"Oh?" he asked, "What did it show her?"

The daughter frowned, and then drew a symbol in the air. A spiral bordered above by a straight line and below by a wavy line. "A storm between heaven and the sea," she croaked.

Robert thought about that for a moment. ".. I guess that makes sense. Tenoh Arashi. Her name means 'storm', I think. A child of Heaven and of the Sea." He shrugged. "Her parents were over for dinner."

The daughter's eyes would have widened if it were possible for

them to do so. "There were SENSHI here!?" she hissed.

Robert nodded again. "Calm yourself. Yes, we had dinner tonight with Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune and Sailor Terra. But it's not your job to worry about such things. Leave that to me."

The daughter fell silent, and for a long moment, the only sound

in the upstairs hallway was that of her hissing breath.

...

...

...

Finally, she spoke. "The council will hear of this."

Robert smiled faintly. "Of course."

--=- END EPISODE THREE -=--

--=- OMAKE -=--

"Come on, ni-chan. How often do you get a chance to see one of them in person? We might even be able to introduce ourselves to her as friends of her daughter!"

Tetsuro blinked slightly. "Since when were we friends of her daughter?"

Kazuko sweatdropped. "Ano..."

Tetsuro smiled faintly. "All right, all right, I won't make you admit that you don't really have a reason to be here and are only here at all in order to advance the plot. And besides, bizarre coincidences like this are pretty standard in Sailor Moon, right?"

Kazuko sweatdropped yet again. "...Right."

--=- END -=--

--=- OMAKE -=--

Arashi turned around slowly, and came face to face with something out of a nightmare - Some sort of horrible humanoid fish-frog thing.

'OK', she thought, 'What would Sailor Moon do?'

The image that came to her of Sailor Moon crying and screaming for Tuxedo Kamen to save her wasn't particularly helpful.

'Right, scratch that. What would Hotaru-nee-chan do?'

--=- END -=--

(1) - This 'TV show' is, in fact, 'Children of an Elder God,' which is an Evangelion elseworlds by John Biles and Rod M. All hail Bailesu!

(2) - If you don't recognize this, I envy you. Blessed are those who have neither seen nor heard of the monstrosity that is 'The Eye of Argon.'

(3) - No, not THAT 112 Ocean Avenue.

(4) - *winces* I know, I know, it's a horrible pun. Oh, and there's

no typo in the sentence to which this note is referring. ^.^

(5) - As a side note, I was somewhat surprised to discover that I'm not the first to write about a daughter of the Outer duo. In fact, I'm not even the first to write about a RED-HAIRED daughter of the Outer duo.

O.o;

(Read "Together Again" by Chris Davies if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

All I can say is ... Oro?