[IC][Story] There's Nothing Better!

[robkelk]

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
December 20, 2016
2:34pm ET


For the second day in a row, they were doing research at the library, trying to figure out what had happened to them. He waved her over to the computer that he was using. "You need to see this."

"I don't think I need to see anything on a computer. That's your specialty."

"You need to see these Lycos search results." He showed her the screen.

"Sailor Moon... There's an anime about Sailor Moon?"

"And look here." He pointed at one line. "Tsukino-san... No, that has to be wrong. She can't be Sailor Moon."

"How did they know?" she asked in a shocked whisper.

"Are you telling me Tsukino-san really is Sailor Moon?"

"That's right. I figured that out a while ago."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It wasn't my secret to tell! Besides, I never asked whether I was right, and she never actually told me."

He cleared the search, and searched for his own name. A few minutes later, he was crying. "Comedy relief? Is that all I am?"

"Not to me." Naru took Umino's hand in her own and held it for a moment. Then she sat down beside him. "Can you show me how to make this search page work? I'll help you find her, or maybe some of our other friends."

---

"You two aren't thinking of leaving, are you?" Mayumi Osaka looked at the ravens sitting in the corner of the storeroom. "It's far too cold out there for you to survive."

"Caw!"

"That's good." It amused Mayumi to pretend to have a conversation with the birds while her daughters Naru and Naruru were out doing ... whatever it was they were doing. Probably shopping for Christmas presents. She wasn't about to chase the birds out of the building, even if it wasn't too cold outside for them to survive; they had been there first, after all. "Just don't hide any of my gems, please."

As she picked up a box of bracelets to take to the shop display floor, she thought that the ravens were looking at her with some amusement. It must have been her imagination. She stepped past the curtain and into the shop itself. "Perhaps one of these would be more appropriate as a gift for your friend, Mr. Donaldson."

As he looked through the selection, he half-distractedly asked, "Have you been open long? I don't remember there being a jewelry store here last year."

"Oh, we've only been open for a week now. We were lucky to get the lease for as low as we did, even if we aren't directly on Bank Street."

He smiled. "I remember when this used to be a coffee shop, a couple of decades ago. They're in the Byward Market now. I think you found a lucky place to set up shop, miss."

She laughed politely, her hand over her mouth. "Nobody's called me 'miss' since my older daughter was born."

"Oh! I think she'll like this one," he said, pointing to a silver bracelet with a wave design worked into the metal. "Sometimes I think she spends all her time in the water."

"She's a professional swimmer?"

"No, she'd a medical student. She loves swimming, though."

"Ah. Would you care for a gift box to go with the bracelet?"

"Yes, please. And, if you wouldn't mind, please put your shop's business card into the box."

Mayumi smiled. "Of course!"

Once the necessary business transaction was completed and Rob left the shop, turning on Fourth Avenue to walk back to Bank Street, his polite smile turned into a grin. Not only had he finally found a Christmas present for Ami, he'd also found one for Usagi - assuming Mayumi Osaka was a displacee. Considering she'd named her shop "OSA-P", Rob thought it was only a matter of time before he, and Usagi, had a chance to meet Naru.

---

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
December 20, 2016
8:37pm ET


Mii was carefully taking the well-lit roads back from campus. She didn't want to run into another one of those ... things ... that had nearly killed her just after Halloween. She knew that, even if the strike force had been allowed to manage a 100% success rate in killing the sluagh in the Horde's stronghold last week, it was highly unlikely that all the sluagh in the area had been there. And even if they were, more would no doubt show up eventually from other cities.

She would have taken a bus home, but she wanted to do some window shopping along the way - and, if she was lucky, actually buy some gifts for her friends. She'd just have to trust her luck.

Unfortunately, her luck didn't hold. While looking down a side street, she saw one of ... those things ... approaching a young couple from behind. A quick look over the rims of her glasses showed that anyone else nearby could only see a human - but nobody else was nearby.

Mii really didn't want to be attacked again, but she wasn't about to let innocent people come to harm. "Hey! You!"

The sluagh turned to look at her jog toward it. So did the couple - teenagers, a boy with thick glasses and a girl with wavy hair.

"Yes, you!" Mii continued as she got her cellphone out and hit the speeddial button for Kuroko. "Why were you sneaking up on those two?"

"Mind your own business!"

Mii heard the line connect. "Hello?"

She spoke louder than before, to make sure Kuroko could hear her. "I am minding my own business! And I was at Calabogie last week!"

"You're one of them? DIE!" The sluagh dropped its mystic disguise and leapt at Mii.

The teenaged girl said "Oh, no, not again..." just before she fainted.

Mii dropped her phone and punched the sluagh, throwing it off-balance enough to miss attacking her. Spinning on one foot, Mii kicked the sluagh in the back.

It didn't go down.

"Oh, shi-" Mii's curse was cut short by a concrete cinder block falling from nowhere onto the sluagh's head. That was enough to knock it out.

"I apologize for taking so long to arrive," Kuroko said as she picked up Mii's phone and handed it to her.

Mii smiled. "I'd say your timing was just right." She turned to the teenagers, only to see the boy carrying the girl up the steps to one of the nearby shops. She raised her voice again. "Are you two okay?"

"We're getting out of your way!"

"Out of our way? Why?"

"Mii-sempai..." Mii turned back to Kuroko, then looked where she was pointing. "...would you happen to have any more concrete blocks?"

"Not with me, sorry."

"Then we have no choice but to kill all three of them."

"When did they start hunting in packs?"

"When haven't they?" Kuroko replied, then muttered under her breath, "They aren't running away."

"They're calling our bluff," Mii answered in the same voice. Out loud, she asked, "How many spikes do you have?"

Kuroko lifted her skirt with one hand and ran her other hand along the bandolier she had strapped to her thigh, teleporting the iron spikes into her hand. "Enough."

That was enough to get the sluaghs to run off, away from Bank Street and toward the river.

"We're going to have to deal with them eventually, you know."

"We should deal with them right now. They'll be easy to find if we act fast. Would you go get Sailor Moon, please? I'll see to the bystanders."

Kuroko nodded and teleported away.

As she walked over to the front of the shop where the boy was still watching, Mii said, "I think that's all of them for now. What did your friend mean by 'not again'?"

"When we were in Tokyo, Naru was always getting attacked by monsters. It's as if they were drawn to her. What were those things?"

"They're called sluagh. An acquaintance of mine told me that they're Fair Folk that were killed but didn't die completely."

"They're yokai that were turned into yurei?"

Mii thought for a moment. "I think so, yes."

"How did you see the first one? Are you a miko?"

"No, I'm an esper. But my glasses were a gift from a megami."

Just then, they heard from a distance the cry "Moon Healing Escalation!"

"An esper? You're a Newtype?"

Mii shook her head. "I'm not that sort of esper. Oh, but it looks like your friend - Naru - is waking up." She turned to the girl. "Are you all right, miss?"

"I'm okay, thank you. Are you all right? You were attacked instead of me."

"I'm fine. Your friend tells me your name is Naru. I'm Mii."

"And I'm Umino," the boy added. "Mii was saying that she's an esper."

"Like a Newtype?"

Mii giggled. "Maybe I should ask for a giant mecha. No, I'm not that kind of esper." She noticed a movement on the sidewalk, then picked up her phone. "You'd better hurry up; the one we knocked out is starting to wake up."

A second later, Kuroko appeared, holding Sailor Moon's arm. "Over there."

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

Naru looked up. "It's her. It's really her. USAGI!"

"Naru! What are you doing here? And Umino! Oh, but... I'm not-"

Mii laughed. "It's too late to deny it now, Tsukino-san."

---

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
December 21, 2016
1:06pm ET


"How often do things like this happen to you, Mr. Donaldson?"

Rob smiled at Naru's question. "Today was the first time I've ever been to a different dimension, Ms. Osaka, but it does seem like strange things happen to me and my guests on a regular basis. You should ask Sailor Jupiter about the time she fought a Predator one-on-one some time. Why do you ask?"

Naru went pale at the thought of going up against a Predator. "I was thinking of asking whether I could move in with you. But I think I'll stay with Mama and Naruru and Umino for now."

"That's probably for the best."