[OOC][PLOT] The Fifth Thread of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals

[Labster]

Sailor Cosmos isn't Usagi's descendant per se, she's Usagi's reincarnation.  In the same way that Eriol Hiiragizawa and Fujitaka Kinomoto are the same person as Clow Reed.  At least that's how I interpret it -- it's also possible that she is Usagi herself, or Chibiusa.  But well, the manga had a theme of death and rebirth, and how destruction would always exist when life existed.  It's most poetic when you extend that out in cycles on cycles -- the Silver Millennium to the modern day to Crystal Tokyo to whatever age lies beyond -- an age that Cosmos implies could end if she fails in her own mission.

It's highly unlikely that she's in the Metacontinuity unless she's coming directly from the manga continuity, where um, everyone died.  Well, except Naru and Umino and all the NPCs.  Oh, uh, spoilers.  But on the other hand, anyone that could be a threat to Sailor Cosmos would be a threat to anyone in our setting.  You know, like Azathoth-tier threats.  Might be interesting, but hold on to your SAN points.

And it might set up a Kikyou/Kagome dynamic over Mamo-chan.  I always loved that dynamic in Inuyasha, a tsundere quarreling with a past incarnation/tsundere over the same guy.  Girls, you're the same person, you're jealous over yourself!

On the other hand, finding Kinmokusei should be an early goal for spacefarers if for no other reason than because the planet's name is the best pun ever because delicious sailor traps it would be a good source of allies, and a neat place to write out another culture.

I've only shared this with a couple people before, but this is a little scene I wrote a five years back, set after the end of the Sailor Moon manga.  Sorry in advance for the tears.

Those Left Behind

    Chief Inspector Sakurada Natsuna looked over the case files once again, hoping that she could solve the disappearance of the ten girls.  Hoping, even after so long, to get some clue of where they had gone.
    But she knew.
    In her heart, she always knew what could happen to a soldier.  That being a soldier means you don't always come home.
    She didn't even know what had happened this time.  She had blamed herself for not knowing -- the other times had been so obvious -- but she had never been any help those times either.  There was never anything she could do but wait, and believe in them.  But after nearly a year of waiting, the time had come.
    She looked at framed picture of a blonde teenager on her desk, with a red bow in her hair and a red domino mask on her face.  There was a photo of the same girl in her files, but this picture was from three years ago.  The girl smiled and made a V sign in the photo, but that only made Natsuna's mood worse.
    She picked up the photo and spoke to it, "I made a promise to you, and I intended to take it to my grave.  But they have to know.  They can't live like this, not knowing.  Truly..."
    Her voice became a whisper.  "I'm sorry V-chan, so sorry."
    The policewoman's eyes overflowed with tears, as she finally gave in to the fact that her comrade, her coworker, her beloved Sailor V was not coming back.  Hot tears streamed across the glass covering the portrait, until she pulled it across her breast.
    Chief Sakurada pulled herself together.  She felt lucky that no one was watching her; it would never do for her command to see the cool, cheerful woman so distraught.  It was her job to be the cool and collected one.  The one who other people relied on.  Just like Sailor Venus, and the other Sailor Senshi.
    It struck her that whatever mission the Sailor Senshi were on, it must have been successful.  There had been no massive disasters since the circus left town.  However, it wasn't hard to put two and two together; after this long, they all must have paid the ultimate price to save the world.
    She held the portrait up once again, and wiped it clean with the edge of her scarf.  "Thank you. Goddess or girl, whatever happened, I know I can never repay you for what you have done.  Thank you."
    She steeled herself for the task ahead.  She had no idea how she would handle the media, who were still in an uproar over the missing Azubu-Juuban Ten.  But she knew who she owed an explanation to the most.
    By the time a young man entered the room, her demeanor had settled into a steely resolve.  "Wakagi-kun!"
    "Yes?" he answered reflexively, not sure what this was about.
    "Gather all of the families.  The Ainos, the Tsukinos, Mizuno's mother.  All of them.  Even the friends, Naru and Hikaru."
    "Was there a breakthrough in the case?"  Wakagi's heart started racing with excitement, at the prospect of hope for the girls, and maybe even that one missing college student who had never made it to America.
    "A breakthrough?"  Natsuna considered the word.  "Not in the case -- maybe a breakthrough of the heart.  Or breaking a promise."
    "Huh?"
    "What are you standing there looking like an idiot for?  Get to calling them!"
    "Yes ma'am," Wakagi acknowledged, hurrying out of the office.
    Natsuna leaned back in her chair and sighed.  It would be a daunting task to explain to the families that their daughters were Sailor Senshi, magical guardians, without seeming like a complete lunatic.
    Everyone knew of Sailor Moon, of course.  But that's a far cry from saying that your daughter was secretly a guardian warrior, who got killed on some unknown mission.  They might not even believe her; revealing the secret she shared with Minako might come at the cost of her job.  But she owed it to their families, and to the girls themselves, to let their families know what their girls had done.  What the Senshi had done for them, and for the entire world.  If they had given their lives in the line of duty, they deserved to be remembered.
    And Natsuna prayed that one day, they could all be reincarnated into a happier life.