This story is now officially large enough to be listed on All The Tropes' Doorstoper page. And I'm expecting to write at least four more chapters.
We stepped through the portal that Hayate was holding open, going from a field just outside of Cranagan in what I called the Lyrical reality to an outbuilding of the Roppongi Hikawa Shrine in what Yuuno-san called the Bishoujo reality. Once we passed through it, there was no going back any time soon – barring a breakthrough in dimensional theory, only a Rank SS mage could open a portal big enough to walk through, and Bunny-chan didn't know the math she'd need to cast the spell. I for one was going to miss Genya, Ginga, Subaru, Shario, Hayate, and Reinforce... and the Numbers, too... even though we were pretty sure that we'd be able to email each other whenever Ami visited me, once I had my wi-fi router set up. But Ami, Ryou, Makoto, and I were finally home, and a half-dozen of our friends were coming with us.
Once we were through the portal, we turned and waved good-bye as Mercury and Jupiter transformed back to Ami and Makoto. I thought I saw Wendi start to wave back, but that might have been a flicker of the light as the portal collapsed. Then we turned to the shrine's kannushi and bowed deeply. "We thank you for your assistance, honourable sir," I said in the most respectful Japanese that I knew.
"Why are you being so formal? The kami told me that we've known each other since the Missing Time."
Ami smiled. "Oh, but we've been gone for so long, and we were rude enough to bring some friends unannounced when we returned."
"I think our other friends are about to show up," Ryou commented.
"I'd best leave you and them alone, then," Rei-san's grandfather replied with a slight smile. "I gather that I'm not supposed to know about any of this."
"Not yet," Ryou replied as he moved Shario-chan from his pocket to the group of Devices who were riding on our luggage. "But please keep Friday afternoon open."
"Would you mind playing host to some of our companions for a while?" Makoto asked. Meia, Sakura, Ichiro, Shario-chan, and Hayate-chan bowed politely to him, and Kasandara did a wiggle that got the same intention across.
"How could I refuse?" he said while openly staring at the miniature people and the self-moving box. "I will also tend to your possessions," he added while trying and failing to move our cart; he didn't know how to activate the controls. Ichiro and Sakura came with us, promptly hiding in Makoto's and my jacket pockets as we got our suitcases from the cart.
Isekai by Moonlight
Chapter R, Return
As we left the outbuilding, we heard the Sailor Senshi approaching. "I still can't believe they're gone."
"We all saw it happen, Usagi," As always, Small Lady was the rather blunt voice of childlike truth.
"That doesn't mean we have to accept it!" I didn't realize that Minako-san cared so much about us.
«We'd better let them know we're still alive before somebody says or does something she shouldn't,» I sent to the others.
"How are we going to tell Mizuno-sensei?"
Ami smiled at Rei-san's question as she stepped around the corner of the shrine's main building. "What are you planning to tell my mother?"
"Ami-chan! You're alive!"
"I'm sure she'll be happy to hear that, Usagi-san."
"Mako-chan!"
I let Ryou announce our presence as we joined the girls. "Don't forget us."
"Ryou-san! Robu-san! You're all alive!
How?"
"That's a much longer story than you're probably expecting," Makoto replied. "And we'd rather tell it only once."
Usagi-san looked around. "Most of the group is already here..."
"Not just us, we should tell
everybody," Ami insisted with Mercury's determination, which didn't go unnoticed. "Ryou will give you a full list later, but I know it will include my mother, Rei's grandfather, and Naru-san."
"The afternoon of the 14th," Makoto added as she put her suitcase down beside mine. "I have an appointment to keep tomorrow." Tomorrow, in this case, being August 12.
"And if we're going to keep that appointment, we need to leave now," I added as I picked up both my and Makoto's suitcases and we headed back around the corner of the shrine.
As we double-checked that nobody was watching, I heard Minako-san ask "Can we at least have a hint right now?"
Then I heard that gruff voice in my head: «I will collect my debt later.» At the time, I said nothing.
Makoto transformed to Sailor Jupiter, we Unisoned with our Devices, I wrapped the suitcases in a forcefield and made us all invisible, and we literally flew to the train station.
Don't tell anybody, but we had to fly over the Imperial Palace in order to get to Ueno Station on time.
We set down in a wooded area in Ueno Park close to the train station, went visible again, and dropped out of Unison. Ichiro and Sakura hid in our pockets again once Jupiter transformed back to Makoto. I handed her suitcase back to her, we ran from there at slightly faster than human-normal speed, the JR station staff cleared the way for Makoto and – once she made clear that I was with her – me, and we were just in time to catch our train, joining the group who were making the trip to the memorial.
It was a special train, as so many were in the few days before and after
Hachigatsu Bon, that had left Osaka the previous evening, and was already half filled with mourners before it reached Tokyo. We filled the remainder of the train.
We ended up sharing a set of four seats with Makoto's grandparents. JR had arranged the seating that way on purpose, not knowing about how Makoto's grandmother felt about her. It was an awkward two hours in which Kino-baasan refused to even acknowledge her granddaughter's existence, spending the entire trip looking out the window. Kino-jiisan, however, noticed the ring on Makoto's finger when she presented her report card to him. He looked over to me, saw the matching ring on my finger, and said, "You're just like your mother, girl."
"I am? How?"
"Where do you think you get your height from? Your father, that's who. And you're following your mother's example."
Nobody said anything for a half-hour. He gave the appearance of concentrating on her report card.
Then he added, "Do what you want. I will not refuse your choice, but I will not condone it, either. You will have to wait until you are of legal age. As for schooling, you may continue to live in Tokyo." I heard a sigh of relief from Kino-baasan; the only reaction to anything that I noticed from her for the entire trip.
We essentially took over a few hotels in Shinmachi that night. Makoto and I had separate rooms, as was only proper.
The next morning, which was the first time that I had ever seen my fiancée wear a kimono and the first time that I had worn the ruby cufflinks that all of the girls had given me for my birthday either a month or two years ago, we took a special train on a twisty track to Narahara, where we were met by a small fleet of buses. They took us to a parking lot where the road ended. From there, we made our way on foot to the
Cenotaph of Flight 123, almost like we had in the Lyrical reality. I say "almost" because I wasn't walking beside my dearest; she was near the front of the procession with the other survivors, and I was near the back with the associates of people who had lost loved ones in the crash. Also, they had not installed steps or a handrail yet. Of course I quite politely offered my assistance to one elderly woman who was having trouble negotiating the slope. While she declined the offer, the people nearby were less suspicious of the foreigner in their midst simply because I had shown respect for the aged.
Speaking of good manners, I took Rei-san's advice and remained quiet throughout the ceremony, and I kept my head bowed for over eight minutes while they sounded the bell once per second for each fatality of the crash.
Once the commemoration ceremony was complete, we returned to Shinmachi, where we stayed in the same rooms that we had slept in the previous night. I was surprised twice: first, that there was an envelope holding a quarter-million yen waiting for me from Setsuna, and second when Kino-jiisan knocked on my door after dinner.
"I would speak with you."
I nodded. "I have only a small bed in this room. Shall we speak in the hotel's lounge instead?"
"No. People would overhear. Walk with me." And he turned to the stairs. I grabbed my jacket (and Ichiro so that he could overhear), locked my room's door behind me, and followed him.
Once we were outside, he asked while walking, "Do you know what it means to marry a Japanese woman?"
"I have an idea," I replied as I remained by his side. "Since my family does not have a family register in Japan, I would become a member of your family and take the Kino name, just as your son-in-law did."
"That is the least of it. There are those who will never trust you, simply because you are not Japanese. You will likely see co-workers who are less skilled than you be promoted over your head. You will never be completely accepted. And, I fear, because of your height, there will be some who will call you an oni. Are you familiar with the oni, young man?"
I nodded with a smile. "I met one of my schoolmates the day after both Makoto-san and I transferred to Kuritsu Juban Chuugakkou. The very first thing that she said to me was to call me 'oni'. Both Makoto-san and I have become good friends with Tsukino-san since then. Also, one of Makoto-san's classmates has compared both her and me to the two oni from 'Naita Aka Oni'. Aoyama-san seems to think that I'm the red oni."
The barest hint of a smile played upon his face for a brief moment. "Which leaves my granddaughter as the blue oni, then. How like her mother she is. You mustn't rely on her for help in learning to live here. And do not expect me to be able to support you financially."
"Sir, I am sufficiently wealthy that financial support will not be a concern." I pulled from a pocket one of the leather pouches that we had had made in Cranagan, opened it, and let him see the gold ingots within before closing the pouch and returning it to my pocket. "As you can see, I have so few concerns about finances that I feel comfortable carrying precious metal as well as cash. I will need to practice a career, though."
"Yes, you will, and not just for the salary. You must not appear to be idle; that would dishonour the Kino name."
"My current plans are to work independently as a photographer. I already own two high-end cameras and a small selection of lenses for them," which was not a lie; one couldn't get any smaller a selection than two, "and I am in contact with a magazine editor in Tokyo who I expect will be willing to purchase my photographs once I am legally allowed to do business in Japan."
"It is good that you are planning ahead. Now, you have been calling my granddaughter 'Makoto-san', yet you wear matching rings."
I understood his concern. "I would not wish to trouble your wife by speaking in her presence of the woman I love by her name with no honorific, and I would not wish to put you in a position where you would need to speak other than the truth, so I used one in case your wife asks about our conversation. Makoto and I love each other very much, and as I told my physician in Tokyo, I literally cannot imagine life without Makoto and me by each other's sides."
"An odd thing to tell one's doctor."
"She is also Makoto's doctor."
He nodded in understanding. "Not so odd, then. One last question today: If you were to discover that my granddaughter is more than she appears, would that change your opinion of her?"
Did he know that she was Sailor Jupiter? I couldn't ask because of the promise that I made to her so long ago. "Sir, we each know things about the other that we have promised never to reveal to anyone else, not even to you. I am fortunate to know that my dearest Makoto is more than what she shows to strangers."
He stopped to think for a moment, just short of the hotel's door. "I will accept that answer. Good night, Donarudoson-san."
His use of my name for the very first time was not lost on me. "Good night, Kino-san."
I stopped at the concierge's desk and asked him where to find souvenirs at such a late hour, since we wouldn't have time to shop before returning home. He must have been expecting the request; there was already a selection of
Gunma's world-famous silk goods behind his counter. Of course, silk isn't a bargain item even at the source; I needed almost all of the money that Setsuna had left me to buy enough for everyone. I resolved then and there to pay her back as soon as Ryou let me have some of my cash.
We returned home the next day, to find messages on our phones. Ryou's precognition was working again, and we were expected at Rei-san's shrine in an hour.
"No rest for the weary, eh, Ichiro?"
"Apparently not, Rob. Do you have any idea why we're expected at the shrine?"
"I have plenty of ideas. Let's go find out which one is right."
We met Makoto and Sakura at the stairs – they'd received the same message – and we headed off... to meet Rei-san once we arrived.
"What did you leave behind in that outbuilding?" she asked once we had paid proper respect to the kami and I had quietly acknowledged my debt to him. "We're not running a storage service here."
"You wouldn't believe us if we told you," my dearest said. "We're just going to have to show you."
So we did.
"Is that all gold? How much do you have here?"
"Only the heavy-duty containers hold gold," Ryou replied. "And approximately one metric ton."
"HOW MUCH!?"
"1000 kilograms," I said as I opened one of the cardboard boxes with my name on it, which was sitting on top of a larger box marked 'Shario-chan and Hayate-chan's Stuff' – and I wondered how two people who weren't even alive two weeks earlier managed to collect enough stuff to fill a box that size. "One megagram," I added while the ringing in my ears from Rei-san's shout faded away.
"I was hoping you'd take the entire cart home with you, but there's no way that the floors in any of your apartments can support that much weight. But it can't stay here past the end of the next school term."
I wondered why our apartments' floors couldn't take the load, but then I realized she meant all on one cart. "That's more than fair," I said. "Thank you. Oh, and we brought back souvenirs for everybody. I apologize that Makoto and I didn't have time to buy much more than just
silk scarves and
ties while we were in Gunma. Oh, and a
silk handkerchief for Small Lady. The souvenirs that the four of us brought back that are on this cart are things that we think you'll each appreciate. Do you want yours now, considering we won't answer the questions it will raise until tomorrow?"
"You may as well. I can contain my curiosity for one day."
«When did you have time to buy souvenirs in Shinmachi, darling?»
"Okay," I said to Rei-san before sending to Makoto, «When we were at the hotel, my dearest. The concierge was expecting that we'd need to go through him for our gifts.»
«That's an expensive way to shop.»
«We can afford it... once every year or two.» I finally found Rei-san's gift. "Ah, here it is; a reprinting of the 1996 deluxe edition version of all seven volumes of
Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind."
"Why, thank you! I've been waiting for volume six since before I became Sailor Mars... Wait. The
1996 edition? All
seven volumes?"
Makoto grinned. "You just said that you can contain your curiosity for one day."
Rei-san actually growled. "Ma-ko-to..."
"We all heard you say it," Ami added.
"Here, let's take at least some of this load back home with us and ease Rei-san's concerns a bit," I offered as I grabbed my camera bag and my backpack. "Everybody grab whatever you packed your clothes in, so we have something clean to wear tomorrow."
"Good idea," my dearest said as she grabbed her backpack. Ami and Ryou were quick to follow suit.
"Thanks," Rei-san said. "But if you're expecting us to stand guard over all this gold, think again."
Ichiro poked his head out from my jacket pocket, surprising Rei-san. "I'm willing to stay and stand guard, sir. I assume Hino-san is cleared to know everything."
"Thanks, Ichiro. And, yes, she is. If the two of you want to talk today, that's fine; we're going to tell Rei-san and Hino-jiisan the big picture tomorrow, anyway."
"And Yuuichirou-san," Ryou added.
"He's trustworthy enough?"
"Twenty-nine times of thirty-one", answered Kasandara, to Rei-san's amazement.
"Sure, and Yuuichirou-san," I replied. Then I turned to Rei-san. "And now you already have a better idea of what questions to ask tomorrow. Or today."
When we discovered the next day that Rei-san and Hino-jiisan had set out a light lunch for the twenty-four of us – not including the synthetic intelligences – who Ami and Ryou wanted present, we offered to reimburse them for their time and expenses. When I found out that the lunch included
inarizushi, I insisted on paying as I grabbed one from the table that was set up outside. Then people started arriving.
It was a nicely overcast day. "Nicely" in that the clouds gave us some cover from Rubeus's eyes in the sky, so we didn't need to crowd two dozen people into one room.
"It's good to see you again, Tsukino-san," I said to Kenji-san as he and his family arrived. "Although I'll have to ask you to leave your camera with me. You'll know why soon enough. Hi, Bunny-chan!"
"Hi, Robu-san!" Usagi-san giggled.
"Have we met, sir?"
"Oh, papa, we met when we all visited Hamarikyu Gardens. He's Mako-chan's boyfriend."
"Ah, yes. Thank you, Usagi." He turned to me and offered me his camera for safekeeping. "I trust that you know how to treat a camera like this one... Donarudoson-san?"
I nodded and replied, "I own two F90 cameras myself, Tsukino-san. They're good cameras and I wouldn't dream of abusing one."
"You own two? You're more than you appear to be."
"Yes, and that's part of what we'll be discussing today. If you'll excuse me, I see more of our guests have arrived. Please, feel free to speak with the others." As I passed Bunny-chan, I whispered, "Please leave some of the
viking for everyone else."
A few minutes later, after storing Kenji-san's camera with Ryou's gold, seeing that most of our guests had arrived while I was doing so, and welcoming Naru-san and her mother, I took a look around... and realized that there were only twenty-two people in the courtyard behind the shrine. «Do we have a problem, Ryou? I don't see Ichigo-san or Chiba-san.»
«Yes and no,» he sent back to me. «Ichigo-san will be here in three to seven minutes, and we asked people to be here in eight minutes. Chiba-san...»
After a moment, I asked, «Is he still giving Bunny-chan the cold shoulder?»
«It seems like it, yes.»
I sighed deeply. «You and I need to pay him a visit. Do you know where he lives?»
«No, but Ami does.»
«She can come along. Maybe we'll get lucky and she won't have to set any broken bones.»
«I heard that!» Ami sent.
«You were meant to!»
«I'd throw a pillow at you if there was one here, Oni.»
«You can chastise me later, Mercury. I think I hear Ichigo-san.»
Sure enough, she made her appearance just in time. "Hello, Robu-san! Am I late? I'm sorry."
"No, you're a bit early, and there's one more person who hasn't arrived yet. Come on over, and say hi to everyone else."
"Thanks. Hi, everyone else!"
There were a few chuckles from Small Lady and the assembled teens. The adults were more restrained.
Ami made a show of looking at her watch, then said, "I think we're going to have to start now. Thank you for indulging our selfishness on such short notice. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Mizuno Ami."
"Hi, Ami!" Ichigo-san said, looking Ami straight in the mouth. Then she tilted her head up a bit and looked Ami straight in the eyes. "You've gotten taller since I saw you on Monday."
"The explanation for that is part of why we asked all of you here," my dearest replied before my dearer friend could. "Oh, I'm Kino Makoto. Yes, the Kino Makoto whose photo you probably saw in a human-interest story in the paper yesterday, and that's all I'm going to say about
that. How long were we gone for, Usagi-san?"
Bunny-chan thought for a moment. "A half-hour, maybe? It depends on how long you were waiting for us to get to Rei's place."
"We had just arrived back home when you arrived at the shrine," Ami commented. "But from our point of view, we've been gone for two years, to the day."
You could hear a pin drop.
Saeko-basan was the first to recover. "I hope you kept up with your studies, young lady."
The mass laughter broke the tension in the courtyard, followed by more laughter when Ami replied, "Yes, mother, we did."
"What have you learned over the last two years?" Rei-san asked. Ichiro had mentioned earlier that he'd fed her a few questions to use if the discussion looked like it was being derailed, and that was one of them.
"For one thing, I learned how to do this without needing to say anything," Ami replied as she transformed to Sailor Mercury without using her transformation wand or being naked briefly.
There wasn't any laughter this time. Small Lady was the first to respond. "Hey! Since when were you one of the Sailor Senshi?"
"I became a transforming heroine a year before I met you, Chibiusa."
"Which one are you?" Minako-san's father asked.
"It's been years since I last said this to an enemy," she said with a smile before clearing her throat. "I am the Pretty Guardian who fights for Love and Intelligence. I am Sailor Mercury! Douse yourself in water and repent!"
"Well, as long as we're doing the formal battlefield introductions," Makoto said while transforming, "I am the Pretty Guardian who fights for Love and Courage. I am Sailor Jupiter! I'll fill you with so much regret, it'll leave you numb!"
"Ano..." Minako-san started.
"Right, we haven't taught anyone else the streamlined transformation yet. Just say your phrases," Jupiter suggested. Then she realized what else Minako-san could have been about to say. "Or not, if you don't feel comfortable letting everybody know."
"Thanks."
Rei-san went next, surprising Yuuichirou-san. "I am the Pretty Guardian who fights for Love and Passion. I am Sailor Mars! In the Name of Mars, I'll chastise you!"
"I guess it's my turn. I am the Pretty Guardian who fights for Love and Justice. I am Sailor Moon! And in the name of the moon, I will punish you!"
"What?" Shingo-kun refused to believe Bunny-chan. "Sailor Moon can't be my sister! Sailor Moon's cool!"
"The coolness is built into her transformation, Shingo-kun," Minako-san said with a grin. Bunny-chan stuck her tongue out at both of them. "Saving the first for last, I am the Pretty Guardian who fights for Love and Beauty! I am Sailor Venus! In the Name of Venus, I'll punish you with the power of love!"
"What!? I forbid this!" Minako-san's mother insisted. "The newspapers all say that people who get involved with the Sailor Senshi get hurt, or worse. And you want to be one? No."
"I already am one, mother," Minako-san insisted. "I just told you that I've been a Senshi longer than any of the others have."
"Unthinkable! I will absolutely
not give this my blessing! Either you give up being a Sailor Senshi or you find another place to live. And don't expect your father or me to help pay for you to live on your own."
Minako-san looked at her feet. "I see," she whispered, although everyone could hear her. "If that is your choice," she paused for a moment, then continued at a more normal volume, "I will live on the streets before I abandon my friends."
"Well said, young lady," Hino-jiisan commented, to my surprise. I would have expected a Shinto priest to recommend respecting one's elders. Then I remembered his own family situation.
Makoto quickly stood beside Minako-san. "You can sleep under my roof until you find another place to live."
I thought that Aino-san looked as if she was about to explode. "Then never darken my doorway again!" She turned on her heel and walked away, presumably to find her husband.
«This is not good,» I sent to Makoto, Ami, Ryou, Ichiro, Sakura, Meia, Kasandara, Shario-chan, Hayate-chan,... and Minako-san, much to her surprise. «Minako-san, what are the chances that your mother will throw away everything you own as soon as she gets home?» I saw the worried look on her face, and continued, «You don't need to say it. We need to get your most precious possessions out of your house before she gets there. And I hope you left your window unlocked, so that we don't have to darken her doorway.» She nodded at that. «Good. Everyone, we're leaving right now. If you can't fly under your own power, move in close.» Ryou and Minako-san stood next to me as I cast Mirage Hide to look like myself, and I grabbed them in a translucent forcefield as Ichiro Unisoned with me. "I apologize, everyone, but we need to leave immediately. We'll be back as soon as we're able. Hino-san, may I trouble you to entertain our guests while we're unavoidably called away?"
"Of course," Hino-jiisan replied.
"Thank you." Then we levitated – to everybody's surprise – before I surrounded the group with a frictionless invisibility cloak and we literally went flying to the Aino residence.
We got there much faster than we could have made it by roof-hopping.
"Important items first," my dearest insisted as I formed a large forcefield cart outside Minako-san's bedroom window and Ichiro moved to guard the bedroom door. "Your school uniforms, your best dress, a change of underwear, photo albums, your diary if you keep one, homework, textbooks – anything you need right away or can't replace. Then other clothing and keepsakes."
"And Artemis's stuff," Minako replied.
"And Artemis's stuff," I agreed.
Three minutes later and the essentials were all placed carefully in the forcefield cart. Then all of the ladies started packing suitcases and throwing unbreakable things into the cart pell-mell; it was only thanks to Meia, Sakura, and Ryou that nothing that was already in the cart was broken.
As the last of Minako-san's huge collection of stuffed animals landed in my cart, Makoto moved to pick up her chest of drawers. "No furniture," I insisted.
"But..." my dearest started as Ryou made room for it anyway.
"It won't all fit in your apartment. I'm already going to be storing most of these plushies at my place for now."
"For now?" Minako-san asked as Ami made sure we hadn't left anything irreplaceable behind and Makoto grabbed a bag to put the last of Minako-san's remaining clothes in.
"Fourteen times of seventeen, we will be capable to procure a house inside six months," Kasandara announced.
"That soon?" I raised an eyebrow. "You and Ryou must have confidence in your ability to day-trade without being investigated for picking the right stocks consistently."
"All four of us are millionaires now, and Kasandara and I are precogs," Ryou reminded me while reorganizing items in my forcefield cart so that they wouldn't fall out or damage anything else in the cart. "And, thanks to what the Nakajimas taught us, we know enough to avoid drawing very much attention. The only reasons we're waiting are because property prices are still dropping, and we need to convert our gold to cash."
"Ah. Take possession in seven months and we can move at the end of the school year." I turned back to Minako-san. "And of course you're invited to move in with us when we own our own property."
"That's fine for seven months from now, but what will I sleep on tonight? I can't afford to buy new furniture."
"Actually, you get a share of the royalties from the Sailor Moon toku shows that Dreamland puts on, so you have some cash on deposit at the Crown. Didn't Artemis tell you about that?"
"Oh, right. I never used it because I didn't want to explain to mother where the money came from."
"And even if you didn't have that," I replied, "I'll repeat what Ryou just said. We're millionaires now. We can buy our close friend a new bed. As for inexpensive furniture, we'll visit IKEA after we drop your things off in our apartments and finish our meeting at the Hikawa Shrine."
"IKEA pulled out of Japan in 1987," Ryou pointed out as Ami quickly took a framed photo of
Minako-san with three girls I didn't recognize off the wall. "Also, it's now two minutes before we
must leave if we aren't going to be seen."
"Oh." I turned to Makoto. "Better grab that chest of drawers after all. But nothing else; we're out of time. We can get a futon somewhere, I'm sure."
With the furniture added, my forcefield bin was big and heavy; there was no way that I was flying away. Ichiro and I Unisoned so that we could pull off another stunt: my power, his magic capacity, and both our attention to detail were all needed in order to create a pair of forcefield ducted thrusters for the first time. We weren't moving that cart any other way. I put another forcefield – one of the frictionless ones that made it possible for me to travel at superspeed – over the entire load other than the thruster intake and exhaust, and used Mirage Hide to made it look like a truck. "I'll see you at home, my dearest."
"We'll be waiting, darling," she replied as she took Minako with her and Ami took Ryou away.
We headed home in the disguised cart, carefully avoiding busy roads as much as possible. After all, I didn't have a licence to drive a forcefield in Japan.
«Rob,» Ichiro asked, «who will hold title to this house that you plan to purchase? None of us are of legal age.»
Before I could answer, we heard an inarticulate scream of rage from the Aino residence. I ignored it. «I'm hoping that Saeko-basan will agree to buy it for us,» Sensing his puzzlement, I added, «Saeko-basan is Mizuno-sensei, Ami's mother.»
«Ah. And if she doesn't?»
«We'll cross that bridge if we get to it.»
As we unloaded my forcefield cart at Makoto's and my apartments, we taught Minako-san Midchildan telepathy so that we could coordinate our actions more closely and get the job done that much faster.
At least, that was the intention. She spent more time playing with thought-sending than she did working.
We realized, as we headed back to Rei-san's shrine and Ami was teaching Minako-san the instant-and-modest patch to her Senshi transformation, that we had been the same with sending in the first few hours that we could send our thoughts. Being able to send and act at the same time would come naturally, but not immediately.
"We're sorry about that, everybody," Ami said once we got back to the shrine, "but it was necessary. Where were we?"
"You five young ladies, including my daughter, had just introduced yourselves," Kenji-san reminded her. "We haven't heard from the two gentlemen yet."
I looked at Ryou and sent, «Please tell me you were expecting this.»
«Have you forgotten who you're talking to?
»
«No, I'm just stalling for time.» I wasn't expecting this, and didn't have anything prepared.
He was and he did, though. "None of us choose our names, but we all choose our futures. I've been called 'Ryou the Psychic Boy'. I don't go out and fight monsters. Instead, I give tactical support to my girlfriend Sailor Mercury and her friends by seeing possible futures before they happen."
"'Girlfriend'? Aw, man..." Sorry, Shingo-kun, but Ami's taken. And thank you for distracting everybody from Ryou's announcement that he's a precog.
Artemis of all people noticed that I was still having trouble putting together something. "Advisor to the Guardian who fights for Love and Beauty, I am Artemis!" he announced as he hopped onto Venus' shoulder; she transformed as he was speaking.
"Eek! Talking cat!" I'm not sure who said that, but there's a chance that it might have been everybody who hadn't been introduced to him before today.
"He isn't unique, you know. Advisor to the Guardian who fights for Love and Justice, I am Luna!" Then I heard her whisper, "And saying that was oddly relaxing."
"Oh, my," Ikuko-san said in surprise.
And then everybody's attention was back on me. Time to go with what I had ready. "Crossing between realities for Love and Friendship, I am Oni! I'll never be filled with regret, because I am the fiancé of the Guardian who fights for Love and Courage!"
"Fiancé?" Naru-san and Ichigo-san asked, to which Jupiter transformed back to Makoto and showed off her ring. "Squee!"
"Did you just say the word 'squee' instead of squeeing?" Artemis asked.
"Don't be silly," Ichigo-san replied with a grin.
"Well, we've lost the girls' attention for a few minutes," I said to Saeko-basan, Ryou's and Bunny-chan's parents, and the other men in the group as Naru-san, Ichigo-san, and all of the Senshi other than Mercury mobbed my fiancée. "And here we were ready to introduce you to the friends we made while we were away."
The mobbing of Makoto abruptly stopped. Bunny-chan announced, "Meet new friends first. Get the details about what Robu-san's proposal sounded like later."
"Thank you, Usagi-san. Even if I can't give you those details because Makoto proposed to me." That got a few laughs. "No, seriously. Most of our new friends were there."
"I can confirm that report," my companion said. "My name is Ichiro, and I am what is known as a Unison Device. Our primary role is to assist our companions and boost their magical abilities. I have only ever Unisoned with Oni, although I have taught some skills to all four of our biological friends."
As everyone but Rei-san and Hino-jiisan stared at Ichiro and the other Devices in wonder, Small Lady whispered, "Where have I heard of Unison Devices before?" I doubt that anyone else heard her.
"Hi Ichiro! I'm Ichigo!" Realizing that everyone was now expecting her to explain how she fit into our group, my dearest's classmate continued, "Aaand I really have to learn to think before I talk. I'm nobody special; I just know the Sailor Senshi."
"That's special enough for me! Hi, everyone! I'm Sakura, and I'm the girl who's lucky enough to get to Unison with Sailor Jupiter. I've also taught some things to our big friends."
"Everyone, I am honoured to make your acquaintance. My name is Meia, and I have the good fortune to be Sailor Mercury's Unison companion and magical research assistant."
"Kasandara, Intelligent Device to Ryou," our non-humaniform friend announced, surprising everyone else again.
"I'm Shario-chan, and I don't know why I even exist. I don't have any magic at all so I can't Unison with anybody. But Oni says I have skills that nobody else does, except he has them too but he cheated, so I guess I'm special in a good way too."
"You're the only one who knows how to treat us if we're injured, Shario-chan; that makes you a very important person. Hello, everybody, I'm Hayate-chan. I can Unison, but I never actually have Unisoned with anyone. I'm still looking for the right person."
"Oh, me, me, pick me!"
"Usagi!" Her mother looked at her crossly.
"Sorry..."
"It isn't just a matter of picking somebody, Moon-san," Hayate-chan said. "Meia or Mercury have to give you a short medical exam to determine whether you can even survive Unison, let alone tell whether we're compatible with each other."
Bunny-chan lost her enthusiasm when Hayate-chan said "survive". "Maybe I don't want to try after all."
"Is that everyone?" Kenji-san asked.
"I think so," Minako-san replied.
"Not quite," I pointed out. "There are still people who should introduce themselves..." I took another look around to confirm that Chiba-san still was not present. "... although one of them hasn't joined us today. Then there's the young woman who's been quietly inspecting my fiancée's engagement ring for a while now."
Naru-san looked embarrassed at being caught. "Oh, hi. I'm Osaka Naru. I'm still learning what I can do, so I don't fight monsters very often. Although for some reason they like coming after me."
Meia floated over to Naru-san. "Ami has told me some intriguing things about you, Osaka-san. I would be interested in watching you use your abilities and perhaps learning them, if you would allow that."
"You want to learn from me? Nobody's ever said that before."
Meia smiled. "Then I am happy to be the first."
"Robu-niisan," Small Lady changed the subject, "you said something about crossing between realities."
"Count on you to notice the important part, Chibiusa," I said with a smile as I knelt down to be closer to her level. "Yes, I'm from a completely different reality altogether, and I know a little bit about many of the people here because I either read about you or watched a show about you."
"What books and shows were we in?"
"They were called
Codename wa Sailor V and
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon. Neither of them went into very much detail about your lives, with the exceptions of the Sailor Senshi."
"Codename wa Sailor V didn't go into any detail about anyone's private lives," Minako-san pointed out.
"The version that aired here didn't, that's true. The version published in my home reality mentioned a few things, including your name."
"Do you already know from your world's stories that I'm from the future?" Small Lady didn't-really-ask, surprising everyone who hadn't read ahead in WikiMoon or Shadowjack's threads.
"That's right. And that's part of why I trust you; we have in common the fact that we aren't in the worlds where we grew up."
"Part of?"
I nodded. "Part of. There's also the fact that you're smart and observant, which you just showed us. And you're determined to make things right."
"Thank you," she whispered shyly. She didn't take the opening that I had left for her, though, but that's okay. We still had to deal with Rubeus and the Ayakashi Sisters before she could go home.
Then, after the adults introduced themselves to each other, we all had a belated lunch of what was still left of the buffet. Over lunch, we told everybody a condensed version of what we had been through for two years our time and two minutes their time.
After that story, Ami and Ryou gave everybody the souvenirs we had bought for them in Midchilda, and Makoto and I gave everybody the souvenirs we had bought for them in Gunma. We ended up with eight boxes left over, which became six after we gave Ami her blue silk scarf and Ryou his blue silk tie. "This is for Chiba-san," I said while holding up one of the remaining silk ties.
"Before you ask, it's bad manners to ask somebody else to give someone a souvenir," Ryou said.
I set it aside with his souvenir from Midchilda and the boxes holding the gifts for Minako-san's parents. "I'll give it to him later, then. These two..." I opened the last box with a tie in it, showing it was green, then I gave the last box to Makoto. "These are for us," I said as she opened her gift to discover a scarf in the same colour as my tie.
"I don't know when I'll ever wear it, but thank you."
And then we went home with more of our luggage from Midchilda, leaving Yuuichirou-san to clean up the buffet and Sakura to take a turn guarding the gold. A quarter-hour later, Ami and Ryou came to Makoto's and my apartments to help Makoto and Minako-san unpack. Apparently, Saeko-basan sent them over while she talked with the Urawas.
By the time we had things arranged to both Minako-san and Makoto's liking, with most of the plushies keeping my Sailor Moon crane game dolls company, my dearest got a call from Saeko-basan, asking Ami and Ryou to come back home.
"There's nothing to worry about, eight times out of nine," he said.
"Seventeen of eighteen," Kasandara corrected him.
"Even better," Ryou smiled.
Shario-chan and I spent the rest of the evening setting up my wi-fi router. She surprised me by offering me a Midchildan SIM for my smartphone; at least some of what was in her luggage box was Lyrical magitech. I wouldn't be able to connect to DoCoMo, but I would be able to connect to the wi-fi router from at least as far away as Atelier Lucent in Shibuya. Since I couldn't connect the phone to DoCoMo until 4G service was available, which wouldn't be until years after DoCoMo changed the styling of their name to Docomo, I took her up on the offer. She set up my Lyrical laptop to accept my smartphone as a terminal. She also set up guest accounts for Kasandara and the Mercury Computer, which completed a project that Ami and I had started during the Missing Time; we could finally send texts to each other.
The next morning, we found out why Ami and Ryou had to leave: they were summoned for a discussion about their futures. No, they weren't being forced apart, or forced into an arranged marriage; Saeko-basan didn't see the need when both people were so obviously already in love. But I finally found out why she was willing to approach somebody like me to start a relationship with her daughter: she wanted desperately for the Mizuno family name to continue. Ryou wasn't the eldest son in the Urawa family, and the Mizuno family had no sons, so both families agreed to take part in a custom that I hadn't heard of before; Ryou was going to take the status of
mukoyōshi in the Mizuno family, which meant Saeko-basan allowed the marriage on the condition that he takes the Mizuno name and gives up any claim to the Urawa family.
Ryou, having seen this coming as usual, had had plenty of time to think about his future. Of course he agreed.
In turn, I told everybody about the conversations I'd had with Kino-jiisan on the train and in Gunma. .. and Makoto asked everybody to keep December 1999 open.
"The month that you turn 20," Minako-san said with a smile.
"Officially, yes, although I'll really be 22," Makoto confirmed. "But I'll be busy settling my affairs with JAL the week of my birthday and the week after, and then there's the absolute minimum time a bride needs to get ready even if other people are handling the logistics of the wedding. So we're thinking the third Saturday after my 20th birthday."
Ami smiled. "How romantic! That's December 25."
"I didn't even think of that!" Makoto smiled as well as she turned to Minako-san. "And we want you in the
wedding reception committee, Mina-chan."
"Of course!"
"As long as we're asking..." I started.
"Yes, Robu, I'll serve on the wedding reception committee as well." Ryou said before I could ask.
"I'm supposed to ask before you answer, you know. And thank you."
"Ami," Makoto said with a bit of worry, "do you think that Saeko-basan would be willing to accept our
hanataba?"
"You and I are as close as sisters," she replied. "And I know that she likes you. I think that she would. But it would be best if you ask her yourself."
And that exchange got me thinking about my relationship with Mizuno-sensei. That was something to discuss with her and my dearest later... but not three-quarters of a decade later.
Rei took a few days to meditate and come to terms with what she'd learned from us. So did Bunny-chan.
At the shrine, not on a deserted island with a small plesiosaur population. Kenji-san and Ikuko-san didn't want Bunny-chan leaving Minato for a while, while they and Shingo-kun also came to terms with the fact that Usagi-san was both a transforming heroine and a reincarnated princess. I heard after the fact that the Tsukino family joined then one day, talking through their concerns with Hino-jiisan. He called it "a productive discussion", before letting me know that Ikuko-san didn't handle the reveal as well as the men in her family did. I resolved to talk with her about Bunny-chan's life the first time that she was willing to talk with me and we both had some time... which didn't happen until after we had resolved the whole mess with Rubeus. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Makoto and Minako-san spent the week re-organizing their now-shared apartment.
Ryou had some appointments to keep that, other than the one at OSA-P, he didn't tell me about except to say that they were connected to all the gold he'd brought with us and that there was nothing illegal involved.
I had an appointment to keep, too, although the person I had the appointment with didn't know it until just before it happened. Ami gave me Chiba-san's address before she left. I called him up from a pay phone reasonably nearby. "Chiba-san, I'd like to come over and chat with you about a meeting that you missed five days ago."
"I don't know whether now is a good time," he replied.
"Let me put it this way: I'm coming over now, and we will talk about things that you need to know."
"Don't be surprised if I'm not here when you arrive, Donarudoson-san."
"I'll be right there." Then I hung up, flash-moved the two blocks to his apartment building, and knocked on his door.
"Not now, whoever you are," I heard him say. "I'm on my way out."
"Then I'll walk with you."
I waited for a moment, then heard from Ichiro, who was watching the apartment from outside. «He just transformed to Tuxedo Kamen and is headed for his balcony, Rob. Shall I surprise him?»
«Please do.»
A moment later, I heard Chiba-san's apartment door's deadbolt being unlocked. Then he opened the door. "I see you have a friend that I didn't know about," gesturing to Ichiro who was using Mirage Hide to appear to be slightly larger than me and dressed in the same tuxedo that Tuxedo Kamen usually wears. "Well, come in."
"Thank you. Here, this is a souvenir from the trip Makoto and I made to Gunma. Right now, I don't care whether you take it, but she does. As for Ichiro, that's what you get for missing the discussion session. Bunny-chan was sad that you weren't there."
"I'd rather not talk about Usako."
"Why? You obviously still love her since you just used your pet name for her. Is it because you're having visions of her future self being trapped in a crystal?"
"How did you know ... no, you've told us that already. We're just fictional characters to you, aren't we?"
"Chiba-san, I assure you that my fiancée is not 'just' anything. And neither are Ryou or Ami or Usagi-san or Minako-san or any of the other girls. Or you, for that matter."
"Fiancée?"
I nodded. "Again, that's what you get for missing the discussion session. Makoto and I have her grandfather's permission to marry after she turns 20. But I'm not here to talk about me. I'm here to talk about you and Usagi-san and the complete mess you're making of your relationship. Get this through your head, mister: those visions aren't predictions of doom, they're warnings that you need to be prepared!"
"I'm not happy with your tone, Donarudoson."
"And I'm not happy with how your actions are hurting Usagi-san, Chiba. So we're even there. But somebody needs to make sure you know what's actually going on here, for her sake."
"Sir," Ichiro interrupted, "you've had your say. Chiba-san is an intelligent man; he doesn't need to be told twice."
"Fine. We may as well take our leave, Ichiro. We're keeping Chiba-san from running off." I turned to our unwilling host and added, "I trust you'll think about our conversation, as short as it was. Oh, and Ami brought back a souvenir for you. Good day, sir."
"Good bye, Donarudoson."
Once we were out of Chiba's apartment and he had locked his door behind us, Ichiro dropped his spell and went back to looking his own size. «I'm surprised that you left the role of 'good cop' to me, Rob.»
«I'm surprised that I almost immediately went to being the 'bad cop', Ichiro. But Chiba and I have never been on particularly good terms; remind me some time to tell you about how he threw one of his roses at me the day we met. At least you stopped me before I said anything about Small Lady's existence being at stake. Thank you.»
Two days later, everyone was back from their retreat, and we made plans to go shopping for replacements for some of the things that Minako had to leave behind. But just before we were about to leave, my dearest got a call from Bunny-chan.
Whatever it was that she said, Makoto replied with, "That's okay, Usagi-chan. Something just came up that's more important than shopping. We'll see you later; go find Chibiusa." After a moment, she added, "Right. Bye!" and hung up.
"What's more important than shopping?" Minako-san asked.
"Chibiusa's run off and Usagi-chan has to go look for her. And so do we."
"We do?" Artemis asked.
I nodded. "We do. I'll go tell Ichiro, and text Ami so she and Meia will meet us at Juban Park."
"This is work, isn't it?" Minako-san asked as I headed to my own apartment. I assume my fiancée replied, because by the time I had texted Ami, everybody was waiting outside my door.
"Do we have time to walk to Juban Park, or do we have to roof-hop?" Minako-san asked.
"I can't do either," Shario-chan replied. "Whose pocket do I ride in?"
"Mine." I manifested a forcefield for her to hop onto, then brought her over from Makoto to me as the two biological ladies transformed instantly to Jupiter and Venus. "Oh, good, you've been practising."
«While we were away with Mars, we taught everybody Mercury's fix. Except for Chibiusa.»
«And Mercury taught Moon and Mars how to send while we were at it,» Sakura added. «Better to go fast and wait there. Let's fly.»
"Flying is a good idea, Sakura," I said aloud for Shario-chan's benefit. "Ichiro, if you would?"
The Senshi knew how to transform nearly instantly now, but Unison still took a few seconds for the interface to connect both ways. While Jupiter and I were Unisoning with Sakura and Ichiro, Hayate-chan asked, "Venus, do you want to try?"
Shario-chan added, "Better now than later, so you can get used to it."
"I thought Moon was going to try first."
"She isn't here, you are, and we're in a hurry," Hayate-chan pointed out.
"Okay." And we mentally guided Venus through the process. Watching her change from a blue-eyed blonde to a hazel-eyed light-brunette was an interesting sight. "Am I supposed to feel like this?" she asked nervously.
"Everybody feels it differently," Jupiter answered while she picked up Artemis. "Now, let Hayate-chan drive and enjoy the trip."
"I can't believe you just said that."
"I don't mind flying this way. I'm in charge, not a passenger."
«Talk on the way,» Sakura sent. «Let's go!»
We went. In formation so that I could hide us from curious eyes. We didn't do much talking, though; Venus was radiating fear by the time we were halfway there.
By the time we reached Juban Park, Ami and Ryou were already there. And Ryou brought along a paper bag, a face cloth, and a bottle of water. Hayate-chan left Unison as soon as she and Venus landed. Ryou offered the bag, cloth, and water to Venus, she took them quickly and ducked behind some bushes, and ... well, it was a good thing she wasn't flying on a full stomach.
Jupiter took the opportunity to transform back to Makoto, after ending her Unison with Sakura.
"I am
never Unisoning again," Minako announced upon re-joining us, the now-full bag and now-empty bottle left in a waste bin.
"Motion sickness?" Shario-chan asked as Ichiro and I stopped our Unison.
"No, Venus had trouble letting me steer her body," Hayate-chan replied. "She's mentally unable to share that much control." She turned to Minako and added, "I'm sorry, but we can't be partners. If you can't handle even that much, then there's no way that you'll let me cast spells through you."
"If that's what Unison requires, then maybe I don't want to try it," Rei-san said as she walked over from the park's entrance. "Why are we meeting here?"
"It's the closest public place to where we need to be very soon," Ami said. "And we need to discuss tactics."
"Rush in and crush them," Sakura suggested.
"And let Wiseman see just how much stronger you are now," Ryou countered.
"Oh, right. Bad idea. I suppose Unison's out, too."
"Thank the gods," Minako muttered.
"Right. Individual attacks only," Hayate-chan said, quickly taking charge of the planning. "Shario-chan, your job will be to give Chibiusa moral support."
"Don't let her go to pieces. right."
"Mercury, Mars, Jupiter, Ichiro, Sakura, Meia, Oni, standard TSAB ground tactics against a smaller force."
"Divide and conquer?" Rei-san asked.
I shook my head. "Uh-uh. Contain and conquer, unless they get the drop on us. Divide and conquer is for when they outnumber us. With you and Minako here, we have a two-to-one advantage. Assuming Tuxedo Kamen shows up to help Sailor Moon."
"And if he doesn't?"
"Then I'll have to help fight Rubeus," Hayate-chan announced.
"I know your personality donor well enough to know you'll do that anyway," Makoto said with a grin.
Artemis changed the subject with a cry of "Luna!"
Meia and Ami both rushed to the seriously-injured Mau who had just arrived. "Healing!"
As they tended to Luna's wounds, Hayate-chan turned to Ichiro and Sakura. "We need a couple of eyes in the sky."
"We're on it," Sakura announced as Ichiro nodded.
As they flew up and out in a double-spiral pattern, I turned to Luna. "Who attacked you?"
"Petz and Calaveras," she replied weakly.
«Canon situation confirmed,» I sent to the airborne Devices. «Look for a construction site.»
«I just spotted Small Lady running into one, sir.»
Hayate-chan replied before I could. «Guide us in, Ichiro. Everybody, transform!»
If this was canon, I'd get to see a half-minute of transformation sequences. Instead, we were ready to go as quick as I could say "Mirage Hide".
"Meia, stay with Ryou, Artemis, and Luna," Mercury said. So much for a two-to-one fight, but Luna needed the medical attention... and, if we lost, the bodyguard. We roof-hopped over to the site. Okay, I faked it with some work – a forcefield pole-vault and a run-up to get some altitude and an aerodynamic forcefield shell to keep me up at the stereotypical parkour height. It was so uncomfortable that I resolved never to travel in such a rough way again if I could help it. Honestly, I was becoming spoiled with the ability to fly any time Ichiro was available.
Rubeus was explaining to Sailor Moon why he thought that Crystal Tokyo had to be destroyed.
Mercury got his attention. "Shiny Aqua Illusion!"
Once Rubeus' attention was on her, I airdropped Shario-chan – with a forcefield
paraglider – to Small Lady, then landed with the others in a ring around the bad guy.
"You can't win, Rubeus!" I said. "If you kill us now, you'll create a temporal paradox and you'll never be born!"
"As if we care, as long as we get vengeance for our ancestors!"
"Everyone," Moon asked, "why's he smiling?"
It was pretty obvious that we wouldn't get to contain and conquer. Instead, I took a page from Wendi's book and started the trash-talking. "He thinks his girlfriends have us surrounded. He's wrong, of course."
"They're not my girlfriends! But they have surrounded you!"
"Dark Fire!" Kooan yelled.
"Dark Water!" Berthier shouted.
"Dark Thunder!" Petz cried.
"Dark Beaut!" Calaveras yelled.
"Round Shield!" said Sakura and Ichiro.
"Panzerschild!" said Hayate-chan.
I yawned theatrically and finished the defensive box with a forcefield. When all of the attacks simply bounced off our defences, I announced, "As I was saying before being so rudely interrupted, we're not trapped by them, they're lined up for us."
"Who are the shorties?" Kooan asked.
"Fighters from another dimension!" Sakura shouted. "We have no names to give to the likes of you!"
"What? This is your fault, Petz! You sent them to another dimension and they came back with allies!"
"Shove it, Calaveras! I was acting under Rubeus's direct orders!"
"Where
is Rubeus, by the way?" I said as I surrounded Sailor Moon with a forcefield bubble, just before he tried to attack her. We both knew that if he killed her, this reality will be destroyed. Unfortunately, that's what he and Wiseman want. "Oh, there he is. Meh. He can wait."
"I'll teach you to insult me that way!"
"No need; I already know how." I spared a quick look away from Rubeus to see that Jupiter and Sakura were double-teaming Petz. Thanks to Donguri-no-ken and Sakura's blade against an unarmed spell-caster, it looked like Petz was at cut number eight of the death of a thousand cuts.
Rubeus took advantage of my apparent distraction to rush Moon... only to be stopped by a thrown rose. About time Tuxedo Kamen showed up.
"Now that everybody's here, we can stop playing and start fighting for real. Who needs a dance partner?" I asked. "Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen have Rubeus."
"We're good!" my dearest said while Sakura stabbed Petz's arm... and twisted the blade.
"So are we.
Claíomh Solais!" said Hayate-chan from her perch on Mars' shoulder. Five beams of light shot from Hayate-chan's hand and hit Kooan.
"No issues here. Frigid Dagger!" Mercury cast from two meters above Berthier. Show-off.
"I'm equally matched," announced Venus.
«No fair fights, Venus! You lose half of those.» I manifested two short staffs, Ichiro drew both his swords, and we rushed into the whip-against-whip fight between Venus and Calaveras. "Let's see how good I've gotten with these."
"Sir, I can't help but notice we're each fighting our counterparts on the opposing team."
"Normally, I'd agree by quoting Professor Farnsworth and saying perfectly symmetrical violence never solved anything," I replied while hitting Calaveras' arm with a staff. "But we're not perfectly symmetrical, we're two-on-one, on average."
Rubeus must have heard my comment. "Break off and retreat!" And he teleported out, followed by each of the Ayakashi Sisters.
We all came back to Earth – literally, in Mercury's case – and let the
adrenaline rush ease off. "If you're going to spend all your time in the air, we're going to have to add wings to your boots, Mercury." She smiled, and I turned toward Small Lady and Shario-chan. "It's safe to come out now."
She did so, somewhat nervously. "Who are you?"
"I already told you," I said as I let the Mirage Hide drop.
"Robu-niisan! You
really looked like an oni!"
"It's a magic spell. I can teach it to you after you learn enough math to be able to cast it, but that probably won't be for a while." Small Lady smiled at that, while Sailor Moon looked dismayed. Probably because I mentioned the dreaded word "math".
Tuxedo Kamen looked at me with some concern. "Should you have let her know who you are?"
Without hesitation, I replied, "Yes. I trust her."
Small Lady grinned. "That's the second time you've told somebody that." Then she suddenly looked worried. "Oh! Luna's been hurt!"
"We know," Mercury said as she transformed back to Ami and knelt to be closer to Small Lady's height. "Meia and Artemis are with her."
Chibiusa relaxed. "Oh, okay."
"How about we go and join up with them?" I suggested, ignoring Tuxboy trying to have a quiet word with Ami.
Small Lady smiled. "Yeah!"
So we did. A quarter-hour after everybody else, Ami, Bunny-chan, and Chiba-san joined us. Him not ignoring Usagi-san – or the rest of us – any more was a good sign. All Ami ever told me after the fact was that she did a better job playing "good cop" than Ichiro did.
While Chiba-san not ignoring Bunny-chan was a good sign, their relationship wasn't quite back the way it was before they started getting those visions, as we discovered when he gave Motoki-san's younger sister a ride on August 23 and Bunny-chan got jealous. What a way to spend a Sunday.
My dearest got a bit jealous, too, when she noticed that I noticed Unazuki-san. "Do you think she's attractive?"
"She reminds me of my fiancée, with that hairdo," I replied, "but the way she carries herself it's obvious that she's no fighter. I couldn't see myself dating her."
She smiled at that. "Okay. You're forgiven for looking at another girl when you're with me. This time."
So she and I went out on a double-date with Ami and Ryou the next day... which meant that we missed the droid attack that targeted Small Lady and Bunny-chan. But our services weren't required; unlike in canon, Chiba-san raced to Bunny-chan's side as soon as she was attacked, and was able to break the spell almost immediately.
It was a good thing that they were back together, because events deviated from canon almost immediately after that. Well, they deviated from anime canon – they would have been completely in place in the manga.
They only waited a day to start launching their final attacks. They knew that a massed attack, five against five, wouldn't work, since they now knew that there were more than five of us. So they tried what I would have called dishonourable tactics before I was trained by the TSAB.
And they knew that the easiest way to find Sailor Mars was to visit the Hikawa Shrine; that had worked twice already.
But the Ayakashi Sisters' inability to work as a team without Rubeus' direct supervision was their downfall. They sent Kooan in with no backup.
We were in the middle of a homework session – Ami, Ryou, Makoto and I were refreshing ourselves on where we should be in the curriculum, Rei-san was finishing her homework after the Obon festival, Minako-san had a bit more to do than Rei-san, and Bunny-chan hadn't even started hers yet.
So I lent her my laptop from Lyrical Tokyo, turned on the microphone and LibreOffice Writer, and told her to dictate her essay to the computer.
"Am I supposed to just tell the computer what to do? Hey, what I'm saying is appearing on the screen! That's cool! Can I keep this for later?"
"No," I told her. My reply also appeared on the screen. "This is an emergency situation; you need to finish your homework quickly."
"Warning!" Kasandara announced. "Kooan approaching in seven of eight futures!"
As I turned the computer's microphone off, I added, "It's turned into a different emergency. If this goes according to canon, she's going to try to sell the lady of the house some cosmetics, Rei-san will talk with her until she notices Small Lady, who she'll try to kill, and when she can't do that on her own Rubeus will send her a Space-Time Bomb that's powerful enough to do the job at the cost of Kooan's life. That will convince her to change sides, and the first thing she'll ask for is that Moon heal her of the dark energy in her body."
"There's only one problem with that," Rei-san said. "Chibiusa isn't here."
"Mamo-chan is looking after her while I'm doing homework," Bunny-chan added.
"Then I have no idea what's about to happen," I replied just before there was a knock at the door.
"Coming!" Rei-san got up to answer the knock.
"If you go alone, we'll all regret it," Ryou said.
"It would look too suspicious if I take anyone with me," Rei-san replied as she left the room.
Ryou and I sighed. "I'm regretting it already," he said.
Then we heard Rei-san say from the door, "May I help AAAHH!", followed by sounds of a brief struggle.
Then Kooan announced, "Show yourself so I can kill you, Sailor Mars! Or I'll kill my hostage instead!"
"Ryou-san," Usagi-san asked with her Princess Serenity voice, "What is the best course of action here? I want to save everybody."
He shook his head as Kasandara replied, "Impossible. Sorry."
"Then we save our own," Ami announced in her Sailor Mercury voice.
Ryou nodded. "Give Minako-san the Disguise Pen."
Usagi-san fumbled for it as Minako-san hunted for her compact and I started imagining a new pattern for Mirage Hide. But Bunny-chan was ready first. She passed it over.
"Disguise Pen! Turn me into Sailor Mars!"
There was a gentle buzzing and no light show; apparently, one Senshi becoming another Senshi wasn't allowed.
"Disguise Pen! Sudo turn me into Sailor Mars!"
This time it worked. Thank you, Randall Munroe.
"Mars" jumped over the
engawa and into the trees behind the house where Small Lady, Makoto, and I had hidden from Kooan the first time she came to the shrine. A long moment later, we heard her say, "Summoned to fight evil, I am the Pretty Guardian who fights for Love and Prettiness. I am Sailor Mars! In the Name of Mars, I'll spank you!"
We all facepalmed. I hoped that Kooan didn't notice Minako-san had gotten Mars' battlefield introduction speech wrong, and that she wouldn't earn divine punishment for lying about her identity while on the grounds of a shrine.
"Now, move that Stick away from that innocent girl's throat! I'm here as you asked!"
Oh, crap. Kooan brought the Black Moon Stick. "Ichiro, go quietly and see what's happening out there."
"Yes, sir." And he was off, flying barely a centimetre from the ceiling. A moment later, he sent to us, «Kooan has just released Rei, sir. She's aiming at the ersatz Sailor Mars now.»
«Protect her!» Ryou, of all people, gave that order.
We heard "Round Shield!" just before there was the telltale crack of an energy discharge.
At this point, everybody but me had transformed. "Mirage Hide!" Then Meia started directing traffic in order to avoid a pileup at the door.
By the time we were all outside and could see what was going on, Kooan had a large box out. "Nobody come any closer! I'll use this if I have to!"
"Is that a Space-Time Bomb?" Moon asked.
"Yes, and I'm impressed that you know enough to ask! Now, stay put, drop that shield, and let me kill Mars!" She started walking away from the building and toward Minako-Mars.
When Kooan was halfway to her chosen victim, a wave of heat came from the direction of the shrine's offering box. "Burning Mandala!" As the attack hit Kooan, we turned to see the real Sailor Mars. "The true Sailor Mars is here! I will chastise you!"
Minako took the opportunity to transform to Sailor Venus.
Kooan, while singed, was not incapacitated. "You lied to me! I'll kill all of you for that!" She reached for the control on the Space-Time Bomb.
And that's when I heard that gruff voice – from the expressions on everyone else's faces, including Kooan's, they heard it as well. «Oni, I call in my debt. Protect the shrine and its residents, at all costs.»
Interpreting "protect" to include "from emotional trauma", that meant that I couldn't let Sailor Mars do what had to be done. Ichiro must have reached the same conclusion; he flew over from the doorway and Unisoned with me. We surrounded Kooan and the Space-Time Bomb with as many forcefields as I could on a moment's notice, and kept piling them on.
Which meant that there was now no way for anyone to reach Kooan and take the bomb away from her. Not that such an act would save anybody's life.
"Can you turn that off?" I asked from immediately beside her.
"No! The reaction can't be stopped! We're all going to die and no magic known to the Silver Millennium can stop it! Rubeus wins!"
Alas, those were Kooan's last words.
We invoked a stupid genre convention and drew on our knowledge of two schools of magic that were unknown to the Silver Millennium: Belkan and Midchildan. Mercury and Meia cast a spell that I'd only ever seen Yuuno-san and Shamal use in
A's; I have no idea when they learned it.
"Ultra-long-distance Transportation!" Unfortunately, I was too close to Kooan to avoid being caught in the transport tube – it looked like Ami took "at all costs" seriously. As I'd expect her to, after our training.
It took less than five seconds to traverse the transport; Kooan and I were out of the tube and just past the
Kármán line when the bomb went off. I opened the top of the forcefields just in time to let the blast vent into space instead of overwhelming my forcefields and me... which meant that Kooan's bomb served as a
reaction pulse to start my trip back to Earth.
A moment later, as Ichiro flew us away from Kooan's body, I thought to him, «Why am I not dead from massive sudden thrust and lack of air? I'm not complaining, mind you, just curious.»
«I am currently operating in Life Support Mode, Rob.»
«I didn't know you could do that.»
«All Unison Devices, even Shario-chan, and many Intelligent Devices can do this. Don't you remember how
the Eltrian Formula Incident ended?»
Oh, yes; Hayate can breathe in space, and so can Fate and Nanoha, as long as they have their Devices. At this point, the forcefields that surrounded Kooan's body dissolved because they went past my power's maximum range. «I remember now. How long until we get back to Tokyo?»
«About six minutes if you don't mind leaving an impact crater, assuming we don't burn up in re-entry; thrust from the bomb's explosion pushed us and there isn't going to be enough atmosphere to slow us to terminal velocity before we hit. I'd prefer to go more slowly than that, sir.»
«That's a level of understatement worthy of Admiral Graham. I would prefer to live, too.» We started flying upward to reduce our speed; our top speed was lower than usual because Ichiro was in Life Support Mode. Eventually we came to a stop as Kooan's remains were cremated in the atmosphere, whatever ashes she might have left behind being scattered across the Pacific Ocean. «May your soul find the peace that Wiseman stole from you in this lifetime, Kooan.» It wasn't much of a blessing, since I wasn't a priest, but at least it was something... and, while I didn't know it at the time, it was something that I was going to have to repeat.
A half-hour later, we finally reached the Hikawa Shrine, and I was hugged to within an inch of my life by Makoto, who had tears in her eyes. "Don't
ever do that again! I thought I'd lost you, until Sakura and Meia explained Life Support Mode to us."
"I thought I was dead, too."
"Ichiro, get out of my fiancé's body. Mina-chan, take Ichiro and Sakura home with you and don't wait up for us."
We went into downtown Roppongi, found a hotel, paid cash, and ... well, let's just say that we were both glad to be alive, if you know what I mean.
Nobody suggested taking the battle to Rubeus in orbit, even knowing about Life Support Mode. We'd all read the relevant WikiMoon pages by then; we had no choice but to let Small Lady take the actions that she would to free the Sailor Team. If we didn't, she wouldn't be mature enough to save her mother.
It isn't always the person who was learning who finds a learning experience to be painful. In this case, we had to accept the burden for her sake.
Ami decided that she wanted to spend some time somewhere quiet. Those of us who needed some place quiet to contemplate what had happened to Kooan – which turned out to be the entire team, save for Chiba-san – went along.
Ami wore her school uniform, one that fit that she had bought after returning from Midchilda; she mentioned that a proper uniform is always appropriate. Ryou wore the typical sararīman's outfit – black slacks and jacket, white shirt, and the silk tie the colour of Ami's eyes that we'd brought back for him from Gunma. My dearest and I decided to go with our matching "not a TSAB uniform" outfits, and not just because we could let the Unison Devices ride along in our pockets. Minako-san decided to wear her
"My Friends Went To Another World And All I Got Was This Lousy T-shirt" t-shirt and a matching pair of pink slacks. Bunny-chan wore a blue-and-white top and a navy-blue skirt, and Rei-san – feeling underdressed, she admitted later – wore her pink overalls with a white top.
"This is a nice place," Bunny-chan mentioned while we walked down the chequerboard path to the Chess Tower, passing by statues of chess pieces.
"That it is," I agreed. Then I smiled and said, "There must be a lot of birds living in that tower."
Ami gave me an annoyed look. "Remind me to throw a pillow at you later."
"Why?" my dearest asked.
I replied in English, "Because there are no birds there. That's a rook, not a rookery."
An older gentleman with skin the colour of mine who was passing by chuckled at my comment, then addressed all of us in English. "Excuse me, but I couldn't help but overhear that wordplay, and notice that you are a tall gentleman wearing black and green. By any chance would you happen to be Chiba Mamoru?"
"Mamo-chan? No, no, no, him Donarudoson-san," Bunny-chan replied, latching onto the name she recognized and showing off a substantial fraction of her conversational English skill.
"As my dear friend says," I added, "my name is Rob Donaldson, not Chiba Mamoru. But we do know Chiba-san."
"What are the odds of casually meeting some of his friends in a city as large as Tokyo?" he wondered aloud. I wasn't about to mention the stupid genre convention about everybody knowing the protagonists; only Ami, Ryou, Makoto, our Devices, and I had seen actual proof that we were living in a story. "Please let him know that I was looking for him, to answer his questions about Boston that one of my employees mentioned. My card." He passed me his business card, casually in the American style, which I quickly looked at before putting it in my case.
"Thank you. I'll do that, Mr. Edwards," I replied. Then I presented to him a card of my own,
as much in the proper Japanese style as I could, which he accepted and added to his own case. "I am Donaldson, self-employed. Should you need a photographer during your work here, please keep me in mind, although I am still in school so I might not be able to accommodate a tight schedule."
"I'll be sure to remember you, Mr. Donaldson. Good day, ladies and gentlemen." He tipped his hat and was on his way.
While Ami translated our exchange for Bunny-chan's sake, Rei-san nodded in approval. "You didn't get it quite right, leaving the meishi exchange to the end of the meeting like that, but you did a better job than he did," she said in Japanese.
"Thank you, Rei-san. I'm lucky I even own a card case, let alone have it with me." Officially, I was still too young to work for wages... unless they'd believe that I had spent two years on Midchilda on August 11.
"He's a nice old man," Bunny-chan said once Ami finished telling her what we'd said. "Will we see him again?"
"Eighty-five times of eighty-seven, yes," Kasandara replied from Ryou's pocket.
"So you'd better work on your spoken English skills," Rei-san added.
"Let's go inside now," Minako-san said, sounding somewhat bored.
So we did... to discover that the front-desk clerk was staring off into space, a dazed expression on her face. "Oh, dear. Ami, Ryou...?"
Ami and Meia gave her a quick look. "She's been magically hypnotized," Ami finally said. "We can break the spell, but she should come out of it naturally in a few minutes even if we don't."
"Six times out of seven, there's an Ayakashi Sister in the building," added Ryou.
"Split up and look for her?" Minako-san asked.
I absolutely refused. "Never split the party!"
So we headed off in a group, following Ryou's directions, until we found her in the main game room – the one with the big chess board on the wall.
Seeing her in person for the first time outside of that battle royale, I was amazed at how much Berthier looked like Elsa from
Frozen. Or vice versa, considering which story was older. I suppose there are only so many character designs to go around. She was doing something to the table.
"Hold it right there!" Oh, Bunny-chan, why did you give away the element of surprise? "This is a place to match intellects! Whatever you're doing, it can't be good!
Naoko Takemoto might forgive you, but I will not!"
Berthier looked up from what she was doing. "And just who are – You!" she finished when she saw Makoto.
Bunny-chan realized that she hadn't transformed yet. "Er, I'll be right back."
"Don't let her leave!" Ryou said.
Not sure whether he meant Usagi-san or Berthier, I
grabbed Bunny-chan's upper arm while Ami transformed to Sailor Mercury and cast "Hyperspatial Sphere Generate!"
The lighting everywhere took on a reddish tinge.
"Why did you transform in front of an enemy?" Rei-san asked.
"It didn't matter," Ryou answered before Mercury could. "Petz already knew who Robu, Makoto, and I are, and Ami's the only woman here with short hair."
"So logically she had to be Sailor Mercury," Berthier finished. "So you name is Ami." A moment later, she asked, "Mizuno Ami? Last year's All Japan junior champion? Everybody expected Watanabe Akira to win two years in a row."
"I have the honour of holding that title at the moment, yes."
"That's perfect! Come up here and play a master level game with me. And when black wins, my spell will be complete!"
"And if she refuses?" Rei-san asked.
Berthier smiled. "Well, then I'll just kill all of you, starting with the precog. Just like I will if she doesn't play her best. Don't bother trying to leave. You'll find that the doors are frozen shut."
Ami walked toward the table. "Everyone, please sit down and be quiet."
Berthier offered the choice of pawns in her hands. Ami ended up choosing white. "That's good, isn't it?" Bunny-chan asked.
"I'd say so, considering Berthier wants black to win," my dearest replied. "Ami's not going to throw the game."
Ami turned to look at us, a cross look on her face. "I said,
'quiet'!"
Scary Ami is scary. We shut up.
Ami offered
the Queen's Gambit, Berthier replied with
the Hübner variation of the Nimzo-Indian Defence. By the end of the tenth move, an hour later, I had a bad feeling about the game.
«Why is this taking so long?» Bunny-chan complained.
«Long? This is
bullet chess, the fastest variant of competition play,» I replied. «A classical competition game can last for two days, with over an hour between each half of a move. I'm no good at chess because I don't have the patience to play anything slower than bullet. But Ami does.»
By the fifteenth move, my bad feeling had turned into a near-certainty. Consulting Ami's brainprint took me the time it took Ami and Berthier to make one more move. «That's the fifth game of the
1972 World Championship,» I sent. «A grandmaster level game, and they're playing it at bullet chess speed! :O» Just like in canon.
Ryou, I hope you can keep pace with Ami for the rest of your life. This game proves that I'm not in her league.
«If they continue to play that game,» Bunny-chan asked, «how long does it take Ami to win?»
«If they continue to play that game, Ami will lose in twelve moves. Berthier is playing at Bobby Fischer's skill level.»
But Ami was playing at slightly better than Boris Spassky's skill level, and she didn't make Spassky's blunder in move 27. Of course, "win or die" gave her a pretty good incentive to avoid blunders.
«And that's just changed the game,» I sent to everybody except Berthier and Ami. «I have no idea what's going to happen next.»
Ami not making a blunder rattled Berthier. She started making mistakes, and Ami started taking more and more time to study the board before making her own moves. Six moves later, Berthier stood up and shouted, "How are you so good at this game? I can't fail this mission! I
have to succeed!"
Ami didn't take her eyes off the board. "It's your turn."
Berthier didn't bother looking at the board; she just moved some piece in some way.
Ami immediately moved her queen. "Checkmate."
Whatever Berthier's spell had been that needed a master-level match to be played with black winning, it was undone by Ami's win. We all felt the power dissipate.
"No! I can't lose!! I can't go back without taking over this crystal point!" So that's what she was trying to do. "Rubeus won't let me! Dark Water!"
Rather unsporting to attack your opponent when you lose, Berthier.
"Mercury Aqua Illusion!" And you're showing off an attack that you aren't supposed to know yet, Mercury. But it completely cancelled the Dark Water.
"No. I can't lose. I'd rather die." Berthier started concentrating.
"Master!" Meia shouted. "Spell Power A+!"
Oh, crap. Ami's only Rank A.
"Frigid Sword!" And Ami sliced Berthier's braided ponytail off, then moved the tip of the sword to her neck. "Stop your spell! Now!"
That's the first time I'd ever seen her use that spell in actual combat. It certainly impressed me.
And it definitely impressed Berthier, who dropped to her knees. "You win. I admit it. I'm so completely outclassed that there's no way for me to catch up. And there is only one way for me to atone for my failure. But I can take some of your friends with me as an honour guard!"
«I watched this episode!» Makoto sent. «Any minute now, Kooan will show up and convince Berthier to keep living. Any second now. Where is she?»
«My dearest... Kooan is dead.»
"Mercury, we can't let her kill us! Can't you talk her out of killing herself?" Bunny-chan pleaded.
"No, Moon. I plan to be an ethical doctor when I graduate. I will not follow the example of
Unit 731 and force someone to remain alive if they want to die."
That wasn't going to be made public in Japan for another five years; how did... oh, right, Ami must have seen a reference in the textbooks that she and Ryou brought back from Hayate's reality.
And I'd seen confirmation of an issue where my belief "where there's life, there's hope" didn't match the belief of my dearer friend, but this wasn't the time or place to discuss that.
"But she's going to kill us, too!"
"No," Mercury stated with conviction. "She won't. Frierenfesseln!" And Berthier was held in the same ice-water restraint that Wendi had been, a couple of years ago. "Gefrierende Kugel!"
That spell was new to me. The restraint around Berthier moved away from her body, letting her move, but closed into a complete sphere around her. "Shabon Spray Freezing!" And the sphere froze solid. "It is now your choice, Berthier. Use Dark Water to cut your way free and live, or do as you threatened and use Dark Water Full Power on yourself." Ami stood up and walked away, letting her transformation drop. As the rest of us got up and followed her, I heard from behind us, "Dark Water Full Power!" followed by the sound of ice shattering against the stone floor.
I made the mistake of looking back, and discovered from the blood all over the floor that this was our final meeting with the platinum-blonde Ayakashi Sister. A moment later, once I trusted myself to not throw up, I said, "May your soul find the peace that Wiseman stole from you in this lifetime, Berthier."
At least there was enough left of her body for a proper funeral, even if it had to be closed-casket. But then Ami let her Hyperspatial Sphere Generate end, and even that much dignity was denied Berthier as her body disappeared and the lighting returned to normal.
Bunny-chan still hadn't finished her homework, so we braved the light showers and got together again at the Hikawa Shrine on Thursday. Chiba-san was looking after Small Lady, so she wasn't along – Bunny-chan called it "keeping the brat out of our hair" – but Naru-san, Ichigo-san, Ryou, and the Devices joined us for the last push.
Ami made it quite clear: "You have to finish this before Monday, Usagi-san."
"Can I use Robu-san's computer?"
"Only as a typewriter for your essays, not to do your math homework," I insisted.
"That's better than nothing!" So I set up the voice dictation system and let Bunny-chan tell the computer an overview of the
nichiro sensō in her own words. to the surprise of Naru-san and Ichigo-san who hadn't seen my computer previously. The essay was slanted toward the Japanese viewpoint, of course, but that's what was in her textbooks.
"Darling, I can't get my computer to take dictation," my dearest whispered to me while Bunny-chan was doing that and Ami was helping Rei-san, Minako-san, Naru-san, and Ichigo-san with their own history essays.
"Oh, I upgraded Rob's computer," Shario-chan whispered before I could reply. "I can do that for yours later."
Once Bunny-chan was finished, Ami looked over the essay and suggested a few changes. She didn't tell her the facts; she just let Bunny-chan know where to find them in her history textbook.
As we took what we intended to be a quick break between history homework and math homework, there was a commotion outside. "Now what?" Rei-san asked.
As if in reply, Yuuichirou-san knocked on the door. "Rei-san, a green-haired woman wearing a scandalously-inappropriate outfit for the shrine grounds insists on seeing a Sailor Senshi. Your grandfather is lecturing her about
proper decorum. Should I tell her to go away?"
Makoto sighed. "Petz. I may as well go; she already knows that I'm a Sailor Senshi." As she moved to stand up, Usagi-san put a hand on her shoulder.
"Promise me that this won't be like yesterday, when Ami wouldn't stop Berthier from committing suicide."
My dearest replied, "I don't want to kill her or let her die. But that depends on her actions. If she refuses to talk and attacks first, all bets are off."
Usagi-san thought for a quick moment, then removed her hand from my dearest's shoulder. "Okay. But I'm coming along to watch."
"So am I," Ichigo-san announced enthusiastically. "I've never seen Sailor Jupiter fight before."
"I'm hoping it won't come to that," Bunny-chan said.
So was I, but probably not for the same reason.
We all headed out, Makoto first, to discover the rain had intensified. We heard Hino-jiisan telling Petz, "Your naked shoulders show disrespect for the kami. Do not be surprised if you suffer divine punishment."
Makoto stepped forward and cleared her throat. "You wanted to see me."
Petz looked up from talking with Hino-jiisan. "I don't
want to see you, but vengeance declares that I must. Oh, get out of my way, kannushi, my business is with her."
"What business?" Hino-jiisan asked. "And why with Kino-chan?"
"I said it already, old man. Vengeance. She and the other Sailor Senshi killed Kooan and Berthier. Blood demands blood!"
"They killed themselves," Makoto pointed out.
"More Crystal Millennium lies! Everybody liked Berthier! Why would she kill herself? You killed her, just like Neo-Queen Serenity killed my ancestors by exiling them to Nemesis!"
"What!?" Bunny-chan gasped.
"Wiseman's propaganda," I replied. "You can't trust anything he says." I turned to Petz. "Your ancestors
chose to remain mortal!" At least, I think that's what happened.
"Another lie!"
"Enough!!" Hino-jiisan shouted, drawing all eyes to him. "State your case calmly, or leave, or proceed to what the Westerners call trial by combat."
"I came here for combat. Not with you, old man. Kooan told me about how you defeated everybody at Protect Esthe at once without working up a sweat. I will fight
her." Petz pointed at Makoto. "To the death."
Then Makoto showed me that, much like Hayate's spells, Ami's streamlined transformation is more effective if you speak the aria. "Jupiter Star Power, Make-Up!"
It was still a near-instant transformation, but she ended it wearing her
SuperS uniform – yellow star on her choker, a heart as her bow clasp, thinner shoulder pads, a larger bow at her back, and only one stripe on her collar – instead of her usual uniform. And there was a belt attached to the bow at her back, with Donguri-no-ken and its sheath attached to the belt.
And there was a roll of thunder in the sky. Stupid genre conventions.
"Kannushi-san, please join us over here," Ichiro asked. "It is not safe to stand between an Ayakashi Sister and a Sailor Senshi who are ready to do battle."
As he did so, Petz looked at Jupiter's belt. "The only reason I couldn't win last time was because I wasn't ready for you to use a sword. I'm wearing armour this time." But still leaving her shoulders and arms bare – not much good, that armour. "Sailor Jupiter, I
will kill you today, or die trying."
"I have no plans to die today," Jupiter told Petz quietly as she unbelted Donguri-no-ken and passed it to me. "And I don't want to have to kill you."
"Then die, despite your plans! Only one of us is walking away from this. I can't return to Rubeus without a Sailor Senshi's severed head!"
And thus did the truth finally come out.
"Do you need any help?" Sakura asked in Midchildan English.
"Stay out of this," Jupiter replied in the same language. Turning her attention back to Petz, she said in Japanese, "I would prefer that we fight to submission, but if you must insist upon attempting to draw blood, I will respond as necessary. Your challenge is accepted."
I knew what that meant from our training; Vita always said that if you must duel, end it quickly and decisively.
After Sakura grabbed hold of me and I flash-moved to the others, I took steps to minimize any collateral damage... and to keep everyone else uninvolved. This was not going to end well, no matter who won; but if it went the way I expected, it was better that Makoto and I be the only two to have Petz's blood on our hands. And if it didn't go the way I expected, then I wanted to be the one to take vengeance. Yes, I know the drawback to vengeance; it never ends. «Triple forcefield up around the house and everyone else, including me.» I sent to my fiancée.
She knew me well enough to know why. «Thank you, darling.»
Petz tried to take advantage of Jupiter's momentary distraction. "Dark Thunder!"
Jupiter dodged Petz's attack and without stopping quick-cast "FlowerHurricane!"
The attack looked as pretty as Touhi-chan's "Petal Swarm" did, but despite being much more deadly, Jupiter's death of a thousand razor-sharp cuts didn't slow Petz down, presumably because of her armour. However, even at full speed Petz wasn't fast enough. "Dark Thu-"
"CoconutCyclone!"
That attack slowed Petz down. But she tried a counter-attack anyway. Unfortunately for her, it was the only attack that she knew. "Dark... Thunder!"
"Please, both of you, stop!" Moon cried as she pounded on my forcefield. I didn't even realize she had transformed. "Oni, please let me intervene!"
"ElectricShield!" Jupiter caught Petz's attack... "OakEvolution!" ...and repaid it with interest. Then she said, with some kindness, "It isn't too late for you to surrender."
Petz took the attack, barely, but rejected the offer of mercy. "N... never. D... d... dark..."
I've never seen my dearest look sadder than she did at that moment. "So be it. No more going easy on you."
"Going easy?" Moon, Rei-san, Naru-san, and Ichigo-san whispered in disbelief.
For the first time in actual combat since we were trained by the TSAB, Jupiter cast what Hayate would call an aria. "Guardian Jupiter, bring down a storm! Jupiter Thunderbolt!"
It appeared that only Hino-jiisan, the Devices, Ami, Ryou, and I knew enough to turn our backs and shield our eyes. I also darkened my forcefields for a moment in the hope that it would help the others. It didn't.
"Oh gods..." Moon whispered in terror once Meia had
healed her eyes and she could see again.
Petz's body, still smouldering from the lightning strike, was laying on the ground beside Jupiter, who was on her knees and crying softly. "What did Oni say... oh, yes. May your soul find the peace that Wiseman stole from you in this lifetime, Petz."
Ichigo-san, completely pale, quietly announced, "I never want to see Sailor Jupiter fight again."
"What
happened to you while you were gone?"
I wasn't going to lie to Moon – I had promised myself that I wouldn't – but I didn't need to be Ryou or Kasandara to know telling her the truth then and there would destroy our friendship. "Too many things to go over right now," I replied while dropping my forcefields. Then I looked up and said loudly, "Rubeus, Calaveras, in case you're watching,
this is what it means to challenge Sailor Jupiter to a fight to the death."
"Everybody, back inside," Ryou said. Then he turned to Hino-jiisan. "Except for you, sir. Nine times out of ten, emergency crews are about to be dispatched because of reports of that lightning strike."
"The bolt from the heavens that killed that poor young woman," Hino-jiisan replied. "It was a terrible tragedy. But she insisted on wearing metal when she visited a hilltop during a storm, despite my warning her about divine punishment."
"Grandfather!"
He turned to Rei-san. "Did I speak any words that were not truth?"
"No... but you sound like my father."
"Would you rather Kino-san be arrested for murder?" I noticed that he didn't use "-chan" this time. "She had the permission of the shrine to fight that duel, and her opponent was the one who declared it a duel to the death. In the eyes of the kami, she committed suicide."
Rei-san thought for a moment. "It was a terrible tragedy. She should have taken your advice. And I could not get to her before she died."
We heard sirens in the distance. "Inside, now!" Ryou insisted.
Once we were back inside the house, Usagi-san said, "I don't think I can do math homework right now."
"That's fine," Rei-san replied. "Because you need to put on your miko robes and help me purify the grounds."
Bunny-chan didn't put up a fuss. She must have been seriously shaken by Petz's death.
Once the firefighters ensured that the grass wasn't on fire, the ambulance had removed Petz's body, the police had taken photographs of the charred ground and were satisfied that what had happened was a terrible tragedy, and Rei-san and Usagi-san had purified the grounds where the battle took place, we were finally allowed out.
Except for those of us who had made the trip from Midchilda. Usagi-san insisted. Using her Princess Serenity voice.
"This is the third time in as many days that you have condoned the death of one of our foes. Worse, Sailor Jupiter actually killed Petz today. I want an explanation."
"We're soldiers, not heroes, ma'am," Ichiro replied before I could. "And I was under the impression that the Bishoujo Senshi were also soldiers. Perhaps there's a fault in my translation spell."
Usagi-san looked uncomfortable. "Well, we're
called Senshi, but as for actually killing somebody... I don't know whether I could kill in cold blood."
"Bullshit," Sakura said before anyone else could say anything. "You already know how to kill in cold blood. Or are Beryl and Metaria still alive?"
"That was in combat!"
"So was what happened today! Except today took Makoto by surprise. You went to the Dark Kingdom
knowing that you were going to fight. Their blood is on your hands, Tsukino-san."
Usagi-san sighed deeply, then muttered, "I'm beginning to not like you, Sakura-san."
"If me telling you the truth means you don't like me, then whatever friendship we might have is built on a lie. Is that what you want?"
"Sakura!" My dearest was mortified. "You've said too much."
"Fine. I'll stop here, for Makoto's sake."
As Sakura left, pursued by my fiancée, Ichiro bowed to Usagi-san. "I apologize for my sister's lack of tact, ma'am. She had no right to address you that way. After all, you are our commanding officer."
"No, Ichiro-san, I think that maybe I needed to hear that from someone." Bunny-chan looked at me. "I'm never going to be a normal girl again, am I, Robu-san?"
I shook my head. "I'm sorry. If it's any consolation, none of us are normal people any more, either."
"Except Ichigo-san," she added.
"Except Ichigo-san," I agreed.
After a moment, Usagi-san said, "I have some thinking to do."
We took that as our cue to leave.
Usagi-chan, Rei-san, Naru-san, and Ichigo-san didn't invite us to join them for homework at Usagi-san's house the next day. Minako-san was only there for long enough to drop off the printout of Bunny-chan's essay; she told me when she returned that as long as she was living under Makoto's roof, she was honour-bound to support her host, and she had told the others that. It seemed that they accepted her explanation.
Makoto spent the day with Hino-jiisan at the Hikawa Shrine in order to ask the kami for forgiveness for being so unskilled as to have no choice but to kill her opponent in battle.
And Ami and Ryou were enjoying the last Friday of summer vacation together, on a date.
Which meant it was Ichiro, Shario-chan, Minako-san, and me who played host to Saeko-basan – who wore the
silk wrap that Makoto and I brought back from Gunma for her. She was taking her self-imposed parental duties seriously, and had come to check that we were doing well on our own.
We also played host to two surprise guests.
The first surprise guest was Minako-san's father, who arrived just before we had lunch.
Toad in the hole and a green salad, and it was Saeko-basan's introduction to the dish.
"Have I come at a bad time?" he asked.
"We were just about to have lunch, father." Minako-san thought for a brief moment, then added, "Would you care to join us?"
"Thank you," he replied. It was obvious that he wasn't thanking his daughter for just the food.
After Minako-san had served everyone since Makoto wasn't present, her father said, "I'm sorry, my dearest Mina. You know I don't have the strength to stand up to your mother."
"Yes, I know," she replied flatly. "You can't even bring yourself to say her name any more."
"But I did bring the family seal," he replied. "She'd be livid if she found out I was willing to make your change of address official, even though she demanded it. Do you have the school paperwork here?"
"We do, but that can wait until after lunch."
So it did.
But, after we finished eating and before we could tend to the paperwork, our second surprise guest arrived. And kicked the door down. "Kino! Prepare to die!"
"Hello, Calaveras," I said as I put up a forcefield to protect both my fiancée's apartment and our guests. "She isn't home right now."
"If she isn't here, then you can die instead!"
"Another Ayakashi Sister?" Minako-san asked. "I'm starting to think mother was right."
"She's the last one," I pointed out before turning to the invader. "So, what's your excuse for wanting to kill us? Orders? Vengeance? That time of the month?"
Every woman in the room glared at me for saying that last one. Yes, even Shario-chan. Note to self: Don't joke about menstruation, especially not to Sailor Senshi or the female mid-bosses.
"Because I damn well want to!"
"Minako-san, I'm maintaining a very complex forcefield so that Makoto doesn't get upset when she returns home. Could I trouble you...?"
"Of course," she replied while transforming to Sailor Venus. "You want death, Calaveras?
Die. Crescent Beam!"
"Dark Beaut!"
Those aren't actually laser beams, considering they can be knocked off-course by a whip.
"Crescent Beam Shower!"
Calaveras didn't deflect all of those beams, but the ones that got through were weaker than a single Crescent Beam. And she dodged the rest by jumping out of their way. I couldn't help but think of celebrated jumping frogs.
"Just be a good girl and die, already."
"Not while my father's watching! Venus Lovely Chain!"
"Dark Beaut!"
And we were back to whip versus whip, just like during the battle royale.
Until Venus suddenly closed with Calaveras. "Crescent Beam Saber!"
Ouch. She can't hold a whip with that big a gash in her arm.
Venus stepped back. "Do you surrender?"
"Never!" Calaveras declared while picking up the whip in her off hand.
"Sailor Kick!"
Venus' aim was too good – and I have never asked her whether it was accidental or intentional. Calaveras went flying out the doorway and over the railing, hitting the Asahi vending machine on the ground just outside the building.
The sounds from the machine as it broke, and broke down, didn't include any from Calaveras.
"Oh, dear," Venus said as she transformed back to Minako-san. "I have to call the police."
As I dropped the forcefield, Minako-san's father firmly applied the family seal to the paperwork for her change of address, and handed it to me. "Please make sure she gets this," he said before fainting.
"How can we keep Minako-san from going to jail?" Saeko-basan asked.
For once, I was at a loss. But Minako-san wasn't. "You were here to visit your patient, Mizuno-sensei," she said as she hung up the phone.
"My patient?"
"You were the attending physician when I donated blood to Shinozaki-san," I said.
"So he's your patient," Minako-san said with a nod. "My father was here to finalize my change of address," she added while taking the paperwork from my hand and putting it on Makoto's kitchen counter, "and you're here as a witness to that, Rob-san." Gesturing outside, Minako-san continued, "She broke down the door and stormed in, the three of you took cover, and by the time it was safe to come out, that woman was in the condition she's in now," she finished as we heard ambulance sirens.
By the time that the ambulance team had covered Calaveras' face, Aino-san was awake and a car from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police was parked at the scene, its lights flashing. The car's driver was taking photos of the crime scene while the other person from the car – who looked familiar for some reason – was speaking with us. "I'm Superintendent Sakurada Natsuna, from Metropolitan Police headquarters. Miss, please identify yourself for the record and explain what happened here," she said directly to Minako-san.
So she did, telling the truth and nothing but the truth... but not the whole truth. No mention that we knew Calaveras or that we'd found cover behind a forcefield or that magical powers were involved, just what could be believable if everybody involved was normal.
"You say that you live here, but your father who also lives in Minato was visiting. Do you have any evidence that you live here instead of with him?"
"The change of address form is on the kitchen counter," she said. "That's why he was here, to finalize the paperwork. Our next-door neighbour and his doctor were here as witnesses."
"Itō, get a photo of that form." The driver did so. "Is there anything that any of the rest of you have to add to Aino-san's statement?"
"No, Superintendent," Saeko-basan said.
"No, ma'am," I added.
"No," Aino-san echoed us.
"Itō, go call it in. Let headquarters know that my report will say it was a forced entry and the person who lives in the apartment fought back."
He left to do so. Minako-san waited for a moment, then she hugged the superintendent. And that was another reminder that I was in a close parallel to the canon story; Superintendent-General Sakurada and Minako-san weren't
that close in
Codename: Sailor V. "It's good to see you again, and I'm sorry I haven't been in touch for so long." Then she stepped back and said, "Ichiro, Shario-chan, would you come out now? I think Natsuna-san would like to meet you."
Superintendent Sakurada grinned for a moment, then looked stern. "So this is Sailor V business. I can't keep covering this up for you forever, young lady. I'm not that big a fan of you."
"It's Sailor Venus now, and I know. And thank you."
I couldn't help but ask, to satisfy my curiosity. "Superintendent, why do I think that I know you from somewhere?"
"Perhaps you've met one of my sisters," she replied while looking at our Midchildan friends with curiosity of her own.
Minako-san added, "Our English teacher is one of her sisters."
Ah, yes, I remembered seeing something about that in one of the supplementary sources. Or maybe it was fanon.
"I'd love to stay and get to know the rest of you better, but I have to get back to work before Itō comes back here to find me and sees your friends. You can fix that door now. Mina-chan, don't be a stranger. Good day, everyone."
As I picked up the door and placed it roughly where it belonged so I could check the hinges for damage, Ichiro said, "Shario-chan and I can fix that for you, sir."
"I'm a device meister, not a carpenter."
Before they could continue, I said, "Thank you, but we're going to have to replace the entire door frame. That's a job for somebody at my scale, not somebody at yours." Seeing a faint look of disappointment on both Devices' faces, I added, "But you can make a temporary patch so we can close the door."
"Who wrecked my favourite vending machine?" my fiancée asked as soon as she got home.
"Calaveras. Here's the police report, straight off your phone's fax," Minako-san replied. "Oh, and we need to repair our front door."
The next morning, I got a text from Ami just as I was about to start making breakfast. "Ryou says you need to get to Usagi's house right now."
Sometimes it's annoying to have a precog friend. I grabbed my shoes and headed next door. "No time for breakfast, Makoto, Minako-san. We're needed at Bunny-chan's place."
Transform, Unison, grab passenger, go invisible, fly, let passenger stand on her own, stop Unison, transform back, go visible. In short, what was becoming the usual way for us to get around. If my life is ever made into an anime, I expect that sequence will be stock footage.
This time, we went visible in front of Bunny-chan as she was muttering "...the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered rodent you ever set eyes on!"
"Are you quoting Monty Python about yourself?" I asked.
"Gah!" After she got over her surprise, she added, "No, about that brat!"
I sighed deeply. "What are you fighting about this time?"
"She stole the Ginzuishou!"
Oh, crap.
Chiba-san, Ami, Meia, Kasandara, and Ryou showed up just then, the former by car and the other four out of a
Transporter spell. I shouldn't have been surprised, since she can cast Ultra-long-distance Transportation and Transporter is a shorter-range version of the same spell, but I was. And so was Chiba-san.
"How did you do that?"
Ami unknowingly echoed my comment from earlier: "That's what you get for missing the discussion session. Meia and I learned some useful spells while we were away, and we've developed a few more on our own."
"Meia?"
"That would be me. I have the honour to be Ami's Unison partner."
Chiba-san looked puzzled. "All right, I admit it. I should have attended that meeting. Do we have time for somebody to explain what Unison is?
"We have until Rei-san arrives to go over things," Ryou answered.
"Do I know you, sir?"
"We met during the Missing Time. My name is Urawa Ryou, at least for the next six years, after which I will be lucky enough to become Mizuno Ryou. I'm a precog."
"You're a lucky man, Urawa-san. Not many people could get Ami-chan's attention, let alone her love. I'm Chiba Mamoru."
"Also called Endymion in some circles, and the man who gained Usagi-san's love. I'm pleased to meet you."
"Folks," I said while Meia hovered around Chiba-san, "Rei-san is on her way. Teal deer, Unison Devices are intelligent beings with synthetic minds. They can cast spells on their own – well, most of them can – and they can physically merge with their chosen partners to boost both people's magical ability."
"Teal deer?" Bunny-chan asked. I suspected she was imagining a blue-green
mouse-deer.
"TL;DR - 'too long; didn't read'. It's internet shorthand to show there's a much longer explanation and this is the summary. In English, saying the letters sounds like 'teal deer'." By the time I'd finished giving the teal deer on what teal deer meant, Meia was hovering around Bunny-chan.
"Who chooses the people that the Unison Devices work with?"
"Usually," Ichiro said while floating out of my pocket, "we're designed to partner with a specific person. But a Unison Device can survive for centuries, so we also have the ability to choose which biological person or people to partner with." He bowed to Chiba-san. "While we've already met, we were not properly introduced. My name is Ichiro."
"You were taller when we met."
"You can blame Rob for that, sir. He is getting very good at disguise magic, for somebody of his magic rank, and he allows me to borrow his spells."
"Disguise..." By the time he turned to me, I already had Mirage Hide up and looked like a storybook oni with my own features. "So I see."
"Don't forget the rest of us! I'm Sakura, Makoto's partner."
"I'm Shario-chan, and I can't Unison at all. I was made that way on purpose so that synthetic people like Hayate-chan wouldn't become slaves."
"And I'm Hayate-chan. Amongst other things, I'm an expert in strategy and tactics. Rob and Ichiro made me and they decided to leave the choice of my partner up to me."
"And I am most definitely
not her partner," Minako-san added with a shudder. "Never again."
Chiba-san looked worried at Minako-san's reaction to the thought of Unisoning. "Perhaps I shouldn't ask whether I can Unison, then."
"I'm sorry, Chiba-san," Meia said while still hovering around Bunny-chan. "Hayate-chan self-identifies as female too strongly. She can't Unison with a male; the imposed
gender fluidity would cause severe psychological issues for Hayate-chan even if you could handle the physical stress. Which, unfortunately, you can't, so there's no point in me offering to Unison with you either."
"Sorry about that," Hayate-chan said.
"Tsukino-san, could you transform to Sailor Moon, please?" Meia asked.
"I'll try."
"Shouldn't you do that where your family can't see... how did you transform so quickly?"
"Mama, papa, and Shingo know now. And Ami-chan fixed the transformation spell."
"I see. Let me guess; that's what I get for missing the discussion session." We all nodded.
Just then, Rei-san arrived. "Hi everyone. What did I miss?"
"Just a bunch of exposition about Unison Devices," Sakura replied. Hey, she knew she was now in a story; she's allowed to lampshade the fourth wall.
Rei-san narrowed her eyes. "I hope you didn't call us together for that, Ami-san."
"Chibiusa stole the Ginzuishou," announced Moon.
"That's bad. How are you transformed?"
"I'm running on my personal power. And I'm getting tired." She transformed back to Bunny-chan. "That's my limit. Sorry, Meia."
"Thank you anyway, Usagi-san," she replied before hovering over to Rei-san and floating around her for a moment... then stopping. "Oh, my."
"What?"
"I've only seen readings like this once before, when I scanned some of the people at the Saint Church on Midchilda. Are you a holy woman, Hino-san?"
"I'm a miko, yes."
"That explains it. Your faith is strong. You've given yourself too thoroughly to the kami. You
can't Unison, Hino-san. I'm sorry."
"From the way Mina-chan described Unison, I don't mind that at all."
We noticed that people were starting to leave their homes and start their Saturday routines, so we moved inside and commandeered the Tsukino living room.
"Sorry, mama. Senshi stuff."
"I understand," Ikuko-san said.
"So, Robu-san, what do we need to know?"
"I can tell you what happened in canon, for all the good that will do. Ryou and Kasandara, please correct me if I say anything that conflicts with what you foresee."
He nodded while she said, "Yes, sir."
"Chibiusa has already taken Usagi-san's locket with the Ginzuishou, which means that the younger Usagi thinks she can go home now. She'll fail because she doesn't need just the Ginzuishou, she needs Sailor Moon as well. That will cause her to send off a flare which Rubeus will track down almost immediately. We need to be ready for that flare."
"Which means we need to stake out the most likely place she'll use to try to go home," Hayate-chan said.
"Which is where she arrived here," I added.
"Transporter spell or Sailor Teleport?" Ami asked.
"Whichever uses less power," Chiba-san suggested.
"Transporter, so Ichiro and I can join you," I said. "The first two on the scene will protect Small Lady and try to drive Rubeus off."
"Only in three of seventeen futures," Ryou said.
"Then canon's no good. Ryou, what's most likely?"
"Rubeus is ready to defend himself against what Makoto demonstrated during her fight with Petz. He defeats the Senshi and you, but Usagi-san and Chiba-san get Chibiusa-san to safety."
"Is this with us in Unison or not?" Sakura asked.
"Not," Kasandara replied. "Odds of Senshi defeat while in Unison are one in one."
"What?" My dearest couldn't believe what she'd heard.
"They're guaranteed," Ami explained. "Is that because we let ourselves be captured?"
"Three times in four, yes," Ryou answered.
"Why would we let ourselves be captured?" Rei-san asked.
"So that Small Lady can rescue us," I replied. "Which she needs to do in order to learn that she
can rescue somebody, and by extension so she can rescue her mother in the future. Whoops, you didn't want me to tell you that, Usagi-san."
"You're forgiven. It's an emergency. What do I do?"
"In canon, you offered yourself to Rubeus in exchange for the rest of us. Small Lady went with you, and she rescued us while you defeated Rubeus."
"The same way you defeated the Ayakashi Sisters?"
"Not directly, but his supposed allies will ensure he won't survive the destruction of his spaceship."
"Nineteen times in twenty," Kasandara added.
"How do we survive
that?"
"Sailor Teleport, with Small Lady as a passenger. You'll barely have enough power to do that."
"Seven times in nine."
"Thank you, Kasandara. So Luna, Artemis, Ryou, Kasandara, Shario-chan, and Tuxedo Kamen are
not going along."
"How do you get home if you get captured, darling?"
"The same way I did the day Kooan died, my dearest." Then I turned to Ichiro. "Do you have to be in Unison to go into Life Support Mode?"
"No, but it is easier."
Hayate-chan smiled. "You want me along as backup, in case Chibiusa doesn't leave in a Sailor Teleport."
I nodded as Ami announced, "I have the spell coordinates ready."
"Then transform and let's go," Usagi-san said. "Volunteers only from the people who are likely to be taken hostage."
Every Senshi stood up and transformed without a moment's hesitation. I felt honoured to be their ally as I stood and transformed as well.
Sakura, Meia, and Ichiro went into Unison with us, Hayate-chan hid in my pocket, and Mercury cast the spell.
"Chiba-san, please drive there," Ryou asked. "If things go according to plan, and they will eighteen times out of nineteen now, they won't be able to teleport you, Usagi-san, or Chibiusa back."
"I'll meet you there." And he headed out the front door.
"Good luck," Shario-chan, Luna, and Artemis said as we teleported to the park... to see the light show that was about to lead Rubeus straight to Small Lady.
Usagi-san got there first. "Hi, Chibiusa. Why did you run away?"
Small Lady turned and started to run – straight into Rubeus. "Time to die, Rabbit."
Time to distract the mid-boss while the Senshi got into position. Remembering that Small Lady had recognized my Elmer Fudd reference the day we met, I started singing – okay, shouting – as I rushed him. "Save the wabbit, save the wabbit, save the wabbit!"
Whatever crowd that had started to form to watch the show quickly ran.
"Yay! Oni!" At least Small Lady had an idea of what was going on now. I hated to disappoint her.
Rubeus turned his attention from her to me. I quickly put up a forcefield... just in time to block the blast that he sent my way.
I was knocked back into a wall... and knocked out. As I lost consciousness, I thought that I heard the shout, "Venus Lovely Chain!"
I regained consciousness partially embedded in a cross made of some sort of black crystal. Looking to either side, I saw Mercury to my left and Mars, Jupiter, and Venus to my right, in that order. Mercury and Jupiter's hair colours showed me that they were still in Unison with Meia and Sakura.
On the positive side, at least this much of our plan worked. Of course, that meant nothing if Usagi-san and Small Lady didn't follow up with their part.
On the negative side, I hurt like Hell. And Venus was bleeding from her mouth.
«Ichiro, are you still with me?»
«I'm still here, Rob, and maintaining the disguise spell.»
Oh, good. The plan was still working.
«Meia is tending to Minako-san right now. She'll treat Rei next. Then Ami, Makoto, and finally you.»
«I'm in the best shape of us all?»
«Yes, Rob.»
I felt sorry for everyone else. But then I realized that none of my bones were broken, I wasn't bleeding, and I wasn't concussed. I could wait. «Were you in Life Support Mode when I rushed Rubeus?»
«Yes, sir. And so were Meia and Sakura.»
«That explains why we got off easier than Venus and Mars. Thank you.»
«My pleasure, Rob.»
We weren't tortured. At least, not directly; Rubeus simply left us completely alone. We couldn't get free; Venus proved that when she tried a Crescent Beam with no effect other than a shock from her crystal prison... which re-opened her wounds.
«Hayate-chan, are you still here?»
«Still in your pocket, Rob.»
«Venus needs your help. And Meia's.»
«I doubt she'll survive if she isn't put into Life Support Mode quickly,» Meia added.
«I'm on it.» I felt Hayate-chan leave my pocket. I didn't dare make her invisible; trying to use my power probably would have alerted Rubeus.
We were nothing but bait for him, which we expected... but he needed us alive and where we were.
Somehow, I dozed off, to wake up to Usagi-san saying, "What? No, she's my cousin! You got the wrong girl!"
That line was almost canon. I hoped the fight ended up like in canon, too.
"We'll find out whether I got the wrong girl after I kill you."
And thus Rubeus and Sailor Moon fought. Just like in canon, they were evenly matched; it was going to be up to Small Lady to save the day.
It took her a few minutes to find the control crystal to our restraints; time that Rubeus used to increase the gravity in his spaceship to slow down Moon, then drop it down to almost nothing to disorient her. Once Small Lady found the crystal, she tried to operate it. All she managed to do was send shocks through all of us. Just before I could send a hint to her, she used her moonbeam to shatter the crystal.
That released us all. Mercury immediately moved to Venus and cast a healing spell while Rubeus made his "you've doomed us all" speech, before a malfunctioning ship's system set him on fire.
"How do we get out of here?" Small Lady asked.
"You're going to have to use Sailor Teleport," I answered. "The Senshi should be able to take a small passenger."
"No! Oni, you can't stay here and die!"
"I don't plan to die here," I replied as Mercury cast another healing spell on Venus, and Meia and Hayate-chan floated over to us.
Meia quickly scanned Small Lady, asking, "Are you well?"
"I think so."
"Good. Oh! Hayate-chan, she can do it!"
"Do what?" Small Lady asked.
"It's time for us to leave," Moon said before Meia could answer. She quickly went back into Unison with Mercury as the Senshi formed a ring around Chibiusa.
"See you on the ground," Jupiter said to me.
"Sailor Teleport!"
And they were gone... but Small Lady stayed behind.
"I was afraid of that," I said. "It looked like Venus took some serious damage in her fight with Rubeus. I think there was only enough power for the five of them, even with Meia and Sakura helping."
"Are we going to die?"
"No," said Hayate-chan. "You asked 'Do what?' just before the others left. You can Unison. And so can I."
"Will it hurt?"
"I hope not," I said. "But dying will definitely hurt."
"Yeah. I can't die now. I have to save my mama."
"And you have to tell Usagi-san that," I said as Hayate-chan Unisoned with Small Lady for the first time.
Just like Reinforce Zwei's Unisons blended her hair colour with whoever she Unisoned with, Hayate-chan changed Small Lady's hair from pink to auburn-red. "I wonder what you'd look like with a ponytail instead of twin-tails," I mused.
"Not the time," Small Lady said with Hayate-chan's usual inflection. "We've achieved full Unison; let's leave before Esmeraude discovers us here while she kills Rubeus."
"Good idea." I punched a hole in the hull – not difficult when it's falling apart anyway – and we took off.
«Wow.» I took Small Lady in hand and led her away from the exploding spaceship while she looked at Earth from space.
Then I joined her in admiring the view. «Yeah. Wow.» After a moment, I added, «We'd better head back now.»
It took us an hour to get back to Japan safely. And a flight that long with that big a delta-v change – we'd completed an Earth orbit – exhausted all four of us; we missed Tokyo.
"That was fun! Can we do it again some time?" Small Lady asked while Ichiro and Hayate-chan ended our Unisons.
"Being nearly blown up was 'fun'?" I asked in disbelief.
"Yeah! Well, after we were safe, it was."
Oh, great. Small Lady's turning into an adrenaline junkie.
She added, "And visiting space was fun, too. Can we do it again?"
"Maybe when you're older, and we've both had more practice being in Unison," Hayate-chan said.
"Okay. Where are we?"
"The outskirts of Osaka," said somebody I hadn't seen since before being sent to another dimension.
"Puu!" Small Lady raced over to give Setsuna a hug.
"It's good to see you again," I said. "I don't suppose you can get us the rest of the way home?" In reply, she handed me cash for a taxi ride, two
Nozomi Shinkansen tickets, and a consent form that let Tsukino Usagi travel with me. "That works. I owe you for these."
"You can pay me back in eight months," she replied with a smile.
"I'll let Ryou know that I'll need the cash by then. Thank you again, Meioh-san." Then I knelt down. "Small Lady, we have to go."
"But... Puu, why can't I go home yet?"
"There's another enemy."
"Esmeraude? Hayate-chan said that name."
"That's right. You need to make sure she can't stop you, before you can go home."
"Oh. Okay. Is mama okay?"
"She's still resting; she hasn't gotten any worse."
"But she hasn't gotten any better, either?" Setsuna nodded at Small Lady's observation. "So it's still up to me."
"I trust you," I said. "I know you can do it."
"Thank you, Robu-niisan."
Once we reached the train station, I found a pay phone, called Makoto, and let her know where we were and which train we were going to ride.
When we finally got back to Tokyo, there was a reception committee waiting for us.
And then it was Sunday, the day before the new school term started.
And Bunny-chan still hadn't finished her homework. Not her fault, but she couldn't tell her teachers, "I had to beat up some villains from the future so they wouldn't kill my cousin."
So we got together at the Hikawa Shrine – well, everybody but Minako-san got together; she was still healing under the direct care of Meia and Saeko-basan – and made one last push to do as much homework as we could. But before we started, Bunny-chan said, "Makoto-san, I'm sorry."
"For what?" Naru-san asked.
"For how I reacted after Petz died. Rubeus proved to me that some people have to be taken down. And you offered to let Petz surrender. I didn't have a chance to give Rubeus that choice."
My dearest gave Bunny-chan a hug. "Thank you. And I agree with you that everybody should have the chance to be redeemed. But if someone insists on fighting to the death even then, I'm not going to let that be my death. Or yours."
Bunny-chan returned the hug. "Thanks, Mako-chan." Then she drew back and added, "And I apologize to the rest of you, too, Ami-chan, Ryou-san, Robu-san, Ichiro-san, Sakura-san. And I'll have to apologize to Meia-san, too."
"I'm sure she'll accept your apology, ma'am, just as I do," Ichiro replied. "And thank you for offering it to me."
Bunny-chan turned to look directly at Sakura. "And I have a favour to ask of you, Sakura-san. Please keep telling me the truth."
"Yeah, I can do that," she replied with a smile. The subtext didn't need to be explained to anybody who didn't already know it.
Then Bunny-chan turned to me. "And thank you for saving Chibiusa's life, Robu-san."
"Don't thank me," I said while gesturing to the devices beside me, "thank Hayate-chan. She did all the hard work."
"Ah. Thank you, Hayate-san."
"You're welcome. But 'Hayate' is my original,
my name is 'Hayate-chan'."
"Then thank you, Hayate-chan-san."
Ichigo-san grinned. "'chan-san' sounds silly. But I guess we're stuck with it. We're going to have lunch together tomorrow, right?"
Ami smiled. "Of course!"
"It wouldn't be a proper Revealing Of The Lunches unless everybody's there," I added. Then I grinned and said, "You, too, Rei-san, if you want to change schools."
"Oh, should I drop out of a
3K top-tier
escalator school and enrol at a city school just to show off my lunches? I don't think my grandfather would approve." From her tone of voice, it was obvious that Rei-san didn't approve, either. "Now, is there anybody else anyone needs to apologize to, or can we start doing homework?"
Nobody said anything for a moment. Then Bunny-chan said, "No, that's it for me. I guess it's homework time."
Much later that day, I introduced the others to the North American custom of ordering pizza for a late-nighter, but everybody finally finished all of their homework.
And then it was Monday morning, and my fiancée knocked on my door earlier than I expected. I opened it to see her wearing the same school uniform that everybody else wears.
"You wear that uniform well."
"Thanks, darling. Do you have any more of that Midchildan depilatory creme? Mina-chan has been using my supply on her underarm hair."
"Sorry, my dearest, but I ran out a week ago. Unless Ryou or Ami stocked up, you're going to have to go back to shaving, just like me."
"Oh, drat."
As she went back to shave, I made breakfast and lunch for all three of us: eggs, fried tomato, and toast for breakfast, and three
onigiri – one each stuffed with egg, pickled plum, and salmon – with a side of edamame for lunch.
We double-checked that we had all of our homework, Makoto went back to her apartment for her math homework, and Minako-san also made sure she had her change-of-address paperwork and a letter from Saeko-basan asking she be excused from P.E. for a week for medical reasons.
My onigiri started off the group discussion after the Revealing Of The Lunches.
"They're so big!" Ichigo-san said.
"Well, I have big hands," I pointed out.
"Is it true what they say about big hands and a big -"
"Yes," my fiancée replied with a smile before she could finish. "At least in Rob's case."
Ami looked up from her book with interest and a bit of a blush, Ryou looked jealous, and Naru-san said, "Whoa."
"Is this really proper talk for lunch time?" I asked.
"It is now," Minako-san insisted.
Naru-san raised a hand. "I thought you were waiting until you were sixteen."
"We were away for two years last month," Makoto replied. "We
are sixteen." Noticing that Naru-san was thinking that through, she added, "And he's mine, girls. Hands off the only guy who can make me forget about my old sempai."
"When you put it that way," Bunny-chan replied, "I for one am happy to support the Mako-chan/Robu-san couple. I still think you didn't wait long enough, though."
"How so?" Naru-san asked.
"Mamo-chan and I are waiting until after I graduate from high school."
Minako-san grinned. "I admire your willpower. I have to admit that, if he wasn't already dating Ami-chan, I'd be trying to become Ryou's girlfriend with benefits."
And
that finally made Ryou blush... and Ami take his arm in hers. "Can we
please change the subject before a teacher overhears us?" Ryou asked.
"Okay," Minako-san said. "Mizuno-sensei and I talked for a while yesterday while you were finishing your homework."
"Well, she was giving you medical care," Ami said.
"We also talked about my family. Ami-san, what would you think of having a sister?"
"What does that have to do with your... Oh."
"Yeah. She asked whether I want to leave the Aino family and join the Mizuno family."
To quote Keanu Reeves in practically every role he's ever played, or Naru-san a few minutes earlier, Whoa.
"Mother has been worried about the future of the Mizuno family for a while," Ami mused.
"I only know your parents from when we met during our big reveal," Ryou said, "but I think Saeko-mama is a better parent than either of yours is. I would be happy to call you sister-in-law."
His calling Saeko-basan "Saeko-mama" got me thinking, not for the first time, about my relationship with her... and I could see Makoto was thinking, too.
"How likely is that to happen?" Naru-san asked.
"I'm not going to look. I don't want Minako-san to think her decision is preordained."
It took us almost the entire week to get from Monday to Friday. Go figure.
But Friday finally arrived, and Sakurada-sensei dropped by the Conversational English club with some news. "I've received applications to join the club from two students," she announced. "And I've spoken with each of them in English. They appear to be able to hold up their end of a conversation."
«Are we about to lose our extra planning time for Senshi work?» Minako-san sent.
«I hope not,» Ami sent back.
«There isn't much we can do about it,» I sent.
Sakurada-sensei added, "I wouldn't have expected either of them to know that much English, based on their test scores, but they do. You can come in now!"
And Ryou and Makoto walked through the doorway.
"I believe you already know them," Sakurada-sensei said to us, "so I won't bother with introductions."
"We had reason to spend a large fraction of the Obon holiday in English immersion together," Ami said.
"Ah. Well, remember, speak English! That's what this club is all about. And I have to leave now. I'll see you tomorrow."
"We will, Ms. Sakurada," I promised. "And have a good evening."
We waited until she'd left, then I turned to my dearest. "You didn't give me any hint that you were going to do this," I said as I gave her a hug.
"Neither did you," Ami said to Ryou with a smile, as she hugged him.
Minako-san pouted. "Oh, sure, rub it in. The Senshi of Love is the only person in the room who isn't in a relationship."
We quickly broke our hugs. "Sorry, Mina-chan!" Makoto said. Then she asked, "So, what do you talk about in the Conversational English club?"
"Oh, all sorts of things," Minako-san replied. "So, now that Rubeus is gone, what happens next?"
"Ah. Those kinds of things." Ryou thought for a moment. "Chibiusa's going to be targeted by a droid some time next week, eight times out of nine."
I nodded. "That's right! That's when Sailor Pluto contacts all of the Senshi."
"And that explains that blank spot in my foreseeing. After that, the probability curve is so smeared out that I can't be sure. Esmeraude and Fiore both appear, but never together."
"Oh, great," I said. "Fiore is the tougher opponent, but Esmeraude is the bigger threat. At least they aren't teaming up."
"Er, who are these two people?" Minako-san asked.
"Fiore's an alien who looks somewhat like Ail and An, and he really likes Chiba-san. Esmeraude is Rubeus' replacement."
"Shall we force a decision?" asked my fiancée.
"How do you plan to do that?" I asked. "It isn't as if we have any control over either of them."
"True," agreed Ami, "but we can arrange the starting conditions for one or the other of their stories."
I looked at Ryou. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's worth a try."
"After we meet Sailor Pluto," Makoto said. Ah, my dearest, if you only knew. But I made a promise that I wouldn't tell anyone who any of the Sailor Senshi are without their permission, and that promise didn't have an "unless I tell another Senshi" rider.
"So, our options are to either open a cake shop and offer an opening-day viking, or visit
Jindai Botanical Garden as a group. Before we became millionaires, I would have said the choice was easy."
"I've just barely started selling our gold, Rob," Ryou reminded me. "Osaka-san was kind enough to buy 32 troy ounces from me."
"So, one kilogram down, 999 to go?"
"Approximately, yes. This will take a while."
Minako-san sighed. "You're dating
and you're rich. What did I do to deserve just a normal life?"
"Normal? You're the Senshi of Love and Beauty," I pointed out with a smile.
"Since we aren't cash-rich yet, the choice is still easy, as much as I'd like to open a cake and flower shop," Makoto said, getting us back on track.
I nodded. "That sounds good to me. And if it doesn't work, we can take Ringo Starr's advice to stop and take the time to smell the roses. When do we want to go?"
"Let's go to Jindai Botanical Garden the weekend between
Respect for the Aged Day and
Autumnal Equinox Day, and I can look at the flowers again even if that doesn't draw out Fiore."
"September 19 or 20, then," Ami said. "Considering how long it takes to get there, I'd prefer going on Sunday."
"Can't we just Teleport there?" Minako-san asked.
"Not without coordinates," replied Ami. "Unless you want to show up in the middle of a street and get hit by a truck."
"Do I look like
Minky Momo? No, thanks. We'll take the train."
"Come to think of it," my dearest asked, "doesn't Chibiusa look a lot like Minky Momo?"
"We'd better keep her away from trucks," I suggested.
"How did she end up like this?" I asked. "She wasn't hit by a truck, was she?"
It was Saturday afternoon, and Small Lady was unconscious in Usagi-san's bed. Now I knew how Ami felt before she got her memories back. I hated not knowing how this happened; the canon episode started
in media res.
"Probably not a truck, Robu-san," Usagi-san replied. "I don't know how this happened; I found her like this downstairs when I got back from school. The doctors don't know what's wrong, not even Ami-san and Meia-san. Do you know?"
Before I could answer, Small Lady said in her sleep, "No... the Jakokusuishou... I can't let it hurt mama..."
"Jakokusuishou?" Usagi-san asked.
"Diabolischer Schwarzkristall," Hayate-chan offered.
"Evil Black Crystal," said Minako-san in English as she walked in and stood beside Rei-san. Switching to Japanese, she asked, "A counterpart to the Ginzuishou?"
"From Nemesis, yes," I confirmed. "Wiseman uses it. And that means there's a droid in a mental connection with Small Lady."
"Robu-san, Ryou-san, how do we save her?"
"You're going to have to make mental contact with her yourselves," Ryou answered before I could.
"That's my job, then," Hayate-chan said as she floated over to Small Lady.
But before she could begin the Unison process, Small Lady said "Puu..." And Luna-P's eyes lit up.
As the ball rose to hover above Small Lady, a hologram appeared above Luna-P. "Hello, Sailor Senshi. I am Sailor Pluto."
"About time you showed up," Sakura muttered. "Where are Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune?"
"That's not important right now," I said.
"Hey, aren't you Meioh Setsuna-san from Atelier Lucent?" my dearest asked.
Luna-P swivelled to look directly at me.
"I didn't say a thing. She figured that out on her own." Turning to Makoto, I continued, "Also not important right now. Small Lady needs help."
"You must not take part in this, Oni," Sailor Pluto said. "For the same reason that Tuxedo Kamen must not Unison with Hayate-chan."
I nodded. "I assume that this is because I self-identify as male and Small Lady is still developing her own gender identity. No risking the self-identity of the person who we're trying to help."
Luna-P swivelled to look directly at Ryou. "For the same reason, you also must not take part,
Onmyōji."
"I understand."
Luna-P swivelled to face Usagi-san. "This will be very dangerous. If you are crippled in Small Lady's dream, you will lose the use of the crippled limb in this world. If you die there..."
"Then we never wake up here," Ami concluded. "But couldn't Rob restore our memories?"
"How would you cooperate to accept them?" I asked. "No. If you die in her mind, you die for real."
"Knowing this," Sailor Pluto continued, "if you are willing to help Small Lady, please take your Senshi forms."
All five of the Sailor Senshi transformed immediately. Sailor Pluto smiled, nodded in recognition, and raised her staff. Then the Senshi – and only the Senshi – were gone. Luna-P's eyes went dark, but the ball continued to hover.
"Onmyōji?" I asked.
Ryou nodded. "The official diviner in the
Ministry of the Center, when
the Imperial Court was in Kyoto. I never thought to look to the past to choose a name for the future."
"It's a pretty good codename for a precog," I said.
"It's certainly better than 'Ryou the Psychic Boy'," he agreed.
The door opened and Ikuko-san walked in. "How is she? And where did everyone go?"
"No change, and they've gone to help her," I replied.
"Do you know when they'll be back?"
Ryou shook his head. "Maybe in ten minutes, maybe in ten hours." That sort of uncertainty wasn't something I wanted to hear from a precog.
She sat down on Usagi-san's desk chair. "I can just barely handle the idea that my daughter is a transforming heroine," she said. "The waiting for her to come home, though... I dread the day when one of you tells me that she won't be coming home again."
"It's not any easier for the rest of us, even if we stand beside her," Sakura said, with some kindness in her voice. "We know how you feel."
We all sat or stood there for a moment.
Then Ikuko-san asked, "Do you think she'll want pancakes when she gets back?"
"I'm sure that they both will," I replied with a smile, remembering how much both Usagis liked that treat in canon. "But it'll probably take Small Lady... Chibiusa a few minutes to get her bearings back when she wakes up, so don't start making them until they're back."
"Tsukino-san, I'll stand watch," Meia offered.
"Thank you, Meia-san. I'd better go make sure I have all the ingredients," Ikuko-san said as she stood up and looked at both Ryou and me. "Will you help with the shopping, please?"
"Of course," I replied. "And thank you. My fiancée is probably standing right beside your daughter right now."
Once I'd been to the supermarket and back, we spent a couple of hours in the living room. Ikuko-san told us stories about Bunny-chan when she was Small Lady's age, Ryou told her about the day in Niigata when he got his memories of the Missing Time back and met Ami again for the first time, and I told her about the time that my dearest and I first visited Jindai Botanical Garden.
"You two are lucky to have Ami-san and Makoto-san as your fiancées," Ikuko-san said at the end of it all. "They're good people, even if they don't fit the mould of the traditional Japanese housewife."
"I'm lucky to be allowed to be Makoto's fiancé," I replied. "I don't fit the traditional Japanese mould, either; I'd much rather have somebody who stands beside me than somebody who stays behind and protects the home. We could never live the way that you and Kenji-san do. Did you know that she wants to own her own business?"
"I know now," she replied just as Ichiro flew into the living room.
"Sir, they're back. And Small Lady is waking up."
"I'd better get started on the pancakes, then," Ikuko-san said with a smile of relief as she headed for the kitchen and we headed upstairs.
We knocked on Bunny-chan's door, then went in. "How is everybody?"
"Just fine, thanks to Usagi-san," Small Lady answered. "She saved
everybody."
Ryou smiled. "You'll have to tell us about it downstairs. Ikuko-san is making pancakes for you."
That got her out of bed in a hurry.
Once we were home, Makoto, Minako-san, and I had a long talk about what we wanted to do about how we wanted to relate with Saeko-basan. Then we asked Ami whether we could come over to talk, only to learn Saeko-basan had been called in for an extra shift.
So Makoto and I decided to visit the next day. Yes, just the two of us; Minako-san still hadn't made up her mind.
"Do you have a few minutes free, Saeko-basan?" my dearest asked.
"I can make the time for you, Makoto-san, Robu-san. Is there something wrong?"
"No, quite the opposite," I replied. "Makoto and I learned a few things while we were magically banished to Midchilda, including how important it is to have a family. And we also learned that family members don't need to be related by blood."
"Ami's our closest friend now, and she's told me that she thinks of me as her sister, just as I think of her as my sister."
Saeko-basan smiled when Makoto said that.
"And Ryou is just as important to me – no, to us – as Ami is."
"And so are you, and acknowledging that fact does not dishonour my parents. May we call you 'mama', Saeko-basan?"
She gave both of us a hug at the same time, tears in her eyes. "Oh, yes, please, Makoto-chan, Robu-kun."
"Thank you, Saeko-mama," we said with tears in our own eyes, returning the group hug.
School that week was remarkably relaxing, since we were reasonably sure that we weren't about to be attacked. Which meant that I felt comfortable sending Shario-chan home with Naru-san on Monday; that shouldn't turn either of them into a target.
"Why?" Naru-san asked.
"I want to see how precise you can be with your powers," Shario-chan said. "If you're really good, then I'll start teaching you how to make replacement parts for us."
"Oh, okay," Naru said. "This isn't going to be a problem for you, is it, Robu-san?"
"Not at all. Ryou will let us know when she has to come home."
Which, I hoped, wouldn't be for a while, our planned trip to Jindai Botanical Garden notwithstanding. Naru-san really needed the attention from somebody else who's in on the secret, and maybe Shario-chan could give her some pointers at using her gem-creation powers.
That meant Naru-san and Shario-chan missed Bunny-chan's attempt at Unison with Hayate-chan when we got together to discuss the idea of forcing a plotline to start. Hoo-boy, was that a mess.
"You're the only one who hasn't tried it yet, save for Hino-san and Chiba-san," Meia said while hovering around Bunny-chan again.
"Don't forget Osaka-san and Aoyama-san," Sakura added.
"I had forgotten about them. Thank you for reminding me, sister. Where are they?"
"Ichigo-san is at home," Ami replied. "Her father and brothers are ashore and everybody's catching up on family news. Naru-san is busy showing Shario-chan how her power works."
Sakura grinned. "So what's really happening is Shari's teaching her fine control."
"You said that, not me," I said with a grin.
"Perhaps that should be left unsaid," Meia suggested. "Tsukino-san, would you transform to Sailor Moon, please?"
"Sure," Bunny-chan said while she did so. Meia went back to taking readings.
"So," Rei-san said, "does anybody know what happened to Chibiusa that needed Sailor Pluto to reveal herself?"
"I haven't had a chance to ask her yet," Makoto said before I could. "I need an excuse to go get a new outfit."
"Whatever happened," Minako-san said, "it's pretty obvious that Chibiusa was targeted."
"In her own home?" my dearest asked. "How would they know where to find her?"
"Their leader Wiseman's in the future," Sakura pointed out. "What we call 'now' is history to him.
Duh."
Nobody said anything while that sank in.
Moon was the first to speak. "But that would mean that this Wiseman is toying with all of us."
"Again, duh."
"Remember how Wendi gave us lessons in trash-talking our opponents?" Ryou asked. "I think he's figured out how to do something similar without saying anything."
"And we just noticed it now," I added. "From now on, I'm calling him 'Wiseguy'."
"I'm gonna call him 'Wiseass'," Sakura announced.
"Not in front of Small Lady," I said. "She needs to take him seriously. Maybe she'll avoid canon when she finally meets him, but that'll only happen if she doesn't underestimate him."
"Sure," Sakura said. "No trash-talking Wiseass in front of the Chibster."
We all looked at her sideways for a moment. "The Chi Buster?" Makoto asked.
"No, the Chibster. You all have nicknames for each other, don't you, Mako-nee? She doesn't mind."
"As long as she accepts that name, I have no problem with it," Meia announced before changing the subject back to her scans. "Moon-san, you have the ability to Unison."
"Do you want to try?" Hayate-chan asked.
"Sure, why not?"
As Hayate-chan passed Sakura while flying over to Sailor Moon, she whispered, "'Chibster'? Really?"
"Oh, get over it," Sakura whispered back.
"So, how do we do this?" Moon asked.
"I'll send you the procedure," Meia replied before getting that distracted look on her face for a moment. Then she said, "Did you understand that?"
"Not at all," Moon replied. "Was that math? I'm no good at math. Ami-chan, what's three-squiggly-lines triangle-pointing-upward squiggly-bracket mean?"
Oh, dear. She couldn't even grasp the first line of Meia's description. Not that any of the rest of us, other than Ami and me, could either, and we had to learn Midchildan mathematical symbols first; just like with Minako-san, Ami would have to explain the process step-by-step.
As she did for the next three minutes. I know that Bunny-chan isn't stupid, but she really doesn't learn things easily, unless she cares about them. My dear friend doesn't have much in the way of self-discipline... at least, not yet.
Then Moon announced that she was ready. "Let's do this."
"Here goes," Hayate-chan replied as the process started.
This was the first time I'd seen a Unison where the person's hair and eye colours didn't change. Instead, Moon's uniform changed to her Super Sailor Moon version.
"Was that supposed to happen?" she asked.
"No, it wasn't," Ami replied, worry evident in her voice.
An actual alarm sounded in front of Meia, from a magical screen that displayed the word "ALERT". "End the Unison, now! Moon-san's power is overwhelming Hayate-chan's identity!"
"How?" Moon asked in alarm.
"Think
exactly what I tell you to think," Ami said before sending to Moon for a half-minute, at the end of which Hayate-chan separated from Unison with Sailor Moon.
Unconscious.
Ryou grabbed her from midair before she could fall.
Meia immediately ran a scan while we held our collective breath. "Her personality is in bad shape, but she's still in there. I must admit that I don't know what to do."
"Oh, no!" Moon cried.
"Ichiro, Unison with me," I immediately ordered. "We're going to have to rebuild her mind."
I had no idea how I knew that, but I knew it was true.
It took us three hours to repair the damage, after which Hayate-chan opened her eyes and said, "Did anybody get the number of the truck that hit me? No, wait, Truck-kun didn't send me to this dimension. Yagami-san did."
"She's going to be okay," I announced while collapsing into a chair. "She still has most if not all of her memories."
"What did you say to me before you started?" Sakura demanded.
"I said, '"Chibster"? Really?'"
Sakura grinned. "Yep, she's got her memories."
"The last thing I remember was starting the Unison with Sailor Moon. I gather it didn't go well."
"We had to use the emergency ejection procedure to get you out," Meia told her.
"Oh. Then I can't be Sailor Moon's partner."
"Nobody can," Meia and Sakura confirmed.
"I'm so sorry, Hayate-chan." Bunny-chan said while bowing.
"And I'm sorry that I didn't foresee that happening," Ryou added.
"I'm okay, Tsukino-san, Ryou-san. At least we found out in a safe environment."
We talked about Bunny-chan and Hayate-chan during the club meeting on Friday, after wishing Ami a happy birthday. I gave her a pair of aviator's goggles and wished her happy flying.
"Why didn't you foresee something so important?" Minako-san asked Ryou. "Hayate-chan could have died!"
Ryou looked at his feet. "I didn't think to look. I'm sorry."
"It's Hayate-chan you need to apologize to," Ami pointed out.
"He already has, twice," I said. "He stopped by my place the day after it happened and apologized again."
"Oh. I should have realized you'd do that, Ryou. I'm sorry."
"It's okay, Ami. You can't know everything."
I smiled. "You certainly do your best to know everything, though."
The door opened and Makoto walked in. "Sorry I'm late. I had class duty." She reached into her school bag and pulled out a thermal flask. "I brought some sweets for the birthday girl; cupcakes and tea. Earl Grey. Hot."
"Thanks, Captain Picard," I grinned... but Ami stopped me from accepting a plastic cup.
"Food isn't allowed in club rooms."
Makoto looked around, pointedly. "This is a classroom."
"While the club is meeting here, it's a club room."
"You weren't such a stickler for rules back on Midchilda."
"This isn't Midchilda."
"Ami-san," Minako-san asked, "is there something wrong? You aren't acting like yourself."
"Nothing's wrong... Oh, who am I kidding? This isn't Midchilda, and I'm so annoyed!"
"At what?" Ryou asked.
"Everything! I spent
two years learning at my own pace from Vita and Hayate and Ichiro and Cinque and Rob and Makoto and especially on my own, and now I'm back to having to keep pace with everybody else because it's the rules."
"There are a lot more rules here than there," my fiancée agreed.
"And I'm starting to think that everyone else in this school is an idiot. Even you, Ryou."
"I know that I'm nowhere near as smart as you are, my love."
"And that makes it even worse! The only people I know who are anywhere near as smart as me are mama and Meia and Rob, and..." she trailed off.
I saved her from the risk of embarassing me. "And I know that I'm not as smart as either you or Meia are. Saying that is a compliment to you, not an insult to me or anybody else here. And you're right about the education system here; if we were in Canada, you would have skipped some grades and you'd be in high school or college by now."
"Why couldn't I be living in Canada?"
Minako-san took Ami's hand in her own for a moment. "Then we never would have met you."
"There is that. Thank you, Mina-chan."
After a moment, I said, "My dearer friend has a problem. How do we help her solve it?"
"I wasn't complaining to ask for help," she said.
"I know. It's a guy thing. If we hear that there's a problem, we try to fix it."
"Stop pretending," Ryou suggested.
"What?"
"Let everybody know who you really are. I'm not suggesting that you tell everybody you're Sailor Mercury," he added quickly, "just that you don't need to pretend to be less capable than you actually are."
"But
the nail that sticks out gets hammered down."
"You already stand out, Ami," I pointed out. "You've taken all of the hammering you've been given and it's made you stronger, like the hammering of a folded sword blank during
shita-kitae. I routinely see your name at the top of the grade or the entire school whenever marks are posted."
Ryou added, "Why not try for 900 this term?"
She thought about that for a moment. "'Why not', indeed..."
It wasn't until we were back home that I mentioned Hokago Tea Time to Makoto... and thanked her for the tea anyway.
Then we had a split week, because Wednesday was Respect for the Aged Day.
We were outside for P.E. the entire Thursday afternoon that week, practising various track and field events before
Health and Sports Day. October 10 fell on a Saturday this year, so we were going to have the school sports festival on the holiday and get the following Monday as a day off instead. It wouldn't be until 2000 that Japan officially moved the holiday from October 10 to the second Monday of the month, so Kuritsu Juban Chuugakkou was a trend-setter there.
Of course the boys who weren't practising at any given time watched the girls. Then people noticed how well Ami was doing and even the teachers were looking at her. 100m, 400m, long jump, high jump, javelin... Ami was coming first in our class in them all. When the teachers told everybody to take a break while they had a short meeting at the side of the field, Bunny-chan and Ami grabbed a Frisbee from somewhere and played catch. By the time the teachers came to a decision, the game had become three-on-three
Ultimate on a short field, Bunny-chan, Naru-san, and Ami versus Minako-san, Makoto, and Ichigo-san, with everybody else watching while I explained the rules when necessary. Seeing this, the teachers went back into a huddle for a few minutes. The game was tied 2-2 when the teachers finally forced the ladies to stop playing.
"Mizuno."
"Yes, sensei?"
"Have you been holding back for the last year and a half?"
"Yes, sensei," she lied.
"Why?"
"Because the nail that sticks out gets hammered down, sensei."
"Why did you suddenly stop?"
Ami smiled. "Because a dear friend of mine pointed out that the hammering had a different effect on me, sensei."
Everybody, teachers and students alike, turned to look at me.
"What, am I that obvious?" I asked, to laughter from my schoolmates.
The teachers cleared their throats, and the laughter died down. "You're the only one in the school who would say something like that, Donarudoson. We have reached two decisions. First, Mizuno will be re-tested in every sport in the curriculum. This will not affect her previous grade. Second, whatever game you were playing while we were talking will be added to the sports fest this year."
"Yay!!" Bunny-chan grinned. "Finally something I'm good at!"
When we split up into classes again, I overheard one of my classmates telling another, "Look at Donarudoson-san, Kazuya. He was brave enough to talk with Mizuno-san and Kino-san, and now he's friends with one and dating the other. Go talk to Aino-san if you like her!" I quietly wished Sakamoto Kazuya-san luck; he didn't seem like the type that she liked, but maybe she'd had a change of heart in the last month or two. And "dating"? I decided to wear my ring to school the next day.
Sure enough, the next day's gossip was dominated by the fact that Makoto and I were wearing matching rings. When my homeroom teacher asked about it, I told him that we had permission from her grandfather to marry once she was 20, and left it at that. Since he asked me in class, that quickly made it onto the grapevine as well.
Sorry, folks, but I'm hers and she's mine. We're both off the market.
Minako-san grinned and called me "Mr. Kino" during the Conversational English club meeting that day. Upon hearing that, Ryou insisted on being called "Mr. Mizuno".
After that, the discussion moved to a review of the canon
Sailor Moon R movie, mostly for Minako-san's sake for the upcoming weekend. I printed out
Hitoshi Doi's summary of the movie and made a few notes in the margins before letting her read it.
"Chibiusa's going to shoot a dart gun at Usagi-san?" Minako-san asked in disbelief when she got that far.
I nodded. "Yeah, that scene of Small Lady packing heat surprised everybody at the time. I don't know whether she's going to do that this time, though."
After she finished reading the summary, Minako-san offered the printout to me. "I assume you don't want anybody else reading that."
"Actually," I said without accepting the paper, "I do want Bunny-chan and Rei-san to read it. Could you take it with you after school tomorrow, please? I assume you're getting together to do homework."
"Why can't you take it along?" she asked.
"I'm going to Shibuya instead," I replied as Ryou, unasked, handed me an envelope filled with money. "Thank you, Ryou. Minako-san, I have a debt to pay down and an invitation to extend."
Of course, "Shibuya" meant Atelier Lucent. When I arrived the next afternoon, I was lucky enough to be the only customer in the store.
"I see you've been shopping elsewhere," Meioh-san said with a small smile.
"Sorry. I had a growth spurt while I was away; I didn't have any choice," I apologized as I handed her the envelope. "This is the start of my repayment of the financial part of the debt that I owe you. There's two hundred thousand yen in there."
"This could have waited until after you moved, you know."
"Ah, so we will be moving. For my own peace of mind, I'd prefer to at least start now, even if it's only a token payment."
"Then I will accept this now." She made the envelope disappear behind the counter.
"Would you happen to be free tomorrow? The group is visiting Jindai Botanical Garden. I know that Neo Queen Serenity would be happy to meet you face-to-face, and we both know how Small Lady would react to your being there."
"And you expect Fiore to show up and my power would be useful against him, but that's beside the point. Unfortunately, I must decline. When one's business relies on teenagers buying the latest fashions, Sunday is the busiest day of the work week. I won't be able to get away from the store."
"I understand." Then we heard the door open and some other customers come in. I was ready for this; I pulled out the tie that I bought in Shinmachi, still in its box. "My fiancée bought this tie for me in Gunma," I lied with a wink, "and I was hoping you might have a shirt that would compliment it."
"We should have something you'll like right over here," she said as the other customers started browsing while they waited their turn.
Thus it was that I wore slacks, a trendy shirt, and a silk tie to Jindai the next day. If it wasn't for my camera bag, my height, and my skin colour, I could have been mistaken for a J-Pop boy band member. A few people, noticing that Makoto was wearing matching colours with me, asked whether we were a new singing duo.
My stock response to that question was, "You really don't want to hear me sing."
Makoto and Minako-san got at Ami's closet and picked out her outfit, so she didn't look like she was all-business the way she did so often since we got back from Midchilda. Her black-and-white outfit with her blue silk scarf matched Ryou's black-and-white outfit with his blue silk tie quite well; there was no question whether they were a couple.
And we all made sure that Bunny-chan's accessories matched Chiba-san's outfit. Even though Small Lady was upset about that.
Minako-san, Rei-san, Naru-san, and Ichigo-san were along for the ride, and they knew it. They dressed casually, not matching any of us. And our littlest fashion victim, Small Lady, wore what she always wears.
As for invoking the movie plot, there's good news and bad news.
The good news was that Fiore did show up. The bad news is that events almost immediately went off script, and not to our advantage.
"Mamoru, I've finally returned to keep my promise. I found a flower that I think you'll like."
Ami immediately started taking scans with the Mercury Computer.
Chiba-san asked, "Do I know you?"
Bunny-chan took the narrative into her own hands at that point. "Mamo-chan, don't you remember? You two met in the hospital the day my little brother was born, and you gave him the rose that I gave you to cheer you up."
Aargh! She played our trump card as the opening move!
"I... think I remember that. Everything from around the crash is fuzzy in my head." Chiba-san turned to the newcomer. "Fiore...?"
"You
do remember," he said with a smile as he took Chiba-san's hands in his own.
"Er... Mamo-chan is my boyfriend."
Fiore pushed her away – not so hard as to push her over, but hard enough to stagger her. "My gift is for Mamoru, not you. I'll return in a few days with it, Mamoru." And Fiore vanished.
We all rushed over. "Well, that could have gone much, much worse," Ryou said.
"And it could have gone better," I replied.
Rei-san pointed out, "He said he'll be back in a few days. In the canon that Robu-san knows, he was back the next day."
"Which means we rushed him," Minako-san said. "Do we have the initiative?"
"We know he's being controlled by a Kisenian flower," Ami said, holding up the Mercury Computer. "We could take the battle to him, based on that much evidence."
"If we know where he is," I pointed out.
Bunny-chan asked "Can we borrow a satellite and look for him?"
I shook my head. "Most satellite cameras are pointed at Earth, not at space. The only two I know about right now that aren't are Hipparcos and the Hubble Space Telescope, and they're both being used full-time."
"People are looking at us," Small Lady pointed out.
"Yeah. Let's go home. No time to stop and smell the roses, my dearest, sorry."
We headed out through the front gate, found a quiet alleyway, and let Ami Teleport us to Rei-san's shrine. I noticed that our pushcart was in the corner of the room we arrived in. I raised one eyebrow. "I already had the coordinates," she explained.
Ichiro looked up from the guard post on top of the gold. "I gather things did not go well," he said.
"They could have gone worse, or better. We have to find an asteroid – no, a seed pod in space – before it arrives near Earth in a few days."
"Are there any sensors in space that Meia could use to carry out a Wide Area Search?"
I shook my head. "I just explained to the others that most cameras in orbit are pointed at Earth."
"Correct me if I'm wrong, sir, but are there any systems on the Moon that survived the fall of the Silver Millennium?"
Nobody said anything for a moment. Then I turned to Naru-san. "Where's Shario-chan?"
"Right here," she said from Naru-san's pocket. "Why?"
"You're a device meister. We may need you to repair something on the Moon, once Meia finds it."
"Oh, okay! I've never worked in a vacuum before. I'll have to go into Life Support Mode."
Ryou turned to Ami. "Do you know where on the Moon the ruins of the Silver Millennium are?"
She nodded. "I was only there once. but I think I remember enough of the night sky to pinpoint their location," she said as she transformed to Sailor Mercury. "Meia, if you would be so kind?"
"I am initiating Unison and Life Support Mode now to protect against the acceleration invoked by the Ultra-long-distance Transportation spell."
"Likewise," Ichiro said as he floated over to me.
"Don't forget us!" Sakura said from Makoto's pocket as my dearest transformed to Sailor Jupiter. "You might need something heavy moved."
"Well, see you later," I said to the others as Mercury and Jupiter stepped outside. By the time I joined them, Mercury and Meia were finishing their spell.
Once we were in the tube, we flew to reduce our transit time. «Fly me to the moon and let me play among the stars...»
«Darling? We really don't want to hear you sing.
»
«Sorry.»
Six minutes later, we were flying above Mare Serenitatis. Of course. Stupid genre conventions.
Mercury dove toward the surface, and we followed her. «Meia, Wide Area Search. Anything that appears to be artificial.»
«Yes, ma'am. W.A.S.» After a long moment, Meia continued, «Two sources detected in the Taurus–Littrow valley. One source detected close to the Chacornac crater.»
«Hmmmmm...» I sent. «The Taurus–Littrow sources are probably
Apollo 17 and
Lunokhod 2. And from orbit, Chacornac looks very strange compared to what's around it.»
«Agreed,» Ami sent back. «Let's check out the Chacornac crater.»
So we did, and we discovered that this was probably where we wanted to be when we flew through an invisible forcefield and into atmosphere. We had to adjust for the sudden gravity increase as well.
"Warning!" we heard all around us. The only reason I understood it was because Ichiro's translation spell was running. "This is a restricted area. If you do not identify yourself within thirty-three seconds, you will be fired upon."
Mercury pulled out the Mercury Computer and tapped a few buttons. "Transmitting identification now."
"Identification received. Welcome, Princess Mercury. Please follow the guide beam." And a light that reminded me of Venus' Crescent Beam attack lit a path for us to follow, to reach a small building surrounded by spheres. The building's door opened for us when we arrived, and we walked in.
"Greetings, Princess Mercury and associates. It has been more than 4,294,967,295 seconds since this tracking facility was last visited. There have been no Dark Kingdom incursions detected in the last 4,294,967,295 seconds."
A tracking facility? We couldn't have been luckier. Of course, this was a stupid genre convention... but I'll take it.
"It can't tell us past that?" Jupiter asked.
"I'm surprised it can go back that far; that's the largest 32-bit number," I replied. "Normally, somebody would be in to check on things more often than once an Earth century."
Ami held up a hand, and we stopped talking. "Status report," she said while activating her visor display.
"Space-facing sensors are at below 0.1% operational status. Earth-facing sensors are at below 0.1% operational status. Communications are at 1.3% operational status. There has been no communication between tracking facilities and central command for more than 4,294,967,295 seconds. This tracking facility is operating in restricted access mode because of the lack of communications. Life-support at this facility is at 97.6% operational status."
Ami looked at some text being displayed on her visor. "Expansion requested. Explain the below-minimum status reports."
"Power feeds to the Earth-facing sensors at this facility are damaged. The majority of Earth-facing sensors are offline for lack of power. Power feeds to the space-facing sensors at this facility are damaged. The majority of space-facing sensors are offline for lack of power. Communications to other tracking facilities are offline for unknown reasons."
Ami read some other text. "Are your personnel recognition systems online?"
"Recognition sensors are running. There is some interference present."
She turned to us. "We should be safe here. Everyone, end Life Support Mode and Unison so that the facility can get clean recognitions of you."
"If you're sure..." Makoto said.
"I'm sure."
We did so, and I got Shario-chan out of my pocket.
"Interference has cleared. Welcome, Princess Jupiter. Remaining personnel are not listed in identity banks."
Whatever sensors this facility was using, they obviously weren't visual if they detected the reincarnation of a person as the original person.
Mercury told the facility, "The other human is designated Rob Donaldson. He is Princess Jupiter's consort-apparent."
"Hello," I said.
"Consort-apparent Donaldson recognized and entered into identity banks."
"The other people are of a race designated 'Unison Device' in their language. Meia is my combat partner. Sakura is Princess Jupiter's combat partner. Ichiro is Consort-apparent Donaldson's combat partner. Shario-chan is a repair technician."
As they identified themselves, the facility acknowledged them, then added, "Request the services of repair technician Shariochan to repair the power systems at this facility. Additional repairs may be required."
"I'm willing," she said, "but I've never worked with this particular hardware before, and I don't have tools with me."
"Schematics are available. Tools are stored in bin 31-Green." A glowing arrow appeared above the lid of one of the bins, and started bouncing up and down to draw attention to it.
"Somebody give me a hand here," Shario-chan said. Meia helped her open the bin and look inside. "Wow. Some of these tools are pretty basic, but others look like they're more advanced that anything from back home. Okay, looking at these readouts, it's pretty clear where the first breaks are."
"The first breaks?" Makoto asked.
"That's all that can be detected," Ami replied. "Once those are repaired, additional damage should be revealed. Shario-chan, Meia, work on getting the space-facing sensors running first. We need to know where the Kisenian Flower is, and fast."
"Expanding scan parameters to alert for Kisenians," the facility stated. That's a smart facility.
While Shario-chan and Meia worked, Ami brought the facility up-to-date on the Silver Millennium – or lack thereof – and discovered that there was some equipment available in storage. While the facility reconfigured to stop scanning for the now-nonexistent Dark Kingdom, we took a look at the available gear.
"We're definitely taking this back to Tokyo with us," Ami said while holding up a box that would just barely fit under my desk.
"What is it?"
"A communications node for the tracking facility network," Ami answered Makoto's question. "We'll get Shario-chan to connect it to your wi-fi, Rob."
"Of course. Once this facility has power back, we'll be in a much better position than we were. Artemis should be happy to have the data."
"Please activate the node," the facility requested. "It is currently set up for Silver Millennium access only. If it is activated, it can be reconfigured to allow native Mau access as well." Right; Luna and Artemis had high-ranking positions in the Silver Millennium, so they'd be in the facility's data banks.
Ami switched it on, to discover the batteries were nearly drained. "We'll need to recharge it as well."
"Near-field recharging in progress. Status update: Space-facing sensors are now at 63% operational status. Earth-facing sensors are now at 12% operational status. Communications are at 24% operational status. Information: Classified update is available."
"Everyone currently in this building has the same security clearance that I have," Ami said.
"Accepted and filed. Continuing. Classified information: Unable to establish connection to tracking facilities at
Moon Castle. Condition of the capital is unknown. Unable to establish connection to tracking facilities at Mariner Castle. Condition of the Mercury government is unknown. Unable to establish connection to tracking facilities at Magellan Castle. Condition of the Venus government is unknown. Unable to establish connection to tracking facilities at Phobos Deimos Castle. Condition of the Mars government is unknown. Unable to establish connection to tracking facilities at Dawn Castle. Condition of the Ceres government is unknown. Unable to establish connection to tracking facilities at Io Castle. Condition of the Jupiter government is unknown. Unable to establish connection to tracking facilities at Titan Castle. Condition of the Saturn government is unknown. Unable to establish connection to tracking facilities at Miranda Castle. Condition of the Uranus government is unknown. Unable to establish connection to tracking facilities at Triton Castle. Condition of the Neptune government is unknown. Unable to establish connection to tracking facilities at Charon Castle. Condition of the Pluto government is unknown. Connection established with tracking facilities at Door to Space-Time. Systems put in place by Queen Serenity during the
Sailor Wars to block access to Sol System are at 100% operational status. Exchanging classified data updates with Door to Space-Time."
"Which means Sailor Pluto shouldn't be surprised if we ever need to go there," I commented while pondering what the existence of the Senshi's castles meant.
"Warning: Large number of Kisenian Flowers detected in one group. Their trajectory will be determined in approximately 19,000 seconds."
Makoto looked at Ami and me with a puzzled look on her face.
"Slightly over five Earth hours," I replied.
"I leave math to you two," she commented as Shario-chan and Meia literally popped out of an air vent.
"That's all we can do with the spare parts here," Shario-chan announced as Jupiter caught her. "Thanks."
"Polling Door to Space-Time to obtain list of spare parts available there." This facility was easily at least as smart as Kasandara.
"We'll have to come back later," Ami said. "Princess Serenity is expecting us to return."
I nodded. "Yes, ma'am. Unison Devices, good work today. It's time to go home."
"Initiating Unison and Life Support Mode, sir," Ichiro reported as Jupiter handed Shario-chan to me.
Ten minutes and one Ultra-long-distance Transportation spell later, we were back at Rei-san's shrine.
Five hours later, Shario-chan had connected the communications node to my wi-fi and Ami had tied the Mercury Computer in with the tracking facility communications network.
We decided to get a good night's sleep, have breakfast, go to school, and save the world. In that order.
By the time classes were out, the tracking facility had transmitted to the Mercury Computer an
ephemeris that included the Kisenian pod. Then there was an argument about who would take the fight there.
I lost.
Ami and Meia's version of Ultra-long-distance Transportation imposed massive acceleration on the subjects if it was going to be of use over the distances that the Senshi needed to travel. I assume a TSAB cruiser's transport systems could damp down that acceleration, but we didn't have a TSAB cruiser. And we didn't have enough Intelligent Devices to go around who could use Life Support Mode to make that acceleration survivable.
And after what happened on Rubeus' ship, Usagi-san was only willing to risk one passenger in a Sailor Teleport. That passenger had to be Tuxedo Kamen.
So the six of them went, along with Sakura and Meia in Unison with Jupiter and Mercury. Just before they left, I sent to my dearest, «Have fun storming the castle!»
All she said in reply was, «As you wish.»
And they were gone.
"I hope they'll be alright," Shario-chan said.
"They will be," Small Lady said. "Sailor Moon will look after them. She's everybody's mama."
Save for Luna and Artemis, we all smiled on hearing her comment; we knew whose mother she actually was. "She is, isn't she?" I said. "She's even scolded me once."
"She did?"
"She did," I nodded. "Sometimes mama has to scold the people she loves, because she loves them."
"I don't get it."
"If you make a mistake, would you want somebody to let you make that mistake again?"
"Uh-uh."
"So mama loves you enough to scold you so you won't want to make the same mistake again."
She thought for a moment. "Oh." After a moment, she added "Ikuko-mama must love Usagi-san a lot."
"I'm sure that she does." And I hoped that Small Lady would remember that if she ever met Wiseguy.
The Senshi returned a few hours later, with Moon looking worse for wear.
Once Usagi-san was resting at home with Meia watching over her, my fiancée told me that things had happened close to canon, with Fiore attacking Moon and being stopped by Tuxedo Kamen. Fiore didn't take it well, and tried to suicide while taking the Senshi with him. Moon saved him and destroyed the Kisenian that was controlling him, and would have saved everyone else from dying in Earth's atmosphere at the cost of her own life if it wasn't for Fiore giving the last of his life energy to Mamoru to pass along to her.
Bunny-chan was back in school on Tuesday morning... which was good, because Thursday was the Autumnal Equinox Day holiday. Ryou, Ami, and I were up early to watch the meteor shower, relaying the feed from the Mercury Computer to the Silver Millennium tracking facility at Chacornac.
Between the tracking facility's readings and Ryou's precognition, we determined that three Kisenian Flowers survived atmospheric entry. We went back to Makoto's and my apartment building, woke my dearest and Minako-san, and headed out to clean up the three loose ends.
"Shouldn't we get the others?" Minako-san asked while Makoto and I transformed.
"No. Our opponents may be evil, but the Kisenians are still intelligent beings," I replied. "And we're going to go kill them in cold blood if they're still alive."
"Yeah, Usagi wouldn't like that," she said while transforming to Venus. "But it has to be done."
Jupiter put her hands on Mercury's and my shoulders. "If she finds out, the four of us will be punished in the name of the Moon. And we'll deserve it."
"The five of us," came a voice from behind us. We turned to face Sailor Pluto. "The
Senshi of the Outer Solar System have standing orders from Queen Serenity of the Silver Millennium to protect Earth from incursions from space. Since three of us have not yet awakened in this reincarnation, I call upon the
Senshi of the Four Guardian Deities to assist me in my sworn duty to the Moon Kingdom."
"Should you be telling us that some Senshi haven't awakened yet?" Venus asked.
"I assumed that you already knew," she replied, looking at me.
"Venus doesn't know who Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are," I said. "I made a promise that I wouldn't tell anybody who a Senshi is without that Senshi's permission."
Before Pluto could reply, Mercury said, "We would be happy to work with you, Sailor Pluto."
"Since we're acting under orders, we should get started," Jupiter said.
We took the opportunity to teach Pluto Midchildan-style telepathy so we could work silently. With Pluto teleporting us where we needed to go, Venus using the Crescent Beam Saber to uproot a Kisenian in
Changchun, Mercury using the Frigid Sword to slice apart a Kisenian in
Vladivostok, Jupiter using her electro-quarterstaff to crisp a Kisenian in
Sapporo, and me keeping the group invisible while we cleaned up the last of the invasion forces, we managed to accomplish the cleanup without anybody noticing.
Or so we thought at the time.
Then it was the day after the holiday, and we got together for lunch.
The Revealing Of The Lunches showed that Makoto, Minako-san, Ryou, Ami, and I each brought along five homemade cake slices, enough that everybody in the group could choose three. I had never had
wiener apfelkuchen made with Fuji apples before, but Ami's was quite tasty and I was lucky to get a slice; they went fast. Of course I had to take a slice of my fiancée's
yuzu cake, and she took a slice of my
rustic peach tart in exchange. My third sweet was a slice of Minako-san's
persimmon loaf. Ryou made a
pear coffee cake, and Bunny-chan enjoyed a slice of it.
"You're trying to tell us something," Naru-san said around bites of yuzu cake.
"Yeah," my dearest replied. "If anybody hears anything about a new cake viking, call in everyone."
Ichigo-san grinned. "Because you want cake?"
"That, too," Minako-san said.
"We're expecting the Dark Moon to start the next phase of their attack by targeting a cake shop's opening special," I added. "And Makoto thought this was the best way for everybody to remember that."
"I'll remember," Bunny-chan said. "This apple cake is so good, Ami-chan!"
Anyone who can do math should already know that we brought twenty-five sweets for eight people. By consensus, Bunny-chan got the "leftover" slice of persimmon loaf; after all, she was still recovering from what happened on Fiore's seed-pod asteroid.
We discussed the impromptu cake viking at the Conversational English club meeting that afternoon.
"Do you think it'll work?" my dearest asked.
"Only one time in thirteen," Ryou answered. "While it was something like a buffet, Esmeraude didn't take part in it."
Makoto shrugged her shoulders. "Oh, well. At least we got to cook."
After the holiday, Shario-chan asked permission to live with Naru-san for a while.
"Why?" she asked.
"I think you might be able to help me, but I need to teach you how."
Shario-chan also asked for a kilogram of gold. Which we still had, but it was an odd request.
"If I can teach Naru-san sufficiently fine control," she explained, "we can start making some replacement parts for the tracking facility. And the same techniques will let us make spare parts for your laptops." She turned to me. "Yes, even your laptop from 2022."
"That helps everybody," I said. "I'm willing to give up a bit of gold for the Sailor Senshi's benefit, and I don't mind Shario-chan living with the Osakas if they don't mind."
"We have a ridiculous amount of gold," Makoto added. "If we can use it directly, I say we should."
Ami nodded. "Likewise."
"Then it's unanimous," Ryou said.
Thus it was that Shario-chan and a kilogram of gold moved to OSA-P for a while. We only expected to get Shario-chan back.
When I mentioned this to Ichiro later the same day, he reminded me that I wanted him to teach Naru-san some sword and knife techniques.
"I wanted either you or Sakura to teach Naru-san how to fight with a blade," I replied.
"Only Makoto can give Sakura orders," he pointed out.
"That makes sense. I'll set up a training schedule with the Osakas, and help Naru-san with sparring during your lessons."
I woke up halfway through the night with a thought about why else Ichiro might want to train Naru-san while Shario-chan was living with her. After all, Shario-chan and Hayate-chan were the only Unison Devices in this entire reality that Ichiro didn't consider to be siblings, and Hayate-chan looked and thought like Colonel Yagami and thus he might think that she's off-limits.
Then I realized that Shario-chan was an adult by the standards of her home culture and able to take care of herself, and their personal lives were none of my business. So I went back to sleep.
No new cake shops opened in the next three weeks. Nor did we see any green-haired women, friend or foe.
Anxiety about when Esmeraude was going to make her move was replaced by anxiety about the sports fest. And then Minako-san apologized that she was going to miss the club meeting on October 9, the day before the festival. Ami and Ryou smiled at that news but said nothing... which gave Makoto and me a pretty big clue as to why Minako-san needed to leave school early. We didn't spoil the surprise, even after Minako-san came home with a new name plate for Makoto's front door.
"It's official now," she said as she unveiled the plate that read Mizuno Minako. "Saeko-mama gave me this for the house, but I'm keeping the Aino name for school records. My birth mother, and I'm never going to say her name again, is going to be furious when she finds out."
Then Minako-san, Makoto, and I invited Saeko-mama, Ami, and Ryou over for a sukiyaki party. You know, just the family.
And I thought that, since we were all family, I should stop using an honorific when talking to, or about, Minako. When I mentioned that, her only reaction was, "What took you so long to realize that?"
And then it was October 10,
Health and Sports Day. We went through all the usual rituals: everybody in attendance was invited to take part in the
warm-up, a speech encouraging us to enjoy ourselves was given by a local leader – in this case, Tokyo Metropolitan Police Superintendent Sakurada Natsuna – and a reply promising we would practice fair play was given by the student council president, and we broke into teams. This year, the odd-numbered classes were the red team and the even-numbered classes were the white team.
As the first-year students took part in track races and the third-year students did team sports, our year cheered for our teammates. Minako won that one by leading the second-year red team in an athletic American-style cheer, and Superintendent Sakurada wasn't the only person surprised to hear her referred to by her new name.
Ami proceeded to sweep the second-year track events for the white team, as everybody but Saeko-mama expected.
Second-year tug-of-war lasted for fourteen minutes, and was declared a tie after everybody but the team anchors collapsed from exhaustion, because the anchors were needed on the podium to explain the next game. Why, yes, Makoto and I were the anchors.
And, yes, the next game was Ultimate. Bunny-chan's seven won that one for the red team, and everybody who took part liked the idea of a game where there were no referees and the players were on their honour to admit whether they'd made a foul.
Taken overall, it was too close to call which team won at the end of the day, and I'm sure the teachers arranged things that way on purpose. But looking only at the second year, Ami nearly single-handedly won it for the white team. Yay us!
We got together at Bunny-chan's place the day after the sports fest, to do our weekend homework together.
Ami didn't even open her textbooks; she didn't need to in order to complete the assignments. In ink.
I wasn't so sure of my knowledge; I opened my textbooks and used pencil, just like everybody else.
And over lunch, Small Lady of all people mentioned the brand-new Maxi-5 cake shop. Almost like in canon.
"You know," I commented, "a cake viking is one of the few places that girls usually visit that some guys would like to visit."
"Let's invite Mamo-chan!"
"You don't get to call him 'Mamo-chan', you brat!" And both Usagis headed for the telephone.
Whispering, my fiancée said, "I suppose you want an invitation to go see whether Esmeraude is there. Sure, you can take me on a date."
"Do you want to go, too, Ryou?" Ami asked at the same volume.
He shook his head. "It would be better if Kasandara and I aren't on the front lines."
"I'll pass, too," Ichigo-san said. "I never realized before Mako-chan fought Petz just how dangerous your work is. And I'm on a diet," she added at a more normal volume as Bunny-chan and Small Lady came back into the room.
"You are?" Bunny-chan asked. "I told Mamo-chan that we'd all be there."
"When will we all be there?" Rei-san asked.
"Right away!" Small Lady said as she grabbed her jacket.
"I guess we're going now," Ami sighed as she put her homework into her school bag.
I suggested to Artemis that he didn't want to come along, using the two dreaded words: "pet carrier". He stayed behind with Luna, Ryou, and Ichigo-san.
And so we headed to Maxi-5, meeting Chiba-san just outside the door. He was kind enough to pay for Bunny-chan and Small Lady; I covered the other girls' entry fee. There weren't any tables for nine, which suited both Chiba-san and me just fine. He sat with Bunny-chan, Small Lady, and Rei-san, while I shared a table with Makoto, Ami, Minako, and Naru-san. And, it turned out, Shario-chan, Meia, and Ichiro. Sakura was guarding the gold that day.
Or, at least, that was the plan. We realized that Bunny-chan hadn't made it past the buffet table. She wasn't the only one who was eating directly from the buffet; a taller woman with green hair was matching her slice for slice.
«Usagi!» Ami sent. «Remember the Princess Seminar!»
«Elegance!» my fiancée added.
Bunny-chan stopped eating. "Oh. Excuse me, honored elder," she said to the other woman before leaving, who got visibly upset upon being called "elder" and more upset when she realized she was making a spectacle of herself. She quickly headed for the back room.
"Well, whatever's on the buffet right now is safe, but don't trust anything new," I said.
"That was Esmeraude?" Naru-san asked.
"She fits the canon description," replied Ami as she stood up to get a few cakes.
We all followed her lead, just before a waitress stepped out of the back room and replenished the cake supply.
Then came the hard part: eating slowly and waiting for everybody else to go into trances. Luckily, that only took ten minutes, and eating elegantly while taking part in conversation stretched out our supply of non-tainted cakes for most of that time.
Then it happened: the other patrons of Maxi-5 started freezing in place. Chiba-san threw a platter at the waitress, who dropped her disguise and announced she was named Marzipan.
We took that as our cue to leave through the side doorway, apparently in a panic. "Naru-san, please take care of Small Lady," I asked.
"Of course. You're going back in?"
"Shario-chan didn't make it out. Mirage Hide!"
Ami added, "Neither did Meia," as she transformed to Mercury. The rest of the Senshi transformed and headed back in.
Chiba-san was having trouble; half of the platters within reach were already sugar-frosted and brittle.
Marzipan noticed us, saw Sailor Jupiter, and immediately sprayed rings of marzipan at her. Jupiter ended up trapped and bound in a stack of donuts.
I couldn't resist. As I dodged, I sent, «When I say you look good enough to eat, I don't mean like that, my dearest.»
«I know what you mean, darling.
»
«Seriously, you being taken out first means they think you're the dangerous one.»
«Considering what I did to Petz, I
am the dangerous one. Incoming at 2 o'clock.»
During our exchange, Venus had managed to get herself caught in a full-body decorated cake. «We have to give Venus some speed training,» I sent to Ichiro as I dodged a marzipan stream from my 2 o'clock. Then I noticed that Meia had conjured up a display and Shario-chan was pointing at various things on it.
While Marzipan's attention was on us, Chiba-san finally had a chance to duck out and get changed. Moon was standing, posing, and about to get coated in marzipan when Tuxedo Kamen threw a rose at Marzipan, puncturing one of her two icing bags. "A girl's pure heart is made of sugar, and sometimes sugar melts." A corny line straight out of canon, but it hid the fact that Mercury had already figured out the correct attack.
"Shiny Aqua Illusion!"
And, like the Wicked Witch of the West, Marzipan melted into a puddle. Unlike
The Wizard of Oz, though, there was a sweetness to this puddle.
As the shop's patrons woke up and Marzipan's restraints faded away, the green-haired woman stepped out of the back room to discover her plan was ruined. "What! How dare you! Well, you may have won this battle, Sailor Senshi, but we will win the war! I am Esmeraude of the Dark Moon!"
I wasn't in the mood to listen to a villain speech. "Colleague of Saphir and subject of Diamande of Nemesis, yes, yes."
"How do you
know that?"
"That should be obvious, or has your brain become fogged with age?" The taunt had its desired effect on the young-appearing woman. "You travelled back in time because you were chasing another time-traveller. Did you seriously think you were the only ones?"
"Who are you?"
"They call me Oni."
"Oh, yes, one of the Millennium's lackeys, along with Okuni and Onmyōji. None of you are any good in combat." I manifested a staff and telegraphed a thrust at her, which she dodged easily. "Case in point."
I wondered who Okuni was. "At least they trust me, old lady. Does your Wiseguy trust you?"
"Wise
man works for Diamande, just as I do! He does what he's told!"
"Sure, sure, you keep telling yourself that. So are you going to surrender to us, do you want to fight all of us alone, or are you going to run with your tail between your legs?"
"You wait until next time!" She chose to run.
After she left and as we were leaving, Moon asked, "How did you miss her?"
"He let her dodge," Jupiter answered before I could. "A blind man could have seen that attack coming. He also let her jump to a conclusion about where and when he's from."
"And now she thinks I'm less capable that I actually am," I said as I let my disguise spell drop and the others transformed back to their usual identities. "That may come in handy later. Now, what were you two doing during the fight?" I asked Shario-chan and Meia.
"Scanning Marzipan. That droid had a lot of security holes," Shario-chan said as Naru-san took her from me.
"And she wasn't waterproof," Meia added. "I expect that they'll mitigate that with the next droid, though."
"Ichiro," my dearest said, "would you mind spending the night with Naru-san and Shario-chan? I believe my fiancé thinks I'm good enough to eat..." she finished with a grin. I licked my lips in reply.
"I won't wait up for you," Minako said with a matching grin.
"Humph," Rei-san sniffed.
"Naru-chan," Bunny-chan asked, "what are they talking about?"
"Oh, Usagi... I'll tell you later, but not in front of Chibiusa."
I wondered what was going to happen next. In canon, Bunny-chan and Chiba-san got back together, but that's already happened.
Three days later, and I knew what was about to happen when half the class – including Ami – called in sick.
It was the worst possible scenario, as far as everyone's sanity was concerned: we'd skipped straight to "
Venus Minako's Nurse Mayhem".
Insert scare chord here.
At the end of the day, Ichigo-san, Ryou, and I met for a moment; I gave Ami's homework assignments to Ryou, and Ichigo-san gave Makoto's homework assignments to me.
The next day, there was a sign in the school lobby that told all students who had managed to come in to take a seat in class 1 of their year. When the bell rang, class 2-1 contained Sakurada-sensei, Ichigo-san, Minako, Ryou, and me. And Ichigo-san and Sakurada-sensei were wearing masks. There was plenty of room for social distancing, which we adopted as soon as I explained the concept.
"I'm the only second-year teacher who made it in," Sakurada-sensei announced after taking attendance. "And that's only because they begged me. I'll be in the nurse's office if you really need me. Everybody, the entire day is study hall."
After she left, I said, "Okay, I was vaccinated against influenza back in 2022. How are you three still standing?"
"Kasandara has been steering me away from infection vectors," Ryou explained.
"If I let a little thing like the flu slow me down, I could never be a field researcher," Ichigo-san said.
"I never get colds!" Minako announced proudly.
We all looked at her as if she'd grown a second head. Finally, Ryou said, "
That isn't something to be proud of."
After Ichigo-san explained the superstition, Ryou showed that he'd broken a school rule and brought a guest with him. Specifically, Meia.
"Ami sends her regards to you all and regrets that she cannot attend classes at the moment. Kasandara tells me that I should stay with you for the rest of the day," she announced while floating over to Minako.
"Me? Why?"
"She told me that you'll need my help."
I wondered why – a single Unison Device couldn't possibly offset the oncoming disaster that was Hurricane Minako – but set that aside because everyone else was having a quick talk about what we were going to do in class. Then Ichigo-san led us through an hour of biology, I led us through an hour of English, Ryou led us through an hour of math, and Minako led us through an hour of low-impact P.E. Then it was lunchtime, but just before we could do our usual Revealing Of The Lunches, Principal Takeuchi told us to go home and not bother coming back the next day because the school was going to be closed. Needless to say, there was no Conversational English club meeting that afternoon.
"Want to go home together?" I asked Minako.
"Do you mind if we stop along the way? Mako-chan and I need some groceries."
"We'd better eat lunch first, then." So we did, and then we bought enough food for a few days.
As we climbed the stairs to our apartments, Minako said, "I wish there was something I could do to help everybody else."
Remembering what
that meant from canon, I quickly replied, "Ichiro and I don't need any help right now, Minako. Thanks anyway."
Ten minutes later, just as I finished texting Ami with a warning that her new sister wanted to "help", I received a thought from my fiancée. «Rob! Help! She's wrecking my kitchen!»
"Ichiro, mind the house!"
"Yes, sir. And good luck." Apparently he'd heard Makoto, too.
Luckily, they'd left their door unlocked. Unluckily, I took a bowl of hot
okayu to the face as I opened the door. Not on purpose – Minako had tripped – but it was only because I reflexively put up a forcefield that I avoided being burned by the boiling water that she'd used to make it.
"I'm so sorry..." Minako said as she stood up.
"Maybe I should take care of my dearest," I volunteered.
«Oh,
thank you!» she sent to me.
"Would you?" Minako asked. "That will let me help one of the others!"
Just then, my cellphone beeped. I pulled it out, looked at the text message, and showed it to Minako, saying "Ryou is at Ami's place."
"I'll go help Rei, then!" And she was out the door, Meia quickly following her.
As the door closed behind them, my dearest said, "I feel sorry for Rei."
"So do I, but it's canon," I replied as I picked up the bowl that had almost hit me. "We're going to have to replace this," I said, holding it up to show the crack that went halfway down the side. "You call Rei-san and warn her; I'll clean up. Why didn't Sakura prevent all this?"
"She's at the shrine, guarding our gold today."
"I think Rei-san needs guarding more than the gold does right now."
When I finished cleaning up Makoto's apartment and making a list of the damage, Rei-san called back and let us know that Hurricane Minako was on her way to the Tsukino residence.
"I have to go," I told Makoto as Ichiro Unisoned with me. "I'm sorry."
"I know. Good luck."
It was a good thing that I was used to going invisible while flying; I was able to approach the Tsukino residence without being seen, which meant I was able to catch Small Lady as she overbalanced while hanging sheets to dry on the balcony. In canon, Bunny-chan caught her... but here, Bunny-chan was talking with Makoto on the phone. I went visible as I grabbed Chibiusa.
"Robu-niisan! Thank you!" Small Lady held onto me for dear life as I landed.
We met Minako at the front door. "Rob? Why are you carrying Chibiusa?"
I let her answer. "I was hanging the laundry out to dry One of the sheets was too big for me and I fell over the railing."
When she didn't continue, I added, "And I was in the right place at the right time. Now, what are you doing here? I thought you were going to Rei-san's place."
"Oh, Rei was happier with me once I was gone."
Small Lady tightened her hold on me. Smart girl.
"Ah. Well, shall we go in and let Bunny-chan know that we're here? I assume Small Lady would be able to let us in without knocking."
At this point, Bunny-chan leaned over the railing of the balcony where the laundry was drying. "I heard a shout. Is everybody okay?"
"I'm okay! Go back to bed!"
"Small Lady, please don't shout in my ear."
"Sorry!" She finally let go of me, and I let her stand on her own. She let us in, and I talked with Ikuko-san for a moment.
Then I headed upstairs. "Small Lady, Ikuko-san tells me that she's run out of flu medicine. Can you get more for her, please? I'll finish hanging the laundry."
"Maybe I should go," Minako said. "We don't want anybody thinking they're filming an episode of
Hajimete no Otsukai, after all."
"Mina-chan," Bunny-chan asked, "do you even know where the hospital is?"
"Of course I do! My new mother works there! It's... er..."
I sighed. "Small Lady, would you show Minako how to find her mother's workplace from here, please?"
"I can do that!" And the competent girl took the hand of the middle-school student and lead her downstairs.
As they left, I turned to my companion. "Ichiro, you and I are going to finish hanging the laundry out to dry. Then we're going to follow the ladies. Meia is with them."
"Certainly, Rob."
As Ichiro headed for the balcony, Bunny-chan said, "You've said more than once that you trust Chibiusa."
"I do. It's Minako that I'm worried about."
The laundry took longer than I expected; we didn't get to Juban Daini General Hospital until after Minako and Chibiusa were already inside.
After I landed but before I went visible, Meia sent a distress message. «There is a droid in the hospital!»
"Mirage Hide!" I went full Oni in appearance. «Ichiro, stay in Unison! Meia, where are you?»
«We are inside the public dispensary on the ground floor.»
It didn't take us long to find the dispensary, or to see the unconscious staff – including Saeko-mama – in one of the back rooms. Then we found Small Lady, Venus, Meia, Esmeraude, and the droid of the week... Pharmakon, I remembered.
Venus was pinned to the wall with syringes. Esmeraude was holding Small Lady down. Pharmakon was trying to get close enough to inject Small Lady with something. Meia... was
awesome.
"I shall not let you pass," she announced, holding a full-sized Frigid Blade with both hands and swinging it both effortlessly and effectively. Alas, Pharmakon was regenerating the damage as fast as she was taking it, but at least she wasn't hurting Small Lady.
«I had no idea that Meia could do that.»
«We are all rated as TSAB combat instructors, Rob.»
«I would appreciate some help, gentlemen,» Meia sent to us as she swung her sword at Pharmakon and cast a spell at the same time. "Frigid Dagger!" That, she sent Esmeraude's way, keeping her too busy to simply kill Small Lady.
«Drop out of Unison and keep Esmeraude busy, Ichiro. I'll let the droid try to pick on somebody her own size.» He did so as I dropped the vision cloak. «Meia, you and Shario-chan spent a lot of time examining Marzipan.»
«I believe I know what you want me to do, sir.»
I was glad one of us did. «Do it.» I turned my attention to Pharmakon. "I'm your opponent now!"
The droid shot some syringes at me, which I deflected with a forcefield shield. I heard a ruckus behind me, and then suddenly Small Lady was beside me. "Stay still, Small Lady." I dropped a forcefield bubble around her as I formed a forcefield sword of my own; Meia had dropped hers.
Then I was using my sword to parry syringes as Pharmakon launched them at me. And then I wasn't, as Meia said, "I have finished."
"Finished what, you annoying little Device?" Esmeraude asked while dodging Ichiro's blade.
"You sought to spread a virus from this place for your own purposes. In exchange, I have given your droid a virus of our own."
At that point, I heard the sound of crystal shattering in the corner of the room. I risked taking a look; there were pieces of a small figurine all over the floor.
"Curse you!"
By the time I had turned back, Esmeraude was gone. "Oh, that isn't fair. She's supposed to announce that she's leaving, not just complain." Then I turned to Pharmakon. "So, how do you feel?"
"Much better now that I am not attempting to follow conflicting programming to both heal and harm, sir." I noticed that her skin looked more human-like and all of the sharp edges on her chassis were smoothing out; Pharmakon was looking more human with every second that passed.
"Meia...?" I started, to discover she wasn't in the room any more. Then she was, with Saeko-mama following close behind her. "Ah, there you are, Meia. How are you feeling, sensei?"
"I'm the only one who's awake, Robu-kun. Meia's letting everyone else sleep off the hypnosis spell that was cast on us."
"Ah. In that case, how are you feeling, Saeko-mama?" I asked while dropping both my disguise and the forcefield around Small Lady.
"I'm fine. Are all of you doing well?"
"Oh, sure, I'm just hanging around," Venus said from where she was still pinned to the wall.
I grinned as we walked over to her and I created a forcefield box for her to stand on. "You know, when my classmates say they have Sailor V on their wall, they mean a poster."
"Oh, very funny," she replied sarcastically as Small Lady and I started pulling the syringes out of the wall and her clothes.
"I don't like these," Small Lady said.
"I will dispose of them for you," offered Pharmakon.
"Thanks... er, do you have a name?" Small Lady asked.
"As a droid, I am called Pharmakon. As a person, I do not have a name."
"Yet." I added while pulling another syringe out of Venus's uniform. "Do you have a preference for your name?"
She thought for a moment. "I wish to serve Neo-Queen Serenity. Can I have a name that reflects that?"
"Sailor Moon is Princess Serenity," Saeko-mama said. "Would Mochizuki be acceptable?"
"Moon desire?" Ichiro asked in English. "That would be an excellent family name."
"And I can use 'Ka' as a given name, since I am one."
"Simply calling yourself 'nurse' lacks a certain amount of humanity, though," I pointed out.
Meia smiled. "Perhaps you might appreciate the name 'Ka'o'." Ichiro smiled along with her. I wondered what I was missing.
"I do believe I would." Pharmakon turned back to Small Lady and bowed. "My name is Mochizuki Ka'o. I am happy to meet you."
Small Lady bowed back. "I'm Usagi Small Lady Serenity. But only Robu-niisan and Puu call me Small Lady here; everyone else calls me Chibiusa. It's good to meet you, Ka'o-neesan."
We heard sounds of movement coming from the next room over. "I'd best see to my colleagues," Saeko-mama announced. "You, too, Mochizuki-san." Seeing the surprised look on the droid's face, she added, "If you're a nurse who's working here, then you're assisting me until we figure out which department to put you in full-time."
"And we'd best get out from underfoot," I added while pulling the last syringe out of Venus' outfit and helping her down safely. "Meia, Ichiro, if you'll ride in our pockets, the five of us will be on our way."
"We still need flu medicine," Small Lady insisted.
"Right," Minako said. "We'll get that from the nurse on duty on the way out."
So we did, and we started walking back to the Tsukino home.
We got halfway there before Small Lady stopped. "Hey!"
"What?" Minako asked.
"Saeko-basan wouldn't lie to me, would she?"
"I've never known her to lie to anybody," Minako said.
"And she said that Sailor Moon is Princess Serenity."
"Yeah, I told her that when she was tending to my wounds after we fought Rubeus."
"But Usagi is Sailor Moon, so Usagi is Princess Serenity. And Princess Serenity grows up to become Neo-Queen Serenity. And she's my mama. But that means...
Usagi is my mama?"
Well, at least Small Lady had deductive logic down pat. "That's right," I said. "Ichiro, I'm ordering you to keep that secret until after Bunny-chan finds out from Small Lady or somebody else who isn't here."
"Yes, sir," Ichiro acknowledged.
"Meia, Minako, I'm asking you to do the same."
"I can do that, sure," Minako said.
"I see the need to keep this private," Meia added. "It isn't my secret to tell her. I will abide by your wishes."
"Thanks," Small Lady said. "But now I have to live with knowing that."
Sunday arrived, and Ryou enlisted us to help him move 300 kg of our gold from Rei's shrine to Setsuna's car. We had to pack the car carefully so that its suspension wouldn't sag unevenly.
Ami wasn't with us; she said that Naru-san needed her help talking with Bunny-chan. I didn't catch everything she said to Makoto, but it included "she's old enough that she needs to know all this by now" and "what is Ikuko-san thinking?" Given that, I didn't really want to know what they had to talk about, even though it was pretty obvious.
So Yuuichirou-san helped us with the physical work.
"Do you want my family to buy any of this?" he asked.
"I thought you wanted a simpler life than what the Kumada family lived," Rei-san replied.
"Simpler both physically and spiritually, yes. That's why I'm grateful to your grandfather for letting me live and work here." He turned to us. "I really don't understand why you'd want to become rich."
"That's because you've always been rich," Ryou said. "It's a lot easier to walk away from money than it is to get it in the first place."
Makoto nodded in agreement. "And legally buying gold where it's inexpensive and selling it where it's expensive is a much better way to become rich than the alternatives. I'm going to have enough money to open a cake and flower shop when I turn 20, but..."
After a moment, I walked over and gave her a hug. "But you'd rather have your family."
"Yeah."
"Go sit down; we'll finish up here," Rei-san offered.
"No, that's okay. Grief won't bring them back." She picked up a box and headed for Setsuna's car.
We all saw the need to change the subject. Ryou thought of something first. "Rob, how many more droids do we have to worry about?"
"None, if Meia and Shario-chan can hack into them. But I doubt Saphir will leave those backdoors open now that Esmeraude has no doubt told him that we've used one. If things go according to canon, there will be one at the Animal Kingdom petting zoo, then one at Ami's juku, then two at the same time, one at Small Lady's school and one in a public park. Then we all go to the future."
"No, you don't," Setsuna declared. "Because of the carnage of the Sailor Wars during the Silver Millennium, the Door to Space-Time is restricted to the use of Senshi and royalty only. The only exceptions are Artemis and Luna. Ichiro, Kasandara, Okuni, Oni, Onmyōji and Shario-chan must not use it."
"But Meia, Sakura, and Hayate-chan can?" my dearest asked.
"What Sailor Pluto cannot see, Sailor Pluto cannot stop." Setsuna winked. "Although she can see the difference between pink hair and auburn hair."
"And it's an earlier version of you guarding the Door to Space-Time," I added. "Presumably she doesn't know about Unison Devices yet."
"So I'm not going," Hayate-chan said. "Meioh-san just said as much."
"By the way," I asked, "just who is Okuni? That's the second time I've heard that name."
"I don't know whether I should tell you that," Setsuna replied. "But I will.
Okuni is she who wears the firmament, who has the visage of a virtuous and handsome warrior, who wields blades of diamond, and who in another reality would have been called Sailor Earth."
That was a surprise. "Naru-san?"
"Do you know anybody else with powers, Robu-san?" Rei-san asked.
"Just because I don't know anyone else with powers doesn't mean they aren't out there," I replied while thinking of the Senshi who I hadn't yet met. "And that box goes directly under the driver's seat, not the passenger seat, my dearest."
"Oh, right."
"Well, that's one mystery cleared up. Ryou, why were you asking about canon? You know we do our best to change it for the better." Setsuna scowled at my comment, but said nothing.
"Because Kasandara and I are foreseeing four different attacks being launched at the same time, seven times out of eleven."
Even Setsuna was surprised by that.
"The same four that I mentioned?" He nodded. "When?" I asked while loading the last box into Setsuna's trunk.
"Thursday. Or possibly Friday."
"We're going to be spread thin. Hayate-chan...?" I started.
"I'll stay with Small Lady until she leaves for Crystal Tokyo. Ichiro, you're with me; we need to teach her enough to stay alive in the middle of an all-out melee and then defend her once it starts, and we'll need Usagi-san the day of the attack. Ami, Meia, Ryou, and Rob will take the cram school. Minako-san, Luna, Artemis, Makoto, and Sakura get the petting zoo."
Our resident strategist was obviously just waiting for a chance to give the rest of us our orders. Not being stupid, we took them.
"What about me?" Rei-san asked.
"You get the hard job. We're deliberately setting you up to fail in the park. I'm not even going to tell you which park it is. That Dark Point
must be opened before Chibiusa can go home, but we can't let them know that we know that."
"What?
Why?"
I sighed. "Because the Dark Moon needs a victory in order to take their attention away from the Door to Space-Time until it's too late to stop you from using it."
"If I wasn't a miko and thus doing my best to remain pure, I'd swear right now."
"Would you like us to swear for you?" Ryou asked.
"Not on the shrine grounds."
Monday came, followed by Tuesday and then Wednesday. The Revealing Of The Lunches showed that Bunny-chan had high-carb, high-protein lunches all three days.
"I thought you were an oni," she told me on Wednesday. "But you have nothing on Ichiro-san."
"Is his training that bad?" Naru-san asked.
"He spent an entire day teaching me and the brat how to fall! I don't know why. There's nothing hard about falling."
"If you fall the wrong way," Ami explained, "you could break a bone. It's best to know how to fall properly."
"Oh!"
"I have some good news," Ami continued. "The tracking facility in Chacornac has focused its working Earth-facing sensors on the
Kantō Plain."
"That
is good news," I said. "I can't think of any enemy that shows up somewhere else before we graduate from middle school."
"Can we use that to find our enemies before they find us?" Ichigo-san asked.
Bunny-chan smiled. "You said 'our enemies', not 'your enemies'. Thank you."
"And I believe that we can," Ami added, "as long as we know what we're looking for. I've already set up the system to scan for both unidentified flying objects and Dark Points. However, we can't locate a new enemy until after we've analyzed their first few attacks."
We were going to hate that once the Death Busters showed up, but that's a story for another day.
My dearest asked, "Can we tell Rei where her target is going to be... is it still tomorrow, Ryou?"
"The probability that it's tomorrow has risen to nineteen times out of twenty-one."
"And yes," added Ami. "Although Hayate-chan said that we weren't going to tell her."
"Hayate-chan should know by now what Rob and I think of following rules," Makoto said. I nodded in agreement. "Everybody else is going to fight as part of a team. She's going alone. No backup. No reserve force. Tell me with a straight face that Hayate-chan expects us to let that happen."
"Even if she will," Naru-san said, "I won't. Ichiro-san has been training me how to use my swords; I can at least cover Rei's retreat if she needs to make one."
"Thank you so much, Naru," Usagi-san said.
Ami handed Naru a folded piece of paper, showing that she agreed with us. "That's the bus route to get to the park where the Dark Point is. Chacornac could only find four Dark Points, and we already knew where the other three were." Then she coughed loudly. Ryou did the same a moment later.
And then we were paged to the school office. All of us, except for Ichigo-san.
When we got there, we discovered that Sakurada-sensei was talking with Superintendent Sakurada and Saeko-mama. "You're hiding something from me, Natsuna, I know it. Why these students?"
"As I have already explained to the school principal," Saeko-mama replied, "some of them were at the hospital during the influenza outbreak and were not treated properly, and the others are known to associate with the ones who might be carriers."
"And Tokyo can't afford to have another outbreak so soon after the last one, Haruna," our teacher's sister added. "We have to get them out of here and test them. I'll send someone to pick up their homework assignments."
"Is there something wrong with us, sensei?" Minako asked from the doorway.
"We hope not," Sakurada-sensei said. "This is just a precaution. But I have both medical and public safety instructions to let all of you out of school for up to a week."
Saeko-mama walked over and handed masks to all of us.
"While we're still deciding what to do for the
cultural festival?" Ichigo-san asked.
"You haven't decided yet?" her homeroom teacher asked from his desk. "You're running out of time."
"I'm counting on you to push my suggestion through," Makoto said while putting her mask on. I quickly followed suit.
We were lead out to an unmarked passenger van and told to get in. Then Superintendent Sakurada took the wheel, with Saeko-mama sitting beside her.
"That gives you a week, just as Urawa-san requested," Superintendent Sakurada said. "Go kick some Dark Moon butt, Sailor V."
"Yes, ma'am!" Minako replied. "But I'm still not working for the Tokyo Metropolitan Police."
"Maybe not now, you aren't, but I'm not going to stop asking." After a moment, she added, "Are any of the rest of you interested in joining the Tokyo Metropolitan Police? I can arrange a recommendation to a good university."
"We're still a little young for that," Ryou replied diplomatically.
We were dropped off at the hospital, and Saeko-mama personally tested all of us. An hour later, Meia and Ami healed Minako of the flu that she was beginning to suffer from... so it was a reasonable precaution after all.
And then it was Thursday, and all four of Esmeraude's remaining plans went off at the same time.
"This is going to be difficult for you," Ryou said as we approached OK Shingaku Juku.
Ami nodded. "Yes, they're going to play to our fears as much as possible. But I'm reminded of something the Jewish people say: 'Yea, thou I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me.'"
"The 'thou' in that line is God, not some fallible mortal like either of us," I pointed out.
"And we're nowhere near as powerful as a kami," Ryou added with a smile.
"You two," Ami complained while opening the door to the juku, "don't give me self-doubt by pointing out things right when I need to be at my most confident."
"Sorry," we said as one of the juku's teachers approached us.
"Mizuno-san, it might be best if you were not to attend classes today."
"May I ask why?"
"Your classmates are unhappy with your progress, and I must agree with some of their concerns. We all heard about the results of your school's sports festival. You were never that good before your Canadian friend arrived; there is some question as to whether you're following in the footsteps of
Ben Johnson."
"I am that Canadian friend, sir," I said before she could reply, "And I must object to that slander. Listening to baseless rumours does you no credit, sir." I stared directly at the teacher. "I would have expected teachers to be able to prevent the spread of malicious statements in their classes," I added, knowing that I wasn't making any friends here.
"Unless you are a student here, I have to ask you to leave."
I nodded. "I most certainly will not become a student here, nor will I be recommending your establishment to others. Good day, sir." I turned on my heel, walked away, ducked into an alleyway, and went invisible.
By the time I was back, Ryou was leaving the building. He held the door for me.
Ami followed the teacher to the juku's office. The teacher went in first, then left Ami waiting for a half-minute. Normally, that would be passive-aggressive bullying, but I took the opportunity to let her know I was there, and she passed Meia to me before the two of us headed for the classrooms.
I waited for a moment to make sure nobody followed us in, then I dropped my invisibility cloak and looked out the classroom's window, admiring the view for a moment.
"I wonder how we're going to win," I muttered.
"You can't possibly figure that out," I heard Ryou say from behind me. I hadn't heard him come in.
"Why not?"
"You leave all the heavy thinking to Sailor Mercury. You couldn't come up with a plan without looking through all that canon material you brought back."
"Hey, that's not fair. I've come up with plenty of plans on my own."
"And how many people died because of those plans? Mercury? Jupiter? Sato-san? How many more?"
"I couldn't stop any of those!" I cried, just before I picked up on the mistake. Ryou didn't know Sato-san's name. The droid Giwaku was playing with my emotions. I wondered whether Ryou was even in the room.
Just then, the door opened and Mercury walked in. "You killed me, Oni, because you had to keep your precious data to yourself. It's a good thing for you that Sailor Moon brought me back so you don't have to wallow in self-pity, isn't it? Honestly, I don't know what Jupiter sees in you, gaijin."
«Did you just call me "gaijin"?» I sent to Ami.
«No, I usually say gaikokujin. Did you just call me "ugly nerd"?» she sent back.
«No. You're beautiful, and not nerdy except for all your reading.» I glared at her for appearances' sake. "You keep Jupiter out of this!"
She glared back at me. "I'll talk about whoever I want! Including that brainless bimbo!" «You can't have said that about my mother. Meia, where's the droid that's making us mishear each other?»
«W.A.S. in progress.»
"You dare?" I raised my arm and manifested a showy, glowing forcefield around my fist.
"Don't take that tone with me!" She raised her hands to her upper torso, looking like she was about to launch a Shiny Aqua Illusion.
«Target found! Two meters outside the centre window!» Meia announced.
I turned on my heel, punched the window so it shattered, then ducked.
"Frigid Blade!" A half-dozen ice daggers flew to the window, three of them breaking the glass and the other three hitting Giwaku. Other than cutting its antennae off, the blades had no effect... but she needed those antennae to use her powers.
"Thanks, Mercury. My turn." I used a variant of the hammer-and-anvil technique that I'd used against Zoicite so long ago, but with Giwaku's torso instead of a hand trapped between the surfaces. And I'd become much better with my forcefields over two years of TSAB training.
The droid didn't survive being pounded into two pieces.
«School staff approaching,» Meia warned us as I heard a crystal shatter above us.
"Thanks. Mirage Hide!"
I just barely had my usual disguise on when two people raced into the room. "What's going on in here? And why is that window broken?"
"I'm terribly sorry about that," I said, "but it was necessary. Sailor Senshi business. Here, this should cover the cost of the repairs." I slowly pulled a leather pouch out of one of my pockets, opened it, and dropped a single gold ingot onto a desk without touching the ingot. As I put the pouch back in my pocket, I saw Meia take hold of Mercury. "And now we must be on our way." I jumped out the broken window, followed by Mercury.
She landed on her feet. I landed on a triple-layer soft forcefield. I made us both invisible as she helped me to my own feet. "Meia, I heard a crystal shatter. Did we secure the Dark Point?"
"I believe that we did, yes."
"Then let's meet up with Ryou and get out of here. Maybe we can help somebody else."
But we were too late to help anyone else, as we discovered when we returned to Rei-san's shrine.
We made our reports to Hayate-chan. Apparently, Ami heard me calling her ugly and a showoff, like her mother, and claiming Makoto was more feminine than either of them were.
"Ouch. That's nasty," Ryou commented.
As for the other three Dark Points, I only know what I heard from the people who were there.
"I hate Dark Power," Artemis said during the after-action debriefing. "Kittens were beating me up with their bare paws.
Kittens!"
"You did pretty good for somebody with no combat training at all who was outnumbered," Sakura said.
"And you can add 'defender of Sailor Venus' to your titles," Minako added.
«I'll tell you what really happened when we're alone later, darling,» my dearest sent to me. «For now, let's leave it at "he did his best and didn't embarrass himself".»
"I was quite impressed with how well the young miss Usagi fought today," Ichiro told me. "She was able to hold her own against most of her classmates, losing only to a girl named Momohara Momoko. Rob, her moonbeams –"
"I know," I said, cutting him off. "We don't dare say anything about them to anyone else."
"You've repeatedly said that you trust her."
"I trust her to figure it out for herself. If we say anything, Wiseguy might learn the truth from what we tell her."
"Ah. That would be strategically unsound. I will keep my observations to myself, then. And that also explains why we haven't given her additional training; best not to train someone who might become our opponent."
"I wouldn't mind getting some of your training, when one of you can fit me in," Rei-san said from one of the comfortable chairs. "Even after having been healed by Ami while Meia healed Naru, I still hurt."
"I've got this request," Sakura volunteered. "I'm better at teaching unarmed than you are,
aniki." Ichiro nodded in agreement.
"Thank you." Rei-san turned to Naru-san. "Where did you get that dress that you wore when you pulled your sword out of wherever it came from?"
I'd never seen Naru-san in a dress, except for that one time when she was turned into a youma. I wondered whether it was the same dress.
"It's my fighting clothing, like that seifuku is yours," Naru-san replied from another comfortable chair, with Ka'o fussing around her arm. "It's part of the transformation. And I made the sword on the spot. That's why it exploded."
"Exploded?!" I wasn't the only one who asked. Although that explained why she needed a nurse.
"I tried to use that crystal figurine in the sword. I learned the hard way that my power and Dark Power don't like each other. I don't think I can take part in the next mission."
"And I ended up covering your retreat, instead of the other way around," Rei-san added.
"I'm sorry about that."
"Don't be," Hayate-chan said. "We needed that Dark Hinge to take form. You gave Mars a valid reason to break off your attack instead of throwing the fight."
"So, now what?" Minako asked.
"Now, we let Chibiusa know that she can go home," Hayate-chan replied. "Go get some sleep; you'll need it."
"You aren't coming with us?" Rei-san asked.
"We can't," I replied. "Sailor Pluto won't let us. There's only nine tickets for that ride, and two of them are for Mau."
That evening, we introduced Small Lady to the joys of a sukiyaki party. I made sure that she knew this was something we only did with friends who are so close that we think of them as family... not just because she
was as close as family, but also as something she could remember if Wiseguy got his hooks into her.
The next morning, we saw them off. "Come back safely, my dearest." Then I turned to Small Lady. "And I'm sorry that I can't come along. Plu says I'm not allowed."
"She's a meanie."
"No, she has a good reason for leaving somebody here to watch the Dark Hinge." I took her hands in my own, gently. "Small Lady, please remember that I will always be your friend and that I trust you. And don't talk with strange people, okay?" I added while I let go of her hands. Hey, it was worth a try.
"Chibiusa!" Usagi-san called before Small Lady could reply. "Are you ready?"
"Coming!" She raced over to the others, who had already transformed, and used the Key to Space-Time to open the Door to Space-Time.
And then they were gone.
"How long will they be in the future?" Naru-san asked.
"According to canon," I replied, "four episodes. Maybe just today, maybe they'll stay until tomorrow."
"Can't they come back just after they left?" asked Ichigo-san.
I shook my head. "No. This method of time travel synchronizes duration. If they stay for six hours, they come back six hours after they left."
"You were gone for two years but came back only a few minutes later."
"We were gone to a different reality altogether," Ryou said. "There was no connection between that reality and this one until we made one."
Funny how Ryou always knows what to say, however many times out of however many.
"So what do we do in the meantime?"
"You could practice your swordsmanship," suggested Ichiro.
Hayate-chan shook her head. "Naru-san isn't the type who loses herself in acts of destruction. Although you could practice making your swords," she suggested while looking at Naru-san.
"We could catch up on our homework while we're supposedly in quarantine," I said.
"You can," Ichigo-san said. "I'm not quarantined; I have to go to school. 'Bye!"
"So," Ryou asked me, "how many episodes are left until the end of the series?"
"It's the start of episode 82 now. In canon, they win decisively in episode 88. Then there's the clip show episode 89. The entire series ends with episode 200."
"With a happy-ever-after ending?" Naru-san asked. "Or is this like
Minky Momo?"
"If this was a straight close parallel to the anime without me in it, then we would get a happy ending. But I'm here and I've started seeing some manga elements in this reality, so there's a chance that we're going to get a bittersweet ending instead."
"How far forward do I need to look?"
"Somewhere in the first year of high school, Ryou."
Ryou, Naru-san, and I spent a half day doing our homework. Then we let Saeko-mama give us medical checkups to make sure we weren't contagious... and so she could stay busy instead of thinking about Ami. And Minako.
Then we worried. Nobody was back yet. I practically leapt on the distraction of the express delivery of a handwritten letter of apology from the headmaster of OK Shingaku Juku, for the way I had been treated while visiting. Hand-writing an acceptance of his apology and taking it to the convenience store to express-mail it to the headmaster kept me busy for almost an hour.
Ryou and I made meatloaf sandwiches for dinner, just like Makoto and Ami had made so many times on Midchilda. Hayate-chan made sure we had vegetables with the sandwiches, but not carrots. Naru-san brought ice cream and cake.
Alas, having a fusion of Makoto's and Ami's favourite foods, avoiding Usagi-san's least favourite food, and following up with Usagi-san's favourite dessert, didn't bring them back any faster. I was starting to think that
sympathetic magic simply didn't work in this reality.
None of us slept well that night.
Then it was October 24 – not quite the new moon, but a bad omen nonetheless.
And the Chacornac tracking facility alerted us over breakfast to a UFO hovering near the Dark Hinge.
That worried me more than anything else had in the last twenty-four hours. I hoped that it was only Saphir, Diamande, and Wiseguy aboard, but I knew the stupid genre conventions and assumed Dark Lady was with them.
"I'm still not a front-line fighter," Ryou commented before I could ask him anything.
"And my match against Esmeraude a few days ago showed that I'm not a front-line fighter, either," Naru-san added. "Yet."
I smiled on hearing her addition, then turned to the Unison Devices who had not made the trip to the future. "Who's with me?"
"I am, of course, Rob," Ichiro replied immediately.
"So am I," Hayate-chan added.
Shario-chan shook her head. "I'm not a fighter. I'll stay here with Ryou, Kasandara, and Naru."
"Rob, can we borrow your good laptop?" Ryou asked.
"Why?"
"I have a hunch that we're going to need it."
"Six times of seven," Kasandara added.
I pulled my 2022 laptop out of storage, switched it on, and plugged in the drive that the first Shario-chan gave me back in Midchilda. "And I have a hunch that you want the
big drive."
"Seven times of eight," Kasandara confirmed.
"Don't break or delete anything, okay?" I turned to the other Devices. "Ichiro, let's Unison now and fly there. Hayate-chan, will you ride in my pocket?"
"I'll take you up on that," she said as I went invisible. "I'll save my energy for the fight that we're no doubt about to have."
The Dark Hinge had grown overnight; it was larger than any of the buildings around it. I ignored it and started looking for the UFO.
«Do you see a distortion, just over there?» Ichiro asked.
«You think that that's them?» I asked in reply.
«Who else would it be?» asked Hayate-chan.
«Me,» Setsuna... no, Sailor Pluto sent from inside the distortion. «Diamande's ship is over there,» she added, sending us a string of vectors.
«It's good to know you're here,» I sent back. «I thought you didn't meddle the way that I like to.»
«The Setsuna in Crystal Tokyo insisted.»
Oh, dear. «I have a bad feeling about this.»
«Time to land,» Hayate-chan sent. «Somebody just teleported.»
As we headed for the ground, I sent to Pluto, «Since when could you become invisible?»
«Since you taught me.»
I hadn't done that yet. «Ask a silly question... Aw, crap.» That last was because I saw who had teleported in. «And I tried my best to make sure she didn't talk to strangers, too. Where are the Senshi?»
«They're on their way,» Pluto replied as we landed.
"I wondered when I was going to meet you, Oni," Small Lady... no, Dark Lady said. "You can't stop me."
"I remember when we met," I said. "Kooan was hunting for you, and I kept you safe from her. And later, you first saw me as Oni during the big fight."
"I remember when we met, too," Hayate-chan said as she left my pocket. "And I remember what happened when Rubeus died."
"That..." Dark Lady looked confused. "I almost remember that... why can't I remember?"
Pluto became visible. "Somebody has been tampering with your memories, Small Lady."
"Don't call me that! I'm Dark Lady!"
"Is that the name you want, though?" Hayate-chan asked. "Or is that a name somebody else gave you for his own purposes?"
"That's... Aaaaaargh!" She dropped to her knees in pain.
"Please, let us help you!" Pluto all but begged.
"NO! You're using me, too!"
Just then, there was a pop of air and six people dropped out of a hole in the sky. "Spread out and... No." Moon's voice trailed off.
"Oh, no," Mars said. "What did they do to you, Chibiusa?"
"How many times do I have to say it? I'm Dark Lady!"
"You sound like a petulant little brat," Venus said with a glare.
"Hey! Nobody gets to call me 'brat' except for... for... who?"
She was sill in there somewhere; our only hope to solve this without violence was to reach the Small Lady who was trapped inside Dark Lady.
"Please, Chibiusa, stop this! If you let this happen, what will happen to Momoko-chan and all your other friends?"
"I have no friends!"
At this point, Mercury pushed something into my hand. "Where's Shario-chan?"
"At my place –"
"Transporter!"
And suddenly Ichiro and I were back home.
"You're back already?" Naru-san asked.
"What the Hell did Ami do that for? They need us there, not here!"
«Sir,» Ichiro sent to both Shario-chan and me, «what did she give us?»
I looked at what was in my hands. "It's her tiara," I said in tones of wonder.
«She was wearing her tiara,» Ichiro pointed out.
"Oh, give me that," Shario-chan said. I did, and she popped the gem out of its mounting to reveal a USB-C port. "I thought I saw that in our scans. Well, that explains why we needed the 2022 laptop." She plugged it in and looked at the file structure; there was a file named PLAYME.mp4 and a folder named "COPY THIS".
Shario-chan fired up VLC Media Player and played the MP4 while she started the file copy.
The video showed a gorgeous young woman – either a young Saeko-mama or a grown-up Ami. "Hello, Shario-chan, Ichiro, and Rob," she said. She was obviously not Saeko-mama. "Shario-chan, it's vitally important that you finish the download before Chibiusa returns home. Rob and Ichiro, we have one chance to end this with only Wiseman dying." Future Ami smiled. "Listen very carefully, I shall say this only once."
Unlike the characters in
'Allo 'Allo!, we shut up and listened.
The recording finished with Future Ami saying "... and don't think that you can't. I know you're only a Rank C mage, Rob, and Ichiro's Rank B, but in Unison you add up to a Rank B+ mage. Use the coordinates I just gave you; Hayate knows the spell."
"Is there any spell that Hayate doesn't know?" I muttered as I very quickly looked through her brainprint and found it. "B+ is the bare minimum rank for the spell. Shall we?"
«Ami thinks we can do it,» Ichiro replied. «Let's.»
"Just in case... Shario-chan, Naru-san, Ryou, if this doesn't work, Makoto gets everything I own."
"I understand. Good luck, both of you." Shario-chan went back to downloading data from the tiara as Ichiro followed Future Ami's instructions to the letter.
Then I took a deep breath, and Ichiro used my voice to cast the spell. "Transporter!"
And we were back in the fray.
"Dead Scream." I didn't expect to hear
that attack used against Dark Lady... or at all before the Death Busters made themselves known.
Unfortunately, Pluto's blast bounced off of Dark Lady's parasol. Fortunately, the Dark Hinge took the damage... which might have been what Pluto intended all along.
Dark Lady struck back. "Dark Power!"
I didn't expect to need to implement Future Ami's plan right away... but I did. I jumped in front of the blast that she had aimed at Pluto.
If Ichiro hadn't been in Life Support Mode the way Future Ami had instructed, I would have been killed. As it was, I couldn't move for a moment.
"Robu-niisan! Why did you save Puu?!"
Sailor Moon turned away from me to face Dark Lady. "Because they're both your friends, and he knew you'd hate yourself if you killed her!"
"I don't need friends!"
"Everybody needs friends!" my fiancée insisted. "And if you've hurt him –"
"I'm still alive," I managed to say before she could finish that sentence.
Dark Lady dropped to her knees. "Is what Sailor Moon said true? Did Oni save Puu for my sake?"
"Yes," I said with a bit more strength.
"You didn't think that I could have killed you instead?"
Without hesitation, I replied, "No. I trust you."
"You must love me, Robu-niisan. I feel like you just scolded me." As her tears flowed, the spells that Wiseguy had put on her flowed away, leaving Small Lady behind where Dark Lady had been.
And her tears crystallized before they hit the ground, leaving the Ginzuishou behind.
«Sir?»
«
Now we can tell her about her moonbeams. I release you from that order.»
But Moon beat us to it. "It must have been inside you all along."
"Her moonbeams, that Rubeus was using to track her..." I started before running out of strength.
"I was using the Silver Crystal?"
"You were," Mercury confirmed.
"Small Lady," I said quietly, "you have the Ginzuishou. It's time for a Moon Princess... no, a Princess Lady Halation."
"'Princess Lady'," she said. "That's the name I want to be called by." Then she got the same look on her face that Usagi-san has when she uses her Neo-Queen Serenity voice. "Mama, let's go dispense some Love and Justice."
And then the two of them were wearing matching princess dresses, and then they were gone.
Pluto and Jupiter immediately rushed to me, one on each side, and helped me sit up. All Pluto said was, "Thank you."
"You could have been killed!" my dearest said between her tears.
"No, I couldn't have been. I trust Mercury, too, and this was her idea."
"It was?" Mercury asked.
"It will be."
"Oh, good," Meia said as she dropped out of Unison with Mercury. "You saw it."
"Saw what?" Mercury asked.
I smiled. "A video made by your future self. And since that's who you grow up to be, Onmyōji is going to have a very happy life." I turned to Meia. "So, you were an accomplice, were you?"
"I am guilty as charged, and will accept whatever punishment Mercury-dono sees fit to give me."
I couldn't help but think "Meia culpa".
"Punishment for what?" Mercury asked.
I chuckled, then winced from the pain. "Aiding and abetting the creation of a stable time loop, I suspect. Depending on what else your future self sent back with you besides the plan to save Pluto's life and Princess Lady's sanity. Shario-chan is copying it to my laptop even as we speak."
"I see." Mercury looked cross as she turned to Meia. "Your punishment is to sort and organize whatever data you did bring back without my knowledge."
We all smiled at that. Even Mercury and Meia.
It took me fourteen minutes to recover sufficiently from the Dark Power attack to be able to stand on my own... at which point both Serenities returned to us, the Dark Hinge crumbling behind them. They were quickly followed by two men who I hadn't seen before.
The younger one did the talking while the older one simply stared at the ground. "Sailor Moon, I am Saphir, and this is my brother, Prince Diamande. You have defeated us. We will return to Nemesis and live out the remainder of our lives there, never to trouble you again."
"I understand that I am to grow up to become Neo-Queen Serenity," she replied. "In this time, I talk about love and justice quite a lot. If those words are to have any meaning, I must accept a petition from you and the others of Nemesis to be allowed to live on Earth. Whatever crimes your ancestors committed were their crimes, not yours. Love and Justice demand no less than a full hearing." Then she turned to Diamande. "You, however, attempted to confine and rape me while I visited your time. That, I cannot forgive. If you are allowed to move to Earth in your own time, you will not be allowed unlimited freedom."
"But you must understand, you are so beautiful and I need a princess by my side..." Diamande stopped talking; from the look on his face, he had realized that he was only digging his own grave.
"I am to become a queen, not a princess. And I do not want to be called beautiful by someone who attempted to use my body for his own desires. In the name of Love and Justice, you must learn that people are not property, even if you are their ruler. I have spoken." And she turned away from the two of them.
We watched them return to their UFO and leave Tokyo's airspace.
"And don't come back," Venus muttered.
Even using the fastest microprocessor on the planet and solid-state media, it still took the better part of the day to copy the data from Future Ami's tiara.
Which was fine, because it took me just as long to recover to the point that I could pretend to be fully healed. Ka'o made sure that I didn't hurt myself by trying to do that too quickly.
We all got together to celebrate at the shrine. Yes, even Setsuna and Princess Lady... and Princess Lady took great pride in explaining to Setsuna that a sukiyaki party was something only people who were practically family members took part in. And that statement got Rei-san to pull her grandfather and Yuuichirou-san into the festivities.
Which made me think that maybe it wouldn't be pointless to play matchmaker between Rei-san and Yuuichirou-san. From the look on my fiancée's face, I could tell I wasn't the only one thinking that way.
And then it was October 25, and Princess Lady headed home. We all gave her farewell gifts: Makoto gave her a box of pancake mix and a recipe book, and I gave her a copy of "Naita Aka Oni" and a card asking her to visit again. Ami, predictably, gave her a textbook. I don't know what the others gave her. Although I did see Meia give her Future Ami's tiara and ask that Princess Lady return it to her.
Which reminded me that in canon Mercury was shown without her tiara when Chibiusa returned home. And here I thought that that was an illustration error.
There were tears all around when she left us.
Eventually, Bunny-chan turned to me. "So, Robu-san, what happens next in canon?"
I chuckled. "Believe it or not, a recap episode. Although that clip show did include a talk about who should lead the Sailor Senshi."
Sakura said, in all seriousness, "Now there's a talk that we should have in our group."
Oh, dear.
Next chapter: The flashback episode, and some of Chekhov's guns come off the mantlepiece.
Original text and original characters are copyright © 2022-2023 by Rob Kelk. "Rob Donaldson", "Ichigo Aoyama", "Meia", "Sakura", "Ichiro", "Sakamoto Kazuya", and any representations thereof are copyright by and trademarks of Rob Kelk. "Kasandara" and any representations thereof are copyright by and a jointly-held trademark of Rob Kelk and Ian McLeod. Please contact Rob Kelk if you want to use Ichigo Aoyama or Sakamoto Kazuya in your own stories.
Sailor Moon and the characters thereof are copyright © 1991-1997 by Naoko Takeuchi, TOEI Animation, Kodansha, TV Asahi, and their licencees, and are used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada,
R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Codename: Sailor V and the characters thereof are copyright © 1991-1997 by Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, and their licencees, and are used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS and the characters thereof are copyright © 2006-2007 by Masaki Tsuzuki, Seven Arcs, and their licencees, and are used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quote from the
xkcd strip "Sandwich", copyright © 2012 by Randall Munroe, is misquoted and used under the
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License.
Quote from
Dracula, by Bram Stoker, is in the Public Domain.
Quote from
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, copyright © 1975 by Python (Monty) Pictures, is used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quote from "What's Opera, Doc?", copyright © 1957 by Warner Bros. Cartoons, is misquoted and used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Promotional tagline from
Stay Alive, copyright © 2006 by William Brent Bell, Hollywood Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment, Endgame Entertainment, Wonderland Sound and Vision, and Stay Alive Productions, is misquoted and used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Lyrics from "
Stop and Take the Time to Smell the Roses", by Ringo Starr, copyright © 1981 by RCA Records, are used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quote from
Star Trek: The Next Generation, copyright © 1987 by Paramount Domestic Television, is used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Lyrics from "
Fly Me to the Moon", by Bart Howard, copyright © 1954 by Decca Records, are used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quotes from
The Princess Bride, copyright © 1987 by William Goldman, Act III Communications, Buttercup Films, and The Princess Bride Ltd., is used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quote from the Bible, American Standard translation, is in the Public Domain.
Quote from
'Allo 'Allo!, copyright © 1982-1992 by Jeremy Lloyd, David Croft, and the British Broadcasting Corporation, is used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
My thanks to my prereaders, Brent Laabs, Robert M. Schroeck, and Heather K.
OMAKE by Robkelk
Oh, crap. Kooan brought the Black Moon Stick. "Ichiro, go quietly and see what's happening out there."
"Yes, sir." And he was off, flying barely a centimetre from the ceiling. A moment later, he sent to us, «Kooan has just released Rei, sir. She's aiming at the ersatz Sailor Mars now.»
«Protect her!» Ryou, of all people, gave that order.
But they were too late. There was a flash of light and Kooan gloated, "Be sent to another dimension! There's no way you Senshi can possibly find your way back here twice!"
Then there was another flash of light. "There!" we heard Minako shout. "That's the person who sent me to your dimension!"
"Leave her to me!" somebody who sounded remarkably like Megumi Hayashibara said. "Fireball! Dil Brando! Elemenkia Lance!"
Oh, God. Not
her...
Slayers and the characters thereof are copyright © 1989-2019 by Hajime Kanzaka and his licencees, and are used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
OMAKE by Labster
But, after we finished eating and before we could tend to the paperwork, our second surprise guest arrived. And kicked the door down. "Kuno! Prepare to die!"
"This is Minato. Nerima is that way."
Ryouga said, "Oh, sorry!"
"Kino, Kuno, easy mistake."
Ranma ½ and the characters thereof are copyright © 1987-1996 by Rumiko Takahashi and Shogakukan, and are used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
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