Story time!
I should have expected that Ami would panic, given Future Ami's advice to her at New Year's. "Rob! Makoto! Somebody just shot Ryou's linker core out of his body! No, it's something else, something like a linker core but larger..."
"It's his Pure Heart," I said without taking my eyes off the car that was now stopping in front of us. Then I sent to my fiancée, «Ami's going into shock. Mako, don't transform, but get Bunny here, now! She should be at the shrine. Meia and I will keep Ami from fainting so she can keep Ryou alive.»
She nodded, then ran, taking the stairs to the shrine two steps at a time.
"Ami, I need you to stay with us, mentally.
Ryou needs you. Meia, can you cast that spell to put a Pure Heart back into somebody's body?"
"I'm sorry, Rob, but I need to work with Ami for that. And we've never tested that spell."
That got Ami to focus. "Then we'll just have to test it now."
"Not so fast," said a red-haired woman carrying a longarm. "We need Onmyōji dead."
I looked straight at her while the ladies got to work. "So you do know who we are... Eudial."
"We do... Oni."
"Just out of curiosity, where's Kaolinite?"
Just then, Ami's communicator beeped, followed by Makoto's voice. "Rei's Pure Heart has been removed and the monster that did it destroyed Usagi's brooch!"
Isekai by Moonlight
Chapter S
"Right," I said. "Never mind. You want them dead, too, don't you?"
Eudial smiled an evil smile. "Only after we check whether they have a Talisman."
Ouch. Grammar, Eudial, have you heard of it?
I couldn't risk taking my eyes off Eudial to see whether Ami had finished treating Ryou. "You'd better check Onmyōji's Pure Heart as well, then."
"I'll do that," came a voice from partway up the steps to the shrine.
"Then get down here and do it!" Eudial shouted. "Or I'll shoot the others!"
"Maybe you should," the voice replied while approaching us. "We can check them all at the same time."
"Please don't give her ideas," I said.
"Oh, I don't have another shot to extract a Pure Heart. Not with me, at least. I'd have to hideously disfigure these people by burning them all."
Then there was a Senshi who I hadn't yet met – but from her hairstyle and my knowledge of the anime, I knew she was Sailor Neptune – kneeling beside Ryou. She jostled me as she worked and I reflexively looked at her. "This is not a Talisman," she announced just as Ami re-started her spell.
I turned back to Eudial... but she was already back in her car. She's fast, maybe as fast as me... and she'd never shown that kind of speed in the anime. I turned back to Neptune, but she was gone, too. At least I knew that she could teleport unaided. Ami looked up at me as Ryou's Pure Heart returned to his body. "Second time's the charm," she misquoted.
"Rei-san and Bunny-chan need you," I replied. "I'll look after Ryou."
"Thanks, Rob," she said before literally flying up the stairs to the shrine. Our cover was already blown; there was no point to wasting time trying to keep it.
As Ryou moaned, I helped him sit up. "Are you okay, ol' buddy?"
"I... think so. What hit me?"
"You had your Pure Heart shot out."
"Oh, dear. And I didn't see that coming."
He didn't? That surprised me. "Did you just not look for the possibility, or are the Death Busters shielded from your power?"
"Trust me, Rob, I've been looking for this event since Chibiusa went home."
"Aw, crap. It gets worse, Ryou: they knew that you're Onmyōji and I'm Oni. Now that you know that they're active, can you tell where they're going to hit us next?"
He thought for a moment, looking more worried with each passing second. "I can't see the futures."
"Precognitive ability is offline," Kasandara confirmed.
"Here's hoping that that's a temporary condition," I said. "Going from bad to worse, at least two of the Death Busters are active at the same time: Kaolinite got Rei-san while Eudial got you."
"We'd better go talk with the others, face to face."
Needless to say, we didn't practice that day. Instead, we held a council of war. Teal Deer, Rei-san described what happened to her and Bunny-chan – it was practically a match for what happened in canon – then I described what happed to Ryou.
I finished with, "I thought that events completely skipped over Germatoid's assistant Kaolinite attacking Rei-san and sicced Eudial on Ryou without warning, until I learned that Rei-san was targeted at the same time."
"When was this Eudial person supposed to start attacking us?" Bunny-chan... no, this wasn't the time for diminutives. Usagi-san asked in a quiet voice. The poor girl was still in shock from losing her ability to transform to Sailor Moon.
"Eudial shouldn't have shown up until after Chibiusa returns," replied Makoto. "They've already escalated things. Darling, everybody, am I the only one who thinks we should go all 'asymmetric plot escalation' on their asses?"
"It's about time!" Sakura agreed with relish.
"And just how are we going to do that?" We all turned to Minako. "We don't know who they are or where they are, or even what their monsters are called."
Usagi-san turned to Rei-san. "Looks like Mina-chan didn't watch the anime."
"We haven't watched it either, odango-for... Usagi."
"But Robu-san has."
"So have Makoto and I," Ami replied. "We had two years in Midchilda with nothing else to do in our free time but read ahead in our textbooks."
"Or, in this case, watch the anime of your lives," I added. "Just remember that we're living in a timeline that doesn't exactly match the anime. Ryou and I are here and Naru-san has started developing metahuman powers, for example."
"But the big picture is the same, right?" Naru-san asked.
"In general, it has been so far," I admitted. "Specifics have been different, sometimes very different."
"So fill us in on the big picture," Chiba-san said. It wasn't a request.
I nodded. "Right. The anime called this 'Sailor Moon S', and the manga called it the Infinity Arc. As you can guess from the manga title, our opponents are connected to Mugen Academy. Their leader, Germatoid, is either possessing, completely replacing, or has always been the school's headmaster, Tomoe Souichi. The Death Busters are either possessing or have always been his secretary and the school's prefects. Kuromine Kaori also answers to Kaolinite, and she's the one who attacked Rei-san. The philosophy department's prefect Arimura Yuko is called Eudial, and she's the one who attacked Ryou. There's also Hanyuu Mimi – Mimete – Teruno Ruru – Telulu – Bidou Yui – Viluy – and the twins Cyprine and Ptilol. Their monsters are called daimons. I'm not sure what their goal is, but it has something to do with an extraterrestrial entity called Pharaoh 90."
"You missed one, darling."
"Did I?"
Ami nodded. "The most important one for the long term: Mistress 9."
I nodded slowly in agreement. "I think I was trying to forget about the most powerful of our current foes, because her other identity will be so important to us later."
Rei-san asked, "So who is she?"
Before I could refuse to answer, Ichiro said, "Tomoe Hotaru, daughter of Tomoe Souichi, otherwise known as Sailor Saturn." Then he turned to me. "I never promised to keep the Senshi's identities secret from the other Senshi, the way that you did."
"Neither did the rest of us," Ami added.
I sighed. "Fine, fine, just don't say that you got that information from me, because I don't break my promises."
"You are so cute when you're being stubborn, darling."
"He is, isn't he?" Minako agreed.
My dearest gave her a dirty look... and Makoto is
not cute when she's jealous. I know that every other important person in her life before she met Usagi-san and me has left her alone one way or another, but that's only an explanation for her jealousy of anybody else who shows interest in her fiancé, not a reason or even an excuse.
"Ladies, focus," Hayate-chan said.
"Yes, please focus. A Sailor Senshi is our enemy?"
"No, Usagi-san," I replied. "Mistress 9 is our enemy. She's possessing Tomoe Hotaru-san."
"Then we have to do our best to free her from that possession."
"No," Hayate-chan said. "We can't just 'do our best'. We
must succeed. No counting on the inevitably of the anime events to happen, because they didn't when Small Lady became Black Lady. We must not count on having the kami or the cosmic scriptwriters on our side. We need to work, and work hard, for our victory."
Sakura, Ichiro, Rei-san, and I nodded in agreement.
"At least this time we know in advance what a complete victory requires," Hayate-chan continued. "Pharaoh 90 defeated, Hotaru freed from possession, and Uranus and Neptune working with us."
"With minimal loss of life," I added. "Assuming anime continuity, then other than Germatoid, none of our foes asked to become Death Busters. We have to assume that they're as much victims as the owners of the Pure Hearts who will be targeted are, unless and until it's proven otherwise."
"Agreed. If I was my personality donor and still working for the TSAB, I'd be calling this the Infinity Incident in official reports, and that's the name I'll use in the unofficial reports that I'll be making to Colonel Yagami." Which reminded me that we
should be getting our friends in the TSAB involved; they might have some ideas that we would overlook. But Hayate-chan wasn't finished. "TSAB Incidents are
never easy to end, let alone end in our favour. We have to work harder than any of us have worked before if we're going to succeed. As to taking the fight directly to them, we can't do that yet. Sailor Moon isn't strong enough."
"I can't even transform to Sailor Moon without my brooch," Usagi-san pointed out.
"With all due respect, ma'am," Sakura said, "that's bullshit and you know it. All five of you have been able to transform instantly and without your transformation trinkets since before we visited Crystal Tokyo."
"I know I want you to point out when I'm wrong, Sakura, but do you have to use profanity when you do it?"
"It got your attention, didn't it?"
"And we're getting sidetracked," Rei-san pointed out. "Usagi. Transform. Right here, right now."
"But -"
"Do it."
"Moon Crystal Power, Make-Up!" It took her a moment and it was the old transformation with the naked bit in the middle – and, yes, Ichiro, Ryou, and I averted our gazes – but she managed to become Sailor Moon without her brooch. "Well, what do you know?"
Meia scanned Moon, then looked unhappy. "I believe she still needs her brooch and a wand of some sort for her to unlock her full power as a Sailor Senshi."
"I have to agree, sister," Ichiro said. He later told me that his opinion was based on his understanding of her personality. "Please transform back, ma'am."
That, she could do instantly.
"You need to do something about that first transformation, Usako."
"Ami-chan already taught me a better one, Mamo-chan!"
Hayate-chan added, "Which you aren't using because you don't have a transformation focus item. When does the spirit of Queen Serenity get the Cosmic Heart Compact to you, again?"
"During the next fight," Ami replied before Usagi-san could ask what the Cosmic Heart Compact was.
"Then we'll worry about it if that doesn't happen." Hayate-chan has always been a pragmatist that way. "Back to the topic at hand, Shario-chan and I have been running some simulations over the last few months. Sailor Moon needs to be strong enough to use the Holy Grail without feeling any magical stress in order to be able to defeat Pharaoh 90."
"The Holy Grail? The Cup of Christ?" Rei-san asked.
I was surprised that she knew what it was, Rei-san being a Shinto priestess, but then I remembered that she attended a Christian private school. "Maybe," I replied. "What they showed in the anime and the manga didn't look like what Leonardo da Vinci painted in '
Il Cenacolo'."
"Oh, okay, then," Rei-san said, before showing the influence that our Unison Devices have had on her. "If Usagi needs to be able to use it easily, then she has to train with it. How do we get this grail?"
Hayate-chan answered her. "We bring the three Talismans together. They're incredibly ancient artifacts, and they bear at least a superficial resemblance to the Imperial Regalia of Japan."
"I'm guessing that they aren't actually the Imperial Regalia," Bunny-chan said with a bit of a smile. It was good to see that she was starting to recover from her ordeal with the first daimon any of us had encountered.
"I certainly hope not!" Rei-san said. "Kaolinite mentioned something about looking for a Talisman, and I think that woman who we're not yet supposed to know is Sailor Neptune did, too."
"Where are the Talismans, anyway?" Minako asked.
I grinned. "Oh, you're going to laugh..."
We couldn't talk at school about what had happened, because Elmira Bogdanova was still part of our lunch group. Still, Ichigo-san managed to figure out that
something had happened, simply because none of the rest of us were really interested in the Revealing Of The Lunches on Monday. In case anybody's interested, I had my usual comfort food, inarizushi... which did not go unnoticed.
Unfortunately, Bogdanova-san figured out that something was wrong, too. Stupid genre conventions. "Excuse me for saying, but none of you seem happy."
"It's a time of change for us," Minako replied, improvising as best as she could. "Tomorrow is the first day of June, and that means we have to start studying for exams."
Which wasn't untrue, but wasn't a particularly good excuse either.
"Oh. I am surprised that Mizuno-san would dread exams or studying."
And that's why it wasn't a particularly good excuse.
"I'm in a bit of a quandary," Ami said. "Every exam season last year, I managed to score higher than I did the exam season before it. What am I going to do now that I've reached 900?"
"I wish I had your problems, Ami-chan," Bunny-chan said quietly.
"I know how to cheer you up," Minako said. "I'll let your boyfriend know that you need to go on a date."
"I can ask him for a date myself!"
"Meh," I said quietly. "Most guys don't like being chased like that."
"Mamo-chan isn't like you, Robu-san," Bunny-chan said. "Why don't you like him, anyway?"
I sighed. I couldn't mention the reasons that involved Tuxedo Kamen in front of Bogdanova-san, but there was one reason that she could hear. "He almost dumped you last year for no good reason, remember?"
"That was a misunderstanding!"
"Okay, fine, you still love him and he looks like he loves you back."
Makoto frowned at me. "He
does love her back, darling."
"Hey, I'm just trying to protect Bunny-chan the way a big brother of hers would."
"You can't be my big brother. My birthday's a week before yours... otōto-san."
Everybody laughed at her calling me "little brother"... which meant we as a group were getting back to normal. I still took the hint, though. No more meddling in Bunny-chan's love life; that's the Four Guardians' prerogative.
We cancelled the Conversational English Club meeting that week, because Friday afternoon was the only time that Saeko-san was available to make a purchase for us.
It was a rather large purchase: two floors plus a basement, six bedrooms, three bathrooms, all in a half-timbered building that looked like it came straight from the Rhineland. Or, at least, it would look like that if it hadn't fallen into disrepair. It was an unusual building for 1990s Japan: a large house that had fallen on hard times when the bubble burst.
"So why are we buying this now?" I asked Ryou.
"Because we're at the lowest point on the 'purchase and renovate' curve for a property this size," he replied. "Any house that's big enough to hold the entire family and is still in good shape would cost us too much, we were going to renovate whatever building we did buy to include 21st-century conveniences, and it will cost more to repair it later than to repair it now."
"Nineteen times of twenty," Kasandara added.
I blinked in surprise. "You have your powers back!"
"Affirmative."
I smiled. "And that means you have your precognition back, too, Ryou. Which means permanent power loss is probably not something that the ladies need to worry about when they have their Pure Hearts extracted."
We walked past the gate of our new home. Ami, Makoto, Saeko, and our Devices started walking or flying around the property while Ryou and I headed into the building. I kept forcefields up above and below us, just in case some of the wood was about to collapse.
"About that, Rob –" Ryou started, then stopped talking when we heard voices from one of ground floor rooms. We made our way there quietly, then pushed the door open...
... to discover Bunny-chan, Chiba-san, and a grade-school girl that I didn't recognize, surrounded by what looked like every stray cat in Minato, in a room with a large hole in the wall. Hey, look, it's episode 91. Stupid genre conventions.
The people looked our way, surprised by our opening the door. "Who's there – Oh, Ryou-san! Robu-san!"
"Usagi-san? What are you doing here?" Ryou asked.
"Mamo-chan brought me here to cheer me up." We didn't need to ask why she needed cheering up; she still wasn't wearing a brooch. "And all of these cats are making me feel happier. But... Oh, it's terrible, Robu-san, Ryou-san! Miharu-chan," the girl bowed to us, "says that somebody's buying this house and they're going to force all of these cute kittens to leave! What are you two doing here, by the way?"
Even if it meant she'd hate me for a moment, I wasn't going to lie to Bunny-chan. "Er... we just bought this house. Saeko-mama signed the paperwork this afternoon."
"You're going to kick the cats out! You're an oni!"
"Remember Ami's New Year's message!" I didn't mention in front of Miharu-chan that it was Future Ami's message from Crystal Tokyo. "We'll call the Animal Kingdom. The cats will live more comfortably there than they could here."
"Oh..." Miharu-chan looked a bit sad, but added, "Okay, then."
Chiba-san told her, "I'm sure you'll be allowed to visit them there." But, instead of replying, Miharu-chan ran away.
"We're going to have to fix that hole," Ryou said.
Bunny-chan and Chiba-san turned to follow Miharu-chan, but I stopped them. "She's just going home," I explained. "Unfortunately, she'll be attacked by a daimon there. Fortunately, she'll run back here, so we just need to wait for her."
"Eleven times out of thirteen," Ryou added. "However, events won't go completely as in canon, Rob."
"Let me guess: Kaolinite
and Eudial at the same time again? Who else gets her Pure Heart shot out?"
"Query contains gender error," announced Kasandara.
"What, it's going to be Chiba-san?" He looked as worried as I felt.
Ryou sighed. "Are you being deliberately obtuse, Rob?"
Oh. "No, I'm just surprised that I even have a Pure Heart. I wasn't born in this reality, after all. I guess I should go find Ichiro."
Before I could leave, Ryou grabbed my arm. "Don't. Twenty-three times out of twenty-seven, Eudial will show surprise if your Unison is forcibly ended when she shoots out your Pure Heart."
"Which means they probably don't know about Unison yet," Chiba-san said.
"And we still have that as Ami and Makoto's ace in the hole," I added.
Bunny-chan grinned. "It's a card up your sleeve, too."
I nodded. "And there's no point in playing that card right now. Let's go meet up with the others, so Eudial doesn't have to invade our new house – what there is of it – to get to me."
So we did, and Bunny-chan finally had the opportunity to introduce Saeko-mama to Chiba-san while Ami and Makoto played with some of the cats. "Mizuno-sensei, this is Chiba Mamoru-san, my boyfriend. Mamo-chan, this is Mizuno Saeko-sensei, Ami's mother."
Saeko bowed to Chiba-san. "I've heard about you from my daughter, Chiba-san. She tells me that you work with her sometimes."
Chiba-san bowed in return. "I have that honour, ma'am." Before he could say anything else, we heard Miharu-chan scream.
Ami immediately ran over to her mother, hugged her, and flew away with Saeko-mama still in her arms. Without transforming to Sailor Mercury first. While I admired her
filial piety, I had to question her willingness to break cover. I also hoped she'd be back in time to put Miharu-chan's Pure Heart back into her body if Sailor Moon couldn't. Oh, and put my Pure Heart back into my body, too.
Makoto, Chiba-san, and I transformed to Sailor Jupiter, Tuxedo Kamen, and Oni just before the purple catgirl daimon – named Nekonneru, if I remembered correctly – grabbed Miharu-chan and forced her Pure Heart out of her. I ran toward them, hoping I'd be able to do something to help, when Kaolinite and Eudial stepped forward from the trees behind the house.
"Have you adjusted the sights on that thing?" Kaolinite asked.
"I should be able to hit who I'm aiming at this time," Eudial replied. Then she shot me. "Yes, they're adjusted properly now."
As I lost consciousness, I remembered that the bitch had almost hit me when she shot Ryou.
I regained consciousness to the sight of the second-most-beddable woman in three different realities... and wondered why my internal description of her was so impure. Then I felt my Pure Heart return to its accustomed place in my body, and immediately returned to thinking of her as my second-closest friend. "Mercury! How's Miharu-chan?"
Ami smiled. "Sailor Moon has already returned her Pure Heart to her body, Oni."
Then we heard Moon say something she never had before: "Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"
"Down!" Mercury covered as much of my body as she could with her own, just before a giant pink heart flew above us on its way to hit its target. It was a good thing that my thoughts of her were pure again.
Nekonneru shouted "Lovely!" and fell to pieces. Puzzle pieces, to be exact.
Jupiter quickly walked over and helped us up, Mercury first, then me. "Are you okay?"
"Well," I sent the rest to only Makoto and Ami so that Miharu-chan and Bunny-chan couldn't overhear, «I now know that I can be sufficiently impure to want a wife and a mistress, but now that I have my Pure Heart back, I feel a lot better about only having one fiancée.»
«You'd better!» my dearest sent back.
Mercury blushed; she must have picked up on my subtext. «How are your powers?»
I tried to raise a forcefield. «Gone. At least for now.»
«They aren't all gone,» Ami pointed out. «You can still send your thoughts to us.»
I smiled at that thought. «Well, let's hope my other abilities come back as fast as Ryou's did.»
«Your Pure Heart is gorgeous, mostly red but streaked with green and blue with a few white streaks and rainbow strands,» my fiancée sent.
Sakura added, «I can show you pictures, if you want.»
«Later, please,» I answered. «I want to see what Sailor Moon's uniform and brooch look like now.»
I woke up in the middle of the night. "Streaked with green
and blue"? And more? I could understand the green streaks in my Pure Heart – Makoto and I were deeply in love with each other to the point where our hearts were metaphorically one, and her magic colour is green – but the blue streaks, combined with my impure thought earlier, made me wonder exactly how I really felt about my dearer friend. Then I remembered that Ryou's Pure Heart was white, with some red, green, and mostly blue streaks, and I assumed each of the four of us who had been banished to the Lyrical reality had all three of the others' magic colours in our Pure Hearts. But that didn't explain why Ryou's white streaks were less common in my Pure Heart than Makoto's and Ami's were. And the rainbow strands puzzled me altogether. Hey, I was still half-asleep; I didn't realize the obvious.
It was too bad I was the only person on the Sailor Team who had anything resembling telepathic powers beyond sending thoughts, and that Meia had told me I couldn't Unison with Ichiro until I got my powers back; I couldn't get somebody else to take a look inside my head and see exactly what's in there. Stupid genre conventions.
I wondered why removing my Pure Heart caused me to have impure thoughts in the first place. That wasn't shown in the anime or the manga, after all. Then I remembered that the target audience for the manga and the anime were girls the age of Princess Lady and Miharu-chan; of course there wouldn't be any mention in canon of people's impure thoughts.
Or so I thought at the time, forgetting about Unazuki-san's canon behaviour.
A half-day of classes ensued the next day, as it so often does on Saturdays. That afternoon, we took care of our laundry and other weekly chores, and Makoto spent a half minute sitting in front of me with our foreheads touching.
I wasn't able to update her brainprint.
Sunday, of course, was study day. Just like last term, we started our intensive cramming early, getting together at Rei-san's Hikawa Shrine. Or, at least, we were supposed to. Bunny-chan and Minako didn't show up.
"So, how did Mina-chan not make it?" Rei-san asked. "Doesn't she live with you now, Mako-chan?"
My dearest nodded, then said, "She said she had something to do and she'd meet us here later."
I looked at Ryou. "Daimon?"
"Seven times out of eight, but not yet."
Ami pulled the Mercury Computer out of her pocket and typed in a command. A moment later, she announced, "Minako's communicator is in the Crown Game Center."
"Anybody want to bet that Bunny-chan's communicator is right beside Minako's?" I asked. Nobody took me up on the offer.
"If there's a daimon coming, shouldn't we go help them?" Naru-san asked, her kabuki-style face markings becoming just barely visible.
"I don't know how much good I'll be today," I said. "I still can't raise more than a tissue-paper forcefield."
"Right," Rei-san said. "You stay here with Ami, Mako-chan, and Ryou-san. The rest of us will go help Usagi and Mina-chan."
"I assume I stay behind, too," Ichigo-san said.
As Rei-san nodded, I had a thought. "Hang on. This might be episode 92."
"When we would have found out that Tenou-san and Kaioh-san are Sailors Uranus and Neptune?" my dearest asked.
Ami shook her head. "No, that comes later. This is when we discover that they're a lesbian couple."
Rei-san thought for a moment, then said, "We should go anyway. Ami, keep us posted as to where they are."
"They're heading out the game center's front door right now," Meia replied. "I'll concentrate on tracking them, if I may use the Mercury Computer." Ami gave it and her communicator to her Unison companion, and Meia took the electronics to the telephone nook in the hallway.
I sighed. "They're probably headed for Tuning Service Kameda Motor. That's where the daimon appeared in canon."
"Kaneda?" Rei-san asked.
"No." Kasandara replied. "Kameda.
Akira reference is not present."
I sighed, again. She knows at least that much about pop culture, but Kasandara still can't string together a normal sentence half the time. Maybe Ryou likes her that way.
"Sir," Ichiro asked, "should we stay or go?"
"Go," I said immediately. "If this is the canon daimon, Meia will benefit from eyes in the sky to help track her."
As Hayate-chan moved to accompany Ichiro, Sakura looked at Makoto, who nodded in agreement. "Let's go, then."
I heard Rei-san ask Yuuichirou-san whether he could give them a ride out to where our blonde teammates were. Considering that he walked with them to the parking lot behind the shrine, I assume he agreed.
Which left at the shrine Hino-kannushi, Meia, Ichigo-san, and the four of us who had been sent to the Lyrical dimension a few months or years ago. And whichever kami were here instead of at any of the other Hikawa shrines, of course. Ryou-san asked Ichigo-san, "Aoyama-san, would you help me get some refreshments, please?"
"Sure. I assume there's some reason why we need to leave the three of them alone, right? We'll get the usuals for everyone."
After she left, I asked, "Are we sure that Ichigo-san isn't a metahuman?"
Ami smiled. "She's just very observant, Rob. She'll no doubt be a fine scientist someday."
"No doubt," Makoto agreed. "And speaking of being observant, I seem to remember seeing somebody getting all cuddly with my fiancé the day before yesterday."
"That was only to keep him from sitting up and being hit by Sailor Moon's attack."
"I know. I'm still not happy about it, because somebody else didn't complain about the attention."
"It was all over before I could say anything," I pointed out.
"You still haven't said anything. And you told us – and
just the two of us – that you're able to want both a wife and a mistress. I'd like to know what Ryou thinks about this, because I know I'm not happy about it."
I didn't know what to say. Neither did Ami.
The universe decided to take the opportunity to invoke
Chandler's Law; Eudial burst through the door with her gun in her hands. "There you are! And nobody to help you, either. Time to die, Mercury."
As Eudial pulled the trigger, Makoto stepped between her and Ami.
"Tch. Well, you were the next one on my list, beanpole." As Ami transformed to Mercury, Eudial added, "Nope, not fighting you without a daimon backup." And she was gone at superspeed. Again.
I know the Death Busters are non-sane by human standards, but that was particularly random behaviour. Burst in, shoot once, and leave? If this was a story, I'd call that hack writing.
I was still impure enough to think of Eudial as a "bitch". That bitch definitely copied my superspeed. And I couldn't go after her because I still couldn't invoke my power.
Then I realized that my dearest was still standing, even with her Pure Heart – green with red, blue, white, and rainbow streaks – shot out. In a quiet voice, she said, "Mama and Papa died and left me behind, and Grandma hates me for that. I'm too tall to be pretty. My sempai dumped me for a cute girl and my fiancé wants to bed my cutest friend. Eudial doesn't think I'm a threat. I need Sailor Moon to finish my fights. And I'm not even good enough to be killed first."
As I realized that those were her impure thoughts, she pulled a folding knife out of her pocket. "I'll save Eudial the trouble."
I grabbed her wrists before she could open the knife. "Makoto! My dearest! I love you! I want to spend the rest of my life with you! Please don't do this!"
She turned, slowly, to face me. "Then why do you like Ami so much?"
"She's my friend. She's your friend, too, remember? You know why she's your friend."
"I know," she said, just before Ami put her Pure Heart back into her body. Then my fiancée finally collapsed.
As I carried Makoto to Rei-san's bed, I told Ami without looking at her, "I don't mind if you tell Ryou. Back before Zoisite turned him into a youma, he mentioned that he was worried I might have received your love before he could."
Almost as quietly as Makoto has listed all of the things she thought justified her suicide, Ami asked, "Were either you or Ryou planning on ever telling me about that?"
"I can't speak for him. I didn't want to lose your friendship."
Some anger slipped into Ami's voice. "You're an idiot, Rob. And so is my fiancée. I'm a big girl; I can handle unwanted attention, even from my friends."
"Er... I've seen the anime special
Ami's First Love. You blushed bright red just from receiving a love letter, let alone reading it."
"I'm not her. She didn't stay in love with Ryou after Usagi reset the timeline, and she never spent two years in Midchilda growing older while growing up."
I looked her straight in the eyes. "You're right. And I'm sorry."
"I have no intention of being your sefure, Rob." Leave it to Japan to have a single word for "friend with benefits".
"I have no intention to ask that of you, Ami."
"Good," Makoto whispered as she opened her eyes. "And thank you for stopping me from doing something foolish, darling."
I knew who needed my complete attention just then. "Makoto, I call you my dearest because you
are the dearest person to me in three different realities. Please, always remember that, no matter what anybody else thinks of you, I love you more than anyone else I know. Even when I was so impure as to want more than one lover, I wanted you to receive my first and strongest love. To be my wife."
A single tear ran down her cheek. "And when I was so impure as to think I wasn't wanted on this Earth, I remembered that you did love me. It wasn't the lack of love that hurt so much, it was the thought that you might have betrayed that love, and that I didn't deserve it anyway."
At the time, I didn't know how prophetic my next words were. "Makoto, my dearest, if I am ever in a situation where anyone other than you wants to share her body with me, I will make sure that you know and approve before I even consider my reply to her. I will never willingly betray the love that we share. And I will swear that in front of the kami of this shrine if you want." Then I gasped as I felt warmth on the mark on the back of my neck. "Actually, I think I just did exactly that."
Makoto sat up and hugged me possessively. "Don't expect to ever get that approval, darling. You're mine and I'm yours and I hope that never changes." She looked over my shoulder. "Don't try sneaking off, Ami. We haven't finished our talk."
"I was just going to call my mother."
"Why?"
"Mako-chan, you just tried to kill yourself. I need to know how long we need to watch you before we're sure you won't try again."
She let go of me and stood up. "That was because my Pure Heart was out of my body! I shouldn't think that way again."
"Er..." I said for the second time in less than ten minutes. "The night after my Pure Heart was shot out, I woke up wondering exactly what I thought of Ami. If you're like me, my dearest, you're going to wake up in the middle of the night, wondering whether you should keep living.
Somebody needs to be there for you to talk with."
"Oh. Yeah, that's a problem. And since you mentioned it, what
do you think of Ami? You didn't answer me before I blacked out."
I let her change the subject because the answer would probably make a difference to her when she woke up in the middle of the night. "I'm lucky to still be her friend, after what I said to both of you." I turned from Makoto to Ami. "You're the smartest person I know, including myself, and one of the kindest after Bunny-chan. And you are an extremely attractive young woman." I turned back to Makoto. "And you, my fiancée, are an extremely attractive young woman and a strong fighter who I'm lucky to be loved by and in love with, and to have at my back when we fight."
"You aren't just saying that to get into my pants, are you? How long does it take to go back to normal?"
"My dearest, you should know by now that, if I wanted to get into your pants, I'd ask you directly whether you want to make love with me. As for how long, I think I'm back to normal, but normal doesn't feel the same as it did three days ago. I'm a lot more interested in making love with you now than I was then."
"Like right now?"
I shook my head. "I'm not going to take advantage of you while you're still in a fragile situation. I love you too much to do that to you. Ask me again the day after you wake up in the middle of the night."
Ami asked, "Does this mean you're always going to have doubts about yourself, Mako-chan?"
My fiancée sighed deeply. "Who knows? I've always had doubts."
Which partially explains where her jealousy comes from. If she thinks she isn't good enough for me – which is definitely not the case, if anything it's the other way around – then she's going to worry about anyone who she thinks is prettier than she is. I suggested, "You should talk with Rei-san's grandfather about that. But I think I know part of what he'd say: If you let self-doubt hold you back, it cripples you, but if you use it to drive yourself forward, you come out stronger."
"That makes sense," Ichigo-san said from the doorway.
We all turned to look at her, and at Ryou standing behind her. "How long have you been there?" Makoto asked.
"Since you asked about Robu-san getting into your pants. I wish I had a boyfriend. What's this about a fragile situation?" she asked, ignoring the blush that started to show on my dearest's face.
My fiancée and I sighed. Ami said, "Mako-chan had her Pure Heart shot out while you were gone."
"What? How? No, those are stupid questions. Does losing your Pure Heart make you want to have sex?"
"Not in my case," Ryou said. "I wanted to do... well, nothing. Because nothing seemed to be important enough to do. I know better now."
"And I thought I wasn't worth the air I was breathing," Makoto said. Ichigo-san and Ryou both winced at that. Then my dearest gestured toward me. "Him, it made horny."
"So what else is new?" Ichigo-san asked. "It seems like you two visit love hotels at least twice a month."
Before we could say anything, Ami sent, «Please don't mention my name.»
I told Ichigo-san, "I was thinking of something Makoto and I have never done, and that's all you need to know. She knows the details."
"And after hearing an explanation, I haven't called off our engagement," my dearest added. "But I'm not going to allow it, either. Now I'd really like to stop dwelling on this and do something else."
"Study?" Ami suggested.
Ryou added, "That is why we got together today."
So we studied, until the others – including Minako and Bunny-chan – returned, when Hayate-chan led us through a pair of after-action debriefings. She wasn't happy to hear that we had been targeted by Eudial while Kaolinite was targeting a possible Talisman host. "To quote Auric Goldfinger, 'Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. The third time it's enemy action.' They're targeting two people at a time deliberately to split our forces, and we've been letting them."
"No more," Usagi-san announced, using her Princess Serenity voice.
"Easy to say," Sakura replied, "but how do we stop them? We can't take the battle to them without the Holy Grail. Right now, they're setting the agenda."
"And you still need to practice the Moon Spiral Heart Attack," Minako added.
Bunny-chan sighed as deeply as I wanted to just then. "All right, we can't stop them from dividing our attention. Yet. But we have to change that."
Hayate-chan nodded in agreement. "And the first step there is to get Uranus and Neptune to work with us."
"Again," Sakura said, "that's easy to say."
"We have to get them to trust us," Ami said. "Somehow."
"I have an idea there," I announced. "But it depends on getting somebody who they trust to be seen working with us."
"Who do we know who they trust?" Bunny-chan asked.
"Sailor Pluto, of course," Ami replied.
Naru-san frowned. "Does anybody know how to contact her?"
I grinned. "Yeah, I owe her money. She'll talk to me."
I realized where the rainbow strands in our Pure Hearts came from while I was washing dishes after dinner.
They weren't reflected in her current attack and uniform, but they'd be in her next set: Moon
Rainbow Heartache.
Of course Makoto and I loved Bunny-chan like a sister. But why weren't the strands in Ryou's Pure Heart?
The next morning, I had to knock on Minako and Makoto's door, instead of the usual other way around... and they were both still in pyjamas and yawning. I thought that Mako-chan looked sexy in her pyjamas. Then I realized, to my happiness, that I thought Mina-chan only looked cute.
Minako told me that Sakura had woken her up in the middle of the night because Makoto needed to talk, I thanked her for being there when I couldn't be, and neither of us went into specifics. We didn't need to.
Unluckily for Makoto, she couldn't Unison with Sakura so they couldn't stay together for moral support without risking everybody learning about the Unison devices. Luckily for all of us, I was able to manifest my forcefields at full strength again, so once they let me know that they were dressed, I quick-moved from our apartment building to the bus stop – with each arm around a Senshi – and got us there before the bus arrived.
I could unison with Ichiro again as well. Not that it mattered at the time.
During the Revealing Of The Lunches that day, Ami and Ryou revealed that they had brought enough sandwiches for five people... and we didn't really care that we were giving Bogdanova-san a hint as to who knew what about whom.
I wondered how I had been lucky enough to be surrounded by so many close, trustworthy friends. If this was a genre convention, it definitely wasn't a stupid one.
When we got home after school, we found Mochizuki Ka'o waiting in my apartment. "I apologize for intruding, but there was no answer at the Kino residence," she said in English.
"Artemis and Sakura don't open the door for anybody while we're away," Minako explained in the same language, which we all used during our conversation.
"Ah."
"I thought it best to let her wait inside," Ichiro explained.
I nodded. "You thought correctly, of course. What brings you here, Mochizuki-san?"
"Public transit," she replied with a smile. Then, more seriously, she added, "Mizuno-sensei thought it necessary for somebody to watch over Kino-san. She knows that Minako-san shares Kino-san's apartment, but even Sailor Senshi need to sleep. I, as a droid, do not."
"Saeko-mama is being overly paranoid," my dearest replied. "I'm not suicidal any more. And Ami talks too much."
"Be that as it may," Mochizuki-san said, "we would be remiss in our duties as health care providers if we were not to make sure of your recovery. There is so little known about having one's Pure Heart removed, even by Black Moon and Crystal Tokyo medicine, that we cannot be certain how long a full recovery takes."
Before my fiancée could reply, I put my hand on her shoulder. "She's thinking of your welfare. And so is Saeko-mama."
"If we're taking a vote," Minako added, "I think it's a good idea for us to have a live-in nurse for a while. Especially if I have my Pure Heart removed some time." Then she turned to me. "I
am pure enough to have a Pure Heart, right?"
I grinned. "Oh, yeah, you've got one. I'm actually looking forward to meeting the daimon they created in canon to keep you in one place long enough to check your Pure Heart."
"Why would you..." my dearest started, stopped for a brief moment, then smiled. "Oh, right, Doorknobder is a
fun daimon."
"I wonder whether we can keep her alive?" I mused. "We have Osaka-san and Ryou as our resident youma and Pharmakon -"
"Please," Mochizuki-san interrupted, "I don't use that name any more."
I bowed to her. "I apologize." Straightening up, I continued, "Mochizuki-san is our resident droid. The cardians weren't people, but some of the daimons in canon are self-aware and intelligent, and Doorknobder is one of them."
Mochizuki-san frowned in annoyance. "We aren't Pokémon. You don't need to collect us all."
Minako asked, "What's a Pokémon?"
"We've gotten sidetracked," Makoto said before I could answer. "And my mental health is not up for a vote."
"True." Mochizuki-san looked straight at Makoto. "If you do not want me here, I will leave. But I strongly recommend that you let me stay."
Makoto sighed. You can't win them all, my dearest. "Oh, fine. You may as well stay. I don't have a futon for you, but you said you don't sleep. What do you eat, anyway?"
"Electricity is sufficient for my current requirements."
Did she just make a pun? If she did, she's a lot more human now than she was when Saphir built her.
Ryou and Saeko-mama were able to hire a reconstruction crew for our new home quite quickly. Thanks to the economic bubble having burst in 1991, there were a large number of companies willing to work for less than they had been charging a half-decade ago; efficient, competent construction crews that were willing to work around the clock were bidding for our relatively small job.
By the time I visited the site after school on Tuesday, the work at expanding the basement and rebuilding most of the walls was already underway. I got a few questions about why we needed so many power sockets in one of the two new basement rooms, which I deflected by saying I didn't know what was going in there. Which was true at the time, although I had my suspicions; it looked to me like we were either setting up for a game center or a datacenter. Since we were also wiring the entire building for a local-area network, I suspected the latter was the case.
One thing that I was able to confirm was that, yes, we wanted two of the bedrooms to be separated from the others. I explained that we'd be lodging both unmarried males and unmarried females so we needed separate sleeping areas in order to maintain propriety... which was true to begin with, but after a couple of weddings in less than a decade, the two areas would become the Mizuno and Kino residences, with my dearest and me living in the smaller area.
Once I was finished there, I headed to Shibuya. Specifically, Center Gai. Atelier Lucent had renovated since the last time I was in: they had fewer shelves and more display racks, which meant they had fewer items to sell overall but more of them were on display. And, as usual, the owner was waiting for my arrival.
"Congratulations on becoming a homeowner in Tokyo, Donaldson-san."
"Thank you, Meioh-san, although the paperwork says Mizuno-sensei owns the property on behalf of our mutual fund. I believe that foreigners can't own real estate in Japan."
"No, you can buy real estate here, once you're old enough to enter into a contract. So, what can I do for you today?"
"Well, I do need a couple of shirts. I believe you know my sizes and preferences already?" I asked with a grin.
"Of course." While she was showing me what she had, Setsuna-san asked, "What's your real reason for being here?"
"Two things. The less-important one first; I want to arrange a repayment schedule for the money I owe you. Ryou says we can start in a month."
"Rob-san, you saved my life when we fought Dark Lady."
"Can your life or anyone else's be valued by money, Setsuna-san?"
She thought for a moment as she pulled another shirt from a shelf. "No, it can't. We can worry about what you owe me next month, when you're ready to start payments. But that isn't your real reason for being here, any more than these shirts are."
"You're right, although I really like that teal shirt. We need Sailor Pluto to be seen fighting beside Sailor Moon."
"Seen by Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune." It wasn't a question.
I nodded. "So far, I've only traded a few words with Neptune and haven't even seen Uranus. Right now, they have no reason to trust the rest of the Sailor Team, but your presence can give them that reason."
"I can't get involved this week, which means that Mizuno-san will have to live through having her Pure Heart extracted on Saturday."
Thank you for the weekend forecast, Sailor Pluto. "Eudial did say that Mercury was on her list, but we didn't know when she'd be attacking."
Setsuna-san thought for a moment. "I'll let Eiko know that I won't be available next Saturday. I've been wanting to get to know Osaka-san better for a while now."
Presumably this Eiko was one of her employees who I hadn't yet met. "Thank you, Setsuna-san. I'll take the teal shirt and the white shirt."
"I'll give you this order for Kino-san as well." She pulled a bag from behind the counter, which I opened to discover a teal dress that appeared to be in Makoto's size.
"Does she know she's getting this, and do you ever get tired of knowing the future?"
Setsuna-san smiled, although the smile had some sadness in it. "Not yet, and more often than you'd imagine, in that order."
"Well, thank you. She needs a present from another Senshi right now, even if I end up buying it."
"I'll add it to your tab."
Bunny-chan brought us a bribe the next day.
"I need you all to teach me!" she insisted once the Revealing Of The Lunches was finished, producing a bag. "I brought homemade cookies!" Which explained why Ryou's lunch included an antacid.
Remembering episode 93 as if I had watched it with my fiancée two days ago – which we had – I asked, "What brought this on?"
«Darling, don't encourage her,» my fiancée sent to just me.
«She's going to tell us anyway, my dearest,» I sent back. «I'm surprised she didn't wait until after school, though.» We turned our attention back to Bunny-chan.
"I messed up Mamo-chan's genetic engineering study notes when I gave him some of my cookies."
Yep, it's time for episode 93. But Setsuna-san had mentioned Ami's Pure Heart, which wasn't due to be extracted until episode 97. Mind you, canon had already been shot down when Ryou's Pure Heart was shot out, so I wasn't completely surprised.
"He ate them and didn't seem to mind, but I know he's always so nice to me. I need bridal training if I'm going to be a good wife for Mamo-chan. Ami-chan and Ichigo-san, teach me about genetic engineering, please! Mako-chan, teach me how to be a better cook! Mina-chan, teach me more English! Erumaira-san, please teach me Russian! Ryou-san, teach me about investing money!"
"You need basic math skills before you can learn how to balance a ledger book, let alone invest money," Ryou pointed out.
Ami added, "And you need basic science skills and a good grounding in biology before you can start learning genetic engineering, Usagi-san. That's a university-level course that even I don't know very much about."
«Really?» I sent to just her. «I
know I saw some genetic engineering textbooks in the bundle you brought back from Midchilda.»
«They're just introductory-level texts, so I don't know very much yet. Besides, I really shouldn't boast about my knowledge.»
We turned our attention back to the conversation to hear Bunny-chan say, "Well, if you don't want to teach me English, maybe Robu-san will."
I raised one eyebrow, Spock-style. "Do you really think I'd teach you something that would help you get closer to somebody who you know I don't like?"
"Oh. Right."
Bunny-chan turned to my fiancée, but Makoto spoke before Bunny-chan could. "You've been like this before, Usagi-san. I know you want to better yourself for his sake, and if I thought you'd actually stick with the training, I'd help you. But you've never stuck with the training whenever you've wanted to learn something in the past."
"That's not true," Naru-san said. "Usagi is still learning how to be a miko."
Makoto looked surprised, and I don't know why. After all, we spent at least a half day each week at Rei-san's shrine even when we weren't cramming for exams; she should have noticed. "Okay, you're right. I'm sorry, Usagi-san."
"I forgive you," Bunny-chan replied... although I think she was still a bit upset about my dearest's frank words. But somebody had to say it, and Sakura and Rei-san weren't here.
When nobody said anything for a moment, Bogdanova-san said, "I'm not good at teaching. Do brides in Japan need to know how to speak Russian, and all of these other things?"
"I need to know them so I can be a better wife for Mamo-chan! What if he becomes somebody really important and I have to show off Japan to people from other countries?"
"Er..." Ichigo-san said, "If that's your worry, you're already showing off Japan to Elmira-san."
Bunny-chan looked surprised, then dejected. "And I'm probably not doing a good job of it, am I?" Then she turned to Bogdanova-san and bowed. "I'm sorry for making such a bad impression on you, Bogudanoba-san."
"Please, don't be sorrowful. That is not the Russian way."
Really? Sorrow wasn't the Russian way? I thought that there was a huge stack of Russian novels that said otherwise. Maybe they didn't exist in this reality.
"And it is not your way. And you don't need training in all those things. What you need is culture! Experience it while sitting by your boyfriend's side! It brings you together!"
Hearing that cheered Bunny-chan up. Any excuse for a date, I guess. "Thanks! So, does anybody want some cookies, even if you aren't going to teach me anything?"
"Alas, if I accept sweets from somebody who isn't my fiancée, she'll be disappointed with me," Ryou said while looking at Ami.
Bunny-chan turned to me and said, "I suppose you're going to use the same excuse."
I looked at my fiancée and raised one eyebrow slightly. «I can't get out of it, can I, Makoto?»
«Not when she said it that way, darling. Go ahead, and may your next life be even better than this one.» She nodded slightly.
I slowly shook my head while looking at Bunny-chan. "No, my dearest knows that my head can't be turned by a bag of homemade cookies. I'm not Ruby Rose."
"Who?"
I almost explained
RWBY to them, but Bogdanova-san was present. "The time for talk is later. Now is the time for cookies."
Just before we returned to class, Ryou gave me the antacid that he'd brought along. I needed it. Oh, boy, did I need it. Bunny-chan, please,
please stick to ice-cream desserts.
Bunny-chan really liked the idea of experiencing some culture alongside Chiba-san. Ami was kind enough to purchase tickets for all of us to attend a violin performance by Takuzou Igarashi in the auditorium of the National Art Center that Saturday.
"What, is the National Art Center already open?" Hayate-chan asked when we told her about our planned late-afternoon outing.
"Why wouldn't it be?" my dearest asked, somewhat confused. "We celebrated my fourteenth birthday there."
It was Hayate-chan's turn to look confused. "But..." Then she realized something that I had known for a while. "Oh, right. Just because it wasn't opened until 2007 back home doesn't mean it can't exist already in this world."
I chuckled at her comment. "How many things have you and I already noticed here that are different from what we remember from the canon stories, Hayate-chan? You took in stride bigger things like Ryou's name not being 'Ryo', or Makoto being a redhead instead of a brunette. Why would this throw you?"
She smiled and replied, "I just wasn't expecting it."
"Now that that's cleared up," my dearest said, "who all is going, and for how long?"
"I bought tickets for our entire lunch group, plus Rei and Mamoru," Ami replied.
"Including Bogdanova-san?"
"Yes, Rob, including Bogdanova-san. It was her idea to begin with."
The topic of discussion at that Friday's Conversational English club meeting was what we would wear to the recital.
"C'mon, Makoto, you'd look great in a dress!"
"I don't want to wear a dress..." she started, then remembered what I'd brought back from Shibuya for her. "But I suppose I should wear the one that Setsuna gave me."
I nodded. "In the same colour as my new shirt, I'll point out. I would be honoured to wear matching outfits with you to the recital."
"That dress makes me look pretty. I'm too tall to be pretty."
And the real reason comes out; my dearest was letting her insecurities get the better of her.
Minako looked to be about to say something, but Ryou put one hand on her shoulder and she stopped in surprise.
Ami said nothing, which left it to me to answer my fiancée. "My dearest, you
deserve to look beautiful. I want you to be the girl that every other guy, even Ryou and Chiba-san, wishes was his date. Makoto, will you be that dream girl tomorrow? Please?"
She thought for a moment. "For you, I'll look pretty. For
you, not for anybody else."
Ryou finally let Minako say something. "That's so romantic. I was going to point out that Linda Evangelista is three centimetres taller than you are and Naomi Campbell is one centimetre taller than her, and everybody in the world thinks that they're pretty."
"Those are just numbers," Ryou pointed out.
I added, "Mina-chan, Ami might be convinced with numbers, but Makoto is the kind of person who understands emotions better than ledgers. And I wouldn't want it any other way," I finished with a smile for my dearest as I put one arm around her waist.
Minako nodded. "You two belong together, and I wish that singing idols could have boyfriends so I could find somebody who's the right one for me. Now, what am I going to wear? I can't wear a little black dress now, not if I don't want to upstage Mako-chan."
"Mina-chan," Ami replied, "it's an afternoon recital, not an evening performance. I'm just going to wear that blue outfit that I picked up in Cr-" she remembered the bug in the classroom just in time, and coughed. "Sorry. The blue outfit that I picked up in Kurobe."
«It's far too soon to let Bogdanova-san know about Cranagan,» Ryou sent. «Eight times out of nine. And I did drag Ami to the Unazuki Onsen after we got back from Castle Mariner.»
I nodded in reply. "And I was going to go with my black suit and tie, along with my new shirt." «I didn't know you two went out of town alone between the school years.»
«You were busy skating.» "I have a navy blue suit that I could wear," Ryou commented. "That should complement Ami's dress."
"Well, if two of you are wearing blue and the other two are wearing teal, that leaves me with no choice but to wear something in green," Minako announced. "But I don't own a green dress."
I grinned. "Not a real green dress, that's cruel."
Makoto pulled a pillow out of her school bag, and threw it at me. The pillow, not the bag.
"What are you quoting now?" Minako asked while sighing in resignation.
"A song that was released last December," I replied as I tossed the pillow back to my dearest. "It's called 'If I Had $1000000'. It's a big hit back in Canada."
Minako rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'll have to go with a skirt and blouse. Now, who's going to tell the others what we're wearing?"
"I'll do that," Ami volunteered.
Bunny-chan and Rei-san were the only others in our group to wear dresses to the concert: Usagi-san's was just off-white enough to suggest yellow without being obvious, and Rei-san's was the red one that I was beginning to suspect was the only European-style dress she owned. Not that I saw her in a dress very often. Naru-san, Ichigo-san, and Bogdanova-san each wore a blouse and skirt outfit, like Minako – Naru-san in a black skirt and jacket and white blouse, Ichigo-san in navy with white trim, and Bogdanova-san in yellow with red accents.
Chiba-san wore a black suit and tie, and a white shirt. My black jacket was the one that I'd bought in Cranagan, so Ichiro rode along in my pocket. Meia rode along with him, at Ryou's insistence.
Once we were at the National Art Center, we made our way to the third floor and took our seats. Ryou had the aisle seat, with Ami beside him, and Minako beside her. Beside them were Rei-san, Bunny-chan, and Chiba-san. I was seated behind Ryou, with my dearest beside me, Naru-san beside her, and Ichigo-san and Bogdanova-san on the other side of Naru-san's seat. Anybody who knew us socially would think we were seated beside our friends and family; anybody who knew we were the Sailor Team would realize we were ready to react at a moment's notice.
We timed things well; we only had to wait for five minutes before the lights were dimmed and Takuzou Igarashi took the stage.
Alas, he only got a few bars into
the third movement of Boccherini's String Quintet in E major when his violin was possessed by a daimon.
No rest for the wicked. Or for us. The lights stayed down, so we quietly slipped away and transformed... except for Ichigo-san and Bogdanova-san, of course.
I put up a light-blocking forcefield so that nobody would see us transform or notice we left the room. At least, nobody in the auditorium noticed. Three guesses who was waiting in the hallway, and if you need all three you've forgotten the stupid genre conventions.
Kaolinite was watching the action inside the hall through the window in the door closest to the stage. "Uranus and Neptune are checking the Pure Heart now. Keep the others busy, will you?"
Eudial shot from the hip. Since she just wanted to keep us busy, it didn't matter who she hit. Ironically, she hit Mercury – the Senshi who she planned to hit when she'd hit Makoto instead.
Okuni created and threw a diamond dagger at Eudial, but it bounced off her weapon's barrel.
"I expected that," Mercury said. "Nobody else here has as much training as I do with ranged weaponry," she added smugly while trying to manifest a Frigid Dagger. Smug Ami isn't very nice to listen to; she reminded me too much of Arisa Sono from
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku.
The Frigid Dagger failed to materialize, probably because Mercury's Pure Heart – blue with white, green, red, and rainbow streaks, which I expected, and a few orange streaks, which I didn't expect – wasn't in her body. She also had a few blue-green streaks that looked to me like a caduceus which I assumed showed her feelings for her mother.
Tuxedo Kamen's answer to her statement was to throw a rose... which blocked Kaolinite from entering the auditorium.
"I don't want in anyway," she said. "That's not a Talisman. Let's go."
Eudial grabbed Kaolinite and took off at her top speed. But this time I was ready for them – I followed them as far as the car park before they got into Eudial's car and sped off.
"Next time, we track them," I insisted. "Somehow. We need to know how they can outrun me before we have any hope of countering that ability."
"We'd better get back to the others, sir," Ichiro pointed out.
"Yes, please," Meia added. "I'm worried about Mercury."
"So am I," I replied while heading back upstairs at top speed.
By the time we returned to the others, Jupiter had pried open the door that Tuxedo Kamen had sealed with a rose, and Moon was restoring Igarashi-san's Pure Heart to his body.
"Of course the civilian comes first," Mercury announced while holding her own Pure Heart. "It's obvious that Senshi have a duty to protect other people!"
I caught Jupiter's eye and sent only to her, «How long has Mercury been like this?»
«Since before you left to chase the Death Busters.»
Then Mercury noticed me. "You're already back? How did they get away from you? I should have gone with you to supervise."
«Good news, Makoto,» I sent privately. «Suddenly I'm not interested in Ami as a mistress, at all.»
«Thank you, but don't think poorly of her, darling. Those are her impure thoughts, not how she usually thinks.»
«I never imagined she could be so annoying, though. Was I like that?»
«No, you collapsed almost immediately.»
"I'm still waiting for an answer," Mercury said. "Pay attention to me when I ask you a question, Oni. It's obvious who you're having a private conversation with. It's too bad I can't listen in, the way that Nove and Wendi can."
"They're called 'private' conversations for a reason, Mercury," Moon said as she rejoined us. "It's time to put your Pure Heart back in your body."
"I'm thinking much more clearly without it."
"No, you aren't," Mars, Onmyōji, Jupiter, and I said. Ryou continued, "You just think you are because your thinking is impaired."
Then I remembered the next canon Pure Heart victim. "You can't survive for much longer without it," I added. "That should be obvious."
Mercury glared at me. "Oh, very well. But only because Onmyōji wants it." Then Moon put Mercury's Pure Heart back in her body, and Mercury dropped to her knees. Much less smugly than a moment ago, she said, "I'm so sorry, everyone. I don't know what I was thinking."
Moon offered Mercury a hand and pulled her back up to her feet. "There's nothing to forgive. You weren't yourself."
"But I never should have treated any of you that way..." Mercury replied before fainting. Ryou caught her, of course, and carried her over to a nearby sofa.
"Raise a privacy shield," Ryou told me. I did so, just before Mercury transformed back to Ami.
"The rest of you, go somewhere private and transform back," he said.
"But then everyone will know Mercury is Ami," Moon pointed out.
I shook my head as Ichiro and Meia flew out of my pocket. "Not if a double takes her place."
Both devices said "Mirage Hide!" and suddenly looked like Oni and Mercury. "Let's go," Meia added with Ami's voice.
Venus grinned as everyone else stepped through the shield. "That's a very useful spell." Then she joined them.
Which left me alone with Ami. I dropped my own Mirage Hide and sat down beside her feet. "You're a pretty girl, but if I had any doubts that you were Ryou's girlfriend, you just dispelled them," I whispered. "You were bossy and boastful to everyone else when you were impure, but not to him."
"I don't like bossing people around," she whispered in reply. "How did you know I was awake?"
"I guessed, based on how long Ryou, Makoto, and I were out cold after we had our Pure Hearts removed. And I'm also guessing that you can't transform, go into Unison, or cast spells right now."
She held up one hand, which frosted over. Then the ice dropped away. "I can use my magic, but I can't transform."
"I've never been happier to be proven wrong. But right now, I need to ask you about Silver Millennium technology..."
Five minutes later, somebody who looked like me stepped through the privacy shield. Then he dropped his Mirage Hide. "Sir, there is nobody else in the corridor."
"Thank you, Ichiro." I opened my jacket enough for him to take his place in my pocket, then dropped the shield. "How's the concert going?"
"It isn't," my dearest said from what was outside the previously shielded area. "The daimon possessed Igarashi-san's violin, and it broke from falling to the floor when the daimon was destroyed."
As Ryou helped Ami stand up, Naru-san asked, "Does anyone know where Erumaira-san is?"
"I saw her in a phone booth downstairs," Meia said from Ryou's pocket.
"I suppose we'd better let her know that the excitement and the concert are both over," Ichigo-san said. "I'll see you in class on Monday."
As she headed for the elevator, Chiba-san turned to Bunny-chan. "It's a shame that we won't be able to hear the concert. Instead, shall we go out for an early dinner?"
Bunny-chan grinned, then frowned as Naru-san said, "I'd love to have dinner!"
Watching Rei-san, Minako, and Naru-san squeeze in between Bunny-chan and Chiba-san, I said, "It's at times like these that I appreciate not being a babe magnet."
My fiancée smiled. "Me, too."
I grinned. "Yeah, I appreciate that you're not a babe magnet either."
She grabbed a pillow from the sofa and threw it at me... but she was grinning when she did that.
"I expected that something like this might happen," our group's precog said, "so I made reservations for the four of us at Brasserie Paul Bocuse Musée. Shall we?" Ryou offered his arm to Ami.
"Why not?" my dearest said as I offered my arm to her.
The next day, Ami, Naru-san, Ichiro, Shario-chan, and I got together at the Osakas' apartment above the OSA-P jewelry store. Meia didn't join us, since Ami still couldn't Unison and we weren't discussing magic; instead, she spent the day with Kasandara and Ryou.
We spent the day building a tracking device. Using the Silver Millennium technology that Ami and I had discussed the previous day, the two of us designed a beacon that Chacornac could track from the Moon.
While Shario-chan took our design and turned it into a wiring diagram, Ami, Naru-san, and I stepped out to get lunch at a ramen place nearby that Naru-san liked. While we were there, she picked up a flyer advertising a love compatibility contest being held on Saturday. "You two should take part in that with your fiancées," she said to Ami and me. I sighed deeply, so she asked, "What's wrong?"
"In canon, you took part in that, and your boyfriend had his Pure Heart pulled out of his body."
Naru-san looked puzzled. "But I don't have a boyfriend."
"Yes, I know. And that's because my presence changed the timeline. I'm sorry, Naru-san."
"Don't be sorry, Robu-san. Considering my bad luck in who I choose to date, I'm probably better off without a boyfriend."
I didn't know whether to hope she believed that, or to hope she was just saying it to spare my feelings.
When we got back to OSA-P, we discovered a completed diagram on Naru-san's workbench and Shario-chan and Ichiro standing on the workbench in an embrace and kiss, both fully clothed. Naru-san grinned, held up the flyer, and said, "Maybe you two should take part in this love compatibility contest."
Shario-chan made go-away motions without letting go of Ichiro. He sent to me, «Permission to stop working early, sir?»
And that was when I realized that he'd never see the two of us as equals, no matter what I had hoped for. If he could be that formal with me in this situation, he'd never stop being formal. I smiled anyway. "You two have fun. In another room." I remembered that, as human-like as they usually acted, they didn't have certain human anatomy and what we had walked in on was probably as far as they physically could go. "And I'm sorry that we interrupted you."
Ichiro took Shario-chan in a bridal carry and literally flew off to Naru-san's bedroom.
Watching them leave, she sighed and sadly said, "Our AI friends are getting more use out of my bedroom than I am. I just sleep there." After a moment, she added, "Well, let's get back to work." She picked up the schematic and created the crystal circuitry from what she had on hand – including some of what was left of our Midchildan gold. We made sure that the tracker didn't weigh more than Shario-chan, so that Ichiro could carry it while flying.
Then, while Ami and I went home, Naru-san followed up on one of Shario-chan's projects that I wasn't previously aware of and made comms relays that Shario-chan could retrofit into Ichiro, Meia, Sakura, and Hayate-chan, so that they could communicate with the Mercury Computer and my cellphone via the Silver Millennium comms relay attached to my router.
Then it was just a matter of time until the Death Busters showed themselves again.
Wednesday was fun. For meanings of "fun" which include "not fun".
It started with Ryou insisting that we not have a study session that day. Twelve times out of thirteen, it was necessary for certain people to be in certain other places instead.
Then Bunny-chan saw Chiba-san give Unazuki-san a ride to the Crown. I'll give them credit; nobody thought he was being unfaithful, even after the misunderstandings that took place while Princess Lady was in our time last year.
It was good to know that Usagi-san was mature enough to see a pretty girl with her fiancé and not become jealous. Idly, I wondered whether Bunny-chan could teach my fiancée that skill.
Then the girls, along with Ami, Makoto, and my dearest, had a conversation at the Crown Fruit Parlor. They talked about kissing, just like in canon episode 94, except that Ami and Makoto were there and had some stories to share with the others. But partway through the discussion, Ami excused herself and called me.
"Rob, is your computer turned on?"
"Yes. Ryou insisted. What do you need?"
"You need to contact Chacornac and set up a scan around Unazuki-san's apartment. Please," she added in a less-demanding tone. "I can't do that; Michiru and Haruka are here."
"What are we scanning for?"
"A daimon egg. It looks like canon's repeating itself and she's the next target."
"I'm on it."
"Thank you." She hung up and I started a call to the Moon.
Stupid two-and-a-half second lag between commands and responses. But as long as the Door of Space-Time was blocking FTL in-system – and we needed that blocking in place to keep Galaxia from attacking before we were ready – we had to live with it.
Chacornac confirmed the scanning commands, both Ami's requested scan for anything that looked like what we knew about daimon eggs and my request for anything that looked like Pure Hearts. If this worked the way we hoped, we'd end up with the ability to track them both. I sent a text to the Mercury Computer to let Ami know, then headed next door and let Minako know that we probably had to be ready for a daimon attack. I offered to fly her to Unazuki-san's apartment, but she refused to fly again, so I carried her and stuck to the ground.
"We'd better not tell Makoto about this," Minako said while I had her in a bridal carry. "She might get jealous."
"I have no secrets from my fiancée," I replied. "I'll take my chances."
She looked like she was going to say something else, but her communicator chimed. She looked at it and told me, "Chacornac's detected something powerful that's not us near Unazuki-san's apartment."
I stopped a half-block short of the apartment, put her down, and used a forcefield pillar to raise us up to where we could see what was coming. After a few seconds, Ichiro and Minako said, "There!" and pointed at two different places.
I created a carefully-shaped set of forcefields to use as a telescope, and took a closer look. Ichiro had seen a distortion in the air where Chacornac had reported something. Minako had spotted Eudial's car. I dispelled the telescope and said, "Looks like we can track daimon eggs now." Then I spotted Unazuki-san returning to her apartment. "It's showtime!"
"I loved
All That Jazz!" Minako replied as we returned to ground level. "I didn't know you watched musicals."
I thought I was quoting
The Big O. "I don't. I just remembered the line."
«If it's any consolation, sir,» Ichiro sent to me, «
I thought of
Beetlejuice.»
By the time we got to Unazuki-san's door, we heard her scream. "Blast it, we're too late." Then the daimon burst through the doorway, followed by Sailors Uranus and Neptune.
I gave Ichiro the tracker we'd made. "Follow them!" Ichiro nodded and did so as Minako and I checked on Unazuki-san. We heard a car speed up to chase the daimon as well... and the only car nearby was Eudial's.
We found Unazuki-san standing in her front room, posed as if she was vacuuming the floor. Then she saw us. "Mina-chan." Her voice sounded hollow. "Kiss me."
"But we're both girls. And you wanted your first kiss to be perfect."
"I don't care now. I want to kiss. Donarudoson-san. Mako-chan says you're a good kisser. Kiss me." She started walking toward us, like a zombie.
We both backed off. "I'm engaged to marry Mako-chan! I won't kiss you!" Even if I wanted to, she wasn't in her right mind. Besides, she was acting way too creepy for me to want her.
"I don't care kiss me kiss me kiss me kiss me kiss me kiss..." She finally fell over.
I sighed in relief as Minako caught Unazuki-san's limp body.
"You could have kissed her, Rob. It wasn't as if she wanted to go any farther than that."
"By that logic, you could have kissed her, Minako. I don't
want to kiss anyone other than Makoto."
"Ah. I respect your loyalty to my roommate. What now?"
"Let the others know what happened here, and tell them I'm going after the daimon that stole Unazuki-san's Pure Heart. Then put her on her bed and stay with her; somebody needs to watch over her and you're safer here than in combat. You're still a target; Eudial's shot out my Pure Heart but she hasn't shot yours yet."
Minako frowned as she answered, "I don't like that, but I can't argue with it."
I left the girls alone, got my cellphone out, hit one of the new speed-dial buttons, and headed out after Ichiro. "I'm on the move, partner. Give me directions."
"Certainly, sir." The screen lit up with a local map and a set of markers, labelled Ichiro, Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, Daimon, and Pure Heart. As I got my bearings, two more markers appeared together on the edge of the map: Sailor Moon and Tuxedo Kamen.
Looking at where all their paths met, I saw that we were going to have a three-way melee at a scrap heap, just like in canon but with more fighters. And it looked like I was going to be the last one to the party if I took the time to rendezvous with Ichiro. "Sorry, but it looks like we'll get there too late if we waste time joining up first."
"I'll use a Mirage Hide to go invisible, then."
I didn't know he – or I, for that matter – could do that. "You'll have to show Ami and me that after the fight. Going quiet now." I used a Mirage Hide on myself to get into my combat persona, then went invisible my usual way.
I arrived just as Uranus, Neptune, and the daimon were fighting each other hand-to-hand. Stupid melee. And stupid genre conventions. I slipped around them just in time to see Unazuki-san's clear Pure Heart fly out of the daimon's hands and into an arc that would have had it land somewhere in the scrap pile... if I hadn't raced in and caught it.
Holding Unazuki-san's clear Pure Heart felt like being kissed.
Stupid genre conventions. I've already got a fiancée. And I didn't dare put her Pure Heart inside a forcefield in case that severed its connection to her.
Sure enough, the daimon and the two Senshi didn't even notice that the Pure Heart was gone. I could understand the daimon not caring, but the Senshi who were looking for Talismans should have known better. They should also have noticed the engine noises nearby.
"The crystal of a pure heart does not fit someone with a dirty heart. Give that crystal back and become one with this steel trash!"
Tuxedo Kamen was standing on his motorcycle – which I suppose made him Tuxedo Kamen Rider – with Sailor Moon riding the bike side-saddle. Show-offs.
It was only then that they noticed that nobody had Unazuki-san's Pure Heart. At least, nobody who they could see; I was still invisible.
It was also then that Eudial shot. She went for the obvious target.
Chiba-san's Pure Heart, all gold with rainbow streaks, hovered behind his body. He looked straight at Eudial. "Shot... through the heart...
and you're to blame!" he roared. Then he lunged at her, anger on his face, ready to strangle the Witch.
He actually got to her before she could move... but collapsed before he could wrap his hands around her neck. Dude, you give wrath a bad name.
"Do you have more rounds for that thing this time?" Kaolinite asked.
Eudial grinned. "Oh, yes," she said with satisfaction as she aimed at Uranus.
Nope. Not happening. Not yet, at least. Moon needs more practice with her current attack first. If green forcefield boxing gloves were good enough for the comic books, they were good enough for me, and for Eudial. I punched the b... Witch in the face, making her drop her weapon.
Kaolinite cut and ran. Eudial followed her.
I couldn't give chase; Tuxedo Kamen was still out cold, Uranus and Neptune were examining his Pure Heart to determine whether it was a Talisman, and the motorcycle had fallen over, pinning Sailor Moon to the ground.
Bunny-chan came first. I went visible, pried the bike off her using a forcefield lever and fulcrum, helped her out, and pointed her at the daimon. "If you would, ma'am?"
She giggled. "Of course, Oni. Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"
There was a lot of spinning involved in that attack. Maybe the Emerald Pair could incorporate it into a routine.
Once the daimon was destroyed, Ichiro went visible and landed on my shoulder. "Secondary mission accomplished, sir," he reported.
I wondered what he was talking about, then noticed that he wasn't carrying the tracker any more. "Ah. Good work. Is Chacornac tracking them?"
"I believe so. I know that Sailor Mercury is."
"Excellent." Then I walked over to Uranus and Neptune, who had just discarded Tuxedo Kamen's Pure Heart as if it was yesterday's newspaper. Nobody's purity deserved that kind of treatment. Maybe I could speed up their search a bit and save some people some possible emotional trauma.
"Ladies, before I let you examine Unazuki-san's Pure Heart, I have a question. I believe you two can feel Talismans whenever you inspect Pure Hearts."
"That's correct," Neptune said with some impatience.
"But you never find one. So where's the Talisman that you're sure you're sensing? Think about that." I let them see, but not touch, Unazuki-san's Pure Heart.
"This isn't a Talisman, either."
"As I expected." As they walked off, I added, "Ladies? Lover's Park. Saturday. Osaka Naru-san is likely to be attacked, not that you care what her name is."
Uranus stopped and turned on her heel, anger obvious on her face. "You don't understand what our mission requires of us!"
"What 'mission'? Who assigned it to you? Not Neo-Queen Serenity, I'll guarantee you that."
"Who
are you?"
I bowed, European style. "Standing by the side of the Sailor Senshi for Love and Friendship, and named by Neo-Queen Serenity herself, I am Oni. I know people who know things. So, who are you two?"
Neither of them returned the bow. "Protected by Uranus, The Outer Planet of Wind, Guardian of the Heavens. I am Sailor Uranus."
Oh, I
so wanted to make a comment about the wind from Uranus. But I also wanted her to work with us, so I didn't; for all I knew, she might understand English.
"Protected by Neptune, the Outer Planet of the Seas, Guardian of the Deep Sea, I am Sailor Neptune. Do you know where to find the Talismans?"
And now we could all refer to each other by our noms de guerre. May as well let them have a freebie in their search. "I have seen the Garnet Orb, and know who holds it. It is in the safest possible hands."
"Yours?" Uranus asked with a bit of a sneer.
"Heavens, no. I don't even trust myself with one of the keys to the Ginzuishou." Which was true; I gave that Rainbow Crystal to Ami as soon as I could. And thinking of Ami reminded me that I had to meet her at Unazuki-san's apartment as quickly as possible. "A member of the Senshi of the Outer Solar System holds it. Unfortunately, I do not have time for further talk right now. Adieu."
Ichiro Unisoned with me, I grabbed Eudial's long arm, and we literally flew to Unazuki-san's side, dropping our Mirage Hide spells along the way. We dropped out of Unison and left the weapon just outside the apartment. Ichiro hid in my pocket as Ami arrived, and we restored Unazuki-san's Pure Heart to her.
She woke up, looked at Minako and me, and blushed down to her toes.
"Perhaps I should leave you with your friends," I said as I turned to her bedroom door.
"Donarudoson-san, before you go..." I turned back to look at Unazuki-san. "If I embarrassed you, I apologize."
"There was no embarrassment, Furuhata-san. And I trust that the person who you love will be happy to receive your first kiss."
"I hope so, too." She smiled, and I left the ladies alone to discuss matters of love.
We got together for a quick after-action debriefing, giving Eudial's weapon to Meia and Shario-chan to scan.
Hayate-chan wasn't happy to hear about what had happened. "We thought that only the Senshi were on the Death Busters' target list. We now have evidence that we were wrong. We have to assume that anyone who regularly associates with us are targets," she commented while gesturing toward Ryou, Ami, Makoto, and me.
"We can't protect everybody, not all the time," Bunny-chan pointed out.
"Then we do what we can do." Hayate-chan turned to Ami. "Were you able to track the Death Busters back to their base?"
Ami shook her head. "They're shielded somehow; even Chacornac lost the signal as they approached Mugen Academy."
"Then we still have only Rob-san's laptop's anime collection and my memories of my personality donor watching
Sailor Moon to tell us that that's where they're located."
"More importantly," Sakura pointed out, "they can cloak themselves against Silver Millennium scans."
Nobody was happy to hear that.
"Is there anything else?" Hayate-chan asked.
"Two things," Bunny-chan replied. "First, Robu-san, thank you for asking me to attack the daimon instead of telling me to. Second, Mamo-chan, you really need to work out more and build up your stamina. Everyone else on the team who's had her Pure Heart removed stayed awake a lot longer than you did."
I was happy that she told him that; that meant I didn't have to. But fair was fair; I pointed out, "Ryou and I collapsed quickly, too. There might be something gender-based going on there."
Meia frowned slightly. "If that's true, then we need to be even more protective of male targets in the future."
We used that Friday's Conversational English club meeting to coordinate our trip to Lover's Park the next day, including a three-minute digression about why it should have been called "Lovers' Park". Which meant that the exciting events that week happened the next day.
While Ichigo-san distracted Bogdanova-san at school, Naru-san quietly gave me a new communicator. «Will you test this for me, please, Robu-san? You should be able to think into it and let it think at you.»
«It's a Midchildan-style telepathy relay?»
She nodded. «If they had any this small, it would be. It is based on the telepathy circuits that Devices use, though, linked to Silver Millennium communication circuits. Oh, and would you send the schematics to Scrya-san, please? Shario-chan has them.»
«Of course! And if this works as well as you described, I'll insist that you get the Midchildan royalties for it.»
«Whatever good they'll do me.
»
«You never know. Ami might be able to open a portal big enough to send a package through, if she becomes a more powerful mage or optimizes the spell. Do you have a communicator?»
«I have the prototype.»
«Then we'll test it during the contest at Lover's Park.»
«
» Her sadness didn't show on her face.
Oops. «I'm sorry.» Note to self: Don't remind Naru-san that she doesn't have a boyfriend any more.
Sakurada-sensei walked into the classroom before Naru-san could reply.
We headed straight home when the half-day of classes was over, and got changed into our matching outfits. Then we headed for Lover's Park.
There were three other couples waiting for the contest to begin when Makoto and I arrived and checked in. We recognized one of the couples: Tenou-san and Kaioh-san. The other two couples... well, if this was a beauty contest instead of a love contest, they probably wouldn't have been accepted. But love knows no boundaries, and that includes the boundary of appearance. I shan't name them here; instead, I'll call the women "Ikuhara" and "Sato".
My dearest dragged me over to the two who I knew as Senshi. "I don't know whether you've met yet. Darling, this is Michiru Kaiou and Haruka Tenou. Michru-san, Haruka-san, this is my fiancée, Rob Donaldson."
"I believe I saw both of you at the concert last weekend, that was interrupted by a monster attack. I'm Rob Donaldson, and it's good to meet you." I bowed slightly, as was polite.
They both returned my bow. "I'm Michiru Kaiou. I'm happy to meet you."
"Haruka Tenou. Likewise."
"I've heard your name somewhere before, Tenou-san. Would you be the Haruka Tenou who's becoming famous in the motocross circuit?"
"I am that person, yes. I'm surprised that you've heard of me."
Makoto grinned. "Haruka-san is very good at driving. But Michru-san is even better at playing the violin."
"Ah. My dearest, for somebody who claims that she isn't feminine, you know a lot about the feminine pursuits." I turned to the others. "Do you have something to discuss if they ask us what we do as couples?"
They looked at each other, shared Meaningful Looks, then turned back to me. "There is something that we do together, but it isn't something that we should discuss in public."
"Say no more, then. I suspect I know what you're talking about." To Makoto only, I added, «Whether it's in the bedroom or on the battlefield.»
«Don't make me giggle! We aren't supposed to know that yet!»
"What do the two of you do together?" Haruka-san asked.
I turned to Makoto and asked, "Should we show them a pair lift?"
"Not yet, darling." She turned her attention back to Michiru. "We're reasonably well-known as pairs figure skaters."
Michiru-san's sudden realization showed on her face. "Are you the Emerald Pair?"
My dearest smiled as she replied, "We are."
Before we could continue, the contest organizers announced that the final couple had arrived and we were to assemble to draw lots for the order we would be asked the first question. Sure enough, the final couple was Ami and Ryou. We smiled at each other as the ladies drew lots: first up was "Sato", then "Ikuhara", then Michiru-san, then Makoto, and finally Ami.
And then we were separated, with the ladies being asked to stand behind a wall with five holes at hand height. Then the rest of us were led out and introduced to the audience.
After we gave our names, the announcer said, "We're sorry that we aren't introducing their girlfriends to you right now, but you'll find out why after our first contest!" One hand appeared at each hole in the wall. "Let's see whether our contestants can identify their girlfriends just by seeing their hands!"
In canon, the only couple who succeeded was Haruka-san and Michiru-san. But, as Hayate-chan keeps reminding us, canon is only a guideline in this reality.
Ryou, Haruka-san, and I found ourselves standing close enough that we wouldn't be overheard if we whispered. So Ryou started with something even quieter than a whisper. «This is the perfect time to get their attention,» Ryou sent to me as he looked at the hands that our girlfriends were presenting for us to choose and put a puzzled look on his face.
I played along. "Ryou," I whispered, "it isn't difficult to tell which hands are whose. Look at their calluses. Who has calluses consistent with painting and playing the violin, who has calluses consistent with cooking and practising Jeet Kun Do, and who has calluses consistent with reading books all the time?"
"But three of them have calluses left by using transformation wands," Ryou whispered back.
That surprised Haruka enough to show on her face for a very brief moment. She turned her attention to us and whispered, "We will have words later."
"I look forward to it," Ryou whispered back as I knocked at the door and called out "Makoto" Sure enough, I knew what my fiancée's hand looked like.
Haruka then did the same with Michiru, followed by Ryou and Ami. The others ended up guessing; I assume they thought they had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right, which they did.
Then they asked us the first question: "What do you do as a couple?"
The first three couples gave the expected answers: take long walks together, go shopping together, and in Haruka-san and Michiru-san's case, take long moonlight drives along the bay. Then it was our turn. "Well," I said as I grabbed Makoto, lifted her, and held her above my head with one hand.
She finished, "We go figure skating!"
Somebody in the crowd shouted out, "Hey! You're the Emerald Pair!"
"No publicity, please," I said with a smile as Makoto returned to Earth. "Besides, neither of us are the most famous person on the stage."
Everyone turned to look at Ami and Ryou, and somebody else in the audience called out, "Isn't she Mizuno-san?"
Ami blushed slightly. "Yes, I'm Mizuno Ami. Ryou and I study together, and sometimes we go somewhere quiet and have a picnic."
The second question was, "How did you meet?"
"Sato" and her boyfriend worked together in an office. "Ikuhara" and her boyfriend rode the same bus home from work every day.
Haruka-san smiled and said, "Would you believe she stalked me?" Everybody laughed.
"Oh, it's true," Michiru-san said. "I couldn't stay away from Haruka. We were fated to be together."
"But I love her anyway," Haruka-san added.
«That was remarkably truthful,» Ami sent to us with a bit of wonder in her thought as the crowd laughed again.
«Did you mean to send that to me, too?» Naru-san asked. «Oh, and the communicators work.»
Then it was Makoto's and my turn. "We're next-door neighbours."
"But we're going to share a house any day now," my dearest added, which resulted in both gasps and cheers from the assembled crowd.
Then it was Ryou and Ami's turn. "He was alone in Tokyo and asked for my help, but I couldn't do what he asked me to do. Instead, I helped him get out of the trouble he was in. Then one thing led to another, and here we are."
Practically everybody in the audience went "Awwww..."
Our next question was also our next contest. "We've already asked the ladies, and now we're asking the gentlemen! What is your girlfriend's favourite colour? You have to get this right to stay in the contest."
This is where both "Sato" and "Ikuhara" were eliminated, guessing red and green when they were actually yellow and orange.
Haruka-san knew that Michiru-san's favourite colour was marine blue. No surprise there, either about her favourite or that her girlfriend knew.
I teased the judges a bit. "Makoto's wearing her favourite colour," I said while everyone looked at
her off-the-shoulder green blouse... then I held a hand up to the rose she was wearing as an accent. "Sugar pink."
"Correct!"
Then it was Ryou's turn. He smiled and said, "Light blue, of course."
"Correct! We're now down to three couples. Let's show our appreciation to the others for participating."
After the applause died down, they asked the ladies what our favourite foods are. It was a bit of a surprise to me that Haruka-san likes salads. Ami knew that Ryou likes beef bowl, and of course my dearest told the judges about my fondness for inarizushi.
The questions continued. Eventually, Michiru-san got an answer wrong, but it looked to me like she was distracted and not paying attention. «I'm guessing the daimon egg just showed up,» I sent to Ryou, Ami, Makoto, and Naru-san.
«No, that white hatchback just pulled into the parking lot,» Naru-san sent back.
«Get away from it!»
«I can't. Elmira-san's with me, and we don't have an escape route. Except toward the big heart sculpture.»
Ami sighed mentally. «And that's where the daimon egg ended up in canon. We'll meet you there.»
I deliberately flubbed the next question, saying Makoto's favourite sweet was
dorayaki when I knew she preferred
cherry pie. Ryou knew that Ami's favourite sweet was
anmitsu, and that was enough to give them the victory and the prize.
After the crowd dispersed, we met up with Naru-san and Bogdanova-san at the heart statue. "Congratulations, Ryou-san and Ami-san!" Then Bogdanova-san turned to me. "How did you get Makoto-san's favourite dessert wrong, Rob-san?"
"Oh, I'd been answering so many questions that I couldn't keep all of the facts straight," I replied. Hey, I never promised not to lie to her.
Just for a quick moment, Bogdanova-san frowned. Then she smiled and said, "That could happen to anybody!"
Kasandara chose that moment to speak up. "Incoming attack!" And a shot rang out, and Naru-san collapsed, her clear Pure Heart hovering above her body.
Bogdanova-san of all people moved to protect Naru-san. And I didn't see where she drew the
Makarov pistol that she had in her hand. "Comrade Osaka, can you get up and move?"
"Don't wanna." Naru-san never slurred her words like that; that had to be her impure thoughts making her talk that way.
"We're under fire!"
"Don't care."
I turned to Naru-san and angrily asked. "Are you going to not care about the rest of us being in danger?"
"Doesn't matta."
I guess her buried character flaw was apathy.
"Help me get her closer to the statue," Bogdanova-san practically ordered us as she started dragging Naru-san over to it.
My dearest said, "Don't do that!" But it was too late. The statue morphed into a daimon just from our relatively-close proximity.
As daimon went, this one looked practically human. It wasn't particularly good at English, though. "Let's dancing."
And we were surrounded by boys who were at least as attractive as Ryou. "Let's dancing," they said to the ladies.
"Whatever," Naru-san said as she stood up.
"Why not?" Bogdanova-san said.
Makoto almost took the hand of one of the boys, then stopped. "I only dance with my fiancée," she said as she assumed a combat stance.
Seeing that, Ami cast one of her new spells. "Mental Shield!"
And Bogdanova-san gasped before switching from dancing to shooting as her partner morphed into a monster. Her bullets had no effect on it, but her attempt to defend herself distracted her for long enough for the daimon to pull her red-and-yellow-tinted Pure Heart out of her body.
"Give that back! It's mine!" Bogdanova-san actually chased the daimon for a moment, then she noticed Naru-san's Pure Heart. "And I want that one, too!"
"World Shaking!" Uranus' attack tore through most of the pretty-boy monsters.
"Dead scream." And Pluto's attack took out the rest of them, leaving only the core daimon that still had Bogdanova-san's Pure Heart. "I apologize for being tardy," she said as she moved to stand beside Ami.
"Deep Submerge!" Neptune's attack forced the daimon back. I hit it with a hammer-and-anvil forcefield attack at the same time, being careful to avoid hitting the Pure Heart it was carrying.
As the daimon dissolved into rubble that used to be a stone heart sculpture, we heard the sounds of a car racing off.
Bogdanova-san looked at the Garnet Rod and insisted, "Give me that staff! I want it!"
"It is not yours," Sailor Pluto replied as she took Bogdanova-san's Pure Heart from the rubble. "It belongs to me. This is yours."
As Pluto and Ami walked over to Bogdanova-san, Neptune insisted, "We need to check whether that's a Talisman first."
"Make it fast, please," Ami insisted. "Otherwise she's likely to start saying she wants everything in sight."
"Even though we all know that neither of the loose Pure Hearts here are Talismans," I muttered.
"I do want it all!" Bogdanova-san said before Ami restored her Pure Heart to her body, at which point she finally collapsed. Then Ami restored Naru-san's Pure Heart to her body.
And then we heard a shout from behind us. "Hold it right... there... er..."
Without turning to look, I said, "You're late, Sailor Moon. It's all over except the explaining to Bogdanova-san."
"Explaining?"
Ami sighed. "She saw me cast a spell."
Bogdanova-san winced as she sat up. "Ow, I feel like I drank two bottles of vodka."
Which pretty much confirmed she was older than she looked, if she knew what a hangover felt like.
"Take it easy, miss," Sailor Pluto said as both she and Sailor Moon helped Bogdanova-san back to her feet.
"Since when were so solicitous about people, Pluto?" Uranus asked.
"Since I met Sailor Moon," she replied.
"Thank you," Bogdanova-san said before grabbing Pluto's arm. "You're one of the ones who was in Vladivostok last year, aren't you? And you, as well." She gestured toward Ami with her other hand, the one that still held her pistol. Then she realized what she was doing and holstered her sidearm under her blouse.
"You're speaking Japanese more fluently than you were a half-hour ago," Naru-san commented. "And you're armed. You've been hiding things from us. Why did you break your cover?"
She thought for a moment. "I must be thinking of you as my comrade. We were attacked, and I reacted according to my training."
"Thank you," Naru-san said, "for both the help and your friendship."
"We are comrades. There is a difference."
"But you were still able to work together," I replied before looking at Uranus and Neptune. "That counts for a lot."
The Senshi of the Outer Planets, including Pluto, chose that moment to walk away. Together. So much for Moon and Pluto working together, or Setsuna-san getting to know Naru-san better. Well, maybe Setsuna-san would be able to talk some sense into the other two.
Bogdanova-san looked at her hand. "I do not remember letting go of her."
"You probably didn't," Moon replied before she turned to Ami. "And just what were you doing in Vladivostok last year?" she asked with some suspicions.
Ami and Ryou spent what seemed like half of the time we'd set aside for an after-action debriefing being lambasted by Hayate-chan for letting Bogdanova-san find out that she was a mage and that his orders had let Kasandara talk instead of send in public. Being lectured by a levitating miniature person who could out-nasty R. Lee Ermey was unique, to say the least. It didn't look like either of them was enjoying it, but they didn't complain or try to take control of the conversation.
No, I'm not going to repeat any of Hayate-chan's tirade. Innocent people might be reading these notes.
At the end of that, Bunny-chan asked, "Ryou, what should we do about Erumaira-san?"
He thought for a moment, then replied, "We have to get rid of her."
"Ninety-seven times out of ninety-eight," added Kasandara.
"I won't allow the Senshi to murder her. We'll have to accept that the SVR now know more about you and Ami than we'd prefer."
"It's too dangerous, both for her and for us, to let her stay."
"What if she went back to Russia?" I asked.
Ryou thought, then nodded. "That would work, eleven times out of twelve. But how do we get rid of her?"
I grinned. "She was carrying a pistol. In Japan. I doubt it's licensed. A concerned citizen could bring that to the attention of the police."
Minako nodded. "I'll get in touch with Natsuna-san, but somebody who actually saw the weapon will need to make the report."
"I saw it," my fiancée confirmed.
Minako nodded. "And Superintendent-General Sakurada will need to be aware of any action against a foreign national anyway. We'll call her as soon as we get home."
Ryou smiled. "Thank you, Minako. That raises the probability of this working to fourteen times out of fifteen."
"That's one problem solved," Bunny-chan said. "Now, if we go by canon, who's the next daimon target?"
"Me," my dearest said. "Then Ami."
"But you've already had your Pure Hearts shot out."
Before anyone else could reply to Bunny-chan, Hayate-chan said, "And that's why we can't trust canon any more. Ryou-san, you're our best source of information now."
Sunday, we spent at Rei's shrine, studying for exams and training. Naru-san threw herself into both activities with a vengeance.
Monday, Sakurada-sensei announced at the start of the school day that Bogdanova-san needed to return home unexpectedly, and probably wouldn't be returning. At lunch time, Ami and I volunteered to trade day duty with our classmates that day, and after school we did a thorough cleaning of the classroom – including sweeping it for bugs of the Soviet kind.
As a result, we missed Haruka-san almost hitting Makoto accidentally. But that touched off a discussion about the Senshi's outriders at the next day's lunch get-together.
"How does Haruka-san's and Michiru-san's relationship work, anyway?"
I sighed. "Makoto, do we really need to discuss the facts of life with you? Or can I just remind you of the stories we heard from Colonel Yagami about Captains Takamachi and Harlaown?"
"What do they ... Oooooh. But neither of them looked like a boy, the way Haruka-san does."
I sighed deeply. "Ami, take over, please. You're the closest we have to a doctor here."
"I'm sorry, Rob, but I have to admit that I'm just as puzzled as Makoto is."
"I guess I get to explain stereotypes about, and three decades of changes in public opinion toward, same-sex couples. But not right here and not right now. Give me a day or two to pull my thoughts together."
"Are we all invited?" Bunny-chan asked.
"Sure, why not? Although I think we should have this talk somewhere outside of school."
"Do it at my place," my dearest suggested.
Author's Note: This scene has been extracted and will be posted with multiple disclaimers and under a spoiler tag, as a side-story titled "Chapter S Sidestory: The Talk". In order to read the scene, you will need to specifically act after being warned.
And then Friday arrived, as it so often does. But we had to cancel the Conversational English Club meeting. The work crews, who had been working around the clock on our house, had finally told us that they'd be out and ready to give us back our keys on Monday, so we had to pack.
Oh, we could have hired movers, but then how would we explain our 2017-era computers, let alone my 2022-era laptop and the Silver Millennium and Midchildan technology we had? Besides, I didn't trust anybody else to pack my Sailor Senshi crane-game dolls from the Missing Time.
Packing continued during Saturday, which means we missed Bunny-chan and Tenou-san spending some quality time together while they were handcuffed to each other.
We didn't miss Bunny-chan complaining after the fact, though, since she came over to help us pack.
"What brought on this desire to do something physical?" I asked while taping yet another box of Minako's plushies closed and labelling it to be moved into her bedroom.
"Haruka-san can be so stubborn!" she replied while starting another box of plushies. "She was willing to let Michiru-san die! Oni-san, why are some people like that?"
"Well, Bunny-chan, some people like being contrary so that they get attention, but I doubt that's how Tenou-san is thinking. Tenou-san..." I grabbed another plushie and put it in the box that she had going. "Remember what I said during our talk a few days ago?"
"You said a lot of things during that talk," she replied while blushing.
"Not that. Nobody likes to be proven wrong. And it's pretty obvious that Tenou-san is convinced that her way to find the Talismans is the right one."
"Yeah." Her blush faded away. "She did say something about the end of the world coming soon."
"You've been at the end of the world before, Usagi." My calling her by just her name without an honorific didn't go unnoticed. "And you won. Beryl and Metaria are gone as if they'd never existed."
"But if I hadn't reset the world without them in it, Rei and Ami and Mako-chan and Mina-chan and Mamo-chan would be dead."
"You look like you need a hug."
"Just a hug, yeah," she said as she walked over.
"I love you like a sister, Usagi. I don't love you the way I love Makoto." Then I put my arms around her but didn't pull her close, giving her some room while making it obvious that I was there for her.
We stood like that for a short moment, until she broke the hug. "Thank you, Robu. Or should I call you otōto?" she added with a grin.
That's the Bunny-chan I like seeing. "If you do, I'll look around for Shingo-kun."
"Robu, if I hadn't brought everybody back, would we have ended up dating each other?"
"Where did that question come from? No, never mind. I doubt it. You're my sister in all but blood, and dating my sister just seems weird."
She giggled at that comment as she put the last of Minako's plushies into the moving box. "Yeah, it would, wouldn't it?"
"Although that reminds me: what does big sister want for her birthday? Keeping in mind that Makoto, Ami, Ryou, Minako, Saeko-mama, and I move into our new house the day before your birthday."
"Oh, I saw a lovely pair of glass slippers for sale, but I already told Mamo-chan about them. Maybe just a birthday cake?"
I smiled as I replied, "I'll leave that gift to Makoto. She's going to want to try out our new kitchen anyway."
"How about a tour of your new house?"
"I was going to give you that anyway. I think you'll like some of the things we've added to the place."
"Oh, okay. In that case, surprise me."
We headed over to Rei-san's shrine the next day, as we always do on Sundays. We weren't expecting anything to happen on the Talisman front, considering that the Death Busters staged an attack just the day before. Silly us, relying on the stupid genre conventions. Hayate-chan had even warned us that we couldn't trust canon any more.
Yuuichirou-san chatted with Ryou, Ichiro, Chiba-san, and me while we did our warm-up stretches. "Rei's pushing herself too hard. She's spending too much time in front of the sacred fire."
"She would," I replied, "after what Hayate-chan said."
Ichiro looked puzzled. "What logical chain leads from Hayate-chan's statements to Rei-san's overwork, sir?"
"One that you have to know something about her personality to follow. Hayate-chan said that Ryou is our best information source now."
Ryou grimaced. "Oh, dear. She did say that, didn't she?"
"Yeah. And for as long as I've known her, Rei-san has never liked being in second place to a boy."
"Ah!" Yuuichirou-san said. "So she's doing everything she can to find information that Ryou-san can't learn!"
"Ryou's precognition or my knowledge of the canon story," I agreed. "And presumably Hayate-chan's knowledge of canon, too, but she's a woman. But all of this assumes I have a good read on her personality."
"Don't you, though? You have seen the anime that they made about us in your home world."
"There were maybe 50 hours of story altogether that included Rei-san. How much can you learn about somebody in two days? Yuuichirou-san, I know a lot more about you from our sparring sessions than I do from everything I ever saw about you in the canon anime. And I have to admit that I like the man that I've been training alongside a lot more than the character, no, the caricature, in the story that I know."
Yuuichirou-san smiled as he replied, "I'll take that as a compliment, Robu-san."
"It was meant as one, Yuuichirou-san."
"How can we help her, sir?"
"We can't. We're males, and if I'm right, forcing our help on her will only make things worse." Seeing the dejected look on Yuuichirou-san's face, I quickly added, "But somebody who loves her, more than the way I care about most of the Sailor Team, can be there for her when she reaches out for help."
"Just how
do you care about the girls?" Chiba-san asked with some suspicion.
"The same way that you care about Ami. I think of Bunny-chan as a sister, not as a lover."
That got him to relax.
"That's enough chit-chat, gentlemen," Ichiro said before we could discuss any of the other girls. "Today, Rob and Mamoru will concentrate on stick-fighting, while Ryou and Yuuichirou will concentrate on open-palm fighting. Pair off and –"
Before he could finish, we heard a gunshot from outside, followed by a second shot.
"– transform," Ichiro continued. "Oni, Tuxedo Kamen, we're probably needed outside."
Once we were in our fighting gear, we left the outbuilding to discover two Pure Hearts floating in the air. The first had the same mottled-gray coloration as one of Hokkaido's earless seals, while the second was orange with rainbow, blue, green, fire-red, red, and white streaks.
Aw, crap. If I had the Pure Heart colour scheme figured out correctly, it looked like Minako was still carrying a torch for both me and Ryou. At least Ichigo-san wasn't. Now, where were their bodies, and were they awake?
"Are those Pure Hearts?" Yuuichirou-san asked from behind me, just before a third shot rang out. "Never mind, I see mine now," he added before collapsing. One more datum for the theory that women could stay awake longer than men could with their Pure Hearts shot out.
His was storm-gray, as was appropriate for an acolyte at a shrine to Susanoo-no-Mikoto, with fire-red streaks throughout. The big lug did love Rei-san, not that there was any doubt of that in my mind. But I didn't waste time looking at it closely; instead, I looked in the other direction, expecting to see Eudial.
I didn't. What I did see was a low-rise building a couple-hundred meters away.
Eudial did need to rebuild her longarm after I took hers the day she shot Chiba-san. Maybe she built a sniper rifle.
I put up a forcefield covering the entire side of the shrine grounds, just in case. Bunny-chan still hadn't had her Pure Heart shot out, after all.
Then I turned my attention to the victims. Yuuichirou-san was still unconscious. The girls, though, were already beginning to become annoying, and I'd only started listening to them.
"You should feel happy to know me, Ichigo-san! I can defend you from anything that our enemies choose to throw at us!"
"I can't do half the things you can do."
"You don't need to! I'm here to do them for you!"
"But I want to do what you can do."
"Well, of course you do! I do great things! I take great strides!"
"And I can't. Got to be a Superman to survive, but I'm not."
"I'm plenty super for both of us!"
It was at that point that I realized that their impure thoughts were reflections of two of the Deadly Sins: Pride and Envy. «Ami, Usagi-san,
please shut them up! They're reinforcing each other's impurities!»
Ami handed the Mercury Computer to Makoto, saying, "Keep it open and running, please," then raced over to Minako. Of course she would tend to her adopted sister first. Sailor Moon quickly joined the group and returned Ichigo-san's Pure Heart to her body. Once she had done that, she restored Yuuichirou-san's Pure Heart to his body, by which time Ami had given Minako back her Pure Heart.
"I still have much to learn before I can keep pace with you."
"The important thing is that we worked together to do it more quickly than either of us could do it alone, Ami."
Ami smiled. "You always know what to say."
Then I noticed Uranus and Neptune watching. I quick-moved over to them and said, "No Space Sword, no Deep Aqua Mirror. Have the two of you seriously not figured out where the Talismans are?"
"We have our suspicions," Neptune said, "but if you're correct, we need to choose who will use them once they're released."
"And if you aren't," Uranus added, "we still need to find the Talismans."
At least they were willing to listen to other people now. They weren't quite at the "trust but verify" stage, but they were closer than they had been before.
Ami flew over, literally, with the Mercury Computer in her hand. "Eudial still hasn't noticed the tracker we planted on her car. Although it hardly matters; as soon as she was within a half-kilometre of Mugen Academy, the signal cut out. Oh, there's one more thing; the identity matcher that we copied from Kunzite's systems confirmed that Eudial is Arimura Yuko-san."
Uranus asked, "Identity matcher?"
"Software that we copied from a previous enemy," I explained. Turning to Ami, I added, "I didn't know you had enough data to use it on the Death Busters."
"Well, I do like learning, and I need to gather information to be able to do that," Ami replied.
"Do you know who
we are?" asked Neptune.
Ami smiled. "Let's just say that I look forward to a rematch in the pool." And here I thought that that hadn't happened because Ami's Pure Heart was shot out instead of being grabbed by a daimon. Shows what I know about my friends' private lives. But wasn't that essentially a corollary to what I'd just said to Yuuichirou-san less than a half-hour previously?
As they went their way and Ami and I went ours, I thought to her, «That wasn't a lesson that I meant to teach you, you know.»
«What, telling the truth in a way that's intended to deceive?»
«Yes, exactly. When they find out how I first learned about them, and that you knew about them the same way, they're going to be annoyed. Remember how Minako reacted when she got her memories back.»
«I know. Speaking of Minako, did you see her Pure Heart before I restored it to her?»
I nodded. «I'm going to have to tell Makoto.»
«Are the two of you still going to move in with us?»
«We have to. We've already given notice that we're moving out of our rental apartments.»
«Things might get awkward. Do you have to tell her?»
«Ami, it's none of my business how open you and Ryou are with each other. I do
not keep secrets from Makoto. I trust her. Besides, I wouldn't be surprised if she already knows.»
When we got back to the others, Bunny-chan was telling Ichigo-san, "But we
can't give you powers."
Poor girl, fated to be a normal person surrounded by metahumans. And she was a solid "B" student in mathematics classes, so she didn't know enough math to be able to learn Midchildan magic, either.
I ignored that conversation and made my way over to my fiancée. "We need to talk."
Ka'o spent the night at Makoto and Minako's apartment again.
Then came Monday, and Ami, Ryou, Makoto, and I had store-bought bento for lunch. "All of our cookware is packed," explained my dearest, who had chosen to sit between Minako and me.
Saeko-mama picked us up after class, handed us our keys, and drove us to our apartment building one last time. Our rooms were almost empty; all that the movers had left behind were the boxes that we had marked to be moved by us.
We grabbed those most precious items – including Artemis and our Unison Devices – and the items that we couldn't let anyone else know about, put them – excluding Artemis and our Unison Devices – in the trunk of Saeko-mama's car, and locked the doors of our previous lives behind us.
Then we dropped off the keys to the apartments at the rental agency and signed the move-out papers. That was it. No going back now.
Finally, we headed to our new home, and put our boxes in our bedrooms. I so wanted to explore the new house, but it was time for dinner, which we ordered in. We quickly chose our seats around the table. Saeko-mama was at the head of the table, as was right and proper. Makoto was at her right, claiming the position of "housewife", which made sense since she planned to do most of the cooking. I, of course, was seated to Makoto's right. Ami took the foot of the table, Ryou sat beside her, and Minako took the seat between Ryou and Saeko-mama. Mochizuki-san chose not to join us at meals, since she didn't eat anyway.
After dinner, we had homework to do. We only unpacked what we needed that evening, which at least in my case included what I had moved personally. An hour later, I had almost everything set up and I was using my 2022 laptop as a typewriter, telling it my homework essays and assignments for everything except Japanese language. That, I wrote out by hand because my teacher insisted.
And an hour after that, I was finished. Then I had to make a choice: explore or take a bath? I really wanted to know where everything was. I also wanted to soak; I had made do with showers ever since we returned from Midchilda. The choice was made for me by a knock at my bedroom door.
"Hi, Rob! Are you ready to see the basement?"
"Hi, Artemis! I am now," I said as I sent my homework files to my printer. "Amaze me, oh amazing amazer."
And he did. I didn't realize how much larger the work crews had made the basement, or how much Artemis had moved into the room with all the electrical outlets. "Ah, so this is where you've set up shop, Shario-chan."
Shario-chan looked up from her desk at the front of the room. "Hi, Rob!"
"Artie, where did all this gear come from?" The only item I recognized was the communications relay to Chacornac that used to be under my desk in the old apartment.
"The basement of the Crown Game Center."
"You were obviously running a full-fledged datacentre down there."
"A what?" Minako asked from behind us. "Hey, where did all of these come from?"
Shario-chan looked like she was about to explain what a datacentre was, but Ami poked her head into the room first. "Everyone, we need to do something important outside."
I offered a hand for Shario-chan to ride in, then we all headed outside, where the rest of the house's residents were already assembled. Our next-door neighbours on either side of us – including Miharu-chan, I noticed – were also present.
Saeko-mama walked over to the spot beside the gate where a name plate should have been showing. The recess was covered by a cloth, though. "I now announce to our neighbours that we are in residence. Please take care of us." She bowed to our neighbours, then took the cloth from the nameplate to reveal a sign. It read "
Maison Lyrique", followed by the names of most of the residents: Mizuno Saeko, Ami, and Minako, Urawa Ryou, Kino Makoto, Rob Donaldson, and Mochizuki Ka'o.
«"Maison Lyrique"?» I sent to everyone who could reply the same way.
«It was Ami's idea,» Sakura replied.
«At least Shario-chan, Hayate-chan, Sakura, Meia, and I get an oblique reference on the plate this way,» Ichiro added.
We were at school a half-hour early Tuesday morning. We caught an earlier bus than we needed to, expecting that we'd need to spend as much time in transit as we had from our old apartment. At least we put the extra time to good use, presenting our change of address cards to the school office... and then getting Sakurada-sensei to explain that there wasn't anything improper going on when they noticed that we were all living under the same roof.
"Well, at least we can spend some more time at home now," Minako commented while we all walked from the office to the classroom.
"It isn't as close to our favourite skating rink as our apartments were, though," pointed out my dearest.
Sakurada-sensei was kind enough to wait for a few seconds while we took our seats before walking in, which gave us just barely enough time to drop invitations on the desks of the other members of the Sailor Team, including Ichigo-san.
"What's the occasion?" Ichigo-san asked just after the Revealing Of The Lunches.
"Two things," Ami replied. "First, we want to show off the new house. Second, we're celebrating Usagi's birthday a day early. I've already asked Mamoru-san to join us."
"Did you –" I began.
"He'll be giving Usagi his present on her birthday."
"Just like in canon," Bunny-chan muttered. "And I liked those slippers when I saw them, too."
"There's no guarantee that things will go the same way," Minako pointed out. "After all, Yuuichirou-san wasn't hit by a train."
"I thought it was Sailor Mars who was hit by the daimon train in canon," Ryou remarked.
"We can re-watch the episode at home," I mentioned.
"Hang on. Daimon train?" Ichigo-san asked in amazement.
"Daimon,
But that's how it goes,
A dozen people know it's their foe,
Maybe... it's not too late
To learn about love and give up on their hate,
Heartbreak wounds not healing,
life's a lonely shame,
We're going off the rails on a daimon train!"
We applauded Minako's rewrite of the song, then Ami explained what would have happened if I wasn't around to meddle in things. I was wondering whether, when, and how "silly Minako" was ever going to show herself; this was a better way than most that I could think of. Then I figured out what she was saying and realized that she wasn't "silly Minako" after all.
Of all the things that my meddling has removed from this reality, what I missed the most is the Minako who knew how to enjoy herself. Stupid genre conventions.
The explanation and actually eating lunch took up most of the lunch break.
School resumed and ended in its usual course, and we all went home to change before dinner. Then our guests began arriving, starting with Rei-san, followed by Naru-san and Ichigo-san.
"This isn't a formal dinner, Naru-san," I mentioned as I offered her a set of slippers. "You didn't need to wear so much jewelry."
"I'd rather not be caught without it, just in case. And wearing it is the easiest way to carry it."
"Ah, yes, of course," I replied, remembering what she could do with gems.
Once Bunny-chan and Chiba-san arrived, we started the tour of the house, beginning in the living room where a portrait of Ami and Saeko-mama hung above the fireplace's mantelpiece, on the wall opposite the wall of windows that admitted the light of the setting sun.
"It's lovely!" Ichigo-san exclaimed. "Who painted it?"
Ryou replied, "A young woman named Yumemi Yumeno. She and I have something in common, although she doesn't remember it."
"Oh, yes," Chiba-san said. "She painted a portrait of the two of us. I wonder what happened to it?"
Bunny-chan sighed. "I'm sorry, Mamo-chan, but it disappeared when I reset time after destroying Metaria."
"That's a shame," Naru-san said. "I remember that you looked like you were meant for each other in that painting."
"I would have liked to have seen it," Saeko-mama said. "But we're being rude to Makoto. She and dinner are waiting for us in the dining room."
She gestured toward a door beside the fireplace, which I opened. "If you would, ladies and gentlemen?"
We all walked in to find the dining table had been extended so that twelve people could – just barely – fit around it, and my dearest was already at her accustomed spot between Saeko-mama's and mine. She had a large rice container and three pots for sukiyaki waiting for us. "Thank you for joining us for a humble meal," she said as I escorted Saeko-mama to the head of the table.
"There's nothing humble about sukiyaki!" Bunny-chan said as Chiba-san walked her to the table, discovering that we had left place cards for everyone. He seated her beside my place, then took the seat beside hers after helping Naru-san sit between his place and Ami's.
"Who's the extra seat for?" Rei-san asked while sitting between Ryou and Ichigo-san, gesturing toward the open spot between Ichigo-san and Minako.
Makoto grinned. "We're pretty sure that she won't be joining us today, but the message from Crystal Millennium's Ami did mention that we'd see her again, so we prepared a spot just in case."
And that got everybody thinking about our favourite visitor from the future.
And then we broke bread together, as a family should. Yes, we had reached the point where we considered Rei-san, Naru-san, and Ichigo-san to be family, not just friends and nakama.
Our Devices helped Makoto with the task of keeping a party of eleven people properly fed and entertained, for an unusual definition of "entertained" that only applies to the Sailor Team, I'll grant.
"I've done some analysis of what you've told me your impure thoughts were," Hayate-chan announced a few minutes into the meal. "It's remarkable how many of you have one of the seven deadly sins suppressed in your personalities. Ryou almost never gives in to his sloth, Mamoru buries his wrath, Bogdanova-san hid her greed well, and Rob controls his lust."
"Most of the time," Makoto commented with a grin.
"It's only when I'm alone with you that I don't. And it's a good thing Princess Lady isn't here to hear this," I replied.
"On the other hand, Ami and Minako both let their pride leak out on occasion."
"Sorry," Minako said quietly.
"I'm working on becoming a better person," Ami said.
Hayate-chan continued, "Ichigo keeps her envy in check, although she's the one who actually has good reason to be envious of the rest of us. No offence meant, Ichigo."
"None taken."
Naru-san commented, "The only deadly sin we haven't seen yet is gluttony."
"And the only two of us who hasn't had their Pure Hearts extracted are Saeko-sensei and Usagi," Rei-san added.
We all looked at Bunny-chan as she took two slices of beef from the closest sukiyaki pot at once.
"What? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
Sakura mock-sighed. "How are we going to be able to tell?"
"I believe that's more than enough talk about work," Ichiro said before anyone could explain. "Has anyone seen a good movie lately?"
"I hope not, this close to exams," Saeko-mama said before any of the rest of us could reply.
We ended up talking about the weather for a while, then Makoto changed the topic to shopping in the area, and we quickly left behind our concerns about school work and Senshi work.
Eventually, the end of the meal arrived. "If I may propose a toast?" I asked after we finished eating. Addressing the spot at the table that Princess Lady wasn't sitting at, I said, "To absent friends, and may they find their way back to us soon. Kampai!"
"Kampai!"
We
re-filled each other's glasses and Rei-san stood up. "To our hosts, and may you find many years of happiness in your new home. Kampai!"
"Kampai!"
Before the meal turned into a drinking party, Ryou asked, "Is everyone ready to see our basement?"
"Oh, yes, please!" Bunny-chan said.
"Give us a moment to clear the table," Ami said, "and we'll be right with you."
"Excuse me for a moment." Ryou stood up and walked toward the front door before Saeko-mama, Ami, Makoto and I could start tending to the cleanup. He made it to the front room before the doorbell rang.
"I wonder who that could be?"
A short moment later, he returned with three young women who were known to all of us excepting Ichigo-san and Saeko-mama. "Our final guests have arrived," he announced.
"We apologize for being tardy. Oh, but we have yet to introduce ourselves to the head of the household. I am Meiou Setsuna." She bowed to Saeko-mama, then turned to me. "Are we still pretending we don't know who we all are?"
She had obviously asked a question that she already knew the answer to. I shook my head. "After Ami used the Mercury Computer in front of your companions on Sunday, I doubt that there's any reason to maintain the pretense, at least not inside this house. And both Saeko-mama and Ichigo-san know who the rest of us are."
"Thank you." Setsuna turned back to Saeko-mama. "I am also called Sailor Pluto."
After a moment, Setsuna elbowed her blonde companion in the ribs.
"Ow. Oh. Yes. I'm Tenou Haruka, also called Sailor Uranus."
"Kaioh Michiru, also called Sailor Neptune."
"Thank you for trusting us enough to tell us," Bunny-chan replied. "I'm Tsukino Usagi, also known as Sailor Moon."
The rest of the humans in the room introduced ourselves just as formally, ending with Ichigo-san. "I'm Aoyama Ichigo, and that's the only name that I have. I'm happy to meet you." She bowed to the newcomers.
And then the Mau and the Devices introduced themselves, Tenou-san and Kaioh-san were amazed, so we explained how four of us had spent two years in another dimension one afternoon almost a year ago.
And then we made our way downstairs. Ami played tour guide.
"I haven't had time yet to see what's down here," Saeko-mama said as we descended the stairs.
"Well, we could show you the laundry room," Ami replied while gesturing to the door closest to the foot of the stairs, "but I think you'd all be more interested in the rest of what's down here."
"They might be interested in seeing how we heat the building and baths with water warmed by solar heating and waste heat from..."
"Darling, nobody's interested in that but you and Ryou."
"Yes, my dearest."
Kaioh-san giggled. "The two of you sound like a married couple."
We showed off our matching rings as we said, "Thank you for noticing!" Makoto added, "It isn't official yet because my guardian won't sign the paperwork."
I added, "So we have to wait until we're of age before I officially become Kino Rob, but we already consider ourselves to be a couple. But we were showing you our home."
"I think we can all squeeze in here," Ami said while opening the door across from the laundry room and turning on the lights.
"This is an impressive weight room," Setsuna-san said.
"Not just a weight room," Tenou-san added while looking at the small assortment of shinai and bokken on a wall-mounted rack. "Who practices kendo?"
"All of Sakura's and my students," Ichiro replied. "Kino, Donaldson, Osaka, Chiba, and Urawa, from most skilled to least skilled. Although I teach kenjutsu more than I teach kendo."
Tenou-san nodded in appreciation. "Do you have a signature style?"
"My sister and I use different styles. She prefers to use one blade while I prefer two."
Before she could ask where the protective clothing was kept or whether we were good enough to use live steel, I said, "There's a shower behind that door, for when we need to clean up after a session. Has everybody seen enough of this room? We have more impressive things to show off."
"Lead on," Kaioh-san said with a smile.
So Ami did, with Luna in her arms and Minako and Artemis close behind her.
We reached the double doors at the end of the hallway. Ryou and I moved to either side of the doorway.
"Ladies and Mamoru," Ami said, "what is behind these doors is not for public conversation."
We opened the doors to reveal what I called the Situation Room: an octagonal room set slightly below the level of the rest of the basement. The centrepiece of the room was a table with sixteen chairs around it and our Midchildan holoprojector hooked up to my second laptop positioned in the open space in the middle.
Each chair was marked with a symbol denoting its owner, not all of whom were in the room. Clockwise from the chair with a golden crescent moon, there was a rose, a
"Great Wave", a clock face without hands, an
Asklepian,
Dashinosuke, a crossed gem and sword, the Garnet Orb Rod, the Deep Aqua Mirror, the Space Sword, a lightning bolt, a spiked club, a firefly, a pink crescent moon, a heart, and a firebird. Artemis said, "Okay, everybody find your seats!"
Ryou quickly moved to cut off Setsuna-san before she could sit in the wrong chair. "You might announce yourself as the daughter of Chronos, but the handless clock is supposed to represent my precognition," he said. "Your chair is marked with the Talisman that you carry."
"Ah."
Saeko-mama asked, "I assume this is my chair?"
I looked over to see that Saeko-mama was standing beside the chair with an Asklepian. Artemis replied, "You assume correctly, Mizuno-sensei."
"Thank you for trusting me with a seat at your planning table." Saeko-mama looked at the amenities again, and asked, "What are you going to do with this room when you're not using it for Senshi planning sessions?"
Ami's quiet reply of "Homework" was drowned out by Makoto, Minako, Rei-san, and Bunny-chan: "Movie nights!"
Hayate-chan and Ichiro cleared their throats meaningfully.
"And homework," the ladies added with less enthusiasm as Ryou guided Tenou-san and Kaioh-san to their seats between Setsuna-san and my dearest.
"That's an interesting banner," Kaioh-san said, referring to the only decoration that the room had so far. It read 私たちの仕事は現状を守ることではなく、世界を守ることです
"Oh, that's why you wanted it!" Rei-san said with a smile.
"It is, and thank you again for writing it for us," I replied. "Your calligraphy is lovely."
Saeko-mama read it aloud. "'Watashitachi no shigoto wa genjō o mamoru kotode wa naku, sekai o mamoru kotodesu'. If that is your philosophy, then I have no worries as to whether your lives are on the correct path."
Ichiro translated it into English: "'Our job is not to protect the status quo, but to protect the world'. A fine sentiment, and an important reminder of our duty. Is it a quotation?"
I nodded. "It is, allowing for translation to Japanese and back. The original was written by someone named Rich Burlew, in the year 2021 in my home reality."
"Your home reality?" Tenou-san and Kaioh-san asked in unison.
So we sat down while I explained once again where I came from, how I first knew about the Sailor Senshi, and how little that had prepared me for meeting the actual people around the table.
Finally, Tenou-san said, "So you knew who we were all along."
"I did, yes. I never said that I did not, and I did drop some hints."
"You dropped hints about the Talismans."
Before I could reply, Kaioh-san asked, "When did you tell Kino-san about this?"
I looked her straight in the eyes. "Before we started dating, and before we fell in love."
"I knew exactly what I was getting into," my fiancée added.
Tenou-san scowled. "I still think you were taking advantage of your knowledge of us."
"How?" Makoto looked like she was about to shout at Sailor Uranus. "He was honest with me up front and did his best to get me to listen to what he knew about my future!"
"Did you listen?"
"I didn't want to! Not then!"
Ryou suddenly shouted, "Ladies! You can't fight in here! This is the War Room!"
Everybody facepalmed, including me... but at least everybody calmed down a bit.
"Why don't we continue the tour?" Ami suggested.
"That's probably a good idea," replied Setsuna-san.
We headed for the door across the room from where we had come in, which was behind Bunny-chan and Chiba-san's chairs, and opened it to reveal the datacentre. I quickly put up a transparent forcefield so that all the visitors could do was look at the
blinkenlights.
"Look at all those computers! It's the Batcave!"
Minako grinned at Bunny-chan's comment. "No, it's the Cat-cave!"
As Artemis preened, I silently sent a prayer of thanks to whoever was responsible for letting "silly Minako" finally show herself, if only slightly.
With everything that happened because Tenou-san and Kaioh-san showed up, we never did give Bunny-chan her birthday presents, although she did get a birthday cake that was home-baked by Makoto. Don't ask me when my dearest found the time to bake it. Bunny-chan's other presents would have to wait until her actual birthday, the next day.
So of course Bunny-chan had her Pure Heart ripped out of her body on her birthday. Just like in canon.
Stupid genre conventions.
Sure, it started out like in canon, with a daimon egg infesting the present that Chiba-san had bought for her and the glass slipper turning into a daimon as soon as she touched it. And then we drove off the daimon before it could rip her Pure Heart out and it headed to the Tokyo Tower, again somewhat like in canon but somewhat compressed because they didn't grab Tuxedo Kamen. But that was only the first thing that changed.
They knew we were coming: as soon as Bunny-chan walked into Foot Town, the building at the base of the Tower, all of the doors and windows sealed themselves without the shutters closing. Good thing Sailor Mars went in first.
«Looks like they brought two daimons today,» Sakura sent, surprising Uranus and Neptune.
«I'll teach you thought-sending later,» Pluto promised. Then she pointed her rod at the front door. "Dead Scream." The attack bounced off.
Meia looked up from her virtual display. "They have forgotten to seal the elevator shaft to the observation decks."
"It'll take too long to climb the stairs. It's too bad we can't fly," Uranus pointed out.
I smiled. "What, you can't? Okay, you three keep attacking the seal on the door so they think we're trying to get in that way. Everybody else, let's head up the Tower."
"Oh, no," Venus said as Jupiter approached her from behind. "You are not getting me to
OH GODS I HATE THIS!!!"
And we were flying straight up. It took us a little over a minute to get to the top of the lower observation deck, because Jupiter was flying herself and Venus.
We followed Meia to the maintenance access hatch. Luckily for us, it was unlocked and could be opened from the outside – but then, that was simply a good safety procedure. Nobody wanted someone to be locked out on the outside of the observation deck, where they could fall to their death.
Once we were inside, Ami asked while she transformed, "Shall we distract them the same way our counterparts did in canon?"
"Assuming Bunny-chan needs the distraction so she can become Sailor Moon, yes," I replied, adding "Mirage Hide" to look like Oni.
"And that's why we brought you along," Jupiter told Venus.
"Er... Usagi has the Disguise Pen."
"What about your compact?" Mercury asked.
"Not unpacked yet."
Mercury sighed deeply. "Mirage Hide." Of course Ami can cast any spell that I can; she's two full ranks more powerful than me. Looking and sounding like Sailor Moon, Mercury added, "How does Usagi cope with all this hair?"
The elevator arrived before anyone could answer her. We got in and proceeded to take the minute-long ride to the ground.
Japan is a civilized country; we were not subjected to Muzak. When the door opened, we were nearly blinded by gold-tinted rainbow light, with individual beams of light of every colour of the spectrum. When I turned away, I still saw
stygian and hyperbolic colours on the walls.
Then I realized what I was seeing. Usagi's Pure Heart was brighter than any of the others I'd seen before. To quote Hokago Tea Time, it was a Pure Pure Heart.
Bunny-chan was feeding all of her pocket change into vending machines and eating the snacks she was buying as fast as she could get them. «
That's how we can tell,» I sent to Sakura.
Then we saw where the Death Busters were, through the near-blinding light. "Are you certain it isn't a Talisman?" Kaolinite asked.
"I'm sure," Eudial replied. "It's the purest heart I've ever seen, but it isn't what we're looking for. Keep it for study."
"All right. Given that hairdo, I think she's Sailor Moon, so letting her die helps us either way."
No, we can't let you do that. Mercury reacted before I could, though. "Hold it right there! I won't let you take the Pure Heart of a girl who is obviously a fan! Tsuru Hiromi might forgive you, but I will not! In the name of the Moon, I'll punish you!"
"I would have sworn we sealed this building!" Eudial turned on her heel and shouted, "Doorknobder! What did you leave open?"
"The air vents in the elevator shaft, so you wouldn't suffocate!" The reply came from the daimon standing in the corner.
"Keeping us alive is a poor excuse for not following your orders to the letter! Cenicienta! Destroy Doorknobder!"
"Ignore that order!" Kaolinite shouted. "If she dies, her seals will die with her! Do you want the rest of the Senshi in here?"
Jupiter said quietly, "Sailor Moon, that girl needs her Pure Heart back."
"Right! Sailor Kick!" And "Moon" used her TSAB unarmed-combat training and flight ability to deliver a kick that knocked both Eudial and Kaolinite to the ground.
I nudged Bunny-chan's Pure Heart back to her with a forcefield. Even that indirect contact left me feeling so happy to be her friend that I almost lost the will to fight anyone in her presence. I didn't dare to actually touch her Pure Heart, the way I had touched Unazuki-san's.
Luckily for us, her Pure Pure Heart returned to her body on its own.
"Oh, I don't want any more snacks." Then she gasped. "Mars! Where are you!"
"Over here," came a whisper from the corner of the room.
While the Death Busters were still getting to their feet, I put a vision cloak around Bunny-chan. «You're invisible now. I'll drop the shield when you can trade places with Mercury.»
«Drop it now, please.» I did so. "Hold it right there! The one, the only, the original Sailor Moon is here! You were going to let an innocent girl die because you thought she was me!" She paused for a moment, probably realizing she was repeating Mercury's speech. "In the name of the Moon, I'll punish you! Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"
Her blast hit Cenicienta. "Lovely!" Wow, she had a squeaky voice. I caught the glass shoes in a pair of forcefields and pulled them to me, and not just because they were a present to Bunny-chan. I didn't want Kaolinite using them against us.
"You're next!" announced Moon while pointing at Eudial. "Threatening to kill your underling because she kept you alive is –"
"Unforgivable, and you'll punish me in the name of the Moon. Yes, we've heard it all before. I'm leaving. Doorknobder, let me out of here."
"Screw you! You ordered my death!"
"Fine!" She flipped a switch on her longarm and fired it at Doorknobder. Flipping the switch turned it into a flamethrower, and the flame melted the daimon to death.
As soon as her escape route was clear, she raced off at high speed.
"After her!" Venus, Moon, and from what I could hear from outside Pluto, Uranus, and Neptune all gave chase.
While we were distracted, Kaolinite used some sort of liquid to turn a tourist-trap glass beer mug into a glass sword, and advanced on us. Bunny-chan's slippers may have been safe, but we were having this fight in a gift shop.
Jupiter drew Donguri-no-ken and blocked her way. "If you want a sword fight, I'm your opponent!"
Mercury and I headed over to Mars, who hadn't moved. "Is something wrong?" I asked.
She turned her head in my general direction. "I made the mistake of looking directly at Usagi's Pure Heart when it was withdrawn from her body. I can't see anything."
"Over-stimulation of the optic nerve," Mercury said, followed by "I concur." Okay, one of those opinions had to have been Meia's.
"Before we tend to that," I said while pointing in Kaolinite and Jupiter's general direction.
"Right. Hyperspatial Sphere Generate!" And the five of us were in a pocket dimension where we couldn't cause any further collateral damage.
I took a quick moment to look at my fiancée, then kept my eyes on her fight with Kaolinite. "Mercury, I think Mars shouldn't see this."
"Why? What's happening? Is it something bad?"
I sighed. "What you don't see won't give you nightmares later." What
I saw was Jupiter, her sword crackling with electricity, blood coming out of a slice on her arm, doing her best to skewer Kaolinite, a wound on her arm cauterized electrically and her glass sword insulating her from the charged Donguri-no-ken. "You two stay here."
I manifested a forcefield sword and quick-moved to my fiancée's side. "No fair fights, Jupiter."
"Thanks, Oni. Yeah, we lose half of those."
And together we forced Kaolinite on the defensive. She was good enough to fight us both for ten seconds, but then Jupiter got past Kaolinite's defences and thrust into her torso.
And it was all over.
If the wound didn't kill Kaolinite, the electrical discharge sending her heart into
flatline did. Either way, we both knew that it was a fight to the death as soon as Jupiter electrified Donguri-no-ken.
Mercury dispelled the Hyperspatial Sphere, leaving Kaolinite's body in the dissolving pocket dimension.
Not for the first time, I thought that our TSAB training had changed us in a fundamental manner. But this time, because I wasn't basking in the glow of Usagi's compassionate Pure Heart and I wasn't back to normal yet, I didn't care.
Only then did Mercury turn her attention back to Mars' eyes. One healing spell and a few minutes later, and she could see again. By that time, Jupiter had cleaned her blade and re-sheathed the sword.
As Mercury turned her attention to the cut on Jupiter's arm, Mars asked, "Where's Kaolinite?"
"Gone," was all Mercury said.
I had trouble sleeping that night, once my emotions were back to normal.
I wasn't the only one.
«Ami, are you awake?»
«Yes, Rob.»
«Today was the second time you've disposed of a body by leaving it in a pocket dimension.»
«And I feel terrible about that, now. But I couldn't let Makoto get arrested for murder.»
«I understand that. Thank you. But we all have to stop killing our opponents, unless there's no other option.»
«That's something to talk about in the morning. Good night, Rob.»
«Good night, Ami. I hope neither of us remember our dreams.»
Ami dodged the question the next morning, because I didn't ask it. And that was because Saeko-mama joined us for breakfast.
"How are your studies going, everyone?"
Ami bowed her head. "With all of the Sailor Senshi work going on, I haven't been studying nearly as much as I want to."
"Well, we have a perfectly good place to do homework and study sessions now, that isn't a spare room at the Hikawa Shrine."
"I thought Rei liked our study sessions, though," my fiancée replied to Minako.
The blonde shook her head. "She enjoys the company. I don't think she enjoys hosting."
"And there are too many distractions in her room for Usagi-san to keep her mind on her studies," Ryou added.
"How much do we trust everyone?" I asked. "Not that I think they'll reveal our secrets, because they haven't for over a year, but do we want to give them keys to our gate and let them study here whenever they want?"
"Usagi, Rei, Naru, and Ichigo, definitely," Ami answered immediately.
Saeko-mama nodded in agreement. "They're all good people. I don't know whether I trust the other three who I just met this week, though." Her pager buzzed. "Oh, I have to go to work. Gochisosama."
"I'll clean up for you, mother."
"Thank you, Ami. Pay attention to what your teachers tell you!" And she was out the door, stopping only long enough for her shoes, her jacket, and the bento that Makoto had made for her. Mochizuki-san was close behind her; don't ask me how she knew Saeko-mama was leaving, because she was recharging electrically instead of eating breakfast with the rest of us.
Once Saeko-mama and Mochizuki-san were gone, Ryou revealed four spare keys to the front gate. "I don't trust Sailors Uranus and Neptune, either. I get the feeling that we'll have a falling-out at some point."
"Seventeen times of nineteen," Kasandara added.
"I was hoping we could trust them," Makoto said, "but I can see why everyone else thinks we can't."
"Considering what they do in canon, I don't know whether we should trust them," Ami replied.
"There is that. Oh, look at the time."
"Gochisosama!" We took our dirty dishes to the kitchen, left them in Meia, Ichiro and Sakura's care, grabbed our bento and homework, and headed for the door.
"Artemis, mind the house! We're leaving!" Minako called out.
"Have a good day at school!" he replied as we headed for the bus stop.
Thus did we start a new routine in our new lives.
When we got home that afternoon, we discovered that Shario-chan and Hayate-chan had added a thumbprint scanner to the door to the Situation Room.
We discovered it the hard way; Bunny-chan had trouble opening the door.
And then Rei-san had the same trouble when she and Ami arrived a half-hour later. Apparently, Ami had flown to Rei-san's place after school so she could present a key to her.
"Weren't you worried about being seen?" Naru-san asked.
"No, Ichiro taught me how to become virtually invisible using Mirage Hide." That was the same technique that he'd used to avoid detection when he planted the tracking device in Eudial's car.
"Speaking of Ichiro, where is he?" I asked.
"Right here, sir," he said from the door to the computer room, while carrying Shario-chan.
"Are you two having fun?"
"Minako-san, I would never dream of having 'fun' in the computer room!" Shario-chan looked insulted. "That's my workplace now."
"And, at least for the next two hours, this room is my workplace," Ichiro added.
"Three hours, please," Ami asked. "Mother reminded me this morning that we're behind in our studies. Although I have to go to juku now."
"We'll get you caught up once you're home," Sakura promised.
After she left, Ichigo-san said, "I don't know why she bothers wasting money on a juku when we have tutors here."
"That's easy," Rei-san replied. "Todai won't even look at her unless she has either a good juku or a good private school on her transcript."
"And Toyo Eiwa is one of the best schools in Tokyo, from what I've heard," Minako said, "which is why you don't have any worries about juku."
"Assuming I get into and stay in the top stream in high school," Rei-san replied. "And my chances of that happening are much better because of the tutoring you're giving us, Meia, Sakura, Ichiro, Hayate-chan, and Shario-chan."
Hayate-chan grinned. "Well, let's get to it, then! Take your seats, everyone."
Thus did we start another new routine in our new lives. And having the holoprojector instead of a notepad or a blackboard made it a lot easier to follow the course materials; whatever system the TSAB used for developing course notes, it definitely wasn't PowerPoint.
That Friday's Conversational English Club meeting was very short.
"What are we going to talk about today?"
"The Juuban matsuri that's taking place tonight?"
"Is that today? Gotta go; I promised I'd help staff a booth!"
"So did I."
"Me, too."
I looked at Ryou as the ladies left. "Meeting adjourned?"
"May as well."
I have to admit, Ryou looks better in yukata than I do. It being the early 1990s, the proliferation of multicoloured yukata hadn't happened yet, so we were both in the traditional indigo.
The ladies wore more formal and more colourful kimono, except for Minako, who wore a happi while staffing the goldfish-scoop attraction at the festival.
Watching as Ami helped one young boy catch a goldfish, I quietly said to Ryou, "I think your children will be well cared for, assuming the two of you decide to have any."
"Saeko-mama insists that we will," he replied. "But that's for a decade or more in the future. For now, I think we should wander over to the building beside the taiko."
We started walking over to the ceremonial drum. "You're expecting something to happen. But so is Rei-san; she's used her authority as a festival committee member to block road access to the area. Eudial can't just drive up."
"It isn't Eudial who I'm worried about," he replied as a orange-haired woman wearing a coat and sunglasses and carrying a white briefcase approached us.
"So I see."
Said woman stopped when she saw us, then asked Ryou, "Excuse me, but would you be available to show me around the festival?"
"I'm sorry, but I need to tend to some festival business right now."
She looked at me, then sighed deeply. "I suppose I'll have to find my own way around, then." And she walked off.
We watched as she headed in the direction that we wanted to go. Misreading her reaction, I complained, "I'm not
that bad-looking, am I?"
"Not at all. You did catch the eye of two of our house-mates, Rob."
"And you caught the eye of one of those two, along with your fiancée. Minako needs to find a boyfriend who isn't one of us."
"I agree. As for that woman, do you really want to date her?"
I shook my head. "No, I do not want to date a Death Buster, or anyone other than my fiancée, thank you very much. But that explains how they're going to get the Pure Heart of... what's her name, again?"
"Touno Maya."
"Thanks. The daimon's in the briefcase." Then we saw a flare of light from behind the building closest to the taiko. "Or maybe I should say it
was in the briefcase. How's your combat training coming along?"
"I'm not ready for real combat yet."
"Then I'm ditching you here, ol' buddy."
I found a place quiet enough to change my appearance, did so, then noticed Uranus and Neptune walking away from the flare. "Not a Talisman?" I asked them.
"You already know it wasn't," Neptune replied.
"And you aren't going to help fight?"
"We can't hold their hands forever," Uranus pointed out.
"That's fine, everything's a learning experience assuming they survive. If you'll excuse me?"
"Have fun," Uranus said with a grin as she and Neptune elegantly walked away.
I headed for the scene of the action, to discover Moon and Mars with their arms pinned to their sides because they were caught in drum heads and the daimon advancing on them with a spiked club in each hand. Moon was saying "Could you beat her drum first? That looks like it's going to be painful!"
Bunny-chan! You really didn't need to duplicate canon that closely! But then I remembered what the next line was in canon and decided to stand by and watch. I wasn't disappointed.
"I
knew you couldn't do anything without my help!"
Okay, she skipped a line.
"That voice!" Moon and Mars said with matching smiles.
"I am the Pretty Guardian Trainee who fights for Love and for Justice! I am Sailor Chibimoon! In the Name of the Future Moon, I'll punish you! Pink Sugar Heart Attack!"
Nothing happened. Just like in canon. Stupid genre conventions.
"Pink Sugar Heart Attack!" Again, nothing happened.
Not like in canon.
Time for me to step in. Manifesting two spiked clubs of my own, I said, "Hey, lady, those aren't
bachi."
She spun on her heel. "What is this, senshi party night? And who are you?"
"This
is a matsuri, lady! And standing in the place of the Sailor Senshi for Love and Friendship, I am Oni! Beating on people instead of on drums shows a lack of breeding!
Oguchi Daihachi might forgive you, but I will not! In the name of my friends, I will punish you!"
"My speech sounds stupid when a guy says it," Moon complained.
I hate to tell you this, Bunny-chan... so I won't. "Complain later," I told her as I blocked the daimon's first swings.
"Pink Sugar Heart Attack!" This time, it worked. And, as in canon, it was nothing more than an annoyance... but Chibimoon and I kept the daimon distracted for long enough for Moon to get free.
"Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"
"Down!" I tackled and threw myself over Chibimoon, protecting her from the giant heart that flew over our bodies. Woah. Deja vu.
"Lovely!"
"Sorry about that," I said as I helped Chibimoon to her feet and made sure she wasn't hurt.
"That's okay, Oni-onii-san. I trust you. I know you had a good reason for doing that."
"It's a bit belated, but welcome back, Princess Lady. You've grown since you last visited."
"Thank you, Rob. It's good to be back. And it's been two years for me."
"Two years away. That sounds familiar." We both smiled.
By this point, we had all switched back to our outfits for the evening. While Princess Lady was wearing clothes that fit, she was still our littlest fashion victim; we'd have to do something about that. But first things first. "I was thinking about getting a snack, before Mimete attacked. I know that I'm still hungry."
She smiled politely. "In Crystal Tokyo, the appetite of the Legendary Red Oni is spoken of in hushed whispers."
Oh, really? I had better watch my weight, then. Unless she was teasing, in which case, I decided to get in a bit of teasing myself. "Would you care to try to match that appetite?"
"The Crown Princess and Heir Apparent of House Serenity accepts your challenge."
Bunny-chan sighed. "Fine, fine. What are we getting?"
"Ice cream with chocolate sauce and nuts and sprinkles and three cherries!"
I facepalmed. "You've been reading the fanfic collection that we brought back from the Lyrical reality."
"Yep!"
While we headed for the food stalls, I used the telepathic communicator that Naru-san had made for me to contact Shario-chan and Ichiro back home, letting them know that Princess Lady was back. Then Princess Lady thought to them that she planned to stay at the Tsukino house and please let Ikuko-mama know. Thus, once Bunny-chan and Bitty-Bunny (to translate "Chibiusa") finally got home, there was a bed waiting for her.
We got together at Maison Lyrique after school on Saturday and had an informal "welcome back" party for Princess Lady. After lunch – which of course included her favourite dessert, pudding – we took Princess Lady downstairs and showed her the Situation Room.
She made a beeline for her chair. "So this is what it looks like new!"
"You still have it in Crystal Tokyo?" Minako asked in amazement.
"It's well-cared-for, and only I get to sit in it. Because it's
my chair." She sat down on it, then added, "But I think I need a cushion if I'm going to see over the table."
Ryou, as always, was prepared for her request. As he placed the cushion on her chair, he asked, "Why did you come back to this time?"
"Oh, right!" Princess Lady stood up, bowed formally, and presented an envelope to us "I came here to train. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu."
The simple act of saying "please" was never so simple in Japanese.
Usagi opened the envelope and read the note that she pulled from it. "To the Usagi of the 20th century, studying is important. Please study."
Looks like she pulled the wrong note from the envelope first.
"What do you think I do in this room, future me?"
"Watch movies?" Rei-san asked as Minako fired up a
Sailor V game on the holoprojector. "And play games?"
"Besides that." Blushing, she pulled another note from the envelope, looked at it, then immediately handed it to me. Then she pulled out a third note. This one she read aloud. "It appears you will be training Chibiusa. I don't know how to thank you, but please take care of my daughter."
As the ladies looked at the letter and criticized its lack of kanji, Hayate-chan flew over to Princess Lady. "Don't mind the children. How have you been?"
While they talked, I read my note. Sure enough, there were no kanji in it. "Robu, I know that you know the real reason why my daughter has returned to your time. I am ordering you to keep it secret from her until after she has lived through the events."
I passed the note to my fiancée, who read it and passed it to Ami. Then Hayate-chan asked me, "Do we have paper and charcoal?"
"I think so, unless Naru-san's turned it all into diamonds." As Naru-san gave me a dirty look, Ryou handed Princess Lady a sketchpad and a box of charcoal sticks. "It looks like Ryou's ready for you."
"Thank you!" She proceeded to start sketching a picture of Hayate-chan.
"Well, what do we do now?" Chiba-san asked.
"I saw how well Princess Lady's attack worked last night. It barely qualified as comic relief." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Princess Lady nodding in agreement without stopping her sketching. "That is among the stupidest of stupid genre conventions – the kind that get people killed. She's here to train. Let's train her
properly." I turned to her and added, "After all, your name is Usagi Princess Lady Serenity, not Dan Hibiki."
Minako looked up from her video game. "Who?"
Princess Lady answered before I could. "You'll find out in a couple of years, Minako-neesan." Just in time for Galaxia to show up, I didn't say. "You can move now, Hayate-chan." She held up her sketchpad so we could all see it.
"You obviously don't need training in sketching," Ami commented. "That's very good for a quick sketch from somebody your age."
"It's very good for someone
my age," I added. "Not all of us are as good at art as you are, Ami. The two of you have talent that the rest of us don't."
We spent the next ten minutes coming up with a training plan: Makoto and Sakura teaching her martial arts – Jeet Kun Do and TSAB basic hand-to-hand, respectively – Ami and Meia in math and magic including turning Pink Sugar Heart Attack into a reliable attack with the other spellcasters pulled in to teach specific spells, Rei-san in battlefield awareness and tactics, Hayate-chan in strategy and leadership while she was giving the same lessons to Bunny-chan, and just let Princess Lady run free and make friends as training in diplomacy. Just because we weren't allowed to say
why she needed to make friends didn't mean we couldn't help her with the process. And of course we were going to take turns watching while she got to be a free-range child.
"Would you mind if I sat in on those strategy classes?"
We all turned to look at Minako.
"Oh, don't look so surprised, everybody. I think I should learn it. A hawk needs skill to hide its claws."
"That's 'A hawk with skill hides its claws', Mina-chan," Rei-san said.
"Close enough."
I smiled, for two reasons. First, she was right; you need to have the skill before you can hide it. Second, she was butchering an idiom, and it was good to see "silly Minako" come out to play if only for a moment.
"Well, I don't mind. Is that everything?" Hayate-chan asked.
"I'm going to be learning math in school," Princess Lady pointed out.
"You'll need to learn more advanced math than what they teach in grade school if you want to learn magic," Ami replied.
"Oh, okay."
Ichiro said, "We've missed something important. Swordsmanship. And you need to learn that as well, ma'am," he said to Bunny-chan.
"I will? Am I ever going to use it?"
He nodded. "According to both the records that we brought back from Midchilda and what Future Ami sent back to us, you're only going to use it in combat once, but you're going to
need it when you do. And if we let your reality's canon happen as written, you won't have it."
"We've already changed things so that our lives aren't going according to that canon," Rei-san pointed out.
"It only takes one thing happening according to canon to make all the changes irrelevant," Ryou pointed out.
We spent the next two hours doing homework and being tutored by our Devices. Then Bunny-chan noticed the time and announced that she had to leave right away.
"What did the note from Neo-Queen Serenity say, again?" Rei-san asked.
"Studying isn't as important as going on a date!"
Princess Lady looked at Bunny-chan, then at the empty chair beside her, and decided, "I have to leave, too!"
«If Bunny-chan's date is with Chiba-san, this could be episode 104,» I sent to everybody but Bunny-chan.
«Episode 104 of what?»
I had completely forgotten that Hayate-chan taught Princess Lady how to send back when Rubeus' UFO was destroyed, despite the fact that she'd already done so since she returned to our time. «Something that you aren't cleared for yet, sorry,» I replied. Narrowing my sending to exclude her as well, I continued, «If it is, letting them go would make the most sense in the long run.»
"Very well, class dismissed," Ichiro announced.
Bunny-chan and Princess Lady immediately took off, followed quickly by Hayate-chan.
My fiancée and I took the time to get changed into something a little less comfortable, then we followed them. We
just missed the
Crayon Shin-chan crossover. Of all the shows they could have had a cameo from, it had to be that one. Why couldn't they have had a cameo from
Slam Dunk or
Tenchi Muyo or
Pom Poko instead?
Because two of those weren't set in Tokyo and the other was a movie, of course.
"Ew. He was
weird."
"Princess Lady, sometimes you'll meet somebody who you don't want to be friends with," I pointed out.
"Robu-niisan!" She turned to look at us. "And Mako-neesan! You look pretty, Mako-neesan, and you almost look as handsome as Mamo-chan, Robu-niisan. You should wear kimono more often." We were both in formal kimono, which I at least though wasn't as comfortable as my usual clothes.
Things progressed much as they had in canon, with the addition of two more Sailor Team members. We met up with Bunny-chan and Chiba-san on their date, Princess Lady insisted on inserting herself into their afternoon, she explained that she was in our time so she could make friends, Tenou-san and Kaioh-san showed up in kimono, and they were formally introduced to Princess Lady. Then they mentioned that they were going for tea.
"Oh, I'd love to have tea!" Princess Lady said.
«Going by what they're wearing, it's a Japanese tea ceremony, not an English tea party,» I sent, which surprised Tenou-san and Kaioh-san.
They were even more surprised when Princess Lady sent back. «I know how to behave at formal events, Robu-niisan.»
From there, things proceeded much as they did in canon but with two more people and without Bunny-chan and Princess Lady being surprised by the formality. Tamasaburou-san was a true master of the tea ceremony, and I quite enjoyed the experience. And I made sure that his ¥10,000,000 tea cup wasn't damaged... but I didn't ensure that Bunny-chan's pride didn't take a hit.
Bunny-chan, Princess Lady, and Chiba-san parted ways with us after the ceremony. Tenou-san and Kaioh-san accompanied us and we talked.
"You taught her telepathic communication?" Kaioh-san asked.
"We did," I replied. "We trust her."
"How far do you trust her?" Tenou-san asked.
My dearest replied, "She has a seat at our big table."
"That far... She's obviously more than she appears to be."
"Before you ask," I said, "she doesn't have a Talisman."
"Why are our opponents having so much trouble finding the Talismans?" asked Kaioh-san.
"You've come to the conclusion that I've been dropping hints about, I see." «The Death Busters are, by our standards, not sane. From what I saw in my homeworld's stories, they have technomagical computers that can identify anyone based on a simple query. So far, they've been asking 'which tea ceremony master has a Pure Heart?' or 'which miko has a Pure Heart?' or 'which volleyball player has a Pure Heart?' and then go look at those Pure Hearts, but I can count on the fingers of one hand how many more times they'll do that before Eudial will think to ask 'who has a Talisman?' Are you ready for when she does that?»
"You're sure you know where the Talismans are?" Tenou-san asked.
"Like the proton said to the atom, I'm positive."
"Then we have to decide who gets the Talismans when we're... gone," Tenou-san said.
"You're assuming that you have to die. And that's because you're assuming the Talismans
are Pure Hearts and not just bound to Pure Hearts."
"So, which one's the case?" my dearest asked.
"Only Sailor Pluto knows that for sure."
Bunny-chan and Princess Lady didn't show up for training – the first training session in Maison Lyrique's back yard – the next day.
"Maybe they're at the shrine," I said. "Should I go look for them?"
"They aren't at the shrine," Ichiro replied. "Hayate-chan is with them. And you can't afford to skip training, sir."
"They've gone to see Tamasaburou-san, haven't they?" Ichiro nodded in reply to Makoto's question. "And he's going to get his Pure Heart extracted."
"Shot out by Eudial, six times out of seven," Ryou said.
"At least they aren't extracting two Pure Hearts at a time any more," Rei-san said.
"That's because Eudial and Mimete don't play well together," replied Meia.
"They hate each other's guts," Sakura added.
"Well, shall we get started?"
"We might as well. Hyperspatial Sphere Generate!" After the spell took effect, Ami explained, "We just moved in. I don't want to damage the house."
Training progressed, including special training for Tuxedo Kamen and Okuni so that they could cover each other's blind spots while swordfighting – training that Jupiter and I had received back on Midchilda. Then we had a two-on-two match, Jupiter and me against Tuxedo Kamen and Okuni.
"You beat us three times in a row," Naru-san complained once that was over.
"The two of you aren't used to fighting as a pair. We are."
Then the edge of the Hyperspatial Sphere shimmered and four people walked in: Bunny-chan, Princess Lady, Tenou-san, and Kaioh-san.
"You're late," Sakura said. "Transform and grab a shinai, each of you."
"We aren't your students," Tenou-san complained.
"Neither is the Chibster. Yet."
Before they could complain again, Ami said, "You don't need to take this training. Before you decline, I'll point out that Sakura, Ichiro, and Meia are all certified combat instructors, the training is in techniques that you can use on a battlefield, and it's free."
Kaioh-san asked, "Where is the bōgu?"
Princess Lady transformed to Chibimoon and picked up a shinai that was almost as tall as she was. "You don't need armour when you're in Senshi form. Even I know that." Then she pointed it at me and called "Chest!"
"Stop!" Ichiro floated over to Chibimoon. "You do
not simply begin a match, young lady. Wait for me, as the referee, to tell you to begin."
"Sorry..."
"Donaldson, you will be testing your opponent's skill level during this match. Serenity, I expect you to fight to the best of your ability." Then he got out of our way as Makoto tossed a shinai to me. "Begin."
"Chest!" she called again and rushed straight at me as if this was a kendo match.
I called "Head!" and tapped her between her rabbit-ear twin tails before she could reach me. "Princess Lady, please treat this as kenjutsu, not kendo."
"Okay." Then she swung at me without calling her attack. Unfortunately for her, she telegraphed her action.
"Much better!" I said while blocking her attack.
We continued for three minutes straight, both of us increasing the power and subtlety of our attacks until she reached her limit. Then we continued for another half-minute, with Ichiro calling out attacks and defences that he wanted to see us use.
Finally he called "Stop! Serenity, take a break. Donaldson, Kino, Sakura, I would speak with you."
The four of us got into a huddle. "She isn't a beginner," Sakura said. "Her attacks lacked finesse and power, but she knew the forms that TSAB training uses."
Makoto added, "We might want to test her with a bokken."
"I'm up for that if she is," I replied. "What about the others?"
"Tenou looks like she's convinced," replied Sakura. "Kaioh, not so much."
"Kaioh-san doesn't need to learn how to use the Deep Aqua Mirror as a weapon," Ichiro said.
"Despite the name, the Space Sword's more a tanto than a katana."
"It's neither, darling. It has a curved blade. And canon shows that Uranus can focus a magical attack through it."
"I expect any Senshi can learn how to focus an attack through a weapon," Sakura commented.
"Do we ask Uranus to become your student, or wait for her to ask?" I asked.
Ichiro immediately replied, "We wait. If she asks us, she'll be more committed to learning. Are we done?"
We nodded, then broke from the huddle to see Bunny-chan and Princess Lady giving Meia their after-action report from the day's battle. Ami was telling Kaioh-san, "We always do this. It's the best way to learn what we did right and should continue doing, and what we did wrong and should stop doing."
"That implies there are other ways to learn."
"There are other ways for other people to learn from our mistakes, but those lessons are usually written with our blood."
We ignored them. "Hey, Chibster! Are you up for round two?"
She looked at Meia, who nodded. "Sure, Sakura-san!"
"Then ditch the shinai, grab a bokken, and show us what you can do!" While Sakura said that, I selected a bokken and manifested a helmet.
Once we were ready, Ichiro called "Begin!"
I stood my ground. So did Princess Lady.
So it's to be a contest of wills to begin with. Stupid genre conventions.
I don't have the patience for a contest of wills. I broke first and swung at her.
She blocked. I went under her guard and swung up, trying to force the bokken out of her hand.
She held on, which meant she went flying. She landed on her feet. That surprised me enough that she almost got a solid blow in. I dodged to the side and counterattacked, which she wasn't ready for. Pulling my attack at the last moment, I knocked the wind out of her instead of breaking a rib.
"You're thinking kendo instead of kenjutsu again, Princess Lady!"
At that point, she
threw her bokken at me. I put up a soft forcefield and grabbed it out of midair so that it wouldn't hit any of the others.
"Now you're unarmed. How do you expect to win?"
"Pink Sugar..."
As I immediately put three forcefield domes over her, Ichiro called "Stop!"
She stopped her attack.
"We are supposed to be in a sword fight, young lady, not a spell battle! You have at most two years of training with magical effects. I have twice that much, half of which was in actual combat and the other half spent under trainers who think fighting dirty is a good thing. The two of us might be the least powerful casters in this dome, but you'd better believe I know more dirty tricks than you do. You do
not want to try to get the drop on me magically. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, sir. I'm sorry."
I turned to Ichiro. "Should we bother continuing, sensei?"
"No, I've seen what I needed to see. Donaldson, chewing out your training opponent is never a good idea. You're done for the day. Serenity, I need to write a proper training plan for you. You can stay and watch." Then he turned to Bunny-chan. "Tsukino-san, are you ready to begin your lessons?"
"Do I have to?"
Sakura said, "You know that you need this skill."
"I guess I'm ready, then."
At that point, I left the Hyperspatial Sphere, so I have no idea what happened after that.
After I showered and changed clothes, I headed for the kitchen to see whether there was any prep work that I could do to help my dearest with making dinner. Instead, I discovered Artemis and Luna looking at the kitchen wall.
"What
is it?" Luna asked in wonder.
"It's a glowing red dot..." Artemis' voice trailed off.
"A glowing... red... dot..."
Both Mau were transfixed.
Then I noticed that Ryou was also in the room. He moved the laser pointer that he had bought on Lyrical Earth, and two feline heads pivoted to follow the dot.
After a moment, I asked, "Have you had enough fun at their expense yet?"
"It isn't 'fun', Rob. It's research." Ryou turned the laser pointer off, and Luna and Artie both blinked.
"Research for what?" Luna asked.
Kasandara replied, "Classified."
Stupid genre conventions. "Whatever the reason is, it had better be a good one."
Ryou nodded. "I assure you, it is."
"Are you going to tell us?"
"Not yet."
I was getting angry again. Instead of shouting at the others, I headed for the Situation Room and asked Shario-chan to put something relaxing on the holoprojector for me to watch.
Two hours and all four episodes of
Yokohama Kaidashi Kikō later, and I was finally fit company for lunch. By then, lunch was over... but Makoto had left a plate for me.
Once again, I woke up in the middle of the night. Was I showing long-term effects of having my Pure Heart shot out? I wasn't native to this reality; who knew how I was going to react to having part of myself ripped away and put back by the local magical effects?
I hoped I was being paranoid, and tried to get back to sleep.
And then I was awakened by a knock at my door. I got up, put a robe on over my pyjamas, noticed that it was an hour before I usually woke up, and walked over to my bedroom door. "Hello?"
"May I come in?"
I opened the door. "Of course, Saeko-mama. Is something wrong?"
She sat down on my desk chair and motioned me to sit on my bed. "That's what I'm here to ask you. Ami told me about yesterday. I want to hear what happened from your perspective."
So I told her, holding nothing back. While she wasn't my legal guardian in this reality – that was still Setsuna-san's responsibility – she was my mother in every other respect... and she was also my doctor.
At the end of it, she said, "You've told me what I expected to hear. You've gone through ... how many traumatic experiences in the last few years?" She started counting them on her fingers. "Being brought to this world in the first place, being forced to kill a classmate..."
"How did you know about that?"
"Artemis told me. Having to stand and watch your girlfriend go to her death, being forced into yet another dimension, and Ami told me that you nearly went into hysterics when you realized what had happened to you, watching while four women died in front of you, the second dying because my daughter gave her the choice to live or die, the third dying because your fiancée killed her and the last being somebody who died in front of me as well, nearly being killed by somebody who you trusted, having your Pure Heart literally shot out of you... I've run out of fingers."
"Did Ami tell you what I asked her not to tell Ryou?"
Saeko-mama nodded. "I
am her mother." Which, in Japan, was explanation enough; one can always get another wife but one cannot get another mother. Even if we'd done our best to disprove that by getting Saeko-mama. "You weren't in your right mind; I don't bear any malice toward you for wanting to cheat on your fiancée with your friend's fiancée."
"Thank you, Saeko-mama."
"Now, I'm neither a psychologist nor a surgeon, I'm merely a general practitioner in residence at Juban Daini General Hospital. But being a GP in residence means I see many more maladies than an ordinary doctor would. And you, Donarudoson Robu-kun, are about to snap. You hide it well, most of the time, but you didn't hide it yesterday and those of us who know what to look for can see it."
"Did Ami ask you to look in on me?"
"No. Mochizuki-san and Makoto-chan did."
Our live-in nurse and my fiancée. "I see. Who else knows?"
"Just Kino-kannushi. I asked him to recommend somebody who could help you meditate, and it's doctor's orders that you
do meditate and find your centre. Kakusui-san is expecting you this evening." She handed me an envelope with two round-trip train tickets in it. "It's also doctor's orders that Makoto-san keep an eye on you; the way you are now, she might be the only person who you trust."
"I trust Usagi-san and Princess Lady!"
"You trust Chibiusa enough to yell at her in front of other people."
I sighed deeply. "When you put it that way... Yes, I see what you're saying. If you'll excuse me, sensei, I need to get dressed and pack."
"One more thing: Sakura, Ichiro, Shario-chan, and Hayate-chan are
not to accompany you."
I almost argued, but then realized that she was right. "Yes, ma'am."
And so it was that Makoto and I spent a week in the mountains. Without being able to fly anywhere, and the stairway to the shrine where we would be staying was 52 times as long as the stairway to Rei-san's shrine. We know that because Ami mentioned it in canon.
Yes, we had to work during our meditation. Our host, Kakusui Yakushiji-san, was targeted by a daimon. I don't want to talk about that, except to confirm that he didn't have a Talisman and that Makoto and I were able to defeat the daimon without assistance.
Nor do I want to talk about what Makoto and I did that Wednesday night, because we didn't do anything. And it was my birthday, too.
I do want to talk about what Kakusui-san taught me that week, after the daimon attacked him.
"No road leads one better than another road does. I will walk this road." Which I took to mean that sometimes things happened that I couldn't change, and there was no point to worrying about them. This is the road that destiny or whoever it was who brought me to this reality originally or both has set me upon, and it was up to me to either walk it or become consumed by what-ifs and how-dare-yous.
"Even tai, when alone, isn't delicious." Which is a Japanese idiom. It didn't matter how good I had it if I was alone. The only way to be happy is to share my life with my family and friends. And, I realized, I couldn't do that if I couldn't be open with them. I was almost always happy when I was with Makoto, but I had no secrets from my fiancée; I had to extend that outlook to the others who were close to me.
"The world would be boring if we all agree." I wasn't going to find anybody in this world or any other who agreed with me about everything, not even our favourite colours. And even something that I thought was important, such as Ami's and my different opinions on whether to let somebody live or die, wasn't something that was big enough to come between us. Learning
that one, and it took me an entire day to figure it out, went a long way to helping me find my centre. And I spent the evening after I learned that writing a letter of apology to Princess Lady for how I had treated her, and that she was right to try doing something that I wasn't expecting.
"When I talk about tomorrow, the mice in the ceiling laugh." Another idiom, but one that definitely pertains to me. It echoes Robbie Burns's famous words, "But Mousie, thou art no thy-lane, In proving foresight may be vain: The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men Gang aft agley." In relying so much on my knowledge of canon events and on Ryou's precognition, I had forgotten that it's impossible to know the future for sure, so the plans we had were at best well-thought-out hopes.
By Friday morning, Kakusui-san declared me fit to return home. "You are not perfect, but nobody on this Earth is perfect. Please remember what you've learned here."
We got home to discover a reception committee, so I didn't need to wait to present my apology to Princess Lady in front of those who had heard my outburst. She presented an apology to me at the same time, saying that it was wrong of her to change our test without permission. We read each other's letters, looked at each other, laughed from the bottom of our hearts, and hugged each other then and there and propriety be damned.
And once we were alone, Bunny-chan told us that they had dealt with two daimons while we were away. Which meant that, if things went according to canon, there were only two more victims to go before Eudial thought to ask the obvious question. Since one of those two was Minako, we already knew things weren't going to go according to canon.
Makoto and I had a week's worth of homework to do Saturday afternoon. Since everyone else was being tutored in the Situation Room, we commandeered the dining room table and got to it.
Which meant that we were the ones who answered the door when our visitor arrived.
"Who could that be?" Makoto asked when the doorbell chimed.
"Only one way to find out." I walked over to the intercom between the front door and the gate. "Hello, Maison Lyrique."
"Hello," replied an older male voice in English. "My name is Edwards, and I was told that Ami Mizuno lives here now."
I switched to English. "It's good to see you again, Mr. Edwards. We met at the Chess Tower last year. I'll be right out." As I put my shoes on, I said, "My dearest, would you call the others from the basement, please? I suspect they might want to see Mr. Edwards again."
"Of course!" And she headed downstairs while I headed outside.
Opening the gate, I bowed to our guest, then noticed that one of our neighbours was waiting with him. "Hello again, Mr. Edwards." Then I switched to Japanese. "And thank you for waiting with our guest, Miharu-chan."
"You're welcome. Can Artemis come out and play?"
"You should ask him yourself. Come in, please." Switching back to English, I said to Edwards, "My apologies for keeping you waiting. Please, come this way."
"Oh, that's quite all right, Mr. Donaldson." Either he remembered my name, or he read the house's nameplate and reached the obvious conclusion.
«Artie, Miharu-chan wants to play. Do you have time?»
«For her, always. I'm on my way.»
«And we have another guest.»
«I'll wait inside, then,» he replied as I opened the front door.
"Welcome to our humble abode, Mr. Edwards," I said as I offered him a pair of guest slippers. Miharu-chan didn't change her footwear, because Artemis leapt into her arms before she could. The two went to play outside.
He chuckled at their antics, then replied to me, "Thank you for allowing me into your home. Hello, ladies!"
Makoto and the others walked into the living room.
"It's good to see you again," Makoto said in English.
"Welcome to our home," Ami added.
"Please make yourself comfortable," added Minako.
"Hello," added Rei-san, a bit hesitantly.
"Thank you!" Ichigo-san said.
"That's a bit wrong, Ichigo-san," Rei-san pointed out quietly.
"Er... yay?"
"No no no Naru. Gomen. We no good at Eigo."
You're better than you think you are, Bunny-chan.
"Ah, then I should speak Japanese," Mr. Edwards replied in that language. "I was speaking with Chiba-san earlier today, and he suggested that I invite all of you to a party that I am hosting on Wednesday evening."
"A party? Will Mamo-chan be there?" Princess Lady asked.
"Chiba-san said that he was willing to attend."
I wondered how, with all the changes we had made to canon so far, episode 108 was taking place as closely to canon as it could. "Thank you for the invitation. I believe we can all attend, although I'll leave it up to the others to confirm that. What sort of party is it?"
"Oh, nothing special. Polite conversation, dancing, the usual. I do enjoy bringing young people together so that you can meet each other in a comfortable place, although some of my previous guests have told me that I might have been too formal."
"So when you say dancing..." Makoto started.
"Why, waltzes, of course. Or as close as you can manage."
"And the formality extends to our wardrobe, I assume," Naru-san said.
"Of course."
"And since this party is being held at your house, and you are from Great Britain, will we be expected to speak English?" Minako asked.
"Your accent reminds me of home, miss. Yes, my guests do usually speak English when visiting my house."
At this point, Ryou came in. "I'm home!" he said in Japanese.
"Welcome back," Ami replied in English.
"I'll put the groceries in the kitchen and be right with you," he said in English.
"Unfortunately, I cannot stay for very long," Mr. Edwards replied. He reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a single invitation. "Here are the directions to my humble abode. I look forward to seeing you there."
"I'll see you to the gate," I said.
On the way back to the house, I asked Miharu-chan whether she wanted to join us for dinner. She refused politely, saying that she was expected back at home in an hour, and I let her know that she was welcome to stay until then. Artie purred as I headed back indoors.
Once I was back inside, I set my cellphone to chime in an hour, then headed for the kitchen to help Ryou unpack to the oh-so-delightful refrain of Bunny-chan repeating, "I get to go to a party! But I have to speak English... But I get to go to a party! But I have to speak English... But..." We tuned her out rather quickly.
"Ryou ol' buddy, if I was to corner Eudial at this party and suggest to her that she stop looking for Pure Hearts and start looking for Talismans, would that change anything for the worse?"
"Rob ol' buddy, I was about to suggest that you do that because it would change things for the better. She'll be more inclined to trust you after you give her that hint."
"Eight times of eleven," added Kasandara.
"And if you don't give her the hint, she'll think of it herself."
I nodded as I put the milk in the fridge. "So, no downside, and a plan that I'm thinking of will work better if she trusts us. Thanks."
"Plan?" asked Makoto as she walked into the kitchen.
I told them.
"You don't think small," Ryou said.
My dearest added, "I hope it works."
"So do I."
Ryou, Ami, Minako, Makoto, our Devices, and I retired to the Situation Room after dinner, "I wish we had more open room here, but this is the best we have."
Shario-chan grinned and said from the computer room, "More space, coming up!" She flipped a switch and the octagonal table and holoprojector sank into the floor, being covered by more flooring. "Just move the chairs out of the way and you've got plenty of room!"
"So we do," I said as we all grabbed chairs and moved them up against the walls.
"Why do we need room?" Minako asked.
"Because we need to practice our dancing skills," Ami replied. "I know I haven't danced since we were in Midchilda."
"Which sorts of dancing?" Meia asked.
"I like the Rigatean Three-Step," Sakura commented. The Rigatean Three-Step is named after the city of Rigate on Midchilda. For folks who've never visited Midchilda, imagine, if you can, a formalized version of a
Lindy Hop – great for adapting into pairs figure skating routines, not so great for a ballroom with its slower dances.
"I've always preferred the Alzutian Paduana," Ichiro said. If you're imagining an
Alsatian version of a
pavane, then I have to tell you not to trust those
false friends; it's more a Texas-style line dance.
"It's neither of those, alas," Makoto replied. "It looks like it's going to be a series of Viennese waltzes."
Ichiro, Sakura, and Meia looked puzzled. "What's a waltz?"
"It's one of the first dances that Admiral Graham taught my personality donor once she could walk again," Hayate-chan said. She added "Mirage Hide" and was suddenly Minako's height. "Do you mind if I lead?"
"I don't mind at all. The guys at the party will expect to lead, after all."
"Thanks. Shario-chan, does Rob have 'An der schönen, blauen Donau' in his collection?
"I'm not sure..." she said as she started a search.
I made it easier for her. "Look in the classical collection for its English name, 'By the Beautiful Blue Danube'."
"Found it!" She played it over the room's speakers, and we proceeded to dance for the next nine minutes.
Makoto and Ami were the best at the dance, since they'd learned its nuances during the Princess Seminar during the Missing Time. Minako and Ryou were almost as good, and... well, Hayate-chan and I didn't embarrass ourselves while we shook the rust out of our joints.
"Do ballroom orchestras on Earth usually include brass instruments?" Meia asked.
"If they do, I think I could like ballroom dancing here," Sakura added.
"No, I was being cheap when I added that to my collection," I replied. "Why pay for a copy when
the U.S. Marine Band makes one available for free?"
"Awwww..." As my dearest comforted her Unison Device, I helped Shario-chan compile a playlist for us. Ryou had grabbed a few other waltzes while we were on Lyrical Earth.
We continued practising our dancing for an hour, improving as we remembered our lessons. Halfway through, once they'd seen the steps a few times, Ichiro and Shario-chan joined us.
"I can see why people like this dance," Shario-chan said at the end of our session, Ichiro's arms still around her.
Hayate-chan grinned. "You two should try a tango some time."
"Tango?"
"One of the more passionate of Earth's dances, and one that I don't know," I said. "Some people say that, if you do it properly, the couple has to get married afterwards."
Shario-chan grinned and said, "I
definitely want to learn that dance!"
We all practised waltzing after school the next day; Ryou, Ichiro, and I taking turns dancing with the ladies.
We started out with Ryou dancing with Ami, Ichiro dancing with Minako, and of course me dancing with my dearest, while the others watched. I was much better than I was the previous day.
Then we asked some of the others to dance; Ryou danced with Naru-san, Ichiro danced with Rei-san, and I was the lucky one to dance with Bunny-chan.
"Pretend I'm Chiba-san and let me guide you around the dance floor," I told her.
"You'll never be Mamo-chan, Robu-san, but I suppose I can let you tell me where I should be going."
"I won't tell you after the first few times, I'll just press against your back. Like so. Turn to your left," I said as I guided her.
At the end of the dance, I bowed to my partner. "I'm impressed. You didn't step on my feet at all during the dance. Your reputation for clumsiness is overblown."
Then Ichigo-san said, "I've never danced in my life."
"I'll be your partner, then," Ichiro volunteered.
Ryou and I approached our fiancées, then we each asked the other's love to dance. They were surprised but went along with our suggestion. Luckily, Shario-chan played one of the shorter waltzes, because Makoto towered over Ryou and I was having trouble accommodating Ami's smaller steps. At the end of it, we escorted the ladies back to their chairs. "It was a lovely dance," I began.
"And I enjoyed myself," Ryou added.
Together, we finished, "But let's not do that again." Both of our fiancées grinned and nodded in agreement.
Ichiro and Ichigo-san danced together again while Ryou danced with Rei-san and I danced with Minako. Our partners smiled when we finished the dance, so we must have done something right. Unfortunately, Minako wasn't a particularly good dancer.
Then, while Ryou danced with Ichigo-san and Ichiro danced with Bunny-chan, I snuck in a dance with Hayate-chan.
"I was wondering when you were going to ask me to dance," she said.
"I'm wondering why I didn't ask earlier," I replied with a smile. I knew she was shapeshifted from her real height, but that didn't make dancing with her any less enjoyable.
We danced one more waltz – Makoto and I, Ami and Ryou, and Hayate-chan and Ichiro – before Shario-chan raised the table and we started the regularly-scheduled tutoring session.
We had an extra-long study session on Tuesday.
Then we attended Mr. Edwards's party on Wednesday.
Ryou, Chiba-san, and I were in suits. Makoto insisted that I wear midnight blue, and Ami insisted that Ryou wear black, reversing our usual suit colours. Chiba-san wore black, of course.
The ladies, on the other hand, stole the show.
Tenou-san and Kaioh-san wore the tuxedo and dress that they wore in canon, since they were providing the music for the party.
Naru-san wore
a forest-green dress with frilled short sleeves, with a matching hair ribbon and white gloves. She added more diamonds to her outfit than I thought practical, but if she wanted to show off her family's store's wares, who was I to say no?
Ichigo-san wore a little red dress, the shade of ripe strawberries, with elbow-length sleeves and one button unbuttoned at her neck.
Rei-san wore her usual crimson dress.
Bunny-chan wore a prim and proper pink dress; no doubt, her father picked it out for her so she'd look attractive but not too attractive.
Minako wore the classic little black dress, with her usual red hair ribbon.
Ami... dressed to make everybody's heads turn; she definitely didn't look like the top-ranked student in the entire country, not in that
sleeveless strapless backless dress that went below the knees, primarily in black with lines in blue and other colours, with matching high-heeled shoes and a black choker collar. She was using either glue or magic to keep that dress on.
Saving the best for last, Makoto dressed to turn one particular head, and it worked.
Her dress was sleeveless and off-the-shoulder, in midnight blue, with just the right amount of décolletage for my taste. My impure thoughts came to the fore as I thought that it was the kind of dress that I both wanted to see her in and get her out of.
«Did you intend to send that to me?» she asked with a smile.
«I have to admit that my subconscious made that decision.» "You look gorgeous," I added out loud. "I don't remember seeing that dress before."
"Setsuna-san made it for me."
The nine of us arrived by limousine; crowding into taxis would have ruined those dresses. Ichiro rode in my pocket, while Meia and Sakura hid in Ami and Makoto's purses.
During the Missing Time, I had told Ami and Makoto that they were going to have to be the elegant Senshi until Sailor Neptune showed up. But that was before we'd spent two years in Midchilda, learning and growing from young teenagers to young adults.
Even Tenou-san and Kaioh-san stopped and looked as we made our entrance.
We mingled. We chatted. Bunny-chan got her hands on a glass from the grown-ups' tray... and she has zero tolerance for alcohol. Then, while Ami cast a healing spell on Bunny-chan to sober her up and Ryou talked with Tenou-san and Kaioh-san, I noticed somebody who I suspected wasn't on the guest list.
«Time to lay the groundwork for that plan,» I sent to my dearest.
«Yes, let's finally meet her socially.»
We made our way over to the redheaded Death Buster. "I wasn't expecting to see you here so early, Arimura-san," I said.
"Do I know you?"
"I was wearing a different face the last time you saw me, but I did wear this face when you tested the sights on your first weapon."
"Please don't try to run," Makoto said. "You'll only call attention to yourself, and I doubt you're ready for that."
She kept a smile on her face. "You're being very nice for sworn opponents."
"This is the real us. Who are you looking for today, if I might ask? A student with a Pure Heart? A philanthropist with a Pure Heart? Someone else with a Pure Heart, perhaps?"
"Don't you already know?"
I shrugged my shoulders. "I have a good idea, but it's always polite to ask. And speaking of asking, why do you keep asking your computers to find people with Pure Hearts, instead of asking for them to find people with Talismans?"
Eudial actually looked surprised at my question. Then she smiled again. "Thank you so much for the suggestion, Donarudoson-san."
"All of this running around that we've been doing is so wasteful of time and energy, don't you agree?"
"Yes. Yes, I do agree. Why are you helping me?"
"To be honest, we want the Talismans, too. You now know how to find them, and you've always known how to extract them."
"So we're to fight once I've found them?"
Makoto asked, "Don't we always?"
"It is an occupational hazard," I added. "Ah, but our host wants our attention."
"Thank you again. I'll have to be on my way now."
I bowed to her, European style. "Of course. You are a busy woman, after all. Until we meet again."
As Mr. Edwards thanked us for coming to his little get-together and invited us to listen to Kaioh-san play for us, Eudial made her way out of the room.
Unfortunately, in her rush to get back to her computers, she left a box behind.
After Kaioh-san finished playing and left her violin in a secure place, she and Tenou-san headed for the dance floor. Bunny-chan and Chiba-san joined them, as did Makoto and me, along with a few other couples.
We danced to prerecorded music. As we passed by Tenou-san and Kaioh-san on the dance floor, we heard Tenou-san say "Their technique lacks something, but they're so obviously in love that it doesn't matter."
«She's looking at Usagi and Mamoru, darling. Not at us.»
«You two know how to dance,» Tenou-san sent back, «and you do it well. You're anticipating each other's movements perfectly and without telepathy.»
«Thank you,» I replied. «The two of you are as elegant on the dance floor as you are everywhere else that I've seen you.»
The dance ended and we made our way to one of the refreshment tables, passing Minako, Rei-san, Naru-san, and Ichigo-san playing jan-ken-pon off to one side.
"What are they up to?" Kaioh-san asked.
"I suspect they're trying to decide who gets to ask your girlfriend for the next dance," my dearest replied.
"With Ryou as the second-place prize and me as the consolation prize," I added.
"You're a reasonably handsome young man."
Reasonably. Thanks so much, Kaioh-san. "Ah, but I'm obviously a foreigner. And most of them see me as a friend, not a love interest. It takes a special woman to fall in love with somebody like me," I said while putting my arm around Makoto's waist, which got a smile from her.
"And what does that say about them?" Tenou-san asked with a smile. "They do know that I'm a girl, don't they?"
My dearest nodded. "At the moment, I doubt they're looking past the surface. You'll notice that Ami and Usagi aren't taking part."
"I'm also noticing the time. We should be going some place quiet now, to get changed."
Makoto and I nodded. "We understand."
As they walked away, Kaioh-san said to Tenou-san, "I wonder when they'll notice that you're gone."
And I said to Makoto, "They deserve to get at least one dance in. Do you mind?"
"What do you think of their dresses?"
I knew what she was really asking. "I hope their dresses stay on all night."
"In that case, go right ahead."
I gave my fiancée a quick kiss on the cheek, then looked around for Ryou... who I saw was headed toward me. "There you are. Shall we ask the others to dance? Ami doesn't have a problem with me dancing with someone else."
"Makoto's given me permission, as well." We walked over to where the others were still playing rock-paper-scissors. "Naru-san, may I have this dance?"
"Well..."
"Tenou-san just left. You'll have to settle for the two of us, or some other student. So allow me to re-phrase. Naru-san, will you grant me the favour of a dance?"
"When you put it that way, how can I refuse?" She smiled as she took my arm.
Ryou asked Ichigo-san for the honour of a dance, and we made our way to the dance floor.
Alas, they didn't get a complete dance; somebody with a Pure Heart bumped into that box and the daimon emerged from it.
Without an obvious target or a Death Buster to give it orders, it went wild, using the strings on its violin-shaped body to produce a cacophony that had everyone in the room covering their ears.
Well, almost everyone.
"Does anybody want to listen to this?" Naru-san shouted, her dress suddenly looking like it was made from a slice of the night sky and her kabuki makeup clearly visible.
«It's a freaking sonic attack!» Sakura sent back while peeking out of the top of my dearest's purse.
«How are you not affected?»
«Not the time to ask!» Naru-san sent back as the gems from her jewelry flew together and formed a tantō... which she threw.
The attack stopped as the daimon suddenly had a dagger sticking out of its neck. Then the monster dissolved into its component parts.
In the sudden silence, Sakura sent, «Woah. Okuni uses knife, it's super effective.»
I noticed that Bunny-chan was looking at Ami. «I feel... useless. Is this how everybody else feels when I one-shot the monsters?» My dearer friend just nodded. «I'm going to have to stop doing that. Sorry.»
"That was amazing," I said to Naru-san. Then I whispered to my jacket pocket, "Ichiro, whatever you're teaching my dance partner, keep it up."
«Certainly, sir.»
Then I noticed that the other dancers, realizing that the show was over, had returned to their waltz. "Shall we?" I asked Naru-san.
"Please, yes. I need to do something while the adrenaline rush is still going. How do you do this every week?"
"You get used to it."
By the end of the dance, Naru-san's breathing had returned to normal. I bowed to her, she curtsied in return, and we headed over to where Rei-san and Minako were waiting.
Oh, dear.
«Ryou, you remember how Minako said that she had thought about dating each of us?»
«Rob, don't do this to me.»
«I had to dance with her during practice. And you know how jealous Makoto gets. If Minako wants anything more than a dance, I'm going to have to throw you under the buss.»
«If you're willing to resort to that bad a pun, I have no option but to concede. You owe me one.»
«Thanks. I know,» I smiled and asked, "May I have the next dance, Rei-san?"
She smiled in return – a polite smile, but a smile nonetheless. "Certainly, Robu-san."
And of course Minako accepted Ryou's offer to dance. We lead the ladies around the dance floor for a few minutes, then let them go back to their friends while the two of us returned to our fiancées.
And, yes, Minako did try to kiss her future brother-in-law.
I spent the rest of the party with my dearest, and one of the pieces we danced to was "
Les Patineurs". Not-so-stupid genre conventions.
Then we went home, Makoto and I helped each other out of our party outfits... and we got some sleep. We had classes the next day, and we didn't know when Eudial would attack Uranus and Neptune. And we
still hadn't celebrated my birthday. Stupid,
stupid genre conventions.
The Death Busters didn't attack the next day. Or the day after, and we discussed the matter at the Conversational English Club.
"I am tired of seeing people die because they were involved in something we're fighting."
"What can we do about it, Rob?"
"I'm glad you asked, Minako..." And I proceeded to tell her and Ami the plan that I had come up with over the last couple of weeks.
At the end of it, Ryou commented, "I've been thinking about this plan of yours. You're assuming that the showdown will be in the same place that it was in canon."
"It has to take place somewhere."
Ami pulled out the Mercury Computer and checked a report. "According to Chacornac's logs, Eudial's car has been at the Marine Cathedral all afternoon."
"Thanks, Ami. Ryou, I think my assumption is a pretty safe one."
"And
I'm assuming that I don't have a role in your plan," Minako said.
"Other than as part of the Sailor Team, yes. Unless you want to fly again."
"No, thank you!"
And then it was Saturday, and Bunny-chan asked that we do what we could to stop the fight that was about to happen. Apparently, Kaioh-san had called her to let her know they were going to finally find the Talismans at the Marine Cathedral.
"I spent half the night calculating coordinates," Ami said. "We can't miss school because Makoto and Rob have already missed too many classes, but we can leave as soon as classes end at lunch time."
"Sorry about that," I said.
"Does Rei know?" asked my dearest.
Ami nodded. "I spoke with her after dinner last night. Our first stop is Toyo Eiwa, then we go to the Marine Cathedral."
That Saturday's classes felt like the longest I'd ever sat through. At least Ichiro was paying attention for me.
Ah, yes – Ichiro was in Unison with me, Meia was in Unison with Ami, Sakura was in Unison with Makoto, and our partners all used Mirage Hide to make us look like ourselves.
Hayate-chan had borrowed the Mercury Computer and was already with Princess Lady. Naru-san had the second tracking device that she had built; when we moved, our backup would know. Sakurada-sensei was kind enough to pretend she didn't notice that we were ready to leave three minutes before the bell, and that Ichigo-san and Ryou had brought along bags large enough to hold four school bags each.
And, once the bell rang, move we did. We changed into our outdoor shoes and headed for a quiet corner in the school's back yard, where Mercury and Jupiter let their disguises drop, I changed my disguise to combat-ready Oni, and the others transformed to Moon, Venus, and Okuni.
Then Mercury cast "Teleport!"
Less than five seconds later, we were at Toyo Eiwa Jogakuin. Rei-san transformed to Mars and joined us, and Mercury cast a second Teleport spell.
The time between us hearing the end-of-day bell and arriving at Marine Cathedral was less than two minutes.
And we were still too late to take part in the fight between Eudial and the Senshi of the Outer Planets. Obviously, they'd skipped school; Mugen Academy must be lax on taking attendance.
We made our way inside, as quietly as possible... until we triggered one of Eudial's traps. Luckily for us, the machine guns dry fired; this was probably where Neptune took an entire drum of bullets and survived the experience.
"Mercury, can you find them using... no, you don't have the Mercury Computer right now." Moon said.
"That isn't the only way to look for somebody. Wide Area Search!"
It took less than a minute for her Midchildan magic to find Eudial and the Senshi of the Outer Planets. Or, rather, the bodies of the Senshi of the Outer Planets.
We rushed to the scene and got a shot from Eudial's second Fire Buster weapon for our trouble.
"Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow!" Of all the people to complain about fire, why did it have to be Sailor Mars?
However, Pluto chose the moment that Eudial was concentrating on us to appear and separate the Talismans from Uranus and Neptune's Pure Hearts, just as in canon. Jupiter grabbed Moon and
threw her to land beside Pluto while Eudial shot at the rest of us again, surrounding us in a ring of fire.
So we couldn't interfere when the Holy Grail appeared from bringing the three Talismans together. But Uranus and Neptune, their Pure Hearts restored to their bodies, could.
It sounded like quite the battle. We had to figure out how to get out of this burning ring of fire. Mars tried the Dark Schneider approach, fighting fire with fire, and the flames went higher. Thanks, June and Johnny. Stupid genre conventions. Mercury tried fighting fire with ice; all we got was steam.
And then Tuxedo Kamen and Chibimoon came flying to our rescue. Literally; they broke a window on the way in. "Luna-P, Change!" And she had the right tool for the job: a Crystal Tokyo fire extinguisher. We were out of the trap just in time to see Moon go through her secondary transformation to Super Sailor Moon for the first time, the Grail in her right hand.
Eudial shot at her, Moon held up one hand, and the stream of flame reflected back, just like in canon.
That fire had to hurt. But she was the one throwing it around, so she was hoist by her own petard. As in canon, she decided to stage a tactical withdrawal and headed for her car. Not at superspeed, I noticed; perhaps her copy of my power had been burned away by her flames.
Which meant it was time to separate the soldiers from the heroes... and, as much as Ichiro and Sakura preferred otherwise, we were going to do our best to be the heroes this time around. "By now, everybody should know that she's heading for her own death. Who's with me to stop that?"
Everybody but Uranus and Neptune stepped forward. "You have a plan?" Moon asked.
"I do."
"Then you're in charge now."
I nodded. "Mercury, grab Moon. Jupiter, grab Mars. Meia, stick close to Moon. Everybody I just named, it's time to fly. Everyone else, stand by in reserve. If we need you, Mercury will let you know."
"I hate flying your way," Mars complained.
We all headed straight up and out the broken window, getting a good view of Eudial starting her car and driving off. «Where do you think it's going to happen?»
«The speed she's going, it'll be the first sharp corner,» I sent back to my dearest and everyone else. «Mercury, follow Jupiter!» I went invisible and drew level with Eudial's car as everybody else ducked under the bridge.
Sure enough, once I got close enough, I heard a saccharine-cute voice dripping with sardonicism over the car's radio.
«This is it! Mimete's taunting Eudial right now.»
«We're in position!» Jupiter sent back.
I waited until the very last second. «Now!» I sent as Eudial's car broke through the guardrail.
Sakura used Jupiter's voice to shout "Wing Road!" And there was suddenly a road, just barely wide enough to drive on, under the car.
I dropped my invisibility but kept my disguise spell running. "Concentrate on driving if you want to stay alive! Put it in neutral and coast down to a safe speed!"
Amazingly, she did so. I guess being possessed by the daimon Eudial wasn't enough to override Arimura Yuko-san's sense of self-preservation. Or maybe she trusted me.
As she steered, I sent the rest of my plan to Moon and Mars. Moon liked both the intent and the challenge.
By the time Jupiter and Sakura had extended their Wing Road to the shore, Eudial's car reached that end and kept going. It stopped on some flat rocks a few dozen meters from the high-tide mark.
"I'm not too proud to admit it," Eudial said as she got out of the now-useless car and grabbed the Fire Buster II. "You saved my life. Why?"
"Oh, you're quite mistaken. You're dead now, Eudial. Everyone knows it. Mimete knows it, Germatoid knows it," she was shocked to hear me say that name, "and the Sailor Senshi saw your car go over the side of the bridge. What we need from you is your cooperation. Eudial, we need you to die for us in reality."
"What? Never!"
"You don't have a say in the matter," Mercury said as she and Jupiter landed on either side of Eudial, letting Moon and Mars stand on their own.
Moon followed that announcement with a question. "Please, Arimura-san, won't you let us help you?"
Eudial's attention was almost completely on Moon and Mercury, sparing a fraction for me. Which meant, while she saw Mercury activate her visor, she didn't notice Mars pull three ofuda from wherever it is that she keeps them.
"Rin pyou tou sha kai jin retsu zai zen!" Yes, Mars, all combatants are present and lined up... and that chant was enough to get Eudial's attention. She raised Fire Buster II, but too late to prevent Mars's attack. "Akuryo Taisan!" And she threw all three ofuda at Eudial.
They hit. Eudial was stunned and starting to give off smoke the way a daimon gives off smoke when it's defeated.
I shamelessly stole Tuxedo Kamen's role in the proceedings. "If you please, Sailor Moon!"
"Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"
That finally worked against the bitch... er, Witch. "Lovely!" she shouted just before falling over.
It didn't take long for the daimon to escape from Arimura-san's body. Mars hit it with another ofuda, just to be sure, and Eudial dissolved into nothingness.
Mercury announced, "It's gone! Now, Meia!" And they both raced over to Arimura-san's body, dropping out of Unison in the process.
"What are they doing?" Moon asked.
"CPR," I replied as we watched Mercury begin chest compressions and Meia start a spell. "It's first aid for a heart attack. Even a Moon spiral heart attack, it appears."
Before anyone could say anything else, Arimura-san gasped and started to retch. Mercury quickly rolled her onto her side, in the
recovery position, so that she wouldn't drown in her own vomit. "Will somebody please call for an ambulance?"
"I'll do that," Mars announced as she headed for the nearest pay phone.
"I wish we could get cellphones," I said quietly, knowing full well that 3G service and thus truly useful cellphones wouldn't be available until 2001. Then I turned to Jupiter. "Well, look at this! Appears we saved a woman's life and freed her from demonic possession at the same time. What does that make us?"
"Big damn heroes, Oni!" Jupiter quickly answered with a grin.
"Ain't we just?" I asked before we both started laughing.
As Moon looked puzzled at our actions, Meia explained, "Some people deal with stress relief in odd ways, Moon-sama."
Arimura-san looked up and said, "You said you were going to kill me."
I stopped laughing. "No, I said we were going to kill Eudial. You aren't Eudial."
"Why save me?"
"I'll tell you that once we're both in a secure place. For now, let's just say that my hands have too much blood on them, and, unlike Eudial, you haven't done anything that we know about that deserves death."
We waited for the ambulance to arrive, then Mercury rode along with Arimura-san to the hospital.
Then they stopped attacking for a week. Which was good, because we had end-of-term exams to write.
Presumably, so did they.
I'll cut to the chase, even though we wouldn't know the results until the end of the month. Makoto and I didn't get any better because we'd missed too much studying, but we didn't get any worse, either. Ami, of course, couldn't get any better; she scored 900 for the second time in a row. Everybody else got at least a few points higher than they had the previous term.
And Princess Lady didn't have to worry about exams because she wasn't enrolled in school yet. We corrected that oversight rather quickly, but she wouldn't start classes until after the Bon holiday. So she went out and played... and made new friends along with reconnecting with old friends including Momohara Momoko.
Shario-chan spent the week debugging Princess Lady's Pink Moon Stick. She also turned its power setting up from "training mode" to "level 1 attack"
We had a strategy session the day after our last exam. We brought in two plain chairs at human scale for the session, replacing the chair with a firefly. We also brought in five chairs and desks at Unison Device scale, placing them on the table at Ami's, Makoto's, Naru-chan's, Princess Lady's, and my seats. And we set up a desktop easel at Ryou's spot for Kasandara.
Every seat was filled, save for the firefly chair.
"I see now why you wanted to free me," Arimura-san said on seeing the back of the empty chair.
"Before anyone says anything else," Hayate-chan said, "we need to secure the room."
Ami nodded. "Hyperspatial Sphere Generate! Mental Shield!"
And suddenly the light in the room had a reddish tinge and we couldn't use telepathy. "Thank you, Mizuno-san. I call this meeting to order."
"And just why is a talking doll running this meeting?"
"Because Yagami Hayate-chan has forgotten more about strategy, magic, and squad-level combat than everyone else seated around this table has ever learned, Tenou-san." I replied. "She is the best possible person to be in charge of our planning sessions."
"And also because I asked her to take charge today," Bunny-chan... no, Usagi added. The look on her face told me that she wasn't willing to take any guff from anyone today.
"Thank you, ma'am. Our first order of business is a report from Mochizuki Ka'o."
Our resident Droid stood up. "One of the Death Busters broke into the morgue at Juban Daini General Hospital the night that Arimura-san was brought there. From her appearance, I believe she was Telulu. Finding me with Arimura-san's appearance on the dissection table and failing to detect any life signs from my body, she severed my head from my body and then left. I am reasonably sure that the Death Busters now think that Eudial is dead. By the way, it took me three hours to reconnect my head."
Arimura-san asked, "How did you survive decapitation?"
"I was not alive to begin with, as you define life. I do not keep my main processor in my head."
"You're an android? Would you mind if I was to look at your mechanisms later?"
"It would be more accurate to call me a gynoid. As for you inspecting my workings, that is up to Tsukino-san and Mizuno-sensei. I don't mind."
"Moving on," Hayate-chan interrupted, "our second order of business is to review the notes that Ichiro-san and I made during our debriefing of Arimura-san."
"Can we trust her?"
"Kaioh-san..." I started. Then I heard Hayate-chan clear her throat.
"That is a completely valid question, Donaldson-san." She turned to Arimura-san. "Do you have an answer?"
She shook her head. "I don't. You'd be fools to trust me."
"We'd also be fools to refuse to listen to you. To be honest, much of what you told us simply confirmed what we already knew from other sources."
"Other sources?"
Ami, Makoto, Ryou, Ichiro, Sakura, Meia, Kasandara, Shario-chan, Hayate-chan, and I all said, "That's classified."
Ichigo-san grinned. "Oh, those sources."
"Be that as it may," Hayate-chan continued, "Arimura-san provided quite a bit of detail that we didn't previously have. Finieno-san?" Shario-chan flipped a switch on her desk and the holoprojector displayed a wireframe image of Mugen Academy. She zoomed in on the basement and Arimura-san gave us a virtual tour of the Death Busters' base, right down to the room with the evil-bake oven where Germatoid turned daimon eggs and run-of-the-mill items into daimons. That took a half-hour, but we now had a much better idea of how our current enemy's base was laid out.
"I'm surprised you know all this," Meia commented.
"Oh, we all know it, except for Mistress Nine's host."
Before anyone else could say anything, Hayate-chan announced, "And that brings us to the third item of discussion today. Tomoe Hotaru-san."
Princess Lady gasped. "That's the name of the girl I met yesterday!"
"Cute girl, older than you but younger than Hino-san, looks like a strong wind could carry her off, and has healing powers?" I asked. She nodded. "She's the same girl."
"And it is absolutely imperative that we get Mistress Nine out of her," added Ami.
"Why go to the trouble?" Kaioh-san asked.
Ami replied, "Besides the fact that she's an innocent trapped in a nightmare? Because she's Sailor Saturn."
That shocked Arimura-san, Kaioh-san, and Tenou-san. Uranus was the first to recover. "Again, why go to the trouble? Why not just kill her and save the Earth from her ability to destroy us all?"
"You can't! She's my friend!"
"And she hasn't done anything wrong yet," Usagi pointed out. "Or at all, if we get the daimon out of her."
"And if simple compassion is beyond you," I added, "consider that we went to the trouble of saving Arimura-san to show that we
can save Tomoe-chan. I stand with Neo-Queen Serenity and say that we should save her, not kill her out of paranoid fear."
"It isn't paranoia," Setsuna-san said. "There used to be a planet between Mars and Jupiter. It isn't there any more because Sailor Saturn destroyed it during the Sailor Wars."
"Pull the other one, it has bells on," Minako said. "Even I know that there isn't enough mass in the Main Belt to form a planet."
Setsuna-san's reply was, "Not any more, no."
"You have to be joking, ma'am."
"No, Ichiro-san, I am not joking. Before the Youma War, Pluto was a gas subgiant. Magical combat at anything larger that squad level is extremely destructive. But what it took an entire army of youma a week to do to the planet Pluto, Saturn did to the planet Catamitus with a single attack."
"All the more reason to have her on our side," Minako said. "If Sailor Galaxia is on her way here, we
need Sailor Saturn's power if we're going to have any hope at all of winning that fight."
Arimura-san went pale. "Galaxia? That's one of the few beings that Eudial was afraid of. What makes you think she's heading here?"
Ami, Makoto, Ryou, Ichiro, Sakura, Meia, Kasandara, Shario-chan, Hayate-chan, and I all said, "That's classified."
"I'm going to be hearing that a lot, aren't I?"
"I'm afraid so," Usagi replied. "We trust you enough to let you sit in on this session, but we don't trust you with all of our secrets yet." She turned from Arimura-san to Hayate-chan. "Now, how do we save Tomoe-chan?"
And then it was Saturday, and we got to meet Hotaru-san. Princess Lady had been invited over, and was allowed to bring friends.
She picked Bunny-chan, Makoto, and me.
And we were met at her front door by Kaolinite, who didn't seem to recognize us.
Being polite, my dearest and I didn't seem to recognize her in return. Bunny-chan wasn't able to keep a poker face, though. Kaolinite... sorry, Kuromine Kaori-san showed us to a sitting room and promised us refreshments while we were waiting. But Hotaru-chan arrived before Kuromine-san left, and Makoto presented our visiting gift – homemade cake – directly to her.
Which avoided the insult of us refusing our host's hospitality. We all assumed that any coffee that Kaolinite supplied would be drugged or worse.
While Hotaru-chan escorted us to her room, my phone buzzed. I took a quick look to discover a message from Ami: Mimete was at a book-signing session. "Excuse me a moment," I told the ladies, then typed a reply asking whether it was safe to bring Hotaru-chan to it. Ami sent back a yes.
As I put my phone away, I said, "Well, DoCoMo should be happy to know that their two-way pager system works even this far from a transmission tower." Which they probably would if we had been using it. "That was Ami. She's at a book signing."
"I don't really care about textbooks," Bunny-chan replied.
"Ah, but Ami reads romances, too."
That got a grin out of Bunny-chan. "Can we go?"
My dearest turned to Hotaru-chan and replied, "That's up to our host."
She thought about it for a moment, then smiled. "Why not?"
So we turned around and headed for the front door, only to be met by Kaolinite. "Your father did want you to stay inside today," she told Hotaru-chan.
"I assure you," Makoto said before Hotaru-chan could say anything, "that we will keep her as safe as we keep Chibiusa."
"So kindly get out of our way," Hotaru-chan told Kaolinite.
They stared at each other for a moment. Kaolinite either lost the battle of wills or remembered who was possessing Hotaru-chan. "Do what you want."
So we headed out.
"How are we going to get there?" Princess Lady asked.
I stepped to the curb and raised a hand. "Taxi!" And a taxi pulled up. That was convenient.
As the girls got into the back seat and my fiancée rode "shotgun", I walked over to the driver's side to provide the address. Then I saw who was driving, and no longer wondered why there was a convenient taxi in the area. "Juuban Bookstore, please. And things must be bad at Atelier Lucent if you have to drive a cab as well."
"I knew you'd need one. I am the daughter of Chronos, after all." Then Setsuna-san smiled. "Besides, I wanted to see Tomoe-san for myself."
"Pay attention to the traffic, not the possessed Senshi, please." Then I walked around the taxi again... and didn't get in.
"You aren't coming with us?" Hotaru-chan asked.
"I'm not one for romance novels," I replied. "I'll find something else to do. You ladies have fun."
And I did. Ichiro hopped out of my pocket, we went invisible and Unisoned, and I flew above the taxi for the entire trip.
So it was that the girls got autographed copies of Katakuri Ukon's latest novel. Funny, he was a mangaka in canon. And there was only one person in line behind them.
"Didn't I sign a copy of my book for you already, miss?"
"Oh, this time I want your heart." Mimete opened the case she was carrying, and a daimon came out.
Everybody panicked. We used the opportunity to get Hotaru-chan and Princess Lady clear. «Protect Hotaru-chan!»
«Okay, Oni!» "We'd better go hide over there."
As they got out of our way, Bunny-chan, Makoto, and I transformed.
"Hold it right there! I won't let you take the Pure Heart of a great romance writer! Danielle Steel might forgive you, but I will not! I am Sailor Moon! In the name of the Moon, I'll punish you!"
That actually calmed the crowd. "Hey, it's a Sailor Moon toku show!"
«I knew our contract with Dreamland would be a problem,» Mars sent as she arrived. Silhouetted against the door, she announced, "Likewise, Sailor Mars!"
"Likewise, Sailor Mercury!" That call came from the entry to the bookstore's nonfiction section.
"Likewise, Sailor Jupiter and Oni!" And that came from the Senshi standing between me and Moon.
"You keep posing and leave the fighting to us," Uranus said from the door to the staff room, Neptune standing by her side.
"Fighting?" I asked while using forcefields to squash the daimon against the roof, doing my best to make it look like an actor was getting away through the drop ceiling. A manga dropped to the floor as I asked, "What fighting?"
"This fighting," Moon announced as she took aim at Mimete. "Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"
"Witches Anti-Spiral CPR!"
We really should have seen that coming. And "Anti-Spiral"? Mimete, who the Hell do you think you are?
The two blasts were evenly balanced, and it was all I could do to keep the effect contained in a forcefield.
Amazingly, Sailor Moon didn't need to be told to power up; it looked like her training was paying off. "Crisis Makeup! Rainbow Moon Heartache!"
"Ooooohhhhh..." At least the crowd was impressed.
"Lovely!" Mimete shouted and collapsed, falling through the doorway into the staff's break room, with the daimon making its way out of her body.
"Akuryo Taisan!" And the daimon was destroyed.
Okay, so there was good news and bad news. The good news was that we'd saved Hanyu Mimi-san from an eventual fate worse than death. The bad news was that Mistress Nine was still inside Tomoe Hotaru-san and we couldn't do anything about that today. At this rate, we were going to need a larger table in the Situation Room; it looked like we were collecting a complete set of Death Busters.
Moon announced, "Once again, the day is saved, thanks to the Sailor Team!" What, not the Power Puff Girls? Anyway. "And now we must be off!" We quickly made our exit to the break room... where Mercury and Meia immediately started CPR and healing spells on Hanyu-san.
Makoto and Bunny-chan headed out the back door and around the building to meet up with Hotaru-chan and Princess Lady. I stayed with Mercury and Hanyu-san until the ambulance arrived, then spoke with the bookstore's owner about property damage. There wasn't any, and he thanked us for turning what could have been a disaster into a brief entertainment as far as his patrons were concerned. I then took my leave.
A half-hour later, Makoto and I were at the door to Juban Daini General Hospital. "I believe you're looking for a ride away from the Witches 5, Hanyu-san."
"I'll happily go anywhere if it's with
you, Oni," she replied, just before Makoto took my arm in hers.
«It isn't my fault that she likes me, my dearest. She likes everybody. I don't return the emotion.» "Let's go." I wrapped the three of us in an aerodynamic invisibility cloak and we flew off.
We didn't take the fast route. Instead, we did our best to shake off any tracking and eventually ended up back at Maison Lyrique, where we quickly headed for the Hyperspatial Sphere that Ami had left in place from the previous day.
Once we were inside, Hanyu-san noticed our other house guest. "How are you still alive, bitch?"
Arimura-san looked up and scowled. "Probably the same way you are, slut."
Shario-chan commented, "I see you know each other."
"Don't make me put you into individual forcefields at opposite ends of the room," I threatened.
"It's an octagonal room. It doesn't have ends," Hanyu-san pointed out just before Arimura-san leapt toward her and tried to choke her to death.
Two seconds later, they were in individual forcefields at opposite ends of the room. "I'll let Sailor Moon sort you two out. Too bad I'm not expecting her back today. I don't know whether I can keep a forcefield up when I leave this bubble, so I'm confining both of you less comfortably. Struggle Bind."
Inwardly, I sighed deeply. These two were the least unpleasant of the Witches 5. How were we going to cope with the others? Maybe it wasn't a good idea to want to save them all.
I walked over to Shario-chan's desk. "Is there any chance Hayate-chan can take over?" I asked in English.
"I thought you knew," she said in surprise. "Hayate-chan's moved in with the ... Moons."
"She can't possibly Unison with Sailor Moon."
"No, but she can Unison with Sailor Chibimoon."
Of course she can; I was with them on Rubeus' UFO when they Unisoned the first time. "Well, she was looking for a larger role in our group. I guess she found one."
"Oni, would you close my door on the way out, please? I don't want to have to listen to the two of them yelling at each other."
"Sure. If you need me, just call."
Three hours later, I brought them rice and pickles, to discover them talking and laughing with each other.
"Oh, and remember when Ruru-chan got that special fertilizer from Okinawa?"
"That stunk the place up something nasty! And Yui-san had to
force her to clean out her lab!"
"She couldn't work for a week! Hey, Yuko-san, why did I try to kill you, anyway?"
"You didn't, Mimi-san. Mimete tried to kill Eudial."
"Why did we let them?"
"What, try to kill each other?"
"No, possess us."
Arimura-san sighed. "I don't know about you, but I didn't have a choice. Tomoe-sensei strapped me down."
"Woah, kinky."
"Not like that!"
At that point, I realized that my choice of restraints might have been more fortuitous than I thought. Struggle Bind was designed to dissolve illusions along with securing people; without a magical illusion to dissolve, it must have gone to work on the illusions that the women held in their minds. Assuming that that was the case – I could be wrong, and they just needed a couple of hours to do nothing but talk with each other in order to get back to how normal people acted – but if I was right, it was far too close to mind control for my tastes. I resolved to never use that spell again unless I needed to dissolve a magical illusion, just in case.
And if they were acting, well, I could always re-cast the spell. "Ladies, are you hungry?" I asked while using Naru-san's telepathic communicator to send a text to Shario-chan and dismissing the Bind so that they could eat.
"Oh, yes. Thank you, Donarudoson-san."
"Rice and pickles?"
"If you want something fancy, Hanyu-san, you'll have to wait for one of the good cooks to come home." Because there's no way that I'm going to make a proper meal for somebody other than my fiancée, myself, somebody else on the Sailor Team, or Saeko-mama; I'd looked at too many of Rei-san and Bunny-chan's manga to want to invoke the "make dinner for somebody you care about" meme with anyone else.
"Thank you for the food."
"If you don't mind me asking..." I started. Once I had their attention, I continued, "When I left, you were at each other's throats. Now, you're bosom buddies. What changed?"
Arimura-san smiled. "After the first hour or so, we started reminiscing about the days before we were forced to become Death Busters."
"And that got us remembering what it was like to be friends, or at least co-workers as school prefects," Hanyu-san added. "So we really don't have any reason to fight any more. Although I still think you're a bitch sometimes, Yuko-san." That last, she said with a grin.
"And I think you're a slut sometimes, Mimi-san," Arimura-san replied with a smile of her own.
"Flattery will get you nowhere. Him, on the other hand..."
Time to squelch that idea before somebody says something that I'd have to tell Makoto. "I'm engaged to be married, ladies, and I'm very happy with my fiancée's love. I won't do anything to risk losing her."
Shario-chan chose then to reply to my text. «Meia would know better than I would, but I don't see any microexpressions that hint any of the three of you don't believe what you're saying.»
Yes, of course we had them under constant surveillance.
It was also then that Hanyu-san asked, "Am I a prisoner?"
I had to make the decision right away. "No. But I can't guarantee that Germatoid won't find you if you leave this bubble. Not that I'm assuming the bubble is a perfect defence, either, but it's better than nothing."
"Is there at least a toilet in this bubble?"
"Oh! Yes, it's right beside the showers."
"I'll show you where it is after we finish eating," Arimura-san offered.
"Thanks."
"And I'll get you a futon," I offered.
None of us needed to be back in class until July 31, and that – being a Saturday – would be a half-day even if we weren't just going to pick up our report cards.
So we had a few days to figure out what we were going to do next.
"I don't know about you," Princess Lady announced, "but I know I'm going to visit Hotaru-chan."
"May I accompany you?" asked Meia.
Hayate-chan nodded. "If you want, but I've already carried out a scan." She called up a virtual screen and the two Unison Devices looked at the scan's results.
"There, there, and there," Meia pointed out three items.
"I see. Yes, you'll need to accompany us, and so will Moon, Mercury, and Mars." Then Hayate-chan turned to look at the rest of us. "We can do this, if Moon-sama can reliably access the power of the Grail."
"Do what?" Arimura-san asked.
"What we did for the two of you."
"Er... I've been working so hard on sword fighting that I haven't had time to practice with it."
Hayate-chan looked cross. "Ichiro, Sakura, she needs practice with the Grail right now. There'll be plenty of time to teach her swordplay once Pharaoh 90 has been defeated."
"Yes, ma'am."
We discussed a few other things, then Princess Lady and Hayate-chan headed off, accompanied by Ami and Meia.
"Shouldn't we go with them?" Rei-san asked.
Luna shook her head. "If you showed up as a group, Kaolinite would figure out what's going on right away."
"Yeah, she's not stupid," Hanyu-san agreed. "You could probably fool me that way, but not her."
"At least you admit it," Arimura-san replied with a smile.
Bunny-chan, Ryou, Makoto, Sakura, Ichiro, and I left them to their discussion and headed out of the Hyperspatial Sphere that we were starting to think of as a permanent part of the building. "I'm guessing that Venus and Mimete aren't going to meet and fight over Araki Jinta-san, considering that we left both of the ladies in the Situation Room."
"It's still possible that Araki-san will be targeted, though, nine times out of ten," Ryou replied.
"We'd better be ready for that, then," my dearest said.
We grabbed a quick lunch while we could, assuming that we'd be called out to the TV studio where they were holding the talent search for Araki-san's next leading lady.
Instead, we were called to Juban Daini General Hospital. It looks like Ryou's precognition flubbed its roll for once, and we were skipping episode 114 after all.
Once we arrived at the hospital, Mochizuki-san took us to a waiting room where Ami was... well, waiting. "Hotaru-chan is in x-ray right now. Saeko-sensei is her attending physician."
"Thank you, Ka'o-san," Ami said. "Where is Chibiusa?"
"She's watching the procedure."
Rei-san arrived at this point and asked "What happened?"
"Hotaru-chan collapsed," Ami reported. "Officially, we don't know why."
"And
unofficially?"
"As near as Meia and I could tell, Mistress Nine tried taking control of Hotaru-chan's body."
Bunny-chan stood up, the Cosmic Heart Compact in her hand. "We can't let this go on. Where is the x-ray room?"
"Don't you dare transform inside the hospital!" We all looked at Ami in surprise. "Please, think of the patients."
"Oh, right." The compact went back into Bunny-chan's pocket.
"That doesn't mean we can't ambush her outside the hospital, though," Sakura said.
I sighed. "I'd prefer you don't use the word 'ambush'. We're supposed to be the good guys."
"And look at how far that's gotten us," she pointed out.
"Arimura-san is still alive, and Hanyu-san won't have the plug pulled on her television appearance."
Before she could reply, there was a page over the hospital's intercom. "Nurse Mochizuki, your patient is ready to return to her room."
"I have to go," she said.
"And Ryou and I should go wait for Hotaru-chan in her room," I added. She told us where it was.
We didn't wait for very long; Hotaru-chan was wheeled in a moment after we arrived. Mochizuki-san transferred Hotaru-chan from the gurney to her bed, and then we waited for her to wake up. Which she did a moment later.
"Where am I?" she asked.
"You're in the hospital," Princess Lady replied, "You collapsed."
"Hospital?" She sat up, discovering she was still clothed. "Papa says I'm not supposed to let doctors look at me, ever. I should go."
"While we cannot keep you here against your will," Mochizuki-san said, "it would be a good idea to let us make sure you're sufficiently well to leave."
"No, I'm leaving now," insisted Hotaru-chan as she got out of bed.
"Here are your shoes," I said, "although I think you're making a mistake."
Then the intercom sounded three notes in a pattern I'd never heard before. "You'll have to leave through a side door," Mochizuki-san announced. "That's the alert that the front door is blocked by someone outside. Urawa-san, would you escort her, please?"
Ryou nodded. "Of course."
As they headed out, I said, "Chibiusa..." She stopped, not expecting to hear me use her nickname instead of her name. "You and I should check out that blockage, in case it's a danger to Tomoe-chan."
She nodded. "Okay, Robu-niisan!"
As we headed for an elevator, Hayate-chan asked, «Who do you think it is? Telulu, Viluy, Cyprine, or Ptilol?»
«None of the above,» I sent back to the two ladies. «It isn't their style. I'm guessing Kaolinite.»
«Right. I forgot she was back from the dead now.»
«Ew, that's creepy!»
«Sorry, Princess Lady.»
Sure enough, it was Kaolinite, and she'd already uncorked the daimon that she'd brought along. While nobody had had a Pure Heart pulled out of their body, there was some property damage near the hospital's front door.
"Moon Prism Power, Make-Up!" At least she didn't have a naked part to her transformation sequence, but it wasn't instant.
"Mirage Hide!" Mine was instant. Our partners Unisoned with us, and we stepped out of the building.
"Hold it right there! I am the Pretty Guardian Trainee who fights for Love and for Justice! I am Sailor Chibimoon! In the Name of the Future Moon, I'll punish you! Pink Sugar Heart Attack!"
The daimon charged at us, but was pushed back by Chibimoon's attack. It looked like her training was paying off.
"Blocking Wall!" I cried, as I made it impossible for the daimon to simply walk around us.
"Pink Sugar Heart Attack! Pink Sugar Heart Attack!"
Kaolinite laughed. "None of your attacks are doing any damage. Just what do you think you're doing?" she asked with a sneer.
Then we heard shouts from the side of the building.
"Rainbow Moon Heart..."
"Akuryo..."
"Physical..."
"Hyperspatial Sphere Generate!"
Then we didn't hear anything else.
I smiled. "We think we're distracting you."
Chibimooon added, "And it sounds like it worked! Claíomh Solais!"
I ducked as five beams of magical force shot from Chibimoon's hand to the daimon's chest. "Lovely!"
"As for you..." I turned to Kaolinite, only to see her running off.
"Let her go," Chibimoon said with Hayate-chan's voice.
"Yes, ma'am." Instead, we headed to the side of the building, where we saw Hotaru-chan on a gurney, being wheeled into Emergency.
Mercury collapsed into Ryou's arms, who of course was there to catch her. "We did it. Finally."
"Oni, we need to get home quickly, seventeen times out of nineteen."
"Right." Chibimoon, Jupiter, and I grabbed everyone else except for Mochizuki-san and headed into the sky.
By the time we made it back to Maison Lyrique, Mercury was sufficiently rested to stand on her own again. Which was good. "We should tell Ari-"
Kasandara didn't let her finish. "Warning! Emergency! Incoming attack!"
"Hyperspatial Sphere Generate!"
And the entire building was wrapped in a bubble. I added forcefields just in time to catch what made it through the first line of defence.
The attack kept coming for nearly a minute, until Moon transformed to Super Sailor Moon and used the Grail to counterattack. "Rainbow Moon Heartache!"
No, using the power of God offensively was not blasphemous. At least, not according to my reading of Deuteronomy 1:29-30.
After a long moment of quiet, Ami dropped the Hyperspatial Sphere and I dropped my forcefields.
"What just happened?" Hanyu-san asked from right beside me. I was so tired that I hadn't noticed her approach.
"Somebody just used a lot of power that he might not have been able to afford to use," Hayate-chan replied. At this point, I had no idea who was in or out of Unison or Senshi form.
"It was an all-or-nothing attack, and it didn't work," Setsuna-san confirmed. When had she shown up? Before I could ask, I collapsed, exhausted.
I woke up to the most beautiful sight in the world: my fiancée's smiling face.
"I haven't felt this tired since Sailor Moon reset the world and I made sure she didn't reset me or the moon cats in the process. How long have I been out?"
"Three hours. Saeko-mama's home, and she brought Hotaru-chan. As soon as Ami wakes up, we're having a war council." She helped me sit up and brought a bowl of soup over to my lips. "Here, drink this."
"Oh, chicken broth. Thanks."
"With some rice in it. I remember you eating chicken rice soup when you weren't feeling well during the Missing Time."
I put the bowl down, sat up, and gave Makoto a hug. "What good deeds did I do in a previous life to get somebody like you in this one?"
"I'm not that good a person, Rob."
"Yes, you are, Makoto. Don't let your insecurities do your talking. Any guy would be lucky to have a girlfriend who's half as good as you are, and I'm doubly lucky to have you as my fiancée."
She mock-pouted. "You're being unfair, not letting me speak my impure thoughts when I want you to speak yours."
"Oh, I want to say and act on those, but there's that war council you told me about coming up. I have to get out of my bed instead of inviting you into it."
"I know. And we still haven't celebrated your birthday, too."
"And if Princess Lady and Hotaru-chan are here, we shouldn't. Imagine what they'd hear."
She smiled. "They'd hear two people in love, darling."
I returned her smile. "I can't argue with that, my dearest." Then my smile went away. "But the other part's still valid. We just don't have the time right now."
She sighed. "Yeah, you're right. C'mon, let's get you dressed."
Two hours later, after Ami and I had eaten lunch, we started our war council. Of course Hayate-chan was in charge.
"Mamoru, what did you see outside?"
"This house is intact, as are most of the houses around it. The Tanaka residence needs a new exterior wall and a few replacement trees. Ami's quick thinking prevented a massive tragedy."
"Ryou...?"
"We can easily afford to fund those repairs."
"Thank you, both of you. Meia, what do you have to report?"
"First, Miharu-chan and her mother were in their yard and were injured by a falling tree. They'll both recover. However, I needed to give Tanaka-san magical healing to keep her alive, so they're now both aware of who and what I am. On the logic that it won't do any further damage to our secrets, Artemis is talking with both of them right now."
Well, at least nobody died in that attack.
"Second, Chacornac still can't scan inside of Mugen Academy, but we can scan all the way up to the building itself now. We aren't picking up unusual energy readings of any type."
Arimura-san spoke up. "If I had access to the necessary parts, I could build some scanners that we could plant inside the building."
Hayate-chan nodded. "Work with Shario-chan and Naru on that, please."
Minako asked, "What made you decide to actually work with us?"
"My last boss just tried to kill me. Granted, he might not have known I was here, but he had reason to think that his daughter was."
"I got here at the same time as Mizuno-sensei," Hotaru-chan pointed out.
Arimura-san ignored her. "All of you have shown me nothing but kindness, and you've saved my life twice now."
"I wish there was something we could do to help you," Hanyu-san added.
Hayate-chan smiled that smile I only saw on her personality donor's face in the anime, whenever she had a wonderfully devious idea. "Oh, you can help, and all you'll need to do is tell the truth, but Tomoe-chan will have to agree to help as well."
Hotaru-chan looked up, surprised. "Help with what?" At that point, I noticed that she was wearing a loose blouse and knee-length skirt instead of her usual leotard-and-short-skirt outfit.
"It will involve telling a journalist about your body."
"But my broken rib came from the CPR treatment," she said. Which explained why she wasn't wearing tight clothing; she probably had a cast under her blouse.
Hayate-chan shook her head. "Not that. I'm talking about the experiments that your father performed."
"Experiments?"
"Hotaru-chan," Saeko-mama said, "nobody else that I'm aware of has the cybernetic implants that show up on your x-rays. You have been experimented on, whether you knew it or not."
"Oh."
I asked, "Did you tell your father that it was okay for him to add those implants to your body?"
"No, he never asked me that." Then a look of comprehension appeared on Hotaru-chan's face. "And people need to know about that, don't they? Yes, I'll help."
Hanyu-san said, "So will I, although there's a big difference between being possessed by a daimon and what happened to Tomoe-san."
Arimura-san added, "I still have a scar from where the daimon was implanted in my body."
Hayate-chan replied, "Thank you all for agreeing to do this. Tsukino-san, can you find us a journalist?"
"My father can."
"This is all well and good," Tenou-san said, "but why are we talking about it during a war council?
Sakura shook her head in disbelief. "Haven't you ever heard of
psyops?"
Before Tenou-san could answer, Ichigo-san said, "I don't know that word, either. What's it mean?"
"It's short for 'psychological operations'," Hayate-chan answered. "Essentially, it's using propaganda to demoralize or destabilize an enemy."
Kaioh-san said, "I can see how that would be useful, but how does this destabilize the Death Busters?"
"Twenty-three times out of twenty-five," Ryou said, "it will reduce the cash flow to Mugen Academy and thus cut off resources to our foes."
"How?" Ichigo-san asked.
"I thought that was obvious," Minako replied. "If the school's headmaster can do this to his own daughter and two of the school's prefects, what's stopping him from doing it to the other students? Anybody who has children enrolled at Mugen is going to seriously think about sending them elsewhere instead."
"Which means Mugen Academy will have less tuition money coming in," Tenou-san added in realization. "Clever."
Usagi said, "It also means there will be fewer innocent bystanders in the building when we're ready to take the battle to our enemies."
Rei-san pointed out, "If we act during the Bon holiday, there shouldn't be any bystanders in the building at all."
"It doesn't hurt to give them another reason to stay away," Ichiro said.
"Speaking of taking the battle to Germatoid, how many Fire Busters do you want me to build for you?"
"We need those sensors first, Arimura-san," Hayate-chan replied.
Since Bunny-chan could defend Hotaru-chan on her own, they went home together, along with Princess Lady and Hayate-chan.
I'll say this for Tsukino Kenji-san: he works fast. He had a reporter lined up and ready to interview Hotaru-chan the next day. I got there early and took some photos of Hotaru-chan to run with the interview.
The reporter was somebody whose name I knew but hadn't met before: Jinguuji Minkao-san. She was younger than I expected, in her mid-to-late 20s, and about an inch shorter than Makoto. Her strawberry-blonde hair and blue eyes made me wonder whether she had any European ancestry, but then wasn't the time to ask.
"It's an honour to finally meet you, Jinguuji-san," I said after we introduced ourselves to each other. I had stayed behind in case Kenji-san needed more photos. "I read your interview with Mizuno Ami-san."
"Thanks," she said quietly... which didn't fill me with confidence. "And I saw your photos of Asuka Chieri. Nice work."
"Thank you."
"Shouldn't you have a notepad?" Bunny-chan asked.
"It's in my bag. I'm planning to put Tomoe-san at ease before I pull it out and start the formal interview."
"If you don't mind me saying so, you sound like you'd rather be doing something other than this interview."
"Tsukino-san, I'll be honest with you. I keep working for your father because he pays on time and in full, and that's important in the current economic climate."
"But you'd rather be working on something else," I guessed.
She nodded. "I'm sure you know what it's like, Donarudoson-san. We both need to take photos or write stories that pay the bills. I'd rather be chasing a big story, not interviewing the 12-year-old daughter of a school headmaster and probably writing another puff piece."
Bunny-chan and I smiled as Hotaru-san walked into the living room. "Oh, I don't think you'll have any complaints about today's story," Bunny-chan commented.
"Hello. My name is Tomoe Hotaru, and my father performed medical experiments on me without my consent."
Jinguuji-san immediately got out her notepad. "Hello, I'm Jinguuji Minkao. Please tell me more," she said with obvious interest.
Bunny-chan and I got out of her way. Once we were in the hallway, she said, "I'll ask papa to publish the interview as soon as Jinguuji-san submits it."
I was called in halfway through the interview to get a candid shot of Hotaru-chan. The poor girl was crying, genuinely sad... and, for our purposes, that's the picture that we
needed to run beside the story. I hated myself as I took it, but it had to be done.
An hour later, Jinguuji-san walked out of the Tsukinos' living room, closing her notebook. "It's a great story. It's a fantastic story. But I don't know whether I can use it."
"Why not?" Bunny-chan asked in dismay.
"I only have her word for any of it."
I smiled. "So you
could use the story if you had something to corroborate her account? We have written authorization from her to show you her medical records, and I know that two of Mugen Academy's prefects have stories similar to Tomoe-chan's."
The alternate reading of Minkao's given name 明顔, "bright face", made itself known as her smile lit up the room. "If you can show me x-rays and set up interviews with those prefects, and they do have stories like Tomoe-chan's, then I can write this story. Now, why do the two of you want so badly for me to write it?"
She's a smart woman. So we told her a truth that we'd discussed during our war council: people needed to know.
An hour and a half later, Jinguuji-san was interviewing Hanyu-san, Saeko-mama was pulling Hotaru-chan's x-rays for the journalist's inspection, and I was apologizing to Hotaru-chan for putting her through what we had done.
The morning after the interview ran, NHK sent a team to interview Hotaru-chan. TBS sent
Toyohiro Akiyama to interview her that afternoon, which made us wonder whether they thought this was an important story or a media sensation. All-Nippon News Network, Mega TON, and Fuji TV sent teams the next day.
Thankfully, Kenji-san took some of the interviews. Since he was the editor of the magazine that broke the story, he could justify taking Hotaru-chan's place on-camera.
Tomoe Souichi-san refused to give interviews, which was a boon for us. Even TBS and NHK started asking what he was trying to hide. Of course, at that time nobody would believe the truth: that he was hiding an alien invasion.
Hotaru-chan moved from the Tsukino residence to Rei-san's shrine in order to get away from the media crowds. Bunny-chan spent a lot of time at the shrine in order to protect her; the extra training she received as a miko was in her view a bonus in learning how to be serene.
Ryou suggested that it might be a good idea for me to develop a Faraday cage forcefield. Unfortunately, that was one power trick that I couldn't pull off, so Arimura-san and Shario-chan put together a few physical cages that were just big enough to hold a Unison Device and a communicator.
Then another file on my 2022 laptop decrypted itself and sent itself to Ami's computer. I wondered what new spell Ami was about to need.
There was word that a noticeable minority of Mugen Academy's student body were taking academic transcripts home with their report cards at the end of the month, at their parents' insistence. Tenou-san and Kaioh-san managed to sneak a few scanners into the building while they picked up their report cards and transcripts.
And, at the end of the month, after the family's end-of-term sukiyaki party, Makoto and I
finally celebrated my birthday.
My dearest brought home a new plant during the first week of August. Apparently these "Telluns" didn't need water or light.
Of course they didn't. They fed on life energy and collected Pure Hearts. And Telulu needed a better naming sense for her plants.
Setsuna-san, Princess Lady, Hayate-chan, and Ami got together to carry out a few experiments on a Tellun while I stood by to protect the ladies.
They started with Ami casting a Physical Heal spell on it.
The Tellun absorbed the life energy, grew larger, and shot crimson energy bands toward Ami.
Setsuna and I stopped the attack, the Garnet Orb embedding itself in my forcefield and absorbing the energy that my forcefield blocked.
"I didn't know you could do that," I said to Setsuna-san.
"Neither did I." At the time, I thought nothing of the fact that Sailor Pluto didn't know something about her and my powers.
Hayate-chan ignored our byplay. "Claíomh Solais!"
And that attack made the Tellun grow even larger. Out of learned reflex, I boxed it in multiple forcefields... but left a gap so we could still attack it.
"Mistilteinn!"
That finally killed the Tellun, by petrifying it. It nearly killed Hayate-chan, too, being a Rank AAA+ spell. Unison Devices should
not let the magic smoke out, even if it looked to be just a bit from her right arm.
Ami went to get Shario-chan and Meia. Princess Lady ran off to go find Mako-chan. I frowned at Hayate-chan. "Are you
trying to kill yourself? You're only a Rank B mage now; what were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that my partner and her friends were about to die."
"Ah. Thank you for protecting us. One question: What would Princess Lady think if you died protecting her?"
"She wouldn't think I was dead..." Hayate-chan started.
"Oh, yes, she would. She thought I was dead when I protected Sailor Pluto from her attack as Dark Lady." Then I chuckled. "You nearly died while we were living out the
Sailor Moon R story, and now you've nearly died while we're living out the
Sailor Moon S story. Do it again during the
Sailor Moon SuperS story and I'll have to invent TV Tropes early just to add you as an example of 'Once a Season'."
"Don't do that, Rob. It'll ruin your life." More seriously, she added, "I'm sorry for worrying you."
At this point, Ami returned, and Meia and Shario-chan started giving Hayate-chan a full physical examination.
A minute or so later, Princess Lady and Makoto came back. "Before you ask, of course I remember where I bought the plant," my dearest said.
"Then what are we waiting for?"
"Who, not what," Setsuna-replied to Princess Lady. "Without Hayate-chan to help, we'll need the power of the Grail to defeat these plants."
My fiancée didn't look happy to hear that.
"She's right," Shario-chan added. "Hayate-chan isn't going anywhere for at least the next three weeks, let alone flying or doing any magic. It'll take Naru-san at least that long to hand-craft the replacement parts we need."
"And with any luck," I added, "by then we'll have had our big fight with Pharaoh 90."
After a short moment, my dearest asked, "Has anybody actually called Usagi?"
After a shorter moment, we all reached for our communicators. Ami was first to make the call.
A half-hour later, Bunny-chan, Setsuna-san, Ami, Meia, Makoto, Sakura, Ichiro, and I were at the store. I had trouble believing anybody could be naïve enough to buy a Tellun. Ten yen per plant? That price was insane. Mind you, by our definition of sanity, so were the Death Busters.
We waited until there weren't any customers in the store before we walked in, passing three people who were leaving with Telluns of their own.
"Hello! Are you here for a Tellun?" Telulu looked up. "Oh. Took you long enough to find me. I thought you were smart."
"We aren't all here," Bunny-chan replied... just before the metal shutters closed over the shop's windows and doors.
"That just makes it easier for me. Telluns! Attack!"
We heard screams from outside the shop. Three screams. "You..." Bunny-chan started.
Telulu grinned smugly as Pure Hearts flew toward her, three at first, then dozens more. "I needed their life force to fight you five. And I've sold
hundreds of Telluns."
"You fiend! You're killing them all!"
"So what? It's not
my life. Telluns! Attack! Attack! Attack!"
The plants that remained in the shop started growing as the Pure Hearts started dimming. Then the Telluns started shooting energy blasts at us.
"Not today," Setsuna-san said as she and I protected the others the same way that we'd protected them earlier in the day.
"Jupiter Oak Evolution! Jupiter Coconut Cyclone!" My fiancée's accuracy was better than usual because I formed forcefield waveguides for her attacks to follow.
"Frigid Dagger, Genocide Shift!" Mercury and Sakura shouted that together, producing... well, Unlimited Dagger Works.
"Moon Healing Escalation!" That was aimed at the Pure Hearts, not the plants, and Moon was using the Grail to boost the spell... and I saw that it was necessary. Some of the Pure Hearts were so dim that I was afraid they were about to die, taking their owners with them.
"Physical Heal!" Meia cast
that on Moon.
"Damn you, Sailor Team! Telluns! Combine!" That's when I noticed that most of the plants were dead. But there were enough to form a Hyper-Tellun larger than the one in canon. "Attack Sailor Moon!"
"Blutiges Schwert!" That was one of Ichiro's spells; much like the AAA-rank "Blutiger Dolch", it created a blade that the caster shot at the target. Unlike the Bloody Dagger, the Bloody Sword was a single projectile with no homing capability and thus within the capability of a Rank B mage.
He hit Telulu's hand with the blade.
«Every time she gave an order, magical energy flowed through her hand,» he explained as the Hyper-Tellun turned on Telulu.
"Stop! I am your creator! I order you to obey me! Aaaaahhh!" She said the last as the plant swallowed her whole, Audrey-style.
None of us could do anything... except for Sailor Moon, who was merely watching the plant kill the Witch.
I dropped my forcefields and turned to Usagi. "Moon! What are you waiting for?"
"She was willing to kill hundreds of people just to attack us. In the Name of the Moon, she must not be allowed to live."
Blast it! She'd learned the wrong lesson from us! "Even if you as Neo-Queen Serenity had sentenced her to death for attempted mass murder,
which you don't have the authority to do yet, there's such a thing as cruel and unusual punishment! And that's what Telulu is going through right now!"
"Hang on," Sakura said. "She's the most cruel of the Death Busters. She should get back some of what she tried to dish out."
"Does that give us the right to lower ourselves to her level and ignore Love and Justice altogether?" Meia asked.
Ichiro added, "And aren't we condemning Teruno Ruru for Telulu's actions?"
That got everybody moving.
"Dead scream." Pluto attacked the plant, causing the woody parts around Telulu to dissolve.
We were too late. She wasn't breathing, and so much of her skin had been dissolved that it was impossible to perform CPR or artificial respiration.
"Moon Spiral Heart Attack!" And that finished off the Hyper-Tellun.
As the Pure Hearts that the Telluns had collected started floating back to their owners, I forced the shop's door open and walked out, saying nothing.
We spent the rest of the first week of August being interrogated by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. Even Superintendent Sakurada couldn't protect us after Telulu's corpse was discovered at the scene. They finally decided that the death was outside of our control and let us go.
Ami spent the time that she wasn't being interrogated calculating coordinates of various locations that we might want to Teleport to.
We spent the first half of the second week of August doing our summer homework. At the same time, Hayate-chan and Ichiro gave us all supplementary lessons on the ethical behaviour of mages. Nobody brought up the fact that Hayate-chan's right arm was still in a sling.
No, we're not supposed to take the law into our own hands... and by the time the lessons were finished, even Tenou-san and Kaioh-san appeared to agree with that. More importantly, so did Bunny-chan, and she apologized to the rest of us for her inaction.
Makoto and I spent the second half of the second week of August in Fujioka, for obvious reasons. Unfortunately, her grandmother still refused to acknowledge her existence. We brought along what little homework we hadn't already finished. Sakura and Ichiro stayed home this time, so they were able to help the rest of the Sailor Team when Kaolinite launched an attack that didn't match anything in canon. It turned out that Ikuko-san has a Pure Heart, too.
The third week of August, Ami was invited to a practice entrance exam being given by Bidou Yui at Mugen Academy, and asked to bring friends along.
Yes, of course it was a trap. While any private school would be lucky to have Ami as a student, there was no way that they would let her bring her friends to a practice exam. And the leaders of this particular school knew full well that we knew they had attacked Ami's house recently.
Yes, of course we went. And by "we" I mean Ami, Makoto, Ryou, Bunny-chan, and I, along with our Devices; everyone else stayed behind in reserve, just in case. As far as we knew from debriefing Arimura-san and Hanyu-san, three... or six... of us still had an ace in the hole. But before we left, Ami took Ichiro, Sakura, Meia, and Kasandara aside and taught them a new spell, then told the rest of us to put our communicators into the shielded containers that Naru-san and Shario-chan had made for us.
Sakura and Ichiro went in in Unison with Makoto and me. Meia rode in Bunny-chan's pocket. Ryou insisted.
Yes, of course there was no practice exam. Instead, Viluy still showed off the science club's homemade pocket universe. To all of us, not just to Ami the way she did in canon. They kept it in a comfortable little room with a sofa, which Bunny-chan immediately sat down on.
"This is what you can accomplish with pure logic, Mizuno-san. We can teach you how to do this if you'll join us. And you might be able to learn how as well, Donarudoson-san."
"I'll admit that it's the only way to make an apple pie from scratch, as Carl Sagan pointed out back in 1980," I replied. "But what else is it good for? It's
too logical; there's no emotion to it."
"You won't even miss emotions. The methods of rationality are all that truly intelligent people need."
Ami shook her head sadly. "You've missed the whole point to emotions. They draw us together and let us aspire to do things that no one of us could do alone."
"They give us the security of knowing that we won't be betrayed by our friends," Makoto added.
"They give us a reason to live, instead of just existing," Bunny-chan said.
Ryou finished with, "And they give us the strength to face the future," which surprised me.
"None of those matter," Viluy insisted.
"Changing the subject slightly," I said, "have you and the other Death Busters ever asked yourselves whether you're the villains here?"
"Of course not. We are working to bring about the Silence, in which humanity will exist peacefully in order to serve Pharaoh 90 as undying daimon hosts, setting aside irrational desires to do anything else. And we are the first of those hosts. While it would have been easier if you cooperated, you
will join us. What could be better?"
Ami replied. "Creativity."
Ryou added, "Change."
My fiancée said, "Progress."
And Bunny-chan finished with, "Love."
I nodded in agreement. "
Those are better that what you plan for the people of Earth. Save your daimon eggs; we have no intention of being assimilated," I replied. "Besides, you're nowhere as frightening as the Borg."
That actually puzzled her. "The who?"
"What, you don't know anything about popular culture? No, of course you don't, that's an emotional desire. Anyway, they've been on TV for a few years now."
"I'll let you tell me about them once you're one of us." Viluy raised her arm and a device strapped to her forearm started glowing. "Mosaic Buster!"
I threw a sofa cushion into the path of the attack, and Viluy's nanites destroyed it.
"Frigid Dagger!" Ami's attack cracked the shell of Viluy's gadget.
Makoto looked at her in horror. "You... Ami, you've condemned her to death by her own tools, just like Telulu!"
Viluy simply said, "I appear to have miscalculated," as her nanotechnology destroyed her arm. "I regret nothing."
I heard rather than saw shutters fall to isolate the room and everyone in it.
"I know what I've done, Jupiter. Midchildans, now!"
"Faradayscher Schild!" Sakura, Meia, Ichiro, and Kasandara cast in unison, forming bubbles around themselves and us, except for Ami. Meia protected Bunny-chan. Then Ami destroyed the bubbles by casting "Elektromagnetischer Puls!"
Well, that's one way to disable nanites. And now I knew what Ami's new spells were. All I said was, "So that's why we needed the Faraday cages."
"Rainbow Moon Heartache!"
And Viluy fell over, saying somewhat sardonically rather than shouting, "Lovely."
Meia flew over to Bidou-san. "Physical Heal!" It was too late to save her forearm, but at least Meia prevented any bleeding when Ami started CPR.
I took a look around, noticing that the homemade universe was still intact. "Heh. Looks like they created the Roundworld Project six years early."
"The what?" asked Moon.
Before I could say anything, Ryou said, "No time to explain! We leave now!"
And Ami was busy. It was up to Ichiro and me to cast the spell. "Teleport!"
Moving so many people with so little preparation, we could barely manage to reach the closest location for which we had coordinates: Mugen Academy's front door. But that was where our reinforcements were waiting.
"What happened?" Rei-san asked.
"Pretty much what happened in canon, except that we saved Bidou-san. But I can't be certain that Viluy was destroyed."
"Why not?"
"You weren't there to make sure we got the daimon."
She immediately slapped an ofuda on Bidou-san's forehead. Nothing happened, other than the paper falling off her and Ami glaring at Rei-san for almost interrupting the CPR. "It looks like you got her."
At this point, Bidou-san showed signs of life. Ami rolled her onto her side as she woke up. "Ow, my head and chest hurt. And I can't feel my arm. Why can't I feel my arm?! Oh, gods, no, it's gone!"
"At least you're still alive," Minako pointed out.
"Yes, I'm still alive." And Bidou-san grinned. "I'm still alive! And I'm happy about that! I'm
happy!"
Kaioh-san stared at her in disbelief. "You just lost an arm, and you're happy?"
"I haven't felt
any emotions since midway through the Missing Time! Yes, I'm happy!" A quick moment later, her grin disappeared as she added, "And now I'm scared of being happy. What's happening to me?"
Bunny-chan knelt down and took Bidou-san's remaining hand in both of her own. "I can't imagine what it's like to feel no emotions. But now you're feeling years' worth, all at once. Aren't you?"
"I... I think so. And this is the first time in years that I've been unsure, too. I think I want to change my answer to your question, Oni."
"As heartwarming as this is," Tenou-san said, "can we afford to stay here?"
"No," Ryou replied.
Kasandara added, "Seven times in eight, we are targets within three minutes if we stay."
Rei-san asked, "Can you get her to the hospital?" As Tenou-san nodded and moved to pick up Bidou-san, Rei-san added, "Do it. We'll meet you back at the maison."
Saeko-mama didn't come home that evening. It was at times like these that I wondered whether she was the only doctor at Juban Daini General Hospital.
Nor did Bidou-san join us. Arimura-san and Hanyu-san didn't take the news of how she'd been freed from possession well.
"Braniac's lost her arm?"
"Mimi-san, now's not the right time to use your nickname for her."
"Yeah, sorry, Yuko-san." Hanyu-san turned back to Ami. "You couldn't have disarmed Yui-san without literally disarming her? And you call yourself a doctor?"
"She's still in training," Arimura-san mentioned. "But Mimi-san has a point. Nobody's going to want to marry somebody who isn't whole."
I'd forgotten how much value some Japanese put on their bodies.
Naru-san answered, "Nobody needs to know. It might take a week or two, but Shario-chan and I can build an arm for her. It'll be a lot easier than fiddling with tiny replacement parts to repair Hayate-chan's arm. I'll get on it tomorrow morning."
"No, you won't," Hayate-chan told her. "We finally have both the skills and the initiative to finish this. Makoto, Sakura, it's time for us to carry out that asymmetric plot escalation you've wanted since Rei and Ryou had their Pure Hearts extracted."
Sakura grinned. "Finally!"
"Does that include us?" Arimura-san asked.
"Have you built any Fire Busters?" asked Minako in reply.
"I have two ready to go."
Hayate-chan nodded. "In that case, you, Hanyu-san, Mercury, and Meia are Team A. Your target is Kaolinite. Oni, Ichiro, Jupiter, and Sakura, you're Team B, and your targets are Cyprine and Ptilol."
"Or, as Wendi might call them, Simpering and Petite-Lol," Makoto said with a grin.
Hanyu-san grinned in return. "Oh, they'll
hate being called that. I wish I'd thought of those names."
"Ryou, Hotaru, Luna, Artemis, Shario-chan, Ichigo, and I remain here, with Princess Lady protecting us," Hayate-chan continued. "If Saeko-sensei or Bidou-san show up tonight, they stay here as well. Everyone else in the Sailor Team is Team C, and your target is Germatoid. I'm sorry I can't come with you, but with a non-working arm and a non-working Linker Coprocessor, I won't be much good in the fight."
Tenou-san asked, "Should we bring our helicopter? We might need it for aerial reconnaissance if somebody gets out of the academy building."
"Meia, Sakura, Ichiro, and I can all fly under our own power," Ami pointed out.
"But the rest of us can't," Bunny-chan replied.
Before anybody could ask Ryou the odds about bringing the helicopter, I asked, "Rei-san, have you had time to do a fire reading lately?"
She looked surprised, but happy, to have been asked. "I have, and I saw a vision of a winged angel smiting demons from the air."
Ichiro picked up on my intention without being prompted. "Did that angel have blonde hair?"
Rei-san nodded. "Yes, she did look a lot like Sailor Moon, if Sailor Moon had wings."
"And my crisis transformation does give me wings for a moment," Bunny-chan added. Then she turned to Tenou-san. "Bring the helicopter. Rei just said we're going to need it."
"Yes, ma'am."
Hayate-chan nodded. "Ryou, change of plans. You stay with the helicopter. Minako, let your friend on the force know what we're planning. Everybody, take whatever time you need in analyzing the diagrams we have of Mugen Academy, then get some sleep. We attack at dawn, and take no prisoners."
"What? Why not?" I wasn't sure who asked that. Possibly it was more than one of the Team members. It might even have been me.
"Consider how much of our power it takes to free one Death Buster from possession, in near-ideal conditions. We have no way to do that four times in a row while under enemy fire. I'll repeat what I said at the beginning of the Infinity Incident: Incidents are
never easy to end."
"Oh. That's what you meant." Ichigo-san said sadly.
"Yes, Ichigo, that's what I meant. We've always had three mission objectives: defeat Pharaoh 90, free Hotaru from possession, and have Uranus and Neptune agree to work with the rest of the Sailor Team." Kaioh-san and Tenou-san looked surprised at that. "We've accomplished all but the first objective, but that's always been the most important one."
As much as I hated it, I had to trust that our team's only competent strategist knew what she was saying. Saving Hotaru's father and the other Death Busters, as much as I wanted to, simply wasn't possible within the framework of our asymmetric plot escalation, and we couldn't leave them alive behind us.
From the looks on everyone else's faces, including Hayate-chan's, I wasn't the only one who felt that way.
It turned out that only Ami, Makoto, and I were able to sleep at all; everyone else was nervous before deploying. TSAB Ground Combat training was useful in more ways than we expected.
Then it was almost sunrise, and we'd gathered just outside the Mugen Academy grounds, where Meia and Mercury were casting Mental Shield spells on each of us. Then a helicopter landed on the grounds. We headed over to meet it.
"Well, we're here," Uranus said as she and Neptune walked over from their helicopter, the sun beginning to rise behind them. "And this place is surrounded by police cars. Just who does Venus know on the force?"
"The Superintendent-General of the TMPD."
Uranus whistled in respect. "You know the highest-ranking police officer in Japan?"
"Yeah, she wants me to join the force."
"It's good to have friends in high places. So, now what? And what's with the manhole cover?"
"Now, we go in." Moon turned from Uranus to Jupiter. "If you would?"
Jupiter grinned. "Jupiter Supreme..." Mars and Venus tossed the manhole cover into the air as I formed a forcefield waveguide between it and Jupiter. "Railgun!"
And suddenly Mugen Academy didn't have an intact front door shutter any more. Or an intact front door. Or an intact inside vestibule wall.
"A-Team, then B-Team, then C-Team! Move!" Mars shouted.
Mercury took point on her team, her visor displaying the fastest route to where the sensors Uranus and Neptune had planted said Kaolinite was.
Then it was our turn. Ichiro had his own map out. Apparently, our two targets were in the room holding the bottle universe. There was still a section of basement close to that that we couldn't scan.
C-Team followed us as far as the first stairwell, then followed Kasandara's directions and headed up while we headed down. I never expected Mars to use a Device at all, but Hayate-chan did say "everybody else". And it never fails to amaze me how fast she can run in high heels.
It didn't take us long to get to Viluy's old lab, where we were met by a blue-haired girl. "I'm disappointed that your leader only sent the four of you against me."
My fiancée grinned. "Oh, hi, Simpering! Where's your sister, Petite-Lol?"
"That's Cyprine!"
"And Ptilol!" said the redhead standing behind her, giving away their advantage in a fit of pique. There's lots of redheads in this reality.
"No, I think Jupiter had it right," Sakura taunted them a second time. "L.O.L.," she added with a smile.
"You..."
"Yeah, me!"
Cyprine cast, "Charm Buster!"
We let the mind magic bounce off our Mental Shields.
"Flower Hurricane!"
Ptilol deflected Jupiter's attack. "You know who we are! You know you can't defeat us, because we fight as one!"
"No, you don't," Sakura replied. "You fight side-by-side. Unison!"
And I protected the ladies while they became a single more-powerful fighter.
"What
is that?!"
I could see the electricity in Jupiter's hair.
"We fight as one! Unison Flower Hurricane!"
Ptilol couldn't deflect all of that attack. It hit both her and Cyprine as the latter was readying another spell.
"Ichiro! Unison!"
"Yes, sir!"
"Coconut Cyclone!" It was my fiancée's turn to protect us.
Then the four of us shouted, "We fight as one and side by side!"
Ichiro drew two forcefield blades as I created a forcefield shield, and we leapt at Ptilol. She had no idea how to use her staff as anything other than a spell focus, so it didn't take us long to kill her.
Jupiter drew Donguri-no-ken while Sakura charged the blade. "Thunder Smasher!" Cyprine didn't last any longer than her sister.
I picked up Ptilol's staff – Cyprine's was completely destroyed – and Ichiro cast, "Sealing!" Not for a battle trophy, but so that Meia and Hayate-chan could examine and possibly duplicate it at their convenience.
I turned to my dearest. "How long have you two known one of Captain Harlaown's signature spells?"
"Since I got it from her two weeks ago," Sakura replied. "She sent it over in case we needed it against the Death Busters. Haven't you read your emails from Midchilda lately?"
"I've been busy. What else did she send us?" I asked while we headed through the door. Not the doorway, the door. Or what was left of it.
"Arc Saber, Jet Zanber, Photon Lancer, and Scythe Slash. And Captain Takamachi sent us Bind Break, Divine Shooter, and Lightning Protection."
"I wish I had that last one when we went up against the DD Girls," Jupiter added as a daimon leapt out at us.
She drew Donguri-no-ken and slashed in a single motion.
As she returned the wakizashi to its saya, both halves of the daimon landed on the floor before dissolving into smoke.
"Once again, I have cut a worthless object."
"You lead a hard life, Goemon," I replied with a smile. Then, in all seriousness, I added, "We'd better be ready for more of them."
We only had to cut down three more daimons – we took turns – before reaching the front door, where Team A was waiting for us.
"Kaolinite?" asked Ichiro.
"She's starring in a Kenneth Branagh movie," replied Meia. Seeing everyone else's looks of puzzlement, she added, "Dead again."
So that's how everyone else feels when I make pop-culture references. And I should have known that one, since it was released in 1991.
"Cyprine and Ptilol?" asked Arimura-san.
"Also dead," I replied. She wasn't happy about that.
"Where's C-Team?" asked Sakura just before we felt the building start to shake.
Then we heard Moon yelling at the top of her lungs. "RUUUUUNN!!!"
"Toward or away from them?" Jupiter asked.
"Arimura-san, Hanyu-san, you run away." Mercury turned to us. "Jupiter, Oni..."
"We go flying to their side."
"Literally."
So we did.
We got to the third floor before we passed Senshi going the other way. Mars saw us. "Why are you here? Run!"
Instead, Meia sent, «Mars! Report!»
"Yes, ma'am! Germatoid is dead, but he had a deadman switch. Every daimon egg in the building hatched!"
«Any casualties on our side?»
"Okuni's still in there! Moon's gone to rescue her!"
I asked, "Ichiro, does she still have the telepathic communicator she made?"
«I believe so, sir.»
Then Mercury asked, "Meia, can you track it?"
«I'm already tracking it. Sending the coordinates now.» I saw the numbers show up on Mercury's visor.
"Ichiro...?"
«I can guide us in.»
Mercury turned to Mars. "Rei, get everybody else out of here, link up with Ryou, and stay ready for hostiles. Don't let even one daimon get off the school grounds. B-Team, Meia, and I have a rescue to carry out."
"You heard her, everyone! Move!"
We left them behind. I put up a wedge-shaped forcefield in front of us.
It didn't take us long to find the daimons.
"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"
"Mercury Aqua Rhapsody!"
Sakura cast, "Photon Lancer!"
Ichiro followed with, "Divine Shooter!"
We took out the closest of the mob, barely making a dent in their numbers.
"There's too many of them!" Meia said. "Punch through them!"
«Ichiro, I need a blade in front of us. Horizontal, and sharpen it on silk!»
He'd read that Discworld book, too. One sword manifested in front of my forcefield, slicing air molecules and daimons as we flew through them.
Then I stopped, because we'd reached an open patch of hallway.
"Dissolve the sword now!"
He did, just before Moon walked backward into where it was. She was trying to fight off the daimons with her hands full, the Grail in one and Okuni in the other. Naru-san was in bad shape.
I dropped the forcefield between us and them, and Ami flew to Naru-san's side. "Physical Heal!"
"Ami! Get them in here, then stabilize her!"
"Jupiter Coconut Cyclone!" I set up an inverse waveguide so the ball lightning would hit everything
except Moon, Mercury, and Okuni. That was another thing I knew how to do without knowing how I knew it, but it wasn't the time to wonder about that.
Meia grabbed Moon and pulled her into my forcefield bubble. Mercury followed with Okuni right after that. I re-sealed the bubble.
Ami grabbed my arm, stopping me from turning around to leave. "Flying will take too long. Meia, go into Life Support Mode with Naru."
"Done!"
"Rob, drop your shield! Tele..."
"It's down!"
"...port!"
And we were outside.
"Crescent Beam Saber!" Venus took the head off of a daimon that had hitched a ride with us.
"Thanks," I said as I formed a forcefield gurney under Okuni. "Let's get her out of the line of fire."
"Meia, go with them! Mars, Venus, Jupiter, with me! Hyperspatial Barrier Generate!"
"That's new," Mars said as Mercury wrapped the entire tower in a barrier.
"I just made it up! And I need help maintaining it! Moon, Oni, it's only a tube, I'm too tired to cap it!"
Moon started giving orders. "Senshi of the Four Guardian Deities, buttress the barrier! Oni, Senshi of the Outer Planets, get me into the air!"
Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto headed for the helicopter. I ran beside them. "Pluto, promise me you won't use your forbidden power."
"But..."
"Promise me! I'll handle defence!"
Of all the reactions she could have shown, a smile was the last one I expected. "I promise. And thank you for saving my life again."
So she knew as well as I did what she'd done in canon, and what it had cost her. "You're welcome. Now go on; Neo-Queen Serenity's waiting."
They took to the air, I followed them, and we copied Cyprine and Ptilol's tactics: Super Sailor Moon attacked and I defended. Afterwards, I found out that Neptune and Pluto shared their energy with Moon to make the attack even more powerful.
"Rainbow Moon Heartache!"
The sky lit up with a rainbow pounding down onto Mugen Academy. I was barely on the edge of it, and I could see, hear, feel, smell, and taste the thing.
If we survived meeting Galaxia, I had to remember to tell the Skittles people that their candy tastes nothing like a rainbow. And with thinking that silliness, I knew I was getting tired. But I held out, continuing to block the daimons' counterattacks. I told Setsuna-san that I would, after all, and I don't break my promises. «Ichiro, just in case...»
«Entering Life Support Mode. We are now able to survive a fall from this height.»
«Thanks. Let Makoto know, will you?»
I could sense his smile. «Of course, sir.»
And then it was all over except for the cleanup.
As I touched down beside the ruins of the Mugen Academy building and collapsed into my fiancée's arms, I wondered why the events of the
Sailor Moon S movie hadn't taken place yet.
Next chapter: Dreams, on ice
Original text and original characters are copyright © 2022-2024 by Rob Kelk. "Rob Donaldson", "Ichigo Aoyama", "Meia", "Sakura", "Ichiro", "Elmira Bogdanova", "Sakamoto Kazuya", "Matsudaira Hanzō", "Ueno Daisuke", "Yamaguchi Toshiaki", "Emerald Pair", 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. "Minkao Jinguuji" and any representations thereof are copyright by and a jointly-held trademark of Brent Laabs, Rob Kelk, Robert M. Schroeck, "DartzIRL", and Heather K. Please contact Rob Kelk if you want to use Ichigo Aoyama, Sakamoto Kazuya, Matsudaira Hanzō, Yamaguchi Toshiaki, Ueno Daisuke, or Elmira Bogdanova 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.
"Atelier Lucent" is an original element based on
Sailor Moon. It should not be confused with the real-world "Lucent Atelier" in the USA or "Atelier Lucente" in Italy. The author makes Atelier Lucent available to anyone who might need a name for Sailor Pluto's clothing studio.
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
Goldfinger, copyright © 1959 by Ian Fleming, is used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Lyrics from "
If I Had $1000000", by Barenaked Ladies, written by Steven Page and Ed Robertson, copyright © 1992 by Reprise 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
All That Jazz, copyright © 1979 by Robert Alan Aurthur, Bob Fosse, 20th Century Fox, and Columbia Pictures; or from
The Big O, copyright © 1999-2001 by Hitoshi Ariga, Kodansha, and their licencees; or from
Beetlejuice, copyright © 1988 by Michael McDowell, Warren Skaaren, Tim Burton, and The Geffen Company; or from a large number of other possible sources, is used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Lyrics from "
You Give Love a Bad Name", by Bon Jovi, from the album
Slippery When Wet, written by Jon Bon Jovi, Richie Sambora, and Desmond Child, copyright © 1986 by Mercury Records, are 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 "
(Wish I Could Fly Like) Superman", by The Kinks, from the album
Low Budget, written by Ray Davies, copyright © 1978 by Arista Records, are used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Lyrics from "
Crazy Train", by Ozzy Osbourne,from the album
Blizzard of Ozz, written by Bob Daisley, Ozzy Osbourne, and Randy Rhoads, copyright © 1980 by Jet Records, are adapted and used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quote from
The Order of the Stick instalment
"No Chance", copyright © 2021 by Rich Burlew, loosely translated through Google Translate, is used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quote from
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, copyright © 1964 by Stanley Kubrick, Peter George, Terry Southern, and Columbia 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
"the LunchCounter", copyright by "Kenjiro Cross" (Robert Haynie), is used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quote from "
To a Mouse", by Robert Burns, is in the public domain.
Quote from
Pocket Monsters Green and
Pokémon Red, copyright © 1996 by Game Freak and Nintendo, is misquoted and used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
The "Rigatean Three-Step" and the "Alzutian Paduana" are extremely loosely based on elements from
Lyrical Nanoha. Rob Kelk makes them available for use in any fan work that includes other elements from
Lyrical Nanoha.
Lyrics from "
Ring of Fire", performed by Johnny Cash, written by June Carter and Merle Kilgore, copyright © 1963 by Columbia Nashville, are adapted and used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quote from
Firefly, episode "Safe", copyright © 2002 by Mutant Enemy Productions and 20th Century Fox Television, is misquoted and used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quote from
Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann, copyright © 2007 by Kazuki Nakashima, Gainax, and their licensees, 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 title of
Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, copyright © 2010-2015 by "Less Wrong" (Eliezer Yudkowsky), is used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quote from
Monty Python and the Holy Grail, by Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Eric Idle, Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin, © 1975 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
Lupin III: The Castle of Cagliostro, copyright © 1979 by Tokyo Movie Shinsha and Toho, is used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Quote from
Reaper Man, copyright © 1991 by Terry Pratchett, 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.
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