It was all over except for the cleanup. I just didn't realize how much cleanup – physically, mentally, emotionally, and legally – that the members of the Sailor Team had to do.
Isekai by Moonlight
Chapter S++
"I'm sorry that I'm late for lunch. We all have to see this."
Ami turned on the TV and switched channels to show a live aerial video of the wreckage of Mugen Academy. "– thank the Sailor Team for their heroic actions in containing this tragedy, and the entire police department hopes that the young heroine called Okuni will make a speedy recovery. As for the legality of the Sailor Team's actions, the Commissioner General and I have been discussing that very matter all day and are not yet ready to make a statement on the matter at this time.' That was a statement by Superintendent-General Sakurada Natsuna, who is in charge of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. The Mugen Academy Board of Regents has provided this statement on the matter: 'We mourn the loss of so many of our senior faculty and students in this disaster, and thank the Sailor Team for ensuring the safety of the people living and working in Mugen Academy's immediate neighbourhood. There will be a combined kokubetsushiki for headmaster Tomoe Souichi, executive assistant Kuromine Kaori, physical education prefect Teruno Ruru, and business studies prefect Sibu Rina on August 23. We do not know at this time whether computer studies prefect Bidou Yui, philosophy prefect Arimura Yuko, or arts prefect Hanyu Mimi will be able to attend the kokubetsushiki. Out of respect for the dead, we will not be re-opening Mugen Academy on September 6.' That was a statement by the Mugen Academy Board of Regents. In a related matter, Mugen Academy's prefect Bidou-san is an advisor to NASDA on their role in NASA's Mars Observer mission. NASA reports that they lost contact with that probe at 10:00 Japan Standard Time today. NASDA's press office has provided –"
"I think that's everything that concerns us," Ami said while turning off the TV.
"It's rather difficult to re-open a hole in the ground," Sakura pointed out.
"Show respect to the dead, sister," Ichiro admonished.
I said, "I wonder whether Viluy slipped something into the Mars Observer probe that failed when the daimon was banished."
"How could I... she?" Bidou-san caught herself quickly. "That probe was built and launched years before I was possessed by her. As for my attending the memorial service, well..." Instead of finishing that sentence, she merely looked at the stump of her right arm.
"For that matter," Ichiro asked, "should the Sailor Team attend?"
"I think that your entire team needs to discuss that," Saeko-mama said.
"Our team, mother. You have a seat at our table."
The table and holoprojector were retracted in order to make room for everyone in the Situation Room. We had all sixteen of our usual human-scale chairs and four more in a circle. The new chairs were decorated with a syringe, a Fire Buster, a Buster staff, and a galaxy. Only Mochizuki-san's chair had a permanent logo; the rest were tabards on the chairs' backs.
A table with the five Device-scale chairs and Kasandara's easel was set up between Bunny-chan's chair and Rei-san's chair.
Seeing Tomoe-chan looking at her chair, Hayate-chan said, "You're free to move your chair to sit beside whoever you want, Hotaru-san."
"Good, because Chibiusa says you're the one who ordered my father's death and I don't want to sit anywhere near you." She quickly moved her chair as far from Hayate-chan's as she could.
"Let's move our chairs, too, darling," my fiancée said. "Us Senshi who've lost our parents to violence can sit together."
Grammar, my dearest. But for Tomoe-chan's sake, I let it slide.
"Did somebody kill your father, too?"
Makoto leaned down to look Tomoe-chan straight in the eyes. "My father, my mother, and I were aboard JAL 123."
"Oh. You lost both your parents at the same time. When does it stop hurting?"
"I'm sorry, Hotaru-san. It never stops hurting completely. I had to learn how to live with the grief."
Tomoe-chan gave my dearest a hug, and whispered, "Please, help me learn what you've learned."
Nobody said anything for a long moment.
Finally, Rei-san said, "We need to talk about the memorial service, and it's obvious that Hotaru-san will be going. But we need to talk about what happens after the service, too. Hotaru-san can't stay at the shrine forever, unless she wants to become a miko."
"I don't want to do that."
"She can live with us. She is one of the Senshi of the Outer Planets, even if she hasn't manifested yet."
I turned to look at Tenou-san. "The minute that we announced that Tomoe-chan is Sailor Saturn, you said that we should kill her. That
immediately disqualified you from being Tomoe-chan's foster parent, canon be damned."
Ami nodded. "I have to agree; it wouldn't be safe for Hotaru-chan to be placed under the care of somebody who claimed to want to kill her."
Tenou-san and Kaioh-san glared at us but said nothing.
Ami turned to Saeko-mama. "Mother, would you be willing to adopt her?"
"Hang on," Minako said. "Saeko-mama just adopted me, not too long ago, and then bought this maison. Can the Mizuno family afford another child so soon?" In reply, Ryou just tossed a gold ingot onto the Devices' table. "Oh, right."
"Do
I get a say in this?"
We all turned to look at Tomoe-chan.
"Of course you do," Bunny-chan replied. Then she looked up and added, with some steel in her voice,
"Doesn't she?"
Everybody nodded. I suspected that some people weren't willing to say anything just then.
"Tomoe-san gets to make the decision," Minako said to everyone, then turned to the girl in question. "It's your life, after all. I know what it's like to have to re-start my life. At least you get to make an informed choice instead of taking the first deal that came along. I didn't have that luxury, and ended up having to make a second decision later. If you want to join the Mizuno family, I'd be happy to be your big sister."
"No matter what you decide, you can always ask me for help," my fiancée said.
"You can always ask us for help," I added.
"Hotaru, you're my friend," Princess Lady said. "You can live with me, if you don't mind that Hayate-chan lives with me, too. I'm sure Usagi and I can convince Ikuko-mama and Kenji-papa to let you stay."
Then Arimura-san said, "No offence, but I'd rather not live with you. I know we aren't Death Busters any more, but every time I look at you, I see Mistress Nine."
Tomoe-chan looked at Makoto. "Makoto-san, what should I do?"
My dearest gave her the correct answer. "You're the only person who can answer that question, Hotaru-chan."
I nodded. "It's your life. I'll ask you something, though: I trust Saeko-mama with my health and my well-being. I love Usagi like a sister. Which is more important to you?"
"If you join my family," Saeko-mama said, "I'll offer you the Mizuno family name."
"Which you don't need to take," I quickly added. As far as I knew, she was the last member of the Tomoe family left; she might not want to give up her name.
Tomoe-chan took Makoto's hand. "Do I have to decide now?"
"You can share my bedroom until you make your decision," my dearest replied. "That's what I did for Minako, so I know what to expect."
"Thank you."
Nobody said anything for a moment.
Then Bidou-san said, "We still need to decide who, besides Hotaru-san, Mimi, Yuko, and I, will attend the memorial service."
"If we all go to the
kokubetsushiki, we're all but announcing that we're the Sailor Team," Ami pointed out.
"If we don't go, we aren't paying respect to people who were as much victims as the four of us who are going were," Bunny-chan replied.
Tomoe-chan looked at my dearest. "Will you come? Please?"
"Of course."
Then she looked at Princess Lady. "And you, Chibiusa?"
"Yes, I'll attend the reception." Then she looked at Setsuna. "What should I wear?"
"I'll make sure you have a black kimono and flat shoes." She turned to my fiancée. "Do you need a kimono as well?"
"Yes, please."
"Thank you," Tomoe-chan said before turning to me. "Will you attend, Donarudoson-san?"
"I will, for your sake." Turning to Setsuna, I added, "And I already own a black suit." Then I turned to Bidou-san. "As for your arm, I've had an idea. We have magic that can alter a person's appearance."
"Magic? At a funeral?" Rei-san asked disapprovingly.
"There's no way that I can make even a non-working transradial prosthesis in time," Naru-san replied. Thanks to Meia and Ami's healing spells, she looked healthy... as long as you didn't look closely.
"Neither can I," added Arimura-san.
"It's magic or go without," I pointed out.
"I'm willing to accept a magical replacement," Bidou-san said. "And it isn't a Shinto or Buddhist funeral."
"Ah. Well, the rules are different for a Christian funeral. I withdraw my objection."
"Thank you, Rei-san." I turned to look at the table. "Meia, I know you know the spell, and you no doubt want to scan Bidou-san's arm so that whoever does make the replacement will make something that looks like her existing arm."
"If Ami doesn't object, I am willing to stay with Ms. Bidou for the ceremony."
And that solved that problem.
But before the first memorial service came the funeral service for only the family, the cremation, and the
kotsuage. That last is a ceremony that I have no right to attend since I have no family in Japan, so I can't describe it.
And poor Tomoe-chan – no, Tomoe-san; anybody who had to do that with her father's remains deserves to be treated with more respect than -chan or -kun would give her – had to perform it alone, being the last surviving member of her family. The staff at the crematorium were kind enough to assist her.
She wore nothing but black, or her school uniform with a black armband, for an entire year after that ceremony. As was right and proper.
The day after the kokubetsushiki was not a fun one.
It started with a meeting of the Mugen Academy Board of Regents, which Tomoe-san had to attend. As much as she didn't want to, she was Tomoe Souichi's sole heir and thus owner of the academy, so she had no option. Makoto, Sakura, Ichiro, and I accompanied her, the Devices using Mirage Hide to appear to be fully-human-sized.
The Regents wanted to know who we were. Tomoe-san introduced us as her advisors.
Then they wanted to know when the Academy would re-open.
Ichiro asked where the classes would be held.
Tomoe-san said that it was too dangerous to rebuild on the site of the destroyed building because of lingering effects from the menace that the Senshi had fought there.
One of the regents asked why he should have to listen to a twelve-year-old girl.
Tomoe-san literally showed him the door and asked whether he wanted to remain a regent.
Things went downhill from there.
At the end of the meeting, which produced nothing in the way of decisions, half of the regents had resigned... but the other half knew that Tomoe-san was not somebody who anybody could simply ignore or intimidate. She also ordered them to approach the surviving prefects and sound them out as possible replacements for the regents who had quit.
Our newest Senshi, even though she had yet to manifest her powers, was a proper Yamato nadeshiko. And because mourning clothing was never made from silk, the steel that the silk normally hid was starting to show through.
Which all of us thought was right and proper. She was going to need that steel to survive her future meetings with the Board of Regents.
Lunch was a quiet matter at home, and vegetarian in respect to the deceased. It did include what I thought was a bright spot: inarizushi.
Then we had a visitor to Maison Lyrique.
"I apologize for any inconvenience that my visit creates," said Superintendent-General Sakurada. It was the first time I'd ever seen her out of uniform. "However, there is no way that we could have had this meeting at Tokyo Metropolitan Police Headquarters. Ah, but before I continue..."
Tomoe-san bowed. "I am Tomoe Hotaru, and I am honoured to meet you."
"She's also aware of our secrets," Minako added.
"Ah. I am Tokyo Metropolitan Police Superintendent-General Sakurada Natsuna. I am pleased to meet you, Tomoe-san." She returned the bow. "My condolences on the loss of your father."
"Thank you. You are much younger than I expected a police superintendent to be," Tomoe-san commented.
"Thank you!" She turned back to Minako. "Could you call your leader, please? I need to speak with her and you."
"She's actually visiting us right now. I'll go get her."
After a long moment that hinted Bunny-chan was in the Situation Room, and thus probably using the holoprojector for either movies or games, the two of them were sitting in the front room with the Superintendent-General, Ami, Ryou, Makoto, Tomoe-san, and me.
"I don't have much time, so I'll get right to the point. I've been authorized by the Commissioner General to deal with the Senshi directly. As far as he's concerned, you're a riot platoon."
"But we don't want to be police officers," Bunny-chan replied.
"You're already keeping the peace by fighting the Black Moon, the Death Busters, and only you know who else. It's time to stop pretending that you aren't already doing the job. And if you want to carry weapons, including that sword that I don't officially know about," she looked at Makoto when she said that, "you have to be police officers so that 'possession is unavoidable due to Japanese customs and practice', to quote
the Firearms And Swords Control Law. There's no other way I can get you a permit for that blade." Changing tone from serious to curious, she added, "May I see it, please?"
My fiancée drew Donguri-no-ken, still sheathed, from wherever it is that she carries it. Formally, she asked, "May I draw it from the saya?"
"You may."
She did so.
"I can see from here that it's not a mass-produced sword from the last war. Nor is it any ō-wakizashi that I'm familiar with. It would be a shame to have to confiscate and destroy it."
"We don't have a choice any more, do we, keishi-sōkan?" That was the first time I'd ever heard Minako refer to her friend on the force only by her rank.
"No, you don't. And I'm sorry to take the choice away from you, Minako-san."
"What do we need to do?" Ryou asked resignedly. If even our group's precog couldn't see a way out of this, there probably wasn't one.
"Anyone who wants to carry a sword needs to be licensed to do so. Any sword in your possession needs to be registered."
"Who can licence us?"
"I can, but I need to see whether you have the necessary skills."
I stood up. "Well, then, let's go downstairs."
We did
not show her the Situation Room or the computer room. She didn't need to know about them. We did show her the workout room.
"Don your armour, please."
"Jupiter Crystal Power, Make Up!"
Before Superintendent-General Sakurada could complain, I told her, "We discovered during our fight against the Death Busters that a Sailor Senshi can take a dozen rounds from a .45 calibre machine gun with only minor injury. She won't even feel a sword blow unless we use live steel. And even if she does, Mochizuki Ka'o-san is a nurse and Mizuno Saeko-mama is a doctor."
"Who is your instructor?"
"That would be my sister, Sakura," Ichiro replied from the doorway. "She's on her way here. I'm Donaldson-san's instructor. It's good to see you again, keishi-sōkan."
"Ichiro, isn't it? I recall we met during the Black Moon matter, but we didn't have time to talk."
"That's correct, ma'am."
Sakura and Ka'o-san arrived shortly thereafter, and under the watchful eyes of our instructors and Superintendent-General Sakurada, we proceeded to take our licence examination.
Teal Deer, we both passed. So did Ami, who joined us partway through.
Superintendent-General Sakurada left some forms with us to complete, told us to use our code names, and asked that we provide photo negatives of each person on the Sailor Team. Yes, including the Devices. No, not including the ex-Witches, because nobody trusted them.
Nobody but the Sailor Team, that is.
Finally, Naru-san dropped by after dinner. She brought her mother, who proceeded to lambaste us for putting her only daughter in danger. We let Hayate-chan deal with her.
That argument took half an hour, and the rest of us retreated to the Situation Room so that we didn't have to listen to the shouting.
And for Naru-san and Shario-chan to start drawing the plans for Bidou-san's replacement arm.
"Considering that you don't want metahuman strength, we can use Device-scale parts for the motive systems, and that means there's plenty of room for other hardware in this forearm even after we install a nanodevice tank," Shario-chan said while gesturing to the wireframe model being shown by the holoprojector. "Is there anything in particular that you might want?"
"Do I look like Inspector Gadget?" the platinum-blonde genius asked.
"Well, no," Shario-chan replied. "But we could give you a Unison partner."
"Like you and Meia and the others? No, thank you. I don't want an arm that has a mind of its own."
Naru-san nodded. "I can see where that could be a problem. But we could install a communicator, a scanner, and a portable computer."
I raised an eyebrow. "You sound like you want to duplicate the Mercury Computer."
"Exactly!" Shario-chan replied in English, "But Yui-san would always have it at hand."
Bidou-san laughed heartily. The pun wasn't that funny... but then I remembered that she was still re-learning how to cope with the emotions that Viluy had suppressed for months if not years.
Then my attention was diverted. "Er, Robu-san?"
I turned my attention away from the discussion. "Yes, Tomoe-san?"
"Can you help me pack, please?"
"You've decided who you want to live with, then? Of course I'll help you."
She smiled slightly. "Thank you. I'll let Chibiusa know that I'm accepting her offer."
"So you're okay with living with Hayate-chan."
She nodded. "Papa died when Germatoid took over his body. Usagi-san only gave his body a mercy kill."
I can't say that she was wrong or right. I hoped she was right. "When do you want to pack?"
"Tomorrow, please."
"Right after breakfast?"
"All right. Thank you, Robu-san." And she headed over to Makoto, presumably to let her know as well.
I turned my attention back to the discussion about Bidou-san's arm.
"– have enough room to include the Midchildan information-technology databases that we brought back with us."
"Hang on," I said. "You're going to give TSAB-grade IT to somebody native to this reality?"
"And teach her how to use it," Shario-chan said. "Yes, I already know that this will let Bidou-san hack into any local computer she can touch, just like I can."
I chuckled and turned to face Bidou-san. "Well, that's one way to show that we trust you. Carry on, ladies."
"Thanks, Rob. Now, Bidou-san, what sort of communicator do you want? Silver Millennium audio calls, Midchildan virtual-screen video calling, a DoCoMo cellphone, or all of the above?"
"All of them, please, Shario-chan. And a radiophone, in case I'm ever in the mountains and away from other communications networks."
I suggested, "Best to make the cellphone upgradable, and to tie the computer into the communicator so that you can transfer data wirelessly."
"Well, of course," Shario-chan said with an implied "Duh" at the end.
"Okay, fine, I'll stay out of your way." I took a look around and noticed that Ryou was headed for the door. I thought at him, «Ol' buddy, are you sure you want to go out there?»
«No, but I think Osaka Mayumi-san is almost finished, so I'm going to get Hayate-chan.»
«Better you than me.»
He headed out, and returned ten minutes later with Hayate-chan, who announced, "Naru-san, your mother and I have reached an agreement, pending your approval of it."
"How bad is it?"
"You don't go out and fight. You do get to remain a part of the Sailor Team, but you work with Shario-chan, and only on projects that don't put your life at risk."
Naru-san thought for a moment. "I can live with that, since I'm still making a contribution. Am I allowed to defend myself?"
Hayate-chan nodded. "I was going to insist that you not be left defenceless, but she proposed that before I could."
"In that case, Okuni is retiring from the front line." She turned to Bunny-chan. "I'm sorry."
"We have to do what our mamas say, even if we don't like it."
"Speaking of doing," Hanyu-san said, "what does the Sailor Team do when you... we aren't fighting?"
Hayate-chan replied, "We train, we attend school or work, we practice our hobbies, and we enjoy ourselves when we have the chance."
"Not necessarily in that order," Bunny-chan added.
"And sometimes we check out the local boys," added Minako.
Hanyu-san grinned.
"That, I like!"
After helping Tomoe-san pack, I spent a half-day taking photos of everybody for the forms that Superintendent-General Sakurada had left with us, while the Devices other than Hayate-chan filled out the forms. Considering that she specifically said "each person on the Sailor Team", I included Saeko-mama in the photo set; after all, we gave her a seat at our planning table months ago. Taking photos of the Devices was tricky; I had to buy a macro lens capable of a high reproduction ratio. Luckily, we could afford it, and I could use it later to take photos of jewelry at OSA-P. Alas, Kasandara's photos made her look rectangular.
I didn't take any photos of Arimura-san or Bidou-san, and Hanyu-san's photos weren't for her paperwork because she wasn't getting a badge. I took an entire roll of photos of her for her portfolio.
Then I did the same for Minako.
Then I took a third roll of photos, this time of both of them.
Of course, the best of the photos were going to go into my portfolio as well as theirs. Nobody other than Tsukino Kenji-san was going to hire an unknown without seeing samples of his work, after all, and he was doing a favour to a friend of the family.
Then we went to the Tsukinos' house, and I developed the photos while Hanyu-san and Minako helped Tomoe-san unpack.
I found the ladies in Tomoe-san's new room, in the attic beside Princess Lady's room. She already had a couple of lamps on a shelf below the window. When I joined the ladies, they were trying to figure out how to get her bed, dresser, and wardrobe into the room.
"Oh, Rob! Good timing!" Hayate-chan grinned. "We need some furniture moved."
"And you still have your arm in a sling, so you can't move anything."
"That, and I'm a Unison Device and can't move any human-sized furniture at all."
But I easily could, with my forcefields. "Well, if my photography career doesn't take off, I can always get a job as a furniture mover," I replied with a smile of my own.
We finally managed to put everything into Tomoe-san's bedroom, just before Ikuko-san invited us to join the family for dinner. I let Makoto know that we wouldn't be home until after we ate.
We had katsudon, by the way. Princess Lady made it from Hayate-chan's recipe, and they were both happy that they could work together without being in Unison.
The Saturday before we returned to classes, Saeko-mama asked us about our high school plans. "Are any of you planning on attending a school that offers the yutori kyōiku curriculum?"
"I was thinking about it," Minako replied, "but some of the private schools that I like still use the old curriculum."
"Look at the private schools," Ryou insisted.
"Is that your precognition talking?"
"No, Saeko-mama, that's my informed opinion after reading studies from the year 2012 of the reality we were exiled to. Yutori kyōiku appears to be the worst thing that's happened in Japan in the last few years, and I'm including the economic collapse in that opinion."
He handed her
a printout about how much the relaxed educational standards of yutori kyōiku contributed to Japan's "lost decade", which she took a quarter-hour to read. But Saeko-mama has always been a fast reader.
While she was doing that, my dearest and I prepared a quick snack for everyone.
As we returned to the living room, Saeko-mama looked up. "Ami, Minako, I forbid you from attending Juban Municipal High School or any other high school that uses yutori kyōiku. Ryou, Rob, Makoto, I can't order you, but I strongly suggest that you follow suit."
"Oh, but their uniform looks so good..." Minako complained as she took a bite-sized fruit tart from the plate we'd brought in.
"Can we afford to send everybody to private schools?" my dearest asked.
"If it helps," Ka'o-san said, "I have a salary from Juban Daini General Hospital that I've barely touched except for uniforms and electricity; the rest of my pay has all gone into the family's mutual fund. I don't mind if you use that for tuition."
"Thank you, Mochizuki-san," Ryou replied. "The fund has plenty of money. We can even take a vacation in Okinawa at the end of the school year, if we'd like."
"Isn't that about when the Black Moon Circus shows up, though?"
"It's the Dead Moon Circus, my dearest, and I believe so."
"No Okinawa vacation for us, then," Ryou said. "At least, not this year. That means we can easily afford even Toyo Eiwa's tuition."
"Oh, their school uniform looks good, too."
"Minako, there's more to school than just the uniform."
"I'll only get to wear it for three years, Rob. It has to look good on me!"
Sakura sighed. "Please tell me she's the only person who thinks that way."
"Unfortunately, no," replied Ami. "Some of our classmates are more concerned with getting into a high school that lets them look good than with learning in high school. Many of them like yutori kyōiku because the coursework is relaxed compared to the old curriculum."
"The next time we visit Shibuya, come along and see what the gyaru and gyaruo wear," I added. "Especially the high-school-age kogals. They're so concerned with their looks that I'm surprised they find any time to study."
"You've got a bit of gyaruo style going, Rob," Ryou pointed out.
"I'll admit that a gyaruo style shirt or two have found their way into my Atelier Lucent shopping bags, yes. Blame Setsuna-san for suggesting them."
"You look good in them, darling. But you'll be wearing a school uniform for three years, just like the rest of us. And I'd rather wear that eye-watering Mugen Academy tartan than the most stylish public school uniform if it means I get a good education." Not for the first time, I thought that Ami and Ryou's attitude toward studying had changed Makoto for the better... and had changed me just as much.
"Toyo Eiwa's a good school, and it has a good uniform. How hard can it be to get in?"
I facepalmed. "Minako, you'd better hope Rei-san never finds out you said that."
"If Toyo Eiwa is you goal," Meia added, "we will need to increase the amount of tutoring we're providing to you."
Just then, Naru-san walked through the front room, Shario-chan in her pocket. "Hi, bye, we're going to go test a hypothesis," the Device told us.
"Naru," Ami asked, "do you want to go to a good high school?"
"We can't afford it," she replied while putting on her shoes. "All of the Osaka family's wealth is tied up in OSA-P's store and jewels."
"We can subsidize you," Ryou said. "Mochizuki-san offered her salary for tuition."
"In that case, I'll ask mama. See you later!"
"Speaking of heading out," I said, "I think I'll head over to the Tsukinos' place, if Tomoe-san is at home. Naru-san's comment gave me an idea that she needs to know about."
I called ahead, discovered that Tomoe-san was home, and asked whether she wanted visitors. Ikuko-san said that she was about to ask us to visit, so Makoto and I headed over.
We discovered that they weren't the only people in the living room. Tomoe-san, Arimura-san, Hanyu-san, and one of the regents – Fujita Jiro, if I remembered correctly – were having a discussion. "Hello, Kino-san and Donarudoson-san," Tomoe-san said. "I believe you have recent experience with buying property."
"Only residential property, Tomoe-san. And I'm guessing that you've already had my idea."
"Buying a replacement building is the obvious route out of Mugen Academy's current problem," Arimura-san said. "But Fujita-san tells us that there isn't a large enough building in our price range on the market at the moment."
"Which is why we wanted your advice," Fujita-san said. "There are two smaller buildings available that could serve our purposes, but they aren't close enough to each other to serve as a proper campus."
"Less than an hour ago, I was reminded of Toyo Eiwa. Their high school and university are on different campuses. Are the two available buildings large enough to put the junior high school in one and the high school in the other?"
Fujita-san looked at his notes. "We could do that, yes. We would need to hire additional staff in order to administer two schools, though."
"Not necessarily," I replied. "If we can run a dedicated communications line between the two buildings, or rent one from NTT, we could set up videoconference rooms in both buildings and operate one school from the other."
"Let me check some numbers..." Fujita-san turned his attention to his notes and calculator.
"What is videoconference?" Hanyu-san asked.
"Holding a single meeting in multiple places by transmitting video and audio signals over telephone lines. Bell Labs did a demonstration of it back in 1986, IBM started selling the PCS/1 on the open market last year, and if Bidou-san's students can't come up with a more efficient system than the Americans have, I'd be very surprised."
«And in a quarter-century, it'll be standard on portable computers.»
«True, my dearest, but that doesn't help Mugen Academy today.»
Tomoe-san smiled. «Just so you know, Chibiusa taught me your telepathy.»
Before I could reply, Fujita-san looked up from his notes. "If we're getting the students involved instead of paying for specialists, then we can probably afford to do it that way. Thank you, Donarudoson-san."
"What can we do for you in exchange?" Arimura-san asked.
"Free tuition? Assuming the entrance exams are passed, of course. Even one year of free tuition will help."
"The third year," Fujita-san insisted. "You pay for the first two, in case you decide to leave school partway through."
"Agreed," my dearest replied.
Fujita-san scowled. "I thought this was for one person."
"What gave you that idea? Mizuno Ami has friends in her current school who she'd be happy to continue having as classmates."
"Well, of course every high school in Japan wants Mizuno Ami as a student," Fujita-san replied. "We'll probably offer her a full scholarship anyway. We'll need a list of her friends, though."
Hanyu-san smiled as she said, "I think we already have that list."
Before she could say anything more, I added, "I'll type it up for you later."
And then it was Sunday, and we had to call the entire Sailor Team together for a meeting. Superintendent-General Sakurada insisted.
Before handing us our new IDs, she said, "If you misuse these,
Kawaji Toshiyoshi might forgive you, but
I will not."
"That's my line!"
"Yes, Tsukino-san. I know. I want to make this perfectly clear: Sailor Moon has the
rank of keibu-ho and can issue orders only to the Sailor Team; Tsukino Usagi is a civilian." And the Superintendent-General handed the force's newest Inspector her badge.
"Civilian?" Sakura asked. "So you're military? I thought you were police. Ichiro and I might have problems accepting commissions in a second military; we're still ensigns in the Time-Space Administration Bureau Sailing Force, even if we are on indefinite leave." As far as I knew, that was a blatant lie on her part; our TSAB IDs said we were retired.
However, Superintendent-General Sakurada actually looked surprised at the comment. "Oh. Perhaps 'civilian' is the wrong word for a police officer to use about a... a normal citizen."
"Perhaps," Ichiro agreed as he accepted his own badge. He and I, and most of the other members of the Sailor Team, had the rank of junsa-chō, which even I knew was an honorary rank but did outrank newly-hired police officers. Mercury, Mars, Venus, and Jupiter outranked us with the rank of junsa-buchō.
Ryou and I didn't have any magical pockets, so we just kept our IDs in our pockets with our school handbooks.
After dinner, while we were cuddling in her room – and nothing else, and still dressed, because the next day was a school day – Makoto asked, "Darling, when did Ka'o-san become part of the family?"
"Huh." I thought for a moment. "We never took a vote on it. I think she just did, somewhere along the way. Maybe the night after Minako's Pure Heart was shot out and the two of them talked."
"Oh." She thought for a moment, then said, "That works for me. Minako really needed somebody to talk with that night."
"Do you have a problem with a Black Moon Droid being part of the family, my dearest?"
"No, darling, she's as much a person as our Devices are, or we flesh-and-blood folks are. I was just wondering."
And then it was the first day of the second term of our final year in junior high. Or, as students still call it, the Examination Hell Prep Term.
We had two extra students in the class, both of whom Sakurada-sensei introduced as being from Mugen Academy. They had to attend classes somewhere.
"I'm Watanabe Aiko!" said the short girl with black hair and brown eyes. She was almost as cute as Bunny-chan.
"And I'm Watanabe Yuuko," said the tall girl with black hair, blue eyes, and runway-model looks that almost measured up to Minako's. Compared to Aiko-san, her voice was very quiet.
"You're both named Watanabe?" asked Naru-san.
Aiko nodded. "We're twin sisters! Can't you tell?"
I wondered why they hadn't been assigned to two different classes, the way the twins in
Lucky Star had been. But I wasn't part of the school administration, so I never found out what the reasoning was.
Then they expressed an interest in joining the Conversational English club.
«Yuu and Ai. And they speak English. Darling, if we ever have twins, promise me we won't give them cutesy names like theirs.»
«I promise, my dearest.»
We couldn't stop them from joining the club... but we didn't need to discuss Senshi business during club meetings that term, either. Sakurada-sensei seated them next to our group, so we invited them to join us for lunch.
"Now that I have a chance to look at you closely, I see that you both have the same shape nose. Ah, yes, I'm Mizuno Ami."
"Nothing less from the smartest girl in Japan," Yuuko replied. "I take after our father, and my sister takes after our mother."
"And I'm Ami's fiancée, Urawa Ryou." Yuuko-san sighed when she heard that. Aiko-san frowned, but didn't sigh.
"Wait a minute... Haven't I seen a photo of you somewhere?" Minako asked Yuuko.
"I believe I've seen a photo of you as well. Are you Aino Minako-san? Yoronu Miyabi-san is a pen-pal of mine."
"You know Miyabi?! I haven't seen her since I got back from England, but we send each other letters all the time!"
"I know many people." And we lost the two of them to their own private conversation.
I turned to Aiko. "Hi, I'm Rob Donaldson, and I'm in the Conversational English club."
"We'll be seeing a lot of each other, then. What kind of girls do you like, Donaldson-san?"
"I like my fiancée," I replied as I took her hand and showed off our rings.
"Kino Makoto. I'm in the Conversational English club, too. Pleased to meet you."
"So, what kind of girls do
you like, Kino-san?"
Even two months ago, that question would have left her flustered. But, thanks to that talk I'd had with her and a few others of the Sailor Team, my dearest took the question nearly in stride. "Oh, I only like boys. Rob, to be specific. Aiko-san, were you in the performing arts program at Mugen?"
"I was! How could you... Don't tell me you've met Hanyu-sempai."
"We've met Hanyu-san."
"I asked you not to tell me that. Ow!" The last was because her sister had slapped her head.
"Let me guess," Naru-san said. "You two do a manzai routine where you're the boke and she's the tsukkomi."
Aiko paused for a brief moment, then said, "Sure, let's go with that."
«Oh, dear,» Bunny-chan sent. She might not be book-smart, but she isn't stupid. Especially when it comes to other people's feelings.
We learned more about Aiko-san over lunch than we learned about Yuuko-san. Aiko-san was studying to become a voice actress. When I heard that, I hoped that her presenting as a highly-sexualized girl was just a role. She hoped to become the next Sakakibara Yoshiko-san... although it was her sister Yuuko-san whose voice reminded me of Sakakibara's. Aiko-san's voice sounded to me more like Yamazaki Wakana-san's.
And I really should have paid more attention to that.
But the important things in life got in the way. Such as the next day's homework and tutoring session.
"Who put a popcorn maker in the Situation Room?"
"Ah-heh-heh," replied Minako with her right hand behind her head.
"Keep it away from us, please," Naru-san said while pulling a long jewelry box out of her school bag. "We don't want to get oil or corn into the wrong places."
"Oh, you've finished?" Hayate-chan asked from her seat at the table, beside Shario-chan's.
"Finally, yes. I apologize for the delay."
"Don't apologize! Your body had to heal before you could help heal me."
Naru-chan opened the box to reveal some circuit boards that I recognized as Unison Device components. "Ah. Do you want me to put up a dust shield?"
"Yes, please, Rob," Shario-chan replied. "After somebody gets the tool box out of the computer room."
I got the tools that we'd brought back from Midchilda and put up a forcefield around the box and the two of them, and we spent an hour and a half watching Shario-chan perform the cybernetic equivalent of surgery on Hayate-chan, who provided a commentary on her own operation.
Arimura-san and Bidou-san were fascinated. Ami and I were interested. The others were bored after the first five minutes.
At the end of it, Rei-san said, "Performing surgery on a conscious person will never catch on."
"Actually," I replied, "it's a popular way to perform brain surgery in the 2020s. The doctors appreciate the immediate feedback from their patients on their work."
Hanyu-san commented, "Remind me to never need brain surgery, then."
"Rob, can you let us out now, please?" I turned to the Devices that were based on two of our Midchildan friends, to see Hayate-chan was hovering a few inches off the tabletop, her hand touching the dust shield. "I haven't flown for weeks..."
"And you're bored being stuck the way I am all the time," Shario-chan finished. I almost commented, but then I saw the smiles on both young ladies' faces.
"Well, I don't know," I teased with a smile of my own. "What would you do with your freedom, anyway?"
"Whatever I want," Hayate-chan replied in all seriousness. "That's what 'freedom' means."
"That's absolute freedom, which doesn't exist in our society because other people need freedom too. But, yeah, good point." I dissolved the forcefield. "Be free, Hayate-chan."
She immediately flew over to Chibiusa with a grin on her face. "My maker has finally given me my freedom. Now I can be your partner all the time!"
"Oh." Obviously, I didn't know everything about the Devices' base programming, although considering why I was called in to make them, I should have realized that the code was there. And Hayate-chan and Shario-chan had Hayate's and Shario's memories of being free, too. I made a snap decision. "I don't like discovering that I'm a slave owner. Shario-chan, Ichiro, I give each of you your freedom."
"Thank you, sir." Ichiro flew over to Shario-chan, gave her a kiss and a hug, then flew back to standing beside his sisters. "I prefer to remain in my current role. As a volunteer."
Shario-chan said, "Likewise. Although I wouldn't mind having a few yen for getting a few things I have a yen for."
Artemis smiled. "I think the Crown Game Center can pay all of you modest salaries for what you've been doing for us." They were the owner-of-record of our mutual fund until Ryou turned 20, so it was pretty obvious where the money would come from.
"Thank you."
"Kasandara," Ryou asked, "do you want your freedom?"
"No sir. I was made to work with you, nobody else."
"Meia," Ami asked, "do
you want your freedom?"
"Only if I am allowed to continue working with you, Ami."
"Thank you. I grant you your freedom."
"What about you, Sakura?" my dearest asked.
"I don't know. Right now, being your servant is the only thing stopping me from taking over the world."
Bunny-chan grinned. "I'll point out that it's the job of the Sailor Team to stop people from taking over the world."
Ichigo-san added, "We're keeping it safe for Usagi-san to take over later. Besides, we outnumber you."
"Oh, fine. No taking over the world on my own. Sure, if you're offering freedom, I'll take it."
With as much gravitas as she could manage after that exchange, my fiancée said, "Be free, Sakura."
"Will do, partner! Now, let's wrap up the schmaltz and get this study session going."
Over the next few weeks, Aiko-san and Yuuko-san got used to life at Kuritsu Juban Chuugakkou. They didn't always join us for lunch, preferring to make friends with everyone in class instead of just a few of us.
From what I heard, Aiko-san didn't appear to be oversexualized when she was with our other classmates. But she kept hitting on Makoto, me, or both of us.
Come on, we hadn't been mysterious transfer students for a year now. Or four years, counting the Missing Time and our time in Midchilda. And neither of us wanted the attention, or a sefure. Stupid genre conventions.
Ignoring her seemed to help... except that that's what Yuuko-san did most of the time. But we didn't need to take all of the problems of the world on our own shoulders, and there was at least one other person in our group who was better suited than my dearest and me to solving the problem of how the Watanabe sisters acted toward each other. Besides, Bunny-chan was looking for a challenge.
Other than the challenge of passing entrance exams.
We all had that challenge. Minako and Bunny-chan declined our offer of including their names on the list of students that we wanted as Ami's schoolmates at Mugen Academy, one because the uniform was ugly and the other because there was too much math in the curriculum.
When I pointed out to Bunny-chan that this meant she was giving up on ever learning Midchildan magic, she told me that she'd rather learn how to get along with other people instead.
And
that led me to have a conversation with Hayate-chan, in the Tsukino family's living room. I was seated on the sofa, she was hovering in front of me.
"She's hopeless at strategy."
"I'm not surprised. Is she still at least trying to learn?"
Hayate-chan shook her head. "Princess Lady and Minako are both better students than Usagi is. And Ikuko-san says that she isn't allowed to attend a publicly-run high school, so Usagi is distracted there."
"I'm guessing Saeko-mama has been talking with Ikuko-san. Has Bunny-chan given any preference for which private high school she wants to attend?"
"She wants to stay with at least one of her friends."
The look on my face must have telegraphed my sudden comprehension... and disbelief.
Hayate-chan nodded. "Toyo Eiwa."
"With Rei-san. I hate to say it, but if she has any hope of getting into a top-tier school, she's going to have to be taught to the exam. I can't tell you what to do –"
"And thank you for that, Rob," she interrupted with a smile.
"You're welcome, Hayate-chan. I can't tell you what to do, but I can suggest giving her more exam tutoring and less strategy tutoring. If she's no good at strategy, we can't waste time teaching it to her when she needs to learn other things right now."
"Ikuko-san won't like that..." Hayate-chan replied, "... but you're right. Do you have the test?"
"No. We're going to have to get hold of previous years' tests and base the tutoring on those."
"I'll speak with Ryou about that."
We got to know the Watanabe sisters a bit better during the Conversational English club meeting that week. Yuuko apologized to us for how shallow Aiko's dreams for the future were... which I thought was odd, especially when she told us that her dream was to be admired by everybody.
Both of the twins were odd ones.
But her comment reminded me of somebody else who used to be admired before her energy was almost completely drained. So, after school the next day, I invited Bunny-chan over, and the two of us approached Kaioh-san.
"Michiru-san, have you ever accompanied a singer when you play your violin?"
"Why, no, Usagi-san. That's usually something that a session musician would do, not a star soloist."
"That's understandable," I replied. "But we know of a singer who's dropped out of the spotlight because she had the bad luck to be attacked by one of the Senshi's foes."
"And you want to do something for her to make up for it. Who is the singer?"
Bunny-chan smiled. "Shiratori Mikan."
Kaioh-san shook her head. "Our musical styles are completely different. It would never work."
"Unless she adapted to your style, or vice versa," I said. "And considering she probably needs the work, I suspect she'd be willing to give it a try. If you would."
"I'll think about it. What does she think?"
"We haven't asked her yet."
"Do that. Then talk to me again."
The next day, after combat training, we finally let Princess Lady, the ex-Witches, and the Senshi of the Outer Planets in on our biggest secrets... by showing them selected episodes of the anime that was on my laptop. We showed then episodes 1, 8, 10, 25, 33, and 44 through 46 that day, while answering their questions.
Well, answering some of their questions.
And it's a good thing that Naru-san wasn't with us, because Princess Lady couldn't stop talking while they watched the anime.
"None of this happened in my history! But Ami-neesan told me back in Crystal Tokyo that reality was reset by Neo-Queen... no,
Princess Serenity, and it's weird calling somebody who isn't me that title. Is that my grandmother? She's pretty. Hey, that's a lot of souls in bubbles. Is that Sailor Neptune?" She pointed at one of the bubbled souls that was floating past Queen Serenity. "So, what happened to everybody else whose souls were sent forward to, well, now?"
Makoto, Ryou, and Ami looked at me, each with one eyebrow raised. Sometimes I regret teaching them how to do that.
I shrugged my shoulders. "We have no idea, Princess Lady."
Ami's response to that was, "But maybe we should find out."
"If I can help, then... Wow, Sailor Moon's all coruscant!" What, you couldn't say "shiny", Princess Lady? Somebody must have given her a word-of-the-day calendar.
At that point, Shario-chan looked up from her console. "Rob, another file is decrypting itself."
"One of the Crystal Tokyo files? When did that start?"
"As soon as Chibiusa said 'coruscant'."
"Well, well." I wasn't about to ask Princess Lady whether she knew that would happen. She might answer me.
It took until the end of episode 46 for the decryption to complete, at which point we had another message from Future Ami to watch. So of course we called everybody together to see it.
But instead of a flat-screen video like the last one, we got a holoprojection. "Hello from 2017, everyone!" Okay, she didn't record these messages in order. Of course, she didn't need to. She'd let her hair grow a little bit, she was wearing a doctor's coat over a casual dress, and she was very pregnant. "You've probably noticed that Ryou and I are waiting for
Chizuru to be ready to join us here. And I remember that some people have just joined us in your time. Welcome to the team, Haruka, Hotaru, Michiru, Mimi, Yui, and Yuko."
Shario-chan paused the playback. "I suppose you're wondering how we got this message."
"Time travel is theoretically possible, but nobody's ever been able to make it work. Obviously, you have."
"That's Sailor Pluto's doing, Bidou-san," I replied. "Keeping Galaxia from just teleporting into the Solar System means no FTL or other time travel is possible anywhere near Earth right now. But if Pluto wants you to travel through time..."
"Then I let it happen," Setsuna-san said from the doorway.
"I was wondering when you were going to show up," Bunny-chan commented with a smile. "We've just started listening to Ami's latest message."
"Oh, good. Let me get some popcorn, and I'll be right with you."
Minako cheerfully announced, "The popcorn maker's beside the door!"
A moment later, Setsuna-san settled in with her snack and Shario-chan restarted the playback.
"Oh, I wish I could have some popcorn right now, but I haven't eaten anything today for Chizuru's and my sake. According to what I remember telling you right now, my water will break by the time I finish this recording. I'll start with some comments that I won't have time to say at the end of this message. Everyone, I remember that you won't get another recording from me until after Galaxia shows up. Minako and Usagi, remember Gretzky's Law. Hotaru, give him time, he's still young. Yuko, we'll need them before December. Mother, I love you so much more than you can know. Now, the reason for this call is Chibiusa's noticing all of the souls being sent forward from the Silver Millennium..."
And she proceeded to give us some information that we needed to know. Even in 1993, people knew about technobabble; they use it so much on
Star Trek: The Next Generation, after all. As far as I was able to follow it, Future Ami's lecture may as well have been filled with mystobabble. Maybe Rei-san could follow the mysticism. Our Ami definitely could... and so could Meia, Arimura-san, and Bidou-san.
A minute into the lecture, Setsuna-san offered me some of her popcorn, which of course I accepted. What else was I going to do?
Five minutes after that, Future Ami finished off with, "Don't be surprised if you get results you weren't expect-OH!" She gently caressed her torso as she talked to the little one inside her. "Chizuru. I know you want out now so you can fly with your sister
Tsubame and me, but please wait until we're at the hospital." She looked back at the camera and smiled. "Mizuno girls are never good with being confined. I'm sorry about that. And now..."
"Mom, we're here!" A girl who looked remarkably like both Ami and Saeko-mama, wearing a Mercury-blue blouse and skirt, stepped into the recording.
"Tsubame and the other Neo-Sailors are here to take us to the hospital so Chizuru can be born." They both waved goodbye, and the recording ended.
I wondered why Future Ami wouldn't be contacting us again until during or after the events of
Stars. I also wondered why, just for the briefest moment at the end, she had started to cry. I hoped it was something safe that had to do with Chizuru's impending birth, but I didn't really understand the process at the time.
Saeko-mama was the first to say anything. "So I'll have at least two granddaughters. I hope I'll have a grandson as well."
Ryou added, "Tsubame is a good name for somebody with a parent from Niigata. I assume we're going to teach both girls how to fly."
"Eight times in nine."
"We didn't need to know that, Kasandara," Ami chided her. Then she turned to me. "What's Gretzky's Law?"
"Why are you assuming that I know? I
do know, but one of these days I won't. It's a quote that Wayne Gretzky said back in 1983: 'You miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take'."
"So we should go for it?"
I nodded. "Whatever 'it' happens to be, Bunny-chan." I knew without knowing how I knew that 'it' was her first choice for her high school, but that was her secret to tell or keep.
It was a couple of weeks before Future Ami's message bore fruit... weeks in which we learned almost nothing about the Watanabe sisters.
Yuuko was quiet from the get-go, and Aiko finally realized that offering to take part in a threesome with Makoto and me was getting her nowhere, so she turned her attention elsewhere. Alas, Makoto's and my gain was Ryou's and Ami's loss.
But Watanabe-san wasn't the only threat to my fiancée's and my happiness, as I discovered almost by accident when walking from the Situation Room to my bedroom. I didn't mean to eavesdrop, but our maison didn't have hallways on the ground floor so I had no choice but to either walk through the front room, invisible or not, or stop and listen. I chose to stop, and it was a good thing that I did.
"It isn't fair!"
"What isn't fair, Hanyu-san?"
"I see Donarudoson-san and Urawa-san every day, and Chiba-san at least once a week. Three hunks who I
know are straight, and I can't get into any of their pants because you, Mizuno-san, and Tsukino-san are their fiancées! Did being Mimete make me ugly? Or does putting a ring on a guy's finger make him not notice me?"
"In Rob's case, it's definitely the second," my dearest replied.
Note to self: For the harmony of the house, we
had to find Hanyu-san a boyfriend. Or someplace else to live. Or both. I quickly headed back downstairs, trusting that my fiancée would keep Hanyu-san away from me. For once, her insecurities worked in our favour.
"Did you forget something?" Shario-chan asked when I walked back into the Situation Room.
"Yeah, I forgot that Hanyu-san is proud of being ... boy-crazy."
"Or, in her own words, 'a slut'. We've both heard her say so."
"Yeah." I told her what I had overheard, and the conclusion I had reached.
"I can't say you're wrong, Rob. Let me make a few calls, starting with Artemis and Ryou..." And she quickly found two apartments, side by side, that were just large enough to hold three people between them. And we knew they were in a good neighbourhood, and the previous tenants had left them in good condition.
We knew this because the previous tenants were named Kino, Aino, and Donaldson.
"Thanks, Shario-chan." I headed back upstairs and discovered my dearest, Hanyu-san, Bidou-san, and Arimura-san in the front room. "Hello, ladies. Say, have we ever told you about where we used to live before we lived here?"
After a long discussion, Makoto and I convinced the others that it was better if they lived on their own. All I had to do to convince Hanyu-san was point out that there were single guys living in the apartment building. The others seemed to me to want to be convinced to move, but they still had to be convinced that they should move to that particular building.
That weekend, we helped them move in to our old apartments. Bidou-san was very happy to be able to carry some of her belongings in both of her hands, the one she was born with and the one that Naru-san and Shario-chan had built for her. Hanyu-san got my old place, and the others got Makoto's. Cue the relevant Barenaked Ladies song, which wouldn't be released until 1997. Yeah, the old place still held memories for Makoto and me, so we ended up visiting on an irregular basis until Galaxia finally showed up. But I'm getting ahead of myself there.
And then it was October. October 10, and thus the sports fest, was on a Sunday that year.
Princess Lady told us after the fact that Tomoe-san didn't take part. Which was completely understandable; it was so close to 49 days after her father died that she had something more important to do: plan and attend his
shijūkunichi service. What surprised me was that both Princess Lady and Shingo-kun accompanied her. Bunny-chan being there too wasn't a surprise to me. Makoto and I attended the service as well, but that didn't get us out of the annual athletics day. Not that we wanted to skip the sports fest, of course.
As for the sports fest at Kuritsu Juban Chuugakkou, we had the distinct feeling that we'd made a mistake last year when we discovered the third-year teams were "Class 1" and "everybody else". Ami apologized profusely to the class for showing off the previous year.
Teal Deer, it ended up a tie. The Watanabe twins won the three-legged race; Matsudaira-san won his kendo matches – he might not have been able to beat my fiancée and I doubted he could beat me, but he was still good enough to beat anyone else; Usagi, Naru-san, Minako, Ami, and my dearest trounced everybody else in five-person Ultimate; I managed to win the bread-eating race by the skin of my teeth; and of course Ami won everything she entered. But we couldn't enter all of the events. Ryou, Ichigo-san, and our other classmates were pretty good at their events, but not quite good enough to win. Unless I cheated by using fast move, but I was careful not to blow my cover that way.
And then it was time to decide whether we were going to take part in the culture festival. Half of the class wanted to give it a miss, preferring to study for high-school entrance exams... until Minako came up with the perfect event.
"This... Is... Jeopardy!" she announced in English. "The High School Entrance Exam edition!"
"Hey, yeah, that could work!" Of course Sakamoto-san was going to support anything that Minako suggested. He was still carrying a torch for her, after all.
"What's 'Jeopardy'?" Ichigo-san asked.
Ryou replied,
"We called it 'Quiz Grand Prix' when it was broadcast here."
"What, that old show? Most of us weren't even born when it was on the air."
"Yes, Yamaguchi-san, that old show," Bunny-chan said. "Do you have a better idea on how to turn studying into a game?"
"I didn't think we needed to turn it into a game."
"Well," I said, "it won't be a game for
us. We'll have to do all of the research and write all of the answer and question pairs, which means we'll have to study even harder than usual. We'll also need to set up the quiz boards."
"Are we going to do this?" Naru-san asked.
"Sure, why not?"
"I guess."
"We may as well. But I want to research the entrance exam questions, not build the set."
"Who's going to be the host?" Ueno-san asked.
"That's obvious," my fiancée replied. "There's only one person in this room who's qualified to be the game's host."
Everybody turned to look at Ami.
She actually looked flustered. "What? Me? But..."
"If you take part in any other role, people are going to say the game was rigged," Ryou pointed out.
"Oh, all right."
We did the board Art Fleming-style, with sliding cards instead of TV screens. The first round questions were straight out of previous years' last-chance high school entrance exams and the public schools' standard exams, the second-round questions came from the good schools' previous exams, and the final question came from the top-tier schools' exams, including Toyo Eiwa and Mugen.
We played the game six times each day, and the audiences were standing-room-only. And I very nearly fell in love with Ami because she did such a good job of hosting the games; she was definitely not the wallflower from canon any more. But only almost. Makoto was and will always remain the woman of my dreams.
And then it was time to study in earnest. Which of course meant that Makoto and I were breaking the rules and skating at least once a week again, but I'll get back to that. Ami, Naru-san, Arimura-san, and Bidou-san had something to show us before we knuckled down to studying, studying, studying, skating, and studying, though.
"Princess Lady, do you remember that you asked us about all of the souls that Queen Serenity sent forward?"
"Oh, yeah... is that what I think it is?" She put down the sketchpad and charcoal that she had been using to draw a picture of Shario-chan working at her desk.
Ami smiled as she held up an obviously-homemade electronic-and-crystal device that looked like somebody had built a Radio Shack hobby kit of some sort but replaced half of the resistors and capacitors with gems. "If this does what we think it does, we should be able to identify people who are reincarnated from the Silver Millennium."
"Well, let's test it!" Bunny-chan was even more enthusiastic about this than Princess Lady was.
"We've already established during design that I show as positive and Naru, Yuko-san, and Yui-san show as negative," Ami said as she started testing the people who she expected she already knew the results from. Bunny-chan, Rei-san, Makoto, Minako, Tomoe-san, Tenou-san, and Kaioh-san all showed as positive. Since they were all Sailor Senshi, we expected as much.
I showed as negative, to nobody's surprise. By this point, everybody on the team knew that I was born in a different reality altogether. Princess Lady also showed as negative, which also surprised nobody. She was from the future, after all, not the past.
"Now to see what results we get from other people..." Saeko-mama and Hanyu-san both showed as negative, which Ami pretty much expected.
Ryou showed as positive, which caused us to wonder for a moment until Ami said, "Yes, of course the hosts of the Seven Great Youma are going to be reincarnated from the Silver Millennium. You just came from the other side of the battle lines."
Luna, Artemis, and Setsuna-san didn't show positive or negative. They weren't reincarnated; they were physically from the Silver Millennium.
Then we got the biggest surprise of the year.
Ichigo-san showed positive.
"That
has to be broken," she said. "If I was a Sailor Senshi, we would have known it by now... wouldn't we?" We could all tell from her voice that she was hoping otherwise.
Minako said something in a language that I didn't recognize. Artemis and Luna laughed. "It wasn't
that funny," Minako complained.
"I'll have to take your word for that, because I have no idea what you just said," I commented.
Bunny-chan asked, "Could you say it again, please?" Minako did. "I
almost understood that, I think."
"So did I..." Ichigo-san said in wonder.
That was when I noticed Rei-san, Makoto, and Ami had distracted looks on their faces for a long moment. I wondered what they were sending to each other.
Then my dearest said something in the same language... and Ichigo-san answered her immediately. "That can't be done, your highness."
The person who looked the most surprised was Ichigo-san herself.
"We really need somebody who has the power to look through somebody else's memories," Bunny-chan said. She quickly added, "Without making a copy of them."
I said nothing about Dream Mirrors; she'd find out about those soon enough. "Yeah, I really don't want to learn everybody else's secrets." At this point, everybody in the room knew that I could take a brainprint, and why I didn't want to, but repeating that preference couldn't hurt.
"That's the wrong power," Ami complained. "We don't need to look through Ichigo-san's memories, we need to re-awaken them."
"And that's my cue," Luna said as she sat in front of Ichigo-san. Once Ichigo-san nodded, a beam of light arched from the Mau to the human, and remained in existence for minutes.
At the end of it, Ichigo-san laughed. "I was right after all. I'm not a Sailor Senshi." She turned to Makoto. "Your highness, I thank you again for including me as your scientific advisor in your entourage when you visited Moon Castle the day that Beryl's forces attacked. If you hadn't, I would have been left behind with everyone else at Io Castle instead of coming to the present with you."
"Scientific advisor?" Bunny-chan asked.
"Yeah, it looks like my love of zoology is older than recorded history. I was never as smart as Princess Mercury, but I was no slouch, either."
"Now I remember," my fiancée said. "Back then, your name was...
Morom, wasn't it?"
"That's right. Just 'berry'. We didn't know about strawberries until after the Silver Millennium fell."
Sakura asked, "Does this mean you're going to stop needing tutoring in science?"
"Oh, no. There are a few things I remember from my previous life that we haven't rediscovered yet, but there's also over ten millennia of evolution that I need to catch up with."
Tenou-san sighed. "It would have been nice to have another fighter on the team."
"It's important to know that not everyone who was reincarnated was a palace guard or a Senshi," Naru-san pointed out.
Of course there had to have been innocent civilians caught in Beryl's attack. In hindsight, that was obvious.
Bunny-chan looked cross. "And we need specialist advisors, too. And people with other skills."
"Speaking of other skills and Io Castle," Ryou said in an obvious attempt to defuse the situation, "by any chance do you remember how to pilot a Silver Millennium spaceship?"
It worked. Tenou-san thought for a moment, then answered, "I think so, but without a spacecraft, the knowledge is useless."
"Ah," Ami said, "but we
have a Silver Millennium spaceship. Princess Mercury's yacht, repaired, nearly refueled, and ready to launch from Mariner Castle as soon as a qualified pilot takes the controls."
Somebody had been doing repair work without telling me. And here I thought that the isekai character being involved in absolutely everything his friends did was a stupid genre convention.
"When can we go?" Tenou-san asked eagerly.
"Christmas," Saeko-mama replied. "Ami's studies are more important than flying your ship here."
And with that pronouncement, we got down to some serious studying. Needless to say, Ichigo-san was suddenly much better at zoology than she had been an hour earlier... which seemed to me to leave her happier than she was, too.
Before everybody went home that evening, I asked Luna whether she could reawaken everyone else's Silver Millennium memories. She could, but nobody other than Minako was ready to let her, just then.
The ex-Witches, now Academy regents, had an announcement for us at the end of October. They and Tomoe-san had been talking with Hayate-chan off and on since September, and they had finally decided that Mugen Academy needed a rename.
Starting with the winter term – which would be held in the buildings that Fujita-san had suggested renting – the school would be called Mirai Academy, with the slogan 未来を見据えて – "Mirai o misuete", or "Look to the future". Considering that they dearly needed to leave the school's past in the past, I thought that it was a clever bit of rebranding.
They even toned down the tartan of the school uniforms to something that didn't clash horridly with itself. Tomoe-san obviously took a hand in its design; it reminded me of
the Nova Scotia Tartan but with purple threads in place of the blue. The fabric would be ready for next year's school uniforms.
Kaioh-san wasn't at the next weekend's study sessions.
"She's busy with rehearsals," Tenou-san explained.
"Somebody insisted that she pursue her entertainment career."
"Who insist– oh!" Bunny-chan figured it out before I did. "She's performing with Shiratori-san?"
"That's great!" Naru-san said with a smile while getting her own textbooks out of her school bag.
Minako sighed. "It's too bad Michiru-san writes her name in hiragana. If she used the kanji for 'street' to write Michi, she and Mikan could have been 'Orange Road'."
Ryou pointed out, "I suspect Matsumoto Izumi and Shueisha would have insisted on royalties in that case."
"Oh, right. Never mind."
We spent all of Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning studying for the entrance exams. Even Bunny-chan didn't complain.
Sunday afternoon was combat training time. Hanyu-san, Bidou-san, Naru-san, Ryou, Ichigo-san, and I were sent to learn under Arimura-san and Meia. "I don't have enough of these to go around yet," Arimura-san said while opening a crate, "so you'll have to take turns. Mimi, Yui, Donarudoson-san, you're up first." And she handed Fire Busters to each of us.
"Are these fully functional?" I asked.
"Yes, you can use them to shoot out someone's Pure Heart. Unless Sailor Moon or Sailor Mercury are present, don't do that."
"I don't
want to do that," Hanyu-san replied. "I can't date a corpse."
"See that switch near your thumb? Make sure it's always set on setting two, then. That's the flamethrower setting."
"Wait a moment, please!" Ami walked over, cast "Hyperspatial Sphere Generate!", and turned to Arimura-san. "I really don't want anybody to burn down the house."
"Which switch is the safety?" I asked.
"The same switch. Setting zero is the safe setting.
Mimi! Don't look down the barrel!" She sighed deeply and gave all of us the ten-minute version of the firearms safety lecture.
Only then did she say, "Now let's see how well you can aim these", and we got to try using the weapons. Let's just say that it's a good thing that Ami was with us, and that Mercury Aqua Rhapsody could now extinguish the Fire Buster's flames. It was only thanks to Ichigo-san that I wasn't the worst shot of the group. Yes, even Naru-san and Ryou were better shots than I was, and neither of them were full-time combatants.
Once we'd all embarrassed ourselves, we used paint guns for the rest of the session. Arimura-san gave Bidou-san, Hanyu-san, and me training on how to aim, while Meia did the same for Ichigo-san, Naru-san, and Ryou.
After our training was finished for the day, Ami took me aside for a moment. "Usagi had a good idea about sorting through memories without copying them. Do you think you could learn how to do that?"
Without knowing how I knew, I replied, "Probably." Then I added, "I have to go into somebody's mind in order to copy it, after all."
"Whose minds would you be willing to practice with?"
"I'd rather not risk it at all, Ami. I don't want to leave somebody a mindless zombie. But if we're going to do this, then I'm willing to go back into the mind of anybody who I already have a brainprint of. Assuming you volunteer."
"Makoto, Ryou, or me." She smiled. "Unless we can open a big portal and get Finieno-san or Yagami-san to come visit."
"How's that spell optimization coming along, by the way?" Yes, I was changing the subject on purpose.
"I think we have Pandimensional Pathway down to where you and Ichiro working together can cast it for communications."
"'We'?"
"Yagami-san, Hayate-chan, and I. We've been comparing notes on the spell for a few months now."
"Speaking of notes, I really need to study those spells that Captains Harlowan and Takamachi gave us."
"You still haven't learned those spells yet?"
"I've been busy. Entrance exams take priority."
Ami smiled. "I can't argue with you there."
"Which also means that experimenting with my powers needs to wait, too."
Monday morning came, and Minako asked a question over breakfast.
"If Usagi reset the world so that Beryl and Metaria never existed, what caused the fall of the Silver Millennium?"
"Beryl and Metaria's attack, of course," Ami replied.
I swallowed the last bite of fish from my breakfast. "Bunny-chan reset
Earth, Mina-chan. I saw the event horizon of the spell move across Tokyo as I kept it from affecting Luna, Artemis, and me. She never changed anything in Earth orbit or on the Moon or in the rest of the Solar System. That's why the cosmonauts on Mir knew what happened, and why Bogdanova-san came to Japan to spy on us, and why Castle Mariner still exists."
"What about Castle Magellan?"
Ami, Ryou, and I looked at each other. Finally, Ami answered, "We couldn't find any traces of it, but that doesn't mean it isn't there."
Ryou added, "We couldn't find any traces of Phobos Deimos Castle, Miranda Castle, or Triton Castle, either. All of which are castles owned by awakened Senshi who weren't taking part in the search."
"So you couldn't find my castle because I wasn't helping to look?"
"It's as good a hypothesis as any," Ami replied, ignoring the fact that we could find Charon Castle without Setsuna-san's help.
"Speaking of Bogdanova-san," I said to change the subject, "I wonder how she's doing."
"Who knows?" my dearest replied. "I hope she hasn't been posted to some lonely Siberian outpost for messing up her last assignment, though."
Minako shrugged her shoulders. "We might never know. Thank you for the food, and we need to get going to school."
School. Studying. Training. Fending off Watanabe Aiko-san's advances, who ended up hitting on every single member of the lunch group, not to mention the members who were couples, sometimes interrupting the Revealing Of The Lunches to do so. Do I even need to mention the Teal Deer for that part of the rest of the calendar year? And I don't know what Bunny-chan and Minako were doing in their efforts to bring Watanabe Yuuko-san and Aiko-san closer together.
Skating, however, was more than just a pastime or a project. Bunny-chan brought Princess Lady, Tomoe-san, and Shingo-kun to watch us practice a few times, so they got to see the big event.
Of course it involved Chieri-san. "Mako-chan! Robu-san! Come meet my partner!"
"Masanori Tsuzuki. I’m happy to meet you."
We introduced ourselves, and we skated together for a few songs.
"You're good," Masanori-san told us at the end of the skate. "Maybe even better than us."
"They
are better than us, and you know it," Chieri-san replied. "You saw Mako-chan and Robu-san do a synchronized triple axel, despite how tall they are. I can't do a triple axel at all."
"Why are the two of you not pros yet?"
My dearest smiled. "Well, we're still in school."
"That doesn't matter. You need to go pro, like us."
Chieri-san shook her head. "They still have a chance of doing something we can't do any more. Nagano. Or maybe even Lillehammer if they work quickly."
My eyebrows headed for my hairline. "You think we should try out for the
Olympics?"
And that comment started spreading throughout the spectators. "The Emerald Pair are trying for the Olympics?"
"Maybe we'll win it, with them skating for Japan!"
"Win it for us!" Bunny-chan shouted, and the rest of the crowd took up the cry. Even Tomoe-san said it, despite still being in mourning... but with Shingo-kun and Princess Lady saying it as well on either side of her, she didn't look out of place.
"But..." I started.
"But what?"
I couldn't mention our roles on the Sailor Team.
"We don't have a coach!"
Thank you, my dearest.
"You've come this far without a coach?!" Chieri-san said in amazement. She turned to her partner. "Tsuzu-chan, they're definitely better than us."
"Indeed. Anyone would be happy to coach the two of you."
"If we may," a familiar voice said from the stands, "my partner and I would be honoured to be allowed to coach you, given what we saw you do today and knowing you did it on raw talent."
We all turned to look at them. Then we skated over to the stands. I noticed that Minkao Jinguuji was in the stands, but didn't think anything of it considering how many pro skaters were on the ice at the time. No doubt she was working on a story.
"May I make the introductions?" asked Chieri-san once we were at the boards.
I smiled. "The famous Janelyn and Misha need no introduction."
"You're too kind," Misha replied.
"And we have been following the Emerald Pair since we heard about you," Janelyn added while holding out a meishi. "My card."
It was a good thing I had my card case up my sleeve, and I made a note to thank Ryou for telling me to do that today. I accepted her card and offered mine in return. Thus did we move our relationship from fellow skaters to business associates.
"We do need to consider our future," Makoto said, "but how can we say no to our fans?"
"We'll be in touch in a few days, then," Misha replied. "In the meantime, we would like to observe more of your techniques."
"Certainly!" So we proceeded to show off for the crowd, including our specialty: the gender-flipped forward-outside death spiral. The crowd went wild when we did that, the way they always do.
Janelyn and Misha gave our signature move a pair of odd looks, though.
Just how much did average people remember from the Missing Time? Mind you, having been possessed by youma, Misha and Janelyn were hardly "average".
After the skate, we walked the Tsukinos and Tomoe-san at least partway home. My fiancée smiled and said, "Thank you for giving us an order to pursue one of my dreams, Neo-Queen Serenity."
"One of our dreams," I added.
"When did she do that?" Shingo-kun asked.
I smiled as widely as Makoto. "When she said, and I quote, 'Win it for us!'"
"Oh, yeah, I did say that, didn't I?"
Princess Lady smiled almost as widely as we did. "Don't worry, Usagi. It'll all work out for the best."
"Yeah," she sighed. "It would have been nice..."
After a moment, Makoto asked, "What would have been nice?"
"If Luna had seen you two skate, too."
Tomoe-san added, "But she hasn't been home for a couple of days."
My dearest and I gave each other a Significant Look.
And then it started snowing.
In Tokyo. On November 23. Which we had off for
Labor Thanksgiving Day, so there wasn't much in the way of traffic to worry about.
There was, however, the question of why was it snowing in Tokyo on November 23. And the question of just where Luna was.
"You realize those two questions are connected, Rob." Shario-chan wasn't asking me.
"Yeah, I know. Shall we go find some of not-Kaguya-hime's snow dancers?"
Minako pouted. "I was going to play the Sailor V game some more today."
"Work comes before fun," Sakura insisted. "Even on a national holiday."
"I'm coming with you," Arimura-san insisted.
"You can't," Ryou pointed out. "You aren't officially part of the team, according to Superintendent Sakurada."
"Then at least take these," she added while opening a closet.
We did, with smiles. She'd been busy; there were enough to go around.
Then we went out looking for trouble. Chacornac helped us find it. Closer to the Tsukino residence that I would have preferred, actually. We went flying, Jupiter carrying Venus and Mercury carrying Onmyōji. In Moon and Mars' absence, Mercury was in charge.
Sure enough, the snow was the work of snow dancers. Multiple snow dancers, unlike in canon. And there were already a few passers-by who had been frozen in place.
"Leave them," Mercury ordered as we landed between the snow dancers and what few normal people were out on a holiday. Our devices left Unison in order to bring up our numbers and let us flank our foes if necessary. "Concentrate on the enemy." She raised her voice as she turned to the white maidens. "We are the Sailor Team! In the name of the Moon, we will punish you!"
"That's my line!" we heard from a block away. Sound really does travel farther in cold air.
We couldn't wait for Moon to arrive; the snow maidens rushed us.
"Shabon Spray Freezing!" And our opponents were stopped in their tracks. Mercury added, "In canon, Sailor Mars finished one off with a Fire Soul."
"Mars isn't here," my dearest pointed out.
"But we do have these," Venus replied as she, Mercury, Onmyōji, Jupiter, and I pulled out the Fire Busters that Arimura-san had given us. Jupiter and Mercury were carrying mine and Onmyōji's, respectively.
Sakura grinned. "I believe the correct phrase is 'lock and load'."
"Lowest power," Ami told us. "We don't know how many of these snow dancers are around."
"I need to check one thing first," I insisted. I switched my weapon from flamethrower to pure heart extractor, and fired at one of the trapped snow dancers.
My aim had improved since the first time I'd fired a Fire Buster. The bolt hit the snow dancer square in the chest. Nothing came out of its body.
"Okay, they're like Cardians, not Youma," I said while switching my Fire Buster back to flamethrower. "Lock and load, rock and roll."
"I'll thank you not to steal my malapropisms," Venus said with a grin.
"Have you been doing those on purpose?" I asked as I melted one of the snow dancers. Not that I could remember hearing very many examples.
"Of course! I
am fluently bilingual," she replied while melting another of our foes. "Toasted!"
Ryou, Ami, and my dearest took out one each without talking about it. All four of them were better shots than I was, and I wondered when they had time for the additional practice.
"Another wave incoming, sir," Ichiro reported from three meters up.
Then we heard a shout from Bunny-chan's direction: "Silence Wall!"
It sounded like Tomoe-san had transformed to Sailor Saturn. And we didn't get to see it. Stupid genre conventions.
Mercury noticed as well. "Hit them hard, then we join up with the others! Oni, cover our retreat!"
I melted one more snow dancer to draw their interest away from the other Senshi, then put up forcefields to herd the remaining enemies into a group.
"Blutiges Schwert!" Ichiro got the one snow maiden that wasn't part of the group that I'd captured.
I pulled them along, still contained, and we headed for our teammates.
Saturn was facing away from us, maintaining a barrier that was obviously keeping more opponents at bay. Moon and Chibimoon, the latter obviously in Unison with Hayate-chan, were attacking single targets while standing on either side of Shingo-kun, who was trying his best to make himself a small target.
Ah. The three of them were protecting somebody that, at least in two cases, they loved. If that was enough to get Tomoe-san to manifest her powers, what did that say about her feelings for Shingo-kun? But it wasn't the time to ask.
"Moon!" Mercury called. "Orders?"
"You already gave the speech. Hit them!"
"Weichstütze!"
"Blutiges Schwert!"
"Photon Lancer!"
Meia, Ichiro, and Sakura thinned out the herd from above.
"World Shaking!"
"Deep Submerge!"
And Uranus and Neptune attacked them from behind... which was good in the short-term, but meant we couldn't use the Fire Busters without hitting them.
"Welcome to the party!" Sakura shouted in their direction.
"Less talk, more action! World Shaking!"
Venus stowed her Fire Buster. "Venus Lovely Chain!" She grabbed three snow dancers at once.
I made my way over to Saturn – not a full flash move on the snow, but faster than humanly possible. "Oni Wall!" Everyone else was announcing their attacks, and she'd never fought alongside us, after all. As my shield went up, she dropped hers and caught her breath. "See what I'm doing here?" I pointed out part of my forcefield. "The buttressing makes it more difficult for them to push the wall over. But you don't want to take too much away from the wall to make the buttresses." While I helped her learn her own powers, I also brought the bubble of trapped snow maidens over to join our other foes.
"I see how it works, yes," she whispered. "Silence Wall!" And her wall re-manifested, this time a bit shorter but supported on this side.
"You catch on fast, Saturn," I said with a smile.
"Learn or die, right, Oni?"
"True. Ichiro, how's everybody else doing?"
"Uranus is on our side of the line. Neptune is five steps behind her."
"Time for me to go on the attack," I told Saturn as I built a riser under my feet so I could shoot over her wall.
As Neptune joined our group, everybody with a Fire Buster shot flame into the main body of snow dancers, melting almost all of them.
"We left one for you, Chibimoon," Mercury announced.
She levitated and cried out, "Pink Sugar Heart Attack!"
And the last of our opponents was destroyed.
As the snow around us started to melt and the trapped passers-by started thawing out, we quickly made our way to a quiet alleyway where we could transform back to our civilian identities.
Makoto squatted down and asked Tomoe-san, "How was your first time as a Sailor Senshi?"
"Exhilarating!"
I noticed that Shingo-kun smiled at hearing Tomoe-san's happiness, too.
Then her adrenaline rush wore off and she collapsed into his arms, fast asleep.
He looked at me, panic on his face. "What do I
do?"
"Take her home and help your mother get her to bed," I suggested, which calmed him down. He nodded as he picked her up in a piggyback carry, and the Tsukinos headed back to their house.
They grow up so fast nowadays.
Apparently there were three groups of snow maidens who attacked Tokyo that day. News reports say that Mars singlehandedly took out as many as the rest of us put together, defending Roppongi without so much as singeing any of the buildings. Rei-san told us later that she slept for twelve hours straight that night, though. And Yuuichirou-san mentioned at the next weekend's training session that he'd sat beside her all night, just in case.
The JGSDF took out the third group. For them, it was Tuesday.
What? No, the Sailor Senshi weren't the only people defending Minato, and never have been. This was just the first time I'd had reason to mention them. They're good at certain things, we're good at other things, and we rarely cross paths with each other.
"Darling..."
"Yes, my dearest?"
"You've given Tomoe-san advice. You've helped her move. You've fought alongside Sailor Saturn. Don't you think it's time to start calling her 'Hotaru'?"
"I thought of her as 'Hotaru' when her father was still alive, but now she's the head of her family and deserves the respect of that position."
"A family of one, as far as we know. Who's her official guardian?"
"That's a good question," I replied just before the phone rang. I reached for the extension in the front room. "Hang on. Hello, Donaldson speaking."
"Hello, Rob. To answer Makoto's question, I am."
"Hello, Setsuna-san. Thank you..." Hearing only a dial tone, I hung up. "Well, that was fast. Setsuna-san says she is."
"She's a show-off."
"She also didn't give me a chance to ask whether she could help fight not-Kaguya-hime. Oh, well. Since Tomoe-san and I have the same official guardian, I'll let her decide what relationship that makes the two of us, and what we should be calling each other."
Before she could reply, our communicators announced an incoming message. "Everybody! Luna's come home!"
"We're on our way, Usagi!" Ami replied before any of the rest of us could.
Luna, looking very cute wearing a yellow ribbon, told us what she knew about the situation, including how Kakeru, the man who'd saved her from being hit by a truck, had found a comet and was feeling ill, and how Himeko, a woman who'd come from a NASA office in order to see Kakeru during her vacation, insisted NASA hadn't found a comet and wanted him to be more level-headed.
"Robu-san, what's wrong?"
"Oh, where to begin... No, I need to stop assuming that this world is just like the reality of my birth. I wouldn't expect NASA to find a comet because my NASA doesn't look for comets; that's left to the much larger group of amateur volunteer astronomers, like this Kageru-san. Next you'll be telling me that they're planning on sending a Space Shuttle to the Moon."
"Er..." Ami said, "NASA
is planning to send a Space Shuttle to the Moon. It'll be piloted by Nayotake Himeko, a Japanese scientist who's part of the mission."
"Oh, for...
Somebody in JAXA, no, sorry, it's still NASDA, has some sort of hold over NASA in order to get one of their pilots to be allowed to fly an American spacecraft. And you called her a scientist, not a pilot. Spacecraft pilot is a profession in itself. Have you seen
the flight deck of a Space Shuttle? And don't get me started on how the Shuttle is only capable of low-Earth orbit with the fuel that it can carry... Oh, dear."
"What?" asked Rei-san.
"Unless NASDA found and reverse-engineered some Silver Millennium thruster technology somewhere or Viluy built some drives for them. If that's the case, then I can see Japan let NASA use that tech for this mission, if somebody on the design team is there to make it work. We need to get Bidou-san into this discussion. And exactly who is this Nayotake Himeko person?"
Ami held up a copy of one of that day's newspapers. "Here's an article about her."
Luna looked at the photo accompanying the article. "That's Kakeru's Himeko!"
I sighed deeply. "Of course she is. And that means she's not from some random NASA office. When does her mission leave?"
"A month from now," Ami replied. "They expect to be in Lunar orbit on Christmas day."
"And she came from Merritt Island to Tokyo to see Luna's friend Kakeru? She must really love him."
"How do you figure that, Robu-san?" Bunny-chan asked.
"She'll have to go back soon to go into pre-launch quarantine."
"By the timing shown in the canon story," Hayate-chan added, "she should have been in quarantine right now, because the launch took place while the Sailor Senshi were fighting in Tokyo while the launch was happening in a snowstorm in Florida. Except that she wasn't in quarantine, and that didn't stop her from taking part in the mission."
I nodded in agreement. "And any other NASA launch would have had her remaining with the rest of the crew running more simulations right now; NASA is really dancing to NASDA's tune here."
"Nayotake-san is putting love before her career," Minako mused. "I can't fault her for that, but if she loves him that much, she might not return to NASA while Kakeru is ill."
I nodded. "Which means she wouldn't return to NASA at all, ever, if this was happening in my home reality. This is still 1990s Japan; many if not most women expect to give up their careers for love."
"Or for marriage," Ami added. "But if we found a doctor who isn't fazed by what might be a magical illness to look after Kakeru-san, she might go back to work anyway."
Bunny-chan looked puzzled. "What makes you think it's a magical illness?"
"The timing. It started when he discovered that comet, and when the snow dancers attacked."
"I'm inclined to agree," Ryou said. "On all counts. Although, as far as we know, there's only one doctor in Tokyo who has any experience with magical illnesses."
"Mother has been ordered to take some time off at work, and relax. I think looking after only one patient would count as relaxing for her."
"Then what are we waiting for?" Luna asked. "Call her! And call Bidou-san, too."
Ami did, calling her mother first, then calling Bidou-san. After she did that, she said, "Meia, help me with these scans that Chacornac made, please. Why are only some people seeing this comet?"
While they did that, Makoto and I got up and walked over to Tomoe-san. "Do you have a moment?" I asked.
"Certainly," she replied while motioning for us to sit beside her. "There's nothing for me to do but wait until either Bidoh-san or Mizuno-sensei arrive."
As I sat down, I said, "Setsuna-san tells me that she's your official guardian now."
"That's right."
"She's my official guardian, too. What relationship does that make us?"
She didn't need to think about it; she smiled and took my hand in hers. "The two of you have always been kind to me, and treated me as a person instead of a prize or a pawn. And I've always wanted a big brother. May I call you Robu-niisan, the same way that Chibiusa does?"
I smiled as I replied, "I would be honoured to be your big brother, Hotaru-chan. But this means that neither of us can go through life alone any more; we have to be there for each other during the good times as well as the bad times."
"I haven't had very many good times lately," she admitted while looking at me through the veil of her mourning clothes, "but the ones that I have had have been with Chibiusa or Hayate-chan or Shingo-kun or Usagi-san or you or Makoto-neesan."
I looked at my dearest and raised one eyebrow; she smiled and nodded. Then I turned back to Hotaru-chan. "Then it's settled. We're practically siblings. We're just going to have to figure out where to spend New Year's together: here or at Maison Lyrique."
"We have plenty of room here," she pointed out.
"We'll just have to ask Saeko-mama first, Tomoe-s... Hotaru-chan."
Princess Lady looked up from her sketchpad; she had started a picture of the two of us in order to pass the time. "Don't worry, Hotaru-chan. He can be slow to change sometimes."
"Thank you, Chibiusa. Should we be holding still for you?"
"No, that's okay. I have to learn how to do this without bothering the people I'm sketching." She went back to her work. "Besides, this is more the idea of the two of you than it is a particular scene."
I kid you not; Hotaru-chan actually giggled at Princess Lady's comment.
We waited for another half-hour for Bidou-san and Saeko-mama to arrive, during which Bunny-chan offered everybody tea, Artemis and Luna had a short talk that he wasn't happy about at the end of it, and Princess Lady finished her sketch. She offered it to me, but I insisted that Hotaru-chan get to keep the first picture of the two of us.
Princess Lady took that as a request to draw a second sketch of the two of us. It was at that point that I noticed she was drawing on
kyogi instead of paper. Seeing that I was looking at what she was holding, she said, "
It's better for the environment to use wood sheets instead of pulping the wood and making that into paper."
I couldn't argue with her. "Makoto and I use kyogi in the kitchen to line our cutting boards and wrap leftovers. I've never seen it bound into a sketchpad before."
"Even in Crystal Tokyo, I have to get big pads made special for me," she admitted. "But
I can get these small sketch pads by mail-order right now."
That was when Bidou-san arrived, and we stopped talking about sketching and relationships. Princess Lady didn't stop sketching, though.
Hayate-chan spent a few minutes explaining the situation to Bidou-san.
"Yes, Viluy did build reactionless thrusters with NASDA resources," she told us. "They're very expensive to duplicate and they're prone to malfunction if they aren't handled just right. But what does this have to do with those snow women?"
"We're pretty sure that they come from space," Ryou replied before anybody could go into detail about Kakeru and Himeko.
Bidou-san frowned. "The thrusters aren't ready for use."
"Oh, dear," Ami replied without looking up from the Mercury Computer's display. "NASDA has already installed them on a NASA space shuttle."
Bidou-san looked worried, but before we could continue that discussion, Saeko-mama walked in. "I'm sorry I took so long. Ami said something about someone needing medical help?"
That's when we went into into detail about Kakeru and Himeko, including finally mentioning Kakeru's family name, Oozora... and when I realized that both Luna and Artemis deserved seats at our planning table, because Luna did most of the talking.
At the end of it all, Princess Lady handed me two sketches – one of Hotaru and me, the other of my dearest and me – and asked "Do we need to help Oozora-san before we take the battle to space?"
I nodded. "The sooner Nayotake-san gets back to NASA, the better off her mission will be for everyone involved. Besides, Ami hasn't found our enemy yet."
"Actually," she said as she and Meia looked up from the Mercury Computer's screen, "I think we may have found them. Chacornac's scans are being obscured."
"It's subtle," Meia added, "but a statistical analysis shows evidence of a vision cloak of some sort in space above Lunar Farside."
Bunny-chan stood up, and with her Neo-Queen Serenity voice said, "Mizuno-sensei, you have a patient to care for, if you would be so kind."
"Of course," Saeko-mama replied.
"Luna will show you the way, and Oni and Princess Lady will accompany you in case any more of those snow monsters appear. Mercury and Meia, break that vision cloak. Everyone else will review what we know about our opponent in Oni's records." She turned to me and asked, "You do have something about them in your records, don't you?"
I nodded. "We're currently in the middle of the Sailor Moon S movie. Shario-chan knows where to find it. It isn't an exact match to our situation because Hotaru-chan and our non-powered friends and I aren't in it."
"Thank you, Robu-san." She turned back to the others. "Once we have a definite target, the Senshi of the Four Guardian Deities, the Senshi of the Outer Solar System, Tuxedo Kamen, and I will take the battle to the enemy. Oni and Princess Lady will remain here to guard Kakeru-san in case something happens. The combat-capable Unison Devices will remain with their accustomed partners."
Bidou-san frowned slightly as she sighed. "And we ex-Witches will stay at home and worry. The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department won't let us do anything else."
"What about me?" Artemis asked.
Before Bunny-chan could reply, I said, "If it's all right with everyone else, would you accompany Luna, Saeko-mama, and me, Artie? It would be extremely useful to have you along." After a quick pause for emphasis, I added, "Please."
"I have no problem with that," Bunny-chan replied.
"Neither do I," Minako added, "and I think you need to spend some time together with Luna." She winked at me as she said that.
"The sooner we finish this, the sooner we can get back to studying for the end-of-term exams. Mizuno-sensei, how soon can you see Kakeru-san?"
Saeko-san stood up as she replied, "My bag's already in the car. Luna, Artemis, Robu, Chibiusa, if you would?"
We all moved to join her. On a hunch, I asked Ami, "Do you have that Silver Millennium soul detector with you? I remember that, in the movie, Kakeru-san mentioned feeling some sort of energy when he watched the Moon."
Without looking away from the Mercury Computer, Ami grabbed her school bag with one hand, opened it, and pulled the detector out. "Do you remember how to work it?"
"I do," Ichiro replied before I could.
I nodded in approval. "Thanks, both of you. Ichiro, let's go. I suspect we'll need to fly back because Saeko-mama isn't likely to leave her patient."
"Of course, sir."
I sighed as I stopped at the Tsukinos' front door. Putting my shoes and coat on, I said, "I distinctly remember manumitting you, Ichiro."
"Sorry, sir. Rob. Force of habit."
"You called me 'Rob' when we were on Midchilda."
"When we didn't have to do any Sailor Team work," he replied as we headed out the front door and walked to Saeko-mama's car. "Circumstances are different here."
"Even in medicine," Saeko-mama pointed out as we got into the car, "it makes sense to make clear who's in charge in life-and-death situations. Now, where are we headed?"
"Tsukuba Science City, in Ibaraki", Luna replied. "Near the Space Science Authority's observatory."
"It's good that Saeko-sensei is driving," Ichiro commented. "The train would take twice as long to get there."
During the drive, we discussed how we would approach Nayotake-san when we got there and which secrets we were prepared to reveal, so we all knew what roles we expected each other to fill during the conversation. Then I mentioned, "If things go according to canon, Nayotake-san won't let Luna in to see Oozora-san because she's a cat."
"Oh, dear. Just because I'm a cat?"
"But you aren't an Earth cat. You're a Mau," Princess Lady pointed out.
I added, "And in canon, you were about to rediscover something that Mau can do that cats can't. I think it's time you remembered what it means to be a Mau. Artie, if you would transform, please?"
"Ah," he said while he changed from cat form to human form. "That's why you wanted me along, isn't it?"
"You... he..." Luna sounded surprised, but calmed down quickly. "I remember!" And she shifted form as well, crowding Princess Lady between the two Mau. "They can't refuse to let me in now."
"Except," I pointed out, "that they've never seen you in that form." I looked over my shoulder to see what appeared to be a pretty 20-something girl with wavy hair as dark as Rei-san's. "You're cute in both your forms, Luna, but you'll have to change back to cat form for a few minutes."
"Of course," she replied somewhat disappointedly while both Mau shifted back to cat form. Then she said, "Artemis, we need to have a long talk about your bad habit of keeping secrets from me."
"You'll have to do that later," Saeko-mama said. "We're here."
Once Saeko-mama had parked the car, I put on the face that matched the photo on my TMPD ID as we got out and made our way to Oozora-san's front door. Ichiro and Hayate-chan hid in our pockets as Saeko-mama rang the doorbell. Nayotake-san answered the door. "Hello?"
"Hello, I am Mizuno, from Juban Daini General Hospital. I'm looking for Oozora Kakeru-san. Is he in?"
"He isn't seeing anyone at the moment, Mizuno-san." She moved to close the door, but I did the old foot-in-the-door trick with a forcefield to keep it open.
"Allow me to rephrase, Nayotake Himeko-san."
"How did you know my name?"
"There was an article about you in today's Tokyo Shimbun. I am Doctor Mizuno Saeko, and I am here in a professional capacity." She offered the astronaut her card. "I was the doctor who was brought in to treat Okuni of the Sailor Team." Not a lie; nobody else involved with Naru-san's treatment was a licensed physician. "I believe that incident was covered by the national news?"
"If it was, it wasn't repeated in America. How did you know that Kakeru is ill?"
Princess Lady answered that one. "Luna told us." She and I both showed Nayotake-san our IDs as a cold gust of air blew through.
"Aren't you a little young to be a Sailor Senshi?" Nayotake-san asked Princess Lady. Then she looked at me and asked, "And aren't you... well, the wrong sex?"
"It appears that our IDs aren't sufficient proof, trainee," I said to my teammate.
She nodded and said, "Moon Prism Power, Make Up!" And a short moment later, Sailor Chibimoon turned to Nayotake-san. "Is that enough proof?"
"I saw it with my own eyes. It will have to be enough." She turned back to look at me. "You still aren't a girl."
"True," I replied as I changed my appearance to Oni while saying, "We might not be bishojo, but Tuxedo Kamen and I aren't the only males on the Sailor Team, either."
"I see. Please, come in, all three of you." We did so, I dismissed my forcefield, and she closed the door behind us.
Saeko-mama introduced herself to Oozora-san while Luna drew my attention to a crystal on his desk. "That's bigger than it was the last time I was here," she whispered.
"Did Luna just talk?"
I turned to Nayotake-san. "We did tell you that Luna let us know about your friend's condition. Artemis can talk, too," I added while gesturing toward the other Mau.
"Hello."
"Oh." One thing that all astronauts have in common is a willingness to accept evidence; it's a survival trait in space. After a moment, she said, "Luna. I apologize for treating you as if you were an ordinary cat."
"That's all right. You didn't know."
I let them talk while I looked at the crystal. «Ichiro,» I sent, «can you sense anything unusual about this thing?»
«I'm sorry, Rob, but no. I'm not Meia.»
«Meia needs to stay with Mercury right now,» sent Hayate-chan. «We'll just have to do our best.»
«Right,» I sent back before turning my attention back to the crystal... only to see a Snow Dancer looking at it through the window.
"We've got company!" I announced as the Snow Dancer flew away. "Or, rather, we had company. The owner of this crystal is about to know where it is."
"The comet fragment?" We all turned to look at Oozora-san. He continued in a whisper, "I'm sure that Kaguya-hime left that here for me to find."
"I've never met a Moon Princess named Kaguya," I commented. "The two that I have met are named Serenity; it's a family name. But we can call your princess 'Kaguya' if you want."
"I'm right? There really... are Moon Princesses?" he asked with some effort.
"Yes, Oozora-san, there are," Princess Lady said with a smile. Quietly enough that he couldn't hear, she added, "But we might not be what you think we are."
But Nayotake-san heard. "Let's go into the other room and let Mizuno-sensei work." We did so, then she said, "I can accept that you're a Sailor Senshi because you transformed into one in front of me," she said quietly enough that she wouldn't be overheard. "But I can't accept that you're a Moon Princess. There's no air on the Moon, let alone life."
"If I may ask, why are you going to the moon next month?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"Please humour me," I asked.
"Very well. We're investigating the mascon in Mare Serenitatis."
I nodded. "I'd appreciate getting copies of your data, including any high-resolution photographs. We might be able to use it to determine what actually happened to Serenity's palace millennia ago."
"These flights of fancy are amusing, but hardly scientific. I'm surrounded by dreamers."
"You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one. The world needs dreamers to imagine alternatives, no matter how preposterous those alternatives might sound."
Then the power cut out.
Princess Lady reached for my hand, and I let her take it. "Be brave, Chibimoon," I said while looking at the window... which was covered in frost on the outside. "It looks like we're needed. And please call Shario-chan for me."
She nodded as she let go of my hand and pulled her communicator from wherever the Senshi keep things when they're transformed. Hayate-chan came along with the communicator, which she had already turned on. "I'm way ahead of you, Oni," she said before turning her attention back to the conversation she was already having.
"Nayotake-san," I said, "I'm going to have to invoke my authority as an officer of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department and ask you to remain in this building for the foreseeable future." And that made me wish Ryou was here to tell us just how long that was going to be. "It will very quickly be unsafe to be outdoors, if it isn't already."
"It's already too late to go outside without magical protection," Hayate-chan said. "Oni, you're on defence. Chibimoon, you're on offence. Don't let any Snow Dancers get near that crystal."
"Or Oozora-san," I added as I put up an IR-invisibility forcefield around the house. This was one time when we didn't want any heat to escape... or give away our exact positions. And it should at least slow down any Snow Dancers out there; in canon, our foe
really wanted that crystal back, and there was no reason to think our situation was any different. "It looks to me like he's linked with that thing."
"Right. Ichiro, you're on spotter duty for Chi- What?!" Hayate-chan turned her full attention to the communicator as Ichiro flew out of my pocket and headed for the front hallway. Nayotake-san didn't even blink; I think she was long past incredulity and halfway to blind acceptance.
"Oni, you'll need to let me out of the house."
"Right." I did so, feeling just how cold it was outside when I opened the door and a hole in the forcefield for Ichiro, then closed what I'd opened and returned to the others. "Ma'am, I doubt I'll be able to keep us both protected and warm for much longer."
Hayate-chan ignored me, paying full attention to the communicator. "No! You can't! We don't know whether she can control it, or what it will do to her!"
"Oh, no. Is Sailor Moon planning to use the Grail?"
"Worse," Chibimoon told me. "Saturn's planning to use Death Reborn Revolution."
I refused to swear in front of a child... so I begged instead, not caring that Nayotake-san could hear everything I said. "Please don't do that, Saturn. We just agreed to practically be siblings. I don't want to lose you."
"I don't have any other choice!" Saturn's voice came over the communicator. "The other senshi are down, except for Moon! Fire Busters are useless against the sheer number of foes!"
"Saturn, don't be Shiva to her Brahma, work together and be Vishnu!" I hoped that she would get the message that I couldn't just say, because I fully expected that our opponent could hear everything we said. However, she probably didn't know anything about Hindi gods.
I really hoped that Hotaru-chan did.
Shario-chan's voice came over the communicator. "This transmission isn't going to the battlefield. Chacornac is reporting an energy buildup centred on Moon and Saturn."
Nayotake-san looked puzzled. "'Chacornac'?"
"The Sailor Team has a sensor station and communications relay there," Chibimoon explained. "It's a relic of the civilization that existed before almost everything was destroyed millennia ago."
"My God! The energy buildup! The readings are off the scale!"
"Re-calibrate the scale!"
"This isn't a space opera, ma'am! I can't just re-calibrate the scale!" After a moment, she added, "Besides, Chacornac has stopped scanning to protect its scanners!"
"Both of you, please calm down," I said, just before the sky lit up in the south.
Chibimoon gasped. "That looks like one of my moonbeams, but lots bigger."
Then the house shook as a pressure wave hit it... and Ichiro slammed into the side of the house.
"Lots more powerful, too," Chibimoon added with some worry.
"Somebody give me a status report!" Hayate-chan insisted.
I looked into the other room. "Mizuno-sensei and Oozora-san are alive. Oozora-san looks to be breathing normally."
«I'm hurting, but I'll live,» Ichiro reported.
"I still have connections to Chacornac and the Mercury Computer." Then Shario-chan told us what we desperately wanted to hear. "The latter is showing all Sailor Senshi at the combat zone are still alive."
"Thank the gods," I said, with feeling.
After a few moments, once we saw that the snow was starting to disappear, I asked, "Permission to retrieve Ichiro?"
"Granted," Hayate-chan replied without looking away from the communicator.
I headed out and rather quickly found him where he'd fallen. "You didn't stand up on your own. How bad is it?"
"I'm still cataloguing the damage. I'm not flying and we're not going to Unison any time soon, Rob." Then he frowned. "And some of the damage is structural and can only be repaired on Midchilda."
Which probably wasn't happening any time soon, if ever. Ami was still working on expanding the Pandimensional Pathway spell effect to the point where we could physically pass through it. "Is there any bright side to this?"
"I don't think so, unless Shario-chan fusses over me while we're waiting for Naru to make replacement parts for me."
"The two of you do make a cute couple. Is it safe for me to move you?"
"It won't hurt me."
I didn't like that answer, but I doubted that I was going to get a better one.
There was good news and bad news.
The first good news was that the Lunar Frontier Project was not scrubbed because of snow. This meant that Nayotake-san had to return to NASA as soon as possible; she left Oozora-san in Saeko-mama's care.
The second good news was that Hotaru could transform to and from Sailor Saturn at will now.
The third good news was that my hunch was bad; Oozora-san was not a reincarnated Silver Millennian. Neither was Nayotake-san. Yes, that's good news in that we weren't tempted to try to recruit them.
The bad news was that even after the field repairs that we could provide, Ichiro wouldn't be flying anywhere or entering Unison without a major overhaul by a Device Meister with a full suite of tools and diagnostic devices. We knew one, but as far as I knew, we had no way to get him to the original Shario. We still let her know his injuries, just in case Hayate Yagami was available to open a portal at some point. Hotaru-chan and Bunny-san apologized repeatedly to him for being the immediate cause of his injuries, but he insisted that it was a small price to pay to let billions of people continue living.
I hoped I could be as selfless if a similar situation ever happened to me. Considering how I reacted to the Senshi's deaths at the end of the Missing Time, I seriously doubted that was the case, though.
Since nobody actually died and (except for Ichiro) we came out ahead, we celebrated with a sukiyaki party – the first with the entire Sailor Team participating. Excepting the Amazones Quartet, but nobody expected to see them before the new year.
Then we went back to studying. Sakura and Hayate-chan took over Ichiro's lessons, until it was time to write the end-of-term exams. The most important end-of-term exams for most of us, in that they would determine whether Mirai or Toyo Eiwa would even look at our applications, let alone let us write their entrance exams.
No pressure.
Well, Ami wasn't feeling any pressure; having scored 900 twice in a row will do that. We actually had to talk her down from being overconfident. Bunny-chan and Minako, though... they were wondering whether they'd set their sights too high.
And Ami didn't let us watch the launch of Shuttle Endeavour on the Lunar Frontier Project mission, which in my home reality would have been STS-61 with a different crew and mission. That was time that we needed to spend studying.
Teal deer, we all passed with good numbers. Ami scored 900 yet again, Ryou, Makoto, and I were comfortably where Ami was before we took our two-year vacation in Midchilda, and Rei-san scored high enough that she was allowed to take the top-stream exam at Toyo Eiwa.
Ichigo-san scored 818, thanks to her newly-remembered science knowledge. Naru-san scored 791.
Bunny-chan and Minako... were almost re-tested until we reminded Sakurada-sensei about the last time we had been re-tested. We also let her speak over the telephone with Shario-chan, who confirmed that she had been tutoring both of our classmates. Only after that did Kuritsu Juban Chuugakkou enter their test scores: 751 for Minako and an all-time personal best of 721 for Bunny-chan.
It was only after we got our report cards that we learned the cutoff score for being allowed to write the entrance exams at both of our desired schools was 720.
We had another sukiyaki party on Christmas Eve, with everybody who had saved the world a month earlier taking part. Then Saeko-mama, Minako, Sakura, Meia, Ichiro, and Shario-chan accepted the Tsukinos' invitation to stay the night at their place, everyone else went home, and... well, I think Ami and Ryo were as happy at their end of the house as Makoto and I were at our end.
I don't know where my dearest found the energy to make breakfast for the four of us the next morning.
But we were glad that she did, because we needed to work on Christmas Day. That in itself isn't strange in Japan. What was strange was where we needed to work.
We were in the middle of breakfast when we heard a news report on the television. "We have just been informed by NASDA that the Lunar Frontier Project has suffered a catastrophic failure of its engines. NASA has not been able to contact the Shuttle Endeavour since the failure, but telescopes indicate that the spacecraft is still in lunar orbit..."
"Why are we hearing about this from the news?" my dearest asked.
"Because our entire support staff are on vacation," Ami replied.
"Somebody call them," I said. "I'm heading to the Situation Room; maybe I can fill in for Shario-chan until she gets back and we can go into Life Support Mode with our partners and... until
you can go into Life Support Mode with your partners and go take a look," I finished with some annoyance.
"Yeah," Makoto said as Ryou picked up the phone. "You and Ichiro aren't going anywhere."
"Nowhere that we can't walk," I acknowledged as I headed for the kitchen doorway.
Five minutes later, I was sitting at the desk beside Shario-chan's in the server room, looking at a Midchildan-style display that I assumed Shario-chan and Naru-san had built. I knew enough about how to make it work to call up the message log from Chacornac – to discover that there was an incoming transmission.
I switched it on to hear Chacornac's AI. "This station is receiving a radio message. Should I answer?"
"This is consort-apparent Donaldson. Relay the message to this station."
Three seconds later, I heard the radio call. "... request any assistance that you can provide. Repeating: This is Nayotake of the Lunar Frontier Project, aboard Shuttle Endeavour. Our ship's engines have exploded. We have 24 hours of air remaining. If the Sailor Team can hear this, please reply. We request any assistance that you can provide. Again, this is Nayotake of ... oh, can
anybody out there hear me? Over." It was in Japanese, which I was surprised to hear in a NASA transmission, but it did make sense for her to use the language of the people who she was trying to reach.
"Chacornac, establish two-way communication between the Endeavour and this station. Hello Lunar Frontier Project, this is Oni of the Sailor Team. I can hear you. Until I'm relieved, I'm your temporary and amateur
CAPCOM. Over."
Three seconds later, I heard, "Thank the gods! Oni-san, this is Nayotake Himeko. Do you speak English? Over." The entire discussion had these pauses.
"I do," I replied in that language. "I assume I'm on an open speaker in your ship. We heard you report that you have 24 hours of air. How many are still alive aboard your ship? Over."
While I waited for her reply, I paged Ami's communicator. "Ami here."
"All seven of us survived the explosion aboard, Oni-san. Can you record our final messages to our families, please? Over."
"Stand by, Nayotake-san. Sailor Mercury, I'm including you in a call from the Moon. The Lunar Frontier Project Shuttle's drives exploded, everyone's alive, but they only have 24 hours of life support. Can we assist?"
"We can, but I'll need to get Uranus involved."
"You're in charge until Moon says otherwise. I'll continue to communicate with the survivors."
"Understood. I'll reconnect after making contact with Moon." And her signal dropped.
"Ms. Nayotake, did you hear all of that? Over."
"We did, Oni-san. Even if you can't help us, thank you for at least listening to us. Over."
"It's literally the least I can do for you. And Merry Christmas. Over."
Makoto walked into the server room between that and Nayotake-san's reply. "Sorry to force you to work on a holiday, Oni-san. Over."
"You know as well as I do that it's only a vacation for ordinary high school students in Japan, Ms. Nayotake. As far as we're concerned, lives come before time off. And Sailor Jupiter has just joined me at this end."
"Hello," she said. "Do you have video?"
"Over." I added.
"No, we're using an emergency low-power radio. We have audio only. Over."
We chatted with the Shuttle's crew for five minutes; mostly small talk, but I was able to assure her that Oozora-san was expected to make a full recovery.
Then Bunny-chan called us by communicator.
"Stand by, Himeko-san, my boss is calling. Hello Sailor Moon. I've connected you to our channel with the Shuttle Endeavour."
"Hello, Oni and Lunar Frontier Project," she said in Japanese. "Sailor Mercury wants to know whether your airlock is intact. Is this where I say 'over'?"
"Yes," I said, "and now we wait."
"We believe our airlock is undamaged, but for obvious reasons we haven't tested it. And you don't wait for too long. Please note that we only have two EMUs aboard. Over."
"There are birds on the Shuttle?"
"No, ma'am, she's talking about Extravehicular Mobility Units. You'd call them spacesuits."
"Oh. Mercury tells me that that shouldn't be an issue. Here's what we're planning to do in order to get the seven of you home..." She took ten minutes to describe the operation, ending with, "... so if there's anything that you need to bring home with you, you'd better start packing now. Over."
"How long do we have to pack?" one of the other astronauts asked. "Over."
"We don't want to reveal all of our secrets," I replied before anyone else could, "but I expect you won't see anybody in person for at least twelve hours, and probably longer than that."
"Before they left, Uranus and Mercury expected to be there in thirteen hours, assuming no problems with launch," Ichiro added over the communicator. "I don't have a code-name, so I can't introduce myself to you."
"Thank you," I replied as Ichiro sent me a text message. Glancing at it, I saw some impressive numbers. "That's an hour to get to the spacecraft and twelve hours to reach lunar orbit. Over." And
that meant that Mercury's Ultra-Long-Distance Teleport spell was sending them to Castle Mariner at an average speed of 0.25c because Mercury was in superior conjunction with Earth and they had to go around the Sun. I wasn't aware that the two of them could handle the G-forces involved with that even in Life Support Mode and magical buffering; I was pretty sure that Ryou and I couldn't.
"Which part of the Earth's surface should we be watching to see the launch? Over."
"Sorry, but I can't answer that." Because they weren't launching from Earth, I didn't say. And I wondered who asked the question; given the distances involved, they wouldn't be able to see the launch anyway even if it was happening on Earth. Maybe it was a joke. Then the door opened again and Bidou-san walked in. "I'm passing the microphone over to Bidou Yui, who was involved in the design of your failed drives. I'm sure she has some questions for you."
"I certainly do," she said as she sat down in a chair that she'd brought in from the Situation Room. "Do you have any access to the engines at all? Over."
"No, we can't get anywhere near them safely. Over."
"Then I need you to transmit the recordings of the telemetry from the engines." The discussion quickly became too technical for me to follow more than half of it, but it did keep everyone involved busy for three hours, during which Shario-chan and the others came home. I yielded command and control, and the CAPCOM position, to her; she was our C&C expert, after all.
I also had a quick talk with Ichiro, outside of the Situation Room while I made lunch for everyone. Nothing fancy, just beef bowls.
"I assume that Tenou-san is benefiting from more than just Life Support Mode. So, who's in Unison with her?"
He smiled slightly. "Hayate-chan, of all people."
"Huh. I would have expected Sailor Uranus to be too masculine for Hayate-chan to Unison with comfortably."
"You're looking at the surface, Rob. We look deeper. Haruka-san might not behave in a feminine manner, but she's still biologically female."
"And I let my preconceptions influence my opinion of her. I owe somebody an apology, especially considering I should have known better."
"Did you act on those preconceptions?"
I thought about my dealings with her, then replied, "No."
"Then, considering you've already apologized to yourself – you have apologized to yourself?" He knew me well enough to know what I was thinking; I nodded in reply. "I think you've apologized to who you need to. And the rice is ready."
"Thanks," I said while finishing the stir-frying of the vegetables. "I should still at least mention it to her, since my beliefs colour my actions. I'm changing the subject; do you have any idea how to get you to Midchilda so Sergeant Finieno can give you a complete overhaul? I can't stay on the sidelines forever, and I doubt you want to remain grounded and unable to Unison."
"While I don't mind being at Shario-chan's level of ability, I admit that I already miss the ability to fly. Perhaps if Ami had more power, she could open a pathway large enough for somebody my height to step through it."
"Or at least be passed through it feet-first," I added. "But where could she get more power from?"
"Perhaps Usagi-san and Hotaru-san could pool their power and share it with her."
"Isn't that how you ended up hurt in the first place?"
"Yes, sir. And Hotaru-san does want to help me."
"Because it was Hotaru-chan's power that hurt you to begin with."
"That and the house that didn't move when I hit it," he pointed out.
"Because I had it wrapped in a forcefield. I'm sorry that I added to your problem, Ichiro."
"No apologies needed, Rob. You didn't know, and you were acting under orders."
I shook my head as I spooned vegetables and beef onto bowls of rice. "I'll grant that I didn't know, but 'I was following orders' hasn't been a valid defence for decades."
"Only if you have reason to know that following the orders would be illegal or would put somebody else at risk. Neither of those apply here."
Heh; I learn something new every day. "Have our Midchildan friends been told what repairs you need?"
"Yes, Meia sent them the list along with our New Year's greetings. And the Nakajimas let us know that we have enough money on deposit that we can pay for the repairs; it seems that Ami's change to their contraceptive spell is very popular."
"It's nice to know that intellectual property is worth something even in Midchilda," I said while putting bowls on the table. Then I sent to the others, «Lunch is ready!»
«I'm still busy,» Bidou-san sent back. I didn't know that anyone had taught her our telepathy. «I'll get it later.»
«It'll keep. It's just beef bowl.»
«Good. Get down here now; Mizuno-san's sent us a message.»
I grabbed Ichiro and flash-moved to the Situation room. "How are they?"
"Hear for yourself." Shario-chan switched on the speakers on the holoprojector.
We heard Tenou-san's voice. "... flight is proceeding as expected and we expect to rendezvous with Endeavour on schedule. Out."
"Well, they obviously got the yacht to fly," Sakura said with a smile.
"Why didn't they call before now, though?"
I turned to my fiancée. "Because the biggest radio transmitter within a parsec, the Sun, was in the way."
"Oh, right. Planets move. I'll bet that Haruka-san is having the time of her life. She's the first person in over ten millennia to pilot an interplanetary spacecraft."
"The twelfth, I believe," Bidou-san pointed out. "The Moon would be a minor planet if it wasn't in orbit around Earth, so ten Apollo astronauts and Nayotake-san piloted interplanetary ships before she did."
"Does it really count, though?"
"Makoto, it's enough of a planet to give Bunny-chan a Star Seed."
Bidou-san smiled. "I hadn't even considered that, Donarudoson-san... or should I be calling you Robu-san?"
"I'd be happy to be on a given-name basis with you, Yui-san. We do care enough about you that we saved you from Viluny, after all. But that's you. I'd rather not be on a given-name basis with Hanyu-san; she might take it the wrong way."
Yui-san laughed. "There's no 'might' about it. She tells us at least once a week that she still wants to share her bed with you, Urawa-san, or both of you at the same time."
I put my arm around my fiancée's waist. «I promised I'd ask, even when we both know the answer.»
«My answer hasn't changed.»
«Neither has mine.» "She'll have to learn to live with disappointment, because I'm not interested in threesomes, or in her. Yui-san, do you need more data from Endeavour?"
"No, Robu-san, I have everything that they can send me. I'm using my arm's computer to analyze it now." She rolled up her right sleeve. "That's better; my arm was getting a bit warm."
"Let's go eat lunch, then. We're going to want to be alert later this evening. And you should let Shario-chan know that the cooling systems in your arm need some work."
It wasn't after dinner that we heard the good news – Mercury's yacht was able to dock with the Lunar Frontier Project shuttle. Apparently, she'd made some modifications to the yacht's airlock during the repairs.
We couldn't possibly keep it a secret. Every telescope on Earth that could be pointed at Endeavour had been pointed at them for hours. We had notified Superintendent-General Sakurada of the rescue mission during lunch, so both she and a representative from NASDA were in the Situation Room, listening in and watching what we could show them.
No, we didn't let either of them know where the Situation Room was; I brought them in wrapped in opaque forcefields so they had no idea where they were, and I took them out the same way. We all assumed after the fact that Superintendent-General Sakurada was smart enough to figure out where the Situation Room was, but we also trusted her to keep that knowledge to herself.
We didn't take part; we just listened.
"Docking procedure is complete. Pressure is holding. Over," Uranus reported.
"Endeavour confirms pressure is holding, but it's low. Over," replied Nayotake-san.
"Request you open both airlock doors in order to raise our internal pressure. Over."
"Denied; we aren't set up to do that in flight. Over."
"Understood. In what order are you sending people across? Over."
"Scientists first, then flight crew. Pilot Nayotake last. Over."
Yui-san, NASDA's representative, and I nodded in agreement; by tradition, the captain is the last to abandon ship. Everyone else in the room gasped.
"Agreed," Mercury said. "Please secure Endeavour for possible future recovery. We can't promise anything, but we can at least try to land the Shuttle somewhere. Over."
«Anybody want to bet on her pulling off a salvage mission later?» I sent to Makoto and Ryou.
«No bet,» Ryou replied. «Right now, it might only be four times out of nine that she succeeds, but I trust my fiancée to beat the odds.»
We turned our attention back to the procedure to hear that the scientists were aboard Mercury's yacht. Assuming that the rest of the rescue would go smoothly, I asked, "Where do we want to tell our ship to land?"
NASDA's representative spoke up first. "Our friends in NASA would prefer that Endeavour's crew land at an American facility."
"Sailor Mercury and Sailor Uranus don't have passports with their codenames on them," Superintendent Sakurada pointed out. "I must insist that they land on Japanese soil."
Before they could get into an argument over where Mercury's yacht – which really needed a name – would land, Shario-chan said over the intercom, "Kadena Air Base has a 3,688-metre-long runway." I wasn't aware that the USAF had that long a runway in Japan.
"Where's that?" Moon asked.
"Just north of Naha."
The NASDA representative said, "I believe that would be acceptable to NASA. How many of the Senshi will need to be on the flight to Okinawa?"
I needed to put a forcefield around my hand to keep Jupiter from breaking all of my fingers... but she didn't say anything. So I did. "Ma'am, I strongly suggest that at least one Senshi remain here in Tokyo, to liaise directly with NASDA and the TMPD."
It was pretty obvious that Moon knew why I said that. "Jupiter, it's your turn to stay here. Mars, Venus, Neptune, Oni, Onmyōji, Bidoh-san, you're with me. Jupiter, contact Okuni; if she's available, I want her on this mission as well."
"Yes, ma'am," my dearest said with obvious relief as she let go of my hand, stood up, and headed for the door. I put up an opaque forcefield so that our guests couldn't see the corridor on the other side of the doorway.
Superintendent Sakurada sighed. "As much as I want to hear the rest of this, I'll need to leave as well, in order to coordinate the landing with the USAF." She turned to NASDA's representative and added, "I expect you need to leave as well."
"Which means I'm leaving, too," I replied. "I'll have to put both of you into protective fields again."
So I did. I didn't take them directly to TMPD HQ, I swung past the Tokyo Tower instead, intending to add a few more minutes to the trip... but I was pulled over by a local police officer at the Tower because I looked suspicious. Carrying what appeared to be two bodies would give that impression, yes. I showed him my TMPD ID while I let Superintendent-General Sakurada out of her forcefield, she commandeered the officer's car, I gave her my Sailor Team communicator while I let the NASDA man out of his forcefield, and my passengers made their own way to headquarters while I returned home to the Situation Room.
I met Naru-san at our front gate. "Mama said that I'm not allowed to do any Senshi work during this trip," she told me as I took her overnight bag.
"Poor you, being forced to take an Okinawan vacation over the Christmas break," I said with a grin as I made an 'after you' gesture. "I expect I'll spend the entire trip blocking the paparazzi's view of Ami's yacht."
"Is one change of clothes enough?"
"I don't know; that depends on how long Bunny-chan wants to spend away from home. If it isn't, well, I've been led to believe that there are stores and banks in Naha, and I still have some gold that I can sell for spending money. For that matter, you could make a gem or two that you could sell there, too."
"Yeah, I'm never going to need money again, as long as I don't crash the market for gemstones."
"Become famous enough and you can sell one-hundred-per-cent-authentic Sailor Team gems for a premium!" We both laughed as we walked into the house itself.
By the time we got to the Situation Room, the exciting part of the rescue was over and Mercury's yacht was on its way to Earth.
"... to know where to land Caduceus. Over," Mercury was saying.
«Caduceus?» I sent to Ryou and Makoto.
«Usagi insisted that Ami's yacht needed a name,» my fiancée replied.
«And the connection to Mercury is obvious,» Ryou added.
I nodded. «Makes sense.»
As we had our private conversation, Shario-chan said, "There are two parallel long runways at Kadena. Local ATC will tell you which one to land on. Over."
"Now, where do we go to catch
our plane?" Minako asked.
"I'll ask," Superintendent Sakurada's voice came over the room's speakers. A few minutes later, she said, "Haneda, Terminal 1. NASDA will meet you at the station."
"The commuter train stops running at midnight," Yui-san pointed out. "We'll need to leave soon."
"Which means most of us don't have time to pack anything," I added. Onmyōji pointed at a row of suitcases. "Except for somebody who saw this coming. As I mentioned to Okuni a moment ago, the rest of us can buy what we need in Okinawa." I walked over to the row of bags and saw my own suitcase was there. «Who packed for me?»
«I did,» Makoto replied.
«Thanks, my dearest. ♥» I took all of the bags into a forcefield cart, the way I did when we went shopping back in Midchilda, and added Naru-san's bag to the pile. "Let's go."
Along the way, we decided that Sailor Venus would be our
Public affairs officer. She was fluent in both English and Japanese, she was a full Senshi, and she wasn't intimidated by the press.
I also commented to Ryou, "I thought you said we weren't getting an Okinawa vacation this year."
"This won't be a vacation, at least not for you or me."
Then we got to Haneda, and NASDA's PAO offered to take the role of press officer for us. We declined the offer, preferring to keep control of our own message.
And then we boarded a NASDA executive jet and took a two-hour flight straight to Kadena Air Base. I can't speak for the others, but I slept through it.
Sure enough, I spent our first day in Naha making sure that nobody could see Caduceus.
And that included our USAF hosts, who held an impromptu press conference to present the Lunar Frontier Project's crew, safe and sound and back on Earth thanks to the Sailor Team. Sailor Venus ended up answering a lot of questions, and not answering a lot more. I kept myself out of sight and the Caduceus under a loose but opaque forcefield. No, we weren't willing to show off our technology just then.
Mercury spent over an hour keeping me company, during which we discussed Ichiro.
"You're certain that the only place he can be healed is Cranagan?" I asked.
"Meia's certain," she replied. "And that means that we have to optimize Pandimensional Pathway even more so than we already have."
"Ichiro thought that an energy boost from Moon or Saturn might help you open a larger portal."
She thought for a moment. "It might, but I doubt I could keep a larger portal open for very long."
"It only needs to stay open long enough for us to push Ichiro through it."
She nodded. "It's worth a try. After Uranus and I get back."
"You are back."
"And the only known working Silver Millennium spacecraft is sitting on a USAF runway." She didn't gesture toward her yacht.
"Taxiway, actually, but I know what you mean. It can't stay here. Does it need refuelling?"
She shook her head. "Right now, it's refilling its air tanks, and I'm happy we landed here instead of in Tokyo to do that."
"Yes, the air is much fresher here than it is at home."
"Uranus and I are going to fly back to Mariner Castle tonight, and we've already planned our course to avoid flying over China."
"So Caduceus is capable of single stage to orbit? We really don't want anyone to know we can do that. How does that work, anyway?"
Mercury smiled. "Magic."
"Well, duh. What sort of magic?"
"I'd rather not answer that question while I'm in a military base."
I chuckled as I didn't look at the Marines standing guard over me and the yacht. "Point taken. Is there anything you want us to bring back as a souvenir, since you can't stay and look for anything yourself?"
"I've always wanted to try a
peach pineapple."
I nodded. "I'll see what I can do."
Of course, launching that night wasn't as easy as just taxiing to the end of the runway and taking off. The United States really wanted that technology. We got the rest of the Sailor Team off the base before making the attempt, and I ended up needing to put up forcefields on both sides of the runway to keep Marines from storming the yacht as Uranus got it off the ground. We didn't even bother trying to get takeoff clearance from the tower; Uranus and Mercury just left. Then I had to use all of my stealth abilities including the invisibility cloak that didn't let heat escape in order to get off the base myself.
Needless to say, we weren't welcome anywhere in Naha that catered to the Americans after that. NASDA wasn't happy with us, either, and refused to give us a ride back to Tokyo.
So we spent the next three days vacationing in Naha. Thanks to the destruction during World War II and the rebuilding after that, it was pretty much like any other Japanese city, all concrete and glass downtown, cookie-cutter apartment buildings and houses in the suburbs, and a few re-built historical sites including Shuri Castle. Honestly, if you've seen
Azumanga Daioh, you already know as much about Naha as I do from seeing the city. And I began to understand why so many school trips were to Kyoto, which had not been destroyed during the war.
I thought about visiting Irimote Island, but simple geography made that impossible.
Azumanga Daioh lied to me; it wasn't possible to make a day trip to an island that was substantially closer to Taipei than it was to Naha. So I went shopping instead.
Shopping wasn't anywhere near as fun on my own as it was with Makoto.
The second night that we were there, Naru-san handed me a replacement communicator. "Here you go. Don't tell mama. I was bored."
"Thanks. And you aren't the only one. Who knew that a tropical city could be so dull?"
"The others don't seem to mind, but neither of us can relax. I miss working at my workbench and talking with Shario-chan, and you..."
"Yeah, I really want to see Makoto again. But this is the next-best thing, if it can reach Tokyo. Thanks again, Naru-san. And we really should spend more time together, if only for Shario-chan and Ichiro's sake."
"She's at your place more than mine nowadays, Robu-san. And what would Mako-chan say about you spending time with me?"
"If you spend time with us rather than just me, I doubt she'll complain."
She shrugged. "I guess. Give the communicator a try, please. This one doesn't have the telepathy circuits, so you'll have to talk."
"If you insist." I took her up on her offer, thumbing the communicator on and selecting a channel I knew by heart.
"Hello?"
"Hi, my dearest."
"Hi, darling!" She sounded as happy to hear my voice as I was to hear hers.
"Hang on, Naru-san's standing beside me."
She smiled. "Not for much longer, I'm not. See you tomorrow."
"Okay, she's gone..." And my fiancée and I talked for hours.
I found a lovely clay cook pot for my dearest, peach pineapples for Ami, Princess Lady, and Hotaru-chan, and various Okinawan snacks for our friends. I also brought home some vegetables that I could only find in Okinawa, along with a local cookbook that gave ideas on how to use them.
Ryou took care of getting plane tickets for everybody. Economy class; we were expecting to have to pay a huge fine for ignoring air traffic control, after all. We took the two-hour break in our routines to write at least some of our New Year's cards on the plane ride back.
"Welcome home!" Makoto greeted us with a smile. Then she closed the door behind us and frowned. "Sakura spotted Jinguuji Minkao-san snooping around the house while you were away."
"Oh, dear. I get the feeling that she isn't working on a story about figure skaters."
"Hayate-chan agrees with you."
"Did Jinguuji-san spot Sakura?"
"We don't think so, but we can't be certain."
"Interesting," Ryou commented. "Seventeen times out of nineteen, we don't need to worry about this."
"Thirty-five of thirty-nine," Kasandara corrected him.
"Close enough."
I frowned as I started unpacking the souvenirs. "You've been wrong before, Ryou ol' buddy. Not often, I'll grant you, but if Jinguuji-san is working on a story about us, what's going to stop her from publishing it? She's been on a scoop chase since I first met her."
"I don't know," he admitted. "And that worries me, despite the odds."
"Not as much as this worries me," Ami said while holding up a three-day-old copy of the Asahi Shimbun with Sailor Venus's photo on the front page over a story about the press conference that she took part in. "It was bad enough when it was just our enemies who knew we exist. Now everybody in Japan knows."
"And wouldn't that be a scoop for Jinguuji-san, revealing our identities to the world." Minako took a closer look at the photo. "Not that it'll take much to connect the dots, at least in my case. I look just like me."
The answer to that little problem was obvious... at least, to an old North American comic-book fan.
We got permission from the TMPD to hold an impromptu appearance and concert on New Year's Day in Center Gai, right in front of Atelier Lucent. We would have preferred a larger venue, but this was all we could get on short notice. A few police officers worked crowd-control while we put on a little show.
"Hi everyone!"
Passers-by turned to look. "Hey, it's Sailor Venus!"
"You said it! Happy New Year! Happy 1994! How's everybody doing?"
People with cameras started taking pictures... including, I noticed, persistent paparazzo Nana Asahina, who for once I was happy to see. Everyone else shouted back "Great!" or "Wonderful!"
One person who sounded remarkably like Shingo-kun shouted, "How do we know you're really Sailor Venus?"
"Who else could do this? Crescent Beam Shower!" And suddenly there was a light show from her fingertips to the sky.
"It's really her!"
"Can I get your autograph?"
"No autographs, sorry. Today I'm here to sing the theme from Araki Jinta-san's new movie! I hope everyone watching will like it... Hey, who are you?" She pointed her hand at a girl in the crowd.
Said girl looked around, then said, "Me? I'm Mizuno Minako."
"Get over here!"
Minako did so. "Wow! I never expected to be face-to-face with Sailor Venus!"
"And I never expected to see somebody who looks so much like I do! It's like I'm looking in a mirror! Hey, do you know the words to 'Katagoshi ni Kinsei'?"
"I think so..."
"Let's do a duet!"
"Sure, why not?"
Then they both started singing. "Venus in the clouds before dawn..."
There was quite the crowd by the time they finished the song. "Encore!"
"Sorry, everybody, but I only have permission to do one song for you! Until we meet again!" And she ducked into Atelier Lucent, where Setsuna-san and I were waiting, leaving Minako to re-join her friends and get mobbed by the crowd.
"Good work," we said as we escorted her to the store's back room... and she let her disguise drop.
"I really didn't expect that to work," Bunny-chan admitted. "The Disguise Pen really saved the day there. But I lied about who I am to everybody out there. In the name of the Moon, I should punish myself."
"You never said that you were Sailor Venus," Setsuna-san pointed out. "You let everybody else say that. As long as people believe you were Sailor Venus and Minako wasn't, that's all that matters."
While I worried that we might be teaching Bunny-chan the wrong lesson here, I remembered that I had taught Ami the exact same lesson before Ail and An showed up: tell part of the truth and let other people reach the wrong conclusion. Oh, well, it was too late to decide otherwise now. "And I noticed at least one paparazzo in the crowd, so expect to see photos of Minako and 'Sailor Venus'," I did air quotes when I said that, "together in a magazine or newspaper any day now. Oh, and Bunny-chan, please tell your brother that he delivered his line right on time."
"I will!" she replied with a giggle. "And I'll also tell Naru and Shario-chan that their light-beam glove worked perfectly, too," she said while removing it. It was only when we were up close that we could see the glove was thicker than the one on her other hand, and had crystal laser emitters built into the fingertips.
"We're lucky that they can build things like that on short notice," Setsuna-san said with a smile while gesturing toward the glove. "Now, as long as you're here, I have a cute pink dress that I think would look lovely on you..."
I took the opportunity to escape while I could. Seeing my fiancée model new outfits is fun; seeing somebody I thought of as a sister model new outfits isn't.
Speaking of New Year's, of course we neither sent a New Year's card to, nor received a card from, Hotaru-chan, for the obvious reason. Which meant we didn't send cards to the Tsukino family, either.
The day after New Year's, which was the day before we went back to school, we visited the Hikawa shrine. Specifically, the outbuilding where we returned home after spending two years in the Lyrical reality.
"You're sure it has to be here?" Rei-san asked.
Ami thought for a moment. "I'm not certain, but we do know that it's possible to open more than a pinhole pathway to Midchilda here."
"Oh, fine. Go ahead."
Ami checked her watch, then told Meia, "It's time. Mercury Crystal Power, Make Up!"
I hadn't seen the old transformation sequence in a while. Yes, it still had the naked bit in the middle. Yes, Ami still didn't care who saw her. And yes, I had an impure thought about her... but only the one.
"Why the long transformation?" asked Minako.
My dearest answered while Ami and Meia went into Unison. "When I used the old version that one time, I had more power than when I use the instant transformation." Nobody mentioned Petz. "Not much more, but sometimes every little bit helps."
Note to self: Remind Bunny-chan of that when it came time to fight Galaxia.
"Well, we may as well do that, too... as soon as Ichiro-san, Robu-san and Ryou-san turn their backs."
"We'll just wait outside," I offered as we headed for the door.
"Jupiter Crystal Power, Make Up!"
"Mars Star Power, Make Up!"
"Venus Star Power, Make Up!"
"Saturn Power, Make Up!" I felt a bit sad that I didn't get to see Hotaru-chan's transformation. Again.
"Moon Cosmic Power, Make Up!" A moment later, she added, "You can come back in now."
As Ryou, Ichiro, and I rejoined the others, Mars asked Jupiter, "So, when do we get Crystal Power instead of Star Power?"
"Once you unlock your strongest attack. It shouldn't be too much longer."
"It would be faster if you spent more time training with us," Sakura added just before Unisoning with Jupiter.
"I have work to do here," Mars pointed out.
"Talk later," Moon ordered. "We have work to do." She turned to face Mercury. "Lend my power to Sailor Mercury!"
"Lend our power to Sailor Mercury!"
Beams of light shot from the Senshi's foreheads to Mercury's.
"If there's a wall in our way then we smash it down! If there isn't a path, then we carve one ourselves! Pierce the heavens! PANDIMENSIONAL PATHWAY!"
And there was a hole in the air, which widened to just large enough for Ichiro to walk through it.
I immediately set up a forcefield platform on our side of the Pathway and put Ichiro onto it, seeing that – as Ami expected – the other end was in the wildlife preserve outside of Cranagan. He raised his voice. "Hello!"
"Hello!"
I smiled. "Ginga! It's good to hear your voice again!"
"You too, Rob! We're ready over here whenever you are."
Ami was already starting to sweat from the exertion of keeping the portal open.
"I'm coming through now," Ichiro said as he did just that. He added from the other side of the portal as a small package came through going the other direction, "I made it through successfully, Rob."
"And whatever this package is, it looks like it came through all right, too." I saw that it was addressed to Naru-san. "I'll make sure she gets it." Picking it up, I couldn't help but notice it was very heavy. Then I remembered one important price difference between our two worlds, and realized she'd bought a gold bar with some of her patent royalties.
As Mercury closed the portal, I heard the original Shario-chan's voice from the other side. "Welcome back! What's this I hear about you dating my little sister?"
Ryou caught his fiancée as she collapsed from exhaustion.
As everyone transformed back to their normal identities, Bunny-chan asked, "Now what?"
"Now we wait while Ichiro gets the surgery he needs," I replied.
"Or for a couple of months," Ami added. "Whichever is longer. There's no way we can do that again for a while. Unless a Rank AA mage casts the spell from the other side of the barrier, Ichiro won't be home until we're in our last month of junior-high." Then she smiled. "As long as we're all here, shall we have a study session in Rei's room, for old time's sake?"
After dinner that evening, I helped Makoto water the Midchildan blue roses she was growing in her bedroom. Remarkable flower, the Midchildan blue. Beautiful foliage.
"So, what did you think when you saw Ami transform today?"
"My dearest Makoto, please remember that you're the woman who I want to spend my life with. That said, I won't lie; I thought our best friend is a very sexy young woman. Not as sexy as you are, though."
She sighed deeply. "I really want you to have eyes for nobody but me, darling. But if your eyes must wander, I suppose I can live with you looking at Ami."
"Especially since she's already told me that she isn't interested in sharing my bed."
"Speaking of sharing your bed..." my fiancée said with a smile.
"I like the way you think, but we have school tomorrow."
"Oh, right. Darn."
To nobody's surprise, Monday, the start of our final term in junior high, followed Sunday.
There were two empty desks in our class. But that was to be expected; with Mirai Academy open, the Watanabe twins wouldn't be attending classes with us any more. None of us were sad that they were gone, but some of us hoped to see them again next term.
We started cramming in earnest, every day after school, with Hayate-chan tutoring Bunny-chan, Rei-san, and Minako, and Meia tutoring Ami, Ryou, Ichigo-san, Naru-san, my dearest, and me. Sakura was in charge of Hotaru-chan and Princess Lady's lessons... which I learned at the end of the month was mostly TSAB Ground Armaments Service basic training, scaled back so that she didn't do more harm than good to the youngest members of the Sailor Team. I also learned that Shingo-kun joined them in that training and helped Hotaru-chan over the rough spots.
The Revealing Of The Lunches turned into the Revealing Of The Textbooks for a month. And the Emerald Pair weren't seen on the ice for a few weeks.
Yuuichirou-san and Chiba-san stayed out of our way.
Ami, Ryou, Ichigo-san, Naru-san, Makoto, and I were let out of classes early on Ichigo-san's birthday, January 22. Not because it was her birthday, but because we were writing our entrance exams that day.
We made it to Mirai with a half-hour to spare. We didn't see the twins, but we didn't expect to see them after we learned that they had their internal entrance exams earlier in the week. There was no reason for Mirai's students to stick around on a Saturday afternoon.
We showed our invitations and student IDs, and were asked to report to a small room beside the one where we were going to take the entrance exams... where we discovered Mugen's surviving prefects – now Mirai's regents – waiting for us.
Ami frowned as she said, "You know we really shouldn't be speaking with you just before the exams. Somebody might think you were giving us some help."
"They might," Yui-san replied, "but what we're doing is exactly the opposite." And she flipped a switch on a device that was sitting on the table.
Everybody in the room winced. Including the Unison Devices who'd come along to give us moral support.
"That's a Scaglietti-type Anti-Magic Field!" Hayate-chan gasped.
Yui-san nodded. "Good against Midchildan telepathy and Belkan Unison. Shario-chan told us how to build it."
"And I'm happy that none of you were in Unison with your devices," Arimura-san added. "We haven't been able to keep an AMF going for more than five hours, but that's more than long enough to cover the exam period. Now, Hayate-chan, Meia, and Sakura, you can join us in the staff lounge. The rest of you, go write your entrance exams."
"On your own," Yui-san added with a smile. "And good luck."
"Thanks, Arimura-san, Yui-san."
"If you pass," Arimura-san replied, "then you can call me Yuko."
We wrote our exams, and then we headed over to Ichigo-san's place for her birthday party. Thanks to our tutoring, we all felt relaxed after the exam and were able to enjoy our friend's big day.
Bunny-chan and Minako weren't in class the next Monday. It was their turn to write entrance exams.
Judging by how they looked after their exam, we wondered whether they'd get in. They might have to write the center exam for the public high schools... which wouldn't make Ikuko-san happy.
We had to wait a week while the exams were graded and sorted, so none of us knew our fates until the 31st. Ami didn't have juku that day, so we all got together at the Crown after school, bringing our unopened letters from Mirai and Toyo Eiwa with us.
We got the big table in the corner, with the manager's daughter waiting on us. As usual. None of us opened our letters until we had placed our sweets orders.
We read our letters in silence. Then we smiled.
Bunny-chan was the first to say anything. "Yay!"
"Oh, I can't believe that!" Rei-san complained as our orders arrived. She turned to our waitress. "Unazuki-sempai, odango-for-brains got into our school!"
I didn't know that Unazuki-san attended Toyo Eiwa.
"Just barely... sempai," Bunny-chan added after a quick moment. "I'm in the general stream. But at least now I have a chance to get into TA's university and study International Communications."
"You want to be a politician?" Unazuki-san asked.
Quietly enough that nobody else could overhear, Bunny-chan said, "Well, I do expect to become the queen of Crystal Tokyo after I graduate."
"Oh, right; Artemis-san mentioned that a while back. Here's your parfait. What about you, Mina-chan?"
"I get to wear your uniform, too, Unazuki-sempai! I'm in the same program that you're in."
"Then I'll help you study when I can! Rei, how did you do?"
"I still can't believe these two slackers got into our school, but at least I'm still a better student than they are. I'm now guaranteed a Toyo Eiwa university spot unless I flunk out of high school, although now I can aim for Todai."
"How did the rest of you do?" Unazuki-san asked while placing Ami's anmitsu in front of her.
"Thank you. Ichigo and I will be in the same program at Mirai."
"We get to study biology together," Ichigo-san added. "She's preparing for pre-med and I'm preparing for zoology."
"You already have your careers planned out? I'm still not sure what I'm going to do after I graduate. Motoki's going to inherit the family business and work with Artemis-san, so I don't have to. What about the rest of you?"
As she put slices of cherry pie in front of my dearest and me, I replied, "We're all in the same program at Mirai, getting ready for careers in small businesses."
"We're going to be our own bosses," Naru-san added. "I get to take over the family's jewelry store after I graduate from college."
"And I hope you'll hire my photography studio to take pictures of your products," I said.
"Her jewelry and my cakes both," added my dearest.
"What about you, Ryou-san?" Unazuki-san asked while serving him his dorayaki.
"I'll probably end up at a stock brokerage. Thanks. And of course we all have our other jobs."
Unazuki-san nodded. "And I'm honoured that you let me support you with that part of your life. No bill for this round of snacks, it's on me. Congratulations, everyone!"
Next chapter: Life is but a dream... or a nightmare.
Original text and original characters are copyright © 2022-2025 by Rob Kelk. "Rob Donaldson", "Ichigo Aoyama", "Meia", "Sakura", "Ichiro", "Sakamoto Kazuya", "Matsudaira Hanzō", "Yamaguchi Toshiaki", "Ueno Daisuke", "Elmira Bogdanova", and any representations thereof are copyright by and trademarks of Rob Kelk. "Kasandara" and any representations thereof are copyright by and a jointly-held trademark of Rob Kelk and Ian McLeod. Please contact Rob Kelk if you want to use Ichigo Aoyama, 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.
Codename: Sailor V, and the characters thereof are copyright © 1991-1997 by Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, and their licencees, and are used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
The Cherry Project, and the characters thereof are copyright © 1990-1992 by Naoko Takeuchi, Kodansha, and their licencees, and are used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha StrikerS and the characters thereof are copyright © 2006-2007 by Masaki Tsuzuki, Seven Arcs, and their licencees, and are used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
"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.
The name "Kibu Rina" (基部 莉奈) as the human name of the daimon Cyprine is the invention of Rob Kelk, who makes it available to anyone who cares to use it.
Quote from
Get Smart, copyright © 1965-1970 by Mel Brooks, Buck Henry, and Talent Associates, is used as allowed under section 29.21 (1) of the Copyright Act of Canada, R.S.C., 1985, c. C-42.
Lyrics from "
Imagine", by John Lennon, written by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, copyright © 1971 by Apple 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 "
Katagoshi ni Kinsei", lyrics by Naoko Takeuchi, music by Hideyuki Obata, translation by Google Translate, copyright © 2003, are 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's Flying Circus, copyright © 1969 by BBC, is misquoted and 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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