[IC][Story][Arc 1] Time Away

[robkelk]

No, this wasn't on my posted list of stories that I was working on. This is that other story that I mentioned. For now, let's set the scene and introduce some of the characters.

---

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
December 27, 2016
10:14 AM


"We need to talk."

"What about, Ami?"

"Us. And Rob."

Mii looked up from her tablet. "You don't look happy. Let's go somewhere else to talk, though."

"Ruiko's out spending her holiday money; she won't overhear us. Funny how we get it a week early here."

"The sales are more than a week early, too. But you're changing the subject. And I want to stretch my legs."

Ami thought for a moment. "I suppose we could go somewhere. Where do you want to go?"

Mii grinned. "Some place where nobody knows us except as fictional characters. And I want to see more of this world."

---

10:23 AM


Rob hung up the phone. "They'll be ready for you in Windsor by the time you fly in."

"Thanks, Rob," Mii replied.

"We'll be back before New Year's Eve," Ami added. "But who said we were flying?" She transformed to Sailor Mercury, took hold of Mii's hands, and shouted "SAILOR TELEPORT!"

Rob blinked, then spoke to the empty room. "I was expecting you to take a plane, but that works. I guess they won't be ready when you get there."

---

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 27, 2016
10:24 AM


The Good Neighbor System failed to go off, since it hadn't been installed yet. The only warning that the building's residents had to their visitors' arrival was a brief light show in the parking lot just outside their front door.

Ami quickly transformed back to her civilian identity, as Mii asked "Are you sure we're in the right place?"

"I'm sure. Why do you ask?"

"There's no snow on the ground. We didn't cross the border to the United States, did we?"

"Why, no," replied a young woman behind them. "You're still in Canada. You must be Ms. Konori and Ms. Mizuno. I'm Mahoro Ando. Welcome to Windsor."

Mahoro was wearing a white apron over a blue short-sleeved maid's dress - not as all-covering as an English or German maid's uniform, but far more modest than a French one - with a red ribbon with a brooch holding it in place as a tie. A maid's cap and a pair of sensible shoes over low socks completed the image of the quintessential professional maid... save for the yellow ribbon in her hair. Mahoro herself was taller than Ami but shorter than Mii, with black hair cut short except for twin bangs falling past her neck and short twin tails at the sides of her head. As Mahoro looked at her visitors, she noticed Mii's chest, causing her to frown in jealousy for a brief moment before she smiled again. But it was a very brief moment; she thought Mii didn't notice her lapse in professionalism.

A voice drifted over from one of the houses next door. "Hey, are you folks doing something weird again?"

Mahoro turned to the fence on the far side of the alleyway between the buildings. "I'm sorry! Mr. Ryuga was experimenting with the building's new lights, and I think he might have overloaded them!" she answered, more loudly than she had spoken with Mii and Ami.

"You better be careful with those big lights. They're expensive to replace."

"We'll keep that in mind! Thank you!" Turning back to the visitors, she continued in a more normal voice, "Let's go inside so you can make yourselves comfortable."

As they walked into the building's foyer, they were met by a tall, blond, handsome, very fit man. "Blaming me for the light show, Mahoro?"

"I'm sorry, Ryuga-san, but I couldn't tell them the truth."

He scowled, then nodded once. "I suppose not. But you owe me a favor." He turned to the visitors. "You're our guests? From what our landlord just told me, I wasn't expecting you for a few hours."

"I'm sorry," Ami replied. "Our landlord forgot that I can teleport. Ami Mizuno; I'm pleased to meet you."

"What? You're Sailor Mercury? Oh, wow!" A cute petite blonde girl who looked to be about Ami's age raced over from the far end of the foyer. "I'm Chizuko Oe; pleased to meet you!"

"Chi-chan, give our guests time to catch their breath. They just got here." Mahoro turned back to Ami. "I'm sorry about that."

"It's all right."

Mii decided she may as well make a chance to introduce herself. "I'm Mii Konori. Pleased to meet you."

"Hello," Chizuko replied politely.

"Chi-chan, where are the others?" Mahoro asked.

"Rin, Miyuki, and Mr. Norgarth are helping Minawa get a guest room ready. The boys are up on the roof. I don't know where anyone else is. I was going to go get some coffee - does anybody else want some?"

"No, thank you," Mii replied.

"Perhaps later, when I can enjoy it," Ami said.

Mahoro simply shook her head. Ryuga pulled a five-dollar bill out of his pocket and handed it to Chizuko. "If you're going to Taloola, bring me back one of those coconut-curry hot chocolates."

"Sure! See you later!" And she headed out the door, humming the Sailor Moon theme slightly off-key and slightly syncopated, with a smile on her face.

Ryuga watched her leave. "She'll be gone for at least a quarter hour." Without turning, he continued, "We understand you're looking for a place to talk."

"Ryuga! Be polite." Mahoro turned from Ryuga to face Ami and Mii. "I apologize for my housemate's lack of manners."

"You and your strange Earth customs," muttered Ryuga as he turned to face the women. "Sorry," he added, not sounding sorry at all. "How much privacy are you looking for?"

"Just enough to keep anybody from overhearing our conversations."

Mahoro smiled. "Then we chose well when we gave you a room with nobody in residence on either side. From the comment that Ms. Oe made, I gather that you're from a world where Sailor Moon exists as a person."

"Ami's the only Sailor Senshi here," Mii answered. "I'm from a place called Academy City."

Mahoro and Ryuga exchanged a quick puzzled glance, then turned their attention back to Mii. "I'm not familiar with that place, Ms. Konori."

"Donaldson-san ... Mr. Donaldson tells me that the stories are rather popular in Japan. I believe he called them A Certain Magical Index and A Certain Scientific Railgun; Railgun - Mikoto Misaka - is a friend of mine."

"That's something I'll have to familiarize myself with later," commented Ryuga. "Right now, let me show you around the place. Mahoro probably wants to get lunch preparations started." She left to do so, and Ryuga showed Ami and Mii around the ground floor, then lead the way up the stairs and went through the doorway to the second floor. "This is the floor where you'll be staying. Let's see ... 201, 202, ... here it is: apartment 203." He knocked, then opened the door. "Our guests have arrived."

A man's voice, slightly panicky, came from inside the apartment. "They're here already?"

"Yes," Ryuga answered, "they're both here."

"There's only two of them? Oh, good. I was half-expecting all of the Sailor Senshi to show up." The owner of the voice walked out of one of the bedrooms. "Hi." He looked at Mii, then looked at Ami. "You must be Sailor Mercury."

Ami blushed. Mii frowned for a very brief moment, then smiled. "I suppose she must be, since everyone keeps calling her that. Her name is Ami Mizuno. I'm Mii Konori."

"Oh. Sorry about that. Hello, Ms. Konori and Ms. Mizuno. You can call me Norgarth; everybody else does." They shook hands. "Your room should be ready before lunch."

A blonde girl wearing an apron over a green maid's dress and carrying some sheets stepped out of one of the rooms near the far end of the apartment. "The beds are ready, Mr. Norgarth," she announced through the pile of fabric in her arms, walking toward the group.

"Thank you," he replied. "And it's just Norgarth, not Mr. Norgarth, Minawa. Why do you still have sheets? Do you have to make up another bed?"

"No. I took too many sheets out of the linen closet. I'm sorry." Her last sentence was almost a whisper. "I'll go put them ba-aAAK!" she finished as she tripped on the pattern in the carpet and went flying.

Ryuga caught Minawa before she could hit the floor. The sheets weren't as lucky - and neither was Ami. Minawa looked around, went pale, and said "I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry!"

Looking like a Halloween ghost, Ami said, "There's no harm done. It's all right."

Mii noticed that Minawa looked much less anxious after hearing Ami's reply. "Here, I'll help you help Ami get free of those sheets."

As everyone was helping Ami get free of those sheets, the door behind them opened again. "We brought the - what happened?"

"I'm sorry," Minawa answered with a bow. "I tripped."

Ami and Mii turned (Mii more easily that Ami) to see that two girls their age had walked in. One - the more tomboyish of the two - was carrying towels and a bottle of shampoo, while the other - the more ladylike and taller of the two - was carrying a vase of well-arranged flowers. The latter spoke, saying "As long as nobody was hurt, there's no harm done," (which made Minawa smile slightly). Casually putting the vase down at the exact center of the dining table, she continued, "I see that our guests have already arrived. My name is Rin Todoriki; I'm happy to meet you."

"And I'm Miyuki Sakura. Pleased to meet you."

The visitors from Ottawa introduced themselves. Miyuki reacted the same way that Chizuko had earlier, but with less blatant enthusiasm and hero-worship. While Rin controlled her own reactions, Mii noticed that she did recognize Ami's name.

"I hope that you find this room to be comfortable while you're here," Rin said once introductions were completed. "If there's anything that we can do you make you feel more at home, please don't hesitate to ask."

"And if you want some bath salts or oils, come straight to me," Miyuki added.

"Excuse me..." Everyone turned to Minawa. "Do you want my help with unpacking your bags?"

Mii looked at Ami. Ami looked at Mii. "I knew we forgot something." They both turned to Minawa. Mii smiled in that Japanese way of turning a bad situation into a joke. "We forgot to pack."

"I would be happy to lend you some clothing, Ms. Konori," Rin replied.

Mii took a closer look at her, and realized that the comment she was about to make about Rin's tops probably not fitting her wasn't accurate. She didn't wonder why Ms. Todoriki was hiding her figure; she had firsthand experience with the unwanted attention those measurements usually brought. "Thank you, but I couldn't put you to such trouble."

"It's no trouble at all."

"And I do have some holiday money."

Rin smiled. "Of course I know of a good place to go shopping for clothes after lunch."

Meanwhile, Ami and Minawa had been whispering to each other, mainly because Minawa was embarassed about discussing her sizes in front of Ryuga and Norgarth. Their quiet conversation finished with Ami saying "I appreciate that, Minawa-san. I would be happy to borrow your coat while I go shopping today."

Minawa smiled, then wondered why she wasn't nervous any more around Ami - Ms. Mizuno, she corrected herself. Maybe it was because she hadn't shown anything but happiness while they were together. The only other person Minawa knew who was like that was Mahoro.

---

to be continued...

[robkelk]

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 27, 2016
1:07 PM


"I don't know what I was expecting, but that wasn't it."

Mii made sure the door was closed and locked, then turned to Ami. "What's wrong?"

"The way those boys just leered at you. Suguru less than the others, I'll grant. They treated you as if you were a ... a ..."

"A sex fantasy?" Mii sat down beside her friend and practically-fiancée, close but giving her some personal space. "They can't help it. They're teenage boys."

"You never get that at home. Did they even notice that you wear glasses?"

Mii thought for a moment, then smiled disarmingly. "Home is a special case. Almost nobody is as much of a gentleman as Mamoru-san is. And Rob is as much a gentleman in his own way as Wataru is back in Academy City. Accelerator ..." Mii thought about the times she's spent with their apartment-mate, and after a short moment, continued, "he just doesn't seen to care. But when I go anywhere else, I have to remind people where my eyes are - that, or wear loose clothing."

"That's terrible."

"You sound like Skuld-sama. It isn't so bad. At least the boys noticed me."

Ami winced as she realized just how much attention the girls their age had been giving her. Comments that Ruiko-san had made back in Ottawa about having watched Sailor Moon in reruns when she was younger suddenly took on new meaning to Ami - like it or not, she was a celebrity. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be. I wanted to go some place where we're only known as fictional characters. I didn't expect that everyone would only know who you were." Mii shrugged. "It happens."

"If you're sure...?" Ami didn't think Mii was happy with the situation, but she wasn't going to press the matter any further unless Mii wanted to talk about it.

"I'm sure. Now, what did you want to talk about, away from everybody else?"

Before Ami could answer, there was a knock at the door, followed by Mahoro's voice. "Are you two ready to go shopping?"

They looked at each other. "We'd better," commented Mii.

"We'll be right out!" Ami answered both Mii and Mahoro.

---

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 27, 2016
4:33 PM


Ami and Mii dropped shopping bags filled with clothes on their beds. Mahoro and Minawa both started unpacking for them, putting blouses on hangers before the girls from Ottawa could react.

"Oh, you don't need to do that!" Ami insisted as she started unpacking one of her own bags.

Mahoro looked puzzled as she continued working. "Don't you have a maid to do this for you in Ottawa? Funtom Placement Services told me that I was on the short list for a position there, but I was never called for an interview."

Mii shook her head. "Maika doesn't have time to do all of our housework; she's in charge of keeping the common areas clean, not our private spaces. She only washes our clothes if we ask her to."

"Kuroko-san and Mikoto-san ask her to, all the time."

Mii raised an eyebrow, then lowered it while she nodded. "They're rich girls from a private academy. Of course they're going to think that that's normal."

"That isn't fair. I'm not poor, but I do my own laundry," Ami pointed out.

"Yes, you lived in a luxury high-rise in Tokyo, your mother collects jewels, and you own an entire planet. But you never had the upbringing that taught you that you were entitled to personal maid services."

Ami was surprised for a moment, then remembered what she'd realized earlier. Of course Mii knew all that. "Mother doesn't collect jewels, just diamonds. And I don't own Mercury, I'm just its Senshi and Princess. Of course I should do my own housework."

Mii smiled. "Has anyone ever told you that you're cute when you're defending yourself emotionally?"

"Rob-san has, once or twice."

"Oh, you have a boyfriend?" Minawa asked while taking a pair of slacks out of the last bag Ami had brought back from the store and draping them on a hanger.

Mii and Ami stopped talking, turned to Mahoro and Minawa, and realized they'd never actually told the maids to stop.

"All done!" Mahoro's smile lit up the room. "We'll unpack your bags right away, Konori-san," she added.

"No, please, I'd rather do that myself," Mii replied quickly.

"It's no trouble," Minawa started to reply, only to be stopped by Mahoro.

"If that is what you want, of course we'll leave it to you, Ms. Konori," the older (but still young) maid began, only to be interrupted by a light flashing from her brooch. She quickly held the brooch by both sides and said, "What's wrong?"

A gruff male voice that neither Mii nor Ami had heard before replied, "We have uninvited guests. Three unidentified targets incoming. They're humanoid, but they're flying."

"Radar indicates they're very dense, probably robots of some sort," another voice they hadn't heard before added.

"Can we help?" Ami asked immediately.

"It's possible that we might be familiar with your 'uninvited guests', if only by reputation," Mii added.

Mahoro simply nodded as everybody raced to the roof.

[robkelk]

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 27, 2016
4:44 PM

The fog around the building's roof cleared to reveal the three invading robots ripped limb from limb, inert pieces of humanoid chassis scattered all over the roof. Ami sighed. "That didn't slow anybody down, did it?"

"It would have if we relied on vision," that gruff male voice they'd heard earlier replied - from the mouth of what appeared to be a black panther.

Mahoro nodded in agreement. "But Ryuga-san, Slash," she gestured toward the panther, "and I don't need to rely on vision. We all have other combat sensors that we can fall back on."

"And I could hear them," Minawa added.

Ami turned to Mii, who said, "And my esper power lets me see through your fog, so I could avoid their attacks. But I think it wasn't a waste to use your Shabon Spray - at least we don't need to explain a life-and-death combat to the next-door neighbours."

Ami smiled slightly as she reached down and picked up one of the robot heads. "There is that."

Slash scowled as he watched Ami. "Taking souvenirs from a battlefield is an amateur move."

Ami looked annoyed for a brief moment, then forced herself to calm down as she answered Slash. "I'm not taking a souvenir - I'm going to scan this and ask people at other residences whether they recognize this kind of robot. There were three of them, so it's reasonable to assume there are more; maybe even a mass-production line making them somewhere." Ami put the head on top of a fence pole, pulled out and opened the Mercury Computer, and proceeded to run her scans.

"And the more we know about them, the easier our future fights against them will be," added Mii. "Let's clean up this rooftop, then go back inside and do an after-action debriefing."

Slash's scowl disappeared. "Finally - somebody who's a professional."

While the others picked up the wreckage of their opponents, Ami continued to scan the robot head ... and then scanned her hosts. She realized that Kuroko Shirai's attitudes regarding potential combatants had started to take hold in her as well, but that didn't stop her.

The only one to notice Ami's scans was Slash - who assumed she was scanning the robot parts that the others were gathering up.

---

Fifteen minutes later, Mii and Ami walked back into their room, Ami reading an email that had just arrived on the Mercury Computer. "Take a look at this," she said to Mii as she turned the palmtop so they could both see the screen.

She read the message, and grunted in surprise. "Of all the people to reply, I wouldn't have expected Meg Deckard to be first. What's a '55C'?"

Ami typed a few keys, and after a moment, footage from an anime started to play. "It appears to be a combat robot model from the same universe as the 33-Stars," she replied.

They both watched the footage for a few minutes.

Finally, Mii spoke. "The ... 'Boomers', was it?" Ami nodded. "The ones we fought flew in. Those ones" - Mii pointed at the screen - "don't have any flight capability."

Ami nodded solemnly. "Which means either the robots we fought weren't Boomers, or ..."

"... or somebody upgraded them. And their attacks matched the ones in the anime."

Ami went pale. "Oh, dear."

"We're alone, Ami."

"Oh, fuck."

"Exactly. You call Rob, I'll call Ben." They both reached for their phones and moved to opposite ends of the room.

The San Antonio call connected first. "Hi, Ben. It's Mii. No time for pleasantries. I'm visiting the Windsor residence right now, and we were just attacked by Boomers."

"Wait. You're sure it was Boomers?"

"Meg Deckard says they were 55C models."

Ben swore, then replied, "Let them know to expect Washuu-chan in a few minutes. The priority on the implementation of their Good Neighbor System just hit top-level."

"Will do. And thanks. I'll talk with you again later." She hung up and turned to Ami, just in time to see her hang up as well. "Washuu-chan's on the way. What did Rob say?" Mii asked as she put her phone in her pocket.

"He was worried about two possible foes joining forces. And he asked for a written report that he could share with the other apartment managers." Ami suddenly smiled. "And he said he already misses both of us."

Just then, there was a knock at the door, followed by Miyuki's voice. "Mahoro asked me to tell you that dinner won't be until 6:30."

Mii, being closer to the apartment door than Ami was, walked over and opened the door, just in time to see Miyuki about to open the stairwell door. "Thanks! And I have some news - you're about to get another visitor, from San Antonio."

Miyuki turned, said "I'll let Norgarth know," then turned back to the stairwell and headed downstairs.

Mii closed the apartment door, turned to Ami, pulled out her phone, and commented, "Our talk will have to wait until after dinner - I have an after-action report to write for Rob."

Ami offered the Mercury Computer to Mii. "Would you prefer something with a keyboard?"

Mii put her phone down and took the palmtop. "That would make it easier, thanks."

[robkelk]

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 27, 2016
10:36 PM


"Thanks for helping me with this, Konori-san." Washuu was using one of her tools to open a passage through the wall struts. By no means was she cutting a channel - that would have been far too primitive. She was displacing molecules in a straight line in order to have a place to run a datalink line.

"You've done a lot of everyone else, Washuu-chan. This is the least I could do to repay -- STOP!" Washuu froze. "You almost cut through a support beam."

As she pulled some support braces out of a subspace pocket and set them up around the girder that she was about to molecularly separate, Washuu said, "Don't want to bring the building down on us, do we? Good thing you can see through the walls."

From the stairs, Ami asked, "How much longer do you expect to be?"

Washuu laughed. "In a building this size? We're working all night, Mizuno-san. Or should I say 'Mercury-dono'?"

Ami sighed. "Please don't." Then smiled and added, "Call me Ami-chan!" They all laughed at that. Turning to Mii, she continued, "I guess we're having our conversation tomorrow."

Mii nodded. "Sorry."

As Washuu and Mii continued installing the Good Neighbor System, Ami returned to her guest room to look over the scans that she had taken earlier that day. The people running cables and installing sensors wouldn't be the only ones spending a sleepless night.

Three hours later, Ami regretted swearing like a sailor earlier in the day - that left her with nothing stronger to use when she realized what she was looking at.

---

Blossom Apartments, Ottawa, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
7:20 AM


The Good Neighbor System beeped once, then went back to showing the normal status display. "I thought we had voice reports on that now."

"We do," Kazari replied to Mamoru. "That must be a new condition." She put her chopsticks on the rest beside her rice bowl, stood up, looked at the system display, and continued, "It's a new condition and a new node on the VPN. And it looks like it's a default install, too, so there's probably almost no hardening on that node."

"Is this new node in Windsor?" asked Rob.

Kazari double-checked the display. "According to the readout, yes."

Rob nodded. "Mii and Ami just installed it, then. Can you upgrade it remotely?"

"Not without sudo credentials, and I'm not going to set that up over the VPN."

Rob nodded again, this time in agreement. "Of course not." Then he sighed. "I wanted to give them time on their own, but this is more important than something that affects only us. Kazari-chan, if you want to secure that new node, be packed and ready to go in half an hour." Rob swallowed the last of his coffee and continued, "I'll call Norgarth and let him know we're coming. By car, this time." Turning to the other people at the table, he finished, "If you'll excuse us, we have to pack our overnight bags." He and Kazari headed out of the common room.

After they left, Minako asked, "Can anybody translate what those two just said into English? Or Japanese?"

---

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
7:24 AM


Mii stumbled into the apartment that she was sharing with Ami. "I need sleep. I'm sorry, Ami; we'll have to have our talk later."

Ami looked over at Mii, held back the annoyed response she was about to make, and instead said "Are you all right? You look terrible."

"I'm just tired," Mii replied as she dropped herself into a chair -- and immediately fell asleep.

Ami sighed. "You can't sleep here, Mii. Please wake up... You're not waking up. How hard did Washuu-chan work you?"

"Only as hard as I worked myself," replied the scientific genius in question from the apartment's doorway. "I forgot that she hasn't had even the stamina boost that I gave Donaldson-san, let alone the broader-spectrum boost that I gave myself millennia ago. Do you want my help getting her to a bed?"

Ami motioned Washuu to come in. "I'd appreciate that, thanks. But I also want - no, need to show you some scans I took ... yesterday, now."

"First things first." Washuu walked over to the left of the chair Mii had collapsed into, and Ami moved to the right of the same chair. As she helped Ami pick up Mii, Washuu asked, "What's so important that you need to show it to me instead of getting some sleep yourself? Not scans of 55C Boomers, I hope."

Ami looked to make sure the apartment door was closed before answering. "No. Scans of the other participants in the battle. Which do you want to see first; the bad one or the horrific one?"

Washuu stopped in surprise. "Horrific?"

"Let's get Mii into - no, onto the bed first. We shouldn't waste time with non-essentials like getting her under the covers. And I shouldn't have said 'horrific' because now you have an expectation about what you're going to see."

A few minutes later, the two awake women were back at the dining room table and Washuu had connected the Mercury Computer to her virtual terminal's display. "Show me what you think is so horrific first."

Ami did so.

Washuu stared at the screen. "What exactly am I looking at, other than a deep ultrasound scan of somebody who has had cyborg parts fused to her bones and muscles?"

Ami steeled her emotions and spoke clinically. "It's worse than that. This girl is a young teenager. She's still growing."

"Not with those cyborg parts fused to the way they are, she isn't... but she is, isn't she?" Ami nodded, careful not to show her own emotions. Washuu's scientific curiosity turned to revulsion. "Oh, dear sweet Tsunami, how could somebody do that to her? That must be causing the poor girl pain every moment of her life. She'll die slowly and painfully from multiple internal injuries - torn muscles, broken bones, ruptured arteries - before she's your age if we don't do something right now." Washuu turned from her display and looked Ami directly in the eyes. "Which one?"

Ami steeled herself to answer. "Minawa. And we can't help her right now, we have a more..." At this point, Ami's mask of clinical detachment broke and she started crying. "A... a more urgent patient." With shaking hands, she called up another set of scans. "This is Mahoro."

Washuu looked at the scans in silence for a long moment. "She's a very well built artificial human. What's the problem here?"

Ami dried her eyes and pointed at a digital display. "Her power supply. It won't last another six months; it needs to be replaced. And I don't know how to carry out the android equivalent of open-heart surgery."

Washuu looked at the readings a second time, then a third time. Finally, she replied, "No, Ami-chan, open-heart surgery would be simple compared to what needs to be done here."

"Can you help her? Them?"

Washuu decided that boasting about, or even mentioning, her scientific genius wouldn't help Ami just then. Softly, she replied, "I did give Mikoto-kun's clones normal lifespans, remember? I can definitely help Minawa-chan. And I'll do my best for Mahoro-kun." Then she let her behaviour shift back to what for her was normal. "But I'll need your scans to do anything, young lady! Copy them over. All of them."

"Oh! Oh, right." Slightly flustered from experiencing Washuu's sudden mood change, Ami uploaded her scans to Washuu's computer cluster, finishing the process just before there was a knock at the door. "Breakfast is ready!" said Minawa from the hallway.

Ami and Washuu looked at each other quickly. Then Washuu handed Ami a dry handkerchief while saying, "We'll be there in a few minutes!"

[robkelk]

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
1:01 PM

Ami held a freshly-steeped cup of Shui Jin Gui oolong tea near Mii's nose. After a moment, the aroma had the desired effect - Mii opened her eyes and stretched. "Good morning..."

"Good afternoon," Ami answered. "Time to get up."

"Just a few more minutes ..."

"You've already missed breakfast and lunch."

Suddenly Mii was completely awake. "Are there leftovers?"

Ami smiled; Mii's appetite was one of the few reliable things that she'd learned to expect in this new world they were in. "There's a full plate in the kitchenette. And more tea, made by Mahoro." Then she stopped smiling. "Rob's on the way, with Kazari-chan."

Mii got out of bed and grabbed a change of clothes. "To upgrade the Good Neighbour System?" Ami nodded. "How long until they get here?"

"Norgarth-san said they planned to leave at 8am, so maybe two hours from now."

"Rob likes to stretch his legs. Maybe three hours?"

"I wouldn't want to bet on that. Haven't you noticed that every time we tried to have our discussion, something interrupted us?"

Mii thought for a moment. "Now that you mention it... but what could throw that many different kinds of interruptions at us like that?"

Ami frowned. "Maybe the Ultimate Force. Or Hild-sama's equivalent, if she has one."

Mii put her change of clothes down on the makeup table. "Okay, you have my attention. I was going to get a shower -"

"Another interruption."

"- but now I won't." Mii headed for the bedroom door. "But I will eat lunch. Tell me your suspicions while I eat, Ami."

Inwardly, Ami winced. She wasn't one for making speeches - that was Usagi's specialty. But she had to try; she was the one who was worried. As she and Mii walked over to the kitchenette, she took a deep breath and released it slowly, then did that again to steady her nerves. "All right. You mentioned that there was some sort of filter that Skuld-sama had to apply so that you and your friends would stop being interested in being Rob-san's ... well, his harem."

"Rob-san said it was something about a psychic echo that was affecting us."

"I know. But why would Skuld-sama of all Goddesses forget to take measures to prevent us from becoming participants in a harem comedy?"

Mii put her lunch in the microwave. "That does sound out of character for her."

Ami nodded as she continued. "And did the filter work properly? Rob-san has been kind to both of us -"

"You more than me."

"Do you think so?" Mii nodded, and Ami went on. "He's been kind to us, and I love that about him, but Mamoru was kind to me back in Tokyo and I don't love him. Mamoru's the big brother that I never had."

"You know that your best friend loves him, though."

Ami thought about that for a moment. Finally, she replied, "There is that. But I'm not the only one who's acting strangely around Rob-san, am I?" Seeing Mii's blank look, Ami added, "Back in November, when we first found out about the Unseelie?"

Mii grimaced. "Don't remind me. I ended up needing emergency medical attention. These still haven't healed completely." She gestured toward her own chest.

"Because you just stood there and let them attack you. That isn't how the Konori Mii that I know acts."

Just then, the microwave beeped. Mii thought about Ami's words as she moved her plate to the table, grabbing cutlery along the way, and sat down to eat. "You're right. And Noike-san told me at the Halloween party that it would be a bad idea to let myself get hurt just to find out how he felt about me."

"But you did it anyway."

Mii thought for a moment as she started eating, while Ami sat down across from her and poured two cups of tea. After swallowing her first bite, Mii commented, "I'm starting to think that it's a good thing I suggested getting away from Ottawa for this talk. Oh, this is good. No -- we're not talking about how good Mahoro-san's cooking is. Are we being mind-controlled to love Rob-san?"

"You don't seem very worried about that possibility."

Mii shrugged. "There's a Level 5 esper in Academy City and who knows how many Level 4s who can change people's feelings for other people. I came to terms a long time ago with the possibility that I'd be influenced that way." She ate another forkful of lunch while waiting for Ami to reply, then looked up to see Ami just staring at her, mouth agape. "What?"

Ami shook her head quickly to clear the shock from it. "I could never accept the idea that my mind could be controlled, even - no, especially after I saw what Wiseman did to Chibi-Usa. My mind is the most important part of me, after all. But if we are being controlled, who's doing the controlling? And if we aren't, why did we fall in love with Rob-san so quickly?"

Mii looked at Ami for a moment as she took another bite of her lunch. Then she said, "We did know him for two months before we said anything about our feelings, Ami."

"Is that really long enough to fall in love with somebody?"

"You're a Senshi of Love. Wouldn't you know the answer to that better than I would?"

Ami sighed. "Maybe Minako or Mako-chan would know. I've always been more of a Senshi of Knowledge."

"Speaking of knowledge, how did you know that there's something going on with how we feel? Assuming we are being controlled."

It was Ami's turn to grimace. "The feedback from Hyoga-san. You felt it too, I know. I felt things that I'd never felt before, and when we found out that it was Hyoga-san who was feeling those things, I didn't get upset. And that frightened me."

"Things that you'd never felt before? You've never felt that way about anybody in the past?"

"Never. Not even for Urawa-kun, back when he carried a Rainbow Crystal."

Mii grinned. "You are a late bloomer," she said teasingly.

"Can we stop talking about that, please?"

Mii shook her head. In all seriousness, she answered, "No, we can't. If we are being controlled, that's important information that we have to consider."

"And I have considered it. That's why I wanted to talk with you in the first place."

"Oh, right." Mii ate another forkful of Mahoro's cooking, following it with some tea. "Okay, let's assume that we're being influenced in some way to love Rob-san. First question: Do you mind?"

Ami's reply was immediate. "I don't mind the emotion. I do mind being influenced."

"Agreed. For me, it was more lust at first sight because that filter wasn't in place, changing to respect that he didn't take advantage of me, and that became love. Second and third questions: Who's influencing us, and what do they have to gain from it? I want to establish a possible means, motive, and opportunity before I make any accusations."

They both sat in silence for a moment; Mii eating and Ami sipping her tea.

"You mentioned the Ultimate Force," commented Mii. "Do you really think one of the Goddesses could be influencing us?"

Ami continued to sip her tea as she considered how to reply. finally, she said, "Maybe. It wouldn't be Skuld-sama, of course."

"Of course not."

"Belldandy-sama... I don't think that Belldandy-sama could do something like that to us."

Mii nodded in agreement. "She never did anything like that in the anime that we saw. Marller did, though; that heart-balance-whatever thing that she used that one time."

"And so did Urd-sama with her potions."

"And Peorth-sama tried, too, come to think of it. I wouldn't want to be Keiichi-san. And Peorth-sama and Urd-sama both have access to Yggdrasil and the Ultimate Force. All right, I'll accept that it's possible that a Goddess or two might be influencing us; two of them have both means and opportunity. But that still leaves my third question unanswered, and that ties to motive."

Ami sighed as she nodded. "Right. What do they have to gain from it?"

---

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
3:37 PM


"It's good to finally meet you in person," Rob said as he offered to shake Norgarth's hand. "It's too bad you couldn't make it to the Christmas party."

"We aren't really part of your group. It wouldn't have been right for us to just show up."

Rob raised an eyebrow, Spock style. "Really? If you never come to the parties and meet us, you never will get to know us."

"I suppose." Norgarth gestured to a new box on the wall "Here's the Good Neighbour System."

Kazari smiled. "I'll start work here, while you go see Mii-sempai and Ami-san. Say hello to them for me, please?"

Rob smiled and nodded. "Of course."

---

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
3:53 PM


"I can't believe that a Goddess would do something like that to us."

"I don't want to believe it, either," Mii replied to Rob, "but Ami makes a good case. Even if it is based on circumstantial evidence."

Rob frowned. "Exactly. Circumstantial evidence. But it's all we have to go on." Then he stopped frowning. "Unless..."

When it became obvious that he wasn't going to complete his sentence, Ami asked, "Unless?"

"One week ago, Hyoga and I did the Goddesses a big favour." Mii and Ami smiled at the understatement. "She got a new body out of it. I got ..." He trailed off, slightly embarrassed.

"A geas, according to Hyoga."

Rob nodded at Mii's summation of his condition, then took a sip of the tea that Mahoro had provided for the three of them. "Exactly. Hey, this tea is good."

Mii and Ami exchanged a look. "You're getting sidetracked."

Rob blinked as he put the teacup on its saucer. "I am, aren't I? Sorry. Anyway, maybe - just maybe - the Goddesses owe me a favour." Just then, his teacup started to shake. Everybody in the room knew what that meant.

A moment later, Mii offered her arm to Skuld. "May I help you down from the table?"

"And how did you know to visit us?"

"Yes, thank you," Skuld replied to Mii as she stepped down to the floor. Then she turned to Rob. "We've been taking turns waiting for you to figure out that we owe you for last week. We owe Kazakiri-san, too, but you figured it out first."

"Owe them what?" Ami asked, suddenly suspicious. Hearing Skuld's comment, and not being in a frame of mind to trust anybody, Ami's list of possible meddlers in her life expanded to include the Norn of the Future.

"A wish, of course! Or a second wish, in Rob's case. What else could we possibly give them that's fair payment for the work they did?"

"I was hoping you'd say that," replied Rob. "If you've been listening in, then you heard what Ami and Mii explained to me."

Skuld suddenly looked completely serious. "We did. The Ultimate Force comes into effect when a mortal makes a wish with a Goddess, and only when a mortal makes a wish with a Goddess. And nobody has wished that the three of you be part of ..." Skuld's nose wrinkled in disgust as she finished. "... a harem."

"Not even Urd? She was the one who said I was getting three, no, four or more girlfriends as a 'hero's reward'."

"Don't remind me," Skuld replied, flatly. "No, not even Urd. But even if she did, the Ultimate Force only steps in to protect wishes, not to force people into living out a plotline from a stupid story."

Mii and Rob sighed in relief. Ami looked less worried than she had just a moment earlier.

Skuld went on. "And even if it did, I would have seen something in the system logs by now. It is not the Ultimate Force doing this to you."

The mortals in the room took a moment to absorb that pronouncement. Finally, Ami asked, "Then who is?"

Skuld sighed deeply. "I've said too much already - that's protected information. But I gave you a hint. Don't tell Kami-sama, okay?"

Everybody else nodded. Ami replied, "If we're going to use a wish to clear up this matter, then we need to be careful what we say before we have the wording just right."

"I'm the one who has to be careful. It's my ... should I even risk saying the word?"

Skuld gave Rob the "are you really that stupid?" look that teenage girls know and use so well. "Even Banpei-kun is smarter than that. It's safe to say the word 'wish'. I'm not an idiot that mindlessly reacts to what she's told."

While he was reassured, Rob used the word "wish", or "desire", or anything similar only a few times in the next quarter-hour as everyone discussed the exact wording of the wish. He did excuse himself for a moment to call Hyoga, though, just to explain things and find out whether she wanted to be involved in the effect.

She answered his question immediately. "Darling, we formed our feelings for each other under fire, in Niflheim. Nobody on Earth could have affected us there. Please -- don't change our feelings for each other."

Rob smiled at the memories that Hyoga's reply brought back, not that she could see him. "If you're sure?"

"I'm sure."

"All right. I won't include you in the wish. I miss you."

"I miss you, too. Hurry back, please."

"The morning after we're finished here and I've had a full night's sleep. You don't want me driving through Toronto tired."

The other women in Rob's life ignored the phone conversation except for how it affected the wording of the wish. When he rejoined the local discussion, Mii handed him a piece of paper. "What do you think of this?"

Rob read it, twice, thought for a moment, then answered, "I think it's good."

Skuld asked the formal question as she stepped out onto the apartment's balcony: "Have you reached a decision?"

Ami transformed to Sailor Mercury and cast a Shabon Spray, hoping that it would mask the light show that she was expecting to happen shortly.

Rob nodded as he looked at Skuld through the obscuring fog, silently thanking her again for the glasses that he was wearing that let him do just that. He gave the formal response: "I have."

"What is your wish?" Skuld asked, knowing full well what the answer would be.

"I wish that any and all externally-imposed emotions that Rob Donaldson, Ami Mizuno, and Mii Konori feel for each other be nullified and made nonexistent."

Skuld smiled as a bolt of energy ran through her and into the heavens. "Wish registered." Then she stepped back into the building. "But I don't have enough power to cast a spell to grant it."

"Do we need to call Belldandy-sama for help?" Mii asked.

Skuld shook her head. "No, I just need some spare parts and a soldering iron."

Eleven minutes later, they were in the building's basement, in a room hidden in the back of a storeroom. Mahoro gestured to a man who they were just meeting. "This is Minato Hokaze, a very good friend of mine."

"I also carry out Mahoro's maintenance," he added. Mii and Ami recognized his voice - it was the second voice that had come from Mahoro's brooch just before the Boomer attack. "I'm pleased to meet you all."

Before anybody else could reply, Skuld shooed them out of the room. "We're going to be busy for a while! Don't disturb us!"

---

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 28, 2016
9:23 PM


Skuld burst into Ami and Mii's bedroom, holding up a cellphone-sized box with a single LED and a single push-button. "Done! Emotion-Restorer-kun is a work of genius, if I say so myself!" She looked around. "Where's Rob-san?"

"He's talking with Ryu-san," Mii replied.

"He isn't here?"

Ami smiled. "He didn't trust himself to be left alone with us. He was worried that, if we are being affected, whoever's affecting us might make one last push before losing his hold on us." She sighed happily. "Isn't he wonderful for thinking of us that way?"

Skuld looked at Ami for a moment. "If he's acting the way you are, it's a good thing that he did."

"Oh?"

"You aren't acting like the Sailor Mercury that I know from the files in Yggdrasil." Before Ami could reply, Skuld continued, "Call him. It's time for Emotion-Restorer-kun to work his magic!" As Mii stepped out of the room, Skuld continued, "I was expecting to take longer to make Emotion-Restorer-kun, but Hokaze-hakase had some Saint technology in his spare parts bin, including the hardware that gives souls to their androids. That made my work - no, our work - much easier!" She continued explaining the hardware that she had just created for three minutes straight.

When Skuld stopped for breath, Ami said, "Skuld-sama, I'm a pre-med student, not an engineering student. I can barely follow you."

"I thought you were a super-genius."

"I am. But I don't know everything. I'm not Washuu-chan, or you."

Just then, Mii returned, followed by Rob. Ami almost rushed over to hug them both, but caught herself just in time. 'Ami doesn't act that way,' she thought. 'I don't act that way.'

Rob walked directly to Skuld, purposefully ignoring the beautiful teenager who he was in love with. "What do we need to do?"

Skuld nodded. "All three of you need to take hold of Emotion-Restorer-kun at the same time, then somebody pushes the button."

They did so, slowly and reluctantly. Rob put his thumb on the button, then said, "Do we have to do this?"

Ami shook her head as she closed her eyes to keep the tears from flowing. Mii answered, "Suddenly I don't want to, and it isn't fair to ask you to give up happiness just after you were geased ..." Then she put her thumb on Rob's finger and pushed, forcing Rob to push the button. "... But we need to."

The LED on Emotion-Restorer-kun's case lit, glowing white for a moment. Then it turned itself off.

Then Ami and Mii let go of the box, leaving it in Rob's hand. "Oh, gods, what was I doing?" they said in unison.

Rob sighed deeply, tears in his eyes. "I'm so, so sorry, Mizuno-san, Konori-san."

"For what?"

He turned to Ami, looking directly at her eyes. "For thinking what I was thinking about you." Then he turned to look at Mii's face. "Both of you."

"Whatever you were thinking, you didn't take advantage of us, " Mii replied. "And I respect you for that."

Nobody - including Skuld - said anything for a moment.

"Can we still be friends?"

"I was hoping you'd ask that," Rob replied, still so affected by the removal of those imposed emotions that he wasn't sure who had asked the question.

Skuld glowed for a moment, then smiled. "Wish granted. And now I have to get back to Yggdrasil. Before getting to taste Mahoro-san's cooking, too."

"Do you want this back?" Rob held up Emotion-Restorer-kun.

"No, keep it. You might need it again. Until next time!" And she was gone in the glow from the teacup on the table.

Nobody said anything for another long moment. Then, suddenly, Ami put on her own debugging glasses, took Rob's right hand in her own, and looked closely at their hands. After a few seconds, she sighed - happily? Rob wasn't sure. He wondered what she was looking for... then he saw it, looking at their hands out of the corner of his eye, through his own debugging glasses.

There was still a red string tied between their fingers.

He saw another string between his hand and Mii's, and a third string stretching off in the direction of Ottawa and Hyoga.

"Let's take the time to become friends without being pushed into it," he finally said. "Then we can worry about what else we might become together. We have plenty of time."

Ami smiled slightly, and shyly. "Yes, let's. Now our relationship - whatever it turns out to be - can develop naturally."

"And be the stronger for it," Mii added.

Just then, there was a knock at the apartment door. "Excuse me," Minawa's voice came from the hallway. "Uiharu-san has finished her work."

"Thank you," Rob replied, heading toward the apartment door. "Time for me to get some sleep," he said. "I promised Hyoga that I'd head back tomorrow."  Then he stopped, and turned back to the ladies who he had recently thought he loved. "There's just one more thing... If somebody or something has been throwing interruptions at you since you got here, how did you find the time to talk?"

Mii grinned. "Ami knows me too well. Washuu-chan worked me so hard installing the Good Neighbour System last night that I should have stayed asleep until you showed up, but Ami played to my appetite."

Rob raised an eyebrow. "Is Mahoro's cooking really good enough that it woke you up early?"

Both girls nodded in reply. Ami added, "Mahoro-san's tea is that good. Her cooking kept Mii awake."

---

Club Lofts, Windsor, ON, Canada
December 29, 2016
9:04 AM


"You're leaving so soon? You just got here yesterday."

Rob nodded apologetically as he put his suitcase in his car's trunk. "I made a promise."

Norgarth turned to Kazari. "You're welcome to stay for a while."

She smiled. "Thank you. If it's all right with Rob-oji and Hokaze-hakase, I'll stay and take a look at the Saint technology that he has here."

"I don't mind," replied Norgarth.

Rob added, "As long as you can make your way home before New Year's Eve, the day after tomorrow."

"I think I can take two passengers in a Sailor Teleport," Ami answered. "And if I can't, then Usagi and Mako-chan can pop down here for a moment and help us get back home. We'll see you in two days, then."

Rob nodded. "So, you two have had the talk that you wanted to have. I know what Kazari-san is doing; how are you going to fill your time for two days?"

Mii grinned. "Chizuko-chan promised to take me to all the good places to get something to eat."

"And I'm going to - what was that?" Ami pointed at a crack in the parking garage's wall.

Mii knelt and looked at the crack in the wall... then looked through the wall. "There's a tunnel on the other side. It heads down ... and twists a bit ... and keeps going - oh!"

"What's wrong?" Rob asked.

"I saw something that I didn't recognize. It moved away, out of range of my clairvoyance."

Her x-ray vision, Rob thought. "Can you sketch it?"

Mii accepted Rob's help in standing up. She pulled a notebook and pencil out of her pocket, and sketched for a few minutes. "It looked like this."

Rob took a look at the sketch, pulled out his Passport, connected to the Internet and did an image search. "Is this a photo of it?"

"That's more a puppet version of it, but yes."

Rob turned to their host. "I don't know how to tell you this... may as well say it straight out. You've got Fraggles."

- fin -

[Norgarth]

"I suppose that explains what's been happening to some of the radishes in the garden."

[Labster]

OMAKE

When Skuld stopped for breath, Ami said, "Skuld-sama, I'm a pre-med student, not an engineering student. I can barely follow you."

"I thought you were a super-genius."

"I am. But I don't know everything. I'm not Washuu-chan, or you."

A dimension door opened up, and Washuu poked her head through.  "No one can match my level of super-genius!"

Skuld scowled, "Hey!  Go back to your own story!"

"Oh, fine."  Her tongue poked out of her face just before the dimension door closed.