Hands Fall Together by Kihin Ranno

Part Three: Caffeine Dream

Usagi was awake early that morning, staring out the front window of her home. She looked out at her neighborhood before her, gazing at the impeccable homes that were the envy of most of Japan. Most of the families in their neighborhood had many small children to their credit. She was one of the older ones on the block. Still, many of her neighbors had often remarked that she looked and acted very much like the youths she was not yet allowed to long after by herself.

"I've never seen her without a smile on her face."

"She's so carefree."

"You're always happy, aren't you, Usagi?"

"She cries like my nine-month-old."

"But they're always crocodile tears."

"Can anything get you down?"

"It's like nothing's ever touched her."

"She's still so innocent."

Usagi winced at the last memory, but did not turn away from the window. No, she could not yet bring herself to look away from the families in her neighborhood with their pure, unsullied children. Usagi had never noticed the resemblance between her gaze and that of a five-year-old, but she had always taken their word for it.

She shifted her focus so that she could clearly see her reflection in the glass. She studied her eyes as never before, suddenly conscious of the words of her neighbors. Her eyes were indeed wide and bright... but even she could sense there was something different about them now. And since it was said that eyes were the window to one's soul, that must have meant something was different about her.

She wondered if the neighbors would still think she was innocent now.

"Usagi?"

She turned around, a little startled but not surprised to hear her brother's voice call from the top of the stairs. He scratched his head, mussing up his hair even more. Shingo cocked his head to the side and asked, "What are you doing up so early?"

Usagi smiled softly. No, she was no longer innocent.

"I just couldn't sleep," Usagi assured him with a shrug of her shoulders.

He looked momentarily concerned, though he would surely deny it if she pointed it out. "Did you have a nightmare or something?"

But strangely enough, she was not afraid.

"No. No nightmares," Usagi explained. Then her soft smile twisted into a mischievous grin. "But you're going to have one if you think you're getting in the shower before me!"

And with that, brother and sister both raced for the bath, shrieking and yelling at one another as siblings always did. When one of them pushed the other into the wall shared with their parents' master bedroom, Kenji sat bolt upright in bed. He glared at the wall with malevolence one could only muster after having just been roused from a deep sleep. He punched his pillow with some violence and muttered, "Some things never change."

-----

At precisely six in the morning, just like hundreds of mornings before, an alarm clock buzzed, rousing the slumbering water nymph from her dreams. Her eyes opened without hesitation, her right hand reaching out and tapping the button on her alarm clock to end its noise permanently. She had never once even considered hitting the snooze button for just five more minutes. She simply sat up, threw the covers off her, stretched her arms to the sky, and prepared to greet a brand new day.

Before doing anything else, the teen walked over to her cedar wood desk and gathered up the homework she hadn't placed into her briefcase the night before. She glanced at each one, just to make sure that she had remembered to sign her name to every slip of paper. She had, as always, not neglected to write Mizuno Ami in perfect kanji at the top of every sheet. Satisfied with her normal aptitude, she placed all of the papers in her briefcase and went about getting ready.

From there, things continued on in their normal routine. She took a quick shower to scrub away the grime that had accumulated over the previous day. The water was always so hot that it nearly scalded her. Ami's skin turned painful pink as the liquid pounded against her back and shoulders. The heat and pressure made her flesh sing with what some thought was discomfort, but she reveled in it. She was content, and that wasn't something that she often felt as of late.

When she emerged, steam rose from the droplets that clung to her as a child would to a parent. The translucent smoke escaped from her shower and clouded the mirror. It quickly got to the point where she could scarcely see her navy and ivory silhouette. She toweled off briskly, knowing that her hair would dry long before she left for school.

Ami dressed in her school uniform, stepped into her house slippers, and walked the length of the penthouse to the kitchen. There, she filled her obento box with two sandwiches and a bottle of water. All that was left to do was pour her mother's healthy cereal into a crystal bowl, add milk, and sit down at the empty kitchen table to eat in silence.

It was all routine. One day exactly like the next. The monotony was soothing, but it was a cold kind of solace.

Ami sighed and glanced over at the clock as she spooned the last bit of soggy cereal into her mouth. It was five minutes to seven and time to get to school. So, just like always, Ami gathered her things, put on her shoes, and headed out the door to the elevator.

She exited her building quickly and headed on to the crowded streets of Tokyo. As she walked, Ami glanced around and saw various groups of girls and boys on their way to school. They meandered along in groups as they always did. They laughed loudly in spite of the reproachful looks they received. They greeted each other with warm familiarity. They seemed as if they had known each other for years and would continue along that same track. They looked happy, glad that things had remained the same for as long as they had.

She looked away from them, choosing instead to stare at the pavement as she made her way to school. It seemed as though things had always been this way. And while her peers were content with the sameness, Ami longed for change.

Ami had always been one girl versus everything else. She had not been blessed with any siblings to help her through her parents' divorce. Her father had placed himself in artistic seclusion after years of working at a job he hated so that her mother could stay at home. She rarely saw him save through photographs he sent with painted postcards. Her mother was a workaholic in the worst sense, determined to make up for the time her marriage had cost her. And Ami had never seemed to manage to make any lasting friends. People were intimidated by her intelligence. Or they were convinced that she was stuck up because of the wealth her mother had accumulated. Or they saw her as distant and cold, preferring to eat lunch, walk to school, and exist all alone.

Ami stopped as the lights dictated her and watched the clouds move across the grey sky above her. She wondered, not for the first time, what it would be like to have a friend. Someone that she could talk to unconditionally about anything. Someone who needed her advice or who could pass on their own knowledge about the many things in life that baffled Ami. Someone who could make her laugh or smile. Someone she could cry with. Someone who could just be there to make the days easier.

It wasn't as if Ami hadn't ever had friends. In the early days, when she was carefree and light-hearted like all children, she had companionship. But it wasn't the same as the friendships others developed in later years. She would play with them on the playground or in her home or in the water, but things could not go beyond that. They were too young to understand just how hard loyalty was.

But after the divorce, Ami had undergone a drastic change. She became more reserved. She threw herself into schoolwork as her mother told her, perhaps foolishly thinking that a perfect score on a math test would fix everything. Maybe if she became better at finding the solution to things, she could solve why Daddy had left Mommy and glue them back together. And as childish as those ideas were, Ami grew beyond her classmates. Teachers constantly complimented her on her intelligence. Gracious acceptance of their praise was seen as arrogance. One by one, the children turned their backs on her.

Her mother dried her tears and told her that it didn't matter. They were jealous and didn't deserve her company anyway.

To this day, Ami could not understand how ignorant adults were of the trauma caused during a child's formative years. Children are the cruelest of creatures because of their endearing innocence. They think a simple "I'm sorry" will heal all wounds and adults are infallible. But then, no one had ever apologized for her mistreatment. And Ami had known from the moment her mother's words failed to soothe her that adults did not know everything.

She had tried making friends in later years. At the start of every school year, she went in with the attitude that her time had finally arrived. She would meet someone and make them notice her. They would see her for what she was, not for what everyone assumed about her. She would enter the building with a smile on her face and determination in her heart.

But always, within a week, Ami found herself friendless and alone, equipped only with her books and a new, unforgiving rumor.

It wasn't as though she wanted to be stupendously and miraculously popular overnight. She wasn't so delusional. But she would have just liked one friend to stand beside her against the world. She needed a shoulder to lean on, an ear to listen, and arms to hold her. It wasn't a matter of wanting anymore. She was drowning in the sameness of it all. Had she been any other person, she would have crumbled long ago.

But she had persevered. In spite of all the taunting, teasing, and the even crueler apathy, she had made it through nearly half a decade on her own. Still, she was growing tired of it. She was lonelier than a ghost. A spirit could find comfort in the fact that people did not see him. Ami was out there for all the world to see. They simply chose not to look at her.

Ami exhaled quietly as it was the closest thing to a sigh she would allow herself to utter. After all, her life wasn't so bad. She had two parents who loved her, however distantly. She wanted for nothing, save attention. She wasn't sick. She wasn't dying. She was certainly a lot luckier than a lot of people her age, and sadly, even younger.

Still, Ami was unable to completely cheer herself up. It was hard to make herself be happy when there was that constant, nagging loneliness brooding in the lower extremities of her brain. Perhaps it wouldn't be so bad if at least one person at school noticed her for more than three seconds to remark on the fact that she had achieved the top score yet again.

Her thoughts were cut off as a wail came up behind her, pulling her out of her reverie. Ami spun around and nearly screamed as she saw a blonde blur streaking towards her. She leapt out of the way, watching it pass. She couldn't help but think that she had heard that cry somewhere before.

"Oh, God! I can't believe I'm late again! And I was up so early. Ugh! Ms. Haruna is going to give me detention until I advance for this!"

It was then that Ami placed it, remembering the sound as it rushed passed her classroom day in and day out. Sometimes, she looked up from whatever she was reading and saw the flurry of colored panic whiz by her classroom. Ami would cluck her tongue quietly, wondering how one could be so consistently late to school... or be late at all for that matter.

It was at this point in time that Ami's virtually infallible brain picked up on the fact that if Usagi was late, she was late also. She gasped and glanced down at her watch. Had she not been so reserved, she would have cursed at the revelation that she had been moping at the stop light for over fifteen minutes.

Ami quickly took off just at the end of a stop light. She heard a car's brakes screech behind her, but there was no time to think of that now. She couldn't be late to school! It went against everything she believed in! Her teachers would think she was like Tsukino, flighty and uncaring about academia. What would they do to her if they thought she was just another desensitized, disinterested student?

She shuddered at the thought and doubled her speed. It wasn't long before she caught up with Usagi.

The blonde with twin ponytails glanced over to see who her companion was and did at least a triple take when she saw who it was. "Hey, aren't you that girl who always gets the top score on the exams?"

Ami flushed and nodded as demurely as she could while racing for her life. She secretly wanted to stop and ask the girl if that was all she would ever be known for. But of course, she would never do it. She was neither so forward nor so melancholic.

Usagi's chest heaved with the effort to keep running. Apparently, she had been doing a mad dash since she left her home. Surely she couldn't keep it up much longer, especially since her face was beginning to resemble Dr. Mizuno's amethyst collection. She bowed her head by way of greeting and gasped, "I'm Tsukino Usagi. I'm the girl who always gets the lowest scores on the exams. It must be great to be so smart, right?"

Ami shrugged, unsure of how else to respond.

They rounded a corner and came upon the school in what must have been record time. The bells would ring to signify the start of the day in exactly 42 seconds. They had just enough time to make it to their respective classrooms and narrowly miss detention.

Usagi let out a jubilant cry, pumping her fist in the air. Ami guessed that had she been a more coordinated person, she would have clicked her heels. But alas, as the fist pumping very nearly threw her off balance, the scholarly girl decided that perhaps that would not have been the best course of action.

"We're really going to make it!" Usagi shouted with glee. "That will be the first time I've been on time this month!"

This information would have galled Ami, but it was only the sixth of July. So, considering who she was talking to, it wasn't quite that offensive.

They hurried through the open doors of the school and began sprinting down the slick hallway. They both rushed into the coat room to change their shoes. Ami slipped in and out of hers easily, but Usagi had a much harder time of it. She wound up forgoing trying to get them on in the room and attempted the hopping technique.

This decision had proved to be nearly fatal.

Usagi somehow managed to keep up with her while hopping. Unfortunately, seeing as her center of gravity was skewed far more than even the normal clumsy teenager, the results were inevitably disastrous. She wound up losing her balance entirely and toppling to the floor.

Normally, this would not have bothered Ami. But it became quite vexing when Usagi flapped her arms as if trying to take flight in order to save herself from falling. Her right arm slapped Ami across the back with incredibly force, and they both ended up tumbling to the ground at approximately 9.8 meters per second.

Naturally, just to make the event that much worse, Usagi landed on top of her and they became hopelessly entwined in flailing limbs and impossibly long hair.

In the midst of screaming, wriggling, and attempting to remain modest, they heard a horrible sound.

The bell was ringing.

Usagi moaned loudly, lamenting how she was hoping to start off this week without a detention, but Ami was not paying attention. She was lying on the ground, completely motionless, as her entire identity was shattered.

She was Mizuno Ami! She was not tardy. She was not reckless. She slept exactly eight hours and fifteen minutes a night. She always came to class at least fifteen minutes early, if not more. She was not the sort of girl who fell down in the hallway to be pointed and laughed at.

Granted, she wasn't the sort of girl who was noticed at all, but this was not the kind of attention she wanted.

Suddenly, twin shadows passed over Usagi's and Ami's faces just as they managed to disentangle themselves. They knelt on the floor and looked up. Ami quickly turned away, quite ashamed of herself. Usagi immediately began wailing.

Haruna Sakurada and Ami's teacher, Kawabata Daichi were standing above them. Neither of them were particularly amusing people, but Ami cringed at the manner in which they looked at them. It was as if nothing she would ever do could possibly make up for being late this one time in her life. She felt everything from her face to her elbows turn the color of raspberries.

"Tsukino," Ms. Haruna drawled. "You're late. Again."

Usagi simply wailed and paid the woman no mind.

Mr. Kawabata leaned down and attempted to look Ami in the eye, but she wouldn't let him do so. Eventually, he gave up and decided to ream her sans eye contact. "We've all come to expect this sort of behavior from students such as Tsukino, but I am surprised at you, Mizuno. You're normally such a dedicated student."

Ami foolishly looked to Usagi for aid, but received none. She was crying too much to even realize what was happening.

"I..." Ami began weakly, trying to ignore the fact that her hands were shaking. This was humiliating enough on a personal level. Was it really necessary to make it a public affair? If she were a bolder person she would have asked him, but instead she just continued to attempt to apologize, stammering and trembling all the while.

Thankfully, Ms. Haruna, who sometimes experienced oddly timed bouts of compassion, pitied the girl. "That's enough Da-- Mr. Kawabata. You both will see me after school for detention as Mr. Kawabata is otherwise occupied. I suggest we all get to class."

She turned and glared at the whispering, giggling students leaning out of their doors. "Now."

They obeyed instantly.

Ami quickly got to her feet and walked to her classroom, her face parallel with the ground. Though the students were no longer watching her from their doorways, she could still feel their cruel eyes on her and hear their unkind comments that broke her bones just as well as any projectile could. She clenched her fists and walked into the classroom, all the while willing her eyes not to burn.

-----

Mamoru sat back on his couch, catching a quick glimpse of the time. Normally, his class would be starting in less than ten minutes, but he had been granted a much needed reprieve for the day. Well, at least the morning. Mr. Akigawa, who had promised them an exam as punishment for their lethargy, had contacted each of them the night before to inform them that he had kidney stones. He would not be coming in that day and had no time to prepare any possible replacements. Therefore, they were all to sleep in and be ready for a test that Wednesday.

Mamoru was glad for the respite, but as he settled back and turned on his television to see whatever there was to see, he thought perhaps he wouldn't go to classes at all.

It wasn't like him to be so irresponsible. He had always been rather mature for his age. He had never skipped a class unless he was deathly ill, last Thursday notwithstanding. But something about leaving the house terrified him.

He couldn't help but think that Mr. Akigawa's sudden condition was not a coincidence. After all, everything that had happened to him as of late had been perfectly coincidental until he discovered it was actually an evil plot conceived by a bunch of loathsome hellions. He had run into Tsukino Usagi by chance, only to find her narrowly escaping death by maiming from a youma later. Several of his friends had just happened to pass out and they all just happened to have the same flower, and they had been mixed up in the same business.

And now his professor was hospitalized on the same day as an exam, something that had never occurred before. Mamoru couldn't help but worry if the enemy was at it again.

Mamoru shook his head. He was being ridiculous. Surely his ornery professor's bodily functions had nothing to do with anything of the sort. He was being paranoid.

He looked up at the television and was greeted by the news. It was grim as usual.

"Today, we have sad news to report. It appears that Matsushita Akemi, daughter of Matsushita Bishamon and his wife, Taree, disappeared last night. She was last seen coming home from a friend's house..."

Mamoru's mind raced at the news. He was unexpectedly consumed by the image of a little girl with black hair in pigtails on her way home from playing. In his mind, she was around five even though the news report suggested she was more like fifteen years old. As she was skipping along without a care in the world, a youma loomed behind her and snatched her up. The little girl screamed and tried to wriggle away, but soon both of them were gone. They would never be seen again unless the monster took pity and deposited her body on her parents' doorstep when it was finished.

He changed the channel.

"Well, it seems as if the weather has taken a drastic turn from what it was yesterday. We can expect a thunderstorm later tonight around nine, but until then, it will be just as gloomy as it looks right now."

Mamoru wondered if maybe those demons and the forces that sent them had the power to control the weather. They could rain down lightning, striking innocent pedestrians dead for their own sick amusement. Or maybe the rain would turn to ice and freeze the world over. Or maybe the thunder would be so loud that it shattered glass and made them all so disoriented that they no longer knew which way was up. Or perhaps they would bring a tempest to destroy the entire city, knowing it was far beyond his capabilities to stop.

He hit the channel up button.

"There has been a rash of break-ins over the past few days..."

Were there monsters coming into the homes? Were they leaving something deadly behind that no one would notice until it was too late? Were the real people long gone and replaced by a more intelligent race of demons?

Change.

"A four car pile up on..."

Had they crashed at the horrible sight of the demons they thought were safe and sound under the bed?

"Indicted for embezzlement and suspected to be involved with..."

Were they involved with an enemy far more important that the Yakuza? An inhuman race more influential and deadly than any author could ever imagine?

"A new shelter that provides dogs for the blind..."

Were they really cute black Labradors or hell hounds in disguise?

"This movie didn't seem to know what it was, a comedy or a drama or..."

Mamoru had always wondered if maybe movie critics were agents of the devil.

The screen abruptly went dark. He tensed, nearly leaping to his feet, when he saw the little black cat sitting in front of his television. She would have been tapping her foot if at all possible judging by her expression. A part of him regretted allowing her back into the apartment late Saturday, but another part was grateful that someone had stopped him from going completely insane.

"Mamoru," Luna chided, seeming to understand what was wrong with him. "You're making yourself sick. It will do you no good to watch the news and think what the enemy might have their hand in. You will not know until the last chip is poised to fall. They have the advantage, and we are just going to have to accept that."

The weary, amateur superhero sighed and dragged a hand down his sweat drenched face. He once again felt curses poised to fall from his lips, but he held back. There was no point to blaming God anymore. He obviously wasn't there.

"You're right," Mamoru muttered softly. "You're right. I know you're right."

Luna shook her head and padded over to him, jumping on to the couch and resting on its arm. "You're still going to worry, aren't you?"

"Of course," Mamoru responded without hesitation.

Luna sighed and clucked her tongue several times. "It will do you no good, but I can't stop you."

Mamoru rested his head on the back of the couch. "But there has been one thing that's been bothering me all weekend... And this isn't just the paranoid ramblings of a neurotic caped crusader."

Luna got up from her seat, which looked perfectly comfortable. She stretched, turned around several times, and then sat back in the exact same position as before. "I have a feeling I know what it is."

"Try me."

Luna yawned widely, clearly longing for a cat nap. "You are wondering why in a grand total of two attacks, you have had to save the same girl."

Mamoru nodded. Tsukino Usagi's persistent involvement troubled him. He hadn't wanted to think that she was somehow a partner in the wrong end of things, but he couldn't see how else it would play out. He did now realize that there were no such things as coincidences.

"It is entirely possible that she is not an enemy," Luna offered up in hopes of easing his tormented mind. "I realize that your analytical mind suggests otherwise, as does mine to be brutally honest, but it is possible. As I recall, there is some indication that certain human beings have this strange magnet for trouble. Bad karma and whatnot. It has been known to lean towards the supernatural."

Mamoru frowned. The explanation was a convenient one. He preferred it to the obvious alternative. "Is it plausible?"

"I highly doubt it," Luna admitted frankly. "However, I also find it incredibly hard to believe that Miss Tsukino is intelligent enough to pull something of that manner off. I suppose she could be acting, but she is oddly genuine for one so flippant.

"If it makes you feel better, I'll keep an eye on her because you will be going to class in two hours," Luna told him, leaving no room for argument. "If I see anything overtly evil, I'll come and get you."

Mamoru was overcome by the image of a cat bursting into the lecture hall for his British Literature class and dragging him off. He would have chuckled at the absurdity of it if it weren't so likely to occur.

"Besides, I wouldn't mind watching her for my own curiosity's sake," Luna continued as she settled down for a quick nap. "There is something different about that girl."

-----

"Son of a bitch!"

A gloved fist pounded against the table, the once pristine fabric now smudged and dirtied from the amount of times marble and cloth and met. The structure trembled under the sudden weight, causing the two men who were sitting at it to lean back. One of them raised his eyebrow, green eyes mocking, and said, "Really, Jadeite, you're losing your edge. That bit about turning his whole body inside out so you could pour acid on to his intestines was much more interesting. And so visual."

"Zoisite," Kunzite rebuked gently, his baritone voice treading dangerous waters as he reprimanded the smaller man while still sounding affectionate. He seemed to succeed as his lover acquiesced to silence. Kunzite then turned his attention to Jadeite, who was pacing the lengths of the chamber like a caged wildcat. "Jadeite, you need to calm down. You won't think of anything if you're this upset."

"I want to be upset!" Jadeite raged. "I have every right to be upset!"

Zoisite snorted quietly and muttered, "Can't kick yourself hard enough?"

"Quiet!" Jadeite snapped, eliciting a pout from his inferior. He ran a hand through his short, tousled locks and continued, "This is twice now. Twice he has thwarted me. Twice that I have only narrowly escaped Queen Beryl's wrath. I don't think she'll be so forgiving a third time!"

Kunzite held up a hand, attempting to placate the raging man. "I can handle Queen Beryl. Don't worry about that."

Jadeite laughed bitterly and said, "Your words can only do so much to appease the devil. Mark my words, one more failure and she'll have my head. Or worse!"

Nephrite, who was sitting next to Zoisite, did not utter a sound, but the look on his face spoke volumes.

Kunzite did not bother to argue that there would come a day when he could no longer convince the Queen to spare Jadeite's life. The ruler of the Dark Kingdom and the highest of the Dark Kings had a rapport as he was her favored. But that could only go so far.

He decided it was best to get Jadeite's mind off Beryl's wrath. It wasn't the slightest bit productive to begin with anyway. "Jadeite, you are clearly a superior fighter to this Tuxedo Kamen."

Zoisite nodded in agreement, putting his feet up on the table in a clear disregard for authority. The other three men, even Kunzite, shifted uneasily but said nothing. Zoisite had already begun to speak. "I've been studying his fighting tactics. It seems that his only power is throwing about a bunch of roses, which is really more annoying than anything else."

"How did he manage to kill two of our demons then?" Jadeite asked, glaring at the younger man out of the corner of his eye.

Zoisite shrugged and said, "He's been using weapons of opportunity - a shard of glass and a garden hose. His methods are archaic at best."

"Inexpert," Kunzite added. "He's green yet. A stronger youma would destroy him easily enough."

Jadeite shook his head, not disagreeing entirely, but feeling the need to bring up another point. "Perhaps this Tuxedo Kamen really is as inexperienced as you say. How was it that the youma did not manage to kill him outright? That's all they know how to do unless we instruct them otherwise. How did he survive their attacks?"

"You didn't send especially powerful youma, Jadeite," Zoisite pointed out.

"I didn't see a need to waste the good ones on energy collecting missions," Jadeite hissed, taking offense.

"There is a need now," Kunzite remarked coolly, ending the ensuing argument before it ever began. "Sending a powerful youma would get rid of our problem. I suggest you do it."

Jadeite nodded, knowing that a suggestion from Kunzite was just the same as an order.

"Still, that is curious," Zoisite mused, leaning back in his chair and staring up at the rock overhand that meant to be a ceiling. He turned his head to avoid a droplet of dirty water from falling on his face. "Tuxedo Kamen is undoubtedly new to the arts of war. Yet, he has survived two battles with our youma. The gods must pity him."

"A naturally born fighter?" Kunzite questioned incredulously. "I doubt it. Even with talent, he should have been annihilated."

"Perhaps he is from before," Nephrite muttered, speaking for the first time since their summit had began.

His suggestion fell on stiffened ears, suddenly wary of this being who masked his face from them. This possibility had not been considered by any, perhaps because it was the sort of thing they did not care to think on at all. But now that the prospect had been brought up, there was no sense in ignoring it.

"From before?" Jadeite repeated, shivering.

"Who could he have been?" Zoisite asked quietly, reaching for the drink he had brought with him into the meeting.

Kunzite was skeptical. "I do not remember any men from the fall who were important enough to be awakened."

Nephrite was quick to remind them of the obvious. "We remember nothing except the fall. Perhaps even that is not as clear as we would have thought."

"Scry the heavens then," Zoisite teased, his voice condescending without cause. "See what they have to tell you of this man and his involvement in the fall. Who knows? Perhaps there was a King of the Moon."

Nephrite seemed poised to say something to the other man, scowling at him dangerously. Of all the men assembled, Zoisite was by far the most contemptible. Nephrite often speculated that were he not sharing a bed with their leader that the slight man would have been done away with ages ago. However, he never voiced this aloud, fearing reprimand at Kunzite's hands... or Zoisite's for that matter.

Zoisite took another swig of the strange brown liquid, entirely oblivious to the hatred pouring off of Nephrite's considerably larger frame. He was quite content to drink in silence and let Jadeite handle his problems on his own. But that was not to be as Jadeite once again dragged him into the conversation.

"What is that stuff you're drinking?" the other blond questioned.

Zoisite rolled his eyes, visibly annoyed with having to explain yet another Terran concept to the group. Zoisite was the only one even remotely interested in the culture of Earth. He alone sought out what he considered interesting. His comrades were constantly questioning the artifacts he brought back. It irritated him to no end.

"It's a drink that the humans call 'coffee,'" Zoisite explained, speaking very slowly to make sure Jadeite's mind could encompass the relatively simple concept. "It's filled with this other substance they call 'caffeine.' It gives them energy to get through their day. It comes in other drinks, but it's especially strong in this one. But serious students sometimes will take it pill form so that they can study more."

Jadeite stared at the liquid for a moment, his forehead crinkled in thought. He tilted his head to the side and voiced, "I think I have an idea."

-----

It was just a few minutes shy of noon when Luna arrived at Juuban Municipal Junior High School. It was lucky that she had been looking around for Sailor Senshi for several weeks prior to her discovery of Mamoru. She had visited just about every school in the Juuban district. It was easy to memorize which uniforms went to which school. She'd recognized Usagi's instantly.

Luna padded over to the main gates of the school, now locked to prevent anyone from getting in or out. Of course, they did little to prevent her entrance as she was small enough to slip through the bars. She did commend them on their attempts, however easily overcome.

Although the yard was empty when Luna first arrived, she didn't have to wait very long for the lunch bell to ring. Before the tone had finished sounding to signal the much needed break, the doors were flung open by two overzealous male students who all but flew out into the open air. They were soon followed by their peers, all quite excited to sit down and eat and not have to memorize dates, equations, or conjugations for the next few minutes.

Luna recognized a redheaded girl who came out towards the end of the stream. She was Osaka Naru from the jewelry shop. Luna hadn't gotten a very good look at her at the time, and she looked quite different when she was conscious. Thankfully, the bow was recognizable on its own.

She stood in the doorway as a few inconsiderate students passed her by, bumping into her. Naru glared at their backs, but said nothing. She turned back to look inside the building. Several other girls Luna hadn't seen before stopped as well. Luna noted that the one carrying the rather obnoxiously sized obento box could have stood to eat a lighter lunch. The one who didn't have anything with her needed to eat... anything.

Luna scoffed disapprovingly. Teenagers.

Finally, Naru tapped her foot impatiently and called out, "Usagi! Hurry up or we'll miss lunch!"

"Coming!" called a high-pitched voice from inside the school building, loud enough to make Luna wince even though she was quite some distance away.

A few seconds later, the infamous Tsukino Usagi burst forth from the building, her hair flying behind her like golden streamers. An impossibly wide smile was tattooed onto her face as she linked arms with Naru and the skinnier girl. Usagi bounded down the stairs, dragging the other two with her as she remarked on how beautiful the day was. The pudgier girl chased after them, already munching on her sandwich.

Luna was growing more and more doubtful with each passing moment that this girl was any kind of evil mastermind. Seeing where they were heading, Luna quickly darted over to the hedge lining the outside of the school. She hid herself in the bushes, watching as Usagi and her friends came to a stop just four feet away.

-----

"Sorry, guys! I had to talk with Ms. Haruna for a minute about my detention today," Usagi explained cheerfully as she plopped down on the fresh cut grass.

Naru laughed good-naturedly, tucking a wayward curl behind her ear. "You seem to be taking your punishment rather well, Usagi. What gives?"

Usagi was about to respond to Naru's inquiry when she suddenly noticed that the skinny girl was without a lunch. She blinked and leaned forward, saying, "Eriko, did you forget your lunch again today?"

Eriko, who had been eyeing the larger girl's oversized lunch enviously, blinked in surprise at being brought to attention. She nodded sheepishly, picking at her nails nervously. "Yes... I overslept again and didn't have a chance to make it."

"That's not a very good way to start off the week, Eriko," Naru scolded. "You really need to eat something."

Both Usagi and Naru eyed the bigger girl meaningfully, but she was too wrapped up in her food to really notice. They sat there for a full minute watching her eat before she noticed that the conversation had stopped. She stared at the three other girls in turn, crumbs outlining her formerly glossed lips, and said, "What? What did I miss? What?"

Naru sighed and rubbed her temple. "Arisu..."

"What?"

Usagi giggled. "Never mind, Arisu... Here, Eriko. Take my odango."

Eriko was about to protest, but Usagi had already gone so far as to push the round delectable into her hands and shove it towards her mouth. Seeing that she wasn't going to be able to avoid it, Eriko complied and ate the morsel hungrily. The conversation between Usagi and Naru instantly resumed as if they hadn't been interrupted.

"I'm not really down about detention today," Usagi explained. "And it's all because I won't be serving it alone for once."

Arisu paused in her activity to hold up a finger as if she had made some great discovery. "Oh, that's right! You're going to be washing the chalkboards with the genius of Juuban - Mizuno Ami!"

"Right!" Usagi chirped brightly. "It'll be nice to have some company. Besides, this way, it'll be over more quickly."

"Unless Ms. Haruna's date cancels like he did two weeks ago," Naru joked slyly.

"Then she kept you for longer, right?"

"About half an hour longer every time Usagi tells the story," Eriko added with a giggle.

Usagi stuck her tongue out at Eriko, suppressing a giggle of her own. She took a few bites of her own lunch before continuing with the conversation. "So, what do you guys know about Mizuno?"

Arisu snorted in a manner that might have been less than kind. "You mean aside from the fact that she's never missed a problem on a test since she was in the third grade?"

"I still can't believe anyone can get grades that good on their own," Eriko added snootily. "Not that I'm saying she cheats. I mean, I hear things, but I'm no gossip."

"Uh huh," Naru remarked dryly. "Don't repeat things you hear from Umino, Eriko. Usually he's right, but I think he started that rumor about Mizuno just to spite her. You know he's jealous because she's able to buy computer equipment that's top of the line before it's even out on the market."

Arisu nodded earnestly. "That's right! She's pretty rich isn't she? I hear she lives in this huge penthouse in a really exclusive building. Apparently, her mom's a really successful doctor."

Eriko sniffed. "Well, if you call being a divorcee successful."

"Eriko!" Naru scolded.

"What? I'm just telling the truth."

"You don't have to tell it like that," Naru snapped. "Usagi doesn't need Mizuno's whole history for heaven's sake."

Arisu jabbed Eriko with her elbow lightly, but the latter appeared to be rather sensitive. "Yeah, Eriko. You're not being very nice."

Eriko looked positively scandalized that she was being ganged up on. She turned to her friend and snapped, "Please, Arisu. Don't act like you weren't saying worse just the other day. Remember? When you were talking about how she must have gotten kicked out of that really expensive private school?"

Usagi, never one to doubt her friends' word but quite shocked about this revelation, turned to her mousy haired friend. "Arisu?"

"Did you really say such a thing?" Naru questioned, sounding every bit like her mother must have whenever she scolded her daughter.

The girl was obviously not meant to be able to withstand much pressure. After just a few brief seconds under the stern gazes of her three friends, Arisu cracked. She waved her hands around frantically, nearly shouting, "Well, you have to admit it is odd that she switched schools so suddenly! And why would she come here of all places? It's not a bad school, but it's not as good as that academy she was at."

"So, we decided that they must have kicked her out," Eriko finished for her quaking companion. "Probably for cheating. I bet she's still doing it."

Naru folded her arms across her chest. "That's not a very nice thing to say. You don't know if that's true."

Eriko raised an eyebrow, clearly challenging the other girl. "Do you have a better explanation?"

Naru opened her mouth to make some smart remark, but she quickly closed it. She seemed to puzzle over it for a minute, before turning to Usagi and shrugging helplessly. She didn't have a better explanation.

Usagi stared at her three friends for a moment, wishing she'd never asked about Mizuno Ami. Her lower lip trembled shortly, when she looked across the yard and saw the aforementioned genius sitting alone underneath a tree. Usagi knew that the girl usually spent her lunch breaks in the library or eating alone on the roof, but she'd come out with the rest of them today.

And not one person had gone to sit beside her.

Usagi's quivering visage suddenly shifted into one of resolve. She gathered up the rest of her lunch and pushed herself to her feet, taking her friends off guard. She looked down at them and sniffed, "I just can't believe that the Mizuno Ami I met this morning would do such a thing."

Arisu smiled sheepishly. She wasn't made of particularly strong stuff, but she wasn't completely lacking in a backbone. "Well, you have to admit, Usagi... You're not exactly a good judge of character."

"You are very trusting," Eriko added. "My mother says it's going to get you in trouble someday."

Usagi turned her nose up at the two girls dramatically and said, "Well, I know you are wrong about Mizuno. And I'm going to prove it to you. Now, if you'll all excuse me, I'm going to have lunch with Mizuno Ami. I'm sure it'll be much more fun talking to her then about her."

Then the blonde flounced away, all but skipping over to where Ami was sitting. The three other girls watched as Usagi fell down next to her, disturbing her slightly. They watched as Ami blushed for what seemed to be no apparent reason. After a few moments, they decided that watching the pair wasn't really all that interesting, so they turned back to their lunch.

None of them said another word.

-----

Luna was now quite sure that any fears she had once had about Usagi's intentions were horribly misplaced. It wasn't exactly typical for a vessel of evil to feel so strongly about salvaging another's reputation. The enemy they were dealing with was more inclined to partake in backstabbing, blackmailing, and betrayals. She doubted they would even know the meaning of the word loyalty. So, based on Usagi's previous display, Luna decided that she could lay all of hers and Mamoru's fears about the teenager to rest.

However, Luna was somewhat suspicious of Eriko after that display. She just wasn't an exceptionally pleasant person. But she suspected that it was just the typical antics of catty teenagers. And she wasn't much happier with Naru, whom Luna had felt some respect for up until the last few minutes. She couldn't really bring herself to care about the third one. She didn't exactly have the figure for their enemies' preferred attire.

Still, it was nice to know that she could now head back to Mamoru's apartment and catch up on her sleep. She was still a cat after all. She needed about eighteen hours a day, but recent events had prevented such a thing from happening.

Luna was about to saunter out of the bushes and be on her way, when she took a closer look over at Usagi and Ami. There was nothing particularly noteworthy about either of the girls. Usagi was chattering away happily, pausing to munch on her rice every once in awhile. The blonde seemed blissfully unaware that her companion wasn't adding much to the conversation, instead wringing her napkin in her hands.

Although Luna wasn't particularly sure why, something about the scene made her uneasy. She was just thinking about somehow sneaking over to the other side of the courtyard when the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch and the resuming of classes. Both girls leapt to their feet, though Ami's motivations seemed to lie more in getting away from Usagi than anything else. Both girls turned and walked into the building along with the rest of their classes. Usagi was still chattering away. Ami regarded her as one would regard a three headed octopus.

Luna crawled out from underneath the hedge, shaking off a few leaves in the process. She stared after them even though they had long since disappeared. She couldn't quite place it... As a matter of fact, she didn't have so much as the slightest indication why, but something about the quiet little computer nerd made Luna stop and take notice. And that wasn't necessarily a good thing.

It seemed her cat nap would have to wait after all.

-----

"Okay now! Here we go! Let's see... Number One. Write the equation of the axis of symmetry, find the vertex, state if the vertex is a maximum or minimum, and graph the equation y = 2x2 + 12x - 11...?

"How is anyone supposed to solve this? It's a math problem! And why are there letters in it anyway?"

Ami blinked and gasped quietly, turning to look over at where her detention companion was sitting, her hands buried in her impractically long hair. She was all but dancing in her seat, having quite a bit of trouble with the homework they'd been told to complete during their detention. Ami would have been finished with the task some time ago had she not been continually interrupted by Usagi's various array of distracting behavior.

Not that Ami really minded. While Usagi's antics were outlandish and at times outrageous, she was somewhat entertaining. Ami couldn't help but giggle when she saw Usagi give a long suffering sigh and proceed to balance her pencil on her nose. Usagi didn't seem to notice Ami's laughter, but Haruna did.

She rapped her meter stick on top of her desk, causing Ami to spin around in her seat and attack the math problems with new ferocity. Thankfully (or perhaps unfortunately), Haruna's scolding was solely directed at the underachiever.

"Tsukino!" Haruna snapped. "Get on task or I'll keep you for another hour!"

Usagi blinked rapidly and jumped, as if tempted to leap to her feet and salute. Happily, she managed to restrain herself and merely stood up to pick up her pencil, which had gone flying when she had stood up. "Y-Yes, Ms. Haruna!"

With that, Haruna went back to her book entitled Shakespeare's Heroines. Of course, everyone knew that it was really just a false cover to mask the fact that she was actually reading a harlequin romance novel. Usagi went right back to balancing the pencil on her nose. Ami smiled, but held back her laughter.

She glanced back down at the homework problems in front of her and began working again at a fairly steady pace. All the while, she was thinking back on the events of that day.

Today was the first time that Ami could remember eating lunch with anyone since she was very young. Granted, she hadn't said much, but Usagi hadn't seemed to mind. She hadn't meant to be rude. She'd just been so utterly shocked at Usagi's unexpected presence that Ami had been completely unable to function for a few minutes.

At the time, Ami had been quite convinced that Usagi had been sent over by her friends as a cruel joke. She'd been subjected to such childhood cruelties before. It would have made sense what with how Usagi and Ami had just met that morning. The girl could easily pretend to be her friend, gain some insight into Ami's character, and then spread vicious rumors about her. It wouldn't be the first time it had happened. That was one of the reasons why she'd left her old school after all.

Ami had all but run away from Usagi in dread, but, upon reflection, Ami couldn't help but hope that she was being unnecessarily mistrustful. There was something about Tsukino Usagi that seemed authentic. Granted, Ami had never doubted the other girls who had deceived her in the past... But there was something undeniably special about Usagi that even Ami's high verbal mind couldn't begin to name.

She paused in her work and glanced back at the girl who might yet turn out to be a friend and quietly gaped. Yes, there was something very "special" about a girl who threw herself into doodling so vigorously.

Just then, the door opened and the school secretary walked in with at least seven pencils sticking out of her hair. She blew an unruly lock of black hair out of her face and said, "Sakurada, there's a phone call for you in the office."

For the briefest of moments, Haruna looked somewhat confused. Then the secretary raised her eyebrows in a manner that must have spoken volumes to the temperamental instructor. She instantly snapped her book shut, shoving it in a drawer. She was on her feet within seconds and halfway out the door by the time she said, "I'll be back in a few minutes girls. Stay in your seats and absolutely no talking while I'm--"

Ami flinched at the force with which Haruna slammed the door.

The teacher hadn't been gone more than three seconds before Usagi bounded to her feet and began to stretch, working the kinks out of her back. She cracked her neck painfully before turning to Ami with a mega-watt smile planted on her face. "I bet this stuff's a piece of cake for you, right?"

Ami felt immense frustration as all of the blood rushed to her cheeks. She had sworn sometime earlier that if Usagi talked to her again, she wouldn't be embarrassed or flustered. There was absolutely no reason for her to blush. But for some reason, any time anyone tried to make simple conversation with Ami, her chest felt tight and she became obsessed with saying the wrong thing.

An old teacher of Ami's had once described her as being painfully shy. Ever since then, Ami had tried to find a more apt description of her character. That assessment was close, but it wasn't nearly good enough.

Before Ami could even try to respond, Usagi had skipped over to her seat and peered over her shoulder. She squawked and snatched the paper off of Ami's desk, her mouth hanging open in total admiration. "That's amazing! You're already finished?"

Ami blinked in surprise. "I-I am? I hadn't noticed." She flinched, realizing that such a thing must have sounded snobbish. She quickly tried to rectify her mistake. "I'm sorry. I didn't--"

Usagi had already moved on. "It really must be great to be so smart. I know I already said that earlier. But it would make school so much easier to be the girl genius, Mizuno Ami!"

Ami pursed her lips slightly and glanced down at the floor. Usagi was partially right. The actual work was easier when one had a knack for algebra or picked up scientific concepts without too much effort. But it certainly didn't make school easier. While schools in Japan were a primarily academic institution, there were still plenty of social skills meant to be developed. And that was one area in which Ami was most certainly deficient.

"I..." Ami said softly. "I'm sure you're not as bad as you think you are, Tsukino."

Usagi waved her hand flippantly and handed the worksheet back to Ami. "Don't be so formal. You call me Usagi, and I'll call you Ami. Okay?"

Ami hoped she didn't look too stunned by the suggestion. "Umm... All ri--"

"Oh, look!" Usagi exclaimed, looking at the window. She jogged over, forcing Ami to follow her with her line of vision. She gasped as Usagi opened the window, allowing a rather serious looking dark cat to come into the room. "I know this kitty! We're old friends!"

Usagi bent down to scratch her ears. The feline had come in with a clear purpose and mission in mind (or at least that's what her expression suggested), but she was now too busy reveling in Usagi's attentions. The girl giggled and then looked over to Ami. "Her name's Luna. Her owner's this really nasty college student I've been running into a lot lately. Isn't a shame that she has to put up with him all the time? I mean look at her! She's so cute with her little crescent shaped bald spot!"

As if that cat could actually understand what she was saying, her blissful visage twisted into one of utter disgust. She flipped her tail haughtily and sauntered over to Ami.

If she hadn't known better based on her logical reasoning and prior experience, Ami would have sworn on her mother's eventual grave that the cat had come into that room just to get a closer look at her. Something about that thought put Ami ill at ease. She almost backed away, but the cat was underfoot far too quickly. She still looked as if she was deep in thought, meowing thoughtfully. She rubbed up against Ami's leg, making her skin tingle...

The cat's midnight hair stood straight on end, her tail puffing out to three times its original size. Her eyes dilated completely and her ears lay flat against her head. She even started shaking, prompting Ami and Usagi to exchange an anxious glance.

It was then that they heard the door creak open behind them, Haruna's footsteps clacking against the tile floor viciously. She paused when she saw both girls out of their seats, with a cat no less, and slammed the door angrily.

"TSUKINO!" Haruna raged, stomping over to the pair. "What did I tell you about staying in your seat and working!"

Usagi stammered, powerless in the face of the woman who once been referred to as the Human Tempest.

"And Mizuno! I'm surprised at you. You're usually so well behaved..." Haruna gave Ami a look as if the girl had just been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer and given six weeks to live.

Ami thought she was going to be ill.

Haruna's attentions didn't remain on Ami for too long. Naturally, she decided that Usagi really was all to blame for everything and anything that went wrong. "I trust I can credit you with the demoralization of the other students, Tsukino? You are such a bad influence! I have half a mind to call your mother and inform her to keep you and your brother apart for fear of corrupting him further."

Judging by the look on Usagi's face, she wasn't entirely sure whether or not that was necessarily a bad thing.

The cat hadn't so much as twitched since she'd rubbed up against Ami's leg. Haruna regarded the animal with repugnance. But she saw no other option than to pick it up by the scruff, holding it at arm's length as if it too was diseased. She quickly moved over to the open window and tossed it out, ignoring Usagi's pleas not to harm it. Haruna then slammed the window shut and locked it, just to ensure that the cat couldn't get back in.

The ill-tempered teacher turned back to the girls, clearly displeased. For a moment, Ami actually thought she saw a fang sticking out of Haruna's lips, but she must have been mistaken.

"Return to your seats at once!" Haruna snapped. "I'm giving you both an extra hour of detention!"

Ami and Usagi both quickly scrambled back to their desks, the latter instantly going back to her all important doodle in an attempt to look like she was working. As Haruna stomped by Ami's desk, she could have sworn she heard the teacher mutter something bitterly... Something about how it was just as well they were staying because she no longer had anything to do that night.

She mulled over the implication for a few moments before happening upon the obvious answer. Predictably, she blushed once again.

-----

He was running, of that much he could be sure. But where he was running to or who he was running away from or why he couldn't just walk was a mystery to him. Typically, he was racing through fog so thick that he couldn't see more than few inches in front of him. Sometimes it seemed as if the fog had appendages reaching out like vines to wrap around his ankles and slow him down. The thought made him shudder and press on that much faster to avoid being trapped. He thought his reservations were more than likely unfounded as he quickened his laborious pace.

He was aware of a cape fluttering behind him, but he wasn't Tuxedo Kamen. He knew he wasn't wearing a mask. He was also aware of something heavy continually banging against his left side painfully. A sword perhaps? He looked down, but he couldn't see what he was wearing.

help me

He stopped for a moment and turned to the east where the voice had come from. And all at once, he knew his purpose. He had to find the owner of that voice. That girl who sounded so broken and alone. He had to find her and help her. He had to save her. He had to do her every bidding until she was smiling again.

please help me

He sprang forward, running faster than he ever had before. He didn't know what sort of danger she was in or why she was important to him, but he had to find her. He wouldn't rest until she was safe and in his arms again.

help me please

He ran and ran and ran, but he knew he wasn't getting anywhere. She sounded just as far away from him as she had been when he started.

He came to a halt and looked around, hoping to see her silhouette in the fog. He saw nothing but gray. He let out a frustrated groan and shouted, "How! How can I help you?"

find it

"Mamoru!"

"Find what?" Mamoru shouted hoarsely as he sat straight up in bed. His heart was pounding in his chest as if it was trying to escape. He looked around the room wildly, surprised that he could see something besides impenetrable grey.

Finally, he realized that he must have been dreaming again judging by the irritated expression on Luna's face.

"Tell me, Mamoru, why is it that every time I wake you up from a deep slumber, you always find it necessary to scream in my ear?" she quipped briskly.

"Sorry," Mamoru muttered quietly, not feeling the least bit apologetic. "I've been having a lot of..."

Mamoru was about to tell her about his dreams, but halfway through the sentence he thought better of it. Granted, he couldn't make sense of these nightmares and perhaps Luna could help. But they were still too private. He felt as if they were an important part of his identity that if revealed would render him utterly useless as a human being.

"Sorry," he ended lamely.

Luna resisted the urge to roll her eyes at her increasingly more frustrating charge. "Well, do try to break the habit if at all possible. Now, I just got back from Juuban Junior High, and I think we can definitely write off the possibility that Miss Tsukino is an agent for the forces of evil."

Mamoru breathed a sigh of relief. Well, at least something was going right. "I'm glad. I'd hate to think that my saving her life has been a complete waste of effort." He paused. "Actually, it could still prove to be a waste of effort, but I won't be sure of that until she's at least twenty-five."

"Don't try to be funny," Luna reproached affably. "But even if we have decided that Usagi isn't evil, I may have inadvertently discovered another potential threat."

Mamoru felt his heart sink, but he supposed it was better if they knew about such things beforehand. Maybe they could prevent a disaster this time instead of showing up in the middle of it. "What is it?"

"Who is it, you mean," Luna corrected, swishing her tail back and forth thoughtfully. "While I was watching over Usagi, I happened to see her go and talk to one of the other students.

Something about this second girl piqued my interest, so I stayed around after school. It seems the two were late and earned themselves a detention."

Mamoru snorted. "Figures."

Luna continued on as if he hadn't said anything. "Their teacher left after awhile and Usagi let me in." She frowned darkly, a vein popping out on the top of her head. "And that child once again saw fit to refer to my mark as a bald spot! Can you imagine? The nerve! I tell you, I'd like to sit her parents down and give them a good talking to about teaching their daughter proper respect! And furthermore--"

"Uh, Luna?" Mamoru ventured cautiously, not wanting to be the brunt of Luna's wrath if he could help it. "Weren't we discussing a prospective evildoer?"

"Oh. Yes. Of course. How silly of me," the cat said, continuing. "So, I went over to this second girl and rubbed up against her... And I tell you, it's like someone had just shocked me. It felt like the temperature in the room dropped about fifty degrees. I've never been so shaken up in all my life. The teacher had to remove me." Luna flinched. "So humiliating."

Mamoru frowned. According to just about every movie on the devil and the occult ever made, a sudden drop in temperature was often accompanied by the presence of evil. This did not bode well for their cause or for the people of Tokyo at large. "I don't suppose you happened to get her name?"

Luna nodded. "Mizuno Ami."

Mamoru blinked, momentarily taken aback. That name sounded so familiar. He had read it somewhere very recently. However, there was something not quite right about it.

He snapped his fingers as the epiphany came upon him. "Hang on a minute," he directed, throwing the covers off his bed. He hastily made his way to the bathroom where he'd set up Luna's toilet facilities a few days earlier. He had lined the litter box with old newspapers in spite of Luna's assurances that she was fully capable of managing without it.

He scanned the different articles with a trained eye until he found the one he sought. He pulled it out from underneath the box carefully, dusting some of the sand off of it. He crouched down next to Luna, who had just padded in, and pointed to the article where he had seen that name before.

Luna skimmed it quickly, reading the headline aloud. "Female Doctor Wins Prestigious Award?"

"Right," Mamoru said excitedly. "This doctor's name is Mizuno Emi. Look at the picture. Does she look anything like the girl you saw this afternoon?"

Luna squinted her eyes slightly to try and make out the doctor's features in the grainy black and white photograph. "The resemblance is uncanny," she remarked. After a few more moments, Luna gasped and shouted, "Wait! She's in the picture too! Look at the girl standing towards the back."

Mamoru took a closer look at the photograph and saw that there was indeed a young girl around Usagi's age standing towards the background. Someone had obviously forced her to be in the photograph with her mother, whom she resembled in almost every way possible. She was doing her best not to be noticed, trying to blend into the background. She had done a fairly good job. Mamoru never would have spotted her were it not for Luna's keener eyesight.

"So, that's Mizuno Ami..." Mamoru murmured thoughtfully. "Do you really think she's evil?"

Luna frowned. "I'm not sure whose side she's on. But I can assure you of one thing. There is no question in my mind that she's somehow involved in all of this. Whether for better of for worse, we'd do well to keep an eye on her."

Mamoru pursed his lips, staring at the girl in the background intently. He could tell so much about her already. She didn't like being noticed. She was probably shy, anti-social. No doubt she was extremely intelligent with a mother like that. There was no mention of a father or husband, which spoke volumes about how she'd deal with members of the opposite sex.

But it wasn't just how she appeared in the photograph that made him feel as if he knew her. There was something about little Mizuno Ami that sent off alarms in the back of his mind. And it was something important.

"Then we'll do just that."

-----

Ami had wound up being even later to Crystal Seminar Cram School than she had anticipated. There seemed to be something in Usagi's very nature that just refused to allow her to act like a typical human being. While uniqueness was an admirable quality in a society that valued conformity, it proved to be quite tiresome when Haruna continually kept both of them from leaving on time due to Usagi's lack of work ethic among other things.

She'd slipped into class and sat at the very back amongst the sleepers and the socialites. They'd all given her a look that made it perfectly clear that they neither expected her nor wanted her there. Ami had done her best to focus on her work and ignore them in kind.

Ami was actually quite glad that she had been so late in that respect. She hadn't been forced to sit back there for too long. She was nearly out the door when she took a glance at her reading glasses and deemed them too dirty to remain as such for any longer. She pulled them off and proceeded to clean them with her blouse, inadvertently eavesdropping on a few conversations in the process.

"What have you got there, Touya?"

"Are those caffeine pills?"

"Yeah! I just found a bunch sitting on my desk when I got into the classroom. Isn't it weird that someone would just leave them sitting around like that?"

"Especially right out in the open where the teacher could see."

"Hey, could I take one of those from you? I have a huge history exam tomorrow."

"Yeah, and I have this Math test I need to study for."

"You have an English test too you know."

"I don't have enough for everyone..."

"I heard that Masuyo and Kyoko found a bunch too!"

"That is so weird."

"Let's find them before they leave!"

Ami watched as the group of students ran to find their friends, resisting the urge to shake her head like a world weary woman mourning the decline of Japanese youth. She glanced around and saw several other students slipping the little white miracle pills into their pockets. She narrowed her eyes and slipped her glasses back into their case angrily.

Schools were becoming increasingly more competitive with each passing year. Students had been conditioned by overzealous parents and well meaning, but misguided, teachers that if they weren't on top, they were a complete failure. Ami felt the pressure just like everyone else, but she knew she would never stoop to taking caffeine pills to stay up late just to get in extra study time. Not only was it an unfair advantage, but it simply wasn't healthy.

Ami gave one last disapproving shake of her head before turning on her heel and stalking out of the building. Never once did she give any thought to just how all of those pills had mysteriously found their way into the classroom. She also failed to make note of the way her professor glared at her back as she went out the door.

-----

Later that evening, Mamoru was once again sitting on his couch in the living room, flipping channels and looking for something to distract himself. He hoped that the brewing storm wouldn't knock the power out and take away any hope of diversion. He refused to allow his thoughts to run away with him into the realm of paranoia once more. Instead he tried to completely zone out and simply stop thinking as he had once done as a child. The task turned out to be much more arduous than he thought and more trouble than it was worth as it gave him a bit of a headache. He quickly decided to forgo the exercise.

Of course, what he wanted to do was track down this Mizuno Ami, back her into a corner, and interrogate her as to her motives. Who was she working for? Why was she against them? Was she against them? How was she involved in all of this? Is that hair color genetic or what?

Luna had told him that his plan was quite unreasonable and would probably cause the girl to have a nervous breakdown anyway. It didn't sound like anyone who could be behind mass amounts of death and destruction, but he couldn't take any chances. Not with so many people's lives at stake.

Mamoru's migraine increased tenfold with that thought. He set down the remote control and proceeded to nurse his headache, furrowing his brow in a manner that would only serve to make it worse in the long run.

There were many lives at stake if everything Luna was telling him wasn't a flagrant exaggeration. The entire world was at stake. And somehow someone had seen fit to rest that heavy load on his shoulders.

What made him so special? What made him qualified enough to take on such an immense responsibility? There were days when he found himself almost wishing for a giant comet to come and wipe out the entire human race so that they could all start fresh. But the powers that be saw fit to put him in charge of the fate of humanity?

It didn't make sense. How could one man be given such a task? True, he and Luna were searching for allies, but how long would it take to find them? And would they be willing to help when he found them?

Had he been given a choice, he would have refused to take part in this grand destiny that had been bestowed them. But he had not been allowed that opportunity.

But no matter what the outcome of that would be, the fact still remained that for the time being, Mamoru was on his own. He supposed it shouldn't have bothered him as much as it did. After all, he'd always been alone for as far back as he could remember.

He flinched almost imperceptibly as the television show he hadn't been watching went to commercial. The dark mood lighting was wiped out and replaced by the bright, garish colors of some anime or another. He recognized the theme playing in the background instantly, but it took him a minute to identify the show it was paired with.

A girl with hair that was too long and a skirt that was too short appeared on the screen clad in a mockery of a school girl uniform. Her face was concealed with a red mask that had become ingrained into the memory of every child under the age of fifteen. She struck a series of poses and announced herself with much enthusiasm.

"Sailor V!"

Mamoru winced again at the sight of this lone soldier. He suddenly realized that although he hadn't seen so much as one second of that television show, he instantly identified with the main character, mini-skirt and all.

"Mamoru?"

He looked over at his feline companion who was curled up beside him. He'd assumed she was asleep as that was how she generally preferred to bide her time. But Luna was in fact wide awake and looking as if she was quite troubled about something... namely him.

"Is everything all right?" Luna asked gently, sounding strangely empathetic.

He was tempted to give his usual stock response that he was fine. That was the sort of thing one said when one would simply rather not talk about one's emotional state. Nevertheless, something or another prompted him to look away from Luna and gaze at the television screen as Sailor V did a number of impressive acrobatics before the announcer informed him of what network the show ran on.

"I was just thinking," Mamoru admitted softly. "Sailor V fights alone."

Luna looked at him benevolently, automatically understanding just what it was he was feeling even though he hadn't said much. She knew she was asking a lot of him, fighting alone. He'd handled the situation remarkably well for anyone, but it was already beginning to take its toll. She was doing all she could to help him... But a cat could only do so much.

She hopped up out of her incredibly cozy seat on the couch and stretched out her spine for a few moments. Then she padded over to where Mamoru was sitting. She gingerly stepped onto his lap and turned around several times before she found a suitably comfortable position. She curled up on his lap, purring loudly.

Mamoru stared at her openly for a minute before breaking into a soft smile. He reached out and pet her gently, causing her purr to double in volume. The two did not always get along particularly well, but it was nice to know that he had least had a nagging feline for company.

Meanwhile, the ad for the anime show had prompted a similar thought process in Luna's little head. She had been searching for the legendary Sailor Senshi for months on end with no luck whatsoever. She hadn't expected to see them running around blasting people with fire and ice and thunder, but she'd hoped for better luck than she was having.

Thus far, all she'd managed to do was find Mamoru. While that was something of an accomplishment, it was all the more frustrating because she had no idea how he fit into the grand scheme of things. She had no memory of an important male figure from the Silver Millennium much less anyone who ran around calling themselves Tuxedo Kamen.

And then she'd also found Ami, but that girl was even more of a mystery than Mamoru. She knew next to nothing about her or what she was capable of. The only thing she did know was that she'd given Luna a very nasty case of the chills, but that certainly didn't divulge much...
Suddenly, Luna sat up. She blinked. She stopped purring. She blinked again.

And she realized something.

"By Serenity..." Luna breathed.

"What is it?" Mamoru asked, momentarily worried.

"I can't believe I missed it."

-----

The next morning, Ami left the house several minutes earlier than usual. The last thing she wanted was a repeat of yesterday. As entertaining as Usagi had been, Ami didn't care for an encore performance.

She hadn't been walking for all that long when she passed by a high brick wall that she'd never really paid much attention to before. But for whatever reason, Ami happened to glance up on that particular day. She did a double take, recognizing a little black cat from the day before.

"Oh, it's you!" Ami exclaimed, hoping no one was around to see her talking to a cat. "I didn't think I'd ever see you again."

The cat eyed her for a minute and then jumped down, landing deftly on the girl's shoulder. Ami swayed to compensate for the extra weight, but she maintained her balance easily enough. She smiled and reached over to scratch the cat under her chin, eliciting a purr from deep within her chest.

Ami giggled quietly. "Good kitty. What is it Usagi called you? Luna?"

She meowed as if to answer affirmatively.

"I guess I'm right," Ami laughed, walking forward slowly to ensure the cat didn't tumble off her shoulder. Then, as genuinely happy as she was to see Luna, Ami's blue eyes softened, even growing a little despondent. "Sometimes I wish my building allowed pets. I think I'd like to have a cat of my own."

Luna meowed again as if to ask why.

Ami frowned slightly. "It just gets so lonely up in that big apartment every night. I'm at school most of the day, and then I do nothing but study once I get home. It keeps me busy, but... it doesn't change the fact that the penthouse is empty night after night.

"You see, my mother's a very successful doctor. But to be as good as she is, she has to work a lot. I hardly ever see her for very long. You know, I don't think I've actually seen her face since last Tuesday. Isn't that awful?"

Luna meowed once more, this time sympathetically. Then she sat up a little and butted her head up under Ami's chin.

Ami smiled again and said, "Luna, if I didn't know any better, I'd swear you understood what I was saying."

"I think that sometimes myself."

Before Ami even finished turning around, she could tell that her ears were burning. Although, this time she didn't feel quite as bad. It really was quite embarrassing to be caught talking to something that couldn't talk back. She did however feel immensely frustrated with herself when she flushed darker when she saw that she had been addressed by a good looking young man, presumably the unpleasant cat owner Usagi had spoken of the other day.

"I'm sorry," Ami apologized without having actually committed any type of offense. "I didn't realize... That is, I--"

The young man smiled and held up his hand in an attempt to placate her. "Don't worry about it. I should be the one to apologize for sneaking up on a girl so deeply engrossed in such lively conversation with my cat."

Ami seriously considered leaping into the busy lane of traffic. Surely it would have been a kinder fate than this.

He chuckled at the mortified look on Ami's face and clapped his hands softly. "Here, Luna!"

The cat obeyed instantly, gracefully leaping off Ami's shoulder and bounding onto her owner's. He petted her affectionately before turning back to Ami, an apologetic look on his face. "Forgive my rudeness. I didn't introduce myself." He bowed deeply and said, "I'm Chiba Mamoru. I see you've already met Luna."

Ami nodded as if she were a robot whose gears hadn't been oiled for several months. She returned his bow just as awkwardly. "I'm Mizuno Ami. And yes, I did. She... stopped by after school the other day. Tsukino Usagi introduced us."

Mamoru scowled darkly. "I should have guessed Odango was behind it."

Ami tightened her grip on her briefcase and stepped back in surprise. "What was that?"

"Never mind," Mamoru insisted, instantly pleasant. "It isn't important."

"Oh," Ami murmured, looking quite bewildered. Still, she saw an opportunity to leave with that statement. She bowed before he could try and continue the conversation. "If you'll excuse me, I really must get to class. Good-bye!" She turned and fled, looking all too glad to get away from him.

-----

"I knew this kid once back in Junior High," Mamoru told Luna some time after Ami had run off. "His name was Goro. He used to get so flustered when he was called on in class that he'd have these panic attacks and start hyperventilating. I tried to talk to him once. He nearly passed out."

Luna looked up at him, mystified as to why he was telling her this. "Your point?"

"I don't have one," Mamoru divulged nonchalantly. "I was just reminded of him for some reason."

Luna heaved a sigh. "She really is shy, isn't she?"

"Oh, there must be a better word to illustrate what Mizuno Ami is," Mamoru declared. "There's timid. Inhibited. Reticent. Something. Shy just doesn't cut it." He glanced down at his companion, his uncertainty growing with each breath. "Are you absolutely sure she's involved?"

"Yes," Luna guaranteed him. "Trust me. We have definitely found an ally in that girl."

Mamoru wasn't exactly pleased with her evaluation. "I don't suppose there's any chance that I can go back to being the lone hero, is there?"

-----

Later that day, both caped crusader and talking cat were sitting outside Juuban Municipal Junior High School, waiting for the final bell to ring.

"Just so you know, I'm not going to allow you to miss any more classes after this," Luna informed him sternly.

Mamoru grinned. "Yes, ma'am."

Mamoru had once again been forced to duck out of one his classes. He realized his professors were growing increasingly annoyed with him, but surely gathering allies in order to prevent the upcoming apocalypse was a valid excuse to miss a lecture, right?

"So, Luna," Mamoru began as he ran a hand through his aberrantly unkempt hair. "How exactly are we supposed to approach this girl I've talked to for all of fifteen seconds, sit her down, and tell her that she's a member of an ancient alien civilization destined to save the world from certain doom and protect the heir to throne of a kingdom that fell approximately forty generations ago?"

Luna looked at him reproachfully. "Well, when you say it like that..."

"Then how should I say it? Because I got to tell you, I really don't think the direct approach is going to work with this girl As a matter of fact, I'm not sure any approach is going to." Mamoru rubbed the bridge of his nose. This was becoming increasingly more stressful.

"I'll come up with something," Luna reasoned. "Just... give me a minute."

As if on cue, the final bell resounded. Students poured out like they had just been released from a penitentiary.

Mamoru looked over at her meaningfully. "You'd better think faster cat. I don't want to miss her. I didn't miss a lecture to sit outside some junior high school for the past hour and a half waiting for some school girl who--"

"What? Are you stalking me now?"

Mamoru must have leapt close to five feet into the air at the sound of that all too familiar soprano. When he landed, he found himself gaping at a very unhappy Tsukino Usagi. She was filled with what she must have believed to have been righteous indignation for reasons he couldn't begin to speculate on.

"Odango!" Mamoru exclaimed, laughing nervously. "I didn't know you--"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!"

Mamoru flinched and rubbed his right ear in the aftermath of the explosion. "Must you always do that?"

"Yes," Usagi said plainly. "Until you stop calling me by that awful name. And until you stop following me everywhere."

He resisted the urge to bang his head against the tree. He scoffed openly at the notion. "Don't flatter yourself, Odango Atama. I am not following you. I happen to be waiting for a friend of mine that I haven't talked to in quite awhile. I didn't even know you went to school here."

Under normal circumstances, Usagi probably would have accepted his explanation. Sadly, she wasn't as willing to trust this man as she did all other human beings. She folded her arms across her chest and glared at him accusingly. "I don't believe you. First, you show up at my absolute favorite hang out even though I had never seen you there before ever, and now you appear at my school?"

Mamoru shrugged, at a loss for what else to do. He suddenly wished that talking cats weren't such an abnormality so that Luna could come to his rescue. "Coincidence."

"Liar!" Usagi shouted, stamping her foot just to cement her childishness.

Mamoru coughed to avoid laughing out loud. He leaned forward and said, "Did it ever occur to you that perhaps you never saw me at the Crown before because you're always in detention?"

Usagi's jaw quite literally dropped. It was rather impressive actually. She gawked at him, croaking out what might have been insults for several minutes. Finally, she just growled at him in complete and utter frustration and spun around, smacking him in the face with one of her pigtails in the process.

He spit out a mouthful of hair, watching her retreating back with equal parts amusement and annoyance.

"That girl..." Mamoru all but snarled as she went out of ear shot. "She is clinically insane. Or terminally irritating. Either way, it's permanent and it isn't a character trait one should strive for."

"I'd say she's leaning towards the latter at the moment," Luna said with a long suffering sigh. "It appears that we've lost Ami."

Mamoru looked around frantically the moment he heard the news, searching around for a tuft of blue hair. It seemed that students who weren't involved in extra-curriculars left rather quickly. The courtyard was virtually empty.

He once again eyed the tree trunk, reasoning that ramming one's head into a solid object three feet in diameter was surely less painful than what he was currently enduring.

-----

Mamoru wasn't able to track down Ami until the following day on her way to cram school. He tracked her at a distance, thanking genetics or ClairolŪ for giving her blue hair. It was close enough to mistake for black, but his trained eye was able to keep in sight without too much difficulty. He kept his eyes on their prey while Luna remained on the lookout for a certain towheaded trouble maker.

Ami, for her part, was entirely unaware of the fact that she was being tailed. To the casual observer, she was far too engrossed in her book to be paying the outside world much mind. She garnered several passing glances as people passed, marveling at the dedication and talent of a student who would go so far as to read Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases on her way to juku.

In actuality, Ami had been staring at the same page for the past ten minutes. The look on her face was often mistaken for one of intense concentration on a difficult subject. In truth, it was one of concern for the well being of the students in her cram school.

She had spent the last forty-eight hours or so thinking back on the caffeine pill incident. She would have liked to have discussed it with her mother, but she hadn't been home for several days. At least, not any time when Ami was awake. Her illegible notes and infrequent phone calls were the only things that convinced Ami that she was still alive. Of course, Ami was a capable young woman and had managed to reach a decision on her dilemma without outside assistance.

She would simply have to go to the teacher and explain the situation. There was no other course that she could take. Her classmates wouldn't be the least bit pleased with her of course, but then it wasn't as if she was falling off a very high pedestal.

Ami resisted the urge to sigh, opting instead to think about Usagi. She had spent every lunch hour with Ami since the beginning of that week. Ami had even stopped turning red every time the girl talked to her. And while Usagi's usual crowd whispered every time she walked by, it didn't bother Ami as much any more. She and Usagi weren't close... As a matter of fact, Ami still didn't get a chance to say much during their lunches thanks to Usagi's wide range of meaningless topics to prattle on about. But there was potential.

Tsukino Usagi might just prove to be Ami's long awaited friend.

Ami flashed her I.D. card at the burly security guard posted in the front with a quiet smile on her face. He seemed quite surprised at her expression.

Ami quickly ascended the seven flights of stairs to her classroom, tucking her book into her briefcase with practiced skill. She turned into her room, expecting to see students glancing over the day's material with the occasional socializing.

When she looked out at the classroom, she stopped dead in her tracks.

The students within were far outside their normal behavioral schemes. Though they weren't running about like nine year olds, Ami got the distinct impression that they would gladly be doing so and far worse if decorum permitted. Their eyes were wide, and some gave her the distinct impression that they had not slept since she last saw them. Others talked at rapid speeds, gesturing wildly and with shaking hands. And still more fidgeted, occasionally glancing out the window as if attempting to leap out of it just for the expenditure of energy.

She wasn't sure just what had surprised her so much about the display. It wasn't the norm, but to most, it wouldn't be noteworthy. She did know about the caffeine pills.

Still and all, Ami couldn't shake a nagging feeling that there was something sinister bubbling beneath the surface.

At that precise moment, the professor strode in hurriedly, hoisting her briefcase up onto the desk with a loud bang. That startled everyone into silence. They all moved to their seats obediently. Only Ami lagged behind, poised to speak up now about the problem.

"Excuse me--"

However, when the teacher shot her a withering glance accompanied by the snickers of more than a few of her classmates, she thought better of it. She coughed slightly and made her way to a desk towards the middle of the class. She made a supreme effort to avoid eye contact with everyone in the room, realizing that her confrontation was just going to have to wait until the class was over.

The stern teacher looked out at the assembled students with an appraising eye. She was new, having just started that week as a matter of fact. Ami wasn't sure what had happened to the last one. Nor did she know what this teacher's name was, thanks to her tardiness earlier in the week. But it didn't take a particularly sharp person to discern that this teacher was like many others - cold, demanding of respect, and possessing a distaste for any student showing the slightest bit of happiness.

It was something that soured Ami, but it was a reality to which she had reluctantly grown accustomed.

It was then that the teacher did something Ami immediately thought of as odd.

She smiled.

Teachers weren't exactly the happy-go-lucky sort. It was rare to see them express any sort of emotion aside from disdain or distant pride. But then, this smile was hardly a joyous one. As a matter of fact, Ami quickly decided that this grin was best classified under a sneer.

Her skin began to crawl.

"I would like to thank you for all of your hard work thus far," the teacher remarked coldly. "You have obviously worked long hours to get to where you are right now and given a lot of yourselves willingly." A vein popped out on the left side of her head. "However, some things must be taken by force."

The teacher flipped open her briefcase with a deft flick of her wrist, her joints bending a bit more than Ami was used to seeing. But she was more surprised by what she didn't see - the inside of the briefcase.

There was nothing beyond the supple leather than a black void. Ami immediately got the sensation that it was something akin to a tunnel. She narrowed her eyes, studying the phenomena with acute interest. That is, until she noted that her esteemed colleagues were dropping to the floor like so many flies.

She cried out as the boy next to her fell over on top of her. Ami leapt to her feet to avoid being entirely flattened by his superior weight. She stared at him for a moment before curbing her attention to the other students. Slowly, their skin turned ashen grey and their eyes rolled back into their heads. From there, gravity took over.

Fearing the worst, Ami crouched down to the boy. With a trembling hand, she reached out and grasped his wrist. After several moments, she decided that she did indeed feel a pulse, weak though it was. She breathed a sigh of relief and straightened. She was now the only person in the room on her feet aside from her teacher.

Ami turned to the older woman, her tone automatically accusing. "What's going on here?"

The teacher regarded her with some interest. Then she seemed to come to some conclusion, darkening in response to her epiphany. "Ah, yes. Now I remember. The little girl who found the others' methods so distasteful. I should have anticipated on you being a problem."

Ami took a step back even though there was a good eight feet between her and the teacher. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, I suppose I should at least explain it to you," the woman expressed coolly as she shut her briefcase, pushing her glasses up onto the bridge of her nose. "You see, I planted the caffeine pills."

Ami gaped. She'd heard of teachers who employed questionable methods to ensure their students' advancement, but nothing like this. "You? But... But why?"

"It had to be those you see," the woman explained, circling the desk to come stand in front of it. "Any caffeine pill would have raised their energy level. But only ours would have made them susceptible to the drain."

Ami narrowed her eyes, trying to make some kind of sense of what the woman was saying. Thus far, no luck. "The drain?"

"Yes," she continued. "I thought maybe you would have changed your mind or that perhaps you would have fallen victim anyway. I was obviously most mistaken. Ah, well. It's really no matter."

She looked up at the school girl with eyes that had been brown throughout their conversation. But when she blinked, Ami barely managed to suppress a shriek now that they were of a glowing yellow hue. The woman cracked her neck and hissed, "I always get what I want."

Then the woman before her shut her eyes tightly as if in extreme pain. Her flesh began to shift and change, bones cracking and moving back into different places. Her muscles rippled and bulged underneath skin that was slowly shifting in color. She cried out, her screams becoming progressively less human.

When it was all over, Ami found herself staring at something out of some twisted imagination.

Ami gawked at the abomination that stood before her. It was a mutation of human symmetry with one repulsively muscular arm dragging on the ground. It was painful to look at with bright blue skin and spiked green hair. The vertebrae of the... thing were not so much bones but knobs, poking out through the nearly translucent hide. Four claw marks ran across its face from prominent forehead to misshapen jaw. It was covered in a plethora of other battle scars that was less than the amount of clothing it more. Ami's fears were not assuaged when she realized that it was actually the pelt of something very much like itself.

The easily flustered genius was used to turning red with emotion. She could not remember any situation in which all of the blood had literally drained from her face.

She was frozen in place, unable to so much as tremble, as the monster looked her up and down with abhorrence. Then it broke into a sick, clownish grin. Ami shuddered at how the teeth were stained green. Something deep in her gut told her that it wasn't due to the youma's vegetarian diet. "Pity you didn't follow the crowd, missy. It would have saved you a great deal of pain."

Ami felt as if someone had poured cement all over her body, rooting her to her spot. As she watched the monster draw its normal sized hand back, calling forth a jaundice inspired glow of some sort, she could do nothing but marvel at the impossibility of what was happening to her. Surely she had passed out or hit her head or some other physical trauma had occurred to concoct this elaborate hallucination.

But when the monster thrust its hand forward, calling something out in what may or may not have been an actual language, adrenaline at last kicked in. She got her wits about her, gritted her teeth, and listened to an overwhelming impulse that all but shouted the obvious response in her mind.

Move.

-----

Under normal circumstances, Mamoru would have praised the notion of having a security guard posted outside of a juku. Students would often not even begin to venture home until nearly dark. Any educated person knew that while Tokyo was a safe city to walk around in late at night, the government embellished certain details to a degree. And Mamoru knew better than anyone that walking around in Tokyo alone had become a life or death risk virtually overnight.

However, at the moment, Mamoru would have very much liked to beat the security guard he was dealing with over the head. He was a walking stereotype. All muscle and no brains.

"Look," Mamoru attempted for what must have been the eighth time. "I'm telling you. My mother has just been admitted to the hospital. She was in a car accident. I have to get my sister and go there before she goes in to surgery. Please, let me through."

"You can't get in without I.D."

Mamoru did his best to remain calm, glancing briefly over at Luna who was trying to sneak past the muscular Neanderthal. "I don't understand why you just can't come with me while I get her," Mamoru ranted, fully knowing that such a thing would be disastrous as Ami would be quite confused and possibly very afraid when a strange man showed up claiming to be her relative. But he was relying on Luna at this point, so it was immaterial. "You walk me in. You walk me out. You make sure I don't do anything unsavory. Everyone's happy!"

"You can't get in without I.D."

Mamoru ran a hand down his face in exasperation. As his fingers passed over his eyes, he peeked through them to catch a glimpse of Luna. She was tiptoeing right by the guard, just a few more steps from her goal.

When he followed Mamoru's gaze and saw the cat attempting to infiltrate his precious facility, he reached down and picked her up roughly by the scruff of her neck, eliciting a pained meow from Luna's throat. Mamoru immediately reached out and took her from the guard, petting her to soothe the pain.

She may have driven him up the wall more often than not, but she was still his only ally. Well, until he got upstairs anyway.

All of a sudden, Mamoru got a very rotten feeling right in the pit of his stomach. It wasn't nearly as debilitating as his other headaches, but he was still certain that something big was about to happen. He swallowed on a dry throat and looked up at the guard.

"Listen to me," Mamoru instructed. "I have to get up there. Don't you understand? It's a matter of life and death. I--"

And in what would have been the perfect cinematic moment had this been a movie, Mamoru's words were cut off by the windows blowing out on the seventh floor of the building. Sickly yellow light flashed above as shards of glass rained down like razor hailstones. Mamoru covered Luna with his jacket and ducked his head to protect himself from the painful cascade, flinching in sympathy when the security guard cried out in pain.

When the downpour stopped, Mamoru looked over at his one obstacle to admittance. He was too busy nursing several oozing cuts as well as trying to reconcile himself with what had just happened. Mamoru seized his opportunity and ran forward, bursting through the doors before the guard even realized he was gone.

"How much do you want to bet Ami's on that floor?" Mamoru hissed in Luna's ear as he began his ascent, looking for a place to transform.

"I don't gamble," Luna muttered. "But I'll lay odds on one thing. Where the Senshi go, trouble will surely follow."

-----

Ami stared at the blown out windows in complete shock. The youma had been aiming directly at her chest. Surely the force of such a blast would have torn her to shreds!

She was shaking at the insight, but she didn't have very long to dwell on it. She shrieked and dove out of the way just before the oversized arm would have surely decapitated her. Instead, it broke apart just about all of the desks in her row. She scrambled to avoid the shrapnel, crawling on her hands and knees in desperation.

All the while, her mind was working a mile a minute. All of the other students were unconscious thanks to that pill. The teacher wasn't actually a teacher; it was a monster. And now it was hell bent on killing her because she had a moral compass.

"This is my reward for having integrity?" Ami muttered somewhat madly to herself. She craned her neck to catch a glimpse of the monster. She screamed again as it prepared to bring its large fist down on her head. She couldn't get out of the way fast enough, but she was now fighting for survival and acting purely on instinct. She grabbed one of the chairs and thrust it in front of her, bracing for impact.

The demon's two ton fist broke the chair apart as if it were nothing more than a ball of ice. Ami flinched as she felt several splinters embed themselves in her face and hands, but it was a small price to pay. The youma was momentarily preoccupied and Ami was able to drag herself to her feet. She bolted for the door in a mad dash for freedom...

And stopped short to avoid running into the monster.

Ami stared at it in alarm and quickly looked over her shoulder. It had actually moved from one place to another as if by magic, effectively blocking her exit. If Ami hadn't been so terrified, she probably would have been fascinated.

The demon snarled at her, the left side of its mouth twisting upwards in a hungry grin. Ami immediately began to back away, the creature advancing with every beat of her frantic heart. She felt herself break out into a cold sweat as she contemplated what to do.

She didn't stand a chance in fighting it... Well, where had that thought come from anyway? Of course she couldn't fight it! She wouldn't know how to go about such a thing. But she also couldn't get out the door. And she very much doubted she'd be able to reason with it.

Ami glanced out the open window. It was an option.

She was about to make the desperate move when suddenly the door was flung open by three unarmed security guards. Well, one of them was carrying a mop, but it wasn't as if that would do much good.

Ami wasn't foolish enough to think she was saved, but perhaps they could distract the youma long enough for her to jump out of the window. She leaned over and glanced out the window. Her heart effectively lodged itself in her throat. She was up seven stories. The fall would likely kill her.

She looked back at the monster and wondered if maybe death was her only escape.

The monster whirled around, bearing its teeth at the unexpected interruptions. It screeched, sounding very much like a dying falcon. The security guards all went deathly pale, unable to handle staring their darkest nightmares in the face. One fainted dead away and the other two ran for their lives, leaving Ami and the mop to fend for themselves.

"Wait!" Ami called after them, sounding quite hysterical. "You can't just leave me here!"

The demon turned back to her, still grinning in a way that made Ami shudder. "It appears they have, pretty miss. More's the pity. I doubt you'll be filling, and I like it when they squirm on the way down."

Ami's stomach dropped the seven stories to the ground.

-----

"How hard is it to find one damn classroom in this place?" Tuxedo Kamen snarled, passing by a number of closed doors on the seventh floor. Seeing as none of them had been blown out, he sincerely doubted that any of them were Ami's classroom. "I have to find her!"

"You will!" Luna hissed in his ear, digging her claws into his shoulder as she tried to hold on to him while he was running at this breakneck pace. "She's a Senshi. She can handle herself."

Tuxedo Kamen growled as he nearly ran right into a wall. He spun in a move that seemed practiced, pushing off it with upper body to give him more momentum. He flew down a new corridor with renewed speed. "But she doesn't know it yet! She wouldn't know what to do even if her powers did manifest."

"Her instincts will keep her alive," Luna assured him. "Trust me."

Tuxedo Kamen was not convinced.

At that precise moment, two slightly overweight security guards came tearing out of an open door at the other end of the hallway. Tuxedo Kamen was willing to bet odds that neither man had ever run quite that fast before in his life. And judging by the way their faces matched the cheap linoleum, they weren't running to the break room to snag the best jelly filled donut.

Both men stopped short when they caught sight of Tuxedo Kamen racing towards them, his cape billowing out ominously behind him, face set into a look of staunch determination. They exchanged a terrified glance, grew even paler, and then resumed running for their lives to hide in another classroom, screaming their heads off all the while.

Tuxedo Kamen pulled out a rose from nowhere, panting with the effort it took to keep up his speed. "Hang on, Mizuno. Just hang on."

-----

Ami shrieked again, but this time it was cut off as the monster's normally proportioned hand wrapped around her throat. Ami's eyes bulged as the thing squeezed her neck with bone crushing force, lifting her clear off the ground. Ami kicked her legs feebly and scratched at the monster's leathery hide. She felt layers of dead skin come off in her hands and thick blood smear her fingers, but the creature barely registered the pain. It just kept smiling at her, licking its lips in anticipation.

And then Ami's forehead felt like it was on fire.

She winced as she felt something burning. But it was a strange sensation... The closest feeling Ami could associate it with was fire, but it was absolutely freezing. She saw a blue light being cast on the demon's twisted face.

"What the--"

A flash of red zipped through the air, stopping once it hit the monster's gargantuan arm. Ami heard what sounded like a knife embedding itself into skin just before the monster let out another horrible cry. It released Ami, dropping her to the ground in favor of clutching her wound. Ami fell on the floor in a heap, gasping and coughing as she tried to make up for the oxygen she lost. Once reassured that she was still breathing, she scrambled to her feet and moved to get as far away from the creature as possible.

It was then that she saw that someone had indeed come to her rescue. Donned in a top hat and a cape, he was positioned perfectly for such an event. One arm was outstretched, and he was making a valiant effort to make the rest of his body appear to be slouching casually.

Ami could instantly tell that he was tensed and ready to fall upon the demon at a moment's notice. He was merely making an effort to appear as if this was a normal activity for him. She followed his gaze to see just what he had thrown and was befuddled at what she saw.

A rose?

While the claw marks on the monster's hand had barely tickled, the youma was now visibly aching from this storybook assault. It clawed at the flower, ripping off a chunk of its arm as opposed to just pulling it out. It oozed green blood and Ami felt sick with the memory of its fangs.

"A juku is a place where students go to learn and better themselves so that they might achieve a superior score on high school entrance exams. They come here to try and get the best future they possibly can. They do not come here--" he paused as he had to step over the body of the fallen security guard, but he picked up right where he left off. "--to fight for their lives or to be attacked by hellish demons. How dare you interrupt these students' studies for a nefarious plot? I, Tuxedo Kamen, will not allow it."

Ami raised an eyebrow. This guy clearly could not work off the cuff.

The creature screeched again, making Tuxedo Kamen wince. "So, you're the one who has already slain two of my brethren?"

He smirked. "That would be me."

"I was warned of you by my master," it continued with a feral snarl. "I was told that my sisters were careless in their plots. After all, how else could a mere amateur stab one in the heart and choke the life out of another from behind? We were bred to kill, Tuxedo Kamen." It grinned back at him. "And as you will see, I am not so weak as my predecessors!"

It swung back its larger hand like a wrecking ball once more, causing Ami to drop to the floor in order to avoid serious injury. She shut her eyes to avoid seeing the unpleasantness, crying out when she heard the creature's arm smash into a wall. Still, the grunt of frustration that followed clearly meant that Tuxedo Kamen had survived. In spite of this, Ami was still not particularly confident in her masked savior.

"Ami!" a female voice hissed from her left. "Ami, open your eyes. Ami! I need to talk to you about what's on your forehead!"

Her eyes flew open at that, her right hand rising to inspect her prickly brow. She shivered when she tried to touch it, quickly drawing her hand away. It felt as if she'd driven her hand into three feet of tightly packed snow.

She glanced around for the voice, but saw no one who could be speaking to her. She did see Tuxedo Kamen break another chair over the creature's back, but she quickly looked away from that. Her gaze dropped down again...

And she came face to face with a very resolute looking feline with a bald spot in the shape of a crescent.

"Luna?" Ami breathed somewhat madly. "What are you doing here?"

"Looking for you, Sailor Mercury," the cat replied lucidly.

In a way that was very uncharacteristic of her, Ami threw herself back and screamed, staring at Luna in terror. She was quivering now, shaking her head. "God, you're another one of those things aren't you? Vicious monsters, talking cats, men in capes... I suppose Sailor V is going to show up any minute!"

Luna's expression was briefly compassionate, but she quickly steeled up once more. "Listen. I don't have time to explain everything to you. You'll just have to trust me when I saw that I'm on your side, Mercury."

"Mercury?" Ami said helplessly, at a complete loss as to why this talking cat had just called her a planet. "What are you talking about?"

Luna opened her mouth to say something more, when they both heard the sound of flesh pounding into flesh. They both turned to see Tuxedo Kamen being punched in the gut painfully. Ami rose to her feet instantly, feeling an overwhelming urge to help him.

Ami blinked and the impulse was replaced by fear. "What am I doing? I can't--"

"You feel it, don't you?" Luna interrupted. "You feel the call to help him. It's who you are, Mercury." She gestured to Ami's forehead with her paw. "You've been marked for this destiny. You are what you were made to be. And now it is time for you to awaken."

The cat then hopped to her feet and did a back flip into the air. Some kind of shimmering substance seemed to follow her as she did so. Then there was a small flash of light, like a light bulb popping. When Ami looked again, she saw a curious looking object lying on the floor. It was blue with a familiar symbol from her astronomy books topping it off.

"Mercury?" Ami whispered, bending down to pick up the pen. She looked over at Luna, feeling as if something was dawning on her. But she still didn't know what. "What is going on?"

"That is your henshin pen. You are Sailor Mercury," Luna briefed her briskly. "And you have to help Tuxedo Kamen defeat this evil."

Ami stared at the pen in wonder. She felt something when she held it. She could not put it into words, but something felt inexplicably... right.

"Hold it up," Luna continued swiftly. "And say Mercury Power, Make-Up!"

Ami looked back at the dark cat. "What?"

There was another crash, though neither of them dared to see what had happened.

Luna's voice sounded almost frantic as she shouted. "Do it now!"

Ami had never been particularly good at disobeying an imperative statement spoken in a forceful tone. Before she even knew what she was doing, she was holding the mysterious pen over her head. She felt her forehead burn with more intensity. Ami was certain now that there was only one way to alleviate the pain.

"MERCURY POWER, MAKE-UP!"

-----

Things were not going all that well for Tuxedo Kamen. He didn't want to wager how much collateral damage he and the youma had caused in the past few minutes. Nor did he want to guess just how much damage the monster had done to him. He was slowing down considerably after the rib shattering punch to the gut, and the youma had barely broken a sweat. Every once in a while, what could only be described as a great yellow blob of light would fly from its shorter hand. One blast had clipped him on the arm, and it was still burning.

The creature drew its hand back again, light gathering around its palm. Tuxedo Kamen bent his knees, preparing to dive out of the way again. The youma released its attack and he flew. Unfortunately, he didn't count on tripping over the body of a slightly more rotund student. That kept him from getting much distance.

As a result, the attack hit him square in the chest. He cried out and was thrown back into the wall. He smashed into it, cracking the plaster and knocking all of the adornments off. He grimaced painfully as he slowly slid down, hitting the ground with a thud.

Tuxedo Kamen groaned weakly, forcing himself to look up at the youma as it lumbered towards him. It looked as if it had already won, grinning down victoriously at him. He would have cringed if it wouldn't have been so painful.

"And to think," the youma cooed as it drew its hand back to deliver the finishing strike. "I was almost worried you were going to be a challenge." Its face screwed up violently and it screeched again, shaking the remaining glass left in the windowpanes.

Tuxedo Kamen clamped his eyes shut and waited for his life to flash before his eyes. He felt embittered disappointment when his memories began with him burying his face into a white doctor's coat, screaming for his mother.

"MERCURY POWER, MAKE-UP!"

The words made both man and beast jolt, each turning to where they had last seen Mizuno Ami. Tuxedo Kamen watched in awe as Ami was enveloped in cool blue light. She seemed to dance amongst glowing rivers and shimmering snowflakes, the water elements caressing her skin and forming ribbons that clothed her. There was yet another flash of light, and suddenly she was dressed in a strangely familiar imitation of a school girl uniform. It was all variations of blue and white, with knee high boots adorning her feet and a tiara upon her brow. She spun around and ended in what seemed to be a rehearsed pose, short skirt billowing in the breeze.

Tuxedo Kamen cast a quick, appreciative glance at her legs. Normally he wouldn't have, but if he was about to die, he may as well enjoy the view.

"For love and justice," Sailor Mercury said, striking yet another series of poses straight out of Sailor V. "I am the soldier of wisdom, Sailor Mercury! And in the name of Mercury, I order you to douse yourself in water and repent!"

Had Tuxedo Kamen not been well past this stage in his life, he would have pouted. She must have rehearsed that bit in front of a mirror.

The youma screeched and turned on Mercury, swinging its clubbed arm back to flatten her. In spite of these instincts Luna had assured him of, the girl warrior froze in place, clearly overwhelmed by everything that was happening to her.

Tuxedo Kamen saw no other choice. He steeled his mind and flung himself to his feet, leaping over the demon's head. He landed in front of Mercury and threw his hands up in front of his face. Luna screamed at him to move and Mercury to help, but neither party listened.

Just before the monster would have made mincemeat of his chiseled visage, a cane appeared seemingly out of nowhere, flying into his hands. He didn't bother to question it and just thanked heaven for its presence. He tightened his grip on the instrument and used it to block the monster's blows. It proved quite useful as the youma was now so frustrated that it didn't change tactics and just kept hammering away at the cane.

He looked over his shoulder briefly and caught sight of Sailor Mercury. She was staring at her costume in complete bewilderment, looking every bit a lost little girl in desperate need of a parent's embrace. He looked away, knowing the feeling all too well.

"Attack it!" he bellowed straining against the last hit. He wasn't sure how the cane was able to withstand the assault, but then some things were best left unanalyzed.

Mercury looked up at him, somewhat unsure of whom he was addressing. "Me?"

Tuxedo Kamen grunted and dodged another punch. "Well, we can't very well expect Luna to be particularly useful in this situation, can we?"

Although Luna was quite resentful, Mercury supposed he was correct. She looked around frenetically, looking for something to use as a weapon. Finding that anything useable had been already trampled or obliterated, she turned back to him and shouted, "What do I do?"

Tuxedo Kamen gracefully avoided stepping on two unconscious children and blocked yet another swipe. This time the creature leaned into his cane, hoping to make it snap under its weight. He pushed back up with all his might, amazed that the cane managed to hold up. He ground his teeth. "It just always comes. Just... focus or some--"

The last was cut off as the youma finally decided to change tactics. It grasped the cane with its smaller hand and flung it upwards, dragging Tuxedo Kamen along with it. He was tossed into the air, flipping end over end until he came to a dead stop in the other wall.

Things were most definitely not going at all well for Tuxedo Kamen.

"No!" Mercury cried as Tuxedo Kamen was tossed casually aside, landing upside down before crumpling to the floor. She almost ran over to help him, when she saw the youma turn to her. Apparently it assumed that Tuxedo Kamen would not be getting up for a good, long time. Therefore, it would serve itself best by taking out the healthy competition.

Mercury glanced over at the prone form of her supposed savior. She gulped when she realized that the monster's assumptions were probably spot on.

The reluctant warrior turned back to face her challenger, trying very hard not to show fear in the face of such peril. She doubted that she was doing even a halfway decent job of it.

'Attack it,' he'd told her. 'It's just always comes. Just... focus.'

She wished that he'd been more specific on just what she was supposed to focus on.

But in light of that advice, vague though it had been, Mercury did the only thing she could possibly think of. She concentrated on finding some semblance of power. After all, it stood to reason that she had some given the miraculous costume change. It had to be there. Hidden somewhere deep within her was some sort of way to attack this thing. Her life and his depended on whether or not she found it in time.

"Good bye, Sailor Mercury," the youma said casually.

And suddenly, Mercury knew.

She thrust her hands forward in a manner that she had never before done even though it felt as natural as swimming. Ice cold power gathered at her fingertips, saturating her gloves. She spun around, crossing her arms in front of her face. Then she flung them out with a cry so familiar and so foreign that it gave her chills.

"SHABON SPRAY!"

Of all things to be utilized in an attack, bubble raced for the youma, taking both of them by surprise. It actually flinched, anticipating something that Mercury couldn't hope to hypothesize. However, the attack never truly hit home. Instead, a cold fog filled the room, making it impossible for either Mercury or the demon to see three feet in front of them.

"What's this!" it screeched. "A diversionary tactic! I'll get you, you little--"

It struck out at the air again, displacing the fog enough so that Mercury was able to guess at where it was. She jumped back, nimbly avoiding the bodies that littered the floor. She continued to dodge the creature until it turned in the opposite direction and mistakenly pursued her that way. After awhile, she bumped into another warm, solid form. She jumped when he reached out to steady her and whispered in her ear.

"Stay here. I got this."

Mercury stared out at nothing as she felt a cape whisk past her, watching as the thick fog slowly began to clear. A high whistle penetrated the air, halting the demon's furious movements.

"Hey, Ugly! I'm over here! Don't you know how to finish what you start?"

The creature let loose yet another unholy cry as Mercury was finally able to see the forms of the two fighters. The monster lunged forward with a great leap, flying at Tuxedo Kamen with outstretched arms. On the other hand, Tuxedo Kamen looked quite calm. Both Sailor Mercury and Luna frantically cried out for him to move as the demon brought its hand back, prepared to fling another attack at him.

Then at the last possible moment, Tuxedo Kamen bent his knees. He leapt upwards, almost soaring over the thing's head. He hovered in the air just above the creature's head as it continued to rocket forward...

Right out the open window.

The youma continued to screech as it fell, twisting in the air as gravity slowly took hold. Tuxedo Kamen solemnly dropped to his feet, deliberately not looking out the window. Sailor Mercury rushed forward, just barely stopping herself from resting her hands on jagged shards of glass.

She watched as the monster fell from seven stories, its arms stretching up to them. It yelled what might have been some demonic curse on them both as the ground rose up to meet it. Mercury never took her eyes off it, even as it smashed its head on the pavement below, blood and brains splattering against the gray cement.

Just seconds later, what had been left of the corpse turned to dust and carried off by a sudden breeze.

Inside the classroom, the briefcase on the teacher's desk shuddered violently. Tuxedo Kamen and Luna watched as it exploded in array of shimmering sand, covering the one thing in the room that had been left almost entirely intact.

Sailor Mercury looked out the window in horror. There had been a body. Something had died, malicious as it was. And as gruesome as the death itself had been, there was now no corpse left behind. It had vanished. Any trace of its existence save their battle scars and the destroyed classroom had disappeared entirely.

She shook violently as her mind went blank.

A hand fell upon her shoulder, obviously meant to be a gesture of comfort. She neither jumped nor whirled to face him. All she did was stare at that spot on the sidewalk that had been stained with inhuman blood just seconds before.

"Listen," Tuxedo Kamen began quietly. "Mercury... I know that this is--"

He never got to finish as she blacked out, collapsing into his arms.

-----

Tuxedo Kamen stared at the girl he was now holding. Her transformation had melted away as she fell, and now she was Mizuno Ami once more. Not that she would ever be the same.

He heard a quiet moan at his feet. He looked down and saw that the other students were beginning to stir. It wouldn't do for him to be caught in so suspicious a position, so he quickly laid Ami down on the ground, assuming that the others would think that she'd been caught up in the attack and not question her position. He then scooped Luna up in his arms and dashed into the hallway.

"Well, that could have gone better," he wheezed, pausing just outside the door.

"Are you all right?" Luna asked, her eyes wide with worry.

He coughed. "I'm just this side of comatose, thanks for asking." Tuxedo Kamen stopped for a moment, narrowing his eyes beneath his domino mask. "That thing was strong, Luna. Stronger than the other ones."

"They're testing you," Luna explained patiently. "They're seeing just how much you can withstand."

Tuxedo Kamen felt his heart clench in fear. "That thing almost had me. If it hadn't been for Mizuno-- Sailor Mercury, and a lot of luck... I'd be dead."

Luna frowned slightly. "I don't suppose you're part Irish."

Tuxedo Kamen was about to react when he suddenly heard what sounded like a veritable stampede headed his way. He momentarily panicked, wondering if his mysterious enemy had sent reinforcements.

He wasn't sure whether or not to be relieved when he saw a cavalry comprised of the two security guards, a number of armed police officers, and several overzealous members of the press. Flashbulbs immediately went off before one of the guards even had a chance to point at him like he'd just been found guilt of murdering his grandmother. "That's him! That's the man I saw!"

Luna's hair stood on end. "Might I suggest you run?"

Tuxedo Kamen glanced around for another corridor, but it appeared that he was at a dead end. It seemed the only opportunity for escape was a full length glass window at the end of the hall.

He grinned mirthlessly. "What's another broken window, eh, Luna?"

-----

Ami spent much of the next day at school jumping at just about every shadow that moved. There was one particularly upsetting incident in which her teacher had suddenly called on her and Ami had actually yelped. Naturally, this amused her classmates to no end and for the rest of the day it seemed as if the entire world was having one long chuckle at her expense.

But that was the last thing Ami was concerned about. No, her thoughts rested only in the events of the previous day. She had at first looked at it objectively and tried to reason an answer. That hadn't worked. At the moment, she was trying abject terror towards every living and nonliving thing she encountered. That wasn't much of an improvement, but it was hardly the point.

How could Ami look at what happened the day before objectively? How could she reason with the fact that a monster had very nearly killed her? And what was the scientific explanation for the sudden fog that had come upon them - a fog that she could have sworn she summoned?

She tried to brush that thought aside. This wasn't some sort of shoujo anime. This was real life. And in real life, monsters didn't look any different from anyone else and that made them that much more dangerous. And there certainly weren't any short-skirted heroines or masked men to fly in and save the day.

A boy from a lower grade rushed past her, brushing her skirt as went by. Ami managed to choke back her cry this time, but she couldn't help but jump. She clenched her fist and looked briefly alarmed.

Then she heard several snickers from behind her. Her fist tightened, but she did nothing else.

Ami walked away, her gaze lowered. After a few moments, she unclenched her hand and gently massaged her temple. She didn't know how this day could possibly get any worse.

Suddenly, Ami heard an engine rev close by. It was quite loud and almost had a character behind it, but Ami quickly discounted that, never having been one to wax poetic. She followed the gaze of the crowd. Awed gasps and appreciative whispers went up among the students as a rather svelte looking man on a motorcycle tore around the corner at a rapid pace. Seeing no reason to continue staring, Ami turned to go.

Then the motorcycle came to a sudden stop just beside her.

Fearful once more, Ami backed away, her eyes widening. The man on the motorcycle held up his hand as if to assure her that he meant no harm. He then pushed the visor of his helmet up, revealing him to be the man she'd run into on Tuesday. The cat owner that Usagi wasn't fond of.

"Chiba-san?" Ami asked.

"Get on," he said rather brusquely.

Ami was now very unsure of whether or not she should blush furiously or run away to avoid being accosted.

She stuttered for a moment, at a complete loss for the appropriate response to this situation. She couldn't just go with him. There was already gossip going up around her. Not to mention there was the fact that she'd barely said more than two words to him. Just what did he want with her anyway?

It was then that Ami saw that something appeared to be moving on his neck. She glanced over and realized with a sinking heart that it was that strange cat again. Luna. The one who had talked to her the day before.

'So, he's the man in the mask,' Ami deduced, her inner voice sounding surprisingly calm given how panicked she was. 'I suppose I should have figured that out some time ago. Funny, he looks all right. Then again, I woke up this morning with minimal injury. I should probably try and say something right about now.'

"Umm..."

All at once, a flash of gold appeared before Ami, the vision so blurry that she couldn't discern just what it was. It wasn't until the apparition spoke up that Ami realized that Tsukino Usagi was attempting to come to her rescue.

"You're here again!" she shouted incredulously, attracting the remaining attention of everyone within a five mile radius. "Didn't I chase you away on Tuesday?"

Mamoru looked as if he very much wanted to run Usagi over with his bike.

"And now you're attempting to lure some other poor, unsuspecting, helpless girl to your lair, no doubt." Usagi grabbed Ami protectively, pushing her away from Mamoru in the process. She posed dramatically and cried, "I shall not rest until every young girl is safe from your clutches, Chiba Mamoru! You think just because you have a cute cat that you can whisk girls off into the sunset and have your way with whoever you please? Well... It doesn't!"

Mamoru just looked her.

Usagi nodded emphatically, thumping her chest proudly. "No. No, it doesn't."

Mamoru shook his head and muttered something that neither of them could hear. Ami noticed that Luna seemed to nod in response. Usagi did not.

He sighed slightly and said, "I can't force you to come along, Ami. That's up to you."

Ami breathed an audible sigh of relief.

"But you seem like the type who needs answers."

She looked up at that, her eyes somewhat wide. He was smiling at her, his expression gentle. He was making it plain to her that he understood what she was going through. Then again, if he had seen demons before, how could he not?

And he seemed to know something about her already. He must have known she was an academic, always on a focused searched for the truth. Every question had an answer. Every problem had a solution. And she needed to unravel every mystery she possibly could.

Ami took a deep breath, calling upon every courageous bone in her body to give her the nerve to do what she was about to do. She stepped away from Usagi, taking the still babbling girl off-guard. Ami looked between the two for a moment, wondering if she was making the right decision.

But then what would Frost think of her if she didn't wonder about the path not taken?

She nodded slightly, reaching out and taking the extra helmet Mamoru offered her. Ami crammed it on quickly in a futile attempt to at least muffle the twittering that went up when she did so. She climbed on, adjusting her things with Mamoru's assistance. Once she was secure, she turned and saw Usagi standing on the sidewalk. Ami briefly wondered if it was actually possible for the jaw bone to open quite that much. She waved rather feebly at the blonde and was then forced to hang on for dear life as Mamoru sped away.

Usagi stared after them in silence for a moment before taking off down the street, screaming, "Ami! I know his cat's cute, but you must resist it! He's not a nice person, Ami! Ami! RESIST!"

They were quickly out of her sight and out of ear shot, so Usagi was forced to quiet down. Still, she stared after them for a few moments, ignoring the stares and whispers of her classmates. Finally, she turned on her heel and stalked down the street in the opposite direction, feeling the need to say only one word in response to that ordeal.

"Ecchi."

-----

"And that's the whole of it," Luna finished, looking rather breathless after her incredibly lengthy explanation.

Ami found she could do nothing but stare at the feline for a few moments. She was still having some trouble reconciling herself with the fact that a cat could talk. Now said cat had just thrown so much information at Ami that her head hurt. That was something that had never happened before.

Then again this entire week had been something of an anomaly, hadn't it?

The quietly terrified girl turned away from Mamoru and Luna, folding her arms across her chest. She looked out over the serene atmosphere of the park that she had been brought to, paying particular attention to the unruffled surface of the lake.

She had always felt some unexplainable connection with the water. For years she had just assumed that it was because her father had taught her how to swim, and she did not see him often. It was a special memory between the two of them. It didn't matter if the water seemed to caress her. It did not matter if she was always aware of its presence. It did not matter than the sound of water running through the pipes of her house could soothe her more than her mother's gentle words. It was nothing out of the ordinary.

But now these people were telling her that she was not just Mizuno Ami. She was Sailor Mercury, master of water and ice. They were telling her that every mildly unusual incident from childhood was not mere happenstance, but a testament to her power. They were telling her that hell had just opened up and she was supposed to aid them in sealing it up again.

Ami's eyes fluttered closed for a moment and then flew open again. She pursed her lips when she saw that she was still staring at the lake.

"It feels like some horrible dream, doesn't it?"

Ami turned, somewhat startled by his presence. Apparently, he had been standing next to her for some time. She must have been too lost in thought to detect his presence. Not that she'd ever been good at such things to begin with.

After a moment, she nodded by way of response and turned to look back at the lake.

Mamoru must have been waiting for something more for he didn't speak again for a few minutes. When it became plain that she wasn't going to say anything more without further prodding, he added, "I had hoped for the same thing when I got dragged into this. I pinched myself every chance I got." He rolled up his sleeve to demonstrate, holding it in front of her. "See?"

Ami glanced down as she was instructed. She felt somewhat unsettled by the sight of the tiny bruises running up and down his arm. Some looked fresher than others. "You still do it, don't you?"

He looked momentarily surprised at her assessment but then nodded, seeing no reason to lie. Although, he noted that now she seemed somewhat flustered that she'd even brought it up. "The shock has mostly worn off. But not completely."

Ami shook her head, resting her forehead in her hand. "No. This can't be real. It... It doesn't make any sense! Not just the demons but... Me! Of all people to entrust this with!"

Mamoru laughed ruefully. "I know the feeling."

"I have a hard enough time confronting normal human beings," Ami ranted quietly. "How am I supposed to fight those... Those things?"

"Well, as you saw, it requires quite a bit of dodging, guesswork, and luck," Mamoru offered. Judging by the various shades of grey Ami quickly turned, he ventured that his word choice hadn't been the best. "But I imagine it'll be easier if you're not alone."

Ami looked over at Mamoru. She was extremely dubious as to his suggestion. After a moment, she shook her head and whispered, "I don't think I can do this."

Mamoru saw Luna stand up, opening her mouth to speak. He knew that she would no doubt launch into some speech about destiny and birthright and responsibility or some other rubbish. She would gladly force Ami into this fate in order to save the world and the princess.

Mamoru had other plans.

"All right," he said, effectively cutting Luna off. "I understand if you don't want to do this."

Ami didn't quite gawk at him, but that was the closest word Mamoru could associate with how she was looking at him. "You do?"

"Yes," he said simply, once again silencing Luna before she had a chance to speak up.

Now Ami looked completely confused. "But... You said that I was chosen. That I'm Sailor Mercury, and no one else can be. I mean, I do think that someone made a gross error in judgment in that department, but--"

"Well, let's see," Mamoru offered. He looked at her levelly and said, "Do you have it?"

Unsurprisingly, Ami didn't have to ask what he was talking about. She didn't move at first, but then she reached into a hidden pocket in her skirt and pulled the aforementioned 'it' out. She held it up to the light. It glittered almost unnaturally, as if it was not just reflecting the sunrays but radiating starlit sparkles from within. No one there doubted that it was.

"My henshin pen," Ami whispered softly. "That's what Luna called it, right?"

"Yes," Mamoru answered her in just as quiet a voice. "Now, I want you to be absolutely honest with me... When you look at that pen, at that symbol... Do you feel anything?"

Ami nodded without hesitation. "I feel... I feel strange. Like even though everything around me is coming undone... I finally fit."

Mamoru took a deep breath and laid his hands on her shoulders. He grinned wryly as Ami's face turned colors once again, but did not bring attention to it. He did his best to soften his gaze and said, "You are Sailor Mercury, whether you like it or not. And it's true that you are destined to save this world and to protect the Moon Princess with your life.

"But that doesn't mean you can't ignore destiny." He heard Luna cough behind him, probably choking on the very suggestion. "You can walk away from this. You can hand me that pen, leave this park, and forget any of this ever happened."

Ami shook her head sadly. "I could never forget this."

Mamoru considered that for a moment. "No, I don't suppose you could. But you could ignore it. You can go back to your life as a normal, every day top student forced to deal with Odango on an every day basis."

She smiled, finding that much at least mildly amusing.

"I'm not going to force you to do this," Mamoru concluded. "The choice is up to you."

Luna was obviously appalled by his methodology, but she said nothing to the contrary. However, she swore that no matter what Ami's decision, Mamoru was going to catch hell for this when it was all over.

For her part, Ami once again fell into silence, staring at the henshin pen that she clutched in her hands. She spun it around in her agile, ink-stained fingers. She felt almost entranced by it and the symbol that had branded her what she was. She was dictated by destiny to be Sailor Mercury.

But Mamoru said that she could walk away.

"You didn't have a choice," Ami remarked.

Mamoru shook his head. "No. I didn't."

She looked up at him, her eyes narrowed as if she were studying a newly discovered species of animal. "But you're giving me one. You'd go back to fighting by yourself even though it would be harder."

"That's right."

Ami frowned. "That's not practical."

Mamoru shrugged. "Kindness often isn't."

Ami stared at him for a few more moments, still mulling over the decision in her mind. At long last, her shoulders sagged in defeat. "All right. I'll do it."

Mamoru grinned both at her acceptance and at Luna's exaggerated sigh of relief from behind him. "You made the right decision."

Ami still looked skeptical.

Feeling the need to do something to cement their alliance, Mamoru stepped away from Ami. He stuck his hand out in a very western manner. Ami was only momentarily confused before recognizing the gesture. She reached out with tentatively and took it, her hand being swallowed up in his.

"Welcome to the team, Sailor Mercury."

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