It seems to be working, so far. Tell me what you think.

  Cor. I'm writing a Sailor Moon fic....
  Written in response to all the new-male-character SM fics I've seen.
  Think "Anno Hideaki directs Sailor Moon".

---------------------------------------------------------------------

  "Iason, you have a visitor."

  The 17 year old youth looked up from his work at his father. "Who is
it?"

  "Just come and see." The older man smiled.

------------------------------------------------

  It was a fine day in Tokyo. Bright and sunny. Very nice.

  Seidou Ryoku, third-year student at Kongou High School, was taking a
stroll with his parents and little sister. It had been a good week,
overall. A little stressful, to be sure--but that was what this relaxed
walk through the park was for.

  It was _such_ a great day to be out.

************************************************

  An Oddzilla Productions piece.

************************************************

  "From...from Lady V-Venus?" stammered Iason.

  The large man smiled. "Yes. I am her personal aide and representative,
Vitus. I have come here to speak to you on her behalf. And for the
Younger Venus, as well."

  "Er...."

  "My boy! Do not be so timid! You are not in any sort of trouble!"
Vitus laughed and slapped him resoundingly on the back.

  "*kaff* Y-yes, sir...."

  "Iason, lad, as you know, Venus is the leader of the Senshi. And as
leader of the Senshi, she has a protector. A personal guard. You know of
Aias, do you not?"

  "Um. He is the Elder Venus's protector?" Something at the back of
Iason's mind was starting to nag him.

  "Indeed. The Younger Venus will be assuming the role someday, of
course. And she, in turn, will have a protector."

  Iason blinked.

------------------------------------------------

  "Ryo-niisan, what's that?" Karin pointed over something that seemed to
be moving around in a particularly thick bunch of trees.

  "Eh? No idea.... Let's look."

  The Seidous ambled towards the grove, prodded by mild curiosity. Along
the way, Ryoku started to feel a little disoriented. He just put it off
to his lack of sleep.

************************************************

  A fanfic by Andrew Huang.

************************************************

  Iason stood on the bridge of the Wing of Aphrodite, watching Earth
pull away on the viewscreen. Destination: the Moon.

  He was excited, and still a little dumbfounded. He had a talent for
fighting, yes, but he would never have guessed--

  "Hey...what's...over there...." He pointed.

  With that, the fall of the Silver Millenium began. And within two
minutes, it all ended for Iason Porakos.

------------------------------------------------

  Ryoku stared in absolute horror at the explosion....

  Chunks of concrete flew outward....

  His mother, father, sister fell....

  He fell....

  And before he lost consciousness, he saw a flash of colors.

  "I am the beautiful sailor-suited warrior...."

  Too late. Damn you. Too late.

************************************************

  Mourning Star.
  Based on Takeuchi Naoko's Sailor Moon.

************************************************

  Ryoku awoke slowly. The wispy remnants of an odd dream, of beginning
some sort of journey, clung on the borders of his mind, and faded away.
He stared at the white ceiling above him, for the last time.

  He was going to be discharged from the hospital. Finally. A month
later....

  He had missed the funeral. Hell, he was barely out of his coma, when
that happened...Father's eldest brother, Gomi-ojisan, had taken care
of the details.

  (Three faces he'd not ever see again.)

  But since waking up, he had recovered remarkably quickly for such
serious injuries. This soon, the doctors said, it must be a miracle.
Ryoku had just shrugged. It wasn't a miracle that he had cared for,
particularly.

  For now, Ryoku would be living in an apartment that his uncle was
putting rent up for. The least he could do, he said. No, no trouble at
all. Besides, you'll be going off to college soon. You did well on the
juken...you can go wherever you want.

  Uncle was going to help pay for that, too. It was nice to have a rich
uncle.

  "I'd rather have my family," Ryoku whispered.

  (Too late. Damn you. Too late.)

  The nurse came in, to give him one last quick checkup.

------------------------------------------------

  Life goes on, you see.

  A month ago, the Senshi had felt rather distraught at the fact that
almost an entire family had been killed by that attack. If only, if only
they had gotten there even one minute earlier!

  Then again, it was strange that they managed to get there when they
did at all.... Minako had gotten this odd "feeling", and led the Senshi
to the park, to find the creature just as it began its rampage.

  They consoled themselves with the fact that, at least, the young man
had managed to survive. Poor guy--but at least he was alive.

  And now, one month later....

  "Minako-chan, you're _still_ feeling weird?"

  "Well, yeah." She turned to face the other blond Senshi. "Except that
it...it's not so focused. I can't tell where. I just know that something
is out there."

  The girls sat, lay, and lounged in various positions in Rei's living
room. Their attention was suddenly drawn by Artemis padding in.

  "Artemis, y...." Minako trailed off. "Artemis? Are you okay?"

  The white cat turned slightly glazed eyes towards his charge. "I'm....
Something...."

  "Hitting the catnip again, are you?" muttered Luna. _That_ snapped
Artemis out of it.

  "Oh, shut up." Then, to the general audience-- "I saw something.
Someone."

  "Definitely on the stuff."

  "LUNA! I'm serious!" yelled Artemis. This made everyone blink. Him
shouting at Luna.... "Someone is about to remember."

  Remember?

------------------------------------------------

  Sense of failure. Sense of an unfulfilled duty. Sense of great pain. 
Sense of.... Someone. Yes. But not just someone--

  Ryoku's snapped awake. "Crap." He looked down at his math homework,
sitting in his lap. "I hate complex analysis."

  He sighed. Homework was a bit of a bother, after having missed
nearly a month of school. Falling asleep while doing it wasn't good
either.  Ryoku wiped at his eyes, began to start scribbling a little
more, and nearly fell out of his chair as he saw the blood. It was a
small smear over the back of his hand. Gingerly, he touched his right
eye, the one he had just wiped. No pain.

  Uneasily, he walked through his new apartment to the bathroom, and
looked in the mirror. There, there it was...a thin trickle of blood,
seemingly coming from his eye. He blinked a few times. A slight reddish
tinge covered his vision.

  He sprinted to the doctor.

------------------------------------------------

  "Do you...do you mean, another person from the Silver Millenium."

  "I can't think of anything else it could be." Artemis stirred
uneasily. "I haven't got the faintest idea who, though."

  "It's obvious that it has to do with Venus, though," declared Ami.
"You and Minako are the only ones who seem to have any sort of...
connection here."

  Luna frowned--at least, she frowned as best as a cat could. "You don't
suppose...but they never found him."

  "What's with being so cryptic?" asked Rei. "Who are you talking
about?"

  Luna drew herself up. "As the leader of the Senshi, Venus has always
had a personal guard, a protector--"

  "Like my Mamo-chan?"

  "Er, yes, Usagi-chan. Um. At the time of the fall, they had been
searching for this guardian for the Younger Venus. They hadn't found
him, though, so...."

  "Hmm...." came a dreamy voice. The girls sweatdropped, turning to look
at Minako. "If that's true...I sure hope he turns out as...uh, why are
you...am I thinking out loud again?"

  They nodded.

  "Ah, heh, never mind."

  Rei turned to Ami. "Will your computer detect this?"

  "I doubt it. I mean, we don't even know anything about who we're
supposed to look for. If he's there, at all, that is."

  "Give it a try."

------------------------------------------------

  Ryoku plopped back down at his desk. No blood. None, by the time he
got to the doctor. Where had it gone? All that was left was the smear on
his hand, and that was hardly anything to go on. He sighed, tried to do
more work, and gave up after a fruitless five minutes.

  One week since getting out of the hospital. He hadn't cried or visibly
shown any grief. Well, that wasn't quite accurate.

  The doctors had been a bit surprised when he asked for newspapers
from Kyoto. "You already have all the Tokyo newspapers from...the day
after," they said. "Why more? Why from Kyoto?" And not just Kyoto, but
from all over Honshu, and then from cities in Hokkaido, and.... So, they
weren't able to get copies from...the day after from every major
newspaper, but there were many. And then from the rest of that week. And
a few from the week after. While he had been in the coma, still....

  The clippings filled a two centimeter binder.

  Ryoku pulled out a notebook, now kept next to that binder, and read
something he had written earlier.

	  The Sailor Senshi. Always thought they seemed a little silly,
	wearing those outfits of theirs. Strange attacks, too. But, hey,
	they got the job done. No reason to complain. But they didn't
	get the job done. They got there too late.
	  I hate them. I know it's irrational...they can't be everywhere
	at once. And it's not like people hadn't gotten hurt before,
	during other monster attacks. But I still feel like grabbing
	them, and showing them the graves, forcing them to look at those
	pale gray markers. It was their job to stop the damn thing, and
	they got there too late.
	  And I hate myself for feeling that way. Maybe it would have
	been better if I died with Mother and Father and Karin-chan.

  He closed the notebook, and sighed. Then he went to bed, early. Very
early.

------------------------------------------------

  "Hey...what's...over there...." He pointed.

  Vitus looked. "I've no idea. Helm! How far are we from the Moon?"

  "Only thirty minutes at intrasteller cruising speed. We--"

  *CRASH*

  The pilot's words were cut off as something rocked the ship. Vitus
whirled. "What was that?" he barked.

  "Energy beam! We're being attacked!"

  "Ready wea...." The large man's words trailed off. "Damn scout ship
isn't armed."

  Iason, first confused, suddenly felt angry. "I don't like this--"

  Another crash. This time, the power went out.

  Frustration set in. "Dammit! I--"

  A third blast. Iason pitched forward, smashing his face into the
corner of a chair. The world exploded in pain, and suddenly, he couldn't
see....

  "Dammit...."

  And the world exploded. For real.

  Then the world came back into being, as Ryoku opened his eyes.

  "What the HELL?"

------------------------------------------------



>From Andrew Huang, brought to you by his computer, Oddzilla
Oddzilla says, "Mmmmm...Evanjellydonut...."
http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~alhuang/
Harvard Anime Society, Secretary