Part 1 was posted here in an earlier version; part 2 is new.
Sailor Moon: Strategy and Tactics
by Ken Arromdee
Boy, what a *mess*! Usagi had just met Ami, and then Ami turned out to be
Sailor Mercury. That was really pretty cool. But then the cram school was
trashed. Usagi was glad that she wasn't the one who would have to clean that
mess up. "That's why I don't go to cram school", said Usagi, indicating the
disheveled post-battle state of the room.
"You don't go to cram school because you don't want to be attacked by
monsters?" wondered Ami.
"Ah, eh. No, I mean because it's so draining. Even if there aren't any
monsters it's as hard on the students as if there were!"
From the look on Ami's face, Usagi wondered if Ami didn't think she was
making sense. She dismissed the thought; it really wasn't any different a
look from the ones Naru gave her sometimes. And Naru was a good friend,
right?
* * * * *
The next morning, Usagi was still in bed. Not that that didn't happen
often, but it wasn't a school day; she and Ami were going to go shopping. It
was the first time with her new friend.
"Wake up, Usagi!" said Luna, her voice barely making its way to Usagi's
consciousness.
"Mmmmmmf" muttered Usagi. It was so early, and the pillow was nice and
soft. Maybe she could just keep her eyes closed a little longer and rest....
Luna trotted over to Usagi's ear and yelled as loudly as a cat could.
"Wake up Usagi!"
The teen screamed, shot up a meter into the air and fell back down onto her
bed. Her head landed on the pillow again (squashing one odango) and her
blanket fell into exactly the position it was in before. Within a few seconds
she was asleep again.
"Usagi, we should be going", said Ami's voice. "We're supposed to be
shopping today."
At the sound of the word 'shopping', Usagi stirred and got up. "Hello...
Ami", she said after a yawn, "I didn't know you know how to pick locks..."
"Luna let me in" replied Ami. She pointed to Usagi's head and added "By
the way your hair's flat."
Usagi felt around. "It is!" she said, touching a half-unravelled odango.
"It really isn't smart to sleep like that", said Luna. "Ami probably never
has hair problems like you do."
"That's because she doesn't have hair like that..." said Usagi, looking at
Ami.
It occurred to Usagi that Ami had two choices. Take Usagi's side or take
Luna's side. Whose side would her new friend take? Usagi suspected that it
would be Luna's side, but hoped against hope that it would be hers.
For once, something that Usagi hoped for had happened. "Luna", said Ami,
"if she takes out the odango at night she has to fix them every morning. If
she doesn't, she fixes them when they get ruined or when she comes out of the
shower. It's once a day either way, so she doesn't lose anything by not taking
them out."
Luna grumbled. Usagi beamed; Ami would be a really good friend, she
thought, from what little she had seen of her. Never mind asking for help
on exams, *that* was why it was a good idea to be friends with a genius.
And suddenly an idea occurred to Usagi. That wasn't as unusual event as
some people would think--even Usagi sometimes got ideas--but this one would
eventually make a far bigger difference in everyone's lives than Usagi would
suspect. "Ami, you're smart... I've never had a really really smart friend.
Could you do me a favor?"
"All right." Usagi knew Ami would trust her.
"Okay, Ami... if I say something dumb or do something dumb, could you
tell me? If I got to be smarter like you I could talk back to Luna better
too."
Ami giggled. "What a silly idea. You're you. You don't need to be like
me, you just need to wake up earlier, get better grades, not eat your lunch
during class, and use some common sense."
Usagi got ready to yell. She just met Ami but surely Ami was a good enough
person that she could handle a little yelling, right? But wait... didn't Ami
just do what Usagi had asked her? Usagi wanted Ami to tell her when she did
something dumb. And it was pretty stupid to do all the things Ami just
mentioned. She always knew she was a little lazy, but it was so much easier
not to really try to change. But if she tried just a little bit, for the
next week or so....
* * * * *
Huffing and puffing, Usagi ran into the classroom a minute before the
ringing of the bell. Ami, who of coruse had already been there for a while,
greeted her with a smile. "That's good, Usagi! You're really getting better."
"Really?" said Usagi. A piece of toast dropped to the floor from her mouth
as she spoke.
"Yes. You got here about five minutes before the start of class. You've
obviously been running, and you didn't have time to eat, but you did have
enough time to make the toast. And drink the orange juice that's still in
your breath. You must have gotten up ten minutes earlier than usual, compared
to what everyone tells me about how you usually arrive."
"I guess I'll never be like you, Ami."
"It's all right", interjected Naru. "Everybody's a different person.
Some things are just harder for some people to do than others. Maybe if you
try really hard you can find something that you can be smart at."
Usagi wondered. Throughout the day, she tried thinking of what she could.
If Ami could be smart, so could she. Her thoughts went mostly to her job
as Sailor Moon and what she could do to make it easier, shorter, and less
troublesome to her free time. It occupied her thoughts until class let out.
She ended up having to stay after school when Miss Haruna chastized her for
the eighth time for not paying attention to the lessons.
* * * * *
"I have some ideas!" explained Usagi to Luna.
"What?"
She lifted the cat up by the neck, so she could talk to her face to face,
and said "I have some ideas!"
"Prt mr drwn" gasped out Luna, clawing at Usagi, who dropped the angry
feline. "Now", said Luna, "what are those ideas?"
"I wrote a whole bunch of things on paper when I got home that might make
it easier to be Sailor Moon so it doesn't have to take so much time!" exclaimed
Usagi. She handed Luna a notebook. "Ami said it's called brainstorming.
You think of a whole lot of ideas without thinking of what's wrong with them,
and maybe one of them will work."
Luna opened the notebook and read. "I will pay attention during class.
I will pay attention during class. I will pay attention during class...."
"Not that one!" Usagi turned a few pages and showed Luna the right one.
Luna began to read. "'Send in Godzilla against the monsters.' Umm,
Usagi..."
"I know it's a bad idea because Godzilla's a movie! But you're supposed to
have some bad ideas in this."
"'Make me a magic item that lets me get a bigger allowance'. Usagi, I
can't do that."
"It was worth a try."
"'Check and see if Mamoru is really Tuxedo Mask. He has the same height,
same hair, same voice, and we never see them both around at the same time.'
Usagi, where are you getting these ideas? Do you know what the odds are that
out of the millions of people in the city you should happen to know Tuxedo
Mask?"
"It can't be any worse than the odds of being in the same place as all the
monsters!"
"'Look up in the phone book all the people whose names start with the kanji
for the planets.' Why would anyone want to do that?"
"Oh, I didn't write the reason. That's because they might be the other
Sailor Senshi. It works for me and Ami, maybe there are others."
"'Tell me everything you remember about the moon princess so I can look for
her.' All right, you have one. But I don't think it'll help. 'Give me all
my magic items now instead of waiting for when you think I need them'. Usagi,
why would I do that?"
"Because it makes sense! You could have given me my pen right at the
start instead of waiting...."
"But there's hardly anything left. Just the moon stick."
"The moon stick?"
"Anyway, Usagi, somehow I don't think this is going to work."
"I bet Ami thinks some of these ideas are pretty smart."
"You're no Ami, Usagi. Even if you are Sailor Moon."
* * * * *
The next weekend, Usagi and Ami went shopping again. At least, they did
until Ami pulled Usagi over towards a store. "That's a bookstore. I almost
forgot... there were a lot of things I wanted to buy there. Why don't you
come with me?"
"But we're shopping!" replied Usagi. "Why do you want to go to a
bookstore?"
"To shop for books...."
Usagi thought about it a bit and realized that it *was* possible to shop
for books, after all, even though it wasn't what she usually thought of as
shopping. Oh, well, everyone has their little quirks. She could still come
along with Ami and get some manga.
Usagi and Ami laughed a little when they each discovered what the other
had bought. There purses were running low by then, but maybe, Usagi wondered,
there was still someplace they could go... "There!" She pointed to a store
that was announcing its opening.
"What?" wondered Ami.
"That store over there!"
"What?" wondered Ami.
"That store over there!"
"What?" wondered Ami yet again. Usagi wondered herself why Ami couldn't
figure out what she meant. She wasn't being *that* unclear.
"That store! It's a new store, they're selling clocks. Maybe they have
some kind of opening sale. We could buy something then! And get rid of a
youma too...."
Luna whispered, as loudly as a talking cat could whisper, "Usagi! You
can't go looking for youmas everywhere."
"But I'm trying to think about things. I don't want to miss any youmas
and have to fight them later when they get really strong and hurt me a lot."
"If you're going to think about something, there's always your schoolwork.
Besides, why would there be a youma here?"
"Well, umm... Luna, that fortune telling place was new. Nobody ever
heard of it. It had a youma in it. That new radio program had Jadeite and
a youma. That health club that we *never* heard about before had a youma.
So did the pet shop with the Chanels and the Crystal Seminar. Luna, every
time there's been a new store around it had a youma! There has to be some
reason. Maybe the bad guys need a lot of money for something, so they keep
opening stores."
"Maybe the schoolwork is a better idea, Usagi. If they're opening stores
to get money, where would they get the money to open the stores?"
"Ami!" Ami would support her, wouldn't she? "Ami-chan, why can't we go
in there and look for a youma before buying anything? It wouldn't hurt, would
it?"
"Not much..." said Ami.
"It's still the silliest idea I ever heard", said Luna. "Besides, neither
of you have any special ability to detect youmas...."
Usagi stopped walking and a grin appeared on her face. She glanced at Ami
and then looked directly at the cat. Not seeing any movement from Ami, she
glanced over again at her. Somehow, Ami caught what what she was intending
and when she looked at the cat a second time, so did Ami.
At the grin on Usagi's face and the supporting smile on Ami's, Luna began
to turn and run.
"Not so fast!" said Usagi, grabbing Luna into her arms. "When we found
Ami, you said you could sense energy. You thought it was Ami but it was the
youma. All you have to do is feel for youmas again!
The cat tried to tiptoe into a position that would let her leap off of
Usagi. Not this time. Usagi held the cat back and said "You're scared!
That's what it means to be a scaredy-cat!" Luna let out what sounded like a
sigh; Usagi wondered what that meant. Of course her joke was pretty funny, so
could the cat be losing her sense of humor?
"What would I be scared of?"
"You're scared I'm right. You're scared that you won't be able to tell me
what to do if I know it better than you."
"That's ridiculous. If you feel that strongly about it, let's go."
Usagi was happy. This was a lot of fun. She just hoped Luna wouldn't
think Usagi was picking on her too much.
* * * * *
Ami and Usagi, holding the cat, entered the new clock store.
"So do you sense anything?" whispered Usagi to the black bundle in her
arms.
"As a matter of fact, I do. There's some kind of evil energy in all these
clocks and that woman over there is a youma."
"Are you just saying that because I asked you to look, or is it real,
Luna?"
"Usagi, you're right! You made a lucky guess and you're right. Does that
satisfy you? Now, we'd better go attack her."
"Wait", said Ami. "Just a moment. I think she is going to leave."
"So we can chase her!"
"If you're going to do a sneak attack on a youma", said Luna, "do it
right". To Usagi, it didn't sound like Luna's usual kind of advice at all.
She wondered if maybe Luna was trying to think of things Usagi couldn't think
of so she could keep telling Usagi what to do. "Now, go outside and
transform", whispered the cat. "Then come back and attack just before the
youma opens that door...."
The two girls quickly left. From outside could be heard the sounds "Moon
prism power, make up!" and "Mercury power, make up!" and a moment later, the
Senshi arrived.
The youma was still nowhere to be seen. Sailor Moon twiddled her thumbs
while Mercury watched the door. As soon as footsteps could be heard, Sailor
Mercury began her attack. "Shabon...." and the door flew open at exactly the
moment Mercury uttered the last syllable.
Fortunately, it was indeed the youma, who didn't see the attack coming at
all. In front of the Senshi was standing a frozen feminine-looking monster, a
really surprised look on her face. Usagi caught her breath and threw her
tiara at it. "Moon tiara action!" she yelled heartily, and smashed the youma
into bits.
The world wavered around everyone. Sailor Moon looked around, and saw
only a vacant space where the store once was. Sailor Mercury and Luna were
with her, as well as a zillion confused customers. "We did it!" yelled Sailor
Moon.
"Now I can go home and do my homework", said Ami.
"I never will understand smart people", replied Usagi.
Chapter 2
It was another non-youma day (so far). Usagi, walking home from school,
saw Ami at a bus stop. "Hi, Ami", she said. "Going to cram school again?"
"How did you guess?" answered Ami.
"Oh, because you do it every day. Just as long as you don't go to one run
by the Dark Kingdom. Heh heh heh."
Ami laughed a bit, politely, but stopped just too soon for her to have
really thought it funny. Oh well, thought Usagi. There would always be more
jokes. Besides, it didn't matter; she was just glad to have a friend to make
jokes with.
"Hey, Usagi!" Someone was yelling at her. She turned to answer and saw
Naru-chan and a friend of hers. "You'd better not get on that bus", warned
Naru. "There's a story going around about a bus of people disappearing near
the Hikawa Shrine. That's where we're going... want to come along?"
"Sure, Naru! But that's strange, busses don't do that. Unless it's a
youma...."
"Usagi", replied Naru, "just because I met one once doesn't mean that...
hey, what happened to Luna? She looks like... almost like an annoyed human
being."
"Odd", said Usagi. "All I said is that it might be a youma." The cat
grew visibly tenser. "Youma youma youma! Hee!" said Usagi. Luna rolled her
eyes and then gave up. "Bye bye, Ami. I'll see you around... maybe we'll
buy some good luck charms."
"Could you please get me one too?"
"Of course. Are you sure you don't want to come?"
"I'm sorry, I have to go to cram school."
"Well, good luck in your studies."
"Isn't that what the charm's for?" wondered Naru.
* * * * *
"Hi, cuties!" said a little old man. "Welcome to the Hikawa Shrine."
"That's all right", responded Usagi, who knew what being called a cutie by
a little old man usually meant. "We're just here to look for some good luck
charms...."
"Would you consider working here?" replied the old man, leering a bit at
Usagi.
"I don't think so..." She whispered to Luna "See if that man's a youma.
Please?"
"Stop that, grandfather!" yelled a girl of about Usagi's age. She had
black hair and seemed to be a shrine maiden. "I've heard stories about you.
You can't do that. Sorry, girls. I'm Hino Rei and this is my grandfather."
Then Rei suddenly stopped and looked all around herself. "There's an evil
force somewhere!" she exclaimed. "Akuryou taisan!" She pushed an ofuda onto
Usagi's forehead.
Usagi was tired and hungry, and the blow to the head was enough to push her
into unconsciousness whether there were any evil forces--or anything
else--inside it or not.
* * * * *
"Wake up!" yelled Rei.
What now? Oh... right. Hey, how dare she do that? "I'm awake! What's
the big idea?"
"I'm sorry, I just felt some evil energy in the area. But something
happened. It's hard for me to sense evil any more... everything I predict or
do doesn't work any more."
"All right, did you find anything?" whispered Usagi to Luna.
"Yes, the old man's a youma. And there's something else outside."
"Ooh, that guy's cute", said Naru. "The blonde guy over there." She
pointed over to a tall man, apparently some kind of assistant at the shrine.
"Wow", said Usagi. "He really is... wait. I've seen him before! That's
Jadeite. He was at Midnight Zero. You've seen him before, haven't you, Luna?"
"Why are you talking to a cat?" wondered Rei.
"I was just talking to myself. Rei, why don't you use your evil sensing
ability on that cute guy and your grandfather? Please?" Maybe if she could
stop the enemy in advance there would be no need for Sailor Moon.
Rei looked at Usagi's face and saw sincerity. The girl was silly, weak,
and she talked to her pet, but just for a moment she had acted like she really
knew something. Rei nodded and walked to the fire, sitting down to gaze deeply
into its depths.
"What do you see?" said Usagi, but Rei didn't respond. Usagi walked a bit
closer to her and asked the same thing, but Rei stayed silent.
She leaned over to whisper into Rei's ear, when suddenly Rei shouted "I've
got it!"
Usagi fell over, clutching her ears.
"It was him. How could we have been so stupid? There's something very
evil about the man that my grandfather just hired on.
Usagi looked back at her cat. "See?" she said. "I was right, Luna."
Rei tapped Usagi on the shoulder. "Ahem" she said, and then yelled loud
enough to make Usagi fall over yet another time. "You're talking to a cat!"
"I was just... wait a minute. You said your name is Hino Rei. How do
you write that? Can I see one of your business cards?"
"Do lots of your classmates have business cards?"
"Well, no, but how do you write that?"
"You're not making ANY sense! What does my name have to do with your cat?"
"Forget the cat. Is it 'hi' as in that? She pointed to the fire.
"It's 'hi' as in 'Hikawa'. Is that good enough?"
"Yes it is", said Usagi. "Got to go, I'm real sorry but I'll see you later
and all that. Maybe we'll meet again, bye, Rei." She picked up Luna, got up,
and sped out the door like only a teenager who practiced running every time
that she was late for school could.
* * * * *
"Usagi!" yelled Luna.
"Luna!" yelled Usagi. "Stop yelling!"
"Usagi, one thing she was right about was about not making sense."
"I think she's Sailor Mars. She has the right name and she's exactly the
right age. Can you get me a transformation pen so we can go check?"
"They don't come out of vending machines", replied Luna. "And if I just
gave her a pen and she wasn't Sailor Mars, what would you do about your secret
identity? You'd have revealed it."
"Well, that always could happen whenever you give someone a magic pen,
Luna. Please... I promise I'll do my homework whenever I'm told to, even by
you, if I get that pen..."
"With an offer like that I may consider..."
Usagi finished the interrupted sentence. "... at least for the next week
or so." Luna frowned as Usagi cajoled her. "Come on, Luna, if we don't get
Sailor Mars, people might get hurt. While you're at it, can I have that other
powerup you told me about?"
Luna was rather surprised that Usagi remembered it, but lacking a good
reason not to give it to Usagi (indeed, not even remembering why she didn't
give it to Usagi before) she leapt into the air, as if curling around an
imaginary arm about to pick her up, and then landed on the ground. Out of
the nothingness fell two of what looked like plastic toys. "Here you are",
said Luna. "The moon stick and Mars' transformation pen."
"Cool! Can I have the rest of them?" Usagi was obviously on a roll here.
The exasperated Luna repeated the procedure once more, producing one more
transformation pen. "Here's Jupiter's. It's the only other one I have."
Usagi picked up all three devices. "By the way what does my new one do?"
she asked.
"It lets you transform youmas that were people, back into people."
"I thought that's what Moon Tiara Stardust was for. Why do I need two
special attacks that do exactly the same thing?"
Luna seemed about to answer, but suddenly lowered her voice to a whisper,
tugging at Usagi's sleeve. "Usagi, we're being watched. There's someone over
there."
Usagi turned to look and just caught a glimpse of black hair, Hino Rei
sneaking back into the shrine.
* * * * *
As soon as Rei was out of sight, Usagi followed, bringing along Luna
whether she wanted to come or not. When Usagi pulled at the shrine door to
enter, it didn't budge. Then she noticed the message taped to the door: "Back
in 15 minutes." She caught the attention of a nearby man and asked "Excuse
me, do you know why Rei is locking everyone ooooo....." finally trailing off
when she realized she was face to face with Jadeite. There was only one next
step, of course: run like heck.
Fleeing the shrine, Usagi passed a girl in robes, without even thinking
about it. By the time she reached the street, that figure had registered on
her mind as being the shrine maiden Rei that she had spoken to before, and
she screeched to a halt on the pavement. Turning to walk back, she saw the
girl right there, watching her.
"So you were talking to your cat, dumpling head", said Rei.
"I guess it's okay to tell you", said Usagi. "This is Luna... she's
supposed to be a helper and a friend and make Sailor Moon's job easier. I think
you're one of us...." She reached into her pocket for the pen and handed it
to Rei. "Take it and shout 'Mercury Power, Make Up!" except you should replace
the 'Mercury' with 'Mars'."
Rei took it and yelled the appropriate phrase. It worked.
* * * * *
"It's nice to meet you, Sailor Mars", said Usagi. "I hope your real
grandfather's still okay... we found Naru's mother in the basement when it
happened to her."
"Yeah. I looked in the fire to do a reading. I saw him change into a
monster in the future, but...."
"But?"
"But it didn't happen now, it happened in a few months, and as soon as I
looked at it it faded away. As if just finding out about that vision meant
preventing it from coming true. There's something not right, dumpling head."
"I don't know! I'm still new to this. Anyway we have to get Ami-chan so
we can all fight Jadeite at the same time. I need to get her before she gets
on a magic youma bus. I have to transform now. I really don't wanna, but
I know I don't have a choice. Moon Prism Power, Make Up!" She spun, covered
in sparkles, and before Rei's eyes stood Sailor Moon.
Rei began to laugh. "Hey, what's so funny?" said Sailor Moon.
"It's just... the whole spinning thing... and you don't trip... and
then you look like you're taking a shower in confetti..."
"Hey, you look the same!"
"Well, I don't spin as much, Sailor Moon. Now, where's Sailor Mercury?"
"I don't know, but I can call her on my... uh, Luna, what's this moon
phone called?" Luna said something in meows. "On my moon phone thing that
Luna won't name for me."
"You didn't need to run then, Sailor Moon, if she was going to come here."
"Ah, well, er... okay, I'm sorry, Sailor Mars. It was my mistake."
"Say, do I get one of those pagers too?"
* * * * *
"So now we wait around outside the shrine for Ami-chan", said Sailor Moon
as they walked to the curb. "It's a good thing she didn't get on one of those
busses."
"Are you *really* sure we should wait around in costume?" wondered Rei.
"It shouldn't matter. Besides, this way we don't get stuck not being able
to transform because someone might see us... and there's lots of people.
Look!" Usagi indicated a small group of girls by the bus stop. They all had
Hikawa Shrine charms.
Rei looked. So did Luna. "Something feels bad! I think the enemy is
involved somehow", said the cat.
"I think we figured that out" muttered Sailor Mars.
The group of girls began to grow into a crowd. Soon Ami would be here,
thought Sailor Moon. If before then all those girls weren't kidnapped and
used as energy sources to.... oh, wait!" The expression on her face got
happier all of a sudden.
"Did she just get an idea?" asked Rei.
"She's been doing that recently. It's scary", responded the cat.
"Attention all bus passengers!" yelled Sailor Moon. "I'm the great and
powerful Sailor Moon! If you get on the next bus you'll have your energy
drained by monsters! It's big and scary and I wouldn't want to get on a bus
like that, so neither should you!" Now that was much better than just standing
there and letting everyone ride to their doom, wasn't it?
The crowd began to get agitated.
"So you'd better go away!" yelled Sailor Moon.
"What kind of speech is that?" asked one of the girls. "And how do we
know you're really Sailor Moon anyway?"
"I'm really Sailor Moon! And this is my sidekick Sailor Mars." Mars
slapped her. "I really do have Sailor Moon powers so you should trust me and
not get on this bus. Look, Moon Tiara Action!" She removed the tiara from her
head and threw it. It travelled in a circle and she caught it again.
The crowd grew more agitated. A few girls peeled away from the group and
began to walk. "Wait!" yelled Sailor Moon. "You don't need to walk home.
Just walk to the bus stop on the next block. If this one steals all the
passengers right at the shrine it'll never get there, and you can catch a
real bus."
The girls looked at each other uncertainly and talked some more, but
eventually did head down the street.
* * * * *
Sailor Moon turned on her cellular moon phone and called Ami. "Sailor
Mercury, please come here... We need you and besides I'm scared of doing this
with only me and Rei...." Maybe it was a little silly, but being scared was
natural for a girl Usagi.s age.
"All right", responded Mercury's voice. "The album's probably sold out
anyway."
"What album, Sailor Mercury?"
"Oh, never mind."
A few minutes later, Ami came running up in costume, huffing and puffing.
Scarcely had Sailor Moon greeted her than the bus appeared around the corner
and approached the stop.
"Here it comes!" exclaimed Sailor Moon. "It looks evil!"
"It looks like a bus, dumpling head", noted Sailor Mars. "Anyway, we'd
better get on."
* * * * *
They sat down and watched the scenery, for all of about three seconds. The
bus vanished through a space warp, with the three Senshi on it. Usagi
immediately stood up. "Stop right there!" she proclaimed. "Stop driving this
bus!"
The driver ignored her.
"Stop right there! I know you're a youma because no real bus driver would
ever go this far away from the right bus route! If you're a youma that means
I can kill you and I will unless you take us all to where all the other people
who disappeared on all the other busses went to!"
In answer the bus driver stood up to face the Senshi and growled. The bus
continued where it was going without being driven. He grew fangs and claws
and a dark aura and extended his hands towards the Senshi. Energy began to
flow from them to him, and Sailor Moon and the others suddenly found it
difficult to stand or even move.
Usagi didn't feel so good. What could she do? Oh, there was an idea...
the driver must be a pretty stupid youma since all he did was growl. He
didn't speak like that youma that tried to pretend it was Naru's mom. She
suddenly pointed towards the front windshield and yelled "Watch out for that
brick wall!"
The youma turned. Sailor Moon made a gesture and she and her companions
all threw their attacks at the youma, which luckily didn't notice the long
attack phrases. The youma, hit by three attacks simultaneously, collapsed into
dust and vanished.
She triumphantly sat down in the driver's seat, only to ask her friends,
"Do either of you know how to drive?"
* * * * *
"I think I know where the people are..." said Mercury. "My computer
registers a lot of sleeping people a few minutes ahead.
"A few minutes by driving or a few minutes by walking?" wondered Mars.
"Hey, that's a good idea!" said Sailor Moon. "We can just get out and
walk. There must be someone who can drive the bus back if Ami-chan just
gives directions.
"It's a few minutes by driving. Around three kilometers walking."
"Oh. I guess we'd better go, then. Being Sailor Moon can be so hard
sometimes. And I've never walked in weird place like this before." She
opened the door and stepped down, somewhat hesitantly, on the multicolored
floor that passed for ground. It squished under her feet and she exclaimed
"I don't want to do this! It's a long distance and it's such a creepy place
here... I know." She held up her moon stick proudly and yelled "Moon power!
Turn me into a bus tour guide! One who knows how to drive a bus!"
"Does that work?" asked Sailor Mars as glowing ribbons covered Sailor
Moon's form.
"Sometimes", answered Luna. "Let's hope she gets lucky."
Sailor Moon, now looking about age 18 and wearing a tour guide's uniform,
sat down at the wheel and drove off, effortlessly. Luna let out a sigh of
relief and Sailor Mercury intently stared through her visor, giving Usagi
new directions every so often.
Eventually, she came to the passengers, by now awake and very puzzled.
Announcing "The magical mystery tour is waiting to take you away!", Usagi
opened the door to let them all on. Soon the bus was packed full of people,
so Usagi drove them off. With Ami's expert guidance, they found the warp back
to Juuban and reappeared in front of the Hikawa shrine.
Usagi cranked the door open again and everyone left, then she exited
herself. Immediately about thirty girls her age began to mob her--the girls
that she had told to avoid the bus the first time. "You saved us! Sailor
Moon!" Shouts of "Sai-laa-muu--n" could be heard.
She smiled and signed an autograph, slowly walking through the crowd, then
when she reached the edge dashed off, cat on her shoulder and pulling Mars and
Mercury with one hand each. "Wheeeew..." she said. "That was a big crowd.
But I'm famous now!"
* * * * *
"One thing left", said Sailor Moon.
"That Jadeite guy", replied Sailor Mars.
"And your fake grandfather."
"He's really my grandfather! Something's just strange!"
"Let's get back inside the shrine."
"If you kill my grandfather, dumpling head, I'll never forgive you."
"All right. I'll tie a rope around him or something."
"You don't have a rope."
"Oh, hmm." An idea occurred to Usagi. "Luna, how do I use this new magic
item?"
"Hold it up", replied the cat, "and shout 'Moon Healing Escalation'. That
should eliminate all the evil energy from someone."
"Does it work better than the Moon Tiara Stardust?" asked Sailor Moon. But
before Luna could answer, Mars slapped Moon hard in the back, releasing a
burp as well as making her fall over, nearly scraping her knees on the ground.
Usagi was all ready to really chew out Rei for that, until a blast of energy
flew past the place she had been standing just a minute ago.
The Senshi turned to face the attacker. "Jadeite!" exclaimed Sailor Moon,
recognizing him immediately. "That's not like even you, attacking us all from
behind when we can't see you."
"You've proven to be a remarkable annoyance", said Jadeite. "Something
had to be done... grrr." Jadeite leapt backwards to avoid a red and green
projectile that whizzed past his face. It landed and embedded itself into the
soil... it was a single fragrant red rose.
The unseen attacker stepped out into the open. Vastly overdressed, he
still somehow managed to project an aura of mystery and competence.
"Tuxedo-mask-sama!" said Sailor Moon.
"Attacking from secret is a coward's way out, but the evils of the Dark
Kingdom spawn many people of few manners", said Tuxedo Mask. Jadeite faced
him, giving him time to finish his speech just so that he could sneer at it,
and threw a ball of energy his way.
Tuxedo Mask dodged. Jadeite gestured and another youma leapt out of
hiding.
Usagi watched the gesture and saw the monster, but even before it leapt
all the way over to the Senshi, realized what had to be done. "Ignore it!" she
shouted. "Get Jadeite!" The monster charged the Senshi; it looked like a
puppet from some kind of fairy tale and it breathed a red smoke that made
everyone dizzy and prone to hallucinating. The Senshi ran past it and grabbed
at where they remembered Jadeite to be, instead, just as he began to move his
hand again.
Sailor Mars, the lucky one, fell on top of Jadeite just as he was about to
make the gesture that would have teleported him away from the fight. She might
have appreciated how eerily similar it was to when she pushed down Sailor Moon,
if she could see clearly. Meanwhile, Sailor Mercury took an attack on her arm
and felt even dizzier than before; she looked down at it to see that it was
turning to stone.
Sailor Moon hoped that the new magic item she had gotten from Luna would
work. She waved it with a flourish and shouted out her attack... "Moon
healing escalation!" Waves of heartfelt magical goodness poured out and
washed over the stunned Jadeite. Something changed in his eyes and he said
"I'm sorry, Princess... we fell under Queen Beryl's spell of evil..." before
collapsing.
The youma ran off, but Usagi, too impatient to listen to a dying speech
at the cost of more damage, especially to her friends, threw her tiara at it.
The tiara hit and the youma died, collapsing into the second pile of dust that
day. The stone on Ami's arm magically melted away.
Jadeite flailed out, perhaps reaching for something to pull himself up,
but before his hand touched anything he disappeared, croaking out "No...
Beryl..." with transparent lips.
"What's he talking about?" wondered Sailor Mars. "And how did he vanish?"
"It must be Queen Beryl", said Sailor Mercury. She's probably watching
all her soldiers using a viewscreen or a crystal ball or something like that.
Beryl must be able to get them back, at least if they're weak."
"Did we win?" asked Mars.
"I hope we did!" said Sailor Moon. "And now we know that the enemy is
looking for the princess too. I wonder if they worked for her once instead of
Beryl... it sounded like he might have been good once. Anyway it was close,
but we beat him."
"I don't know", said Sailor Mars. "It all seemed much too easy."
"It was easy because I had a good idea, Sailor Mars! There are four of us
and only two of him even with his youma. He couldn't stop us all if we didn't
just all fight the youma."
"But you shouldn't have been able to affect him", said Rei. "If your power
was just enough to affect a youma, you shouldn't have been able to hurt Jadeite
since he was much stronger."
"Oh, that's easy too, Rei! I just asked Luna for one of the magic items I
wasn't supposed to have until later. It was a lot more powerful than the one
I used to use on enchanted people! What a great idea of mine!"
"You and your bright ideas", said Luna. "You didn't even know it was more
powerful."
"Hey, come on! You're only supposed to say that if the idea doesn't work.
Now I have another idea."
"If it has to do with killing my grandfather", said Mars, "I think I'm
going to go home. On the other hand, if it has ice cream in it...."
"It sort of has ice cream in it. That youma reminded me that they're
opening this amusement park Dream Land and it has lots of fairy tale stuff
like that youma. I want to go! You can all come along if you want." She
turned to face where Tuxedo Mask stood and yelled "You can come too, Tuxedo
Mask!" but the tophatted man had already disappeared into the city.
"She'll probably find another youma there", muttered Luna.
"Bet I won't", said Usagi.