Hi!

Thanks for writing, man, I really appreciate it. Sorry for the late reply, 
but I've hurt my shoulder recently, and it's seriously slowing down my 
response time. I'll get to work on the second part of your C&C as soon as I 
get some Tylenol in me, I promise. First, though, let's see what we've got 
here! ^_^

Morgan Hudson wrote:

Okay, take two, this time using cut and paste. Wonder where that 

attachment

went?

Learn from my mistake, people of the FFML: the list does not like 
attachments! Cut and paste, my fellow authours, cut and paste! >_<

Bandai Entertainment. I am only borrowing them for a few chapters, and I
intend no harm.

	Makoto:  "Really?  What about the fact that Touma can barely walk,
not to mention his arm?"

Well, in that case I would have to change that disclaimer to no *permenent* 
harm. ^_^

Red: "It's all harmless fun, Harold."
Harold: "What if someone gets hurt?"
Red: "Well, then it will be *harmful* fun."

	Touma: 	"I'm fine, really -- but your knee looks bad."
	Makoto:  "Just a scrape."
	Touma:  "Still, I should--"
	Koma:  "Kiss it and make it better?  Why don't you wait until we're
OUT OF THIS BLOODY TRAP FIRST!?!?!?!"

I see you have a good grasp on our good man Shutendoji's thought processes, 
here. He doesn't have anything against love *per se*, but both he and his 
own lover always believed in putting such things aside when duty called. 
These two will be the death of him all over again if he isn't careful.

Koma: "Touma Hashiba, a long time have I watched. All his life, he has 
looked away: to science, to pretty girls... never his mind on where he was! 
What he was doing!"

Chapter 6: Running Like The Wind

	The Tomoe mansion was an old and venerable house, first built
during the reconstruction era after the great Kanto earthquake of 1923.

	...I swear, I actually had a momentary BGC flashback there.  Then I
read the date again.

Now, now: this is the FIRST Kanto earthquake I'm referring to. Don't make me 
start decompressing Boomers over here.

PLEASE, don't make me start decompressing Boomers over here. ^_^

The Tomoe clan had not taken
the time to discuss with astrologists and other experts before starting
to build, and the house had been constructed in an inauspicious way on 

an

inauspicious day.

	My inner Westerner says "bah!"  My inner otaku says "uh-oh."

Judging from the sheer volume of spooky, nasty stuff that has gone down in 
that place, I think that your inner otaku wins.

	Age had not improved the mansion, nor had the recent other
accidents that had enveloped its ancient frame. It did not rise above 

the

	"enveloped"?  Not sure what you mean, here.

Mostly I was thinking of Episode 118, when various portions of the mansion 
were sent to random points around the world and everybody was trapped in 
another dimension that looked like the Joker's personal happy place. ^_^

other buildings of the district: it squatted, creaking mournfully to
itself as its withered old boards rubbed against their nails and 

shuddered

	Niiiiiice bit of description, there.

Thank you! I'm glad to hear that you liked it. I'm pretty happy with this 
portion of the chapter, myself. Later parts clearly need a bit of work, but 
this bit is fairly solid.

That'll do, fic. That'll do. :)

On clear nights, when the moon was full and
bright, it was not uncommon to see a swarm of bats streaming out of its
chimneys and circling the vast lawns that surrounded the estate in 

search

of prey.

	Hey, they keep the mosquitoes down.

I have lived in big old houses like this one. Trust me: the bats *will* get 
in, and they have a wonderful sense of both irony and dramatic timing. ^_^

the rusted remains of what had once been a tricycle lay on its
side, a single pedal still turning slowly in the breeze. Few people ever

	My inner engineer points out that if the trike rusted away as much as
implied, the pedal bearings would certainly be rusted solid by now.
My inner dramatist loves the imagery and is currently giving my inner
engineer heck.

Hmmm... as much as I would love to agree with your inner dramatist, I think 
your inner engineer has a point. We'd hate to have the imagery wrecked 
because of a bit of over-embellishment (which I am known for doing). Maybe 
I'll cut back on the rust job a little, so that the pedal turning is a 
little more believable. That way it can be creepy *and* plausible!

saw even that much of the place, however, as the giant cast-iron gates
that sealed the mansion from intruders were as new and strong as ever
before. The Tomoe family was not used to having many visitors.

	Especially not Robin Leech.  Or the crew from MTV's "Cribs."

"And here we see the basement lair of Professor Tomoe, one of Tokyo's most 
reclusive and eccentric geniuses. The floor lamps are by Lalique, and 
combine with his eight fog machines to really create a lovely, Jurassic 
Park-esque, "unholy terrors are about to be spawned here" vibe that just 
pulls the whole room together..."

After eight years of neglect, it
was hard to know where to start. There was a lot of serious work that
needed to be done in the old place, he knew:

	Getting all that Really Dangerous Gear out of the basement lab, for
instance.

But first, he has more important things to look after: those Christmas 
lights have been up FOREVER!

Going upstairs was just
not safe until he found out exactly how badly damaged everything things
were up there.

	The Prof *should* be well enough off to hire a good genercal
contractor, I would imagine.

Oh, he is. But as I explain lower down, the poor guy has no idea how much of 
that money is his, or even if any of it is legal. A demon planning to 
destroy the world does not need to worry about whether the Yakuza will be 
coming back for their loan or not: a jobless scientist does.

Incidentally, I noticed a bit of a gaffe up there in my writing: "everything 
things"? That "everything" needs to go. Will fix!

	Money was not an issue for Souichi Tomoe: he had plenty of money,
apparently. What bothered him was that he had no real idea where any of
that money had come from, and an abiding fear that some strange and
possibly dangerous people could show up at any moment expecting it back.

	Master Pharoah 90 -- interdimensional loan shark extraordinaire.  And
here I thought he was just a Lovecraftian Cthulhoid Horror.

There's a difference?

Seriously, Germatoid always did strike me as something of a demonic used car 
salesman. Then again, so does Nyarlethotep, sometimes, so I guess it's 
allowed.

Germatoid: "Lost? Alone? Feeling so low you just wish everyone was dead? 
Brother, have I got a deal for *you*...."

One of the ongoing problems of getting possessed by a demon for the 

better

part of a decade was that even after the demon went away, people still
wanted to hold you responsible for whatever it did while it was around.

	Sucks, don't it?

Yeah. It's one of those nasty little consequences that most of these people 
are never shown dealing with in canon. Usually, they get led off-camera as 
soon as possible once Sailor Moon does her "Moon Healing" routine on them. 
Unfortunately, it's not always as easy to move on after being evil as it may 
seem. Sometimes, like Professor Tomoe, you find that you can't quite get all 
the pieces of your old life to fit together the way they used to. Sometimes, 
like Petz, you find out that your lovely new life is a boring hellhole that 
you can barely tolerate. And sometimes, like Oniwabandana, you start 
deciding that being evil was actually not so bad, compared to the 
alternative....

Apparently his demonic self had not bothered
keeping very efficient notes or records of any of its various 

transactions

for him to go over.

	Sug:  "for future review/examination"

Good idea. Will fix! ^_^

Souichi still did not feel comfortable wearing them around Hotaru. He
didn't know why, but he was adamant that she never see him in his lab
coat or glasses. He didn't want her to think of him like that.

	Some memory traces must have stuck.

Just a couple of trace elements, yeah. Like, he could *swear* that his 
daughter used to be older, but darned if she's not a baby now, and he can't 
explain it for the life of him. Poor guy even has photographs proving that 
he's right. Can you imagine how weird that would be for him? Half of the 
stuff he thinks he knows is totally wrong, and half of the stuff that should 
be totally wrong are things he knows to be true. No wonder the poor guy 
needs to sit down and have some pills every once in a while to keep his 
brain straight. I could do with a couple, and I'm just writing about it. :p

She was, as always, a vision in crimson, her long red hair
and matching dress offset only by the white labcoat she wore over her
other clothes. She was clutching a clipboard to her chest, and Souichi
could just barely see the gleam of the amulet that she had been given
recently by their strange new acquaintance.

	Kaori, on the other hand...

I think Kaori needs to be handled with *both* hands. Otherwise there's no 
telling what might happen. ^_^

And yeah, Kaori has no problem going back to being bad. Or vaguely naughty, 
at least. After all, it's not like she was possessed by anything that was 
forcing to do those things. She more or less just felt like doing them 
because it made the Prof happy. Plus, unlike the other villains in this 
group, she was never actually "reformed" by anyone.

Worth keeping in mind, that.

	Kaori turned and looked over her shoulder before looking back.
"Miss Haruka Ten'ou is here to see you, Professor. Are you in?"

	One of these days, I've got to figure out the canon here -- I've seen
so many different versions of who went where and lived with whom
immediately following the end of the Death Busters arc, I've literally
lost track.

Okay, I'll lay it out for you: this fic is following anime continuity, and 
is set right after "SuperS". In the anime, Hotaru was last seen at the end 
of "S" as a baby in her father's arms, being taken away to live in the Tomoe 
mansion with him. She does move in with Haruka and Michiru in "Stars", but 
my fic is set before "Stars". Mostly because I decided the story would work 
better if I included Chibi-Usa and Tuxedo Kamen, but left out the Starlights 
and Chibi-Chibi.

Oh, right, that reminds me: Chibi-Usa will be in this fic. I apologise in 
advance to anyone who is allergic to the colour pink. ^_^

There was a slightly feverish look in her eyes, and she seemed a bit
peaked, as though she had only recently recovered from a serious
illness... or some equally serious injuries. Souichi could understand

	Hm.

The last time we saw Haruka in canon, she was a little under the weather. 
She was also getting attacked by an evil ventriloquist's dummy, but that is 
neither here nor there. ;)

Haruka and Michiru were in ONE episode of "SuperS", where they basically 
explained to the audience that the reason the Outer Senshi were not in the 
plot was that Haruka was sick and Michiru had been looking after her. Since 
this fic is set only slightly after "SuperS", Haruka has just recently 
gotten her health back. And she's already on my case about getting her more 
screen time. :(

where she might have gotten injuries that severe.

	He does?  I thought his memory was swiss-cheesed.  Oh, wait, he's
aware of having been hag-ridden, so someone must have clued him in.

Elios gave him a general run-down behind the scenes. I didn't really want to 
bore anybody by recapping the entire "S" season of Sailor Moon verbatim, so 
we can all just assume that Prof Tomoe got the jist of it.

	Of course, I wonder how *much* he knows....

Not a lot, really. Think of him like someone who has never seen the show, 
but went to one or two fansites and is piecing together bits from what he 
was able to find there. He knows that there *is* a Sailor Jupiter, for 
example, but he would be hard pressed to pick her out a crowd of other 
Senshi.

	Souichi glanced over at Kaori, who moved her clipboard aside
discreetly and checked the device they had attached to it. Looking back
over at him, she shook her head minutely. No sign as to what Radanthus
might be using to spy on the girl, then. It was a shame that they had to
rely on passive scanning,

	Heh heh heh.  *That's* the Prof I was hoping for -- already on top of
things and going for every bit of data.

Oh, yes: the Professor is a very valuable ally for Elios in this. The little 
horsie-boy may not know a lot, but he knows where he is outclassed, and he 
is very good at finding allies who can fill in for his own deficiencies. He 
wanted Prof Tomoe for his brain, and that brain is already at work...

	"Okay, Professor," Haruka agreed, looking behind her as Kaori
carefully closed the door and raising an eyebrow warily. "So what's this
all about? It's only fair to warn you that I told all sorts of people I
was going to be coming here, so if you were planning something...."

	<blink>  Okay, I hadn't gotten the impression that their relationship
was that hostile....

Not hostile, just careful. Remember, Haruka has no idea what is going on, 
here. She just got a phone call from Professor Tomoe and Kaolinite telling 
her to meet them alone up in their dark, creepy mansion. You can hardly 
blame the girl for taking a few precautions, just in case they've fallen 
back into some, shall we say, "bad" habits?

	"You want me to babysit for a while?" Haruka asked, relaxing
noticeably. "Well, okay - sure. I guess Michiru and I can look after the
little tyke for a couple of days."

	Heh.  Oh-so-casual -- she almost manages to conceal just how badly
she misses Hotaru.

Haruka: "You remind me of the babe... the babe with the power...."

I have some... some experiments that we really have to keep our eyes on
for a little while. Very sensitive, you understand. Can't leave them
unattended."

	...perhaps NOT the best thing to say to Haruka, given past history....

Very true.

	"Yeah, of course," Haruka agreed, fumbling slightly as she took
the baby into her arms. "It's no problem, really. Glad to help."

	...and she doesn't even notice.  Yep, she's baby-smitten.

Yeah, in her own little way. Part of it is the natural paralysis that comes 
over any single person when they are handed an infant: that wide-eyed, 
slack-jawed "holy crap, what if I drop it?" concern. The rest of it is, as 
you noted, the all-powerful "Awww, cute baby!" instinct that can overwhelm 
the brain of any person over a certain age.

Kaori will get you a list of all the best pediatricians in
Tokyo, just in case something happens. I've circled all the ones I keep
on speed-dial: you might want to do the same."

	Souichi Tomoe:  Brilliant scientist, occaisional world-wrecker,
doting father...

Hotaru has actually been very lucky when it comes to parents. She's had at 
least five, and every last one of them has been doting. If she weren't such 
a sweet little girl, she would be horribly spoiled.

I do hope that you'll take the very best care of her - she's such a
special little girl."

	"Believe me," Haruka replied with a slight smirk, "I know."

	Oh, the double entendres here...

It's Haruka. She can barely say hello without sneaking in some innuendo. The 
great part is that I'm not even sure she does it on purpose any more. Once 
it becomes a habit, it's even harder to stop, you know. ^_^

	"I don't know what I would do if anything happened to her...."

	...let's NOT go there.

Too late! ^_^

	"We've got a pretty good idea," Haruka interjected, with a roll

	Oh, yeah.

I must say, I like how your reactions to almost everything the Prof has been 
saying or doing so far seem to be mirroring Haruka's exactly. Not sure if 
it's on purpose or not, but it's really neat. ^_^

	"Oh, my darling little girl," he sighed quietly. "Someone's always
giving you away, aren't they?"

	Now, Prof, don't get maudlin.  You just sent her to stay with some
friends for a bit.  Even the best parents do that once in a while.

Yeah, but the good doctor is such an overprotective parent that he even 
feels bad for not looking after her when he is in the MIDDLE OF LOOKING 
AFTER HER. He always struck me as one of those parents who never quite 
figured out that his little girl may not need him to hold her hand all the 
time any more.

Hotaru will need protection. Trust me: Haruka Ten'ou and
Michiru Kaioh are the best protection that she could hope for."

	Well, as long as they've gotten over their "Kill the Senshi of
Silence!" phase.

At the very least, Elios is hoping that if that they see a cute little baby 
getting attacked by a mean ol' ugly youma, they will attack the youma first. 
^_^

Ever since the day I met her, I knew that I would do whatever
it took to care for her."

	Which is what nearly got the world blown up (again), but let's face
it -- what father *wouldn't* have done what he did?

Not a single one. That's part of what I feel makes a lot of the SM villains 
so appealing - they are much more sympathetic and understandable. As I 
believe an old White Wolf RPG once put it "That is what makes us so 
terrifying. We are not monsters. We are *you* - under different 
circumstances".

She was so small, only a few days old... we just told everyone
that she was ours. That was how he said the parents wanted it."

	...??????   Okay, *that's* new.  I didn't realize he was speaking
literally.

Yes, this is something that I was meaning to get around to in the original 
RS - I'm tossing it in a bit earlier now to hopefully answer a few of the 
questions that my first fic left hanging for a few readers. Hotaru's mommy 
and daddy are somebody a little different than anticipated...

"He was a tall man, I remember that. Dressed all in black, very old 

style

clothing - it was covered in cobwebs. And he had an eyepatch...."

	OMG, it's... SPIDERMAN!

Funny how that guy just keeps turning up like a bad penny, isn't it? I 
swear, sometimes it seems like he's responsible for at least half of 
everything bad that has ever happened, and that's just because the other 
half happened before he was born. ^_^

	"An eyepatch?" the young priest swallowed thickly and looked
around the room as though suddenly afraid one of the shadows might leap

	Him and me both.

I love how this guy can get that kind of reaction without even needing to be 
present. Or mentioned by name, even. ^_~

out at him. "Tell me; did he have long, silver hair, and pale skin, kind
of like mine? Did he look anything like me? Anything at all?"

	...okay, *don't* tell me that Elios and Spiderdude are related.  I
don't think I could take it.

Okay, I won't. :p

and that the person he
worked for was a very powerful man who wanted the child destroyed. He

	Kaos...?  No, no way.  Demon Lord wossisface then, A-something, man
my memory is going....

Demon Lord Emperor Arago. In the english dub, he was called "Lord Tahlpa". 
In the French, they called him "Arkatakor". And in Portuguese, he was called 
"Escorpio". Personally, I like to think of him as "The Big Giant Head".

<snip!>

They were afraid, he could tell. They were afraid that he would be
disappointed in them, that he would think they had let him down. In a

	Or maybe that the Old Man isn't *quite* as bad@$$ as his legend implies.

Or that he shared Beryl's habit of taking out frustration on subordinates, 
maybe? Charming woman, but she just did not understand how to handle people. 
You do NOT execute half of your command structure just because they are 
having an off day! >_<

Soldiers who were willing to hurl themselves at
an unknown enemy without any thought of self-preservation or personal 

gain

were not to be sneered at or discouraged.

	Er, yeah, they ARE.  Just ask Patton.  Well, not *sneered* at, but
definitely a bit of restraint is in orer.

Usually, perhaps, but keep in mind that Jadeite is trying to find troops who 
are willing to run *towards* the Sailor Senshi, and that is not a preferred 
direction for youma these days. Troops with too high a sense of 
self-preservation may decide to explore the delights of exotic Hawaii 
instead of sticking around and catching a tiara to the noggin. Troops with 
too high a sense of personal gain may start looking for ways to advance at 
the expense of their fellow youma instead of focusing on succeeding.

There are a lot of youma out there who are more worried about their own 
skins and what they have to gain than whether or not their side is winning. 
Jadeite is looking on the positive side of things: he appears to not have 
many of those youma in his camp. That is a good thing.

	"Oniwabandana," he said into the still morning air, and paused as
he waited for a response.

	Bannanna-nanna foo-fanna... I swear, that name just gives me the
giggles.  I can't help myself.

It's even worse when you hear Kunzite saying it, trust me. ^_^

And it's not like her dub name was much better. "Ninjana"? How generic can 
you get? Oniwabandana may sound dumb, but at least you remember it.

Jadeite knew full well that she had not been there a
moment before, but chose to brush it off. Let the girl have her dramatic
entrance, he decided.

	Help her be overconfident if she ever decides to sneak a fast one
past him.

True. Also, Jadeite has nothing to gain from shooting her down right now. 
He's about to ask her for a favour - not the best time to be making her 
upset with him. Jadeite may not be the most powerful guy on the block 
(although he is still no slouch), but his real strength are his people 
skills.

	"Shale tells me that you are a recent member to our ranks?"

	Sug:  member<>addition/recruit

Good idea! Will fix!

	Oniwabandana made a rude noise. "Let's just say I found humanity
to be overrated and leave it at that, okay?"

	"Fair enough." Jadeite had reached a similiar conclusion long
ago, himself. At least in the Dark Kingdom everybody admitted they were
monsters. It was more honest, in a way. "I have been gone for a very 

long

time, Oniwabandana, and I have no desire to repeat the mistakes of my
predecessors. Can I trust you?"

	So much for avoiding mistakes.... :)

Hey, at least he's checking the reliability of his troops before sending 
them on any missions. That seems to be twice the ground work most previous 
villains have done. The important thing here is not that she says "yes", 
it's what she says and how she says it.

	"Probably," the ninja replied with a casual shrug. "I mean, I
haven't been hearing any decent offers from anyone else, lately. Doesn't
mean I'm offering you an exclusive, or anything - I usually prefer to 

work

freelance."

	Heh.  Is an honest mercenary like an honest politician -- i.e., one
that stays bought?

Pretty much. After all, it's hard for a mercenary to get a job if they have 
a reputation of turning on people the second they're offered more money. And 
Oniwabandana may not have given a ringing endorsement of herself, but at 
least she answered him honestly. She's about as reliable as can be expected 
from a freelance ninja, and at least nobody else is competing with him for 
her loyalty.

Radanthus and Badamon *especially*. Before I sit down to talk to these
people, I want to know exactly what makes them tick. I want to know what
strings to pull in order to make them dance. Can you do it?"

	Y'know, Jed, for a blunt field general, you don't make a half-bad
conspirator.  Better than Raddy, probably.  Badamon, OTOH...

It's all part of his strength. Jadeite knows people, and he can get very 
subtle when he wants to be. Remember his plan with the subliminal tapes, or 
the energy-draining weight loss machines? That stuff was pretty high concept 
for a guy who had been stuck in a cave for a thousand years. More than any 
of the other Shitennou, Jadeite came up with plans of attack and prepared 
things in advance. Nephrite relied on the stars to guide him, and Zoicite 
basically just went wherever the glowing black rock pointed. There was not a 
lot of forethought in those two. I refuse to believe we were watching 
Kunzite on his best day at any point after Zoi's death. Poor guy just 
stopped trying.

Perhaps I should fear for my own position in the camp, if your 

'gratitude'

is so deeply desired."

	"Baby, I've got enough 'gratitude' to go around.  More than once."

You know that's exactly what Shale was thinking, too. ^_^

	"Jealousy ill becomes you, Shale," Jadeite chided her. "A man in
my situation has many needs - I would never expect you to fulfil *all* 

of

	"After all, you have to sleep sometime."

Hey, Shale has four friends who all happen to also think Jadeite is awesome. 
I'm sure if she is taking a nap, any one of the other Doom and Gloom Girls 
would be more than happy to take over for her and fill in with Jadeite until 
she is rested.

You know, discussing strategy and going over maps, and stuff. What did you 
*think* I meant? ^_^

Shale was quickly proving to be a shameless
flirt in private. He had to admit, as their leader, it only made sense
that he sleep in her tent - anything else might make him seem 

subordinate

	Yep.  Right.  Definitely.

Well, Shale was staying in the commander's tent - it was the biggest, nicest 
tent in the camp. As the leader, Jadeite can hardly expect to be taken 
seriously if he is camped out in the bushes and she is still in the big, 
comfy "I am in charge" tent. People *do* judge by appearances, and it is 
important to not only be in charge, but also to appear to be in charge.

Her argument regarding shared
baths was a bit less convincing, though, and Jadeite had decided that
seemed like a good place to draw the line. Water shortages be damned,

	<snerk!>

Can you blame her for trying, though? I mean, she had already convinced him 
to sleep over.... :)

take a registry of every youma in this camp, including our scouts and
anyone foraging for food, and return with your list by lunch. Include

	Hm.  If I were Jed, I'd be wondering (quietly) why she hadn't done
this *already.*  Maybe her hold on leadership wasn't as tight as she
needed it to be?

Not really - Shale basically just set up camp outside of the castle and 
refused to talk to Radanthus on the grounds that he was a shithead. Over 
time, other youma started flocking to her banner. There are a lot of people 
out there in the Dark Kingdom who just want to be on whatever side the DGG 
are on. Since Raddy wants the DGG on his side for that exact reason, he has 
been willing to leave them alone and let them do what they want. So, since 
Shale's camp became known as a safe zone from Radanthus, even more youma 
started moving in who just wanted Raddy to leave *them* alone, too. They are 
not particularly organized at the moment because they haven't really had any 
reason to GET organized.

A little bit of detective work, to help put
together some old pieces that he never got the chance to play with in 

the

old days.

	Oh, WHY does this not sound good?

Uh... because it isn't? ^_^

**********

	Minako Aino did not usually sleep in. It was true, she used to
have a habit of staying under the covers for as long as possible, but

	Sug:  "had once had the habit"

Good idea: will fix! ^_^

After all, as the official
warrior of Love and Beauty, she had a lot of training to do if she 

wanted

to keep ahead of the rest of her teammates. Plus, all of the jumping
around and (inevitably) breaking things gave her mother ample warning to
start getting breakfast ready.

	...ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Mina's Head.  Strange in here,
ain't it?  Not *empty,* but definitely... sparse.

Mina is a very, very interesting girl. Unlike Alice, Minako could wind up in 
Wonderland and not necessarily notice that there is anything wrong. She 
might even be relieved that things have finally started making sense again. 
^_^

On cue, the large white globe on her bedside table flipped open
to reveal a small animated picture of a dancing cat with a crescent moon
on his forehead.

	Artemis is either getting a cut of the royalties, or he's plotting
her slow, painful demise in excruciating detail.

He may be doing both, depending how much of the royalties he is getting a 
cut of. Knowing Minako, she may have bartered away her likeness in exchange 
for first dibs on any merchandise they make that has her face on it: she 
always has been her own biggest fan.

I always liked the part in the Sailor V manga where she tried to convince 
Artemis that he needed to come up with some sort of reward program for her 
when she rescued people because "Otherwise, I won't feel like doing it."

	A slender hand wormed its way out from the cocoon of blankets
and slapped the alarm clock shut, silencing its shrill voice. After

	a few moments, the clock popped open again and Artemis crawled out,
looking dizzy.
	"Never again.  NEVER again...."

ROFL! ^_^

	"Stupid clock," she mumbled, swinging her legs out of bed and
letting her bare feet hover over the floor as she rubbed her face. 

"Stupid

Artemis. Stupid world."

	Artemis:  "I heard that."

Minako: "Good! Can you see how many fingers I'm holding up, too?"

	"Your one true love again?" Luna asked, raising an eyebrow.
Artemis had warned her about this. Minako tended to gather 'first loves'
the way that some people gathered baseball cards.

	...but where does she *store* them?

In mylar bags with acid-free cardboard backing, if she expects them to be 
worth anything in a few years. :)

	"Oh, he doesn't usually do that," Minako corrected the cat
absent-mindedly. "He's... I don't know... sweet, and gentle, and quiet.
I think he wears glasses, maybe. And he's been injured fighting the 

forces

	...Touma?  Nah, can't be, he's welded to Makoto already.

Nope, not Touma. This is actually an off-hand reference to one of the 
original RS story arcs called "Flashbacks", where I went back into the past 
of the Moon Kingdom and mucked around for a little while.  Something more or 
less like what Minako is describing happened in that. Since it was the last 
thing I ever showed Minako and Seiji doing back in the original, I decided 
it would be cute to have her wake up in the new version having just finished 
dreaming about it.  ^_^

	Huh.  Even given my lousy Yoroiden-fu, I'd've thought I'd remember
one of them wearing glasses...

Seiji sometimes is drawn with glasses, but he never wore them in the anime 
proper. Same with Touma, actually - their spectacles are more common in 
manga and artbooks and other promotional material. Don't feel bad if you 
missed this one.

Do you think maybe he's one of my boyfriends from back in
the Moon Kingdom? I'll bet I had all kinds of boyfriends - ooh! Or

	<choke>  Not... saying... ANYthing.

In the words of Kaitou Ace: "That reminds me, you've been falling in love 
with people ever since way back then!"

None of the Senshi had *anything* like that! Their focus
was entirely on their duties, as was only fitting for such powerful and
highly trained warriors."

	...I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm about to side
with Mina over Luna.

That's not a bad idea, where romance is concerned. Minako can sniff it out 
like a bloodhound when she gets going. Luna still has some very silly ideas 
in her head about how things used to *really* work back then.

I mean, really: if any of the Senshi did have a secret love, would they tell 
their cat? Not if their cat could talk, they wouldn't.

You gotta
tell me that at least *one* of us had a secret, forbidden love."

	You mean, aside from Usagi and Mamoru?

Usagi was not a Sailor Senshi at the time, so her secret, forbidden love is 
tracked seperately. ^_^

And the mere fact that we know there was *one* would seem to imply that 
there were others, as well. Like Minako says, any time you have a place that 
full of hedge mazes, secret passageways, balconies, and spiral staircases, 
there is going to be somebody using it in the manner for which it was 
intended. ;)

"Hey,
speaking of Yokohama, what's the word on those Samurai Trooper guys?"

	"I don't remember them, so they're obviously not from the Moon
Kingdom, so they're obviously evil, so you obviously should not trust
them, and ABSOLUTELY DO NOT fall in love with one!"

Minako: "What was that Luna? I must have gone selectively deaf again...."

Artemis: "It's a recurring ailment. Trust me."

<snip!>

Seiji could use the privacy. He
still couldn't believe that Shuu had let the entire girl's field hockey
team all chip in on a single ticket. Or that they had won.

	....
	......
	.........BWAHAHAAHHAHAHAHAHAAAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!

Sure, it's funny NOW, but at the time, he was terrified. It was the first 
time he'd ever been surrounded by so many girls he could not outrun. Not 
that he didn't give it the old college try, though....

Usually, Seiji's family disapproved of their young heir wasting any time
in a place so unsavoury as a police station, where he might brush

	So, why does his *father* work there?  Lemme guess, the "Family" is
his *mother's* side, and his father married in.

Exactly right, actually. Seiji's dad is a top detective with the Japanese 
Police Force. He would be the one who Seiji gets his reckless and impulsive 
streak from. And you said your Yoroiden-fu was weak. ^_^

Seiji's mom is apparently a lot like a slightly older version of Motoko 
Aoyama, from Love Hina. So, if Motoko ever married Leon McNichol (*with* 
sunglasses, of course), her kids might turn out like Seiji. And Yayoi.

Which makes sense, if you think about it.

shoulders with any number of lower-class people. That day, though, 

Father

had left his badge at the mansion, and Seiji had decided to deliver it 

to

him before he had to take time out of his day to come back for it. 

Father

was a very important policeman, after all. There were all sorts of
criminals that needed to be stopped, and only Father could do that.

	...just a *bit* of hero worship going on, here?

Seiji's dad is the only one of them who is even halfway normal. But, yeah, 
Seiji has had it installed into him from a very early age that evil is bad 
and good is not. Kind of makes sense that a guy like him would end up 
turning into a hero of light and justice at the earliest opportunity. After 
all, he's the embodiment of the virtue of Courtesy. Or, uh, Grace. Wisdom? 
The translators can never decide. Let's just say "Rei", for now.

Rei: "Cool! He's got the virtue of being me. I assume that means he can put 
up with pig-tailed idiots at great length, then...."

	....hold on.  13th bday?  Police station?  Oh HO -- he's the same age
as Minako, isn't he?  Heh heh.

Yes, he is. Seiji was born June 9, and Minako was born October 22. Hmmm... 
so if she told him she was born a Libra, he'd say that he's a Gemini....

I am probably the only person here who got that song reference. I need to 
stop doing these. ^_^

They
had only barely brushed against each other in passing, and he had gotten
a single glimpse deep past her mask and into her glorious, wind-coloured

	Mask?  Oh.  My.  Bog.  He's in love with SAILOR V!

Seiji: (sighs) "She's so AWESOME..."

Minako: (squeals) "I am SO awesome!"

	BTW, the wind is usually transparent.  Or at least translucent.

I know - I was making a reference to Seiji's image song in the "Best 
Friends" CD: "Wind Coloured Eyes". It's the song where he goes on about how 
he's in love with some girl, but everybody says they have no idea who she 
is, and he is hoping they meet some day.

Er... it's less sappy than I'm making it sound. Has a pretty good beat, 
actually. It's no "Kaze no Junction", but it can suffice. ^_^

eyes. Back in those days, he had still worn his hair tied back, so that
both of his eyes were visible. Most of the other children at school had
cried whenever they looked at him, saying that he was scary. Even the
police officers in the station had flinched away from his gaze, 

stammering

as they had given him the directions to his father's office. She had the

	???  What's so scary about him?

Apparently he has very scary eyes. That's why Seiji has that cool 
Zelgadis-like hair going on: he covers one eye on purpose so that nobody has 
to be subjected to the full force of his creepy and unnerving gaze. Or 
something. I didn't make it up - it's canon.

look, she had stolen his heart. As befit a true samurai, of course, he 

had

never shared his love with anybody. Such feelings were sacred, and had 

to

	Oh, *so* the drama....

Seiji: "I am not POUTING! I'm being WISTFUL, damn it!" >_<

Luckily for him, his youngest sister Satsuki was obsessed with
Sailor V: she had made a good excuse for most of his inquiries.

	<eyeroll>

Yeah, I know. Pot to Kettle: You Are Black. ^_^

by telling someone else that he liked them, he
would be betraying Sailor V in his heart. He had tried, once or twice
before, but every time he was about to bring up the subject, all he 

could

see was that beautiful masked girl in his mind, looking so sad and hurt
by his cold denial of her that he just couldn't go through with it.

	Good GRIFE, is this a fic or a soap opera?  Somebody whack this guy
with a clueX4, *stat!*

It's a fic, I swear!

Although I do like the term "clue-by-four". First time I've encountered that 
one that I recall. And I agree that he needs one, but I just can't bring 
myself to make it that easy for any of them. It just wouldn't be any fun for 
me that way. ^_^

I swear I can *hear* the violins playing
Tragic Hero Theme #327a in the background.

Seiji has that affect on people. He just has this whole "I am suffering from 
a deep and painful trauma; please console and comfort me" thing that really 
attracts the women. Which, incidentally, does not help.

There is a YST drama called "Nanpa Call", where the Troopers all dare each 
other to try to flirt with some random girls. Ryo screws up royally, Shuu 
comes on too strong, and Touma gets slapped for telling the girl that he 
doesn't mind if she pays for her part of the date. Seiji goes over and says 
"You dropped your handkerchief". A few seconds later, the girl is proposing 
marriage and Seiji is freaking out. In the end, Shin is the only one who 
gets a girl and thus wins the bet, because he is the only guy in the entire 
group who didn't end up looking like an idiot. ^_^

<snip!>

The only thing that could be causing that much noise was
if Grandpa Hino had gotten it into his head to do something stupid. If

	Or grandiloquent.  That's not always synonmous with stupid.

This is very astute. He is, in fact, up to something that is both gradiose 
*and* vaguely acceptable. Proving that one cannot always judge by past 
experience, I suppose. ^_^

Rei came home and found out that he had finally carried through on his
threat to build a 'Tunnel of Love' in the backyard, she was going to hit
the ceiling.

	...On the other hand....   O_O;;

And we wonder why Rei can seem so intolerant, sometimes. She's lives with 
Yuuchirou and her Grandfather all the time: that's almost like having to 
live with Gourry Gabriev and Happosei!After putting up with their antics all 
week, it's no wonder she gets frustrated when Usagi manages to spill her 
lemonade in the Sacred Fire. Again.

Oh, she hoped it wouldn't be a Tunnel of Love. Or a
kissing booth. Well, maybe a kissing booth wouldn't be *such* a bad 

idea,

if it were properly staffed...

	Time to pucker up, Rei.  Rei?  Hey, put that flaming ward down -- REI!!!

That was *not* what Minako was thinking, thank you very much. Nearly all of 
the Senshi in this fic are rating fairly low on the Davies scale. :p

With the obvious exceptions, of course.

	"Mamoru?" Minako looked up in confusion. Sure enough, there before
her was Mamoru Chiba. Why exactly he would be dressed like a shrine 

priest

was something she wasn't sure she wanted to get into at the moment. He 

had

	Got drafted by 'jiisan, obviously.

Obviously. But Minako does not always leap to the 'obvious' conclusion, as 
Artemis would be more than happy to tell you. At length. Over large amounts 
of alcohol.

Next thing I knew, we'd been
recruited. The old guy's really excited about this thing. I've got to
tell you, it's really amazing: I can't wait to try it out..."

	Well, that pretty much kills the hentai potential -- Mamoru just does
not get freaky that way.  He's got a little Usagi-shaped conscience on
his shoulder, I swear.

Yeah, him and most of the Troopers, too. Thank God for the Masho: they're 
the only guys in the whole group capable of getting really perverse, when 
they feel like it. ^_^

I love the Masho. It's not so much that they are jerks, as it is that they 
are *unabashedly* jerks. I'm really looking forward to writing them again.

Even if the ticket sales for the kissing booth *would*
skyrocket with two babes like you and Motoki there -and I would probably
have to buy a couple of rolls myself- I can't bear to think of you that

	Rolls.  RollS.  Plural.  Oy....

Hey: morals are morals, and ethics are ethics, but what we are talking about 
here is a chance for her to liplock with Mamoru Chiba, free of guilt. She's 
also assuming that Motoki will be there, as well. I think Minako would argue 
that the *greater* crime would be *not* to take full advantage of this.

way! Please, Mamoru, tell me you have not been seduced by the promise of
easy money and beautiful women!"

	...I *swear* I can *hear* her babbling this.

Me, too. Glad to hear it came out okay. ^_^

I'm sure we can talk him into that 'kissing
booth' idea of yours, too..." He winked at her playfully. "Hey, promise

	Okay, Mina, now just *who* exactly is corrupting Mamoru's soul?

Mamoru is doing just fine on his own at the moment. ^_^

not to tell Usagi and I'll buy a few tickets, myself. Unless you think 

it

might corrupt my noble soul, of course."

	Hold up, Mamo-kun -- if you're buying tickets, then who's manning
(ahem -- womanning?) the booth?

Mamoru: "Why, Minako, of course. It *was* her idea after all, so obviously 
she was volunteering her services, right? After all, ticket sales would be 
sure to skyrocket with a babe like her there, and I may even be forced to 
buy a couple of rolls, myself..." (snicker)

Many people forget that Mamoru Chiba has a very healthy sense of humour when 
it comes to teasing people. That makes me a sad panda.

	"I thought Usagi made you promise not to make fun of us any more,"
Minako said sourly, as she pouted and folded her arms across her chest.

	1:  Define "us."
	2:  Stop making it so easy.

Mamoru's entire thought process, up there. Wonderful how easily you captured 
it. ^_^

<snip!>

there had been an incident with one of the local trains a few days
before - it had somehow managed to jump the rails and coil itself up 

like

	O_O  Well, I'll be-- everything ties together.  That's a clever bit
of writing, that is.

Thank you. I've been working very hard on keeping the plot pretty tight this 
time around. Trust me: you will be surprised by how much of this makes 
sense, in the end. ^_^

a spring. Repairs and cleanup had been aggravated by the fact that it 

had

been raining for two straight days. Most of the newspapers in the 

terminal

	...uh.  Oh.  Um, this wouldn't be the skies mourning their Prince,
would it?

Maybe. Yes. ^_^

You're getting better at picking up on things like this: I will have to 
start getting more subtle.

If Touma had been on that
train (which he had no business being anywhere near), had he tried to
prevent that crash, or had he somehow been the reason for it?

	Nice when your friends have such faith in you.

Seiji has complete faith in his friends - he has complete faith that they 
will screw up, get in trouble, or otherwise need his help at some point in 
any given day. It's sort of a "big brother" complex that Seiji suffers from 
- he compulsively protects and looks after everyone else, partly because he 
convinces himself that everyone else needs it.

	And once again, the lack of carefully coordinated data prevents Our
Heroes from making the critical connection.
	<sigh>

Yeah, sadly the primary "thinkers" of the teams have been otherwise 
occupied, of late. Ryo and Shuu usually rely on Touma or Seiji to tell them 
what is going on (or, more often, Nasuti Yagyu). The Senshi tend to need 
either Luna or Ami to piece it all together. Unfortuantely, Ami is busy 
being smitten, Touma is trapped in a box, Luna is out of the loop, and 
Seiji...

Well, Seiji is right here and just began to figure out that something very 
important is wrong with this picture.

almost every demon
in the entire netherworld had a plan for world domination that seemed to
include messing with the Samurai Troopers as step number one.

	...uh, hello?  Seiji?  CONNECT THE DOTS!!!!!!

He's working on it, he's working on it! Seiji may not be as smart as Touma, 
but he has the advantage of being very, very cynical - he automatically 
assumes that anything out of the ordinary is actually some kind of evil 
demon attack. The number of times he's been proven right is a little 
startling, really. :)

they weren't hiding under the bed and hoping nobody tracked it back to
them in the first place. Shin was about as easy to bother as an ice

	Shuu:  "Wow, that pipe *really* didn't look like a gas main.
Somebody should have posted a sign."

That is classic Shuu. ^_^

Seiji would be lucky if the rest of
the guys even noticed he was late, let alone worried about it.

	With coordination like this, it's a wonder they haven't all been
picked off by somebody already.

The Samurai Troopers are notorious for blundering into traps. It helps that 
nearly half of the team (Touma, Ryo, and Shuu) appears to lack any common 
sense. The trick is that catching a Trooper off-guard is one thing, and 
figuring out what to do with him once you've got his attention is something 
else entirely. They are hard nuts to crack, and they tend to have a lot of 
very scary-looking weapons available to them. ^_^

assuming the answer was 'yes', Seiji would probably get to the fun part
with all the swords and the hurting. Perhaps there would be a light tea
afterwards, but only if time permitted.

	I just have to sit back and admire the artistry of that paragraph for
a moment.

to actually sit down and plot his moves, instead of getting dragged 

along

with one of Ryo's half-baked 'they'll never expect us to try a full
frontal assault' excuses for a strategy.

	In this case, the battle plan is not going to survive contact with
his One True Love.

Now, now... at least Seiji will still be trying to think straight. He is not 
quite as prone to LIBF as Ami seems to be.

LIBF == Lust Induced Brain Freeze. First observed and recorded by authour 
Dave Barry, although this may be the first known case in a member of the 
female gender. Basically, it's that fun grinding noise her head makes every 
time she sees Ryo Sanada and her bran tries to shift gears without a clutch.

<snip!>

	It had been nearly a day since they had found the cavern. Touma
had been the one who noticed it: a deep crack in the side of the canyon
wall that stretched for miles.

	Wait... is the crack miles long, or the canyon?  This paragraph is a
bit vague on that point.

Oops, sorry - that was supposed to be the crack I was referring to, not the 
canyon. I guess the way I worded it does leave that a little vague, 
especially since it could easily mean both. I wil have to re-word that.

unimaginable evil lurking at the other end of their hiding place, and
Makoto had decided to let him. The young monk had wandered off into the

	Young?  I suppose, but he sure manages to come across as a dried-up
old sourpuss.

Yeah, that's Toshitada's problem. He's only about seventeen or eighteen 
years old, but he's been seventeen or eighteen for FIVE HUNDRED YEARS. That 
kind of thing is bound to make a guy a little cranky. I can only imagine how 
poorly he is handling being dead.

Er... quasi-dead, at least. ^_^

girl to resist when he was just a nice, smart, cute guy who happened to
be living in her apartment for the summer. Now she had to get her head
around the fact that he was a real, live, hero. A knight in shining
armour, even.

	AND a guy that isn't likely to end up endangered by being a Senshi's
boyfriend.  At least, no more than he already is.

I agree: anybody who tries to grab Touma and use him as a hostage is going 
to have a lot more to worry about than just Sailor Jupiter kicking in the 
door and coming to his rescue.

I mean, they'll still have to worry about that, TOO, but there will be other 
things as well. ^_^

Just looking at him, she was filled with the urge to straighten his 

collar

and fix his hair.

	Of course, this is probably the kind of cuteness he *should* have,
when he's not 'on duty.'

Touma has that constantly frazzled look that really appeals to some girls. 
It's the maternal instinct, I think: one look at him, and they just know 
that he is going to need serious help if he wants to make it out the door 
with matching shoes. Basically, he's the ideal man for Makoto: someone who 
will always make her feel needed.

Plus, he could really use some help with that whole eating/sleeping 
pattern... he tends to forget.

Not to mention that there's at least one Medean around hunting *your*
pretty little head."

	Spiny Boy?

Yep, good guess! ^_^

Your palace was on the moon of Io, and your subjects lived
on the various other moons. The Medeans were a rebel group that sided 

with

Queen Beryl and joined the Dark Kingdom during the final battle."

	Hm.  Has she asked how he knows so much about the Silver Millenium, yet?

Not yet, no. I would be sure to have something that important happen 
on-screen, as it were.

	"I have no idea," Toshitada admitted with a shrug. "Maybe they
didn't like your fetching little outfit with the pretty pink bows and
shiny tiara.

	Why do I hear this as just *dripping* sarcasm?

Because that's just the way he talks, man.

I will give Paul Dobson total credit from the Ronin Warriors dub - he 
captured Toshitada's voice so well that even in the sub I can still hear him 
saying the lines in my head. It somehow managed to be both snarling and 
sneering at the same time, no matter what he was saying. Considering that RW 
was a very -VERY- early dub from Ocean Studios, and a lot of the work on it 
was... not up to their usual standards... I think I should give credit where 
credit is due.

Although I still think Episode 2 of the dub is hilarious, because of how all 
of the voice actors swap characters without any warning and then all change 
back in Episode 3. ^_^

Great - a whole species of
youma dedicated to killing Sailor Jupiter. She had always wanted 

something

to make her feel special.

	...at lest her sense of humor is still working.

It's part of her best defence against this place. Makoto is just so used to 
dealing with this kind of crushing depression that even when people are 
magically forcing her life to suck, she is able to at least make a joke 
about it. Touma and Toshitada are magically resisting the influence of this 
place: Makoto is more or less just accepting it and letting it wash over 
her.

	"Good point." Toshitada leaned back against the side of the
cavern wall and closed his eyes, resting his chin on his chest. "Still,
the fact remains that we need to get back to the Earth realm before you
two starve. It's only logical that there must be a way out of here -

	What about Toshi?  He's suddenly got hunger&thirst problems, too.

True, but he is assuming that he cannot die from them. Based on the fact 
that he is already dead, and it would be redundant. ^_^

nobody would build a prison like this without some kind of back door in
case they got trapped in it by accident."

	Unless they were so darned arrogant as to believe that couldn't
happen to them.

Yeah, like Daedelus. Most people have learned enough to always have a bolt 
hole in case of things like that since he got stuffed into his own 
Labyrinth. And even he built some wings eventually. Not that it turned out 
well for *everyone* who was escaping that day....

	Speaking of... just how did Touma get out last time?  Why can't they
just do that again?

Touma didn't escape last time: he was freed when Shuu Rei Fuan sent Xiang 
Yao back in. Since she was the one who had trapped him and his Grandfather, 
they were both let out when she was imprisoned again.

I guess he *could* wait for Shuu to fix everything: I mean, Shuu *is* a 
super-cool total badass, and all. But then he would have to put up with 
listening to Shuu boasting for the next decade about how he had to rescue 
Touma from the same box twice. ^_^

They haven't
found the exit because it's in the one place none of them want to go. 

It's

got to be somewhere inside the castle."

	Which means that Something Nasty must be there, too.

Oh, yes; Something VERY Nasty. After all, they were willing to build an 
entire dimension just to hold *someone* in, right? Everyone else came later.

	"Oh, good," Toshitada said hopefully. "Maybe there's still time
for us to starve to death, after all."

	I love this guy.  Really.  The fact that I want to kick his butt up
around his ears is not contradictory at all, I swear.

The Masho tend to get that response from people. They're really a very cool 
bunch of guys, but they still have a lot of the old habits they picked up 
from being villains (like a total disdain for their opponents) that can 
really make you want to smack them.  They're a little rougher around the 
edges than the normal Troopers.

Well, that's pretty much for part one. Stay tuned, and I'll be responding to 
part two as soon as I possibly can! Thanks again for replying, and rest 
assured, I am hammering away on my next chapter whenever I can spare time. 
Hopefully it will be out in a week or two.

Later!

-Morgan



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