[FFML] [SM] Drunkard's Walk S: Heart of Steel, Chapter 2

[Bob Schroeck]

And now the genuinely new material.

-- Bob

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Bob Schroeck         http://www.accessdenied-rms.net        rms at eclipse.net
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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Disclaimer and credits will be found after the end of the
chapter.




                DRUNKARD'S WALK S:  HEART OF STEEL

                       by Robert M. Schroeck



2.  Basic Training

Your world needs a great defender
Your world's in the way of harm
You want a romantic life
A fairytale that's full of charm
Beware that the Light is fading
Beware as the Dark returns
This world's unforgiving
Even brilliant lights will cease to burn
Legends scatter
Day and night will sever
Hope and peace are lost forever
-- "This Will Be The Day", Theme to Volume One of Rooster Teeth's
    "RWBY"

To do good is noble; to teach others to do good is nobler, and no
trouble.
-- Mark Twain

I've got my clipboard, text books
Lead me to the station
Yeah, I'm off to the civil war
I've got my kit bag, my heavy boots
I'm runnin' in the rain
Gonna run 'til my feet are raw
Slip kid, slip kid, second generation
And I'm a soldier at thirteen
Slip kid, slip kid, realization
There's no easy way to be free
No easy way to be free
-- The Who, "Slip Kid"


Friday, April 10, 1992, 12:06 AM

Usagi's eyes snapped open as she was catapulted directly out of
sleep to full wakefulness.  She'd been having an absolutely
*yummy* dream of going to an all-you-can-eat ice cream buffet
with a cute boy, and something had reached right into it and
*demanded* that she wake up.  She turned her head to check Luna.

The moon cat was still asleep on her pillow next to her.

Usagi began slowly snaking her hand under her covers toward her
nightstand, where her brooch lay.  "Who's there?" she asked
softly.  If Luna wasn't already awake, Usagi wasn't going to be
the one to wake her.

"Um.  Hi."  A figure appeared out of the shadows in the corner
of her bedroom.  For a moment, Usagi swore she could see a line
of leaf-green light flicker around it, but it was gone as soon
as she thought she saw it.  The figure came closer and was lit
enough by the light through Usagi's window that she could see it
was a girl -- a pretty girl a few years older than her, with
long, straight dark hair that fell almost to her waist.  When she
got close enough, Usagi saw that she wasn't Japanese but a
Westerner, and she was wearing a short-sleeved green top with
tight, shiny leather pants.

"Sorry to wake you," she continued in perfect Japanese.  "Now
that I think about it, this was a bad idea.  I should have shown
up during the day and approached you on the street."  When
Usagi's hand emerged from under the covers she noticed.  With a
little nod, she added, "You don't have to sneak.  If it'll make
you feel safer to turn into Sailor Moon, go ahead."

Usagi paused.  She knew?  "Who are you?"

The girl glanced at the brooch, then at Usagi, and chewed her
upper lip for a moment.  "You can call me Reimei Midori."

Usagi pushed herself up to sit in her bed.  At her side, Luna
continued to sleep, oddly undisturbed by the bouncing of the
mattress.  "So, why are you in my bedroom in the middle of the
night?"

"Well," Midori said, bobbing her head left and right, "partly
because I *could* be, and partly because I wanted to tell you
something, and finally because I wanted you to tell Doug
something for me."

Usagi's eyes grew wide.  "You know Doug-sensei?"

Midori smiled brilliantly.  "Yeah.  I met him when I was about
the same age as you are now.  I owe him a lot for helping me and
my sister when we needed it."  She blinked.  "You said 'Doug-
sensei'.  You've already started training with him?"

Usagi shook her head.  "I'm starting tomorrow."

Midori huffed in annoyance.  "Well, darn, my aim was off.  I was
trying to get here right after your first night as Sailor Moon to
tell you how important it was to train with Doug."

"...Get here right after my first night?"  Usagi rubbed her eye
and frowned.  The only way that sentence could make sense would
be...  "You... are you talking about traveling in time?"

"No... well, yes," Midori said, then promptly added, "Not *just*
time travel, but yeah, from where I come from Doug met you a
long, long time ago."

Usagi's heart broke, and tears began to form in her eyes.  "He's
not home yet, is he?"

Midori grinned, a very sly and happy grin.  "Well, 'Sagi-chan,
that's what I wanted you to tell him.  He *will* get home.  I'll
let you in on the whole story in a moment, I promise, but I have
to be honest and say it was really just an excuse for me to come
meet you."

Usagi felt like she was doomed to only ask questions in this
conversation.  "Meet me?  Why?"

The grin morphed into another brilliant smile, and then Midori
plopped herself down on the edge of Usagi's bed.  Usagi shot a
glance at Luna, who bounced again but never stopped snoring.
"Because, 'Sagi-chan, far in the future you're going to be the
best friend I'll ever have, and I just wanted to say thank you."

Baffled, Usagi just mumbled, "You're welcome?" as she was caught
up in a completely unexpected hug.

Next to her on the pillow, Luna slept on.

                              * * *

The next morning, Usagi glared at Luna while getting dressed.

"What?" Luna demanded.

"You snore," Usagi accused as she adjusted her skirt.

"I *what*?"  Luna tilted her head.

"You *snore*," Usagi repeated, reaching for her middy blouse.  "I
woke up in the middle of the night last night and heard you."

"How can I snore?" Luna demanded.  "I'm a *cat*!"

Usagi rolled her eyes as she pulled the blouse on over her head.
"How can you snore?  How can you *talk*?"  She studied herself in
the mirror as she adjusted her collar.  "Doesn't matter.  No more
sleeping on my pillow right next to my ear."

                              * * *

Friday, April 10, 1992, 8:09 AM, Tokyo Head Office of the *Asahi
Shimbun*

Two sailors.

Tokyo had *two* sailor girls now.

And a man in grey on some kind of flying motorcycle-thing, if
some of the witnesses could be trusted.

Yoshi viciously ground his cigarette butt into a crumpled mass of
paper, ash and cellulose filter, and shoved the ashtray aside.
He had witnesses, but not enough for a real story.  Not yet.  A
handful of housewives and schoolgirls who were half-convinced
they'd dreamed the whole thing anyway -- he couldn't get the EIC
to bite on that.

He was going to have to go hunting again.  Not for the first time
he thanked Sailor V for helping him re-hone the skills he'd first
gained in Vietnam, and Cambodia, and Indonesia, and which had
decayed with every Comiket and flower show he'd had to cover in
the years after.

Sooner or later one of them would cross his path, if they were
real.  And he'd get the photos -- and maybe the interview --
he'd need to announce the existence of a new superhero in Tokyo.

He pulled out a new cigarette and was about to light it when a
thought struck him.  Sailor V had been known to cooperate with
the Metropolitan Police Department; maybe these new heroes were
the same.  He'd have to check in with Keiko at HQ and see what
she might know.

And what the hell, he hadn't called Hiroshi in a while.  He could
say hello and find out what, if anything, the JSDF might know as
well while he was at it.

Yoshi smiled as he lit the cigarette.  Hell, he might even get a
lunch out of this.

                              * * *

Friday, April 10, 1992, 7:00 PM.  Tsukino Home.

"I'll get it."  Tsukino Ikuko dried her hands and stepped into
the hallway to answer the ringing telephone.  "Moshi-moshi?"

"Good evening, Tsukino-san."  A male voice, a stranger.  "My
name is Douglas Sangnoir, and I'm a volunteer tutor here in the
school district.  I received your daughter's name on Thursday
and was told she needed help in her classes."

"Oh, my."  Ikuko's eyes widened, and she glanced down the hall
to see if Usagi was listening in.  "I didn't know that
Usagi-chan's school had a tutoring program."

"Honestly, ma'am, if there's a formal program I'm not aware of
it.  I just was contacted by an acquaintance at the school and
informed of your daughter's need."  A faint chuckle came across
the line.  "I must admit, I find it hard to believe that she
could be quite as badly off as she was made out to be.  But even
if she is, I should be able to help her bring her grades up at
least somewhat."

Ikuko sighed into the receiver.  "That would be wonderful.  I'm
afraid Usagi-chan is quite hopeless at academics.  Nothing my
husband or I do is of any use in motivating her to improve."

"Well, I'm pretty sure I'll have at least *some* success where
you haven't.  While I'm currently employed as a software
developer here in Tokyo, I have quite a few years' experience as
a teacher, particularly with difficult cases."

"Well, that does sound encouraging..." Ikuko allowed.

"Now, I wouldn't expect you to trust your daughter to a random
voice on the phone," Sangnoir continued smoothly.  "So I was
hoping that you might join me at a restaurant near your home
tomorrow afternoon, so that I could meet you and your husband and
your daughter, and let us all get a feel for each other before
anyone agrees to anything."

Ikuko found herself nodding thoughtfully at the suggestion.  "I
think that's a fine idea.  How about at two?"

"Two would be perfect."

                              * * *

After settling on a restaurant and getting directions to it from
Usagi's mother, I said goodbye and hung up.  Then I shut off the
iPod in front of me (one of a dozen or so such devices I'd picked
up here and there on my journey), and removed the earbud from my
other ear.  I don't like using mind control outside of combat or
emergency situations, but I needed to guarantee that Usagi's
parents would meet with me.

Fortunately, I hadn't needed it.

It wouldn't've been the first bit of mental domination I'd used
that day, though, if I had.  I'd gone through several different
songs in the process of setting up contacts in the school system
who would vouch for me, and in getting documentation of my
teaching skills inserted into the appropriate files here and
there.  Some of the latter would take a few days, but this
timeline was nowhere near as digitized as Homeline was, and they
would all be in place well before anyone could ask to see them.
If anyone bothered.

(I was expecting that someone would bother.  This was Japan, in a
well-to-do area, and judging by the conversation I'd just had,
the elder Tsukinos were actively involved in their daughter's
life, if not actually hovering.  If they were remotely competent
parents they would want to confirm that I was who I claimed to
be.  My long-term plans depended on it, in fact -- I needed them
to trust me and maybe even come to consider me a family friend,
the better to be able to run off with Usagi on short notice to
fight the "Great Enemy".  It would also help if/when Usagi blew
her cover around them.)

I had also arranged to get time and space at need in a local gym,
a place called "Joy Fit" a couple blocks south of the Azabujuban
market street.  But that didn't take mind control, just money and
a little schmoozing with the staff.

                              * * *

Saturday, April 11, 1992, 1:56 PM.  Edoya Wine & Restaurant,
Azabujuban.

Usagi gnawed on a knuckle as she followed her parents and Shingo
into the restaurant.  It was a fancy place; not so upscale as to
be completely out of the reach of her family (who were, she would
admit upon thinking about it, rather well off), but certainly a
bit fancier than they normally went to.

When Doug-sensei had said he'd make arrangements and get in touch
with her, this had been the last thing she'd expected.  She'd
thought they would have to sneak around, slipping out of the
house to train in secret.  Which frankly would all have been very
cool and very fun.  Even if it might have gotten her in trouble.
Finding out from her mother that he had called and set up an
appointment with all of them had surprised and panicked her for a
moment.  And Luna had actually *hissed* when Mama had mentioned
meeting up with him at the restaurant.

Usagi was glad that cats weren't allowed into Edoya because she
was *sure* Luna would forget she was pretending to be a normal
cat and lay into Doug-sensei -- the way she had laid into Usagi
when they were finally alone later that night.  And she was glad
that as far as she knew Luna had no money, otherwise she might
try to go to the restaurant in her human form -- and that
wouldn't possibly end well for anyone.  Either way, who knew how
Mama and Papa would react to learning that Luna -- who they'd
only just started getting used to having in the house -- wasn't
just an ordinary cat, but a really very bossy *talking* one.  Who
could turn into a pretty girl, too.

Usagi blanched at the thought of her mother getting completely
the *wrong* idea about Luna and dragging her off to give her a
lecture about trusting strange talking animals off the street and
warning her (again!) about "inappropriate touching" just like she
had after that one time with Naru and the spilled cola and... she
wrenched her mind from that oh-so-disturbing image as the host
ushered them into a private dining room.  Doug-sensei was already
there and bowing to her parents.

Usagi tried very hard to look like she was seeing him for the
very first time.  Which to be honest wasn't too hard, as it was
only the *third* time she'd ever seen him, and the first time he
wasn't wearing grey leather.  He was in a very nice charcoal suit
that made him look very handsome...  "Ow!  Shingo!"

"Stop drooling, dumpling-head," her little brother hissed.  "He's
too old for you."

"I'm *not* drooling," she hissed back, then quickly wiped the
side of her hand across her chin.  Just in case.  By the time her
attention had returned to Doug-sensei, he was already bowing and
presenting a business card to her parents.

                              * * *

I had (briefly) considered holding the meeting at the Hard Rock
Cafe in Roppongi, but thought better of it when my usually-
hibernating common sense woke up and kicked me in the head.  No
matter what world it is, an HRC is usually *way* too loud to hold
any kind of meaningful discussion.  And to be honest, I wanted to
project the image of a solid, sober citizen whom the elder
Tsukinos could trust with their daughter.

And let us not even consider the potential problems that the
*soundtrack* at an HRC could cause.  (Then again, that's what my
tuneplug is for.)

So when Mrs. Tsukino suggested the Edoya, I quickly agreed.  I
was actually familiar with it:  it was located not far from the
Azabu market street and just a block away from Joy Fit (which is
how I had discovered it in the first place).  It was a yoshoku
place -- Western food done Japanese style -- and one of the
better ones in the area, higher-end but not over the top.  Given
what I'd been able to deduce about Usagi's family, I was pretty
sure it was right in the middle of their comfort zone.  I'd
reserved a private room to give us a quiet space for this
all-important first meeting, and for the discussions to come
after.

I arrived fifteen minutes early to make sure all was as I had
requested.  I was in my best suit (well, the best one appropriate
to this here-and-now), and had a couple of sample textbooks and a
small stack of my meishi -- the Japanese version of business
cards -- with me.  At the maitre d's podium I let the staff know
that I was expecting the Tsukinos and what they'd look like, and
made arrangements to cover the entire dinner with no check to be
presented at the table.

With that taken care of, the maitre d' led me to the room I'd
reserved.  I gave it a quick but careful once-over.  Finding it
to my satisfaction, I turned to him, smiled, and bowed deeply
while expressing my thanks.  He returned the bow and then bustled
off to take care of his other clientèle that afternoon.

I didn't have long to wait.  The Tsukinos -- four of them --
showed up promptly at the stroke of two, escorted by the maitre
d'.

It took a while before we finally sat down at the table.  First
there were the introductions with bowing followed by a handshake
between myself and Mr. Tsukino:  Usagi's parents were Kenji and
Ikuko, and her little brother was Shingo.

Then I offered her father one of my business cards.  I had
checked the etiquette for meishi in this timeline just to be
sure, and presented my card to him with *exquisite* care and
formality.  I did *not* want to mess this up.  I could train
Usagi without her parents' cooperation, but it would be so much
easier with it.  And not messing up on the etiquette would help
*so* much.

Mr. Tsukino took it just as seriously as I did, thankfully.  He
carefully read my card before looking back up at me.  "Choudai
itashimasu," he said softly before bowing.  When he straightened
up again, he drew a flat case of black leather from his jacket
pocket, and made a show of inserting my card into it.

Once that was done, I nodded, then gestured at the table.
"Please," I said.  "Join me for a meal."

                              * * *

If the melon-sized mound of ice cream she'd consumed the previous
week hadn't already clued me in, I would have been astonished at
the sheer amount of food that Usagi could pack away.  For all
that she was one of the tinier teenaged girls I'd ever met, she
had one of the biggest appetites I had ever seen, hands down.
(Only that young lightning-slinger from California whom I'd met
a couple timelines back could rival her.)

*And* some of the worst manners.  She got elbowed by her younger
brother a couple of times, and Mrs. Tsukino had to cough
meaningfully once or twice before Usagi got the idea and slowed
down to a point where the rice wasn't flying across the room.  I
tactfully ignored the byplay and concentrated on establishing my
bona fides with her parents.

Which went over quite well.  To be honest, the documentation and
testimonials I presented were only fraudulent insofar as they
claimed to be from *this* version of Earth, and the locals who
now thought they'd provided them had had their memories very
carefully modified to support those claims.  (Modified, I might
add, to the barest minimum necessary.  Sapient beings are the sum
total of their memories of themselves, after all, and it is
possible to *break* a mind with careless or indifferent memory
modification.)

It also helped that the elder Tsukinos were not only concerned
about their daughter's academics, they were genuinely nice people
who were maybe a bit more trusting than they should be.  Well
before we reached the dessert course and after only the briefest
look at my references and other paperwork, they had surprised me
by agreeing to let me tutor her.  I'd been prepared to mind-
control them into doing so if I absolutely had to, but they were
*so* desperate to improve Usagi's performance in school that they
were ready to accept *any* help that presented itself, especially
help that was offered *gratis*.

They were lucky I was as benevolent as I claimed to be.

And once we'd gotten that out of the way, "Sangnoir-san" and
"Tsukino-san" gave way *very* quickly to "Doug-san", "Kenji-san"
and "Ikuko-san" -- far more quickly than I would have thought
likely.  We moved on to my "lesson plans" -- at least the ones I
would admit to them -- and Usagi's eyes grew a bit wide at what I
was proposing to cover with her.  I could see that she was
starting to panic, and when her little brother was looking
elsewhere, I shot her a reassuring wink.

She visibly forced herself to calm down.  A moment later, during
a pause for breath in the discussion between us adults, she said,
"Excuse me, may I be excused to go to the restroom?"

Ikuko-san looked up from one of the texts I'd brought with me,
and replied, "Oh, of course, dear."

"Thank you!"  She extricated herself from under the table, turned
and promptly tripped on the pattern in the carpet, as best as I
could tell.  I winced in sympathy as she faceplanted.

"Owie," she mumbled into the floor beneath her as her brother
burst into mocking laughter.

I was out of my seat and helping her back up so quickly that the
rest of her family was blinking at my reaction speed.  "Are you
okay?" I asked as Ikuko-san shushed Shingo.

Usagi smiled ruefully as she blinked back unshed tears.  "Yeah,
I'm kinda used to it.  I do that a lot."

I raised an eyebrow at her and she gave me a little nod, as if to
confirm her claim.  Well.

Never let it be said that I can't capitalize on an opportunity.
"You know," I said, glancing between her and her parents, "it's
not in the paperwork I showed you, but I'm *also* a martial arts
instructor.  I have a license to teach martial arts, although it
probably wouldn't be recognized here in Tokyo."  Because I got it
in another universe, at a monastery on a mountain outside of
Tokyo-3 in 2015, I very carefully *didn't* say.  "If you'd like,"
I said, turning my attention back to Usagi alone, "I can take you
through some basic exercises for balance and grace."

"Oh, that would be wonderful!" Ikuko sighed, giving some credence
to Usagi's claim of chronic klutziness.

"Well, then," I said after a moment.  "If Usagi-san is willing,
we could start with that first.  I have an arrangement with a
local gym, and if she can meet me there tomorrow we can jump
right into that."

Usagi bit her lip and looked over at the table.  "Mama, Papa?
May I?"

Kenji and Ikuko shared a glance.  Being a married man, I know
"married person telepathy" in action, and there was definitely
some of it going on there.  Then Ikuko smiled at her daughter.
"Of course, dear."

Usagi squealed in delight, bouncing up and down and sending her
ponytails whipping wildly about.  Then she remembered why she'd
gotten up in the first place and ran off to the bathroom.

"What time would you like her to show up at the gym?" Kenji
asked.

                              * * *

As I settled the bill after the Tsukinos left the restaurant, I
marveled at how agreeable they had been.  For a moment I wondered
what would have happened had I asked them outright for permission
to train their daughter as a metapowered vigilante.

I could almost believe that they might have agreed to it without
blinking an eye.

                              * * *

Saturday, April 11, 1992, 8:36 PM.  Tsukino Home.

"...And I still can't get over how cool he was.  He just smiled
and charmed Mama and Papa, and they agreed to everything!"  Usagi
laid on her bed with her arms spread out to her sides as Luna
sat primly near her feet.  "Even Shingo liked him!"

"Charmed?" the cat asked.  "He enchanted them?"

Usagi rolled her eyes.  "Noooo," she replied.  "I mean he was
very polite, and he dressed in a nice suit, and he did everything
he could to make them like him.  And they did.  No magic involved
at all."  She sat up, propping herself with her arms behind her
as Luna hopped to avoid her feet.  "You are *such* a suspicious
kitty."

Luna sniffed.  "It's my *job* to be suspicious.  And *my* job to
train you.  I don't like the idea of someone else doing that."

"Well, you're just going to have to get used to it, because it's
happening," Usagi declared.

"We'll see," Luna muttered darkly.

"I just wish I hadn't tripped in front of him," Usagi mused.  "I
must've looked so stupid.  Oh!  Oh, oh, darn it!"

"What?"  Luna's tail began lashing about as she glanced around
the room, looking for whatever Usagi had reacted to.

"Oh, *darn* it!" Usagi repeated.  "I forgot to give him the
message from..."  She suddenly snapped her mouth closed and
glanced at the mooncat.  "Never mind."

Luna's eyes narrowed, and her tail, if anything, lashed *harder*.
"Message from whom?"

"Oh, come here, you silly cat."  Usagi lunged at her and before
she realized it, Luna was clasped tightly to her charge's breast.
"From someone you don't know.  Don't worry about it."  A set of
tiny fingers started scratching her behind her ears.

Luna briefly debated clawing the girl to make Usagi release her.
"It's not a good idea to keep secrets from me, Usagi...  Ooh,
that feels nice," she moaned.  "How am I supposed to... oh, don't
stop... I'm supposed to... mmmmm."

"Supposed to what?" Usagi asked, never stopping her ministrations
to Luna's ears.

"Mmmmm.  Something," Luna murmured, eyes closed.  "Talk later.
Scratch now.  Yesssssss."

Usagi smiled to herself and kept scratching.

                              * * *

Sunday, April 12, 1992, 1:00 PM.  Joy Fit athletic club,
Azabujuban.

The next afternoon, I met Usagi in the lobby of the Joy Fit.  She
was wearing what looked to be a brand-new jogging suit, and
carrying a small gym bag, equally new-looking.  We exchanged
greetings, and then I got her set up with a membership at the
club.  "So you can come in and use their facilities without me,"
I replied when she asked why.

She nodded and bit her lip.  "Are Mama and Papa going to be
paying for this?"

"Nope, it's on my dime," I said as the receptionist led us back
to where they'd take Usagi's picture for her ID.  "I volunteered
to teach you, and I can afford things like your membership as
part of that."  Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a black
cat with red eyes stalking back and forth on the other side of
the gym's glass front.  Oh, hello, Luna.  Lovely to see you
again.

"So can my parents," Usagi objected.

I shrugged.  "I don't doubt it.  In fact, your dad probably makes
more than I do."

"Then why..." she began.

"Call it a matter of honor, teishi," I said just before the
receptionist dropped us off with a very nice lady who had a
Polaroid and a laminator.

Fifteen minutes and one plastic card on a lanyard later, Usagi
and I found ourselves alone in one of the smaller rooms.  Thick
foam rubber mats were spread out over the floor, and three walls
were similarly padded; the fourth had the door plus a mirror
stretching the rest of its length.  I pulled off my shoes and
took up a position near the center of the room.  Usagi stripped
off her jogging suit to reveal a bog-standard Japanese gym class
outfit of bloomers and T-shirt, and joined me on the mat.  She
looked uncertain but determined.

"Don't you want me to change into Sailor Moon?" she asked,
glancing down at her gym clothes.

I shook my head.  "If I train Sailor Moon, only Sailor Moon will
get anything out of it.  But if I train Usagi, *both* of you will
benefit.  Plus I promised your mom that I'd teach *you* --
Usagi."

"Okay..." she said doubtfully.

I crossed the mat and put a hand on her shoulder.  "Trust me,
teishi.  I've trained transforming metas before.  It's how it
works.  Okay?"

She bit her lip and thought for a moment, then nodded.

"I do want to see your transformation," I added.  "It's a good
idea that I know what it looks like, what you need to do to
trigger it, and how long it takes, but that can wait until later,
when we're in a more private place."

Usagi looked around and seemed to notice the window in the door
for the first time.  "Oh!  Okay."

"Right then," I said.  "Now before we start, let me say that I
wasn't lying to your mom -- I can and will help you be more
graceful and poised.  It won't be instantaneous, but it'll
happen.  Beyond that, well, I was planning on teaching you the
basics of my personal martial art, but just how much we get into
will be up to you.  That said, every little bit you learn will
help.  I can attest to that."

                              * * *

Luna lurked by the door to the athletic club, and waited for her
opportunity.  She'd tried several times already to gain entry
after Usagi had managed to slip in without her, but had been
blocked each time.  Now she was waiting for a patron either
entering or leaving who was just the right degree of distracted.

The moment came when a heavyset young man, sweating profusely,
came out carrying several duffel bags.  He juggled them clumsily
as he backed into the metal bar that spanned the width of the
glass door, unlatching it.  As the door swung open, Luna burst
into motion, scampering madly between his ankles and into the
building.  Ignoring a shout from the receptionist, she dashed
down the hallway that led deeper into the club, skidded through
an open door into an unoccupied office, and shifted into human
form.

A moment later the receptionist slid to a halt and clung to the
doorframe.  "Did you see a cat come this way?" she asked,
slightly out of breath.

Luna tried to look as innocent as possible as she nodded.  "Oh,
yes, I did -- it went right past the door."  She raised a finger
to her lips and looked thoughtfully at the floor to her left.
"I'm afraid I didn't see where it went, though.  I'm so sorry."

"That's okay," the receptionist replied and turned to go.  Then
she turned back.  "Say, who are you, anyway?"

                              * * *

"I said I wanted to learn how to fight and win."  The uncertainty
left Usagi's eyes.  "And that means everything.  Teach me all you
can, Doug-sensei."

I nodded approvingly.  "Then that's what I'll do, teishi.  And
the first thing we'll cover...  well, if you're as clumsy as you
claim to be, the standard first lesson of any martial art, and
one of the hardest:  falling."  I gave her a prompting smile and
waited, but she just stood there, watching me earnestly.

I leaned forward a bit.  "This is where the student traditionally
says, 'But sensei, there's nothing hard about falling.'"

She gave me a "who are you kidding?" look, but obediently
recited, "'But sensei, there's nothing hard about falling',"
trying hard not to giggle at the end.

I grinned.  "Sure there is!  It's called 'the ground'!"

This time she actually did giggle.

                              * * *

*Still got it,* Luna thought smugly as she strolled through the
athletic club.  The receptionist had remembered Usagi and
Sangnoir, and then had told her exactly where to find them.  Luna
thanked her and took off at a brisk pace.

                              * * *

"All right, that's enough for now," I said after an hour or so of
going over basic breakfalls with her.  "Go get showered and
changed, and we'll talk magic when you get back here, okay?"

"Okay, Doug-sensei!" she chirped brightly as she wiped sweat off
her face.  She dashed over to her bag and jogging outfit, scooped
them all up and ran out the door.

I smiled to myself as I watched her, then sat down with my back
against one of the padded walls and reviewed the past hour.  I'd
started by running Usagi through a few exercises to get an idea
of her general fitness and level of coordination.  I realized
very quickly that her sense of balance seemed to abandon her at
unpredictable intervals, and when it did, she had an odd tendency
to fall on her face even in situations where by all rights she
should fall to the side or backwards.  Consequently, I focused on
introducing her to forward techniques, starting with a front
breakfall I'd learned from a US Marine when I first joined the
Warriors.

She'd been amused by having to start out by laying flat on her
stomach, but she took the lesson seriously.  She paid close
attention, did everything I told her to, and was actually able to
pull off a breakfall from a standing position a lot faster than
I'd expected her to.  Not that it's a complicated move, but a lot
of people flinch for a while before they get the hang of it.
Once she learned what to do, she took the fall and slapped the
floor perfectly the first time.

After three more repetitions, I advanced her to the forward
shoulder roll, with which she wouldn't just break her fall, she
would use the momentum to get back up on her feet.

It was odd, really.  Just in that first few minutes of evaluation
I had seen enough to warrant that her self-description as
"clumsy" wasn't entirely without merit.  But at the same time,
she had a profoundly good kinesthetic sense.  I rarely had to
walk her through a move or position more than twice or at most
three times.  And once she'd mastered a move -- quicker than
many, at that -- she *always* did it perfectly afterwards.

I chalked up the contradiction to just entering puberty.  She
might never actually be *tall*, but she was starting to grow
regardless.  I'd lay odds that in particular her legs were
growing faster than she could get used to them, hence the
stumbling and tripping.  Give her a couple years or so and she'd
reach her adult height or most of it, after which the clumsiness
would vanish.

And yeah, like she warned me, she whined and complained.  But she
*never* stopped trying.  She never gave up.  And honestly, she
was giggly as often as she was grumbly.

I started wondering just *who* had convinced Usagi that she was a
loser.

As I waited, I saw a flash of black and yellow through the window
in the door.  I closed my eyes and tilted my head back until it
bumped into the padding behind me.  "Are you going to come in,
Luna, or just lurk in the hall?" I called out.

There was a longish, making-up-her-mind pause, and then I heard
the door open, followed by a swish of fabric.  "How did you know
I was there?" she asked.

I opened my eyes and lowered my head to give her Asuka's favorite
"Are you stupid or what?" look.  "You're not exactly invisible in
human form, you know.  And the window in that door is a good 60
or 70 centimeters square.  I spotted you watching us several
times."

She frowned.  "I thought you had all your attention on Usagi-
chan."

Chuckling, I shook my head.  "I never have *all* my attention on
any one thing, my dear.  A hard lesson learned long ago -- even
in 'safe' surroundings, keep an eye out."  I smirked at her.
"The only place I ever fully relax is in bed with with my wife,
and not even always then."  The smirk drained away from my lips.
"And it's been more than seventy years since I've been there."

She studied me for a long moment, then said, "Not willingly, I
take it?"

"No," I replied flatly.  "Not willingly at all."

Neither of us said anything for several minutes after that.  She
walked around the room as if inspecting it, while I stayed seated
on the floor.  Finally, she said, "You were taking Usagi-chan
seriously, and truly training her.  I remember seeing the..."
She paused, scowled, and continued.  "...Seeing others training
like that, a long time ago."  She turned and studied me.  "Why?"

I raised an eyebrow.  "Why?  Because she asked, and because I
could, and because it was the right thing to do.  I would have
thought that was obvious."

"If you say so," she said doubtfully.

I shook my head.  "What a sad world you must live in."

Luna's eyebrows shot up.  "What?"

"I mean it.  To be so sure that no one besides yourself can
possibly be acting from the goodness of their hearts and for the
honest benefit of another.  To be convinced that everyone other
than yourself is an enemy in disguise just waiting to strike."  I
gave her a pitying look.  "Does Usagi-chan even get the benefit
of the doubt, or are you anticipating and planning for the day
that she inevitably turns on you?"

Luna stared at me, mouth gaping in shock.  But before she could
gather herself to retort, the door flew open.  "Okay, I'm back!"
Usagi called out.  "Oh, hi, Luna," she added with a fair bit less
energy and enthusiasm.  "You're going to try to drag me away now,
aren't you?"

Luna turned to her.  "I..."  She stopped, looked back at me, then
at Usagi again.  "Not at all.  I've been watching you working and
have satisfied myself that Sangnoir-san is an... adequate teacher
for you at this early stage."

Usagi brightened, almost literally.  "Really?  That's so great, I
was so worried about trying to learn everything I could when you
didn't approve of Doug-sensei, but now you're okay with him and
it's all going to work out just fine!"  She lunged forward and
seized Luna in a hug, spinning her around and bouncing in place.

Luna shot me a look that very clearly said, "You see what I have
to put up with?"  I just smirked at her.

                              * * *

After dinner, Usagi retreated to her bedroom with Luna, who had
returned to her cat form, to discuss the afternoon.

"You're going to help me with the magic exercises Doug-sensei
gave me to do, right?" Usagi asked.  She lay spread-eagle on her
bed, her head hanging over the edge with her ponytails draping
down to either side of her to pool on the floor below.

"Oh, certainly," Luna said pensively. "I must admit that he has a
most unusual approach to magic, though.  I have never encountered
anyone who thought of it as a kind of science and engineering
combined."  She was sprawled out in a typically feline boneless-
looking puddle, and had her eyes closed.

"Really?"  Usagi rolled over onto her stomach, and began kicking
her feet.

The cat nodded absently.  "Every mage I've known treats...
*treated* it as an art.  Oh, there are fundamental principles and
techniques one learns, even a lay practitioner like myself, but
every true mage then develops along their own special path, which
reflects and in turn shapes the unique qualities of their very
being.  The Queen..."

"The Queen?" Usagi interrupted.  "You mentioned her that first
night, but that was all."

"Queen Serenity of the Moon," Luna explained.  "She was your
sovereign and commander in your earlier life, and she was the one
who sent your soul forward to be reborn in this era.  Serenity-
sama was one of the greatest sorceresses in history, with a style
and form of magic unique to herself, bathed in and built of
purest light."

"Wow."  Usagi bit her lip and tried to imagine what the Queen
might have looked like while using her magic, but all she could
bring to mind was an image of herself all grown up in a white
silk gown.  "Baka Usagi," she murmured to herself.

Luna continued on, unaware of Usagi's momentary distraction.
"The Queen had a great artifact of light magic that amplified her
power, which in Japanese would be called the Maboroshi no
Ginzuishou..."  Her eyes snapped open and she gave a gasp.  "The
Ginzuishou!  How could I have forgotten?"

Usagi turned to look at her.  "Huh?"

Luna met her eyes.  "The Ginzuishou is tied to the line of Queen
Serenity.  Wherever the Princess is, *it* will be.  And its magic
is very distinctive.  If we can locate it, it could lead us right
to the Princess."

"Cool!"  Usagi rolled over on her back again.  "Now who is this
Princess?  And why are we looking for her?"

Luna opened her mouth, then shut it again.  "I haven't told you
about the Princess?  At all?" she asked after a moment.

Eyes wide, Usagi shook her head.  "I don't think so.  Or all that
much about the Queen until now.  I'm guessing it all has
something to do with being Sailor Moon, though."

Sighing at her own undependable memory, Luna sat back down on the
bedspread.  "That's right.  Let me go back and start at the
beginning..."

                              * * *

Monday, April 13, 1992, 12:27 PM, Sanuki Udon Noodle Restaurant

The small talk out of the way and their udon already half-eaten,
Yoshi laid his chopsticks on the improvised rest he'd folded out
of their paper wrapper, straightened up a bit and took a breath
just a bit deeper than usual.

"You've got something on your mind."  Lieutenant Keiko Tanakawa,
Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, was being very careful not
to get soup on her dress uniform.  ("Can't go back to the Chief's
office a mess now, can I?" she'd said when they'd sat down
fifteen minutes earlier.)

"Yeah," he admitted, and wished he could light up.  But the
proprietor of this noodle joint hated cigarette smoke and would
toss Yoshi out on his ear if he did.

Keiko laughed softly.  "I figured as much.  You only do the lunch
thing while fishing for info if you're chasing a story so big you
forget to eat.  What is it this time?"

He spun the stool top to face her.  "Has Sailor V been in touch
with her 'friend' in the department recently?"

She tilted her head and studied him quizzically.  "Not that I
know of.  Why?"

Yoshi chewed his lip.  "I think we have a new sailor girl running
around.  I'm trying to get some solid verification, but I have a
*lot* of unreliable eyewitnesses who've all reported the same
thing.  I was wondering if she had a connection to V, because,
you know, super-powered schoolgirl in a sailor suit."

"Hm."  Keiko looked off thoughtfully.  "I can ask."

"Thanks.  But that's not all," Yoshi added.  "This new sailor
girl -- she's got some kind of partner."

"What, like V's cat?" Keiko asked with a smile.

Yoshi snorted.  "As if.  No, this is a guy -- an adult, not
another teen.  Dresses in grey with a motorcycle helmet, carries
a bo staff."

Keiko's eyebrows shot up in surprise.  "Really?"

He shrugged.  "That's what the witnesses said.  I have no idea
what their relationship is.  For all I know he's her father and
he's teaching her the family business."

Keiko laughed.  "Wouldn't that be a kick?  A line of espers or
something secretly fighting crime for centuries.  Sounds like
something out of a manga or anime."  She chuckled once more, then
grew serious again.  "I'll ask about V-chan for you, Yoshi.  And
when you get some harder evidence for this new girl and her
partner, give it to me and I'll pass it on, okay?"

Yoshi nodded.  "Deal."

                              * * *

Monday, April 13, 1992, 3:00 PM.

Because she was already reasonably close to human in appearance
even before applying a glamour, and was surprisingly intelligent
as well, Furau had been a natural choice for General Jadeite to
include in the youma forces he'd deployed to Japan.  She had also
been a natural choice to spearhead the "Midnight Zero" operation.

Her first step had been to study the human world and learn what
it had become.  Too many youma simply leapt in, assuming nothing
had changed in the ten thousand years of their imprisonment.

Idiots.

Once she had familiarized herself with the people and culture,
she formed a plan and put it into motion.  It had only taken a
bit of disguise and a little domination to slip into the staff of
Azabujuban's local radio station FM No. 10, and if you now asked
any of the other employees, they'd swear she had been working
there for years.  And with that accomplished, she'd begun to lay
down a subtle web of compulsions and memory spells across the
district wherever her intended targets were likely to stumble
across them.  When the command came, it would take the merest
twitch of magic fired into the web of enchantments to turn the
girls and young women of the district into a ready-made, devoted
audience for a radio program which did not -- yet -- exist.

Taking care of little details like that was what made the
difference between a successful operation and a debacle.  Some
youma just couldn't *think* clearly enough to even pretend to be
human, but Furau prided herself on the planning, execution, and
overall the *quality* of her work.  It was how she intended to
stand out among all the other youma running the various
operations that General Jadeite had planted around the district,
to be activated at a moment's notice.  Furau was an ambitious
youma, and she planned to springboard off the success of the
"Midnight Zero" plan into a higher position in the General's
forces.

And now was her chance.  The secretary for the marketing
department had just handed her an innocuous telephone message
whose contents were actually a pre-arranged signal:  General
Jadeite was activating "Midnight Zero".  Furau smiled to herself.
It was her time to *shine*.

                              * * *

Monday, April 13, 1992, 7:32 PM, Tsukino Home.

"Here we go," Ikuko trilled as she placed a tea set on the table
just past the stack of books I'd brought with me.

I looked up from where Usagi and I both had had our heads down
together over her math textbook and a sheet of paper covered with
algebra problems in various states of completion.  "Thank you,
Ikuko-san!"  I debated a moment about pouring myself a cup
immediately, then decided to let it steep for a few minutes.

"I think I've got it now, sensei," Usagi mumbled around a pencil
stuck in her mouth without looking up.  "Is this the right way to
balance the terms on both sides?"

"Let me see."  She lifted her head from where she had hunched
over the paper and slid it over to me.  I took a quick look at
the fairly basic algebra problem and nodded approvingly.  "Yes,
very good, Usagi-chan," I said.

"Yay!"  A smile like a dawning sun broke out across her face and
she waved her arms like a boxer celebrating a win.  I chuckled
and quickly scribbled another equation on the paper before
sliding it back to her.

"Okay," I said with my own smile.  "Now try this one."

"Ack!"  The smile vanished and she seemed to fold in on herself.
"That's *complicated!*" she complained.

"Not as much as you might think, teishi."  I handed her the
pencil, which had fallen out of her mouth and onto the table
during her chair-bound victory dance.  "Just try it, using what
we've covered.  I promise no surprises or traps, okay?"

"'kay," she said dubiously, then bent back over the paper, pencil
at the ready.  She tilted her head first one way, then the other,
then, "Oh!"  She began rapidly writing.  I sat patiently, finally
pouring myself some tea and then sipping it slowly, until she
finished with a flourish that almost tore the paper, and handed
me the sheet.

I looked over the solution as she waited, almost visibly
quivering with anxiety.  I was tempted to stretch out the moment
just a bit more, but I took pity on her.  "Perfect, teishi."

"Yeah!" she leapt up and screeched, then collapsed back into her
seat.  "Sorry," she mumbled, embarrassed.

I scruffled the top of her head -- which did very little, because
the hair there was drawn tight into the buns from which her
ponytails hung.  "That's all right, Usagi-chan.  Tell you what --
go tell your mom I said you deserve a couple cookies as a reward
for your accomplishment."

"If she hurries, she can have *mochi*," Ikuko's voice drifted in
from the kitchen.

Usagi perked up even more, if that was possible.  "Mochi!"  She
almost teleported out of her chair and made a dash for the
kitchen.

Only to catch her toe on the rug and fall forward as Ikuko made
another appearance, a small plate with mochi on it in her hands.

Without thinking about it, Usagi pulled in her arms, tucked her
chin, and landed on her shoulder while curling into a ball.  She
let her momentum carry her through a complete somersault and back
up onto her feet.  Miraculously, she'd threaded perfectly between
the table and the nearby credenza without smacking into either.
"Mochi!" she repeated in a delighted squeal as she popped upright
and lifted the plate from her stunned mother's hands.

As Usagi dashed back to the table, already shoving the sugar-
coated treats into her mouth, Ikuko shook herself and gave me a
wide-eyed look.

"Did you teach her that?" she asked after working her mouth for a
moment.

"Yup, first lesson."

Usagi, her face full of mochi, ignored us.

Ikuko smiled and shook her head.  "If you do nothing else for
Usagi-chan, that alone justifies allowing you to teach her,
sensei."

I waggled a finger at her.  "C'mon, Ikuko-san, none of that.
'Doug-san', remember?  You and Kenji-san insisted on it."

She smiled at me.  "True enough."

"Are you done yet?" Usagi whined from behind a plate empty save
for a very light dusting of powdered sugar.  "I want to get
through all of this before it gets too late -- there's this new
show on the radio I want to listen to before I go to bed
tonight!"

I pulled a face and Ikuko laughed again.  "Well, you heard the
boss," I said.  "Back to the salt mines."

Her lips still twitching in amusement, Ikuko replied, "Don't let
me distract you," and vanished back into the kitchen.

                              * * *

In the kitchen, Ikuko listened to Doug-san starting on the next
lesson and shook her head in wonder.  Usagi-chan showing
*enthusiasm* for *math*?  It was a miracle.  And that
somersault... only a week earlier, her daughter would have fallen
flat on her face and cried about it.

Ikuko was starting to think that Doug-san might be the best thing
to ever happen to Usagi.

She couldn't wait to tell Kenji.

                              * * *

Wednesday, April 15, 1992, 12:27 AM, Azabudai

Sailor V landed silently on the roof of the apartment building
situated at the top of the hill in Azabudai.  Compared to the
nearby Tokyo Tower it was downright stubby, but it was still one
of the tallest buildings in the area; combined with its hilltop
location, it gave her an ideal vantage point from which to look
out over the district.

The Enemy behind the Dark Agency had been moving again, but
Artemis had assured her that other, allied, forces were taking
care of them.  For now.

"They'd better," she murmured to herself.

"What was that, Sailor V?"  How Artemis managed to keep up with
her -- particularly when she scaled an apartment building like
this one -- was a question she'd never gotten a satisfactory
answer to.  But she was glad that he could.

"Just saying that those allies of ours you were talking about had
*better* do a good job against the Enemy."  V looked out across
all the smaller buildings toward Azabujuban Station to the
southwest.  "There's a lot of Dark energy out there -- I hope
they're up to the task."

The white cat rubbed up against her ankles, then sat down,
wrapping his tail around himself as he joined her in watching the
city below.  "From everything I've seen and heard, they are."

Sailor V continued as if he hadn't spoken.  "Because if I have to
step in and do their jobs for them, I'm going to give them such a
talking-to afterward."

Artemis sighed.  "I'm sure you will."

                              * * *

Thursday, April 16, 1992, 9:30 PM.

"Well, teishi," I said after finally witnessing Usagi's
transformation.  "I've got some good news, and some bad news."

"Sensei?"  Sailor Moon looked worried.

I nodded.  "Yeah.  The good news is, despite how long it seems to
you, it only takes a moment or so for you to change.  From the
outside, it looks like an explosion on fast-forward.  The bad
news... well..."  I took a deep breath, having a good idea how
she would react.  "You're very briefly *naked* right in the
middle of that whirly light show."

"What?" she shrieked, then spun to glare accusingly at the cat
perched on the bench nearby, watching us.  "Luna!"

Luna visibly "ack"ed.  "It's not my fault!"

                              * * *

Saturday, April 18, 1992, 3:37 PM, Joy Fit athletic club,
Azabujuban.

Luna and I watched Usagi dash off to the showers.  I'd spent the
afternoon drilling her on the *next* set of basics, the movements
fundamental to the most common defenses.  If you, O Hypothetical
Reader, are from a certain era in certain timelines, the phrase
"wax on, wax off" might evoke the idea, if not the exact
specifics for my homegrown style.

Usagi, being the walking mass of contradictions that she was, had
picked them up with an ease that I could almost envy, while still
occasionally tripping over her own feet.

When she got back, the second part of the day's lesson would be
on situational awareness.  But before that, while we waited, I
had something else to take care of.  "Luna?" I said, watching the
door as it clicked shut behind Usagi.

She turned toward me.  I'm not sure where a sapient masquerading
as a house pet got the money, but she'd apparently gone shopping
at some point, as she was in jeans and a cardigan instead of the
yellow sundressish thing she'd been wearing the first couple
times she had shifted into human form.  "Yes?"

"We need to talk, without Usagi-chan present."  I dug into my
pocket, pulled out the piece of paper I'd put there before coming
to the gym, and held it out to her.  "This is my address.  Could
you please come by this evening?  In either form, whatever you're
comfortable with?"

Luna's eyes narrowed.  "What is this about?"

I suppressed a sigh.  "I'd rather not discuss that here."  I took
a breath.  "If you're concerned about being ambushed or attacked,
I am willing to swear any oath you would like me to, or accept
any binding you choose for the duration of the discussion."

Frowning, Luna studied me for a *long* time before she finally
said, "I don't think that will be necessary."

I would have been pleased by that if she hadn't sounded so
*grudging* about it.

                             * * *

About quarter after 8 that evening there was a knock at my door.
I set aside the newspaper (in which I'd been reading with growing
suspicion about the two dozen or so cases of what had been dubbed
"Sleeping Sickness", all women and girls from the Minato area),
and got up to answer it.

As I had expected, it turned out to be Luna at the door, still in
jeans and cardigan.  "Hi," I said, stepping back.  "C'mon in.
Would you like something to drink?" I asked as she entered.
"Tea?  Milk?  Cream?" I smirked a little.

She rolled her eyes at me.  "Tea will be fine."

"Cool."  I waved at the collection of chairs which made up my
"living room".  "Please, make yourself comfortable."

I quickly prepped a pot in my kitchenette.  Looking up from the
task, I found her standing in front of the shelf where I'd placed
the photos I had from my previous stops.  As always, the picture
that Lisa had taken of Maggie and myself kissing held place of
pride in the center.  To the left were Sana on stage, and me with
Buckaroo and the Cavaliers in front of their tour bus.  To the
right was me with Asuka, Shinji and Rei in my old dojo next to
Utena and Anthy's wedding portrait.  In front, taking advantage
of its smaller size and landscape orientation, was a photo I'd
taken of dinner with the whole gang at the Tarikihogonji temple,
featuring Skuld giggling and giving the camera a red-eye.

"Is this your wife?" Luna asked, gesturing at the photo of Maggie
and me.

"Good deduction.  Yeah," I said as I assembled a tray while the
tea steeped.  "Maggie's still back in my home timeline, if you're
wondering."

"And the others?" she inquired.

I paused in my preparations as the memories washed over me.
"Friends.  Allies.  Students."  I smiled to myself.  "Adopted
family, too."

As she made a little wordless sound of acknowledgment, I popped
the lid on the pot and picked up the tray.  "Okay, the tea's
steeping.  Join me, please?"

"Certainly."

I carried the tray to the sitting area and set it on the end
table I had between my two armchairs, then sat down in one.  Luna
primly took a seat in the other.  "So, before I forget, thank you
for coming by," I said in as conciliatory a tone as I could.  She
nodded an acknowledgment.  "I've got a few questions for you,
about some things that don't quite make sense to me."

"What kind of questions?" she asked, bristling a little.  I
ignored the implied hostility.

I leaned back in my chair.  "Let's start with a simple one.  I'm
guessing you were somehow fed modern Japanese as part of your
arrival and awakening in this era."  I wasn't really guessing, of
course -- I'd seen the "gift of tongues" enchantment on her that
first night -- but I wasn't quite ready to reveal *all* my cards
yet.

Luna blinked and tilted her head in confusion.  "Yes.  The spells
Queen Serenity wove together to make the capsule in which I slept
implanted it in my mind shortly before I awoke."

"*Just* Japanese?" I inquired mildly.  "No other modern
languages?"

Luna thought for a moment, I'd guess digging through her memories
to see if there was more there than she'd thought, then shook her
head.  "No, just Japanese."

"Then why," I wondered, "is Usagi's costumed identity called
'Sailor Moon' and not, say, 'Tsuki no Kaihei'?  Why is it
rendered in *English*?  I mean, I'd expect either Japanese or
whatever it was in the language of your lost Moon civilization."
I had to suppress a sudden urge to chuckle at the thought of
using "moon language" in this context.

Luna opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, and closed it
again, all without saying anything.  She looked up at me, a look
of complete bafflement on her face.  "I have *no* idea.  It
hadn't even occurred to me -- but when I think of *any* of the
Queen's warriors, the Royal Guardians, that is how their titles
come to me."

I nodded.  "I wonder..."

She raised an eyebrow.  "What?"

"The Earth and Moon of your time both sound monolithic in culture
and language, from what little you've said.  Is that an accurate
assessment?"

She nodded thoughtfully, pursing her lips.  "Yes."

"Okay, then.  But late 20th Century Japan -- this one, and its
counterparts in most of the versions of Earth I've visited -- is
remarkably multicultural.  Unlike my home timeline," I
parenthesized.  "This whole *district* is very typical in that
regard.  I'm wondering if your Queen's spells didn't allow for
that, and when they scanned the local population for their
language, you got *mostly* Japanese but also assorted bits of
other languages shoved into your head.  And those bits get
plugged in here and there when you try to speak Japanese."

"Oh, dear."  Luna looked *very* concerned.

I waved it off.  "Don't worry about it.  You're fluent enough to
sound almost exactly like a native; think of the extras as a
bonus."  I leaned over the end table and peeked into the teapot.
Not quite ready yet.  "The thing is, it raises all kinds of other
questions.  Like -- 'serenity' is an English word less than 500
years old, so it couldn't have *possibly* been your queen's name.
So what is the *actual* name that you keep unconsciously
translating as 'Serenity' when you talk about her?  And why does
Usagi have to use an incantation in *English* to transform?"  I
raised a finger.  "Actually, I have an idea about that, but let's
table that for a moment."

"All right..." Luna agreed, more than a little uncertainty in her
voice.

I checked the tea again, and decided it was good enough.  I
poured two cups and offered one to her.  "What's really curious
is how you refer to the team Usagi was a part of in her previous
life."

Luna had accepted her tea and took a cautious sip before
replying.  "What, the Sailor Warriors?"  Well, she didn't say
'Warriors", not in English.  She actually said 'senshi', one of
those annoyingly multipurpose words Japanese has which cover in
a couple characters what English needed an entire page out of
Roget's Thesaurus for.

"Yes, exactly."  I took a sip of my own tea.  "'Sailor', in
English, and 'Senshi', in Japanese.  Why do you need to translate
it, however unconsciously, into *two* languages?  Why not simply
use something like 'Sailor Warriors'" (which I said completely in
English) "or, say, 'Kaihei Taiin'?"  While composing my thoughts
earlier for this conversation I had fished around for the closest
approximate term I could use instead of the English loanword
which was the default term for "sailor" in so many different
worlds' versions of Japanese.  "Kaihei" was "Marine" or
"Leatherneck" instead of "person who operates a boat" but then
again, given the military bent of the group, probably all the
more appropriate.

(And really, strictly speaking it wasn't even "sailor" -- setting
aside Luna's odd little not-quite-accent for the moment, after
the Japanese had finished running it through their phoneme set it
actually came out sounding closer to "sarah".  Honestly, I only
even recognized it as "sailor" because of decades of exposure to
the English-saturated versions of Japanese that seemed to be the
norm everywhere but my homeworld.  And boy, won't *that* give me
trouble if I'm deployed to Beta Team again after I get home!)

Luna didn't answer me right away, instead staring into the teacup
as she held it in her lap and whispering "Sailor warriors, sailor
warriors" over and over again to herself for close to a minute.
Then she looked back up with blank, shock-filled eyes.  "I had no
idea I was doing that, at all.  That is very disturbing --
whenever I want to say 'sailor warriors' all that comes out is
'sailor warriors'.  Aaaah!" she gave a little screech of
frustration.  "I can say 'royal guardians', why can't I say
'sai--' Damn it!"

I blinked.  Luna's speech, while not *formal*, was very *proper*
most of the time.  To hear her swear over a matter of words and
phonemes...

Words and phonemes.

An idea suddenly coalesced in my mind.  It was crazy, it was
stupid, it didn't make any sense.  But maybe, just maybe...
Words and phonemes.  And training and expectations.  I took the
one apart, and put the other together.  Linguistics wasn't
anywhere near to being one of my specialties, but I knew just
barely enough to take a wild stab in the dark.  And I knew the
weird ways magic could glitch if you were rushed or distracted
when using it.

"Luna," I said softly.  "In the language of your Moon Kingdom,
what does 'tserla' mean?"

"I'm sorry, what?" she asked distractedly, her gaze having
returned to her hands and the tea held in them.

"'Tserla'," I repeated.

"Firstly, you're not really pronouncing it right," she said
primly.  "The 'ts' should be a bit more palatized and the 'rl'
softer, more like the Japanese 'r'.  As for the meaning, well,
it's partially context-driven and not easily translated without
a valid linguistic matrix to give it the necessary connotations
and defining inflections.  In isolation it's more like the noun
equivalent to a verb in the infinitive mood.  It needs to be part
of a phrase to give it focus and specify its function."

I was surprised that she hadn't caught on yet.  Then again, for
all I knew, I was wildly off base and asking her what "ragweed"
or "fishbone" meant.  "In the simplest terms possible, what does
it *mean*?"

She thought for a moment, then drew a breath.  "In plain
Japanese... 'of, involving, or relating to individuals or family
units bound by blood, marriage or formal decree to those who have
been granted supreme leadership by the people in recognition of
their magical or political skill...'"  She trailed off as it
finally struck her, and she slowly looked up at me.  "Where did
you learn that word?"

I offered her a small friendly smile.  "All this time you've been
saying 'sailor warriors'.  Except you *haven't* been saying
'sailor', not the English word.  You've been saying the Japanese
version, the loanword they formed from it, 'sera'."  My smile
grew larger and a bit conspiratorial.  "Except you haven't been
saying *that*, either.  We've all been *assuming* that you were
because what you were actually saying was a near-perfect
homophone for it."  I paused for a moment.  "And because Usagi
wears a weird kind of serafuku as Moon."

Luna's eyes were growing wide.  "So what I was really saying..."

"Remember I said you sounded 'almost' like a native?  That first
night at the LunchCounter, I noticed that you've got a few really
subtle phoneme substitutions.  Not enough to even call an accent,
but there nonetheless.  And even then most folks wouldn't notice,
but I've got a good ear."  I tapped the organ in question with a
fingertip.  "Again, I think it's due to your Queen's slightly-off
linguistics spell, like your word choice issue.  Polylexia?" I
mused, then shrugged.  "Anyway, when I thought about those two
together, I had this crazy idea..."

"That I was saying 'tserla' instead of 'sailor'!" Luna cried.

I laughed.  "I said 'sera' while exaggerating your 'accent', and
out came..."

"'Tserla'," Luna breathed.  "All this time, I've been saying a
mangled version of 'Royal Guardians'.  I've been getting worked
up over nothing."

I patted her hand.  "Don't worry about it.  Usagi and I are used
to you getting worked up over nothing."

She tried to give me a death glare, but couldn't hold it long
enough to make it really work.

"So now my next question becomes, why is Usagi 'Tserla Moon'
instead of 'Guardian Moon' or something like it?"  I took another
sip of my tea.

"That was the proper form of address for all the Guardians,"
Luna said slowly, apparently having to think hard to remember it.
(Which made me wonder *why* she had to work so hard to recall
stuff like that, information that ought to have been right at the
metaphorical tip of her tongue.)  "The Guardians were the heirs
to their worlds' thrones, and were both a military unit and a
... school of sorts for future rulers."

I nodded.  "So 'Tserla' in this context means 'Prince' or
'Princess'.  Which means Usagi was actually Serenity's daughter,
the princess of the Moon?"

Luna froze and turned white as a sheet.  "Find the princess," she
whispered.  "Dear gods."

"Luna?"  I put down my tea and leaned toward her.  She didn't
seem to notice me invading her personal space.  "Hello!  Earth to
Luna!"  I suppressed the sudden urge to add a whistle and beep
like an old NASA recording.

"Find the princess," she repeated, and looked up at me.  "I have
been a *fool*."

I frowned.  "In what way?"  She had a look I've seen more than a
few times before on my own face -- she'd just had some key
assumption about her world knocked out from under her, and now
she was re-evaluating *everything* she had believed was true.

I studied her with no small concern.  Some people, when this
happens, end up all but shutting down for days while they rebuild
their representation of the world again; others somehow process
things incredibly fast and recover almost instantly.  It's a very
individual thing in my experience.  Fortunately, Luna seemed to
be one of the latter cases.

She took a deep breath.  "I would ask that you not repeat what
I'm about to tell you to Usagi-chan, because it might damage my
working relationship with her."

"Okay..."

Luna visibly composed herself.  "When I awoke from my time in
coldsleep, I discovered that my memory had been damaged," she
said softly.

Oh, *hell*.  Sucks to be you, kitty.  I closed my eyes and made a
wordless noise of agreement.  "Mm.  Hibernation amnesia.  I
should have suspected, but you were so clearly functional it
didn't even occur to me."  I opened them again.  "You were damned
lucky.  Ten thousand years could have -- *should* have -- robbed
you of sapience entirely."

"Believe me, I am aware of this," she said with the faintest
quiver in her voice.  "It has made fulfilling the last orders of
my queen, left for me in a message that played after I awoke, far
more difficult than it should have been.  The first of which
was..."

"Find the princess," I parroted back to her.  "The princess of
the Moon."

"Exactly."  She laughed mirthlessly.  "But I could no longer
remember what she *looked* like."

"Well, damn.  Agnosia, too.  How extensive?"

Luna grimaced, then knocked back all of her tea in one long gulp.
"Very.  Possibly total.  I cannot bring to mind any visual memory
of the royal guard, the Princess, the Queen... I doubt I could
recognize *any* of them on sight without some other cue to inform
me, such as Usagi-chan's aura."

I poured her another cup of tea.  "And I'm guessing you forgot
that 'Tserla Moon' *was* the Princess."

She picked up the tea cup and held it wrapped in her hands.
Wisps of steam drifted up as she stared into its contents.  "This
must not get back to Usagi-chan, but now that I re-examine what's
left of my memories, I'm not entirely sure there *was* a royal
guardian of the Moon.  Other than the Queen herself, that is.
During my first days in this era I convinced myself that it was
so, but it was far less based on certain knowledge than it was a
deduction drawn from what scraps of memory I still possessed."
She looked back up at me.  "But if I were to admit this to
Usagi-chan..."

"Her confidence in you as her adviser, not to mention the
confidence she's already showing in herself and her abilities,
could both be undermined," I finished the thought.  "And despite
her age and inexperience, she is already effectively fighting
your Enemy.  About which...?"

Luna shook her head.  "Nothing, save that they exist, they can be
detected with even a layman's magecraft if one knows how, and
that they were responsible for the fall of our civilization.  And
that they are not human, but some variety of evil supernatural
creature," she added.  She scrunched up her eyes and gave another
cry of frustration.  "This will drive me mad!  For me, the Moon
Kingdom fell less than a month ago.  How can I not remember *any*
important details about it?"

I thought about the songs I had in my helmet, rapidly sifting
through the ones I knew or suspected did things with and for
memory.  "If you can trust me enough, I *might* be able to help
with that.  It depends on how closely your brain matches a
human's when it comes to encoding memories."

She sighed.  "I think we've just proven that my decision to
handle matters entirely on my own was not exactly the wisest.  If
you will forgive me my paranoia, I would be grateful for any help
you could offer."

"Of course.  Believe me, I understand being alone in a strange
world, facing a difficult duty."  I rubbed my chin.  "Before we
try anything, though, I'd want to do some checking first.  I
don't want to attempt something on the spur of the moment and
make things *worse* for you."  Luna made a sour face.  "Yeah, I
know.  In the meantime, I agree with your request -- we shouldn't
let Usagi-chan know about your... cognitive issues, or the
possibility that she *wasn't* a warrior in her previous life.
After all, we still have your Enemy to fight, she's done quite
well so far, and you just might be wrong about being wrong."

I shot her a grin, and she rolled her eyes.  "That said," I
continued, "our discussion now leads me to *more* questions.  If
'tserla' has nothing to do with 'sera' or 'sailor', then why the
hell is Usagi-chan wearing a sailor suit in her powered form?
Particularly one based on designs that aren't much more than 150
years or so old?  And what the hell is the gizmo you gave her
which lets her transform in the first place?"

Luna looked at her tea, then at me.  "I think I'm going to need
something a *lot* stronger to drink."

                             * * *

Later that evening, after Luna had gone back to the Tsukino home,
I donned my leathers and helmet, headed downstairs and stepped
into the alley between my apartment and the building next door to
the southwest.  (To the northeast was another mansion with
several floors of balconies -- and the front windows of all its
apartments -- looking out over both the parking lot behind my
building and the space between them.  It was a bit too exposed a
view for what I was going to do.)

Safely out of sight between featureless concrete on one side and
a brick wall with only a couple windows on the other, I murmured,
"System.  Load song, 'I'm A Pioneer'.  Play song."  As the first
few piano notes sounded my metagift engaged, and I took off.  I
accelerated to a couple hundred kph almost immediately, but
waited until I was at least two kilometers up before flooring it.
I was in hard vacuum within a minute.  I aimed myself at the full
moon overhead, then blinked in and out of FTL.

Using FTL to get to something as close as the moon would normally
be overkill, but I only had five minutes and seven seconds of
flight and -- more importantly -- life support.  I'd already used
a minute of both just getting into space.  Trying to fly to the
moon at my atmospheric maximum of Mach 6 would have left me
stranded somewhere in LEO when the song ran out.  But outside of
the atmosphere, I could "shift gears" and instead of Mach 6, I
could hit 6c.  And at 6c, the moon was easily reachable.

Besides, this was far from my first rodeo; I'd perfected the
quarter-second FTL hop to the moon back when Homeline had been
threatened by an alien invasion staging there.  I'd gotten into
the habit of dropping by once a day to fuck their shit up until
we finally blew the hell out of them.  (Hyperflight plus several
big bags of ball bearings can make for one nasty anti-personnel
and anti-materiel weapon.)

During our conversation earlier in the evening, Luna and I had
gone over some maps of the Moon.  Although there obviously had
been substantial changes since it had lost its biosphere, she had
been able to identify the approximate location of Serenity's
palace and capital city.  Up to this point I had been trusting my
gut and taking Luna's word on her personal history and Usagi's
case of reincarnation, but frankly, no other modern Earth I had
ever been to had been the successor to a prehistoric
interplanetary civilization.  (That I knew of, at least.)  "Trust
but verify," as the saying goes, and I wanted a little
verification.

Which I got after only a brief search.  City, white marble,
ruined, one each, almost exactly where Luna's fractured memories
said it would be.  Ironically, it was less than 20 kilometers
from the Apollo 11 landing site.  How NASA and every astronomer
ever had missed it... and then I reconsidered the proximity of
that lunar lander.  Who but my own prejudices said that they
*had*?  The maps Luna and I had studied had been low-resolution
mass-market things that showed little more than the major
features of the lunar surface.  I hadn't made a survey of
academic astronomical literature in this timeline; maybe the city
was a known anomaly...

I made a mental note to do a little light reading when I got the
chance.

As I got closer, I saw that the lunar regolith had begun to
invade it, but not by much.  Ten thousand years isn't a lot of
time in selenological terms, and only the outermost edges of the
city showed more than a fine layer of dust.  And most of it
didn't even have that much.

As I flew over the city I saw obvious signs of battle all over.
Improvised barricades blocked every road I passed over.  The
ruins of war machines of some sort dotted the streets.  The
buildings that hadn't been demolished outright still showed all
manner of damage, particularly fire.  And bodies, human bodies --
ranging from skeletons surrounded by dust puddles to well-
preserved freeze-dried mummies -- were everywhere.  Some had been
brutally dismembered, their parts flung widely in a way that
could not have been caused by anything other than a powerful
enemy tearing its opponent limb from limb.  Amongst and on the
bodies were items I was sure were personal weapons and gear.

The place was a lunar Pompeii, preserved by vacuum instead of
volcanic ash.

Zipping along a dozen meters or so above the highest rooftops, I
arrowed in toward the center of the city.  There stood the
remains of what could only have been the palace of Queen Serenity
(or whatever her real name had actually been) -- an almost
Romanesque white domed structure oddly reminiscent of the US
Capitol building, with what looked to have been long reflecting
pools leading up to it from each of the cardinal directions.

To my surprise there was still a functional environmental support
spell enclosing the palace grounds -- as I approached I could see
a rainbow sheen where light refracted through the border between
vacuum and atmosphere.  I paused and tested the edge of the
spell, and when my fingertip passed through it without a problem,
I dove down to hover above the palace grounds.  There I could see
more skeletons, their flesh long gone thanks to the bubble of air
allowing bacteria to attack them, dressed in rotted fragments of
clothing or the corroded remains of armor.  All showed signs of
violence.

I had gotten to the steps leading up and into the palace proper
when the counter showing the time left in the song reached 1:15
and started blinking in red in my HUD.  Stifling my annoyance and
disappointment, I shot up out of the air bubble, oriented myself
toward the Earth, and blinked back into FTL for a well-practiced
fraction of a second.

About a minute later, I landed in the parking lot behind my
apartment building, with ten seconds to spare on the song.  I
shut it down and returned to my apartment, thinking on what I had
just seen and promising myself I'd go back and check out the
palace.

                             * * *

While I'd experienced enough in my life both before my exile and
after to know that it was *possible* to fake an entire ruined
city on the Moon, it wasn't easy or cheap to do so, and I
couldn't devise a scenario in which doing so here and now made
any sense.  Anyone who could make a city on the moon would also
know that they were the only ones who could get there to *see*
it.  No one in this timeline outside certain Celestial beings
could even anticipate that I was able to take a jaunt to the moon
on little to no notice, just to see if the city was actually
there.  (And invoking *them* as an explanation for the city would
be worse than no answer.)

So.  Apply Occam's Razor.  Empirical evidence strongly supported
Luna's story.  Given my exposure to an agent of the "Great
Enemy", I was even willing to grant that her side really were the
good guys.  Which, to be honest, I found reassuring -- I hadn't
liked the possibility that a sweet kid like Usagi was getting
suckered.  Luna's control-freakery about her had had me worried --
it was very much a "dark mentor" kind of thing -- but the
revelation of her memory damage (and her desperate need to prove
to herself that she was still capable of fulfilling her queen's
final orders despite it) went a long way toward explaining and
excusing it.  I found myself sympathizing with her.

So even before I went sightseeing in Mare Serenitas we had come
to an agreement.  (Note to self:  investigate "Sea of Serenity".
Coincidence, ancestral memory, or something else?)  We'd work
together on Usagi's training, each making sure the other knew
what they were covering.  We'd retain the focus on physical and
magical combat, and if Usagi did turn out to be the missing
princess of the moon, she would be the most kick-ass combat-
capable princess this side of Xena.  Speaking of which, we'd hold
back on *that* revelation until we were absolutely certain we
were right.  Meanwhile, I would cover for Luna's memory problems
until they were no longer an issue one way or another, as well as
see if I could find a fix with my metagift.  Luna would quit
passive-aggressively undermining me and actively support my
efforts both on the meta side *and* the school side.  (The state
of Usagi's academics positively appalled her.  As well they
should.)

And Luna would get one more thing that she needed:  an adult to
talk with as an equal, who wouldn't freak out about her.  Several
weeks of having only an early teen for conversation while
pretending to be an ordinary cat the rest of the time had been
wearing on her.  Her human appearance was as misleading as mine
when it came to actual age, so even transforming wouldn't get her
the intellectual stimulation she needed, at least not easily.
Given that she had worn -- so she told me -- several very
important hats over the course of her time in Serenity's court,
ranging from Admiral of the Fleets to something between a nanny
and an instructor in politics and diplomacy for the Princess,
Luna was used to a far higher level of discourse than she had
been getting recently.  And while Usagi was bubbly and accepting
and often very fun to be around, she was still not even 14 and
more than a little silly at times.

And I won't deny that having an adult who knew of my origins with
whom *I* could have a conversation was also something *I* could
make use of.

                             * * *

Sunday, April 19, 1992, 2:00 PM

Spending an hour in the gym working hard on katas without Doug-
sensei there to push her was not something Usagi would normally
have done.  But every time she started feeling lazy about it, she
reminded herself how scared she'd been both times she'd had to be
Sailor Moon, and firmly told herself that being tired after katas
was *way* better than being scared in the dark facing a monster.

It didn't hurt that she had Luna encouraging her, too.

And even better, Mama always had cookies or sweets waiting when
she came back from the gym!

Today, though, Usagi decided to treat herself to an afternoon in
the park after doing her katas.  Even though it was overcast, and
the temperature had dropped almost six degrees since she'd
arrived at Joy Fit, it had at least stopped raining, and it was
only a *little* chilly.  It would take a lot more than *that* to
keep her from having a fun little outing to round out her day.
And she'd top it all off by listening to "Midnight Zero" on the
radio before going to bed!

Hair still damp from her after-workout shower, she hopped a bus
to Prince Arisugawa Park.  There she bought some takoyaki on a
skewer from a yatai at the entrance, and slowly wandered the
paths from level to level of the park as she consumed her treat.

On one of the upper levels, just off the plaza where the statue
of Prince Arisugawa Taruhito stood, Usagi came across two women
practicing martial arts.  She stopped to watch them -- a tall,
slender Westerner with emerald-green eyes and ice-blonde hair,
and a shorter, curvier woman whose eyes were almost purple, with
braided night-black hair through which a bright blue streak ran.
A matching bright blue bow decorated the end of the braid, and
when she smiled -- which she did a lot -- she looked almost like
she had little fangs.  They both wore low boots and richly-
colored silk outfits that made them look almost like fashion-
conscious ninja -- both beautiful *and* dangerous.

Usagi nearly giggled to herself at that thought, but before she
could, her eye was drawn to the slow but intricate kata they
were performing together.  Even to her still-inexpert eye it was
obviously designed for two people, but -- it seemed to her -- it
was almost a kind of dance as well.

She stood stock-still and watched them, completely forgetting the
last takoyaki on the skewer in her right hand as she tried to
take in what they were doing.  *I wonder if I'll ever be that
good?*

Without quite realizing it, she began to copy the blonde, always
a moment behind as the next move was never *quite* what she was
expecting.  After nearly spearing herself in the eye with the
skewer, she ran it quickly through her mouth to drag the last
takoyaki off it, then dropped it at her feet and hurried to catch
up again.

The pair had given no indication that they'd even noticed her
standing to the side copying them, but suddenly they opened their
stances to her, and Usagi found herself part of a *three*-person
kata rather than watching and copying half of a two-person one.
The next few moves were slower and much less complex, and Usagi
realized that they were prompting her.  She stepped closer, gave
a short, curt nod as much to herself as to them, and settled into
the same focus and attention she gave Doug-sensei.

At first the moves were very simple, and Usagi was grateful; they
were no more difficult than what Doug-sensei had started her on
in the last week.  After several exchanges, it occurred to her
that the pair were feeling her out, getting an idea just how much
training she really had, and for a moment she felt embarrassed at
messing up the beauty of their masterful dance with her
beginner's clumsiness.  But if the smiles shared with each other
and with her were any indication, they were *delighted* with her.

And once they'd finished feeling her out, they started getting
*fancy*.  Without touching her, and without saying a word, they
not only demonstrated moves, but guided and corrected her as she
copied them.  After ten minutes, they were leading her through
things a little more advanced than Doug-sensei had been covering
with her.

Fifteen minutes more, and she was following them through things
beyond even that, and she *knew* she'd be hearing her muscles
complain about them tomorrow.

Usagi did her best, but she could only keep up with them for a
couple more minutes after that.  Overextending in an attempt to
follow one move, she lost her balance.  In a reaction that had
become a reflex for her, she tucked herself into a ball, rolled
through the fall, and ended up sitting on the ground.  For a
moment, her old habits threatened to overwhelm her, but instead
of giving into the urge to burst into tears, she rubbed the back
of her neck and laughed.

"I guess that's my limit," she said as her impromptu instructors
held out their hands and helped her to her feet.  Around them,
a crowd which Usagi had been too focused to notice gathering
applauded, then began to break up.

"Don't be embarrassed.  That was very good, imouto-chan," the
blonde said. Her voice was high-pitched and sweet.  "You're quite
talented for a beginner."

"Yeah," said the other, pulling her braid around and over her
shoulder.  Her voice was deeper and smoky-sounding.  "How long
have you been training?"

"Just a couple weeks," Usagi admitted, suddenly bashful in the
face of this pair of obvious masters.

The women shared an appreciative look, before the blonde smiled
at her again.  "It seems your sensei is very capable.  Are you
part of a class?"

Usagi bit her lip.  "No, not really.  I'm kind of getting private
lessons."

The black-haired woman nodded.  "That's really good.  You have a
lot of potential."

"I do?" she blurted in surprise.  Doug-sensei had said the same
thing, but to have a martial artist she just met say so, too...

"Oh, yes," said the blonde.  "And one-on-one training with a good
sensei is the best way to get the most from it.  Don't waste the
opportunity!"

Usagi drew herself up straight.  "I won't!" she declared, then
bowed deeply to the two women.  "Thank you very much for
including me in your kata."

The pair smiled again.  "You're very welcome, imouto-chan," the
blonde replied.  "Perhaps if we meet again you can join us for
some more."

"Yeah," her partner said with a broad grin.  "That'd be fun."

"I'd like that," Usagi said.

                             * * *

Monday, April 20, 1992, 8:51 AM, Azabujuban Shopping District

Luna studied her reflection in the shop window, imagining the
outfit worn by the mannequin behind it on her own, currently
human, body.  She smiled at the image, then shook her head.  *Not
until I can manage some kind of income.  I can't count on finding
any more lost banknotes under the furniture in Usagi's home, and
I will not stoop to actively stealing from her family.  It's bad
enough that they're paying for my food and care.*  She winced at
the memory of certain inoculations which were necessary before
Usagi's parents would agree that she could stay in the house.

She turned away from the shop window and continued down the
street, acutely aware of how many of the stores were closed and
empty.  She'd learned of Japan's current economic straits within
a day of joining the Tsukino household -- no one paid attention
if she sprawled about in cat form while Kenji watched the news --
and the evidence of its impact was very visible on the streets
now that she thought to look.  There weren't many jobs for
unskilled workers -- which was what she was.  Being a courtier,
or an admiral, or a watcher-o'er-the-Princess had given her
nothing in the way of useful skills that the world needed ten
thousand years later.

Except she was *still* a watcher-o'er-the-Princess, at least if
the suspicions she and Doug shared were correct.  Just getting
the girl up and ready for school this morning had been a
challenge almost as great as any Luna had faced in her old life.

If only she were getting paid for it.

"And if only Usagi *listened* to me," she muttered to herself,
then nearly jumped out of her skin as the metal shutter covering
the front of the shop next to her rattled and began to slide
upwards, revealing the facade of the Crown Arcade.

"Oh, I'm sorry, didn't mean to startle you."  A young man in an
apron emerged from behind the shutter as soon as it was high
enough.  "I couldn't help but overhear you before I opened the
shutter.  Are you a friend of Tsukino Usagi-chan?"  He caught
himself, suddenly realizing he was interrogating a stranger.
"I'm sorry."  He bowed to her.  "Furuhata Motoki.  I work here at
the arcade, and Usagi-chan's one of our regulars."

Luna eyed him speculatively.  A good-looking fellow, a few years
older than her apparent age.  Polite, too, and treating her like
a fellow adult.  She opened her rudimentary mystic senses just a
bit.  No touch of the Enemy on him, either.  She gracefully
returned the bow.  "Mauno Luna," she said with a smile as she met
his eyes.  "Yes, I'm a friend of Usagi-chan and her family; I was
just bemoaning how much effort it took to get her off to school
this morning."

Furuhata-san chuckled.  "Knowing her, I can't say I'm surprised."
He tilted his head, studying her for a moment.  To her shock,
Luna found herself enjoying it.  "You're obviously not a middle-
schooler.  I'm guessing you're Usagi-chan's sempai from one of
the high schools?"

Luna couldn't help but laugh.  "I'm sorry, but no... I'm a bit
older than I look.  I've already completed my studies."  She
smiled ruefully.  "In fact, I'm contemplating starting a job
search, but with the economy the way it is..."  She made a vague,
helpless gesture.

He sighed and nodded.  "Tell me about it.  I'm lucky that the
arcade hasn't been hit too badly.  There'll always be kids with a
few yen to spend on video games, right?"  He suddenly looked
away -- *shyly*, to Luna's surprise.  "You know, my boss is
always looking for attendants.  It's not a career, but maybe it
could tide you over until you find the job you really want."

"Hmm."  Luna considered this.  A part-time position in an
establishment that Usagi-chan frequented would allow her to watch
over her charge and still be free to take off and fight the Enemy
at need.  Not to mention it would let her reimburse the Tsukinos
much sooner than she'd hoped.  "You know," she offered, "that
doesn't sound like a bad idea at all."

To her mixed surprise and amusement, Furuhata-san's face lit up
with delight and eagerness.  *He finds me attractive,* she
realized, and took a moment to relish the thought.  It had been
far too long since she'd encountered a male (human or Mau) who'd
been genuinely attracted to *her*, and not her power or position.
*Not since...  since...*  And the wisp of memory that had danced
tantalizingly at the edges of her perception evaporated, leaving
her wondering just *who* it had been who had last been attracted
to Luna of the Mau.

Whoever he or she had been, though, they were most assuredly ten
thousand years in the grave.  And even without a name or face to
go with that presence in her memory, a sudden surge of melancholy
threatened to overwhelm her.  She fought it back in time to hear
Furuhata-san say, "Why don't you come in?  I'll make you some tea
and you can fill out the application."

"Yes," Luna said, still wrestling with the ghosts of her past,
and walked into the arcade when he opened the door for her.  Some
minutes later, she was seated at a table, pen in hand, with a
Styrofoam cup of tea and an application form before her.

If she even registered the siren of a passing ambulance outside,
it was only as one of the thousand distant noises of the city.

                             * * *

Monday, April 20, 1992, 10:17 AM, Tokyo Metropolitan Police
Department

"Okay," Yoshi said, stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray
next to the TV.  "Show me."

"Right."  Keiko picked up an unlabeled videotape cassette from
where it sat next to the player and slid it in.  "Now, mind you,
technically I shouldn't have a copy of this at all.  But after I
heard about it, I asked around, called in a favor with Inspector
Sakurada, and...  well.  See for yourself."  She pressed the
"play" button.

The image was the usual low-resolution black-and-white security
camera footage of the kind he'd seen a hundred times before.
Except this time...  this time there was a sailor girl and a
woman who'd turned into a monster.

Yoshi silently lit another cigarette as he watched the action,
slowly nodding to himself when the man dressed like a
motorcyclist dropped into the image from somewhere overhead.  He
only betrayed the slightest surprise with a widening of his eyes
when the bo and the tiara struck the floating creature and it
crumbled to dust.

When the man and girl left the frame together, Keiko pressed
"stop".

"Where?" Yoshi asked.  "And when?"  He crushed his cigarette into
the ashtray next to its predecessor.

"The Osa-P Jewelry store across from the Azabujuban station,"
Keiko replied.  "Two weeks ago last Friday.  From what I was
told, the silent alarm went off, and when the patrol officers got
there, they found an unlocked building full of unconscious women
and girls, no missing stock -- at least none that wasn't on the
girls and women -- and that video in the back room recorder."

He turned and glared at her.  "And why didn't the press learn
about this?"

She glared back.  "Hey!  I had nothing to do with it -- I didn't
know about it either until I started asking around.  What I was
told was the brass had it handled quietly, because they were
afraid it was some kind of disease at first."

Yoshi paused in the middle of lighting another cigarette.  "What,
like the Sleeping Sickness?"

"Yeah," Keiko said, as she shut off the TV and pulled the tape
from the machine.  "Exactly."

He yelped and shook out the match, which had burned down to his
fingertips.  "You don't think the Sleeping Sickness..." he began,
then stuck his seared fingers in his mouth in the hopes of
soothing the burn.

Keiko glanced about as if for eavesdroppers, even though they
were alone in a closed conference room.  "That's what I heard the
brass are afraid of, even though the doctors say it's too soon to
even make a guess at the cause yet."

Yoshi considered this, and nodded slowly to himself before
abruptly standing up.  "Thanks, Keiko."

She raised an eyebrow.  "That's it?"

"It's enough.  Now that I know they're actually real, it's time
to do a little old-fashioned legwork."

                             * * *

Monday, April 20, 1992, 4:21 PM

"That's what I'll do!" Usagi exclaimed suddenly.  She and Naru
were proceeding down the market street toward the Crown Arcade --
Naru walking forward, Usagi walking backward facing her.  "I'll
send a love letter for my *future* boyfriend to 'Midnight Zero'!"
Naru had already sent in a letter, and Usagi wasn't going to let
not having a boyfriend keep her from having her own read on the
air.  *Better that than Doug-sensei or Tuxedo Mask,* she thought.
*Writing a love letter to Doug-sensei would be like writing one
to Daddy.  Ewww.*  She winced, confusing Naru.  *And as handsome
as he is, Tuxedo Mask is a little weird.  He's never even really
talked to me, and the formal wear thing *is* kind of silly.*

"Usagi-chan, turn around," Naru suddenly said.  "You're going to
run into..."

Still walking backwards, Usagi sidestepped to her left, neatly
avoiding a tall young man in a green jacket.

"...someone," Naru finished lamely.

*Wow, those lessons with Doug-sensei actually worked,* Usagi
mused as she strolled on past the big jerk who'd been haunting
her the last few weeks.  As he turned to look at her, one eyebrow
raised above the frame of his fancy black sunglasses, she pulled
down an eyelid and stuck her tongue out at him.  "Biiii-dah!"

Both eyebrows appeared above his sunglasses.  Then he snorted,
shook his head, and turned back to continue on his way.

"Jerk," Usagi muttered to herself.

"Usagi-chan," Naru called out as she caught up.  "How did you do
that?"

Usagi blinked.  "Do what?"

Naru huffed.  "Step aside just at the right moment to avoid
walking into that guy!"

"Oh!  My martial arts sensei was teaching me 'situational
awareness' the last few days.  'Paying attention to all your
senses without paying attention', he calls it."  Usagi smiled
brilliantly at her friend.  "I kinda sorta *felt* he was there
without even thinking about it, so I guess it works!"

Naru rolled her eyes.  "You're weird, you know that?"

                             * * *

Tuesday, April 21, 1992.  11:41 PM.

I wasn't *quite* ready for bed when the phone rang.  I raised an
eyebrow, laid down my book, and picked up the receiver.  "Moshi-
moshi?" I said, as I expected any caller to be Japanese.

"Doug-sensei?"

I sat up straight.  "Usagi-chan?  What's up?"

"We've found an Enemy operation."

The cord on the handset was long enough that I could cross to the
wardrobe where I kept my gear.  "The Sleeping Sickness, right?"
It hadn't been out of the papers all week, and the increase in
victims was too linear for it to be an actual disease.

"Yes!  Exactly!"

"Where?" I asked as I yanked my leathers and polykev off their
hangers and tossed them on the closest chair.

"FM Number 10 -- the radio station?  It's in Azabudai, block 3,
building 3."  There was a murmur that I couldn't quite make out
but which was clearly Luna's voice.  "Luna says to tell you it's
right next to the Fijian embassy, if that helps?  Ooh, and
there's a place that sells karinto manju across the street!"  You
could almost hear the drool in her voice.

I rolled my eyes at Usagi's obsession with sweets, then took a
moment to think.  After living the best part of a century in gods
alone knew how many different versions of Tokyo, I had something
close to a native's grasp of both the geography *and* the
Japanese street address system.  This radio station would be on
the other side of the Inner Circular highway from my apartment,
at the top of the hillier part of Azabu.  Which made sense if
their transmitter was part of the facility.  "Yeah, I know where
you're talking about.  I take it you want backup?"

"Uh-huh.  If you don't mind, Doug-sensei."  Geeze, Usagi, I
*said* I'd help when you wanted it.

"I don't mind at all," I reassured her as I snagged my boots and
then my helmet.  "Give me... um, ten minutes.  Is that okay?"

Her relief was palpable, even over the phone line.  "Yes, that's
okay.  We won't do anything until you get here."

"Good."  I started unbuttoning my shirt.  "Are you in your
working clothes?"

"My... oh!  No, not yet.  Should I be?"

I chuckled.  "Get out of sight if you can and change into them
right now.  Lesson for tonight, teishi:  always transform
*before* you start your op.  That way you're protected both
physically and identity-wise if things go pear-shaped right from
the start."

"Right, sensei!  That makes *so* much sense.  See you in ten
minutes!  Bye!"  And with that she hung up.

As I stripped out of my civvies and pulled on my armor, I
chuckled again.  Usagi didn't *sound* as scared as she said she'd
been during the last two incidents.  I guess having backup made
all the difference for her.

                             * * *

Sailor Moon stepped out of the shadows with Luna at her heels as
I touched down a short distance from the building that housed the
radio station.  I hopped off my cycle and sent it back up to
hover half a kilometer overhead in stealth mode until I needed it
again.  "Sailor Moon, Luna," I said with a nod as soon as they
got close enough.

Usagi looked for a moment like she was trying to decide whether
to hug or salute me, then split the difference by giving a little
wave.  "Thanks for coming, sensei."

"I told you I would, teishi," I said with a smile.  "So, what've
you got?"

She gave a short, brisk nod.  "Right.  There's this new radio
show called 'Midnight Zero' that's gotten real popular real fast.
The host reads love letters sent in by listeners, and anyone
whose letter gets read on the air gets a flower-shaped brooch
from the station."

"I think I see where this is going," I said.  "Everyone who
received one of the brooches now has the Sleeping Sickness, am I
right?"

She bit her lip.  "I didn't check everyone, but my teacher at
school got one a couple days ago and she's in the hospital now.
And one of the girls in my class at school got one this morning
and passed out.  And I passed out, too, because it was so close."

"I woke her up, and confirmed it," Luna spoke for the first time.
"The brooch had some kind of life energy drain effect on it."

Inside my helmet, I raised an eyebrow.  "'Life energy'?  That's
kind of abstract, isn't it?"  Then I shook my head and waved the
question away.  "Never mind.  Stomp the baddies now, magiphysics
and philosophy later.  And the baddies are...?"

"That's where it gets stranger," Sailor Moon said.  "The people
working at FM Number 10 don't know about the show.  It's not in
the listings, either.  But it's definitely on the radio every
night and *everyone* seems to know about it.  So Luna suggested
that I investigate the radio station while it was on the air.
She gave me a magic pen that let me disguise myself..."

Another gizmo like Usagi's brooch?  I glanced at Luna.  "You
did?"

She gave a feline shrug.  "It's a toy I'd taken away from the
Princess a few days before... before," she verbally stumbled, and
glanced away.  "She'd been playing pranks with it.  It seemed to
me that Sailor Moon could make good use of it."  She took extra
care to say "sera" and not "tserla", I noticed.

I nodded approvingly.  "Good idea, that."  I turned back to
Usagi.  "So you disguised yourself.  And?"

"We got inside just as the show was starting, and everyone in the
station was asleep except for the host of 'Midnight Zero' and
some woman watching him," she replied.

"Both felt like the Enemy," Luna added.

"Yeah.  As soon as Luna said that, we snuck back out and I called
you."

"Okay then."  I smiled, there inside my helmet.  "If I were
marking you on your performance so far, the only thing I'd take
points away for was not transforming first."

She bit her lip again.  "Right.  I'll remember for next time."

"Other than that, a perfect grade.  Good investigation, even if
it was spurred by a convenient coincidence.  You found what might
be the bad guys' base, got in, scouted, confirmed you were
right, and got out again to call in reinforcements.  Good job,
Moon.  Luna," I went on, "if you've got any other 'toys' in your
back pockets, we'll need to sit down later and go through them to
see what's useful and what's not."

The cat nodded.  "Of course."

"So now what?" Sailor Moon asked.

I laughed.  "Why, now comes the fun part.  Butt-kicking!"

She giggled, and Luna gave me a disgusted look.

"Now, this is *your* operation," I said, raising a finger.  "I'm
here as backup only.  If these two are like the critter in the
jewelry store, you should be able to handle them by yourself.
I'll be hanging back, and I'll only step in if you get in
trouble."  I put a hand on her shoulder.  "This should be easy."

It would take less than ten minutes for me to regret jinxing us
that way.

                             * * *

Furau smirked as she watched General Jadeite through the glass
window into the studio.  Offering him the role of host had been
another good idea.  The General had a well-known habit of
personally involving himself in the plans being executed by his
underlings, whether they needed him or not; explicitly planning
for that eventuality not only put him in a position to witness
her competence and success, it dealt with his inevitable presence
by explicitly assigning him to a very visible and "important"
position that also kept him out of her way.

Purely by coincidence, of course.
   
That it also played to his ego by making him the object of
devotion from "Midnight Zero"'s many fans was a bonus.  She
suspected that he would have agreed to be the host even if
there'd been no chance of harvesting any energy, just for the
stroking it would give his ego.

Metaria knew, the Generals *all* had immense egos.  Why not make
that work for her?

Furau was watching the slow build-up of life energy in the local
accumulator and quietly congratulating herself for her extreme
cleverness when the studio door suddenly slammed open.  She spun
to see a tiny blonde girl in an abbreviated blue and white outfit
that looked like a middle school seifuku.  Furau blinked.
"Who...?"

"Trampling on the innocent hearts of young girls in love is
crossing the line.  And this isn't a crosswalk!" the child
declared.

"Just leave out the 'crosswalk' part," muttered a black cat that
wove between her ankles.

"Right!" the girl said with a pert little nod.  "Anyway, I'm
Sailor Moon!  And in the name of the Moon, you will be punished!"

How dare she!  How dare this impertinent child burst in, disrupt
her perfectly executed plan, and ruin her ascension in General
Jadeite's forces!  Furious, Furau abandoned the glamour hiding
her true form; the elegant OL evaporated to reveal the youma
hidden within.  For a moment she savored the sensation of
returning to her true size and shape -- had she not been in
sight of General Jadeite she would have enjoyed stretching every
muscle and cracking each joint.  But she could not afford to be
so leisurely in his presence.

She took a moment to study the interfering child before her.  As
weak and stupid as she appeared, she was no doubt the agent of
her two predecessors' failures.

Furau would *not* be the third to fail.

Looming over the girl with all of her nearly two meters of
height, Furau swung her jaw open wide and loosed the breath
weapon that was her unique attack among Jadeite's youma.  The
beam of almost transparent purple energy lanced out only to miss
the irritating child, who adeptly dove and rolled out of the way.
It struck the floor instead, detonating and showering the room
with shrapnel.

The child retreated back into the hallway outside the studio,
showing she was not *entirely* a fool.  Furau grinned viciously
and followed.  From the corner of her eye, she could see that the
General had abandoned his seat at the microphone, and was close
on her heels.  *I'd best make this good,* she thought.

"Don't think you can get away with this," Furau growled.  She
leaned forward, opening her mouth wide again, until she felt a
hand on her arm.  Glancing to the side, she saw General Jadeite
standing beside her.  He gave her a sidelong look and tiny shake
of the head.

"So you're the one who's been disrupting our operations," he
said to the little girl.

Her eyes grew wide.  "You're the one behind all this!"

The general smirked.  "I am Jadeite."

"And I'm Elmer J. Fudd, millionaire!"

                             * * *

Whoever this Jadeite was, he had reflexes (or survival instincts)
on a par with mine -- he ducked before the end of God's Toothpick
could impact his skull.  Instead it barely parted his neatly-
coiffed blond hair as it whistled past.

"I own a mansion and a yacht!"  I finished the line and was
already somersaulting backwards to avoid his return strike.  I'm
not sure what it was, but it was bright, and fast, and would have
taken me in the chest had I not already been bent mostly parallel
to the floor.  The female humanoid was already unleashing another
salvo of breath attacks, and I finished the somersault to the
sound of explosions interspersed with Moon's panicked yelps.
I heard concrete falling; a wash of cool outside air swept over
me, and through the dust I saw Moon and monster both exit through
a hole blown all the way through to the roof.

Dammit.  I needed to get out there *now* -- I'd started training
Usagi to keep her from getting killed while running solo, and I'd
be damned if I let her die while on an op with her -- but I had
Laughing Boy here to deal with.  Fortunately for me, he was
arrogant enough that he didn't stop to make sure his killer
attack had actually *killed* me, and was turning to pursue his
minion and my student.  I combat hyped, and as the world
blueshifted around me I threw both myself and the biggest
haymaker I could manage at him.

Yeah, he had reflexes almost as good as mine -- he heard me
coming, and began to turn back to face me.  But the only thing
that did was put his chin in position to be my target instead of
the back of his skull.  I hit him right on the point of it with
every bit of the not-inconsiderable force I could put into an
all-out attack.

His open mouth snapped shut with a very solid "crack" (which I
rather uncharitably hoped heralded broken teeth) as the power of
my strike lifted him off his feet and sent him flying back and
sideways.  Either my imagination or my field was working
overtime, because I would *swear* I actually saw "NO SALE" flags
pop up in place of his eyes just before he fell into a messy --
and hopefully painful -- heap amidst the chunks of shattered
concrete.  Grey dust sifted down onto his natty blue uniform.

Good.  That should keep him out of our hair until we can come
back to interrogate him.

I dashed over to the hole in the ceiling (kicking Laughing Boy in
the head for good measure on my way) and paused a moment looking
up and out through it at the night sky (apparently starless to my
lightblinded eyes) above.  *No mechanical space between the
ceiling and the roof?* I mused to myself.  *Who designed this
place?*

The hole was three meters up, give or take a few centimeters.
Sailor Moon had cleared it in a single massive jump; not bad for
a thirteen-year-old.  It wouldn't be as easy for me, though.  I
retreated down the hall just far enough to give me a good start,
then ran and leapt.  I got enough air to grab the edge of the
hole, then pulled myself up and out onto the rooftop.

I found myself in the midst of a moonlit fusillade of purple
beams and explosions.  Moon was dodging and rolling adeptly to
avoid being hit, but from where I stood, I could see that demon
was herding her toward a corner of the roof where she'd either
have to make a stand, or leap into space.  Before I could even
call out to warn her, the hovering creature shot forward, its
claws outstretched, howling, "This is where you die!"

I launched myself at it as Luna yelled, "Usagi-chan! Your tiara!"
Moon pulled the tiara off her head and slung it at the thing,
only for it to go wild when the demon dodged.  I dropped to the
rooftop as the tiara -- now a disk of yellow light -- shot over
me.  Growling wordlessly at my student's lousy aim, I rolled over
in time to see the glowing disk unexpectedly boomerang and nail
the gloating demon from behind.  Like the creature in the jewelry
store, it turned to dust -- which vanished before it could finish
falling to the tar-and-gravel surface below.

"Great shot," I called across to her as I got to my feet.

"I'm on my middle school's Ultimate Frisbee team," Moon called
back.  "That's my signature move."

I blinked.  "You've been holding out on me, teishi."

She giggled, but before I could follow up there came a slow golf
clap from behind us.  I spun around.  That bastard Jadeite was
hovering over the hole in the roof -- all but spotlit by the
gibbous post-full moon overhead, with neatly combed hair and a
dust-free uniform, dammit.  "Impressive," he said with a smirk,
"but not..."

Usagi flung her tiara, which she'd still had in hand, right at
him.  Jadeite made a gesture that stopped it cold halfway there.
"How crude," he commented with a smirk.  "And sadly for you,
child, ineffective against me."

Fuck.  Usagi was a one-trick pony right now, and this Jadeite had
just shown he could neutralize her one trick.  I needed to
distract him from her *immediately*.  Fortunately, I'm a multi-
trick pony of a different color.  "<System.  'Lightning's
Hand'>," I murmured.  "<Play.>"  Time to do something tactically
inadvisable but attention-getting.  Or, as Hexe would put it,
"business as usual for Looney".

"Hey, asshole!" I shouted as the power flooded me and I spun up a
set of electromagnetic fields that I could levitate with.  And as
Jadeite, eyebrow raised, turned his attention to me, I loaded a
lightning bolt into each fist and lit off the ion drive.

                             * * *

When Jadeite had halted her tiara in mid-air, Usagi'd wanted to
drop to her knees and cry.  It wasn't fair that he could stop her
only attack!  But Doug-sensei was there, and while he wouldn't be
*angry* with her for giving up and crying, he would pity her
afterward -- and work her harder, too.  Usagi didn't want
*either* of those.  So she grit her teeth and, remembering her
lessons, waited for the right time to act.

When Doug-sensei suddenly shouted, "Hey, asshole!", she felt an
entirely useless urge to giggle in embarrassment at his language.
As she stomped that urge down, Sensei was surrounded by a cloud
of glowing blue-purple light from the waist down.  Almost before
that registered with her, he shot across the roof -- actually
*flying* half a meter in the air, with a cone of the same
blue-purple light trailing behind him -- and plowed into Jadeite,
with a double flash-and-boom that sent the youma leader tumbling
along the gravel surface.

Taking advantage of the moment, Usagi ran forward and snagged her
tiara from where it had landed, scooping up a handful of pebbles
at the same time with her clumsy grab.  She skidded to a three-
point stop, her hand with the tiara behind her and ready to fling
it at the first available target.

A surprising moment of stillness encompassed the rooftop, and
Usagi realized that she could hear *music*.  And not just music,
but...

"<Can you see me?  Do you know my position?  How quick is your
eye?>"

The last thing Usagi had expected in the middle of a fight with
youma was to hear a song.

"<I have no home, no reason to roam, yet I travel the length of
the sky.>"

And certainly not coming from Doug-sensei.

It just seemed horribly out of place.

But as blue-white electric sparks erupted from nowhere to crawl
across his body, it was obvious to her that it was more than just
something to listen to.  Standing there with her tiara at the
ready as Jadeite lay in a groaning heap, Usagi wished she'd paid
more attention in English class so she could understand just what
the song was about -- because it was clear to her that it had to
have *something* to do with what was happening.

                             * * *

It took me only an afternoon to figure out how Silverbolt flew
instinctively, not long after she joined the Warriors.  Figuring
out how to do it *myself* -- that took me nearly four decades.
But once I'd mastered it, I could do it almost without thought
with the right song:  a set of rotating and counter-rotating
currents creating a "harness" with which I hung myself on the
Earth's own magnetic field, paired with a pure brute force ion
drive built from more current-driven fields, strong enough to
push me at a couple hundred KPH in atmosphere.

Don't knock brute force.  It's incredibly useful if for one
reason or another you can't manage finesse.  Brute force wasn't
necessarily going to keep Jadeite down, but it was an excellent
way to *knock* him down.  I'm a *big* fan of brute force, in case
you can't tell.  Particularly when I'm the one wielding it.

Speaking of Laughing Boy, he'd had some kind of body-hugging
force field protecting him, but between the impact and the
lightning payloads in my fists, I'd overloaded it and it had
collapsed.  I could feel the resistance to the first hit, and
then it gave way completely just before the transferred momentum
sent him across the roof.

"How's *that* for ineffective?" I snarled as he rolled to his
hands and knees.

He lifted one gloved hand to wipe at his face, and stared down at
it when it came back smeared with blood.  "Who... dares...?" he
growled around the pain.

I kept my mage senses wide open in case he tried something
magical.  "Don't you know?" I asked with as audible a sneer in my
voice as I could manage.  "Video killed the radio star."  I
grinned nastily at him, even though he wouldn't see it inside my
helmet.  "And you can call me 'Captain Video'."

                             * * *

Usagi saw her opportunity when Jadeite wiped his face, and dashed
across the roof, gripping her tiara by one end.  If he could stop
her tiara when she threw it, then she'd smack him with it close
up!  The crunch of her boots on the gravel gave her away, though,
and he looked up at her as she got close enough to swing the
tiara at him.

Jadeite's eyes widened, and suddenly a black shimmer surrounded
him.  Then it vanished, and so did he, and she nearly tumbled off
her feet when her tiara swung through the empty space where he
had been.

"<Son of a...>" Doug-sensei growled in English as she stood up
straight, three of the few words she knew for sure, and she
irrelevantly wondered who was a son of what.

"Sensei?" she said, reaching out to him with an uncertain hand --
the one *without* her tiara in it.  The sparks still running all
over his body crackled and snapped, and she yanked it back.

"While I cannot say it wasn't entertaining..."  Jadeite's voice
came from above, and Usagi snapped her eyes up to see the youma
leader hovering in the air a few meters above the roof, one leg
slightly bent.  A smear of blood covered his lower face, and
there was a trickle from one nostril, visible even at this
distance.

"I'm not sure what this putz is capable of," Doug-sensei murmured
to her.  "Be ready to run away if things get bad."

"But sensei..."  She didn't know what a "putz" was, but she was
pretty sure it wasn't good.

"No arguments, teishi.  If things go south...  Hey!" he suddenly
shouted, and punched the air in Jadeite's direction.  Usagi
flinched as a lightning bolt exploded from his fist.  Thunder was
scary, and she didn't like it!  The youma leader didn't either,
though, and jerked away from the bolt.  Instead it hit and
vanished into the spinning black disk that had formed in the air
next to him, and which just as suddenly disappeared.

Doug-sensei barked something more in English, and Usagi wished
she knew what he had said.  "And I do hope there was something or
someone important on the other side of that gate," he added a
moment later in Japanese.  He kept his hand -- cracking sparks
crawling all over it -- pointed at Jadeite, and murmured
something else Usagi couldn't catch.

                             * * *

Jadeite shimmer-teleported again, and another disk of roiling
black mist formed in the air next to him, almost invisible in the
dark sky without the moon behind it.  Of course I tracked him --
and so did Usagi.  As she threw her tiara again, I lobbed another
bolt through his escape hatch, dissipating it once more.  As I
did, I used my free hand to slip open the cover to the keypad on
the side of my helmet and tap out a rapid sequence of codes.

Once more a disk of black mist formed as Usagi's tiara
boomeranged back to her and I took the opportunity to smack it
with another bolt.  The asshole actually gave a put-upon sigh.
"I find you are growing *quite* tedious," he declared
superciliously.  "I suppose I have no choice but to..."

We never did find out what he had no choice but to do, becuase it
was right then that my motorcycle hit him.

I'd sent it the command to go high and out, then home in on him
at a good fraction of the speed of sound with the sound
suppression on the turbine dialed up to max so as not to warn
him.  I was hoping the impact would kill him outright, but he was
even tougher than I thought -- instead of being rendered into
chunky salsa he was just knocked out of the sky and back into the
roof, where he bounced several times and then fetched up in a
pile against a vent pipe, with at least a couple of his limbs
bent in encouragingly abnormal ways.

I'm not stupid, I leapt onto him again and started beating the
ever-loving crap out of him with more thunderpunches as my bike
vanished back up into the night sky.  This time he didn't have a
force field up -- and I doubted he had the clarity of mind to
raise one while I rained megawatt blasts of lightning into his
body, the cracks from each discharge echoing off the nearby
buildings until they became a continuous roar.

As the air around us began to stink of ozone and cooked ham, and
both Jadeite's natty mauve uniform and the flesh beneath it
began to char and smoke, I couldn't see Usagi, but I was trusting
her to stay out of the way.  For all that she made herself out to
be a ditz, she had enough common sense to not get close.

It was the one *without* common sense who screwed things up.

My danger sense went off -- not for the pummeled mess of Jadeite
below me, but something *behind* and *above* me.  Instinctively
I ducked as something whooshed past my head to embed itself in
the concrete no more than a couple feet away.

It was a gods-be-damned long-stemmed rose.

"You can defeat them both, Sailor Moon!" a male voice announced
behind me, and I made a rookie mistake -- I looked over my
shoulder to see that formal-clad geek Usagi had mentioned
encountering.

And *that's* when something exploded between me and Jadeite.

I went flying.

                             * * *

Usagi had turned to stare at Tuxedo Mask when he appeared out of
the night.  "You again?" she began, then something blew up
between Jadeite and Doug-sensei.

She screamed, dropped her tiara, and ran to his side as he
smacked *hard* into the roof and rolled, barely missing the hole
down to the studio.  "Sensei!" she cried as she dropped to her
knees and skidded to a stop next to him.  Some remote part of her
mind noticed that being Sailor Moon must make her tougher,
because that really *should* have scraped them raw and she didn't
feel a thing.  Except terror and panic and hope against hope that
Sensei wasn't dead.  A moment later Luna scampered up to his
other side.

Usagi rolled him over and stifled a scream at the bloody mess she
revealed, then saw his chest was still rising and falling.  He
was breathing, good.  She couldn't do anything more than see
that, bad.  "Can you help him?" she asked Luna.

"I'll try," the cat said, and blinked into her cardigan-clad
human form.

As Luna bent over Doug-sensei, Usagi turned to glare at Tuxedo
Mask.  "You big *jerk*!  What was that dumb rose supposed to do?
It... Hey!"

Beyond him, Jadeite was crawling slowly across the roof, a half-
meter wide trail of what could only be blood -- black in the
light of the just-past-full moon -- smeared across the gravel of
the roof, as he stretched one hand out to touch yet another
swirling black portal.  She reached for her tiara, then
remembered she'd dropped it when running to Sensei's side.

"Don't just stand there, you dumb... *Stop Jadeite!*" she
bellowed at Tuxedo Mask, but it was too late.  Jadeite touched
the portal, and vanished.

"Aaaaugh!" she screamed in frustration and launched herself at
Tuxedo Mask.  "He got away!  You... you..."  She threw a punch at
the masked man, who easily dodged it -- then got his feet knocked
out from under him when she completed the combo and followed it
with a clumsy leg sweep he clearly didn't anticipate.

He hit the roof with a grunt of pained surprise and a crunch of
gravel.  The moment he was down she kicked him in the side,
almost flipping him over with the force of it, and getting
another cry of pain out of him.  "'You can defeat them both,
Sailor Moon'?  *Both*?  That's *Sensei*, and he was already
taking care of Jadeite!  Then you distracted him and let Jadeite
get away and now Sensei's hurt and he might die..."  She kicked
Tuxedo Mask again as she wiped away the tears that were suddenly
pouring from her eyes.  "I thought you were cool, but you're
just a useless jerk in fancy clothes!"

                             * * *

Luna bit her lip in worry as she leaned over Doug, wracking her
damaged memory for the battle healing spells that she *knew*
she'd known.  He was seriously injured, though, and even if she
did remember one she wasn't sure it would be enough.  Whatever
Jadeite had set off between them had ripped right through the
grey leather and what looked like an armorcloth layer beneath it,
and had all but ripped open his chest.  It was a miracle that he
didn't have a sucking chest wound and could still breathe.

She closed her eyes and forced herself to take a deep, calming
breath, and tried to ignore the sound of Sailor Moon assaulting
the formally-clad idiot who had interfered in the fight.
Centering herself, Luna felt for the nearby flows of magic,
hoping that the familiar sensation would spur her memory.

It did, and she gave silent thanks.  Eyes still closed, Luna laid
one hand upon Doug's chest and whispered, "*Na envinyanta*."  "Be
healed" in the ancient lore tongue -- it was the simplest
possible healing spell, easily cast by laymen because it was
little more than a mnemonic for using mana to help the subject
boost his own body's healing potential.  It wasn't much, but it
was *something*, and it just might keep him alive long enough for
her to dredge up something more effective.

Her eyes snapped open when she felt his hand close weakly around
her wrist, and she looked down to find him looking back at her,
as best she could tell through those goggles.  "Keypad, on my
helmet, right cheek," he rasped out.  "Press three... nine...
six, then '<go>'."

Luna blinked.  "What?  No, never mind."  She turned his head
gently and found the sliding panel right where he said.  Opening
it revealed twelve buttons, each larger than her fingertip -- ten
marked with this era's  numerals, which she understood, and two
labeled in what she vaguely recognized as English, which she
didn't.  She quickly pressed the three numbers he'd specified,
then hesitated.  What would happen if she pressed the wrong
button at the end?

She gritted her teeth and tried to reason it out.  The right-hand
button had a longer marking than the one on the left -- six
characters versus two.  "Go" was a short word in English.  She
took a deep breath and pressed the left-hand button.

                             * * *

Tuxedo Mask lay curled into a ball on the rooftop, wrapped in his
cape.  His top hat had fallen off at some point; not only did he
not know where it was, he didn't particularly *care*, as he was
too busy ignoring the gravel digging into his side and back and
hoping that Sailor Moon wouldn't kick him a third time.  He was
pretty sure she had broken a couple of his ribs with her first
kick; he could feel bone grating on bone in his chest, and
breathing had become agonizing.

For some minutes since the second kick she'd simply loomed over
him, alternately ranting and sobbing; he could feel teardrops
falling on his cheek and ear.  If he hadn't been terrified that
she'd take his head off if he moved, he would've wiped the
wetness away.

As he lay there in pain, Chiba Mamoru cursed the compulsion that
drove him out in the night after this girl and swore to himself
that he'd do everything in his power to resist it in the future.
This girl was not the delicate, fragile flower who needed
encouragement and protection as his dreams had suggested, and he
wondered how he had ever thought she might need his help.  And
she was right -- what *did* he have besides a rose and empty
platitudes?  Why had he ever thought they had been something
useful?

And why had he thought the man in grey might be an enemy?  He'd
seen him working with Sailor Moon that first night.  But
*something* in him thought he was a threat.

Oh, god.  He could feel a bubbling sensation in his chest when he
breathed in, now.  He didn't need medical training to know that
couldn't *possibly* be good.  He was debating with himself if he
should try to crawl away from the distraught girl when he heard
music -- ripples of synthesized sound, to which was added a
wordless chorus of female voices before crashing into a pounding
line of guitars and drums.

And at that very moment, he felt like he'd just stuck a finger
into an electric socket.

     "<I'm alive!
       And the world shines for me today!>"

a chorus of tenor voices suddenly sang out, and Sailor Moon's
rant ended in mid-word.

     "<I'm alive!
       Suddenly I am here today!>"

Cold fire raced through his body from the top of his head to just
below his breastbone, where it split four ways to shoot down his
limbs, pulsing in time to the beat of the music.  He didn't dare
uncurl or open his eyes, but he was sure that if he did he would
find that he was shining like a floodlight.

Everywhere the power touched, pain vanished.  The bone-on-bone
grate in his chest diminished, then faded away completely.  The
dull throb at the point where Sailor Moon's toe had caught him
under his arm disappeared.

     "<Seems like forever, and a day.
       Thought I could never feel this way.
       Is this really me?
       I'm alive! I'm alive!>"

As the song drove through another verse, he felt as though he
were being wiped clean, not only of every injury and hurt, but
every fear and doubt that had ever plagued him.  As the voices
cut out and the music reached a crescendo and slid into a bridge,
he realized that no matter what the cost, he could not stay there
on the ground.  He would rise, and face both Sailor Moon and his
own culpability.

He had just opened his eyes to see the lining of his cape,
illuminated with rippling pulses of light racing across it, when
he heard a man's voice above him say, "Teishi.  I'm all right."

The music abruptly ended.

                             * * *

Usagi spun, her eyes wide and her cheeks tear-stained, and all
but tackled me.  "Sensei!  I thought you... But you were..."

I rested the chin guard of my helmet on the top of her head.  "I
got better.  I do that, you know."  I watched as the guy in the
tuxedo very cautiously got up off the roof, and wrapped my arms
around her as he dusted himself off.

"We'll talk later, son," I said to him.  In my arms Usagi started
and, protesting, tried to pull away from me.  It was a strain,
but she didn't have the leverage to break my grip.  "I suggest
you get going now while the getting is good, though."

He looked me in the eyes and nodded solemnly.  Without a word he
picked up his top hat, brushed it off and replaced it on his
head.  Then with a swirl of his opera cape launched himself into
a prodigious leap that took him to the roof of the building
across the street, where he made another huge bound, and another,
until he vanished into the night.

In my arms Usagi had stopped struggling.  "Why did you let him
go?" she demanded.  In the distance, I heard police sirens.

"Why shouldn't I have?" I asked as I sent a recall signal to my
bike's autopilot.

"He almost got you killed!"

"Ah, I've had worse," I said as I watched my bike come in for a
one-point landing.  "Remind me to tell you about the time I
fought a remote-controlled robot CEO."

She blinked.  "A *what?*"

"Later," I said.  "We need to get out of here, the cops are
coming.  Not unexpected since a good chunk of that fight was
probably broadcast to the greater Kanto Plain area.  Luna?"

"Right here," she replied from behind me.  I turned to see her
back in cat form, and nodded to her.

"Good.  Both of you, on the bike."

Five minutes later we were lifting straight up into the sky over
the radio station as police cars and emergency vehicles started
filling the streets around the building.  I had the full stealth
suite on, so of course they didn't, couldn't, see us.  I hovered
us at about 125 meters up, and angled the bike to face the
west-northwest, on a line with the main drag immediately below
us, then started off at a relatively sedate 50 KPH.

"Sensei, where are we going?" Usagi called over my shoulder.

I smiled to myself.  "The Hard Rock Cafe in Roppongi.  They're
open for business at this hour.  We all need something after
that, and we need to do an after-op debrief.  Two birds with one
stone.  And it's less than a dozen blocks away, much closer than
the LunchCounter."

"Oh," she said.  "Okay."

                             * * *

The Dark Kingdom

Beryl seethed as she stalked back and forth along one side of the
chamber while three of the few youma in her service with any
talent for healing magic treated Jadeite.  Who had done this?  The
wounds stank of magic, but there *were* no spell-casters left on
the Earth, so how was it possible?

She halted in her steps, then grit her teeth, clenched her fists
and squeezed her eyes shut.  If she had known such a danger
existed, she would never have sent her generals to Earth.  The
Shitennou were precious to her, and irreplaceable -- they were
her prizes, her great successes.  Before Metaria had insisted on
advancing their schedule, Beryl had intended for them to plead
her case to Endymion and lure him away from the younger Moon
whore.  And after the older whore had banished them here, they
had been her only true company, the only four beings in her
entire realm of the damned who could hold a decent conversation.

Sometimes she thought the only thing that had kept her human
these past ten thousand years was their presence.

And Jadeite...  She would admit it to herself.  He was her
favorite.  He had the same boyish charm that she imagined
Endymion did, and a sly little smirk that she loved to see grace
his lips.  If something happened to him... to *any* of them...

"Majesty?"

She managed to suppress the start of surprise she nearly gave at
the youma healer's cautious call.  It would never do for a ruler
to be so distracted as to flinch at an unexpected sound.  "Yes?"
she snapped as she turned to face the creature.

Like most of its kind it was vaguely humanoid, but clearly of
demonic origin.  Its features were long and sharp, almost animal-
like, with sharp fangs and claws to match on both hands and feet.
As with so many of its fellows it eschewed clothing, revealing
all of its brightly colored scaled skin -- this one was a vibrant
mauve.

It bowed to her, and kept its eyes to the floor even when it had
straightened.  "Lord Jadeite has been fully healed.  He will need
to rest for another three full lesser cycles to replenish the
energies expended, but he will bear not the smallest scar from
the magewounds."

Beryl released a breath she had not realized she'd been holding.
She resisted the urge to blurt out her thanks; that was *not* the
way of the Queen of the Dark Kingdom.  She took hold of herself
and nodded regally at the creature while wracking her brain for
its name.  "You and your compatriots have done well... Braga."
Yes, that was it, Braga.  "I shall find a suitable reward for
your service."

Braga bowed again.  "Thank you, Majesty."

"Now," she continued, "I would speak with Jadeite."

The youma looked back over its shoulder at the sleeping platform
on which Jadeite lay, overseen by the other two healers.  "He is
awake and aware, Majesty, though quite exhausted.  He may fall
asleep despite his best efforts otherwise."

She allowed herself a small smile.  "I believe I can forgive him
such a insult -- this time."

Braga studied her for a moment, clearly unsure how to take that.
"Indeed, Majesty," it finally said, and bowed once more.  As she
strode to Jadeite's side, the other two bowed as well and backed
away to leave the two of them alone.

Despite what Braga had said, Jadeite's eyes were closed, and she
thought perhaps he had already drifted off.  "Jadeite," she
whispered, half-fearing to wake him.

His eyelids flickered and opened halfway.  "My queen," he
rasped, raising one hand slightly from the sheet where it lay.
"Forgive me.  I was careless and failed you."

She took his hand in hers.  "Shhh.  There will be no talk of
fault or failure this day, my loyal general.  Tell me who did
this to you.  Was it the girl?"

Jadeite shook his head slowly.  "No.  I faced her but she is
nothing but an untrained child, barely capable of a trick or
two."

"Then who...?"

He took a deep, rattling breath.  "She has a teacher -- a man
she called 'Sensei'.  My queen, he is a War Wizard!"

Beryl dropped his hand in shock.  "Impossible!"

"No, my queen.  An armored mage who took flight and beat me
senseless with spellborn lightning in each fist -- what else
could he be?"  Jadeite grimaced.  "There must be a school or
order hiding from even the other Earthers for them to have
escaped our notice.  And being unaware of their existence and
thinking myself safe, I left my defences low for convenience.
It was almost the end of me."

Beryl took up his hand in hers again.  "You will not make that
mistake again, Jadeite.  And you will find this War Wizard and
destroy him," she said softly.  "Your queen commands it."

Jadeite smiled for the first time.  "As your Majesty commands."

"And from this point, every harvester youma will be accompanied
by a hunter-killer as its guard."

He nodded, slowly and sloppily as exhaustion began to take him.
"Yes, of course, Majesty."

She studied him for a moment.  "One last question, my faithful
Jadeite, and I will leave you to rest.  Did the wizard give his
name?"

Another sloppy nod.  "He did.  He called himself 'Elmer Fudd' and
'Captain Video'."

She patted his hand.  "Have no fear, Jadeite.  We *will* find
this Elmer Fudd and kill him, and his student, too."

END OF CHAPTER TWO

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

This work of fiction is copyright (C) 2018, Robert M. Schroeck,
and is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-
Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.

The "Sailor Moon" universe and the settings and the characters
thereof are the property and/or licenses of Takeuchi Naoko, TOEI
Animation, DiC, Kodansha, Bandai, Cloverway and others, and are
used without permission.

"Douglas Q. Sangnoir," "Looney Toons", "The Loon" and any
representations thereof are copyright by and trademarks of Robert
M. Schroeck.

"Wetter Hexe," "Hexe" and any representations thereof are
copyright by and a trademark of Helen Imre.

"The Warriors", "Warriors' World", "Warriors International" and
"Warriors Alpha" are all jointly-held trademarks of The Warriors
Group.

Lyrics from "I'm Alive", recorded by Electric Light Orchestra,
music and lyrics by Jeff Lynne; copyright © 1980, MCA Records,
Inc.

These and all other quotes are included in this fiction without
permission under the "fair use" provisions of international
copyright law.

For a full explanation of the references and hidden tidbits in
this story, see the Drunkard's Walk S Concordance at:

         http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/dwsconc.shtml

Other chapters of this story, along with other parts of the
Drunkard's Walk saga, can be found at:

         http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/dwmain.shtml

The Drunkard's Walk discussion board is open for those who wish
to trade thoughts and comments with other readers, as well as
with the author:

         http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/forums/

Many thanks to my prereaders on this chapter:  Christopher Angel,
Kathleen Avins, Nathan Baxter, Andrew Carr, Kevin Cody, Shaye
Horwitz, Helen Imre, Eric James, Rob Kelk, Josh Megerman, Berg
Oswell, Peggy Schroeck and Amanda Stair-Duran.

C&C gratefully accepted.