Yosho reapplied his disguise and left us with a promise that he would get back to us once he knew how the Imperial Council wanted to handle this development.
With his departure, the rest of the Junior Student Council was brought in along with Sousuke.
Kaname was the first to find her voice. “So, anyone of you guys wanna clue the rest of us into whatever the hell was going on?”
I then looked to the girls, who all wore sheepish looks on their faces.
I sighed. “Girls, you might as well just show them. It’s the quickest way.”
Usagi exchanged somewhat nervous looks with her friends and comrades, then finally nodded her head.
“Zee-kun’s right. It’s best not to drag this out.”
And with that, the four of them all withdrew their henshin sticks and Usagi pulled out her broach, and then called out their transformation phrases.
In a brilliant flash of rainbow light, Usagi and the girls had become the Sailor Senshi right before our eyes.
“...WHAT!?” cried out Kaname. “YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! YOU FIVE ARE THE SENSHI!?”
“Hmph! I thought as much!” said an older voice as the shoji slid open and Hino-sensei entered.
“GRANDFATHER!?” cried out Rei in surprise.
“Hoo boy,” I grumbled.
“But how did he know?” wondered Ami.
The old man chuckled. “How could I not know? Rei’s mother wasn’t the only person who was spiritually gifted. That comes through my side of the family as well! Her father could have been a great priest like myself, but he was lured away by money and power. So now the combined birthright of the Hino and Masaki families both fall on my Rei-chan. Did you honestly think that I would not keep a careful eye her? That I would not painstakingly steward her upbringing once she came to me?”
Hino sensei came into the room proper with yet more green tea and enough glasses for everyone. He set the tray down and then took a seat himself, asking us to join him in a gruff, yet polite tone as he began to pour the tea and pass it out.
“I apologize, Darkwood-san,” continued Hino-sensei. “I had ulterior motives myself when I proposed that you stay here with us. It had been my hope that maybe, just maybe, something might spark between you and my beloved granddaughter. I had hoped that you might help her settle down. Few things make a young woman reconsider her future like a love prospect.”
Rei suddenly exploded from her seated position, glaring down at her grandfather. No words needed to be said.
However, Hino-sensei simply glared right back at her. It was a battle of wills between the two - almost like some weird, metaphorical game of chicken to see who would flinch first as they stared each other down. Daring each other. Demanding nothing less than total victory.
In the end, though, a detente was reached. Rei slowly and decorously seated herself in a manner befitting a Japanese woman of noble birth, all while glaring daggers at her grandfather.
This was not over by a long shot.
Without any further preamble, Hino-sensei began with me.
“You, young man, are the Avatar of Raven, almighty manager of life cycles in everything from the lowest insects to the mightiest civilizations. All are rendered to dust and born again under his gaze.
“You young ladies are the reborn princess and her body guard of a bygone era. If you so choose, you may reinstate an Empire so long ago lost that no record known to Earth remains.
“You, boy, are a child soldier who now works with a group who sees themselves as champions of justice, and rightfully so. You have seen and done things few would even imagine, and it has scarred you. Perhaps irreparably.
“Miss Chidori, Mister Kubiak, you two are under the protection of this organization, though for reasons that remain unclear. Though I wonder what those reasons may be, perhaps it is for the best that we do not know.
“This leaves you Miss Osaka. But your involvement is simple enough. You are a long time friend of Miss Tsukino. It is only natural that they would reveal everything to you.
“Now then, everything is out in the open,” said Hino-sensei. “Are there any more questions for me from anyone besides Rei-chan?” No one said a single word. You could even hear the gentle creaking of the wood timbers as the building shifted ever so imperceptibly. “Good then. Rei-chan, I will speak with you later tonight. For now, settle your accounts with your friends. I have work to do.”
With nothing further to add, Hino-sensei got up and left.
“Well, that just happened,” I grumbled, at a loss for anything else to say.
“So... okaaayyyy,” said Naru slowly. “What now?”
Rei sighed. “We try and live as normally as possible. The only difference now is that you guys know everything.”
“But why tell us?” said Kaname.
“Because we’re their friends,” said Kubiak, his voice reaching Peter Cullen levels of reverberation. “And I definitely want us to stay friends.” He then looked shyly to Makoto and turned pink.
I had to hold back a laugh as Makoto did the same.
“Well, Zee-kun did bring up something that I think we should all discuss,” said Rei.
##
In short order, several processes were hammered out by which we could handle emergency situations, such as monster attacks and real threats to Kaname and Kubiak.
Afterwards, we bumrushed through our homework cooperatively, and then said our goodbyes with the promise to meet up again as a regular study group.
As they all left, Rei sighed as she slumped over the table.
“Now I think I’m starting to understand why you feel so stressed out lately. This has been simply absurd!”
I sighed as well as I slumped down on the opposite side of the table.
“You’re telling me?” I grumbled in good natured sarcasm. “I think we could use a break. Wanna just do something tomorrow?”
Rei didn’t react right away. When she did though, it was in a cautious tone of voice.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well...” I sighed. No more pussyfooting. “Look, if we’re gonna do this, then let’s do this. No messing around. Dive into the deep end. Carpe diem, you only live once, and all that nice shit. Let’s act like a couple for once and just see how it feels.”
Rei looked up and gave me a calculating look. And then suddenly, she smiled victoriously.
“Well, it’s about time then. What would you like to do?”
“How about just a bit of shopping around. I noticed you have a flier for a new cosmetics store that just opened up.”
Rei blushed. “I didn’t think you’d like that sort of thing.”
I shrugged. “I’m not turned off by light makeup. It’s the plastic girls that really like to cake the shit on that gross me out. I feel like I could get some sort of poisoning just being that close to that much makeup.”
“Ew,” said Rei as she scrunched up her face in disgust. “Your point is taken. But are you sure you’re fine with that?”
“Of course I’m sure. Despite how I look, I’m much more mature than most other guys my age. You can try on different things and pick my brain - I’d love to see you trying on different outfits. You’re gorgeous enough anyhow that you’d have a hard time looking bad by mistake.”
Rei positively fluoresced, and for once she didn’t seem terribly upset by it.
“Stop that! It’s not like you gotta brag about it.”
I simply smiled at her and let that be my subtle rebuttal.
##
While Rei had decided to have it out with her Grandfather in an epic bitch-fest that was audible clear across the shrine (and by Raven’s third leg, those were some colorful insults I would have to make use of later), I decided I was going to take my bath.
Or at least, I was going to.
Right up until I slid open the door leading into the bath proper...
...And found Deimos in her human form, languidly lounging in the tub, and wearing only a shower cap.
“Ah, Lord Darkwood,” she said coyly as she looked me up and down, since all I was wearing was a bath towel. “I see you wanted to join me.”
I slid the door shut again and promptly left the bath. As tempting as that was, I did not need that kind of trouble on top of everything else!
I’ll just wait for Rei to take hers.
##
School was my reprieve from chaos.
Wonderful order was instilled. Knowledge was freely given, even it not freely accepted. I drank it in like a sponge.
Though sometimes Haruna-sensei would get it in her head to have me practically teach half of the English class for her. Not that she slacked off or anything - she stood by and watched the proceedings like a hawk... if a hawk could do so while looking more like a red robin.
Lunch finally arrived, though, and then it was like we had all entered a bubble of my strange life once we made it to the roof top.
“Neh, Zee-kun?” asked Ami.
“Hm?” I answered around an egg salad sandwich - only one of four in my lunch.
“That night of the... Misunderstanding,” said Ami, the capitalization plainly audible and her cheeks flushing at the memory of that night. “How were you able to cast that black fire, let alone those plasma bolts? By my estimations, you were generating at least one-hundred megawatts of power!”
“Eh, is that a lot?” asked Usagi cluelessly.
“It’s enough to power your house for several years,” answered Kubiak.
“I’m rather curious about that myself,” said Sousuke. “If that is something you can do on a regular basis, it could prove to be indispensable.”
This... could be a problem, I thought to myself with a growing sense of doom. I know that Rei wanted to keep our soul-bond under wraps where possible - she never said as much, but I knew it without a doubt.
Briefly I fingered my new cell phone. I could text her to see what she wanted to do. She should have been having lunch right about then anyhow. But I didn’t want to raise any suspicion among the others, and besides, I was honestly loath to bother Rei while she was at school.
But then I remembered something from Pokemon, of all things. One of my favorites, Lugia, had an exclusive move known as Aeroblast - about half the striking power of Hyper Beam, but without the charging phase. Fan speculation was that Lugia would compress air until it achieved spontaneous fusion from the heat and pressure, and then let it go in an assault that laughed off petty things like main battle tank armor.
“Well, the thing is that my own power, my ‘ki’ if you will, seems to be air elemental. I never really did much with it because I never saw much use. I can’t take credit for the plasma attack - that was Raven’s idea to super-compress atmospheric air until it turned to plasma. But I don’t think I have the power to do it on my own. It kinda takes a lot to keep a star - even one that size - under control.”
“Ah,” replied Ami. “You mean you need Raven’s presence in order to be able to do that.”
The others paled, though Kaname simply looked confused.
“Ah, guys? What’s so bad about that?”
“Raven,” said Sousuke carefully, “is rather... unpredictable.”
I snorted at that. “That’s putting it mildly.”
Kaname blinked at this revelation, then turned to Usagi and asked,
“Was it really that bad?”
“Eh, yes and no,” replied Usagi with a sickly, nervous grin. “I think Raven is the sort of guy who has people’s best interests in mind... but only as he sees them. He trapped my friends and I in a wall of creepy looking black fire to keep us from getting in his way. We were all right, but it was really scary.”
Kaname shot me a glare, but I knew at least that it was not for me, personally.
“Well, if I ever meet that bozo, I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind!”
“Oh please don’t!” I said in horror. “Raven fucking loves it when someone gets pissy with him. Besides, you gotta remember that you’re dealing with a God. I don’t just mean a spirit like in Shinto, but an actual, bonafide, phenomenal-cosmic-powers GOD.”
Kaname looked around and saw us all nodding.
She then smiled nervously. “Well, when you put it that way, maayyybbeeee I should just let the sleeping dog lie.”
Naru simply hung her head and sighed. “Why do I feel like the only normal one here?”
“Sorry, Naru-chan,” I said sheepishly to my classmate. “But don’t worry - being the normal person has it’s perks. Besides, if we all got arrested somehow, I’m sure you’d be right there with us saying, ‘Wow! That was FUN!’”
I ducked a swing from Naru which set everyone laughing.
##
After a refreshingly normal day at school, I returned home...
Home, I thought to myself as I stood at the foot of the steps and look up at the shrine perched on the hill top. I never even thought that I would come to call this home. Up until recently, it’s always been ‘The Shrine’ to me. Weird to think of it like this not even one month after I got here. But... I then thought about Rei, how she fought me so much... and then that night.
Courtship.
There was no other word for it. All this time, Rei and I had been courting each other, and not really realizing it.
But then, Rei is the Princess of Mars. And if her Mars is anything at all like Barsoom, then it would come as no surprise to me that courting the Martian Princess involves battles of wits and martial aptitude.
A familiar presence grazed my mind, and an unwelcome voice whispered in my ear.
You have the right of it, boy. Amongst all the eligible young women in the Moon Kingdom, none was more difficult to win than the hand of the Martian Princess. She is supposed to be so well versed in tactics, strategy, and fighting arts that it is a rare man indeed that can hold her attention for long. Granted, she does not yet have access to all that past knowledge, and she might never will, but the pride that went with it is still there. You should feel honored, boy, even if she has grievously overstepped her bounds in the past.
I grimaced at the intrusion. Buzz off, old bird. I don’t want info dumps I probably won’t need.
Oh? replied Raven coyly. Then perhaps some advice: duck.
Years of experience has taught me, if Raven tells you to duck and sounds amused, you’d damn well better duck.
“Not bad,” I heard Rei say just over my head. I looked up and found her in a follow-through pose of what would have been a truly devastating hay-maker punch to the back of my head. “I was almost worried you wouldn’t have noticed - you seemed spaced out there.”
“Actually, I was kinda distracted,” I grumbled. “The old bird had something to say to me.”
“Is that so?” said Rei, a look of mild concern crossing her face.
“Nothing important. Just stuff about courtship rituals of Martian royalty.”
“What about it?” she asked, glaring daggers at me.
“We seem to have reenacted it the other night when we fought each other to a standstill.”
Rei gave me a surprised look. “What? Beating the hell out of each other is considered a date!?”
I shrugged. “Warrior society. And a Princess in such a society would have extremely high standards. Her body and her hand is not for just any man.”
Rei sighed. “Whatever. It’s done. I just want to do something normal for a change.”
“Of course. Want to take a few minutes to get changed?”
Rei nodded. “I think it’s about time I put those dresses my dad keeps giving me to work. You better not disappoint in that department yourself.”
##
When I got to my room, I found that there was a large package in my room. Checking the packaging manifest, I discovered that it was my workstation and satellite phone for Mithril.
“WHOAH. Cool!” I exclaimed.
“What is it?” came Rei’s voice drifting through the wall. I blinked at that, surprised that she would do something like broadcast her voice intentionally. But then again, here in the living quarters there was no one else but her Grandfather.
“That Workstation from Mithril arrived today.”
“Don’t tell me you’re gonna set it up now!” she cried out, a hint of exasperation in her aggrieved voice.
I made a sour look at that. “Of course not, that can wait until after our date.”
“Good answer. So, what do you think?” I turned around and Rei stood there, wearing a very classy looking white sundress with a matching set of modest looking pumps.
“Wow,” was all I could say.
Rei’s smile communicated everything she needed to say.
##
“Oh, if father only knew!” said Rei gleefully as we strolled amongst the store fronts.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, he always gives me these dresses, probably in hopes that I’ll use them to catch a respectable oji’s attention. I wouldn’t be surprised if my hand in marriage was some ace-in-the-hole for his political schemes.” Here, Rei used the Japanese word for ‘Uncle’, which, in local parlance, can be used to respectfully address a man who is older than you - say, the same relative difference in age between you and your parent. The way she sneered as the words left her mouth was highly indicative. Rei then looked over at me and grinned viciously. “He would probably have a heart attack if he found out I was dating a ‘filthy gaijin’ and wearing one of his dresses no less.”
I nearly gagged. “Are you serious?” I said. “Using you like that... That’s just so... Raven’s Balls, I want to kill him now!”
Rei gave me a searching look. “Let me try something here.” She then cleared her throat and then spoke in a deeper, authoritative tone, “You must be careful of your chastity, Rei-chan. Nothing is more valuable to the man who I choose to be your husband than the fact that your maidenhood is intact when you marry him.”
I gave Rei a horrified look. “That fucking pig!” I cried out in English. But I didn’t stop there. “What in the fucking nine circles of hell is that bastard’s damage!? And I definitely mean ‘bastard’ because evidently that fuck-shit doesn’t know his own father from a gigolo!”
Rei suddenly exploded into laughter and I looked to her in wide-eyed amazement. Did she actually understand what I was saying?
She then grinned at me and said, “Surprised? I may not speak English very well, but my ears are fluent in it. I haven’t made it to the top five in my school for nothing. Even if Ami would systematically destroy everyone if she went there.”
That broke me, and I snorted as I grinned and shook my head.
“Ah, here it is,” said Rei. “Eregens’ Shopu Otofukuya.”
I gave Rei a small grin. “We’ll have to work on your accent a bit, but you seem to have it down.”
Rei gave me a displeased look and shoved me inside the store.
“Irasshaimase!” greeted the woman at the counter. She had brown hair cut in a tomboyish bob that worked rather well for her, with her face and eyes expertly made up. As we approached, through, her eyes went wide in amazement as she got a better look at Rei. Suddenly, the woman seemed to teleport from behind the counter and seized Rei by the wrist.
“This is amazing! I have never seen such fine bone structure in my entire existence! Imagine how irresistible you would be using a complete line of our fine products!”
“Ah, Ma’am, that won’t be needed,” said Rei. “My boyfriend and I only came to look.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! No matter how gifted you may be, you can always look better with heavy makeup.” It was like getting a wiff of something foul smelling. And as I looked at the woman carefully, I could see that she was indeed wearing a heavy layer of makeup.
With a quick jab, I separated the woman’s hand from Rei’s wrist.
“Lady, I don’t think she’s interested.”
Suddenly, to my surprise, and that of everyone else in the shop, the woman grabbed me by the lapels and pulled me up to her face. I wanted to hit her, but I decided to restrain myself - I’d already been walking a fine line in how I separated her and Rei.
“How can you, as her boyfriend, say that!?”
“It’s no lie,” I allowed, much to her own surprise as she reared back. “Certainly, she can make herself more attractive with makeup. But what if I married her? Would she be wearing that makeup to bed? She’s not wearing any right now, and I can honestly say that I would love to wake up to a face like that every morning.”
“HEEEE-EEEHHHH!!!” cried out all the other women in the shop. You could practically see the hearts in their eyes.
The makeup woman suddenly snarled and actually threw me against a shelf, nearly knocking it over, and sending jars to the floor, shattering all around us. The rest of the patrons began to scream and fled the shop hastily.
“Now look at what you made me do!” raved the makeup woman. “Now I have no choice!” Suddenly, there was a powder puff in her hand. With a blur of motion, she batted it all over her face and her appearance suddenly shifted.
Gone was the clean-cut cosmetician.
In her place was a blue-skinned, green-haired woman with eyes somewhere between gray and violet, and a fat, rectangular, red gemstone mounted into the middle of her forehead. She was wearing a navy-blue sweetheart-bodycon dress with matching opera gloves, and hosiery in the ugliest shade of green you can imagine. Even more ridiculous was the bust of her dress looking like a 3-color makeup compact, and her headgear that looked like the top of a perfume atomizer.
“THE FUCK!” I cried out at the sheer absurdity. She then grabbed the squeeze bulb of her atomizer hat. I didn’t stick around to see what it would do to me. Instead, I grabbed Rei and dove for cover. Not a moment too soon, either, as the area I’d been standing had been suddenly melted down to slag.
“Rei!” I hissed quietly as we began to sneak around, knowing that the freakish woman was going to be looking for us. “Go get the others!”
“Why me?” she hissed back indignantly as she followed me in the game of cat and mouse. “I can fight her!”
“You got the senshi communicator. That’ll get them here faster than my phone!”
“But what about you!?”
I grabbed my arrowhead pendant in answer. “I got an ace. Besides, you can find a safe spot and transform. Also, I only get your fire element while you’re Sailor Mars anyhow. So the sooner you do that, the better my odds are.”
“Fine,” she snapped. And then she pulled my head over and gave me a fiercely brief kiss. “Don’t you dare die to a clown like that. It will be an insult to me.”
“Your wish is my command, milady. I’ll distract her, you go.” I then yanked off my pendant and handed it to Rei.
Rei nodded as she accepted it, knowing what I was tasking her with - should the old bird decide he wants to stick around, Rei would find it easier to handle him because Raven wasn’t gonna chance loosing a priestess like Rei, past offenses or none.
As the pendant left my hand for hers, I felt Raven’s power flow into me... but nowhere nearly as much as before, and his presence was notably absent this time.
Not joining in on the fun? I thought.
Oh, don’t concern yourself with me, boy, came back the God’s thoughts. I’m watching to see just what you’ll do with a bit of power on your own.
Fine by me then. Now, how did you do this before?
Raven chuckled softly in the distance. He wasn’t telling, not that I expected him to. While his lips may run free, it was only to stir things up. If staying silent puts someone on the spot, then old feather duster from hell clam up harder than Davy Jones’s Locker.
Reluctantly, I thought back to a time when I was young and unknowing - to a time where, despite my ignorance, I was not quite naive anymore; my heart was already wounded, and my scars were still so painfully fresh.
They had come for me. Hired thugs of a Mexican cartel. How they had gotten into the States was beyond me, even now. But they came for me, found me, and had taken not only me, but my precious friend, Teletha, as well.
These people were absolute scum. The worst of the worst. They took whatever they wanted. And for some of them, age didn’t matter much. As far as they were concerned, if it had two legs and was female, then she was fair game.
I thought back to how it felt. The feeling of taking command of the very air itself. The feel of it as I pulled it from their lungs, desperate to save my friend...
...but even more so, desperate to see those bastards gape like fish drying out on a dock.
Yes. I wanted them to die. And that was what had frightened me so much - that I would not only wish death on those men, but even savor the moment with vindictive joy as the light went from their eyes.
Carefully, I guided myself away from that. Down that path lay the way of monsters. And I did not want to be a monster.
Instead, I focused on air. It was omnipresent. It was in everything, even if in small amounts. I could feel it around me, inside me, through the shelves, and around the strange creature that had been a cosmetician a moment before. I could even feel how it surrounded and permeated Rei and how it slowly fed the fire in her body, giving her life and vitality.
Some people are squeamish about the human body. Not me. The engineer in me appreciated and adored the magnificence that is our human forms. And I was, for a moment, completely taken aback by the beauty of Rei’s complete physical being as I could sense her entire body.
Air... is not only a force.
It is fuel.
Life itself.
But for the moment, force would do well enough.
I pivoted around the corner in a smooth motion, lashing out with an outstretched arm at the makeup woman, my will extending beyond that, permeating the air, and making it into a battering ram that hit her like a cement truck.
She never even knew it was coming - the blow struck her full-on with what must have been utterly jarring force, and sent her flying backwards into a display case, crashing loudly into the heavy plate glass.
“GO!” I snapped, turning to make sure Rei was doing as she promised.
There was a brief moment of shock sketched on her face, but she quickly darted out the door, her long legs carrying her like a championship sprinter.
“YOU!” snapped the makeup woman as she got up “There’s no way you’re a baseliner! You must a be a soldier of Tomorrow Land!”
“Tomorrow Land,” I muttered, perplexed at this turn of events. Shouldn’t it be Crystal Tokyo?
“Silence!” she cried out as she took her squeeze bulb in hand once more. I didn’t move quite yet, though, hoping that she might give away more details. “All enemies of the Black Moon Clan shall be eliminated! DIIIEEEE!”
So much for that!
I whirled my hand snappily, generating a vortex that caught the toxic cloud and spat it right back into her face. The woman gasped and coughed as she covered her face, and gasped once again.
“My heavy makeup! It’s gone!”
I gazed in barely restrained horror at what was in front of me. Rather than her face being horribly melted by the acid attack, her eyes had been simply erased from her face, like they had been nothing more than just makeup in the first place.
That would explain why they seemed so off to me before, I thought to myself. Horror quickly turned to puzzlement as she suddenly whipped out a makeup kit and began to hurriedly sketch her eyes back in with a mascara pencil.
I waved my arms at her, and she didn’t react.
I threw a jar of concealer at the far wall behind her. She jumped at the sound and turned her head, trying to listen for any other noises, then went back to her makeup.
So that’s how it was. For the moment, she’s blind and helpless, but that wouldn’t last for long. Quietly, I slipped off my shoes and picked up a wickedly sharp shard of glass, wrapping it in a handkerchief I had in my pocket. I then began to step towards the makeup woman, careful to not make a sound or to find a piece of glass with my feet.
I slowly worked my way behind her as she feverishly worked at her face. And then, before she even had a chance to react, I slashed the glass shard - the edge sharp like a piece of obsidian - and neatly cut the squeeze bulb free of the hose that led to her head gear.
The Makeup Woman cried out in shock and I followed the motion through, grabbing the hose and using it to pull her off balance, and then I rolled her on the ground to tightly bind her arms.
“NOOO! How can you do this so easily!? I am a Droid! The Pinacle of Nemesis’ technology! I can’t be so easily defeated!”
I then looked down at her in surprise.
“Your a machine?” I said. I then looked at the squeeze bulb where it landed, but all I saw was a small pile of silica sand.
I then looked at the dark red gemstone on her head - saw the black crescent moon mark within it - and then understood.
She was a machine, programmed from her very inception to infiltrate and fight. And because she knew no better, she was no more guilty than a newborn child.
A wave of pity overtook me as I looked down on the thrashing Droid - I knew what I had to do, but it didn’t make it any easier.
“I’m sorry... But don’t worry. I’ll try to give you and any of your sisters I find a better life later on.”
I reached for her gemstone and the Droid wailed as I laid fingers on it, digging in against her false skin, my fingernails finding the stone’s thin edges, forced air into the thin gaps and opened them wider, and began to pry it away from her body.
“NOOOOOOOOooooooooo!” she screamed as the stone came away, and right away her body began to dissolve into silica sand.
I sighed, and looked down on the stone. It glinted, fitfully, almost as though there was a panicked firefly locked within.
I wanted to help her. I really did. But I know how dangerous an AI can be when it has ill intentions. I couldn’t trust it. The only thing to do was to have Usagi cast her healing magic on it, and hope that something of the original personality construct remains.
For the moment, I pocketed the stone, then got a container off the shelves, emptied it on the floor, then scooped up some of the silica sand. If it was what I thought it was, then Mithril was gonna want to see this stuff.
I then turned to look out the shop windows. I was just starting to wonder what was taken Rei so long when I saw her outside, still in her white dress. Standing with her was Usagi as Sailor Moon, and they were both giving me wide-eyed looks.
I sighed heavily at that.
This is gonna be another long night.
Commentary Thread ===> HERE!
With his departure, the rest of the Junior Student Council was brought in along with Sousuke.
Kaname was the first to find her voice. “So, anyone of you guys wanna clue the rest of us into whatever the hell was going on?”
I then looked to the girls, who all wore sheepish looks on their faces.
I sighed. “Girls, you might as well just show them. It’s the quickest way.”
Usagi exchanged somewhat nervous looks with her friends and comrades, then finally nodded her head.
“Zee-kun’s right. It’s best not to drag this out.”
And with that, the four of them all withdrew their henshin sticks and Usagi pulled out her broach, and then called out their transformation phrases.
In a brilliant flash of rainbow light, Usagi and the girls had become the Sailor Senshi right before our eyes.
“...WHAT!?” cried out Kaname. “YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING ME! YOU FIVE ARE THE SENSHI!?”
“Hmph! I thought as much!” said an older voice as the shoji slid open and Hino-sensei entered.
“GRANDFATHER!?” cried out Rei in surprise.
“Hoo boy,” I grumbled.
“But how did he know?” wondered Ami.
The old man chuckled. “How could I not know? Rei’s mother wasn’t the only person who was spiritually gifted. That comes through my side of the family as well! Her father could have been a great priest like myself, but he was lured away by money and power. So now the combined birthright of the Hino and Masaki families both fall on my Rei-chan. Did you honestly think that I would not keep a careful eye her? That I would not painstakingly steward her upbringing once she came to me?”
Hino sensei came into the room proper with yet more green tea and enough glasses for everyone. He set the tray down and then took a seat himself, asking us to join him in a gruff, yet polite tone as he began to pour the tea and pass it out.
“I apologize, Darkwood-san,” continued Hino-sensei. “I had ulterior motives myself when I proposed that you stay here with us. It had been my hope that maybe, just maybe, something might spark between you and my beloved granddaughter. I had hoped that you might help her settle down. Few things make a young woman reconsider her future like a love prospect.”
Rei suddenly exploded from her seated position, glaring down at her grandfather. No words needed to be said.
However, Hino-sensei simply glared right back at her. It was a battle of wills between the two - almost like some weird, metaphorical game of chicken to see who would flinch first as they stared each other down. Daring each other. Demanding nothing less than total victory.
In the end, though, a detente was reached. Rei slowly and decorously seated herself in a manner befitting a Japanese woman of noble birth, all while glaring daggers at her grandfather.
This was not over by a long shot.
Without any further preamble, Hino-sensei began with me.
“You, young man, are the Avatar of Raven, almighty manager of life cycles in everything from the lowest insects to the mightiest civilizations. All are rendered to dust and born again under his gaze.
“You young ladies are the reborn princess and her body guard of a bygone era. If you so choose, you may reinstate an Empire so long ago lost that no record known to Earth remains.
“You, boy, are a child soldier who now works with a group who sees themselves as champions of justice, and rightfully so. You have seen and done things few would even imagine, and it has scarred you. Perhaps irreparably.
“Miss Chidori, Mister Kubiak, you two are under the protection of this organization, though for reasons that remain unclear. Though I wonder what those reasons may be, perhaps it is for the best that we do not know.
“This leaves you Miss Osaka. But your involvement is simple enough. You are a long time friend of Miss Tsukino. It is only natural that they would reveal everything to you.
“Now then, everything is out in the open,” said Hino-sensei. “Are there any more questions for me from anyone besides Rei-chan?” No one said a single word. You could even hear the gentle creaking of the wood timbers as the building shifted ever so imperceptibly. “Good then. Rei-chan, I will speak with you later tonight. For now, settle your accounts with your friends. I have work to do.”
With nothing further to add, Hino-sensei got up and left.
“Well, that just happened,” I grumbled, at a loss for anything else to say.
“So... okaaayyyy,” said Naru slowly. “What now?”
Rei sighed. “We try and live as normally as possible. The only difference now is that you guys know everything.”
“But why tell us?” said Kaname.
“Because we’re their friends,” said Kubiak, his voice reaching Peter Cullen levels of reverberation. “And I definitely want us to stay friends.” He then looked shyly to Makoto and turned pink.
I had to hold back a laugh as Makoto did the same.
“Well, Zee-kun did bring up something that I think we should all discuss,” said Rei.
##
In short order, several processes were hammered out by which we could handle emergency situations, such as monster attacks and real threats to Kaname and Kubiak.
Afterwards, we bumrushed through our homework cooperatively, and then said our goodbyes with the promise to meet up again as a regular study group.
As they all left, Rei sighed as she slumped over the table.
“Now I think I’m starting to understand why you feel so stressed out lately. This has been simply absurd!”
I sighed as well as I slumped down on the opposite side of the table.
“You’re telling me?” I grumbled in good natured sarcasm. “I think we could use a break. Wanna just do something tomorrow?”
Rei didn’t react right away. When she did though, it was in a cautious tone of voice.
“What do you mean?” she asked.
“Well...” I sighed. No more pussyfooting. “Look, if we’re gonna do this, then let’s do this. No messing around. Dive into the deep end. Carpe diem, you only live once, and all that nice shit. Let’s act like a couple for once and just see how it feels.”
Rei looked up and gave me a calculating look. And then suddenly, she smiled victoriously.
“Well, it’s about time then. What would you like to do?”
“How about just a bit of shopping around. I noticed you have a flier for a new cosmetics store that just opened up.”
Rei blushed. “I didn’t think you’d like that sort of thing.”
I shrugged. “I’m not turned off by light makeup. It’s the plastic girls that really like to cake the shit on that gross me out. I feel like I could get some sort of poisoning just being that close to that much makeup.”
“Ew,” said Rei as she scrunched up her face in disgust. “Your point is taken. But are you sure you’re fine with that?”
“Of course I’m sure. Despite how I look, I’m much more mature than most other guys my age. You can try on different things and pick my brain - I’d love to see you trying on different outfits. You’re gorgeous enough anyhow that you’d have a hard time looking bad by mistake.”
Rei positively fluoresced, and for once she didn’t seem terribly upset by it.
“Stop that! It’s not like you gotta brag about it.”
I simply smiled at her and let that be my subtle rebuttal.
##
While Rei had decided to have it out with her Grandfather in an epic bitch-fest that was audible clear across the shrine (and by Raven’s third leg, those were some colorful insults I would have to make use of later), I decided I was going to take my bath.
Or at least, I was going to.
Right up until I slid open the door leading into the bath proper...
...And found Deimos in her human form, languidly lounging in the tub, and wearing only a shower cap.
“Ah, Lord Darkwood,” she said coyly as she looked me up and down, since all I was wearing was a bath towel. “I see you wanted to join me.”
I slid the door shut again and promptly left the bath. As tempting as that was, I did not need that kind of trouble on top of everything else!
I’ll just wait for Rei to take hers.
##
School was my reprieve from chaos.
Wonderful order was instilled. Knowledge was freely given, even it not freely accepted. I drank it in like a sponge.
Though sometimes Haruna-sensei would get it in her head to have me practically teach half of the English class for her. Not that she slacked off or anything - she stood by and watched the proceedings like a hawk... if a hawk could do so while looking more like a red robin.
Lunch finally arrived, though, and then it was like we had all entered a bubble of my strange life once we made it to the roof top.
“Neh, Zee-kun?” asked Ami.
“Hm?” I answered around an egg salad sandwich - only one of four in my lunch.
“That night of the... Misunderstanding,” said Ami, the capitalization plainly audible and her cheeks flushing at the memory of that night. “How were you able to cast that black fire, let alone those plasma bolts? By my estimations, you were generating at least one-hundred megawatts of power!”
“Eh, is that a lot?” asked Usagi cluelessly.
“It’s enough to power your house for several years,” answered Kubiak.
“I’m rather curious about that myself,” said Sousuke. “If that is something you can do on a regular basis, it could prove to be indispensable.”
This... could be a problem, I thought to myself with a growing sense of doom. I know that Rei wanted to keep our soul-bond under wraps where possible - she never said as much, but I knew it without a doubt.
Briefly I fingered my new cell phone. I could text her to see what she wanted to do. She should have been having lunch right about then anyhow. But I didn’t want to raise any suspicion among the others, and besides, I was honestly loath to bother Rei while she was at school.
But then I remembered something from Pokemon, of all things. One of my favorites, Lugia, had an exclusive move known as Aeroblast - about half the striking power of Hyper Beam, but without the charging phase. Fan speculation was that Lugia would compress air until it achieved spontaneous fusion from the heat and pressure, and then let it go in an assault that laughed off petty things like main battle tank armor.
“Well, the thing is that my own power, my ‘ki’ if you will, seems to be air elemental. I never really did much with it because I never saw much use. I can’t take credit for the plasma attack - that was Raven’s idea to super-compress atmospheric air until it turned to plasma. But I don’t think I have the power to do it on my own. It kinda takes a lot to keep a star - even one that size - under control.”
“Ah,” replied Ami. “You mean you need Raven’s presence in order to be able to do that.”
The others paled, though Kaname simply looked confused.
“Ah, guys? What’s so bad about that?”
“Raven,” said Sousuke carefully, “is rather... unpredictable.”
I snorted at that. “That’s putting it mildly.”
Kaname blinked at this revelation, then turned to Usagi and asked,
“Was it really that bad?”
“Eh, yes and no,” replied Usagi with a sickly, nervous grin. “I think Raven is the sort of guy who has people’s best interests in mind... but only as he sees them. He trapped my friends and I in a wall of creepy looking black fire to keep us from getting in his way. We were all right, but it was really scary.”
Kaname shot me a glare, but I knew at least that it was not for me, personally.
“Well, if I ever meet that bozo, I’m gonna give him a piece of my mind!”
“Oh please don’t!” I said in horror. “Raven fucking loves it when someone gets pissy with him. Besides, you gotta remember that you’re dealing with a God. I don’t just mean a spirit like in Shinto, but an actual, bonafide, phenomenal-cosmic-powers GOD.”
Kaname looked around and saw us all nodding.
She then smiled nervously. “Well, when you put it that way, maayyybbeeee I should just let the sleeping dog lie.”
Naru simply hung her head and sighed. “Why do I feel like the only normal one here?”
“Sorry, Naru-chan,” I said sheepishly to my classmate. “But don’t worry - being the normal person has it’s perks. Besides, if we all got arrested somehow, I’m sure you’d be right there with us saying, ‘Wow! That was FUN!’”
I ducked a swing from Naru which set everyone laughing.
##
After a refreshingly normal day at school, I returned home...
Home, I thought to myself as I stood at the foot of the steps and look up at the shrine perched on the hill top. I never even thought that I would come to call this home. Up until recently, it’s always been ‘The Shrine’ to me. Weird to think of it like this not even one month after I got here. But... I then thought about Rei, how she fought me so much... and then that night.
Courtship.
There was no other word for it. All this time, Rei and I had been courting each other, and not really realizing it.
But then, Rei is the Princess of Mars. And if her Mars is anything at all like Barsoom, then it would come as no surprise to me that courting the Martian Princess involves battles of wits and martial aptitude.
A familiar presence grazed my mind, and an unwelcome voice whispered in my ear.
You have the right of it, boy. Amongst all the eligible young women in the Moon Kingdom, none was more difficult to win than the hand of the Martian Princess. She is supposed to be so well versed in tactics, strategy, and fighting arts that it is a rare man indeed that can hold her attention for long. Granted, she does not yet have access to all that past knowledge, and she might never will, but the pride that went with it is still there. You should feel honored, boy, even if she has grievously overstepped her bounds in the past.
I grimaced at the intrusion. Buzz off, old bird. I don’t want info dumps I probably won’t need.
Oh? replied Raven coyly. Then perhaps some advice: duck.
Years of experience has taught me, if Raven tells you to duck and sounds amused, you’d damn well better duck.
“Not bad,” I heard Rei say just over my head. I looked up and found her in a follow-through pose of what would have been a truly devastating hay-maker punch to the back of my head. “I was almost worried you wouldn’t have noticed - you seemed spaced out there.”
“Actually, I was kinda distracted,” I grumbled. “The old bird had something to say to me.”
“Is that so?” said Rei, a look of mild concern crossing her face.
“Nothing important. Just stuff about courtship rituals of Martian royalty.”
“What about it?” she asked, glaring daggers at me.
“We seem to have reenacted it the other night when we fought each other to a standstill.”
Rei gave me a surprised look. “What? Beating the hell out of each other is considered a date!?”
I shrugged. “Warrior society. And a Princess in such a society would have extremely high standards. Her body and her hand is not for just any man.”
Rei sighed. “Whatever. It’s done. I just want to do something normal for a change.”
“Of course. Want to take a few minutes to get changed?”
Rei nodded. “I think it’s about time I put those dresses my dad keeps giving me to work. You better not disappoint in that department yourself.”
##
When I got to my room, I found that there was a large package in my room. Checking the packaging manifest, I discovered that it was my workstation and satellite phone for Mithril.
“WHOAH. Cool!” I exclaimed.
“What is it?” came Rei’s voice drifting through the wall. I blinked at that, surprised that she would do something like broadcast her voice intentionally. But then again, here in the living quarters there was no one else but her Grandfather.
“That Workstation from Mithril arrived today.”
“Don’t tell me you’re gonna set it up now!” she cried out, a hint of exasperation in her aggrieved voice.
I made a sour look at that. “Of course not, that can wait until after our date.”
“Good answer. So, what do you think?” I turned around and Rei stood there, wearing a very classy looking white sundress with a matching set of modest looking pumps.
“Wow,” was all I could say.
Rei’s smile communicated everything she needed to say.
##
“Oh, if father only knew!” said Rei gleefully as we strolled amongst the store fronts.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“Well, he always gives me these dresses, probably in hopes that I’ll use them to catch a respectable oji’s attention. I wouldn’t be surprised if my hand in marriage was some ace-in-the-hole for his political schemes.” Here, Rei used the Japanese word for ‘Uncle’, which, in local parlance, can be used to respectfully address a man who is older than you - say, the same relative difference in age between you and your parent. The way she sneered as the words left her mouth was highly indicative. Rei then looked over at me and grinned viciously. “He would probably have a heart attack if he found out I was dating a ‘filthy gaijin’ and wearing one of his dresses no less.”
I nearly gagged. “Are you serious?” I said. “Using you like that... That’s just so... Raven’s Balls, I want to kill him now!”
Rei gave me a searching look. “Let me try something here.” She then cleared her throat and then spoke in a deeper, authoritative tone, “You must be careful of your chastity, Rei-chan. Nothing is more valuable to the man who I choose to be your husband than the fact that your maidenhood is intact when you marry him.”
I gave Rei a horrified look. “That fucking pig!” I cried out in English. But I didn’t stop there. “What in the fucking nine circles of hell is that bastard’s damage!? And I definitely mean ‘bastard’ because evidently that fuck-shit doesn’t know his own father from a gigolo!”
Rei suddenly exploded into laughter and I looked to her in wide-eyed amazement. Did she actually understand what I was saying?
She then grinned at me and said, “Surprised? I may not speak English very well, but my ears are fluent in it. I haven’t made it to the top five in my school for nothing. Even if Ami would systematically destroy everyone if she went there.”
That broke me, and I snorted as I grinned and shook my head.
“Ah, here it is,” said Rei. “Eregens’ Shopu Otofukuya.”
I gave Rei a small grin. “We’ll have to work on your accent a bit, but you seem to have it down.”
Rei gave me a displeased look and shoved me inside the store.
“Irasshaimase!” greeted the woman at the counter. She had brown hair cut in a tomboyish bob that worked rather well for her, with her face and eyes expertly made up. As we approached, through, her eyes went wide in amazement as she got a better look at Rei. Suddenly, the woman seemed to teleport from behind the counter and seized Rei by the wrist.
“This is amazing! I have never seen such fine bone structure in my entire existence! Imagine how irresistible you would be using a complete line of our fine products!”
“Ah, Ma’am, that won’t be needed,” said Rei. “My boyfriend and I only came to look.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! No matter how gifted you may be, you can always look better with heavy makeup.” It was like getting a wiff of something foul smelling. And as I looked at the woman carefully, I could see that she was indeed wearing a heavy layer of makeup.
With a quick jab, I separated the woman’s hand from Rei’s wrist.
“Lady, I don’t think she’s interested.”
Suddenly, to my surprise, and that of everyone else in the shop, the woman grabbed me by the lapels and pulled me up to her face. I wanted to hit her, but I decided to restrain myself - I’d already been walking a fine line in how I separated her and Rei.
“How can you, as her boyfriend, say that!?”
“It’s no lie,” I allowed, much to her own surprise as she reared back. “Certainly, she can make herself more attractive with makeup. But what if I married her? Would she be wearing that makeup to bed? She’s not wearing any right now, and I can honestly say that I would love to wake up to a face like that every morning.”
“HEEEE-EEEHHHH!!!” cried out all the other women in the shop. You could practically see the hearts in their eyes.
The makeup woman suddenly snarled and actually threw me against a shelf, nearly knocking it over, and sending jars to the floor, shattering all around us. The rest of the patrons began to scream and fled the shop hastily.
“Now look at what you made me do!” raved the makeup woman. “Now I have no choice!” Suddenly, there was a powder puff in her hand. With a blur of motion, she batted it all over her face and her appearance suddenly shifted.
Gone was the clean-cut cosmetician.
In her place was a blue-skinned, green-haired woman with eyes somewhere between gray and violet, and a fat, rectangular, red gemstone mounted into the middle of her forehead. She was wearing a navy-blue sweetheart-bodycon dress with matching opera gloves, and hosiery in the ugliest shade of green you can imagine. Even more ridiculous was the bust of her dress looking like a 3-color makeup compact, and her headgear that looked like the top of a perfume atomizer.
“THE FUCK!” I cried out at the sheer absurdity. She then grabbed the squeeze bulb of her atomizer hat. I didn’t stick around to see what it would do to me. Instead, I grabbed Rei and dove for cover. Not a moment too soon, either, as the area I’d been standing had been suddenly melted down to slag.
“Rei!” I hissed quietly as we began to sneak around, knowing that the freakish woman was going to be looking for us. “Go get the others!”
“Why me?” she hissed back indignantly as she followed me in the game of cat and mouse. “I can fight her!”
“You got the senshi communicator. That’ll get them here faster than my phone!”
“But what about you!?”
I grabbed my arrowhead pendant in answer. “I got an ace. Besides, you can find a safe spot and transform. Also, I only get your fire element while you’re Sailor Mars anyhow. So the sooner you do that, the better my odds are.”
“Fine,” she snapped. And then she pulled my head over and gave me a fiercely brief kiss. “Don’t you dare die to a clown like that. It will be an insult to me.”
“Your wish is my command, milady. I’ll distract her, you go.” I then yanked off my pendant and handed it to Rei.
Rei nodded as she accepted it, knowing what I was tasking her with - should the old bird decide he wants to stick around, Rei would find it easier to handle him because Raven wasn’t gonna chance loosing a priestess like Rei, past offenses or none.
As the pendant left my hand for hers, I felt Raven’s power flow into me... but nowhere nearly as much as before, and his presence was notably absent this time.
Not joining in on the fun? I thought.
Oh, don’t concern yourself with me, boy, came back the God’s thoughts. I’m watching to see just what you’ll do with a bit of power on your own.
Fine by me then. Now, how did you do this before?
Raven chuckled softly in the distance. He wasn’t telling, not that I expected him to. While his lips may run free, it was only to stir things up. If staying silent puts someone on the spot, then old feather duster from hell clam up harder than Davy Jones’s Locker.
Reluctantly, I thought back to a time when I was young and unknowing - to a time where, despite my ignorance, I was not quite naive anymore; my heart was already wounded, and my scars were still so painfully fresh.
They had come for me. Hired thugs of a Mexican cartel. How they had gotten into the States was beyond me, even now. But they came for me, found me, and had taken not only me, but my precious friend, Teletha, as well.
These people were absolute scum. The worst of the worst. They took whatever they wanted. And for some of them, age didn’t matter much. As far as they were concerned, if it had two legs and was female, then she was fair game.
I thought back to how it felt. The feeling of taking command of the very air itself. The feel of it as I pulled it from their lungs, desperate to save my friend...
...but even more so, desperate to see those bastards gape like fish drying out on a dock.
Yes. I wanted them to die. And that was what had frightened me so much - that I would not only wish death on those men, but even savor the moment with vindictive joy as the light went from their eyes.
Carefully, I guided myself away from that. Down that path lay the way of monsters. And I did not want to be a monster.
Instead, I focused on air. It was omnipresent. It was in everything, even if in small amounts. I could feel it around me, inside me, through the shelves, and around the strange creature that had been a cosmetician a moment before. I could even feel how it surrounded and permeated Rei and how it slowly fed the fire in her body, giving her life and vitality.
Some people are squeamish about the human body. Not me. The engineer in me appreciated and adored the magnificence that is our human forms. And I was, for a moment, completely taken aback by the beauty of Rei’s complete physical being as I could sense her entire body.
Air... is not only a force.
It is fuel.
Life itself.
But for the moment, force would do well enough.
I pivoted around the corner in a smooth motion, lashing out with an outstretched arm at the makeup woman, my will extending beyond that, permeating the air, and making it into a battering ram that hit her like a cement truck.
She never even knew it was coming - the blow struck her full-on with what must have been utterly jarring force, and sent her flying backwards into a display case, crashing loudly into the heavy plate glass.
“GO!” I snapped, turning to make sure Rei was doing as she promised.
There was a brief moment of shock sketched on her face, but she quickly darted out the door, her long legs carrying her like a championship sprinter.
“YOU!” snapped the makeup woman as she got up “There’s no way you’re a baseliner! You must a be a soldier of Tomorrow Land!”
“Tomorrow Land,” I muttered, perplexed at this turn of events. Shouldn’t it be Crystal Tokyo?
“Silence!” she cried out as she took her squeeze bulb in hand once more. I didn’t move quite yet, though, hoping that she might give away more details. “All enemies of the Black Moon Clan shall be eliminated! DIIIEEEE!”
So much for that!
I whirled my hand snappily, generating a vortex that caught the toxic cloud and spat it right back into her face. The woman gasped and coughed as she covered her face, and gasped once again.
“My heavy makeup! It’s gone!”
I gazed in barely restrained horror at what was in front of me. Rather than her face being horribly melted by the acid attack, her eyes had been simply erased from her face, like they had been nothing more than just makeup in the first place.
That would explain why they seemed so off to me before, I thought to myself. Horror quickly turned to puzzlement as she suddenly whipped out a makeup kit and began to hurriedly sketch her eyes back in with a mascara pencil.
I waved my arms at her, and she didn’t react.
I threw a jar of concealer at the far wall behind her. She jumped at the sound and turned her head, trying to listen for any other noises, then went back to her makeup.
So that’s how it was. For the moment, she’s blind and helpless, but that wouldn’t last for long. Quietly, I slipped off my shoes and picked up a wickedly sharp shard of glass, wrapping it in a handkerchief I had in my pocket. I then began to step towards the makeup woman, careful to not make a sound or to find a piece of glass with my feet.
I slowly worked my way behind her as she feverishly worked at her face. And then, before she even had a chance to react, I slashed the glass shard - the edge sharp like a piece of obsidian - and neatly cut the squeeze bulb free of the hose that led to her head gear.
The Makeup Woman cried out in shock and I followed the motion through, grabbing the hose and using it to pull her off balance, and then I rolled her on the ground to tightly bind her arms.
“NOOO! How can you do this so easily!? I am a Droid! The Pinacle of Nemesis’ technology! I can’t be so easily defeated!”
I then looked down at her in surprise.
“Your a machine?” I said. I then looked at the squeeze bulb where it landed, but all I saw was a small pile of silica sand.
I then looked at the dark red gemstone on her head - saw the black crescent moon mark within it - and then understood.
She was a machine, programmed from her very inception to infiltrate and fight. And because she knew no better, she was no more guilty than a newborn child.
A wave of pity overtook me as I looked down on the thrashing Droid - I knew what I had to do, but it didn’t make it any easier.
“I’m sorry... But don’t worry. I’ll try to give you and any of your sisters I find a better life later on.”
I reached for her gemstone and the Droid wailed as I laid fingers on it, digging in against her false skin, my fingernails finding the stone’s thin edges, forced air into the thin gaps and opened them wider, and began to pry it away from her body.
“NOOOOOOOOooooooooo!” she screamed as the stone came away, and right away her body began to dissolve into silica sand.
I sighed, and looked down on the stone. It glinted, fitfully, almost as though there was a panicked firefly locked within.
I wanted to help her. I really did. But I know how dangerous an AI can be when it has ill intentions. I couldn’t trust it. The only thing to do was to have Usagi cast her healing magic on it, and hope that something of the original personality construct remains.
For the moment, I pocketed the stone, then got a container off the shelves, emptied it on the floor, then scooped up some of the silica sand. If it was what I thought it was, then Mithril was gonna want to see this stuff.
I then turned to look out the shop windows. I was just starting to wonder what was taken Rei so long when I saw her outside, still in her white dress. Standing with her was Usagi as Sailor Moon, and they were both giving me wide-eyed looks.
I sighed heavily at that.
This is gonna be another long night.
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