One couldn’t expect to be late coming home from ridding the world of another porn film reject of a youma and not have one guardian cat flip out about it and demand explanations about said lateness as soon as one returned home. If Luna had had an older sounding voice, Usagi would labeled her as another mom. However the feline’s voice didn’t sound that much older then her own, which put the cat into the category as a four-legged furry big sister who didn’t know how to butt out of her business.
Oh she knew it was all out of love and worry for her. The Dark Kingdom could have sent another youma against her on the way home or one of the generals themselves could have attacked and captured her. Or some thug could have tried to attack and have his way with her, unlikely since she was so fast and strong in her other form, but that didn’t stop Luna from imagining those kinds of things. The cat was just seemed programmed to worry and nag.
It made her wonder if Artemis was that bad with Minako.
It also made her wonder why only she and Minako had to worry about feline busybodies while the other girls got off scot free. Somehow that didn’t seem quite fair. In fact maybe they should have a schedule of when the cats lived with Ami, Rei, and Makoto. Now that seemed fair.
But in any case, Luna had been waiting for her when she got home from her little side mission and earth-shattered discovery that had led to justifiable feminine outrage. She hadn’t wanted to be questioned or lectured for her actions, so Usagi had promptly declared exhaustion and went to sleep. It was lucky for her that she was able to fall asleep on command, otherwise she would have never have managed to evade the feline.
And contrary to popular belief, she didn’t always sleep in late. She just chose to. So which was why that particular morning she had chosen not to, knowing her furry guardian would be waiting for her to wake up to interrogate, regardless of whether it would make her even later for school. Curiosity and cats went hand and hand after all. Instead, she had woken up earlier, actually even earlier then necessary, and got ready for school while Luna slept and was gone before the furball woke up.
Usagi knew this would increase Luna’s curiosity and perhaps earn her a bigger lecture, but she knew in the end Luna would be on her side. Cat or not, Luna was female and thus understood the female point of view.
Which led her to now.
Luna, suspecting something was up, had called a Senshi meeting at the Hikawa Shrine. It was, to Usagi’s mind, clearly some form of intervention or sorts. Didn’t matter what it was or called, it worked perfectly for her since she could use their brains to figure out the best way to get back at her Mamo-chan.
“Usagi why were you late last night,” Luna demanded, as soon as they had all gathered. Luna was never one for being subtle when she had lost her patience. Five sets of eyes turned to look at the blonde.
“Yeah well about that…” Usagi said, deliberately hesitant. Presentation was everything, or at least that’s what Haruno-sensei often harped on about in class. Or maybe that Hongo-sensei.
“Well… that is… or that is to say… I kinda… um…”
“Meatball head, just spit it out,” Rei said in exasperation. You could always rely on Rei to lose her patience in a situation like this.
“IFOLLOWEDTUXEDOKAMENTOHISAPARTMENT!”
“YOU DID WHAT?” came out in stereo from all corners of the room accompanied with jaw dropping and big googly eyes of shock.
“Usagi, how could you-”
“Not a smart move-”
“-could be an enemy-”
Usagi brought two fingers to her lips and let out an ear-splitting whistle to shut all the protests and reprimands. “Look I know it was wrong and I know I broke the ‘rule’ by doing it, but it was either that or keep having my heart torn in half and I figure yall would prefer that I’m whole and healthy to kick youma ass instead of all jumbled up inside and a weakness to the group.”
“What do you mean your heart was torn in half,” asked Minako, and then light dawned in her eyes. Minako wasn’t called the Senshi of Love for nothing; when it came to all things love and lust, she was the resident genius, whereas their resident genius was as clueless as Usagi was about advanced trig when it came to such matters. “Are you telling me you’re like in love LOVE with Tuxedo Kamen? And who else are you in love LOVE with?”
“Wait, Usagi’s in love with two guys,” Makoto said in a way that made it uncertain if she just made a statement or a question. “Isn’t that impossible to be in love with two guys at once? Like an oxymoron or something?”
“Mako-chan you fall in love with a new guy everyday,” Rei pointed out.
“That’s different,” the statuesque beauty retorted. “That’s just puppy love or heat of the moment. I may not act like it, but I do know the difference. What Minako’s talking about is love in all caps which is a whole different ball game and reserved to one special person. So Usagi-chan who’s the mystery man?”
“Mamoru,” Usagi admitted, which caused another moment of jaw dropping and googly eyes of shock in her direction.
“Mamrou as in Chiba-san, Mamoru,” asked Ami.
“As in once dated Rei-chan Mamoru,” Makoto quipped.
“Uh yeah.” The blonde glanced over at her hot-tempered friend. She was in love with the ass, that didn’t make her insensitive. She knew Rei had really liked Mamoru and put an effort to have a relationship with the man. “Rei, I…”
“It’s okay Usagi,” interrupted Rei. “As much as I would have wished otherwise, Mamoru-san and I are just friends. I’m okay with that. If he’s the one your heart’s chosen, then go get him.”
“Thanks Rei-chan.”
“Um girls I think we’re missing the whole point here,” Artemis said, which got him a bunch of blank stares.
“Have you all forgotten that Usagi followed Tuxedo Kamen home,” Luna demanded. “We’re not even a hundred percent certain that he’s on our side here. Sure he’s helped out once and a while, but we can’t forget that he’s taken two Nijizuishou and refuses to hand them over to us. Who knows why he wants them? He could be an enemy and Usagi just followed the man back to his lair!”
“Look I know it was wrong Luna,” Usagi said, “but I needed to do this. You don’t understand how much it tore at me to be in love with two men. I needed to find something that would make me not love Tuxedo Kamen and see him as questionable ally that just labeled him as. Let’s face it, between him and Mamoru, I have more of a chance of getting Mamoru then Tuxedo Kamen.”
“Well?”
The blonde blinked at her guardian’s question. “Well what?”
“Did you find something to remove Tuxedo Kamen from your heart?”
“Ooooooh. Well yeah… sorta kinda of.”
“What does sorta kinda mean,” Minako asked.
“Well first of all Tuxedo Kamen knows that I’m Sailor Moon.”
“WHAAAAAAAT!?!?!”
“Exactly my reaction. It’s not like I haven’t been uber careful about changing back to civilian form. We all are, so I’m still trying to figure out how he figured out that one and believe me I have wracked my brains over that detail all day. I mean come on; it’s not like he can see who I was while I was Sailor Moon. Our magic prevents that from happening.”
“Actually not quite,” piped up Artemis. Everyone looked at the white cat, who squirmed a little from being the center of female attention. “If Mamoru suspected you were Sailor Moon and had enough conviction in that belief, it would undo the magic. At least for him.”
“Okay fine,” said the Senshi of the Moon. “I stand corrected. So maybe that’s how he did it. But honestly that’s not really our biggest problem.”
“How-“
“I wasn’t finished Luna. No, our biggest problem is not only does Tuxedo Kamen know that I, Tsukino Usagi, am Sailor Moon, but the fact that Tuxedo Kamen is Chiba Mamoru. Who apparently is also as much in love with me as I am with him and yet he still acts like an ass towards me.”
There was another moment of jaw dropping and googly eyed silence. The silence continued for a long moment and then…. well there was no other way to put it but all hell broke loose. All feminine hell that is.
There was a great deal of outrage on Usagi’s behalf. Chiba Mamoru being Tuxedo Kamen was a forgivable offense. He might have been a questionable ally, but he had often helped them and had only come to odds with the Senshi when it came to the Nijizuishou. Even him knowing of Usagi’s other persona could be forgiven. As Artemis had pointed out, if he had suspected enough to believe that Usagi was Sailor Moon, the magic would have failed and he would have known in fact what was truth.
Nope, the noose that hung the man was the fact that he was in fact in love with their beloved Usagi-chan and still acted like an insufferable jerk, who picked on and argued with her when he was in fact in love with her. It didn’t matter to them when he had fallen in love with Usagi. For all the knew he began to fall in love with the blonde when he realized that she was Sailor Moon and began really looking at the blonde and not the easily visible shell which could be misleading (yes they knew their leader was a bit of a clumsy ditz, emphasis on the clumsy part, who wasn’t the smartest cookie; but there was more to her that that). The point was the man was in love with Usagi and hadn’t made the correct adjustments in his behavior towards her.
That in their eyes was unforgivable and that must be punished. His only saving grace that Usagi still loved him and thus he would live.
“Okay girls, let’s begin planning Operation: Revenge of the Little Bunny,” Usagi announced.
“Revenge of the Little Bunny,” Rei questioned.
The blonde blushed. “He called me Usako.”
“Oh.” And that explained everything.
“Aren’t you girls taking this a little overboard,” Artemis asked. “I mean he’s an adult, but don’t all boys act like asses to girls they like at one point or another?” Maybe you should give the guy a break this time.”
Six pairs of female eyes gave him ‘the look’.
“Or not…”
Final Thought Artemis:
I still think they’re overreacting…
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Nijizuishou – the Rainbow Crystals
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Disclaimer: I do not claim any rights to Sailor Moon or the characters associated with the anime/manga. Those rights belong to Takeuchi Naoko and anyone else she says has rights to it.
