One month had passed since Sailor Moon had first appeared in Tokyo. Since then she had moon dusted thirteen more youma while somehow still managing to avoid the Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen after each battle which was by no means an easy feat. She had also became the city's most popular heroine. Everywhere Usagi turned, there was Sailor Moon merchandise: posters, action figures, shirts, bags, etc. There was even talk about creating a Sailor Moon video game. The only other Senshi to have a video game was Sailor V, but it taken months of her fighting evil before she got her own video game.
But as popular as Sailor Moon was, no one had a clue as to who the newest Senshi was. Sure, everyone had a theory. In fact, some of the students at Juuban High suspected that the pretty champion of love and justice was the new student, Tsukino Usagi. Sailor Moon had shown up after Tsukino-san had arrived and they were both blonde. Yet as weeks passed, most people gave up the theory after carefully observing the new student. Tsukino Usagi had turned out be a complete ditz, not to mention she was also quite the klutz. To top it off, she made horrible grades. How in the world could a dumb, ditzy klutz be the graceful, clever, and ever resourceful Sailor Moon?
Not in the eyes of most of the population of Juuban High, although there were some diehards (Umino, to name one) that still held on to the belief that Usagi could be Sailor Moon.
But little did anyone know, that was exactly what Usagi wanted them to think. The glamour that protected the Senshi only worked as long as other people couldn’t connect the dots to figure out who they really were; even if they did guess, if there was still doubts in their mind the glamour would still work. Or at least that was the theory when she badgered Luna about it. The life as a Senshi was not something she had chosen but destiny, but Usagi was not a girl to shirk from her responsibilities whether they were chosen or cosmically thrust upon her.
Her mission was to find and protect the Moon Princess. To help the Princess find the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou that had been lost since the Silver Millennium so she could ascend the throne and defeat the Dark Kingdom once and for all. All while keeping her distance from the Senshi or avoiding making any close bonds with anyone. Her family and Luna couldn’t be avoided because her family had been there before and she needed Luna for information since the so-called memories of her past life, that Luna claimed she had, had yet to surface yet.
Still she knew if it came down to it, if it was the Moon Princess or her family, she had to choose the Princess. It wasn’t something she liked, but Luna had made sure she understood that if the Princess died then it was as good as signing death warrents for her family or a slavery worse then any that mankind had known, which would have made death preferable. The Princess dying meant the Dark Kingdom would win. Besides this oh-so-powerful Maboroshi no Ginzuishou supposedly could be used to revive those who had died unjustly or some such nonsense that Luna had spouted. Usagi herself wasn’t certain, but some hope was better then no hope.
So to fulfill her destiny, she had purposely to act the role of a blonde ditz, making people think twice about considering her as a possible candidate of the civilian identity of Sailor Moon. To further the charade, she went out of her way to klutz out, even though she had grown out of her klutz stage a few years ago. And as for her grades? Well thanks to that first quiz grade and Umino’s big mouth, people thought she was horrible in school and she did nothing to correct that first impression of her intelligence. All she had to do keep it up was to whine and wail about bad quiz and test scores that she rarely if never got. Those blue moon occasions when she did have a low score, she allowed Umino a glimpse of it since most people accepted him to a fountain of information; the boy gave the FBI and CIA a run for their money on what he knew on people, even though he had yet to crack the case of the identity of Sailor Moon let alone the other Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen.
Usagi sighed as she walked home. She glared at her quiz paper that had a big fat 70 on it. Luna was going to be pissed off at her for nearly failing this quiz when the cat had spent hours going over the material with Usagi so she would do well. Stupid math! Sometimes Usagi wondered why Luna even cared how she did in school. After all, she was Sailor Moon. Her destiny had already been mapped out for her so why did she even need school? She was going to be spending the rest of her life protecting the Moon Princess anyway.
"Usagi-chan," she heard a familiar voice yell from behind her. She turned and smiled as she saw Makoto and Ami. It was always a balance for Usagi. On one hand she had to keep from attachments, or any more, for the sake of her mission. Yet on the other hand to protect her Senshi identity, Usagi the girl could not behave the same lest the Senshi guess who she was because of it. So Sailor Moon had to avoid, while Usagi had to pretend to be involved and making friends without getting attached. It was a complete and utter emotional roller coaster.
"Hi guys," she said. "What's up?"
"Are you still bummed out about that quiz, girl," Makoto asked, picking up on Usagi's mood.
"A little," the blonde answered.
"You shouldn't be Tsukino-san," said Ami. "You did pass and you made a higher score then what you usually make."
"Thanks Mizuno-san," Usagi replied, a small smirk on her face because she knew that she could make a hell of a better score then a 70. Wait until they took exams next month and she scored as high Ami. She frowned for a second as a thought occurred to her. How the hell was she going to explain that to everyone???
"Cheer up girl," Makoto ordered, when she saw Usagi frown. "Come with us to the arcade. Mamoru-kun got the highest score on the Sailor V game yesterday, so we’re going to see if we can try and beat it."
"Cool," Usagi chirped, unable to resist an opportunity to one-up that jerk even if it was in a video game. "I'm game."
When they arrived at the Crown Game Center, they found Minako playing the Sailor V game while Rei chatted with Motoki as they watched Minako play. Makoto indicated for the girls to be quiet as she sneaked up on Minako.
"BOO," she cried.
"Argh," Minako screamed and then groaned as she died in the game. "Makoto!!!"
"I couldn't resist," the brunette replied. "So did you beat Mamoru-kun's score?"
"No," Minako replied. "I was about 5,000 points short of his score."
"Well let Usagi play," Makoto said. "Maybe she can beat it."
Minako moved aside and Usagi took her place. She waited as the list of high scores scrolled across the screen and noted that the highest score 12,849 was made by CHI who she knew was that jerk, Chiba Mamoru. The jerk was probably gloating, right now, about making the highest score in the game. Well, she planned to change that. Because of all the training she had went through and the battles that she had fought, Usagi had quickly discovered the more time she spent in her Senshi form, the more her power and abilities she seemed to able to access in her civilian form, which she put into good use while playing the game.
Since she had quicker reflexes, she was able to spot and kill the monsters more quickly and to dodge their attacks, but she was careful not to let the others discover this. As soon as her score had suppressed the jerk's she deliberately, although subtly, made a mistake .by making it seem like her fingers had got in the way of each other that caused her to die. Unfortunately for her, Rei had noticed, but the raven-haired girl did not say anything about it.
"Whoops," she said. "Oh well, at least I made the highest score."
She smirked as she typed USA in the blank spaces. She had beaten the jerk's score by 283 points.
"Who's playing next," she asked.
"Ami why don't you go," Makoto suggested.
"Okay," Ami agreed, but then let out a let eep when she looked at her watch. "Oh my gosh, I'm going to be late for cram school. See you guys later."
Usagi wrinkled up her nose in disgust. "More school? YUCK!"
"That's our Ami," Minako said. "Always studying." She noticed a disk on the floor and picked it up. "Oh no. Ami dropped her computer disk that she supposed to use for cram school."
"What school is she going to," Usagi asked.
"Crystal Hall," Rei answered. "Why?"
"Just curious," Usagi replied. "My friend, Mimi goes to Jin Cho. But hey, why don't I take Ami's disk to her?"
"Do you know where it is," Minako asked.
Usagi laughed mentally at her question. She should know where the school was since she and Luna had been spying on the place ever since she had felt bad vibes from walking past it a few weeks ago. But they hadn't been able to get their hands on any the computers disks that the school required their students to have. Until now.
"Yeah, Crystal Hall is near my neighborhood," she answered,
Minako handed her the disk and then after a quick farewell, she left. As soon as she was a good distance away from the arcade, she headed towards the computer shop. When she arrived, she waited till the owner was busy with several customers, and then borrowed one of the computers and inserted the disk in. The disk booted up quickly and then a shadowy black figure appeared on the screen.
"Energy. Give up your energy to the Dark Kingdom so that the greatness that is Queen Beryl and Queen Metallia may rise again."
Usagi began to feel light-headed and her vision began to blur, however realizing that it was the enemy’s magic being employed she focused on the powers the moon had granted her. She felt a cool rush of energy that helped clear her vision, as she quickly popped out the disk.
"I was right," she muttered as she left the shop. "The Dark Kingdom is behind this. They're using the disks to steal the energy of the students."
She pulled out her pink communicator, which resembled a little pink calculator with a gold crescent moon in one corner and a quarter-sized mirror in another. Making sure no one was around to hear or see what she was doing, she pushed a button and Luna's face appeared in the mirror.
"What is it Usagi," the cat asked.
"I was right Luna," she replied. "Crystal Hall is a Dark Kingdom operation to get energy. I'm heading over there now, so meet me there."
"Don't forget to use the Luna Pen," Luna reminded her. "Just in case you have to transform in front of anyone."
"I know," Usagi said and then turned off her communicator and put it back in her bag. She turned to head towards Crystal Hall and ran smack dab into a masculine and very muscular chest.
"Ow," she wailed, rubbing her poor nose. "That hurt!"
"You should have watched where you were going Odango Atama," a very sexy male, but very annoying, voice replied. Her head snapped and she found herself looking into the deep blue eyes of her archenemy, Chiba Mamoru.
"Don't call me that," she cried. "My name is Usagi."
"Odango Atama."
"ARGH," she screeched, unable to resist the childish urge to kick him in the shin. "JERK!!!!"
Usagi stormed off, leaving a cursing Mamoru, while muttering under her breath about egotistical, arrogant, idiotic guys. When she reached the cram school, she slipped into a dark alley and pulled out a pink pen, with a red gem attached to the pen cap, out of her subspace pocket. She smiled. Besides the subspace pocket, which was a invisible pocket created by Mercurians that allowed her to put ANYTHING in there (neither she and Luna understood how this was possible, but they both credited this to it being Mercurian product, who were noted of producing super geniuses during the Silver Millennium), the Luna Pen was her favorite super toy.
Holding up into the air, she cried, "Moon Power! Transform me into a school nurse!" In a dazzling flash of pink and white lights, Usagi's school uniform was replaced by a pretty pale green dress that stopped above her knees and white doctor's coat. Her hair was no longer in her customary buns and pigtails, but was now shoulder-length. She also had the look of a woman who appeared to in her mid-twenties.
Luna had not arrived yet, but she decided to go ahead inside. It wasn't like she didn't know how to fight now. She burst into the classroom and demanded, "Who’s in charge here?"
"I am," Ami said as she stood up at her desk. "May I ask what you want?"
'No not Ami,' Usagi thought, disappointment filling her that one of classmates could have been an enemy. 'Please don't let Ami be one of the bad guys!!!' Her prayers were answered when the teacher of the class arrived and turned into a tall, ugly red youma. It snapped its fingers, causing all the students, except Ami, to collapse at their desks.
"Who are you," the youma demanded.
"Your worst nightmare," Usagi replied. She pulled out her Moon Broach. "Moon...Prism...Power! Make Up!!!" In the dazzling flash of lights, and a moment of lack of modesty she experienced ever time she did this, Usagi transformed into Sailor Moon. She automatically went though her elaborate poses as she cried, "I am Sailor Moon! Champion of Love and Justice! How dare you turn use these innocent students into pawns your game! On behalf of the Moon, I'll punish you!"
"I think not," the youma retorted as she shot knife sharp test papers at Sailor Moon. "What's 84 times 3,593?"
Sailor Moon quickly dodged all but one of the test papers, receiving a cut on her upper right arm.
"First of all, you're not my teacher," she replied. "But if you must know the answer is 301,812. And secondly you better be glad that I heal so fast from these damn wounds that you and your little buddies keep inflicting!"
The youma glared at her and then snapped its fingers. The bewitched students rose and attacked Sailor Moon.
"Not again," she complained, as she dodged a punch that one male student had thrown at her. "This is the fourth time this month that you guys used hypnotized people to attack me. You'd think you guys would try attacking me yourself more often."
Meanwhile as Sailor Moon was occupied with dealing with the students, the youma had grabbed Ami and pushed her face against a computer screen. "Think you could get away from me could you. Give up your energy to Dark Kingdom! Do it I say!"
"Never you Dark Kingdom scum," Ami growled as the blue symbol of Mercury appeared on her forehead.
"So she's Mercury," a voice whispered from the shadows.
A cold fog filled the room. "Brrrrrr t-that's c-cold," the youma stammered, letting Ami go and hugging itself in an attempt to warm itself. Because it was freezing its ass off, the youma’s spell over the students broke and they all crumpled to the ground.
"Mercury Power! Make Up!"
"What was that," the youma demanded, looking around. It spotted Sailor Moon, who was trying to find the youma so she could moon dust it. The youma’s arm turned into a giant Viking axe which she tried to use to behead the unsuspecting, but missed when a blood red rose cut her arm. Hearing the youma's cry out in pain, Sailor Moon turned and moon dusted its ugly ass.
"Moon dusted," she cried in triumph. As the fog cleared, she saw the Senshi and Tuxedo Kamen checking the students to make sure that they were all right. She turned to leave, but stopped when Sailor Venus called to her.
"Sailor Moon, please join us," Venus pleaded. "We may have different destinies, but they have the same path. To defeat the Dark Kingdom."
"I can't," Sailor Moon replied quietly and then disappeared.
"How the hell did she do that," Jupiter demanded. "We can't do that."
"You aren't the Senshi of Mystery, are you," they heard Sailor Moon say with a hint of amusement in her voice, but she was nowhere in sight.
"Freaky," Jupiter said.
"No kidding," Venus replied.
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Sailor Moon and Luna watched from the shadows as Tuxedo Kamen and the Senshi leave Crystal Hall.
"So Ami's Sailor Mercury," Sailor Moon said quietly, her eyes on the Senshi in blue. "In that case Makoto, Minako, and Rei could be the other Senshi."
"Are you sure about that," Luna asked.
"No, but it makes sense," she replied. "You've seen how the Senshi in battle. They work as a close knit team, something you could only get if you were friends in real life as well as Senshi life. Ami always hangs around those three so it would make sense. It might explain the friendship between Ami and Makoto at school. No one’s been able to figure out how to different girls like them became friends in the first place. In any case until we're certain, we should keep an eye on them."
"Agreed," Luna said, feeling guilty. If it hadn't been for her, Usagi would have been able to be good friends with those girls, or good friends with anybody for that manner, but she couldn't. Because getting close to someone might put her in the position of having to choose between saving her friends and her Princess, and it was Usagi's duty and density to always choose the Princess.
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Final Thought from Mamoru:
Damn it, Odango Atama! When I get my hands on you….
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Author’s Note:
Thanks to my Betas Taylor and Phalon.
Thank you to everyone who reviewed or added this story as a favorite or their story alerts.
FF.net
Sayain46 • SailorMoonAddict (I figured if I was going to twist things, I might as well twist them a lot with Mamoru and Motoki’s roles changing.) • Comet Moon • Deadly Aura (Yeah the anime, tended to not make much of Usagi being Sailor Moon except for usually finishing the monster of the day. I think there had to be more for the Moon Princes being made a Senshi) • LoveInTheBattleField (Yes I did start writing this story under a different account before I stopped writing fan fiction and removed all my stories.) • Marscrystal42 (It’s debatable about Artemis’s memories of Luna at this point. Everyone from the Silver Millennium has some memories that they’re slowly recovering, but obviously at this point not enough to realize that Sailor Moon is the true Princess) • Squirrel holding a bazooka (Love the name
