Neo-Queen Serenity and Neo-King Endymion threw themselves on their royal bed after
a day’s tiresome governing business and tried to relax.
     “I wish I can take a couple days off from this never-ending governing career.”
Neo-Queen Serenity sighed.  “Why does there has to be so much things happening in the
kingdom all at once everyday?”
     “Every career has days off, and holidays, and breaks.  But not us, as King and Queen.
We have lost that privilege ever since we were crowned.  How I wish to forget about all these
governing junk and go back to the old days, where there were so much more freedom and fun.”
Neo-King Endymion sighed agreement.
     “Only if I can go for a few days of vacation.  I’d give anything for that now!”  Neo-Queen
Serenity said thoughtfully.
     “If you take your few days off, who’s going to sit on the throne?  Don’t tell me that you’re
leaving all these problems on my shoulders while you’re away!”  Neo-King Endymion exclaimed
in a teasing way.
     “Of course not, my dear.”  Neo-Queen Serenity assured her husband with a seducing
and bewitching smile.  “I know I’m irresponsible, but not that irresponsible, especially not when
you will have to take up the responsibilities for me.”
     “Relax, darling, I didn’t mean that.  I merely exaggerated.”  Neo-King Endymion smiled
apologetically, being daunted by her smile, and gave Neo-Queen Serenity a quick kiss.  “But, you
know, it’s easy to get to get moody after such a stressful and boring day of routine governing and
policy-making at court.  I didn’t mean to yell at you like that.”
     “But it was stressful as hell everyday!”  Neo-Queen Serenity remarked.  “I couldn’t
believe I withstood all these for lost-count-how-many-years and didn’t run away!”
     “I know, I know.”  Neo-King Endymion said, patting her on the shoulder.  “Now I wish
we can just retire right now and let Small Lady take over the throne.”
     “She’s still too young, and lacked the experience.  The kingdom could go into crisis with
a kid sitting on the throne!”  Neo-Queen Serenity shook her head.
     “Young?  Oh!  Dear!  She’s more than nine hundred years old alright!”  Neo-King
Endymion couldn’t help but laughed.
     “Nine hundred and eighty-five years old, dear.  But she still looks like a kid though. Well,
I know she’s growing, finally, but she’s still a kid, even after the trainings she got from the past
and all that.   It will be another couple hundred or so years before we could even think of
retiring.”  Neo-Queen Serenity sighed again.
     “Well, we’ve been governing for at least a thousand or so years nonstop.  Don’t we
deserve a break or something?”  Neo-King Endymion protested.
     “A thousand and five years, dear.  But only it’s still impossible to take a break right now.”
Neo-Queen Serenity corrected him.  “There has to be someone on the throne.”
     “You are turning into Mercury!  Dear!  So accurate in data!”  Neo-King Endymion
teased.  “That’s not like you!”
     “Only because I’m sick and tired of this stupid, ugly-looking, heavy crown on my head!
I’m counting the days till I can finally be rid of it for good.”  Neo-Queen Serenity rolled her eyes.
     “Hey!  I just thought of something!  What do you say if we let Small Lady practice her
governing skills for a week?”  Neo-King Endymion’s eyes narrowed mischievously.
     “Darling, what are you talking about?”  Neo-Queen Serenity sat up and stared at her
husband, bemused.
     “Let’s say we’re going on a workshop and have Small Lady sit on the throne for us for
just one week?”  Neo-King Endymion purposely emphasized the word “workshop” louder than
the rest of the sentence.
     Neo-Queen Serenity blinked for a few times and than exclaimed, “Brilliant notion!  My
dear!  Why haven’t I thought of it for the past thousand years?  It just might work!  Besides,
there’s my Court:  Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, and Venus, the Guardians of the Planet!  They’ll
surely take care of any problems arising when Small Lady is having trouble on the throne!”
     “You’ve got it, darling.”
     “Small Lady won’t like it.”
     “Does she have a choice?”
     “No.”
 

     Small Lady had had this dreadful feeling ever since her parents sent for her.  They
seldom had good news for her whenever they wanted to see her formally.  It would be either
another lesson from Mercury or something that was so educational it bores people to death.  But
she could do nothing about it, since her parents were the King and the Queen, and their word is
law.
     Sometimes she wished her mother wasn’t Queen and her father wasn’t King.  Life would
have been so much more easier and interesting for her!
 Despite her clumsiness in her domestic life, Small Lady had to admit that her mother
made a good Queen when it comes to important decisions.  Her father was the Queen’s moral
and spiritual support at all times, and most of the time the real decision maker.  He takes care of
a little less than major -- but not minor -- matters of the court, while the queen takes care of the
major ones, although there had not been any major problems in the kingdom for the past century
or so.  The Court -- the Guardians of the Planet:  Mercury, the smartest of all people, who dealt
with technological and academical stuff(actually, most affairs in the kingdom are more or less
technologically or academically related, therefore, almost everyone relied on Mercury’s
supernatural IQ to solve any problems that ever came up -- and there weren’t many);  Mars, the
Spiritual Elder, more like the Priestess of the Kingdom, who did all the fortune-telling and
fire-reading for any disasters that emerged;  Jupiter, the master of battles and domestic science,
her fighting skills were always handy when it came to battles;  Venus, the true leader of the four,
but no one seemed to acknowledge that fact since she was the most fatuous person on Earth next
to the Queen herself, even after all these year.  Though she had a talent for social events and
entertainments and such, and therefore took the role as the Kingdom Ambassador.
     After a lifelong hesitation in front of the Court Room door, Small Lady finally pushed it
the huge structure open, as if admitting her inescapable fate.
     She curtseyed to her parents, and realized that not just her parents were there, sitting on
the throne like a statue of a god and goddess, with her mother on a silver one, and her father on a
golden one.  The thrones were in that color in resemblance of their power, the Silver Crystal, and
the Golden Crystal.  Small Lady herself was believed to have inherited her powers from both
sidesof her parents, and was supposed to be the most powerful of them all, but it occurred to her
that just those from her mother’s side had shown.  The things she seemed to have inherited from
the King was his intelligence and the critical thinking.  Her own power crystal was called the Rose
Crystal, originated from the Silver Crystal and was enhanced by the nature her own power,
which had become what is now the Rose Crystal.
     Small Lady realized that her mother’s court was standing there as well, that made Small
Lady even more uneasy.
     “Small Lady,”  Neo-Queen Serenity spoke softly.  But it only  indicated something worse
to Small Lady.  Her mother only smiled when she intended mischief for her.  “What do you think
of  the Kingdom as is today?”
     Startled, Small Lady looked up at her mother in a questioning glance, but saw no
alternative in the Queen’s bright, blue eyes except to answer.  She had never expected such a
question first thing in the morning during court.  She turned towards the King, who usually stood
on her side when it came to moments like this.  But to her disappointment, she found out that she
was alone in this.
     “Uh......Crystal Tokyo......is in peace right now.”  Small Lady answered awkwardly, not
really used to that kind of questions.  Was her Mother testing her Social Studies skills?  But that
was Mercury’s job!
     “If you were to govern, would you make any changes to the current policies and political
system?”  Neo-Queen Serenity nodded at her answer, and asked another one again.  This time it
sounded even more weird.
     Small Lady almost blurted out: “Why should I bother?”  But, remembering that it was
her Mother the Queen who was asking the question, she changed her mind and said, “No, I
won’t.  The ones right now are working perfectly fine.”
     Neo-Queen Serenity smiled mysteriously, so did Neo-King Endymion.  It looked like the
four Guardians of the Planet were smiling, too.  But Small Lady couldn’t really tell.  What’s so
funny about her answer?  Small Lady wondered.
     “Sweetheart, the reason your father and I sent you here is because,”  Neo-Queen Serenity
paused for a second, cleared her throat, then continued.  “We’re going on  a workshop outside of
the capital of Crystal Tokyo.  And during our absence, you are to sit on the throne, temporarily,
representing the royalty of the kingdom.  Do you think you’ll be able to handle that?”
     “Is there an alternative?”  Small Lady grimaced and muttered to herself, almost stunned
by the frightening notion coming out from her mother’s mouth.
     “What did you say, sweetheart?”  Neo-Queen Serenity asked, noticing that her
daughter’s lips were moving but couldn’t hear what she had just said.
     “Uh......nothing! Mother.”  Small Lady said immediately, covering her response which
her mother would not want to hear.  She did not want to get spanked!  “I......I
think......uh......would the Guardians still be here while you’re away?”
     “Yes, of course, my dear.  I wouldn’t leave you here all alone to do such an important job. We just want you to have some experience in politics as in reality rather than the books.  And now
may be a good time for it.”  Neo-Queen Serenity said in her adult way, absolutely hiding
something from  her daughter, but Small Lady couldn’t figure out what.
     Yeah, but you’re quite close to it.  Small Lady retorted inside.
     The adults looked at each other, smiling somewhat mysteriously.  Small Lady had a
feeling that she was being set up, but it was always too hard to figure what the adults have in
mind unless they decided to tell you about it themselves, which was rather rare in occasion.
Sighing, she admited her fate silently.
 

     Saturn was cleaning one of her favorite lamps in her collection when Small Lady bursted
in without knocking on the door.
     “Wow! Your Majesty!  I’m lucky I’m not changing at the moment!”  Saturn said
accusingly, but her smile on her face had told Small Lady that she wasn’t serious.
     “Hotaru!  I’m in big trouble!”  Small Lady exclaimed in the cute way.  She called Saturn
her maiden name since they were very close friends and both didn’t care much about formalities.
“No!  I mean huge trouble!”
     “So what is it you ran into this time?”  Saturn asked without taking her hands off the
lamp.  Evidently it wasn’t the first time Small lady went into some serious troubles.
     “I’m going to sit on the throne for an entire week!  Oh!  Horrible!  Horrible!”  Small
Lady cried.
     What horror indeed!  Saturn turned about abruptly, nearly knocked down her favorite
lamp by the sudden motion, and stared at Small Lady with those big, mysterious darks eyes that
shone like a pool of dark wine in purple.
     “You sitting on the throne?”  Saturn blinked a few times, couldn’t believe what she had
just heard.  “You mean Neo-Queen Serenity and Neo-King Endymion actually let you do that?
Are they out of their royal minds?”
     “They sent me to the Court Room this morning and told me in front of the Guardians,
said they were going for a workshop outside of Crystal Tokyo for a week.  And meanwhile, I’m to
sit on the throne and represent them.”  Small Lady grimaced and told Saturn the story.
     Saturn pondered for a moment, then said, “Well, the Guardians will probably take care
of most of the matters, your job would be more like the ceremonial kind.  So what are you so
worried about?”
     “It still makes me uneasy.”  Small Lady paced around the purple painted room
anxiously.  “I thought it would be another couple hundred years before I’d actually make contact
with that Silver Crystallized Throne chair.”
     “The time was to come to you sooner or later.  It just happened a lot sooner than you
thought, and in an experimental manner.  I’m sure you can handle that, Chibi Usa.”  Saturn
analyzed the situation for Small Lady.
     “I hope you’re right, and I hope I won’t foul up this governing business before mom and
dad come back.”  Small Lady sighed.  “One can always hope for the best, right?”
     “So what have you come here for?”  Saturn inquired teasingly.  “You know my criteria is
Death and Destruction, which isn’t much of a use in the kingdom, with Neo-Queen Serenity’s
Imperial Silver Crystal power operating so effectively.  There hasn’t been anything in the universe
in the past thousand years or so for me to kill or destroy.  In fact I don’t think the citizens of
Crystal Tokyo even know I existed.”
     “Well, you’re my best friend for almost a thousand years.  I came here for moral support,
and you surely gave it to me!”  Small Lady laughed, a little relaxed.
     “That’s part of my job, or I’ll be totally useless in the kingdom!”  Saturn teased again.
     And the conversation ended in laughter.

     Void.
     Something was stirring, something as horrendous as an ogre and as evil as Satan himself.
     And no one was aware.
     It had been sleeping there for thousands of years, and not one single living creature was
aware of its existence.  And it was bound to wake up soon.
     It stirred again, under a whirlpool of black simmering liquid.  A blob of bubble bursted,
and then another.  It came close to a boiling stage now.  Then finally a shadowy head rose from
the whirlpool, then a body, and finally its legs.  But it showed no human features of any kind.  It
was just a shadow shaped like a human.
      The creature was looking for something.  It conjured a mirror on the wall.  It reflected
Crystal Tokyo, the beautiful city ruled by Neo-Queen Serenity and Neo-King Endymion.  The
image in the mirror zoomed inside the city.  It showed two people walking on the street.  They
looked like a pair of siblings.  Commoners, probably.  They seemed to be enjoying themselves.
     The creature grinned, it had found what it was looking for.
 
 

     “So after all these years our King and Queen finally managed to step down from the
throne for a few days.”  Uranus sat on a couch in her castle on Planet Uranus, facing the
communication screen that was hanging on the wall and in front of him.  On the hugh screen
showed the images of Sailor Neptune in one corner, Sailor Pluto in another, and Sailor Mercury,
the one who set up all the communication mechanisms and equipments, as well as programmed
and installed the technology, with the background of the Crystal Palace in Crystal Tokyo.
     “One week, or seven days, to be exact.”  Mercury corrected her, being the expert in data,
and restrictor of the accuracy in it.  “So for the next one hundred and sixty-eight hours in the
Queen and the King’s absence, we’ll have to be a bit more careful, since Small Lady lacked the
experience of dealing with crisis all by herself.”
     “I think Small lady can handle that well enough.”  Pluto’s voice, delivered by the
computer, was actually coming from the Time Gate at Planet Pluto.  She had been one of Small
Lady’s best friends for a long, long time, and of course was speaking on Small Lady’s side.  “After
all, she is the daughter of the King and the Queen.”
     “Which was what I’m worried about.”  Mars’ image appeared beside Mercury, sighing.
“It took our Neo-Queen Serenity a good ten years to completely understand the concept of
governing and politics, and not to mention to do it the right way.  I couldn’t imagine what
Crystal Tokyo would become without Neo-King Endymion in the first ten years after the Crystal
Millennium’s birth.”
     “Well, if you’d try to see to the good side of things, our Princess Small Lady still carries
half of her genes from her father’s side, which would most likely overcome the inabilities from the
genes inherited from the Queen’s.”  Neptune suggested, but she didn’t sound at all sure herself.
     “Obviously intelligence is the gene that’s dominating Small Lady’s brain right now.”
Mercury smiled, and started blabbling about Genetics and DNA and Biology.  The others simply
ignored her, for they were used to that.
     “The entire universe is in peace at the moment, and if Small Lady run into any trouble,
there’ll still be all of us along the line to put everything back to their right places.  So, let’s be
optimistic.  Besides, it’s only one week!”  Uranus implied.
     The other senshi agreed, and shut down the communication network, returning to their
own duties.

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