Chapter One: Faimliar, Yet Different


  The city of Tokyo in the night, a beautiful sight indeed. The dark shadows of the buildings from the glowing lights danced around as cars passed on the road. The city, for the most part, is sleeping. All is normal when a large flash of light was seen but dismissed as a power surge by residents. As the sun came up that morning, rays of light hit Shadow Mercury's face and he slowly opened his eyes. He was surrounded by two buildings and a wall, in an alley with walls that stretched into the blue sky above them. The other shadow senshi were also waking up in the alley and finally the four of them came to realize their new environment.

Shadow Mars rubbed his neck a little and looked out at the passing people outside of the alley, his voice a bit hoarse from the shift, "It must have worked."

"I don't know but it looks a lot like our city before the war." Jupiter pointed out and rubbed his eyes a bit at the presence of the bright sun, not hindered by smog or smoke.

A group of little kids went running past the alley, laughing and yelling happily and all four of them blinked at the sound. "Children?" Shadow Venus said with a growing sense of joy in him, "That's something I haven't heard for a long time."

Shadow Jupiter nodded and smiled a bit himself, then started out of the alley to bask in the sun, "Well, we better take a look around."

"Not so fast." Shadow Mars said and caught his cape as he walked by. Shadow Jupiter blinked and looked back at him, but he just shook his head and let go of his cape, "I doubt people dress like this here as a daily fashion, Kage."

"Oh, right. I can't remember the last time we were in our human forms." He said back and grinned sheepishly, then stuck his arm out, "Naibu no Akari!" A circle of energy surrounded him and shot up his arm then to the rest of his body, changing his clothes and his very form. In the end, he was standing in a pair of black pants much like a gi, a green sleeveless shirt and a pair of black shoes.

"You always wore that, Kage."

The newly transformed Kage looked at Shadow Mercury with a smirk and waved his hand through the air tauntingly, "Yeah, yeah. Come on, Kurai-chan, do it."

Looking back at him with a flat look, Shadow Mercury raised his hand also and miffed a bit, "How amusing. Naibu no Akari." He slowly changed also and wore a school uniform much like the Juuban uniforms that were very popular around this very city.

"Suteki?"

Kage looked over to Shadow Venus but found he had already changed as well. Suteki straightened his jersey that was worn over a simple T-shirt, and felt the warm breeze on his bare legs from the shorts he wore. Kicking his feet out in a pair of leather sandals, he pushed some wrinkles out of his shirt and grinned, "Yeah, I remember wearing this."

He glanced over to Shadow Mars to speak but found him already heading out of the alley dressed in a dress shirt, untucked from his slacks and a hand in his pocket. Suteki grinned at the sight and felt things were normal, just for a moment, and followed out after him. Kage and Kurai soon followed and all four of them stepped out into the sunlight from the shadows. A dramatic moment passed as they watched the bustle of a normal life persist around them. Children, elderly couples and teenagers flocked around the streets with happiness in their voices and joy in their hearts. Even Yamito had to join the others in a sigh of relief at the sight around them. Their moment was cut short, however, when a blonde, meatball-haired girl came running around the corner, yelling at herself for sleeping in. She smacked right into Suteki and fell over on her butt, now whining about how rude people were these days, "Why don't you watch where you're going!" She soon looked up at the four and Suteki stumbled a bit, then turned and looked at her with a sneer. The girl just laughed nervously and rubbed her head, hoping they weren't going to yell at her.

"Excuse us. We didn't see you." The girl is shocked at the polite reply and stands up, rubbing her backside. But the guys were even more shocked as it was Yamito who said it, and not Kurai or Suteki. Yamito looked at Suteki for a moment and Suteki blinked, then got the message and stepped aside. She slowly walked by with her eyes on Yamito, the let out a nervous chuckle and took off running again.

The three of them watched the girl run off, then looked at Yamito with questions buzzing around them like silent gnats. Yamito just watched the girl disappear around the corner and then looked back to the others, "She was...." And instead of finishing, he merely turned and started to walk the other direction, leaving the other three in total shock.


"Man! I can't believe they wouldn't let me into school today only because I was forty-five minutes late." Usagi said to herself as she walked towards her house, "Oh wait! I can't go home, Mom would kill me if she found out about me not being able to go school. I guess I'll have to find Minako or Mako since they got out of classes today!" She started to walk towards the mall in a huff and mumbled about life being unfair. The guys she ran into earlier were in the back of her mind, and she didn't know why. The one who had spoken to her especially stayed fresh in her mind, but she knew exactly why for that one. Letting out a dreamy sigh, she looked into the sky and thought about Mamoru, and the fact that she hadn't seen him in a while. When she finally got to the mall, she found Makoto and Minako sitting in a malt shop looking out the window for guys. "Hey guys. Thanks for telling me you got out of classes today!"

"You should have taken Biology then, Usagi. Why aren't you at school?"

Usagi laughed a bit sheepishly and rubbed her head, looking at Minako, "I kind of was late so they said I couldn't come today."

Makoto grinned and ran her spoon through her shake a bit, "How late were you?"

"Only like, an hour."

Both Minako and Makoto did a face-fault and looked at her in disbelief, "An hour? No wonder, if you're even are twenty minutes late they won't let you in."

"Yeah, I know. So, what're you guys doing?"

Minako straightened up a bit and looked down into her drink, "Just sittin' here and having a shake."

Usagi didn't believe that for a second and prodded her with her elbow, "Yeah right, you're looking for guys! Have you seen any yet?"

"No, but we really haven't really..."

"Look over there!" Makoto suddenly interrupted Minako, pointing her finger wildly across the mall. The two girls looked across the center of the plaza and saw four guys walking and looking around at everything.


"I don't know why you wanted to come to this place."

Suteki smiled at some passing girls and then looked at Yamito with a pout, "I miss seeing all these people. Look at them, not a care in the world."

Kage peered over at him with a blink and cocked an eyebrow, "Why would you miss seeing people?"

Suteki shrugged again and looked around at all of the people, "I don't know, I like to remember what we were like before the war, when we just wasted time like these people."

"Well, hopefully now we can loosen up again. I mean look at us, we are standing in front of a restaurant and aren't going in because we're afraid the Organization may attack at any time." Kurai joined in quietly and looked at the others.

Kage and Suteki look around and see that he was right. Yamito had already leaned against a pillar and was in his usual cool stance, but the others looked like lost ten year olds. Kage suddenly got a thought in his head and blinked a few times, "Do you guys have money?"

The three pull out their wallets and looked through it, and Suteki looked up from the few bills he held in his hands, "I got like a couple hundred yen. You guys?"

"Not very much. I hope the money is the same in this dimension." Kurai said and put his wallet away in the pocket of his uniform. A couple of girls walked by and heard his last sentence, which made them look at him like he is crazy. They see the girls and Kurai gets a small smile in his face, "I would imagine that sounded unusual to those girls." Suteki burst out laughing and Kage just kept watching the girls, but soon something caught all of their attentions. Kurai slowly looked to Kage and narrowed his eyes a bit, "Do you guys feel that power also?" Kage looked from him slowly to Yamito to tell him, but Yamito was already staring off in the direction that the sensations were coming from.


"They're looking right at us!"

Minako startled Usagi and stared at the guys looking across the mall at them. Usagi tried to calm herself down and looked at them, something clicking in her mind, "Hey, I recognize those guys, I ran into them on my way to school this morning. They almost knocked me down." Makoto automatically perked up at the thought and glared at them a bit. Usagi's eyes automatically went to the one leaning against the pillar and she felt a bit flushed in the cheeks once more. Minako automatically wanted to go over there and meet them, but Makoto soon rose from her chair and held up a fist.

"You want me to go teach them a lesson?"

"No, Mako! I actually ran into them but they were really nice and let me by. I got a really weird feeling around them though, like I knew them."

Minako tilted her head a bit and her brow furrowed in thought for a moment. The three grouped together we looking right back at her and she suddenly grinned and waved, "Really, they do seem a little...." She suddenly stopped waving and noticed the one against the pillar stand straight and walk away. The other three lingered a moment, then followed without ever waving back. Minako slammed her hands on the table and stood up, watching them go with an angry look, "Hey, where are they going?"

"I dunno. A couple of them are cute though." Makoto said with a smile and watched them disappear into the crowd, "Oh yeah, Usagi, Rei wants the senshi at her temple to do a little training tonight."

"Training? I hate training! Why can't we just have chocolate sundaes instead?"

Minako got a small sweatdrop and smirked at Usagi, "You know Luna and Rei, they want us to stay ready for anything."

"Fine, what time?"

"Ten, and expect everyone to be there, even the others."

Usagi's eyes lit up and small hearts floated about her head, "Really? What about my Mamoru?"

"You'll have to come and find out." Minako said and gets up to leave, "Come on, Usagi."

Makoto got up, sips the last of her shake and follows Minako. Usagi stands with her head hanging and follows, "I hate training."


As the warm night fell upon the city, the four guys were walking in the area the Hikawa Jinja and were talking about where they were going to sleep. Suteki jumped ahead and walked backwards right in front of Yamito, "We could get a hotel room and actually sleep in a warm bed."

Yamito just shook his head at the request and looked past him into the dark, "We need to ration our money until we find jobs."

"So it looks like we'll be sleeping on the ground until we get jobs." Suteki sighed and turned around, walking in front of them and hanging his head a bit. All four of them suddenly stop at the same time and stare off into the night, none of them even saying a word for a moment.

Kurai looked into the darkness intently and spoke over his shoulder, "I know everyone felt that too." The others nodded and started to walk into the woods, keeping a cautious eye open.


"Come on, Mars, lay off me!" Super Sailor Moon whined as Super Sailor Mars attacked at her with her Flame Sniper attack. Super Sailor Mars set a hand on her hip and huffed at her, then shook her head at all the whining.

"Gees, Usagi, are you going to whine like that if an enemy gets too rough you?"

Super Sailor Jupiter, Mercury, Venus, Neptune, Uranus, Pluto and the two cats are standing in a group watching Super Sailor Moon and Super Sailor Mars sparring, a little put off by her whining as well. Luna sighed heavily and shook her head, "Come on, Sailor Moon, stay on your toes. We'll stay here as long as it takes."

"More training? I'm not a machine! I don't even know why we're training, there's no one to fight." Super Sailor Moon answered while catching her breath.

"As long as more evil is out there, the Sailor senshi need to be on alert." Luna retorted and nodded to Super Sailor Mars. Super Sailor Moon started to say something but Super Sailor Mars attacked her without warning and sent her trying to dodge fireballs.


"Sailor senshi!?"

Kurai blinked in amazement as the four watched what was going on through the trees. All four of them stared at the small group below and blinked, except for Yamito, who dropped to a knee and became lost in thought for a moment. Kage ran his hand through his spiky hair and almost seemed amused, "The senshi in this dimension are girls?"

Kurai nodded to himself and spoke to himself, nodding at his own revelations, "That’s why we were getting all of this energy that seemed familiar."

"This is way weird. Our counterparts in this dimension are girls, but really hot ones, in any case!" Suteki cheered with a sparkle in his eyes and a triumphant grin.

"I believe we should go down and introduce ourselves." Kage suggested and stuck his arm in the air, "Jupiter Shadow Power, illuminate!" Yamito turned his head to object but didn't get a word in before Kage started. The others looked at him as an amazing thing happens to their companion, nothing.

Kage looked at the ring on his finger with a blink and shoved it back into the air, "Jupiter Shadow Power, illuminate!" Still nothing happened and he got a bit flustered, "What is going on?"

Suteki tried it as well but still nothing happens, which ticked Kage off and made Suteki hit his ring with his other hand, like it would fix it. Kurai tried to transform as well but with the same outcome, nothing.

Yamito shook his head a bit and glared at Kage out of the corner of his eye, "Maybe you'll think about going off halfcocked now. Maybe we can't transform in this dimension."

He looked to Kurai for an answer but he was just as in the dark, "Uhm, we were transformed when we got here." Kage pointed out, smiling a bit sheepishly at Yamito. Yamito just looked back at the group of senshi and let his thought leave the problem of transforming right now.

Suteki was hardly as calm, "Maybe we won't be able to change back into Shadow senshi though! What if we are in our human form forever?"

"Maybe it's a good thing." Everyone, even Yamito, looked at Kurai in shock and he just looked back, speaking quietly. "After the war I'm looking forward to some rest. It looks like this Earth is well taken care of. It has its own senshi, so we can just relax and live normal lives." Yamito and Suteki looked at him unusually but Kage added his own thoughts.

"Maybe he's right." The other three now looked at him in surprise but he just shrugged casually, "I mean, it looks like they're taking good care of their universe, better than we did with ours. We need to leave well enough alone."

"I didn't think you would ever say we don't need to get involved. You, who almost got himself killed in silly gang fight because they were picking on that kid." Yamito said to Kage flatly, not surprised at his choice but still a bit taken by it.

"Well, I'm tired too. We should just mind our business and try to survive like normal humans." Kage said bitterly and turned around, then disappeared into the trees and the night. The other three looked back at the action through the trees, then Suteki and Kurai both turned to leave as well. Only Yamito stayed and watched them a bit longer, his dark eyes staying the whiny girl who seemed to have the greatest power he had even seen.


                                                      Next Chapter: New to Some, Old to Others