The large wooden front door of the Mizuno apartment closed softly about half an hour later. “Darling I’m home! Where are you?”
    Ami looked up at the sound of her mother’s voice, she had distinctly remembered that her mother had told her she would be home late. She wondered what her mother could be doing home already, and also how she knew that her daughter was home. She cleared her throat, and forced some cheerfulness into her voice as she answered, “I’m in my room mother.”
    Soft footsteps were heard as Mrs. Mizuno slowly climbed up the stairs, Ami swiped her hair from her face, her mother was probably going to come in and have a chat. She didn’t really feel like one, but she did enjoy talks with her mother. In the half hour, Ami had recovered from her crying fit. She had changed into her pajamas and taken a refreshing shower to clean the mess that was made from the tears. She had been reading in bed, but her mind wasn’t where the book had taken her, it was on what had made Asuka forget tonight’s meeting.
    “Darling, I heard about your night.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “The police had found Asuka in an alleyway, he had an epileptic fit.”
    “He what?”
    “We think that he had an epileptic fit, he had collapsed. That would be an explanation for his concentration problems sometimes in his competitions, and the other night when he was found in the park.”
    Ami bit her lip self-consciously, her mother had known much more than she had let on. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”
    “I was working in the wards not in Emergency when he was brought in at that time. He called for me when he woke up. I believe that it was after he called you, he said that you were angry at him for not turning up. At first he didn't want to let you know what had happened, but hearing your reaction to him not turning up, he wanted me to tell you the truth.”
    “Why didn’t he tell me then?”
    “He didn’t want you to worry about him, but after he told me what happened, I thought it would be better to tell you the truth.”
    “I see. Thank you for telling me mother. Can I call him?”
    “Tomorrow, come to the hospital with me and have a talk with him face to face. I think there is something more he wants to tell you but he didn’t want to let me know about it. I think you better have an early night tonight.”
    Ami smiled at her mother. “I thought you said I could have a late night.”
    Mrs. Mizuno smiled back at her daughter, and lightly took the book from her hands. Pulling up her blankets, she watched daughter snuggle down into bed. She has grown so much, so quickly, it seemed only yesterday when she was first born and this morning when she first called me mama. Planting a kiss on Ami’s forehead, she turned the desk lamp off. “Goodnight honey.”

Saturday 9:15am - In the Hospital
    “I can’t believe you didn’t tell me.”
    “You didn’t give me much of a chance did you?”
    Ami blushed as she remembered her mistake from the night before. She dropped her tone back and fell to a little girl’s shoe. “I was angry.”
    Asuka smiled in return to her embarrassment. “I know.”
    “My mother said that you might have something more to tell me.”
    “I didn’t have an epileptic fit last night Ami.”
    “What do you mean?”
    “I didn’t have one during the celebration dinner with the class either. I don’t know who to turn to, I don’t know who to tell. The police will think that I’m crazy, even I think I am crazy.”
    “What happened?”
    “I saw monsters Ami, three of them.” He reached out for his friend’s hand, “please believe me, I saw one of them kill this doctor.”
    “Monsters? Youmas?”
    “You know about them?”
    “I’ve heard about it, Asuka, tell me everything you remember about them.”
    “I don’t remember much. They kind of knocked me out pretty badly. I just saw three youmas, their names were like really strange, umm… Avarice, and Ossify, and umm… Animusor or something like that. I don’t suppose that matters much though.”
    “It does, try and remember everything.”
    “They were talking about this SailorMoon thing, revenging some queen’s death especially on SailorMercury because she obstructed them. I’m sorry, this whole Sailor things sounds stupid I know.”
    Ami was shocked to hear that something was planned against her specifically, but she couldn’t help but grin at what Asuka had said about her other identity. “Asuka, you’ve been away from Japan for too long, these Senshis really  exist you know, you hear about them in the news quite a lot.”
    “Ami, I’m scared. They must have done something to me, my head hurted like hell when they were talking, I think they did something, I mean the doctor did something.”
    “Asuka you don’t have any external injuries.”
    His whole body fell into a string of convulsions, he trembled and shook. “I’m scared, I don’t know what is going on. I might die, something might happen to me. I’m getting black outs, I don’t know where I am, I… promise me something will you?”
    “There’s nothing worry about.”
    “Promise me something.”
    “What?”
    “If I ever, I mean ever, do anything that might hurt you, get these Senshi thingys people to do something to stop me, even if it means killing me.”
    “I refuse to do this. I mean I can’t.”
    “I don't want to hurt you Ami.”
    “I can defend myself thank you very much.” ‘And much better than you think I can too’ Ami couldn’t help but add in her mind.
    “You have to, please!”
    Ami sighed, she couldn’t believe that she was hearing this. “This is crazy, you know as well as I do that what you are depicting won’t happen. Asuka, you’re overreacting.”
    “Please? Don’t give up skating, continue like nothing happened even if I leave this world. Skate for me, for all the things I could have achieved but didn’t have the time to.”
    “You sound like a dying man doing his last bequests. You’re not dying, and I’m not read out your last will and testimony, or deliver the final rites for you either.”
    “Look, I probably am, ok?”
    “Look, you’re not.”
    “Just promise me.”
    Ami closed her eyes in pain, deep inside she knew how true it was, what he was talking about, but she couldn’t possibly tell him that what he was thinking might actually happen. She could feel tears falling down her face, second time in two days. She clasped her hands over his, and nodded. She hoped whatever the Negaverse had done to him was reversible by SailorMoon, if they really had targeted him.
    It wasn’t exactly surprising that the Negaverse would target their friends since they knew their real life identities from the time when they had used the Deus and Ladies for their respective planets to search for them. And the possibility that she was being singled out as the one to hurt was astounding, she knew that she couldn’t defend herself in a face to face fight with the Negaverse. She could only hope that no one was being used to bring any of the Senshis out, especially to Asuka.
 

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