Lady Takeuchi
“So, who
is this guy again? And why are we supposed to be so interested in his disappearance?”
Usagi leaned back onto the floor, and stretched her legs out under the
table, gently prodding at Rei’s knees, who sat (while others would call
kneeled) opposite to her.
“Hey,
that’s my knee! And if you had spent more time listening to what Ami and
Mamoru had been saying Odango-dama (meatball-head!), you would have
heard exactly why we have to pay so much attention to them. Now put
that manga away!”
Usagi
got a funny look in her eyes, and smiled shyly. “Well since you were
paying so much attention, why don’t you explain it again?”
Rei
immediately sweatdropped, at the beginning of the whole explanation, she
had been paying careful attention to what was going on, but, Ami could
get a bit technical, and Mamoru could drone on for hours sometimes. Mamoru
had described every single detail of his acquaintance with the guy, and
Ami had bombarded them with the maths of probability, the probability of
the two cases not being somehow linked to each other. The truth was, excuses
made, Rei had lost interest in their little ‘presentation of facts’, and
had become busily involved in another manga which Usagi had brought over.
Makoto was daydreaming, and Minako had fallen asleep, drooling abned, what?
Drooling? On her table? “MINAKO-BAKA! (Minako-idiot!)” she screamed.
“Huh???
What???”
Rei
pointed one haughty finger at the wet mess on the table, and stood up slowly,
flames flickering behind her. “Look at what you did to…” She didn’t need
to finish, Minako was already running away from her.
Amidst
the clouds of fighting and running around the table, which somehow managed
to end up including Makoto and Usagi as peace-keepers, although not very
successfully… Ami and Mamoru sat quietly at the table, completely sweatdropped.
Luna and Artemis crouched under the table, with the same expression, until
Luna decided it was more than enough. Waiting for a gap around the
table, Luna jumped on the table and tapped her tail against the wood, careful
to avoid the wet sticky mixture on one corner. “QUIET!”
The
cloud of fighting froze, staring at the angry black cat, whose tail continued
to tap with annoyance. “Sit down,” she commanded, and they all landed back
on the floor (those who had been suspended in mid air) and sat back onto
their seats. “Now Ami and Mamoru, if you don’t mind, a shortened version
of what you had said earlier.”
Ami smiled, and reached out to massage the fur of Luna. “Okay, simple version
is, 5 years ago, almost on the same day of the Japanese Calendar, Kunki
Saito-Sato, the lone heir to the Saito-Sato enterprises disappeared…”
“Wait
a minute, is that the same enterprise as the one who owns those department
stores, shopping centers, luxury apartments, restaurants…”
“Jewellery
stores, office buildings, hotels, airline company, research…?”
“That’s
him.”
Minako
and Rei’s eyes glowed immediately at the confirmation of their guess, while
Makoto, on hearing about airline companies, began to shrink away. “It’s
not by chance…?”
“No Makoto, it’s not the same one.” Ami reassured her friend that it was
not the same airline company as the one who had took her parents away from
her. “He disappeared, and was never heard from again. At that time,
our memories had not yet been awaken, and the circumstances of that disappearance
are somewhat sketchy, but Mamoru and I have concluded that there must be
some sort of a link.”
A flash
of light suddenly appeared in the room, and a tall slim man stood at the
doorway. He was dressed in a ridiculous bright blue suit, his long straight,
pale blue hair had been tied back loosely, and to top that off, he wore
a matching hat, tilted towards his face so it was partially shadowed. “Good-day
ladies.”
“W-Who
are you?” Rei stammered.
“Oh,
I’m afraid that I have frightened you.” With one hand, he pulled his hat
off, and pulled a western bow, with the inside of his hat facing upwards,
close to his waist. “Forgive me ladies.”
Ami
suddenly recognized the voice of this figure and chuckled uncontrollably.
“Wait are you doing here? In this outfit?” The others stared at her, not
believing that Ami would know someone like that.
“Ah…
you recognize me. I’m afraid that I am not much good at this little game.
I thought that by dressing contemporarily, I could… blend in somewhat with
your environment.”
Ami
laughed, “with that entrance?”
“Excuse
me, I have not introduced myself to your other friends. The last time you
saw me, I believe, was in a gentleman, named Miles’ body (refer to Remember
Me), so I’m afraid that you have not
met me as such. My name is Deus Mercury, the protector of the planet Mercury,
and of the Princess of Mercury. I am here on an errand today, to help my
princess.”
“Where
are the others?”
“Ah…
Princess of Mars, always the spontaneously impatient one, you try to correct
it, my child, through your meditating, but I am afraid that your nature
is as is. I will not trifle with you, this is a test for the Princess of
Mercury.”
“I wish
you would call me by my name.”
“I have
always called you that my dear, and I’m afraid, after so many lifetimes,
habits are habits. It will be time to face your trials soon, each one of
you, as always, my princess is first. Your protectors will arrive when
it is your turn and present you with gifts. Let me first present mine,”
he kneeled at in front of Ami, bowing his head, he lifted his two hands
above his head to present her with a metallic blue mini-computer. “I hope
that you will find it useful, some programs I have written, some await
your instructions. Remember what I said about trusting your instincts,
and I wish you good luck.”
“Wait,
I thought you said that…”
“Of
course my princess, I will be with you, in mind and in soul. But I must
leave you on this adventure alone from this point onwards. It will be but
a short time, until you return, and I will be with you once again to improve
your life.”
“Alone?”
“You
will be without your friends, but your intelligence will show you the way.”
“I see.
What do you mean by improving your life.”
“I’m
afraid that if I tell you, the future may be known, and would become damaging
for all of us. I have rules which I must follow, and rules which I should
follow. You have been witness to me breaking the rules of the latter category,
but I will not disobey those of the former. Please do not ask me, it breaks
my heart to refuse your requests.”
“I won’t
ask then. I will see you after the test?”
“Yes,
but it will not be the test which mystifies you, it will be the aftermath
and I will be there to help you through it.”
Ami
bit her lip involuntarily, “I know. Thank you for your gift.
Deus
Mercury swept the his hat back onto his head, and backed into a corner.
With a smile, he waved goodbye to them, “farewell ladies, oh, I didn’t
notices, ladies and gentleman, forgive my mistake. I’m afraid that we shall
met again sometime.” An with an eye-shutting glare of white light, he disappeared
the same way that he appeared.
“I wonder
what your test will be, Ami.”
“I wish
I knew Luna, but…
“But
we can’t forget what they had threatened you with, Ami.”
Ami
smiled at Makoto’s concern, “I know, I think that they will be coming back
for me, somehow.”
“We’ll
have to protect you then, Ami, why don’t you come stay with me? My mum
loves you, you know, rub off some of that extra-intelligence on me?” Usagi
gave Ami a cheesy grin, and dreamed of her fantastic results and her parents’
congratulations.
“I can’t…
hey, let me test the computer out.”
Ami transformed,
and pulled out her visor as well, the others also followed suit in transforming.
They all gathered around her, seeing her tap commands into the mini-computer,
commands which they could not understand. The computer was different to
that of her previous one, instead of the opaque screen top, it had a transparent
cover that acted as a screen, so, instead of waiting of a scan to the computer,
she could see the image of the youma directly. Using some old files of
the youmas, she began a scan on one of the youmas. Her visor immediately
showed her the weaknesses like her previous one, but it also analyzed what
attacks she should use. Her visor, which had always just been a copy of
the computer screen, could now read commands right her mind. It surprised
her, because that meant that in emergencies, Ami only needed to think in
computer language.
Two small buttons, one yellow, and dark blue was at the corner of her screen.
SailorVenus poked at it nervously. “Mercury, what does this do?”
Poking
the blue one slightly too hard, a burst of energy suddenly emitted from
the other end of the computer. Bursting a whole through the door of the
room of the Cherry Temple, and knocking down a few trees along the way.
“Umm... considering the drain that I am now feeling, that would be one of the programs that Deus had
written. I think it magnifies my powers, because when you pressed that
button, I had just been thinking about one of my attacks to hit this filed
youma with… in the computer… but you pressing that must have… emitted it.”
SailorVenus
looked at SailorMercury sheepishly. “What about the 
yellow
one?” She pointed at it, without touching it.
SailorMercury
reached out and pressed it lightly, at once, the options evaded the screen:
the options listed out all of their attacks, and the energy charge of them.
On the corner of the screen was also an energy charge for herself, after
the magnification process. “That means that I can simulate your attacks
if I have enough energy to do it. But why can’t I choose them?” SailorMercury
fiddled around a little longer and smiled. “Can each of your throw your
attacks at me?”
“Wouldn’t
we hurt you though?” SailorMoon looked at her worriedly.
“I’ll
be fine, you go first.”
Each one of them did this one by one, and the crosses beside the names
of each attack disappeared. “Done! Guess what, I can even simulate the
Outer Senshi’s attacks if I input the energy with one of you guys.”
“And
just how are you going to get them to model one of their attacks for you?”
“I don’t
need to, I already have the simulation program for theirs, I don’t know
why that is though. Venus, will you try Uranus’ attack with me?”
“How?”
SailorMercury
stood up and pointed towards a tree, “aim there.” Attacking at the same
time, she commanded the 
computer
in her mind, also taking note to decrease the energy level of the whole
attack. At the precise moment when the two attacks met, it changed
into that of SailorUranus’, uprooting the tree.
“Cool!
But isn’t it a bit weak?”
“I had
no intention of tearing the whole temple apart, SailorMars.”
The
senshi detransformed all in good humor. SailorMercury with her new toy
to play with, and others, with the knowledge that they could return to
their normal daily routine… like continue watching anime and reading mangas.
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