Tokyo’s Child
Sunday 10:00am
        “Usagi!!  Breakf… huh?”  Ikuko Tsukino stared at the sight before her when suddenly the four girls bolted up from their positions of sleep.
        “AHH!!!  I’m late for school again!!”  Usagi yelled as she leapt out of her bed, tumbling over the three other girls who had been sleeping on the floor resulting in an assortment of ‘ouch’s.
        “I thought you girls had left last night, I…”
        Usagi, who seemed to come to her senses after having tumbled to the ground and looked at her mother sheepishly, “well, Rei-chan came back to apologize for being so mean to me all the time, and so did the…” She never got to finish the sentence when she found three pairs of hands coming down at her to strangle her, “AHHH!!!”
        “I’ll leave you girls to it, breakfast is ready though.”
        “O-umph-kay-ah-ota-san(i.e. mother)-get-off-me-you-guys!!”
        “What did you just tell your mother about us?”  Makoto yelled.
        “What did you expect me to say when my mother came in last night and found that all of you had disappeared?”
        “And just why did your mother come in to your room last night?”  Minako asked with her hands on her hips.
        “Well… you know when you guys were using my powers… well… supposedly… everything started to float… Luna thinks that the Guizuishou was being overworked because of something to do with it trying to heal me at the same time, and something to do with the moon’s pull of something to the Earth and something that happened because of something else since Ami did something to me when she was using my powers to do whatever thing it was that you guys were doing…”
        “Uhum Usagi-chan, you’re saying a lot without saying anything in particular, because your somethings and somethings make very little sense to us!”  Rei said.
        “Oh…”  Usagi trailed off, her eyes darted around the room and rounded in shock, “where is Ami-chan?”
        “What?”  The girls looked around quickly and noted that indeed their blue haired friend was not with them, they whispered her name softly so as to not draw notice to the Tsukino family as they upturned the furniture to find her.  “She’s not here, last night couldn’t have been just a dream.”  Minako said.
        “GIRLS!  There is something on the news that might interest you, something about one of your friends!”  Ikuko yelled from downstairs.
        The four girls looked at each other in shock, then immediately proceeded to rush down the stairs to the dining room.

        Mamoru stood in front of his stove waiting for his breakfast to warm in the small steaming pan and his tea to effuse to a strong enough mix.   Looking up at the clock at the wall, he strode to the bowl on his glass coffee table where his remote controls sat.  Flopping onto his white couch casually, he picked up the remote for his television and placed his finger on the ‘on’ button when the doorbell rang.  Sighing, he took a look at the clock once again, his brow frowned; it was too early for Usagi to be here, walking to the door, he placed the remote onto his dining table and opened the door.  He stared at the young man before him, his blond locks tousled beyond recognition, his face sallow, his eyes robbed of life.  “Zoicite?  What are you doing here?”
        “My Prince, Prince Endymion, I apologize for being here, but I have no where else to go, I am certain that I will go distracted… I…”
        “Come in,” Mamoru interrupted, “we can talk inside.”
        “My Prince I…”
        “Mamoru Chiba, that is my name now.”
        “My liege, I remembered that you never enjoyed the formalities.”
        “Then why don’t you stop,” Mamoru grumbled.
        “Because you deserve the respect, but I will stop as you wish,” Zoicite said as he stepped into the cosmopolitan styled apartment.
        “Take a seat,” Mamoru said as he turned back to his kitchen, pointing his guest to his dining table, “would you like some breakfast?”
        “Thank you.”
        Mamoru returned to his guest shortly with a plate of breakfast that he placed between them, “please,” he offered as he took one of the buns, “now, what can I do for you?”
        “I need to talk to someone I can trust, I don’t know what is happening, I spoke to Someieichi-kou last evening, she referred to the link her step-daughter and I would have had as lovers…”
        “Whoa, she had a hand in your remembering the past?”
        “Yes, Chiba-sama, she did, but nothing makes sense to me.”
        “I’m not surprised, she speaks in puzzles.”
        “I spent last night trying to re-establish the link with Princess Mercury, I couldn’t.”
        “She has changed.”
        “But surely the essentials remain!”
        “True.”
        “We were soul mates, I remember the love that we had.”
        “You remember the whole of the past?  I thought you said nothing made sense.”
        “From what I remember then; I loved her with my heart and soul.”
        “And she?”
        Zoicite faltered, “I don’t remember.”
        “First of all, you don’t know if you were truly soul mates, first reason why you couldn’t make a link, second, as I said, she’s changed, even if you were soul mates from the past, it means nothing now.  Usako and I, we were soul mates from the past, but we are together now because of the present, not the past, you can’t live in the past, especially when you are not sure of the past.”
        “Do you remember the past, of Princess Mercury and I?”
        “Nothing, I don’t know if it was because you were never an item, or because I don’t remember, my memories are as ajar as yours are.”
        “And Someieichi-kou won’t tell me.”
        “Again, I’m not surprised.  Either she enjoys her role too much, or she is like the Ami-chan we know now, she plays by the rules.
        They sat in silence for a long while, neither saying a word as they concentrated on the buns that they were eating.  Finally, Mamoru absentmindedly reach to the remote control and turned the television on to break the tense silence between them.

“…Asuka Akiyama, and Ami Mizuno and have all been admitted to their respective county hospitals for medical examinations, mostly in the Juuban District.  All except one have been released, although they seem to have lost memory of what has transpired during this time.  However, one of the victims, Ami Mizuno, is currently still in observation due to knife wounds and an unexplained illness, and is currently in isolation at the Juuban District Hospital.  Hospital staff have not made any comments to the mysterious and potentially dangerous illness nor the loss of memory that has occurred, however, the head of the Emergency Department and Pediatrics, Doctor Mewagi Mizuno has indicated that she will hold a brief press conference regarding the matter at midday today…”
        Zoicite looked at Mamoru, his eyes brimming with tears of joy, “she’s back, Princess Mercury is back, I have to visit her.  Farewell my liege.”  He said as he dropped the bun onto the clean tabletop and rushed to the door.
        Mamoru stared at the empty spot where his general from the past had sat only seconds ago, “wait!” he yelled to the man who had vanished out of his apartment, he shook his head and murmured, “she is in isolation, you can’t visit her.”  He sighed and gave a lopsided grin at the blank air before him, “and thank you for visiting.”.
 
“One of the victims’ family is the well-known…”
        The girls yelped in jubilation as they heard the news, although the name of the patient had been withheld, they knew, from last night that Ami had been wounded and suffered from some strange unknown illness.  They hurriedly bowed to the Tsukino family and thanked them for their hospitality before leaving the house… dragging along Usagi, who was busy eating breakfast….

        Urawa looked at the television with disinterest, he already knew about the news that they were talking about, and he also knew that Ami would not awaken until 2:00pm today because that would be when the news reporters would be frantically swarming the hospital.
        “Mizuno… isn’t that a friend of yours?”
        “Hai oto-san (yes father).”  He mumbled into his breakfast and turned away.

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