Aftermath
She turned in her bed listlessly; she had heard a loudish click, more like a thump from outside. She was tired enough to want to sleep through it and knew that it might possibly be her mother coming home now… her mother! She had to tell her about Ryo staying in the guest bedroom before she opened the door and found out herself. Ami leapt off the bed and glanced at the digital clock at her bedside, 3:00 in the morning?
While she was fairly sure that it was her mother outside, and that the thump was the turning sound of the heavy lock on their solid wood front door, still, the possibly of an intruder did not escape her. She made her way to her door and opened it slowly, peeking out; she went halfway done the stairs and paused. She silently scolded herself for not wearing her astigmatism glasses (yes readers, don’t you remember at the start of SailorMoon when she wore glasses??), she couldn’t barely make out the shape of the person in the living room with the dim light on the coffee table.
“Ami, what are you still doing up at this hour?” she heard a familiar voice from the blurry shape ask. The blurry shape had not moved, yet with the sound of her voice, the indistinct lines reformed and she could see her mother, albeit a little fuzzy, sitting at the sofa smiling like a love-struck teenager.
Mustering her ‘mother’ voice, Ami walked down the stairs with a posture of authority, “and what did you think you were doing out so late tonight young lady?”
Mewagi smiled at her daughter’s waggling finger and reached out to pull her daughter into her arms, dragging her onto the sofa, “hmm,” she sighed dramatically, “it was a wonderful evening don’t you think? The warm breeze, the stars…”
“The moon and the lovers,” Ami added in softly, “I believe that someone met somebody, and that someone is in love, and both of them have had some kind of a breakthrough on this wonderful evening, don’t you?”
“Hmm…” Mewagi held her daughter as she sighed once again with a tone of agreement in her voice, “things have certainly changed for the two of us.”
“Oh really?”
“Ami dear, I should tell you this, but I want you to remember while I do tell you this, that I did love your father dearly.”
“Oka-san! Are you going to get married? That’s wonderful, I like him already!” Ami exclaimed excitedly.
“Of course not dear! Not yet, I mean… no, we’re not getting married. Ami-dear, I meant your father from the Silver Millennium. But yes, of course I loved your father Hiro, things have changed, but what I mean, is the one from the past, not the present.”
“I see, is something wrong?”
“Do you remember dear, the rumors about why the Queen of Mercury died?”
“Something you dying of a broken heart, I could never understand where they got the idea from though.
“There is always an ounce of truth in every rumor my dear, when I was young, no older than you are now, I fell desperately in love with a young man, he was smart, handsome, and tall…”
Ami could not help but remember that her father was not tall for a man, in fact, he was only about as tall as she was now; he had been quite small in stature.
“…but he could not attend any of the balls or parties. My dear, my falling in love was a normal course of life, but there was a problem, he was not of our realm. My parents never worried about marriage of the royal blood, but to marry one who was not of the same kind, of the same realm! It was scandalous, like Chibi-Usagi falling in love with Pegasus, it was most forbidden and we were separated. It had been painful, but both of us knew that it was necessary.
“For our time, I was already considered older than most unmarried young girls, the people of Mercury began to wonder if I might ever marry, and to quash those fears I was escorted to every ball. I met your father there but people were disappointed by my choice, they had expected a warrior of some sort, a man of stature, not the bookish man that your father was, he was a successful scientist, but he was not a hero. Your grandmother often joked that he would have to wear stilts on our wedding day, but I refused to give it up. Your father had always known, even when he proposed he said that he knew that there would always be a part in my heart that he couldn’t reach, that he would not try to fight with someone that he could never win. He had never felt threatened by the other person, and I assured him that while I would never be able to love him as fully he deserved, I would always love him as much as I could, and nothing would ever interfere. I would be his faithful and loyal companion. He was satisfied with that and we were married. I never forgot this man, but I knew that if I was to ever marry a person of my realm, it would be your father and I was happy.”
Ami nodded and said slowly as realisation dawned on her, “and Kendo-san is now that other man, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he was my Deus Mercury; after his task was completed he relinquished his title and immortality to become human, and be here with me.”
“I think that’s wonderful – that’s so romantic.”
“You don’t have a problem with that?”
“Only that my oka-san works much harder than I do and still holds down more of a nightlife than I do?” she replied meekly.
“Well, what are you doing still up?”
Ami gulped, she had almost forgotten about Urawa who was sleeping in the guest bedroom, speech evaded her for a moment, she knew that her mother had once been quite certain that there was more than friendship between Urawa and herself. Taking a deep breath, she began to reiterate the story of how he came to stand at her door and asking for shelter.
Kurai-Ousama paced his throne room, there was a body lying in a capsule in the room, not quite alive, not quite dead. Kurai-Ousama had hoped to save this son, but he knew now that he would never live, once he stopped feeding the magic that kept him alive, his sone would die. Fatally wounded beyond their help – Kurai-Ousama felt rage, he could not lose two sons, he would set out to reclaim one of them.
Saturday 10:30am
Ami sat at breakfast with two people – it had been a long time since she had had breakfast with anyone at her table; her mother was often too busy at work. She smiled as she put a spoonful of porridge in her mouth, hearing her mother chattering with Urawa, hearing the exhaust fan motor sucking up the aromas of the cooking. It was almost a normal family gathered around the dining table eating a normal breakfast, but it was a façade; Urawa was a future-seer – no problem; she was a senshi, Sailor Mercury in fact, and a princess; but to top it all of, there was a queen at the table, the Someieichi-kou, who had the ability to write part of the future.
She giggled and smiled sweetly at both of them, “what will you two be doing today?”
Her mother looked at Urawa, expecting him to first answer the question, “I need to find someone to get some advice,” Urawa answered vaguely.
Mewagi raised an eyebrow knowing full well that he had been vague because the person he had meant to speak to was Deus, and he knew that she would disapprove, “well, I have some paper work to finish up today at the hospital and then I’ll be home for dinner tonight, I was thinking of cooking up a nice dinner for all of us.”
“Are we planning on having guests?” Ami tried to keep her face straight.
“Urawa-san is a guest.”
“Anyone else?”
“Umm… Mizuno-sama,” Urawa cleared his throat nervously to interrupt their friendly happy canter, “I don’t think that you will have the chance to cook a dinner, I have a feeling that we might be eating ramen from the hospital.”
“Do you intend to get yourself sick Urawa-san, and in my hospital?” Mewagi inquired in a low, and somewhat threatening voice.
He nearly choked on his hot tea at the threatening glare that he received from both women, “no, but someone else does – I should say someone intends to get someone else sick.” He was glad to see the pointed looks soften as he muttered to himself, “note to self, Mizuno women, never ever cross them.”
12:24pm
Kunki watched at the side as Ami skimmed across the cold surface of the skating rink, it was her first rehearsal in her new skating dress. The All-Japan qualifiers were coming up in a fortnight - the day after her birthday; there would be no celebration until afterwards. But the sight before him… it was as sight for sore eyes, she wore a pale blue chiffon dress sewn over a white body suit that she wore with bluish silvery beads and metallic pieces that glittered under the light. As she skated across the rink, the colouring camouflaged her body into the ice leaving behind only a sparkling image of a splendid jewel. She was the senshi of ice, and right now, as she glided on the ice, she was an embodiment of the ice and her twinkling form only exemplified her ownership and her preciousness.
He sighed, was it possible for the view to improve? He picked up his thermos of cold tea and took a sip. He remembered the first time that he had seen her skate, he had been shocked to see the sadness and despair oozing for each of her pores, yet she had been so elegant and fragile. Now, it was different – there was confidence in her elegance, there was quiet contentment in her being. She was different now, yet she was still the same person that he had, and still would readily give up everything for.
There was a sudden clenching of the chest and his body stiffened. His left arm straightened and his elbows locked as his mind was engulfed in smoke and his brain became partly numb and distanced from reality. He could not breathe and his sight began to be invaded with dark black spots flashing on his vision. He tried to stand, but he could barely raise himself from the seat – in mere seconds he had collapsed to a heap beside the stand.
She heard a thump on the ground, no, it was more like a huge crash that promptly crumbled the illusion she was skating in. Opening her eyes, she scanned the area and found her eyes quickly drawn to Kunki’s heaped figure off the side. “Bai-S-kun!!” she screamed as she almost tumbled towards him, her legs pushing her from the ice when she reached the edge of the rink, and she quickly scrambled to his side. Turning him to his back, she checked his pulse and breathing: none.
Tilting his head back she cleared his airway and proceeded to slide her hands across his chest to measure the point at which to apply pressure. Pressing a button on her communicator, she did not bother to check who she had called, as soon as a voice answered, Makoto, she yelled frantically without looking at the communicator, “Makoto-chan, call the ambulance, I’m the practice rink, Bai-S-kun collapsed, I’m doing CPR!”
“Sure, I’ll call them right away, and I’ll make sure that one of us will be with you soon, hang in there alright?”
“Just get the paramedics now.”
“Jupe out.”
Ami placed one open palm on the position of the chest and placed her other hand on top of that one, hooking her fingers together she pressed into the chest firmly, “one… two… three… four… five…”
After fifteen pushes, she tilted her head backwards and breathed in to his lips, twice, each time checking to see if his chest inflated. “Come on, you can’t die on me Saito-Sato, you stubborn, annoying, hard-headed…” she choked down her tears as she continued, “one… two… three… four…”
“BREATHE!!” she cried in despair after breathing into him twice, “I can’t lose you, I… I can’t see you die twice, it’s not fair, you can’t die, you’re not allowed to die, I forbid you!” She wailed hysterically, yet the rhythm at which she was pumping his chest did not slacken, “God doesn’t want you, not yet, no one wants me but me, you aren’t supposed to die, what am I supposed to do without you, you big baka!”
She didn’t know how long it was, she had lost count of the cycles of CPR that she had gone through, until she felt a large pair of hands on her shoulder pulling her away. Dazed, she looked up to see two paramedics, one holding her back, trying to tell her something that her mind did not register, the other crouching down to the ground and attaching a pump to his mouth. The paramedic attending to Kunki signalled and said something, and she felt the hands loosen as the other paramedic crouched down as well and lifted Kunki onto the collapsible stretcher.
“AMI-CHAN!” Usagi’s holler broke through the fog that was surrounding her head, and she found herself in Usagi’s arms, “what happened, are you alright?”
Ami fell into her, her legs giving way, her arms sore and exhausted, “I don’t know, I don’t know what happened, I was practicing… and then… and then… I heard this crash, this huge crash, and… and he was just there… just lying there… like… I don’t know… oh God, where is he? Where are they taking him?” Tapping into her inner strength she struggled against Usagi’s arms, “where are they taking him?!”
Another pair of hands rested on her back, “it’s okay Ami-chan, they’re taking him to your mother’s hospital, I heard them…”
Her mind was at rest with the knowledge that someone would be taking care of Kunki, someone would be taking good care of him. She didn’t know when Rei had arrived, she hadn’t even seen her come in, she hadn’t felt her warm presence approaching at all.
“Come on,” Ami heard two voices say simultaneously, and then only Makoto continued, “let’s go to the hospital and see what they’re doing.”