So Hard to Find - Chapter 1
by Sereko
sereko13@yahoo.com
*Cringes* All right, this is a bit shorter than what I had
hoped for...but I reached such a beautifully natural cliff-
hanger that I just had to stop the chapter. You'll forgive
me, right? Well, even if you don't, I think you shall
greatly enjoy this chapter. *Pats herself on the back* I
did a good job, if I do say so myself. See you next week!
Oh! And thank you very much to those of you who critiqued
my story the first few days it was out (You know who you
are...and if you don't, then...onesmallmunchkin, Soluna,
and roseangel637)!! You have no idea how helpful those
encouraging comments were for me!
Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon or any of the characters
associated with the story. I merely use Naoko Takeuchi's genius
as a starting point for my own storytelling.
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Chapter 1
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Her name was Isabella. Princess Belle, for short. She was beautiful,
about Sailor Moon’s height with almond-shaped eyes and a river of silvery
hair that reached to her thighs. She was elegant, with educated speech and
graceful movements. She was commanding, a born leader.
She was a princess.
She was *the* princess and the sooner he got that through his head
the better. When he had first heard Sailor Moon’s revelation, he didn’t
believe it. Yes she seemed familiar, but not in the I’ve-been-in-your-
dreams-for-as-long-as-you-can-remember kind of way. Her hair wasn’t as
golden, her eyes not as blue as he had expected. She didn’t have the same
warmth about her that she did in his subconscious.
Stop fighting it, he told himself.
She wasn’t what he had expected, because he had stopped expecting
her. He had spent almost a year fighting evil alongside the senshi,
alongside Sailor Moon. He had given up hope during all that time that he
would ever manage to find the princess of his dreams. He, instead, had let
the tingle of feelings he held for Sailor Moon grow and prosper. There was
no physical princess in his way to prevent him from pursuing something with
the heroine, so why not?
He had started by staying after battles; he didn’t run away anymore.
Then he actually began to jump in and fight instead of just waiting for the
moment when Sailor Moon needed him. The other senshi slowly began to trust
him because of his less aloof appearances. Now they saw him as another
comrade, not a stranger.
Working his way into the senshi group took time and patience, but he
didn’t mind. He did it for Sailor Moon. He knew it was important to her that
the other senshi trusted him as one of their own - it was important to him,
as well. And hell, it meant that he was able to spend more than a few
seconds standing next to her.
But now there was the princess.
Mamoru shook his head. He felt torn. On the one hand, he had come to
care for Sailor Moon and on the other hand, he had been waiting his entire
life for the princess. He had built great purpose around finding Isabella. It
was the center of his life and behind most of his decisions. How could he
forget about her in lieu of his perky blonde?
He couldn’t, he solemnly decided.
-----
There had been a discussion about where she would stay. She had no
living parents in this lifetime, which didn’t bother her since she
remembered her family from the Silver Millennium so well. The government
cared for her and educated her in the form of orphanages and foster care
until she was sixteen and deemed able to live on her own. She had spent most
of her life remembering what once was and trying to come in contact with her
senshi and others from that time. For the past year she had been searching
from country to country, town to town, and she finally found her court in
Tokyo. It wasn’t hard to find them once she had entered Japan. There were
news reports at least every day, almost everywhere in the country, about
their exploits.
It was eventually decided - after the awe of her presence had worn
off - that living with Makoto would probably be the best solution. Makoto
didn’t mind turning her one bedroom apartment into a double to accommodate
her princess.
The next step had been securing an education. Belle would enlist at
Juuban High to join the rest of them the following day. The senshi had
already detransformed and shown her their true forms, so there wouldn’t be
any confusion.
-----
Algebra. Creative Writing. Art. Chemistry. English. Physical
Education. Those were her classes. She shared the first two with Usagi and
Ami, and then she was alone until chemistry, which she shared with Minako.
All three of the senshi plus Makoto joined her for sixth period P.E.
They were playing volleyball today. Minako needed no prompting to
show off her talents at the sport. She was on the school’s varsity team and
that information led her opposing team in P.E. to give up before the game
had even started. Belle had fun learning things like this about her senshi.
True, she knew almost everything about them in their past lives, however,
she knew next to nothing about their lives in present day. She was
determined to find out as much as humanly possible.
In the same way, the senshi were determined to find out about the
Silver Millennium. Belle smiled. It was odd that she was able to retain most
of her memories and they weren’t. She was very reluctant to tell them that
she, too, had some holes in her memory because the girls were so excited by
what she *did* know. Even when she managed to tell them, they hadn’t seemed
the least bit deterred. They had yet to ask a question that she did not know
that answer to. Well, that wasn’t completely true. They had asked one
question that she had no idea about.
Who had Usagi been?
The others assumed, since Belle had not known the answer and she
knew most of everything of their past, that Usagi was just a commoner. The
princess had never met her. Luna came up with the theory that when
reincarnated, Sailor Moon was created as a replacement until the princess
claimed her position as leader. It was either that or the queen knew that
another senshi would be needed to fight the powers of darkness in the future
and made sure that another was created after she died. The verdict was still
up on which theory was correct.
Belle glanced over at the blonde. The girl unsettled her. Every time
she was near her or looked at her, a strange chill ran up her spine. She
couldn’t explain it and since she wasn’t a very big fan of the unexplainable,
she kept as much distance as she could from Usagi - both physically and
emotionally.
-----
She felt like a diseased child. Plague, here! She’s got the plague!
Get quarantine on the job, stat! For some reason Belle would never venture
within ten feet of her and, consequently, the other entranced senshi stayed
just as far away.
Usagi rubbed her forehead.
School had passed by as usual. Well, except for the fact that she
didn’t get detention. She slept like a log the night before, but since the
battle had been so early in the evening, she hadn’t been too tired to wake
up and get to school on time - of course, that didn’t keep her from waiting
until the last second and sprinting to class. So now, she was wandering down
the sidewalk with her friends and princess. Destination: Crown Arcade.
As the girls continued to walk ahead of her, she let a small smile
flash across her face. A little Sailor V was just what she needed to relieve
some stress.
Someone poked her from behind. The other girls did not notice and
continued on into Motoki’s paradise without their former leader.
"How’s it going, Odango?"
Usagi twirled around, a ready retort at the tip of her tongue. The
retort never came. She floundered as she stared at her nemesis and was
unable to stutter more than a few grunts. Her body sagged in defeat. The new
stresses of her life were now affecting her daily rituals. She could’ve
pouted.
Instead of being met with an enthusiastically spouted insult,
silence permeated the air. The blonde thanked her lucky stars and then fell
back into her dry and disgruntled attitude. "What? Cat got your tongue,
baka?" said her sarcasm.
Without warning and coming completely out of nowhere, Usagi’s
supposed archenemy fiercely grabbed her chin. There was a look in his eyes
that startled the girl. She could’ve sworn it was concern.
"What happened, Odango?"
An eyebrow lifted in confusion. "Happened? Nothing happened."
"Then what is wrong?" he insisted.
Usagi threw her arms up in exasperation, though it made a funny
sight since Mamoru still clutched her chin in his hand. "What are you going
on about?" she demanded.
Azure eyes narrowed sharply. "What happened to you?" he demanded
right back.
"I have no idea what you are talking about!" she exploded. What was
with this man? He was delusion at best, she was sure. Since when did he care,
anyway? There was nothing wrong with her. She was perfectly fin...Usagi stood
stone solid. The pad of Mamoru’s thumb had slipped to a spot very near where
her jaw line met her earlobe. He had found a tearstain left over from P.E.
and was rubbing it off of her face.
"I am talking about this," he whispered.
-----
"You will love the milkshakes here, Belle. They are the best in the
country!" exclaimed Minako. As usual, the girls were sitting in a booth
waiting for Motoki to saunter over and take their order. Rei had been there
when they arrived and was already delving into some French fries.
A few schoolboys in the corner were eying the princess with a
certain twinkle in their gaze. This caused Makoto to send them a well-
practiced death glare. Immediately they turned and seemed to become
peculiarly interested in the arcade game next to them. The owner of the
arcade and parlor saw this and laughed as he walked over to join the girls.
"What can I get you girls today?" he said as he pulled out a pen and
pad.
Ami smiled politely at the young man while ordering. Once the others
ran off what they would like as well, she gestured to the newcomer. "Motoki-
san, I would like to introduce you to Isabella. She is new here in town."
The blonde smiled and bowed in greeting. "It’s nice to meet you. I
was wondering who the new eye-catcher was." He winked. "These four here
already draw most of the male attention around this place. However, when you
walked in with them today, I don’t think a single man wasn’t drooling."
Isabella blushed becomingly. "You are too kind, sir."
Once Motoki walked off to retrieve their orders, Makoto gave her a
nudge in the side. "Now you know the real reason why Minako thinks Crown
milkshakes are the best. She gets to stare at him while she drinks them,"
the brunette finished with a laugh.
"I’m not the only one," Minako glowered. "I have it on very good
authority that you daydream about him in class."
"I do not!" came a flushed retort. The two girls took no time in
getting into a full-fledged argument over the issue.
Ami and Rei leaned toward their princess and away from the spittle
flying out of the yelling girls’ mouths. Simultaneously they whispered in
Belle’s ears, "Not again." To this, the monarch giggled thoroughly -
something she had found herself doing a lot of in the past two days. Her
senshi were so much more fun and energetic in this life, she mused. Vague
memories of them from before flittered across her mind. They were never
quite as close then as they were becoming now. Something drew on their
attention other than her a thousand years ago. A fog settled over her before
she could determine what had divided their time. She was unable to be rid of
it by shaking her head and that bothered her greatly.
When her eyes drifted to glance out the sliding glass of the arcade
doors, everything inside of her suddenly came to focus. The other members of
her group turned to look as well after they heard her inhale sharply.
A smile swallowed her up as she stood abruptly. While she proceeded
to the doors, she was unaware of the shock she was leaving in her wake.
Just this once, Ami’s eyes were filled with grave curiosity instead
of understanding. Her mouth bobbed open and shut like a floundering fish.
Minako and Makoto had frozen in their fight and were in similar states of
disbelief. Rei had promptly fainted, her head landing soundly on the coffee
table.
For all intents and purposes, it looked as though Chiba Mamoru was
about to kiss his self-proclaimed nemesis Tsukino Usagi.
-----
It was almost a sure thing that had they been given a few more
moments alone, Mamoru and Usagi would have acted on their primal attractions
to each other. They would have kissed. The earth would have shuddered and
the sky would have sung from it. The universe would have finally locked into
place and made some sense to the scientists who studied it. But they were
not given those few moments; they were interrupted.
A girl had gripped Mamoru's arm while throwing her own around his
neck. The momentum in her movements had him reeling a step back from the
blonde odango. Initially, he hadn’t been aware of her presence out of the
corner of his eye. All he had noticed was that when she came into Usagi’s
view, the hand that Usagi had previously slipped onto his hip had tightened.
The meaning of that gesture was soon to be lost in the millions of
words that Belle threw at him. "Hold it! Hold it!" he yelled defensively
while his hands moved to push her away. "Who the hell are you and what are
you babbling on about?!"
A silver head pulled away from his chest. The first thing that
registered in his mind was that she wore her hair in the same style as Usagi.
The silvery thing frowned up at him. "I am Belle!" Though he did not
recognize the name, he did recognize the faint shimmer that hovered around
her person.
"Princess?!"
She frowned at him once more. "Yes. You know, it is not very nice
for everyone to continuously act like they do not know me," she murmured to
deaf ears. Mamoru had reached up and squeezed one of the balls on the top of
her head.
"Now I have two odango atamas," he winked at Usagi before he noted
her unease.
"Excuse me!" Woops, he had made the silvery thing mad again. "It is
very discourteous to insult me in such a way - and about the royal hairstyle,
no less!"
The second exclamation had the masked defender raising a brow.
"Royal hairstyle?" His gaze again drew to Usagi. "Is that what you have been
up to all this time? You have been attempting to turn yourself into royalty?"
Usagi wasn’t given any time to retort or feel hurt before a herd of
senshi came barreling out of the arcade. They all seemed relieved to hear
Mamoru’s insult, but she had no idea why.
"Belle! What was the meaning of that?!" Rei screamed. "Do you know
Mamoru?" The question had everyone turning to stare at Belle.
The attention was a bit unnerving for her. "Of course I know him."
She found that the eyebrows that rose were even more unnerving. "He’s
Endymion." Since no one responding to that declaration, she continued, "Are
you telling me that none of you know who Endymion is?"
"Sorry, princess, but no," this came from Mamoru.
Everyone present, except Belle, shot their concentration to the
young man. With her infamous temper springing up, Rei was the first to
bellow, "How do you know about the princess?!"
Mamoru suddenly realized his mistake and shrunk back. "Well, um...you
see..."
It was an uncomfortable while before Belle jumped to his defense,
unknowingly. "Why wouldn’t he know me? He’s Endy!" As she shouted this, her
hand slipped through the man’s arm.
Eyes widened in fear. Makoto was quick to pull her princess away
from Mamoru. She vehemently whispered in her ear, "You mustn’t be so
cavalier with whom you talk to. No one knows that we are the Sailor Senshi.
We would like to keep it a secret."
"But Endy already knows who you are. You were fighting with him just
last night. I admit that I didn’t know it was him then because of his mask,
but it is very obvious now."
Makoto started to stumble shakily away.
The other girls called out in concern. They watched as she began to
lift her finger to point at Mamoru. Her mouth couldn’t move enough to tell
them what had frightened her so.
Belle was greatly confused by this. She laid a hand on the senshi’s
arm. Then, speaking loudly enough for all present to hear, she questioned,
"Are you telling me that despite the fact that night after night you fight
alongside each other, you do not know that Endy is Tuxedo Kamen nor does he
know that you are the Sailor Senshi?"
Time momentarily stopped for the six stunned people on the sidewalk.
End Chapter 1
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*Smile devilishly* See? Now
you know why I just HAD to
end it there! ^_- I sincerely
hope that you all enjoyed the
second installment of my new,
fun, little fic and I hope
that you'll all check out
the long-time-in-coming
Chapter 8 for 'Affair'. I'll
admit here and now that
'Affair' is in a much
juicier stage when it comes
to romance. @}--/----
Please send ANY comments to me, Sereko.
My e-mail is: sereko13@yahoo.com
Copyright © 2002 by Sereko
(
geocities.com/sereko13)