Character Sketches #1, Sailor Mercury - Part I, "Mizuno the Senshi"
Chapter 1: In which we learn the capabilities of a determined man, and our heroines come to a decision.

TOKYO (AP)--A bombshell fell today, as investigators confirmed the existence of the "Sailor Scouts," better known in Japan as the Sailor Senshi.

Reports of their exploits have spread throughout Japan, but were always categorically denied by Japanese authorities. The Minister of Information could not be reached for comment.

The urban legend of the scouts has been famous in Japan for years. They are known as junior high school girls who fight supernatural beings at night. Until yesterday, their identities were not known to the public. However, several papers have now simultaneously confirmed them as Usagi Tsukino, Ami Mizuno, Rei Hino, Makoto Kino, and Minako Aino, none of which could be reached for comment.

White House officials refused to comment on the developments.

Nagosome Akira had been a newcomer, still wet behind the ears, when he had come on as a beat reported for the Tokyo Globe. As such, he hadn't known what he was doing when an idle compliment turned into a full fledged argument with the editor-in-chief. As a result, he was assigned to what was considered in the Japanese journalism industry as the toughest assignment possible: cover the activities of the mysterious sailor senshi.

He had jumped on it, not knowing the inherent difficulties involved: never knowing where they would show up next, having to keep night hours (that seemed to be the only time they fought), being subject to constant youma attacks, the jeers from those who said he was in it just to see hot chicks in revealing attire (not entirely untrue), and the fact that many felt he was just chasing an urban legend. At this point, he had had enough. In fact, he had been about to throw in the towel one night when he hit the jackpot: instead of racing off as they usually did, one of the senshi, the blue-haired one referred to as Sailor Mercury, *walked* off.

Elated, he crept behind her, always sticking to the shadows, half a block behind. About halfway there, he was surprised to see the senshi's fuku shimmer and vanish, to be replaced with normal clothes. The true identity of a senshi: what a windfall! The urge to take a picture was positively overwhelming, yet he held it back; in the past, the senshi had not taken kindly to surreptitious photographs. But once she let her guard down....

After ten minutes, the pair had arrived at Mercury's home, Akira having only once succumbed to the urge to take a picture. Once in her yard, Akira had noted what the address was and raced off.

From there, it was a simple matter of following Ami around, and correlating Ami's friends with pictures of the senshi. He had been amazed at the simplicity: once he recognized one, the rest of their identities were childishly easy. In a matter of days, he had matched Tsukino Usagi, Kino Makoto, Hino Rei, and Aino Minako with sailors Moon, Jupiter, Mars, and Venus, respectively. From there, it only took a leak in the Globe newsroom for the news to spread all over Japan, which logically lead to the media circus outside Usagi's home.

As was the case with so many chains of events, those whom it affected (the senshi) were completely ignorant of all this as they met at Usagi's home. Rei's temple had been so choked by reporters that they had been forced to go to their erstwhile leader's home: a decision some of them were questioning.

"Right," began Luna from her perch on Usagi's bed, "I think you all know why this meeting has been called. The secret's out, so what do we do about it?"

"Well, can we start by getting rid of these reporters?" asked a disheveled Minako. Most had gone through considerable difficulty to pass by the hordes of reporters and cameras, and had gone through even more to get past their parents.

Perhaps Makoto had it the easiest. With her parents dead, she had to explain herself to no one (being between boyfriends had helped). So she simply strolled out of her apartment and let her height and build do the talking. NHK would be needing a new video camera, and NBC would be footing the bill for a reporter's broken nose, but she managed to get to Usagi's house.

Rei's journey was considerably more difficult. It was rather fortunate that her grandfather was visiting some friends in the mountains; that was one less person to explain herself to. Yuuichiro, on the other hand, was considerably more difficult. He had never gotten used to the concept of Rei's noninterest in him, and to him, the senshi business was yet another strike against her. Rather harsh words were exchanged, and the end result was a shouting match outside the temple. The media circus within a media circus is easily imagined.

The extraordinary thing about the argument, however, was its conclusion. At some undefinable point, the two realized that a half-dozen cameras were watching. Living in a fishbowl drives people to do strange things, such as the wildly passionate kiss that followed. Thus, the miraculously reconciled couple walked off separately, both by mutual consensus ignoring their hate of each other in order to milk the publicity.

Minako had perhaps the hardest time thus far. To say that her parents were furious, with both the revelation of their daughter's identity and the nature by which they were made aware of it, would be an understatement. It would be no understatement to say that Minako was crushed. From her perspective, she, who had been Sailor Venus thousands of years before her parents were born, who had been Sailor V long before the others began fighting for love and justice, who had fought evil from the Dark Kingdom, from the stars, and from the future, she who had done all this and come out smiling, should have been seen as the most dependable, hardworking, reliable person in the world. It can be easily guessed that this was not the case with her parents.

Her parents tore into her, describing in every detail their disappointment in her. In their eyes, every battle the senshi had fought had been a deadly risk. Of course, they were right. However, they went on, stating, in summary (if one can condense a thirty minute rant into a single sentence), that she had taken unnecessary risks, thrown all caution to the winds, endangered the lives of others, and (this was the worst to Minako) betrayed their trust in her.

Distraught, she had gathered up Artemis (who had wisely decided that a talking cat explaining matters would merely exacerbate the situation), and stalked out the door, to be met by four video cameras, eight stills, seven voice recorders, and a host of reporters, all screaming out questions at the blonde. She had mumbled "No comment" several dozen times by the time she got to the end of her driveway, and eventually resorted to a sprint to Usagi's house.

She was not happy.

As for Ami, she still hadn't explained things to her mother. Indeed, she hadn't even seen her, since she was still working early mornings at the ER. Looking at her watch, Ami saw that her mother had gotten home a few minutes ago, probably to see the media swarming around her house. Ami had resorted to seeking out a kitchen window, changing into Sailor Mercury, and sprinting as close to Usagi's as possible while evading detection.

Ami might have still been hiding behind some bushes if she hadn't seen Minako sprinting towards her. Rapidly evaluating the situation, Ami came to a conclusion and raced off with her to brave the storm outside odango-atama's home.

Usagi's main problem was Mamoru. As some strange college assignment, he was spending a year in the mountains of New Mexico, studying a group of survivalists. He had had no contact with the outside world for three months, and would have none for another year. He couldn't have been there if he wanted to.

Interesting enough, Usagi's parents took things about as well, perhaps better, than any of the others. In fact, they saw Usagi's double life as Sailor Moon as a positive boon. The revelation that their lazy, lackluster, underachieving daughter could also be the brave, graceful Sailor Moon gave them new hope for her potential. She wasn't a lost cause yet. Shingo thought differently, but that wasn't important.

All this was with them as Minako posed the question everyone had on their minds. The reply, from Artemis, was nothing less than astonishing to those present.

"Well, not without a press conference-"

"NANI?!?"

"Hear me out, now-"

"No, you hear *me* out, Artemis!" growled Minako. "There is no way in hell that I'm going to sit for an hour with those no good sensationalist sons of-"

"Hold it! I think we should listen to Artemis first." This, coming from Usagi, was completely surprising. Usagi? Taking charge? Artemis was certainly not one to look a gift horse (or rabbit) in the mouth, so he continued.

"Look, those reporters out there want hard info. Let's face it, all Japan wants hard info on you guys. And they aren't going anywhere until they get it. So, I say that we give it to them. Hold a press conference, answer their questions, and maybe they'll leave you alone."

A moment passed. Rei spoke next.

"You crazy cat! What are you thinking? Just let the whole freaking world know all about us? Do you--"

"Actually," said Makoto, "they know our sailor identities and our everyday ones. Seems to me that there isn't a lot more we could tell them that would put us in a vulnerable position."

"Yeah," added Usagi, "and we could set the record straight on a lot of things. *And* (here she gave a sly wink at Minako), maybe you could get some royalties, eh Sailor V?"

It has been said that blondes are never unhappy for long (for various reasons). This is undoubtedly false; a stereotype is rarely true. In this case, however, the stereotype was absolutely correct: the sadness of rejection by her parents was instantly swept aside by the twin totems of fame and fortune. One could see her calling agents now.

This left Ami and Rei as the opposition. After a moment's thought, Ami decided that the conference wouldn't really make that much of a difference, which left only Rei. The end was quite anticlimactic.

"Okay," said Rei, "but I answer *no* questions about boyfriends."

"Well," said Luna, "that overwith, Artemis and I will notify the networks; they'll undoubtedly let the rest of the world know about the conference before evening. Is 4:00 tomorrow OK? Fine, then I'll give you directions tomorrow. Oh, and it's probably best to stay here until then." She raised her voice to carry outside the room--something she was not accustomed to. "Tsukino-sama, may the girls use the phone to call their families?"

The reply was faint. "Sure, and if a network calls, just bump them!"

"Thank you! Well, ladies, what shall we do now?"

It was a very good question.