Character Sketches #1, Sailor Mercury - Part I, "Mizuno the Senshi"
Chapter 4: In which Ami and Makoto face different challenges, and a valuable clue is revealed.

TOKYO (Knight-Ridder News Service)--The Sailor Scouts defeated yet another youma in Tokyo today, but the biggest development by far is the apparent disunity among the scouts.

Things began as Sailor Venus arrived late during the battle. Several disparaging remarks were made towards her, most notably by the fiery Sailor Mars. During the confusion which ensued after the arrival of Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Mercury disappeared. A shouting match soon developed between Sailors Mars and Moon for reasons unknown, and continued for ten minutes before ceasing.

"I guess I didn't thank you properly for-"

"Don't mention it, Ami. You would have done the same for me."

"Yeah, but your grandfather wouldn't have thrown you out."

"I told you to stop moping around! Cheer up, I'm sure the police will come to their senses sooner or later, and then they'll have to help out. And until then-" Rei paused to hang up Ami's entire wardrobe in her closet, an act which took exactly two minutes, "I have no problem with your staying here."

Indeed, Rei had no problem. And, after his return, neither did Grandfather. Amazingly, he did so without displaying any of his customary hentai characteristics. Of course, he didn't go about displaying his hidden bathroom cameras to everyone, but that's another story (or lemon--cripes, I've given someone an idea!).

As for Yuuichiro, he had decided to give up temple life and go on the talk show circuit in America, where the public was clamoring for anything about the new foreign sensation. Rei had seen some of the figures he was getting per appearance, and she was extremely unhappy about that situation, and her lack of yen intake.

"Oh, Rei, do you have an alarm clock? Mine is at home and-"

"Don't worry, I've got one. But your clothes...."

"Are they too much?"

Rei looked at Ami's clothes, which took up half the available closet space. "Not quite."

Rei yawned as she awoke to the sound of running water, her grandfather's traditional early wake-up call. She looked over at her digital clock.

"That's odd. It's only 5:17." Normally, she awoke at 6:00. She got up, and, wrapped in a rob, went out to see the commotion. Was her grandfather crazy(er)?

"Ami-chan! What are you doing up this early?"

"Early?" asked Ami in a voice which, unlike Rei's, did not betray the early hour of day. "I'm a bit late, actually."

"But why?"

"Well, I just wanted to get some studying in before I left for school-"

"And wake up the entire temple!"

"Rei, what's with the shouting out there? Are you trying to wake up the entire temple?"

The rebuke from her grandfather hurt. "No, just getting an early start," she replied, glaring at Ami. "We've got to have an understanding about this."

The adjustment period was rather lengthy; Ami had to get used to living in an extremely religious environment. To her analytical mind, it didn't make much sense at all for so many people to come to the temple for spiritual guidance, when all they would get was the placebo effect. Then again, how many times had the sacred flame helped them out before? She usually came to the same conclusion: there could never be a definitive answer to the God question, so why not just study for next month's exam?

No one seemed to know what to do about her mother: she had refused all calls, had not answered the door, and had not, in fact, left the house since the incident. The past day had passed without even a sign of life from the house. Ayumi had changed the locks, so Ami couldn't get in for a change of clothes; she was forced to wear Rei's clothes, which were ridiculously oversized. She might have been en vogue in America, but in Japan she looked bizarre. She just hoped she could get through to her mother soon.

She had to.

Meanwhile, Makoto was having problems of her own.

Her lateness to the previous battle had been due partly to her over-exuberance with a new boyfriend (the details of which will not be explored), and partly to do with a communicator failure.

"So, Artemis, what do you think the problem is?"

"Well, you'd have to ask Ami to be sure, but as far as I can-"

"Get to the point!"

"You can't trust it in strong electromagnetic fields."

"And?"

"The cameras are the source of the fields."

"Media leeches."

"Exactly."

Since then, it had been decided that the senshi should stay together as much as possible, as much to cut down on communication problems as to provide mutual support. Therefore, Makoto and Minako usually stayed at Usagi's house. Minako's parents were still lukewarm about the situation, and Ami's problems have been well-documented.

So, she shouldn't have been by herself when the attack came.

But she was out shopping on the far end of town, and hadn't thought about her location. True, the media cloud sometimes made it hard to find one's bearings, but she should have known better.

She wasn't even on her guard until the boutique window shattered into a million pieces as the blue-skinned youma spilled out.

"JUPITER STAR POWER, MAKE UP!" The media wisely decided that this was a story best covered from a safer distance.

Jupiter decided that now was not the time for speeches; two people were already unconscious, and she could see more victims in the store. Time to cut to the chase.

"Sparkling Wide Pressure!" The attack slammed the youma back into the wall of the store, creating a large hole. Ignoring the people racing out of the upper floors of the building, she prepared another attack, with much the same results.

"Damn," she cursed. She activated the distress signal on her communicator and hoped Artemis was wrong. It was going to take a long time to finish this guy off by herself. Either that, or...there! Formulating a plan, she raced off across the street.

Scattering the press like so many bowling pins, she took cover behind a lamppost and saw the youma's attack for the first time: a sort of low-budget crescent beam.

"If this is the Dark Kingdom, then their R&D department has some work to do," she said disparagingly.

The beam proceeded to vaporize the building behind her. "Then again, they might be doing just fine." She decided to put her plan into action. "Supreme Thunder!" she cried. The less-powerful attack merely tickled the youma, and he advanced towards her, assured of a kill. She took this chance to blast down a power line with another Supreme Thunder, and then pour a Sparkling Wide Pressure onto him.

The combined effects were interesting, to say the least. The power lines and electric jolt from Jupiter were enough to knock him out.

But not kill him. Summoning her power for another attack, she cried, "Sparkling Wide Pressure!" It finally did the trick.

She wearily slumped onto the curb, trying to ignore the questions from the reporters. Ordinarily she would have simply slugged a couple of them, but she really didn't feel like it. "Easier to just answer them," she whispered. Some took this as a signal that she was ready to begin, and things quieted down.

Jupiter, however, was in no mood to chat at this point. For three minutes, all stood (or hunched) silently. Finally, she spoke.

"Okay. Destroy me."

The shouts of surprise that followed weren't from her destruction, however. Jupiter found herself bounding on and above the rooftops of Juuban in the arms of a green-haired, sailor-fuku clad woman who was averaging one roof every three seconds.

"Wha-who-why are you here?"

"Because a battle is coming, and you need to rest. You all do."

Jupiter was rarely praised for her intellect, but she managed to surprise people every now and then.

"But, won't your telling me this-"

"Disrupt the timeline? Not really. I mean, don't tell me that you couldn't figure out that something's going to happen soon. Although...never mind. We're here."

"And here is...?"

"Your apartment. Oh, and one thing I am allowed to tell you, because of the nature of your adversary. Tell Mercury not to be afraid to make a tough decision."

Jupiter had had enough of the cryptic hints. "Okay, Pluto, first you get me out of there, then you deliberately tell me about the future, which doesn't jibe with what you've said before. Are you *trying* to change the future?"

"No. I'm simply telling you something that Mercury knows already. But it won't hurt her to get some reinforcement."

"Well, you've told me this much. Why not tell me some more?"

Pluto gave a rare, sly smile. "Now *that* would be changing the timeline. Don't worry, just do what comes naturally, and the world will turn out fine." She braced to jump off into the distance.

"But will Ami be fine?"

"Good luck!"

Jupiter watched the Guardian of Time bound off into the distance. "I'm never going to get used to that woman. I tell you, once you get past Jupiter they just get weird." She jumped off the roof onto her balcony and went inside her apartment, ignoring the strains of amazingly beautiful music floating through the spring air.

Haruka and Michiru finished their duet to the approving applause of Professor Hastings.

"Well done, well done. Michiru, your improvisation in the last coda was particularly superb." He laughed. "I often wonder why you bother to employ me as teacher at all!"

"Well," said Haruka sheepishly, "we needed someone to turn the pages. Besides, you come up with some interesting ideas."

The dark-haired man merely smiled at that. "I'm an interesting person. Well, it's time I should be going. Oh, here's the revised third movement, I think it fits Haruka's style much better than the original, and it would take a music major to tell the difference. And if it's not too much trouble, could you leave the door open next time as well? I'd say the fresh air inspired you today. Saronaya!"

After leaving the apartment, he made his way to street level and walked alone along the twilight sidewalks. "Such wonderful players," he said to himself. "Beautiful music. Shame it'll have to go. Ah well, no point in wallowing now."

He had long ago resigned himself to his task. He tried not to let it get to him; it was simply part of his nature that he do what he did. Not out of malice, or hate, but from the fundamental order of things.

"After all," he continued, "good and evil are all a matter of perspective. You could say that I'm the nice guy, and they're the baddies." He sighed.

"Them." They would have to die, of course; that had been set in prophecy for centuries. But they were rather nice, though. He would be hard pressed to find nicer people in the entire world. Brave, caring, loyal: he could go on and on. On the other side of the coin, it was precisely those qualities that made them his mortal enemies.

His walk had taken him to an electronics store, and he stopped to watch the news on the TV displays. As he watched the latest footage from Jupiter's recent battle, he mentally reviewed his plan to defeat her and her friends.

It wasn't subtle, or devious. It didn't depend on psychology, or intricate details, or timing. It was simple, direct, and straightforward.

That was precisely why it would work.