Present
        “Ma’am? Would you like to take your tea now?”
        “No thank you, I will take it later.”
        “Ma’am, you also have guests awaiting you in the main room.” The maid spoke quietly, as though not to disturb her lady’s train of thought.
        “I will be with them shortly, please tell the chef to prepare enough tea for all of us, if it is not too much trouble,” replied the lady, she had turned to face her maid; previously, she was deep in thought, watching the outside world from the French windows of her study.
        “Yes ma’am, I shall do that.” With that, the maid, dressed in a French-maid’s dress backed out of the room.
        “One more thing, will you send for Soxs for me please?”
        “Yes ma’am, immediately.”
        “Thank you.” The women returned her gaze from the reflection on the window to the pastures and gardens outside of her house. The afternoon sunlight poured in from outside, and the silhouette of her slim body stretched onto the dark carpeted ground from the sunlight making a soft shadow.
        Her ears perked up slightly when she heard the door open and close ever so softly, and light footsteps forming behind her. “Princess?”
        She turned around to face the comer, dressed in a black tuxedo with white long stripes was an old gentleman, his features showing experience of the years and absolute loyalty to the woman in front of him. His eyes twinkled with knowledge and meekly moving with quick observing glances; the next striking feature about him was his moustache, a large sweeping set adorned on his upper lip, carefully attended and maintained for complete compliance to the sweeping shape which it had been trimmed to. He stood behind her, keeping a respectful distance away from the lady, yet his posture looked as though he was ready to pounce on anything, yet his form was correct and balanced, with his own touch of refined, elegant footing. He was not only her butler, but also her advisor in world affairs. “Soxs, I need your advice please.”
        “I will certainly try my best to advise you on any matter you see fit to consult me to. Please,” he gestured for her to continue.
        Her small red lips stretched lightly to that of a smile at his tone of voice, her eyelids glanced downwards for a moment, as though unsure of herself, meanwhile, her dark hair swept downwards to frame her delicate face. She looked up once again, her eyes trembling slightly to eyes that knew her best, “they are here,” she stated simply.
        “Princess, you invited them here yourself.”
        “It’s been so long… since…” She bit her lip, “I suppose it is time isn’t it? Crystal Tokyo will begin in a matter of years for we are already in the days of Royal Tokyo; it is time that I see them again.”
        “Yes Princess, there is only a year left until Crystal Tokyo will commence, and Royal Tokyo, our transitional period, ends. I believe that Luna may be able to offer you insight as to the needs of Crystal Tokyo, they will also require your assistance in order for Crystal Tokyo to begin.”
        She nodded her head, and began to shorten the distance between them. “Thank you sensei, if it was not for you…” she trailed off.
        He smiled at her in understanding, “You would have still made the correct decision, Princess; you are not on your own, inside you, another persona lives,” he gestured for her to pass and she did so with her chin held high, he paused only slightly to close the door behind him as he followed in her footsteps.

The Future
        The season began well, and the seats for the first 3 volumes of the play depicting the epic story of a young woman’s life had sold out almost instantaneously and the fourth and final volume, would be no different. With the seal of approval from Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion, the loyal people of Crystal Tokyo flocked to see the dramatization of the book “The Ruling Highnesses”, directed by one of the Highnesses herself. The book had been written in the point of view of a young lady, recording the history of life before memory began, and it had become important to the people of Tokyo in helping them accept the rule of Princess Serenity and her court - the planetary princesses as the best and only alternative.
        Although this particular Highness who had directed the play rarely took part in royal duties and preferred to remain isolated, if only appearing to aid and comfort the lives of which she took part in ruling, she was loved for her sincerity and compassion by the people. The estrangement of the Highnesses had been well known to the people of Crystal Tokyo, never the less, it did not tarnish their reputations as they always united for important duties, and in this case, the promotion of a certain woman into a legend.

Volume Four - By Yuki-Shu

Director’s Note: Please note that Luna and Artemis for the purposes of this theatrical performance have been depicted in human forms.

The Play - Act I - Scene I
The Story Begins
        “Usagi-chan, it’s time to do your homework.” Luna stood at the foot of the bed on which Usagi was lying on her stomach, completely engrossed in a book.
        “Not now Luna! You’re worse than my mum! We’re just getting to the good part!”
        “What good part? And since when did you ever take interest in reading a book, and an English one at that? Not to mention that you’ve been reading for a few days now.”
        “See, we had to do this book review for our English class, and we had to use an English novel for it, so I asked Ami-chan for some help to find me a book to write about. She gave me this one, she said that I might be interested in it, ‘The Ruling Highnesses’, it’s about the Princes and Princesses who more or less rule the other Princes and Princesses of planets. I’m rereading this part when one of the princes are dying and his love has to ignore it to continue fighting because it is her duty…”
        “Usagi-chan,” Luna collapsed on her bed, her interest clearly piqued by the summary that Usagi had given, “what Princes and Princesses? What are their titles?”
        “Well, there is a Terra Prince, Tranquilt Princess, Luminar Prince and Snow Princess, this is such a sad story, the Tranquilt Princess and the Terra Prince have paired off, they are the superior of all the royalty because it is where population is centred and they hold the Joint Planetary Crystal, see the sole planetary crystals are held by the princesses of their planets who are ruled by those two.
        “The other two hold the magical powers of universe, Luminar Prince holds the Light crystal and the Dark crystal, and Snow Princess holds the power of water, which means the whole universe because everything has water moles (- molecules she means) in them, like air has moisture. The two of them actually protect the two crystals together, but the Dark forces steal the dark crystal, and it lets them use it against the four Ruling Highnesses. Then the Luminar Prince dies because of the Dark forces attack for the Light crystal to destroy the universe, but the Snow Princess holds onto it, and now they are battling to get the Dark crystal back. So she ends up in a way doomed to live by herself forever because her prince had died, while trying to uphold the powers of the universe. It’s so sad…” Usagi sobbed and tears began to overflow and spilled from her clear blue eyes onto her pink bed sheets.
        Luna’s eyes widened in suspicion, “and who wrote it again?”
        “This girl, called Yuki-Shu, it’s a pen name, this girl is like our age and she wrote the book in English, and it was published internationally, she won some prize for it too!”
        “She doesn’t have a real name?”
        “Ami-chan might know, she knew all this stuff about her that wasn’t written on the flap of the cover, and she’s like a really big fan of hers, ‘cause Ami-chan has her whole set of books in hardcover in her room and they are all signed and addressed to her personally. See? It’s almost in brand new condition, I’m trying to read it carefully so I don’t bend the pages too wide. This is the first book of four volumes, the rest of it is right here!” Usagi patted the hard case sitting beside her that held the rest of the volumes and a hole for the awaiting last volume, and smiled at Luna.
        “Give me the books please Usagi-chan, I want to read them right now where possible, and I also want to see Ami-chan tonight, tell her that I will be there to visit won’t you?”
        “How are you going to finish it in one afternoon? It’s like a 5 centimeter book and all three books at one go!”
        “I’ve got a device in the Command Center that will give me the core basics of the story without the fairy-airy descriptions.” Luna said with a smug look on her face.
        “What? And you didn’t lend it to me earlier?” Usagi immediately began to wail loudly.
        “Because you, Usagi-chan, are supposed to be reading the writing, not just the story, and giving you the device would ruin the experience. Now, off to do your homework please!”

        Luna and Artemis sat and listened to the mono-toned voice that read out the summary of the books, the first one had been true to what Usagi had described to her. She listened with alarm as the rest of the story unfolded.
        “Volume 2 - The Snow Princess banishes herself to the edge of the universe, away from others, earning her reputation as the mysterious princess. She remains in isolation while the Tranquilt Princess and the Terra Prince continue their lives, as she does not want to be reminded of what she has lost, however, without her knowledge, the Dark forces attack the two Highnesses, and they both die from the attack although saving the Joint Planetary Crystals. The Snow Princess blames herself for their deaths, thus she punishes herself by having to live eternally by herself.
        “Volume 3 - The Luminar Prince reincarnates and tries to court her, however she rejects him due to her self-inflicted punishment. He then proves his love for her by destroying his life crystal when trying to seal the light crystal, which disallows usage by dark forces, effectively freeing her from the duty of protecting the crystal. Due to the destruction of his life crystal, he will never be able to reincarnate again. The Gods pity her and releases her from the punishment; she lives her final reincarnation in the time of the Tranquilt Princess and the Terra Prince’s new life. But the Dark forces attack for their crystal, as they are unable to use the Light crystal, thus they require the joint planetary crystal to enhance their powers. There, the other planetary princesses join in the fight where they destroy the major enemy, but are unable to reach the central of the force as the Snow Princess has not yet been awaken. They live in peace for a short moment until the Dark forces are ready to attack once again.”
        They stared at each other for a short moment, Luna looked straight at Artemis and remarked about the uncanny similarities of the story with real life and exited the room. The two left in different directions as they each paced in deep thought.

The Past - Reality -
        They pondered the story which had been summarized for them by the computer, and they were troubled by it. First of all, Ami-chan was not the type of girl to be interested in such fantasy stories, especially not to queue up for the author to autograph and personalize a book. Second, was the truth of the story, indeed the names had changed slightly, but the story was that of the Silver Millennium, and past that, up until the present, the Earth Prince (Prince Endymion), Princess Serenity as a pair, and the Snow Princess with Prince Luminar as the other royal pair who ruled over the other planetary princesses. The third, and the most worrying part of it all, was that there was to be a new volume, and as Usagi-chan had just said, due to be out in four months’ time, which meant that Yuki-Shu was writing about the future that was to come.

        “Luna, Usagi-chan, what a pleasant surprise!” Exclaimed the soft-spoken girl with short blue hair with polite surprise and pleasure as she led the way into her house. Although it was really no surprise that the two would be visiting her at this hour, it was her way of telling them that they had arrived at a good time. Indeed, looking as though it had been freshly poured, there was a cup of steaming tea for Usagi and two small dishes of milk for the cats, sitting on the tea table waiting for them. Usagi handed the volumes of books to Ami, and babbled on for a short while, telling Ami how much she had enjoyed the book, with Ami in wide-eye wonder, astonished at Usagi’s sudden improvement in her reading speed.
        A moment later, their communicators beeped, announcing that Artemis was downstairs in the lobby waiting for one of them to collect him. As a cat, it was hard to travel on an elevator to the top floor of the prestigious apartment block since he could not very well climb to press the correct buttons, thus he required human help to escort him. Ami politely bowed her exit to make her way downstairs, while Luna took the opportunity to remind Usagi to please keep her mouth shut so that more serious matters could be discussed.

        A smoky blue Persian cat slinked away from the bushes that he had been hiding in earlier, as soon as he was clear of snapping branches, he hurriedly left the area. During his run, he began to rely less and less on his front paws as though ready for take off, a streak of light blue ran through him, and a brilliant flash exploded in the isolated suburban street ways. His shape began to change and remould, an old man appeared in the cat’s place, the sudden transformation into wearing his usual dark tuxedo acting unfazed by the sudden transformation, nor did his running speed abate by the explosive entrance of his other self. He left behind a trail of dust as he continued his race to his destination at such a speed that left the eye questioning if the glimpse of the tuxedo suit tail that seemingly flew by really existed.
        “I have to warn the princess of the suspicion, before she gives herself away.”

Act II - Coincidences
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