"Ami, I’ve got to talk to you. About last night. What was that about you creating the monster?"

Ami sighed. Usagi was early to school again, she would have to answer her questions. Why was she always so early these days? Probably some command from Luna. Where was Hameiji? She only went out to get something from her car. Then, the door opened, Hameiji walked in. Both Ami and Usagi nodded at Hameiji. Hameiji didn’t say a word to Usagi, and smiled at Ami. Ami smiled back in relief, Hameiji’s presence would save her from being questioned by Usagi.

Usagi suddenly felt out of place, and powerless. Hameiji’s powers must be draining her own. She had to get out of here with Ami, so that neither of them would be harmed from Hameiji’s evilness. "Umm... Ami, can you come out to the cafeteria, I have to ask you something." She gasped out.

"Usagi, can’t you see I am reading? Or are you blind as well as being stupid?" Ami said.

That had suddenly shocked Usagi, Ami had never called anyone stupid in all the days that she had known her. Ami was always tactful when it came to someone’s intelligence. "Ami, then can you come to Rei’s place today after-school? We really need to talk about this."

"I’ve got cram school remember? And I’m not missing it, since I saw how last time you all seemed to enjoyed some time without me. I’m going to the library, since I can’t get a moment’s peace here." Ami stood up and walked out. Usagi hurried after her. "Stop following me. Usagi, listen to me. I thought that you guys always knew that I was different from you all. I need keep some privacy you know, I need to have my own secrets." Ami continued to walk away from her. She felt her eyes slowly beginning to well up, she quickly closed her eyes to control herself. She had never felt so out of control.

"Ami, what’s wrong? You’ve been avoiding us ever since Hameiji came. Is it something to do with her?"

"It’s got nothing to do with Hameiji. Just stop bothering me okay? As I told you, she is a wonderful person, stop being so suspicious."

"Ami, Hameiji is dangerous, she’s evil, she made you create that monster. Ami, don’t let her use you!"

"Miss Tsukino Usagi, let me warn you right now, be careful about what you say. If you say that again, or anything that harms Hameiji reputation, I will never forgive you, understand? You might not think that I am all that strong, but if you do anything that will arouse my anger, you will be sorry." Ami gritted her teeth in anger, then quickly walked into the no-talking section of the library, leaving Usagi stunned at what Ami had just said. Ami had changed, she wasn’t on their side anymore. Rei and Luna were right, she had turned to the evil side. The evil power had won Ami, and was using her against the rest of the Sailor Senshi.

Usagi stared after her, and remembered her dream from last night. She had seen Ami dying in pain after being attacked by a monster before falling unconscious. The group had all screamed and screamed, calling her name, but Ami never woke up. The Snow Princess had pushed Usagi away, as she carried Ami off, into a seemingly different world, through a doorway of light.

She shivered at the thought that Ami might leave her. Who would help her do her homework, and then tutor her when it came to tests? Hameiji hardly seemed like the one to go to when she had problems, she would probably go to the bottom of the class again. She sighed, thinking back to the days before she knew Ami, when her test scores were... well, Not Graded. At least now she would get somewhere around 20%. Her teachers had always said that her answers were so wrong that they had to take off marks. How frightening to let that happen again. She had to find a way to be friends with Ami again. Then, she looked at her watch, and remembered her breakfast. She looked at it doubtfully, hoping that her toast wouldn’t be soggy. Schoolwork would have to wait until later.

Usagi groaned as she was pushed. "Luna, get away from me, stop trying to bother me in the middle of the night."

"Usagi, something is wrong, I’m getting bad signs from the city."

"I don’t care, let me sleep."

"Usagi! The city might be in danger, I have readings that Hameiji and Ami is there somewhere, I don’t know where!" Usagi sat up slowly, as she got dressed, Luna hurried around her.

Jupiter attacked, but so far their attacks had been fruitless. The monster laughed cruelly, as it returned all their attacks by a shield. They felt themselves lashed by Venus’ love chain, burnt by Mars, and electrocuted by Jupiter.

Then, Sailor-moon appeared. She glared at it, angry at her lost of sleep, she would kill this monster. Then looked in shock as she saw the resemblance between the monster she was seeing, and the one in her dream. "In the name of the moon, I will..." Before she had finished saying it, she was suddenly surrounded by an envelope of light, and then, she found herself weakened, sitting on the ground beside the rest of the Senshi. Mercury had won them, she knew all their powers.

Then suddenly, the Snow Princess and Sailor-mercury appeared. The Snow Princess gazed at the monster coldly, and the monster immediately began to weaken. Sailor-moon felt more strength in her body, but she could see the monster fighting back. Without warning, the monster attacked once again. But not as expected to the Snow Princess, instead, it was headed at Sailor-moon. The Snow Princess quickly passed something to Mercury, as she threw herself in front of Usagi. Mercury stared in shock, as the Princess was hit by the ray of light.

Sailor-moon quickly yelled out a warning for Mercury to be careful. She hardly heard the warning. Mercury held up the object and yelled, "In the name of Wisdom, I will punish you! Snow River Shabon Attack!" Immediately, the monster froze as thousands of snow flakes and white flower petals danced around its body. Wind blew harshly, the petals and snow landed on the monster. It shattered, and the envelope around Sailor-moon disappeared. The last breath of wind disappeared, and the street was covered with snow and flowers.

Mercury ran to the Princess. "Hameiji! Are you alright? I’ll bring you to mother’s hospital. Keep it up, you can’t die!" The other Sailor Senshi stood there motionless, all in shock. Ami looked up in desperation, "Can one of you call the ambulance?"

Makoto ran off, being the fastest runner. The Princess looked up, "it’s alright, I’m glad I could save you. Take care of yourself, I can’t always be there." Her eyes closed, and never opened again.

Luna quietly walked forward. "This is Hameiji?" Ami nodded softly and the uniform from both their bodies transformed to normal street clothes. The scouts could see Hameiji’s face, cuddled by her soft light blue hair. Her expression was quietly serene, as was Ami’s. Ami was silent and calm now, she showed no pain on her face. She had always buried the hurt inside her. "Who was she to you?"

"She was my twin sister, my older sister. She lived with my father most of her life, we rarely see each other except in competitions. We wrote to each other..." Ami’s voice trailed off into the cool night air. The ambulance sirens announced their arrival, they were coming. "She always protected me..."

Luna touched her gently. "I’m sorry that I suspected her, Ami."

They spent the rest of the night in the hospital, at around dawn, they saw Ami’s parents arrive together. Ami had sat there numbly by Hameiji’s bed side. It was the first and would be the last time they saw Ami’s father, Mr. Shunei. Shunei Hameiji, Ami’s twin sister, was pronounced dead, 3 hours after her arrival.

Ami only sat, and didn’t utter a word, or make any sound of grief when the computers declared her dead, when Hameiji’s weak heart stopped. She stared at the empty wall in front of her, and smiled into the distance.

Usagi, Minako, and Makoto silently dreaded going to school on Monday morning (not that they usually didn’t). They hadn’t spoken to Ami since the accident, and the misunderstanding. They would have to explain themselves, and if Ami didn’t forgive them, they would loose their friendship in the hardest times. For Usagi and Minako though, there would a different reason from the expected. It was their exams coming up in two months. They walked down to school slowly, digging hard into their brains for a good apology. When they arrived to school, they were more than amazed that Ami hadn’t arrived yet.
"Class, I have been asked to inform you all that Miss Shunei Hameiji has died in a sad tragedy last night, involving some sort of intruders into the city. It is believed that she died in a great sacrifice to save those that she loved. She will not be buried here to the wishes of her parents, but transported out to her hometown. Those like me who wish to express their great sadness can write to this address that her kind parents have left. She will be greatly missed for her kindness, intelligence, and her friendliness here, although she hasn’t been her for too long. We were rather unfortunate to not have been able to know her very well. I am sure that you feel the way I do about her, a gentle, sweet, loving young lady.

A coincidence has also followed that Miss Mizuno Ami will be leaving this town, and will move to another part of Japan this week, but will not be returning to school. She wishes to convey to us her great unwillingness to leave you all, but promises that she will come back someday to visit you all. Miss Mizuno too will be missed for her great intelligence, and as we all would have known, her willingness to help others who can never seem to keep up with the rest of the class." She paused as she swept her eyes around the class, her gaze, landing on Usagi. Usagi felt her face burn, the teacher continued.

"She also wishes you all good luck for your exams in the end of the year and says that perhaps one day you may cross paths some time in your careers. She told me to tell you that she would miss you all as her good friends a great deal. And lastly, I thought that I should also mention to you all that Miss Mizuno, has decided to changed her name to Miss Shunei Ami, following Miss Shunei Hameiji’s death. It seems that Miss Mizuno is actually her sister. This was a unfortunate thing that happened to Miss Mizuno, I am sure you agree with me." A murmur passed through the classroom, all of them were shocked to know the news.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully, but just Hameiji and Ami leaving them continually shocked the class throughout the day. They were quietly reminded that the two absolute brains of the class had left them, by the two empty desks in the front of the class room. The desks that no one else would sit even if someone gave them a thousand dollars, yet Ami and Hameiji had sat there comfortably side by side. Both of them had been quiet, but they always knew when to speak up to spare the rest of the class trouble. They would miss the two girls shooting their hands up to answers to questions, their silent fight to get the better marks, and the disappointment on their faces when they were beaten or equaled in tests.

Luna waited for Minako, Makoto, and Usagi at the front door of the school. Usagi was surprisingly quiet as she left school. They were in no mood to argue about whose fault it was that they were late from school again. Usagi, didn’t even want to touch her afternoon tea that she had brought from home. Luna immediately hurried out to them. "Ami is leaving town, if we hurry, we might be able to say goodbye to her, I’ve already told Rei to go to her house."

The girls’ face brightened as they started running towards Ami’s house. When they arrived, it was too late, the Mizuno’s or perhaps now the Shunei’s had already left them. From their neighbors, they had left late last night, although the news had only been know in the morning. Ami didn’t want any fuss or to see any of her school friends, which silently meant, them. The girls stood silently in the rain, Ami had left them with nothing but memories, as Hameiji had.

Several months later, a letter arrived at Rei’s Temple, addressed to "The Girl Scouts’ of the Universe". In it had contained a photograph of Ami’s parents, her, and a beautiful Persian Cat, with long grayish smoke colored fur. Ami had decided to grow her hair long, and it had already reached below her shoulders. She had lost a noticeable amount of weight even on photograph, and her features were much sharper then they had ever remembered seeing. Her eyes seemed to glow with happiness, yet deep inside, was an impenetrable wall of mysteries and sadness from what she had been through over the past months.

The Sailor Senshi read it together, each knowing deep within their hearts that were no longer friends, they would never see her again, she had found her new life..., as they had slowly began to cope battling the evils without her intelligence.

"I have decided to reside where my sister and father have lived for a long time, with both my parents. I have a feeling that my parents will remarry. I think it is as Hameiji had always predicted. The cat you see in the picture is called Plato, she has the qualities of Luna and Artemis. I will no longer be able to be with you as you may have already known. I have taken up my identity as the Snow Princess, Princess of Water and Snow. I have my own protectors, together, we have formed a group of three excluding Plato, although he should be counted. I do nearly the same work that you do, but I protect a much larger population, the work is rather strenuous, but I know that I do it all for a good cause... Plato is quite wonderful, he has very strong powers, much more than what I had before I came here.

I imagine that you are all curious to know about the relationship between me and Hameiji. As you know, she is my sister and the former Snow Princess. She has given me her power, and I have promised her to use it wisely. My father’s last name is Shunei. I have lived under the last name of my mother, Mizuno, and Hameiji, under my father’s. Hameiji did her work here, until she foresaw the danger to my life, when she insisted that my father and her would come here. My father never knew the reason, he never knew that Hameiji main purpose to come here was to die, or he would have never allowed it.

She has always been too keen to protect me from what was out there. You see, Hameiji had taken my death on herself, she saved me. She has always tried to be my savior, my protector. Hameiji risked her life to save me, and I will continue to do the work that she has begun. If it was not for me, she would be here, and let the people live freely, happily, with no danger. So, it is almost like a duty, that I continue to see that it will never stop.

I know that you want to understand why I said that I was the creator of the monsters. It isn’t as you thought of course. I am not evil. But I foolishly allowed it to happen, it was my fault, and I make no attempt to deny it. I gave them the power, now I know that it was a mistake, but I doesn’t help. I should have known that they would never make good. Now, they have tried to use it to destroy us, the same power that I have. I take it upon myself to have caused and created the monsters, and there is no doubt that I will destroy them.

Usagi, the photo you saw was my family. My parents, Hameiji, and myself about 10 years ago. I cut my hair after my parents’ divorce, but now, as you have seen from the photo, I have decided to re-grow it. My long hair will be my reminder of the time Hameiji and I once had together, the happiness that was in our lives before all this had happened. All the complication of being a Sailor-Senshi, a protector, a Princess was known. And of course, the divorce. But in all of our hearts, my family, we all know that we can never return to what was before.

And yes, please remember, one day, come and visit me at my new home. My family and I will always welcome you here. I look forward to hearing from you all again soon."

Shunei Ami

The girls looked up at each other. They had lost a wise member of the group. Nothing would ever be the same again without her. They all knew, the empty invitation at the end would never be taken up by any of them. The group were all reminders of Hameiji, and they could never bear to dig up Ami’s past again. Her thoughtful, gentle soul. Hameiji and Ami’s shadow would remain with them, for the rest of their lives. It was the end of their friendship, and the beginning of their new life.

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