“Something wrong?” Makoto asked.
“Wrong?” Ryoku repeated questioningly as he looked up from his sword. “What makes you think something’s wrong?”
She folded her arms and gave her brother a stern look. “Come on, Ryo-chan. You’ve been sitting in your room, sharpening those stupid swords of yours ever since you got back from the train station… two hours ago!”
He frowned slightly. “Maybe I want to make them extra sharp.”
She sighed and sat next to him on his bed. “Ryo-chan, you know I hate it when you keep secrets from me,” she said quietly. “Why won’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
“I thought I told you already,” he replied flatly.
“What? You still don’t know? Do you really think that I’ll believe that?”
“Perhaps,” he said quietly. “Perhaps not. But whether you believe me or not, it doesn’t change my answer. You should know by now that when it comes to my feelings and emotions, I am very cautious. I can’t help it. If I’m to share them with anyone, then I have to know first. And right now, I don’t know as much as I’d like to.”
She looked at him with a concerned expression. “It’s about Ami-chan, isn’t it?” she asked bluntly. “You’re beginning to have feelings for her.”
“What?” he exclaimed, nearly jumping to his feet in surprise.
“Think about it. You two were the last to leave the train station, right? Ami-chan stayed because she was watching Urawa-kun’s train leave. Why did you stay?”
“Hey, Ryo’s my friend, too. Perhaps I wanted to watch his train leave as well. Besides, Ami-chan’s just a friend. A good friend. That’s all.”
She regarded him skeptically. “You sure that’s all?” she asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Of course,” he answered quickly.
“Really?” she said, still skeptical. “Look me in the eye and say that.”
“She… is… just… a… friend,” he said firmly, staring her dead in the eye. “Satisfied?”
It was her turn to frown. “You don’t have to get so defensive, Ryo-chan.”
“Sorry,” he replied, looking down at the floor. “Would you mind leaving me alone for a while longer?”
“Okay,” she said, rising from his bed and turning to leave. She stopped at his doorway and turned back to him. “Just remember that you never have to hide anything from me. You can talk to me about anything.” With that, she turned and left.
Ryoku sighed and turned back to his swords. What he was feeling was so complex that he didn’t know what it was. On the one hand, he felt sorry for Ryo having to leave, but on the other he felt… relieved. Why he would feel that way was a mystery to him. He was a friend, and you’re not supposed to feel that way when friends leave. It was confusing.
Then, there was what Makoto said about him and Ami. Ami was just a friend. That’s all. And besides, he wasn’t looking for another girlfriend. After what happened with Keiko… he just couldn’t. And especially not with someone who looked so much like her that it was amazing. It was wrong… wasn’t it? Only… he wasn’t as sure about it as he used to be….
Ami stretched out on her bed, idly flipping through one of her most recent photo albums. She had finished all of her schoolwork and studying fifteen minutes ago and now she wanted to find a certain group of pictures that she knew had to be in this album.
That picture that Ryoku gave her to give to Ryo gave her a feeling of nostalgia. Within moments, she found her pictures and smiled. Thanks to his remembering to bring a camera in the pocket of his slacks, they had plenty of pictures to remind them of that cruise she, Rei and Ryoku took quite a few weeks ago. Despite the fact that the cruise turned out to be a Dark Kingdom plot, she had a good time.
She saw her copy of the picture of her that he took, next to the one he took of Rei, and the one Rei took of him. There was one where a crewman took a picture of the three of them together, Ryoku in the middle, with Rei on his left and her on his right. They both had one arm around his shoulders while he had one arm around each of them. When the crewman asked if either of them was Ryoku’s girlfriend, Ryoku told him that they were just friends. He just nodded, returned the camera and left, much to Rei’s disappointment since she was hoping for a chance to flirt with him.
The next page had several miscellaneous pictures. There was one of the three of them just before they boarded the ship, one of her and Rei waving at Ryoku as he took the picture, one of Rei trying to flirt with another crew member and failing, one of Ryoku and Rei where she pretended to flirt with him and he tried to pretend that she wasn’t. She thought he looked cute blushing like that.
On the last page were two of her favorite pictures. The first was one she took of Ryoku staring out into the ocean with a thoughtful expression on his face and no trace of sadness at all. The last one was of just her and Ryoku, taken by Rei. Ryoku had his arm around her shoulder while she leaned against him, grinning slightly while he was wearing one of his usual half-smiles.
Ami sighed to herself as she closed the album and put it away. Ever since she and Ryoku left the train station about two hours ago, her thoughts were in a confused state. There was Ryo, a boy who had a crush on her for the longest time, but was too shy to tell her. After she discovered that he was a Rainbow Crystal carrier and learned of his psychic ability, he had begged her to kill him if he turned into a Shadow Warrior. Instead of agreeing, she had told him to stop acting so fatalistic and to believe in his ability to change his fate. Apparently her words of encouragement had some effect, since even after he did change into a Shadow Warrior, he was able to fight off Zoisite’s control for a short while. Before he left, he had told her that he would be returning after he was able to beat her academically to reclaim the picture of her that Usagi gave him. In a way, she was a little flattered to hear that. She liked him and hoped that she would be able to see him again soon.
Then there was Ryoku, a good friend of hers that had an air of secrecy about him; moody, sullen and usually wearing a neutral expression. Yet… there are times when he acts like a totally different person. It was almost as if there were two different personalities to him and she was always trying to figure out which was the real him. It was a surprise to find out that he had helped Usagi try to get Ryo to go out with her after finding out that he had a crush on her. He said he did it because he was his friend and he didn’t want Usagi to mess it up.
It was an additional surprise to find that even after everyone else had left for home after she continued to watch after Ryo’s departing train, he had remained, watching her. He never said a word; he just watched. As he walked her home, he remained silent. The only time he spoke was after they had arrived at her house. All he said was, “He was my friend, too,” and left, leaving her to stare after him in confusion. Ryoku was an enigma to her and she always had been interested in solving puzzles.
Usagi was in the bathroom, soaking happily in the tub. She was looking forward to just lying on her bed and reading some of her favorite manga. Then again, just letting herself soak in the warm waters of her bath was a good way to spend some time, too.
Her pleasant soak in the tub was interrupted by a scratching at the door. “What is it?” she asked, a little irritated at someone interrupting her bath.
“Usagi, I have some important news that I need to share with you and the rest of the Scouts that I had received from Central Control last night,” Luna said from behind the door.
“Now? Why couldn’t you tell us sooner?”
“I didn’t have the time. You were at school, then you went to the train station to see Urawa-kun off, then you ran home. I had to wait until everyone was out of the house to make sure they didn’t overhear me talking to you.”
“Okay, Luna, so what is so important that you have to interrupt my bath for?”
“It’s about the Rainbow Crystal that I took to Central Control for analysis.”
“What about it?”
“I’ll go call the other Scouts. We should all be present to hear this.”
“Luna!” Usagi shouted. “Why did she have to go and ruin my nice bath like that?” She sighed and got out of the tub to dry herself off.
While she was drying herself off, Luna went into Usagi’s room and pulled out the communicator from her purse. She pressed a few buttons and Ami’s face appeared on the small round screen.
“Luna, is something wrong?” she asked.
“No, Ami-chan, I’m just calling a meeting of the Scouts,” Luna replied. “I have some information that I want to share with you. The meeting will be held at the usual place.”
“The shrine,” Ami agreed. “Right. I’ll be there as soon as I can.” She then switched off her communicator.
“That’s one,” Luna said. “Now, for the others.” She then proceeded to push a few more buttons.
Makoto, for lack of anything better to do at the moment, was sitting in Ryoku’s room looking over the pictures he kept on his dresser. The dresser was kept at the opposite end of the room from his bed, next to the doorway.
A few moments ago, she noticed him walking out the door without saying a word to her. He didn’t look angry, so she assumed that he just wanted to be alone.
She picked up a picture from the middle of his dresser. It was all by itself, as if it had some special significance. Considering whose picture it was, it probably did.
A beeping from her pocket quickly grabbed her attention. She stood up and took out the communicator from her pocket. Luna’s face appeared in the small round screen as soon as she turned it on.
“Luna, what’s up?” she answered. “Any trouble?”
“No, Mako-chan, I’m calling a meeting of the Scouts,” Luna replied. “Is Ryo-kun with you?”
“No, he just left a few minutes ago, though I may have an idea where he is,” she told her.
“Okay then, I’ll leave telling him about the meeting to you.”
“All right. Bye, Luna.” Makoto shut off her communicator and headed out of the apartment. She quickly climbed up the apartment’s ladder and headed onto the roof. Just as she thought; he was here, in the middle of a complex martial arts routine. “Hey, Ryo-chan!” she called, getting his attention.
Ryoku blinked as he heard Makoto calling him. He knew she never interrupted him, unless it was for something important. “What’s wrong?” he asked, turning toward his sister.
“Luna’s called a meeting.”
“Then, let’s go,” he said, following her down the ladder.
Rei waited as the first of the Scouts showed up. It was Makoto and Ryoku. For some reason, Makoto seemed a little subdued while Ryoku seemed a little pensive. “Hey, you two!” she called cheerily, hoping to cheer them up as well. Makoto seemed to snap out of her quiet mood while Ryoku just waved absent-mindedly, still deep in thought.
“Don’t mind him,” Makoto told her. “He’s been like that almost all day. At least he isn’t acting moody.” Rei just shrugged.
The three waited as Ami arrived. “Is everyone here?” she asked, walking up to them.
“We’re still waiting for Luna and Usagi-chan,” Makoto answered.
“No surprise,” Rei commented. “She’s always late.”
Ryoku looked up from his thinking and glanced silently at Ami. At the same time, she silently glanced over at him. As soon as their eyes met, they quickly looked back to where they were originally looking; Ryoku, towards the ground, and Ami, back at the others.
Makoto and Rei noticed the exchange and shared a confused look. “Do you have any idea what that was about?” Rei whispered aside to Makoto.
“I’m not sure,” Makoto whispered back. “It’s a good thing Usagi-chan wasn’t here to see that or she’d try to do something like get those two together.”
“You think that they….”
“I said I wasn’t sure,” Makoto interrupted. “I asked him about that earlier and he denied it to my face. He was convinced that he saw her as just a friend, so it’s best just to leave it like that… for now.”
“For now?” Rei asked. She just nodded.
At that moment, Usagi ran up to the group, with Luna following. “Sorry I’m late, but somebody had to call a meeting right in the middle of my bath!” she explained, leveling a significant look at Luna.
“I had no choice,” Luna countered. “I tried to talk to you earlier, but I never got the chance.”
“Well, we’re here now,” she said, dismissing the argument. “So, Luna, why’d you wanna talk to us, anyway? You said it was something about the Rainbow Crystals?”
“Yes,” Luna replied. “Last night, I took the Yellow Rainbow Crystal with me when I checked in with Central Control.”
“So, they analyzed the crystal?” Ryoku asked, looking up from his study of the ground.
“What did they find?” Ami asked.
“Unlike what we previously thought, the Rainbow Crystals won’t work as a source of energy,” she explained. “So, we don’t have to worry too much about the crystal the Dark Kingdom has, until we need to get it from them later.”
“In other words, the Rainbow Crystals don’t have part of the power of the Silver Crystal,” Ryoku added.
“So, the Rainbow Crystals are just pieces of crystal until someone collects all seven?” Rei asked.
“That’s about it,” Luna confirmed. “Now, we have to decide who’s going to keep the crystal and the other crystals should we get more than just the yellow.”
“Luna, who has the Yellow Rainbow Crystal right now?” Ryoku inquired.
“Usagi-chan has it, but I don’t see why…,” she began.
“If she already has it, then why bother asking who’s gonna keep it?” he asked.
“Yeah, after all, she’s supposed to be the leader, right?” Makoto added. “I think Usagi-chan should hold onto the crystals.”
“I don’t know…,” Usagi began.
“What’s to worry about?” he asked. “It’s just a piece of colored crystal, right?”
“Then, it’s settled,” Luna said. “Usagi-chan will continue to hold onto the Rainbow Crystal and hold onto any others we may get. Now then, what about the crystal Tuxedo Kamen has? What are we going to do about that?”
“Luna, you sound like he’s our enemy or something,” Usagi remarked. “I’m sure he’s just holding it for us or something like that.”
“How can you be sure, Usagi-chan?” Ami asked. “Remember what he said to us when we asked him about the Silver Crystal?”
“I know I haven’t forgotten,” Ryoku added darkly.
“Come on! He can’t be our enemy,” she insisted. “After all, he’s saved my life several times. I know he isn’t our enemy.”
“I hope you’re right about that, Usagi-chan,” Rei replied quietly. “For all our sakes.”
To Chapter 27: An Artful Attack