Makoto sighed dreamily to herself as she sat on one of the benches within the school grounds with her lunch bag in her lap. “Moonlight Knight…,” she sighed dreamily while Ami and Ryoku stood nearby, watching her while carrying their own lunches.
“What about him?” Ryoku asked.
“A mysterious man who comes to our aid whenever we’re in a pinch,” she continued. “The way he moves when he leaves saying ‘farewell’… it’s just like my long-lost senpai….”
He merely nodded as if expecting the answer.
“Mako-chan,” Ami began questioningly, “did your senpai leave while saying ‘farewell?’”
“I meant the way he moved.”
“Oh.”
Once again, Ryoku nodded as if expecting the answer.
A short distance away, Umino was hurriedly trying to catch up to Naru. “Good morning, Naru-chan!” he called out as he caught up to her.
“Hi, Umino,” she greeted in return as she stopped.
“Here,” he said as he brought out a box lunch wrapped in a handkerchief. “I cooked lunch for you again!”
Naru blinked and grimaced slightly at the sight of the boxed lunch. “It can’t be fried shrimp again?”
“Today, it’s green pepper, bean curd and fried shrimp,” he stated as he grabbed Naru’s hand and dragged her after him. “I’m trying to make it different.”
As Umino dragged Naru after him, Makoto, Ami and Ryoku all watched and sweatdropped. “I can almost feel sorry for Naru-chan,” Ryoku remarked.
“Lately, it’s become a big fad for couples to make lunch for each other,” Ami told him. “It’s a very special thing to do.”
“Really?” he replied thoughtfully.
“It’s been a long time since I cooked lunch for somebody,” Makoto said quietly.
“Mako-chan…,” Ami said quietly as she noticed the change in her expression. A change in subject seemed to be in order. “Honestly, Usagi-chan hasn’t show up at all,” she said as she glanced around, looking for the blonde girl in question. “We were supposed to talk about who the Moonlight Knight might be.”
“You didn’t really think she’d make it on time, did you?” Makoto asked with an amused grin.
“Perish the thought,” Ryoku remarked with a wry half-grin.
“Tsukino-san,” Haruna said as she stepped out of the classroom to speak to Usagi, who had been standing there for a very long time. “You were late, you forgot to do your homework and you slept in class!”
“I’m very sorry,” Usagi said as she bowed her head penitently.
“I doubt it,” Haruna replied as she turned to go back into the classroom. “But, go eat your lunch anyway.” With that, she went back into the classroom and closed the door behind her.
“But, I forgot my lunch…,” Usagi said as she turned and left.
As she walked through the school grounds, she noticed several couples eating lunches that they had made for each other.
“Aren’t they lucky?” she sighed to herself. “If I was going to be late anyway, I should’ve eaten breakfast.”
While she was lethargically her way across the campus, she came across Naru and Umino sitting underneath a tree having lunch together. She quickly ducked behind another tree and started to watch as Umino tried his best to feed Naru the lunch he made rather than let her eat it herself.
“They’re lucky,” she sighed to herself again as she watched.
“Come on, Naru-chan,” Umino asked. “Say, ‘ahh.’”
“No really,” she said as she pushed away the hand holding the chopsticks and shrimp while blushing. “I can’t do that.”
“Aren’t you a shy girl?” he commented as he tried to insist. “Come on. Say, ‘ahh.’”
“It would be rotten of me to disturb them now,” Usagi said to herself. “I know! I’ll go ask Mako-chan to share some of her delicious lunch with me.”
As Usagi got up and left, Umino was still trying to feed Naru her lunch.
“Say ‘ahh.’ ‘Ahh….’”
“You’re so pushy,” Naru said while blushing, but she finally decided to give in. “Ahh….”
Umino happily popped the shrimp into Naru’s mouth and smiled as she ate it.
“I don’t see Usagi-chan around anywhere,” Ryoku replied as he, Makoto and Ami all walked past as Umino prepared to feed Naru a second shrimp.
“She’s nowhere around,” Makoto agreed.
“I wanted to talk with her about what we discussed this morning,” Ami told them.
“What’s that?” Makoto said suddenly as the sound of a flute drifted to their ears.
“Let’s go see,” Ryoku said as they left to go find the source of the music.
The source of the music turned out to be Seijuro, who was playing his flute while surrounded by a mob of girls carrying their lunches, staring at him with the same starry-eyed expression on each of their faces.
“She’s not here, either,” Ami said as she scanned all the girls for any sign of Usagi.
“What pretty music,” Makoto observed as her expression turned dreamy again. “It’s captivating.”
“It’s not much,” Ryoku remarked with a shrug. “I think that the mob is more taken with the flautist than the music.”
“Come on, Mako-chan,” Ami said with a wry grin. “Does Ginga-senpai look like your long-lost senpai, too?”
“No, but he liked music, too,” she replied without taking her eyes off of Seijuro.
Ami began to laugh cringingly as she sweatdropped. Ryoku once again nodded as if expecting the answer.
Suddenly, Ami jerked back as a thought hit her. “Now that I think of it, Ginga-senpai transferred to the school at around the same time the Moonlight Knight first appeared.”
Makoto’s expression turned to one of surprise as she considered the idea. “It can’t be,” she whispered to herself. “Him? Can’t be.”
As Seijuro finished his playing, all of the girls suddenly began offering their lunches in hope that he would eat with them. “Sorry, but I don’t eat lunch,” he said apologetically as politely refused all their lunches. However, the girls all insisted that he at least try some of theirs, so he gently pushed his way through the mob and started to walk away with the mob quickly following suit.
Makoto began to blush as Seijuro walked past her – her dreamy expression unchanging even as the mob of girls stampeded past.
What if he is the Moonlight Knight? she thought as she watched him leave.
“Mako-chan?” Ami said as she waved her hand in front of Makoto’s face. “Mako-chan?”
“It’s been a while since I’ve felt so upbeat!” Makoto exclaimed with a wide grin on her face. Both Ami and Ryoku sweatdropped in chagrin.
“I’m sure you’ve been counting the days,” Ryoku remarked flatly.
“Ami-chan, I’ll go check out if Ginga-senpai is the Moonlight Knight!” she exclaimed as she suddenly ran off with her lunch bag in tow, leaving Ami and Ryoku behind to stare after her and sweatdrop yet again.
“Mako-chan, what are you doing?” Ami murmured almost to herself.
Seijuro quickened his steps after noticing that the herd of girls was still chasing him. As they all made their way across the school grounds, all the boys stared in bewilderment as they watched the peculiar procession go by. Seijuro hurriedly made his way around one of the school buildings, then leaped up to the top of the building’s roof when he was sure no one was looking, leaving the pursuing horde of girls to pass by without noticing him.
Makoto stopped just as the crowd of females rushed out of sight. She was about to give up and turn back when she looked up and spotted him standing on the fence surrounding the roof. How did he…? she wondered as she watched him jump down to the roof from atop the fence. Can’t be! Is he really the Moonlight Knight? She continued to watch him as he landed on the roof and moved out of sight.
“What should I do?” she asked herself as her grip on her lunch bag tightened. A slow grin curved her lips as she came to a decision. “Here goes nothing,” she said determinedly as she sped off for the entrance to the building.
Seijuro sat down on the small concrete wall that surrounded the edge of the building and leaned against the fence that was set on top. He brought out his flute again and began to play; this time, without the crowd of girls hanging on his every note. They seemed so determined to have him share their lunch with him….
The thought seemed to pull at his mind until he could no longer concentrate on his playing. “What’s so important about lunch?” he mused to himself after he lowered his flute and gave it a thoughtful scrutiny.
“It’s because of love,” a voice said from the direction of the entrance to the roof. He looked up to see that one of the girls had finally caught him. She seemed to be breathing hard, as if she had just finished running up all of the steps leading to the roof. He was about to say something when he realized that this girl wasn’t part of the horde that had been chasing him earlier, but she seemed almost familiar to him.
“You’re…,” he began, but faltered as he couldn’t match name to face.
“Kino Makoto,” she introduced herself with a smile. “Would you mind if I sat with you for a while?”
“Sure.”
Makoto made her way over to where he was sitting and sat down next to him as she set her lunch bag on her lap. “You play the flute very well,” she said as she smiled at him.
“Thank you.”
Her smile faded a little at his impersonal reply. “Say…,” she began as she began to open her lunch bag, “I’ve got this huge lunch here and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sharing it with me.”
He gave her a contemplative look for a moment. He was curious as to why all these girls were insisting on having him share their lunches with him. Perhaps it had something to do with the food. Maybe if he tried some of her lunch….
“Well….”
Inside one of the computer classrooms, Ami sat typing away at one of the computer terminals as she ate one of her sandwiches. The terminal she was working on was connected to her own minicomputer though a small cable that she and Ryoku had specially designed in order to move information from to and from her minicomputer to another computer in order to perform simple programs and functions that required an actual computer keyboard to input data and a larger graphical output device – a computer monitor was much easier to read than her minicomputer’s display.
Beside her, Ryoku was busy typing away at her minicomputer while eating his own lunch consisting of egg rolls, fried rice and sukiyaki. He was busy sending her data from her minicomputer as she worked with it on the larger computer. It was much easier and more efficient that having to do both by herself, not to mention that she liked having him work beside her. Besides, he was the only other person who knew how to operate her minicomputer on a level close to her own.
“There,” Ryoku announced after pressing one last key and finishing his last egg roll. “All the data we have on Ginga Seijuro-san has been sent.”
“Thank you, Ryo-kun,” she said as she reached for her last sandwich and began to eat it. “I’m beginning the association program now.”
As the program began matching all the data they had on Seijuro with the data they had on the Moonlight Knight, both watched with anticipation. When the results were displayed, both frowned thoughtfully.
“The probability of Ginga Seijuro-san being the Moonlight Knight is 0.02 percent,” Ami confirmed as she read the results.
“So, he’s not it, then,” Ryoku said as he turned back to the minicomputer. “Ami-chan, I know he’s not the Moonlight Knight, but I want to check Mamoru-san anyway. I just want to confirm something that I’ve been wondering.”
“What’s that?” she asked as she turned back to the computer and began typing quickly.
“I’m not too sure,” he replied as he started typing as well. “Maybe if I see the results, I’ll know.” He quickly sent Ami all the data they had on Mamoru, while mixing up the last of his fried rice and sukiyaki. “I’m done here.”
“I’m beginning the association program now,” she replied as she finished off her sandwich.
“The probability of Chiba Mamoru-san being the Moonlight Knight is 96.25 percent,” Ami confirmed with a curious expression on her face. “Even though we’ve seen both him and the Moonlight Knight at the same time, the program insists that Mamoru-san is the most likely person to be the Moonlight Knight.”
Ryoku nodded quietly. “I know, but something at the back of my mind is telling me that the computer may be right, contrary to what we’ve all witnessed with our own eyes.” He shook his head in confusion as he proceeded to finish his lunch. “I don’t know if I’m reading too much into what could merely be a big coincidence, but I’m beginning to wonder if there’s something we’re missing.”
They both stared at the computer display for a moment until a weak cry at the door caught their attention.
“Ami-chan…. Ryo-kun…,” they heard Usagi call out weakly from the doorway. They both turned around to see her slumped against the doorway.
“Usagi-chan?” both said in surprise as they stood up simultaneously.
“Finally…,” Usagi gasped as she made her way to the desk where they were sitting and looked down at Ami’s and Ryoku’s lunches only to find both empty. Her eyes slowly began to tear up as she stared down at the lunches desolately.
“What’s wrong?” Ami asked. “What is it?”
“Your lunches!” Usagi wailed.
“We ate them,” Ami told her.
“Sorry,” Ryoku added as he put a hand to the back of his head in chagrin.
Usagi was about to cry when she suddenly began to collapse from sheer hunger. Ryoku quickly caught her as her knees buckled and was now shaking her in order to get her to snap out of it.
“Usagi-chan! Usagi-chan!” they both shouted as they tried to rouse her from her stupor.
“This is…,” Seijuro said uncertainly as he stared down at a piece of squid cut into the shape of a small squid.
“Go ahead,” Makoto urged him as she held it out to him.
“It appears to be a marine animal of this planet, but the composition doesn’t match,” he said as he stared at it hesitantly. “What is the significance of cutting it into this shape?”
“Uh, Senpai, do you happen to like white roses?” she asked suddenly. “Or, do you sometimes feel like dressing up in a white Arabian costume and walking around in it?”
“Err…,” he began uncertainly at the strange change of subject. In order to avoid answering – or even thinking about – such a bizarre question, he popped the squid into his mouth and began chewing it.
“How is it?” she asked as she watched him. He wasn’t choking, so that was a good sign.
“Can I have another?” he asked after swallowing it.
“Sure!” she exclaimed happily as she displayed her entire lunch box to him. “Take your pick! I’ve got dessert, too!”
From down on the ground, Natsumi glared up at seeing Seijuro and Makoto together. Ail! she seethed mentally as she turned in the direction of the building’s entrance and stormed over to it.
“Pretty good,” Seijuro commented after eating some more of Makoto’s lunch.
Makoto stared up into the sky, exceeding happy at her good fortune. “I used to make lunch for someone in good weather like this,” she told him as she reminisced. “He used to tell me that it was pretty good. Then, he dumped me.” She turned to Seijuro with an apologetic look on her face. “Sorry, I’m talking about myself.”
“I don’t understand,” he told her as he looked at her. “What does this lunch thing have to do with being in love?”
“Girls try to show their affection by doing what they can do best,” she explained. “Of course, they can end up doing something they can’t do otherwise.” She paused for a moment as she stared past the fence and out to the horizon. “They could even be willing to die for it.”
Seijuro frowned as he tried to comprehend how something like that could apply to something simple like lunch. “Impossible,” he murmured to himself. Makoto glanced over at him, wondering what he meant be that comment. She was considering on whether she should ask, when Natsumi burst through the door and glared at them.
“Big brother,” she said coldly as she walked up to them and stared down at them.
“Natsumi!” Seijuro exclaimed in surprise.
“Your sister?” Makoto asked as she looked at him questioningly.
“Big brother, I wish you would stop ingesting objects of unknown composition,” she said as she glared derisively at Makoto.
“Hey, is that a crack about my cooking!” Makoto countered as she stood up and used her height to glare down at Natsumi. “No way is any of it bad for him!”
“Don’t you dare make any moves on my big brother!” Natsumi demanded.
“Don’t you know that jealous little sisters are so cliché nowadays?” Makoto countered mockingly.
“What?!?” Natsumi roared as both girls began to glare angrily at each other.
As they were arguing, Seijuro had absentmindedly continued to eat some more of Makoto’s lunch until he tried a piece that was particularly spicy. After ingesting the food, he began to choke on it.
“What’s wrong?” Natsumi asked as she knelt down by his side and put a hand on his back as she tried to look at his face.
“Are you okay?” Makoto asked as she knelt down by his side as well as tried to do the exact same thing as Natsumi.
“Don’t you touch him!” Natsumi shouted at Makoto as she glared at her.
“What?!?” Makoto exclaimed as she glared back, leaving Seijuro to suffer by himself.
“Tsukino-san,” Haruna said as she stepped out of the classroom to speak to Usagi, who had been standing there for a very long time… again. “You were late, forgot your homework, slept through morning class… and slept through afternoon class!”
“I’m sorry,” Usagi said as she bowed her head penitently… again.
“Never mind,” Haruna said as she sighed tiredly, while turning the poor girl around and pointing. “Go home.”
“Okay,” Usagi said as she left, leaving Haruna to stare after her and sigh again.
While Usagi slowly made her way home, Ami, Ryoku and Luna all quickly caught up to her.
“Usagi-chan, are you okay?” Ami asked concernedly.
“I’m so hungry that I don’t feel anything anymore,” Usagi replied tiredly.
“I think we have something here that will help,” Ryoku told her as he gestured toward Luna.
“Here, Usagi-chan,” Luna said as she dropped Usagi’s lunch bag in front of her.
“Oh, Luna…,” Usagi said, crying happily at seeing her lunch. “Is that…?”
“It is,” Ryoku told her.
“Lunch! My lunch!” she exclaimed happily.
“She couldn’t give it to you this morning,” Ami explained.
“Cuddle, cuddle, cuddle…,” Usagi said as she hugged her lunch bag.
“Are you going to keep hugging your lunch or are you going to eat it?” Ryoku asked dryly as he and the others sweatdropped.
“I’m telling you that it was a misunderstanding,” Seijuro insisted as he continued to follow after Natsumi, who was indignantly walking away from him.
“How would I know?” she retorted coldly over her shoulder.
“Ann!”
“How could you touch human food?” she asked as she stopped and whirled around to glare at him. “You’ve polluted the pure love of our world which is nourished by the energy of the Doom Tree!”
“Listen to me!” Seijuro insisted as Makoto caught up to them.
“Ginga-senpai!” she shouted cheerily. “Can we walk home together?”
“Well…,” he began hesitantly as he noticed Natsumi’s scowl.
“Please, please, have a fun time!” Natsumi insisted acerbically with a false smile held on her face as she whirled around and stormed off.
“Ann… err, Natsumi!” he called after her as he tried to go after her again.
“No need to worry about me!” she snapped as she continued to hold her false smile. “Take your time!” she added as she glared at Makoto.
“Ouch…,” Makoto murmured as she watched Seijuro try to assuage Natsumi’s anger and fail.
“There she goes again,” Seijuro sighed to himself as he walked back to where Makoto was waiting for him.
“I just wanted to talk with you some more,” she told him apologetically.
“I suppose we could,” he said slightly to himself as he walked down the street with Makoto following him. He walked into a small kids playground and sat down on one of the small, animal-shaped children’s rides in the middle of the playground. Makoto silently sat down on the other one as she watched him stare out at nothing in particular.
“Senpai,” she began, breaking the small silence between them, “you and your sister are very close, aren’t you?”
Are we? he suddenly thought to himself. Ann must be mad.…
“What is it?” he asked her as he noticed Makoto’s change in expression.
“I know your sister really hates me,” she told him in a slightly deflated tone. “I just don’t really understand. I can understand you and your sister being very close; it’s the same way with my brother and me. I can’t understand how your sister could be so jealous. I was never jealous when my brother was with his girlfriend….”
“It’s not that,” he told her as she trailed off. “If you want to talk to me, then I have a question for you.”
“Sure!” she replied as her expression immediately brightened. “Please, ask me anything!”
“About lunch and being in love…,” he began uncertainly.
“You don’t get it?” she finished for him.
“No.”
“You’re a funny man,” she said as she began to laugh.
“What do you mean?” he asked, confused at her reaction.
“I mean…,” she began, but continued to laugh. Soon, Seijuro found himself laughing as well, partly because he didn’t really know what else to do.
As they both continued to laugh, Natsumi watched them from behind a small row of bushes. Her anger began to flare up as she continued to watch Seijuro laugh along with Makoto. Soon, her rage caused her to shed her disguise as she crushed a carelessly abandoned soda can with her foot.
Ail… you…! she mentally seethed as she began to plot her vengeance.
Usagi had finally brought out her lunch and was now eating it with an almost feral abandon. Ami had borrowed the handkerchief from Usagi’s lunch and was using it as a face-shield from all the culinary shrapnel. Luna had taken shelter on top of Ami’s head and was also hiding behind the handkerchief. Ryoku, on the other hand, was stoically standing there with his arms crossed as the occasional piece of Usagi’s lunch struck him. He would then calmly brush the offending piece of food off of him and then resume his original position. As Usagi continued to shovel food into her mouth, the others told her of everything that she had missed during her short period of fasting.
“Eh?” she asked as she paused to chew her food. “Mako-chan’s on a date with Seijuro-san?”
“It’s not a date,” Ami told her as she wiped off some of the projectile rice that had made it past the handkerchief. “She said she’d check to see if he’s really the Moonlight Knight.”
“There is no way that Seijuro-san is the Moonlight Knight!” Usagi said as she swallowed down the last of her lunch.
“I can agree with you on that,” Ryoku said as Ami began to wipe off some of the projectile rice that he had missed. “Thank you,” he told her as half-smiled at her. Ami merely blushed in response as she stared down at the handkerchief in her hands.
“Honestly!” Usagi continued as she stood up, having missed the short exchange between Ryoku and Ami. She paused as she took the handkerchief that Ami held out to her and wiped her face clean. “Thank you for the food,” she said gratefully as she turned around. “Excuse me!” she exclaimed as she darted off, leaving Ryoku, Ami and Luna to stare after her.
“Usagi-chan!” Luna called after her.
“I’ve got to see if it’s a real date or not!” Usagi shouted back as she left. “Seijuro-san said he loved me and look at what he’s doing!”
“At least the food has revived her,” Ryoku commented as Usagi ran off.
“And who was complaining that he’s annoying?” Luna remarked dryly. Ami laughed in chagrin while Ryoku merely shook his head patiently.
“You mean you just give lunch and love?” Seijuro said as he stood up. “Isn’t that only an act?” he asked as he turned toward Makoto.
“No way,” she replied sincerely.
“Love must be seized and held by force,” he continued as he turned away. “To give it away is incomprehensible.”
“Really?” Makoto asked as her expression became crestfallen. “Seized by force? That’s sad. I think there are better ways of loving.”
“Silence!” Ann shouted as she suddenly appeared before them with her arms folded and a fierce expression on her face. “You ignorant Earth human scum!” Makoto stood up to face her, but stopped as she saw her eyes glowing.
“Take this!” Ann shouted as she fired an energy blast at her, sending her flying a good distance away. “You inferior humans have no right to speak of love,” she continued as she stepped forward, stomping on Makoto’s lunch bag and grinding it underneath her foot in the process.
“You…,” Makoto growled fiercely as she began to push herself up. In response, Ann turned toward her and lifted her arm in order to attack again.
“Wait!” Seijuro shouted as he tried to get her to listen to him, but she ignored him as she fired again, blasting both him and Makoto in the same attack.
“Mako-chan!” Ryoku exclaimed as he, Ami, Usagi and Luna all arrived at the same time.
“You…,” Makoto growled again as she tried to push herself up again.
“What’s going on?” Usagi asked fearfully. “What do we do?”
“You have to ask?” Ryoku asked as he brought out his Knight Swords.
“Ami-chan, you look after Mako-chan!” Luna told her. Ami nodded her agreement.
“What about me?” Usagi asked.
“We fight,” Ryoku told her in a flat voice.
“I thought so,” Usagi said as she laughed in chagrin. Ami and Luna sighed in vexation while Ryoku merely gave her a cold, hard glare. Usagi’s laughter cut off abruptly as she shied away from his glare. “At any rate, let’s transform,” she told them as she quickly recovered.
“Moon crystal power, make up!”
“Mercury power, make up!”
“Knight swords power!”
“You ruined my precious lunch bag,” Makoto said furiously as she glared at Ann.
“So, what are you complaining about?” Ann retorted snidely. “I’ll finish you off now!”
“Hold it!” Sailor Moon shouted, stopping Ann before she could prepare another attack.
“Sailor Moon!”
“How dare you interfere with the date of an innocent girl!” she declared. “I won’t forgive you! I absolutely won’t, you dumb, stupid, date-breaking cockroach!”
“You were about to do the same,” Knight mentioned flatly from behind.
“That was different,” she told him quickly.
“How?”
“I was looking after Mako-chan’s best interests.”
“I will not tolerate being called a bug by an inferior creature!” Ann roared furiously as she leaped into the air and began to prepare another attack.
“On behalf of the Moon, I’ll…,” Sailor Moon began, but was cut off when Ail attacked everyone from behind with a binding attack.
“What!” Knight exclaimed as he tried to defend against the attack and failed.
“Can’t move…,” Sailor Moon moaned as she tried to get up.
“Ail, don’t interfere!” Ann shouted as Ail appeared behind her. “You’re just…!”
“You don’t have to say any more,” Ail said soothingly as he kissed her cheek. “Ann, believe in me.”
“Ail…,” she murmured as she began to blush.
“So,” he continued as he brought of a hand of cards, “choose the most suitable Cardian for the occasion.”
“Yes,” she nodded as she pointed at a single card which then rose up and flew out into the air before them.
“Come forth, Cardian Utonberinon!” Ail ordered as he brought out his flute and began to play his summoning song. As he played, the card began to glow as it stretched and formed into the shape of a female Cardian with a strange half-red, half-brown hairdo vaguely resembling a mop. The Cardian was holding a mop in one hand as it turned to stare down at the Scouts below.
As soon as the Cardian appeared, the attack binding the Sailor Scouts suddenly ceased.
“Mako-chan!” Luna shouted as she went to go check on her.
As Luna left to go check on Makoto, Sailor Moon and Knight had their hands full with Utonberinon. Sailor Moon just barely managed to avoid all of the Cardian’s mop strikes, while Knight tried to slash at Utonberinon, but kept missing as the nimble Cardian dodged each attack.
“Earth thrust!” he shouted as he tried to land an attack on the Cardian, but missed as she landed on the jungle gym dome with the handle side of her mop striking it first. She quickly leaped away as the dome exploded, leaving the Scouts to defend themselves from the flying rubble.
“Now lose, Sailor Scouts!” Ann shouted as she laughed while Utonberinon rose from the smoke and rubble that used to be a jungle gym.
“Mako-chan, are you okay?” Mercury asked worriedly as she knelt down beside Makoto.
“I’m okay,” she replied as she sat up, then clenched a fist angrily. “I’ll make them pay for taking away the thought that goes into a lunch!” she declared as she brought out her transformation pen. “Jupiter power, make up!”
As soon as she was transformed, Jupiter made her way onto the scene as she glared at Ann.
“Sailor Jupiter!” Ann growled as soon as she spotted her.
“Jupiter-chan!” Sailor Moon exclaimed in relief as soon as she saw that she was all right.
“I’ll handle this,” Jupiter stated as Mercury arrived as well.
“Utonberinon, bind the Sailor Warriors!” Ail ordered. In response, the Cardian quickly made her mop vanish, then began to scrub her head, making bubbles appear in her dual-colored hair. When she finished, a red glow began to surround her. Her right hand vanished as streams of a dark green seaweed-like material issued forth from her hand. Knight attempted to slash away at the seaweed, but he only managed to get bound along with Sailor Moon and Mercury in a giant ball of seaweed with only their heads left exposed.
“Supreme…,” Jupiter began, but she was quickly caught and bound as well. “Damn!” she growled in frustration.
“Jupiter!” Luna exclaimed worriedly at seeing her get caught as well.
“Excellent!” Ail said in satisfaction. “Now, roll up Sailor Moon.” Utonberinon shot more of her seaweed at Sailor Moon, binding her, Mercury and Knight even tighter than before.
“It hurts…,” Sailor Moon moaned painfully as the sphere surrounding them grew larger.
“Sailor Moon!” Jupiter exclaimed worriedly.
The Cardian continued by flinging the three Scout seaweed ball up into the air and letting them come down on top of the nearby water fountain, where the ball merely floated on top of the water stream.
“That is so funny!” Ann stated as she sneered at the floating Scouts. “Marvelous!”
“If I could just move my arms…,” Jupiter muttered as she continued to struggle with her bindings. As if granting her wish, a white rose suddenly flashed through the air, slashing through the seaweed and setting her free. “This…!” she gasped as she recognized the white rose and gazed over toward the direction the rose had flown from. “Moonlight Knight!”
“The moonlight shines equally on those who lost love and now wander alone,” the Moonlight Knight declared from his position standing atop a nearby streetlamp. “The love that puts one’s life at stake is true love. Its shine is filled with courage.”
“Love? Courage?” Jupiter repeated as she closed her eyes and concentrated. “I understand. For my irreplaceable friendship, even at the cost of my own life,” she declared as she crossed her arms over her chest and began her attack. “My guardian planet, Jupiter,” she intoned. “Summon the storm! Call the clouds! Brandish lightning!” There was a fire burning in her heart… her soul. She prepared to go through the motions of the rest of her attack, but the words that came to mind were completely different. Words fueled with rage.
“Supreme thunder dragon!!!”
The lightning bolt that surged forth from Jupiter’s tiara formed into the shape of a huge dragon, then lunged at the Cardian. The force of the attack was so strong that Utonberinon was knocked out of the air and flung straight into the ground.
“How dare you!” Ann screeched furiously and was about to attack Jupiter herself, but she was suddenly interrupted.
“Crescent beam!” Venus shouted as her attack flew straight at Ann.
“Watch out!” Ail warned as he grabbed Ann by her shoulders and teleported them both a short distance back, just barely dodging the attack.
While the two aliens were distracted, Mars prepared to free the other Scouts… in her own way.
“Fire soul!” she shouted as she shot a fireball at the seaweed ball. Unfortunately, the fireball was a little too strong as it singed the Scouts trapped inside as well. After the seaweed burned away, Sailor Moon, Mercury, and Knight all plummeted down into the water at the base of the fountain, hair slightly singed at the edges and their faces slightly covered in ash and soot.
“Wet and charred…,” Sailor Moon muttered, slightly dazed from the manhandling. “Mars-chan, you’re too rough!”
Knight accentuated her complaint by exhaling a small puff of smoke as he stared at Mars. “Medium rare,” was all he said in a deadpan tone.
Mercury just stared out at nothing, too dazed to say anything.
“Hey, I saved you all, so shut up!” Mars retorted.
“This is being saved?” Knight asked Sailor Moon.
“I’m still not sure if we were better off before,” she replied.
“Shut up!” Mars shouted again.
“You should’ve called us in,” Venus told them.
“Sailor Moon, finish it off,” Jupiter said to Sailor Moon as she turned toward her.
“Got it,” Sailor Moon replied as she stood up and brought out her Moon Scepter. “Moon princess halation!” she shouted as she waved the scepter in front of her, ending with it pointing at the Cardian. A stream of light emanated from the scepter and struck Utonberinon, destroying her and leaving nothing behind but a smoldering card stuck into the ground.
“Damn,” Ail growled seethingly as he disappeared with Ann in tow.
“Splendid work, Sailor Scouts,” the Moonlight Knight declared approvingly.
“Moonlight Knight, who are you?” Jupiter asked.
“Someday, you will understand,” he replied as he turned to leave. “Farewell.”
“Wait!” Jupiter shouted, but he had already disappeared.
“Jupiter…,” Sailor Moon said as Jupiter continued to stare at the spot where he vanished from.
“He knows what it means to be in love,” Jupiter said dreamily. “He’s not Ginga-senpai.”
Everyone immediately facefaulted all at once. “We could’ve told you that,” Knight remarked dryly.
“He’s just like my long-lost senpai…,” she continued without paying attention to the others. “I’ll give him my love-filled lunch next time.”
“Too bad he doesn’t go to our school,” Knight said flatly.
“Did you say something, Ryo-chan?”
“Not a word.”
“It’s done!” Ail announced as he walked into their living room and over to where Ann was sitting, brandishing the tray he had carried all the way there.
Ann uncovered the tray and gasped in surprise at the display. It was an assorted variety of foods similar to the lunch that Makoto had shared with Seijuro. Ann stared at it for a moment, then asked, “What is it?”
“Well, you see…,” he began as he glanced down at the tray. “This is supposed to be the way Earth humans express their affection.”
Ann smiled as she leaned against Ail and sighed contentedly. “Then, this is for me, Ail? I’m so happy!” she purred happily. After a moment, she blinked at she glanced down at the tray with a bewildered expression on her face. “But, what do I do with it?”
Ail’s expression soon matched Ann’s. “That, I haven’t figured out yet.”
To Chapter 52: Snow White and the Six Sailor Scouts