Mamoru enjoyed taking an occasional morning jog every now and then. It was a great way to not only help him wake up some mornings, but he liked to maintain his physical fitness, as well. Not only that, but sometimes it just felt good to run for a while, to feel his heart pumping from the exertion of a prolonged run.
It was in the middle of one of his morning jogs that he happened to see Usagi cross his path, running so quickly that she didn’t even notice him.
“Usako!” he called out as he slowed to a stop. Usagi quickly halted at the sound of his voice and spun around. “I’m impressed,” he said with an amused grin. “Are you out for a morning jog, too?”
“Mamo-chan!” she exclaimed and promptly flung herself into his arms, almost knocking him off balance. “Mmm…. We didn’t even plan to meet, and I still bumped into you this early in the morning. Lucky!”
“It seems like we must be destined for each other,” he replied as he smiled fondly down at her.
“Mamo-chan…,” he sighed as Mamoru began to bend down to kiss her.
“Hey!” Luna exclaimed as she caught up to Usagi. “What do you think you’re doing so early in the morning?!? Anyway, Usagi-chan, now’s not the time for that!”
“Ah! That’s right!” Usagi said as she gave Mamoru a worried look. “It’s terrible! Chibiusa’s gone missing!”
“Chibiusa?!?” he exclaimed as he started running in the same direction that Usagi had been running earlier. Usagi and Luna started a moment later. “I hope she wasn’t taken by that strange person we met the other day.
“I don’t think we need to worry about that, but it’s dangerous for her to be alone right now!” Usagi said as the search for the young girl continued.
It wasn’t long before they found her sitting on a swing in a playground nearby. The two stood watching her as she just sat there, looking depressed. She wasn’t moving back or forth; just staring down at the ground. Usagi watched with a look of compassionate concern in her eyes, while Mamoru stood by her with a supportive hand on her shoulder.
“Chibiusa…,” she murmured, wishing she could do something for her.
Chibiusa grasped desolately at the key hanging around her neck. “Papa…,” she murmured quietly, her voice quavering with the tears that were threatening to fall. “Mama….”
“Chibiusa,” Mamoru called out as he and Usagi approached her.
“What’s wrong?” Usagi asked. “Why did you leave home without telling anybody? Everyone’s worried about you.”
“Shut up,” she retorted as she wiped her tears away. “Leave me alone.”
Both Usagi and Mamoru blinked in surprise at her retort. Mamoru knelt down beside her and smiled. “Chibiusa, let’s go. I’ll take you home.” The young girl blushed as she glanced down ahead of her and nodded her agreement. “All right. Good girl,” he said and extended his hand toward her. However, once Chibiusa placed her hand in his, another vision suddenly flashed into his mind.
A crystal palace in the middle of a crystalline city.… And something at the top of the palace.…
“Mamo-chan?”
Mamoru blinked as the vision faded away and his senses returned to him. “What’s wrong?” Usagi asked as she gave him a concerned look.
“N-no,” he said as he glanced down at the little girl in his arms. “It’s nothing.”
“Chibiusa!” Usagi shouted as the group left. “Get off of Mamo-chan and walk by yourself already!”
Chibiusa stuck out her tongue at her from riding piggy-back on Mamoru’s shoulders. “Stop calling me Chibiusa, Chibiusa! My name is Usagi.”
“What are you talking about?” she shot back. “I’m Usagi! And the guy carrying you is my boyfriend.” In her arms, Luna promptly sweatdropped.
“Wrong! Mamo-chan is my boyfriend now!”
“Hmph!” Usagi said as she tossed her head and smirked knowingly. “What are you saying? Mamo-chan and I share… a really… deep bond of love!” she exclaimed gesturing dramatically. Luna continued to sweatdrop profusely.
“So, you can try to seduce him all you want, but you’re just wasting your time,” she continued admonishingly. “So, stop clinging to my Mamo-chan!”
“Come on,” Mamoru laughed. “It’s okay, Usako. Chibiusa is still a kid. She’s just lonely.”
“Eh? Mamo-chan, you’re calling me Chibiusa, too?”
“Oh. Sorry, sorry. But, I think Chibiusa sounds pretty cute.”
“What? Really?” Usagi grimaced and Luna grinned at Chibiusa’s change in tone.
“Yes, very cute.”
“Okay, then you can call me Chibiusa!” she said happily as she hugged him.
Mamoru began to laugh, but it cut off as he noticed that Usagi was walking ahead of them, leaving them behind. “Huh? Usako?” he called out as he stopped.
“Hmph! You two go ahead and have fun!” Usagi snapped irritably. “Just forget about me! Go marry Chibiusa for all I care!”
“Hey, Usako! What’s wrong?” Mamoru called out as he chased after her. “What are you so mad about?”
“You don’t get it!”
Mamoru just sighed.
The whole Tsukino family came out to meet them as they arrived at Usagi’s house with Chibiusa. Mamoru set Chibiusa down and stood beside Usagi as the family began to fuss over the young pink-haired girl.
“Honestly, Chibiusa-chan, where did you go?” Ikuko said as she put a hand on Chibiusa’s head.
“You shouldn’t run away like that!” Shingo scolded. “Anything could happen!”
“I’m sorry.”
“Well, it’s okay now,” Kenji replied. “You’re home safely.” He then turned his gaze toward Usagi and Mamoru. “By the way, Usagi, who is this young man?”
Both Usagi and Mamoru flinched at the sudden change in subject. Luna, still in Usagi’s arms, gave the pair a dry, vexed look. “Oh… um…. This is my friend, Chiba Mamoru-san,” Usagi said awkwardly.
“Pleased to meet you,” Mamoru said with a small, nervous bow.
“Oh, I hope you weren’t inconvenienced,” Ikuko said with a smile. “Thank you for looking after my daughter.”
“Eh? How’d stupid Usagi get such a great guy for a boyfriend?” Shingo remarked.
“What?!? Boyfriend?!?” Kenji hollered dramatically. “Is this true, Usagi?”
Usagi blushed slightly while Mamoru went stiff. “Um… well… you see…,” she stammered, trying to think of a reply.
“Err… I was in the middle of my morning jog, so…,” Mamoru said as he quickly retreated. “Please excuse me. Bye.”
“Hey, hold it!” Kenji shouted at his fleeing back. “You! Come back here!”
“Usagi!” Ikuko whispered aside to her daughter. “Usagi, he’s pretty handsome.”
“Eh?”
“Sometime when your father is out, bring him over for tea,” she said with a wink.
“Okay,” Usagi nodded.
“Usagi has become a delinquent!” Kenji cried, tears beginning to fall from his eyes. “Where did we fail?”
“Honestly, Dear! There’s no way Usagi could become a delinquent!” Ikuko said exasperatedly. “She can’t stay at home forever!”
There was much sweatdropping from both Usagi and Luna.
“No, it’s too late! Our daughter became a delinquent!”
“Oh, you made Papa cry,” Shingo said as he came up beside Usagi. “Papa’s so emotional. What’d you do, stupid Usagi?”
“Um…,” Chibiusa interrupted. Everyone turned to look at the young girl with a blank expression on their faces. “I’m hungry.”
“Huh?” Kenji said, breaking the silence. “Dear, do we have any relatives like her?”
“Now that you mention it…,” Ikuko replied uncertainly.
“Who are you?” Shingo asked.
“Eh?” Usagi said, surprised.
“Oh, no!” Chibiusa gasped as she backed away from everyone, gripping her Luna Sphere in her hands. Her expression changed to one of grim resolution as she began to bounce the Luna Sphere. “Luna Sphere, change!” she shouted as she let her cat-ball bounce high into the air. At the peak of the bounce, the Luna Sphere transformed in a puff of smoke into a yellow, swirled parasol, which she caught and flipped open with a flick of her wrist. As she turned to look back at the others, everyone was staring at her with blank, bewildered expressions and sweatdrops galore. She turned the open parasol toward them and began to twirl it clockwise. As the orange swirl design on the parasol spun faster, everyone present was put into a trance.
Luna suddenly broke free of the trance and glanced around at the others. “It’s hypnosis!” she deduced and quickly bit Usagi’s arm, the pain breaking her free of the trance as well.
“Ouch!” she cried after falling to the ground. “What’d you do that for?” she yelled at the black cat, but stopped when she noticed that she was staring at Chibiusa, who was now surrounded by the other members of her family.
“I’m your relative, Chibiusa!” Chibiusa said cheerily.
“Of course!” Kenji agreed.
“How could we forget?” Ikuko said.
“Oh, I remember now. She’s our cousin!” Shingo said.
“Hey!” Usagi shouted as she stood up and marched angrily toward the young girl. “So, this is how you hypnotized everyone, Chibiusa!”
“Usagi!” Ikuko said reprovingly.
“What kind of nonsense is that?” Shingo said as he and Usagi’s parents all gave her reproachful looks. “Why are you always picking on Chibiusa?”
“Stop it, Usagi,” Ikuko added harshly.
“Do you understand?” Kenji said.
Usagi looked from everyone down to Chibiusa, who smirked and stuck out her tongue at her. She clenched her fists and spun around, wanting nothing more than to scream out her frustration.
“What’s this?” Shingo said as he bent down and picked up the Luna Sphere. “This toy with the crescent moon bald spot looks just like Luna. See?” He turned the cat-ball so that the face was looking at Luna.
No way! Luna mentally exclaimed, making a face that matched the cat-ball’s perfectly.
“Rubeus-sama! You called?”
Rubeus glanced over his shoulder at the frost-haired woman approaching him. “Bertie, look,” he said and turned back to the projection in front of him, his arms crossed over his chest.
Bertie put a finger to her mouth thoughtfully as she looked over the projection. “It’s Crystal Tokyo, the city of the future that we despise.”
“We have to destroy this city as quickly as possible. To do that, we must destroy the Silver Crystal in this world and kill the Rabbit.”
“That’s difficult,” she replied as her hand moved from her mouth to her cheek. “We still haven’t found either of them.”
“But, I have found another way that Crystal Tokyo can be destroyed,” Rubeus continued as the projection of Crystal Tokyo shifted from a side view to a top view. Several red dots flashed on the projection, one at each point of the five-pointed star shape of the city, and several more scattered around the city. “These are Crystal Tokyo’s barriers, the Crystal Points. Crystal Tokyo was built upon these Crystal Points.
“I have found one of the Crystal Points in the present world,” he finished as the image of a beauty salon appeared in place of the projection.
“Is that it?” Bertie asked.
“Bertie, fill this place with Dark Power,” Rubeus commanded.
“If we do this, then in the future, Crystal Tokyo…,” she began.
“Will never be built,” he finished with a smug laugh.
The crystalline palace.… A bright light.… Usagi, in a gown that looked like her Silver Millennium gown, but different.…
Destruction.…
Death.…
This time, the vision hit Mamoru so hard that he dropped his books and stumbled against the wall, clutching at his head with his left hand as he struggled to get himself back together.
“So… that's it…,” he murmured understandingly under his breath. “Unless I do something, Usako will….”
A bit farther down the street, Usagi was walking down the same street, staring despondently at her most recent math test, which showed a horrible score of thirty-two.
“I did it again…,” she sighed miserably and looked up just in time to see Mamoru pushing himself up away from the wall. “I’m Mamo-chan!” she said and waved at him. “Ma–!” She paused long enough to put away the test paper with the horrible score that she was waving about and tried again. “Mamo-chan!” And just as with that morning, she happily flung herself into his arms.
“Once again, we run into each other by pure coincidence!” she cooed dreamily.
“Stop it,” Mamoru said as he took her by the shoulders and pushed her away from him. He turned away from her, ignoring the puzzled look on her face. “Don’t get so close to me.”
“Sorry…,” Usagi said, scratching her head sheepishly. “You’re right. In public, I shouldn’t–“
“That’s not what I mean!” he said, cutting her off bluntly.
“Eh?”
“I don’t feel love for you anymore,” he said coldly.
“…what did you say?”
“It’s over between us!” he shouted as he turned back toward her.
Usagi quickly went into shock at his announcement, staring out at nothing in front of her. Before she could recover from her shock, Mamoru picked up his books and walked away.
“Mamoru-san broke up with you?” Rei repeated in surprise. The same look of surprise was mirrored upon the others sitting with Usagi on the steps leading up to the main grounds of the Hikawa Shrine.
“I can hardly believe it of him,” Ryoku said, his expression concerned as he folded his arms across his chest.
Beside him, Makoto did the same as her brother. “What happened?”
“I don’t know,” Usagi said desolately.
“Listen,” Minako said consolingly. “Mamoru-san must’ve been bothered by something. It’ll be okay.”
“She’s right,” Makoto agreed. “You two are lovers from a long time ago, transcending time.”
“Maybe he forced himself to say that for Usagi-chan’s sake,” Ami reasoned.
“Hmm…. That would make sense,” Ryoku agreed thoughtfully. “But why would he force Usagi away from him like he did?”
“For the high school entrance exams,” Ami pronounced certainly. Rei, Makoto and Minako all sweatdropped, while Ryoku merely hung his head in chagrin. “Perhaps Mamoru-san wanted her to have time to concentrate on her studies so she’ll… do….” She trailed off after seeing the looks on everyone else’s faces. “Never mind,” she said, blushing in embarrassment.
“Ami-chan, what might work for you wouldn’t necessarily work for everyone else,” Ryoku said as he patted her fondly on the shoulder. Ami blushed even harder.
“It’ll be okay,” Rei told her. “Minako-chan is right. Mamoru-san isn’t like that.”
“Thank you,” she said, nodding gratefully.
“Yes, that’s right,” Mamoru said approvingly as he watched Chibiusa write in an elementary school workbook. “You’re going to the same school as Shingo-kun, right? Study hard.”
“Yeah,” Chibiusa said as she continued to write.
As he watched her concentrate on her writing, his apartment doorbell suddenly rang. He stood up from his position lying on the floor and went to go answer the door. When he opened his door, he found Usagi waiting on the other side. He turned and walked further into the hallway, wordlessly letting Usagi come in.
“What do you want?” he asked as soon as Usagi closed the door behind her.
“I’m sorry about this afternoon,” she apologized without turning from the door. “I didn’t mean to upset you,” she continued as she turned around and smiled hopefully. “I didn’t know that–“
“It’s not that.”
“Eh?”
“I just don’t feel love for you anymore,” he insisted.
“Mamo-chan, I’ll study much harder,” she pleaded. “So….”
“Don’t make me say it over and over again!” he said firmly. “I just want to end it with you.”
Usagi’s expression fell, although she struggled to maintain her smile. “Mamo-chan…. There’s no way I can believe that. Because, you were Prince Endymion and I was Princess Serenity. We were lovers before we were even born.”
Mamoru pounded his fist into the wall. “I’m saying I don’t feel like that anymore!” he shouted angrily. “Why must we be together now just because of the past? I–” He cut off as he saw the tears forming in her eyes.
Usagi glanced down, spotting Chibiusa’s small shoes on the floor. “Chibiusa is here, isn’t she?” she asked. “Perhaps it’s because you like her better than you like me.”
“Don’t say such stupid things,” he said, looking away.
“You’re right,” she said, her head bowed sadly, but her smile still frozen on her face. “I’m sorry, Mamo-chan, for making you go out with me. I thought we were happy,” she said, the final part of her sentence choked off as she couldn’t hold back her tears anymore. She opened the door and left, closing it behind her.
Mamoru stared at the door as he clenched his left hand into a fist beside him. Right now, he hated himself for doing what he just did, but with the very thought of that vision and what it meant…. It had to be done, no matter how much it hurt.
I’m sorry, Usako.…
Behind him, Chibiusa stared at both him and the door that Usagi had left from.
Outside, Usagi walked numbly away from Mamoru’s apartment. She didn’t care where she was going, nor did she really know where she was going. All that was on her mind was what she had heard Mamoru say to her in his apartment. She had tried to figure it out, she had tried every reason that her friends had given her – even Ami’s, as farfetched as it was – but she had come up with nothing. Mamoru didn’t love her and she didn’t know why.
As she walked down the street, she stopped at an empty phone booth and went inside. Once inside, she closed the door behind her and squatted into crying heap, leaning against the glass frame of the booth.
“Mama… I’m sorry,” she sobbed. “I can’t bring Mamo-chan over for tea….”
After several minutes of crying, Usagi heard a soft tapping on the door, just over her head. She looked up from her crying to see Ryoku standing over her head, looking very worried. She wiped the tears from her eyes, stood up and opened the door.
“It didn’t go well, I take it,” he said, his voice soft and concerned. “Need to talk?”
Without a word, Usagi threw her arms around him and continued to cry into his shoulder. Ryoku blinked for a moment as he stood there, letting her cry. “Usagi-chan, what happened?” he asked as he hugged his friend, trying to console her.
Slowly, Usagi got herself under control and told him everything that happened. As she spoke, she noticed his expression growing darker and darker. The closer she came to the end, the angrier Ryoku’s expression became.
“Is that so?” he said quietly as he glanced in the direction of Mamoru’s apartment. “Maybe I should go have a little talk with Mamoru-san….” He turned to leave, but stopped as Usagi grabbed onto his arm.
“No,” she said pleadingly, her eyes still full of tears. “Please don’t.”
“Why not?” he asked coldly.
“There has to be a reason why he’s doing this,” she told him. “I don’t know why he’s not telling me the reason why, but I know there has to be a reason.”
“Give me ten minutes and I’ll have that reason,” he said as he turned to leave again. Usagi pulled on his arm again, stopping him. “Usagi, let me go!”
“No!” she retorted. “Don’t, Ryo-kun!”
Ryoku yanked his arm from Usagi’s grip. “But, he hurt you!” he exclaimed, flinging an arm toward Mamoru’s apartment. “Do you really expect me to let anyone hurt you like he did? You may still love him, but that’s no excuse!” He turned and stormed toward Mamoru’s apartment.
“Ryoku, stop!” Usagi commanded, the tone in her voice causing him to halt in mid-step.
“Why?” he asked, his voice quivering in restrained fury.
“It is like you said, I still love him,” she said, tears starting to flow down her cheeks again. “I need to figure out why Mamo-chan is being this way on my own. Please don’t try to force him. I’m sure that when the time comes, he’ll tell me.”
Ryoku stood with his back to her for a long time. “I can’t believe you are asking me to let him hurt you like this and do nothing,” he said as he turned back toward her, his expression flat and emotionless.
“If I had to, I would order you to,” she replied staring him straight in the eye.
His face showed no emotion, but his fists were clenched tightly at his sides. “As you command, ohime-sama,” he replied, bowing stiffly, and walked past Usagi in the opposite direction of Mamoru’s apartment.
Usagi was a little hurt at the way he had deferred to her; not as a friend or as the leader of the Sailor Scouts, but as the Moon Princess. She didn’t want to force him to do something he didn’t want to do, but….
“Ryo-kun, I want you to promise me that you won’t force him to tell me why,” she said to his back as he walked past her. “Please?”
He stopped for a moment. “There are a small number of things I cannot do, not even if you asked me, Usagi-chan,” he said sadly without looking back. “This is one of them. However, I can promise you that I will leave Mamoru-san alone for now. I’ll give him a chance to explain himself. I won’t wait forever, though.” With that, he left without another word.
“Ryo-kun…,” she said as she watched him leave. “Thank you.”
It was near opening time for the Otafukuya Cosmetics and General Goods store. All of the employees were making the final preparations for another business day, before they would lift the metal grate and accept customers. Everything was business, as usual.
However, if a person would have happened to walk past the Otafukuya right at that moment, they would have heard the frightened shrieks of the store employees as their energy was drained from them all at once. A bright light flashed through the cracks between the slats of the metal grate for a moment, then disappeared. Soon after that, the grate slowly began to open.
Bertie appeared in front of the open store, dressed in a conservative yellow dress with a yellow ribbon tied around her braid and carrying a lavender parasol in her hand. She flipped open her parasol and raised it over her head.
“Droid-chan?” she called over her shoulder. “Droid Atsugessho-chan?”
“Yes, I’m here,” the Droid answered as she appeared behind her.
“Atsugessho-chan, I want you to sell my special cosmetics in this store,” she told her. “Bertie’s special cosmetics will make any girl very pretty while they last. But in a few years, her face will become rashy, her hair will gray, and her acne will become worse. That’s why I call these the stylish Happy Clown Cosmetics.”
“Leave it to me,” Atsugessho said and bowed.
“This store will no longer serve as a Crystal Point for the future now,” Bertie said, laughing softly. “Furthermore, this place will be controlled by our energy in the future.”
A short time later, Bertie appeared on the roof of the building her store was in, holding a stack of advertisement flyers announcing a promotional sale for the Otafukuya.
“Now, then,” she said as she grinned in satisfaction at her work. “Everyone will see my ads!”
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew past her, not only blowing the ad out of her hand, but flipping up her skirts as well. “Oh! Oh, dear!” she shouted as he struggled to keep her skirts pinned down with one hand, while the rest of her ads were blown out of her arms and scattered to the winds.
One of the stray ads fluttered down to the ground where Usagi was sitting down against the telephone booth with an empty, sorrowful look on her face. She reached down and picked up the paper that had landed at her feet and read it. With a heavy sigh, she stood up and started for the address indicated on the flyer.
When Usagi reached the Otafukuya, she stopped and stared at the store for a few moments, unsure whether or not she really wanted to go in. She glanced down at the flyer. The ad read, “It is time for you to transform into a lady.” Perhaps….
As Usagi walked into the store, Luna stepped out of the alleyway between the Otafukuya and the building next to it and saw her walk in. “It’s Usagi-chan…,” she said as she watched the door close behind her.
“Welcome!” the sales clerk greeted as Usagi walked up to the sales counter. “How can I help you?”
“Um…,” Usagi began hesitantly.
“Oh… your face has been soiled by tears,” the clerk said as she saw that she had been crying earlier.
“Eh?”
The sales clerk placed a purple bottle with an upside-down black crescent moon on the counter. “First, wash your face with this cleanser. Then, use this skin lotion, this milky base, then this cream,” she said as she placed each item on the counter. Each item was in a purple bottle or jar with an upside-down black crescent moon on it, just like the cleanser bottle. “Put some blush on your cheeks,” she continued, “and then some lipstick after that–”
“Um,” Usagi interrupted, “if I become pretty, will Mamo-chan say he loves me again?”
“That’s right!” she asserted. “Men only look at the surface, so it’s no use without a lot of makeup.”
“But…,” Usagi said, looking away. “But, changing my face won’t change Mamo-chan. He loved me for who I am.”
“No, a pretty face is all Mamo-chan sees,” the clerk disagreed. “All men think only of that.”
“You’re wrong!” Usagi shouted, furious. “Mamo-chan isn’t like that! You don’t know anything about Mamo-chan! What are you, a complete idiot?” She glared at the clerk, trembling in her fury. “I’m fine without your makeup,” she declared and turned to leave.
“Wait!” the clerk snarled as she reached over the counter and grabbed her arm. “Do you think you can just leave after saying all that?” she asked coldly.
“What?” Usagi said and tried to pull her arm away. “Stop! Let me go!” she shouted as she struggled to pull her arm free.
“Hey, be quiet!” the clerk growled fiercely. “You can’t leave without putting on some makeup!” she insisted as Usagi continued to struggle and yell, while the other customers slowly began to leave the store after watching the clerk manhandle Usagi. “Shut up!”
“No!”
The clerk’s eyes widened as she realized that all of her customers had left. “All my customers left because of you!” she screeched lividly.
“What?” Usagi shouted back. “It’s because you tried to force makeup on me!”
“Then, I have no choice,” the clerk stated as she raised a powder-puff to her face with her free hand. With rapid hand movements, a cloud of powder began to cover the clerk’s face and body. When she stopped, her skin had become blue and her hair had turned green with a blood red gem in the middle of her forehead. On the top of her head was an applicator that resembled the one on top of perfume bottles.
Usagi shrieked at seeing Atsugessho’s true form. “What are you?!?”
“Shut up!” the Droid growled as she yanked Usagi over the counter. “Let me put your makeup on!” Before the Droid could pull her all the way over the counter, Luna suddenly burst into the store and pounced on Atsugessho’s face, knocking her to the floor.
“Luna!”
“It’s the enemy!” Luna said imperatively. “Usagi-chan, transform!”
“Right!” she said as she stood up and raised her brooch into the air. “Moon crystal power, make up!” Within moments, she quickly transformed into Sailor Moon.
“Damn that girl! Where did she go?” Atsugessho seethed after she stood up and scanned the room for where Usagi had gone. She gasped and jerked back in surprise when she spotted Sailor Moon standing at the other end of the store. “Who are you?”
“I’m the Sailor Warrior fighting for love and justice, Sailor Moon!” she declared. “Trying to force cosmetics on girls who just want boys to like them! I won’t forgive you! On behalf of the Moon, I’ll punish you!”
“Anyone who discovers our plan to destroy the future city must die!” the Droid stated.
“Destroy the future city?” Luna repeated questioningly to herself.
“You brat! Put on heavy makeup!” she declared as she opened her mouth and spat out a stream of white liquid. Sailor Moon quickly jumped behind a row of display shelves before the liquid could hit her. After the liquid came into contact with the wood and cosmetic products, they began to melt into sludge, as if being hit by a heavily corrosive acid. Sailor Moon shrieked at seeing the melted sludge and realizing what that liquid could do to her.
Atsugessho grabbed the rubber squeezing end of the perfume applicator attached to her head, then leaped on a pair of hair spray canisters she had tossed to the floor and rode on them like a pair of skates. “Put on heavy makeup!” she bellowed and spewed the corrosive liquid again. Sailor Moon scrambled to her feet in a panic and fled and the spray struck the wall behind her. In her flight, she stepped on a hair spray canister and started to roll forward while struggling to keep her balance atop the can. Eventually, she crashed into a facial powder display table.
The Droid laughed as she strode closer to the downed Sailor Scout. Luna leapt at her once again, but from behind. This time, Atsugessho responded by slamming the cat into the wall with a huge powder-puff, flattening the poor feline. “Put on heavy makeup!” she declared as the puff shrank and disappeared into her hand. Luna quietly slid down onto the floor with an outline of her flattened feline form surrounded by facial powder remaining on the wall.
“Luna!” Sailor Moon called out to her guardian cat.
“You will put on heavy makeup!” Atsugessho said as she continued to approach her. However, before she could reach a distance close enough so that she was certain not to miss, a red rose flew through the air and struck the floor in front of her.
“A young girl’s skin is fresh and smooth,” Tuxedo Kamen stated from the open window above the shelves and displays. “There is no need for heavy makeup.”
“Shut up!” Atsugessho snapped back. “Oily skin, acne, and dry skin need makeup!” She opened her mouth and spewed a stream of corrosive liquid at him, which he easily leaped over, landing next to Sailor Moon. “You put on heavy makeup with her!” she shouted and spat her acidic liquid at both of them. Tuxedo Kamen responded by standing of and spinning his cane, deflecting the spray back at the Droid. The spray struck her in her face, causing her to reflexively cover her face with her hands. However, the spray had already done its damage, erasing her face except for her mouth. “My heavy makeup!” she gasped as she felt at her face.
“Now, Sailor Moon!” Tuxedo Kamen urged, looking back at her.
“Yes,” she nodded, still completely surprised at seeing him come to her rescue. She wasted no time in standing up and bringing out her Moon Scepter, readying it for her attack.
“Oh, I have to hurry and put my heavy makeup on!” she said as she rushed to pencil in her eyes, eyebrows, and eyelashes.
“Moon princess halation!” she shouted as she waved the scepter in front of her, firing a blast of white energy at Atsugessho.
“Wait!” Atsugessho shrieked. “I don’t have my heavy makeup on!”
The attack struck her, shattering her skin to pieces, leaving only her figure in crystal, which disintegrated into a pile of powder. The jewel with the upside-down black crescent moon turned from a blood red into a dull lifeless gray.
Outside the store, the sun began to set as Sailor Moon met with Tuxedo Kamen. He silently watched her for a few moments before turning to leave. “Farewell,” he said with no emotion in his voice.
“Wait!” she called out, stopping him. “Tuxedo Kamen-sama, you were lying when you said you hated me, right? After all, you came to rescue me again.”
“That has nothing to do with this,” he replied as he clenched his gloved hands into fists at his sides.
Sailor Moon’s hopeful expression fell as she hung her head and her eyes began to water again. “Then, Mamo-chan… please…. Tell me why you hate me.”
“I hate weak girls,” he told her coldly. “Farewell.” With that, he walked away without looking back.
“Mamo-chan!” she called after him, but he didn’t respond.
I’m sorry, Usako.…
Sailor Moon stood there, silently watching him depart, her heart heavy with despair.
“Sailor Moon,” Luna said as she came up behind her, “I found the store clerk unconscious in the basement. Let’s help them.” Luna gave her a worried look when she didn’t show any sign of responding. “Sailor Moon?”
I understand, Mamo-chan, she realized as she smiled wanly. I’ll work hard to become stronger and win your heart back.
To Chapter 58: Is this Goodbye, Ami?