“What a great day!” Usagi exclaimed cheerily as she sat, lounging on a bench in Shiba Park. Beside her, Makoto and Minako nodded as they quietly scratched Luna’s and Artemis’ ears, respectively.
“Especially since it’s been so quiet lately,” Ryoku added from the bench opposite of Usagi’s. Beside him, Ami and Rei sat, quietly conversing with each other.
“No more Rubeus,” Makoto added with a nod of satisfaction. “Chibiusa-chan should be safe now.”
“At least in this time,” Ami added, turning from Rei to the others.
“What do you mean, Ami-chan?” Minako asked.
“Well, remember when Chibiusa-chan tried to go back home a few days ago?” Ami asked.
“Yeah,” Artemis said. “Nothing happened.”
“So, I guess that means she’s gonna have to stay for a little while longer,” Usagi sighed.
“Enough of this kind of talk,” Minako said suddenly. “It’s a great day, so I say we should go do something to enjoy it.”
“I agree,” Rei added. “Something like a group trip, right?”
“Sounds great!” Usagi said enthusiastically. “In fact, I have an idea of where we can go!”
“Oh?” Ryoku asked as he stood up and stretched lazily. “Where?”
Usagi grinned. “You’ll see.”
Some time later, everyone was riding the bus toward a nursery well known for its collection of flowers, domestic and exotic. Ryoku wasn’t exactly thrilled, but since they had all but demanded that he come along…. Well, demanded was perhaps too strong a word, but it certainly felt that way.
He was seated by himself on one side of the bus. On the other side, Minako and Rei were sharing a seat and talking. Behind them, and opposite of himself, Usagi and Chibiusa, who had all but demanded to come as well, were struggling over a bag of cookies; Usagi seemed to have the upper hand at the moment, but Chibiusa wasn’t about to give up yet. Makoto and Ami sat behind them, with Makoto staring out the window and Ami reading a book… as usual. He half-grinned slightly to himself as he noticed which book it was; it was a present from him that he gave her not too long ago.
As soon as he turned his gaze to stare out the window, he was struck in the back of the head by what felt like a bag of cookies. He picked up the offending bag and held it up before Usagi and Chibiusa. “This yours?”
“Uh… yeah,” they both said in chagrined unison.
“Then, I’ll give it to you when we get off the bus,” he replied as he sat the bag in his lap and turned to stare out the window again.
“Aw, come on, Ryo-kun!” Usagi complained. “Give me back my cookies!”
“Hey, those are my cookies!” Chibiusa retorted.
“Says who?”
“Says me!”
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah!”
This bus is taking too long, Ryoku thought as he sighed to himself. He absentmindedly opened the bag, took out a cookie and ate one.
“Hey!!!” Usagi and Chibiusa shouted indignantly.
“Eh?” Ryoku said as he realized what he had just done. “Ah…. Heh, heh…. Oops…,” he said as he rubbed the back of his head in chagrin.
“Oh, Ryo-kun…,” Ami chuckled softly to herself as she shook her head and glanced back down at her book. The others just smirked wordlessly at him as they turned back to what they were doing. Usagi and Chibiusa, certain that Ryoku wouldn’t relinquish the cookies until the end of their trip, were now arguing with each other, shouting that it was the other’s fault.
Are we there yet? he mentally sighed again as he slumped tiredly against the window.
It wasn’t too long before the bus came to a stop. Usagi wasted no time in grabbing the bag of cookies off of Ryoku’s lap and dashing off the bus, with Chibiusa right behind her. Ryoku and the other girls just stared after them and sweatdropped.
“Okay, then…,” he muttered patiently as he gestured for the girls to precede him off the bus.
Outside the bus, the chase was over since Usagi had managed to take care of the last few cookies in the bag. A disgruntled Chibiusa was left to throw the empty bag away.
“So, where is he?” Usagi asked Ryoku eagerly.
He half-grinned to himself again as he pointed towards the nursery’s entrance, where Mamoru was waiting for them. He was the one who had the idea of calling him, especially since he didn’t want to be the only guy on this little group trip. He couldn’t help but feel a little proud of himself. After all, he played a big part in convincing Mamoru that he was wrong to try to push Usagi out of his life, just because he feared for her safety.
As soon as he noticed their arrival, he pushed himself off the wall he was leaning against and waved at them.
“Mamo-chan!” Chibiusa shouted in a greeting as she ran toward Mamoru while her Luna Sphere followed closely behind. Usagi growled as she chased after her, and ran to greet Mamoru in her own special way, at the same time. Ryoku and the other girls merely watched them with varying degrees of vexation or amusement displayed on their faces.
Ryoku and Ami shared a look, then turned to the others. “Promise that you’ll hit us if we ever get like that,” he requested jokingly. The others laughed as they all followed Usagi, Chibiusa and Mamoru into the nursery.
It was a huge complex; the glass ceiling was a good fifty meters overhead and the rooms were virtual parks within themselves. The group was slowly walking from room to room, admiring the fields of various flowers, each field part of a rainbow of different colors.
“Isn’t this beautiful?” Minako asked as she and the others gazed around the huge room, admiring the floral beauty.
“Very,” Ryoku said simply with a slow nod of his head.
Of course, the greenhouse was just part of the nursery. Outside, there was a gigantic park-like garden with walkways paved throughout it, so that anyone could go though and admire all of the various kinds of flowers and trees planted there. In the center, a great fountain stood with multiple sprays of water shooting up from the center in a tranquil, aesthetic display.
On the hill leading down to the garden from the greenhouse, Makoto chose a spot to just lie down and relax. The slope of the ground, along with the feel of the grass underneath her, felt real good; good enough to almost make her want to go to sleep right there. A short time later, Minako joined her by sitting down at her right side. Instead of staring up at the sky, like Makoto was, she chose to sit up and stare out at the panoramic view of the whole garden in its serenity.
Rei, Ami and Ryoku had all opted to take Chibiusa and go have a closer look at the garden’s selection of flora. Chibiusa listened with interest as both Ami and Ryoku gave the names of the flowers they saw. Ami also gave the flower’s scientific names at first, but she stopped when Rei told her that it was sort of boring… especially for Chibiusa. She merely smiled as she shrugged and agreed to leave off the impromptu botany lesson.
Back inside the greenhouse, Usagi was staring at a particular species of flora, while beside her, Mamoru merely smiled down at her. He then bent down a little closer to take a closer look at the flowers she was admiring. Usagi noticed him moving a little closer to her and couldn’t help but smile up at him. It had seemed like an eternity when he had all but shunned her, but now that he was back together with her, time no longer seemed to matter.
Mamoru glanced at the girl beside him and smiled back. Ryoku was right; he was a great fool to let some stupid fear or unproven premonition get in the way of his love for Usagi. He would fight with every fiber of his being until his death before letting any harm catch even the slightest glimpse of her.
His gaze caught on a small bed of roses. Sure, roses were practically his trademark, but today, they sparked a small memory that he had almost forgotten….
He rushed up to the roof as fast as his small legs could carry him. In his right hand, he held his gift for his friend. He said he was leaving soon and he didn’t want to be late. The door swung open, showing that he hadn’t left, yet. He was standing there, waiting for him.
Mamoru slowly ambled forward as he tried to catch his breath. As soon as he reached the boy, he stopped and held out his farewell gift to him: a rose. The other boy smiled as he took the rose and held it carefully with both his hands.
“Thank you,” the boy said as he looked back up at Mamoru. “Someday, I will do something for you. I’ll return… with lots of flowers.” With that, he faded away, leaving nothing but fading pinpricks of light that were also slowly starting to disappear.
His friend gone, Mamoru slowly started to cry. “Don’t cry so much…,” he heard his friend’s voice call out. “I’ll bring lots of flowers when I come back. So.…”
“…don’t forget me.”
Hearing Usagi’s voice, Mamoru snapped back to the present and looked at her. She was bent down, staring at a certain group of flowers.
“The meaning of forget-me-nots,” she continued as she smiled at him.
Mamoru grinned back at her in slight embarrassment at his slight inattentiveness. “Don’t forget me?”
“That’s not all,” Usagi continued. “They say that forget-me-nots also mean ‘true love’….”
“You seem to know a lot…,” he began with a grin as he turned to smile at her, then froze. She had her eyes closed and her lips in a pucker, as if expecting a kiss. He sweatdropped as he grimaced slightly. Of all the places for her to ask for a kiss.... he thought as he glanced around him. He then spun around, making sure no one was watching, then turned to face Usagi. He cleared his throat for a second in chagrin, then put his hands on her shoulders as he leaned closer.
Unbeknownst to them, a pair of eyes were watching from within a gathering of vines and leaves. “Usagi is at it again with my Mamo-chan!” Chibiusa growled to herself as she sat on Rei’s shoulders.
“In a place like this…,” Rei added disapprovingly as she watched as well. “And in broad daylight!” Beside her, the other three girls were also peeping through the leaves at the couple. Ryoku was the only one not watching, as he found watching the girls peeping at the romantic couple to be more entertaining. He was especially enjoying the deep embarrassment that his girlfriend was showing as she turned away.
“This is bad,” she murmured as she tried to stop herself from watching. “It’s bad to spy on them. Bad, bad, bad….” It sounded like she was trying to get the others to stop their spying, but he knew that it was just as much her trying to convince herself that she should stop her own spying. The thought almost made him want to laugh. A sudden gasp from the other girls made Ami whirl back to her own spying as she realized that she was missing something good. At that, Ryoku had to cover his mouth to keep from laughing so loud that he would give the girls away, ending his own fun too soon.
Chibiusa opened her mouth as if she was going to shout something, but she was quickly silenced as Minako covered her mouth with her hands. “Shh!” she said without turning her head. “This is the good part!” But, Chibiusa continued to struggle, prompting Ami to help in quieting the young girl by also covering her mouth with her hands… or, rather, her eyes.
Oh, this is rich! Ryoku thought with great amusement as he fought back his laughter with all of his strength, straining to keep quiet… or, at least laugh quietly. I’m just loving this!
“This is bad!” Ami continued, still trying to be the voice of morality. “It’s bad to spy on them!” She and Minako were starting to have a hard time containing the indignant young girl.
Makoto looked askance at Ami and smirked. “Then, why are you here whispering, Ami-chan?” she asked insinuatingly.
The mortified blush on Ami’s face was enough to make Ryoku burst out into a fit of laughter, barely muffled by his hands over his mouth. That only made her blush even harder.
“Don’t thrash about, Chibiusa-chan!” Rei warned as she was beginning to lose her balance. The motion of Chibiusa’s thrashing was causing Rei to lose her balance, pushing her against the vine-laced fence they were peeping through. As a result, the whole fence and the objects sitting on it, and on the other side of it, began to rattle. The resulting noise gave away their presence to Mamoru, who was mere inches away from kissing Usagi. He glanced over toward where the others were hiding, grimaced, then slowly backed away.
“Well, that did it,” Rei muttered.
“And they were so close…,” Minako sighed.
“I don’t think Usagi-chan’s even noticed, yet,” Makoto added.
“Hmm?” Ryoku asked as he stifled his laughter and walked over to see what his sister was talking about.
“Hey, Ryo-oniichan,” Chibiusa whispered after Minako and Ami released her. “Wanna help me play a joke on Usagi?”
A sly half-grin crossed his face. “What is it, kiddo?” His half-grin widened as she told him. “All right….” He reached up and picked a leaf off of one of the plants and handed her the long stem. “Now, let’s go have some fun.”
Usagi patiently waited for Mamoru to kiss her. What’s taking him so long? she wondered. Isn’t he going to kiss me? She slowly opened her eyes, only to find a huge, furry caterpillar staring back at her. When it saw her open her eyes, it stood up on the leaf it was lying on, making itself look bigger.
“AAAAH!!!” she screamed in horror as she fell backward and scooted backwards as fast as she could move herself, until she backed herself against a wall.
Rei slowly straightened as Chibiusa leaned back, her right hand still holding the leaf with the caterpillar on it. Rei, Chibiusa and the others all started laughing at Usagi’s reaction, as well as the look on her face.
“You guys have done it this time,” Usagi growled furiously. Her ire quickly vanished as she noticed that someone was missing. “Mamo-chan? Where’d he go?”
Mamoru walked out of the greenhouse, grimacing to himself over the embarrassing scene he had just escaped from. He came to a stop at the top of the hill that led down to the garden walkways. A content smile spread across his face as his gaze moved from the beautiful flower beds over to the fountain display at the center of the garden. It was so peaceful out here….
Suddenly, the fountain cut off its flow of water, just as the wind started to blow. Mamoru blinked in surprise as a flower petal suddenly floated past him. As she glanced skyward, the air above him was littered with hundreds of flower petals. More gathered in the sky as the clouds above slowly turned dark. He extended his hand outward, as if to catch one of the petals.
“This is…?” he said to himself as he felt something familiar within the shower of petals. He cut off when he heard the sound of Usagi’s laughter behind him, and glanced behind him.
Indeed, Usagi was standing not too far behind him, enjoying the shower of flower petals. The others were also there with her, each one staring at the flurry of petals with varying degrees of wonder, bewilderment, and concern. Mamoru turned back toward the direction he was looking before. Somehow, he knew something was going to come from that direction. As for what it was, he almost felt certain that he knew.
A brown-haired young man wearing a black T-shirt and tan trousers suddenly appeared, as if out of nowhere, and stopped a few feet away from Mamoru. He was staring straight at him with a slight grin on his face and with his hands in his pockets, as if he was waiting for something. Mamoru’s eyes widened in shock as he realized who the person was. Just moments after the man appeared, the shower of petals ceased and the sky returned to its normal blue.
“Mamo-chan! Did you see it?” Usagi shouted excitedly as she ran forward and took his arm in hers. She didn’t seem to notice the confused expression on his face. “Just now….”
“Hey,” the man shouted, cutting her off. “Long time, no see, Mamoru-kun. It’s me.”
Usagi turned to see who Mamoru was staring at. “You know him?” she asked.
“No…,” he replied faintly.
“I didn’t mean to keep you waiting,” the man continued as he started to walk over to him. “Now, let’s go. I apologize for taking so long, but I finally found flowers that you would enjoy.”
The girls watched the man, not certain of what was going on. Ryoku considered moving closer, but decided against it. He was still very wary of the man, since he seemed to appear from out of thin air, but Mamoru could take care of himself and Usagi, as well.
“What?” Mamoru asked.
“Come on…,” the man patiently, as if he thought that Mamoru was joking. “It’s not like you forgot the promise, right?” He held one hand out toward him for emphasis.
“Promise?” he repeated questioningly.
“Yeah, the one between you and me,” the man replied as he reached out and took Mamoru’s hand in his. Usagi saw this and grimaced in confusion, while still holding onto Mamoru’s arm. “The flowers I promised…,” the man continued as he placed his other hand on Mamoru’s hand. Usagi’s eyes widened as she gasped and turned a bright red. The man continued to watch Mamoru hopefully, while Mamoru’s expression remained neutral, as if he wasn’t certain of what to say.
“Um…,” Usagi interjected as she slowly stepped between them, gently forcing them apart while smiling back at the man. “You can’t…. You see, Mamo-chan is my boyfriend.”
The man glared down at Usagi as he raised his left hand. “Out of the way,” he said coldly as he shoved her aside, knocking her to the ground.
“Usako!” Mamoru shouted in concern as she hit the ground hard.
“Usagi-chan!” the others shouted as they all ran toward her.
The man silently turned and started to walk away with his hands in his pockets. Mamoru, Ami and Chibiusa were kneeling down next to Usagi while the others stood nearby and watched the man leave. “Hey, where’re you going?” Rei shouted after him.
“Shoving a girl is the worst thing a man can do!” Makoto added furiously.
“Come back and apologize or I’ll drag you back here to apologize!” Ryoku shouted angrily.
The man stopped halfway between them and the fountain and turned around. “Mamoru-kun, I’ll make sure I fulfill the promise we made,” he shouted back as the sky grew dark again and the wind picked up, throwing flower petals around him and towards the others. Everyone quickly threw their arms up in front of their faces and shut their eyes to protect them from the blizzard of flower petals. Mamoru slowly opened one eye in time to watch the man disappear within the whirlwind of flower petals. A ball of light shot skyward from where the man had stood, leaving a trail of petals behind it. As it left, the sky became normal and the petals vanished again. The fountain suddenly sprung to life again, as if signaling that the man was truly gone.
“He… disappeared?” Minako whispered in bewilderment.
“Fiore…?” Mamoru murmured partly to himself in shock. “Can it be…?”
Usagi looked up at Mamoru with a concerned expression on her face. “Mamo-chan….”
Later that night at Hikawa Shrine, Ami, Rei, Makoto, Minako and Ryoku were all gathered around the television, while Usagi was lying asleep underneath the table behind them. Chibiusa had fallen asleep earlier, and was sleeping quietly on Rei’s bed. Rei gently tucked her in and joined the others watching the news. The pizza and six cups of tea were left sitting on the table as they watched.
“And in other news, around 2:00PM this afternoon, an asteroid was discovered to be fast approaching Earth’s orbit. It’ll be closest to the Earth at approximately 11:20PM tomorrow evening, although the closest it will come to the Earth will be approximately 25 million kilometers, so there will be no direct effect on the Earth itself. Those who own telescopes may wish to.…”
Ami lowered the remote control back down to her lap after turning off the television. Around her, the others turned toward her, and to Luna and Artemis sitting on the desk next to her, to see why the two cats wanted them to see that news story.
“It seems that their telescopes have finally found it,” Artemis said as he turned away and stared down at the desk in front of him in concern.
“Is this that meteor that you’ve mentioned before?” Makoto asked. “It’ll be all right if it doesn’t collide with the Earth, right?”
“That’s what we thought…,” Luna began.
“Apparently, there’s another problem with this asteroid, since collision with the Earth isn’t a concern anymore,” Ryoku said with a contemplative frown on his face. “Right?”
“There’s another problem?” Minako asked, glancing between Ryoku and Luna.
“Everyone, take a look at this,” Artemis said as he started up Rei’s computer and ran a program uploaded from Ami’s minicomputer. After moving the mouse around and clicking here and there, he brought up a schematic of the asteroid that was closing in on the Earth. “This is my own analysis of that asteroid. It’s about 600 meters in diameter.”
“That’s pretty large,” Ami observed as she brought a closed hand to her mouth. “If it did end up crashing into the Earth, there would be terrible consequences.”
Ryoku glanced down at her, then moved closer and put a comforting hand on her shoulder. He knew that she tended to put hand to her mouth like that when worried. “Fortunately, that won’t happen,” he said, giving her a small half-smile, which got a grateful smile in return. “Right, Artemis?”
“Yes, we’re all right, there,” Artemis agreed. “Despite it’s size, the meteor is far less dense than expected.”
“Almost like it was hollow or made of some light, flimsy material?” Ryoku asked.
“Perhaps,” he replied. “As such, it would burn up in the atmosphere if it did try to collide with the Earth.”
“Then, what’s the problem?” Rei asked.
“We sensed plant energy from that asteroid,” Luna told her.
“Eh?” all of them said at once and stared straight at the model of the asteroid on the computer screen.
“Oh…,” Makoto began. “Now that you mention it, it does look like a plant seed, rather than a big rock. Its diameter is 600 meters, right?” she asked. “Maybe there’s some algae growing on its surface?”
“Artemis, you’re making too much of a fuss over algae!” Minako chided with a grin.
“It’d be nice if it was just that…,” the white cat began worriedly as he hung his head in concern.
“Yes,” Ryoku added with a frown. “I have my doubts, too. We’ll just have to wait and see….”
“Maybe I’m thinking too much?” Usagi asked groggily. The others blinked in surprise, then turned to look behind them at the same time.
Underneath the table where they were eating earlier, Usagi was beginning to stir. “But, they didn’t seem like just friends….” She rolled over, then sat back up, gripping the table fiercely. “No, Mamo-chan would never do that!” she shouted firmly.
The others returned to the table and sat back down at where they were sitting before. Ryoku was seated by himself, opposite of Usagi, while Ami and Rei sat at one end, and Minako and Makoto sat at the other. “Mamoru-san looked rather serious, too…,” Rei said insinuatingly, just to tease her. Usagi’s expression turn to one of vexation, while Ami and Ryoku shared a look, then shook their heads in exasperation.
“Oh yeah,” Makoto said absently, as she took a slice of pizza. “He suddenly said that he was going home, too….”
“I wonder if the guy we met at the botanical garden was an acquaintance of Mamoru-san’s,” Minako said thoughtfully as she stared up at the ceiling.
“Maybe,” Ryoku said as he took a slice of pizza for himself. “He seemed to be quite familiar with Mamoru-san.”
“You haven’t heard anything, Usagi-chan?” Makoto asked.
Usagi shook her head. “No,” she replied with a sheepish smile. “Come to think of it, I know next to nothing of Mamo-chan’s past.”
“Mamoru-san seems to be popular with men, as well,” she said thoughtfully to herself, as she sipped from her cup. Beside her, Rei sat straight up in surprise, while at her other side, Ryoku almost choked on his pizza.
“I can’t believe you said something like that, Ami-chan!” Rei said in shock. Ami looked back at Rei in embarrassment.
“That sounded perverted, Ami-chan!” Minako added laughingly.
“Ah, they had that kind of relationship,” Makoto reasoned.
Behind them, Luna and Artemis sweatdropped and sighed in exasperation. “I guess this ends today’s meeting,” Luna muttered to Artemis.
“Seems so,” he agreed tiredly.
“I can hardly imagine Mamoru-san going for something like that,” Ryoku stated.
“N… no!” Ami spluttered as she tried to cover another slip of the tongue. “I didn’t mean it that way!”
“Then, which way did you mean?” Rei asked.
“W… well, I meant…,” Ami began, trying hard not to dig herself in deeper.
“You know,” Minako added, “there’s a couple in that kind of relationship at my school, too….”
As the others went further into the discussion, Usagi laid back and started thinking back to one time when she learned a little bit of Mamoru’s past….
Usagi picked up a small picture frame and looked at it. She recognized the little boy in the picture as Mamoru, so the two other people in the photograph must be.…
“They’re… your mother and father?” she asked as she looked toward him.
Mamoru was sitting on his bed with his elbows on his legs and hands folded underneath his chin. His head tilted just enough so that he could look at her without lifting his head. “Yeah,” he replied quietly.
She carefully set the picture frame back down, then sat next to him on his bed. “You’ve lived alone… without your family… all this time?” she asked, turning sympathetically toward him.
“That’s right,” he told her with a slight nod.
“Were you lonely?”
“I’m not lonely anymore,” he replied with a smile. “You’re my family now, Usako. I feel like I was waiting all by myself, just to meet you.”
“Mamo-chan…,” she said, touched by his words. She slipped off the bed and knelt beside him, resting her head on his lap. Mamoru gently placed his hand on her shoulder as he stared down at her.
“Yes, I’m your family now, Mamo-chan…,” she thought to herself. “From now on, I’ll protect you. Always.”
As Usagi came back to the present, she could hear everybody laughing at Ami, who was blushing even harder than ever. Ami had her hand over her mouth again, this time, in complete mortification. She was still trying to figure out how she had gotten herself into such a predicament.
“You’re blushing, Ami-chan,” Makoto told her.
“Don’t worry, Ami-chan,” Ryoku said as he put his hand on her shoulder and half-smiled at her. “I think you’re pretty when you blush like that.” That only made her blush even harder, especially when the other girls started winking knowingly at her.
“How cute!” Rei said as she gave her encouraging nudges with her elbow.
Usagi slowly made her way to the room’s sliding door and opened it. She began to stare out contemplatively toward the starry sky above, while thinking quietly to herself.
“Mamo-chan.…”
Unnoticed in the nighttime sky, a small, glowing plant seed slowly floated earthward. Above the city lights it descended, until it reached one of the trees planted in small squares of earth lined up along the edge of the street. As it drew closer to the ground, it slowed until it touched the ground. The light it was giving off added to the light of the street lamp nearby and made shadows of its own. The small pool of light it was casting onto the ground grew smaller and smaller until the seed itself sunk through the ground and into the earth.
A second later, a flower bud broke through the ground, grew into a full flower, then blossomed with unnatural speed within the span of two seconds.
To Chapter 72: Deadly Blossoms