“We’re going now!” Usagi and Chibiusa chimed out as they walked out the door. It was another beautiful day and the two girls decided that they would go out and do something. After all, today was a day for getting out of the house.
“I’m glad you’re feeling better, Chibiusa-chan,” Luna said from atop Usagi’s shoulder as she glanced down at the cheery pink-haired girl hopping along side her, full of energy. Indeed, she did look much better after resting from the attack from within her dreams. In only one day’s rest, she was back to her normal, energetic self.
“Yes, thank you, Luna!” Chibiusa said happily.
“All right, today Usagi-oneechan will treat you to anything you want!” Usagi added, grinning.
“All right!” she exclaimed, hopping up into Usagi’s arms.
“…or, at least I would, if I hadn’t spent all my money,” Usagi continued sheepishly. “Hey, how about we play hide-and-seek in the park?”
“No!” Chibiusa exclaimed firmly. “You said you would treat me!”
Usagi laughed in chagrin as she put her down. “You won’t give up, will you?” she said as she turned and started to walk towards Shiba Park, while laughing apologetically. She hoped that Chibiusa would realize that since she was broke, she couldn’t exactly treat her to anything, so she might as well come to the park with her, but she hadn’t taken three steps before she was almost ran over by….
“Mamo-chan! Mamo-chan!” Chibiusa shouted gleefully as she pushed between him and Usagi, breaking the partial embrace that their unexpected collision had started. Usagi scowled at the girl, but Mamoru couldn’t help but grin.
“Oh, you got better, little girl!” he said as he picked her up and lifted her so that her head was even with his.
“Mamo-chan!” she said again, smiling even wider… which made Usagi scowl even harder.
Damn… Chibiusa…, she growled mentally.
“Mamo-chan, let’s go somewhere together!” Chibiusa said quickly. “I need school supplies: a notepad, erasers….” She paused for a second in thought. “…and donuts!”
“Hey, hey…,” Mamoru replied with a chuckle. “Be reasonable and at least let me check my wallet before asking for presents!” He paused as he glanced up at Usagi, who was still glowering at Chibiusa. Usagi noticed Mamoru looking at her and immediately started laughing while putting a hand behind her head.
“That’s right,” she agreed. “Oh, good timing! You can go with Mamo-chan! Unfortunately, I’m very busy doing some other stuff. Bye-bye!”
Mamoru stared quizzically at Usagi as he set Chibiusa down and watched her walk away. Both Chibiusa and Luna also watched her leave, each with equally stunned expressions on their faces. “Usagi-chan!” Luna shouted as she realized that she had left without her and ran off after her.
“I thought that she would’ve come with us, right, Mamo-chan?” Chibiusa asked as they still continued to stare after Usagi.
“I guess…,” he replied.
“Usagi-chan…,” Luna sighed as she found her… standing just around the corner and fuming.
“For today only,” she said calmly as she let go of her ire with a sigh. “For today only, to cheer up poor Chibiusa, who cannot go back to her mother… I’ll let her have a date with Mamo-chan.”
“I can’t believe I’m actually hearing this from you,” Luna said in stunned surprise.
“But, I still can’t stand watching that spoiled Chibiusa cuddling in his arms!” she snapped angrily. “Damn!” she growled as she punched the lamppost next to her as hard as she could. A moment later, the pain set it. “Ow!” she cried, hopping up and down in pain while holding her injured hand with the other one. “Ow! Ow! Ow!!!”
Luna merely stared at Usagi and sweatdropped in vexation. Usagi-chan.…
Diamond sat in his throne with his eyes closed and arms crossed, either deep in thought or waiting patiently. Plans were about to begin soon. All he had to do was wait for the preparations to be completed.
“Prince Diamond-sama, I am ready now,” Emerald reported as she stood before him. “I will now depart for the twentieth century.”
“Emerald, please keep in mind the failure of your predecessor, Rubeus, and be successful,” he told her.
Emerald let out a loud laugh with her fan in front of her mouth. “I won’t end up as a miserable failure like him!” she stated, waving her fan about dismissively.
“You can’t be so sure of that,” a voice said warningly as its owner materialized just behind her.
“Saffire!” she exclaimed in surprise as she glanced behind her.
“The Sailor Soldiers of the twentieth century are strong as well,” Saffire explained. “Emerald, look at this,” he said as he turned his gaze behind him toward the pedestal standing behind them. He raised his hand, then swung it down, activating the pedestal’s projector.
The scene projected a dark, baneful sky at dusk with the air cluttered with dark crystalline objects converging onto their objective: a beautiful palace made of silver-colored crystal. Just moments before the dark objects could reach the palace, five beams of five different colors, red, blue, yellow, green, and silver, shot straight up from the ground around the palace, bringing up a wall of translucent light energy with them and effectively surrounding the palace with a powerful barrier.
The scene then changed to one showing the interior of one of the rooms of the palace. In the middle of the room, five figures stood in a circle, linked hand in hand around a glowing pillar of crystal.
“These are the Sailor Solders of the thirtieth century,” he continued. “The power that they are exerting is beyond that of my own brother’s. If Rubeus had filled the Crystal Points in the twentieth century with dark energy as he had planned….”
“Saffire, enough,” Diamond said as he glared at the projection. His eyes flashed once and the projection vanished almost violently.
Saffire winced at the backlash of energy when Diamond cut off his control over the projection. “Brother!” he exclaimed.
“I think that it’s proof of Rubeus’ foolishness and incompetence,” Emerald suggested. “I have a different plan. If we are going to act in the twentieth century, we should pour out dark energy into the world all at once, turning the whole world to darkness. It will be quicker and simpler.”
“It will be impossible to send enough dark power into the twentieth century to accomplish that purpose with the present method of transfer,” Diamond replied flatly. “You would have to open up several Black Gates.”
“Of course,” she agreed. “That’s precisely what I plan to do.” She then turned toward the pedestal and waved her fan at it, activating the projector. “The primitive twentieth century has several negative points that contain a high concentration of negative energy. We can use these by driving wedges of dark power into them, then pouring the power of the Black Crystal into the wedges. As the wedges grow in number by absorbing negative energy, the dark power will open up additional Black Gates. Once the Gates are open, we pour the power of the Black Crystal through the Gates, turning the entire Earth into a beautiful world of darkness.
“I’ve already asked Saffire to make the wedges,” she continued after shutting off the projection. “Dark Henges. These wedges will be made of the substance of our Black Crystal.”
Saffire silently raised his hand over his head. A green flash of light blinked overhead, then winked out as a green crystalline figure shaped as Emerald dropped out of the air into her waiting hands. “I finished it in the shape you asked,” he told her, “but, I still think it’s a bit gaudy.
“I will be ready to make as many as you need,” he continued. “I just hope that you won’t bother me with a plan as futile as that of Rubeus’.”
“Of course not!” she retorted as she brought the figurine up to her face and smiled at it. “I just don’t want to leave my beloved for so long,” she said in a low, hushed tone.
Diamond turned to look at her with a serious expression on his face. “Emerald, I grant you permission to carry out your plan,” he told her. “I hope you succeed.”
“It is my pleasure, my Prince,” she said with a deep bow. “I will complete this plan for you.” She let out another loud laugh, confident that her plan would be a success.
“Here we are,” Rei announced as she pointed toward the brand new bakery that was now having its grand opening. “This is where they were advertising a special grand opening where they would be giving away free cakes!”
“Really?” Minako asked eagerly.
“Really!” Rei agreed with a nod.
Ryoku glanced toward the bakery with a flat expression on his face. “I can’t believe I let you all talk me into this,” he muttered as he looked over the huge crowd of girls crowded in front of the window, staring hungrily at the display, eagerly awaiting when they would be allowed to indulge in the free cakes. “Look at the crowd,” he said, gesturing toward the pack before him. “The owners must’ve been out of their minds to do this. With all these girls, this place will go bankrupt one day after their grand opening!”
Rei and Minako went closer to the bakery window to get a better look at the display. “You’re so awful,” Minako said jokingly, “tempting other girls with these cakes. And you’ve even got Ryo-kun here. Not bad!” She laughed as she gave Rei a jovial slap on the back… but, just a little too hard, as Rei almost fell forwards on her face from the blow. After receiving a glare from Rei – not to mention one from Ryoku for her last comment – she turned a slight red in chagrin.
“Cakes have a lot of calories,” Ami put in, “more than you need in a day. They also have no vitamins….”
“All right! All right!” Makoto interrupted, cutting of her little informative speech.
“Ami-chan! Cakes are a source of mind energy!” Minako exclaimed. “After all our battles, we need to replenish our energy!”
Ryoku raised a skeptical eyebrow as he folded his arms. “Is that so?” he asked dryly.
“You’ll get fat,” Artemis added from the basket that Minako was carrying in her arm.
“Artemis!” Minako exclaimed as she shoved his head down into the basket and closed it over his head.
“Well, you always complain about gaining weight later…,” Artemis muttered quietly from within the basket.
“Should we tell Usagi-chan and Chibiusa-chan?” Ami asked.
“I called them, but they weren’t home,” Rei replied.
“I’m sure they’ll find their way here,” Makoto said. “They’ll follow the smell of cakes!”
“All right, let’s go!” Minako exclaimed. “Everyone ready?”
“Yeah!” the four girls agreed as they raised their hands high in the air, fists clenched eagerly.
Ryoku merely glanced at the girls and sighed. “I might as well,” he said with a shrug. “Lead the way, ladies.”
Inside the basket, Artemis sweatdropped. “You’ll all get fat,” he sighed to himself, knowing that they wouldn’t listen anyway.
As the five entered the bakery, a green-haired woman carrying a feathered fan and wearing sunglasses strolled towards the bakery. “So, this is a twentieth century city?” she said to herself as her eyes took in the scenery. She stopped, reached for her left earring and removed it. She then held it out in front of her, allowing the dark crystal jewel to float down from the base and swing. “This wild and unsophisticated energy is attractive…,” she observed as her earring jewel acted as a compass of sorts, pointing the way toward her objective.
“So,” she said as she looked toward the line of girls waiting to enter the bakery, “there’s the negative point.” Emerald laughed quietly to herself as she attached her earring back onto her ear and headed for the bakery.
Just as Emerald made her way inside the bakery, Usagi walked up to the huge crowd and slowly inched her way forward, curious as to what the big spectacle was about. Luna occasionally got squeezed in her arms as she pushed her way forward, but the black cat endured it silently. She would berate Usagi later.
“Hey, excuse me, please!” Usagi said as she finally made her way to the very front. As soon as she saw the cake display, her eyes lit up brightly as her previous bad mood vanished in the wake of the confectionary delicacies present before her very eyes. “Wow! Cakes! Cakes!” she exclaimed in delight as the drool commenced flowing. “I will devour them all!” She then wasted no time rushing into the bakery, not even slowing down for the entry door.
Meanwhile, Luna hoped that the ringing in her ears would stop sometime soon and that the door didn’t give her too big of a bruise.
Ryoku grimaced slightly to himself as he made his way back to the table, his arms laden with plates. I just had to ask, he thought, shaking his head in vexation. I thought I was going to get a couple of pieces of cake, not bring back the whole damn thing! He sighed as he counted the plates in his hands again. Twelve. Twelve plates of assorted cakes. I might as well have taken one whole cake.
“This is my fifth cake!” he heard a girl exclaim happily to her friends as he passed by her table.
“This is my sixth!” one of the others answered back with the same cheery tone.
He slowly shook his head and half-smiled to himself. Oh, who am I kidding? These cakes make them happy. As long as they’re happy, I don’t mind carrying a dozen plates of cake for them.
“This’s great!” Makoto said with a huge grin as she finished another piece of cake. The others were all sitting at the same circular table with a few plates full of cakes in front of them. There were also a lot of empty plates as well, which were stacked neatly to the side by Ami. As she finished the cake she was eating, she placed her plate on top of the stack while looking behind her toward the serving area. The seat between her and Makoto was still empty.
Well, with the number of cakes we all asked for, it’s no wonder he’s not back yet, she thought to herself as she turned back toward the others and took another plate. There must be huge crowds around the serving area still.
“It’s like my whole life has been leading up to this moment!” Minako added as she grabbed another piece and started eating.
As they continued to devour their cakes, Artemis continued to pout inside the basket Minako had set next to the wall a short distance away. “How cold! They’ve forgotten about me!” he muttered sulkily.
“That’s it?” Makoto asked as she noticed that the last piece of cake was gone. “Well, it’s time to go get some more. I’ll go find Ryo-chan and….”
“Don’t bother,” he said as he finally made his way to the table with his arms laden with plates. “I’ve got more for you, girls!”
“Oh, you’re a lifesaver!” Rei said, clapping her hands together gratefully. “Thanks!”
“Did you have any trouble carrying all those plates, Ryo-kun?” Ami asked.
“No problem,” he said, shaking his head. “Picking up the plates, however….”
“Here,” Makoto said as she started transferring the plates from his arms to the table, “let me give you a hand.”
“Thanks, Mako-chan. I think I’d have a problem putting down these plates as well.” He took a brief glance around at the table and frowned. “What? You didn’t even leave me some for when I got back?” he asked teasingly. “And after I selflessly brought all of you the cakes you wanted, too….”
“Come off it, Ryo-kun,” Makoto said, lightly smacking him on the shoulder with the back of her hand as the other girls laughed slightly at his joking. “After all, you were the one who said that he was going to go get some more of that one type you liked so much, even though there was still plenty of other cakes left.”
“Ah, yes,” he agreed. “But, that marble cake was wonderful. So, what if I wanted some more?”
Makoto was about to reply when something… or rather, someone caught her attention. The others turned to see what Makoto was looking at and all but jerked backwards in shock. Standing over the serving area, stuffing their mouths greedily with any and all cakes they could get their hands on, were Usagi and a green-haired woman.
“Good!” the green-haired woman moaned happily as she stuffed another cake into her mouth. “Good!”
“This is good, too!” Usagi said as she made another cake vanish.
The five sitting at the table all collectively sweatdropped. “The horror…,” Ryoku murmured as he slightly winced. “It’s a pastry massacre!”
“Why is this so good!” the green-haired woman gasped between bites. “I’ve never tasted food like this! Oh, my cheeks are covered with cake!”
“I’ll eat them all!” Usagi said as she stuffed yet another cake down her throat.
By the time the others decided to try to bring Usagi to her senses, everyone in the entire bakery was now staring at the two cake devourers. “Usagi-chan!” Minako shouted as she tried to get her attention, but Usagi didn’t even glance once in her direction.
Artemis was starting to become claustrophobic, being cooped up in the basket for so long. “Let me outta here!” he all but screamed as he madly thrashed about inside the basket, fighting to make the top pop open. Seeing the basket jump, and hearing Artemis’ frantic voice, Luna padded over toward the basket and pressed the release knob, allowing the top of the basket to fling open. Artemis let out a deep breath as he stood, almost as if he had been struggling to breathe in the basket. “Oh, Luna,” he said as soon as he noticed who had freed him. “Where is everyone?”
“I don’t know,” Luna said flatly after witnessing his extreme overreaction to being confined in that basket.
“Hey, knock it off!” Rei exclaimed as she and Makoto tried to keep her from grabbing any more cakes by holding onto her arms.
“No, don’t stop me!” Usagi cried. “I’m desperate!”
“And you think overdoing it on cakes will make things better?” Ryoku asked as he gently started to pry the cake out from her left hand.
“Please, Usagi-chan, stop it,” Makoto shouted as Usagi kept struggling.
“NO!” she yelled as she lunged forward, trying to break free from Rei and Makoto. Instead of breaking free, she only managed to knock Ryoku into the cakes, leaving his face and the upper half of his right side covered in assorted cakes.
“Usagi-chan!!!” they shouted as they managed to hold her back.
“Let go of me!” Usagi shouted as she finally flung the others off of her. Rei almost fell to the floor, while Makoto bumped into the green-haired woman and Ryoku made a return trip headfirst into the cakes.
“Mmuffaaii!!!” he growled furiously just before taking his face out of the cakes.
“Sorry, lady!” Makoto apologized as she turned and went back to helping Rei and Ryoku restrain the blonde force of nature.
“What?” she said as she scowled from the interruption, then grabbed two more pieces of cake. Just before she could continue the mindless consumption, she noticed everyone staring at her and muttering amongst themselves. That was when she realized what she must’ve looked like, eating the way she did. “Oh my,” she said to herself as she flipped open her fan and started laughing nervously behind it as she walked away while trying to maintain a meager shred of dignity.
As soon as she was out of sight of everyone, she ducked behind a corner and growled angrily at herself. “What am I doing?” she exclaimed. “Those cakes were so pretty and delicious….” She slowly sank down upon herself as she covered her face with her fan in embarrassment. “I’ve embarrassed myself in front of these primitive twentieth century girls!”
“Fine, then!” she said furiously as she stood up. “They will become the first sacrifice to the Dark Henge!” Emerald laughed loudly as she waved her fan in front of her, changing back into her regular emerald green dress. It was time to begin.
A few minutes after they finally got Usagi to calm down – which was mostly due to a certain highly irritated male with cake all over his face threatening to shove several pieces of it up her nose if she kept going – the patrons of the bakery went back to their tables to enjoy their cakes again. The others, along with Usagi, went back to their table, except for Ryoku, who excused himself to go try to clean himself up as best as he could. While he was leaving, the others finally burst into laughter, since he looked ridiculous covered in cake. Now that the crisis was over, they finally noticed how funny he looked, laughing until they heard him yell at them from seven tables away.
As soon as they turned back to go back to the assortment of cakes that Ryoku had brought them earlier, the others sweatdropped in vexation as Usagi immediately started inhaling any cakes than weren’t on their own plates. With a small sigh, Makoto and Ami both got up to get themselves some more cakes, since they didn’t get their own pieces in time.
“It’s true,” Ami observed as she put some more cakes onto her plate with the metal tongs provided. “Cakes are a good source of mind energy.”
“Yeah,” Makoto agreed as she looked up from putting another cake on her plate. “Especially in Usagi-chan’s case. The only way to ease her mind is to eat.”
“And then…,” Usagi said while shoving another piece of cake into her mouth. “Then…. Mamo-chan embraced Chibiusa in his arms!” she pouted with her mouth full. “She took advantage of her small size and was hugged by my beloved Mamo-chan!” She started to cry while reaching out toward Minako, who she was sitting next to. Unfortunately, since her eyes were shut from crying, she didn’t realized that her hands had grabbed ahold of Minako’s cheeks.
“Hey, Usagi-chan!” Rei shouted as she tried to free Usagi’s hands from Minako’s cheeks. “Usagi!”
“Mamo-chan! Mamo-chan!” Usagi whined as Minako grabbed onto her hands to keep them from abusing her cheeks again.
“Usagi-chan, honestly!” she chided as she moved back a bit.
“I think I’ve lost my appetite…,” Rei muttered tiredly to herself just as Usagi flung herself onto her, crying on her shoulder.
“Rei-chan!!!” she sobbed.
Rei stared down at Usagi, her eyes wide open in unexpected surprise. “I know!” she retorted as she tried to get her off of her.
Ryoku walked up to their table after cleaning himself up, took one look at the whole mess, then turned back around and wisely started walking the other way before he could get caught up in it.
In the bakery’s kitchen, all the work had ceased due to the fact that Emerald had put them to sleep. She laughed quietly to herself as she removed her left earring and turned around. “Okay, then,” she said as the crystal jewel floated down and began to spin. It flashed a few times as it slowly came to a dead stop and shone a small light straight down toward the floor beneath her.
“The negative point is directly below,” she said, cutting off the beam, then putting the earring back on her left ear. “Dark Henge!” she shouted as she raised her fan, commanding the crystalline figure to appear and strike the floor in the exact spot the earring jewel had marked. She grinned maliciously to herself as a column of dark energy from the future flowed down into the figurine. As more energy poured into the figurine, she began to laugh as a small black hole appeared on the floor around the figurine.
“The dark power is flowing in from the future!” she said with a dark grin. “Come out, Droid!”
Upon her command, a figure emerged from the black hole on the floor. Everything the Droid wore seemed to be pastry related, right down to the icing flowers on her legs. “Majipan!” she shouted as she fully appeared before Emerald.
“It will take some time before the Dark Henge is firmly established,” Emerald told her after she had stopped laughing. “Majipan, make sure no one disturbs it until it is secure.”
“Majipan!” the Droid shouted in reply as it raised its arms and transformed, taking on the disguise of one of the bakery workers.
“Now, I have another job to do,” Emerald said as she raised her fan close to her face and vanished, only to reappear right in front of the cart carrying the cakes that were to be added to the serving area. She chuckled quietly to herself as she waved her fan at the cakes, sprinkling particles of some kind of powder on top of all the cakes.
After a short length of time, Usagi’s crying and rabid consumption of cakes began to subside until she had finally stopped eating. “Ah, I’m finally feeling better!” she said, breathing a small sigh of relief. She then glanced around at the others, who had all sat down back in their seats, and frowned slightly. “Why aren’t you eating?” she asked in a bewildered voice. The others laughed Usagi’s perplexed expression as she tried to figure out what was so funny.
“Wow!” a young girl’s voice cried out in delight. “Look at all the cakes!”
“Chibiusa!” Usagi exclaimed as she jumped out of her seat and stared down at the small girl standing at the edge of the table. Mamoru stood silently behind Chibiusa, his hands leisurely resting in his pockets.
“Oh, everyone’s here,” Chibiusa said, then glanced at all of the empty plates on the table and blinked in surprise. “You’ve eaten this many?” she asked. “Amazing!”
“What?” Usagi shot back angrily. “What do you think made me do this?”
“I don’t know,” Chibiusa replied.
“An immense sweet tooth and a bottomless stomach?” Ryoku said jokingly, which awarded him with a light elbow to the side by his sister. The others barely managed to keep their faces straight, but Chibiusa laughed outright.
“Shut up!” Usagi shouted at both Ryoku and Chibiusa.
“Just kidding,” he replied apologetically, but Chibiusa merely stuck her tongue out at her. Usagi soon followed suit, and then the tongue war began.
“Now look what you started,” Makoto grumbled at Ryoku while she and the others covered their ears as the raspberry blowing became more and more annoying.
“I’ve already apologized once for it,” Ryoku replied firmly. “I don’t apologize twice for something I did once.” He glanced over at Usagi and Chibiusa for a moment. “Well… maybe this is a special case….”
As the two girls kept at it, Mamoru slowly began to back away from the table and glance around him for a way to escape. “Time to get out of here…,” he said as he turned to leave. Just as he was about to go, he stopped as he saw a couple of girls suddenly become encased in some kind of crystalline casing. “What was that?” he exclaimed, just as the others jumped out of their chairs and ran up to see what was going on.
“What happened?” Minako asked. She got her answer as two more girls suddenly became trapped in crystalline coverings.
“No way!” Ryoku whispered in disbelief.
“What’s going on?” Mamoru asked no one in particular as his gaze scanned the room. Almost everyone in the entire bakery was encased in some crystalline casing, except for himself and the others. As he continued to glance around the room, a woman dressed in the bakery’s employee uniform entered the room, pushing in front of her a cart with more cakes on it. Apart from himself and the others, she was the only other person moving.
“Wait!” he ordered as he ran toward the woman. Without saying a word, she stopped pushing the cart and turned to face him. Mamoru quickly grabbed a plate off of a nearby table and flung it at the woman, but she ducked in time to dodge the attack. As she stood back up, she reverted back to Majipan.
“What are you planning?” Mamoru demanded of the Droid. Majipan said nothing, but merely chuckled in response.
“Give it to me!” Chibiusa shouted as she tried to pull a plate with a cake on it out of Usagi’s hands.
“No!” Usagi shouted back. “I’m going to eat it!”
“There’s something strange going on here!” Mamoru told them. “Don’t eat it, Usako!”
“Did you hear that!” Usagi shouted happily. “He was concerned about me!”
“Do you think you have time to be happy?” Rei shouted irritably.
“Pay attention to what’s going on!” Ami added as Usagi let go of the plate.
“I’m sorry…,” she apologized meekly as she bowed her head and Chibiusa began munching on the cake.
“Could we be serious for a moment, please…?” Ryoku sighed as he sweatdropped.
Majipan quickly began her attack as she transformed her arms into icing tubes and fired one high pressure stream of icing at Mamoru, Minako and Makoto, while the other struck a plastic tree next to Usagi. She jumped back in shock as she saw the tree turn into a huge ice cream cone.
“What the…?” Ryoku exclaimed as he sweatdropped. “What kind of attack is that?”
“Everyone, take Chibiusa and get out!” Mamoru shouted urgently. “I’ll….” He paused when he noticed Ryoku shaking his head as he brought out his transformation wand and let the blade come forth for emphasis. “I mean, Ryoku and I will take care of this.”
“Better,” he replied with a small half-grin, then turned to face Majipan.
“Got it,” Minako replied, then turned to Usagi. “Let’s go, Usagi-chan!”
“But…,” Usagi began concernedly.
“Hurry!” Mamoru shouted.
“Right!” the girls all shouted at once and quickly ran out of the bakery.
“Majipan!” the Droid shouted as she fired again, trying to hit Chibiusa, but only managed to turn small wall divider into a huge cake.
“Okay, that’s enough of that,” Ryoku said as he raised his sword and prepared to charge.
Outside, the girls, Artemis and Luna all gathered next to the bakery’s entrance to regroup. “Well,” Rei began, “it seems like a good time for some exercise after eating all those cakes, doesn’t it? Let’s warm up.”
“Artemis, Luna, take good care of Chibiusa-chan,” Ami added.
“Right,” the two cats agreed as they took off along with Chibiusa.
“Good luck, everybody!” Chibiusa cheered as she left.
The five girls all shared a nod as they all reached for their transformation items. At the same time, Ryoku dodged another icing blast as he ducked behind a wall, then raised his Star Sword overhead.
“Moon crystal power, make up!”
“Mars star power, make up!”
“Mercury star power, make up!”
“Jupiter star power, make up!”
“Venus star power, make up!”
“Knight star sword power!”
One after another, each Sailor Scout transformed, ready for battle.
Mamoru jumped back, away from another icing blast, but was caught by surprise as the Droid leaped into the air and tried to strike him with her the sharp point of her heel. He barely managed to escape as her heel spike struck the floor and made a small hole where the center of his head would have been. She then began to laugh mockingly at him.
“Hold it right there!” Sailor Moon shouted, cutting Majipan’s laughter short.
“Wearing sailor uniforms…,” Mars began as she struck a fighting stance.
“…we fight wrongdoers for the sake of justice!” Mercury shouted as she also struck a fighting stance.
“You broke the hearts of innocent maidens…,” Venus continued, following their lead.
“…and intruded on the happiest moment in their lives!” Jupiter finished, striking a fighting stance just like the others did.
“On behalf of the Moon, we’ll punish you!” Sailor Moon concluded as she also struck a fighting stance.
Just as they were about to attack, Sailor Moon noticed that not only was Sailor Knight just standing there with his arms folded, but his expression was clearly one of annoyance. “Knight, what’s wrong?” she asked.
Sailor Knight’s eyebrow twitched for a second, then went still. “What exactly was all that?” he asked flatly. “The fighting wrongdoers, I can deal with that, but innocent maidens?!? Happiest moment of their lives?!? I thought we went through this already; I am not a maiden!” He sighed as he shook his head in vexation. “The only male in a mostly female team…. It’s hard being the minority.”
The other Sailor Scouts, Mamoru and even Majipan looked at Knight… and sweatdropped.
“What?!?” he asked heatedly, then let out an exasperated breath. “Never mind. Forget it.”
The other Sailor Scouts, Mamoru and Majipan all glanced at each other and shrugged.
“Would you all stop doing that!!!”
As the others were distracted, Majipan took the opportunity to attack first, aiming her icing blasts at the Scouts. Sailor Moon and Mars both managed to duck in time as the blast sailed over their head and struck a chair, turning it into yet another pastry.
“Maybe we should continue this discussion another time?” Knight suggested as everyone turned their attention toward the Droid attacking them.
“Good idea,” Mars replied as she readied her attack. “Burning mandala!” she shouted as she fired her rings of flame at Majipan. Just as the attack was about to hit, she leaped straight up into the air and fired again. Mars was caught by surprise and ended up with the left half of her body encased in the same crystalline substance that had encased the other victims of Majipan.
“Mars!” Sailor Moon shouted fearfully as she leaped to her feet and rushed toward her friend. However, she didn’t make it past two steps before another blast struck her as well, inflicting the same condition on her.
“Sailor Moon!” Knight shouted worriedly.
“Mars!” Jupiter shouted right behind him.
“Sweet…,” Sailor Moon muttered sickly. “Too sweet!”
“I don’t want anymore sweets!” Mars added, her voice matching Sailor Moon’s for sickness.
“Sparkling wide pressure!” Jupiter yelled quickly as she hurled her attack at Majipan. The Droid reacted quickly and fired a barrage of pastries at the attack and diffused it, then quickly followed up with a rapid-fire donut attack. The donuts struck Jupiter before she could react, pinning her arms to her sides inside the hole of a huge donut and weighing down her legs with heavy rings of donuts going straight down each leg.
“Jupiter!” Venus shouted as she and Knight ran to her side.
“Damn!” Jupiter growled angrily. “She moves too fast!”
“Fast?” Knight snorted derisively as he glared at Majipan. “I’ll show her fast!”
“Venus, Knight, be careful!” Mercury warned. “Their bodies have become as fragile as crystallized sugar! If you bump into them, they’ll break into pieces!”
“No way!” Venus gasped incredulously.
“The other girls here are the same!” Mercury told them.
“Them, too?!?” Knight exclaimed, then turned toward Venus and gave her a serious look. “Then, we’d better move carefully.” Venus nodded in grim agreement.
“Majipan!” the Droid shouted again as she fired at Venus and Knight. The two Scouts leapt in different directions, hoping to allow one or the other the opportunity to attack while the other distracted Majipan.
“Venus love-me chain!” Venus shouted as she flung her attack at the Droid. Majipan quickly leapt away from the attack and over her head, then fired a barrage of cakes at her. The cakes struck Venus just as she was turning around to face her, pinning her arms to her sides inside the middle of a huge cake.
“Venus!” Knight shouted as he raised his Star Sword and charged. Majipan fired her icing blasts at Knight, but he quickly leapt into the air, leaping over her head, just as she did with Venus. Before Knight landed, he flung his sword at Majipan, but missed as she nimbly leaped back away from the sword.
“Avalanche barrage!” he shouted as he landed, following up his sword attack with a barrage of stone spikes. The Droid quickly countered with another barrage of pastries, nullifying his attack, then counterattacked with the same donut attack that trapped Jupiter. Knight quickly dodged that attack as he called his sword back into his hand, then started to run as Majipan started firing her icing attack right on his heels.
“Hey!” Sailor Moon shouted as the attack ended up hitting her and Mars again after he ran past them, totally encasing their bodies in icing up to their heads. “No more!”
“Watch where you’re running, you idiot!” Mars chided him.
“Hey! I was only trying to avoid ending up like you two!” he shot back. “How much help do you think I’d be then?”
While Knight was busy drawing Majipan’s fire, Mercury rushed her and tried to fire her attack, but the Droid leaped away in time and began firing her icing blast at Sailor Moon and Mars again, increasing the amount of icing covering them until it seemed as though their heads looked like the cherries on top of two huge scoops of vanilla ice cream.
“Hey, stop it!” Mars shouted.
“No more, I mean it!” Sailor Moon yelled.
Majipan started laughing as her arms reverted back to normal and she brought out a huge candy flower blossom and flung it at Sailor Moon and Mars. Midway towards its target, a rose flew through the air and struck the candy, smashing right through it and striking the ground below. Majipan stared at the rose for a moment in bewilderment, then glanced upward toward the source of the attack.
“Tuxedo Kamen-sama!” Sailor Moon said as she looked up as well.
“Sweets are cherished in girls’ pure and lovely hearts,” Tuxedo Kamen stated from his vantage point on top of the building’s upper interior framework. “However, the beautiful things that their hearts adore sometimes melt away….”
“Huh?” Sailor Moon said, puzzled.
“Not you, too!” Knight exclaimed angrily at him, then sighed tiredly. “I think I’m going throw up from all this sweet nonsense. I think I need some water….”
“That’s it!” Mercury suddenly exclaimed, her expression brightening as realization popped into her head. “Her body’s made of sweets, right?” she said to Knight, who slowly nodded as he began to pick up on Mercury’s idea.
“I’ll distract, you attack,” he said hurriedly as he once again rushed at Majipan. She quickly reverted her arms back to her icing tubes and fired her icing blast at Knight, who barely managed to dodge the attack. However, an unexpectedly quick second attack caught him by surprise as it caught him by his ponytail, which promptly became covered in icing. The follow-up attack got him caught just as badly as Sailor Moon and Mars.
“Knight!” Mercury shouted fearfully, then scowled at Majipan as she readied her attack. “Shine aqua illusion!” she shouted just as Majipan fired a barraged of cakes at her. The two attacks collided directly between them, but Mercury’s attack slowly began to overpower the Droid’s. Majipan’s expression became worried as Mercury’s water attack drew closer and closer. She fought the attack as hard as she could, but Mercury’s powers, as well as her anger at what Majipan did to her friends and her boyfriend, soon overpowered her. As soon as Mercury’s attack struck her, her body began to weaken from the water. The effects of her attacks on the other Scouts began to weaken until they melted away into nothing.
“You did it!” Mars shouted gratefully. “It’s melting away!”
“Well done, Mercury!” Sailor Moon shouted.
Majipan still refused to give up as she changed her arms back to normal and tried to throw another candy flower blossom at the Scouts. The flower only managed to travel five feet before it hit the ground.
“Now, Sailor Moon,” Tuxedo Kamen told her.
“Right!” Sailor Moon replied with a nod as she brought out her Moon Scepter. “Moon princess halation!” she shouted as she waved the scepter in front of her, firing a blast of white energy at Majipan. The attack stuck 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 bright emerald green into a dull lifeless gray.
Behind her, Emerald’s Dark Henge fell from floating above the negative point, smashing against the floor below and shattering into thousands of shards of useless crystal. “What happened?” she said, whirling around to see the Dark Henge destroyed. She then glanced toward the bakery workers and saw that they were beginning to waken from their sudden slumber. “This is bad,” she muttered to herself as she waved her fan over her head and vanished.
From her hiding place in an adjacent room to the one she had just left, Emerald slowly opened the door a crack and peeped out into the main room of the bakery. All the tables were full again and all the girls were eating cakes as if nothing had ever happened. “This is impossible!” she whispered to herself in incredulity.
“A lady should not indulge in peeping!” Tuxedo Kamen stated from behind her.
Emerald jumped back and whirled around, closing the door behind her. “You!” she exclaimed fiercely as she saw all of the Sailor Scouts and Tuxedo Kamen standing behind her. Her eyes then stopped on Tuxedo Kamen, which elicited an alluring smile from her. “Oh! What a handsome man!” she sighed as she raised her fan up to her face and smiled at him from over it. As Tuxedo Kamen uneasily backed away from her, her gaze then fell on Sailor Knight, who had been standing next to him. “The other one’s handsome, too, but still a bit young for my taste.” Knight’s eyes narrowed as he took a step closer to Sailor Mercury, who also took a step closer toward him in response.
“Hey! Don’t you ogle them!” Sailor Moon shouted heatedly as Mercury nodded fiercely in agreement.
“So, you were controlling that thing,” Mars added.
“Ah, you’re the infamous Sailor Soldiers,” Emerald said condescendingly as she grinned. “You’re kidding me! Little girls with flat chests and flat hips?”
“Little… girls?!?” Knight growled fiercely. “I’m not a girl!!!”
“Flat chests?!?” Sailor Moon exclaimed at the same time.
“You’re not one to criticize, old lady!” Jupiter retorted with her arms crossed.
“Old…. Old lady?!?” Emerald repeated angrily as she clenched her fan in her hand. “What was that, you brats?!?” All of the Sailor Scouts shifted their stances, readying themselves in case she should attack.
“Now, listen up,” she said after bringing herself back under control. “I am the highest executive in the Black Moon family! I control the twentieth century! I am the highest ranking and the strongest woman in the world, whom all men obey!”
About halfway through Emerald’s spiel, each of the Sailor Scouts stared at Emerald impatiently, wondering how long she was going to take to introduce herself.
“All men obey?” Knight asked dryly. “She’d be lucky if any will remain awake after hearing her drone on about herself.”
“ I am Emerald!” she finished, then began laughing loudly. As soon as she began laughing, everyone quickly covered their ears with their hands.
“Ah!” Knight yelled as he winced painfully. “I think my ears are bleeding! I’m going deaf!”
“Not only does she have a big ego, but she’s got a loud laugh, too!” Venus commented.
“What???” Knight shouted in reply.
“Remember,” Emerald said warningly as she stopped laughing, “it is I who will defeat you!” With that, she leaped into the air and disappeared, laughing.
After Emerald disappeared, Chibiusa walked into the room, following both Luna and Artemis, who had sensed that the battle was over and that it was safe to go find the others.
“Emerald…,” Sailor Moon murmured partly to herself as she stared at the spot where the green-haired woman had vanished from.
“She’s our new enemy, isn’t she?” Jupiter asked, frowning.
“It seems Rubeus’ replacement has finally arrived,” Knight said as he glanced down at Chibiusa. “Sorry, kiddo, but it looks like you’ll be staying here until we can take care of some unfinished business.”
To Chapter 76: Nursemaid Venus