“Late again, Tsukino-san?” Haruna asked sternly as she spotted the tardy blonde girl en route to her desk.
Usagi froze, her lame attempt at stealth obviously blown. “Uh…. Heh, heh….”
“Stand out in the hallway! Now!” Haruna shouted, pointing toward the classroom door.
“How long is she gonna keep me out here?” Usagi grumbled as she stood waiting. It had been thirty-five minutes since she had been sent out into the hallway.
“You’ve been sent outside again?” someone asked. She glanced up to see a familiar blue-haired girl, accompanied by an equally familiar tall, brown-haired boy. It was the girl that first spoke.
“That must be the third time in a row,” the boy added.
“Hey, you’re those two geniuses from class 2-5,” Usagi said when she finally remembered who they were.
“Genius? Me?” the boy asked in slight surprise with one eyebrow raised. “Hardly. I’m only a little above average. Ami-chan’s the genius.” He nodded his head toward the girl accompanying him.
Ami smiled at the remark. “I’m really not that much of a genius, either, Ryo-kun,” she replied. “I’m sure anyone else can do just as well if they studied hard enough.”
“You two are so nice,” Usagi told them. “My teacher is mean and heartless compared to you.”
“Who’s mean and heartless?” Haruna snapped as she flung open the door and glared at Usagi. She then turned to the other two and gave them a warning look. “You’re Mizuno Ami and Kino Ryoku, right?” she asked. “You two should keep clear of Tsukino-san. She’s pathetic!”
“Hey! How can you say that?!?” she complained. “Aren’t you supposed to be my teacher?”
“Tsukino-san!” Haruna snapped again as she gave her another glare.
“I’m sorry….”
Ami and Ryoku shared a perplexed look and sweatdropped as both wondered if there was any way to be able to leave the scene without being rude.
Around midnight, a stream of light burned through the dark sky. It drew closer and closer toward the Earth, and grew brighter as it approached. It accelerated as it drew closer, and grew hotter as it plummeted toward its destination. Once the light crashed into the ground, it shook part of the city of Tokyo wide-awake.
For some, it was only a mild shake and only caused them to turn over in their beds. For those who were close, though… it was like a 4.0 on the Richter scale: not enough to damage anything, but enough to shake them wide-awake.
The point of impact was a local supermarket parking lot. The impact made a considerably large and deep crater, and totally destroyed the lot within a five hundred foot radius. Luckily, it was completely empty at the time.
At the bottom of the crater, a green pod that looked somewhat like a lima bean lay still. After a short period of silence, the pod rose from the crater and floated toward a nearby condominium. It hovered near an empty apartment on the third floor for a short time, then flashed brilliantly as it vanished.
It was not too long before everyone that had felt the big shake came to see what had happened. From the roof of the supermarket, Luna and Artemis gazed worriedly down at the crater.
“What the heck is this?” Artemis said curiously.
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Luna said worriedly.
“Yeah,” Artemis agreed as he glanced over the crowd. On one side he could see both Rei and Minako, each gazing down at the crater in concerned curiosity. Over on the other side….
“Tsukino-san?” Ami called as she recognized the blonde-haired girl nearby and waved to her.
“Mizuno-san?” Usagi replied as she made her way over to the blue-haired girl.
“Good evening,” Ami said with a cheerful smile.
“I never thought I’d find you among the spectators,” Usagi commented.
The two girls were suddenly shoved from behind by a tall brunette. “Hey! Don’t push me!” Usagi shouted behind her.
“Sorry about that,” the tall brunette replied. “But someone else pushed me.”
“Hey, you’re that amazon girl who came from that boarding school a few weeks ago,” Usagi said bluntly.
“Yeah,” the brunette agreed in an irritated voice, “but don’t you ever call me an amazon girl again, okay?”
Usagi flinched at the threatening frown the girl gave her. “Sure thing!” she agreed quickly.
A soft, amused laugh from behind the tall brunette caught her attention. “Don’t mind my sister,” Ryoku said as he stepped out from the crowd behind the brunette, giving all three girls a small half-smile in greeting. “Despite what you may have heard about Mako-chan, she’s a really nice girl, once you get to know her.”
I have the strangest feeling that I know those three from somewhere before, Usagi thought to herself. How odd.…
Her thoughtful expression quickly turned to one of delight as she noticed a flyer for the supermarket under her foot, advertising a sale for….
“This is great!” she exclaimed happily as she picked up the flyer. “A bargain sale for sweets: 80% off! I must go!”
“You shouldn’t eat too many sweets, or you’ll end up looking like a giant meatball,” a familiar, unwelcome voice said from behind.
“I recognize that annoying voice,” Usagi growled, clenching her right hand into a fist and crushing the flyer.
“Hi, Meatball-head,” Mamoru greeted with a smirk.
“I knew it was you,” Usagi growled angrily as she whirled toward him. “Quit calling me ‘Meatball-head’!”
“You’ve already got meatballs for hair, so I’d feel sorry if you got so fat you’d have a meatball body to go with it,” he replied in an amused tone.
“Well, don’t you worry about me,” she snapped.
“I’m not worried. I’m just telling you the truth.”
She growled again and stomped off. Mamoru shrugged to himself and left as well.
“Well, that was interesting,” Ryoku commented to the two other girls standing beside him as he watched Usagi push her way through the crowd and march angrily home.
“I wonder what that was all about?” Makoto wondered aloud.
“I’m not sure we should even ask,” Ami replied.
“Could be safer that way,” Ryoku agreed, nodding.
Far away from the gathered crowd, two figures stepped out onto the balcony of the formerly vacant third-floor apartment. The female sat on the balcony ledge and looked out over the city while the male leaned back against the railing, facing away from the city.
“This planet is full of energy,” he stated as he took out his flute-like instrument. A small breeze blew his long blue hair, the twin streaks of pink swaying along with the wind. His dark blue, green, and gold-trimmed bodysuit ruffled against his green skin.
“After such a long journey, we’ve finally found it,” the female agreed excitedly. The breeze blew her long pink hair as well. She casually brushed a few wayward strands of her hair back behind her ears, her twin blue streaks falling back into place. Her red, violet, and gold-trimmed bodysuit ceased fluttering against her green skin as the breeze died back down to nothing.
“What are you thinking about, Ann?”, he asked quietly, while raising his instrument close to his face and closing his eyes in concentration.
“About you, Ail,” Ann replied softly while glancing at him out of the corner of her eyes. “How about you?”
“About you, of course,” Ail answered. “I can’t admire your beauty enough just using words.”
“Ohh…,” she sighed happily.
“I heard that a famous hero, Perseus, fell in love with Andromeda and fought a monster to protect her,” he said, almost to himself. “I want to be like him.”
He raised his flute to his lips and began to play a soft melody. Ann sighed again and leaned over, putting her head on his shoulder.
The next day, the two aliens, disguised as humans, registered at Juuban Junior High. Their disguises were simple: changing skin color to match human skin tones, and changing their hair colors to brown. Ail had his hair short in his human disguise, although it still remained long normally.
They registered under the pretense of being transfer students from overseas. After they had received their schedules, they were taken outside, where an assembly of all the students was taking place to welcome the new overseas students. Haruna stood up in front on the small raised platform with the microphone in front of her and waited for the two new students to come forward.
“Everyone,” she began after they stepped up onto the platform and faced the students, “please welcome these two new students from overseas, Ginga Seijuro and Ginga Natsumi. Seijuro is fifteen and his sister, Natsumi, is fourteen. I hope you all get along well with them.”
Ryoku glanced from his spot over to the two new students. Seijuro was about his age, while Natsumi was around Usagi’s age. Well, he had only been fifteen for a short time, so Seijuro was probably older. Ryoku shrugged to himself, thinking that the two new students would probably be getting the third degree by the more inquisitive students soon. He would probably be hearing about their entire life story by tomorrow, at the latest. From his experience, not to mention his sister’s and Ami’s, the rumor network was fast. Something said at one end of the school would be known at the other end within two minutes and would be known school-wide within five. At least, the juiciest gossip would be. The speed varied on the gossip content.
The assembly was soon over and everyone, including the new students, headed for their classes.
Seijuro quickly rushed into the apartment he shared with Natsumi, carrying her weak form in his arms. He wondered how she could run out of energy so fast, since they were only just out of school. They were walking back home, Natsumi complaining about his roving eye while he tried to remind her that they were supposed to be brother and sister, and reassure her that the other girls meant nothing to her.
That wasn’t entirely true, seeing how there was that one blonde girl with her hair done up in odangos that had caught his eye earlier at school….
In the middle of his explanations, he realized that she was no longer walking with him. He quickly doubled back to find her slumped against a lamppost, weak because of low energy. He gathered her up in his arms and ran back home as fast as he could.
The door to the back room slid open, revealing a very, very large room. Housed in the center of the dark room, was a huge tree. The tree was roughly the size of a two-story house, which had prompted Ail and Ann to tinker with the dimensions of the room, turning a normal apartment master bedroom into a huge chamber where they could keep their tree.
Now back in their normal forms, Ail placed Ann on one of the roots of the tree and took a seat on another root, while taking out his flute.
“I’ve got mixed feelings about this traveling around,” he murmured to himself. “But, there’s really not much choice if we want to survive.” He glanced over at Ann, then started to play.
As Ail played, the tree responded by suddenly beginning to glow with a bright light. A sprout grew out of one of the branches with a single clear drop of sap dripping down over Ann. As the drop splashed on her cheek and disappeared, her body began to glow with the same light as the tree. Her eyes opened as she began to stretch herself out, revitalized by the tree’s energy. She jumped up off the root and sat down next to Ail, placing her head on his shoulder and grinning happily.
“Ann…,” Ail began, but trailed off as he and Ann noticed the tree begin to wither. The leaves began to dry up and drop, and the newly grown sprout shriveled up.
“What’s happening?” she asked worriedly.
“We need to get more energy,” he replied seriously with a small frown.
“Don’t worry,” she said, turning toward him. “We’ll be able to get as much as we like here. The Japanese people, particularly, have an amazing amount of life energy.”
“Our long journey can end at last. This planet could be our paradise.” He reached behind his back and pulled out a bunch of card-like objects and displayed them before Ann, spreading them like playing cards. “Ann, choose a Cardian for our project. You’ve got the greatest insight in the universe.”
“Thanks,” she replied with a smile as she pointed a finger at one of the cards in Ail’s hand. The chosen card rose out of his hand and floated out into midair. The card then enlarged itself and a picture of a half-vampire/half-plant appeared.
“The life of a flower is beautiful, but short,” he said as he looked over her choice. “Still, it has a powerful energy.”
“There’s no use in taking energy from flowers,” she told him. “It’d be better to take the energy from humans, especially the young girls. They’ve got much stronger energy.”
Ail’s eyebrow raised questioningly. “Not boys?”
“Ail!” she growled warningly.
“Okay, you could be right,” he quickly conceded.
“Good boy,” she said with a pleased smile.
Ail rose from his seat and into the air before the floating card. “Appear Cardian!” he commanded. “Come forth, our servant, Ranfil!” He raised his flute to his lips once again and began to play. The card began to glow as it formed into the Cardian, Ranfil.
“Go, Ranfil, and collect energy from the humans,” he ordered. Ranfil promptly disappeared as it followed Ail’s command.
While Naru was in the middle of her phone conversation with Usagi, a sudden scream from outside caught her attention. Curious, she went over to the window and opened it.
“What’s going on here?” she wondered as she looked down from her window. The moment she saw Ranfil draining a young woman nearby, she gasped in shock.
“Are you okay?” Usagi asked from the other end.
As soon as Ranfil finished with the woman, it turned toward Naru. When she saw the Cardian look her way, she froze in fright. Ranfil leaped up to Naru’s window and went through.
“Help me!” she screamed fearfully as Ranfil grabbed her and began to drain her of her energy.
“Naru-chan?” Usagi called worriedly as the phone hit the floor and bounced away. “What’s wrong? Naru-chan?”
Luna and Artemis, who had been chasing after the Cardian when they discovered Ranfil’s first victim, leaped through Naru’s window just as Ranfil had finished draining Naru.
“It is a youma!” Artemis stated.
“This girl’s been attacked again?!?” Luna remarked after seeing who it was that had just been drained of energy.
“We must help her,” Artemis shouted as he leaped at Ranfil. The Cardian quickly released Naru and dodged Artemis’s first attack. The white cat landed on the other side of Naru’s bed, turned, and leapt again. This time, Ranfil backhanded him in midair and sent him flying back toward Luna; hitting the floor right beside her.
“Artemis!” she exclaimed as she turned to face the enemy, then leaped to attack. Ranfil whipped its vines at Luna in order to drain her energy, but missed as Artemis knocked Luna out of the way before they could touch her. They landed and faced the vampire plant-creature again; Artemis standing protectively in front of Luna.
“We can’t beat this thing alone!” Artemis told Luna frustrated in frustration.
“But, we can’t involve the girls, can we?” Luna replied reluctantly.
“Naru-chan!!!” Usagi shouted as she darted up the stairs with Naru’s mother right behind her.
“Usagi-chan!” Luna exclaimed in surprise as she realized who it was.
“What’s wrong?” Naru’s mother asked concernedly as she followed Usagi up the stairs.
“I think something bad has happened to Naru-chan…,” she replied, trailing off as she reached the door to Naru’s room and opened it. Almost everyone in the room turned to see who had just arrived.
“Naru-chan!” she shouted worriedly as Naru’s mother fainted from shock and fear. “What is that thing?!?” she yelped fearfully as she saw what was standing over Naru’s still form. “I don’t believe this! This has got to be some kind of dream….”
“Run, Usagi-chan!” Luna shouted urgently. “Hurry up!”
“What??? Luna’s speaking to me?!?” Usagi exclaimed in shock. As she quickly glanced from Luna to Ranfil, realization suddenly hit. “That’s it! This’s just a dream!
“Wait, if this is my dream,” she continued with an expression of aspiration on her face, “then I can control it! I could be the strongest!”
She turned toward the Cardian with a determined look on her face. “Hey! Stupid youma!” she shouted angrily. “If you don’t stop attacking Naru-chan, I’ll punish you!” She paused as a puzzled look crossed her face. “Punish you? Why does that sound so… familiar?”
While Usagi was preoccupied with her feeling of déjà vu, Ranfil quickly grabbed her with its vines. Luna called to her to try to warn her but it was already too late. She leaped at it in order to keep it from draining her of her energy, but she was knocked away, just like with Artemis.
“I’m… losing my energy?” Usagi murmured weakly as she slumped to her knees, weak from being drained of her energy. “Why? It’s only a dream, isn’t it?”
“Usagi!” Luna called out as she struggled to get to her feet.
Artemis suddenly leaped at Ranfil’s face from the side, out of its view, and started viciously scratching its face with both paws. Ranfil let go of Usagi and swung at him, knocking him to the floor again. He landed on his feet and glanced at the Cardian over his left shoulder.
“Come on!” he challenged tauntingly. “Follow me!” He quickly leaped out of the open window and down to the street below. Ranfil quickly pursued, crashing through the window frame and parts of the wall in its haste.
“Artemis!” Luna cried out worriedly.
“This is… just a dream,” Usagi murmured weakly, oblivious to what was going on around her, “isn’t it?”
Luna stared down at the floor, her expression dark and somber as she mentally reviewed her options. What shall I do? That youma is going to attack Artemis and all the people in town. Only the girls could beat it.…
“There’s no other choice,” Luna said fatalistically as she turned toward Usagi. “Forgive me, Usagi-chan! Please become Sailor Moon again!”
She looked up into Usagi’s face and stared directly into her eyes as the crescent moon on her forehead began to glow. A thin beam of yellow light shot from Luna’s forehead and struck Usagi in the middle of her forehead. A similar crescent moon began to glow on her forehead as images started flooding into her mind….
.…Princess Serenity raised her Crescent Moon Wand as Queen Beryl prepared to fire a huge blast of dark energy at her....
.…Sailor Moon flung her tiara at Endymion, stopping him from swinging his sword down on her and cutting off her head.…
.…after Mamoru protected her from Beryl’s dark crystal attack and getting hit in the process, he died in Sailor Moon’s arms.…
.…the conflict between Beryl’s dark energy and Serenity’s Silver Crystal power was beginning to overwhelm her, even as she poured her own life energy into the attack. She called on her friends, the Sailor Scouts, to help her defeat Beryl. One by one, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Mars, Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus and Sailor Knight each lent their own power to her attack.…
“.…Who am I…?
“No.… I don’t wanna fight anymore! Not anymore!
“Please.… I just wanna be a normal girl, like everyone else.… Just an ordinary girl.…”
Usagi suddenly raised her head and gasped as her memory was restored. She remained frozen in that position as she tried to straighten out all the confusion in her mind.
“Usagi-chan?” Luna called softly and took a step forward, waiting for some response from her. “Usagi-chan?”
Usagi glanced down at Luna and smiled. “Luna,” she said happily, as if meeting an old friend again after a long time apart. “We can talk to each other again.”
“Your memory is back!” Luna exclaimed in relief. “Can you become Sailor Moon again? We need your help!”
Usagi nodded and got to her feet, thankful that the youma didn’t drain her completely. She raised her right hand into the air and shouted the five words that would once again transform her into the warrior for love and justice, Sailor Moon.
“Moon prism power, make up!”
To Chapter 44: Return of the Sailor Scouts