Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Chasing the Moon ❯ Chapter 12v2 ( Chapter 12 )

Chasing the Moon

 

Chapter 12

 

<mental conversation>

 

---------------------------------

Something was up. It'd been almost three weeks now with no attacks of any kind. Not a peep from Beryl and neither hide nor hair from the Clan.

 

"Maybe they crossed paths, annoyed each other, and did us all a favor and eliminated each other?"

 

Usagi, Haruka, and Eos turned to look at Lana. Their expressions nearly identical, each of them clearly thought, 'what is she on?' Lana flushed under their scrutiny but scowled back.

 

"What?" she huffed. "It's possible! Queen stone-heart would consider this her territory and by now would be aware that others have settled in and you know how clingy and possessive she is. She would definitely go out and eliminate any potential threats."

 

"My money's on the Clan," Haruka piped in. "Beryl is child's play in comparison to what the Clan can dish out."

 

Eos looked at the mischievously smirking Haruka; Usagi rocked back on her heels.

 

"I dunno," Usagi started thoughtfully. "Beryl's one tenacious bi-"

 

"Language!" Eos growled. Usagi just grinned down at the green-eyed feline. Eos flicked her tail irately at the three. "As amusing as your scenarios are, what if they teamed up together? 'The enemy of mine enemy...'?" Eos cast a glare back at them as they considered that serious possibility. "So do you think now would be a good time for you to practice?"

 

"Yes, Ozzy," they chorused. They all followed after the cat, seeking a private place to practice their techniques and attacks more.

 

 

After several hours spent practicing outside the city limits, the group returned to the apartment where they ate dinner in quiet and then retired for the night.

 

"Don't forget to set your alarms girls; you have a new school to look forward to in the morning," Eos reminded them before they fell asleep.

 

Lana and Usagi both groaned at the reminder but obediently, albeit reluctantly, set the alarms.

 

"Good night, girls."

 

"Good night, Eos."

 

------

 

Haruka sat staring into space, ignoring the repetitive lecture the teacher was attempting to force-feed the bored students. Surreptitiously, she loosened the tie of her male's uniform and glanced at possibly the only genuinely interested student, Michiru. Absently leaning her chin in one hand, she gazed speculatively at her musically renowned classmate. After several minutes of observation, Michiru began to feel the gaze on her and paused in her note taking to scan those around and behind her. Haruka transferred her gaze out the window closest to her as casually as she could so as not to be obvious and draw attention. She felt Michiru's gaze linger on her a moment before returning back to the front and her notes. Haruka suppressed her smirk and returned her attention to the teacher for the last few minutes of the class.

 

After classes let out for the day, Haruka found herself walking a few yards behind her subject of interest. The elegant teenager didn't just walk, she glided across the ground. Michiru was walking alone, unusual for the socially-interactive dependency of the school, but then again, Haruka herself more often walked along unless she decided to go flirting. 'For practice,' she'd reason.

 

As the crowds of departing students thinned out, Haruka found herself still following behind Michiru. Coming to an intersection, Michiru took a left - towards the popular hangout The Crown Arcade, she knew - while Haruka turned in the opposite direction intending to meet Usagi and Lana at their school.

 

Walking down the street, Haruka glanced at a darkened store. She paused and frowned at the seemingly closed shop on the otherwise busy street but shrugged and continued on. She eventually picked up Usagi and Lana and the three headed towards the Arcade. Just before reaching the entrance, she stopped and turned to them.

 

"They hang out here."

 

Lana and Usagi abruptly stopped talking.

 

"And yes, they're likely here now. The guys will probably be along later, but the girls are more than likely in a booth somewhere."

 

"I want to see them," Lana said after a long moment of silence. The two looked at her. "You two have something of an advantage over me; Haru-kun, you've been 'living' with them so to speak, and Bunny, you..."

 

"Have a history with them?"

 

Lana pushed out a smile. "Yeah. You and Haru-kun both. I'd only ever get to watch from the sidelines."

 

"Okay," Haruka said. "Let's go in then."

 

Haruka took the lead and gallantly opened the door like the gentleman she was dressed in uniform as. The two giggled at her and waited for her to lead them to a booth. They could feel the Senshi inside and behind them. It was hard to describe the sensation, like an instinct and a connection similar to a soulmate's bond, but not as intimate. The girls were unique among all others and shared a bond unlike anything else. With their past memories, the trio were more in tune with their bond to the others and tried to dampen their presence on the off-chance that one of the others might instinctively pick up on them.

 

Haruka, without glancing at the group, moved to a booth near the back where they had an unobstructed view of the booth containing five girls; two in matching uniforms from Haruka's school, and the other three in uniforms from Usagi and Lana's school. They were smiling and laughing and looked like a completely normal group of teenage girls.

 

A waitress came over shortly after they got comfortable and the three of them ordered a shared meal and separate drinks.

 

"So?" Usagi asked Lana as she munched on some fries. "What do you think?"

 

Lana snuck another glance at the booth, Haruka glancing around the arcade but often watching the booth as well.

 

"I can understand why you two want to get this all over with. They're...."

 

"Attractive?" Haruka quipped.

 

"Do you mean the group or the girl?" Usagi teased as she caught Haruka staring. Haruka blushed and sputtered as Lana laughed.

 

"I'll dye your hair blue one of these nights," Haruka grumbled at the laughing teen.

 

"Oh, eew! Don't transpose your Neptune fantasy onto me; that's nasty! We're sisters!" Lana gasped out. She laughed harder as Haruka floundered even more while turning both red and green.

 

Left without a comeback, Haruka huffed and got up.

 

"Where ya going, Ruka-chan?" Usagi wheezed out between laughs.

 

"To pay the bill," was the grounded out answer.

 

"She's right though," Lana said as she calmed from her laughing fit. Usa gave her a look. "They are attractive." At Usagi's expression she hurried on. "Magnetic! Not so much the opposite attracts theory -" she tilted her head in Haruka's direction "- but the birds of a feather kinda thing." Usagi nodded.

 

“Gotcha.”

 

 

As Haruka walked away from the bothersome blondes she called sisters, she realized that in order to pay the bill she would have to walk by the Senshis' table. Letting out a breath, she forced her body to relax and ignore the table of girls as if they were strangers.

 

Which they are, she told herself. You don't know them; don't know anything about them.

 

`Not true,' something inside her whispered. `You know names. You know identities. Abilities. Potentials. Histories…'

 

For a split second, Haruka's eyes turned and met Michiru's as she passed by the table. She felt the sharp jolt of their personal connection run through her. Then she felt the echo of it run through Michiru first, Usagi and Lana close after, and then the rest of the senshi a second later.

 

<Shit,> the three thought at once.

 

Haruka's body tensed a moment before she continued on as though nothing had happened. She could hear absolute silence from the table and felt several pairs of eyes on her back as she got to the counter, paid the bill, and walked to the door. A long minute later Usa and Lana joined her and they left the arcade.

 

“Well,” Lana started, “now I know you meant the girl.”

 

Haruka gave Lana a confused look before red suddenly bloomed across her cheeks. With a mangled shout Haruka took off running after the laughing teen. Usagi smiled and walked home calmly.

 

------

 

Haruka lost track of the sneaky Lana in the busy shopping district, but a quick call to Usagi confirmed that Lana made it home and whom then began taunting the oldest girl through the phone on Usagi's side. Haruka shook her head unseen and said she would be home in a few hours; she was going to clean her head a bit. Usagi relayed a message from Eos not to be too late or she'd have Usagi cook dinner. Usagi gave an indignant squeak at the end, but Haruka laughed and promised before hanging up.

 

Haruka left the district and entered the park. Glancing around and seeing she was alone, Haruka stepped into the darker shade off the paths and placed her school bag, jacket, and shoes into her subspace pocket and took out a worn pair of running shoes.

 

Finding one of the less used jogging paths, she stretched first and then began to jog slowly. Completing one circuit without coming across anyone else, Haruka gradually picked up her pace. The scenery blurred as she pushed herself faster and harder, forcing her body to reach beyond its human limits without tapping into her abilities as the Senshi of Wind to `cheat.' Finally beginning to slowly down, Haruka walked a few more shorter circuits to cool down and noticed it getting dark.

 

Uh oh, time to go, Haruka thought and walked a little faster. Eos might actually let koneko near the stove.

 

Seeing she was still alone, Haruka grabbed her jacket from the sub-pocket and put it against the growing chill before heading home.

 

Several blocks from the apartment building, the familiar full of a negative interruption slithered down Haruka's back and she paused. The feeling was much weaker though and she realized it was probably one of Beryl's lackeys. Turning to ignore the fight - the Senshi were quite capable of handling her youma - Haruka paused as Eos's words from the day before came to mind.

 

`What if they teamed up?'

 

Haruka paused again and sighed. Opening her unique link to the others she sent out a call.

 

<Imoutos?> (1)

 

A brief sensation of warm sunlight on her face and the smell of extinct moon blossoms.

 

<Hai, onee-chan?> (2) Two voices.

 

<Beryl seems to have made an appearance tonight. Shopping district. I'm going to observe.>

 

<Why?> Usagi asked, confused.

 

<Beryl actually showed?> Lana exclaimed. <Can I come?>

 

<Because ->

 

<Of course Beryl didn't show, you puffball!> Usagi retorted. <Beryl's a coward, she wouldn't come if someone else can do it.>

 

<Hey!> Lana shot back. <I'm not a puffball, you… you… odango!>

 

Haruka rubbed her temples, feeling a headache approach with the mental argument.

 

<Enough!> Haruka yelled. <I'm going to watch in case Eos is right and she joined with the Clan! That's it!>

 

Silence.

 

<Okay,> the two whispered meekly.

 

<Can I still come, too?> Lana ventured timidly.

 

<Ask Eos.>

 

With that, Haruka dropped her connection and turned in the opposite direction. Back to the fight and the tugging-at-her-heart sensation she now acknowledged.

 

Fifteen minutes later, Sailor Sun joined Sailor Uranus on the second floor balcony inside the deserted shop Haruka passed by earlier. Below them lay a very damaged floor, six Sailor Senshi, four Shitennou, one General - a knock-off of Nephrite - and a very ugly and unrecognizable youma. The General actually floated a few yards in front of the two hidden senshi, his back to them and completely unaware. He also blocked the two from the others' view without hindering theirs. The battle ended quickly, three Senshi and the original Nephrite combining attacks - apparently a certain power combination was the weakness - and overwhelming the youma, which then disintegrated.

 

As the group celebrated the victory they didn't notice the General launching an attack at the nearest Senshi, Sailor Neptune.

 

“No!” Uranus cried out.

 

Without conscious thought, she launched herself at Neptune the same time General Nephlyte did his attack. She managed to push the aquatic senshi out of harm's way but the attack grazed her own leg. In mid-fall, Uranus spun around and launched a counterattack at the fading General.

 

“World Shaking!” The planet-shaped attack passed through the general and, Uranus realized with horror, headed towards Sol's hiding spot. “No!” The attack exploded and then silence fell.

 

Neptune moved beneath Uranus's body, and Uranus blushed before getting off and offering a hand. Neptune accepted and the two felt a familiar spark. Standing, Neptune kept hold of the proffered hand and asked,

 

“Who are you?”

 

Shifting her grip on the hand, Uranus raised it to her lips and said, “I am Sailor Uranus, Lady Neptune,” smirking as she pressed a kiss to the gloved knuckles and received a soft, becoming blush.

 

“You're one of us then?” Sailor Venus asked as she stepped forward, into her role of leader.

 

Uranus raised a slim brow and then suppressed a frown as Neptune blanched and pulled away. “I am a Sailor Senshi, Lady Venus.”

 

Venus frowned. “But you are one of us,” she reiterated.

 

“She is a Sailor Senshi, Lady Venus,” a new but familiar voice said from shadow. “Just as she said.” At Uranus's visible look of relief, Sol scowled and turned to the Wind Senshi. “Nice aim, by the way,” she growled.

 

“Knew you'd move,” Uranus mock-smirked. “You're afraid of the dark on your own.”

 

Before Sailor Sun could retort, Sailor Jupiter interrupted this time.

 

“Whoa, wait! You two,” she pointed to Uranus and Sol, “know each other?”

 

“Of course,” Uranus replied nonchalantly. She walked over to the gold senshi and crossed her arms as she leaned nearby.

 

“We are on the same side,” Sailor Sun concluded.

 

“Traitor,” Sailor Mars hissed suddenly.

 

Uranus turned cold eyes on the Fire Senshi. “Excuse me?”

 

“If you are siding with a self-proclaimed `senshi' of whom there's absolutely no record of-”

 

“Be quiet before you make a greater fool of yourself, Lady Mars,” Uranus said coldly.

 

“It's Sailor Mars,” she snapped.

 

“Not yet, it's not,” Sol fired back. She turned to the glowering Uranus. “Time to go. She's waiting.”

 

The two turned away from the fussing senshis and the smartly silent Shitennou and left through the second floor the same way they got in.

 

-------

 

“Well, not the way I wanted our first conversation to go.”

 

“Yeah, mine either.”

 

“That was your first convo?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Really?”

 

“Yes. What of it?”

 

“I thought you would've talked to her sooner, is all.”

 

There was a growl followed by a giggle-squeal and then running footsteps.

 

------

 

It was a week after Sailor Uranus's introduction to the Sailor Senshi of Tokyo, and almost a month since Michiru's concert, and Haruka finally had the time and quiet to begin practicing again. Lana and Usagi, accompanied by Eos, had gone out for the day to get a more personal feel for the city's layout. Well, Eos had, the girls were using it as an excuse to go shopping.

 

Walking to the opposite side of the suite, Haruka turned around a casually concealed corner to face a set of stairs leading to a loft a flight above. The loft was the major reason Haruka bought the suite. The loft could only be accessed by the staircase - or, for those specially endowed, a small balcony on the outside - and was a single, large room about the same size as the entire apartment below it. It had been extremely tricky getting the baby grand piano inside, but with the help of her subspace pocket - which, apparently, could hold anything - and her senshi strength, she managed to relocate the instrument from its delivery to her downstairs apartment to the loft. The loft walls, floor, and ceiling had all been carefully reinforced and soundproofed so she and the others could practice on a smaller scale. Currently, the piano was the only thing in the room since she had yet to bring the girls up.

 

Sitting down on the padded stool, Haruka let her fingers softly run across the keys before closing her eyes and playing a melody not known since her ancient life so long ago. Her eyes closed as she fell into the music, hearing the phantom accompaniment her partner used to play. She was startled into faltering when the voice of her princess joined in with the lyrics.

 

“Don't stop,” Lana whispered, dreamily. “That's so lovely.”

 

Haruka turned and spotted Lana leaning against the open entrance to the stairs with Usagi a few feet away and gazing carefully at her.

 

“Won't you keep playing?” Usagi asked carefully. “We can leave if it bothers you.”

 

“No,” Haruka sighed, raking a hand through her short strands. “I'll be playing in front of crowds eventually, why not start now?”

 

Usagi smiled as Haruka turned around and resumed playing.

 

 

---------------

(1) imoutos: little/younger sisters

 

(2) onee-chan: big/elder sister (might use `aniki' since I've seen that too)

 

Note 1: Lana calling Haruka "Haru-kun" my understanding is that -kun is usually addressed to boys or sometimes to those more familiar than -san but not as childish as a -chan seems. If it hasn't been noticed yet, Lana does/will call Haruka "Haru(-kun)" as a type of nickname while Usagi uses "Ruka(-chan)" or "Kaze-chan (usually in reference to something)" as her nickname for Haruka.

The two variations distinguish Lana and Usagi's perspectives of Haruka, I think/hope. "Haru" is more a male name, which Lana often sees Haruka as with her strength of character; "Ruka" sounds more feminine to me, and fits with my view of Usagi seeing her more clearly as a sister. ... Don't know how else to explain it without going into a long(er) and detailed explanation.

 

Note 2: Yes, there IS a reason that Uranus/Sol/Moon are calling the others "Lady" (planet) instead of "Sailor" (planet). If you remember from way back in the beginning, when Lana & Usagi were learning immunity, that's going to play a big role especially in the Trials to come. Basically though, it's my view of what makes a senshi a proper Sailor Senshi that'll be coming into play. Just having the ability isn't enough - Galaxia's animates are pretty much proof of that. So then, what makes a "real" Senshi?

As for the Trials, I have “technically” written up the first Trial already. Wrote it way back when I started the story and it's the very first fight scene I ever wrote. And it's long. And it needs a fair amount of tweaking before it ever gets put into the story. It's in the Files in my Yahoo group.