Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Once In a Blue Moon ❯ Prelude ( Prologue )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

Only a few days after the start of a new school year, while Tokyo still reveled the end of summer, a girl with short cut, vivid blue hair, bright blue eyes, and a small smile, was late for the first time that anybody could remember.

"Ami-chan!" Usagi cried in surprise as her friend came running up beside her as she frantically dashed for the school. "You're late! I never thought I'd see the day!"

The blue-haired genius grinned back at her blonde friend, "Ah, but I have a reason."

Usagi shook the comment off, making her long meatball like pigtails fly back behind her, and challenged Ami. "Race you to the school!"

Immediately Usagi shot off ahead of Ami, seeming to leave her in the dust. As she ran, she grinned, realizing that the genius hadn't caught up to her yet. Soon the school gates were right before her and the blonde knew she was going to win. But just before she reached them, a pale blur shot by and through the gates.

"Nani?!" She exclaimed, coming to a halt inside and turning her attention to the blur.

Instead of seeing Ami, who she expected, she saw a rather pale girl with very light, straight, blonde hair cut to right above her shoulders, pale blue eyes, and a triumphant grin plastered on her face. Ami came running through the gate a moment later, stopping by her pigtailed friend.

"Ohayoo gozaimasu," the new girl addressed them in pretty good Japanese, but a definite American accent, and gave a little wave with her hand.

"Ohayoo gozaimasu," Ami replied and smiled.

"Ohayoo gozaimasu ," Usagi greeted as well, then asked, "Who are you?"

"I'm Conti Trish. What may I call you by?" She asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"I'm Tsukino Usagi, and this is the genius girl, Mizuno Ami," Usagi replied.

"Do you attend school here?" Ami asked curiously as the three of them walked into the building.

"I do now," Trish answered. "At least for the next year. I'm an exchange student from America."

"Are you in Haruna-sensei's class?" Usagi inquired.

"Uh, I think so," Trish said slowly. "Spelled h-a-r-u-n-a?"

At Usagi's nod, the pale girl smiled, "Now I finally know where I'm going! Show the way!"

Trish followed the other two down the hallway and up a flight of stairs to the classroom. Usagi and she went through a door nearby and Ami continued on her way to her own room.

~*~

"Late again, Tsukino-san?" Their teacher, Ms. Haruna, asked as Usagi tried to sneak into the room.

The blonde hung her head, but she was used to it for the sheer number of times she was late, and sneaked a wink at her best friend, Osaka Naru, who sat in a middle row of desks. Naru smiled back, then suddenly looked behind Usagi and a surprised look crept on her face.

"Gomen nasai, Haruna-sensei," Usagi replied, lifting her head up, then quickly glanced back to see what Naru was surprised about. Trish's head was poking through the doorway, looking confused as she glanced around.

"Usagi," Ms. Haruna said, pointing to her desk. "Go on and sit. This class has to start eventually."

Usagi complied and sat in her desk, which was placed directly behind Naru's, revealing Trish's head from where it had been hidden by the blonde's body. Ms. Haruna, now noticing the student, smiled and beckoned her inside.

"Ohayoo gozaimasu," Trish muttered sheepishly.

"Ohayoo gozaimasu," the teacher returned. "Being late is not the best way to start your first day here, Conti-san."

"Gomen nasai," she mumbled, blushing.

"I see you've already made friends with Tsukino-san," Ms. Haruna went on, narrowing her eyes. "Just don't pick up any of her bad habits, please." Then she smiled at Trish and turned to the class, "Class, we have a new student today."

She nodded at Trish and the girl spoke, "Ohayoo gozaimasu minna-san, I'm Conti Trish. I'm from Orlando, Florida in the US of A. I am happy to have been able to come here as an exchange student and I hope that perhaps we can be friends."

Trish smiled sheepishly at the silent class before her and tried not to fidget in her nervousness. She turned her head to look at the teacher, wondering what she was supposed to do next. Ms. Haruna smiled back at her.

"Welcome, Trish-san," she said, breaking the silence. "You may sit down in that desk," the teacher pointed toward a desk one back from the first row and diagonal to Usagi's.

"Ohayoo again, Usagi-san," Trish whispered as she slid into her seat.

"Strange girl," a boy whispered from the back, but Trish heard him anyway.

"Of course she is, she's American," replied a girl sitting next to him.

Trish blushed even deeper and slid down lower in her seat, trying to avoid the class's stares at the foreign girl.

~*~

Deep in the shadows of a room not of Earth origin, two deep orange eyes suddenly snapped open. The creature shook its head several times, then reached up with both hands to rub at its eyes before looking around the room.

"What has happened?" A baritone voice asked, apparently coming from the orange-eyed creature, "What has happened to this place?"

A small orange orb materialized in its hand, which it held out to light up the room, while revealing its face in the process. A tall man, probably around 6'3, with very pale skin, high cheek bones, and bright orange, spiky hair stood there in gray khaki pants and a long-sleeved, light gray, turtle-neck sweater.

The light also revealed the room, which seemed to have been partially demolished in a large blast a long while ago, for there was a very thick layer of dust on everything. But despite the rubble laying all over the floor and the three-foot wide hole in the roof, a large, black, rock-hewn chair stood like new in the far corner of the room, surrounded by two tables which held large oil lamps.

Sconces were nailed into the stone walls at odd places where torches were once obviously held. In the center of the room, where a circle of light fell through the hole in the roof, laid a lady. Her features were blurred, though, due to a thick crystal enclosure around her body, but the man could tell that she had brilliant orange hair like his own and wore a soft orange dress.

He recognized her at once and gave a soft sob to see her in such a state. The man tried to walk towards her, but found himself hindered greatly by a crystal case much like her own, except a lot thinner. Annoyed, he brought his hand back, balled into a fist, and punched the crystal with as much strength as he could muster, which wasn't much since his muscles were out of shape for not being used in ages, but enough to make small cracks appear in the crystal.

Urged on by this, he punched it again and watched in delight as the cracks spread outward a few feet. With one last punch, the crystal shattered, and he fell forward, gasping for breath when he realized he could breathe again.

The man tried the same procedure on the lady's casing, but after several more punches and a few frustrated kicks, he was soon exhausted. Defeated, he slouched down into the black chair and stared at the unyielding crystal.

For how long he sat there, he wasn't sure. It was only when a brighter light began to shine through the hole that he arose from his position and walked over to the lady. He stared down at her for a moment, then looked up through the hole to see a bright star shining down on him, the one he had once loved to be in the light of. But now he resented the light and what it had done to him and the lady.

He stepped out of the circle of light, but continued gazing up. At the corner of the hole he could see part of the blue and green planet that the room and the small asteroid it rested upon orbited. The man wondered if the inhabitants were still alive, after the many years that had passed. Their warlike nature surely would've wiped them out by now, he thought.

"Shadows?" He called, diverting his gaze from the planet, "Are you still here?"

A hissing sound answered him and out of the darkness in the corner of the room stepped what appeared to be a living shadow. It had the basic shape of a lady, with a single, large, bright orange eye that floated around in the head area. The Shadow bowed to him.

"Massster," she hissed, though there was no visible place that her voice could've come from, "you awaken?"

"Yes," he answered. "Atra, right?"

"Yesss, massster," Atra answered, giving a nod.

"Why didn't you wake me before now? What has happened?" The man questioned, remaining strangely calm.

"We couldn't. The crystal could not be penetrated by usss," she replied. "And what hasss happened, we are not entirely sssure."

"What do you mean?" He asked sharply when Atra paused.

"We were alssso placed in ssstasssisss and have only recently awakened," she said.

"But what happened after I was hit?" He continued, suddenly recalling the last thing he remembered of a blazing disk of light hitting him in the stomach.

"Kaisssha encasssed you in cryssstal to protect you," she answered. "And then ssshe tried to do the sssame to our attackersss, but it backfired and she wasss encasssed in cryssstal inssstead. We tried to help, but they drove usss back and froze usss in time. How we have awakened, though, we ssstill do not know."

"Arigatou, Atra," he said softly. "That will be enough. But tell me, do you know of any way I might be able to free Kaisha?"

"You need energy," she answered confidently. "Then you can ussse that to crack the cryssstal apart." She paused, but seeing the next question on the man's face, quickly added, "And the closssessst available energy is from the humansss down on the planet'sss sssurface."

"Good," he replied, smiling at the shadow lady. "Do you think you could send down one of your Shadows to collect some energy?"

"Yesss, of courssse, massster," Atra said.

"I know I can count on you," he turned and sat back down in the black chair. "Report back when you do get enough energy. But now, I need some rest," he added, closing his eyes. Soon, he drifted off to a real sleep.

"Yesss, massster," Atra hissed softly, then turned back to the shadowy wall. "Umbra!"

Another Shadow stepped forward, this one also shaped like a lady, but a bit shorter than Atra. She opened her two small, vibrant, blue eyes and bowed to the shadow lady before her.

"Massster?" She hissed in a much lower voice.

"I'm sssure you heard our Massster," Atra stated. "Go down to the planet at once and retrieve sssome energy from the humansss."

"Yesss," Umbra returned. She stepped underneath the light coming from the hole, then sprang upwards into space before zooming off towards the planet.