Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Russian Roulette ❯ Chapter 7

As Haruka entered her classroom for the first time, she found it to be furnished with all sorts of fun posters, books, and games. Her Michiru-mama was right, school should be great. Haruka was also pleased to note that Chibiusa was in her class as well. She sat in the third row while Haruka was seated up front, with Makoto directly behind her. She had hoped she and her two friends could sit together, but since all the desks were clearly labeled with each student's name, the girls figured they should probably sit where they were assigned. Haruka glanced at the desks to the side of her to see who she would be next to for the school year.

 

"Ami," she read aloud.

 

"Yes?"

 

Haruka glanced up to see a small girl with blue eyes and deep blue hair holding a textbook standing in front of her.

 

"Um, I think this is your seat," Haruka said, assuming this person must be Ami, otherwise she wouldn't have responded to her name being read.

 

"Oh, thank you," the girl replied, taking a seat and setting her book down. She looked over at Haruka's desk. "And you're Haruka?" she asked pleasantly.

 

"Yeah," Haruka replied, quite impressed that this girl read her name so quickly. While most kindergartners could recognize their own names with little effort, it was quite another thing to read someone else's. Haruka wanted to talk with Ami further, but at that moment, the teacher came in and rang a little bell on her desk, signaling the start of the first day of class.

 

Haruka found the teacher to be very kind, though a bit boring. She spent most of the morning talking about the rules of the classroom and having everyone go around and say their names. Afterwards was what Haruka was really looking forward to - recess.

 

Upon the sounding of the bell, the children quickly rushed out the door towards the playground. Haruka was up near the front of the crowd until they got outside and Haruka's teacher placed her hand on the small girl's shoulder. Haruka glanced up to see she was holding a coloring book and a box of crayons in her hand.

 

"Here, sweetie, I brought these out for you to play with," she said. Haruka looked perplexed.

 

"Thank you," she said. "But I wanna do something else. I'll color later when recess is over." The teacher sighed; apparently her young pupil did not understand just yet.

 

"Haruka, the other children are playing on the slide and swing set, and hopscotch. You can't do those things. Why don't you sit down and color until we go inside?" Haruka looked across the playground. It was true. All the children were involved in any number of activities from playing kickball to just running around freely, all of which involved using one's legs. Still, Haruka was not content to just sit and color while everyone else was having fun. There had to be something she could do.

 

"How about that?" Haruka suggested, pointing to the basketball court. The recreation direction had been kind enough to lower to hoop for the shorter players, and they were now taking turns trying to shoot the ball into it. Haruka recognized one of the players as Makoto, who glanced up and waved for her friend to come join them. Haruka waved back.

 

"I'll play over there," she told the teacher, before the woman can a chance to object. She smiled and shook her head. She certainly did have a bundle of energy on her hands this year.

 

Meanwhile, Usagi made her way over to Michiru's house as quickly as she could. The thoughts still raced wildly through her mind. They had to re-awaken the senshi. Did that mean that the others had been reborn as Haruka had? Ami, and Rei, and Minako... that they were all children now? And now Usagi had to awaken them as Sailor Soldiers, despite their young age? It was all a little much to comprehend. Not to mention that Haruka herself wasn't exactly in a position to be a Soldier in the first place. But, she supposed, that would be an issue they would deal with when the time came.

 

"So, you're saying you saw Setsuna?" Michiru asked, unusually calm. Then again, she always seemed to have that tone in her voice nowadays. After everything that had happened, nothing could stir her emotions, with the exception of the brief joy brought to her by her husband and daughter. And even then she feared of what might happen if she got too close to them.

 

"I didn't see Setsuna exactly," Usagi said. "It was Sailor Pluto. But she said she's coming back here, as Setsuna again. Only she won't have the memories of before."

 

"That makes sense," said Michiru quietly. "After all, her memories were destroyed with her body seven years ago."

 

"But that's all going to change," Usagi insisted, frustrated that Michiru wasn't reacting any stronger to the situation. "She said the course of the future has been thrown off, that's why everyone's being reborn so quickly. She said we need to awaken the senshi and fight Chaos as one. Then we can go to Crystal Tokyo and live the life we were destined for."

 

Michiru's expression did not change. "Awaken the senshi?" she asked skeptically. "And fight as one? How do you expect to do that when one of the senshi can't even walk?"

 

Usagi opened her mouth to reply, even though she didn't have a clue what she was going to say. She could understand Michiru's fear of Haruka getting hurt, her anger that the situation had turned out the way it had. But still... still if there was any chance they could set things right, they should at least try to take it. Of course, before Usagi got the chance to say any of this, the telephone rang. Michiru walked briskly over and picked it up.

 

"Hello, Kaiou residence... Yes, this is she. How may I...? What? My daughter? Are you sure? Yes... yes, I understand. Very well. I'll be down there shortly." Michiru sat the phone down on the receiver and Usagi gave her a puzzled look.

 

"Something wrong?" she asked.

 

"Yes," Michiru said bluntly, but waited until she got her jacket and purse in hand before she told Usagi was it was. "Haruka got in a fight at school."