Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Sailor Moon's American Dream ❯ American Dream ( Chapter 1 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

American Dream






Sailor Moon's American Dream
A Sailor Moon fan fiction by Thomas Sewell.


<.....> = a thought quotation
Eigo = English
Gaijin = Foreigner (to a Japanese)
Ginzuishou = the Silver Crystal, source of Sailor Moon's most
powerful magic.
Otousan, tousan = father
Okasan, kaasan = mother
Sarariman = "Salary Man," a white-collar worker for a
big corporation.

Chapter One: American Dream

TSUKINO USAGI returned to her home from school with no more
than her usual worries. The first thing she did was, of course,
call out to her mother to ask if there was any mail. It had been
a week since her last letter from Mamo-chan, her boyfriend. But
to her surprise, her father answered from upstairs. "No,
there isn't any mail for you today.

"Otousan, what are you doing home? Are you sick
today?" Usagi's father had been an independent photographer,
but a changing photography market and failed investments had
forced him to become a sarariman who usually worked long
hours; it was now very unusual to have him home on a weekday
afternoon.

"No, Usako. Come up here, please. We have something to
talk about."

<What is it? Mamo-chan?> Her father liked Mamoru
well enough as a person, but he still thought Usagi was too young
to be dating a steady boyfriend--not even mama had told him they
were really engaged. Trouble at school? Usagi wasn't a very good
student, but her grades had improved to average in most things.

She found her father in her parents' room. He was packing a
suitcase. "Otousan, are you going somewhere?"

Her father answered, "Yes, Usako. I'm going to America. I
have to replace someone in our American branch."

"When will you be back?"

"I won't be back."

"Tousan--" Usagi remembered hearing from Ami
how suddenly her father had left, and unconsciously shifted to
the childish tousan from the more correct otousan.

"We're going to live there," said her father.
"I'll send for you as soon as I find a place for us to
live."

"Oh . . . This is so sudden."

"That's what your mother said. But when you work for a
company, you have to go where they want you." He sounded
very sad, very old . . . The suitcase was almost full. He looked
at the framed pictures on the dresser, picking up first one and
another, trying to decide which he would take. He selected one
that showed Usagi with her mother and her brother Shingo, and
Chibi-Usa--and Mamo-chan. "I'm sorry you'll be away from
your cousin and your friends. But you'll be able to see your
boyfriend sometimes. I understand this Stanford is not very far
from San Francisco." He shook his head and put the picture
in the suitcase. "But you are not going to be seeing him all
the time. There are some good schools there. You will be going to
one of them. So, work harder on your Eigo, Usako, you will
need it."



USAGI WAS BOTH happy and unhappy. She would be getting to see
Mamo-chan often--Umino and Ami knew a lot about Stanford, which
was in the "Silicon Valley." They were both computer
geniuses, and they told her it was close enough to San Francisco
to go there and come back the same day by bus or train. But Usagi
would be leaving everyone else behind. And, of course, Usagi was
Sailor Moon. Who would protect Juuban and the rest of Tokyo from
all the monsters and evil wizards who kept showing up?

Haruka, Sailor Uranus, dismissed that fear. "Don't worry.
There haven't been any attacks for awhile. And if we have more
trouble, we can find someone else who can cry and run away just
as well as you do." But when the day came when Usagi and her
mother and brother finally got on their plane and took a last
look back, she was surprised that the tough, mannish older girl
was crying worse than any of the other senshi who had come
to see her off.



USAGI HAD THOUGHT they would be living in San Francisco, one
of the few places in America she knew anything about, but
the house that her father got for them was in a tiny town she had
never heard of, far up the hills on the other side of San
Francisco Bay. It was a very nice house with a big yard, nicer
than their home in the Juubangai, but not nearly as nice
as most of the others--there were a lot of mansions in this
place, called Kensington, or kin-sin-tan, in Usagi's
halting Eigo.

Usagi became lonely most of the time. There were only a few
Japanese at the private school her father put her in, and they
had all been in America for a long time and spoke English without
thinking. None of them seemed to like her much, and it was
difficult to get to know anyone else. Mamo-chan visited most
Sundays, but they were never alone together for very long, thanks
to her parents. He was studying very hard and doing well, which
made Usagi feel stupid and unworthy of him. She couldn't call her
old friends very much; letters were never enough, and she still
hadn't gotten the hang of using e-mail.

The only attention she seemed to get at school was unwelcome.
Some boys kept making passes at her, even though she kept showing
everyone her ring and saying "Engaged." Some of them
began calling her "old Inagajudo," making fun of her
English and her loyalty to Mamoru at the same time. She was
tempted to transform and blast them just a little, but Usagi had
grown up enough to realize that, while Tsukino Usagi could still
do foolish things, Sailor Moon shouldn't.

Usagi really tried to do better at school, mostly because of
Mamoru, but all that sitting up at night studying seemed to do
was make her go to sleep in class more. Finally, she got a note
to take home: her grades were so poor, they didn't want her to
stay.

Being Tsukino Usagi--or Usagi Tsukino, as Americans seemed to
insist--she was never that far from a foolish decision. She made
a very foolish one: Instead of going home to face her parents,
she decided to go to Mamoru's place. It was difficult getting
there; several hours of trains and buses. Tired from several
nights up late, Usagi fell asleep on a train . . .



"MA'AM? MA'AM?"

Someone was talking to Usagi, very loudly. A man. A policeman.
She asked him where she was and what time it was. The man looked
puzzled, and turned to another policeman and a man in a suit. He
said something in Eigo that Usagi couldn't understand.
Usagi remembered that she had spoken in Japanese, so she asked
the same questions again, in the best Eigo she could
manage. But she lapsed back into Japanese when she realized she
was not on the train. "How did I get here?"

The man in the suit answered, in Japanese. "You are in
the Stanford Medical Center. The police brought you here. You
don't remember what happened to you?"

"I was on the train. I fell asleep," Usagi answered
in Japanese, and the man in the suit repeated it in English.

"Do you remember anything else?" asked the man in
the suit.

"No. I-where is my ring? And--" Her brooch.
"The ginzuishou!"

"Ginzuishou? What is that?" asked the man in
the suit.

"Ne-e-eh . . . a brooch. Heart-shaped. I have had it for
long time."

After the man in the suit translated again, the policeman said
to her in English, "You didn't have any jewelry when you
were found. We think someone robbed you; perhaps they took it.
Was it valuable?"

"It was to me," said Usagi.

The policeman asked, "And the ring? Was it
expensive?"

Usagi answered him in her English: "It was engagement
ring . . . not very fancy ring. Mamo-chan is not wealthy
man."

"Mamo-chan?" asked the man in the suit.

Usagi switched back to Japanese. "He is my boyfriend . .
. my fiance. His name is Chiba Mamoru . . . Mamoru Chiba, you
would say here."

The man in the suit said, "I'm sorry . . . do you
remember your name?"

"My name? It is Tsukino Usagi."

"Tsukino Usagi is your real name?"

"Yes. Why would you ask a question like that?"

"Why are you speaking Japanese?" asked the man in
the suit.

"I am sorry, my Eigo-my English not
very good."

The man in the suit asked, "Where are you from?"

"I am from Japan, of course," said Usagi in
Japanese.

"You grew up in Japan?" asked the man in the suit.

"Yes . . . Oh, no, my parents!"

"Your parents?"

"They must be worried about me. Otousan won't let
me see Mamo-chan after this . . . " She began to cry. "
He is studying here at Stanford. I came on the train to see him. Otousan
will blame him--"

"You did not see him here?"

"No. No, I've never been here. Mamo-chan always comes to
visit my family. But today I . . . I did badly in school again
and I didn't want to have okasan and otousan angry
at me."

"Where is your family?"

"They live in Kensington now-north of here?"

"I know where it is," said the man in the suit.
"They don't know, yet. We didn't know who your family
was. You don't have any identification. I'm afraid whoever robbed
you must have taken it . . . so, you are from Japan? What . . .
" The man in the suit asked a lot more questions.



"SO, HAVE YOU FIGURED IT OUT?"

"No," said Dr. Wanatabe. "She learned Japanese
somewhere, maybe even grew up in Japan--she uses too many idioms
not to have spoken it for a long time."

"What, a blue-eyed blond from Japan?!! Give me a break!"

"It's still a possibility. A remote one, but there are a
few gaijin who've lived in Japan for a long time . . . Not
likely, though. I think this is some sort of reaction to the
robbery."

"If she was robbed."

The doctor shrugged. "I'll get her into
observation."

"The bin?"

"Better than the juvenile authority. And the girl most
likely has some real problems. It's justified."



Usagi woke up. Someone was speaking loudly, and she wasn't
awake enough to understand it--it was part Eigo, part
something else she didn't know. She tried to get up to get a
look--and she found out she was strapped down to a gurney!

"Where are you taking me?" Usagi asked. But no one
answered her. She was wheeled into an elevator. There were two
men with her; they were both large and had big hands. They wore
white uniforms, but Usagi didn't think they were doctors. They
were speaking Eigo and something else to each other,
mostly something else. The sound of it was different from Eigo,
faster and a little melodic. But there were Eigo words.
Usagi asked again, in Eigo, "Excuse me, where are you
taking me?" It actually sounded something like "Ekascooso
mi, wara aro yoo taken mi?" One of them glanced at her
for a moment, but then he went on talking to the other one.

They took her to a place with locked doors. Usagi did not have
to know any Eigo to know she was being put in a place with
crazy people.



Dr. Wanatabe had a busy schedule. He didn't have time to visit
the strange girl the police had found near the University
Caltrain station for several days. The police had only called him
in because he could speak some Japanese. Not perfectly;
Dr. Watanabe's family had lived in the United States for several
generations, and he had learned Japanese in school, and later on
in his own time, to understand his heritage more. But there were
certain things about Japanese culture he could do without, and
two of them were the cartoons and comics. He had three daughters,
and they were always spending their money and their time on manga
and anime. He found all of them watching anime videos when they
should be doing homework one evening when he came home, and he
scolded them. But as he picked up the remote to turn off the VCR,
he looked at the screen--and saw that the character looked like a
cartoon version of the strange girl. He hit "pause"
instead, and asked, "Who is that?"

"Her? That's Sailor Moon," said Molly.

"She's really famous," said Joanne.

"I want to be just like her," said Stephanie, his
youngest. She held up a manga she was reading, and showed it to
him.

"Can I borrow this?" asked Dr. Watanabe.



Usagi had been very frightened at first, to know she was with
crazy people, but there didn't seem to be danger. But the people
running the place thought she was crazy, too. None of them spoke
Japanese. She caught some of them making fun of her Eigo,
and she stopped talking much at all.

Mostly she worried about her parents and Mamoru. Why hadn't
anyone come for her? Maybe Mamoru was so disappointed with her he
wouldn't see her, but surely not her mother and father?

After what seemed like forever but was only four days, Dr.
Watanabe finally came to see her again. Usagi was so happy to
have someone to talk to, she talked very fast--and then she got a
puzzled look. He said, "I cannot understand much of what you
are saying. My Japanese is not very good."

"Oh?"

"I'm an American. I've never lived in Japan, only
visited."

"Oh . . . Your Japanese is much better than my
English."

"Thank you. I've brought a little something for you to
read." He pulled a manga from his briefcase. It had Sailor
Moon on the cover. Usagi thought, <Does he know I'm Sailor
Moon?> He spoke again as he handed it to her. "Sailor
Moon is my daughter's favorite character. I notice that you look
a lot like her. Blue eyes, blond hair--you even wear your hair
the same way."

"Many girls in Japan do things like this with their hair.
They are not locked up with crazy people for it!"

"No. But you do understand that Sailor Moon is just a
cartoon, don't you?"

If the gaijin wanted to believe that, let him. At least
he didn't think she was Sailor Moon. "Yes, I
understand."

"If you understand that, why do you call yourself Usagi
Tsukino?"

"Tsukino Usagi. Because that is my name."

"Tsukino Usagi. Yes. That is the name of Sailor Moon from
the cartoon--in Japan. They call her Serena in the English
version."

"No, you are wrong. In the manga and anime, her name is
Hara Reiko." <What was going on?>

"Can you show me?"

Usagi riffled through the manga--it was the first collection
edition, very dog-eared. But when she got to the first Sailor
Moon story, she couldn't believe it. Instead of Hara Reiko,
Sailor Moon was actually called Tsukino Usagi. She read further.
Her mother, her father, Shingo--in the manga and anime, they had
given her two little sisters--but, no, it was just as it really
was. Sailor Mercury--Ami instead of Maru--and they used Rei's
real name . . . <How could they have done such a thing?>

Dr. Watanabe sat back, with a gentle smile on his face.
"You aren't really Sailor Moon, and you aren't really Usagi
or Serena. Now, I know you think you are, but that's not
true. There are times we'd all like to be someone else. You've
gone further than most. But you should remember who you really
are soon. Pretending is nice, but being yourself is better, most
of the time."

"I don't know . . . haven't you found my parents? My
boyfriend? I told--"

"There isn't any such company as Juuban Corporation.
There are no families named Tsukino living in Kensington, and no
one at all living at the address you gave--it does not exist. The
phone number you gave us hasn't been active for several months,
and it belonged to someone named Mitchell before. There is no one
named Mamoru Chiba registered at Stanford University."

"But I--"

The doctor held up his hand. "I've checked with the
Japanese consulate. No one with the names you have given us has
been issued a Japanese passport. There are quite a number of
Tsukinos living in Tokyo, but none of them fit the names and
particulars you gave about your family. Now, we've sent them your
fingerprints--and I've had them sent to the FBI--so if you really
are from Japan, or from here, there's a good chance we'll be able
to tell us who you really are. But I'd like you to tell me. Now,
how old are you . . ."



After three weeks, Dr. Watanabe and some policemen took her to
a court. They spent most of their time waiting. The judge finally
asked to see her. Dr. Watanabe interpreted for the judge--it was
funny, she had a Japanese name, Yamamoto, but she didn't speak
any Japanese--although she did speak that other language Usagi
had heard a lot by now, Spanish.

The Judge seemed like a nice lady, but she didn't believe
Usagi's story, and by now Usagi didn't expect anyone to believe.
The whole world had changed--or maybe she was really crazy.

They had gotten her books and magazines about Japan, and she
saw that there just weren't any Japanese in them with blond hair
or red hair or even many with brown hair, except people who wore
wigs or died their hair. No one had blue or green hair, anywhere,
unless it was fake.

Still, whether or not they believed her, they had to call her
something. The judge asked her what she wanted to be called. Dr.
Watanabe suggested, "Sue" because he had started
calling her that. It was better than "Soggy," which she
now knew was an Eigo word meaning "wet." So, she
was sent to a foster home as "Sue Kino."



Chapter 2: A Year Gone By



Usagi-or "Sue" as everyone insisted on calling
her-started going to school again when they finally put her
in a long-term foster home. It was a regular American school
where everyone dressed in what they liked. Few of them seemed to
like what she wore, not that she had much choice. The people
running her latest foster home were very stingy, and she had to
wear second-hand clothes. She had to learn to sew to make them
fit well. Still, her clothes and especially her hair were always
targets for teasing. She thought about changing her hair, even
cutting it, but somehow it seemed like losing a part of her. So,
even as she got used to being "Sue," she was still odango
atama, dumpling head.


After awhile, most of the teasing stopped as people got used to
her. Her English got better--in fact, she found out she could
even understand some Spanish, because lots of the kids at her
school spoke it a lot. But she was still an outsider, a mystery
no one could solve, or cared to.


After she had been in the school for several months, a boy
asked her if she would go with him to a school dance. She didn't
know him more than to say a few words to, though she remembered
he seemed to be around her a lot lately, looking at her until she
saw that he was. But he wasn't one of the boys who had teased
her. She said "Hai--Yes, I will go with you,
Jimi."

She had to buy her own second-hand formal from a thrift store
and fix it up, and it wasn't very nice. But the dance was
pleasant; she found she could dance fairly well, at least
waltzing. Her date was a klutz that night, but he didn't mess up too
badly. Usagi realized that he was not normally awkward; that he
was this way because she was making him nervous, and that made
her feel quite good. And she noticed again how he spoke up for
her when she got teased.


He had borrowed his parents' car for the night, so he drove her
to her foster home. There were no lights on--she didn't have a
key; because her foster parents didn't trust her or any of the
other foster kids they were paid to take care of enough to give
them keys. They would be angry when she rang the doorbell. So,
she waited in the car with Jimmy longer than she might have,
listening to him, putting off the scene with her foster parents.


Then she realized that what he was really doing was trying to
get up enough nerve to kiss her. She remembered Mamo-chan--but
was that real? Jimmy couldn't fly or throw magic roses, but he
was real. So, when he finally inched all the way over, she let
him kiss her. But when he started to do a little more than kiss
her, she took his hands and pushed him away.

"I'm sorry, I--"

"No. I do not do this on first date. I just know you,
Jimmy."

"I really think I love you. I mean, I've been wanting to
get to know you for a long time."

"You do not know me. This is first date. With
Mamo-chan--"

"Mamo-chan is just a cartoon, Sue."

She flushed. But of course, he believed that. And perhaps she
should . . . "Yes, I forgot that. But I am sure if I make
love before, I know boyfriend long time. Not first date. More
than year, I think. I do not make love unless I am sure love
boy."

"And you don't love me?"

"How I know that? I know you only short time. How you
know you love me? Love take long time. Real love take--takes
--a--long time happen. To happen." She got
out of the car.

"Can I still see you?"

"You see me at school."

"I mean, can I ask you to go out with me again?"

"Wait few days--a few days. I need to think. Few days,
Jimmy-chan."



After a few days, Jimmy-chan asked again, and Usagi--Sue,
as she was beginning to think of herself, said yes. She wasn't
very impressed by him at first, except that he endured a lot of
teasing for going around with "the crazy girl who thinks
she's a Jap." As weeks and then months passed, she began to
see how Naru-chan could find love with Umino-chan--if there
really were such people. Not just cartoons. But she remembered
real people, or seemed to. Especially her mother. How could she
have made up okasan?

The woman running the foster home wasn't anything like
Mama-san. She was pretty enough, but only on the outside. She
tried to get the foster kids to do as much of the work as she
could, and Sue was the one who did the most. Besides that, if she
wanted any pocket money, she had to work. And she found that
studying was better than arguing with her foster family all the
time. After a year, it seemed hard to imagine she had ever had
time to be lazy . . .



Chapter 3: Doctor Goodman

IT WAS A MORNING when Sue had distanced herself from Jimmy for
a few weeks because she wasn't sure where here feelings were
taking her, and she was having some fresh difficulties at school.
With a lot on her mind, Sue was almost out the door when her
foster mother took her arm. "You forgot to take out the
trash last night."

"But I'll be late--"

"I don't care. Do it now!" Her foster mother
squeezed her arm hard enough to hurt before letting go.

She nodded, put down her pack, and went out the back way
instead. She groaned when she saw what she had to do--something
had gotten into the garbage bags, and there was trash scattered
all around. She got some more bags and was as careful as she
could, but she still got some stinking drippings on her clothes.
And, if that weren't enough, she heard the bus going by--she was
going to be late!

Sue sat down on the back step and cried. Now she had too many
tardy slips; the school would ask her foster parents to come for
counseling--something that would make them very angry. She
started going through the papers that had drifted up by the
porch, crumpling them up and throwing them at, sometimes into, a
half-filled bag. Then she noticed one of them. It was a flyer.

The flyer read:

"Dinosaurs! Dr. Argent Goodman, paleontologist, will be
speaking . . ." Much of the flyer was greasy, but it had a
couple of good pictures of dinosaurs.

Sue thought, <Maybe I can learn enough from this
lecture to do a good Science paper. I sure need to bring my grade
up . . . >

Sue tore off the part that showed how to get to the lecture
(fortunately in a mostly clean part) and put it in her pocket.



The lecture was given in an odd place, an old movie theater
that hadn't shown regular movies for a long time. There weren't
nearly enough other people there to fill up the place, although
she was surprised to see Jimmy, who immediately asked her to sit
with him, up front. She gave him a look--she'd made it clear
she wanted to cool things down--but said "yes."

Jimmy knew quite a lot about dinosaurs, and he talked about
them while they were waiting for the lecture to begin. She was
reminded of Umino Gurio, although Jimmy was not homely like poor
Umino--odd how she had discovered she missed even Umino. <If there
really was an Umino . . . >

Announcements kept coming from the P.A. about delays. People
began to leave. Sue wondered about leaving and asked Jimmy about
it.

Jimmy answered, "No, I'm not giving up yet. I've read
about her. I want to meet her."

"Her?" asked Sue.

"Yes, Dr. Goodman is a woman."

"How much you know--do you know--about
her?"

"Not much. I just know a little about her ideas. She
makes reconstructions of dinosaurs that are really different from
most others. But almost none of the other paleontologists seem to
agree with her."

"Why?"

"I don't really know. Jealousy, maybe. Anyway--"

Jimmy stopped as a woman appeared on the narrow stage before
the screen. Sue was startled at her appearance. The woman had
silvery gray hair, and yet looked very young--in fact, though she
was tall, she looked no older than herself, except for the hair.
And the color was not the only thing odd about her hair--it was
very long, mostly loose but with a number of thin braids--and
feathers. She wore colored feathers amid her hair, a spray of
them on each side that obscured her ears.

Her dress wasn't outlandish: a gray woman's suit with a white
blouse, the skirt hanging below her knees; blue pumps and a scarf
in the same shade.

She took the lectern and bent to the mike. "Sorry I'm so
late . . ." And then she launched into her lecture, which
turned out to be illustrated with slides of her sketches,
paintings, and sculptures--which were very good.

Jimmy was obviously fascinated by Dr. Goodman. In fact, Sue
thought he was a little too interested--something that surprised
her, because she realized she was feeling jealousy. That got her
to thinking about Mamoru, and wondering if her memories were
real. Those memories were still vivid, and she was lost in them
through most of the lecture.

After the lecture, Jimmy wanted to speak with Dr. Goodman. So
did Sue, but she probably wouldn't have without Jimmy--there was
something odd about the woman, beyond her appearance. As they
approached her, Sue noticed that she was staring at her, not
Jimmy, even though Jimmy was doing the talking. "Could we
talk with you for a few minutes?" Jimmy asked as they came
up to the narrow stage."

"Since you had the courtesy to wait so long for me, yes .
. . Just let me get down from this sorry excuse for a stage
first." She packed her notes back into her attaché case,
and took out a cellphone. She made a call, speaking as she made
her way off the stage, motioning to Sue and Jimmy to follow her
as she continued, leisurely, to move up the aisle toward the
lobby.

When Jimmy began to speed up, Sue held him back. "Wait,
she's on the phone," Sue said lowly--but a knowing glance
back showed that Dr. Goodman had heard her.

They were the very last in the theater. A man was waiting at
the doors, keys in hand, as they came out into the small lobby,
and he unlocked one of them and held it open--silently indicating
that they should leave now.

And then Sue realized that it was late--looking at her watch,
at last, she saw that it was past midnight. The house would be
locked up. She was in trouble again.

"We're out too late?" Jimmy asked.

Sue looked up from her watch. Jimmy knew her well enough to
guess what was wrong, so she didn't bother to deny it. "Hai."

"Maybe you could stay at my place tonight."

"No, that is not a good idea . . . I don't want to get
you in trouble, too." She gave his hand a comforting
squeeze; whatever she felt for him, he was a good person, and his
offer was at least mostly out of concern.

"Well, I seem to have gotten you two young lovers into
trouble." It was Dr. Goodman. She had glided up to them
unnoticed in the few moments Sue was distracted.

"We are not lovers," said Sue, and then quickly
added, "But we are very good friends . . ." She gave
his hand another squeeze before releasing it.

"Do you need a ride?" asked Dr. Goodman. "I
have a cab coming."

"No, I have a car," said Jimmy, who had borrowed his
parents' again. "But thank you."

"Well, what about you? I could put you up for the night
if you'd rather not go home tonight."

"Thank you, but--" <How did she know
that?>

"I heard your friend make the offer." The woman had
removed her shaded glasses. The marquee lights had just gone off,
so it was hard to see, but still, her eyes seemed to hold Sue.

"Where you live?" asked Sue.

"I'm sort of between homes now. I'm staying at a motel in
Redwood City. About ten minutes from here. With my daughter and
my aunt--that's who I was talking to."

"You have room for me?"

"Yes. We had to take a room with three beds, and Aura
still sleeps in a bassinet. She's only four months."

"And your husband?" asked Sue.

"Oh, I've never had a husband--of my own." She held
up her left hand as a passing car lit up the sidewalk.
"Where would I put a wedding ring?"

She had six fingers on her left hand, something Sue hadn't
noticed.



Chapter 4: A New Girl

WHEN SHE RETURNED to her foster home, after school the next
day, Sue's foster mother asked her where she had been the night
before. She explained that she had stayed with Dr. Goodman, the
lecturer. Her foster mother asked about the doctor, but grew
bored while Sue explained. "Well, that's quite a story,
honey--but you don't need to make it up stuff like that. If you
want to fuck Jimmy or whoever, fine, just don't get yourself
pregnant."

"I do not fuck Jimmy or anyone else. I stayed with
Dr. Goodman because I did not want to wake you or Vic-san up. Her
lecture was not finished until after midnight."

"Well, how considerate . . . Listen, Honey--" Her
foster mother actually seemed in a good mood for a change,
"You're about the only decent kid I've seen come through
here, and I count my own two. So don't think I'm doing this
because I don't like you. But they're sending me a new kid. The
only way I can fit her in here is to put her in your room."

"But--"

"Shut-up and listen, Honey. Vic is going to be home soon,
and I don't want to go over this in front of him. I need to put
her in with you because she's young. If I put her with the other
girls, I don't think they will keep the boys away from her . . .
hell, I know they won't. But they don't bother you . . . not
after what you did to Louie."

"You know about that?" She had flattened Louis a few
days after he'd arrived, with a few moves that wouldn't have
impressed Haruka or Minako, but which seemed to have made a
lasting impression on Louis and the other would-be young toughs.
"He told you?"

"No, he'd never tell me he got his ass whupped by a
girl--I saw it. Almost bit off my tongue to keep from laughing.
'Course, your were lucky you didn't really hurt him."

"Yes."

"Well . . . Anyway, Honey, I trust you more than any of
the others. I even asked Vic to give you a key awhile back, but
he wouldn't hear of it . . . you got to understand, Honey, I have
to be hard on you in front of the others, I can't let them know
we'll ever let up on any of them."

"Thank you . . . when will this new girl be coming
here?"

"I'm not sure. Tomorrow or the next day--maybe even
tonight. I need you to clear out some space for her in your room
tonight, now. I'll give you a couple of milk crates. Put the
stuff you think you can get along without for awhile in them.
I'll lock them up for you."

"All right."

Sue wasn't happy about someone sharing her tiny room--and her
bed; there wasn't room for another one. But she didn't think too
much about it . . . she didn't really believe her foster mother
had been secretly liking her all along. Maybe she was putting on
the act to smooth over things with the new girl . . . but she had
seemed different. It would have been better if she would
have been her old mean self . . . that was something the girl who
used to call herself Usagi could understand.



Sue didn't think much about the new girl during school the
next day, or the next; she didn't come. Jimmy didn't come to
school on those days, either. On the third day, Jimmy was back,
but he didn't say much to her until they were riding home on the
bus.

"What was Dr. Goodman like at home?"

"It was motel room . . . You think we have sex?" Her
English still tended to fracture when she was excited.

"No . . . well . . ."

"No, I am not like that, and she was not. She was nice
lady. Her old aunt was up with baby when we got there, and it
took long time for baby to go to sleep after Dr. Goodman fed her.
We talked for long time."

"About what?"

"Many things . . . I said I miss parents. She said she
never know mother. I think mother die when she born. Father die
before she born--was born. He was murdered. She have
very sad life, and yet she is not sad person. She make me think
of . . ."

"Of who?"

"She makes me think about one of those cartoon
people." Sailor Pluto, actually, but she didn't tell Jimmy
that. It still seemed so real at times . . . why couldn't she
remember her real life? Or was it her real life she was
remembering, after all?

"Hey, remember me? I may not be that Tuxedo guy, but I'm
here."

She smiled and squeezed his hand. "You will always be
good friend, Jimmy."

"I'd like to be more."

"I know . . . I cannot promise I will ever be what you
want."

"You are exactly what I want."

She paused. "I think I understand. But I do not love you
like that."

"You could."

She took a long time to answer. "I could . . . but you
could wait very long time for nothing."

"I've got more time than money . . . Hey, this is your
stop!" He pulled the cord.



The new girl hadn't shown up yet. No one in the house seemed
to be worried about that, because Louis had gotten into a bad
fight--not at school; he'd cut and found his trouble in a mall
parking lot. There were police and Juvenile Authority people at
the house--and Dr. Watanabe. "Watanabe-sama,"
she said to him without thought when she came upon him.

"Still speaking Japanese?"

"Oh. Not much, but I have not forgotten how."

"Well, that's actually good news . . . the girl I'm
placing here seems to speak only a very few words of
English."

"Really?"

"Yes . . . she's younger than you by quite a few years,
but she seems to have the same problem you had, Sue . . . Do you
still call yourself Sue?"

"Yes. I don't remember any other names. Besides from the
cartoon."

"You're still wearing your hair the same way."

Sue shrugged. "I just do. I can make up my odango
in a minute. I must have been wearing them for many years. It is
part of me."

"Mmmmm . . . Anyway, I'm hoping that being with you for
awhile will help her."

"What is her name?"

"Well, for now, it is Usagi. Like you, I'm afraid we
don't have any idea of her real identity . . . you haven't had
any clues about your own past, have you?"

"No, I have not . . . perhaps it is too terrible to
remember." It would have to be, if some of the things she
thought she remembered were better!

"Perhaps, but it would be nice to know the truth,
wouldn't it?"

"Yes . . ." Sue almost revealed that this new girl
would be sharing her bed, but she suspected that was a violation
of regulations, which would anger her foster parents if she
revealed it--her foster mother was furious again, although
fortunately not with her this time. She suspected that he knew
already . . .

Dr. Watanabe turned away and went back to talking with the
police and the people from the Juvenile Authority.



Sue was cursed with the tendency to go to sleep almost
anywhere, but she was also blessed with the ability to fall
asleep almost whenever and wherever she wanted to. So she went to
bed and to sleep while the yelling was still going on downstairs
later that evening.

She woke up in the night needing to pee and stumbled off to
the bathroom, noticing that someone else was in the bed but not
caring enough to wait. Returning, she found the new girl had
rolled to the center of the bed and scrunched up all the covers
about her. Sue tugged until the girl released some of the covers
and moved away--not waking up. It seemed familiar--like herself,
she realized, on the few occasions when she had shared a bed with
her brother--

If she had a brother.

She got back into bed and under the portion of the covers the
new girl had relinquished. It was not half. Rather than wrestle
with the girl for more, she drew up close to her, so what covers
she had would do. The girl's hair was long like hers, and she saw
it was even done up in odongo--why did she still do that?
The smell of the hair was somehow comforting, although it tickled
her nose as she--

Sue sneezed. It was a bad sneeze.

The other girl sat up, and said, "You got me all
wet!"

In Japanese.

And then she sat up straighter, looking at Sue. After a long,
quiet moment, the new girl then leaned over and switched on the
light. Then she said, "Kaasan?"

The new girl could be none other than Chibi-Usa. That meant so
many things . . . things neither of them thought of as they
clutched each other in tears. But Usagi--who must now call
herself Sue--did retain enough presence of mind to switch off the
light and say, "Not loud, my precious spore; these people
are mean when you wake them up . . ."


Next: Precious Spore


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