What, did nobody get this the alst time I posted this? I got
0 responses. :( Anyway, here it is again, with a couple of changes
in grammar, so would you please stop answer a riddle 20 other people
already have already solved and send me a comment.
Yet Another Sailor Moon fanfic
Losses, part 3
Written by a silly girl by the name of Isabel Arantes
Copyright goes to whomever it belongs to
By the time Mamoru had told Rei what his dreams
foretold, they had reached the location of the Hikawa Shrine.
Rei, at this point, was extremely worried. She too loved Usagi,
though the type of love was different from that of Mamoru's.
Usagi had proven herself a wonderful friend to Rei various
times, and Rei didn't want her to die. But she couldn't believe
that in order for her not to die, her friend would have to suffer
heartache for the rest of it of her life. Life just wasn't fair.
"I can't even begin to describe what it's like to see Usako
die every night." Mamoru explained quietly.
"I'm sorry I judged you so harshly, Mamoru-san." Rei
apologized. "Had I known your reasons, I wouldn't have thought
that you were an inconsiderate jerk."
"That was the point, Rei. I didn't want anyone to know
what I was going through. I was hoping I could carry all the
pain by myself, and Usako could live a happy life... even if it
was without me."
"What made you change your mind?"
Mamoru chuckled, "I should've known better than to
think that'd she'd give up on me that easily. If there's one thing
she's rooted to, it's me." His expression grew somber again,
thinking about the problem at hand, "And I couldn't stand watching
Usako get so upset over me. Last night I realized that there was
no way we could separate permanently, or at least without more
proof to back up my fears."
"So you came to me." He nodded. "So, what are you going
to do once you get more information on all this?..." Mamoru
smacked his right fist into his left hand, a gesture that surprised
Rei. Violence just wasn't Mamoru's thing.
"When I find the creep that's been fooling around with my
emotions..." Growled Mamoru, the wrath in his eyes so great it
would have sent a small child screaming for his mother. "I'll-"
"But what if he's telling the truth?" Rei asked softly.
"...In that case..." Mamoru didn't finish. He just looked to the
side. Rei didn't need him to tell her what he would do; and she
wasn't too sure if she wanted him to anyway.
"You can go wait outside." Stated Rei, straightening
out the Shinto robes she had changed into. The purpose of
the robes had nothing to do with making the wearer more
beautiful, but it had that effect on Rei anyway. Her jet black
hair stood out against the white cloth, and her rosy face seemed
more alive, vibrant. She also seemed to be more alert, almost
as if by having changed her clothes she had transformed into a
superior being. She was no longer impatient Hino Rei, who
snapped at the slightest provocation and natural leader. In her place
was a woman by the same name, except that instead of telling
people what she wanted, she offered help.
"Why?" Demanded Mamoru.
"For one thing, you're liable to be too much of a distraction.
And another, I don't think you'd be able to stand it; I don't have
any idea how long this will take, and I can assure you it can go
on for quite a while. Don't worry, I'll tell you everything I find
out."
"Oh, no. I'm staying here Rei, and that's it." Knowing Rei,
Mamoru expected her to get mad and demand that he left that
instant; instead, rueful smile came across her face.
"You really do love her, don't you? Well, you can stay,
but I swear if you move an inch, you're outta here." He returned
her smile.
"Thanks, Rei."
'I should have listened to Rei,' Mamoru thought, which
was quite an accomplishment, considering that it was above 100
degrees in the room, 'She wasn't kidding that this was going to
take long. I'm not too sure I can take the heat for much longer...'
To tell the truth, he could have been there for less than 10
minutes, but it seemed like an eternity, thanks to the sweltering
heat. he considered disrupting Rei's meditation so that he could
get out and breathe, but then reminded who this was for. It was
this, or a lifetime for of pain. for him and Usagi.
Fortunantly, an image had started to appear on the
sacred fire. Mamoru held in his breath; he had been waiting
so long to discover the identity of his hidden benefactor so
that he could teach the jerk a lesson.
From there, the image developed quickly- although it
was too slowly from Mamoru's point of view. When it seemed
to have finished, Rei clapped her hands and opened her eyes,
and details sprang forth from the picture.
It was clearly a man, as Mamoru had suspected. He
appeared to be middle-aged- late twenties, early thirties-, though
the confidence and knowledge reflected in his eyes said otherwise.
He had dark hair, a few long bags falling just above his eyes.
A long and thin masked covered the length of his eyes, though
his eyes were visible behind the white mask. His attire was a tad
odd; from what the fire showed, he wore a white tuxedo with a
white cape attached to it. A fancy clasp hung from his black
necktie, in the shape of a 10-pointed star.
Mamoru was clutching his fists so hard that they were
turning white. "So that's him..." Rei inspected the figure before
her, and made an interesting discovery.
"You know, he looks allot like y-"
"Papa!" A sudden voice cried. Mamoru and Rei swirled
their heads to see a distraught Chibi-usa. "Papa!" She exclaimed
again, and ran as close to the fire as she could get without getting
burnt. "Why is papa in Rei's fire? Huh?" She noticed then that they
were both beyond surprised; Rei was staring at her, her mouth
agape. Mamoru's eyes had lost the sparkle of life, that had made
him Mamoru, to be replaced by a dull color. "Is there something
wrong? She asked fearfully.
Rei was the first to recover her voice, "Chibi-usa... that's
your father?"
"Yeah, but what's his picture doing there?"
Rei bit her lip, going through the same train of thought
Mamoru was:
(1) Chibi-usa is from the future.
(2) The man from his dreams is Chibi-usa's father.
(3) Chibi-usa's father came from the future.
(4) Her father knew the future.
(5) It was all true. Usagi and Mamoru were...
"Mamo-chan?" The munchkin pushed herself into his
arms, "Are you ok?"
The odangos on the head. A cheerfulness that was
always there, no matter how dark things got. Impatient. Whiny.
Bubbly. Chibi-usa was an almost exact replica of Usagi. Now
with the knowledge that it would never be safe for her to be
with him, the last thing he needed was a reminder of the girl
he loved so much, yet futiley.
"Excuse me." He whispered, and walked out the shrine.
"Mamo-chan! Rei-chan, will you please what's going
on? Rei-chan?"
"Not now, Chibi-usa. Not now." Chibi-usa shut up like
Rei had asked her, but couldn't stop being worried, even as
Rei tried to comfort the child by hugging her.
A fish jumped out of the water, its silver skin glinting in
golden light for a millisecond, before it fell back into the water,
sending ripples to the rest of the lake after splashing down. A
happy little fish, living in its own world.
Mamoru, too, was in his own world- except that instead
of the fish's colorful and cheerful one, his was falling apart before
his very eyes. He sat on a bench in the park, staring at nothing,
trying to figure out a way to deal with the pain.
A mother and a daughter passed by, the child pointing
curiously at the man who seemed so sad. She wanted to know
how anyone could be so lonely on such a beautiful day. The
mother scolded her rude behavior and walked quickly, dragging
the girl by her hand. it happened right on front of him, but
Mamoru didn't even notice.
He hurt. But at the same time, he was numb. The
numbness was welcome, as he didn't want to know how it could
be anymore painful than it already was. "Usako..." The thing he
wanted most. The one thing he couldn't have. "Its not fair,
danmit... It's just not fair!"
But before he had a chance to agonize over the
unluckiness he possessed, he got a tremendous headache. Which
meant only one thing; Usagi was in danger. Pulling a rose
out of his pocket, Mamoru rushed to transform; even if he
couldn't be with her, he'd always protect her.
"At least let me finish!" Pleaded Sailor Moon, as she
dodged the blast of ki the droid had directed at her. She had
been walking down the streets of Tokyo dejectedly, when by
chance she encountered this droid. Without any fuss she
transformed into Sailor Moon and started right into her speech
about love and justice. But the monster was little interested in
whatever Sailor Moon wanted to say; she proved that by attacking
Sailor Moon mid-sentence. Needless to say, Sailor Moon disliked
this.
Sailor Moon threw her tiara at this beast, hoping to
wound it so that she could buy herself enough time to use her
cutie moon rod on her. She hadn't been aware of the fact,
though, that this was not the average monster she met on the
street. This one was designed especially to get rid of annoying
little pesks like Sailor Moon. And there wasn't a single more
annoying fly than Sailor Moon.
Cutting the tiara's path in half by throwing another ball
of ki at it, she lunged for Sailor Moon. Moon rolled out of the
way, but it still managed to grab her by one of pigtails. "Hey!
Leggo of me!" Ordered Sailor Moon, struggling to get the droid's
slimy hands off of her hair. The last time a monster had gotten
hold of her hair, it had taken hours to wash off all of the slime
it left on it from a mere touch.
Yanking on Sailor Moon's hair, she was forced to fall
ungracefully. The heroine for love and justice looked up fearfully,
seeing a monster looming over her, preparing a nice way for
Sailor Moon to go to her afterlife. Well, maybe not so nice. But
you get the idea.
"Bye -bye." The monster said happily. And why shouldn't
she be? She had done her job right, and now she was sure to get
a big promotion for having gotten rid of her master's worst
enemie.
A sudden flash of red put all of her plans on hold, however.
The red streak ended up at the monster's ankle, and it realized
it now had a rose embedded in it.
"Tuxedo Kamen-sama..." Mumbled Sailor Moon to
herself, trying to stop her heart from going wild.
"Using your ev-" The monster proved itself to be very
impatient again by leaping to him clumsily, having lost its
coordination from the force of the rose's strike. With a good deal
more grace, Tuxedo Kamen stepped out of the monsters way.
Tuxedo Kamen encouraged Sailor Moon to use her
'moon princess halation' before the monster had a chance to get
back up. She followed his advice and quickly obliterated the
droid. It didn't even have a chance to cry out before disintegrated
into a pile of grey dust.
"Mamo-chan." Tuxedo Kamen stopped. Before, when
Sailor Moon had called out his name, it had been more of a
painful statement, almost as if saying those words her pain would
disappear, as he would return to her. Those other times, he had
always ignored that word when it came from Sailor Moon's lips,
and went right on walking.
But this time it was different. There seemed to be a
reason behind it, something she had to tell him of great importance-
something other than 'I love you'. He turned to her, "What is it?"
She hesitated. It took a couple of seconds to gather her
courage, but when she spoke it was strong, filled with determination.
"Mamo-chan, I'm not going to take this anymore. Either you come
back to me as Mamoru and Tuxedo Kamen, or we separate
completely. No more saving me as Sailor Moon and being cold to me
as Mamo-chan."
He stared at her. She was asking for the impossible. His mind
whirred, as he thought of possible answers, and what to do. He
looked at SM in hopes that she'd let down her demands, and
allow him to continue fighting with her. Because protecting her
was his whole purpose in life, and if he had to make a choice by
Usagi's standards, he'd only be doing half his job.
Sailor Moon stood tall, and though her eyes held
sorrow, they were adamant. Tuxedo Kamen's heart sank, it
was one thing or the other. Sailor Moon wasn't going to let
him have it both way again. The time had come for his greatest
decision ever, in either of his lifetimes.
He walked to her, until he stood only a few inches away
from her. "So does this mean good-bye?..." Sailor Moon's hair
waved with the wind her hands clasped tightly to her chest.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she nodded. "Then at least let me say
good-bye."
Lifting her chin up with his index finger, he allowed to
imerge in her blue eyes before he dived his head down his kiss
her. Sailor Moon was a bit surprised by the intimacy of his
departure, but allowed herself to be swept off into the kiss. Their
lips pressed softly against each other, wanting only to have a
reminder of their undying love.
When they separated their heads reluctantly, Tuxedo
Kamen clasped his arms around Sailor Moon. Pressing her head
against him, she whispered, "I'm sorry, but it's bad enough I
have to live with the memories." She burrowed her head deeper
into his chest, holding him tightly as if by doing so would make
everything all right. "I can't deal with the present, too."
The two lovers stood there for quite a while, just hugging
each other until Sailor Moon came out of her remorseful bliss. She
wanted to stay in her Prince's arms forever, and she could tell
Tuxedo Kamen wanted to too from his tight embrace. But if
she stayed there any longer, she would not be able to part with
him.
Lightly pushing him away, they again stood just looking
at each other. "Good-bye, Sailor Moon... ie, Usako."
"I love you." Was all she said in response.
With one last longfull glance, Tuxedo Kamen off into the
horizon, his crimson cape fluttering behind him elegantly. Such
a sight would have inspired love in many girl's hearts, as they
watched him become one with the obscurity of the distance.
But Sailor Moon had already turned her back to him and
had started for home, dragging her heart along with her.
The End
Author's Notes:
1) Don't ask me why I gave it this ending. I'm just like that, lately.
but don't get me wrong, Mamoru and Usagi are among my fav.
couples in anime. I guess I'm just very angry and took it out on
them. :)
2) I don't have the foggiest what King Endymion looks like in the
anime, so instead I modeld his appearance after the one in the
manga. If he does look like that in the anime, great.
3) Sorry the story ain't so hot. I too find my lack of vocabulary
frustrating as I can't write as well as I woud like. But even if my
writting isn't as good as others, I love to write and I'll stick to
it 'till I get it right. :)
4) I'm not going to write how the ending of SMR is changed
because of this. This fanfic is meant to be about Mamoru and
Usagi, not about the Black Moon.
5) Special thanks goes to myself! Hey, I wrote the damn thing! ^_^
Also, thanks to Naoko Takeuchi, who thanks to her SM manga
I've been able to learrn a good deal of katakana, and showed me
the beauty of romances.
As always, C&C is very welcome.
Isabel Arantes
terrin@netcom.com