*Revised*
Please read Hydrophobic's Read Me on ASMR first.
======================================================
Author's Ranting:  I was going through my list of 
favorite fanfics deciding on whether I wanted to read 
something I already liked or find something new, when 
a thought leaped out and smacked me in the head.  
Ricocheting off of my head, it landed on my computer 
desk looking curiously like a pencil sharpener.  And 
then it spoke.

Author's Thought:  There are not enough stories about 
the little people!

Author's Ranting:  And that little thought that looked 
curiously like a pencil sharpener was right.  And so I 
set out to tell the story of a morning in the life of 
a Tokyo pedestrian.

And no, the author is _not_ crazy... At least she 
doesn't think so.

Disclaimer:  I did not create Sailor Moon and it's 
characters.  Now, the unfortunate pedestrian featured 
in the story... I _did_ create him.  He's MINE!!

A Morning In the Life of a Tokyo Pedestrian (G)

by Christina Anton (daylin@sailorsenshi.i-p.com)
aka Hydrophobic

http://angelfire.com/anime2/dayanjell/antons/home.html
======================================================

pedestrian (peh-dess-tree-an) n. :  A walker; one traveling 
on foot.--pedestrian adj. :  Mediocre; plodding.

From "The Grosset Webster Dictionary"

     
     The man is, by all standards, a normal citizen of 
Tokyo, Japan.  He has a perfectly normal wife and two 
perfectly normal children, both of which are boys of the 
ages of twelve and fourteen.  And, each is a normal citizen 
of Tokyo, Japan.
     The man loves his, by all Tokyo standards, normal wife 
and children.  He has a job working at a law firm in Juuban, 
which is where he lives.  He only has a twenty minute walk 
between his home and his job, but normally takes one of the 
many buses that travel around the very large and bustling 
city of Tokyo.
     But, today, he has awoken in a good mood with plenty of 
time to take a nice morning walk along the sidewalks of the 
tenth district.
     And, the second he sets foot on the sidewalk, he 
becomes a pedestrian.
     Pedestrians are a very common thing in any city.  There 
are three general types of pedestrians:  the morning 
pedestrians, the afternoon pedestrians, and the evening 
pedestrians.  The man that we are following is quite 
obviously a morning pedestrian.
     Morning pedestrians consist of the early morning 
joggers, students walking (and sometimes screaming) their 
way to their respective schools, and, of course, people 
going to work.
     But there is nothing quite like a _Tokyo_ morning 
pedestrian, or even just a Tokyo pedestrian in general.  You 
see, Tokyo is a strange city.  It has been plagued by all 
sorts of monsters and strange events for a good length of 
time.  And, every citizen living in Tokyo knows this, even 
if they can't say exactly what has happened.
     But, no pedestrian in Tokyo knows this quite as well as 
a Juuban pedestrian.
     Juuban is the area that would be known as ground zero 
if it were a publicly known and acknowledged warzone.  But, 
it is not acknowledged as a warzone because most in the area 
choose to ignore it for the sake of their own sanity.  Our 
male, morning pedestrian is one of these people.
     At the moment, our pedestrian is five minutes into his 
walk to his job.  Even now, he is unconsciously dodging all 
of the dangers of being in a city: waiting that extra second 
to look for speeding cars before crossing the street, 
instinctively taking a step to his left as a blonde-haired 
girl sprints past him wailing, "I'M LAAAATE!!!" and even 
stepping over a crack-riddled hole in the sidewalk that 
others in the area could tell him hadn't been there the day 
before.  It is just one of those strange things that happen 
in Tokyo.
     If a professional psychologist were to do a study on 
the mannerisms of citizens in different cities around the 
world, they would find that the citizens of Tokyo have the 
best sense of danger of all of them.  But who wouldn't when 
they constantly have to avoid areas where girls in sailor 
fuku battle monsters in the streets?
     But, it seems that today, our pedestrian's danger sense 
has failed him. Instead of taking the bus, which would have 
kept him relatively safe, he has chosen to walk the streets 
that are prone to attack.  Right now, other pedestrians 
doing their business on the sidewalks are unconsciously 
listening to their Juuban-enhanced danger sense and are 
finding other things to do in any other area but there.
     Unfortunately, some of them cannot get away fast 
enough, including the pedestrian we are currently observing.
     A squeal of tires pierces the air, and car horns blast 
as a car with a black star painted on the side skids to a 
stop in the middle of the street.  Our pedestrian with two 
kids and a loving wife has stopped along with a few other 
pedestrians to rubberneck and wonder 'what the hell is going 
on?'  It is just for a moment, and that is all that is 
needed for all hell to break loose.
     A red-haired woman steps from the car, wielding an odd 
looking gun, and points it at one of the previously jogging 
pedestrians.  One second she is gawking like the rest, and 
the next, she is lying in the street just two meters from 
our pedestrian.  An odd looking crystal is floating just 
above the ground near her, but no one is looking at that 
anymore.
     Because, at the moment, a chain-link fence has just 
turned into a monster that, to our Tokyo pedestrian, looks 
like a demon from the lowest bowels of hell.  Our pedestrian 
is a smart pedestrian, so he looks for a place to duck and 
cover lest he become snared in a chain-link net like some of 
his other pedestrian brethren.
     Unfortunately, he trips over the body of the 
unconscious jogging pedestrian.  The fence-turned-demon 
turns towards him as his briefcase clatters to the ground.  
He hears a high-pitched, sharp voice call, "Chaina!  Get the 
heart crystal!" and his rapidly beating heart speeds up 
another notch.  Only about 1.4 percent of the residents of 
Tokyo have ever personally gotten involved in a monster 
attack, and our perfectly normal Tokyo pedestrian is now one 
of them.
     And, he's currently cursing his bad judgment in deciding 
to walk instead of take the bus.
     Before he or the monster can do anything, he hears 
another voice call out:  "Hey, you!  How dare you disturb 
this wonderful morning!  I, bishoujo senshi Sailor Moon, 
will punish you for making students even later for school!"
     Our pedestrian cannot help but feel grateful that the 
sailor suited soldier for justice has provided a distraction 
so he can haul his butt out of the soon to be battle zone.  
Hiding in an arcade that he does not know the name of, our 
pedestrian watches the battle from the large window in the 
front of the arcade.  He feels much better being out of the 
sight of the psycho with a car and the demon thing.
     The only movement outside is that of girls in sailor 
fuku that have just joined the fray, and a fence-demon from 
hell.  All of the cars in the road have been abandoned or 
have had their drivers netted by the monster.  All of the 
pedestrians that have not been caught have long since run 
for cover.
     It only takes roughly four minutes for the Sailor 
Senshi to defeat the demon.  They talk for a moment with two 
other girls in fuku much like theirs, and then jump onto a 
roof ten meters above their heads, bounding off out of 
sight.  Our pedestrian is thanking Furuhata Motoki for the 
shelter of his arcade.  He goes outside to get his fallen 
briefcase, and then goes on his way, just like everyone else 
has after the violent display.
     _This_ is normal for the residents of Tokyo, whether 
they be a driver, an arcade manager, or a pedestrian.  By 
all standards, our pedestrian with a wife and two kids is a 
normal citizen of Tokyo, Japan.
     And, this morning, he was a normal pedestrian in the 
Juuban district of Tokyo.
     And, even though our dear pedestrian has just seen 
something that will stay with him forever, he is still a 
normal citizen of Tokyo, Japan.
     "Are you having a nice morning, Noomaru-san?" the 
secretary at the front desk asks him as he makes his way to 
his office.
     He stops for a moment, thinking about what has 
happened.  Noomaru Hokousha nods to himself and replies, 
"I've had a normal morning so far, thank you."  He smiles 
and goes to his office.

End

Did that thought that looked like a pencil sharpener have a 
good idea?  I hope you readers got the point of this story,
because I don't think I can explain it any better than with 
the story itself.  Did that make sense?  Bah, blame the 
pencil sharpener.

If you have any questions about the story, or just want to 
praise me on a job well done, then email me.

7/18/01
Revised: 7/18/02 (woah, who knew?)