Chapter 14-Souryoku a.k.a. Total Energy

Twisting and turning in the cool night, the world to Aino Minako felt over a hundred degrees as beads of sweat slipped down her pale face. The sheets were twisted, her dreams disturbed. An evil maniac was invading her sleep, and the Keeper of the Dreamscape was unable to interfere in anything except dire circumstances–unless the senshi of Pluto commanded it, which she didn't. Besides, he had express instructions in how to handle the affairs between the Planetary Knights, the senshi, and the Shittenou–which was to do nothing.

In her thoughts, deep nightmares and calls of the past, she whispered, "Please, just leave me alone. I didn't ask for this life."

"You don't have a choice," a male voice answered.

She turned to see General Ace. In dreams, one remembers everything, no matter how long ago it occurred–even a thousand years' span meant nothing. "What are you doing here? Stop entering my sleep. You've made the nightmares come. Please, make them go away," she begged, voice cracking, "It wasn't my fault they died."

"But it was, just like how I died in the Silver Millennium, always faithful to you. They died because of your actions. Because you loved General Kunzite, and I will never leave you alone until you promise me what I want. And you know what I want, my darling. My heart." He smiled sinisterly.

Mina cried, tears slipping down her cheeks even when she was not in reality. From graves beyond death, the deceased howled accusations at her. "I loved him, and he was my soulmate. I still love him, it isn't a crime. I didn't cause all these people to die."

Dark blue eyes glittering malevolently, Ace asked, "Do you need a reprise? I remember everything, Mina–_everything_. You do as well, at least in this subconscious. I'll repeat it. I died for you. I took a thousand charging soldiers for you and died. I died for you. You shed more tears for that traitorous bastard than for me, do you hear me?! I lived, I breathed, I died for you. I never betrayed you. And you still chose him."

"No! I–I don't want to hear anymore!! Please, Ace, I'm sorry. I know you loved me."

"But you couldn't love me back."

Always truthful, especially in matters of the heart, the golden-haired girl nodded. "I didn't, I couldn't. You weren't the other half of my soul."

"But you were the other half of mine."

"I can't have a soul already split into Venus, to you, to Kunzite!! Where do I get myself? I'm Aino Minako now, not Princess Venus of the past. Ace, please, don't invade my dreams! I don't want to be haunted by the dreams of the dead!" The blond general watched her for a minute, heart cracking, because she cried. It was true that her soul was now split into so many pieces. About to try and compromise for what he wanted, his only goal, his love, his anger was fueled when another misty figure like them appeared. The dream Minako turned pale, shaking violently. "Kunzite! You're missing, where are you? I've been so worried."

A sad expression appeared on his face as he held out his arms, clad in full general uniform. "Sunshine, I'm sorry. I fell into a trap, and I'm afraid you won't be seeing my anytime soon." Ace sneered, feeling his own heart shatter as he watched her sobbing in his arms, although it had been he himself who had caused her pain. "How lovely, the general has come to save his senshi. Too bad you couldn't save yourself in this life."

In a commanding tone, Kunzite snapped his fingers, and a black door appeared, "Go now, and don't ever disturb her again. Or I swear I will hunt you down until I spill blood."

Before he left, the blonde hissed, "You know what I say is true. Next time she sees you, Venus will kill you for betraying her. Twice, filthy traitor. I deserved the love she keeps for a bastard like you."

"The only one of those around is you," he said softly, knowing what Ace had proclaimed was true as he disappeared through the door, which also vanished once he had gone. "Mina, I'm not going to see you again, not even here. The side of evil claims my physical body again, as it has in both lives. But he won't come back," he promised, arms tightening.

Mina sniffed and looked up at him, suddenly dressed as the Princess of Venus, corresponding with his uniform, just as Princess Serenity's clothing did with Prince Endymion's. "How did you come? How did you know?"

"It's not a secret, darling," he chuckled softly, smiling for the first time and last in a long time. "We're soulmates."
~ * ~ * ~
Usagi spent the day pestering Minako about the dark circles under her eyes. She had shrugged and muttered something about having a bad sleep and being plagued by dreams, which was indeed true–she just didn't remember what her nightmares were about or what had happened. Usagi had gone home while they practiced. It was beginning to get so hard to tell her that Minako had to go to Rei's temple with the other three, just the four of them. The quintet were the best of friends, and it hurt to close one off. Once transformed, the blue senshi announced embarrassedly, "I quit the harp lessons."

Shocked, her guardian asked, "I thought you said you were doing well? Better? Almost ready to try the power yourself?"

"I lied," she replied quietly.

"Princess Ami, why, how?! How could you tell falsehoods about something as important as this??"

Tears gathering in the edges of her blue eyes, Mercury sighed at the disappointment in Koori's tone, as well as the surprise in her friends's and the other guardians's eyes. "I didn't want to. It just doesn't feel right, and I just can't do it!" Feeling as though she was taking the coward's way out, she detransformed dismally and fled.

Sighing, Luna said, "Never mind, Koori, I'll go after her. Artemis, conduct the hand-to-hand fighting again, you were always much better at me than this."

"And we thought she'd never compliment you on anything," commented Phobos and Deimos, once again speaking as one.

Artemis glared balefully at the three assembled senshi and retorted, "That's only because she wants to get out of teaching them. Why do these always end in messes?!"

"Search me," chirped Aoao. "Okay girls. We're in yet another combat situation, but now we're missing one...so...we'll have to do things a bit differently." As the remaining guardians grinned slightly evilly at each other, their charges gulped and backed away ever-so-slowly. "So, we're doing every man, er, senshi for himself–herself. The object is not to...not to..."

When her thought had run out, the Artemis filled in, "Not to have any broken bones or dead senshi." Everyone shot him a dark look, and he shrugged and protested, "Hey, what did I say? It's the truth! Anyway, there are an uneven number of you, you can vote whether or not to use powers, hand-to-hand whatever, or both." Turning to each other, they considered for a moment. Neither Mars nor Venus were particularly eager to go against Jupiter's strength; she hadn't exactly managed to control her attacks very well and didn't want to face them with powers. Venus had both agility and semi-good power management from her time as Sailor V, but ever since she had started training as a senshi, the attacks she worked on didn't exactly turn out well. . Mars was all right in both fields, having recently perfected all of her attacks except Flame Sniper. Sweatdropping, she remembered how no one except the reconciled Phobos and Deimos would try archery practice with her... "Have we come to a decision?"

"Both."

"Doesn't matter either way..so...both."

"To make it unanimous, I'll have to say both."

"Now remember...the _main_ objective is so you can fight on your own and learn the scope of each other's powers better."
~ * ~ * ~
Chiba Mamoru stretched and smiled darkly, ever so slightly. A quiet movement in the shadows, accompanied by three glints of a dulled silver alerted him of a now-awakened presence. "Ohayo, Kouseinou-kun. Or should I call you Kunzite?"

Bowing, he returned, "Mamoru. What am I doing in general form? And my uniform, it seems to have changed...."

The ebony-haired man explained, "Just some minor searching it took to get one of my most loyal generals back. The uniform is now black."

"It was white, ne?"

Looking surprised, the addressed nodded slowly. "I'm surprised you remember."

"Can I see them?"

Mamoru blinked. "Them?"

Running an uneasy and slightly-shaking hand through the customary, shoulder length tresses that seemed a bit duskier than usual, Kunzite muttered, "The other three gens, Zoicite, Nephrite, even the irrepressible Jadeite. Permission to detransform, my liege?"

Stifling a large sigh and knowing that it was going to be a LONG day, Mamoru nodded. Feeling as though not a lot would be accomplished today except his exhaling in defeat quite constantly, the black-haired, reborn Prince of Earth in the Silver Millennium took some time to adjust to the fact that now he had his four generals: one was caught in the past and completely antisocial, his brother was sometimes an extreme womanizer and joker, his best friend did nothing but look at and talk to great balls of gas the whole day, and the latest gen was a stiff stone that did nothing but follow orders and never reveal his thoughts. He then pondered what Kasen had muttered recently: that if he hadn't brainwashed and coerced all of them into his service, they would at least have retained a "spark of life." He smirked at that. Kasen did live for night life, but he had thought his personality remained. "We'll go now. You have a floor and office to decorate and people to hire. Before try to do everything on your own this very minute, you will be in charge of training the gens once more; I'm afraid they're very much out of practice. Your focus is power–anything to do with it, most likely storage for reviving the Golden Kingdom. You'll probably work closely with Kyosei, but almost not at all with Kasen. He has auras, of course. You'll do the most with Yosouya, poor man. He has the greatest amount of work to do for the others, besides his own projects."

"I don't envy him in the least," murmured the silver-haired one dryly.

"It's good to have you back, Kunzite. We're all together again."
~ * ~ * ~
One Venusian senshi, in civilian form, was not happy at all. Limping home with a disgruntled Artemis (who had been sentenced to pavement instead of her shoulder), walked along trying to talk to him without moving her lips too much. They were already attracting enough attention from bystanders. Reaching the door, she peered in for a minute and sighed in relief when neither Ikuko or Kenji were found to be anywhere in sight. Deciding a good, hot shower was just what she needed, she jumped in surprise and winced when Usagi declared, "Aino Minako, I want to know what's going on."

Facing her, she thought that she didn't like the stubborn expression on the other blonde's face at all. 'Uh oh...now, why does that tone sound so familiar and commanding?' "Nani?"

"You know what I mean–the 'secret' meetings at Rei-chan's that include everyone but me. When you come home hobbling and say you sprained you ankle in gym–Mina, I _have_ gym with you, and you've never sprained your ankle in class. And then the oh-so-mysterious bruises. What are you guys doing?!" she nearly shrieked, she was so upset.

'I hate this job,' she sighed to herself. Minako wasn't exactly sure if she should tell her or not, but her beloved guardian spoke up at the moment.

"Usagi, my name is Artemis. I'm Lunar cat, previous advisor to the last royal family that ruled the Solar System from the Moon over a thousand and sixteen years ago. You know," he commented, "I'm astonished that you haven't fainted yet. So we'll go on. Mina is the senshi of Venus, a planetary defender. She was also the Princess of Venus in the past life."

Weakly, she dropped into a chair and stated the obvious. "I think I have to sit down." Usagi then impressed the other two, with her friend glaring intently at her cat, by drawing the conclusion, "I'm guessing that the same goes for Rei, Mako, and Ami?"

"Yes... Rei is Mars, Makoto is Jupiter, and Ami is Mercury." Crystal blue eyes filled with sadness as she said, "I knew we wouldn't be able to hide this from you for long, and none of us liked it. It wasn't that we thought you were a ditz or stupid–we just didn't want to face the day it would happen. Um...Usagi-chan?"

Looking weary and tired, Usagi asked heavily, "What do you want me to say? That I appreciate the fact you all know I'm not as stupid as I pretend to be? The world doesn't know the senshi exist; this could be just a joke. And from my instincts, I don't think it is. How long have you kept this secret from me?"

She gulped. "Did you ever read the newspaper? Probably not, since it would only be in an international one. A few years ago, before I came to live with you, I was Sailor V. A schoolgirl with an extremely short skirt, who stopped burglaries and criminals. We've all been senshi since the age of eleven, although Sailor V doesn't really constitute. Like I said, that position was for crime-fighting in London, simple training that Art put me through. The others didn't have to go through that. The sailor senshi are meant to fight evil, threats to the universe, and other things that have to do with the supernatural," Minako explained. She was slightly wary of her friend's reaction but much more relieved than she thought she would be.

"You didn't tell me, because it was important to keep it a secret, ne?" When she nodded, Usagi sighed wondered exactly what was wrong with life lately. "Well....it's not like I can blame you or anything..." Cheering up, she grinned sunnily, and it was as if the sun suddenly orbited the Moon–but then again, everything seemed to rotate around the exuberant girl. "I'll just yell at Luna! Yeah! Hey Mina-chan, I'm really proud of you...wanna go get a chocolate milkshake?"

"Have I ever turned down chocolate?"

"Come to think of it, no, but then again, neither have I. Let's go find Rei and the others!"

Shaking her head and deciding not to comment on the strangest mood swing shehad ever experienced, the golden-haired senshi in disguise skipped out and pondered whether or not training would burn off the calories she would be getting....
~ * ~ * ~
Angrily, Seishou Kouseinou pounded the table with extreme force until he was afraid it might break in two. Snapping over the connection he had just barely created, he yelled, ‘Yosouya, what the heck is wrong with these darn crystals?'

Wincing, around four floors below, Kouseki Yosouya hastily set down the test tube rack containing four differently-hued test tubes: one of green, another silver, yet another navy blue, and the last an azure blue. 'Kami-sama, what now? I almost dropped four vials, and if the magic had seeped through the floor–'

'You can talk about the magic infecting whatever later; can you get up here? Those crystals you gave me won't take the power I'm giving them!!'

Sighing and motioning for his workers to keep on working without him, Yosouya once again reprimanded himself for not having a second in command. After Mamoru had suggested it, he _had_ thought about it, but no matter how qualified his assistants came, they just didn't fit his description. It had to be someone who could work with his meticulous ways and odd habits. The laboratory workers had quickly gotten used to his motions and quiet murmurs whenever talk was needed, but someone who worked that closely with him for such a long time would have to be able to handle things a bit differently. 'What did they do?'

'Explode,' he mumbled, embarrassed. He was supposed to be good at power management, so why couldn't he handle a couple of crystals?

Whenever he got into the elevator nowadays, the blond general felt slight trepidation, remembering how Kasen had plummeted after a strange mistake, and also how much energy had been pulled out of him. That had hurt quit a bit, and it had taken him a long time to get his reserves back to normal. 'So what happened, exactly?'

‘They exploded, for kami-sama's sake, just blew up in my face!!'

'I can imagine the expression on your face. I was fortunate enough to see Kasen's face when it happened to him, once.' When the large, recently furnished oak wood door swung open, the serious blond-haired student asked, "By the way, don't we have a meeting in a few minutes? Time flies when you're having fun..."

A flabbergasted voice in the doorway exclaimed, "You have _fun_ in that overly-sanitized lab of yours working away with goggles and a perpetual headache?"

"Nice of you to join us," greeted Kouseinou dryly, moving to cover his work table. He still hadn't gotten to hiring any workers, which the prince was urging him to do, but everyone knew that the commander of the gens preferred to work alone. "We all can't work in that scummy environment you're somehow able to call a workplace. Souya, can you hurry up? We'll be late otherwise, and Mamoru said something about four mysterious guys."

The other blonde, whom the other two had been attempting to ignore, managed to peer around the evasive, large form of his friend and grinned. "Kouseinou, you exploded some crystals? Again?!" He snickered. "That's like, the twelfth time this week."

The silver-haired man glowered.

"Kasen, I hate to break your bubble, I really do, but that's not possible. He's only worked with them for two days, but he's managed to destroy my poor creations around four times."

Another teasing colleague joined them, slightly wiser than the hapless Kasen, who was currently backing away from the silver-haired gen. "Minna, are you aware that we're going to be late? Besides, we wouldn't want a fifth time to happen today, then Yosouya wouldn't get my work done, and I want it done. You've used up almost a twentieth of his extremely large reserves."

"Correction, you _are_ late." The four generals turned towards the doorway to see who had joined them and gulped at the sight of slightly irritated black hair and eyes, the clearly definable features of none other than Chiba Mamoru. "Let's take another ride in the elevator, everyone, I want to show you some slides and explain something. Or rather, Kouseinou will; he's taken the lovely results of something I asked Yosouya to research a while back and combined them into a more...understandable version, shall we say. And Kasen? Watch what you press, because I have no intention of crashing to the basement. There are no more Golden Crystals to find." He grimaced while the other three smirked. "Okay, here we go. The slide-show projector's all yours, Kouseinou, take it away," directed Mamoru.

Taking a deep breath, he got up and started his speech. "We have found large amounts of magical energy previously similar to ours–in the Silver Millennium, that is–and the only reason they don't resemble ours in this life is because our auras have a tinge of gray-black, or so Kasen claims. I don't see any difference. They are, as follows: Torit Sukareru, Shinozaki, Kumada Yuuichirou, and Urawa Ryo. Look familiar? The first is known as General Ace of the past, also a Planetary Knight. They are _all_ Planetary Knights, the protectors of the senshi–all of whom have yet to be found or even identified. Venus, Jupiter, Mars, and Mercury. So now we have it, and there are issues facing us: to become friends for tactical and strategical advantages, to make immediate enemies, to somehow eliminate them, or to take no drastic measures at all."
~ * ~ * ~
Minako wandered into her room, dropping her school bag onto a spare chair before she sat down on the bed. Drawing her knees up to her chest, she cursed the fact that life had to be so confusing and annoying at such a young age. Hopefully, she thought to herself, she would live to around the ripe old age of seventy or eighty. It was actually quite probable, since no disputes with evil were looking to be found in the near future, and they had all lived for more than a thousand years. Still, the blonde wasn't quite sure whether or not to be proud of the fact, scared of it, or just completely mystified. She, however, left the calculations to Ami, as did everyone in their merry little band.

Usagi had been better friends with her and Rei than the others, but Makoto was Rei's best friend. For some reason, their natures mixed, or maybe it was a zeal for fighting and a passion for life. Of course, they had also known each other the longest. Usagi was a great person to help cheer you up, but Minako felt that she still didn't really know the girl, as if some part of Usagi was hidden to them. She and Ami had gotten along even better; both actually similar in quite a few ways. None of which the others could see, but private interests were discussed confidentially.

Baffling issues confronted her daily, especially Sukareru's uncomfortable pursuit of her. Makoto and Rei, were both romantics (although the former tended to show it more than the latter and claimed that almost every male in Juuban looked like her ex-boyfriend) and thought it was "sweet." The quiet, almost painfully silent blue-haired girl had surprised everyone by denouncing all guys openly at one of their meetings, saying that Ryo and Sukareru must have been friends because of their similar and sick hobbies. They all had taken a very strange view of the case when she had described a very strange night home after her last harp lesson, but Ryo was now staying far, far away after her blow up, which she felt a bit ashamed over.

Everywhere, anywhere, Minako was running into the blonde "greek god," as all the females considered him, earning her many jealous looks she didn't want at all. For one thing, his personality and possessiveness freaked her out.
~ * ~ * ~
A newly-transformed General Kunzite wondered why he had ever agreed to the position of High General and Commander of Earth in the Silver Millennium; his past incarnation had definitely been insane, he had decided. Glancing about the wide, spacious room, he thought it would have been perfect for training. However, Kasen's first comment when he'd entered had been, "It looks like a jail in here." Sweatdropping, he re-analyzed the gray brick walls, bars that did resemble the bars over windows in prisons...but just a bit... He hadn't exactly expected them to come and criticize whoever had decorated it. Still, it looked vaguely familiar, as if he himself had drawn plans for it a while ago. Shaking himself, he saw the other three grumpily in the middle of transforming.

Yosouya hated to be called away from his work; it was true he was a workaholic, but he did have more on his plate than the others–or so it seemed. Kyosei had been interrupted in yet another stargazing and had given his commander an earful, which he intended to pay back now. Kasen hadn't really cared, he had appeared cheerful, but started to sweat once the day's objectives were spoken. Mamoru had decided not to attend, giving an excuse about "pressing and urgent business matters," but everyone knew better. It wasn't, however, either Kunzite or Kouseinou's nature to disrespect or argue with a prince or leader unless in dire circumstances. Those rare incidents, however, were quite notable and tended to be spectacular to watch–as long as one wasn't part of the whole fiasco. He had set Zoicite and Nephrite to practice sparring, and he had chosen to work especially with Jadeite to make up for "lost time."

The brown-haired gen leaned over to his partner and whispered, "Hey, Zoi, how long do you think Jade's going to last?"

When Kunzite shot them an evil look, they returned to exchanging blows and blocks while the green-eyed blonde tried to keep curly bangs out of his eyes. 'Idiot, did you forget telepathy? Bet you...twenty.'

'Seconds? Fine, I bet ten minutes. What's your wager?'

Trying to concentrate on not getting hurt or any bruises that day, since he really didn't want to spend what was left of the afternoon and night wincing, Zoicite sent back, 'Twenty minutes, numbskull. Tsk, tsk, tsk. You have such little faith in our dear comrade. The wager is...if I win, you're on your own for anything except a basic supply of crystals, I'm irrationally tired...'

'Hey, no problem. Really, Endymion–Mamoru's right, you need an assistant. Don't throw all those stupid reasons at me again. You're the one that's being an idiot. If I win, you introduce me to that very pretty brunette worker of yours...'

Landing a strike and smiling slightly, the flaxen-haired gen retorted, 'I don't sell my workers; I'm afraid I don't have harems like you and Jade. Besides, I know the one you're talking about–Jadeite tried to make a good first impression already, but she slapped him and told him she was going steady with a guy for around four years now.'

Nephrite sighed in disappointment. 'Who's the lucky guy?'

'Someone named Motoki.'

Rubbing his gloved hands in anticipation, Kunzite smiled at the wary and unwillingly Jadeite, who was soon confused with punches and kicks that he barely dodged. Gulping, he tried to call upon the meager powers he had just learned, but Mamoru had forbade him from doing the only thing he could remember very well–burning or eating auras, which hurt the soul a lot more than anything else. His shields weren't very good, either–they shattered at the first impact of silvery-black energy from his commander, who sighed. As another sizzling, shimmering bolt raced past him, the blonde just managed to leap into the air, his strong point being that he was suitably fast and agile.

Voice dangerously soft, the silver-haired gen scolded, "We have a lot of work to go through, Jadeite...." Expertly repositioning his body, he started another speech. "Initially. you have to learn how to build defenses correctly. You don't want to die the first time you can't block something. Ask Zoi, he's an expert."

Glowering across the room, where Nephrite and Zoicite immediately became re-interested in their work, the blue-eyed one muttered resentfully, "At what, dying? He can't do anything offensive."

"Excellent! You've given me a marvelous idea–Zoicite, get over here. Work with Jadeite on his shields while he helps you with attacking."

The green-eyed one gave his commander a baleful look and drawled, "I already know how to attack him, Kunz. I've had long experience."

Over-patiently, he inquired, "Do you want to work with me instead?"

Both of them shook their heads instantly.

"Good. Nephrite, your turn."

The green-eyed one gave him a smirk and telepathed, 'I win, either way.'

‘It's not fair. Why do I have to be tortured now?'

Zoicite shrugged. 'Hey, it's Jade's fault, and he's your best friend. Better you than me.'

Before the brown-haired, navy-eyed general could retort, Kunzite inserted himself sharply into the conversation and yelled, "Cut it out and concentrate!!"

Wincing, they nodded before something occurred to Zoicite. "Kunzite, how did you do that? I mean, interrupting our telepathing."

'Simple trick I learned in the Silver Millennium. Jadeite, are you listening?'

'Huh? What's going on?'
~ * ~ * ~
Watching Sukareru pace distractedly around the room, Yuuichirou began getting just a tab bit annoyed, already ticked off after dialing Rei's number about five times and getting a busy signal. What important things did girls have to talk about, anyway? Unconcernedly, he asked, "Sukareru, what's wrong today?"

Glowering darkly, his roommate drew something out of his pocket and tossed it to the brunet.

"Hm, this looks like Venus-sama, in a way."

"It _is_ Venus-sama, baka. Or her reincarnation, Aino Minako."

Shrugging, he flopped onto the bed and flipped chocolate bangs out of his eyes. "At least you found her."

Staring at him, Sukareru muttered, "What, are you guys too stupid to realize anything on your own? I may have been head of the Knights, but you guys _had_ to have had some sense." ‘Shinozaki! Ryo! Get in here!' The other two brunets had burst in, one carrying a gym bag, the other a stack of books and a tangle of wires, neither pleased at being interrupted. "Stop complaining; this is important. You have all met the princesses. You hear me? Why don't you describe your sweetheart to me, Yuuichirou-kun."

"Um....she had black hair and purple eyes."

"Good. Sound like your little Miss Hino? Of course. What was her first name again? Rei, was it? Next, Jupiter. One who we've all met, actually, why don't you tell us about her, Shinozaki?" prodded Sukareru.

Blinking, he set down his bag and slumped into a chair. "Brown hair, considered auburn at times, especially in the light...green eyes."

Letting a slight smile wiggle its way into his stern features, the blond murmured, "I'm really quite surprised you didn't connect that description to the girl you have a crush on–your best friend, Kino Makoto is Jupiter. Ryo, Princess Mercury?"

He sighed. "Blue hair and blue eyes, and yes, I am aware that Mizuno Ami is she. Her, whatever, I could never do grammar," muttered Ryo.

Sukareru raised a sandy blond eyebrow. "Why didn't you, well, 'make a move,' as these uncouth people say nowadays?"

The brunet laughed shortly and retorted, "You've been reading too much Shakespeare, although I can't realize when you've had the time. Why should I? After all, the first time I did that, she thought I was stalking her."

Yuuichirou, looking confused, asked, "Uh, weren't you?"

"No! Okay....maybe. Yeah, I was, okay! Sheesh! Give me a break! And you should be glad I did. She ran into General Zoicite!" Everyone could sense the hurt bitterness in his voice. "His name is Kouseki Yosouya. I was actually friends with General Kunzite in high school."

Looking scandalized, Shinozaki demanded, "What for? Wasn't your sixth sense awakened by then? That's basically the only power you have."

Sukareru snapped, "We only _have_ one main power each. He has sixth sense or foresight, I have enter dreams, Yuuichirou has aura disguising, and you have the startling and sometimes completely useful talent of...mind control."

"Nani?!" the other two exclaimed, glancing between the blonde and brunette for confirmation, just to make sure they weren't hearing things. Well, Ryo wasn't that surprised, but he didn't appreciate his sixth sense much, not at all, actually.

"It's very minor. Lasts–at most–around half an hour, I think, but only something small, not like I can make them do anything drastic," mumbled Shinozaki. His leader was getting grouchy, and the best thing to do was avoid him and try not to get on his bade side. Torit Sukareru had a scary evil streak at times... How he had become a knight, the others didn't know and didn't want to ask. Further provocation wasn't exactly necessary or wise.

Sighing, the blond-haired, blue-eyed student leaned his chair back and examined the cuticles. "There is, of course, the matter of the reborn Shittenou of Prince Endymion. The prince is currently alive and well on Earth, as are Kunzite, Nephrite, Jadeite, and Zoicite."

They blinked. "Why haven't you told us about this?"

"It wasn't important.....at least not yet. Never fear, I play my cards well–after all, the Ace is a more powerful card than the king, is it not?"
~ * ~ * ~

Paths of Thorns