Name: Tsukino Serena
Age: 14
Grade: 9
Guardian: Luna, Moon Cat
Name: Aino Minako
Age: 14
Grade: 9
Guardian: Artemis, Moon Cat
Name: Hino Rei
Age:13
Grade: 8
Guardian: Phobos & Deimos, crows
Name: Kino Makoto
Age: 14
Grade: 9
Guardian: Aoao (bright green), bird
Name: Mizuno Ami
Age: 13
Grade: 9
Guardians: Koori (ice), crab
Name: Chiba Mamoru
Age: 19
Grade: College 2, Sophomore
Guardian: None
Name: Seishou Kouseinou (Kunzite)
Age: 18
Grade: College 1, Freshman
Guardian: Shippou (silver), snake
Name: Tabiki Kasen (Jadeite)
Age: 17
Grade: 12
Guardian: Tansei (red & blue), bird
Name: Kousei Kyosei (Nephrite)
Age: 17
Grade: 12
Guardian: Hokushin (North Star), eagle
Name: Kouseki Yosouya (Zoicite)
Age: 15
Grade: 12
Guardian: Erimakitokage/Tokage, (frillnecked lizard, lizard), lizard
Chapter 6-Fever Pace, a.k.a. That's Not Reassuring
Kouseki Yosouya lay shivering on his bed, allowed only one cover for fear or
raising his temperature even more. Sweat was pouring off his pasty face that had
grown thinner in only a week-long illness, luminous green eyes great hollows in
his head. It was hot, so hot, and there were noises all around him, like a
jungle cacophony. He couldn't even identify if they were voices, just classified
them as sounds. It was boiling, so hot, he was sure steam was rising off of him.
He pictured his skin as a gigantic red expanse, giving off waves of heat and
looking like lobsters-that were cooked, of course, they were green "raw." The
next minute it was icy, frigid, he felt as though he were battling the snow
drifts from the North Pole and South Pole put together. Yosouya wondered if it
was snowing outside, then vaguely, inside. He started seeing images, pictures.
Ah, that was him and Kasen building a snowman the only year they had snow, right
before they moved to Hokkaido. A pool, tiny white toes dabbling the water,
sapphire tresses, and eyes that matched. Strange emerald-like eyes, staring at
him with sympathy and pain. Who's eyes were they? He felt himself losing grasp
of images, where were they going? Was he alone? And why was it swirling,
swirling. He opened his mouth to scream before the cyclone-like tunnel enveloped
him, but nothing came out.
~ * ~ * ~
Awkwardly, Minako jumped out of the taxi, paid her fare with what little her
parents had given her, just enough yen to survive so she wouldn't be a beggar
with her host family. They didn't like groveling or losing dignity, they were
society animals in London now, far away. She had smiled and cried the whole way
since the plane had landed in Japan, she was so glad to be home. The cab driver
had just smiled reassuringly and patted her head and hand when she got out,
three acts that made her feel a bit young and embarrassed. While he had taken
the taxi fare, he hadn't accepted a tip and driven off. Suitcase in one hand, a
bag hanging off her shoulder, a pocketbook, and Artemis's cat carrier in the
other, she tried to ring the doorbell and found that just didn't work. Wildly
juggling the plastic case, she finally set down the luggage (bag, trunk,
carrier, and purse) and rang the doorbell. *ding dong*
The door opened enthusiastically, and she hardly had time to blink or catch a
glimpse of who had opened it before a bundle of energy ricocheted out and hugged
her tightly. Gasping, she smiled when the girl who looked her age let go and
said, "Konnichiwa, Minako-chan! I'm Serena Tsukino, your 'surrogate' sister,
like my parents say. Um...you speak Japanese, right? Er....what? How do you say
it in English again? Oh yes, hello Mina!"
Laughing, Mina said, "It's very nice to meet you, Serena-chan. I can speak
Japanese, although not very well anymore. I left for England at the age of five
and didn't come back until now, nine years later."
Still beaming, despite her strange hairstyle that Minako could only connect to
meatballs, she chirped, "Come in and meet my family!! Except Shingo-kun, cause
he's a jerk and a brat."
A slightly smaller blonde boy that looked about twelve or thirteen came out and
stuck his tongue out at his sister. "Baka Serena-chan. Konnichiwa, Aino-san. I'm
Shingo, the younger brother with manners, and you can call me Shingo-kun if you
want. I heard that, Sere-chan, I'm not a jerk and a brat."
"Are too!"
"Are not!"
She burst into laughter and tried to muffle it but failed miserably. Giggling,
she panted, "It's nice to meet you two, but do you think we could go in before
the whole neighborhood hears you two? By the way, you can call me Minako-chan or
Mina-chan, I don't mind."
Casually, Serena dragged her into the house and cheerily informed her, a
slightly-lovestruck Shingo trailing behind, "Oh, the neighborhood's already
witnessed our arguments since Shingo-kun and I could talk coherently, probably
sometime before."
Tsukino Ikuko and Tsukino Kenji smiled and greeted their new 'daughter.'
"Konnichiwa, Minako-chan, it's nice to see you! How was your flight? Was it
safe? Are you hungry........." The questions went on and on, asking polite
questions until they became more personal. She answered as best she could
without any resentment, liking their friendly interest.
After dinner, the blonde with large blue eyes that could have been Minako's
twin, if she hadn't had darker blue eyes, dragged her new friend upstairs.
Flopping down on the bed, she immediately sat up a moment later and began
digging under the bed. Voice muffled, she said, "Mina-chan, I hope you don't
mind sleeping here for a day or two. Okaa-san and Otou-san are going to slightly
change the guestroom into a room for a 'little girl.'"
"Oh, goodness, they don't need to."
"Of course not, I guess, but wouldn't you like a room of your own? Of course,
Shingo-kun and everyone else barges in without knocking, but that's the accepted
way of life now. Ah, here we go! Manga! The only thing that keeps me living on
bad days," grinned Serena, slightly dusty.
"No homework?" asked Minako hesitantly.
"Oh kami-sama! I forgot all about it! Arigato, arigato! You can go look at
these while I try to find my backpack...hai....ah ha! There it is!"
Giggling, the other blonde asked, "Will I be going to school tomorrow?"
Over the grating of the pencil sharpener, Serena called back, "Hai! Juuban High
School, now that we're ninth graders, fun, ne? Anyway, ick......geometry. I
don't like proofs!!" *wails*
"Kami-sama.....I've never, ever heard anyone wail that loud, not even during
acting!!"
All of a sudden the dramatized wailing stop, and Minako opened her eyes to find
large blue ones staring at her. "You've acted before?"
"Eh...somewhat," she said rather nervously when she saw the look on Serena's
face. Uh oh....she was in big trouble all right. She was wearing the well-known
look of a starry-eyed fan, an obsessive juvenile delinquent, and a predator from
the times of T-rex.
~ * ~ * ~
"Konnichiwa, Kouseinou-kun. So we meet again, ne?"
The silver-haired freshman glanced suspiciously at the outstretched hand and
Chiba Mamoru's "innocent" face. "Konnichiwa, Chiba-san. I suppose so."
Falling into place beside him and hiding a frown, the black-haired boy stated,
"You don't trust me, don't you."
"Of course not. Not only are you as cryptic as Souya-kun, you said I was
missing part of my memories and only had to trust you." Getting agitated, he
started waving his long and wonderfully built arms. "So I do, and what do I
get??! A whole other lifetime to digest! Kami-sama, what is WRONG with you and
the world these days?"
He stomped off while Mamoru frowned and blinked. "He doesn't seem to be having
a very good day. Quite stressed out."
Something within him stirred and hissed, 'Perhaps it's anxiety for General
Zoicite.'
Meditatively and a bit lazily, he yawned and stopped warning. 'Quite right.
Poor Zoi, I really shouldn't have made him sick, he was always a bit weak and
often taking ill the in Silver Millennium. Ah....Great One, meaning no
disrespect, but I have absolutely no plans on how to turn Kouseinou-kun and
Kyosei-kun to our side.'
'Perhaps something will turn up. Two are enough, their best friends will join
them sometime soon. Yes, indeed, that brown-haired general is a tricky one.
Stupid stargazer.'
'Stop insulting my friends.'
'As you say, MY PRINCE," came the voice mockingly. 'Remember, power, Endymion
of the Earth, POWER.'
'Ah, there goes Kousei Kyosei. Off I go, wish me luck.'
'Pah,' sneered the unknown one derisively.
Walking over and trying to break the annoying habit all egotistical males
had-walking around smoothing their hair down-he intercepted his past friend and.
"Konnichiwa, Kyosei-kun."
Warily staring at the sophomore in college, the brunette frowned. The stars had
told him about this, just a few days ago. "Konnichiwa, Mamoru-kun."
"I see you're a fast learner," he grinned.
"Iie, I'm just a pacifist. So, Prince of the Earth, what bone do you have to
pick with me today?"
Looking surprised, Mamoru asked cautiously, "I thought you didn't have your
memories? And how did you know who I was?"
Bitterly, he replied, "The stars know everything. I taught you that. Now look
at you, eyes all black and everything. I don't have my memories, that's the
problem. Just snippets and bits of things remembered from the past, like I said,
my friends in the sky are pure and unprejudiced."
"Excuse me?"
"You heard me the first time," came the cool answer.
Grinding his teeth and striving so as not to lose his temper, he pointedly
said, "I can give you your memories if you want."
"But I don't."
"What do you mean?"
Navy blue stared into blue-black, lightening to a more normal shade of blue as
Mamoru stared at Kyosei, confused beyond belief. "You know what I mean. Until we
meet again, prince."
~ * ~ * ~
Three girls and five animals were huddled in the unknown basement of the Crown
Arcade, trying not to make any loud noises or crashes. Central Control had begun
a secret and would end one, according to Luna.. "Ami-chan, will you log-in,
please? My paws are sore from typing," said the midnight-black cat
apologetically.
"Sure, no problem." Whizzing through the many passwords and welcome screens
with the help of the guardian of the Moon, Ami then turned to her for more
advice. "What exactly are we looking for again?"
"New power sticks, Mars has gained Fire Soul Bird, which means a new
transformation is on the way. I forgot exactly what Mercury and Jupiter are
supposed to have, but each time a fresh attack appears, supposedly, another
transformation is supposed to occur."
"Fascinating," she whispered, calling up certain screens and deleting/closing a
few others. "Here we go, there aren't any transformations listed, but there are
five powers for each senshi except Mars. How odd!"
"That's not fair," Rei started to whine before they gave her a Look and
reminded her to be quiet.
Softly, Luna said, "Rei-chan, I know that doesn't seem very fair, but these
things aren't set in stone. Ami-chan? Read through the attacks we should have
obtained by now, please."
"Um....Shields for all, now the individual ones. Mars has Fire Soul and Fire
Soul Bird, Jupiter Supreme Thunder and Supreme Thunder Dragon, and lastly,
Mercury has Shabon Spray and Shabon Spray Freezing. Anything else?"
Aoao chirped, "No, we've got to get lost now! I hear something thudding above
us and a young male voice saying, 'I wonder where those voices are coming from,
the Arcade is empty."
Grinning, Makoto's eyes went starry as she said, "That must be Motoki-kun,
don't you think he's so sweet, minna?"
Rei was the only one that bothered to answer, "Hai, Mako-chan, but-"
"SHUSH!" Meekly, they closed their mouths as Phobos and Deimos went on, "How
exactly are we going to get out of here?"
"Teleporting is always good. Ami-chan, shut down Central Control, please. Odd,
he wasn't there today."
Clearing her throat delicately as her charge shut down the computer, Koori
said, "One slight problem, Luna. They haven't learned teleporting skills."
"WHAT??!! Queen Selenity, if you were here to see the state of your daughter's
guardians, it would be a sad day indeed. Thank goodness I haven't found her
yet." Large blue eyes glared accusingly at the other four creatures that shrank
back or puffed themselves up defensively. *sigh* "I HATE teaching teleporting.
Girls, I need you to hold hands and transform before that."
"Mars Power."
"Jupiter Power."
"Mercury Power."
"There's no need to sound that excited. Now, the key thing is to focus on your
destination, I think home would be the best for each of you. Unless you have
training?"
Gloomily, the brunette twirled a strand of semi-long, green hair. "Hai, we do.
And if we don't, we're going to be worked until the new attacks are perfect."
"Fine. How about Rei-chan's room?"
"Hai, okay," said Mars.
"Good. Focus on the Hikawa Temple and Rei-chan's room, and if you reach your
destination safely, the first thing to do is shut the door. Don't forget to grab
your guardians." Luna herself jumped onto Ami's left shoulder, Koori on her
other one.
As Mars steadied Phobos and Deimos, she started to ask, "Why......?" When her
familiar room appeared, she blushed and slammed the door while Jupiter closed
the windows. "I see."
Irritated and turning red, the brown-haired senshi sighed. "Luna-chan? Where
are our FUKUS? For kami-sama's sake, I didn't expect to materialize, ah,
success, very good, without my CLOTHES!!"
Wincing, she said, "Detransform." When they were in civilian form with the
clothes they had been wearing before transforming into senshi, she said, "This
is what happens when people teleport for the first time. They don't keep a grip
on clothes. Now, if your guardians had taught you how before, we wouldn't have
had a safety hazard."
"Shut up, WE don't remember anything, Miss Head Guardian."
Quietly, Ami picked up a book and said, "I don't like this bickering very much.
Can we go home now?"
"No, you've got training."
*sighs all around*
~ * ~ * ~
Ah, yes....he was drifting again, and it wasn't dark anymore. That was slightly
comforting. Now, what was that odd shape by the corner of the bed? A person,
with silver hair. No, there were two people-another with blond hair. *blink*
"Who......what?" Yosouya tried to clear his throat raspily, his voice scratchy
and unused.
Slowly, two faces came into focus, first gigantic and then growing smaller and
smaller until they were normal. "Souya-kun?"
*cough*
"Hai, he's awake now!"
Faintly, he thought, 'That must be Kasen-kun, only he's that jubilant. Matte,
Kasen-kun? Souya-kun? What?' "Who.......Souya-kun? Kasen-kun?"
Large hands appeared and shook him gently, and their owner asked, "Yosouya-kun?
Dajibou? What do you mean, asking your name and your brother's?"
"I haven't got a brother," he replied mistily. Another name registered,
Kouseinou-kun. But he already had another remembrance floating around that
provided a name for the silver-haired boy. "You're forgetting, Kunzite, that I
only have Jadeite, but he's in the East.....yes, he got sent away a while ago. I
was only ten."
Feeling panicked, Kasen said, "SOUYA-KUN? What happened? Why are you talking
about.....you know..."
"The Silver Millennium," supplied Kouseinou. "Kunzite is dead and gone,
Souya-kun. What's wrong? Why are you acting as if we were back then?"
While the blond with blue eyes gave him a strange glance, something sparking in
his now discolored eyes, the one with green eyes replied, "It IS the Silver
Millennium. Kunzite isn't dead, you're Kunzite, and he's my best friend."
Sleepily yawning, he said, "I want to go back to sleep. If you see Endymion,
tell him that his mother wants him......."
Kouseinou was shaking slightly. "Kasen-kun, what's wrong with him? Why is he
acting like.....like Zoicite??"
"Maybe he has amnesia," he returned nonchalantly, trying to keep a cool facade.
"Kami-sama, what is WRONG with you?"
"Nothing's wrong," came the cool reply. "I'd like some memories, though. I
served Prince Endymion of the Earth, soon to be king."
Shaken and turning pale as the now-sleeping Yosouya, Kouseinou asked, "What are
you talking about? He died. It was our fault. In the past."
More detached and composed now, the blonde laughed. "He isn't dead, he's Chiba
Mamoru. Never died, not our fault. What are you talking about?"
Head swimming, the silver-haired boy whispered, "Our fault....our fault....you
don't remember....and now Souya-kun's Zoicite......." right before he succumbed
to an alien darkness.
Smirking, Kasen said quietly, "Of course I don't want to remember anything,
fool. That's quite trivial, I don't understand why you're so focused on that,
just like Mamoru-kun. Speaking of him, our liege will be able to do something
for my brother, pitiful as he is now. But soon, he will be strong, and so will
you, leader. Once you start acting like it, by the way, wasn't that a clever,
concerned performance I just put on myself?"
~ * ~ * ~
Shivering slightly, one brown-haired stargazer sat on the top floor of his
apartment, which was the outside and glassed over, like a bowl. Even through the
panes of glass, he was able to talk to his friends besides the ones that were
changing now, ones that scared him, although no one liked to admit fright.
"Well, friends, what shall I do?"
"Sadly, it is our duty to tell you."
"Honto? I thought you said-"
"Nevermind what we said. It is inevitable that you will wind up serving Chiba
Mamoru, who was your prince of the past."
"But there aren't any princes in Tokyo."
"True, but you have lived more than a thousand years. Yet in this life, you are
still only seventeen, a senior in college now."
"ONLY?"
"Wait, wait and listen," they chimed.
Nephrite: He had always been a slight oddball, where he had come from, but the
people accepted him as a wise future ruler. Long, wavy brown hair and navy blue
eyes were the traits of his royal family, and he had no siblings. Thus, one of
his father's trusted Prime Ministers ruled as regent for him when his father
died. When he had gone to the palace to become a general for the heir of the
Earth, he had met another extremely serious silver-haired boy, although he found
Endymion to be great fun. When Jadeite and Zoicite came, he and Jadeite turned
the castle and everything in it topsy-turvy, along with the prince. Stars had
always been his joy and comfort during hard times like witnessing death for the
first time in battle, and one day, he had solace in someone else. The four
generals and Endymion had traveled to the Moon, where he had met Princess Lita
of Jupiter He never proposed but wished he had when he fell under Metallia's
influence, destroying the Moon Kingdom alongside his generals, watching his
prince and princess die without the blink of an eye. The he had come face to
face with the senshi of Jupiter, and she committed a suicide act that brought
both to death, the last thing registering on his mind was a pair of earrings,
rose pink earrings.
Groaning and cracking open deep blue eyes, he glared balefully at the heavens
and said, "Sometimes, I really hate you."
Tinkling, they said, "That's not important at the moment, and we know that. The
point is, you will one day be a pawn of evil again under your very own prince,
who died at the hands of Metallia and Beryl. What do you have to say about that,
General Nephrite?"
"I wish you'd address me as Kyosei-kun," he said.
Their shine became more urgent as the voices came together once more. "They are
one and the same, and you must understand that."
"What, me being evil and not being evil? Frankly, I don't see a difference."
"Idiot! Between General Nephrite and Kousei Kyosei, there are no variations!"
"Of course there are, I'm seventeen, he's thousands of years old."
"You shouldn't talk like that about yourself," they reprimanded. "And what was
that you said about being evil??"
"I SAID, if you would kindly listen and stop yelling at me, there's no
difference. For example, Chiba Mamoru would just hunt me down in this life and
brainwash me. I might as well submit willingly. And if I somehow manage to
escape him, which I doubt I could because of that STUPID link the generals and
Endymion share, I would spend the rest of my life as a wandering general without
a liege to serve."
~ * ~ * ~
Sighing, Ami twirled her pencil and grabbed it when it began to fall, jotting
down a quick note. When the teacher went back to repeat some information covered
about five pages ago in their textbooks, she went back to spinning her pencil.
She nearly dropped it again when the sensei announced, "All right, everyone come
up here and get a computer worksheet. Fill it out and make sure it's done before
the end of the period, I also don't want to see any copying."
Her science group smirked at her, which was a sure sign of the torture coming
up. One particular kid with red hair said mockingly, "Mizuno-san, why don't you
finish the stupid sheet and give us all the answers?"
"Iie," she replied quietly, logging on to the page they were supposed to be at,
sighing when she found that the internet address hadn't been bookmarked.
"What? You finally refused? The wimpy genius who's a year younger than us
actually doesn't want to have respect for her elders?" Putting on a fake show of
surprise, the girl with long, curly brown hair smiled, laughed, and high-fived
the person next to her, a blond boy who had a habit of looking at her with
admiring glances.
Silently, the blue-haired girl found the page and highlighted the right section
so they could see the answers. The blonde next to the brunette said, "Hey, hey,
what are you doing? You can't go ahead, this is supposed to be GROUPWORK."
Staring up at the ceiling, Ami muttered something that sounded suspiciously
like a curse, the shortened form having something to do with the second letter
of the alphabet and the starting letter of snake.
"What was that? Mizuno-san, what are you writing?"
Exasperated, her gentle tone sharpened, sapphire blue eyes throwing sparks.
"It's right there on the computer! For kami-sama's sake, can't you people
READ?!"
They just laughed at her anger, and the blond haired boy leaned over the table
and tried to read what she wrote. When she pulled it away, he protested, "Hey! I
wasn't finished with that!"
"It's right on the computer screen, copy it from there!"
"We're supposed to work as a team!"
"Not when people like YOU are leeching off of me."
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
The sensei rubbed a hand through tight, dyed blond curls and glared ominously
at the table, so Ami shut up and gave in to having her paper passed around. She
prayed to kami-sama that they would have seat changes soon, but it was already
nearing the end of the second semester, no seat changes had come around at the
end of the first. After class, she silently pulled on her backpack and slung her
coat over her shoulder, wondering why it was waterproof. Marching to meet
Makoto, she tried not to cry or sniffle, since tears upset the brunette, who
regarded them as weaknesses.
"Hey Ami-chan, what's wrong?"
Darn, so it hadn't gone past her. "Nothing."
"Come on, don't be so upset, smile!"
'I would if I could. You don't know what I go through every day. Come on,
Ami-chan, stop it! Think of those "starving children in Africa." Well, what if
those "starving children" don't like being talked about and pitied that way?'
she though, infuriated. Pasting a fake smile and trying to force the corners of
her mouth up, the blue-haired girl just walked beside her friend silently,
Makoto later getting bored and talking to someone else. After all, it wasn't HER
fault her friend refused to say anything after science class everyday. 'I can't
believe I've spent the whole marking period minding my grades. 100, 100, 98, 95,
80, 85, 86, 87, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 88, 91, and so on. It's always a struggle
and so painful to have a perfect score, have it fall to a B, then have to drag
it back to an A+ and pretend to me "modestly accepting" it when your friends
exclaim how smart you. Smart, my ass. Forgive me, kami-sama. I didn't mean to
curse in my thoughts, and it's also impure to whisper about cow dung in the
middle of science. But how am I supposed to get into Chemistry next year while
failing Biology? Besides that, how can I make my career as a doctor? There we go
again, Ami-chan. Self-pity. Always the weakest and the lowest, so you just have
to feel sorry for yourself. Completely useless, that's what it is.'
Later that day, Rei as Mars found herself close to tears. "Fire Soul!"
"No, no, no!! Mars, you're supposed to use your second attack!"
Blankly, she turned to face her two annoyed, tired, and frustrated guardians.
"What?? Which second attack?"
"For kami-sama's sake, Mars, you only HAVE two. If it's not one, it's the
other."
The condescending tone was just enough to flare up her volatile temper, and red
eyes flashed threateningly. "All right then, FIRE SOUL BIRD!"
As the gigantic wave of heat sped through the room, two singed crows glowered
unfavorably at their charge. "We need to work on your control."
"Please, no more??!!" All in all, none of the senshi were finding the day
turning out to be very well.
Makoto, for one, had been having a perfectly good day until she came home to
the shrine, found Mars training and in tears, walking away quickly, and
retreating to the kitchen. She found the refrigerator nearly empty, so she went
out to buy some groceries. On her way home, it started raining, which meant her
bags got soaked, soggy, and ripped. Luckily, she hadn't bought any eggs, so they
didn't crack when the sacks fell to the ground. Less fortunately, a glass bottle
of vegetable oil broke, which meant a trip back to the store on the temple's
already unsteady funds, made worse by the presence of an orphan. Sighing, she
made her way back to Hikawa Shrine without anymore mishaps. She hadn't been
allowed to "pleasure cook" for a while, meaning things for fun like brownies,
cookies, cakes, and pies-all the sweeties. Makoto had been commanded to make
dinner, if she had to, and nothing else. Poor Grandpa was busy training new
temple acolytes, which meant a headache for her under the head priestess.
Talking aloud to herself, she said, "There's some snow peas, I'll fry that with
chicken and carrots. Or maybe that's not very nutritious? No choice. Hm....a
fish. I can't stomach flounder, not after what Ami-chan said. Kami-sama, where
does she get those things? The fish live on the bottom of the sea floor and eat
all the garbage and bacteria that fall down there? *sigh* Thank goodness she
hasn't told me anything about red snappers yet, we'll have one of those. I
thought I bought some shrimp....guess not. Enough seafood. I'll back
something....." A few hours later, she found herself defeated when both the oven
and stove refused to work, prepared dishes waiting to be heated, fried, broiled,
and cooked in various ways. Banging an angry fist on the shiny stove, she had
just polished, she winced at the pain running up and down her arm and tried not
to cry. It was a "terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day" indeed.
~ * ~ * ~
Chiba Mamoru carefully and delicately worked, cursing at any slip-ups. One had
to be extremely cautious when tampering with brains and other things of the
sort. Amnesia after fever, especially a long one like Yosouya had had was quite
common. Now, the only thing he had to do was hide all memories of the Silver
Millennium except his friendliness with the other generals and that Endymion was
his prince, obey him at all costs. Memories of Kouseki Yosouya being born and
growing up had to be carefully fixed, making sure he believed no one in the
world had been kind to him except Kasen. Smiling devilishly, which Kousei Kyosei
wasn't sure how far from the truth that was, he overlooked one tiny section,
which festered to darkness and grew in glory with light. The black-haired boy
jumped when someone entered his locked dorm room, cursing. "KUSO! Who is it?!"
"Konnichiwa, my prince. I suppose you'd like to know why I'm here?"
Grinning, Mamoru Chiba closed his "fix-it" shop and turned around. "Konnichiwa,
Kyosei-kun. To submit, of course."
Shortly, the brown-haired boy ran an impatient hand through long, wavy tresses
and snorted. "If that's the way you'd like to call it."
"Quite interesting. Why, all of a sudden, if you didn't even want your poor,
neglected memories back?"
Incensed at the arrogant tone Mamoru was taking on, he kept sad eyes to the
floor and said, "Things change. Shifty minds change. The stars proclaim that it
is unavoidable, and I'd rather do it willingly then be hunted down and
brainwashed. Like you did to Kasen-kun and Souya-kun. Who's lying right there on
the table, for kami-sama's sake!!!!"
Wincing at the yell and truth in his voice, the ebony-haired sophomore sent him
a warning glance. "Would you like the whole floor to hear you? Hai, that's quite
right. I'm very, very good at tracking my prey, and I wouldn't like to violate
my generals."
"Too bad, you already did."
"Don't take that tone with me. And I didn't, don't say that!!" Mamoru's eyes
turned back to a frantic, sapphire blue, a strange, crazed look in his eyes.
"Gomen nasai then, your HIGHNESS. If you must insist on being right. Poor
Souya-kun. Fine, Chiba Mamoru, I agree. What happens now?"
"I'd prefer it if you were less stubborn. You don't want a patch-up like
Yosouya-kun here, do you? Iie, that doesn't suit you. Can't you just willingly
let go of your memories? Stupid stars, to give them to you when you didn't want
them."
Shrugging, Kyosei sighed. "Whatever you want, why don't you just take the easy
way out and brainwash me? I don't want to be working in torture every day of my
life."
Tone sharp, his black eyes glinted angrily. "I treat my generals, who were my
friends, well. Better than anyone else who works for me."
"Were, I notice, were. Hai, brainwashing sounds good. I'd like to keep some
aspects of my personality, if you please."
Laughing now, Mamoru assured, "I think that can be arranged, kojin. A
personality of Kyosei-kun must remain, you hear, Great One?" An answering chill
made Kyosei shake and wonder if he'd just made a horrible mistake. "There we go,
I've got three generals now. That should be very easy, don't you worry,
Kyosei-kun. After all, look at Kasen-kun and Souya-kun!"
"That's not reassuring."
Indignantly, black eyes narrowed. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"One walks around obstinately instead of acting nice and cheerful, the other is
stuck as his past form."
"Quite right, that doesn't sound very encouraging at all."
"And neither did that."
~ * ~ * ~
