Ami's after-school activities are getting slightly ridiculous, and it's only the first week of school! Monday she had to do things for Virtue, and then go check on Makoto--which resulted in a very lengthy and cautious investigation. Now, it's Tuesday, and although she's finished her investigation, there are others who need to know the results.
And one of those others is Rei Hino, resident psychic and--conveniently--one of Ami's best friends!
Only a few hours after school on Tuesday, Ami makes her way up the long walk in Pikarigaoka to the Hikawa shrine, dressed in bluejeans and a navy colored vest. "Rei-chan!" she calls ahead of herself as she draws near. "Rei-chan, are you home?"
Rei isn't that hard to find. She is sitting in the shrine's booth, wearing her miko clothes, with her homework spread over the inside counter. She doesn't feel terribly pressured about it, but business is slow today so she may as well do something to pass the time.
Today's hours seem especially long and boring, and as seriously as she takes her responsibilities, she'd much rather be doing something else right now. She lets out a heavy sigh, tapping her pencil against the paper.
She hears her name being called, perks up, and spots her friend. "Ami-chan!" She sets her pencil down, walks out from behind the booth, and approaches her friend. "How's it going?"
"Rei-chan!" Ami says, face lighting up excitedly when her friend comes into view. Ami moves towards her and wraps the taller girl in a brief hug, before pulling away to a more comfortable conversational distance. "It's going okay for me, at least. I really missed school," she explains, "and I'm so glad it's finally back in session." Because three whole weeks of Spring break was almost too much to bear!
"But," Ami says, her expression dimming just a little, "there are some things I need to talk to you about. Mako-chan was attacked. Twice, actually, but once was personal and the other was incidental. Do you have time?" It's a silly question.
Yay Ami hugs! Rei returns the hug and then crosses her arms when Mercury steps away. She giggles as Ami says she missed school, because let's be honest no one is surprised that Ami likes doing schoolwork.
She turns a bit more serious when Ami's expression dims, and her smile becomes a tight frown when she hears that Makoto has been attacked. "Well..." Rei looks around. No customers are here. She won't be missed if she has to vanish for a while. If Grandpa doesn't like it he can take a hike.
"Sure! Let's go inside."
Rei starts heading towards the shrine, assuming that Ami will follow. Once she thinks she has a bit more privacy she says, "Okay. So who do I have to set on fire?"
Ami follows along, of course. Once they're in a more private place, she rubs her arms and settles in to explain. "That's just it," she admits quietly, "I don't really know, yet. First there was the attack at the Botanical Gardens; this weird planty-buggy-thing," that's a scientific term, "that tried to attack Makoto. It flew at her, but there were so many magical girls present, it pretty much disintegrated instantly. Then, there was this crystaline creature at the mall that was encasing people in its powers. Makoto shielded me from an attack, but wound up getting encased in crystal herself. After that she seemed to get more and more tired, and I thought maybe the crystal had affected her somehow. But last night, I saw the problem in action: there was a plant in her house which was literally sapping the energy from all the living things around it. A plant," she points out.
"I don't even know," Ami says frustratedly. "Nephrite and I destroyed the thing, and it released its pent up energy again. Why was it storing the energy and not metabolizing it? Why was it draining energy in the first place? Why Makoto's home? Why a plant? There are so many outstanding questions. It ate the rosebush Mamoru left with her."
Ami pauses in her tirade, takes a breath, then resumes, "I got lucky, last night. I happened to be looking for trouble, and I saw the thing try to drain Mako-chan through my visor. I wouldn't have seen it if I hadn't already been looking. I think you would have felt it if you'd walked in the room, though," she points out. "So ... do you think you can find the time this week to check out all of our homes? And maybe all of us, too. Just to be safe?"
"Right. The botanical gardens." Rei remembers that. Okay, so that was one attack. "That monster hardly even seemed like it was prepared for a fight. It was draining energy too, wasn't it?"
The rest of it... goes from interesting to outright worrying. Rei leans against a wall and her mouth becomes a thoughtful frown. "So we're having recurring cases of evil plant monsters that drain energy and attack us, and Mako-chan had one in her home. It makes sense that she'd happen to pick one up "
Rei looks up at Ami. "I can look, sure. I haven't felt anything out of the ordinary here, but it wouldn't hurt to give everyone's house a look. Do you have a picture of that plant?"
"I'll get you one," Ami promises with a thoughtful look. And now she knows she was out of it, because Ami did not think of taking a picture, herself. But she's sure she has it recorded on the Mercury Computer. It's just going to take a little time to go through the data and find the best picture.
"The crystal at the mall may be disconnected," Ami notes in thought. "It wasn't a plant; the only connection is that Makoto got hit by 9it, and it drained people of energy. Still, this is all really suspicious. I'm nervous."
"If we've got people draining energy then it might be connected." Rei considers. "Might be, or might not be. We'll have to see."
She smiles a little worriedly at Ami, saying, "Well, it's a new enemy. Even if one of their minions was easily taken down, we do need to be careful. We should talk to the others so they'll all be on the lookout for it. Who knows? Maybe they've seen something already.
"Mmm, that's why I came to you," Ami says agreeably. "I haven't seen Usagi very much outside of school, but I will mention it to her, tomorrow." She sighs and rubs her nose. "I guess I'm not going to be bored, this year," she says with a faint smirk.
Rei nods. "Alright. Between the two of us, one of us will catch her. It'll be easier for you, though."
She giggles, somewhat awkwardly, and shake her head. "Nope! A Senshi's work is never done, it seems."