Monday after school-- time enough that initial steam-blowing-off in the arcade downstairs is done, and it's very likely milkshakes and homework time. Mamoru Chiba walks in the door, face a little drawn and pinched; he glances around, spots the girls at their usual table, then swallows and veers off to the counter to order some liquid courage of the coffee variety.
His body language is off.
He's turned inward in self-defense, he's lacking the calm confidence he usually exudes, he's got cracks in his mask of pleasant and noncommittal aloofness.
Rei Hino is here, among friends, resting her head against a closed math book. Her homework is done, a fact that she may or may not have been holding over someone else's head for the last few minutes. Now, she's tired, and she's taking a break.
It's in her partial napping that she detects a dark presence. Her head lifts, her eyes open, and then narrow in focus. She slowly eyescans around the room, then locks in on one Mamoru Chiba.
Him? Evil? Naaah. Sure he was kind of... well, he was Mamoru, but nothing about him ever struck her as evil. Yet, that evil presence is clearly coming from him.
Something is wrong. Rei doesn't like it. Something seems off about him. He might be an imposter, meant to distract them or worse...!
Well whatever's going on, Rei Hino isn't going to sit down and take it! She stands right up out of her chair, storms over to Mamoru Chiba, pulls an ofuda out from a pocket, and brings it down on Mamoru's forehead. "Akuryo TAISAN!"
She just did that in public. She doesn't seem to care that people are watching.
Minako Aino's homework consists of her scribbling notes rapid-fast across lines of questions and finishing in a few moments while chatting about anything else, not even paying attention to her pen as if she's just concerned with getting text on the page rather than reading.
"Rei-tan! I know it's fun to beat up boys we like, but you should keep your hands and your creepy LoveLove notes to yourself or to mailboxes, and not foreheads!"
Makoto was also facedown on her notebook, not because she's in any way close to being *finished* with her homework so much as in a physical expression of defeat. The English has won. "How'm I supposed to focus on figuring out this weird moon language when there's so much other stuff going on?" she laments, muffled, into the pages.
For instance--! Rei bolting out of her seat so abruptly gets enough of Mako's attention that she levers herself mostly upright, just in time to go wide-eyed in shock at the sight of Mamoru taking the ofuda to the face. In the next moment Makoto is up on her feet as well. "Rei-chan, what the heck--?!"
Usagi is pouting at Ami, after having pouted and raspberried Rei because mean! "But Ami-chan, Quadrentical Equations or...whatever..." A floopy hand wave. "They're worse than pi! No gummi worm can save this and--"
Rei is off and out of the table, and it happens so fast that while she stands, Usagi's sort of glued into place.
She may or may not have shrieked!
There's so much here to react to.
"Mina!"
Then at Rei. "We're in public! You're always! What! I!"
She looks at Ami and Makoto, eyes still wide. "What!"
Maybe they would have a way to figure this out. "She killed him!"
Or concussed! Or something!
She very much doesn't want that!
Ami Mizuno finished her homework before she arrived at the Game Center Crown. That didn't stop her from pulling out her textbooks to study anyways. When Usagi eventually arrived from detention, she moved almost immediately to join the blonde, intent on convincing her to *do* her homework, and promising to help.
"Quadratic equations," Ami corrects Usagi gently, "are not that difficult. All you have to do is mem--" her pupil isn't paying attention, she's standing. Ami turns to follow Usagi's gaze and spies Rei just as she slams her ofuda into Mamoru's forehead.
"... Rei-chan?" she asks, confusedly. Nevertheless, Ami is certainly not confusing it for a sign of Rei's affection. She stands, hastily, but waits to see what happens.
At the instant of contact, ofuda to face, Mamoru freezes
eyes wide in shock
fear?
The general crowd sees Rei beating up a boy, notices it's Mamoru, hears Minako, and looks away again with the assumption that this is basically business as usual for this particular group of ridiculous friends.
Good thing they do, because there's a shadow shaped like a dragon, dark purple and snarling, that ghosts up from his head -- it goes from tiny to about hand-sized to about chest-sized, becomes translucent, and dissipates into the air.
The ofuda slips off his face and flutters to the floor, and Mamoru crumples like a marionette with its strings cut, spilling books across the tile.
Mostly on reflex, Makoto lunges toward Mamoru as he drops. She's too far back to actually keep him from hitting the floor, but it does mean that she's very quickly kneeling down next to him, checking to make sure he didn't suffer any obvious injury from the fall or the exit of - whatever that was.
First things first. "Nobody's dead, Usagi-chan," Mako assures, doing her best to recollect her own composure after that moment of adrenaline-rattling surprise. "He just fainted... or something. What was that?" This directed toward Rei, as though in the assumption that she knows.
Minako Aino also shouts "Mina!"
But she mostly 'helps out' Usagi by reaching over and scribbling on her homework. Lots of answers. Lots of right answers wherever she can. Like a genius!
"Sha-jeeezes, Rei-san. Keep your hands to yourself, you big bully-jerker," she says, refusing to encourage such delinquent behaviors by rewarding it with attention.
"Be a study buddy, not a stabby-body. Entirely too much hugging going on near the soda fountain!"
Rei instantly turns around to look at Minako opens her mouth, raises her finger to protest, and then says, "Well FIRST OFF--"
Whatever she was about to say is lost in the midsts of what happens next. She turns back to look at Mamoru and the evil dragon spirit that rises out of him. She reaches into her pocket, grasping the hidden henshin pen, waiting to see if this is going to be a youma fight or not.
If we need to transform... where would be a good place to hide?
Rei doesn't really have time to answer that question before the spirit slips away, and Mamoru crumples into a pile.
Huh... so it was a puppet? It fell apart like one. Wait, this isn't right... She still feels Mamoru's presence in there. The ofuda fell off, so he's clearly not infected by anything evil, but he's also...
Ooops. He's hurt. This is Rei's fault. Immediate guilt trip follows.
Makoto gets close to him before Rei does, but Rei follows suit by falling to one knee. "It was an evil presence... It felt like a youma. It must have been possessing him, but I don't know what it was doing."
At the growing size of the whosit, her eyes go wide.
Then he's slumping down and this time she does shriek as a chair is loudly pushed back and she darts over to see if he's okay.
(Odds are her homework is not going to get turned in, so she won't get in trouble for whatever Minako's doodling on it.)
Makoto's there first, and while this doesn't stop her own hand from fluttering about his face to check for fever or signs of breathing, she is very much reassured by Makoto's words.
Then she, too, is looking at at Rei.
"A puppet? How does that work? How long? Like...someone else was driving?"
Does this mean he hasn't been himself for who knows how long?
Well, things just got real awkward.
She decides to keep that to herself, though.
Ami is out the door. Out the door and hastily leaping to the roof, scanning the skylines for any signs of dark energy or otherwise. The city's power grid is still on, people are still walking around, and there are no telltale glowing green balls of floating evil general in the sky.
After a moment, Ami is convinced whatever Rei did was overwhelmingly successful. She drops back down to the ground, then makes her way back up the stairs to join her friends.
"Gone," she confirms quietly as she reenters, then kneels down beside Makoto. "Is he alright?" she asks calmly.
Minako Aino mumbles, "Good job guys, you embarrassed Ami-chan into running away."
When Makoto checks, it doesn't seem like Mamoru's particularly injured. Maybe his head hit the floor, but if it did, it can't've hit hard: there was decidedly no thunk.
He's not even out for long. Just as Ami's coming back in and rejoining the group -- and the rest of the occupants of the Fruits Parlour are studiously ignoring the girls and their upperclassman -- Mamoru comes to, grimacing and lifting a hand to his head while he's still on the floor. His second action is straightening his glasses and half-rolling over to blink at the girls surrounding him, and his third is catching briefly at Usagi's hand and squeezing it.
Finally he starts to push himself upright, breathing a little ragged, expression a shade less than completely grim, but well on its way. "Thank you," he says under his breath, reaching for his books, but there are Senshi in the way of them. He's more or less sitting up, but given his paleness, that's probably as far as he's gonna get for a minute. "Can we go talk someplace else? I was going to tell you things... I still have to, but god only knows..."
Rei feels immediately relieved when Mamoru starts getting up again. "Somewhere else? Alright..."
Rei starts looking around her, picking up his books, and handing them to him. Or at least, placing them near him. When she stands up, she reaches down to offer him a hand to help in getting to his feet. "Yeah, after something like that, I think we do need to talk. First off, though, now that I know it's you, are you alright?"
He doesn't look alright, and he was possessed. Something was clearly wrong, and he still doesn't look particularly healthy. Rei's lips are curled into a frown. This whole thing is pretty bad.
"Your eyebrows are still pinchy." Hers aren't much better, and her voice could be mistaken as accusatory or even petulant.
She's neither, of course, but it's hard to know exactly what to do when what she does want to do is try to hug it better, but that's always seemed to top Rei et al's list of Not Done Things to Mamoru.
So she releases his hand, which she'd apparently been gripping in return pretty tight, oops, and picks up his books.
"I'll carry these."
And she's holding them to her chest, because, well, she has to hug something.
She clears her throat as she sits back. "Where to, then?"
She clears her throat again. "Not to mine. Papa had a conniption when Umino showed up one day. And he's, well, Umino."
And not, you know, someone she may actually show interest in.
As the other girls gather around and Mamoru begins to revive, Makoto backs off a little bit to give him (and Usagi) some room and just looks on, brows drawn together in worry.
"It'd be a little crowded," she puts in when Usagi asks where they're headed, speaking quietly, "but we could go to my place." No inconvenient parents to ask inconvenient questions there, at least.
Ami starts to suggest her place, but Makoto beats her to it. Certainly, Ami's home is larger, but Makoto is so proud of her home, so Ami says instead, "That sounds like a good idea." She smiles at Makoto briefly, then stands up and moves to retrieve her bag. Since Usagi has her hands full of Mamoru's books, Ami scoops up Luna into her own arms, to bring the cat along with them. Somehow, she's quite certain Luna will want to be involved in this discussion.
Mamoru accepts the hand up and gives Usagi a grateful look for carrying his books, and he glances at Makoto and nods. "Thank you," he says, agreeing with Ami's vote.
It's pretty close to impossible to fit five Senshi, two cats, and a Mamoru in a Tesla, and Mamoru doesn't really look like he should be driving at the moment anyway, so the sportscar's left where it's parked and the bus ride to Makoto's place is quiet and probably tense. Mamoru does a lot of leaning his head against the window, eyes closed.
The little apartment Makoto lives in as as homey as it's ever been, and when everyone's finally in and the door's closed and the scent of greenery mixed with the lingering evidence of baking's quietly filling the air, Mamoru puts his face in his hands and then drags them down, inhaling.
"Last night some kind of stupid robot monster attacked downtown, outside the arcade. I heard a call go out on Virtue for something across town, so I assume that's where you all were-- I didn't have time to call, myself; there was a kid about to get squished right in front of me. I got her out, but the thing noticed and came after me, and before I could even think, someone'd shoved me back and thrown up a defensive barrier."
He looks up at the ceiling and closes his eyes. "It was a Dark Kingdom General. A new one. Jadeite. He told the thing to stop, and it wasn't listening-- but it was still coming at us both, so I told him to aim for the mask, and he did, and it worked." He hesitates, then. "He took a hit for me."
Another hesitation.
Mamoru looks up at Makoto. "Remember how Nephrite said I belonged to the Dark Kingdom? Jadeite asked me what I did to Nephrite. I said I didn't do anything, and I didn't even know why he'd singled me out. Jadeite said it was because I belonged with them."
After letting everyone into her apartment, Makoto moves right on through the living room area to the kitchenette and starts making a pot of tea. Mamoru seems to need it, if nobody else does.
She looks up from her preparations toward Mamoru when he mentions the Dark Kingdom, meeting his eyes over the kitchen island. "...so..." she says slowly, still processing the information. "...the evil organization wants to recruit you or something, is what you're saying?"
"Belonged with them?" repeats Rei, settling in at Makoto's apartment. Whatever she was doing last night, she either doesn't remember or doesn't say.
A new Dark Kingdom general means bad news. Something about the name 'Jadeite' sticks out to her.
"Not going to lie. You don't really seem like the kind of person who'd hang out with them..."
Though there was that vision she once had... Mamoru was a prince, and he doesn't seem like he was a prince of the Moon. So then where else would he be a prince from...?
"I still find it strange that they'd target you specifically. Did he mention wanting something specific?"
Ami sets Luna down on the coffee table and calims a seat on the couch. Setting her bookbag down, she digs into it for her tablet and brings it out into her lap. Before Mamoru even begins talking, she starts recording video for later.
"Who is the 'kind of person who'd hang out with them?'?" Ami asks curiously after Rei. "Can you truly be certain he wasn't, once, the type?" She gives Mamoru a sympathetic look, then observes, "It's quite likely they know something we don't; especially something from the past."
Minako Aino perches herself up on a couch once she arrives and remains there, staying almost entirely still except for a brief moment of sniffing plants.
She listens but doesn't have much to say except in response to recruitment.
"They're always wanting people to join them. But still, they must be up to something."
The grumpy cloud that had settled on her lifts almost as soon as the door's shut behind her. Usagi sets Mamoru's books on the coffee table and walks around to greet the plants, smelling her favorite flowers as she did.
She wants a garden, but she's terrible at getting things to grow. Mako-chan's place is the bestest alternative.
She stills when he starts talking, face still in a plant, away from the group.
By the end, her twintails whip around her with the force of how hard she turns to look at him.
For a moment, she's quiet, but she looks a bit afraid. (Not of him, he's at worst a grumpy teddy bear.)
Usagi bites her lip as she tries to think of how to process. "Does he think you're a general?"
She reeeeeally hopes not. And highly doubts it. Because grumpy teddy bear.
Right?
Mamoru's leaned forward, but it's with his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped loosely in front of him, gaze a sidelong thing; he spends as little time looking at any of the senshi as possible without being rude. His shoulders are a little hunched. "Something like that, I guess. That's two of them that've said so-- and they already stole Kyou-chan and turned her into one of them. She didn't even remember anyone. She's still in there, I know she is -- she was shocked -- she's the one who stabbed Usagi-chan... she was shocked, and she actually apologized when she saw me and she ran... but I didn't see any real recognition."
He gives up on looking, and drops his head into his hands again. He talks to the floor. "I don't know, Usako."
He breathes for a second.
"Rei-san, I knew Jadeite's name without anyone saying it. And I felt like I knew him. And he listened to me when I told him where to attack it. He took a hit for me. And I felt like I knew Nephrite, too-- as much of an ass as he is, or was, considering apparently Jadeite doesn't know where he is and thought I did something to him... the same way I felt like I knew you guys."
He doesn't mention the nightmares he still has about Kunzite's eyes, about Kunzite's smile, from the bridge. He wasn't supposed to have been there. Tuxedo Kamen was there.
He grips his hair for a second, then takes his glasses off. He still can't look up at them, though. Ami's words make him tense, and Minako's words seem almost like they could be some kind of appeasement, some kind of platitude-- but they're words he tries to hang on to, tries so hard.
Finally he looks up, and his eyes are too bright. "I don't know who I was. I don't know who I am. All I know is that I want to help you. I want to help you find and protect the Princess, to give her the Maboroshi no Ginzuishou she keeps asking me for, to help her. To help her stop crying. She keeps crying; her tears are silver and it floods my waking every morning, all the sadness in the world, all the grief. I want to keep helping you, all of you who fight the darkness and keep it from claiming this planet and all its people. If I was part of something evil, then maybe I don't even want to know who I am. I thought I did-- but if finding out is at the cost of everything, it'll never be worth it, never."
Rei watches Mamoru as he explains, listening to every word. Ami's own response stirs something inside of her, reminds her of something she saw recently. She looks down, and away. "So... you might be one of them."
She thinks that over in her head. Is Mamoru from the Dark Kingdom? That doesn't make sense. It still doesn't make sense. "But... but you aren't like that. Brainwashing people, draining energy and hurting people... you aren't like that."
Something else clicks. "Kyouko-san? That girl?" Rei remembers Kyouko from having met her only briefly. It was one of the times she was peering at Mamoru suspiciously, but also one of the times she was begining to think she was wrong about him, so she remembers.
Rei lets out a sigh, saying, "I never really told you about that vision I had, did I? Makoto-chan knows... you remember the reading, right? I think we told Usagi-chan, too."
She starts rubbing her forehead. She can't really put the pieces together, something is stopping her, but she can't force her way past it.
Around the time Mamoru has finished saying all of this, Mako finally comes back from the kitchenette and sets a cup of tea in front of Mamoru. Then she straightens, and, without saying anything, thinks all of this over for a little while.
At Rei's words, she nods slowly, the corners of her mouth pulling into a faint frown. "When it was just Nephrite saying that stuff," she says, "I just figured it was, you know... Nephrite." She says the name with a little shrug and a tone that indicates she feels it should be self-explanatory. "But now this other general, too... There must be some kind of connection, but Rei-chan's right, it doesn't make any sense. I mean, I don't remember anything from our other lives, either, but going from what Rei-chan saw, I don't think you were that kind of person."
Makoto pauses there for a moment, looking faintly uncomfortable, before she looks toward Mamoru again. "And - the other stuff you don't remember - I don't know, but I still don't think it fits. You being one of them, I mean. Even if that's what they believe, that doesn't mean it's true."
This is about as much edging around subjects as Mako can stand; she looks around to the other girls. "...would anyone else like some tea, while I'm up?"
Minako Aino waves her finger around in the air. "I'll take tea. Or something harder," she says, trying to sound sophisticated when she says it.
"And, pssht, it doesn't matter if he was one of them or not," she says, sounding unworried. "After all, you don't know what I used to be doing, long ago, in my past. You just know I'm all good now. And we all trust now."
"What matters if he IS one of them. Now. In the present. He's definitely not acting like somebody who is. So. I'm not worried about that," she comments, leaning back and getting lazy on the couch now that she's said what she's wanted to say.
Ami remains silent for a moment, processing the information and opinions coming from her friends. Quietly, she taps a search into her tablet, but doesn't actually hit send. Instead, she pauses and looks up at Rei, as if the priestess has said something *very important*.
"Rei-chan, you don't have to be wrong about Mamoru for him to be one of them," she notes thoughtfully. "If Kyouko-san can be brainwashed, it's entirely possible the Generals could be brainwashed, too. What if he's not one of them; what if they are one of ... well, whatever Chiba-san was."
Tea, though, /that/ is a concrete science, and Ami places her tablet down on the table so that it can continue recording while she slides to her feet. "Mako-chan, may I help you prepare the tea for everyone?"
Usagi is feeling a multitude of things right now. She's angry at the princess (so angry) and sad but also angry at Mamoru for him even thinking he's evil (he's not, she knows what evil feels like!) to annoyed at Rei for outing her (even though not really) and and and tea?!
"I'm not hungry, but thank you!" It's snapped, and she'll apologize and apologize and hug and cry all over Makoto later, but right now she's...Not Happy.
And then Ami says a Thing and it's a smart Thing and.
But still.
She's very confused about everything involving generals and Mamoru, and that weird jigsaw puzzle that she wishes could say doesn't fit.
So she stomps over to him, and while looming is perhaps not the best choice of words, she does her best.
And blurts out the first thing she can think of.
"We're gonna find that princess if only so I can punch her in the toe!"
And then she's tangenting. Maybe even ranting. "And if you were, you aren't, and I would know so there, and if they truly think that why not do something about it instead of being all 'come with us' maybe Ami's right, maybe they don't even know who they were two weeks ago or whatever so...so there!"
She's a very angry blonde right now. Probably even looks childish.
But come on, she's not exactly an adult yet.
Makoto is visibly taken aback by Usagi saying she's not hungry. She recovers quickly, though, and smiles aside to Ami. "It's already made," she says quietly, "but would you mind helping me bring cups to whoever wants some?"
Nothing else, for now. She's still listening as she goes to pour a cup of tea for Minako.
Mamoru's not hugging himself; that's not a thing he does. But his body language is so tight and closed off right now, especially at Rei's initial 'so you might be one of them', not looking at him--
--but that's all there is.
One by one, the girls chime in, reason things out, take what they know and what this looks like, decide each on their own that that's not what's going on. One by one, they all add pieces. One by one, these girls who didn't trust him, who've had so many misgivings about him in the past, who've gradually -- he'd hoped; why did he hope so hard? why did he want, so badly, for them to like him, for them to be his friends? Surely not just because of the Princess, because of Usagi, because of Sailor Moon -- gradually come to be friendly, and in some cases actually come to be friends with him...
These girls are on his side.
And still he keeps secrets from them.
Still he's silent about Tuxedo Kamen.
Still he's silent about healing Jadeite.
"That girl you met on my balcony," he tells Rei finally with a short nod. "She cracked her henshin device and couldn't use it. She was retired, working at a conbenie. And they took her away and turned her into Apatite. What vision...?"
But there are still things being said; he relaxes inch by inch. "I'm so glad," he breathes out. "I'm so glad you don't think so. I don't want to be that. I don't want to ever have been that... but I don't want to be that, more than anything. And-- if it doesn't fit with what I don't remember-- whatever it is you know," he glances back and forth between Rei and Mako, "I trust you."
Picking up the tea Mako made for him, Mamoru holds it in both hands, then sets it down again and just holds his hands around it, not touching it, taking the warmth but not the heat for now. He smiles gratefully at Minako, too, ducking his head slightly in a semblance of a bow. "Especially not after getting an ofuda to the face, eh?" he tries to joke toward her, but his humor's shaky enough right now that it falls entirely flat, and he shakes his head.
But what Ami says-- his eyes widen, and he looks up at her, zeroing in, focused. And they're still so bright, his eyes are so bright, and it's because all of a sudden his heart is hurting with what he hasn't been letting himself think, with what he hasn't been able to even consider. "Really? Ami-ch-- Ami-san, do you think it could be true? Jadeite yesterday-- the way he was looking at me. I--"
All of a sudden Usagi is IN HIS FACE, and he jerks his hands back from his tea so he doesn't spill it, and he leans back a little, eyes wide. "Don't-- don't punch the Princess in the toe," he says after a second, "please? She needs your help too... and I hope they don't do something about it-- though that must have been what that thing Rei-chan got rid of was? But-- I hope that's so, I--"
He can't actually keep it secret. He has to tell them. He feels like he probably screwed everything up worse than it was, but not telling them would be even worse. Mamoru does not pick up his tea again yet, because he has absolutely no doubt it'd end up all over him if he were holding it for what's next. He pulls back further into Mako's couch and says really quietly, "I hope very much that that's so. And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry if it complicates things for all of you even more. But I don't think it will. But I wasn't thinking at all when I did it. Jadeite got hurt shielding me; he saved my life and the monster opened up his side, and he kept standing between me and it even after that. He killed it. And I probably should have left him there, should have run. Maybe me being an idiot was how I got whatever Rei-chan killed, earlier..."
His hands are balled into fists at his sides, digging into the couch. But he's not looking down anymore. "I got him away into an alley and I healed it. Like I healed Usagi-chan. Because he almost got killed keeping me from getting killed. And he didn't want me to let go. He looked so-- happy. He looked so happy before I let go. He looked like he recognised me, and-
Mamoru's not hugging himself; that's not a thing he does. But his body language is so tight and closed off right now, especially at Rei's initial 'so you might be one of them', not looking at him--
--but that's all there is.
One by one, the girls chime in, reason things out, take what they know and what this looks like, decide each on their own that that's not what's going on. One by one, they all add pieces. One by one, these girls who didn't trust him, who've had so many misgivings about him in the past, who've gradually -- he'd hoped; why did he hope so hard? why did he want, so badly, for them to like him, for them to be his friends? Surely not just because of the Princess, because of Usagi, because of Sailor Moon -- gradually come to be friendly, and in some cases actually come to be friends with him...
These girls are on his side.
And still he keeps secrets from them.
Still he's silent about Tuxedo Kamen.
Still he's silent about healing Jadeite.
"That girl you met on my balcony," he tells Rei finally with a short nod. "She cracked her henshin device and couldn't use it. She was retired, working at a conbenie. And they took her away and turned her into Apatite. What vision...?"
But there are still things being said; he relaxes inch by inch. "I'm so glad," he breathes out. "I'm so glad you don't think so. I don't want to be that. I don't want to ever have been that... but I don't want to be that, more than anything. And-- if it doesn't fit with what I don't remember-- whatever it is you know," he glances back and forth between Rei and Mako, "I trust you."
Picking up the tea Mako made for him, Mamoru holds it in both hands, then sets it down again and just holds his hands around it, not touching it, taking the warmth but not the heat for now. He smiles gratefully at Minako, too, ducking his head slightly in a semblance of a bow. "Especially not after getting an ofuda to the face, eh?" he tries to joke toward her, but his humor's shaky enough right now that it falls entirely flat, and he shakes his head.
But what Ami says-- his eyes widen, and he looks up at her, zeroing in, focused. And they're still so bright, his eyes are so bright, and it's because all of a sudden his heart is hurting with what he hasn't been letting himself think, with what he hasn't been able to even consider. "Really? Ami-ch-- Ami-san, do you think it could be true? Jadeite yesterday-- the way he was looking at me. I--"
All of a sudden Usagi is IN HIS FACE, and he jerks his hands back from his tea so he doesn't spill it, and he leans back a little, eyes wide. "Don't-- don't punch the Princess in the toe," he says after a second, "please? She needs your help too... and I hope they don't do something about it-- though that must have been what that thing Rei-chan got rid of was? But-- I hope that's so, I--"
He can't actually keep it secret. He has to tell them. He feels like he probably screwed everything up worse than it was, but not telling them would be even worse. Mamoru does not pick up his tea again yet, because he has absolutely no doubt it'd end up all over him if he were holding it for what's next. He pulls back further into Mako's couch and says really quietly, "I hope very much that that's so. And I'm sorry. I'm so sorry if it complicates things for all of you even more. But I don't think it will. But I wasn't thinking at all when I did it. Jadeite got hurt shielding me; he saved my life and the monster opened up his side, and he kept standing between me and it even after that. He killed it. And I probably should have left him there, should have run. Maybe me being an idiot was how I got whatever Rei-chan killed, earlier..."
His hands are balled into fists at his sides, digging into the couch. But he's not looking down anymore. "I got him away into an alley and I healed it. Like I healed Usagi-chan. Because he almost got killed keeping me from getting killed. And he didn't want me to let go. He looked so-- happy. He looked so happy before I let go. He looked like he recognised me, and-- and for a second, I felt almost like I had family. And as much as I don't want to be part of the Dark Kingdom, as much as I'd turn my back on them if it were a choice between them and you-- if it doesn't have to be a choice...? If we can save them..."
At the offer of tea, Rei says, "Thanks, Mako-chan, but I'm fine."
She listens to Ami's words. They put a very strange taste in her mouth. "So the people we're fighting... might just be brainwashed by someone else...? If that's the case... are they really our enemies?"
Even if they aren't that bad, deep down, Rei grimly thinks that the senshi will still have to fight them... but that just makes it all the more tragic.
"Mamo-kun, I don't think you can be faulted for wanting to help someone. This might be a war, but I don't think it's the kind of war that can truly be won with brutality. Besides, that's not really the way we do things."
Rei hesitates for a moment before answering a previous question. Should she say it? People generally don't like hearing bad news, especially if it comes from a source they consider 'questionable', but this seems so important.
"The vision I'm talking about was one about you, Mamoru Chiba-san, and your past life. Specifically, your connection to the Moon Princess."
"I saw a prince, noble, and armed like a knight. I saw a princess, who I can only presume to be the Moon Princess. I saw a great disaster strike the Earth, and I saw the prince bleeding in the arms of the princess. She was weeping."
She thinks carefully back to what she saw, trying to cover the important parts.
"We have reason to think that prince was you."
Makoto, bringing back the cup of tea for Minako, pauses at the trailed-off tail-end of Mamoru's almost plea, and just sort of... blinks at him, as though he's said something very odd.
"Well, of course," she says, in a tone just shy of '*duh*' as she remembers to deliver the cup of tea. "I mean, we don't know for sure yet if that's what's going on, but - if someone's being used like that, of course we'd try to save them. Right?" Eyebrows raised, she looks around to the others for confirmation.
In the next moment, something else occurs to her, and she turns back to Mamoru. "--In the meantime, if the whole Dark Kingdom's after you and they've already turned Kyouko-san, your apartment really isn't safe, is it?" There was another question that was clearly going to follow that, but then Rei begins to speak and Mako shuts up and, turning away, bustles off to the other end of her apartment and gets into the closet after something or other.
Ami goes into the kitchen to help Makoto, but it turns out the only cup she's getting is for herself. She prepares it quietly, listening to the others speak. "I could probably arrange for him to stay at my home," Ami suggests quietly, "we have room to spare."
Obliviousness, thy name is Ami. "And besides, it would allow me to study some things I've been curious about. Although I'd probably need Rei to help me with some of it."
Ami sits back down on the couch by her tablet, then leans forward to set her tea down. "If he is the prince, then we really should keep him under observation, either way. We were all drawn together by the magic that governs the Silver Millenium; perhaps he will be drawn to the princess by some similar thing."
Of healing Jadeite, Ami offers no opinion. Either it's not really relevant, or she isn't willing to share her thoughts with Mamoru.
Minako Aino wrinkles up her nose, buried in deep thought. "What sort of studies and curiosities have you been having that would require having a boy over?" she asks, not so much to Ami as aloud, to herself.
"Anyways, this is all a bit speculative, but perhaps we should focus on determining a goal. Once we know what we want, then we know what we can do. What to think on. What to focus on," she suggests.
Usagi sighs. Slinks back a little. Even rolls her eyes. "Fine, no toe punching." Maybe toe pinching.
And he healed someone, and feels bad, which is silly but understandable.
And before she can say it, Rei is talking and Usagi really wishes she could plug up her ears and un-hear things. Because before, she heard them, but now with him she hears them and the mental image just feels like a very, very sharp blade to the chest. (And she's not being overly hyperbolic about this, she has experience!)
"You told me." It's said over her shoulder to Rei. If there's a glower, it's unintentional.
She turns back to him, and she smiles, and it's about a thousand times forced but she's trying! "I'm sorry."
For what? Snapping at him? Keeping a secret? Not being a princess? All of the above? And she's acutely aware of things she'd rather not be. So she focuses on others. "You saved him because you're Mamoru."
And then she hugs him (it's not that much of a bend) mostly because he's been looking like he needed one since walking into the Crown, but mostly more because if she didn't she'd have to keep looking at people and then, well, she'd cry. (Which she may be doing anyway already. Shhh.)
"We'll help you." She covers a sniffle with a slight giggle. "And I'll protect you from Ami-chan."
He's... not going to be set on fire for aiding and abetting the enemy? Or kicked out, or distrusted again, but worse? At once, almost all the tension rushes out of Mamoru, and he sags into the couch. And Rei and Makoto both are saying what he didn't even know he'd been praying for: that they'll try, they'll try to save them all. That that's the way they do things. He knew it was, but at the same time...
...Mamoru opens his mouth to reply to Makoto, but then Rei interrupts that thought as well, and he just stares at her.
Probably the sharp eyes of Rei and Minako pick up on how his gaze instantly flickers to Usagi once the sentences have processed. But then he's looking at Rei again, and he looks so tired, so tired. "So that's why," he says quietly. All the glaring, all the admonitions. The argument in the street. Luna being so angry with him. But really. A prince?
He shakes his head, but it slows.
Please, please find the Phantom Silver Crystal...
And all those times he died in his dreams, before a girl and a boy showed him how to break the cycle. Died protecting Her.
It's Ami who snaps him out of it, and he eyes her with suspicion. "I would rather not be an experiment if it's all the same to you," he's sure it's NOT all the same to her, "but," grudgingly, "if I can help you figure out what I can do without you hooking me up to arcane equipment in my sleep, I think I'd be all right with that. And I think Mako-chan is pulling out a bed. And Luna won't rip my face off while I'm sleeping, here."
Minako speaks up, and Mamoru nods firmly, then looks faintly sheepish. "I have no idea what to do, other than maybe finding a way to drive darkness out of people, like Blue did for Scorn before she became Cure Gull. There have to be other ways. We can't just rely on him for that."
Usagi's in front of him, then, and he looks up at her, his own blue eyes meeting hers for a moment, worried-- then softening. The corner of his mouth lifts a little at her declaration that he saved Jadeite because it's who he is, and then suddenly she's hugging him, and he folds his arms around her and holds her close, leaning his head against hers. Awkward as the hug is, logistically, he doesn't want to let go. "Thanks," he whispers.
Then the upperclassman pauses as something occurs to him, and he lightens his hold on Usagi so she can straighten if she wants to, but he doesn't actually let go of her. "Wait. No. I've been looking for the Princess for a year and a half. If the prince is supposed to be drawn to the princess, and there's still no princess anywhere, then I can't possibly be the prince."
"Well then." She wipes her face on his shoulder because there aren't tears in her eyes, nope! and slides to sit beside him on the couch. "Maybe she's hiding. Or something. We can start looking here."
She clears her throat. "Pardon me, girls! If anyone here," she raises her hand in demonstration. "Is the Moon Princess, raise your hand."
She pauses, looking around the room.
"Anyone? Anyone? Come on, now, my arm's getting tired."
Ami looks briefly upset at Mamoru's response, but only very briefly. "I wasn't going to hook you up to any machines," she says very quietly, but then shakes her head. "Anyways, here is fine; I just want to ask you to do a few things while I'm watching. While Rei is watching," she explains.
But then he's drawing false conclusions, and Ami is quick to return to the matter at hand, "No, I don't ... that's not what that means," she notes to Mamoru with a shake of her head. "And it may be that she's drawn to you. Or you two may not be drawn together whatsoever. It was merely speculation. No matter the case, I believe in the absence of a princess, we should protect you. Finding her may hinge on your safety."
Ami looks to Usagi as she raises her hand, then smiles a little. Briefly, Ami seems to be in another world, and she startles when she returns to this one. She stares at Usagi speculatively for a long moment, then picks up her tablet and clears the unfinished search to start a different one.
Minako Aino raises up her hand.
"Anyway, no matter who is drawing who, it doesn't matter. We need to do all of these searchings and fight all of these enemies. If no princesses are found and all enemies are defeated, that's like protecting her. We need to do all this. All at the same time," she says, standing up.
"And we need to work together. No matter what sorta' past stuff you might or might not remember."
And then, in support of Mamoru: "We can trust him. After all, I know where he lives and all his weaknesses."
Rei frowns at Mamoru, in a look at just silently screams 'Oh really?'.
"Well first off, we don't know for a fact that the prince is supposed to be drawn to the princess. All we know is that Prime Prince Suspect Mamoru Chiba-san has dreams about the Princess and wants to be buddies with the Princess's personal guards." She gestures around the room at the other senshi when she says that.
"Secondly, have you ever seen yourself in the mirror? The way you carry yourself sometimes... the authority, the regality... no, sorry, I can't just ignore that. You fit the Prince profile to a tee."
She flaps her hand for a moment saying, "Granted a lot of that is speculation, but hey. Maybe I'm wrong. There's a first time for everything." Her tone clearly suggests that she has never been wrong before.
She looks up at Usagi and says, "Usagi... I think if one of us was the Moon Princess, we'd know about it. Also we'd be pretty mad at Luna for making us search for someone we've already found."
Minako Aino hums 'Someday my prince will come' into Rei's ear after she talks looking into mirrors and Mamoru's regality.
Mamoru bites his lip a little to keep from grinning at Usagi with her hand up-- all alone in the room lifting her hand until Minako does too-- and he also wants to laugh but wants to cry, just a little, because
he wishes
so hard
has been wishing for months
but wouldn't that just be too convenient? The one girl in his whole life he's been drawn to...
He gives Ami an apologetic look. "Sorry, I've just been around a lot of people lately who I've had to scold very hard for thinking experimenting on people is okay. Kneejerk reaction. I'll abide being a research subject to you..."
Mamoru trails off and stares at Minako. "Uh. Thanks... I think? I think that was a vote of confidence, right?" He lightens up slightly, then gets this deferential, apologetic expression again. Not so much prince as introverted Japanese kid. "I'm sorry to be such a bother."
Then Rei.
The upperclassman stares in disbelief for a moment, then just starts turning redder and redder as she goes on. Maybe the couch will swallow him. Maybe Usagi will hide him behind her tiny self. "I-- I don't--" LUNA. YES. HE WILL FOCUS ON LUNA. "Well she doesn't know either, right? It could be one of you. I... um, haha. I used to keep a list. Well, more like a leaderboard. Of who was most likely to be the Moon Princess. Ami-chan was on it for a while!"
At this point, the 'new information' in this discussion has started to ebb, and Ami has devolved into research. Picking up her tea, she blows on it gently, and holds the mug near her nose while she reads.
The tea just about gets cool enough for her to sip--and sip she does--when Mamoru explains that he had a leaderboard of princesses ... and that Ami was on it. Ami nearly chokes on her tea. Nearly. Instead she just sits very still for a moment while she swallows, eyes wide as saucers, and then replaces the tea on the table. And then she stares at him.
"I can't be the Moon Princess," she says, faintly more than whisper. And if her cheeks are a little pink, it's obviously because she just drank hot tea, right? But then, he said 'was' on it; clearly he came to that conclusion already. Right?
Rei turns to Minako and glares. GLARES. It is not a cold glare, as Rei does not do cold. It is an angry glare.
"I just mean... geeze. Nevermind, you guys always want to overcomplicate things."
She waves her hand in the air dismissively. "Think whatever you want, but Mamoru-san, even if your feelings have changed since then, that doesn't change who you were."
Then there is mention of Ami being a likely Moon Princess, and the leaderboard, and Rei, perhaps for once in a while, cracks a smile. "A leaderboard? Really? Well... I mean, I guess at least you were trying, right?"
Rei shakes her head, and says, "I call 'not it' for being the Moon Princess. If I was going to be a princess I'd want to rule over Mars."
She finally sets her arm down. She'd intended to put it down shortly, but it'd just stayed up for awhile. Then she flexes her fingers because they're a bit tingly.
"Ami-chan would make a good princess." She hums in thought. "All you girls would!" She sighs. "This is hard."
And involves too much thinking. She doesn't want to think much more on this, she'll get a headache!
"Luna looks up from her seat beside Ami. "Truthfully, I believe the princess is more hidden than any of you were in the beginning."
Minako Aino clucks her tongue exactly once. "Heh, of course you'd wanna be the ruler of Mars. I hear men are from Mars..."
Mamoru waves a hand around. "You were all on the list. I don't keep it anymore. I can probably dig it up and give you the most likely candidates I ended with, excepting yourselves since you're so dead set that none of you are she, but..."
He nods to Luna. "Sometimes I get headaches when I try to think about who she is. There's probably some kind of magic suppressing the knowledge. I mean, if we all knew each other back then, and we knew her, logically we should be able to recognise her like we recognised each other, right? And if we're all here in Tokyo, she must be, too." He bites back a sigh; it's truncated. "But. I'm still really tired. It kind of happens when I heal something really bad. And I'm NOT skipping another day of school."
Reluctantly, he gets up from Makoto's couch, then holds his hands out to draw Usagi up as well. "And since--" he glances across the room, then smiles lopsidedly. "Since I've had that determined for me-- and I'm very grateful-- I'm going to go to bed. I'll pick up my car in the morning. And since none of you goes to Infinity, I'll ask Akemi-san and a couple of other magical girls I know there if they'll have my back while I'm at school."
He does. He does look really, really tired. "And if I run into any trouble, instead of just texting you all, I'll call for help on the Virtue broadcast. Thank you. A lot. All of you. So very, very much."
If he is a prince, at least he has the grace to NOT make that sound like a dismissal-- of the Senshi, in Sailor Jupiter's home. Because it's not-- if they stick around, he'll just put the pillow over his head!
Ami disables the recorder on her tablet, then takes another sip of her tea before replacing it on the saucer. She hasn't finished it, but she can also sense a cue to leave when it's given.
"I wonder if I should ..." she starts to say aloud, then shakes her head and leans forward. "No, I don't think that's the right idea."
"Good luck, Chiba-san," Ami says to him quietly. "And don't worry, we will solve this puzzle, eventually, and find your princess for you."
"Right, well..." starts Rei. "... If you need us you know how to find us. Makoto-chan here is perfectly capable of handling a youma if one shows up, and if she needs back-up she knows how to find us, too."
The miko starts to stand up and straighten out her skirt. Turning to Luna, she adds, "If that's true, then it's possible that we might not recognize the princess as quickly. Yet, if we're meant to find her, then it stands to reason that she's meant to be found, right? We'd have to find some way of knowing..."
Rei turns towards the door, but not completely. "See you around, Mamoru-san. Take care of yourself until then."
Usagi watches Mamoru for a long moment before she feels Luna's paw on her knee. "We should get home before your parents worry."
Usagi nods and, after giving Mamoru another but quick hug, stands up, scooping Luna into her arms.
"Good night, all! Sweet dreams!"
Despite her sudden cheery face, she knows she's going to stay up very late just thinking about things.
And despite her promise, she still wants to punch the princess in the toe.
Minako Aino reassures Mamoru that it's quite easy to pose as an Infinity student. "You'll get extra help and support. I promise," she says.
"In fact, maybe we can get some of that cross-cultural buddy buddy sister-school action going. It'll mean double the homework, but I'm sure we can all handle it," she says, sounding super serious. Undercover work serious.