It's a crisp, pleasant day at the Hikawa Shrine. The sky is mostly clear, sun warming the late-autumn chill, with fat white clouds drifting lazily in the breeze. Noon has already passed and now it's closer to sunset. There aren't too many people at the shrine itself, and things are still and mostly quiet. Near the entrance, there is a boy with a guitar. He's maybe thirteen years old, the edges of him a little rough-warn, and he's seemingly lost in his own world as he plays his music quietly.
Elsewhere, somewhere that isn't easily spotted, is Jadeite. He is in his full uniform, as carefully pressed and proper as usual. He stands all gathered up in one long, clean line, his right hand on his left elbow as his left hand presses near to his chin. He is /observing/.
Mamoru's leaning against one of the posts on the front porch, scrolling through stuff on his phone. "She'd better be bringing chocolate," he mutters in Rei's direction. "I also have something to tell you. It has to do with moonlight and Usagi-chan's concentration levels." He glances up from his phone sidelong, watching Rei's face. "Text the phone that texted you when Corvus almost ate Tokyo."
Rei Hino, dressed in her miko outfit, comes out to the front porch with a tray of snacks. Of course she brought snacks. Mostly because someone's always eating them. Cookies, sugar-loaded candies, and so on. A few sodas are on the tray. There are no chocolates. Most of it is store-bought stuff, unless someone decided to bring something else.
When she hears the strumming of a guitar, she asks, "Who would be playing music here?" She looks in the direction of the guitar player.
What the heck? Where did this guy come from? Is this one of grandpa's crazy ideas?!
Mamoru distracts her from that with his talk about cell phones and ravens. "Uhh... wait... which one would that be? Um..."
Rei is now fiddling with her phone, finds Tuxedo Kamen's number, and sends a text:
'Hey a guy I know said I should text you. Is something up?'
Minako Aino answers Rei. "A guitar player. Duh."
SShe mostly hangs around being lazy and casual, chastizing Rei for having so many high-calorie sodas and snacks and contributing to the dissolution of youth health.
"And... oh, hey, I'm the goddess of LoveLove. I should be the one trying to set up my friends," she says, flashing Mamoru the least convincing hateful look.
%rOf course she buys chocolate! She knows Mamo-chan's gonna be there!
(There's a big bar of the good stuff, too, that she's gonna sneak him and then ask for some bites later!)
And of course, she bout a lot of stuff. About four or five bags full of it.
And they're kinda heavy...
Usagi waddles down the sidewalk with her bags of goodies, pausing every block or so to rest her hands.
She smiles at the guitar player, but can't wave because her hands are full.
The trek up those billionty steps is torture...finally, she makes it, and finally, she's plopping on the porch.
Half DEAD, she wiggles her hand in one of the bag and shakily holds up the candy bar for him.
"Hi guys...what we doing..."
The guitar player doesn't really seem to be acknowledging anyone's presence. He's lost in his music. His quiet, disjointed, somewhat off-setting music. There's just something that isn't quite *right* about it, like the tail-end of a Tool song, despite the fact that it's all coming from this one little acoustic guitar.
The birds and other small animals that usually frequent the shrine don't seem to be going near him.
Makoto has contributed to the selection of snacks, because of course she did. Since Rei mostly covered the sweets (and Usagi's brought even more), Mako made rice balls with an assortment of fillings and some apples cut into bunny-shaped slices - quick and simple stuff, but good for offsetting mass quantities of sugar.
She's just finished cutting the apple wedges so they wouldn't get brown sitting out for too long, so she emerges with the plate of them just in time for Usagi's arrival. "Usagi-chan!" She takes in the sight of those heavy bags with faint dismay. "You could've called me to come help you carry things, you know."
Mamoru's pocket buzzes, and he takes a little black flip-phone out of it and opens it, and texts Rei with 'nothing especially pressing, just information-sharing'. And then he sticks his tongue out at Minako. "I'm not setting anyone up, jeez--"
And there's Usagi huffing up the steps, and his grin is unreserved. She splats herself on the porch and he pockets both his phones, then leans down to take the chocolate bar in one hand and brush her hair away from her forehead with the other. "Yo, Odango," he says, corners of his eyes crinkling up. "I'd've--" he starts, but then Makoto comes out with even more snacks, and he has the grace to look sheepish because he didn't even meet Usagi at the top of the steps.
He glances back to Rei, then lifts his eyebrows at Usagi as he straightens. "Well, I hope we're going to do SOME work, because I have that ethics project and Saburo-kun's not cooperating with the romance novels part... do you know if that kid has a hat out or something? The one with the guitar."
"Thanks Mako-chan," says Rei, seeing the treats she's brought. Rei can technically cook, sortof. It's edible. It's not quite Makoto-tier, though.
When she sees Mamoru pull out his phone and text her back, Rei suddenly STARES at him. Her eyes BORE into him. Metaphorically. "You... you... you... you've got to be..."
She stutters to find words that she can say without blurting out secret identity stuff while a STRANGE GUITAR PLAYER is around. Eventually she settles on: "You're a jerk, Mamo-kun!" Pointing an accusing finger at Usagi she says to Mamoru, "You're just as bad as she is!"
Rei places her food on a nearby table, because of course there is a nearby table. Then she turns towards the guitar player, storms towards him really, because he's really offputting and as the miko of the shrine she has to say something.
"Who are you?!"
A rude thing to say to a complete stranger, but something about him really disturbs her.
Minako Aino just makes the most exaggerated gaspy sound of amazement at Mamoru. "Ooooh, that was clever. 'Call this awesome guy's number', you said. And she did and then your phone rang. Smooth as a cucumber!" she says, flashing her thumbs up so obviously that Rei can see even as she stomps away.
Then she goes about organizing and prettying up the snacks, collecting them from Makoto and Usagi's hands and gesturing to each little division before thanking whomever brought that particular treat. She opens up her bag and deposits a sleeping cat on the treat table, then claims a little section and thanks herself, even though she technically didn't bring any snacks.
"Teamwork!"
%rUsagi, still a bit out of breath, grins as she sticks her tongue out at Mamoru. Odango. Pshh.
When Mako-chan comes out with more food, she rolls to a sit, because MAKO-FOOD!
"It's okay, Mako-chan!"
Her nose tilts up in the direction rice balls. Yummy!
She starts and looks at Rei, suddenly feeling Very Incensed for some reason. "What did I do?!" She reaches over and picks out a package of marshmallow candies and chucks them at her head. (Poor aim + tired noodle arms = little chance of a hit)
"And stop yelling at random people!"
Mamoru's comment about an ethics project catches Mako's attention, and she looks toward him, brows lifting. "If you guys need examples for your research, I can lend you some," she offers cheerfully.
Only when Rei explodes into indignation does she twig to the fact that there's more going on her right now than just food and idle chit-chat; Makoto pauses, looking from Mamoru to Rei and back a couple times until she puts two and two together and realizes what that must've been just now.
Whereupon she gives Mamoru a look of faintly exasperated amusement. "Really?" she says, trying not to laugh. "That's really how you decided to go with that?"
The guitar player doesn't stop playing. He does, however, cant his head to the side a little bit, and open one eye to consider Rei with a lazy, careless sort of demeanor. He smiles, and it seems for a moment like he has too many teeth in his smile. He dosen't, but there's just that *impression* of it, like the expression is too long, tugged up too far on each edge and sagging too much in the middle. His voice slides into being over the music, a perfect fit and wholly jarring, raspy like steel on a whetstone. "Shouldn't you already know me? I am Iki-Ryo."
Mamoru's eyes glitter with amusement, and his grin quirks up on one side when Rei calls him a jerk. He draws himself up a little when she accuses Usagi, trollface turning ever so slightly chiding, but Usagi's got herself handled; he shrugs expansively at Makoto. "I wasn't really sure how else--" he confesses, then just straight up laughs at Minako. "Sure, I'll take credit there."
But as Minako goes off to place Artemis on the table and fuss with the snacks and thank people, his eyes track Rei going over to the guitar player, and as much silliness is going on in the background, there's a tension in her that's different from the aggravation she uses with her friends, and he falls silent, watching.
"I'm not yelling, Usagi! This is my inside voice!" counters Rei.
It is not in any way an 'inside voice'.
Her attention goes back to the guitar player, and his response gets a blank stare from her. Really? You're claiming that?
"Yeah, if you're Iki-Ryo then I'm the fifth beetle."
She is a hair's breadth away from telling this guy to get lost... but something is very strange about this guy. She really doesn't like it. It's disturbing her in a fundamental way that she can't quite explain.
Could he actually be...? No, no that's crazy.
Rei starts wondering if she has an ofuda on her right now.
Minako Aino shouts with her chest and projects that she is also using her indoor voice. "But it's fine, 'cuz we're outdoors!" She also claims she's a bug of some sort, not really knowing why Rei is way out there chatting instead of hanging out with the cool people (plus a cat).
"I mean, seriously guys," she says, all quiet and conspiratorial. "Some random dude shows up and she's over there bragging about her musical career~"," she says. Even if she overheard more talk, she doesn't have any idea what people are talking about.
Usagi chews her lip. She still doesn't know what she's as bad as whatever as.
(Her fist clenches as 'Rei' is hissed under her breath, vowing to seek answers and possibly vengence.)
Then she blinks and looks at Mamoru. "Oh, did you tell her?"
How? When?
How many know?
Oh crap, that means there's only one left...
"Can you tell Luna, too? I suggest padding."
She looks at Minako. "Rei's a bug and it's somehow a music career?" Why the fifth? Who were the other bugs?
GASP!
"REI ARE YOU IMPLYING I'M A COCKROACH?!"
This earns another chucked treat aimed for the girl's head.
This is, probably, a way to deal with the Serious Face Mamoru has going on. He's got those eyebrows going on, and she can tell things are either going south soon, or something like it.
"A priestess should have more *faith*, don't you think?" The guitarist rasps, voice like sharkskin. He finally stops playing the guitar, slapping his hand against the fretboard with a jangle of discoordinated notes. His second eye opens, only to reveal that there isn't any eye in there at all, just a blank, starless void. He starts to laugh.
He starts to laugh very, *very* loudly. It's the kind of sound that crawls through the air, that finds its way under skin and bubbles there, malcontent. It raises hackles and grips spines. It is a terrible sound.
As abruptly as he started laughing, the guitarist leaps to his feet. There's a sudden rush of dark energy around him, roaring about his body, and he starts to *change*. He becomes taller, more sickly-looking, his one eye migrating to the middle of his face. His mouth stretches to take up far, far too much of his face and his whole body takes on the hunched, burly attitude of a gorilla. The guitar becomes a shamisen that seems too small for his enormous hands. He leaps back and away from Rei, soaring up to land heavily on one of the sweeping points of a nearby roof. "I. AM. IKI-RYO!"
From his hiding place, Jadeite drops his left hand and simply leans in a little, attention needle-sharp. He makes no move to interfere.
Mamoru pushes off his post, chocolate bar in hand. "Let's run away, right? Inside. Where it's safe." His voice lowers and he backs toward the doorway. "And someone can distract it so Rei can run away too."
Then the screen door's slammed as the boy vanishes inside, and there's nothing like 'prince power MAKE UP' or anything because duh, but the girls can rest assured that Tuxedo Kamen is climbing out Rei's window into the nearest tree at this very moment, figuring out angles and speed and fields of vision.
"I have faith. I strongly believe..."
"... that you're a nut, regardless of whether or not you're a god of anger and envy."
Rei's tongue is as sharp as ever, though it's a bit unusual to see her turn her anger against someone she doesn't even know. She feels threatened by a strange guy suddenly showing up at her shrine. Where she lives. Where her friends are.
The swelling dark energy isn't making her feel any better.
The eyeless void isn't improving things either.
Well, at least at this point Rei feels safe applying violence to this guy. He went right out of the 'just a normal visitor' comfort zone and well into a 'oh it's someone I can beat up' comfort zone.
He barely completes his transformation before Rei has an ofuda out, and is chanting.
"Rin, Pyou, Tou, Sha, Kai, Jin, Retsu, Zai, Zen!"
Flinging the ofuda at the god?'s forehead, she turns to shout to the others.
"Go! Hide!" She points to the shrine. She's hoping that they'll find a place to henshin while she keeps the monster occupied.
Yeah, like what Mamoru just did.
Minako Aino/Sailor Venus also does the speedy in-and-out of the shrine to transform, with the intent being to distract monsters away from Rei. Despite the suddenly dangerous situation, the little back-of-her-mind hope of Rei transforming in her room and also jumping out of the window occurs to her, but it's (unfortunately) brushed aside for more important matters.
"HEY! HEY! You, cyclops gorilla! How dare you pervert the good name of Iki-Ryo, the successful... musician? Martial artist? It's slipped my mind right now, but I know he (or she) wouldn't be harassing our shrine's pretty priestess!" she shouts.
She's clambered up onto the overhang of the shrine, but realizes that distracting the villainous thing this way is a bad idea, so she jumps off and heads vaguely towards the trees near the street.
"Yes, run away." She's staring at Iki-ryo as she stands, then realizes she's probably a bit too calm.
So she shrieks. All theatrical like. "I'M TOO YOUNG AND PRETTY TO DIE!"
And she scrambles back inside, yoinking Artemis by the scruff as she does.
(Hey, maybe HE can tell Luna!)
Once there, she kisses the kitty on the head before transforming. She wonders if there should be a moment or two before they go out, but she hears Venus out there already.
But still.
"Do we all rush out at once?"
It's truly remarkable how quickly the area clears when the youma reveals itself - like the sidewalk when a sudden storm rolls in, everybody scurrying for shelter.
The magical transformations that occur the moment they're inside and out of line of sight are admittedly a little less comparable. "We can't leave Rei-chan to deal with that thing all by herself!" Sailor Jupiter answers Sailor Moon's question, even as the last crackle of voltage from her henshin ebbs around her. "Come on, let's go!"
Rather than waiting for an answer, she grabs Usagi's hand and bolts for the exit, towing her teammate along with her until the monster's in view again. "HEY!"
At this point, the youma is clutching at the edge of the roof, fingers and toes equally adept at gripping. It has that shamisen in one hand, but it's progressed to banging it on the ground, the instrument giving a jangle of sound in protest with every gesture. It's legitimately trying to taunt Rei. "Your temper cannot save you from me! I AM the anger that burns in your veins, I am the rage that blo--"
This is about the point at which it gets smacked in the face with the ofuda. It curls over the youma's face and it freezes, free hand lifted into the air with its fingers twitching. For a couple of critical moments, it doesn't seem to be able to move at all.
The faintest hint of hoarfrost creeps in over the edges of the ofuda and suddenly it's going black, falling free of the youma. It roars its frustration, all clever words as blacked out as that slip of paper, and this time it swings its shamisen like a sledgehammer. The instrument itself doesn't make contact with anything in particular, but there's a blast of noise and a narrow wave of dark energy jets out from the far end of the shamisen, barrelling along towards the senshi as they emerge from the shrine.
Well-- they're henshined and Rei's not. As soon as that ofuda connects with the youma's face and it freezes in place, Tuxedo Kamen rockets up out of the tree with an explosion and fluttering-down of drying leaves, black and red silk fluttering behind him like a flag, then lands impossibly lightly next to Rei--
--for a split second. Sure he's going to pay for it from multiple angles, he uses that split second to unceremoniously scoop Rei up in his arms and bound away again, bringing her over the roof of the house part of the shrine and behind it.
Oh yes he lets go the instant they're on the ground like she's made of lava and knives, hands up and backing away for a second before bolting so she can't ofuda him.
For once, Rei's actually not annoyed at Tuxedo Kamen for pulling her out of it. At the very least it makes it look somewhat like she's just a normal miko instead of an angry miko senshi that's about to set things on fire.
"Thanks," she mutters, almost begrudgingly. Is she going to ofuda him anyways? She's reaching into her pockets for something... is it another ofuda?!
No, no it's just her henshin pen.
She's quick to henhsin, and before long she's running through the shrine to get back to the front part, now appearing as Sailor Mars instead of Rei Hino.
Arriving a bit later than the others, she only catches the last bit of the musical attack, the dark beam hitting her as she comes out, sending her sprawling to the ground.
When she gets up, she says, "The shrine is a peaceful place of reflection and meditation! Loud noises and property damage are against the rules! In the name of Mars, I'll chastise you!"
Shrugs and follows quickly out, hopping to the roof for a better vantage point, in time to see Mars get scooped away and she arcs her eyebrows at the pair as they land.
(Is she one of the angles he's worried about? Could very well be, but first there's a scary one eyed flying purple ofuda eater.)
This is, of course, done in a split second.
The rest of that split second is bracing herself against the sudden wave of dark energy.
She slides down the slope of the roof, boots trying to find traction until she's bracing herself with her hands as well.
Ug. She's gonna need a spiritual enema after this...
For now, she's suddenly very cranky.
After she regains her bearings, she leaps back to the ridge pole.
"Hold it right there!" Rei is Marsified by now already, and there's other talking going on, but maybe if there's more voices to hear it will confuse them? So it's speech time.
She may be rusty. She hasn't done this in awhile. "Shrines are a place where the music should be as beautiful as the mikos who work there, and this miko is the most beautiful of them all! But as you discovered her tongue is sharp and pointy. But I, Sailor Moon, am the only one allowed to yell at her like that! In the name of the moon, I will punish you!"
"Now that the shrine girl has escaped, senshi! Get out here next to me. Also, watch out!"
/Sailor Venus's warning comes across as more factual than worried or pressured, offered to her teammates rushing out through the door towards dark energy almost as an afterthought. Not quite on time.
"Oh Mars, you think that particular shrine maiden is the most beautiful? I hear some of her hired help is just a little bit prettier," she calls, before rushing at an angle out towards the street to effectively 'box in' their adversary.
"Erk--" So on second thought, yelling to draw the monster's attention the second she came out of the shrine might have been a poorly-thought-out idea. Moon escaped upwards; Sailor Jupiter has only just enough opportunity to throw herself bodily out of the way of that blast of dark energy, going into an awkward tumble before she manages to right herself.
She recovers quickly, however, ending the pell-mell roll with her legs under her and a hand braced against the ground to help her spring to her feet. Once she's up, Jupiter doesn't hesitate, nor pause to join in on the speechifying and banter. No, Jupiter simply gathers herself and charges the youma head-on, fists trailing electricity.
There are many speeches being made, which the youma would like to respond to, but it has a limited attention span. Most of that span is taken up, currently, by the fact that there is a girl with lightning fists charging it. Melee by necessity takes most of its concentration. It ignores how the senshi seem to be trying to surround it, it ignores being told more than once its noise is unseemly, and instead swings its shamisen again, this time trying to bring the body of the thing down, solidily, on the top of Sailor Jupiter's head. KABONG!
Moon's compliment makes Mars blush a bit, then Venus says her part and Mars responds with, "What? Why are you asking me?"
Also what hired help? Is Minako talking about herself?!
Nevermind any of that! There's a youma and it's attacking!
Following suit after Jupiter, Mars jumps in from another angle, landing right next to the youma, placing her hands infront of her, thumbs together and fingers splayed out. A large ball of fire shoots from her hands, aimed straight for that shamisen of his!
Minako Aino/Sailor Venus is talking about herself. She wasn't clear about it.... but she was clearly talk about herself.
She also flexes her fingers a bit awkwardly, standing at a distance and watching Jupiter literally lead the charge followed by Mars thereafter.
"Oh. Wait. We're doing it like that?" she says, uncertain.
But she also follows suit, running up with her friends to start kicking at youmas like a soccer game broke out on its face.
Sailor Moon lets out a yelp. "Jupiter!"
She moves as Venus commanded, her finger tips already at her tiara.
And then tactics are changed and one skinned knee later, she's moving for a line of sight that (hopefully) won't get her friends a tiara to the butt.
"MOON TIARA ACTION!"
Ug! All she wants to do is eat sweets and sneak cuddles with Mamo-chan.
And now this guy is probably concussing one of her best friends! The JERK!
The trouble with a headlong charge is that it's really hard to stop all that momentum on a moment's notice - like, say, when a hulking youma is bringing a shamisen down on your head. At the last moment Sailor Jupiter drops her shoulder and shifts her path just enough that it doesn't quite catch her squarely on the top of her noggin, but the instrument still clips the side of her head hard enough to create a burst of stars at the edge of her vision before making a solid impact onto her shoulder, hard enough to drive her skidding down onto her knees. KABONG.
"...what the heck?" The sizzle of electrical energy dies away from her fingertips as she lifts a hand to her temple, blinking after-images out of her vision. No question, that really hurt.
"Now you're making me mad--!"
Flames bloom overhead as Mars goes for the shamisen; Venus is going in high and she can hear Sailor Moon's shout, so Jupiter stays low. Bracing a hand against the ground, she shifts her weight and snaps out one of those long, powerful legs, driving the heel of her boot in a sharp shot aimed for the youma's kneecap.
There's something to be said for teamwork. A lot of somethings, really, all of which are somethings that the unseen master of this particular youma and his brothers could probably stand to hear. And he's watching, *oh* is he watching, very carefully and studiously not getting involved. No reason to get char on his uniform, after all.
The point is, there are many senshi, working in coordination, and only one kind of smug, dumb youma with his now-dented shamisen. He brings it up to try and take another swing at Sailor Jupiter, like it's a cudgel, and instead Mars' fire catches it at the top of its arc, sending the brittle wood up like, appropriately, tinder. The youma turns to deal with this new fire-flinging *problem* and that's when Venus' strikes come raining down on its face, rocking it backwards and putting it off balance. It's the perfect opportunity for those squat, otherwise-stable legs it has to get swept out by one deft green-booted motion. Screeching its rage, the youma goes down onto its side, landing on the flaming wreckage of the shamisen.
This is where the Moon Tiara finally makes it to the party. The youma's scream modulates, spreads out and becomes tinny and then--
--Then it just *shatters*, leaving nothing but the faint dusting of over-fired clay in its stead.
As the monster comes crashing down, Mars backs away from it in case there's some kind of desperation attack or other surprise waiting for her. When nothing happens, she turns to the others and says, "Well... thanks everyone! That was kindof unexpected..."
She laughs kindof awkwardly, and she must be feeling a little off because she's not yelling at anyone at this particular moment.
She walks up to the shattered bits of youma, looking down at them.
"I wonder... what it was after, trying to attack here? Energy, maybe?"
Mars remains blissfully unaware of the fact that they're being watched. For the moment, anyways.
Minako Aino/Sailor Venus just snaps her fingers and laughs, too, not awkward but loud and noble and using Rei's 'outside voice'. She's specifically trying to emulate that.
"Well! Good job, all. Congratulations. That was awesome! I'm so proud of you. It was like an American movie all up on that youma!" she says, making punchy motions.
Everything's done? That actually worked? Well, huzzah!
She stands next to Mars, nudging her toe at a bit of pottery.
"If he wanted energy, wouldn't he have...tried taking some before he attacked? All he did was annoy us until you confronted him."
And then she has fluttery hands all over Jupiter, checking for bumps and booboos because Kabonk!
"Oooooo? Which movie?"
The screen door on the porch closes, and Mamoru comes out, looking somewhat rumpled. He leans on the railing and calls over, "Hey, thanks, you guys! The snacks are completely untouched! Was that really a god?"
In the wake of the youma's defeat, Sailor Jupiter just kind of... sits down on the ground, wincing at Sailor Venus's very-outside-voice. "Thanks, but maybenotsoloudplease?"
Sailor Moon is allowed to fuss and flutter to her own satisfaction; Mako will probably have a knot where the shamisen clocked her, but that's about it. "I can't believe the stupid thing kabonged me," she complains, more irritated with herself than anything else.
The question of what it was after soon has her looking more thoughtful, however. "I wonder," Jupiter muses. "There was a youma at the nursery a couple days ago... that one turned back into a person when it was defeated, though."
"I don't know if it was a god or not," says Mars, "but I doubt it was an actual one. Maybe a monster made to look like a god, sure. I'm not sure what the god of anger and envy would be doing here, anyways."
Mars rubs her forehead, then looks over to Jupiter. "That looked like it hurt. Are you going to be okay?"
She reaches behind her head to scratch the back of her hair... only to find... bits of candy? In her hair?
"W-... why do I have candy in my hair?"
She inspects it closely. It looks a lot like the candy that Usagi brought.
Suddenly she's behind Usagi. "Moon-chan were you throwing candy at me?!"
Minako Aino/Sailor Venus shouts in response: "Not a god, but a goddess. A goddess of LoveLove and beauty!" she says. She gives Jupiter a pat on the back and an encouraging smile before jumping away!
And going inside. And becoming Minako again. And eating up the most delicious of snacks while nobody can chastize her.
Sailor Moon wilts in relief when she's assured Jupiter is not concussed! She gives her a brief hug, squishy and full of hums.
And she waves at Mamoru, smile bright. "You're welcome!"
It's obvious that she's barely refraining from...oh to heck with it, she has heart eyes and there are bubbles everywhere.
Which immediatly crack and shatter into a million pieces.
"Ah...well..." And then she is indignant! "You said he's as bad as I am! What did I do, hmmm? And he's not as bad as me, anyway, for whatever I did! So HAH!"
Mamoru jogs down the steps, an apple slice in his mouth, and heads towards Jupiter and flutter-Moon. "Here, let me see," he says, crouching down and reaching to touch her head once Usagi's hands are also out of the way. "Obviously you'll be fine but there's no reason to suffer."
At contact, there's a dim gold glow and the sensation of a breath of the freshest air, pulling the headache away, soothing the knot. "The nursery? Which nursery?" he asks, fingertips drifting away before he stands up and offers a hand up.
He also glances to Usagi and Rei, and his eyebrows go up. "Sailor Moon... people will probably be coming back any minute, now that there's nothing scaring the wildlife. You guys might want to get out of here before someone asks questions."
Jupiter winces again - such loud voices her friends have - but smiles wryly up at Moon and Mars and the approaching Mamoru from her seat on the ground. "I'm okay," she promises. "Mostly just embarrassed."
Despite her words, she sits still and lets Mamoru do his thing, and can't disguise the relief that comes over her expression as the lingering headache subsides. "The one at the end of the shopping center," she tells him, accepting the hand up. "--Thanks. they were selling roses that drank blood. It looked like--"
Abruptly Jupiter catches herself mid-sentence, nodding awkwardly at the reminder. "...Yeah, we should probably go, huh?" If by 'go' we mean at least 'go inside.'
Mars gets increasingly annoyed as Moon basically confesses to being a candy-thrower! "Oh, yeah? Well you--"
Mamoru brings up a good point. They probably shouldn't be hanging out here. Though she can't help but feel like he's only bringing it up so that he can break up the fight.
"Uh... right..." says Mars in response to Mamoru. She turns to Usagi, saying, "I'm only forgiving you because you said I was pretty."
With that she super jumps off over the shrine to find a safe place to dehenshin. There's still time to enjoy snacks.
Minako Aino comes out in a moment. "I hear talking about 'pretty'. Who is talking about the awesomest miko behind her back?" she asks, mouth full of snack.
She's all dressed up as a Minako again, with nice long sleeves and an expression suggesting she's forgotten about previous fights already.
"Was somebody throwing food? A bunch of it is missing. How irresponsible!"
For a split second, Sailor Moon levels a deathly glare at Mamoru. She almost had her answer!
And then she sighs and hops away to become Usagi again.
"Yeah, well, I wasn't thinking clearly!"
Hah! She got the last word in!
Fully Usagi now, she spots the chocolate bar inside. Her face turns sly and evil and DEVIOUS as she EXACTS HER REVENGE by shoving it under her shirt. He'll never suspect!
(Of course, it's probably easily visible in some capacity, because large candy bars aren't exactly known to be hidden well on someone shorter than bathroom stall doors...especially sideways.)
She trails out after Minako and gasps, pointing her finger.
"Lies! I only threw candy twice!"