Once her job interview had been hopefully successfully completed Ami decided to finally get some answers. Since she knew from bitter experience that attempting to find Setsuna and then trying to pry answers out of her would be a frustrating exercise in futility at best she decided to go after the easier target first. Leaving the castle she headed back in the direction of the main-street shopping area where she had earlier seen somebody else she might get information from.
She had only caught a glimpse of the white haired man inside the cat-shop/Mau-consulate when she had walked by with Ranma and Artemis had only very rarely assumed his humanoid form around her in the past, but she was nonetheless certain that it had to have been him. As far as she knew Luna and Artemis were the only two surviving Mau on Earth at the moment.
So if it really was Minako's stupid tom-cat that was running a business here then he owed her some answers, like for example why he had not let anybody responsible know about the creation of a school for magical girls in Tokyo.
As she neared the shop she started to hear voices from inside. The voices that were loudly arguing and, confirming her suspicions, they were also very familiar. Curious, Ami stopped out of sight next to the open door to listen in.
"We are not going into business with a bunch of feathery bird-brained avians," a female voice declared forcefully.
The voice unmistakably was that of Luna, Usagi's feline pet and advisor. She seemed rather angry and disgusted at whatever had just been suggested to her.
"Don't be like this, Luna,"a male voice that Ami identified as belonging to Artemis could be heard trying to win the female Mau over to his side. "I know for a fact that you actually like birds."
"I like poultry, Artemis," Luna clarified coldly. "That is not the same thing."
So this was how the cats acted when there was no one around, Ami concluded. She felt a bit guilty in listening in on what appeared to be a private conversation, but she justified it to herself with the facts that they had apparently kept secrets from the girls and that anybody arguing this loudly had no reasonable expectation of privacy anyway.
"But we usually get along with Phobos and Deimos just fine," Artemis insisted. "I have never even seen you as much as say a bad word to them."
"Only for the sake of our girls," Luna admitted with a sigh. "It just would not be proper for a servant of the princess to pounce on one of her senshi's retainers during meetings."
Ami kept listening in suspension. She had never really thought about things like that. Sure, Rei's crows and Usagi and Mianko's cats technically should have been predator and prey to each other but she had always assumed that being magical, sentient and as they had finally discovered aliens would supercede that. Apparently some things ran deeper than they appeared.
"But it shows that we can work together if we really have to," Artemis had meanwhile taken up the argument again. "And at the moment it looks like we might need to. Running a shop like this is a lot of work and the Coronians are in pretty much the same situation as ourselves. If we pooled resources and worked together at this we could share the burden. I have already spoken with them and they are game."
"Yes, they are," Luna criticized acidly. "Which is the whole basis of my objection to that stupid idea of yours."
"Oh come on," Artemis complained. "You know exactly what I meant and you also know that I am right. You just don't want to admit it."
"Hmph! Next you will suggest that we invite some rodents to participate in this joint venture of yours too,"Luna replied exasperatedly changing the topic apparently unwilling to challenge Artemis' logic directly.
It was a bit disconcerting for Ami to hear Artemis as the voice of reason while Luna remained stubbornly immature. The roles were almost a complete switch from their normal behavior.
"Maybe you are right, Luna. That sounds like a good idea," Artemis answered with a lightly teasing tone in his voice obviously pretending to take Luna's sarcastic remark as a serious suggestion. "I don't quite remember: what planet was Iron Mouse from again?"
The not very serious question was obviously designed to enrage Luna further. A move that proved to Ami that Artemis seeming reasonability and maturity were only fleeting at best.
"Read my lips, white-pelt," Luna now hissed dangerously. "Absolutely! No! Rodents!"
"Well, what about..." Artemis began to suggest something that judging by his tone he must have found incredibly funny but he ended up interrupted himself with a pained yelp before he could share it.
"Don't you even dare to think about suggesting canines!" Luna threatened in a rather feral voice.
Ami decided that now would be a good moment to make her presence known and enter the shop to break up the fight before anybody got hurt.
"Hello everyone, I am looking for cat leashes for some friends of mine who obviously can't keep track of their pets," Ami declared loudly as she entered the store.
The picture that presented itself to her was almost priceless. Artemis was in his humanoid form standing behind the counter. Luna was standing on it in her normal shape of a black cat. Artemis was cradling an injured hand that was adorned with three parallel extremely fresh looking scratches and Luna had a paw raised in preparation to meet out some more punishment. Both of them where frozen in their respective positions and looking at Ami with big eyes. It looked a lot funnier on Luna.
"Hello Ami," Artemis greeted finding his voice first. "Fancy meeting you here of all places. Small world isn't it?"
Luna groaned obviously unhappy with her partner's quick wit or lack thereof.
"Yes, Artemis," She added sarcastically. "Of all the magic pet-shops, in all the towns, in all the world, she had to walk into ours."
"So this is where you two have gone of to," Ami observed. "Do Usagi and Minako know that you are here?"
"Uh, err, you see..." Artemis tried to explain.
Luna meanwhile had managed to collect herself and completely regaining her dignity and composure as if she had never been caught in a moderately embarrassing position. It was the type of thing that only a cat could really hope to pull of successfully.
"I take it that your visit here is not a coincidence," she enquired in a calm and measured voice.
"Actually it is," Ami told them at least she thought so — there was still Setsuna and her machinations to account for. "I was just here for a job interview with the headmistress up in the castle and who do I find when strolling down main street? If you were doing some sort of operation to keep an eye on what is going on here you should have told someone instead of going in all alone and without backup."
"There was no need to inform the princess or her senshi," Luna justified herself. "This a private enterprise that we are undertaking in our free time. It is completely unrelated to senshi business and there is no need for Usagi or anyone else of you to get involved."
"Do you guys realize that Setsuna is here and apparently has been for some time?" Ami wanted to know. "She seemed to think that the senshi should be involved in this school for magical girls. If my interview went as well as I thought it did I will be involved too, and Setsuna hinted that she might want to recruit at least on of the others to join the faculty."
"Setsuna is here?" Luna asked surprised. "Then she must know about us."
"Apparently she is going to teach history," Ami confirmed.
"Those poor girls," Artemis pitied. "Every time I try to get Setsuna to give me some information I always feel like I know less afterwards than I did before."
"That may all very well be," Luna argued ignoring Artemis comment. "If Setsuna thinks that you need to keep an eye on the school then maybe you should, but the shop is still Mau business and has nothing to do with our work in the service of Serenity."
"So what is it exactly that you two are trying to accomplish here if it has nothing to do with the Sailor Senshi?" Ami now really wanted to know.
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(Posted Mon, 12 Jun 2006 20:40)
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