Then came the image of big flowers and happy faces, along with the printed words, 'Thank you for waiting.'
She wasn't exactly sure what to make of that, or the flashes of women in leather armor fighting ancient Greek soldiers, or the 'fast forward' that followed it. Only the fact that part of it was familiar allowed her to really not freak out.
Of course, seeing a dwarf pink elephant was trying to pass her a rather suspicious looking plant did help in distracting her.
"Now, are you sure that you are wanting to do this?" Haruka asked, one hand on her leather clad hip.
Minako grinned, and waved her rapier in an intricate pattern. "How am I supposed to be getting better if I do not practice?"
"Then it is not living in these catacombs that has set you on feeling the walls closing in on you?"
"Come on now. Our people have had our village here ever since the days of the Romans. We grew up here, and we learned to fight as we grew."
"Too true," the short haired girl agreed as she pulled her own rapier from its sheath, looking eminently graceful in her pants and linen shirt. "But just so that you remember, we must always fight with honor and...."
"'Dignity', right?" the younger girl finished, sliding one shapely leg through the long slit on her ankle length skirt as she braced herself.
"Precisely."
Setsuna wasn't sure what surprised her more, the sight of Minako and Haruka dressed in modern takes on Renaissance clothing, or the fact that the younger blonde was giving a good account of herself. It was rather astonishing to see the pair doing a practice duel in a large tunnel in France, but then again, the idea of them as Amazons wasn't exactly simple to take.
And the image didn't even stay on that scene to show the others.
Ami lifted the large book and placed it down onto the table with a loud, but unintentional, 'thud'. A light blush hit her cheeks as she realized just how careless that sounded, and she found herself feeling rather sheepish over it. Looking around, she saw that no one seemed to have noticed, as she got a long view of some of the other girls practicing the Art. Her shoulders slumped slightly, and she found a lonely feeling settle on to them.
"Feeling left out?" asked a familiar voice.
She turned to see who had spoken, and when she did, she ducked her head in embarrassment. "No.... Not really."
"Well, something seems to be bothering you," Setsuna commented. "And if you aren't wishing to be included in the practicing...."
"It's not that. It's just.... My.... The others all are training to be warriors, and when we talk, I always feel a little...."
"'Second class', eh?"
"How did you...."
"Listen, what you kids tend to forget is that this is a village where the women are warriors, not a village of women warriors. If we only had warriors around, then who'd feed them, clothe them, or fix their weapons when they break?" the tall woman asked.
"I just.... What I do doesn't seem to be so interesting...."
"You're the shining star of your course of studies, remember? You're a promising Lore keeper, and healer. And for people like us, that's important."
"I know...."
"Well, if you want to really impress them, then remind them that you can know all the special secrets of healing."
"I don't want to show them up," the blue haired girl murmured.
"I know, and that's part of what makes everyone so proud of you."
All Ami could do in the face of that praise was blush so deeply that it looked like someone had painted her skin red.
There was something mildly off about what she'd just seen in Setsuna's opinion. After all that had happened, the Chinese Amazon that she'd seen was her, which seemed to be rather like reality thumbing its nose at her, almost as if it wanted to put her right where she'd tried not to be. Of course, the fact of the matter was that she couldn't exactly do much about it.
Nor could she be bothered to deal with the beagle in the sunglasses, as looking at what the Gate showed her was more important at the moment.
Tapping the dirt from her boots, Makoto scowled and pulled down the fur lined hood of her coat. It wasn't a deep expression, but was more in the vein of an immediate reaction to an annoyance, and she didn't show any desire to avoid it. In fact, it seemed to be almost... familiar to her.
"Were they at it again?" Michiru asked as she looked at the younger girl's stance in the flickering firelight.
Taking off her coat, and tugging on the tunic under it, the emerald eyed girl sighed. "You could say that again, though I don't understand why I'm so popular."
"And I keep on telling you that everyone likes girls like you. Tall, beautiful, strong willed, good in a fight, wants romance, and can cook up a storm. The men would want you to take over their cabins, and the women want to be you."
"How lucky for me. But at least I have you."
"Too true."
"And it's always a good thing to have a real friend."
Smiling, Michiru nodded, and slid a hand along the younger girl's shoulder.
That wasn't something that one saw every day, at least as far as Setsuna was concerned. By what she could remember, it wasn't a regular thing to have Michiru and Makoto together. To tell the truth, it had even seemed that the green haired girl was bearing deeper feelings for her friend than she let on....
Shaking her head, the tall woman refused to go there, and refused to pay attention to the dancing butterflies that seemed intent on doing a number for her. Taking a deep breath, she looked back at the Time Gate, and wondered what she would see this time.
Biting her lip, Hotaru looked towards the girl that she was walking with. "Do you really think that we have to do this?"
"Don't worry. Our ancestors have been doing this sort of thing since the times when the kami walked along side humanity," Rei soothed, sounding confident. "The entire village is one of ninja-demonslayers, and was founded by monks, demon slayers, and ninjas centuries ago. Do you think that we would not know how to handle simple prayers for defense against the supernatural forces that would harm all people?"
"It's not that...."
"Then what?"
"It's creepy out here at night," the younger girl murmured as she looked around at the wooden buildings that made up their mountainside village. "I really don't like it...."
"You'll learn to deal with it. Parts might even be fun. And always remember that you and I have been given gifts that can help us stop demons."
"My powers?"
"And mine. We can do it well, and do it together," the long haired girl told her with a smile.
"Sure!"
Now, things were getting really... odd. Instead of just having the Senshi be Amazons, which could be explained by what was already known in history. But now there were new powers showing up, which wasn't quite what she was expecting.
Then again, she wasn't exactly expecting a cat to show up and be able to make various parts of its body be invisible at will.
It made looking at the Gate a safer bet.
Usagi pressed her hand to the glass of the floor to ceiling window and sighed. She knew that she was expected to carry on the traditions of her people. That was what being part of the head family was all about, especially when one had the 'abilities' that came with it. Her mother's line was one of dignity and capability, and it fell to her to continue on in that vein.
There was just one problem that had her feeling as miserable as the rain storm outside seemed to be.
"How can I get to have a boyfriend when I'll have to tell him that I come from another planet as soon as it gets too serious?!" she groaned, leaning her head against the glass.
All Setsuna could do was stare dully at the scene as she realized that now her Princess was an alien, or at least was one in part. This, as it were, was not quite what was supposed to happen. The idea was for the Senshi to be natives who protected their world from alien threats, and now they were quite possibly going to be extraterrestrials themselves.
Pinching the bridge of her nose didn't help stop the sensation of a headache, but at least it gave her something to do.
At least doing that was better than trying to catch a frog singing when it kept on keeling over when she looked at it.
As she went back standing tall, she saw that the image shown by the Time Gate was apparently solidifying, and seemed to be settling on what would be at least a version of the:
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