Pen-Pen gathered the surprisingly high reservoir of dignity available to penguins. “There are a few tasks I’d like you to perform before we can begin your tutelage. The first will be the most difficult, but it is of the greatest necessity. You and your friends must say goodbye.”
“What?”
The penguin sighed. “Usagi, it is likely that you will not return to this town, this country, or this universe anytime soon. Unless you want your parents and those of your friends to never know the fate which befell their daughters, you must give your goodbyes.”
The girl nodded, but Pen-Pen could see the tears in her eyes. “I understand, Sensei.” She paused for a moment. “My friends… They’ll need a way to speak.”
“With time and experience, they will regain coherence and speech alike. For now, I can provide for them.” The bird closed his eyes. Power coruscated about him, solidifying into a quintet of ceramic tiles. Each was imprinted with the image of, of all things. a word balloon. “Break one of these,” explained Penn-Penn, “and whoever has manifested outside of your body will be able to speak freely for a decent length of time. Now, you must be off.”
The girl bowed. “Yes, Sensei.”
The Hikawa Shrine was a somber place. After Rei’s disappearance, a dark, miserable atmosphere had settled over the place. Yuuichiro swept with all the speed and enthusiasm of a lobotomized tortoise. When Usagi knocked on the door, it took almost five awkward, fidget-laden minutes for Rei’s grandfather to respond. “Yes?” he sighed, before realizing who his visitor was. His demeanor changed in an eyeblink. “Usagi-chan! You’re alive! Please, tell me Rei is with you. Tell me she is all right.”
The new planeswalker bit her lip. “Well…”
“I see.” The man sagged, the combined weight of age and loss heavy on his shoulders. “I will perform the necessary ceremonies. You are, of course, welcome to—“ He was interrupted by a crimson shape erupting from Usagi’s body and embracing him as it trailed tears of sparking energy.
“She isn’t dead,” Usagi explained, “but she’s not exactly alive in the same sense as she was.”
The elderly priest paid her little mind, engrossed as he was by the thing that had so tearfully rushed into his arms. “Rei?” he asked shakily. “Granddaughter?”
The red girl-shape nodded, her glowing eyes glistening with more electrical tears.
“I’m sorry,” continued Usagi as she reached for a speech tile. “This is all my fault, and—“
“Your fault?” The priest gave a sharp but cheerful laugh. “My dear, dear girl, ‘fault’ is hardly the word to use here!”
“Eh?” Both girls bore expressions of surprise.
“You have helped Rei, Usagi-chan!” He turned to his granddaughter, pride mixed with the still lingering grief. “It has been many generations since the Hino line has been blessed with the gift of ascension. To think that I would live to see my grandchild join the ranks of the kami…” Had Rei still needed breath, it would have squeezed out of her by the hug. “I’m so proud of you. This shrine will always remember and honor you.”
“Actually—“ Rei’s gaze stopped Usagi. The crimson entity shook her head, and the odangoed one understood. “Actually, we also need to see Yuuichiro before we go.”
The priest nodded. “I suppose, since he can no longer threaten my dear granddaughter’s purity.” Rei began to develop a nasty twitch, and Usagi decided it was wisest to leave the tiles intact for now.
Rei’s goodbye to Yuuichiro was brief. She flew into his body, and what took place within the boy’s mind is no business of ours. Suffice to say, when Usagi left the shrine, he was sweeping with much greater gusto.
Dr. Mizuno was, surpisingly, at home. She had been virtually handcuffed to the telephone since she had first posted a Missing Person report, certain that her daughter would be found at any moment. All the focus and intensity that normally went into saving a young life was now centered on an innocuous chunk of plastic. The doorbell rang three times before she registered it.
She opened the door to find Usagi about to try the doorbell for a fourth time. “Usagi-chan,” she said wearily, “I’m afraid Ami isn’t home right now.”
“I know,” the girl said uneasily. “I was looking for you and the hospital said you had taken a day off.” Her first in almost ten years, though that was left unsaid. “May I come in?”
“Oh, yes, certainly.” The woman moved out of the doorway and sat. “I’m sorry, I’ve just been so worried about Ami. You said you were looking for me. Do you know anything about where she is?”
Usagi nodded. “I’m going to have to ask you to remain calm.”
This had the opposite effect on the doctor. “Oh dear Lord, what’s happened to my baby?”
The ascended girl winced at her miscalculation. “She’s fine, it’s just… complicated. Ami?”
Dr. Mizuno’s breath caught in her throat as the cerulean entity formed next to Usagi. “Wh-what is that?”
Usagi took hold of a speech tile, looking at Ami. The blue girl nodded, and the tile was snapped. Ami cleared her throat experimentally before saying, “Hello, Mother.”
The doctor simply stared. It spoke. The thing spoke, in her daughter’s voice no less. “I don’t understand.”
“It may help to know that I am Sailor Mercury,” offered the shade. “Or was, I suppose.”
This was one shock too many. Ami’s mother passed out.
Usagi looked at the woman’s prone form helplessly. “Maybe we should come back later?”
Her ally shook her head. “This must be resolved now, or I’ll never be able to do it again.” With that, she stepped within her mother’s body, and her mind.
A cool breeze blew through the meadow. Kumori sighed as she relaxed. With the logic of dreams, she knew that she was inside one of her ex-husband’s paintings. She picked a wildflower and admired the petals, each one a single delicate brushstroke.
“Mother.”
She looked up. There, in a blue sundress, was her daughter. “Hello, Ami. How have you been?”
“Alright…” The girl shifted uncomfortably. “Mother, this may be a dream, but what I’m about to tell you is real and true.”
The landscape shifted. The two were now walking along a beach, the surf lapping at their ankles. Kumori nodded and smiled. “Go ahead, Ami-chan.”
“Firstly, as I said, I am Sailor Mercury.” Ami’s clothing changed to the iconic seifuku.
Her mother chuckled a bit to herself. “I knew you had gotten involved in something with those friends of yours.” She bore a distant look. “Still, you seemed so much happier, so much more connected to the world.” She laughed a bit more. “Even so, I thought you were just finally embracing life outside of academics. I never imagined you went out saving the world.”
Ami smiled shyly. “I’ve been finding time for both, when I didn’t have juku.” She sighed. “But now…”
Her mother embraced her suddenly. “I understand, dear. You wouldn’t think it, but your mother has read her share of manga. You found a foe you could not easily defeat, and you did not escape unscathed.”
“That’s not quite—“
“Let it be, Ami. I don’t need all the gory details. Only enough to know what’s going to happen to my little girl.”
Her daughter squirmed uneasily. “I’m not really sure what’s going to happen. Usagi has become very powerful, and she may be able to change us back someday. But before she can do that, she needs to learn how, and we don’t know if anyone knows that…”
“That’s not what I meant, Ami-chan. Will you be safe? Will you be happy?”
Ami smiled. “I will be with my friends. We will protect one another, and we will comfort one another.”
“Good.” Tears were freely streaming down four cheeks. “Have a safe journey. When I wake up, I’ll contact your father.”
The younger bluenette nodded and sniffed. “One more thing.” At some point, the setting had changed to an archetypical desert island. The former Senshi of Ice formed a cup from the dreamstuff and filled with ocean water. Using the same strange knowledge that was now a part of her, she made the fluid bubble and turn a brilliant shade of blue. “Drink this,” she said, “and you will remember this dream in its entirety.” She paused for a moment. “I love you, Mama. I’ll try to visit whenever I can.”
They hugged for one last time, and Ami faded from her mother’s sight.
Ami stepped out of her mother delicately and nodded at Usagi. Her featureless face had the sense of a smile about it as she returned to the planeswalker’s body.
“Yes?” Mrs. Aino glowered as she opened the door. “Oh, it’s you. I don’t suppose you know where that daughter of mine is, do you?”
Usagi nodded. “I do. She’s—“
“She’s a thoughtless delinquent is what she is!” The Aino matriarch had clearly been saving up this rant for some time. “For years, years, she’s been acting like an irresponsible, shiftless good-for-nothing, doing goodness knows what in the middle of the night, no doubt with sorts of people one shouldn’t mention in polite society. I had hoped you and those others would drag her head out of the clouds, but it’s taken so long…” She sighed. “I’m sorry, Usagi-chan. Please, come in.”
As she was lead inside, Usagi could see the redness in the elder Aino’s eyes, the slight dishevelment of several sleepless nights. The woman continued. “I’m just so tired. I’m tired of worrying about my daughter, of not knowing what to say, of worrying that this is all somehow my fault, that I’ll make it even worse if I try to discipline her.” She sighed and gave a weary smile. “You said you had seen her?”
“Um, yeah…” Her scramble for an excuse was cut short by Minako’s manifestation.
Seeing her daughter fade into being as a construct of radiant energy didn’t seem to really faze Mrs. Aino. “Oh, Minako. What have you done to yourself this time?”
“She can’t speak just now.” Usagi retrieved one of the speech tiles. “I need to—“
Mrs. Aino held up a hand. “Don’t bother. I’ve been waiting for an opportunity to talk to my daughter without backsass since she was three.” She examined Minako critically. “I don’t know how you got this way, young lady, and I don’t know what you’re going to do now that you’ve gotten there. But I want you to promise me a few things.
“First, look out for yourself and your friends. Put all that enthusiasm to good use for once.
“Second, for Heaven’s sake, don’t try to cook anything. Leave that to your tall friend who made me that birthday cake you tried to pass off as your own.
“And lastly…” Her expression softened. “Remember that for all my nagging and complaining, I love you with all my heart. Remember that I will miss you, and that I will be thinking of you.” Mrs. Aino hugged her daughter as best she could. “Now go and fix whatever it is you’ve gone and done.” This last sentence was said with a genuine smile.
Minako nodded, a similar smile as visible as it could be on her face as it was. She faded out of view.
Her mother put a hand on Usagi’s shoulder and gave her a severe look that seemed to come with motherhood. “Bring her back safely, Usagi-chan, or don’t come back at all.”
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(Posted Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:05)
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