The two of them, well, three if you counted the cat riding on
Usagi's shoulder, strode down the crowded Tokyo street together. As
they went, Rei noted something unusual going on: they were drawing
absolutely on attention to themselves. Quite an odd thing, when you
thought about the katana that the blonde was carrying!
"Usagi-san?" Rei finally ventured.
"Just call me Usagi," she smiled, "I don't really need the
honorific."
Luna looked like she wanted to protest that, but a glance from
Usagi silenced her.
"Usagi the," she agreed, "and you can just call me Rei. What I
wanted to ask was, why isn't anyone noticing..." She trailed off,
gesturing to the sword.
Usagi smiled slightly, "Because it's invisible, more or less."
"Mistress, that's a very simplistic explanation," Luna spoke
up, gently scolding.
Usagi made a face and said, "Last time you tried to give me
the complicated explanation, I got a headache. I thought I'd spare her
that."
"Hmph," Luna put her head up, hurt.
Rei fought the urge to smile, watching the two of them
together. She hadn't quite figured out their relationship yet, but
they were interesting to watch. "What's the complicated explanation?"
she finally had to ask the cat.
Usagi let out a soft whimper, but Luna ignored that.
"When you first saw it," Luna started, "you likely believed
that it was a wooden practice sword, correct?" Rei nodded, and Luna
continued, "The sword encourages that sort of belief in others who see
it, causing them to find the weapon to be entirely unnoticeable. This
also extends around it somewhat, so that people rarely notice those
who are near the sword, as well."
"At least she edited out all the technobable this time," Usagi
muttered.
"I do learn from my mistakes," Luna said with a great deal of
wounded dignity.
"So if it's trying so hard not to be noticed by anyone, why
can I see the sword?" Rei asked them curiously.
"Those born with the ability to see that which is normally
left unseen can perceive it," Luna explained, "a spiritualist like
yourself, for instance. It is often a sign of those who can aide Usagi
in her battle against the youma, as well."
"So you need me because I can see the sword. Have you met
anyone else who could see it too?" Rei asked curiously.
"One or two," Usagi smiled slightly, "and I suspect that
you'll be useful to me beyond your sight." Rei pressed her, but she
refused to be drawn out anymore on the subject.
Their walk was taking them into a residential district nearby
the shrine, and Rei quietly sighed and asked, "Where are we going to,
exactly?"
"I need to stop at home to change," Usagi smiled wryly,
looking down at the clothes that she had borrowed from Rei. They were
quite nice, but it was pretty clear that Usagi was at least a good
size smaller than Rei was.
The house they arrived at was similar on the outside to all
the others up and down the block, but somehow, there was a oppressive,
gloomy feel around the place. Usagi unlocked the front door and led
Rei inside, the house strangely eerie in it's silence.
"There's a chair in the living room you can use," Usagi said
quietly as she set the sword down on a spotless kitchen counter, "I'll
be back in a moment." With that, Luna jumped down from her shoulder
and Usagi was running upstairs.
Rei looked around, struck by the oddity of the place. The
kitchen looked fine, if spotlessly clean, but the living room was
almost empty! Only a single chair remained, it looked like everything
else had been taken out of there.
"What happened here?" Rei murmured, shivering slightly.
"Usagi refused the sword when I first brought it to her," Luna
said softly, pain evident in the cat's voice, "and the youma sensed
it, somehow. They attacked the home, hoping to kill the champion
before she was ready for them."
"And they went after her family," Rei suddenly understood
something that Usagi had said to her, back at the shrine.
"I tried to defend them while Usagi went for the sword," Luna
said, "but there were three youma. I just wasn't strong enough to save
them."
"You did all you could," Usagi said to Luna quietly, coming
down the stairs dressed in a regular schoolgirl's uniform. She gave a
grim smile to Rei and added, "My boyfriend Mamoru was visiting when
the youma attacked, he tried to defend my family. I made it downstairs
just in time to see Zoisite take him away from me."
"They killed your family," Rei murmured softly, "but took him.
I wonder why?"
"A bargaining chip against mistress, most likely," Luna
speculated, "they may mean to try and use him against her."
"Which is why I intend to get him back," Usagi said firmly.
She looked at the other two and asked them, "Ready to go?"
Luna leapt up on Usagi's shoulder, "Ready."
"Where to?" Rei asked, noting the bag of her clothes that
Usagi had set on the counter. 'I can always come back and get them
later,' she thought.
"The university," Usagi smiled, "we need to pick up something
there."
The bus trip over there was very quiet, each of them consumed
by their own thoughts. Rei looked over at Usagi, the seemingly fragile
blonde haired girl who was bearing up so well under such stress. If
something like that had happened to her, she wasn't sure what she
would do.
They made their way through the crowds, a few young men and
women calling out their greetings to Usagi as they passed by. Luna's
voice was quiet as she explained to Rei, "Mamoru used to enjoy having
Usagi visit him here, he had a great many friends."
Usagi's eyes were dark, but she kept her voice level, "We're
going to the science building."
They went up a stairway to the applied sciences wing, and Luna
murmured softly, "We should be near her office."
"Her?" Rei raised a eyebrow.
BOOOM!
Just up the hall, a door was thrown off it's hinges,
clattering to the hallway floor. Clouds of black smoke poured out,
obscuring everything and causing all three of them to cough and hack.
Finally, a figure emerged from the smoke, covered with ash and still
smoking slightly.
"Are you all right?" Rei asked worriedly, even as she noticed
a relieved Usagi sliding her sword away over her shoulder.
"Oh, hello," the blue haired woman smiled at Rei, pushing up
her glasses with a finger. She turned back towards the room, smoke
still pouring out, and softly murmured to herself, "The reaction was
far more vigorous than I had expected."
Usagi puffed out a relieved breath, "Hello, Prof. Mizuno."
"Ami," the professor corrected her and with a little smile
added, "I see you're still carrying that sword with you." She looked
over at Rei, taking in her traditional shrine maiden's garb
thoughtfully, "I don't believe that we've been introduced."
"Rei Hino," she said, bowing to the woman slightly. 'She can't
be much older than I am, how can she be a professor?' she wondered.
Almost as if she had been reading Rei's mind Ami said, "I was
a bit of a child prodigy, took advanced courses since I was little."
The hall was mostly silent, and it seemed that the university
was still going about it's regular business. "Isn't someone going to
come check out the explosion?" Usagi finally had to ask.
"It's not that uncommon occurrence in this wing," Ami
explained as she lead them with a wave across the hall from the
wrecked lab. She opened an unmarked office door ad gestured them both
inside, "After you."
The office would be a pack-rat's dream. Various pieces of
equipment lay partially assembled on a oversized lab table on one
side, a chalkboard covered with equations was mounted on one wall, and
teetering stacks of books were scattered all around.
"Wow," Rei blinked.
"Here, Luna," Ami took down a saucer and filled it with milk,
"have a drink." She looked at Rei and Usagi, "Anything I can get you?
No?" She puttered around a bit, preparing a cup of tea before finally
saying, "Usagi, I've completed the device you asked for, but..."
"But?" Usagi asked once Ami had trailed off.
"It's too complex," Ami admitted. She pushed up her glasses
and said, "It appears that I will need to come along to operate it for
you."
"No way," Usagi said firmly.
"Excuse me," Rei finally had to ask, "but what's going on
here?"
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