A Call to Action http://www.anime.sobhrach.com/~makoto/actamain.htm By: Mike Koos Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon Crossover ~*~ Chapter One: You know, if there's one thing I should have learned by now, it's that I *haven't* seen it all. I've got to remind myself to stop thinking that I have. For example: No sooner did I turn seventeen, then Dad announces he's got this great and all-important plan to marry one of us - 'us' being me and my two sisters - to the son of his best friend; some guy named Ranma. He even threw in the expected line about our family honor riding on this engagement and all that. I think he likes trying the 'honor' bit a little too often to get his way for my tastes, along with the crying routines. He can't bring himself to yell at Akane, Kasumi or I, so it's no wonder he's down to sniveling to try to talk us into doing things... ...Anyway, as I mentioned, I'm seventeen now. The last handful of years have been fairly unusual, to say the least. I get the feeling none of the guys at school will dare try some kind of relationship with me, which hurts. Though, I do have a friend who's married now... maybe an arranged marriage might be fun after all, I'd thought at the time. If not, I could always let Kasumi or Akane take the guy. That turned out to be a good idea. Ranma is ... well, a martial- arts fanatic with this wierd Chinese curse that turns him into a girl if you dump cold water on him. Really, I've seen stranger things, but just by looking at him I could tell Ranma was a magnet for trouble. I really don't need that right now, and by the end of the night we'd matched Ranma and the most ideal choice - Akane. Sure... I'll occasionally wonder if I made the right choice. Wouldn't you? But - to be brutally honest - I've got bigger things to worry about. Just because I'm not the guy's iinazuke though, doesn't mean I get to sit back and watch all the chaos happen without me. Because he's engaged to my little sister and living here with all of us for the time being, the rest of us always get pulled in too. In just a couple of weeks he's made a name for himself at Furinkan High - and an unwanted boyfriend in one of the guys in my homeroom, Kuno Tatewaki. Hmm. Well, Kuno's out to kill Ranma as a guy and wants to marry him as a girl, not to mentiona Akane, and he doesn't even want to admit his 'pig-tailed girl' and Ranma might be the same person. Oh, well. So long as *doesn't* get a clue, he aught to be good for a few cons. Ranma, too. It's raining outside, and Ranma's not back in from his run yet. That means he's out there somewhere as a girl. I heard the front door open. "Tadaima!" Her voice. Ranma's home, so I'd better go see how miserable she is. Kasumi was already there by the time I walked into the room. "Dear me," she said. "You're completely soaked Ranma-chan!" The red-haired girl glared at her for a second. "You know she doesn't like it when you call her that Kasumi," I reminded her. "Oh, I'm sorry Ranma-ch-- Ranma." "She's right though." I drew Ranma's attention to her clothes. "You're dripping water everywhere." "Well excuse me! How was I supposed to know it was gonna rain?" I't wierd hearing Ranma speak like a guy when he's a girl. I keep wondering if she's going to lose her voice, what with the way she subconsciously keeps trying to drive it down an octave or two. "You could try watching the weather reports or reading the newspaper." She glared at me, then tugged at her wet shirt. "This is the last of my clean clothes too." Ranma began to pull her top and pants off. No feminine modesty, like Akane's always saying. "I'm going to take a bath." "The hot water is still not working," Kasumi pointed out. "And what would you do after the bath anyway?" I added. "Walk around in a towel all day? All your clothes are in the wash ... remember?" The look on her face told me that she did. One of those 'impending sense of doom' looks, unless I miss my guess. "Okay, what d'you suggest?" "Well..." I drew the word out, purposely smiling. "Since you're a girl right now, you could wear some of our old clothing while you're waiting for your clothes to be washed." "*WHAT*?" I had to laugh to myself. It's fairly easy to take shots at Ranma's overly macho ego. Goodness knows it's a big enough target... He's so critical aobut his curse, about being faced with his body changing into that of a girl's ... unlike *some* people I could mention. "Yes, that does sound like a good idea." Kasumi agreed with me? Even better. Ranma made a break for the hall. "Not on your life!" she yelled back to us. "I am NOT going to wear girls' clothing!" I shrugged. "Guess we'd better get her. She's going to give Dad a heart attack running around the house like that." "Nabiki!" Kasumi tried to scold me. "You shouldn't be saying things like that!" She paused. "However, I suppose you're right. It isn't proper for a girl to run around wearing only a pair of boxer shorts." I fought back the urge to ask her if she knew how absurd what she'd just said had sounded. "Yeah, C'mon." The house was big enough; with a determined and fast person like Ranma, she had several places to hide. ~*~ We ultimately cornered Ranma at the end of one of the downstairs hallways. We had her... I'd already guessed that Ranma has something against fighting or hitting girls, so she wouldn't fight either of us. "Ranma..." I began. "Do you have any idea how expensive it is to have to draw hot water each time you or your dad get wet?" Drops of water flew from Ranma's red hair as she shook her head no. "You're a guest here. That means you play by the rules of the house, and not just doing whatever you want, right?" "Er..." "You're perfectly welcome to use up all the water and heat you want - as long as you pay for it," I concluded, then waited a few seconds. "So, will you let us pick out something for you to wear? It's not like we're asking you to go out in public and show the clothes off." She thought about it. "Oh, alright." Ranma glared at me again. We took her up the stairs to Akane's room. She probably turn Ranma away if the girl came alone, but Akane wouldn't turn away her own sisters, would she? I started going through the old clothes in Akane's closet, looking for something Ranma wouldn't object to. Akane's a tomboy; she has to have something a little on the masculine side, right? If I ever said that to Akane, she'd kill me. Ranma was sitting on the floor beside Kasumi and Akane, who was just as thrilled as Ranma with all of this. "I still don't see why you can't let him wear something of yours Nabiki." One of these days I'm going to have to convince her it's not a good idea to always refer to Ranma as a 'him' even when he's a girl. Someone'll start to ask questions, believe me. I put on a smirk. "She couldn't afford it." That shut Akane up for a little while. "I don't care what any of you say - I'm NOT going to wear a skirt!" And now, for Ranma. "Nobody's offered you a skirt or said you had to wear one, so quit complaining," I snorted. Really, I'm getting tierd of this. Between little sister and Ranma, there's only so much of the stubborn act I can take. How Kasumi can keep up the kind and cheerful act at all times is beyond me. A couple of minutes later, I'd put together the ideal outfit for Ranma: a pair of pink coveralls worn over one of Akane's faded yellow blouses. The coveralls even had the word 'China' painted across them in bright yellow letters. How disturbingly ironic. We finally got Ranma to wear them - after getting Akane to 'ignore' the fact that the girl was going to keep wearing her boxer shorts underneath it all. I'm not going to complain. This would've been next to impossible if we'd tried to convince Ranma to wear some of Akane's old undergarments. The cloths did fit her quite nicely though. "See? Told you it would fit." Akane was surprised. "Huh. It does." I'll bet she's probably thinking she's never going to touch those clothes again. "But this thing's really tight on the chest," Ranma peered down at the area in question. That set off a warning bell in my mind. "Oh?" I said, mroe interested in the fit of the clothes than Ranma's sudden desire to stick her foot in her mouth. "And the waist?" Okay, so maybe I'm not helping. Heh. She pointed a single finger to her chest. "Looser than up here, that's for sure." Everyone who figures that this is the point where Akane snaps and starts trying to kill Ranma, give yourselves twenty points. I won't bother you with the details, but for those who want to use their imagination, it involves a house-wide chase and a Kendo practice sword. I tried to ignore the yelling as I went downstairs to the pantry to grab a bag of potato chips and sit in front of the TV in the family room for a while. It's the same thing almost everytime - Akane yells, "I'm gonna kill you Ranma!", Kasumi yells, "Stop it. Girls shouldn't fight," and Ranma yells "I'm not a girl! I'm a guy!" Hmph. Girls shouldn't fight, huh? Eventually the noise died down, along with the rain. Whether that meant that Kasumi had broken up the fight - or Akane really *had* killed Ranma, I don't know. Kasumi came into the room not long after that and sat next to me. She sighted, "I don't understand how you do it Nabiki." Hm? I blinked. "Do what?" The exhaustion in her voice was clear. "Ever since Ranma and his father came to live with us, life in this household has been rather unusual." I couldn't help but smirk at that comment. "But you... none of this ever seems to worry you." "I guess it's nothing really out of the ordinary as far as I'm concerned," I shrugged. A puzzled look surfaced on Kasumi's face, so I quickly added, "Don't worry Sis. You'll get used to it before long." She wasn't convinced. I know I wouldn't be. "I honestly don't know about that." I was tempted to tell her that compared to all this, some of the things I've seen in my lifetime were far more intimidating. But I can't do that, even if she may or may not already know that particular secret of mine. I can't chance putting Kasumi or anyone else at risk... The doorbell rang. Kasumi went to answer it, wondering who would be visiting us so soon after a rainstorm. The last people to that had been the Saotomes, after all. Curiosity soon gets the best of me. It's one of my faults, I suppose; always wanting to know what's going on everywhere around me. Rei always said so, anyway. I pushed the bag of chips aside and hit the mute button on the TV remote. I felt my eyes widen when I heard Kasumi great our visitor at the front door. "Why, hello, Ami-chan! It's been a while since we last heard from you. I hope everything is all right with you?" Ami!? Here? Why would she be - wait. I can think of one reason why she would come here, even during a storm, without calling first... She's apologizing now, inventing an excuse as to why she hasn't come over much or called of late. I know she's making it up, because it's not her fault. It's mine. Ami's asking if she can speak to me. Better pretend that I haven't been eavesdropping... Making an effort to calm myself, I hit the mute button on the remote a second time. Kasumi brought her into the room. "Nabiki-chan?" Ami spoke up. Since I was intentionally paying attention to what's running on the TV, I didn't see them come in. Click. There goes the TV. I pretend to be surprised to see her. "Ami-chan?" She still looks much the same as she has since I met with her several years ago. Ami's always perferred the simple look - short hair, plain earrings, no make-up. Urawa once said he preferred that look on her... argh, I'm letting my mind wander. While we held each other's gaze, Kasumi excused herself, saying that she had to tend to dinner... and also asked Ami if she'd like to stay for dinner. Thanks big sister. "I wouldn't want to impose Kasumi," Ami smiled. Like Kasumi, she's one of the few people who can get away with and awful lot of smiling. "I had something to eat on the way here." "Oh. Well, I'll cook extra portions in cas you change your mind." That said, Kasumi left. Extra food, huh? We have to add extra food anyway just for those two 'starving' martial artists! I believe they've tripled our grocery bill! So even if Ami-chan doesn't have anything, Ranma or his father *will*. Then, everything was silent. We stared at each other for a while; I was hoping she'd speak first, and she was probably hoping the same thing. "Ami!" We turned to see Akane dragging Ranma into the room. Guess she hadn't killed Ranma after all. "We haven't seen you around here in a while." Akane smiled; I began to frown. "How are you?" "Fine, thank you." Ami looked at Ranma curiously. "I don't think we've met, have we?" This, I've got to see. Akane looked like she was thinking about what she should tell Ami. "This is --" "I'm Saotome Ranma," the redheaded girl interrupted. "Pleased t'meet you." Ami didn't catch the glare that Akane gave Ranma. I'll bet she's going to gripe at Ranma for giving out her true name when she's a girl. "Pleased to meet you, Ranma-chan. My name is Mizuno Ami." Another smile "So what have you been up to?" Akane asked her. "Nabiki never really said much after the wedding... I still wish I could've come though." Ranma blinked. "Wedding? You're married?" I saw another chance to take a shot at the boy-turned-girl. "No, but one of our friends is, and Ranma? She's only seventeen." She paled. Maybe even more, if that's possible. "S-seventeen?" I grinned. "That's right. You know, you could be next." "I think I'll go do my homework." Ranma bolted from the room almost as fast as she had when we were suggesting what she should wear earlier. "Why don't you help her Akane?" I prodded my sister. "I'm sure her grades could use the boost." Akane snorted. "You're just trying to get rid of me." It was my turn to receive a curious look from Ami. "We're going up to my room anyway. You can stay here if you want," I replied matter-of-factly. "Hmph." "C'mon Ami-chan." I took her upstairs to my room and made sure to lock the door behind us. Hopefully, it'll be enough... unless I have to pay to have this room discreetly soundproofed. She took a seat on the edge of my bed. "Don't you think that was a little rude?" Ami assumed the same look and tone of voice she always does when she wants to lecture someone on something. What, is she gonna lecture me again on how I behave around people? She *knows* this is how I usually behave. I smirked, shrugging. "No more than usual." She stared at me in silence for a moment. It hasn't been *that* long since we were all together as a group... I'm not going to have changed that much. Finally, she changed the subject. "Is Ranma a relative of yours? I don't recall seeing her before." "She's a friend of the family. Ranma and her father are living here for a while." Yeah, I know that not telling her the truth about Ranma and continuing to refer to her... er him- as only a girl will cause a problem somewhere down the line but Ami didn't come here to talk about Ranma. Ami visibly relaxed. "She reminds me a little of Akane, actually." Really, you don't know the half of it. "So...." I sighed, glancing for a second at the door, then my feet before returning my gaze to Ami. No sense in putting if off any longer. "How is everybody?" "Oh... you know, the same as always." Neither of us have ever really been good at small talk, that's for sure. "Well, they are all worried about you, you know. Especially Usagi and Mamoru. You should keep in touch." It hasn't been that long, has it? Still, I know they'll worry about me, just as I worry aobut them. Why, exactly, I can't be entirely sure. But there is something here I can be relatively sure about. "Because there's a new threat for us to face?" I raised an eyebrow. "Isn't that why you're here?" Ami's expression temporarily shifted to one of startled surprise. "I should have known you would figure out my true realon for comin here before long," she gave me a faint smile. "We could use your help." Now, hold on just a minute here! my mind mentally screamed. After all that we've been through... all that trouble with the Starlights and the star seeds... and they think I can just return after an extended vacation as if none of that ever happend? Instead of letting Ami know how I felt, though, I drifed over to the window and forced myself to stare through it at the setting sun. "I don't know...," I murmured, letting my voice trail away. What? I tried to force the past from my mind for the moment. Now. Whatever this 'new threat' is, it's bound to be worse than anything we've ever faced before. That's always the way it is... and we've got *such* a long way to go until Usagi becomes Neo Queen Serenity. Like the others, I've been to the future and met myslef. Serenity would be really disappointed in me if I didn't show up for that future. You know, I think I'd be disappointed in me too. I suddenly realized that I was holding something in my right hand. What the heck...? I don't remember stopping to pick anything up... No wait; I know exactly what it is without even having to look at it. My transformation pen. It's more of a rod or even a sceptre, actually - only the first pens we ever got were really were pens, and since then we've been calling the things pens anyway. This one is a polished pink rod with a decorative hand-loop, capped with gold at both ends. Decorative feathered wings carved from a pearl-like material spread outward from the head, and a clear amber sphere somewhat smaller than a softball rested upon that cap. Finally, there's a large golden star affixed to the top of the sphere. And on that star... a smaller brown circle with a golden symbol engraved within it: two bisecting lines within a circle, dividing it into four sections. The symbol of Earth. Or Terra, as this world was once known. I quickly hid the pen from Ami's line of sight, but she must already have seen it. "Nabiki-chan... you know that I mean it when I say we can use your help..." She hesitated, probably guessing at the reason why I decided to take that little 'vacation' from everything - since I never did tell anyone the whole story. "I'll think about it," I said, shortly. She drew back slightly as though I'd said something to insult her. "I'm sorry, Ami. I didn't mean to make it sound like that." Ami shook her head. "Don't worry about it. Would you like for me to tell you what we're facing?" "Nah," I dismissed the idea with a wave of the hand. "If I *do* agree to drop by and help, I want to do it the way we normally do it - leaping right in with both feet, with no idea what we're getting ourselves into." I can only imagine the look I must've had just then, because Ami was gaping at me. "Are... are you kidding?" she stammered. "You could have e-mailed me about this," I circumvented the issue with a smirk. Yeah, right - as if either of us would trust this stuff to insecure e-mail. "I could have," Ami caught on to the joke. "But I thought I would give you less of a chance to say no." She's right. It would have been easier for me to refuse if she hadn't come in person. Ah, but you see, there's still the reason why I've been staying away from this type of trouble for a while. In negotiations, it does help to be flexible, though you'd better come to the table with a goal in mind and never lose sight of it. Like here, for example. As much as I'm honor-bound to come any time we're called to action, I'd like to think I have *some* miniscule hint of control over my own life and decisions. Those people who think it's the job of the Senshi to simply be Serenity's mindless and obedient protectors had better think again. Sure, we've sworn our lives to protect her. I'm not complaining about that. I have no idea how my life would have ended up if I hadn't met Ami, Usagi and the others. But given who we're supposed to be, we're definitely not simple bodyguards. "I can still say no," I said at last. "As I said, I'll think about it." Ami seemed to be slightly disappointed. "Well... okay. I won't try to force you to join us in this fight." Oh, good. Why not make me feel guilty while we're at it? "I need to be going soon," murmured Ami. "We're going to hold a meeting tonight on the matter--" "...And you were hoping I might come along," I concluded. Sometimes, she's so easy to read. "It's a school night, and you *know* how fun it is to try to find a bus home that late." "Mamoru could drive you home. Or Haruka. I could also ask Mom to..." I shook my head. "Uh-uh. I still want to think about it. But I *do* want to stay informed, no matter what I decide. Let me know what's going on, huh?" ~*~ True to her word, Ami left soon after that. Kasumi had been holding on to the hope that she would stay for dinner - but what's missing dinner compared to running around and saving the world? Okay, okay. I'm kidding. The truth of the matter was that I couldn't stop worrying about what everyone else was getting themselves into without me. I was so distracted at dinner that I found I wasn't even hungry. My dinner didn't last two seconds after I excused myself from the table... not that I really expected it to with our 'guests' around. Pretending to do what was left of my algebra homework helped. I pushed a Takayama Minami tape into the radio and turned up the volume, hoping that would keep me from worrying. No such luck. I... saw them in my thoughts. Usually from my point-of-view, from those times when I was with them; the thoughts that don't have me in them are to remind me that I'm not there. Eventually I just gave up, slipped into my pajamas and went to bed early, dimming the lights on the way. After a full two minutes of staring up at the ceiling, I'd drawn out my transformation pen again and decided to stare at that for a while. I'm half-tempted to transform and sneak out to 'patrol' for a while. I'll bet there's *someone* in Nerima who needs a Sailor Senshi... But if I do that, then I'll risk encountering whatever it is the others are worried about. Yes, that's right. I, Tendo Nabiki, am a little bit scared. What about it? We all get scared. Everyone. Even the Sailor Senshi, the whole lot of us. The last thought I remembered before I fell asleep was, ~*~ Three years ago, I was fourteen, and paying regular visits to Ami's new apartment in the Juuban ward of Tokyo. Ami and I are old friends - we grew up together, more or less, and we were taking classes together at Nerima Middle School when her mother got an assignment at a hospital in Juuban. That meant she had to move. Since we didn't live that far apart after the move, we arranged to continue holding study sessions once a week. It had to be the weekend, because Ami herself had been accepted to one of the most prestigious - and elite - juku in Juuban, a place called 'Crystal Seminar.' She'd always dreamed of getting into a juku like that... while I couldn't see myself doing that, no matter how intelligent Ami-chan said I am or how good my grades are. Anyway, Ami's the one who dreams of going into the field of medicine, so I suppose she needs the extra classes. About a week after she started attending Crystal Seminar, I turned on the evening news to hear about something strange having happened at the juku - Ami had found her classmates unconscious, and there had been signs of a fight in the room. The news crew immediately started talking about what was apparently a rash of monster attacks in the Juuban ward. Monster attacks? I wondered. This was the first time I've heard of anything like that going on there. Maybe they're going overboard in claiming there are monsters running around, but obviously, there was *something* going on there. I called Ami after that. She glossed over the entire thing; probably tired and slightly shaken, I guessed, so I didn't think much of it. I *did* notice her pause when I asked her whether or not she believed the reports of monster attacks, though. "I don't know," Ami said. "I... I need conclusive evidence." I was concerned. "Do you want to cancel the study session this weekend? I can always bring Akane along to beat people up if someone tries to attack us." "That won't be necessary," she laughed. I could practically see her smiling over the phone lines. Ami hadn't had much reason to learn to be a fighter; Dad had taught me a few things about being a martial artist, though there wasn't much reason for me to learn more other than the embarrassment of having my little sister defend me from bullies. For some reason I have the impression every once in a while that I'm Ami's pet project. She accuses me of keeping my feelings or stress stowed in some dark corner in the back of my mind, saying I've been rather more closed off and reserved since losing my mother. I guess that's true in a way. We've been friends since before then... she knows what I was like before Mother died. That's probably why she never cancels our 'sessions' without a very good reason. Maybe she thinks I'll turn into some kind of loner? I don't know. A few weeks later, at the beginning of another session, Ami introduced me to two new friends she had recently made. The first was Tsukino Usagi, a girl whose blond hair was done up in an odd style I've never seen before but which looked perfectly fitting on her for some reason. She fit her name - apparently, she has the energy of a rabbit and a short attention span to go along with it. Her mind often seems to be on the moon... The other girl was a Shinto priestess-in-training by the name of Hino Rei. I can tell by the way Rei carries herself that she's serious, a no-nonsense kind of person. Her features convey that impression as well, especially in her eyes. Rei's got one of those down-past-her-waist long hairstyles that I never cared much for, though. If I'd wanted my hair long I would have let it grow out like my sisters'. "Usagi and Rei-chan would like to join our study group, if you don't mind," Ami told me. I gave them a half-shrug. "If you don't mind, I don't." The more the merrier, as someone once said. Besides, if there are more people in the group, Ami might not concern herself so much with what I'm doing with my emotions. Wishful thinking, I suppose. It wasn't long before I learned how the two newcomers behaved. Usagi definitely had a short attention span. She soon went from complaining about a math problem to wandering about the room in search of something else to do. Rei reminds me of Akane, except more focused. "Get back over here, air-for-brains!" she growled, getting up and dragging Usagi back to our little card table. "You don't see any of US trying to get out of this!" "But it's too hard!" protested Usagi. "I thought that's why we were here," I smirked. Ami nodded. "Nabiki is right, Usagi-chan. One of the main purposes of these study sessions is for us to help each other learn to do the work we're having problems doing." "Which for you, Usagi, is practically everything," Rei snorted. "No, it isn't! Why do you have to be so mean?" "Yes, it is! And I'm not mean!" "Is not!" "Is too!" I tuned out the debate. "Ami-chan... are they always like this?" "No, not really." She moved to try to break up the argument between Rei and Usagi. Hmm... you know, if there was a person I could pull some kind of scheme on, it might just be Usagi. I'll have to think of something Ami won't spoil. ~*~ We - as in all four of us - returned the following week, along with one more unexpected visitor... Usagi's pet cat, Luna. Okay, this is getting a bit weird. Luna looks like a normal black cat, except for her large brown eyes and... "Why does she have that crescent-shaped bald spot on her forehead?" I thought to ask Usagi. Had Usagi done that to the poor cat? She doesn't have some kind of fascination with the moon, naming her cat Luna and shaving crescent-moon shapes in the cat's fur, does she? Luna seemed to glare at me. Huh? "Er...," Usagi shifted nervously. "She really doesn't like it if you call her... mark a 'crescent-shaped bald spot.'" So Luna *likes* having that bald spot - er, mark, on her forehead? I forced a chuckle and petted Luna's head, making sure to steer clear of the 'mark.' "Sorry, Luna. You must be a smart cat, from the sound of it." Usagi snorted. "Don't say that! She's got a big enough ego as it is." The glare Luna gave her could have given Akane's glares a run for the money. But once we sat down and got the meeting underway, the cat's gaze was back on me. Let me tell you, it's really hard to get work done if you're trying to figure out whether or not a cat is actually *watching* you the whole time. It's also somewhat creepy. Let me check again... yeah, she's still staring at me. I wonder if anyone else is noticing it? But I'm not going to say anything - I'm supposed to be Nabiki, the calm, cool, collected and aloof one. Not Nabiki the paranoid. The only problem with that is that everything works better in discussion than it does in practice. Aside from strange cat behavior, the meeting proceeded without any problems. Usagi actually seemed interested in studying, surprisingly enough. Rei wasn't looking for an excuse to argue with Usagi, and I think I caught Ami breathing a sigh of relief over that fact. I guess I won't tell them about the cat. Things were pretty much quiet for the next hour... until we heard screams and the sound of people running through the halls outside the apartment. Now, normally, things like that usually don't happen in an apartment mansion, so it shouldn't surprise anyone that we rushed out of Ami's bedroom and through the apartment's front door to see what was going on. Rei grabbed the first person who ran past us - a young man who kept shooting terrified glances in the direction from which he had come. "Wh-wh-what are you doing?" he stammered. "I've - we've got to get out of here!" "Why?" asked Ami, who was possibly the most cool-headed out of all of us right about now. "Have to get away from... monster...," the man managed. At that, Rei released him and let him run away. A monster? Could it be true? Can there *really* be actual monsters terrorizing people in this ward of Tokyo? I have to know more. "Did that guy say... 'monster?'" I threw the question out into the open. There's a fine art to asking questions without letting people know you're trying to interrogate them. Usagi and Rei confirmed what I'd heard. So did Ami, which means there has to be an element of truth to this story somewhere. Time to continue the pitch; aside from the reports of monsters, there's something *else* I've been hearing reports about and want to investigate. "Really? I mean, I've been hearing things about monsters running around here. So it's true? Maybe that stuff I've heard about the Sailor Senshi is true, too." Usagi gasped. "Wh-what have you heard? About the Sailor Senshi?" Hmm. Sounds like someone might know something. I blinked. "Just that there's some... girls, I think, going around Juuban fighting all those supposed monsters and calling themselves the 'Sailor Senshi.'" There it is again. Why, every time I say those words or think them, do I get the feeling I really should know more about that group? More than my usual curiosity, I mean. "Don't tell me they're real, too." "They are," Usagi replied, a little too quickly. Does she think of the Sailor Senshi as her heroes? I've also heard of a popular hero calling herself 'Sailor V'... some have said that Sailor Moon - whoa, there's that feeling again - and the Sailor Senshi are just out to cash in on Sailor V's popularity. Wonder if any of them need an agent? As I opened my mouth to ask my next question, a piercing roar sounded from the corridor behind us. Oh, shoot! One of the most important rules of information-gathering is *not* to intentionally leave yourself in danger. We've been sticking around in the halls just waiting for this supposed monster to show up, and now... where are Sailor V or the Sailor Senshi when you need them? I don't know if my pathetic martial-arts training is gonna make much of a difference if this is for real... What might be described as an overly muscle-bound and *female* version of that old pieced-together movie monster - I can't remember the name of the film right now - charged like an angry bull through the corner of a wall toward us. Now, you'd figure that my first thought would be about how ridiculous this monster looked, or getting the heck out of here, but you would be wrong. I froze. No bravery, no martial-arts showcases. No running, either. I was too scared to even consider what Akane would do in these circumstances. But then... I happened to see that Usagi was directly in the path of the charging monster. Something clicked in my mind. All of a sudden I could move again, to act on the impulse to protect Usagi. This was more like it! Without thinking about my actions, their consequences or stopping to check my high-speed pulse, I ran and knocked the monster away from her by shoulder-ramming it. Both the monster and I reeled in different directions. When my vision cleared I saw that I had been completely turned around. My other senses were only now returning; I could feel a strange tingling sensation run across my forehead. Perspiration or adrenaline, I guess. Ami and Rei had begun to pull Usagi away from the monster to safety - though all three of them had frozen as I had and were staring at me in shock. Luna had wandered into the corridor and was doing the same. Well, I've already committed myself to the role of unthinking hero. I might as well keep going. "Get out of here!" I growled. "I'll... keep this monster busy!" Gee, I even sound like a hero and everything. "Nabiki-chan, wait!" Ami was saying, almost as though she were having difficulty getting the words out. No time for that! The monster had also recovered and was looking for the person who's being foolish enough to try fighting it... yeah, me. It - or rather, *she* - noticed me, letting loose a mind-numbing snarl before charging in my direction. She abruptly froze in her tracks in mid-charge, staring at me the same way everyone else had. What? What's going on here? What *are* you looking at? Before I could determine why in the world everyone seemed intent on staring at me, my opponent turned and ran away from me to resume her wild run through the corridors. Hey, maybe Dad's martial-arts junk has some use after all... at least when it comes to scaring monsters off. With the danger gone, I froze once more. This time it's shock and surprise over what I'd done. Had I actually confronted a *real* monster to keep someone else from getting hurt? Now would be a good time for my mind to go into overload... I could only let the others drag me back into the apartment, while I tried to convince my pulse to slow to something within tolerable speeds. Never mind that all the adrenaline I've got in me makes that really, really hard. Difficult. Annoying. A pain. Really. "Ami-chan," I rasped once Ami had shut the door and I'd relaxed ever so slightly, "I believe you. There *are* monsters here. Just remind me never to confront any of them ever again, okay?" Sheesh, I'm surprised I haven't fainted by now. There was a solemn look to Ami's face that I hadn't expected to see there. "I'm not sure if you will like what we are going to tell you, then," she said, reluctantly. I spoke the only intelligent word that came to mind. "Huh?" "Usagi-chan, you and Rei must transform and take care of that monster. Ami-chan and I will help Nabiki." Wait. Whose voice was that, giving Usagi and Rei orders? It's a woman's voice. Not a mature voice, yet there's an obvious air of wisdom to it. And what did she mean by 'transform?'" I pivoted to look at Usagi just as she yelled the words, "Moon Prism Power... make up!" Rei immediately followed that with a yell of "Mars Power... make up!" And then a kaleidoscope swallowed them. They twirled, clothes changing and forming around them, as they became... I... I don't know what. When the special effects cleared they wore what looked like some kind of school uniforms drawn through a strange high fashion filter... or something. I stared. Sorry, I couldn't help it. What the heck was all that about? Changing clothes... to do what? Then the realization of what this was all about settled into place. Usagi and Rei were already running out the front door, so I turned my attention to Ami... and found myself practically inches from Luna's face. I shifted my gaze to Ami. "The Sailor Senshi..." That was the reason that made the most sense to me... a person who has made the insane choice to face off, unarmed, against a monster. "YOU'RE the Sailor Senshi?" I can't believe it. Usagi, Rei, fighting monsters... and Ami's fighting monsters, too. Ami, who'd hoped she would never have to fight another person. What's going on here, Ami-chan? She nodded, drawing out a strange blue pen and raising it above her head. "Mercury Power... make up!" Once her clothes had changed to her... costume?, she continued. "I'm Sailor Mercury. Rei is Sailor Mars, and Usagi-chan is Sailor Moon." Mercury. Mars. Moon. The references tickled something within my mind... Luna hopped onto the coffee table. "Yes. And you are the fourth Senshi, Nabiki-chan." She... Luna can *talk*! I saw her mouth move! "Y-you can talk, Luna?" I stammered. That's the voice I heard earlier... Luna's voice? Not only can she talk, she's a gymnast. She executed a perfect standing backflip into the air. Another pen appeared within the arc of her flip and flew to my hands... I examined the pen after almost dropping it. It's a real pen - a polished brown pen accented in gold. At the top of the pen is a golden ornament, a small disc with a symbol embossed on it, inside a golden ellipse reminiscent of something orbiting a planet. The symbol looks familiar to me, but I can't place it. All in all, the word 'expensive' comes to mind. "Nabiki, I want you to raise your henshin pen high and shout the words, 'Terra Power, make up!'" the cat instructed me. 'Terra...' isn't that another name for the Earth? And if Ami's Sailor Mercury, then I'm... I raised my hand. "Terra Power... make up!" My mind changed. Power surged around me and rose rapidly up within me like a tidal wave, though that's not quite the right imagery, I suppose. I could feel the knowledge of certain things entering my mind. Knowledge that told me how to be a Sailor Senshi, which had always been there even if I wasn't aware of it. I'm Sailor Terra, defender of the light and one of the Princess' protectors. A representative of the planet Terra, known as Earth to the people who live upon it. Is this why I dared to face that monster? My costume... excuse me. My *uniform* is a white bodysuit with a reinforced chest protector. White gloves ended in brown ribbed piping at my elbows. There was a brown-colored jewel-brooch set in the center of a blue bow on my chest; another blue bow was tied at the back of my waist. Collar, crush-top ankle boots, really short skirt - all the same brown color as the stuff I'm wearing on my elbows. I can feel a choker around my neck and a tiara around my forehead, either of which I don't recall ever wearing before in this lifetime. I included Luna in my gaze this time. "We're going to chase after that monster, aren't we?" "Yes." Sighing, I shook my head in resignation. "Lead the way, Sailor Mercury." End Chapter One