Sailor Moon: Strategy and Tactics by Ken Arromdee Chapter 4 Police Story Usagi felt a little intimidated at first by the prospect of a private audience with the police chief, but she was quickly put at ease when she finally did meet Natsuna. The bubbly, redheaded, woman did everything in her power to make the girls feel welcome, even commandeering a break room to make sure that they wouldn't be disturbed by any routine police business. "Come on... sit down!" she exclaimed, leading everyone into the room and locking the door. "If only we could get Sailor V here. I wonder... if I called, would she come? What do you think?" "Wow, you must think this is really important", said Usagi, looking around the room." "Never mind that", said Natsuna, "don't you think I should call Sailor V? It would be really great to finally have her working for me. You can work for me too, of course!" "Sure we can. It'd be fun, right everyone?" The others all at least nodded, though none were quite as energetic as either Usagi or Natsuna. "Well, that's settled", said Natsuna, and dialed a number on the phone. "Hello?" she said, as someone at the other end picked the phone up. "So that woman's the police chief?" wondered Rei. "That's what Ms. Haruna said!" "Hello!" said the police chief to the person at the other end. "Minako-chan? Oh, I'm so glad I got you now. I've been trying to find you forever, but I have the perfect opportunity now...." "She seems rather excited", said Rei. "Oh, come on", replied Usagi. "You get excited all the time." "No, really this time" continued Natsuna, speaking into the handset. "I have the other four Senshi sitting right in here with me. You can come over and everyone can all be one big sentai team. All you need to do is work for me. How about it... Oh, okay, I'll get her on the line." She handed the phone to Usagi. "Hi? Sailor Venus?" said Usagi to the person at the other end. "Hi, this is her", the person answered. "I could swear I heard you before..." "Maybe. Come to think of it, you do sound a little familiar..." "Wait! I've got it first. You're Tsukino Usagi! You're that girl who gets lower grades than me... I'm Aino Minako. Sailor V, Sailor Venus... Me and Artemis were supposed to find you and the others." "We're not lost, Minako-chan. We're right here! You go to Juuban, don't you? We must have looked at each other a zillion times without ever realizing. You know, I think Natsuna really likes you. Maybe you should join the police." "Would it really help?" "I think it would! If we all worked with the police fighting youmas could be a lot easier. Er, come to think of it, Sailor Venus, *do* you fight youmas?" "What does a youma look like?" "I don't know, they're all funny-looking, most of them are women...." "Oh! That sounds just like them. I guess I do fight youmas." Rei snatched the phone from Usagi. "Give me that!" She spoke into it. "You're Sailor V? We're all meeting in the police station. You should come and give dumpling head some more help." She thrust the phone back into the surprised Usagi's hand. "That was Rei. You can ignore her", said Usagi. "But please do come over." * * * * * Someone pounded on the door until Ami finally got up and unlocked it. Then it opened. The blonde who walked in accompanied by a white cat smiled at everyone and said "Hi! I'm Aino Minako!" "Hello Minako-chan!" said Natsuna. "Have you thought of joining us? I really recommend it." "You're Sailor Venus, right?" wondered Usagi. "I'm usually not supposed to tell anyone", she said, "but if Natsuna thinks you're okay, sure. That's me." "Could you show us your transformation?" asked Usagi. "I want to meet you as Sailor Venus." "Okay..." replied Minako. "Crescent moon..." The cat tugged at her skirt. "What is it, Artemis?" "Oh", replied the cat, surprising exactly nobody by talking. On the other hand, the cat's voice did make Usagi wonder just why a male cat was named Artemis. "If that girl over there is Sailor Moon", said Artemis to his human, "then you shouldn't use that phrase. You can't use a transformation with 'moon' in it if there's another Senshi who's associated with the moon!" "Okay. When in Rome, do as the road-makers do." Minako pondered the ways she could vary the transformation and finally chose a simple one. "Venus Power, MAKE UP!" yelled Minako. She spun in the usual way, transforming, then bowed to Usagi and the others. "I'm Sailor Venus and it's nice to meet you! How about yours?" "My transformation, Minako?" asked Usagi. "Right! I wanna see it!" "Sure!" she replied, and everyone took out their pens and shouted their transformation phrases. "Moon Prism Power..." "Mercury Power..." "Mars Power..." "Jupiter Power..." Ending with a simultaneous "... MAKE UP!", the Senshi all lost their street clothes and appeared in costume. Natsuna and Minako applauded. "Are we all a team now?" wondered Usagi. "Of course" said Minako. "Excuse me?" said Natsuna. "So have you decided whether you're going to work for me? There'll even be a salary." "Salary?" Usagi's eyes bulged at the thought of what she could buy if she was actually making money. But of course her parents would make her put most of it in the bank. Still... "Sure. What do we have to do?" "Do? You'll give the police a great reputation! Oh, hmm... I suppose if we find a youma somewhere you should try to come. I'll give you a police radio so I can call you." "Uhm", said Minako. "That's all? I wanted to, but I kept having to think it over. There's not a fingerprint check or background check or anything?" "No." answered Natsuna. "You're not secretly a criminal, are you?" "No! Well, I did jaywalk that time, and I cheated on a test, but I copied the paper off of... Hmm, come to think of it I think I copied it off of Usagi. But it's not as if I got a better grade by doing that." "That's okay. Now all we need to do is go get the publicity picture taken...." * * * * * The picture did come out fairly well, despite being taken by the man who usually photographed the police lineups. Natsuna taped a big copy to the wall of her office. She also sent it to the biggest newspaper in town, accompanied by a press release about how the Sailor Senshi were now working for her. Fortunately, the newspaper ran the story without the photo-- fortunately, since it would be a little hard for the Senshi to explain to their parents what they were doing in those strange costumes making headlines. "Strange" said Usagi while Makoto passed out cookies and milk to everyone. "Minako's name doesn't match." She looked at Minako, preparing to ask about that, but stopped when she saw the uncomfortable expression on the newest Senshi's face. "Minako? Are you okay?" "It's nothing." "I was just talking about how the Senshi have the right names for the planets. We were searching for them all by name. I think we're going to find Uranus and Neptune... there's only one Ten'ou and Kaiou in the phone book. There are too many for Earth and Saturn, and there's no Meiou at all. And then there's the princess.... Come to think of it, Luna...." "Yes?" "You never did tell me what the princess looks like. You'd recognize the Moon Princess when you see her, right?" "I don't know..." "You don't *know*? You're sending us all over the city to find someone that you don't know what she looks like?" "Usagi, if I find her, and if her power is revealed, I'm sure I'd know." "If her power is revealed? You never said anything about that before. I just assumed that if you see her you can say 'hi'. But now... she could be under our noses all along and we'd never know it. She could even be one of the people I already asked you about." "Usagi, you..." Usagi sighed. "Never mind, Luna. I shouldn't get mad at you. I've just had so much happen in such a short period of time. I'm doing everything as fast as I can but I keep running into all these troubles. I just hope we find the princess; maybe I wouldn't have to work so hard if the princess could do some of this stuff instead." * * * * * Usagi and Naru were together, watching a tennis match, and for once, the Senshi weren't around. Usagi was, in fact, trying to forget about evil-fighting matters, at least for a little while. It looked so exciting when characters fought evil on TV, but it was one of those things that was exciting whether you wanted to be excited at the time or not. "You're great, big sister Rui!" yelled Naru as the girl in the match gave the ball a powerful hit. "I didn't know you had a sister, Naru", said Usagi. "Don't be silly. I just call her that. Her mom comes to my mom's shop all the time and I used to play with her all the time, so she's sort of like a sister to me." "Oh, I see." A strikingly handsome, long-haired, man walked onto the grounds. Cries of "ooh" and "aaah" went up from the nearby girls. "It's the businessman!" "He's rich!" "It's a new company!" Usagi, who was familiar with "It's a new store", already began to grow a bit suspicious. The man walked up to Rui and bowed. "I'm Sanjouin Masato", he said. "I happened to be watching your serve. Have you tried putting just a little more weight on the ball?" "What do you mean?" answered Rui. "Let me show you" answered Sanjouin. He took the racket from the grateful Rui and touched it, whispering something--perhaps a prayer or blessing of some kind--then swung it a few times, and handed it back. After this, the man seemed content to watch from the sidelines. Usagi and Naru continued to watch Rui who, thought Usagi, really did amazingly well. Too well, in fact. "Something's wrong", said Naru. "Oh", said Usagi. "I guess I'll ignore that and just go back and do other things with my friends, and we can come back here later after a couple of days, so that whatever's wrong gets a chance to get a lot worse, making the Sailor Senshi have to go through a big fight to save your friend from the Dark Kingdom." "What?" asked Naru. Usagi laughed. "Not! I'm tired, but I'm not *that* tired. Naru-chan, That man did something... he's got to be a youma of some kind. I'm going to go change and call everyone. Bye bye!" She ran off into an alley, and then Naru could hear words being yelled from it. "Moon Prism Power, MAKE UP!" * * * * * "Stop right there!" yelled Sailor Moon, leaping into the court. "A monster that scores zero in tennis shall be defeated by the power of love! I'm Sailor Moon, fighter for love and justice, and in the name of the moon I'll punish you!" No monster, of course, was yet present, and Sanjouin Masato was starting to slip away. Unfortunately Usagi noticed him. "Hey, you. Are you afraid of Sailor Moon? I only fight evil. Are you evil?" Sanjouin laughed. "I don't think so. I was just giving Rui-chan some help. Stop bothering me, Sailor Moon." "Well, can you prove you're not evil?" "Get away from me, you're bothering me." Sailor Moon saw a look in the man's eyes that was more than just hostility towards a rude kid. His mask was slipping. But he only let it show briefly; his plans obviously required him to play the part of a handsome millionaire good guy in public. "Oh. I'm sorry, Mr. Masato. I just... *waaaaah* You're a rich guy and now you're going to get all mad at me and I'd never get a chance to meet you and..." He tried to slip away again, gradually. Sailor Moon pulled him back and continued onwards. She managed to speak to Sanjouin Masato about money, friendship, good and evil, rock stars, anime, and whatever other nonsense went through her mind in the next fifteen minutes. Sailor Mercury stepped into the court, followed by the others. Mercury, her computer visor alread down, announced "That man is full of evil energy!", pointing to the millionaire trying to get away from the endlessly babbling Sailor Moon. Hearing this, Usagi instantly stopped her delaying tactic in mid-sentence and kicked the man in the nuts. "Gotcha", she said as he clutched himself. She yelled "Plan 2" to the other Senshi and pulled off her tiara, shouting out "Moon Tiara Action!" as she threw it. The others shortly afterwards yelled phrases of their own. Fortunately for Sanjouin Masato, he was supernaturally strong, and didn't hurt so much that he couldn't dodge the tiara. Unfortunately for him, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus had thrown their attacks, aiming for a carefully prepared formation behind him that ensured he would dodge directly into at least one of them. He got hit in the head by a Crescent Beam and fell to the ground. "Jupiter, hold him!" said Sailor Moon. "He doesn't look like a regular youma... he's probably Jadeite's successor. If you hold him, maybe the rest of us can keep him from teleporting." Sailor Jupiter caught Sanjouin Masato in a Full Nelson. And for a 14 year old, she was rather strong; strong enough to take on whole gangs by herself, and just maybe, strong enough to hold an evil general. His brow furrowed. He must be about to teleport, thought Sailor Moon, and she slapped him to break his concentration. This was a lot safer than it would otherwise be because he was being held by Sailor Jupiter and couldn't easily retaliate. "You're not going to get away from us by teleporting! Now tell me, are you really evil or were you brainwashed by Queen Beryl?" "How would he know, Sailor Moon?" asked Luna. "If he's brainwashed he probably thinks it's all his own idea anyway." "I'm Nephrite, and you shall all be defeated by the Dark Kingdom..." said the man. Sailor Moon got out her moon rod. "Moon Healing Escalation!" she said, and pointed it at Nephrite. Waves of energy poured over Nephrite and he blinked three times. His brow furrowed again, but she hoped it was from the effect of the rod wiping the evil from his mind, not another attempt to teleport. Then his eyes suddenly seemed clearer than before. "Sailor Moon... Princess... Forgive me, because Beryl..." he said, before his eyes closed. Jupiter let him go, and he collapsed into Sailor Moon's arms. A moment later, he faded. * * * * * "That was... sad." said Naru. "Yeah, I know", said Usagi. "Maybe someday there'll be a Light Kingdom. One where they could be brought back somehow, free from Beryl's influence. Oh well... let's go for ice cream, okay?" She held up something brown and rectangular. "You *didn't*!" said Luna. "We all know that if you have to say 'you didn't'", replied Usagi, "I did!" "Please tell me you didn't get that wallet from Nephrite's pocket." "Why *not*? He's a millionaire, and *he* wasn't going to use it. He must have gotten his money through the forces of evil. The Dark Kingdom doesn't have a right to have it." Usagi opened the wallet and counted the money. "Let's see. 100... 200... Here's a 10000... There's about 50000 yen in here. I should really save it, but it's still a lot of ice cream even if I just use part. Too bad I didn't get his keys. He must have a nice mansion. We could use it as a secret meeting place instead of making trouble for Mako-chan, except the Dark Kingdom probably has it bugged." * * * * * "No!" said Beryl. Nephrite reappeared before Beryl in his crystal prison, to sleep forever until, perhaps, someone would one day awaken him... but Beryl knew, if that was so, it would be someone other than her. The Sailor Senshi had not been defeating youmas only after each had collected much of their loads; instead, they had destroyed their foes almost instantly. It was so fast that the energy supply had dwindled down to nothing. But Beryl had one last, desperate, hope. She rose from her throne and stepped towards where Metallia was reviving. She gave Metallia all her energy, and her own body collapsed into the darkness and disintegrated into powder. In the end it wasn't enough; Metallia lay there, half awake and half asleep, half amorphous and half humanoid, and all alone with nowhere to go. In the Dark Kingdom, Metallia screamed into the void. Of course, the Senshi didn't notice.