Final Vote Count: 40-21. Thanks goes to all who voted. No we'll see what Seiya's true colours are ne? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Sailor Stars "Together Once More" by: Andre Garde (aj113@torfree.net) Part Three: Rumble in Da Bronx It seemed like an eternity passed through his mind, but Seiya Kou had made his decision in a split second. He siezed the opportunity and cut in. "So, THIS from the so-called boyfriend of a very nice girl who writes him DAILY, yet doesn't respond to ANY of her letters. You REALLY show how much you care for her don't you?" Seiya added a sarcastic touch to his words, and could sense a minor victory in the making. Taiki and Yaten did as much, on the verge of sniggering. -- Time seemed to stand still, for a mere fraction of an instant. All the major players had taken the stage. The setting was perfect. And so, the events had been set in motion. A single phrase, not unlike the single snow- flake that unleashes an avalanche's torrent of destruction, had been sent forth to do its duty. Handiwork had been looked upon, and it was found good. Let the flow of time resume its natural course... -- Mamoru could barely contain himself up until that moment, but Seiya's words instantly froze him in his tracks. It was true that he didn't reply to any of Usagi's heartwarming letters. But he couldn't, he was just too busy. It wasn't that he didn't want to, but school in America was taking its toll on his free time. At least by coming back for a while he could make amends with Usagi. But Mamoru thought different thoughts just then, as the anger swelled up from his toes, and rose through his body to settle in his curled fists. What Seiya didn't know was how deeply that insult hurt Mamoru through and through. Mamoru's love for Usagi had been tried and tested before. The voices in his head had once made him turn from his girlfriend, and once again those voices seemed to rouse from their deep, dark, sleep, to taunt and twist the mind of Mamoru Chiba. Seiya's voice emulated the ones of before, an endless loop of torment, over, and over... Seiya thought inwardly to himself. Seiya, 1, boyfriend, 0. It was only a matter of time until Usagi saw the light. Stealing other people's girl- friends wasn't really his style, but something about Usagi made him want to compete with her boyfriend all the more. Speaking of the boyfriend, Seiya looked him over once again. Unable to supress the grin any longer, he saw the wide-eyed, trembling, figure in front of him. He half expected Mamoru to break down, cry, and run away like some immature, little, schoolchild. What he hadn't expected was the right hook that came barreling down across his cheek, and sent him crashing to the floor of the club. Dazed and confused, Seiya tasted the blood in his mouth. "Damn, he's fast!" Mamoru dove at him like a ravaging wolf, intent on tearing its prey to pieces. The guantlet had been thrown, and the two fastest fists in all of Tokyo were about to go at it inside the club. But when Mamoru reached the floor, Seiya simply wasn't there. He rolled away from Seiya's counterattack and rose squarely to meet him. Haruka joined in too, eager to get a crack at Seiya herself, but for now she'd settle for that little brat named Yaten. Apparently, Motoki seemed to be sizing up Taiki, probably for the remarks that Taiki had made about Reika. "Mamoru is no surprise, but Motoki?" she thought to herself. "So, he's willing to fight to preserve the dignity of his woman." "How... charming." Haruka smiled to herself as she cracked her knuckles. "Time to go to work." Haruka and Yaten came at each other in a flurry of punches, each ducking out of each other's way, and each making their mark on the other's body when they connected. Motoki and Taiki were struggling around the dance floor, knocking over some of the bystanders, who were trying to get a firsthand view of the fight. Motoki was a wrestling expert by nature, and was right at home grappling with the tall and lean Taiki. Meanwhile, Mamoru and Seiya were performing one of the most awesome displays of martial arts ability that anyone had ever seen. Surely, this was something to rival that of Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee, of kung-fu legend. It was a frustrating fight for both however, since neither of them had connected after Mamoru's first blow. They were equal fighters in agility, strength, and dexterity. Mirror images in the physical sense perhaps, but different persons shaped by different destinies. One, destined to be with his princess forever; the other, destined to find a long-sought princess. "Been there, done that," Mamoru thought about Seiya. But who better to pick a fight with, than one of equal ability? -- Usagi was thinking better now. Reika had calmed down considerably from the encounter with Taiki. She and Michiru had seen to that. None of the Three Lights seemed to faze Kaiou Michiru; it was water off a duck's back for her. And so Usagi thought about her relationship with the Three Lights. Taiki was okay, Yaten was worse version of Rei with his big mouth, but Seiya was definitely a problem for her. Surely by now, Seiya could see that the bond between herself and Mamoru was stronger than mere steel. A bond, forged a thousand years ago, and destined to continue into eternity. Seiya should know that we could never be inseparable. Mamoru and I are like a balanced equation. When one of us is gone, the equation is unbalanced, unfinished, unwhole. "Equations!? Eek, I must actually be listening to Ami," Usagi said to herself. She looked towards Michiru and Reika. They were grinning at her. Usagi laughed that nervous laugh of hers. "Uh, I was just thinking to myself, about umm... math problems! Yeah! That's right, you know, uh, calculus and stuff right?" When the grins of both girls widened, Usagi turned her head sharply and blushed. "Uh, we better see how everyone else is doing..." She was cut off by the sound of breaking glass and the commotion going on over where the dance floor was. There seemed to be some sort of scuffle between a few people. "Looks like quite a ruckus," Michiru mused. Reika looked troubled. "Hey, it looks like it's going on around our table." She paused, suddenly going pale. "You don't think..." Usagi cut her off in mid-sentence. "Oh no way Reika! I'm sure it's just a couple of fighting over the bill." She smiled, trying to reassure her. She started to get worried when Reika stood back, mouth agape and eyes fixated on the scene going on in front of her. Reika gasped. "Oh my... look!" Michiru stopped dead in her tracks and turned to see what was going on. "Oh no..." Usagi's mind screamed at her, not wanting her to look upon what was transpiring. But she looked anyway, and her jaw would've dropped to the floor if she wasn't supporting it in palms of her hands. "Mam... MAMO-CHAN!?!?" She was hysterical. Mamoru would NEVER doing anything like this unless provoked. And then she had it: Seiya. "We've got to do something. NOW!" Michiru stepped forward and yelled "HARUKA! MAMORU! MOTOKI! STOP THAT THIS INSTANT!!!" When the three kept going toe to toe with the Three Lights, Michiru looked over to Reika for help. She shrugged instead, still not be- lieving what was going on. "Well, someone has to do something, and I guess I'm the only one left." Usagi charged forward into the fray, raising her arms, trying to get every- one's attention. She yelled for the fighting to stop, but no one listened. Everyone was caught up in the intensity of he moment. Haruka and Yaten, irrepressible force and immovable object, punching and kicking at each other. Motoki and Taiki, applying strangleholds and submission moves, going for each other's jugular like deranged vampires. And Mamoru and Seiya, displaying feats of martial arts mastery only seen in the likes of John Woo uzi-ballets; each like unleashed lightning spewing forth to annihilate each other. Usagi thought of Jupiter. "How I wish Mako-chan and the rest could have come tonight," she said, as she backed out of harms way. Something else caught her eye just then, an instantaneous flash of light. No one else seemed to notice, not even Michiru or Reika, who were well out on the side- lines trying to yell to their respective partners. It was then that Usagi heard the voice. Soft, gentle, supplicating. No, actually, it was more like a whisper... barely audible, insignificant... She tried to make out the phrase as she had heard it over the roar of the crowd. They were having the time of their lives watching the greatest full fledged bar room brawl in Japanese history. "Ice cream...? No, it sounded like..." Usagi pondered aloud. When she saw the flash of pinkish light, two words immediately engraved themselves on the stone that was her mind: "Dead Scream." And the flash of pink energy travelled through the crowd, so expertly aimed that it flew right across the dance floor and smashed into one of the giant speakers of the club, shorting out electrical circuits and stopping the music entirely. Amazingly enough, nothing seemed to explode. But the energy discharge had demonstrated how destructive it could be. Where the speaker formerly stood, there was a tremendous gaping hole that let the chilling night air through. Rubble, which was still smoking, had fallen to the floor just below the damaged speaker. As the dust began to rise, the crowd let out a collective gasp as they tried to recover their wits from the unexpected turn of events. The combatants had stopped their "dance" with each other, and ceased hostilities. They listened to the deafening silence that crept across the floor like an eerie mist. Time seemed to stop and catch its breath. Usagi knew only one person who could produce such an effect, and was glad she was there to help. Sailor Pluto, Guardian of Time, had made her point. She stood there, majestically, at the entrance to the club with her staff in hand, gazing upon the people in the club. They stared back at her with reverence and awe. If she had chosen to speak, Usagi knew what those words would be. "There has been enough fighting for one night. Go home. Now." But she didn't, as that wasn't required. Her penetrating gaze was more than sufficient. The people in the club gave her a startled look, but when she raised her staff once more, they made haste to get out as quickly as possible. She turned to Matsuo Tanaka, the owner of Da Bronx, and tossed him a wad of yen. More than enough to cover the damages, as far as Michiru could tell, as she looked at her fellow Senshi and longtime friend. Usagi waved to Sailor Pluto and winked. She mouthed a simple "arigatou" to her. Pluto smiled lightly. She mouthed back. "Any time." Sailor Pluto turned towards Tanaka. "Sorry about the mess." She looked at Michiru and greeted her with a simple nod of her head. And then she was gone, exiting Da Bronx in the blink of an eye. The crowd filed out, and so Matsuo Tanaka stepped into his owner's office to recollect his thoughts and review his life in general. One didn't mess around with the Sailor Senshi twice and live to tell about it. On the dance floor, nine people were left alone in the quiet. Haruka, Motoki, Yaten, and Taiki, panting and fatigued, trying to catch their breath in short gasps as a result of prolonged fighting. Michiru, Reika, and Usagi, looking on in similar horror at what had just happened. That left Mamoru and Seiya, unscathed, but both were tired, and had seen better days. "Oke, okay..." said Usagi, breaking the silence. "Now, I want someone to calmly tell me what just happened here. No one interrupts, got it?" The Three Lights and the others nodded silently, both sides relieved that the worst was over... or just beginning. Usagi called to Mamoru. "Well, let's hear it Mamoru. And you Seiya, and the rest of you! You should be ashamed of yourselves! What were you thinking!? Well, answer me!!" Mamoru could see that Usagi was in one of her hissy fits. Though he may have found them cute, this was a more serious matter. He tried to stammer a response. "Well, uh, you see..." Usagi cocked her head over to Seiya and the Lights. The glaring look she gave made them step back a notch. Seiya fumbled for the words. "It's like this, Usagi, we were, ah, umm..." He shrugged and looked to Yaten and Taiki for support. None came. Haruka and Motoki didn't have anything to offer in terms of an explanation either. They could see that they were in for the lecture of a lifetime. Usagi couldn't even begin to understand her anger, but she knew it was a result of her friends fighting between each other. It hurt her to see that. And to find out that Mamoru was one of those who fought!? This was too much for her. Michiru sensed that from Usagi when she didn't say a word for what seemed a long period of time. "I think we've all had it for one night. Let's get out of here, shall we? Please?" Michiru stressed the last word with urgency. They had to get out of there, in case yet another scuffle broke out. She wasn't certain whether or not Usagi would get involved, but her duty as a Senshi was to protect her at all costs. She needed to get everyone separated from each other, immediately. Slowly but surely, Mamoru, Haruka, and Motoki backed off. The Three Lights did the same, and headed off towards the exit and left. Mamoru saw the hurt expression in Usagi's eyes as they went out to Haruka's car. Come to think of it, he saw that Haruka seemed downcast as well. During the ride back to his apartment, Mamoru tried to comfort Usagi several times. Each time, she crossed her arms and stared out into the night, away from him. He felt like a complete jerk. Not finding the time to write her back, not even for just one measly letter that she wrote. "And now this!" he said to him -self. "Maybe," he thought. "Just maybe, Seiya was right..." Mamoru lost himself in his fatigued, pensive, state. Images of Usagi, Seiya, and the rest, all clouded his mind for a time. He closed his eyes and tried to forget those very same thoughts as Haruka raced down the streets, the neon lights from the faraway club receding well into the darkness of the night. -- End of Part Three Andre Garde (a.k.a. Veritech) | Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Sailor Team HQ! aj113@torfree.net | http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/5991 Comments? Any advice that you have to offer is always welcome. My email address is as above. "Sailor Moon" character names et. al. are Copyright (C) Naoko Takeuchi, Toei Animation, and Kodansha. In other words, companies with big wallets and a collection of high-priced lawyers who aren't to be trifled with. The story I wrote, but everything else (the characters, the names) is theirs, theirs, theirs. Please don't sue me. The reference to "Rumble in the Bronx" is a Jackie Chan movie, which you should rent and see. It's also back by copyrights, so I changed "the" to "Da" just in case. It's really silly, but it's the best I could come up with. -- -- Andre Garde (a.k.a. Veritech) | Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Sailor Team HQ! aj113@torfree.net | http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/5991