Subtext

Disclaimer: Things I don't do include owning Sailor Moon and making any money from writing about Sailor Moon.

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It turns out that I'm completely incapable of making regular or frequent updates. I'm sorry. I hope any readers I have left enjoy this chapter, and while I have serious plans for the next chapter, I can't even guess when it will be up. My new semester at university starts in a couple days, and it could have the effect of not letting me write at all because I have so much homework, or making me write all the time in order to avoid my homework. As I re-watch the series for the 2934892834th time, I keep having to awkwardly insert bits of plot which I forgot to plan for before Subtext began to overlap with the actual anime. Let me know what you all think.

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Michiru and I were in different classes, so we planned a lunchtime rendezvous and agreed to meet at my car after school. After we bathed and dressed, I drove us to school and (proudly) parked my car in a shady parking space, already getting the attention of many young schoolgirls trying to delay their inevitable return to class after this most recent break. A group of them lingering on a sidewalk complained audibly when they saw Michiru get out of my passenger seat. I couldn't help but smirk a little, but Michiru steadfastly ignored it all, at least until she was about to leave me at the door of my classroom. It was open, and girls were whispering and glancing at me, as they tend to do. "See you at lunch, Haruka!" Michiru said brightly, and quite loudly enough for the girls to hear.

I wasn't sure her possessive efforts would be effective. But of course I'm never truly tempted to stray – I just enjoy the attentions of my fans, never with any serious intentions for anyone but Michiru.

Class was uneventful, and I was very happy to find Michiru when our break for lunch began. While we were eating, she brought up something interesting. "Haruka," she began, "do you ever dream of a princess?"

"I often have. You, too?"

"It's another part of our mission. I don't know how it fits with talismans and the Grail, but I guess we'll figure that out, too."

"How do you know it's another part of our mission? Did you have another dream?"

"Not exactly. I was just thinking about different dreams I've had that seem like premonitions, and the dreams I've had of a princess fit with them, so I was thinking it must be part of it all."

Michiru's intuition is eternally amazing. I do well in school, but my brain just doesn't work like hers. In her dreamy, artistic mind she comes to an understanding of things that I can only admire, as if through the sea-mist of her mind things loom up sharply and suddenly when she needs to see them.

After lunch I made my way back to my class, sighing and wishing it was time to go. School is not exactly a problem, but it's tedious. At least we were attending Mugen Academy to spy on it, but the time we had to spend just blending in was bound to be boring. I spent my time in class idly drawing in the margins of my notes, waiting for class to end. When we were finally allowed to go, I hastened back to the parking lot to meet Michiru. My car's top was up, and of course my windows are darkened just a little bit past the legal limit, so when we were inside, I leaned across the divide between our seats and kissed Michiru, butterflies flooding my stomach at my own indiscretion in a place barely screened from the public. Her mouth was warm and soft, the taste of her addictive and especially attractive after a day spent without her.

From here the day went crazy. When we'd stopped kissing, I started the car and we went driving around the city, looking for trouble. Michiru, ever intuitive, recommended that we stop near a particular shrine popular for little things like love charms, but, I remembered hearing, once warned against in a periodical for girls because of the inappropriate leering of its old keeper. We were enjoying the peaceful forest air, wondering aloud when we would ever figure out what exactly we were supposed to be doing, when from a distance we heard a scream. "Finally," I murmured, as we set off at a run.

As we got closer, we heard many girl's voices raised in alarm, and we stopped at a safe distance to transform. I was about to charge ahead, but Sailor Neptune caught my arm. "We can't be hasty about this. If it's what we're looking for, we have to wait and let the monster do the work on the victim, and then defeat the monster."

Listening to the screams and fighting, I began to think seriously about what all this would mean for the victim, and I suspected the worst. Removing a crystal from someone, as Michiru had said would happen, sounded painful at best, and I was worried. We would be at the very least prolonging someone's pain, and I thought of all kinds of horrible possibilities.

When we were at the scene of the fight, we scaled a tree so we could stay out of sight but still watch most of what was going on. Mostly what we saw was a bunch of middle school girls and a man in a strange outfit, all tied up, gazing helplessly in horror and tears at a monster looming over a shrine maiden with long black hair. A beautiful crystal structure floated above the prostrate girl, and as the monster took it, I wasted no more time and performed World Shaking. Sailor Neptune followed my attack closely with Deep Submerge, and our enemy was vanquished. I swooped down to collect the crystal before the poor girl's unfortunate friends could take it, and returned to the trees before they knew what was going on. We examined it together. I was afraid to handle something so lovely and fragile-looking, and I was disturbed by the rather dead look of the pretty girl from whom it had been extracted, but I knew we had to be ruthless. Luckily for the girl and her friends, the crystal was not a talisman, as far as we could tell. It was just a crystal, not any kind of item, and we had no special feeling for it, so I didn't want to keep it from its owner any longer. "This isn't a talisman," I said to Sailor Neptune, who nodded.

"The enemy chose the wrong target," she said, agreeing.

"A trip wasted," I complained, as I tossed the crystal back towards its owner and hoped she was still breathing.*

Before we left, we watched the victim's blonde friend crying over her as she revived. They were an interesting bunch of girls – five in total, all pretty, if a bit tear-stained, and all so worried about their friend. I don't remember if I had even an odd feeling when I first saw those girls, even the slightest hint of a premonition of what they would become to us. But even then, I was glad they hadn't lost one of their number to our mission. I always tried to ignore thoughts like that, since I doubted that whoever did happen to have the talismans would be so horrible that I wouldn't be sorry they had to die. If their hearts were so pure, they were unlikely to deserve such a fate, and yet it was our duty to inflict it upon them if we could. Seeing that pretty girl lying deathly pale on the ground made it all seem less pleasant than ever.

I decided not to discuss this with Michiru as we made our way back home. We were both very quiet – shaken by the strange fight, and, I guessed, haunted by similar thoughts. It was getting dark when I pulled up outside my apartment. Michiru made no move to get out of the car. "Are you ready to go in?" I asked gently.

She sighed, and just said, "That was hard."

I sighed too. "But we have to do it."

"But what if that girl had had a talisman?"

"We would have taken it."

"And she would have died?"

"She would have died."

"We're going to save the world, but not everyone in it?"

"Mmhmm. The world, but not everyone in it."

"Is that alright to do?"

"Is there another way?"

"What if there is?"

"We only know about this way."

"Are you so cold that you can say it so easily?"

I knew she didn't mean to say something like that, and that she was just upset, so I said nothing. She apologized almost immediately. "I'm sorry, Haruka… You're not cold, and it's not easy for you. You're just stronger."

"Don't worry. I know you're upset, and so am I. And I'm not stronger… Think of how long it took me to accept my fate."

"But even if it took you longer to accept, you've accepted it more fully than I have."

It was dark outside by now. "We have different strengths, my dear. And by the end of this, I think we will both know their limitations."

Her mood changed suddenly – the tide flowing out again. "Let's go somewhere distracting, Haruka. I don't want to take these thoughts inside."

I quite agreed with this idea. I had foreseen some of the things I dreaded about relationships taking place if we went home like this – long, serious talks and crying. I should have known Michiru wasn't the kind of girl to subject me to something like that. Relieved, I restarted the car and pulled out, heading for a certain pretty park I knew of. When we arrived, I parked in a side-street so no nighttime patrols or anyone like that would guess that someone might be in the park after hours, if we happened to stay late. We got out of the car, and with Michiru on my arm, we strolled up to the quiet, deserted park. Through benches, trees, and shrubbery, we meandered arm-in-arm, enjoying light conversation and each other's company undisturbed. Eventually, when it was getting rather late, we came upon a fountain, beautiful in the moonlight.** To my surprise, Michiru, after standing in front of it with me for a moment, disengaged her arm from mine, kicked off her shoes, and waded into the water. She looked at me, smiled at my slightly shocked expression, and turned around again to step further into the water. She stood for a while facing away from me, as the wind tossed her hair and skirt about and made ripples in the water. It was a scene so lovely I don't know if anything could have dragged my eyes away.

After a while, she turned again and walked back to the edge, close to me. I held out my hand, and she took it and climbed out. We sat on a nearby bench to wait for her to dry enough to put her shoes on again, and resumed our conversation from before her fountain adventure, which I did not comment upon. I couldn't think how to tell her it was beautiful without sounding ridiculous, and I didn't know what else to say. Eventually we were kissing.

Not wanting to stay out too late on a school night, and always shy of getting caught, we soon returned home, and went to bed effectively distracted.

* This bit is adapted from the first episode of the third season of the anime.

** This is a reference to a popular image of the two of them. I have a few references like that in this story, since I write a lot of it using pictures as a sort of structure to remind me of what's supposed to happen.