"So, what triggered it this time?" the counselor asked, sounding a little more tired than usual. Naru sat on the sofa, hands clenched over her knees, refusing to look the counselor in the eyes. Sighing, the counselor removed her glasses and pinched the bridge of her nose. "Is it alright to punch people we don't agree with?" she asked in the usual resigned tone.

"No, Miss Yamada," Naru mumbled, eyes fixed on her knuckles.

"Did you apologize to the boy after you punched him?"

"No, Miss Yamada."

"Are you going to apologize to him when you get back to class?"

"Yes, Miss Yamada."

Miss Yamada nodded, eyes still closed. After a few seconds, she frowned and looked up. "Wait, was it a boy this time?"

"Yes, Miss Yamada."

"Good. Well, not good but..." Miss Yamada sighed. "Look, Miss Osaka. It's my job to help you work through whatever's making you act out, and I'm happy to do that... but I can't actually help you unless you talk to me. I can't tell you how you can deal with your anger unless I know who you're angry at. "

"Nothing," Naru said. "Everything. I don't know" She pressed the heel of her hand against her forehead. "Everything's just... gone wrong."

Miss Yamada twirled her pen between her fingers, considering the girl. All her teachers were quite confused about what had caused Naru Osaka, an otherwise model student, to suddenly become the most disruptive influence in her year. Picking fights, handing in barely-completed homework (if any), talking back to teachers... the faculty had all but given up on her. Miss Yamada had appealed to the principal to give her until the end of the term to try and help Naru. Something she wasn't confident she could actually do... but she had to try.

"Let's come at this from another direction," Miss Yamada said, clasping her hands on the desk. "Was there a specific point where things started to go wrong?"

"...it snuck up on me," she said finally. "By the time I realized things were going wrong... I was already getting swept up in it all."

"I had a really wonderful dream last night," Naru said excitedly as she came up to her classmates. "This warrior of justice called Sailor Moon appeared and destroyed this monster..."

"Wait, really?" Yumiko interrupted, "I had the same dream!"

"Me too!" Kuri added.

"How strange..." Naru mused. Then noticing that her best friend was yet again catching 40 winks before class, "Hey, Usagi. Usagi, listen!" The resident blonde-haired sloth made a piteous groaning noise from beneath her folded arms.

"M'tired," Usagi mumbled. "Keep it down, lemme sleep a bit more..." She stretched her mouth open in a yawn and rolled her head over to the other side of the desk. Naru smiled and shook her head. She'd tell Usagi at lunch after she'd woken up properly. In the meantime, she went back to the more curious matter.

"The same dream, you say?" Naru asked, pulling the other girls away to her desk. "You sure? I mean, my dream happened in my Mum's jewellery store.."

"Same!" Yumiko replied. "Well, your Mum, not mine, but you get what I mean."

"And everyone suddenly started fainting?" Naru asked.

"Yeah, and then this girl showed up at the entrance, dressed like Sailor V, but with her hair in long ponytails."

"And then she used a sonic attack to stun the monster?" Naru prompted.

"Uh... don't think that happened in my dream." Kuri frowned, scratching her forehead. "My memory's a bit hazy on the details, you know how dreams are. But I clearly remember she threw her tiara at the monster, right?"

"Yeah, that's right." Naru sat at the desk, absentmindedly chewing her thumb as she mulled this information over. "Okay, this is bizarre... I mean, this couldn't have actually happened right? I remember waking up in my bed this morning."

"Same... although now I think of it..." Kuri looked between the others. "Does anyone here remember going to bed last night?"

There was a pregnant pause. The expressions on everyone's faces became uniformly astounded as they realized no-one was going to answer the question.

"Golly," Naru said, looking as stunned as the rest. "So that means... it really happened?"

...and if it really happened, she added in her head. Then that means...

Naru forgot to talk to Usagi about the incident at lunch. She spent the entire day worrying about what she was going to say to her mother when she got home.

It turned out Mrs Osaka was as confused as Naru. While her version of events confirmed that the monster attacking the jewellery store had been real (either that or the mother of all mass hallucinations), she had little more to add to the story. She had a gap in her memory that stretched back to last Wednesday, which lined up with the time Naru's "mother" had begun organizing the big jewelry sale, as well as a vague memory of being jumped from behind while she was closing up shop that night, but beyond that she was quite in the dark. She was however, able to clear up the mystery of how Naru had ended up in bed; the younger teenagers seemed to have been hit harder than the adults by the monster's... whatever it was. An emergency coffee production line in the staffroom had got the grown women functional again, but the teenagers were still slipping in and out of consciousness when their parents took them home. Mrs Osaka had carried Naru upstairs to her bedroom to let her sleep it off while she began sorting out the store. She had been quite flustered to discover what her double had been up to in her absence.

"This is... I don't even know how to describe this!" her mother spluttered as she went over her stock-take list. "She sold everything at a loss! This is awful! It's criminal! It's just as well we're almost at the end of the quarter or I'd be going bankrupt! If I ever find out who organized this I'll... I'll..." she open and closed her mouth in incoherent fury.

"I'll just pop outside so you can let out some steam, shall I?" Naru said with a smile, stepping sideways out the door. She'd barely pulled it to before her mother began letting loose a stream of choice swearwords.

I wonder what the monster was after, Naru thought to herself as she got into bed that night. I mean, having a big jewelry sale so you can... make people sleepy? No, there must be more to it than that. Maybe it needed its victims to be unconscious before it could do anything to them... didn't stop it coming after me though. Ah well, it's all over now. Rolling over and pulling the duvet up to her chin, Naru settled down to sleep.

That night was the first time Naru had the nightmare about her mother strangling her, a sadistic grin on her face as Naru struggled beneath her talon-like fingers, pleading for mercy.

Okay, what did you want to talk to me about?" Naru asked as she ran up to Umino. The scruffy boy leaned against one of the courtyard trees, looking off wistfully into the distance.

"I want to go on a date with Usagi..." he said in a romantic tone... "And trade diaries and even talk to her parents about her future." ...or at least it had been romantic up until that point. Naru blinked once or twice, before she broke out into helpless laughter. Umino deflated like a punctured beachball.

"I'm sorry," Naru said, getting a hold of herself. "I just don't think it'll work if you ask her up front."

"So I should attack from behind?!" Umino asked dramatically. Naru shook her head and wagged her finger, unfazed by Umino's unfortunate (as usual) phrasing.

"Go ask a fortune teller, she'll tell you what you should do."

"Well, I already know the answer then." Umino said, tapping his glasses with a smug look. Naru raised an eyebrow as Umino pulled a little electronic game of some kind out of his bag.

"See, I programmed this fortune teller game myself - according to this, Usagi and I are destined for each other!"

"No, no!" Naru stomped her feet in frustration at Umino's obtuseness. "I mean a real fortune teller!"

"Ah, I see."

Naru sighed. Gurio Umino to use his full name (not that anyone did), was a nice enough kid, but he had the weirdest ideas about how to deal with girls. He was that one person who appeared in most social circles, where no-one quite knew how someone that obnoxious had ended up in the group to begin with, but no-one actually wanted to be the one to kick him out. Still... Naru found his crush on Usagi oddly charming. The confidence boost from a visit to a fortune teller might just be enough to get him through the attempt to ask her out without making a fool of himself.

"Look, there's this place that opened in Juubangai recently, House of Fortune. I heard that they're pretty good, so why don't you try them?"

"Okay!" Umino said. Naru recognized the happy, away-with-the-faeries look that meant Umino had fully latched on to her suggestion.

And my work here is done, Naru thought to herself as Umino trotted off.

"Did Umino say anything to you?" Naru asked as she closed her locker. Usagi looked quizzically at Naru.

"About what?" Well, so much for the fortune teller approach.

"I think Umino likes you."

"What?!" Usagi was as astounded as Naru had expected her to be. Settling into matchmaker mode, Naru took hold of Usagi's arm and sidled up to her.

"But he's naive and innocent, so he's too shy to say anyth-"

"Usagi, let's go on a date!"

Usagi and Naru turned their heads in unison. There, leaning against the locker was Umino, wearing a three-piece suit which looked to be some horrible shade of grey-blue.

"What's wrong?" Usagi asked, looking over the bizarre getup.

"...It's not a good idea to come to school dressed like that," Naru added, unable to come up with anything else to say.

"Who cares?" Umino strolled up to Usagi, casually putting his hand on her shoulder, seemingly oblivious to Usagi tensing up at the sudden invasion of personal space. "Usagi, let's go on a date today."

"He's gotten brave all of a sudden..." Naru observed again, still flying on automatic as she tried to wrap her head around what was happening.

"Umino! What on earth are you wearing?" Ms. Haruna loomed behind Umino, radiating that special brand of professional-yet-personal umbrage that all teachers seemed to have. Instead of flinching and apologizing however, Umino took a sandwich roll out of his bag and bit into it. "Umino! What are you thinking?"

Umino casually walked down the hallway. "Thinking this." And Naru's eyes widened as he flipped Ms. Haruna's skirt up in the air on his way past. Ms. Haruna stood there for a few seconds, an expression of mortified shock on her face, before she broke down and began crying there in the corridor.

"Uh, you go ahead, Usagi," Naru said as she knelt down to awkwardly comfort Ms. Haruna. "I'll stay with her." Usagi gave Naru an uncertain look, before continuing on to class. Ms. Haruna sniffled as she got herself under control, face beetroot red with embarrassment. "I'm sure it was just some stupid dare his friends put him up to," Naru said, not even convincing herself. "By the time we get to English, everything will be back to normal."

Things didn't get back to normal in English class. In fact, they got worse. Umino loudly 'reading' manga as Ms. Haruna tried to take the lesson was bad enough, but when Yuuji tripped her up as she marched down the class to deal with him, Naru actually got a chill from how callous they were being. Ms. Haruna was clearly fighting back tears of humiliation as she picked herself up from the floor. And looking around the class, Naru could see that the rest of the students were just as shocked as she was at how the two boys were behaving. There was just no explanation for it. Well, except for one... and Naru didn't like where that train of thought took her.

"You know," Naru said as she met up with Usagi after school. "Umino went to that House of Fortune the other day."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I told him about it. And I think Yuuji went too."

Usagi looked up at the clouds as she mulled the information over, no doubt coming to the same conclusion Naru had. Before they could continue the conversation any further though, a sound of breaking glass came from the other side of the courtyard.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" the maths teacher shouted as he pulled the staffroom window open, a jagged hole clearly visible where a rock had smashed through it. A second rock followed, smashing the window as the teacher ducked out of sight. Down below the window, a group of boys were holding rocks, all of them looking like they wanted trouble.

"Hey, you're not so smart!" the leader said, and Naru recognized Umino's gray-blue suit. "So stop acting like you're better than us!"

"Yeah!" the other boys shouted in agreement, and the group began launching a salvo of rocks that destroyed every panel of the office window. For Usagi, this was more than enough.

"Come on," she said, grabbing Naru's hand. "We need to put a stop to this before someone gets hurt." They ran across the courtyard, coming up to the group of boys just as they finished their salvo. "What are you doing?" Usagi shouted at Umino. "What is this?"

Umino turned to look at Usagi with a smirk. "Hey, Usagi." And something about his expression make the hair on Naru's neck stand on end.

"What's wrong with you?" Usagi demanded, unfazed by Umino's lack of timidity. What happened next, Naru couldn't quite believe. It just didn't seem real. Umino grabbed hold of Usagi's hand and pulled her in. "Wanna kiss?" he asked, taking hold of Usagi's shoulders. And he leaned in towards Usagi with what could only be described as a predatory look on his face. Naru was half a second away from stepping in and pushing Umino away...

...at which point Usagi fell back on her standard method of dealing with problems and began bawling her eyes out.

"I don't like you when you're like this!" she wailed at the top of her lungs. "I hate you, I hate you, I hate you!" Everyone present clapped their hands over their ears as her shrill piercing cry stabbed into their eardrums.

"Let's get out of here," Umino said to the other boys, who all followed him out of the immediate blast radius until they could take their fingers out of their ears again. Once they were out of sight (and she felt her ears had endured all the crying they could handle for one day), Naru patted Usagi on the shoulder.

"Usagi, it's okay now," she said comfortingly. She was expecting to have to spend the next few minutes consoling her, but instead, Usagi turned off the waterworks immediately and gave Naru a smile.

"Ah, that feels better," she said as if she'd just stretched her arms. Naru buried her face in her hand.

"Good grief," she said. "Could have at least given me some warning."

"Gotta keep the element of surprise," Usagi replied mischievously, winking at Naru and grinning. The grin faded as she looked back in the direction Umino and his gang had left. "What was that all about though?"

"Search me," Naru repied. "Seriously, what was Umino thinking? I mean, he's always been a bit awkward but he's never been so... creepy about it. I was uncomfortable just watching that, I can't imagine how you felt."

"There must be something making him to act up," Usagi said thoughtfully. "Umino wouldn't be mean like that for no reason."

"You're too generous," Naru said as she shouldered her schoolbag. "Oh well, off home. Want to come back to my place?"

"Actually I've got some stuff I need to do," Usagi said, skipping over to the gate, where a black cat hopped out of the bushes and rubbed against her ankles. "See you tomorrow, Naru!"

"See you!" Naru called back, waving goodbye.

The incident at the House of Fortune that evening became the first reported instance of Sailor Moon in action, although later interviews would establish the Osa-P jewellery store as the first sighting of the mysterious superhero. A number of young teenagers from across Juuban were discovered at the building (curiously devoid of any employees), all in a daze and uncertain of how they'd got there or why they were missing 24 hours, but all quite certain that they'd seen a slender, beautiful girl in a sailor costume (much like Sailor V's), give them a friendly wave before disappearing into the night. The official story was some kind of drug-induced fugue caused by the fortune teller burning incense with mind-altering properties that messed with people's inhibitions - essentially, Umino and his gang had been drunk for the entire day. And like most drunk people, Umino was absolutely mortified to discover what he'd been up to during his blackout.

"So, um... what was I actually doing yesterday?" Umino asked Naru nervously as they waited for the bus. Naru smirked to herself. She was going to enjoy this.

"Well first of all, you turned up in a three-piece suit. Horrible shade of blue I might add."

Umino relaxed a little. "Well, if that's the worst I did..."

"You also flipped Ms. Haruna's skirt." Naru added.

Umino dropped his bag as he finished processing that sentence. "I did what?!"

Naru smiled as Umino sat down on the pavement, going into meltdown at the news. It was a little mean to rub it in his face like this, but after the grief he'd caused yesterday, Naru felt he deserved a little embarrassment of his own. She leaned in over him as he began hyperventilating a little.

"And you tried to kiss Usagi." Naru continued. "And then you broke the window of the teacher's office... hey, where are you going?" Umino had begun to trudge away from the bus stop, shoulders slouched.

"My life's over," he said miserably. "There's no coming back from this..." He was so absorbed in self-pity that he didn't notice Usagi coming up the street in front of him.

"Gooood morning!" Usagi said, sticking her face in front of Umino's and giving him a broad smile. Naru couldn't see it from where she was, but she could imagine the look of sheer panic on Umino's face as he tried to stammer out an apology.

"Uh... about yesterday..."

"Don't worry about it!" Usagi said sunnily, not even skipping a beat. Naru smiled and shook her head. Trust Usagi to forgive and forget. Even if Umino was the kind of person to put his other foot in his mouth as soon as you pulled the first one out.

"You're right! I shouldn't worry about it," Umino said with false confidence. "After all, you're okay when you get bad grades on your tests. I need to be more like you." And completely oblivious to Usagi's put-out expression, he turned and waltzed back to the bus stop.

Naru laughed despite herself. Umino's shenanigans could be tiresome, but they were also quite entertaining. And right now, she could use the distraction. She'd had the nightmare about her mother strangling her again, last night. It was beginning to worry her...