On Razor's Edge - Chapter One

The sharp edge of a razor is difficult to pass over; thus the wise say the path to Salvation is hard.

~ verse in the Katha-Upanishad

"I don't get it."
Minako rolled her eyes. "You have got to be kidding me."
"No kidding. This kid ain't kidding. So explain it again." It was a Sunday afternoon in Tokyo, somewhere past the year 2000, but ages before the millennium came to an end. Early autumn, if you're interested. October, to be precise. The tenth. What, the hour too? Fine. It was the tenth of October in a year of the 2000s, and two friends, finally reconciled, were sitting on an old red couch in a small house in the outskirts of Tokyo, just as the clock chimed three.
"Ando."
"Minako."
The two looked at each other, and finally, Minako sighed and craned her head in the direction of the adjoining door. "TAKESHI!"

Seconds later, a white-haired man stuck his head out of said door, eyebrows furrowed, pencil in hand. "Yes?"
"Ando still doesn't get it."
Disentangling his eyebrows, he arched one and gave the blond man on his couch a level look. "Is that so?"
Ando shrugged a little. "You have to admit that it doesn't make much sense."
"Actually, if you think about it, it does," Minako quipped from the side and took a sip of her hot cappuccino. "Crap," she mumbled, and put the cup back on the saucer, gingerly touching her lip. Ando grinned and she swiftly dealt out retribution with a kick. "Don't act like you've never burnt your tongue." "Not twice in five minutes, I haven't," he answered and gave her another superior grin.
From the doorway, Takeshi cleared his throat. "Ando, do you need me to explain it to you or do you just want to annoy Minako?"
"A little bit of both."
The corners of Takeshi's mouth twitched. "At least you're honest."
"Oh yay," Minako contributed and gave her soon-to-be husband a dirty look. "Thanks for the help."
"You're welcome," Takeshi said seriously, and disappeared again.
"So, really: how does this work?" Ando asked again and Minako sighed.

The way it worked was this: Crystal Tokyo, the utopia of all utopias, was actually built on a volcano. A literal one, the kind that spews fire and lava and destruction and turns people into statues. Quite luckily for Tokyo, pre-Crystal that is, the city just happened to be inhabited by the only two people in the universe who could put a glittery, crystal seal over the volcano that was just about to start ruining it all.

And who knew, Ando thought, that if you reveal yourself to be a magical being with bloody angel-esque wings and all that jazz and then turn a dangerous volcano into a harmless sparkly palace, people will go and scream bloody murder.

Barely back for a day, Ando was still nowhere near finished with his first round "I'm back, let's celebrate, now fill me in" visits. His very first stop had been his old flat, only to find that Umino, the tosser, had recently moved out. Assuming that his friend had either finally moved in with Ami, or into the new palace, Ando had tried his luck at Ami's apartment next, only to find that not only did the woman no longer live there, the whole building was gone, replaced by a tall crystal growing towards heaven. Bit spooky, he had to admit that.

Not wanting to walk into the palace before he know what exactly was going on, he had made his way to Minako's and Takeshi's place, quite confident that if a crystal decided to eat up their little house, Takeshi would probably take to hammer and chisel and chip the crystal into submission. When he arrived, he could see that all that had changed here was that the tree in the garden had grown and was now towering over the house and leaning over the wall. Other than that, the place looked just like he'd remembered.

Mina too was unchanged, and so was Takeshi, who had given him an awkward hug, and then disappeared in his study. Mina then told him about recent events, and where everyone could be found. Mamoru, Usagi, Umino, Ami and Rei had moved into the palace, partly to prove to Tokyo's population that it was just a building and not some sort of secret spaceship, and partly because it had become impossible for Mamoru and Usagi to live normally anyway, whatever that meant. Makoto and Hiromasa, Minako shared, were just where Ando had seen them last: living in their house, running their businesses, and being the textbook definition of a happy little family. Their youngest was about to turn two.

Putting off the visit to the palace for last, Ando continued to let Minako fill him in, until he eventually realised that no, none of this made any sense whatsoever. Making his apologies, he headed out, patting both his friend and her ancient Great Dane on the hand before closing the door behind him.

Ando Tanaka walked past the huge palace that now dominated the centre of Tokyo, and headed to a café in the Jubaan district. He reached his destination after twenty minutes. The place had not changed at all. Red and white striped awning, white painted walls, and the smell of coffee and cake wafting on the air.
There were still flower pots adorning each side of the entrance, just as he remembered, and the pink oleander was threatening to spill from them. October had not yet remembered that it was autumn rather than summer, so Tokyo was still in bloom. Ando plucked one spray of the blossoms, fastened it to the lapel of his corduroy jacket and pushed the door open. The smell of coffee and something delicious and sweet was heavy in the air. Ando took a deep breath to soak it all in: it was good to be home.

The woman behind the counter was as unchanged by time as her shop.
"What does a man have to do to get a decent cup of coffee in this town?"
Makoto Obuchi looked up from the till, and smiled. There was not a single line on her face. "Say hello, for one."
"Hello," Ando promptly said, and grinned. He did a lot of that these days. Making his way over to the counter, he side-stepped several chairs and one little girl. The hug was brief, but genuine. "Didn't you say that you would be back the very second Crystal Tokyo came into being?" Makoto teased, and extricated herself from the embrace.
"Well, I was expecting a big fight, or something."
"No, not that," Makoto said, and her smile wore thin.

"So what then," Ando asked, and sat down at the counter, all ears.
On the other side of the counter, Makoto shifted from one foot to the other. "It's complicated."
"Yeah, I just bet it is."
"Perhaps you should talk to Mamoru and Usagi. They'll be able to explain it much better. And Ando?"
"Yeah?"
"That kid you almost stepped on is mine."
Ando whipped around and stared at the child. Well, the brown curls might have given it away. "That is little Aiko? But little Aiko is supposed to be littler." He pressed his thumb and forefinger almost together. "This tiny! It's why I call her Little Aiko! She can't be Little Aiko when she's big!" he exclaimed, and managed to sound insulted by Aiko growing up.
Mako laughed. "She's only five. Wait until she's 18 and wearing short skirts on dates with boys who own motorcycles. Then you and Hiro can freak out together." Aiko looked up from her colouring book then and squinted at her mother. "I don't like boys. Boys are stupid."
Breaking into a wide grin, Ando said: "That's my girl."

Of course he had noticed that he had stopped aging. Ando wasn't a vain man, but one does need a mirror to shave, even somewhere in the Amazonian jungle, and the lack of wrinkles was something that told him that the world was changing. Or maybe it wasn't, maybe he was. Either way, the whole immortality thing had seemed to kick in by the time he turned thirty, and that was ten years ago. He had travelled for a long, long time. Not long enough to forget about all he had done wrong - he could never forget the events that led to the downfall of a whole civilisation and to Endymion dying on the moon - but long enough to understand that he was not doomed to repeat them all over again. It all came down to making the right kind of choices.

This realisation had struck him somewhere in the Nicaraguan rain forest, after a rather weird satellite phone call to Mamoru, who had sounded very much like someone was was pretending to be fine while actually falling to pieces. Considering himself something of an expert with regards to breakdowns, it was then that Ando had decided to return somewhere where he would have better access to news outlets.

He had barely set foot into Granada when he heard about what had happened in Tokyo two months ago. A volcano, a crystal, a woman with wings. He was on a plane not even a day later.

It usually wasn't done; people barging into the private rooms of the future King and Queen in the palace. Of course, most people wouldn't be able to enter those rooms: there was magic to guard them, to keep them safe. But when you were a part of that magic, and the Queen once again forgot to turn the key in the lock, then you could walk right in and that was precisely what Ando did now.

"So when I called you from Nicaragua, and asked whether you'd want me home, and you said, no, no, don't worry, stay, everything is fine over here, that was actually a lie, right?"

Serenity I (well, the first this millennium, but people kind of did not need to know that now) jumped up from the couch. "Ando!" She began to laugh, and flung herself into his arms. Her husband emerged from the bathroom, toothbrush in mouth. Lowering the toothbrush, Mamoru Chiba, or Endymion I (again, this millennium, thank you very much), stared at the blond man in the well-worn and crinkled corduroy jacket who was hugging his wife, who in turn, was jumping up and down without letting go.

Mamoru shook his head, and when the vision didn't change, but the man made eye contact with him, blue on blue, he stepped backwards into the bathroom, put the toothbrush away with shaking hands, and rinsed his mouth. Then he splashed some cold water on his face because this was a dream, this had to be a dream.

"It's not a dream," Ando said, reading his mind, "and you are as horrible at saying hello as you are at saying goodbye."
"It's impolite to sneak into people's bathrooms," Mamoru answered on auto-pilot, and Ando's face broke into a wide grin. "Well, for a king, you have a crappy bathroom. There's not even a jacuzzi."
"I'm not a king, I just happen to live in a palace."
Ando rocked on his heels, hands in his pockets. "Actually, this is what I wanted to talk to you about."

Leaving a befuddled Mamoru in the capable hands of a happy Usagi, Ando headed into another part of the palace. The floor, crystal too, of course, was a shining silvery mass, but every once in a while, he could see a streak of red. It was unnerving, to say the least.

Mamoru had explained that the volcano had not actually been lying dormant underneath the city since the beginning of time. It had come into being as the logical but terrifying consequence of all the negative magical energy brought into the city first by the Dark Kingdom, then by the Black Moon Clan, the Death Busters, that damn circus and finally by Galaxia.

If the general public ever found about this, there was no doubt whatsoever in Ando's mind that they would come after Mamoru and Usagi with pitch forks.

And despite having just returned from a fourteen year long trip around the world, the idea of having contributed to a fucking volcano growing under the metropolis made him want to run all the way to north pole and hide behind a polar bear or something. But he was done running, and he had made a promise fourteen years ago, one he was determined to keep.

The corridor seemed to go on forever, and even though, without a doubt, it was all very pretty, Ando couldn't help but long for the hot dusty roads of Egypt, the muddy but dangerous waters of the Amazon rivers, and the foul smell of over-filled garbage bins in summery Lisbon. Life seemed more real when it was accompanied by dirt, mud, and stench. Here, everything foul was hidden, waiting to lurch out from behind a corner. Be it the volcano underneath them, or the people around the palace, all of them represented a danger to what he held dear.

The corridor took a sudden turn to the left, and Ando began to understand what they'd meant when they said the palace had grown rather than been built. The layout was chaotic, and at times, reminded him of a cave more than a court. Lots of work would have to go towards making this place a proper home for all of them.

Finally, he reached the end of the corridor. There was only one large door, and he knew exactly who was behind it. He could tell by his own rapidly beating heart, and by the way the flames danced underneath the crystal around him. Here, they seemed peaceful, tamed.

Clearing his throat, he rocked on his heels again, this time out of nervousness, feeling for all intents and purposes like Hiromasa, who couldn't ever sit or stand still. This was it. Fourteen years, countless postcards, and more longing thoughts than he could ever count. Lifting his hand, he knocked against the door (which, surprisingly, was made from wood, and not crystal).

It was then that he remembered the tiny spray of oleander fastened to his jacket and carefully extricated it from the button hole. Heart going a million miles an hour, Ando stood in front of the big, white door, cursing himself for not bringing proper flowers, like roses. Big, red roses. Mamoru always tossed those around as Tuxedo Mask, and look where it got him! Beautiful wife, happy marriage, weird palace. Well. The latter was actually not all that good, Ando amended to himself, but then the door opened, and for the first time in fifteen years, he laid eyes on Rei Hino.

She was staring at him like a deer caught in headlights, her wide violet eyes unblinking. Had Ando been able to process thought, he would have been surprised that neither Mina, Makoto or even Usagi had told her he was heading her way tonight. But alas, he couldn't think. Hell, he could barely breathe.

"Hi," he said, feeling completely and utterly dumb. Rei blinked. "Umm... here," he added, and held out the tiny spray of pink flowers. They were already slightly wilted, the petals nodding downwards. "Got them from Makoto. Well. Stole them from Makoto. Only that I'm sure she wouldn't have minded me taking them," he rambled on, a freight train destined to go over the cliffs.

A tiny smile tugged at the corner of Rei's mouth, a good sign, Ando thought frantically, and then she extended her hand and he gently placed the small flowers in it. "Thank you," she said, her voice very level, and very kind.

"Well, I... I just wanted to say hi," he said, feeling the growing the urge to slam his head against the slippery walls until this rambling idiot who had suddenly taken control of his body disappeared again.

"Welcome back, Ando." It was a small blessing to hear her say his name, his real name, and not the shadowy one that clung to his soul and whispered songs of doom into his ears. Wherever he went, whatever he did, he had always remembered her, tried to imagine the way she spoke, moved, looked. Only now, face to face with her, could Ando see how wrong his memories had been. He had only remembered her beauty and her grace, but not her humanity. The idealised picture couldn't hold a candle to her real self, to the way she stood in front of him, no longer angry or inclined to run away. She wore pyjamas, and her hair was actually... frizzy. Her eyes, so lovely, so unusual, so perfect, were little in the way sleep makes them, and Ando decided that this right here was perfection.

"There is this sonnet, you know? Shakespeare," he blurted out. "You tread on the ground too, I think. Much better this way. Not that you reek, or anything. Ah. Umm. I'll leave you to sleep, and, umm... well, I'll call you."
She looked down, and he lowered his head too, just to catch her expression. Did he fuck up already?

But no. Rei Hino was smiling. "That would be lovely," she said, and Ando decided that actually, the stupid volcano was a godsend.

The thing was, he had his own room in the palace now. Either Mamoru or Usagi had prepared it right when they moved in, so that for two months now, it had been waiting for him. It was a nice-ish room. Located in one of the little towers facing West (annoyingly far from the East Wing, in which Rei's rooms were located), it held a desk, a chair, several bookshelves, a bed, and a wardrobe. Inside that wardrobe was a uniform, grey and sleek.

Ando took it off the coat hanger and let it crumple to the bottom of the wardrobe. He wouldn't wear it, not yet, and perhaps not ever. Someone (and that person presumably answered to Umino) had arranged to have all his stuff taken here. His books were lined up on the shelves, his normal clothes were in the wardrobe, the scrapbooks with his articles in them were on the desk.

There was also a well-thumbed copy of his book, Ando Tanaka: A one-man guide to discovering the world. He'd had it published after the first six years of his journey, and a second volume was about to come out soon. Stepping towards the desk, he picked it up and flipped it open. Umino had written countless comments in the margins, sometimes so many that they crossed over onto the print, obscuring the words Ando had written.

It was weird: he'd never really thought about how returning to Crystal Tokyo rather than Tokyo meant that he and Umino would no longer live in their old flat. It was a logical consequence, and after fourteen years, Umino and Ami would certainly be living together, but Ando had simply never thought about how that would make him feel.

He knew that Umino's and Ami's rooms were only a three-minute walk away from his own, and that technically, they still lived under the same roof (even though this one was made from crystal rather than shingles). But despite all of that, it felt different, and he realised that it made him feel quite alone.

Stepping to the windows that lined all outward walls, he looked outside. The city was nowhere near done changing. The crystal would spread, covering every place where dark energy had left its mark. It was the Silver and Golden Crystals' nature to heal and to protect, and that was precisely what happened when Usagi and Mamoru fought back the raging volcano. It was only later that Ami and Umino (of course it would be those two smarty-pants, Ando thought with affection) realised what this one act of protection entailed: it would not stop until the city was pure again.

The people of Tokyo had no idea, all they knew was that all of a sudden, a volcano had sprung up beneath them, and that two people had done something to keep it from erupting. They might have been fine with this alone, but then the crystal started to grow, spiralling towards the sky and spreading out towards the horizon. More magic was needed to get it to grow into a palace, but every other day or so, a new crystalline tower rose in another place, destroying streets, buildings, homes in its wake. Ando could see them now, tall spires all across the city, shimmering in the moonlight.

It was flat-out terrifying.

He stepped back from the window and closed his eyes. Crystal Tokyo was not their salvation. It was their burden.

Once morning came, Ando rose from his bed and took a long, hot shower. How the palace came to have piping and electricity was something he would have to ask Takeshi, but the feeling of an unlimited amount of hot water raining down on him was pure bliss. There were many things he'd loved about travelling to distant and isolated lands; the unreliable hot water supply was not one of them.

Reaching into the wardrobe (studiously avoiding the uniform), he picked out some clothes he hadn't worn in years and was surprised to find that they still fit. The t-shirt was one he'd bought in New York all those years ago. He remembered that as always, his parents had given him a check for Christmas, and then he'd gone off to buy stupidly expensive things. And yes, a simple shirt could be stupidly expensive. Shrugging on an old blazer with leather patches at the elbows (wondering when on earth he'd acquired it) and slipping into his trainers, he was soon all ready to go.

Problem was, he had no idea where.

When in doubt how to proceed, Ando always found that choosing the path of most resistance was the best way to go. In this case, seeing how it was seven thirty in the morning, it meant waking Umino Kiichi.

He'd seen his friend twice in the past fourteen years: once when he returned to Tokyo for a very brief visit on Umino's 29th birthday (Ando had been in and out of the country within 12 hours) and once when Umino travelled to Greece after he'd finished his dissertation. The two of them spent four weeks looking at old temples and basking in the sun. That was eight years ago, and he hadn't seen his friend since.

Not even debating whether he ought to knock at the door, Ando simply pushed it open and walked in. Of course, Ami was already gone. He'd expected nothing else. Minako had told him how Ami was working in the University Hospital and how they all saw precious little of her. Unlike his own room, this one was actually more like a flat. He'd have to talk to Usagi and Mamoru and ask why he only get his little room in the tower, and that dolt Umino was awarded a sprawling set of chambers. Passing through what he reckoned to be the living-room, he entered a book-lined study and promptly realised that dear old Umino had not put all of his books into the tower room. That copy of Don Juanover there was certainly his own, Ando thought, and snatched it from the shelf. Repeating the process whenever he saw one of his own old books, he finally entered the bedroom with a big stack under each arm.

The only part of Umino he could see was his head, a wild mass of blond curls draped over pillows and skin alike. He still wore it relatively short though. Ando would bet his hiking boots on the fact that Umino wasn't going to wear his uniform either.

When Umino made a satisfied little sleep sound, Ando decided that it was time to wake the idiot. He was hungry, he wanted breakfast, and no-one had told him where the kitchen was. Looking down, he saw that neither Umino nor Ami had put a carpet on the floor: he was standing on crystal.

Grinning, Ando let go of the books, two stacks of stolen goods hitting the floor with an earth-shattering sound.
Umino shot up in bed."What what wha?" he mumbled, eyes wide, confused, and panicky until they focused on Ando.
"Hi, you stole my books, wanna go get breakfast?"

"Why did I get such a shit room?"
Umino, now dressed and awake, rolled his eyes. "What about the room in the tower with the ten windows and the excellent view is it that you don't you like?"
"I don't have a living-room. You and Ami have a living-room, a study, and a bedroom."
"We are also able to keep it clean."
Ando snorted. "No, she is, you're just along for the ride."
"We can get you another room though, if you really don't like it. Perhaps the dungeons? With some nice bars in front of the door."
"This place has a dungeon? No wonder the people find it creepy."
"The people haven't even been in here."
Ando's eyebrows shot upwards. "You're joking, right?"
Taking a bite of his banana, peanut butter, jam and honey sandwich, Umino shook his head. Ando leaned back in his chair, pushing the plate away from him. He was completely serious. "You all are about to fuck this up completely."

Of course, the palace had a throne room. When you are trying to channel magical energy and think palace palace palace instead of huge glomp of protective crystal, there is a bound to be a throne room. And dungeons. And spirally towers.

Basically, all the ideas the magic-wielders have about what a palace should look like and entail will come into being, the matter formed according to the mind. Mamoru remembered the old Golden Palace, Usagi thought of Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, The Sleeping Beautyand the few raw images of the palace she'd seen when travelling to the future, and the result was an amalgamation of cliches, magic, and an architectural design so random that (were he a man prone to do so) would make Takeshi weep.

The natural property of the source material also figured in the design, meaning that few corners were soft and round and every once in a while, a spiral would simply soar towards the sky like an angry arrow. There was nothing to be done about it.

But one thing the palace also included was a big hall with a round table in it.
Ando snorted. "Okay, so who here thought about King Arthur?" Mamoru's sheepish smile was answer enough.

It would be the first time all of them were together. Well, almost all of them. Two chairs would remain empty: Michiru and Haruka would not appear in court until all of the shitennou were gone, banished, turned to dust.

But Usagi and Mamoru were there, as were Hiromasa and Makoto, who looked uncomfortable and out of place. He had met the pair at the door, and while Makoto had given him a brief hug, Hiromasa just nodded, mumbled something that might have been "good to have you home" and then said nothing else. A less than enthusiastic welcome, Ando thought, and wondered whether he ought to be offended or worried. But then the others began to arrive, including Rei, and his attention was momentarily taken from Hiro's strange behaviour. Only after he had chatted with Usagi and Mamoru for a while did Ando look over to the pair by the door. Hiro was still clutching Makoto's hand, and his mouth was pressed into a thin line. He looked ready for a fight, Ando realised with a start.

Umino, by comparison as peaceful and docile as a lamb, had already taken a seat, and kept the one to his right free; Ami would arrive any minute now. Minako was leaning against a wall, with Rei standing next to her. Ando snuck Rei a quick glance, and she caught his eyes and smiled back. He still wasn't used to being allowed to look at her, to interact with her. It was splendid, and just a wee bit scary.

"Where's Takeshi? he asked, trying to seem efficient and organised, and less like a schoolboy with a crush.
Mamoru sat down and Usagi followed suit. "He'll be here any minute, he's just guiding Setsuna through one of the secret passages." Ando nodded. Secret passages. Of course. Choosing the seat on Umino's left, he sat down, only to be joined by Minako, who took the seat next to him, and Rei, who was now so tantalisingly and dangerously close. Not quite sure how to deal with her proximity, Ando began to drum his fingers on the table and his feet on the floor. An awkward silence settled over the group, and not even Usagi or Minako made any attempt to lighten the mood with the silly jokes or inane chatter Ando knew to be their trademarks.

When Takeshi, Setsuna,and Ami finally arrived, Hiromasa and Makoto were still standing near the door. While Ami immediately hurried over to sit down next to Umino, clearly embarrassed by being late, Takeshi stopped by the couple. He whispered something, but over the big hoo-ha that was Usagi's greeting of Setsuna, he couldn't make out what it was. Ando noted with curiosity that he was not the only one trying to follow the exchange: Mamoru too was looking over his shoulder, trying to listen in on Hiromasa's and Takeshi's whispered conversation. When Takeshi turned to say something to Makoto, the brunette nodded, and simply walked towards the table, sliding onto a chair next to Setsuna.

Following his wife with his eyes, Hiromasa gave Takeshi a terse nod, and if he hadn't known any better, Ando would have thought that Takeshi's shoulders sagged in relief.

Finally, they were all seated round the big table. Ando wasn't surprised to see that Takeshi chose the free place to Mamoru's left. Everyone was seated and ready to go.
Mamoru cleared his throat. "Thank you all for coming. Michiru and Haruka have declined their invitation, and as you know, Hotaru is in Sydney and will remain there until she has graduated from university."
"She sends her best wishes," Setsuna interspersed, and Ami and Usagi smiled. Hiromasa on the other hand looked like someone had bitten off his hand. Ando wondered (not for the first time since his return) what on earth was going on. Mamoru continued. "I know that you all need to get back to work, or to your children, so we will keep this as brief as we can." Trying to catch Hiromasa's eye, Mamoru paused. Hiromasa looked at the table, and said nothing. He was absolutely still and just like that, Ando began to worry in earnest. Something was up.
"Okay, well," Mamoru picked up again, visibly ruffled by his friend's stony silence. "We are here today because Ando is back, and apparently has something to say. Ando?"

Well, this was awkward, Ando thought, and then dived in. This wasn't at all the return he had imagined it would be.
"I'll probably offend most, if not all of you, but I honestly think that things are going to go to shit if you, we, continue like this. People are terrified of the palace, of the crystals, and especially of you two," he said, and looked at Usagi and Mamoru. Usagi bit down on her bottom lip. "I just wanted to help."
"I know that," Ando continued, and tried to sound friendly. "We all do, but the people outside this palace don't know you. I read the papers, listened to them talking on the street, and they are scared out of their minds, from here all the way to Grenada. They think of you as an alien, a demon, or as a witch. Granted, some were also moving more along the lines of heroine and angel, but they are scared all the same. The crystal shooting out of places isn't helping either."
"Thanks for the summary," Mamoru said icily, and Ando made a face. "Mamoru, I am here to help, and I'm not going to be of much help if I just sit quietly and nod."
"He's right, you know," Makoto said. "I hear people talking about it at the café all the time, and I'm worried for you, Usa, I really am. We know how quickly fear can turn into something else."
"What's your suggestion, Ando?" Takeshi asked, smoothing his tie, and just like Hiromasa, looked at the table rather than his friends.
"If I understand it correctly, the crystal will continue to grow until all traces of negative magic are gone, right?" He turned to look at Umino and Ami, who both nodded.
"And there is nothing we can do about it?"
Folding her hands on the table, Setsuna answered. "No. The city must be purified, otherwise the danger of another volcano coming into being is too high." She was a striking woman, Ando had to give her that. He had only seen her once, at Makoto's and Hiromasa's wedding, but now she wasn't wearing a floral dress, but a grey business suit, looking for all intents and purposes like Takeshi's long lost sister. They shared the same gravitas, and Ando knew that Setsuna Meioh was not someone he would enjoy making angry. For him, that was saying something.

"If we can't do anything about the crystal covering the city, then we must do something about the way people perceive it," he said, and looked at Minako.
"What are you looking at me for?"
"Are you still running Sailor V corp?"
"Yes, of course I am. What do you think I do with my time, walk my dog and eat muffins all day long?" Ando grinned. "Then you'll help me."
"Help you with what?" Takeshi enquired, face turned to stone. Well, he had made it five minutes without pissing him off, Ando thought, and was rather impressed with himself. He was getting better at this. Meeting Takeshi's eyes full-on, he answered.
"Drum up positive PR. You need it. And if Minako could make people think of a vigilante in terms of a super heroine turned action figure, then I'd wager she'd be good at it. And me too, I know how to work the media. Hell, I am the media."
"I always admired your humility," Umino deadpanned, and Usagi giggled. Whether it was the philosopher's joke or the queen's good humour, the mood seemed to lighten considerably.

"I did wonder whether we could find a way to channel the energy in the same way we did for the palace," Ami contributed, a faint blush rising in her cheeks. Ando leaned towards her and gave her an encouraging look. "The seal over the volcano wasn't supposed to be a building until we realised how big it would have to be, and then we focused the energy into something more concrete. What if we do the same with the crystals growing in other places?"
"Turn them into palaces?" Mamoru asked incredulously, and Usagi elbowed him in the side.
"Not into palaces, into buildings. Homes, hospitals, schools," Ami said, and Takeshi immediately shook his head. "It's too much."
"Too much for me?" Mamoru asked with a wry smile, and the two men looked at each other. "You would overtax yourself, and we can't have that," Takeshi finally answered, and Minako groaned. "Takeshi, you have seen what they could do with the volcano. The two of them could handle a few houses."
Glaring at his fiancée, Takeshi looked very out of sorts. "They had to stay in the hospital for a day."
"But this was a very different level of magic," Rei said, joining the conversation. "When Usagi and Mamoru sealed off the volcano, they started the process of purification for the whole city, which is why it was so tiring. The last traces of remnants of dark magic are being fought as we speak, the crystal is just a side-effect."
Minako put her elbows on the table and her chin in her hands. "So you are saying that they've already pressed play, can press neither pause nor stop, and the whole thing won't take any additional energy from any of them anyway?"
Rei smiled. "Well, without the game metaphor, yes, that is was I said. I can feel the city healing and the residual darkness leaving."
Ando whistled. "Impressive." He looked at Rei and was best pleased to see her blush, just a little. She looked away and turned to Usagi. "What do you think?"
"I would like it if we could use the spreading crystal for something good."
"And it would be good PR," Ando added.

"Yeah, because that's what's important," Hiromasa snarled, and all eyes snapped to him. "Okay, seriously, what's the matter with you?" Ando asked, missing both Umino's warning look and Minako's hand on his sleeve.
"What's the matter with me? We've got two kids, and two businesses, and a home, and a dog, and a life, and we are not leaving any of that behind to move into this god forsaken palace just so that people can come after us with torches and pitchforks!"
Ando's jaw dropped. "When did I ever say anything about you moving anywhere?"

Mamoru jumped in, blue eyes pleading. "We would never endanger your children, Hiro, never."
"Yeah? Did you tell Mr. Good PR over there about the attack?"
"What attack?" Ando asked, but Mamoru wouldn't meet his eyes. He turned to Minako, knowing she wouldn't let him down. "What attack?"
She fidgeted in her seat, toyed with the hem of her dress, and finally sighed. "Two days after they sealed away the volcano, Mamoru wanted to go to work in the hospital. A man came at him with a knife."
"When were you going to tell me?" Ando promptly exploded, and jumped out of his chair so hard that it fell to the floor. "I told you this was not going to end well," Umino quipped at Mamoru, who looked cross. Beside him, Takeshi glared daggers at Minako. "What? He should know!" she snapped, and then suddenly, everyone was talking, and it wasn't long before the conversation descended into a full blown shouting match between Ando, Mamoru and Hiro.

"AND IF YOU THINK I AM DRAGGING MY KIDS INTO THIS-" Hiromasa roared, and Makoto winced and slid out of her chair. She walked over and pulled Usa out of hers, and hand in hand, the two women left the room, softly closing the door behind them. Neither Mamoru nor Hiromasa even noticed.
"THAT IS NOT WHAT I WANT! DO YOU THINK I LIKE THIS? I CAN'T EVEN GO TO WORK ANYMORE!" Mamoru hollered, colour flaring up in his cheeks.
"IF YOU WOULD HAVE TOLD ME WHAT WAS GOING ON DOWN HERE, IT MIGHT NOT HAVE HAD TO COME THIS!" Ando interfered, glaring at Mamoru. Whether it was because he was getting in Mamoru's face or because of their own complicated history, Takeshi chose this moment to join the fight. Amidst all the uproar, his icy voice commanded the attention of everyone in the room.
"Then perhaps you shouldn't have left for fourteen years." And with that, the architect got up and left as well, slamming the heavy door behind him.

"As I said, this could not end well," Umino repeated. He got up, followed by Ami, and after a brief moment of hesitation, by Rei too, leaving Mamoru, Hiromasa, Ando, Setsuna and Minako in the room with the round table.

He felt like shit.
His plan had been to have this meeting to make things better, and instead, he stirred up and stepped into a hornet's nest. Feeling as if the crystalline walls were closing in on him, their flashes of red making his head spin, Ando fled the palace. He wasn't even sure how he found his way out, but it wasn't long before he was standing under the blue sky and fresh air hit his lungs.

The weird thing was that the palace was situated right in the middle of the city: there was no greenery to separate the two different landscapes. It felt like stepping out of a nightmare and back into reality. Out here, it was warm and the sun was shining on his head. Shoving his hands into the pockets of his blazer, Ando squared his shoulders and marched off.

He didn't really think, just kept on walking and after a while, he found himself climbing some very familiar stairs. He had counted them, once. Back then, armed with brownies, he had hoped to make this city his home, and for his soulmate living atop these stairs to accept him. Now the city was changed forever, and he had no idea what Rei would make of his behaviour back in the round room. He was quite certain that she wouldn't be impressed with him fucking this up so swiftly.

The 48 steps used to lead to a temple. Today, they led to a ruin. Peppered with glittering rocks of every imaginable size, it was still a beautiful and serene place, but he could see why Rei had moved into the palace already. There was nothing here to keep her.

He walked over to one of the crystalline rocks and sat down. He had no idea Hiro felt this way, that he was this worried about their future. Hell, he didn't even know about the attack on Mamoru's life. Not for the first time this day, he felt anger rising in his chest. Had he known what was going on, he'd have been back a long time ago. But Takeshi was also right, he should have returned on his own accord a lot sooner. Not sure whether to be more angry with himself for leaving or with Mamoru for not calling him home, he wearily rubbed his cheek. Was it just five hours ago that he'd shaved himself, wanting to look good for Rei and respectable to Mamoru and Takeshi?

Hearing someone climb the steps, he frowned mid-motion. "Umino, fuck off, I'm not in the mood."
"Umino went with Ami to see how Usagi is coping," he heard a soft voice say. Turning his head so quickly his neck was in danger of snapping, he saw Rei moving towards him. She seemed completely unruffled by the events, but maybe she was just a lot better than him at hiding her emotions. He didn't know. He didn't know because he had left before he could really get to know her. She tilted her head, and gave him an inquisitive look. "May I join you?" Numbly, he nodded.

She sat down on another crystal nearby, her legs elegantly crossed. It was too much and Ando reached into his breast pocket to produce a pack of cigarettes. He needed to calm his nerves, and short of running away again, this was the only way he knew how. He lit the cigarette with a snap of his fingers. There was no longer any point in not using his abilities, after all, this was partly what the whole Crystal Tokyo thing was about, wasn't it? Magic. Magic and making people sad, he thought, and took a deep drag. He watched the blue smoke curl away against the backdrop of the destroyed temple.

"It wasn't your fault," Rei said and Ando's chuckle was as bitter as the blackest of all coffees. "Nice of you to say, but it actually is."

He stared at the ruins of Rei Hino's former home, at the rotting wood, and the clean crystals that clashed with it. Of course this place would be covered with them. He remembered a ploy with a school bus, and without a doubt, he had not been the only half-crazy monster to come after the senshi here. The amounts of dark energy clinging to the temple's every wall must have been staggering. How Rei could have lived here for so long was beyond him.

"Hiromasa is an angry man, Ando. He is scared that the future he wants so badly is not for him to have. He avoids the palace as much as he can, and if he didn't have to live in it, Mamoru would do the same."

"I should have been here," he said quietly and tapped the ash off his cigarette. It fell to the ground, and Rei tutted. Ando smiled then. He remembered watching her sweep these very grounds. "Sorry," he said and looked at her. Her eyes were soft.

"Nothing would have been different had you arrived two months earlier. People would still be scared. Hiromasa would still resent the change. Mamoru would have still been attacked."

She was speaking to him like a friend, like an ally. Not knowing what to say or how to deal with her kindness, he settled on not saying anything at all. The silence between them was not unpleasant though, and as the minutes passed, Ando began to feel more like himself again. Stubbing out his cigarette, he pocketed the butt. His jacket would stink, but what did that matter anyway? She rewarded his action with another smile. Damn, she was so pretty. It made thinking around her really hard and Ando had always been a man who relied on his wits. Summoning them (an almost herculean effort), he pondered on the best course of action.

"I owe Takeshi and Mamoru an apology. I should have realised that they'd take my suggestions as criticism," he finally said and looked at her for approval.
She surprised him by resolutely shaking her head. "You let Minako and Usagi worry about those two," Rei answered and got up. She straightened her skirt. "Times are changing, and we all ought to make the best of that. As long as this is why you are making people upset, I do not think you have anything to apologise for."
Feeling thoroughly confused, for it wasn't often that he was told that he didn't have to apologise for one thing or another, he got up as well. He wanted to tell her how much her support meant to him, but something told him that she would just shrug it off. Just as she had resented his return and his every move so many years ago, she was now willing to back him up. Rei Hino's world was black and white, always had been.

"Let's return to the palace," she proposed and together, they did.

** End of Chapter One**