“Odango?”

“Seiya! You’re here!” Serenity could not contain all of her excitement and tackled Seiya into a huge embrace. The Sailor Soldiers smiled in the happiness of the atmosphere and some of the guards looked around in confusion, but stayed silent for the sake of their place in the palace. Seiya went down immediately and fell back with a hard thud on account he could not hug Serenity back because he was still tied up. But, oh how he felt on top of the world, despite what went down just a few minutes ago with the staged seizure. It was if all his angered disappeared! Words could not describe his feelings for seeing his secret love hug all over him. Blissful was a good way to put it.

“Odango…” Seiya whispered as he snuck a small whiff of Serenity’s platinum hair—such a sweet floral musk. Oh God, why is she married to such a huge asshole? Why did she not love him back? Just take in the moment, make it special. Ah, damn Endymion!

She finally pulled back and as she was grinning happily, said: “I’m so glad that you’re here safely. I was so worried about you.”

Just more confusion for the day. Seiya blinked in his bewildered state. “What do you mean? Were you expecting me?”

Serenity shrugged. “Well, yes.” She looked over her right shoulder to show Yuki and Mamoru standing by the Sailor Soldiers waving with huge smiles on their faces. What were they doing there? “I sent them undercover to summon you here because I couldn’t very well make a huge production of it. You understand, right?”

Out of all the questions Seiya could have asked, all he could muster was: “So, you’re not part of the Liberal Rights Club at Tokyo University?” Obviously meant for Yuki.

Yuki shrugged. “As if such a club exists. I never even went to college.” She followed her statement with a light chuckle.

“Then, are your names even Yuki and Mamoru?”

“Well, yes. I’m Yukito Samora. I’m one of her highness’s ladies in waiting.” She bowed as she mentioned Serenity.

“And my name is Kazura Minora. Mamoru was my father’s name. I’m the gardener for her highness.” He bowed as well. Seiya felt sorry for his father. But Serenity got one of her maids and that gardener to get him? This was some kind of weird.

“I’m so glad you understand, Seiya!” The Moon Queen laughed and stood up above Seiya. With the wave of her hand, she silently ordered the guards to untie him. Seiya could not help but get a good look up her skirt as she was standing in a short dress. Ah, such a wonderful sight. He could care less if she dragged him to the palace in a potato sack while unconscious; this view made it all better. He was stood up before the rope was unbound from his wrists.

“So, how’ve you been?” Rei asked, breaking the ice a bit.

Seiya laughed. “Kind of starved and could use a shower. And the smell of turnips is still lingering around my nose. But other than that, life is great!” He understood that she did not mean any sort of malice with her question. All of the people in the room laughed as his answer.

“Do you need a drink or any food?” Makoto offered. Even though she held the position against his summoning, she was glad to see him again and thought it better to be hospitable and caring.

“My God, you guys, are you all insane? It’s been a thousand years since we last saw him!” Minako yelled. She squealed and imitated Usagi’s fierce tackle on Seiya, only he expected it and braced himself (and he was also untied). All the girls laughed as they circled around him to give him a hug. A warm smile appeared on his face.

“I hope you don’t have a bad depiction of Tokyo; it really is a beautiful city. I hope now that you will be able to enjoy its pleasures.” Makoto said as the first one to back off him.

“Makoto, don’t say that!” Rei got scared for her giant friend.

“What? It really is a beautiful city.”

“But you don’t say that to someone who has been through what he’s been!”

“Oh, so I can’t tell him that it LOOKS beautiful?”

“It doesn’t matter if he can’t see it!”

“Ladies, ladies,” Ami got in the middle. “Settle down, there’s no need to be politically correct here. It’s Seiya, I’m sure he did not take any offense to what Makoto said. He’s a smart and polite man and probably less sophisticated in his understanding than we think.”

All the ladies looked to Seiya to see his reaction and they caught him in the moment of picking a flea out of his hair. After he popped it in half, he looked up the women and sweat-dropped in embarrassment.

Minako covered her mouth as she chuckled. “He’s definitely not sophisticated.” All the girls laughed with her comment.

“What? What’d I do?”

“We’ve just missed you, that’s all…” Makoto covered up for Minako’s jibe.

Before any other person could ask any other question, Seiya spoke up again; before which, he disposed the remnants of the flea. “So, what am I doing here exactly?”

The girls calmed down and Serenity was much obliged to answer. “Well, I wanted to thank you, Seiya. I wanted to thank you for saving me that day six months ago. I wish for you to forgive me for putting it off for so long, but only recently have I gotten the courage to actually see you face-to-face. It’s a sad situation really… but in return for your sacrifice, I offer you a permanent home in my palace.”

So much information for such a common man. Seiya stood there with his dark sapphire eyes open wide. She wanted him to be permanently housed in the royal palace? She begged for his forgiveness? He is going to live with her forever? Could this day get any better? But yet, he was forgetting one thing.

“Well, Odango, I appreciate your offer. But I cannot leave Yaten and Taiki to live in poverty.” Damn him and his poor-ridden friends. Well, that was not nice of him to say… but still, damn them!

Just as he said that, a set of doors opened from behind Seiya and two guards marching in Yaten and Taiki appeared. The both had them by the arm and the Starlights looked to be submissive and apathetic as to what was going on. Yaten looked as if he had been awoken and Taiki just looked tired as always. The millionth surprise of the day.

“Wait a minute—why do you set up this whole big scheme to get me, yet you have guards to get them?”

Serenity smiled. “Well, we figured you’d put up a fight and I could not very well make your summoning public. Since it is rumored the many people want you dead, I couldn’t risk your life like that.”

“Well, who’s to say that these two wouldn’t put up a fight, either?” Seiya looked to Yaten and Taiki—such a sight of poor excuses for human beings.

Yaten yawned and wrinkled his face. “I only break a sweat for sex and exercise. Other than that, physical exhaustion can kiss my ass.”

Taiki shrugged. “My back is killing me.”

Seiya rolled his eyes; they were not the fierce fighters they used to be. Life on earth had definitely altered their physical state and fighting mentality. But Seiya could not say too much—he was out of shape in both areas as well. He turned to the Moon Queen as she beamed with a happiness that he has never seen before. Was it because he was here?

“Took care of that, now didn’t I?” Serenity stated with pride, showing it with a smile on her face. She clapped for herself. “I’m so proud of myself. Let’s eat!”

Everyone sweat dropped, including the guards; in which Yaten retorted: “She hasn’t changed a bit, even for a queen.”

--

It was a delightful dinner for everyone. What was even more delightful on Seiya’s part was that Endymion was called away on… something. He really did not pay attention to what Serenity explained to him on Endymion’s whereabouts; all he caught was, “he went off to…” and that was all he needed to hear. Just the fact of his absence made life simpler. It felt just like Kinmokusei to the Starlights as servants and butlers waited on them hand and foot retrieving any request they had and taking away their plates when they were done. Yaten seemed to go through a bottle of wine on his own as he was starting to show early signs of drunkenness with his loud laughing and overly-personal stories.

“So I guess this means I don’t have to sleep with Hikaru anymore. I’m happy about that, that’s for sure.” Yaten stated with a slur after he took a swig of red wine.

All the girls paused in their conversations and looked to Yaten in astonishment as he spilled his guts out on his affair with Queen Kakyuu’s husband.

“I mean, he was such a huge jerk-off. I was so tired of dressing up like some schoolgirl and-…”

“Yaten, that’s enough! You hated the sex and that’s all we need to know.” Sitting beside him, Taiki stopped him from enlightening everyone with details into his sex-life. He even went as far as to put his giant hand over his mouth.

Yaten threw Taiki’s hand off his face. “But, you need to hear it! It’s wrong! It was wrong of me to sleep with him! But…” the silver-haired Starlight began to tear up. “I was doing it for you guys. I wanted to make something of myself and support you guys! I felt so bad since Seiya couldn’t do anything. You guys were so hungry.” Yaten then wailed and sunk his face into Taiki’s shoulder, wetting his shirt with tears.

Serenity looked to Seiya with a worried expression. “What’s wrong with him?”

Seiya did not seem to be fazed from Yaten’s life story. In fact, he was too happy for anything to bring him down. Nonchalantly, he took a sip of his wine. “Don’t worry about it. He’s just getting something off his chest. He’ll regret it tomorrow morning.” Seiya took another look at Yaten wailing even harder into Taiki’s shirt. “Hmm, make it tonight…”

Serenity smiled.

Yuki came back from the kitchen with a bottle of wine. Serenity decided to make her maid for the evening as she ate with her new permanent guests. She did not mind quite so much—as long as she got to see that gorgeous guy she had to fetch from the ghetto. She went over to Yaten to refill his glass, but Taiki waved his hand for her to not pour. She looked to Yaten as he kept on yelling: “I’m such a slut!” while crying into Taiki’s shoulder. She understood completely. She saw Seiya from across the table talking with Queen Serenity. They both seemed to enjoy each other’s company greatly as Serenity threw her head back in hard laughter and Seiya beamed with enjoyment to see such a sight. Yuki felt a foreign pain from within her chest. It made her sick to see him acting like that with the queen. She realized at that moment that she might have developed feelings for him during their short time together. But… she knew it from the beginning that Seiya loved Serenity, so why did she let herself fall for this guy? She immediately ran back into the kitchen.

--

“Are you sure you want to do this, Usagi?”

“Yes, of course!”

Ami and Minako sat with Serenity in the throne room as they tried to conjure up a plan to summon Seiya. Makoto and Rei were on leave on account that they did not want any part of capturing him if anything was to go wrong.

“We need to come up with a plan. We need to figure out a complex way to get him in here. Something that is inconspicuous and nothing big. This will include paying off and/or limiting security.” Ami stated.

“I have it! We’ll hire someone to go undercover…” Minako seemed to have an idea that always seemed to be so romantic and complicated; although, she might not be too out of line with this one.

“What do you mean? As in trick him?” Serenity was not skilled in coming up with sophisticated schemes to kidnap people. And well, she WAS Serenity.

“What I mean is, send someone out there to get him—someone that is easily trusted and that can lure him here quickly.” Minako continued.

“I see where this is going. It sounds great, but how will we do it? Who will be easily trusted by him?” Ami began to play the devil’s advocate.

Minako stood there in thought. She seemed to be stumped. Pretty soon, the rest of the two women began to think as well. After about a moment, Queen Serenity spoke up first.

“Let’s send a girl in.”

“You mean as in to seduce him or something? Are you sure you want that?” Minako blushed at her nasty sexual thoughts.

“No! NO! Okay, if Seiya is still in love with me, send ME in.”

“Wait, how do you know he’s in love with you?!” This came as a surprise to the goddess of love.

Ami and Serenity stayed tight-lipped and giggled at each other like school girls. “Don’t worry about it. She just figured it out. Our queen has something going, though… Send in a girl who looks like Usagi—someone who reminds him of her. It’s perfect! If he still loves her, he’ll trust that girl easily.”

Minako nodded. “Right… a girl. Where are we going to find a girl who looks like Usagi?”

“One of my ladies in waiting, she’ll be perfect! Other workers in the palace jokingly call her my daughter.” Serenity ended her statement with a laugh.

The girls chuckled with her. “Great… so now all we need is a plan.” Minako banged her head on the table. This was too much work to figure out just to get one person. And they still needed a plan!

Ami sighed and thought as quickly as possible. Serenity wanted him at the palace tonight and these kinds of things usually take days and are usually planned out by Makoto and Rei. They needed a miracle at this point, it seemed.

“Usagi, why do you want him here so early?” Ami thought to negotiate with her queen.

“Because I do; I can’t go another day without seeing him and not thanking him. Just think: as every day goes by, he hates me more and more…” Serenity began to tear up.

“Oh Usagi, stop it! I’m sure he doesn’t hate you.” Minako sighed. She wanted to get on with this. “Okay, so he’s living in the ghettos, right?”

Ami and Serenity nodded in agreement. “Right...”

“And he is segregated and wants to be free and stuff, right?”

The same two women nodded in agreement once again.

Minako did not really know where she was going with this. But maybe if she pitched her ideas out there, they would make sense. “Let’s send a person who is sort of… a liberator, perhaps? A defender of equal rights…”

Ami nodded. “I see… someone who will stand up for THEIR rights; a sympathizer. Seiya will like that.”

“Yeah! Yeah! Yaten and also Taiki will be drawn to that, too. This is perfect!” Minako squealed.

Serenity bounced and clapped her hands in excitement. “Wonderful! Maybe I should summon Yuki to talk about it with her?”

Minako and Ami nodded. “Yeah!”

--

Serenity sat alone in her bedroom as the morning’s meeting went through her head. She could not believe that it all went by so fast with the scheming and plotting to get Seiya and have him here by dinner time, but she was glad it all worked out in the end; and he was not even mad! Nor did he not even hate her. It felt so wonderful to talk to him and such. It was as if she was in high school all over again. Boy, did she miss those days!

She stepped out onto her balcony and looked out onto the horizon of Crystal Tokyo. She took in her empire in all its glory and wonderment. It sparkled in the moonlight that can surely be seen from outer space. All in which she fought for was worth it as Tokyo was the center of technology, tourism, and power. She was happy and her people were happy. That was all that mattered to her.

She enjoyed Seiya’s company immensely—maybe even too much. She never expected to miss him as much as she did. The replay of Star Fighter killing Kyohaku for her played on over and over in her head. He risked everything for her—his honor, his leader… his life. She felt so drawn to him again. Surely, it has been a thousand years, but she felt like a teenager again with having crushes and such. With all the battles she had to face over the years after the Starlights left, she had almost forgotten about the long lost Starlights in their long lost galaxy. Inwardly, she thanked her husband for keeping the Tarento natives in Tokyo; for she would have never gotten the chance to see Seiya ever again and invite them to live with her. With Endymion being away all the time on “important matters”, she could now have some company.

And maybe have some “important matters” of her own with Seiya.

Serenity laughed and blushed to herself. Seiya was worth more than being a matter; he was an issue, a delicate issue whom she vowed to protect no matter what. She looked forward to being able to get to know him better and spend time with him. Their time at dinner was amazing and it was the best meal she has ever had, even though she had eaten the same food a hundred times before. He knew the right things to say to make her laugh and feel special.

Now, it became personal. Serenity’s goal was to know him inside and out; or really, if he still loved her or not. She wanted to know if her feelings right now would grow into feelings of love or rather stay on the bounds of friendship. But in her mind, she was doubtful they would ever stay the same.

--

She laughed incredibly hard. Her sides almost split open and her breath got caught in her throat as she had to cough like a smoker to gain her normal breathing back.

“Oh my God and he caught on fire?!”

“He didn’t have eyebrows for two weeks and he had to grow his hair back. I nearly had a hernia after laughing so hard.”

“Poor Yaten, he’s always getting in bad situations.”

“Yeah, well, he does it to himself and it’s always a relief for me. It didn’t make me look as bad in front of the queen. She was always so weary of him so she never really let him go out and do anything.” The raven-haired Starlight stopped and thought for a moment. “Or maybe he was a working genius… that bastard!”

Yuki giggled and wiped a tear from her eye. “Well, at least you have your eyebrows.”

Seiya smiled and nodded.

Queen Serenity had chosen Yuki to accommodate Seiya to his living quarters. Taiki and Yaten were to follow later on account Taiki had to hold Yaten’s hair back as he puked in one of the bathrooms from excess wine. Yuki was excited for this. She had grown to like her target in her scheme. He was down to earth, good-looking, and seemed very loyal, not to mention funny as hell!

“So, does Odango live on this floor as well?” Seiya asked, breaking the silence that Yuki did not realize since she was off in her own Seiya-world. Why did he always have to ask about the queen? She was here! Take her!

“Who?” Odango? What the fuck?

He chuckled to himself. “Sorry, I mean Queen Serenity…” he felt weird calling her: “Queen” and “Serenity”.

“Oh uh, yeah, she’s actually right across the way.” Yuki answered. “Why do you call her: ‘Odango’?”

A light smile escaped from Seiya’s mouth as he was more than happy to indulge Yuki into his past with the Moon Queen. “It was a nickname I gave her a long time ago—whenever we were fighting Galaxia.”

Yuki’s eyes widened. “You mean Sailor Galaxia—with the whole Chaos ordeal? That was over a thousand years ago!”

Seiya shrugged. “Hey, we’ve been cursed with longevity.”

Yuki seemed to be in disbelief, but at the same time, she was intrigued. “So it’s not a myth. You guys really do live for forever. I didn’t think you actually fought beside her.”

Seiya gave the golden-haired servant a weird look. “What! I told you we did this afternoon when you were little Miss Liberal acting all excited to see me.”

She blushed a new shade of red yet to be discovered. “I thought you were just saying that just to patronize me…”

“No, no, we actually were on earth to look for Kakyuu… she was a princess back then. Galaxia invaded our planet and Kakyuu fled to earth and we came down after her. It was so funny. Taiki, Yaten, and I became pop idols to send a message for Kakyuu to find her. It took a while for her to answer, but she showed up. But along the way, we got mixed up in Odango’s battles. Well, not really mixed up, they more or less intertwined. Kakyuu would not let us leave unless we helped defeat Chaos with Sailor Moon. It was such a horrible battle, but it was so beautiful. I had never seen such a fighter as Sailor Moon. She was so wonderful and forgiving and… bright.” Seiya trailed off a bit as he walked down memory lane visiting the time of the battle with Galaxia and Sailor Moon’s spirit throughout the fight.

Yuki looked at Seiya’s blank stare as he walked aimlessly with her to his room. She became a little peeved and jealous as he rambled about Serenity.

“Um… well, what a story! So you guys were pop idols?” she wanted to get his mind of the Moon Queen.

Seiya snapped out of it. “Oh, uh, yeah! God, that was so long ago… but we formed a band and were called “Three Lights”. It was so much fun, but so much work. We did everything in that bad: played instruments, wrote songs, and sang… it definitely took its toll on all three of us, but we managed to go out with a bang before we left after defeating Chaos. Our concert was sold out completely.”

“So, were you the lead singer or anything??” Yuki nudged him playfully with her elbow.

Seiya blushed. “Well, yeah… I was lead. Sometimes Taiki and Yaten would take up lead vocals for their own respective songs, but most of the time, I was lead and I had the solo verse. Kakyuu and I had a stronger connection than the other two.”

“Would you ever consider singing for me one day, Mr. Kou?” Yuki winked.

This girl was either hitting on him or she was hitting on him! Seiya blushed at the thought, but he could not ignore the fact that Yuki’s come-ons were obvious. It was cute to him, but their moments only lasted whenever he thought she was out to save his people. She seemed to be put away as a momentary crush as Queen Serenity took the limelight; then again, she always had center stage. It was not that he did not like Yuki; he just did not love her. Despite the fact that he DID fall for her, she DID resemble his Odango—but that is all she was: a resemblance. Oh but what was he saying? Their moments were special and Serenity had a husband. Yuki is not that bad and she is beautiful—just like his Odango.

“Maybe I’ll sing for you one day if you couldn’t sleep.” He negotiated with her that way as Yuki stopped in front of his bedroom door.

“I’ll be sure to let you know…” she gave him a devilish wink as she made sure that while she walked past him, she brushed her shoulder on his arm. And without a glace back, she walked down the hallway until she disappeared around the corner.

--

“Yes, your highness?” she bowed as she entered the presence of royalty.

“I need you to do an extra-special favor for me, if you will.” Queen Serenity extended her arm for her maidservant to stand beside her. The girl obliged and walked to where her queen pointed.

Queen Serenity searched through a pile of files, papers, and pictures as she finally picked out a certain one with a certain handsome man on it. It seemed to have been taken by a secret camera some sort as it showed Seiya leaning out a window from an upward angle; as if the camera was in a tree. The government built special cameras into natural objects such as trees to watch over the Tarento natives for any unrest.

“You see this man? His name is Kou Seiya. He is a Kinmokusein and lives in west ghetto. I need him here at the palace tonight by eight.”

The girl looked up wide-eyed to her queen. “But how, your highness?”

A couple of the queen’s advisors and close friends were in the room as well and obviously shared the same idea. A woman with long, thick blonde hair leaned over the table and looked her directly in the eye. “We need you to summon him here by tonight. And this is how you will do it: this man is in love with Serenity and we plan on playing on his love for her to bring him back to the palace. You resemble the queen as she looked when they last saw each other and so we figured you would be perfect to lure him here.”

She maidservant grasped locks of hair that rested on her shoulders and spilled down over her breasts.

“Can you bring him back?” A woman with short blue black hair came into the conversation.

The maidservant looked at her queen. “But of course, anything for her highness.” She bowed in respect.

Serenity smiled and touched her maidservant’s shoulder. “Yuki, there’s no need for that. Right now, don’t treat me as your queen, but as a sort of accomplice… just don’t bow as much is all I’m saying.” she chuckled. “Now, what I need you to do is infiltrate into his home. Here…” She looked through the pile again and pulled out a picture of two other men—one with silver hair and one with bronze hair—sitting on a bench as the one with silver hair ate an ice cream cone.”…these are his two closest friends that he lives with. You might need to go through them to get to Seiya.”

“But how will I do it, your majesty? How will I get through them?”

“We’ve devised a ploy you can make up to appeal to them. Pretend that you are part of a club at some college that fights for their equal rights in the ghettos. Sometimes, you like to walk through to humble yourself to their lifestyle.”

“What club?”

Serenity looked to Ami and Minako and they both shrugged. “I don’t know. Just make something up. They’ll believe you.”

Yuki nodded. “I shall do my best.”

“Now come, we don’t have much time.” Minako grabbed for her coat.

Yuki nodded and bowed as she excused herself to go change.

“Yuki, wait!” Serenity called out. She walked up slowly to her maidservant and looked her square in the eye with a look that no one has ever seen on their queen before. She grabbed her shoulders. “Do not fail.” Here eyes spoke in volumes of desperation mixed with commandment.

The words were loud and clear and made her shiver to the bone. What if she did fail? What would happen to her? Yuki nodded in fear. “Yes, your majesty.”

--

He stood in the shower, letting the hot water soothe his body. It had been so long since he had ever taken a nice hot shower. Usually, in the ghettos, showering was done about once a week since water was rationed and limited. Sometimes Seiya and Taiki would sacrifice their weekly showers in order to keep Yaten from complaining since he made a big deal about cleanliness. Seiya would make do with the neighbor’s hose (who stole water from the pipes of a neighboring Tokyo citizen from a housing division close by) and steal Yaten’s shampoo and soap when he was out making his money. God only knows what Taiki did; take a few dips in the polluted Tokyo Bay on his lunch breaks for all he knew.

Seiya smiled. Now… now showering would not even be an issue. They could take a shower everyday now—hell, they can probably take three showers a day in the palace. He found it inconceivable that something so simple could make him so happy, almost like simple Odango. It was a miracle that she decided for him to live with her. She saved him from the torments of sub-human life and possible enslavement. It seemed that the Starlights lived and thrived on miracles; Seiya, Yaten, and Taiki barely escaped being auctioned. They somehow escaped from the line—along with many other Tarento natives—as the auctioneer collapsed from a heart attack and the guards rushed to his side. So then the three took that time and hid in the ghettos. Many people recognized them and offered their help to keep them hidden (ones that were not out to kill Seiya). A person even reserved a house for them for them to live in. He had never realized that he and his fellow Starlights would ever live in fear everyday. But nor did he ever expect all of a sudden to one day live in luxury once again with his Odango Atama.

And now they have stepped up on the social ladder. Seiya did not know how Serenity was going to deal with this against the citizens of Tokyo or, even worse, King Endymion. If he was away for two days, did he know that his wife already summoned Kinmokuseins in his palace to LIVE with them? Did he actually know they were living with him? From the looks of it, it seemed as though Serenity had the upper hand in the relationship and she made all the calls in government. Her guards have not killed him yet, but something inside of him did not rest about what Endymion knew; or really… Endymion himself.

But he had faith in his Odango. He had faith that she had him taken care of and protected. His stomach was still doing somersaults just thinking about her and even living just down the hall from her. She looked more beautiful than ever; her white hair accented her cerulean eyes beautifully. She was more gorgeous than he remembered, but also more burdened. He could see a thousand years of war and wisdom in those light blue hues. She definitely matured as a woman, but stayed the same old Usagi that he knew so long ago. Their talk at dinner only reinforced his strong feelings for her. Only now, this time, she seemed to respond to his come-ons.

This might be a better stay than he thought.

--

She came out dressed in an old shirt and shorts with her hair up to look younger. She walked outside the palace and was met with Takeshi, the north palace guard. They both bowed to each other before Takeshi led Yuki down the palace steps and into a dark blue car. It looked pretty old by the palace standards, but it was not Yuki’s place to say anything about it. Takeshi opened the door as the maidservant stepped in and she was met with the presence of Minako again.

“Hello again, Yuki; so nice of you to do this for her majesty.”

“Of course, Venus,” Yuki bowed from her sitting position in the car. “Anything for the queen.”

Minako bowed to Yuki as well. She then looked over at the driver and tapped his shoulder. “Okay, let’s go.” And off they went. Yuki took a good look at him and recognized him as the gardener. “Hey there, Kazura!”

Kazura briefly looked over his shoulder. “Oi, Yuki.”

Minako decided to interrupt their introductory chat. “Kazura is going to be working with you.”

Right as they left the palace grounds, Minako decided to give Yuki and run-down on the job. She pulled out the same pictures of Seiya, Yaten, and Taiki and handed them to Yuki. “Alright, now here’s the plan all over again. You’re going to coax Seiya,” Minako tapped the photo of Seiya. “Into leaving with you and you’re bringing him to the palace. You need to act like you sympathize for their people in order to make yourself easily trusted. Kazura is going to be working with you as he will be the getaway car.”

Yuki gave Minako a puzzling look. “Getaway car?”

“We figure that you can lure Seiya away from the house with some radical idea and Kazura can be your accomplice. Just get Seiya in the car. Although, you and Kazura can take different names, but that’s your choice.”

Yuki nodded. “I’ll try my best. What about the other two men?”

“Don’t worry about them; we got them taken care of.”

“And security? How am I going to get him past that?”

“We’ve taken care of that. There will only be one guard on duty for the whole night and we told him to stay away from the west end so it will be easy for you guys to escape. And at the palace, we’ve cleared the south side so there shouldn’t be anything to worry about.”

The ghetto seemed to be awfully close to the palace and the car stopped on the side of a road momentarily. It was public, but rarely any cars drove by there. Minako and Yuki stepped out of the car, stomped through a few acres of untouched forest, and walked towards the gates of the ghetto. Two guards came before the women and Minako reached inside her coat and pulled out her transformation pen—to show the guards that she is of royal and soldier stature. The guards proceeded to kneel at the sight of the pen, but Minako quickly declined their gesture and told them to keep standing and to keep her presence secret. She grabbed Yuki’s hand and waltzed inside the ghetto.

“Alright, they supposedly live on Second Street.”

Yuki felt like she was practically being dragged by the way Minako fought through the marketplace crowds. “The streets are numbered?”

Minako guffawed. “Men are so lazy. They don’t even want to name streets.” She pushed and elbowed her way through, looking for the street. They continued walking for a bit until Minako gasped and freaked out. She switched direction and pushed and elbowed her way through the crowd at a more hysterical pace, ignoring the curses and rage of some of the victims of her panic, as she dragged Yuki in the alleyway in between two stores.

“There he is!” Minako yelled. She was hyperventilating and looking around the marketplace very paranoid.

Yuki looked to where Minako was glancing at and saw the silver-haired man from the picture. He was having trouble walking, but not as much trouble as Minako would have led her on through her aggressive plowing of the crowd.

“Which one is that?”

The blonde gave a lovesick sigh. “That’s Yaten… isn’t he dreamy?”

Yuki wrinkled her face. He was WAY too feminine for her tastes. She looked to Minako and could almost see stars in her eyes as she watched Yaten’s every move. She started to giggle a bit.

“Okay, so how will this work? Do you have any ideas?”

Minako turned around and started to put her brain back into working scheming mode. She tapped a foot lightly and twirled a lock of her hair around her index finger. “Well, what would you approach a stranger for?”

Yuki thought as well. “A compliment?”

“No, too fake.”

“Hmm, a criticism?”

“No, that will only draw him away. And you might start a fight if it’s Yaten you’re criticizing.”

Yuki nodded. “O…kay, how about he forgot something?”

Minako popped her head up with a smile. “That sounds good. Like, he forgot his wallet or some change at the store.”

Yuki held out her hand. “You have any change? I could say he dropped some on his way in the store.” She looked over at the bustling marketplace to make sure he was still in range of her sight. Luckily it was a busy day and no one was getting anywhere fast. Shops were closing down early on account of the approaching storm so people were rushing to get their shopping done.

Minako felt all of the pockets on her coat and her clothes. She had to dig pretty low in her pants-pocket to finally pull out a ten yen bill. “All I have is this…” she handed it to Yuki.

“What? What happened to coins?” Yuki snatched the bill out of Minako’s hand and disgustingly examined the piece of paper.

“Stupid men. They rationed too much of the metal for weapons during the war and they melted all the coins. So they had to make them into bills.” Minako sympathized with Yuki’s disgust by blaming it on the men once again.

Yuki shrugged. “Whatever.” She chuckled to herself before she slapped the pictures of the Starlights on Minako’s chest. “I have a wonderful idea to catch his attention. Here I go…” she stepped out into the crowd as she ran after her targeted man. “Excuse me, miss!”

Minako ran the opposite direction toward the gate as she assimilated into the Tarento crowd.

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