Black Moon Reborn

AN- Hey, guys. Ranma here. Shadow normally would be here giving you all the information you needed, but he’s currently sick with worry over the missing flashdrive, so I’m stuck here writing my own story. Is that weird? I think that’s weird.

Ok, first off, I want to say this. Shadow has, in his infinite wisdom (it was impossible to tell if she was being sarcastic, thought Shadow from his bed on the other side of the room), decided to make me a lesbian in the story. I can’t really blame him. I’ve seen many of his PM’s of fans calling for his blood if he writes a mexguy pairing. Any women/catholics out there who take offense to that, don’t come to his house trying to kill him. He’s doing what the majority of his fans call for… that, and I’d have to hurt you.

Ok, Shadow says that the reason I’m not with Hotaru again is that he doesn’t do the same pairing more than once or twice, and both the CRSS and PitW are MexHotaru, although CRSS also has Chibi-Usa and PitW may have an OC from another guy who’s permission he has to use. Why not other senshi? Well… Shadow has his reasons. He won’t tell me what they are right now, but he has them.

To all the people who sent Shadow positive reviews, I say thank you for both of us. We’re glad that you have enough faith in Shadow to trust that I will have problems to get past, and I’ve seen the list… it’s a doozy, honestly. I don’t even see how I’m going to do the last couple.

To all the people who said ‘You need to have problems and flaws. This isn’t interesting. Things with problems are interesting’, we both agree with you. However, I wish that you’d have had more faith in Shadow, as he did have the problems planned out before hand. I’m not perfect, I’m just more levelheaded, skilled and observant than I really let on. That’s it.

So, to everyone who doesn’t want Shadow to continue (Aceina, this isn’t you. Shadow had me write this before your debate with him), I say ‘Yudan shitara jigoku iki yo… Sam wa sasenaikara’. Now, I’ll explain some of the problems here and introduce the senshi. As I’m stuck writing my own story, it will once again be in first person. Oh, hold on…

Shadow wants me to ask if any of you know what anime theme song that line above came from and what it means. Ok, now, on with the show, and I hope that I write as good as Shadow does.

Prologue 2

I sighed as I rubbed the rapidly forming bruise on my right side. It’d be gone by the morning, as I just seemed to heal faster than most people (thank god), but it still hurt like a bitch while it was healing.

I blame, surprise, surprise, Akane again, for belting me this far. I wanted, for just one day, not to get smashed into the stratosphere. Oh well, at least I positioned myself so that I’m flying roughly towards the Juuban district. Even I, the embodiment of Chaos itself, need a break from that place every once in a while.

I suppose you want to know details, huh? Well, it started right after dinner. I’d been walking past the koi pond when I got hit with a memory flash. Now, I know what you’re thinking. ‘Memory flash? I though you had all your memories.’ Wrong. I said, and I quote, ‘I suppose I could thank the memories for that’. I never said I had them all.

I’d been getting random flashes of memories all my life. Normally, they’d occur right before bed, where I’d use them to fall unconscious, or in school, where I’d fake sleep to avoid looking dizzy and disoriented. This memory flash, of course, was right at one of the least oportune moments, so I’d slipped into the koi pond. The next thing I know, I’m crawling out, only to see Akane charging at me with a mallet intent on sending me skywards, all the while yelling something about ‘going to do something perverted with that female body of yours’. I still don’t understand how she came to that conclusion.

I’d jumped over her once, only to let her slam me a second time, after making sure that I was angled roughly in the Juuban Area. I wonder if she realizes that if she hits anyone other than me with that damned mallet, she’d probably kill them. I doubt it. And so here I am, heading on a downward decline, flying above the citizens of Tokyo. None of them even bother to acknowledge my presence, I’m up here so often.

Oh, hold on, here’s my stop.

I reach out and grab a flag pole sticking out of the side of a building in a right angle with both hands, swinging around it before letting go, launching myself straight up into the air, flipping around, before landing on the pole.

It’s the same general principle as fence-walking, only it’s much more dangerous, being thirty feet up in the air. However, it looks so much cooler that the fence walking. Standing strait up, I crossed my arms under my breasts and smirked slightly, completing the look. Chuckling to myself, I’m about to jump down and go relax, maybe hit the arcade or something, when I spot someone.

She really was quite obvious, as she’s one out of maybe six or seven people in Tokyo with natural blue hair. (In case you were wondering, the list is her, her mother, Akane, Neptune, and a couple weird chicks that live in this shrine in the Okyama Perfecture with this alien prince I met once on my travels.)

She was wearing glasses and had her nose in a book, just leisurely walking down the street, somehow managing to weave in and out of people without slamming into them. Obviously something that could only come from years upon years of practice, she’s obviously a scholar. Why do I care about this girl? Simple.

It’s Ami Mizuno, or Sailor Mercury. How do I know? Well, I kinda was smashed over here by Akane and landed near a senshi battle that was just ending. They didn’t even check to make sure that nobody was around before detransforming. It was kind of sad, actually.

So, I know who they all are. They should just be thankful I know how to keep my mouth shut. I sit down on the pole, swinging my legs to keep my balance. I was planning on just watching her walk off before jumping down, but something changed that.

I couldn’t hear anything over the crowd of people, but I did see her reach into her pocket and pull out a cell phone. After listening to the other side for just a moment, she dropped her bag and started roughly shoving the book into it. I know well enough from the time I spent watching her, as well as the rest of them, that only one thing could get this reaction.

Someplace was being attacked. She started sprinting down the street as she tossed her bag into a café. I quickly hopped up off the pole and followed her on the roof-tops, making long jumps as I was forced to clear streets and alleyways with the jumps. Skidding down to a stop on the last rooftop, sending gravel and roof shingles flying as I do, I watch Ami turn into an alleyway.

Doesn’t she know it’s dangerous to enter an alleyway at night? Oh, wait, I forgot who I’m talking about. Backpedaling, as this is the longest jump I’ve had to make tonight, I start running, before making a soaring leap through the air and landing on the building on the opposite side of the street I’d just chased Ami down. Crawling over to the edge of the roof, I looked down to see Ami looking around the alleyway, trying to make sure nobody was there.

To bad she didn’t check the roof tops. I sighed softly as she pulled out what looked like a rod before yelling, not whispering, not saying, yelling ‘MERCURY POWER, MAKE UP!’ I started to click my tongue at her carelessness, before actually looking at what was happening.

I was being treated to one hell of a strip-show. Her clothes seemed to just melt off her body, before a ribbon of water seemed to just flow out of the rod, before surrounding her. I couldn’t see any more after that, as I was rocketed backwards with a nosebleed. I smacked my head on the roof and was stunned. When I returned to my senses, I noticed Mercury sprinting down the roof-tops away from me.

I gave chase as I wondered what the hell had just happened… what? You think that I should have known that would happen. Wrong. I’ve only ever seen them power down before, which is just the fuku glowing before they end up back in their street clothes.

That isn’t bad. The power-up that really gets me. I know what your thinking. Well, wouldn’t you have seen or felt it when you powered up? Well… I’ve never had a chance to power up before. Before you go all ranty on me or Shadow, let me explain.

Let me ask you a question. If I did try to transform in Nerima, what do you think would happen? Right. Someone would find me right in the middle of it, then raise an alarm, causing a whole cascade of stupid and really bad things to happen. And before you even ask, there’s a reason why I don’t just get out of Nerima, first.

I can’t leave without Genma (I never really call him my father, as he’d never really acted like it. I’d never called Nodoka ‘mom’ too often either) somehow knowing. Then, he’ll make Akane come, and she’ll want to do all the cooking. Nabiki will catch wind of this, and then sell the info to everyone, so Ukyo and Shampoo will follow me, after taking the stove away from Akane. Then Ryoga, Kuno, Mousse, or a combination of the three would follow, blaming me for ‘trying to take their girl’, and things would go downhill from there. See my point?

Anyways, there was something else, something more important on my mind at that moment. What the hell was up with the nosebleed? I don’t get nosebleeds like that, damnit! I’m normally the one giving the nosebleeds, not the other way around. Not even when something like that happens. Could I really…

Well, anyways, I followed her down to the central Park of Juuban. I shouldn’t have been surprised, as this seems to be the number one target, besides stores and malls, of whatever enemy they have to deal with. At the moment, I think it’s Daimons.

As she lands on a low roof, I continue jumping up to one of the larger buildings off to the right, spring-boarding off another pole on my way. Landing in a roll, I stand up and dust off my clothes before walking to the edge. They wouldn’t see me. I’ve done this a few times before, and they’ve always missed me… at least, I think they do.

I bet you’re wondering about why I don’t jump down and give them a hand. After all, I’m a senshi, and they’re getting ready to fight a monster. Well… to explain that, you’d need a little bit of background history.

Let me think. I finally made sense of the memories at about the age of six, (don’t ask how, long story) and when I left for China, none had been awoken (except Venus, who went by Sailor V in London…). When I came back, right after the Jusenkyo incident, they’d just taken out that crazy bitch that’d destroyed the Moon Kingdom. Honestly, I was glad that she did… not that I liked the method she chose, I would have tried for a political collapse, but still…

What was her name? Beryl, or something. I would have tried to make contact then, but something threw a wrench into my plan. That wrench was the Black Moon Family.

Why is that so bad, you may ask? Well, that’s simple. The Black Moon Family used the power of Nemesis. What I want to know is, how the hell is that possible? It may be that they rename another planet Nemesis, or that my Nemesis was corrupted by Wiseman. This one seems more likely, but it would mean that between then and now, my planet is reformed… which is good for me. Odds are that I’m the one that did the reforming, so that means I’ll have to find a way to do that eventually.

But, my credibility was totally shot, and it still is. Odds are, if I was to jump in there, they’d go all trigger happy on me, which I wouldn’t be surprised with. At least one is the ‘shoot first, ask questions never’ kind. And I couldn’t fight back, either.

Oh, sure, in the last life, I wasn’t really tight with most of them, Jupiter and Saturn being my best friends, but they are still the good guys… kinda. So I can’t hurt them. Not that I could even if I wanted to, nor could I help fight.

Both the Senshi and the Diamons are almost immune to physical strikes, at least at my level. And I can’t use magic, as the planet of Nemesis doesn’t exist, so I have nothing to draw magic off of. Oh, sure, I could probably draw a little off of the asteroids that Nemesis once was, but it isn’t anywhere near enough to fight either the senshi or a daimon. So, I hang back and observe, as knowledge is power.

I didn’t get much chance to see things, because as soon as I looked over the edge of the building, the rest of the senshi appeared on the roof. Then, they did something that I’d seen once or twice, but it still put me into a laughing fit.

They made a speech. Of course, they could have attacked while the daimon was preoccupied, gotten the jump on it, but instead they decided to give away their positions and shoot their mouths off at the same time.

I was sweatdropping through the entire damned thing. It was so embarrassing.

“HALT DEMON! CITY PARKS ARE FOR PLAYING, NOT YOUR MINDLESS DESTRUCTION AND THE INJURING OF INNOCENTS! NOW, I, SAILOR MOON, IN THE NAME OF THE MOON!” To increase the embarrassment factor, the other senshi behind her chimed in with their own planet names.

“MERCURY!”

“VENUS!”

“MARS!”

“JUPITER!”

Moon picked it back up for the finale. “WE WILL PUNISH YOU!” To put the Embarrassment factor over the chart, they each struck the most ridiculous poses one could imagine. I was surprised that the daimon was still on her feet (she being what looked like a young girl with a whip made of fire) and hadn’t facefaulted. I wasn’t sure what she said, but she started yelling at them, and then they all broke out into a huge fight.

Now, don’t get me wrong here. I’m not trying to be mean, but the battle could have been much better. The entire fight was totally unorganized, with each girl just throwing spells at random, hoping to destroy the daimon before it destroyed them. Honestly, I could tell, even from this distance, that it was a lower-level daimon, as its skill level was atrocious, even from my location. I pocketed my rod, which I’d taken out earlier, just in case. I obviously wouldn’t need it here. I looked back down on the action.

The battle itself was uninteresting. Like I said, they were just throwing magic around. The people in the battle, however, were much more interesting. I said I’ve been down here several times. The problem was, the only time that they were actually fighting, the fight was almost over. I got to see maybe two attacks, and then they de-transformed.

The other five or so times I’ve been down here, there wasn’t a fight, so I’d observe each one individually. This was the first time I’d actually gotten a chance to see them fight completely. Again, I wasn’t impressed.

Anyway, Moon started out… what? Oh, come on! What do you mean I lost you? When? Back when I ran into Ami? Well, how did I lose you?

You don’t know about the Sailor Senshi? Geeze, what planet do you live on? Ok, crash course in Earth Defenders 101.

The Sailor Senshi are a group of ten, although it’s believed to be nine, girls who fight off evil that attacks the planet. They do this with magic that is drawn from the core of a planet or other celestial body which is directly related to an element. They don’t seem to get it, but each person has their own element corresponding with her magic. However, for some reason, they run around in really skimpy sailor fukus. I remember that I managed to nail the designer of that stupid outfit with one of my magic blasts in my last life. He was nice enough after that to let me change my design… I’m getting off track. I suppose you want to know each person more indepth…

Just a quick little overlay. Mercury is Ami Muzino. She wears a blue fuku and has control over the element of ice. She seems to be the strategist, hanging back and finding the weakness of an enemy before creating a mist-like smoke-screen and then having the others blow it up.

As just normal Ami, she’s very shy and very smart. She, along with Moon, Jupiter, and Venus, all go to Juuban High. She seems to always have her nose in a book, and likes to spend her free time studying. She seems to be the calmest of all the inners.

Venus wears an orange fuku with blue bows. While she doesn’t have one of the traditional basic elements (water, fire, earth, air, and lightning, just in case you were wondering), she has spirit, but that’s been diluted down to emotion by her lack of training. All of her attacks seem to boil down into the one emotion of love, which is kind of sad, really.

As a civilian, she’s Minako Aino. She’s athletic to an extent, but she’s definitely a romantic. Not surprisingly, after some of the more major threats passed, shes become slightly boy-crazy, along with Jupiter.

I suppose it’s worth mentioning that she’s the second one to awaken her powers, right after me and before Moon, and that in the past life, she was the leader of the inners, in charge of guarding the Moon Princess, or Sailor Moon in this life.

Am I going too fast for you? No? Good.

Moon would be next. She’s wearing the white, pink, and yellow fuku below… and is the one getting thrown into the wall. That has to hurt. In the last life, there was no Sailor Moon. Instead, she was the Moon Princess, daughter of Queen Serenity.

My total opposite in every way, she’s immature and a bit of a crybaby, at least right now. I suppose she’ll eventually grow up, but… Anyway, she controls the element of light, opposite of my shadow and chaos. From what I’ve gathered, she doesn’t really want to be Sailor Moon at all, instead wishing to be a normal girl and live a normal life.

Heck, even the names of our attacks are complete opposites. While hers are all sugary and cute, such as the ‘Moon Healing Escalation’ the 'Moon Princess Halation’, the ' Moon Spiral Heart Attack’ and the ‘Rainbow Moon Heart Ache’, mine are more simple and less flashy, yet still serious, such as ‘Chaotic Embrace’, ‘Chaos Wall’, ‘Darkness Shroud’, and the ever so lovely ‘Chaotic Tempest’ and ‘Shadow Daggers’.

As a final note, It’s worth mentioning that out of all the senshi so far, Moon and Venus are the only ones with complete families, and Moon is the only one with a sibling.

I’ll take a detour right here and cover the one who seems to be a complete insult to men, Tuxedo Mask. I personally don’t like this guy, not at all. From what I’ve been able to gather, he seems to leave the fighting to the girls, instead throwing, of all things, roses at the enemy every one in a while. He doesn’t even have an elemental affinity. Oh and his main talent seems to be yelling…

“LOOK OUT SAILOR MOON!” A yell rang out over the battle. I look down to see the object of my animosity on a rooftop with another rose.

…that. The man is not only worthless, but he’s unfaithful as well.

Supposedly, he’s the reincarnation of the earth prince from the Moon Kingdom, and he and Usagi, that’s Moon, btw, are soul-mates who are destined to end up with each other. And yet, I’ve had to follow this moron at least twice, and each time he’s met up with a different girl.

Not to mention that he seems to be the most kidnapped/brainwashed hero in existence. Really, it’s quite pathetic.

I need to get off this topic before I jump down there and kick his ass myself. So, if we hop in our light-speed rocket and blow past the moon, we reach Mars, the Senshi of Fire.

Mars is a hot-head, plain and simple. In the one senshi meeting I’ve eavesdropped on, Usagi and Rei spent the entire time bickering. It wasn’t too productive, honestly.

Rei is the only inner that doesn’t attend Juuban Highschool. Instead she goes to some girl-only school farther off. Not quite sure where, though. I never bothered to follow her that far.

The only one of the inners with any ability of using Ki, she’s a shinto priestess at the Hino Shrine. Her name is Rei Hino, and she lives with her grandfather. From what I gather, she seems to be a fire reader, using her Ki in the sacred flames to get glimpses of the future. I’ve yet to show up, but I don’t know if that’s because I’ve yet to make a move or if I’m just to chaotic for the fires to detect.

Finally, while the planet Jupiter technically isn’t an inner planet, as it’s past the boundaries of the Nemesis Belt, Sailor Jupiter is considered to be the last of the Inner Senshi. Just like in Roman Mythology, Jupiter controls lightning.

Like Minako, Makoto is more interested in boys than fighting, but she still does it. Her parents are nowhere to be found, most likely dead, and she lives alone. I haven’t had much time to do more in-depth research on any of them, but that’s enough information for now.

I crouch down on the edge of the roof and start muttering to myself. “It’s like a game of chess. One side makes a move, in this case, a pawn is moved forward. The other side then makes their moves, destroying the pawn and returning back to their original positions. Only this game of chess has three sides and double agents…”

Suddenly, I barely managed to hear the sound of light footsteps on the gravel behind me. I smirk. “Speaking of double agents…” I hear someone snap their fingers behind me, before a young, feminine voice spoke up.

“Darnit, I never can get the drop on you, Nemesis.” I turn around to see the one person I thought I would. She looked like a young version of Sailor Moon, including the odango-styled hair, although hers was pink, rather than blonde. I smirk.

“Hey, Usa. What’s up.” I asked. The girl, Usa, crouched down next to me.

“It’s the standard report. Your influence is finally starting to show. Crystal Tokyo is changing. It’s slow right now, but it’s definitely there.” She looked over to me with her red eyes… how she got those, I’m not too sure I want to know.

I give her a confused glance. “What do you mean? And why hasn’t Pluto showed up and tried to make adjustments?” Usa sits back and nods, very sage-like. This would have looked so much better if she was a little older, but it still worked.

“She would, if she could see it…” at my confused look, she elaborates. “You are the embodiment of Chaos, the natural element of Nemesis. All the chaos you give off is shielding you from the gates, so the gates show a time-line that would occur if you never interfere. Therefore, Pluto has no idea something is going on. And the future-Pluto is too late to do anything about it, as she’s been sealed off from contacting the past Pluto. We’ve got a stand-in right now giving her just enough hints to get by, but she may catch on eventually.”

“Ok… but, why are you trying to stop the Silver Millennium from coming?” I asked. “I mean, isn’t the Queen your Mom? All girls want to be princesses… well, not all girls, but most of them. Why are you different?”

Usa sighed. “I have my reasons. I suppose I can tell you, that although everyone, this time and in the future, believes that Usagi is my mom, she isn’t. She’s my aunt. Her sister is my mother. Everyone, including Usagi, believes I'm her daughter, thanks to some quick memory spells and the fact I was given to her right after my birth.”

I nod. “I think I get it. Well, what influences are starting to show?” She cringed, seeing Mars get hit with a hard right shot to her gut.

“Right now, the only thing that’s changed is that the Saotome and Tendo Family lines, which used to be very prosperous, due to a solid martial arts school background, have now been thrown into poverty. Well, the Tendo line was. The Saotome Line stopped existing right about this time.” I nod.

“Makes sense. With the Tendo line not having any form of martial artists, the school was bound to die out. And Genma and Nodoka are too old to have kids again, so I’m the last one. I wonder what happened to me, though.” I ponder out loud. Usa puts a hand to her mouth.

“Damnit. I shouldn’t have said that.” She exclaimed, loud enough from most of the nearby people to hear. I grab her mouth and throw ourselves backwards, across the roof. She sheepishly scratched the back of her head. “Sorry…” she muttered.

I start talking in a low tone. “Great. Our cover was probably just blown. Ok, you go make your big, dramatic appearance, and I have to head home. Check up on the board and whatnot. Hopefully, if I hightail it, I can make it back in a decent amount of time and avoid suspicion. Wait ten minutes, then swoop in.” Usa nodded. Ranma stood up and started surging across the rooftops, eventually moving fast enough to blur, before disappearing over the horizon. Usa watched her leave before she started walking down the fire-escape she climbed to reach there in the first place. “well, I guess it’s my time to steal the show.”

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

(AN- Ok, I actually have to pretend to be this person. Don’t sue me if I get it wrong. I’m a martial artist, not a mind-reader)

I hate fighting these things. This is the fourth one this month! They all seem to have one goal. It seems to have something to do with these crystals that people seem to have in their hearts. I don’t really get it, but they’re hurting people, so we’ve got to do something.

“YO, MERCURY, HURRY UP, WOULD YA’?!” I yell over to Ami, who’s got her eye-visor thing on, scanning this… thing for weaknesses. Unfortunately, that one moment of hesitation cost me, and I felt a small, yet strong fist slam into my stomach.

“Oof!” I exclaim, falling to my knees as the girl with the whip is lured away by Jupiter and her lightning blasts. I’m really starting to get annoyed with this whole thing. I point one index finger at the crazy bitch of a girl while grabbing my wrist with the other one go soften the recoil.

“FIRE SOUL!” I call out, and a large ball of fire shoots out of my fingertip at the girl. She dodges, and that gives me enough time to jump back. I’m about to prepair another shot, when I hear someone yell.

“Damnit, I shouldn’t have said that.” Then, there was some crunching gravel. I look up at the corner of a nearby building where I thought I heard the voice, which sounded familiar.

There was nothing there.

Distracted, I almost get hit with that stupid fire whip of hers. This is such a pain, but I wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world. I just hope that nothing bad happens. I feel a dark wind blowing.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

I was lucky enough to get back to the Tendo place in about eight minutes, so that it seems like I just went straight back there instead of spent about half an hour watching the Senshi. I blew right past them all, not bothering to stop to talk to anyone, before locking myself in the furo.

Now, the people outside think that I did this just because I want to get male as fast as possible. Wrong. I actually need the peace and quiet, although the hot water would be needed later. Instead, I walk over to a counter and reach into my own little subspace pocket, before pulling out what looks like two board games.

Now, don’t ask me how I got them, as it’s a story that would take years upon years to tell. The first one looks like the American board game Risk. However, when I unfolded the board, which layed perfectly flat, several pieces were already on the board.

Instead of a map of the world, it was a map of Nerima and the nearby Juuban District. Each piece looked like one of the people I knew, and it showed their locations. On the Tendo Dojo were the pieces for me (the female me, as I haven’t changed back), Akane, Nabiki, Kasumi, Soun, Genma, Happosai, and a small black piglet. Ryoga.

Scanning the board, Kuh Lon, Mu Tzu, and Xian Pu are still in the Cat Café, the Kuno’s are in their estate, Ukyo and Konatsu are at Ucchan’s, all of the Inners and Usa are still at the park, which is large enough to show their exact movements (they were all still dancing around a daimon statue), and finally, a statue of a woman in a Sailor Fuku with emerald-green hair was in an isolated corner of the board. Obviously, Sailor Pluto didn’t feel that her presence was necessary for this fight.

I grin as Usa’s statue is overtaken by light, and it fades to show Sailor Chibi-Moon. I watch with some small amusement as the girls manage to get in a few blows, and the statue on the board fell into dust. “We win.” I mutter, ignoring the fact I’ve yet to do anything.

I start singing one of my favorite songs softly as I turn towards the other board.

“I'm tired of being what you want me to be
Feeling so faithless lost under the surface
Don't know what you're expecting of me
Put under the pressure of walking in your shoes”

Instead of being a folded game board, it was a really, really nice frosted glass chessboard. About three inches thick, with henges on one side and a clasp on the opposite one. I flipped the clasp and lifted the top half to reveal a red-velvit lined box, with slots for each piece.

“(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)”

I pulled out each piece, stopping to admire the craftsmanship of each one. The white pieces seemed to be made of ivory, while the black pieces were made of onyx or obsidian. I pulled each piece out and set them off to the side of the board.

“I've become so numb I can't feel you there
Become so tired so much more aware
I'm becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you”

As I placed each piece on the board, some of them changed shape. The white king turned into Usagi, the white queen into Pluto. The Bishops turned into Minako and Makoto, while Ami and Rei took the position of the knights. The Rooks, for the moment, remained ivory Rooks.

Unsurprisingly, all the pawns stayed pawns. Except for the king’s pawn. Don’t know what the king’s pawn is? Ugh. Ok, Chess 101 time.

“Can't you see that you're smothering me
Holding too tightly afraid to lose control
Cause everything that you thought I would be
Has fallen apart right in front of you

The White King Pawn is the white pawn directly in front of the White King. The White King Bishop is the Bishop next to the White King. The White Queen’s Bishop is the Bishop next to the White Queen. The White King’s Rook’s Pawn is the Pawn in front of the White Rook on the side of the White King. Get it? Now, if the White King’s Pawn moves to E5, it is generally written Wh.K.P. to E5. Because the tiles are lettered starting in the corner of the Black Queen’s Rook and going down and numbered going across, this means that the White King Pawn moved two spaces forward. Get it? Good.

Anyway, the King’s pawn turned into Tuxedo-baka.

(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
Every step that I take is another mistake to you
(Caught in the undertow just caught in the undertow)
And every second I waste is more than I can take”

As I set up the black pieces, I wasn’t too surprised that almost all the pieces stayed the same. The only piece to change was the Black Queen’s Knight’s Pawn, which changed into the Daimon that I just finished watching the other senshi destroying.

“I've become so numb I can't feel you there
Become so tired so much more aware
I'm becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you”

I watched with a little fascination as the pieces moved on their own. First, the White Queen’s pawn moved forward one space. Then, the Daimon from the black side moved forward two spaces to D7. Finally, The White Queen’s Bishop, Minako, moved to D7, taking the black pawn.

“And I know
I may end up failing too
But I know
You were just like me with someone disappointed in you”

I was vaguely interested, though, when purple pieces lined themselves up on the 1 column of the board. A purple king, which then molded itself into me, positioned itself just off the board by E1 and the purple Queen, which turned into Usa, on the spot just off the D1 square. While this put her in a position to take Minako, it was unlikely she’d make that move, as it would blow her cover.

“I've become so numb I can't feel you there
Become so tired so much more aware
I'm becoming this all I want to do
Is be more like me and be less like you”

I packed back up the boards before jumping into the furo, who’s water had been running this whole time, both to drown out my singing and to throw off suspicion. The last thing I needed was Nabiki wondering why the water wasn’t running while I was in here.

“I've become so numb I can't feel you there
I'm tired of being what you want me to be
I've become so numb I can't feel you there
I'm tired of being what you want me to be”

Finishing the song, I relax in the hot waters of the furo and turn back to the male side, unvoluntarily shuddering. I hope the day will come when I don’t have to take this form any more. In order to avoid any more beatings, I slide upstairs, only to realize I had spent so much time in the furo that everyone else is asleep. Shrugging, I lay down and fall asleep right before I hit the pillow.

END CHAPTER

Shadow REALLY wanted to try the Risk and Chess board Ideas out. While I can’t influence any moves by moving pieces on the board, I can go and actually make a move in the city of Juuban, which is then shown by the board. The boards are more monitoring tools than anything else.

Uh, the song is Numb by Linkin Park. Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance is awesome! Hey, I have to have some darkness in my life with all the insanity.

The story Lunar Eclipse was what really showed Shadow the relations between the Senshi and the Elements. He’d never though of that beforehand.

As for Usa, the identity of her mother really is obvious. See if you can guess. Shadow won’t tell me, so maybe some of you could give me a hand? I can’t seem to figure it out…. STOP LAUGHING, SHADOW! What’s so funny, anyway?