Hello True Believers! Any of you still there? This chapter took a lot longer than I ever expected; so long in fact that Sailor Moon Crystal is now covering the same arc. I am sorry; I thought it would go quicker than this due to heavily being based on the manga but three things got in the way:

1) This chapter is a lot longer that what has gone before.

2) Turns out there is a degree of truth in the old proverb "a picture is worth a thousand words". Translating the manga into my writing was a lot harder than I thought.

3) I had more important things to do: work, study, etc. This story is important to me but real life demands other things have priority.

Well you've listened to me ramble for long enough. Have a chapter.

Act 6

Magus Kaolinite knelt in worship to the fountain at the centre of the darkened amphitheatre, bare knees touching hard ground chilled by the night air, her long crimson hair spilling all across her back. Her presence here was naught but an astral projection, this place existed between mind and matter, dream and reality, truth and lie, but it felt real to her senses. As water poured from stone fish heads, it began to pulse with an unnatural light and Kaolinite heard her lord and master's edict echo within the depths of her mind.

"The light has awakened. This light shines to illuminate the path that will lead us to the Omega Area... to the ruins of our sacred land. We will draw them all into the Omega Area using the power of our old world. This place will be filled with our aura and we will draw all into it.

"But I can see a different light: starlight, shining from the 'protector of this planet'. From within the glow of this planet's 'protector', I can feel the strength of our life source; the light of the Taioron Crystal is close at hand. It shines...

"This sacred land rightfully belongs to us; from here we will create a new world. You must not let anyone get in the way of our plans; eliminate the useless light of all others."

Kaolinite allowed herself a smile in anticipation of the carnage to follow. "I understand, Pharaoh 90, my master. We shall awaken the light that leads to great destruction and ruin."

Even though the sunlight blinded her and she couldn't hear anything but the ringing of the bells, nothing could bring Usagi down right now. The man whose arm was linked in hers wasn't just Mamo-chan, but her new husband. She couldn't wait to see the photos; they looked like the perfect fairy tale couple, she just knew it. The only thing that could possibly make it better is if someone would shut off that annoying alarm.

...

Alarm? Just as Usagi bolted awake, her mother burst through the door.

"Usagi! It's already past eight o'clock!"

"What? Oh no!" In what would have been a speed record for any ordinary junior high school student, Usagi was washed, dressed and out the door. She sprinted down the stairs and bolted from the house. "W-why didn't you wake me up? Oh my god!"

Tsukino Ikuko just sighed, a woman broken. "Every single morning, it's like this with that girl."

"You're so right, Ikuko-mama." Chibiusa sagely observed between mouthfuls of buttered toast as she sat watching the news with her 'father'. At her feet, her kitten Diana, a fellow refugee from the future, watched in hopes of any dropped crumbs. "It's hard to believe she still acts like such a child."

"And now on to our next news segment. Yesterday, at Infinity Academy, a private school in the Minato Ward, a strange monster is said to have appeared and laid siege to the school." Luna, sat on the windowsill, turned her attention from the return of the daily drama, which had taken a merciful break during the summer holiday, to what the reporter was saying. "Eyewitnesses report that two of the girls attacked during the siege changed into monsters themselves. The reports say that the transformation appeared to revert the victims to a primitive state..."

"Kenji-papa, what's 'primitive'?"

Kenji lowered his cup from his mouth and propped his chin up with his free hand. "Oh, they mean that a long time ago, humans looked more like gorillas. That's primitive. I think that's what they meant the girls looked like." His face fell, his glasses slipping slightly down his nose. "Can that really be true? If so, that's really scary."

As Chibiusa cheerfully ran out the door bidding her substitute parents a fond farewell, Luna, from her perch on the windowsill, frowned as she ruminated on the report. It was clear that the incidents with the droids were part of a bigger picture and now innocent people were paying the price. It was times like this where it most galled her that she couldn't fight, only advise.

As Chiba Mamoru waited for the love of his life, he had plenty of time to dedicate to his musings. He worried about the dream, the vision, foretelling destruction which he had been having every night since Usagi had called to enthusiastically tell him about their new comrade-in-arms. He pondered about the difficulty of taking university entrance exams while battling the forces of darkness. He wondered just how long Usagi was going to keep him waiting!

"Sorry Mamo-chan!"

"Oi! Usako! I thought you told me you'd be here earlier!"

As Usagi brought her mad dash to a halt, he heard her murmur under her breath. "Mamo-chan's never been so casual with me before… I think I liked it better when he was a bit more romantic and polite." She clamped on to his arm with such force that he was pulled a little off-balance. "Ma-mo-chan- I'm sorry I'm late! I promise I won't be late again so it's settled, okay? Now how about a good morning kiss…?"

When she released him, two things happened in close succession. First, Mamoru sighed in exasperation; he loved Usagi but he didn't believe her for a minute. Secondly, that sigh turned into a grunt as a rocket in the guise of an elementary schooler impacted at waist height.

"Good morning Mamo-chan!" He looked down to see the cherubic face of Chibiusa. It may have just been his imagination but he swore he could here Usagi's teeth grating.

"Good morning Mamoru-sama!" A diplomatic escape came in the form of the grey kitten appearing from behind Chibiusa's feet.

Bidding Diana a warm greeting, he lifted her up and nuzzled her against her face.

"It's not fair! You're only holding Diana now!"

"Well then, all you need to do is become a cat and then I'll hold you more."

"What?" Little kids were all too easy to tease; he wondered whether Usagi should be lumped in that category.

"Ugh! This was supposed to be our secret morning rendezvous." Speak of the devil.

"Oh, yeah! Usagi!" Chibiusa held up the package in her arms. "You forgot your lunch. You know, you really ought to eat your breakfast before you leave in the morning; it's the right way to start your day."

"Wow Chibiusa, you sure do know a lot." Mamoru said as he affectionately rubbed her head.

Okay. Those teeth were definitely audible.

"Chibiusa-chan!" From down the street, a young girl dressed in Chinese fashions called out to them; Mamoru recognised her as Chibiusa's best friend, the somewhat unfortunately named Momohara Momoko. She was accompanied by a few more children he didn't think he knew.

"Oh hey! It's Momo-chan and the others!" Chibiusa ran after them, waving back to her would-be parents as she did.

He felt Usagi embrace his arm again, but this time it was tenderly rather than forceful. Their eyes met and he pulled her forwards into a kiss.

Awaken

Signal the start of great destruction

Almost as soon as their lips touched, he pulled back. Usagi looked him in the eye and she knew. They held each other close, seeking solace in each other's warmth, an unspoken message shared.

Their peaceful days had come to an end.

Not many high school students could take a dip in their private pool before homeroom started but then again most were not the scion of a powerful conglomerate. The fifteen year old heiress, having sated her passion for the water, dried herself off, taking extra care to restore her luxurious wavy hair to perfection, before calling for her transport. Normally one would consider it the height of opulence to take a helicopter to school, especially when that school was all but next door, but today she had to go collect that person before they completely lose track of time.

On the roof, she took one last look out into the bay.

"The ocean looks choppy today."

There was no opponent, not today, but the young racer didn't need one. He never had. The only person that he needed to beat was himself. It was never about victory with him but the joy of speed and motion, the phantasmal feeling of wind rushing through his short fair hair.

As Tenou Haruka stepped out of his car, the stands erupted with adoration for both himself and the powerful beast he had driven so perfectly. He knew that most of the girls cheering for him cared less for his skill and more for his beautiful features, androgynous to the point that if he wore a dress, no one would think to question 'her' gender.

The phone in his hand went off and Haruka knew it was the only girl that mattered. Looking into the sky, he could see the shadows of a pair of helicopters. While they were too far away to make out the details, he imagined the lead vehicle was his own 'Tenoumaru', meaning the one trailing was…

"Michiru. You're late."

"Ara? You didn't lose track of time for once? I'm a little disappointed."

The helicopters touched down on the tarmac and a perfect vision of sublime elegance stepped out; Kaioh Michiru, his girlfriend.

"Good morning, Haruka."

"Good morning, Michiru."

They were the perfect celebrity couple; Tenou Haruka, the handsome teenage racer, and Kaioh Michiru, the beautiful teenage concert violinist. Despite being scions of great wealth, neither had been content to live their life as merely someone else's child. Something inside them had driven them to excel. It was that, and perhaps a smidgeon of fate, that had brought them together.

With practiced ease, Michiru, all five foot four of her, casually interposed herself between Haruka and the crowd so that her boyfriend could don his uniform with some degree of privacy. She was the only one to know his greatest secret and it was going to stay that way.

He wished he could show her the love she needed, the love she deserved. All he could do was show her affection in public and give her comfort in private, but they could never be truly happy together, not as things stood.

"The wind sure is brutal today."

"Hello!" Usagi gaily announced her presence to the arcade as she entered, her oldest friend, discounting reincarnation, Osaka Naru in tow. Furuhata Motoki, the arcade's manager and Makoto's number one crush, cheerfully greeted his favourite customer in reply.

"You're late. I managed to get through an entire book waiting for you, Usagi-chan." With a smile, Ami snapped her book shut for emphasis. Much as she knew her academically gifted friend was teasing her, Usagi could not discount the possibility that she was telling the truth.

"Just as I thought, you were goofing off." Rei scoffed, brushing purple hair away from her ear. The meanie shrine maiden had been watching Naruto who was totally absorbed in a new samurai fighting game. Somehow, against all probability, the 'foreign' girl had found a blonde ninja to play as and was slowly but steadily working her way through a stack of yen (borrowed from Rei) every time she lost.

"Ah, Usagi, you're finally here!"

"Hurry! Hurry! You've got to try this game; it's so much fun!"

From the corner of the game centre, Minako and Makoto stood up from imitation car seats and beckoned their leader over. The game they had been sat at, Battle Laps, was a state-of-the-art racing game that the arcade must have only just got in as Usagi had never seen it before.

As soon as she was seated, someone plonked a realistic facsimile of a racer's helmet onto her head. While the game felt fiendishly complicated at first (it even required you to use the clutch to change gears!), Usagi was soon up to speed and powering along the track. She could have done without the motion sickness, however. By her shoulder, Naru leaned in with wide-eyed fascination.

Usagi felt a presence beside her. Someone had sat down in the player two seat and already caught up with her, despite her head start. Amidst her friends' cries of amazement, and the sound of the crowd gathering to watch her talented opponent, she heard Naru shout out a warning, a half second after it was needed.

Crashing in first person nearly made her want to throw up. She pulled off her helmet and took in a grateful lung of oxygen. "I don't feel good! That helmet was way too heavy!"

"Usagi, you were going at an amazing speed …before you crashed" Naru whispered the last part.

Usagi brushed out her long hair with her fingers. "I couldn't tell how fast I was going with that icky helmet on."

"It's not how fast am I going. It's how much faster can I still go. Those kinds of thought are what a real racer should have." Her opponent had stood up and taken off his helmet to reveal a gorgeous high school student. While Minako and Makoto was blinded by adoration for their latest crush, Usagi could only hear her heart thumping loudly in her chest.

Mamoru had his eyes cast down at the ground, in retrospect a foolish move in a city as packed as Tokyo, so did not see the girl until he bumped into her, sending the ornate mirror she had been holding clattering to the ground. As he reached down to pick it up, apologising as he did so, his fingers brushed against hers. Their eyes met in the reflection, the blue of a king to the blue of the sea.

"Such a noble colour, the colour of your eyes. As if you were a prince in a past life."

"Why would you say that?" What is with this girl? Mamoru wondered.

The girl caressed her mirror fondly. "This mirror allows me to see into people's past lives."

Out of the corner of her eye, Usagi could see Mamoru outside the arcade, chatting with a regal seeming high schooler. She felt a tug on her ponytails as the teen heartthrob she had been racing literally grabbed her attention.

"We should race again sometime, buns" he said with a smile as he stepped out of the door.

The girl's attention was grabbed by a fair haired boy her age emerging from the arcade. She turned back to Mamoru with a soft smile.

"I'm sorry if I said something strange. I hope you won't think badly of me. Farewell."

Mamoru watched her as she left with her boyfriend. She had been a beautiful lady but he had not been able to read her expression at all. And what school was she from; he did not recognise the uniform. The prince of Earth could not help feeling that there was something more to that chance encounter. Entering the arcade he was greeted by the sight of Naru hopping on her best friend's shoulders with excitement, hearts filling the redhead's eyes.

"Hey Usagi! Did you know that guy is really famous? I've seen him around here too."

"He was wearing an Infinity Academy uniform." From seemingly nowhere, the group's perpetually uninvited yet perpetually present hanger-on, Umino Gurio, appeared next to Naruto causing the girl to fall from her stool in shock. At Usagi's clear lack of understanding, the bespectacled boy continued. "It's in the business delta that was built atop of the bay. ("What is that and how do I kill it?" "Relax, he's harmless.") It's a recently established top ranking private school located in the Infinity Delta."

"Infinity Academy is a school focused on teaching the talented; future Olympiads, top musicians… those kinds of people" Naru supplied. Behind her, Umino nodded in approval at the progress his apprentice in exposition was making. "Since only the cream of the crop go there, it's been labelled a school for geniuses."

Following Naru's lead, the group adjourned to a nearby bookstore where she pulled a celebrity magazine from the shelves. There, next to an interview with him, was a grinning photo of the mystery boy.

"Here look! I knew I had seen that guy somewhere before. 'Tenou Haruka'. He's a champion racing driver despite not even being a year older than us."

"What? A real racer?" Usagi felt she had been robbed; "I knew he was too good!"

"It says here that he transferred to Infinity Academy after graduating junior high."

While the love-struck brain trust stuck their heads together to plot 'accidentally' meeting him again, no-one noticed Naruto intently staring at Haruka's picture.

"…white…"

Suddenly, they heard screams from down the street. Erupting from the back of a girl, a girl wearing an Infinity Academy uniform, was a hideously deformed black mass which vaguely resembled a spider but definitely resembled the mutant droid from the park. The thing bore down on another girl wearing the same uniform.

Behind the group, Mamoru grabbed Naru and Umino and moved them to safety. With any witnesses now removed, the Senshi wasted no time in transforming.

"For love and justice, we are the Sailor Senshi and we're going to stop you!"

"We don't discriminate."

"We will dole out harshness to anyone who causes trouble."

A dropkick from Sailor Eris forced the beast away from any potential victims. Before the fiend knew what was happening, Venus's chain rose like a sword while Jupiter's lightning fell like a hammer. Slain, the fiend's corpse dissolved into the wind, leaving behind an unconscious teenager.

As Jupiter ordered the unfortunate victim's friend to call for an ambulance, Venus felt a shiver run up her spine as she felt eyes on her. It was stupid; of course there were eyes on her, they were being gawked at by a growing crowd (this is what happens when superheroes fight monsters in the middle of a shopping district), but this felt different.

After ensuring the poor girl was safely in the hands of paramedics, the girls had retreated to their headquarters. There, after watching the latest battle footage, Luna spoke a single word.

"De-evolution."

"Luna?"

"Did any of you see this morning's news? The top story was about this monster that attacked students and transforms them into de-evolved versions of themselves… monsters. The ones mentioned this morning were Infinity Academy students too, I think."

"Oh god! Did anyone…?"

"Don't worry. The report didn't mention any deaths."

While the Senshi were relieved to hear that, it was only a fleeting comfort. Infinity Academy and de-evolved monsters; the whole thing smelled fishy. Their course was set; once school ended tomorrow, they would investigate Infinity Academy.

"Report."

Arrayed in a line, the Witches 5, the apprentices and minions of Kaolinite, stood in various degrees of nervousness before their furious master. "Twice in the last two days, we have had hosts manifest in public. Which of you three incompetents is incapable of controlling your charges?"

Of the trio in charge of 'recruitment', only Viluy, as cold and dispassionate as ever, was able to hold her gaze. Eudial tried and failed to match her colleague's composure, a string of small tells giving her away. Mimette could not managed even that; the weakest of the five was looking away, her body visibly shaking. Like any good predator, Kaolinite went for the easiest kill.

"Mimette," she purred, running long fingers through the girl's strawberry blonde perm; "is there something you'd like to confess?"

"Oh, it wasn't any of them." A voice she hadn't been expecting spoke up. Cyprine, the strongest but most unstable of her subordinates, gleefully sidled over, a pleased-as-punch smile plastered across her pretty face. "I was bored so I'd thought I'd have some fun."

Anger turned Kaolinite's face as red as her hair. "You stupid girl! Do you have any idea how much danger you put us all in? This planet is protected and we are not yet ready. And you would risk everything because you were bored?!"

"Like you didn't do the same thing first!"

"We used leftover creatures from the previous group of invaders to test their viability as hosts. You used students who could be traced back to us! Twice! My god! Do you possess even an ounce of subtlety?"

The little punk blew a raspberry of contempt. "Subtlety is for two-digit weaklings. And did you see their cute painful faces as they changed."

"After we are done here, you and I are going to have words."

"Fine! Be like that! I'm not gonna tell you 'bout the third one!" and with that she faded back into the real world, not bothering to wait for further orders.

"What third one!?" With a noise that was half sigh, half growl, Kaolinite conjured a throne just so she could sit down and rub her aching temples. "Tell me where the rest of you are at."

"Magus," Eudial stood smartly to attention; "Mimette and I have 'recruitment drives' scheduled and ready to proceed and"

"I'm going to get so many more than you" Mimette cut off her more professional counterpart, emboldened now she was out of the line of fire; "and Viluy's stupid method isn't going to produce anything because it's stupid."

"I am enacting a long term solution for complete saturation which yields increased tactical flexibility." Viluy reported.

"Nerd!"

"Whatever"

Kaolinite turned to Tellu, the only member of the Witches 5 not to speak in this meeting. "And how is your energy gathering project proceeding."

"I am pleased to report that the development stage has concluded and we are now moving to mass production." The green haired woman smiled proudly. "Might I ask what your plans are for Cyprine? I know she wasn't assigned a role in the plan."

"Cyprine is what she always has been: a blunt instrument to pull out in emergencies. I'm not so foolish to trust her with anything more complicated."

Kaolinite allowed herself a victorius smirk. Despite the actions of a certain psychotic moron, everything was proceeding to schedule. There was only one remaining obstacle. She stood up to pose for maximum dramatic effect.

"For the master's new world, our new world, to come to fruition, we can allow no failure. These Sailor Senshi will not be allowed to stand in our way. Whoever slays one of our enemies will be granted the power of a magus by Master Pharaoh 90 and stand beside me as an equal."

It was encouraging to see raw ambition shining in her minion's eyes at her announcement. Not that she had any intention of honouring her promise, especially to Cyprine.

"I'm home!"

"You're back late, Usagi."

"Yeah, we stayed over at Mako-chan's place. She made us dinner; it was so delicious!" Usagi gleefully reported to her mother. Makoto had made roast beef sandwiches au jus with marinated salmon, kabocha, and a chez nous salad, followed by mille-feuille for dessert; it just wasn't fair that Naruto got to eat stuff like that every day.

"Okay, Mamo-chan. I'll see you tomorrow!" Chibiusa hung up the phone only to find herself hanging by her skirt's waistband as Usagi hoisted her into the air.

"Hey Chibiusa, you didn't call Mano-chan on the phone did you? What did you want with him?"

"That's-a-secret!" Chibiusa replied, blowing a raspberry. Usagi snarled and the scuffle began.

"You little brat!"

"Ow! Quit it Usagi, you ass!"

"You two better stop it right now!" With practiced ease, Ikuko reached into the ball of violence and extracted the smaller girl. "Chibiusa-chan is going to the amusement park tomorrow with her friends and I'm going to my weekly mother's meeting so I can't supervise her. Maybe you should go and watch her since with all the weird stuff going on it's not safe for young kids to be outside on their own."

"Mamo-chan is coming too" Chibiusa sang glibly. "We're going to ride the new rollercoaster that goes over the ocean at Infinity Park C. I'm so happy! I'm so happy!"

Scant minutes after talking to his daughter, Mamoru heard his phone ring and answered it to hear the distraught voice of the love of his life.

"Mamo-chan!" she whined; "why are you taking Chibiusa to the new amusement park and not me!"

"When Ikuko-mama called and asked me, she was so pushy about it I couldn't turn her down."

"Well fine then. I'm coming too!"

"Aren't you supposed to go investigate Infinity Academy tomorrow?"

Had she forgotten? Silence. A lot of silence. She had forgotten.

"Y-yeah, that's right." With a small voice Usagi replied before bursting into tears so loudly that Mamoru had to quickly move the handset away from his ears before he suffered permanent damage.

"Usako. The amusement park is in the delta area you're supposed to be investigating tomorrow."

"R-really?" she sniffled.

"Yeah. Infinity Academy is there too. The park we're going to is right next to the academy. If anything happens, use your communicator and I'll be right over."

The Infinity District. It lay in the centre of the ongoing project to reclaim land from Tokyo Bay. Three rail lines intersected to form the delta; the Tenou, Kaioh and Meioh lines. Office buildings had been built around the area creating a business district.

The area at the centre of the delta was known as the Infinity District. At its very heart, six teenage girls stood before the Infinity Academy, a towering skyscraper which didn't resemble any school any of them had ever seen before.

"So this is it, huh?" Naruto asked, craning her head to look at all sixty stories. "Guards, cameras… is this a school or a fortress?"

"Infinite Academy offers a complete education. It covers every level of education from kindergarten to university. It seems that a number of corporations are involved in its curriculum in order to create a new elite professional class. The principal is a woman by the name of Kuromine Kaori." Ami read from her handheld computer; a job perk of being the soldier of wisdom. "That's strange; this building's density reading doesn't match what it should be. It's like the building is warped somehow."

"Is that why the wind is so abnormally powerful?" Makoto asked as yet another gust of wind caused both hair and skirts to ruffle wildly. "I don't like the feel of this."

Beside her, Rei closed her eyes and opened her spiritual senses. "I can feel an energy coming from here. A very strong power is emanating from this building." Vague as she was, none of the girls were about to second guess the shrine maiden's mind's eye.

Again. Once again, Minako could feel unwelcoming eyes on them. She quickly turned, to the bafflement of her friends, to scan one of the nearby condominiums. Was that someone in that high window or was it just a reflection? Was this just paranoia?

"Seriously though, with all this security, how are we supposed to get inside?"

Usagi's eyes shined from the lightbulb which flared to life in her brain. "I'll get inside, no problem. Just watch this!" she giggled.

Minako's head turned back to her leader, her paranoia overwhelmed by a bad feeling about what Usagi was up to. The bun-haired blonde pulled out her old disguise pen, something none of them had seen in what must have been a year.

"Moon Power! Turn me into an Infinity Academy student!"

"Usagi-chan?!" While the others chorused their friend's name, Ami just silently facepalmed. While Usagi had succeeded in acquiring a uniform and glasses, she had done nothing to change the girl underneath despite having once used the pen to change sex entirely.

"Okay guys, wait here. I'm going to check out what's inside."

"H-hey, wait a minute, Usagi!"

"I wonder if she will be okay."

"Who knows?" Rei clutched her aching head; "ugh, that Usagi-chan…"

"Huh? Where's Naruto-chan?"

The girls screamed with giddy anticipation as the rollercoaster slowly clacked its way up its initial ascent. Watching them, safely on Terra Firma, Mamoru and his ever faithful underclassman, Asanuma Ittou, sipped overpriced soda.

"Sempai, aren't you going to take a ride too?" the fair haired junior asked.

"No. Amusement parks really aren't my cup of tea." Mamoru sighed wearily. "Sorry for dragging you here after school, Asanuma."

"Chibiusa-chan must be crazy to want to ride that rollercoaster a second time!" Mamoru turned around to see the three young boys his daughter had brought with her.

"So, are you all in the same class as Chibiusa?" he asked with a friendly wink.

"Yep!" they cheerfully chorused.

"Do you want more drinks? You guys wait her while I get them."

Trapped by the rollercoaster's safety harness, Chibiusa was powerless to prevent the wind from carrying off her favourite hat. Forlorn, she watched it fly into the middle of the district, disappearing from sight behind a foreboding looking tower.

As soon as she was off the ride, she set off running towards where she had last seen it. Momo had offered to help her but Chibiusa sent her back to play with the others. Her hat hadn't gone too far. It wasn't like anything bad was going to happen.

Mamoru was returning from the concession stand, his arms full of expensive drinks, when he spied Momoko with no attached Chibiusa.

"Huh? Momo-chan? Where's Chibiusa?"

"Umm… sorry Mamoru-san, Chibiusa-chan's gone. She lost her hat and…"

"…left the park to find it?! Asanuma, what are you doing later on?" he asked as he mercilessly discharged both drinks and responsibility onto his underclassman before storming off. "Ugh, kids!"

"Sempai! Don't leave me here!"

Uchiha Sasuke had it all. Society loved him for his lineage, teachers loved him for his grades, teenage girls loved him because he was tall, dark and handsome with eyes that pierced the soul. He found them all annoying; why couldn't they all leave him alone to brood about his dead parents?

Inside his head, Naruto cracked up over her depiction of her best friend. The transformation technique, Henge no Jutsu, offered copious amounts of pranking potential and Naruto had a talent for it. Clad in her illusionary shell, she stalked, and Sasuke did stalk when he was in a mood (i.e. always), the hallways of Infinity Academy looking for clues.

Still, it would have helped to have some idea of what exactly she was looking for or, for that matter, how to navigate the massive academy. As such, when beautiful ethereal music wafted through the corridors, Naruto's feet, acting all on their own, decided to carry her to the source.

If the outside of the school was merely impressive, then the interior was positively breath-taking. A thirty foot tall window filled the five storey high lobby with radiant sunlight. Half of the ground floor was taken up by a pool of crystal clear water which stood in front of a glass elevator so high-tech the mechanisms could not be seen.

A large information board directed visitors to various department on different floors but without knowing what she was trying to find, Usagi just drifted along. The enchanting melody of a violin filled her ears and not knowing what else to do, Usagi followed the sound up through the building and out through a glass door onto a low roof. In the middle of a gardened patio, stood the girl Mamoru had been talking to outside the arcade, using a Stradivarius (not that Usagi could tell) to create beautiful music like the sound of lapping waves.

Realising she was being watched, the violinist stopped and turned to face the intruder, her eyes showing recognition despite Usagi's disguise.

"Coming to a place like this, you must not know the meaning of fear. It's dangerous her, you know. Someday taking so many risks is going to destroy your body."

Someone had been watching them. Minako couldn't tell where he had jumped down from but all of a sudden Tenou Haruka stood before them.

"You shouldn't put your necks out on the line like that. If you go home you'll be safe, but get in our way again, I will show no mercy."

"Hey, you over there, where are you going? Tell me which class you belong to!"

Crap! She'd been so stunned by the girl's warning? threat? that she'd been busted. She turned to flee but ran face first into the palm of a tall, dark, handsome boy.

"There you are, idiot. Stop wandering off all the time." He turned to the security guard. "I got this."

"Who…?"

The boy glared and Usagi swore his eyes turned red. "I said: I got this." He grabbed Usagi by the back of her head and dragged her away. Once they were some distance away however…

"Sheesh, Usagi. What did I tell you about improvisation? You can't just go to pieces as soon as your con is busted." The boy winked, an expression which seemed unnatural on such a serious face.

"Naruto-chan?"

"Sir, I believe those two are imposters from another school." Some violinists had no respect for other people's deceits.

"Hey! You! Stop right there!"

"Now we run?"

"Mm-hm."

She found the hat atop a sign. It was such a relief; Ikuko-mama had given her the hat and she would be so upset if it was lost.

Chibiusa was now able to take in her surroundings after she had run off in her mad dash. On one side of her was a massive and somewhat ominous skyscraper; on the other, separated from everything by a stone wall, was an odd shaped building with lots and lots of windows. It was kind of cool. If she was reading the sign correctly, it was the Tomoe Laboratories.

Next to the opening in the wall she saw a girl with short dark hair, older than herself but younger than her 'sister' and her friends, collapsed on the floor. Chibiusa wasted no time going to her side.

"Hey? Are you all right? Hang in there."

She reach out her hand only to have it roughly rebuffed.

"…I always have these coughing fits… It'll be over soon enough. The fit will stop." The girl tried to smile weakly between coughs. "This place is off limits to you. You should get out of here."

Usagi had gotten turned round in the maze and so ended up at the back entrance instead of the front. Somewhere along the line she had lost Naruto but she figured the girl could handle getting caught better than she could.

The last thing she expected to see upon emerging into the daylight was Chibiusa standing in front of one of those modern buildings that are all glass and angles.

"What the heck are you going here, all by yourself? Don't you know how dangerous it is?"

"I lost the hat Ikuko-mama gave me so I came here to find it and then I saw this girl who's in a lot of pain so I came over to check and see if she's all right.

Only then did Usagi notice the pretty but pale girl in the Infinity Academy uniform. Before she could say anything further, a beast emerged from around the corner and proceeded to heave its slug-like bulk over the wall. It surged towards the two younger girls, a maw filled with far too many teeth open for the kill. Senshi instincts took over.

"Moon Cosmic Power…"

"Moon Prism Power…"

"…Make Up!"

"The pretty sailor-suited soldiers for love and justice, Sailor Moon…"

"… and Sailor Chibi-Moon are on the scene!"

Because of my writing style, I started Act 7 before finishing Act 6. That being said, I'm going to take a couple of me days before I start again. Unless, of course, inspiration sneaks up on me again, the bastard.

Until next time (which hopefully won't be in another 10 months.)