Usagi walked down the street, two of her best friends beside her. With each step, she rubbed her eyes, trying her best to wake up. She'd had the weirdest dreams last night, and she didn't dare ask Luna about them. The black cat was nervous enough, with the engagement party approaching in a week.
She frowned briefly. Suddenly, marrying Mamoru didn't seem like such a good idea anymore. She felt like she was cheating on the young man from her dreams. She giggled aloud. "My dream guy," she whispered.
Ami elbowed her gently, blushing slightly. "Usagi-chan. . ."
Rei grinned. "You know, we really don't need to hear everything about you and Mamoru-san, Usagi. I can go my entire life without knowing what kind of dreams you have about him, okay?"
"Okay." But I don't dream of Mamoru - eto, Mamo-chan - especially not lately. The only times she dreamed of Mamoru, an enemy or someone from the future was usually involved. I dream of a man in the shadows, and he just came out. Trunks. . . atashi no itooshi. . . I think.
"Usagi-chan, have you heard whether or not Haruka-san and Michiru-san will be at the party?" Ami was asking, her planner open and a pen poised ready to write.
She shook herself from her trance. "No, I don't, Ami-chan. Last I heard, they were."
"It will be nice to have all the Senshi together again, won't it?" Rei seemed to think aloud. "I mean, we haven't seen much of the Outer Senshi in two years." At the blank and unfocused look on Usagi's face, she continued. "You know, since Galaxia was defeated. I think I've seen Haruka-san and Michiru-san twice in two years."
"Hai. . ."
"Are you all right, Usagi-chan?" Ami asked.
"Hai. . ."
Rei gently took ahold of her elbow, concerned by the weary and lost tone in her voice. "Are you sure, Usagi? You seem kinda of out of it."
"Hai. . ." She shook herself. Her eyes focused, and she smiled at her friends. "I'm fine, Ami-chan, Rei-chan. I just didn't sleep well last night."
"Why not?" This time it was the black cat draped over Ami's shoulder who spoke. Luna had been silent until then, but Usagi, no sleeping well, when she usually slept like the dead? That alarmed her.
"I kept having these really weird dreams." She smiled again, and it couldn't be more faked if she tried. "I'm fine, really. I'll meet you guys at Minako's, okay? I'm going by the arcade for a little while. Ja mata, ne!" She broke away from her friends and dashed around the corner -
- and straight into a young man. They collided head on, practically bounced off each other, and landed sprawled on the ground.
"Itai," he muttered, sitting up. Hair so dark a shade of green that it looked black hung in his eyes and moved with his hand as he rubbed his head. "Oi! Watch where you're going!"
"Gomen nasai," she replied, sitting up as well.
Simultaneously, they both grinned and stood up. "Sorry about that, ojousan," he stated.
"My fault," she returned. "I wasn't watching where I was going." She stuck out her hand. "I'm Tsukino Se- Usagi."
"Urameshi Yuusuke." She was mildly surprised when he shook her hand firmly, treated her like just one of the guys, as Haruka put it once. "I'm kind of running late and Keiko's going to kill me."
"Saa," she smiled as she stated. "I'll see you around, Yuusuke-kun."
They both moved a few steps past each other. I didn't ever really apologize, she remembered. She whirled.
There was no one there. He'd vanished, as if he'd never existed.
*****
At the Time Gate, Sailor Pluto frowned. She'd known this was going to start happening, but she'd never expected it to be so soon. In relative terms, they'd just defeated Chaos, and now this had to occur.
Maybe Chaos brought this upon us, she thought to herself, tapping the Time Staff against the mist-covered lands of time. The dimensional barriers were holding up fine until it appeared. Now everything is changing again.
She smiled suddenly to herself. There were worse people, after all, that the princess could have run into. She shuttered thinking how close she come to running into Nakago. A Reikai Tantei was rather tame compared to that.
Maybe it was time she checked a few dimensions over from Usagi and see how her other friend from the Silver Millennium was doing.
*****
Trunks rested his chin against his knee and watched the city - such that it was - below him. The world was slowly rebuilding itself, but today he couldn't find it in himself to be too thrilled. He was just exhausted, to be honest. He hadn't slept well the night before, and he was still wiped out.
"The girl in my dreams," he thought out loud, since there was no one around who could get up on the roof to hear him, "Renity, who is she? Is she real? She isn't just a figment of my imagination, is she?" He'd hate to think that was true, that his imagination was running off so fast on him, that he knew some imaginary girl's favorite flavor ice cream. (Something told him, though, that any ice cream, honestly, was her favorite.) He smiled at the thought; despite how tired he was, he was looking forward to going to sleep and seeing her again.
He jumped suddenly. A ki had flared to life, a ki like no other he'd ever felt before: hot and angry and largely animalistic. For a split second, he could have sworn he saw a huge fur-covered beast coming to stand above the town and a woman with pink hair standing on a roof top before it, holding a long and dangerous-looking bullwhip, and he jumped to his feet to go take care of it.
Then, just as suddenly as it had appeared, the vision vanished. He sank back down to sit on the room and wait till dark.
He just had to wait till dark.
::End Chapter Four::
25 February 2001
Well, well, like, like? I'm so proud of myself for writing this chapter in just under two hours, even with interruptions. (One would not think there would be interruptions at between 1 and 3 a.m., but there most certainly are.)
Sorry about how little DBZ was in here this time. I'll be better next chapter, okay?
References:
Chapter Title:
#4.) "My Love Forever" ~~ "Again", Lenny
Kravitz
(Maybe) Obscure Characters:
Urameshi Yuusuke is the main character in the
series Yu Yu Hakusho, a favorite of mine. Mou, now if I
could just find more episodes of it. Anyway, Yuusuke dies saving
the life of a small child but is brought back to life as a Reikai
Tantei, an investigator for the Spirit World.
Yukimura Keiko is Yuusuke's girlfriend. For a
feminine character in such an action-based show, she's really
very cool! She's everything I wish Ririna Peacecraft would have
been. (Forgive me if I've misspelled her family name. I'm just
trying to get this out before it gets too late.)
Nakago is from the series Fushigi Yuugi.
Umm. . . I'm really not the person to ask about Fushigi Yuugi.
Ask someone who has seen more episodes.
The huge fur-covered beast was
Carrot Glace, from Bakuretsu Hunter. He is quite an
ecchi, rather like a young version of Happosai without being good
in martial arts. Carrot's really only good at being smacked
around, but when he's hit by enemy magic, it triggers a
transformation (I can't really explain Zoanthropy well) and he
turns into a giant beast. The only way for him to turn human
again involves the next character.
The pink-haired woman with the whip is
not ChibiUsa! It's Tira Misu, again from Bakuretsu
Hunter, and this marks the second time she's appeared in one
of my fics. (There will probably be more.) She is a Sorcerer
Hunter and is in love with Carrot. (See above.) She seems very
meek and demure, but when she takes off her red cape and her
glasses, she's a totally different woman. When Carrot's change
has occured, she's usually the one to turn him back human. Let's
just say, she whips him back into shape.
Okay! That should cover it! See you next chapter!