Scribbler's note: This episode and the next draw material from Karl Taro Greenfeld's "Speed Tribes" and Ian Buruma's "Behind the Mask." Consider the PG warning to be in full effect, as we will be looking at a darker and seedier side of modern Tokyo.

One of the flaws in my writing method is that the end result looks simple and obvious. Getting to that simplicity is anything but. I spent forty hours planning the Lita chapters before I wrote a single word. My apologies for how long it took. ^_^;;

Serena walked to school.

The sun was warm on her face. The pleated skirt of her school uniform swung against her legs with each step. She had plenty of time.

She had plenty of time to think. Serena had slept badly and awoke early. Luna was still sound asleep. She had washed her face and quietly dressed in her school uniform without disturbing the cat's slumber.

When she padded downstairs in her house slippers she had found her mother was on the phone. "Mom?" she asked.

Ikuko Tsukino's face was tense. She met Serena's gaze with a look of motherly concern and caring. "I understand," she said into the phone. "I'll let her know immediately." She hung up softly.

"Mom?" Serena said again. Her hand crept to her mouth.

"That was Mrs. Mizuno," her mother said. "It's about Amy. Serena, I think you should sit down."

The light of morning was in the kitchen. A vase of fresh flowers sparkled on the counter. Outside, the warm earth tones of summer were creeping in and the sky lightened with the promise of a cloudless day. Serena sat, slowly, perching on a kitchen stool and waiting for her mother to speak.

"There was an accident, Serena," Ikuko said gently. "Your friend Amy has been in the hospital this past few days."

"No!" Serena jumped to her feet. "I have to go see her!"

"Serena." Ikuko did not raise her voice, but suddenly the strength of the mother who held a household together -- who held the family budget and raised the children -- was in it. "Serena, she doesn't want visitors. When she had recovered enough to talk she was very firm on that. No visitors."

"But...but why?" Serena found herself sitting again. Her eyes filled. She ached to go to her friend's side, to fold Amy within her arms and comfort and protect her. Why had Amy rejected her? Why couldn't she go to her friend now, when she was most needed?

"Serena, I don't know." Ikuko Tsukino met her daughter's gaze with the quiet compassion that was hers. She reached out and gently brushed a loose lock of her daughter's hair back from her face and tucked it into one of the two knots of hair at the top of her pigtails.

"People react differently to being in an accident," she said at last. "Amy might be blaming herself, thinking it was her fault she was injured, and she might be too embarrassed to see anyone. Or she might be trying to forget what happened, and she is afraid that seeing her friends might bring out the wrong memories."

"I don't understand," Serena said. But she did. In some deep place in her heart something resonated with what her mother had said. She could understand, however imperfectly, how Amy might be both afraid and ashamed. Afraid to remember the fear and pain, even more afraid to say or do anything that might bring it on again. And ashamed of her fear, ashamed that she had let herself be injured. Ashamed, even, that she might be letting her friends down.

For that moment Serena thought she could see things how Amy saw them. She wondered in that moment what it was like for Amy to always have to live up to her reputation and the expectations of others. To always have the right answer. To always be quiet, calm and collected. Serena wondered if Amy ever wanted to just let go for a while; to be silly and make mistakes and not have to be the girl every one kept expecting her to be.

Amy was her friend. Serena owed her a debt of honor, of duty; to lend all compassion, to stand by her, to help her to recover or to let her find her own path. Even if it meant staying away until Amy was ready to see her again.

"You don't have to go to school today," her mother said after a time. "I can phone your homeroom teacher."

"That's okay," Serena had made a small smile up at her mom. Luna was still asleep upstairs as she picked up her bag and left the house.

Now her head was down as she walked, deep in thought. She was almost to the school. Other students were walking near her. Some might have looked towards her, even waved at her, but she hardly noticed them.

The Negaverse was winning. Amy was out of the fight. Raye was missing. Something...something had changed in Tuxedo Mask. This last was a special pain to her. She had grew to depend on his last-minute rescues. But he hadn't been there when Raye needed him most. And he had failed Amy, too. She was in the hospital now, hurting and alone. Serena felt an almost personal sense of betrayal...a great sadness, as if some sacred bond had been thrown away.

And Grandfather. Despite the warm weather Serena shivered. Raye's grandfather had been turned into a demon, an oni, as big and red as the...

...delivery van hurtling right for her! The horn blared, brakes squealed and locked as it tried desperately to stop before it struck...!

Then a strong arm in tan school blouse scooped her up and carried her out of the way of the truck. It slid past so close the breeze pulled her pigtails after it.

It was a tall girl with a brown skirt and flashing green eyes and a long auburn ponytail. She carried Serena across the street and put her back on her feet safe on the other side.

"You should be more careful," the girl said over her shoulder as she walked away. Serena caught a glimpse of a rose earring. The girl was striding off, heading for the main entrance of Juuban Junior High.

THE SEARCH FOR THE MOON PRINCESS

Episode Fourteen : UFO Catchers

It wasn't a bad little school. It was a very good neighborhood. Lita had grown up in Azabu and understood the old money and new capital that operated in that hilly, eclectic neighborhood. Juuban Junior High had an educated, upper middle-class student body, and it wouldn't hurt to have that in her background when she was applying for the Cordon Bleu, the exclusive French cooking school.

Lita was monumentally unconcerned whether her own reputation had followed her. If they wanted to consider her a trouble-maker, like her last school had, that was a problem of their own making. What she cared about was completing her schooling, and polishing her skills, until the day came when she could make a try for that all-important audition.

"Hey, you!"

Lita turned just far enough to confirm that this was a teacher. Or perhaps a teaching assistant. She noticed with quiet amusement that she stood taller than this slight man in glasses.

"That's your old school's uniform!" the man said as if he was a lawyer and court was in session.

"They didn't have one in my size," Lita shrugged.

"And we don't allow perms!" the teacher shot again.

"This is natural," Lita said simply. He had nothing more to add, so she turned away and continued towards her class.

At lunch she fetched the bento she had made herself and found a seat towards one end of the courtyard. To her satisfaction the radishes had held up well, without discoloration, and the rice was properly aglutinous.

She was not surprised to find no-one approached, or invited her to share their table. She always seemed to be a little on the outside, looking in. It might be her size was off-putting. Lita had always been big. At that time in a young girl's life when the boys began to outgrow her, match her then surpass her in strength, Lita had kept growing. She had never became conscious of being the "weaker" sex. She had never in her life had to back down.

But being so big, and being so confident, made it hard to fit in with the usual crowd. She was living on her own, besides. She was buying groceries and paying bills when most girls her age had no more to worry about than slipping math grades and who was seen with whom. It made it harder to relate to them.

On the other side of a planter one interesting group was in earnest conversation. A girl with a soft country accent, a girl with glasses, and a girl with odd-looking balls of hair on her head from which came two pigtails longer than the girl herself.

Lita sighed wryly. They seemed so young to her. And all that intensity, all those furtive glances and dark looks and hissed words over what was probably no more earth-shaking than the news that their favorite boy-band had just broken up. A few words came drifting back to her. "...Negaverse...." "...Tuxedo Mask..." "...Maxfield Stanton..."

Strange stuff. Maybe it WAS a boy-band. They had some pretty funny names these days.

Then the red-haired girl with the country accent hunched her shoulders, her face crinkling up. In an instant the little blond with the impossible pigtails had an arm about her.

Lita felt the familiar pain deep in her chest. What I wouldn't give for friends like that, she thought. Friends that will always be there when you are hurting or in trouble. Friends that you cared about in return. Friends you could walk with, see a movie with, or just stay up late with to talk about the things that really mattered.

She closed her half-finished bento, stood, and went back into the school.

Lita admired the jacket in the store window. It was black leather, supple and thin enough for even this weather. The design was simple, classic and clean, without all sorts of extra snaps and buckles.

I could afford it, the girl thought. I've redone the tatami in the bedroom already and I bought that great little window heater towards next winter. I'm ahead on bills and my Money Market investments are doing well, anyway.

But what would I do with a leather jacket? She smiled. The day was bright and cheerful. She'd followed the giggling clusters of fellow students downhill away from the school and to the shops that clustered around the Metro station.

There was a nice little grocery here. That could be handy, although she liked the outdoor market near her apartment. A Zojoirushi department store filled a corner. Next door was a trendy record store with a five-for-one CD sale. And at the center of the block was the place she'd hear about; the Crown Arcade, two stories of shops and video game rooms and ice cream parlors.

Ice cream might be nice. A couple games on the new Sailor V machine would be better. Okay, Lita thought. Her feet were already taking her towards the arcade. How about both?

She walked right past the alley. The two young toughs had to hurry out after her. One coughed lightly to get her attention.

"Oh, you two," Lita said as she turned.

"I'm Kosuke," said the small, wiry boy. "This is Sanpai." He indicated the stout boy with the round face. The gesture was oddly respectful.

Lita smiled again. She hadn't gotten their names the first time they had met. It had been a good fight, though.

It had been when she was still at her old school. She'd found these two picking on a first-year student, trying to take his lunch money. "Mind if I interrupt?" She had said.

They did. They let the boy escape, though. Then they walked around her until they were between her and the entrance to the empty classroom. "You owe us double taxes," the big one said. "One for yourself, and one for that kid."

"Taxes?" Lita said brightly. She made no effort to get to the door, nor even to turn her head to follow the boy circling behind her.

"Your lunch money!" His voice slipped on that and it didn't come out in the threatening growl he obviously intended. Lita saw him cast a quick look for help towards the smaller boy. The girl wasn't following the script, not at all -- and she didn't seem the least bit frightened of them, either.

"I bring my own lunch," Lita said. She was enjoying this.

"You must get money from your parents!" the boy said, almost pleadingly.

"Nope." Lita shrugged. It didn't hurt, now, to think about her parents. Not that she would ever, ever get on an airplane now. But she had been living on her own for over two years now, alone except for the few visits by the trust fund executor.

"Then you don't have any money on you," the boy said. He seemed almost relieved. He WAS big, Lita judged. He might have been held back a grade, but even more than tall, he was large. Stocky would be the word. He must weigh twice what that kid they'd been terrorizing earlier weighed.

"Sure I do," Lita said. She wasn't about to bail them out here. "I'm carrying a little over two hundred thousand yen. I'm going to be looking at kitchen tools this afternoon after school," she explained.

"Ko-kun," the big boy said. "Can't we leave now?"

The small, dark-haired boy shook his head slowly. "You have to go through with it, San-san," he said. "It won't work if they are allowed to laugh at you."

That was when the fight started. Lita stepped right in. Fight them, don't fight them, it was all the same to her. But she did have a fondness for a good fight and this looked to be a doozy.

She went after the big one first. He was slow, and so late at throwing a punch she was able to step inside and wallop him one first. To her disappointment that was enough. He slid down the wall holding his face, a look on his face as if he was trying not to cry.

Lita was slow picking up the smaller boy and that was almost a big mistake. The kid with the black hair and dark eyes had a wiry strength in that small body. Lita was driven away from "San-san" in a brief but furious exchange of blows.

She grinned then, wiped the blood from her mouth with the back of her hand, then went after the kid with punches so fast they whistled. He slipped them, weaving like a mongoose, blocking as if he had psychic powers to see where to move next.

One punch got through and almost knocked him flat. He rabbit-punched her in the knee and Lita went down herself. Then she waded in again, swinging roundhouse swings in a gleeful abandon. It was almost a minute before she realized he was speaking to her.

"You win," he was saying. He was backing away, still bobbing and weaving, arms drifting with effortless beauty to re-direct her wild fists away from him. "You win."

"Huh?" Lita dropped her fists there. She hardly took notice that she was leaving herself wide open.

"You," the boy straightened up, "have great power, but you have no skill to moderate it. If we continue like this one of us will be seriously hurt."

He helped his friend to his feet then. Both straightened the black tunics of their school uniforms and tried to comb hair into order with their hands. The smaller boy had stopped at the door and turned around. "We will not bother the students of this school again," he had said. Then they had left her alone in the empty classroom.

"I go to Juuban now," Lita told the two boys now. "Their students are off-limits too."

"We don't do that anymore," Kosuke, the small dark-haired boy, said. "We've moved into Communications."

"Huh," Lita said. "You're bosozoku now?" That is what the teen motorcycle gangs were called. Sometimes they were just a friendly, if a little rowdy, kind of motorcycle club, but mostly they were gangs; trouble-makers, petty criminals and wanna-be yakuza. The Japanese Mafia recruited heavily from the bosozoku, and used them as runners.

"Actually, we're more like chimpira," Kosuke said.

Lita blushed. Chimpira were wanna-be bosozoku, young punks not cool enough to own a bike of their own. The name, thought, literally meant "little ***."

Oddly enough, Sanpai, the big one, blushed too. Lita looked at his round face and thought once again that he really did not have the meanness you needed to be a young tough, much less a yakuza.

"So what are you doing around here?" Lita asked.

"Keeping an eye out on things. We're working for, uh, someone." Sanpai spoke this time. "There's some strange stuff happening around here."

"Huh," said Lita again. No UFO's were landing in the parking lot, and she didn't see Godzilla either. She shrugged. "Well, then," she said. And she left.

Sanpai's eyes were bright with admiration as he watched the tall girl walk away. "Makoto," he said.

"You said it," his friend and protector answered. "Come on -- our duty is clear."

The new Sailor V game was tough all right. Lita had to go back twice for more tokens. She hammered at the buttons, tossing magic and kicks at the ever-growing line-up of monsters. She made the first power-up easily, then the second, but the third took her almost twenty minutes.

As she stepped back from the game she realized she had collected an audience. "She made the high score list!" someone said. "That's nothing," someone else said. "She's third down! I think she even beat Joe."

Sure enough, "JOE" was blinking on the list right below her proud "LITA." She glanced up at the top of the list, at a score so high it added a full digit over any other. "AMY," the display said.

She glanced at the other games, then headed across the mall to get her ice cream. When Lita came back inside there was a group clustered around the big UFO-catcher game near the counter.

A young man with baseball cap turned backwards was working the machine like an expert, slipping the claw past the low-value prizes and dropping charm bracelets, large candies, phone cards and other goodies into the hopper.

"Who's that?" Lita asked a kid near her. She licked her ice cream again, almost getting her nose in it.

"Joe. They call him 'Game Machine' because he's such a wizard."

"Huh," Lita said. She watched some more, still working on her ice cream. "He IS good."

At the sound of her voice Joe looked up. Their eyes met through the plexiglas sides of the machine. He smiled lightly. "The girl who got that high score on the Sailor V game." He gave her a nod of respect in turn.

Someone moved, then, and Lita was able to come right to the side of the UFO catcher. She watched Joe slip in another token. This time the crane swung towards the most difficult spot of all, the one furthest from the hopper. Tucked right against the plexiglas was a plush Sailor V doll in full costume; the orange and white sailor-suit with the signature red and blue bows.

Lita licked her ice cream again, watching Joe's face as he carefully lowered the claw. His eyes looked up and met hers, briefly. Then his attention was back on the claw.

It just barely grazed the Sailor V doll, not even quite over her. Joe concentrated harder, tapping the buttons with the lightest of caresses.

The claw swung ever so slightly, then began to lift. The closing jaws caught in the hem of the pleated skirt, pulled at it...then slipped. The crowd started to sigh -- then Joe frowned and something happened. Lita watched, ice cream forgotten as the doll seemed to rise up of its own volition. Just a centimeter, but it was enough. The claws closed gently on the doll and carried her away.

Lita finished her ice cream with a gulp. For some reason she was blushing furiously.

He reminds me so much of Ken, she thought. That same hair, those same eyes. That same gentle look he has, inviting you to trust and share. She missed Ken. But more than that, she missed having someone to share those silences with. She really wasn't the kind of girl who can be alone, not all the time anyway.

She must have been lost in thought, because when she looked up again Joe was gone. Without thinking about it Lita went outside after him.

Night had came already. A nearly full moon was low on the horizon. It wasn't exactly cold, but the warmth of the season wasn't lingering into the night, not here.

Joe was already down the street. Lita followed. She wasn't sure why she was following him. She'd like to talk to him. She'd like a chance to be his friend. But she was too shy to just yell at him across the street, or even run up to him. It was just too forward. So instead she followed, discreetly, still wondering why she was doing it.

He crossed under the expressway then cut down along the little canal that ran under it. Lita followed into the darkness, feeling the cool of the water. Small boats bobbed in the current, and a line tinkled like a prayer bell.

When he came up from the canal it was to cut through a deserted lot. There were a lot less lights on this side of the expressway. The red steel lace work of the Tokyo Tower brooded, slick in the moonlight. Lita wondered if he was going to head all the way to Tokyo Bay. Did he live in the flatlands, she wondered? Was there a family there, and did he have to work to support them? He was only a little older than she was.

Something was happening ahead.

Lita picked up the pace. "What do you want with me?" Joe's voice, raised now.

"It's not you I want," said another voice. Female, this one. A harsh voice, a sneering voice. "It's what you carry."

"Take them, take them all. I was just going to give them away anyhow. But you can't have the Sailor V doll."

"Silly boy," the woman said. Then Joe screamed in pain.

Lita started running.

Joe was kneeling on the ground. A strange woman was waving something at him, something that glowed.

"Leave him alone!" Lita yelled. She was still twenty meters away.

The woman barely glanced in her direction. The black crystal in her hands glowed brighter. The boy screamed hoarsely. Then, as Lita watched in sick horror, a hole opened in his chest. A small red crystal floated out.

Lita reached the woman -- and handed her a good one right on the snoot!

The woman staggered. One hand went up to her nose. It came back red with blood. "It's not...it can't...how could a HUMAN do this to me!"

That was when the guy in the jacket and tie blindsided Lita, knocking her off her feet and behind a high concrete abutment.

Energy slashed into the night just over their heads. The woman was screaming in pure frustration and rage. "How dare you lay hands on a Begaverse Geberal! You are deab, girl, deab! You hear me?"

"I think you broke her nose," Kosuke whispered. He was breathing hard.

"You're my kind of hero," Sanpai slid in after him. The space behind the abutment was getting crowded. "And who the hell are you?" he looked at the man with the tie.

"Inspector Kenjiro Yamamura. And you are?"

"Just leaving," the two chimpira said hurriedly. There was a flurry of rose-petal energy, then momentary quiet outside.

"No, you aren't," Yamamura said. "You stay put, kids." He jumped across the abutment and was gone.

"No," Lita said, scrambling to her feet. "No! I have to see about Joe!"

She was just in time to watch the transformation. Light grew in strange patterns like the runway lighting at a hip fashion show gone badly awry. Circles expanded, rays reaching into the evening sky, shivering light brightening the drab industrial buildings like a nest of flashbulbs. The light reached up, hit the boy, then fell away with a thunderclap of expanding dust.

"Game Machine" Joe was gone. In his place stood a boxy metal giant that reminded Lita irresistibly of the "Rock'em Sock'em Robots" game.

He saw the three young people. Panels sprung open on his body. Kosuke barely managed to yank the other two down beside him before two crude iron missiles crunched into the concrete. "SEGA!" the robot roared.

Lita rolled one way, the chimpira rolled the other. Distantly, she was aware her face was cut and bloody from the flying debris. Two more projectiles shot out, then two more. Lita covered her face and kept rolling.

Kosuke shouted something. SEGA turned towards him, letting fly with the last of his missiles. It gave Lita enough time to get back to her feet.

SEGA shot out a left. Lita saw it at the last instant and was able to twist clear. The right caught her in the act of throwing up a block; it shoved her arm back at her before the metal fingers closed on her wrist. In another moment Lita was dangling from the robot's fist.

Lita could see a new determination in Sanpai's eyes as the stocky young chimpira left his hiding place and charged SEGA. She saw him swing a chunk of pipe at the robot's back. Then it hurled Lita aside.

She felt something pop in her wrist as he did. She struck a roll-up door near its top before sliding down into the street. The breath was knocked out of her. Still, she levered herself up with her good arm. "No!" she gasped. "Don't hurt him!"

Kosuke and Sanpai drew back. SEGA swiveled, then moved towards Lita again. She pulled herself slowly to her feet.

"I don't want to fight you!" Lita yelled. "But I will if I have to!"

SEGA struck out. The metal fist hit a stand-pipe, severing it out ground level. Water geysered out over the both of them.

"Joe! Joe! If there is anything of you in there, stop this now!" Lita shouted.

The robot was now just an arm's length away. It looked at Lita with unblinking yellow eyes. Lita could see electrical sparks dancing inside the metal shell. The water dripped steadily from the broken pipe. She wondered how much the water had damaged it.

A minute passed. Then the robot swiveled about and began to walk away. Lita fell to her knees.

She wondered if it had simply calculated the damage it had suffered, and decided it was not logical to continue the fight. Or if there truly was still something of Joe's soul in that metal shell, and in that last moment it was unable to bring more hurt to her.

SEGA had just reached the edge of shadow at the next street corner when a dazzling red light came out of the darkness.

"Yamamura?" Lita whispered.

The light touched the robot. An actinic fireball bloomed, blinding her for a moment. When she could see again, SEGA was gone. There was nothing left but glowing debris.

Lita was sobbing softly, still kneeling, as Sanpai came up. He draped a leather jacket over her shoulders. She shivered and clutched it closer around her soaking-wet clothes. Kosuke touched her good hand, then placed a strange red crystal in her palm. "To remember him," he said softly.

Then they were gone, and the girl was alone in the cold night.

NEXT: The Godfather wants a word with Lita. Yamamura has questions about his new partner. And then there's that spooky genius in the wheelchair... Be there to find out if "The Truth is Out There."

Next Episode
Previous Episode
Fiction
Index