Miracle Romance - A Sailor Moon Fanfiction

Chapter 9

"It just doesn't make sense," Mamoru said to Rei and Usagi.

"I believe the mom," Usagi said. She texted away on her phone as Yuriko's mother continued to wail on the sidewalk.

"Who are you texting?" Mamoru asked.

"Ami," she said. "To, uh... see if she has any ideas about the bus. She's so smart, you know. Maybe she knows of some space thing that would explain all this. You know, like some calculus or something."

*Trouble at Hikawa Shrine,* she texted instead. *Come blue.* She hoped Ami would understand that meant transformed, but didn't want to type that out... partly because she didn't want Mamoru asking questions if he saw the words, partly because it still all felt so surreal...

And just how was she supposed to transform? Rei and Mamoru were distracted with comforting Yuriko's mother, but Usagi couldn't just run away and disappear... Mamoru would worry too much.

Luna stared at her from the bus stop, no doubt wondering what was taking her so long to separate from the group to become Sailor Moon.

But all rational thought left her when Mamoru screamed.

Usagi spun on her heels to find him hunched over with his forehead on the ground and gripping his hip while he moaned in agony. Even Yuriko's mother stopped crying about her daughter and watched him wide-eyed in horror while backing away.

"Mamo-chan!" she cried, lunging for him. But before she could touch his shoulder, the air around him sparked and crackled and he was covered in black lightning.

"That's right, give me your power!" someone cried from above them.

A man with short blonde hair and a gray uniform cackled in the air. "You didn't sell nearly enough charms today, girl!" he chided to Rei. "But that's fine, this man has more than enough energy to make up for it."

The charm? Mamoru must have put the cursed thing in the pocket he was now gripping as he screamed. "What did you do to him!" she cried at Rei.

But if Rei heard her, she didn't show it. She was too busy pushing Yuriko's mother away. "Get out of here! Run!" she yelled, shepherding the woman down a nearby alley.

Mamoru lay panting on the ground, flinching from the lightning that still streaked across his body every few seconds.

Usagi had to transform, but it was still unsafe to do so in front of Rei and the new enemy.

She ran in the opposite direction Rei had gone with the mother. As soon as she rounded a corner, she transformed.

Sailor Moon peeked around the building. Luna watched Rei like a hawk. No doubt she was working with the blonde that now stood over Mamoru's body. He was barely breathing.

Sailor Moon panted, trying to keep her tears in check. Some were falling—there was nothing she could do to stop them all—but she wasn't going to sob. She wasn't going to make a scene. She was going to be brave, and she was going to save her Mamo. She swiped her glove across her eyes, drying the tears before jumping back out onto the street.

"Stop right there!" she commanded, though her voice cracked on "stop." "How dare you do... whatever you're doing to him!"

The blonde man laughed as he stood with Mamoru over his shoulder. "I'm stealing energy, and this man is chock full of it, so I'll be keeping him." A dark spot appeared in the air and swirled in small circles while getting bigger and bigger. Was that the portal Yuriko's mother saw the bus disappear into?!

The blonde kicked off the ground and levitated toward the black hole with Mamoru in his hold.

"I'll never let you!" she cried, running after him.