Venus' Flame

Nine: Enemy's Identity

Both the women headed upward in the elevator to go to the top floor of the building, which was where their friend Ami was waiting for them. When they made it up to the top, their heels ceased their noise.

Minako gazed into the sky above her. Well, at least through a window. Her glistening blue eyes met the warmly observant purple pair of the Hikawa Shrine's head priestess. Everything about the priestess was perfect, her warm and well cared for skin, her violet hair and violet eyes. Even her always calm demeanour was something that the teen protecting the planet of Venus admired.

Rei tugged the girl's hand, ushering her towards the door of the apartment. It felt unusually cold. Equally as unusual was the faint trill of voices that she could hear from outside the room. They all seemed cheerful. But how? Was there not an enemy on the loose across Tokyo, a threat of which none of them could pin down? Wasn't there something important to focus on?

Her blonde girlfriend tugged back at her arm. "AMI-CHAN!!" She called out at the top of her lungs, eyes glued to the pale blue curtains. "Won't you let us in?! Ami-chan, please let us in! Ami-chan!" As she grew more impatient, the female's voice began to rake on more of a sing-song tone. "AMI-CHAN?! Won't you please let us in?"

The Shinto priestess struggled to keep in a sigh. "You'll be called on for trespassing if you don't lower your voice," she murmured, trying to calm the other female down, if only by a smidgen.

"Wench," the blonde muttered. "Sometimes you really are no fun, Reiko." Minako pouted, trying to some degree to convince her girlfriend that she needed to use this amount of vocal volume to attract her friend's attention.

"Ugh, I don't know what to do with you sometimes." Rei put her head into her hands and waited with Minako at the door to Ami's small condo.

Eventually, a brunette threw the door open and an odango haired blonde eagerly greeted them at the door, talking at lightning speed as they made their way into the condo. Both girls glanced around the place, realising just how much it had changed since the last time they had come there, which was back when they were all fighting the Dark Kingdom as fourteen year old middle schoolers, having no clue what the future would hold for them.

Rei's eyes met with an ofuda that had been taped to a wall in some kind of feeble attempt to keep evil spirits away. She chuckled, knowing that her studious friend was clearly not a very spiritual person. Smiling for what seemed like the first time in ages, she broke her serious demeanour and actually paid attention to what Usagi was telling her.

There was something about the girl's unwavering peppiness and enthusiasm that made them grow suspicious. Even though Usagi was lively like this on a semi-regular basis, she usually ran out of things to talk about after a while. Was she too afraid? Did she want to distract them from their worries, or was there something more... sinister going on with her?

Their eyes met with the deep blue ones of their other, more studious friend for a split second. Makoto invited them to sit down to a meal that she had prepared, much to Ami's somewhat aggressive disagreement. She always wanted them to stay serious about their duties, even in the times of peace that they occasionally shared from time to time. A sigh of relief was heard from the brunette as they began to eat.

Ami cleared her throat first, wanting to start off the meeting on a serious note. "So, what do we know about this enemy?" she asked, fixing up her glasses.

Makoto gave a sigh of frustration, "Not a lot, and it really bothers me!" She pounded her left fist on the table in aggravation. Everything on the table made a loud noise which caused both Minako and Usagi to jump up in fear. "After all, we haven't felt this much uncertainty about an enemy since Galaxia, and look how that turned out! We all died and Usagi had to save us! We put such a burden on her that day, and I don't want that to happen again."

"Please calm down, Mako-chan," Ami directed before nodding. "Galaxia was a rare exception anyhow, so we shouldn't be beating ourselves up about it. We couldn't control what happened that day. She had launched a full scale assault on us before we had even caught on to the fact that there was a battle to fight." Ami paused to sip some of the lemonade that Makoto had placed out for her. "What I really want is to pin down this enemy's identity. What do we know so far?"

"Mako-chan already answered that from her point of view, but Reiko and I know just a touch more about this situation," Minako answered the studious protector of Mercury's question. She pursed her lips for a second before starting again. "Someone sends out a moth which possesses a human and turns them into an atavistic monster. I'm not exactly sure who sends them out, but I do know one thing: this person does not care for others. They have no heart."

"I wonder why we haven't been chosen as targets yet?" Rei mused aloud, glancing down at the food below her.

"That's interesting to note," Luna piped up from the kitchen bench. Everyone swivelled their heads to look at her. "They should have realised by now that you harbour Sailor Crystals. Honestly, I don't know why. Maybe they are playing the cruel game of waiting."

"That is quite the interesting opinion, Luna," Minako nodded in acknowledgement. Blue eyes distractedly dove down to a blueberry flavoured sponge cake. "Honestly, what's the issue with their cruel game? It shouldn't come to all this!"

There was a loud ping from the east of the room, and a blonde head quickly darted downward. "Haruka-san! Michiru-san!" Usagi shrieked out, answering the call from the communicator. "Yes, yes! We'll be there right away!"

"Usagi-chan, what is it?" Ami wondered aloud.

"There's trouble down at Juban Elementary! In short, Chibi-Usa-chan, Setsuna-san and Hotaru-chan are in big danger!" She told them. "We need to get there right away to make sure nobody gets hurt!"

"Read loud and clear, Usagi-chan!" Minako announced. "Everyone, let's transform quickly!"

"Understood! Mercury Crystal Power, Make Up!"

"Jupiter Crystal Power, Make Up!"

"Mars Crystal Power, Make Up!"

"Venus Crystal Power, Make Up!"

"Silver Moon Crystal Power, Make Up!"