Part Two: Reconstruction

Chapter Six

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"Hotaru-chan..."

A faint scent of cherry blossoms, mingled with a heady scent she couldn't quite identify.

"My Hotaru-chan..."

The warmth of a body pressed against her own.

"My sweet Hotaru-chan..."

The soft touch of a silk-covered hand on her bare breast...

...and bright ruby eyes staring into her own lovingly, framed by strawberry locks...

"KYAAAAAA!!" Hotaru shot bolt upright in bed, sweating profusely. Her heart hammered in her chest, and she felt the heat rushing to her face as the dream echoed through her mind.

The door suddenly burst open, admitting Shingo, who had his naginata out and was wildly searching for threats. Mimas dropped from the ceiling as well, flashing wildly. "Hotaru-chan!" Shingo shouted. "What's wrong?"

Hotaru felt her flush deepening, and drew the bedsheets tighter around herself. "No-nothing, Shingo. I j...I just had a weird dream."

Her boyfriend relaxed a bit, then frowned. "What kind of a weird dream? Is it something we need to tell the others about?"

Impossibly, Hotaru's face became even redder. "N-NO!" she blurted out. "No...no, it was nothing. Just a regular, ordinary weird dream. I'm sorry I worried you."

Shingo smiled as his Grave Lance disappeared. "I'm just glad you're okay, Hotaru-chan. Can you go back to sleep?"

The dark-haired teen wiped at her brow with the back of her hand. "No...I don't think so. But I could really use a shower." *A nice COLD shower...*

Kaori awoke to discover she wasn't alone in the room. A white-haired, bespectacled man sat in a chair near her bed, his gaze half on her, and half far away; he seemed to be seeing something more than just her. "Konnichiwa," she said.

He snapped out of his trance, and stood, bowing to her. "Konnichiwa," he replied. "I'm sorry to intrude like this."

"It's alright," she assured him. "I don't believe we've met...?"

"Tomoe Souichi," he replied. "And you're Kaori-san, right?"

"Hai," she replied, sitting up and collecting the sheets around herself. "So," she began, "is there something particular you wanted, or do you just like to stare at women in hospital beds?" A merry sparkle in her eyes told him her comment was made in jest.

The white-haired man smiled. "Oh, I just volunteered to keep an eye on you for Lady Mercury for a bit, since I don't have anything better to do and she's a bit busy creating Crystal Points and drawing up plans for the reconstruction."

"So the Sailor Senshi are rebuilding the city?" the redhead asked.

"Hai. They made a deal with the Japanese government...Japan gave Juuban to the Senshi, but the Senshi are fully responsible for rebuilding."

"Sou," Kaori said. "I picked an interesting week to come out of my coma, didn't I?" she asked with a smirk.

Tomoe chuckled. "You did indeed." A muted look crept into his eyes; his mirth didn't extend beneath the surface. "Oh...I almost forgot." He paused. "Her Majesty would like to meet you as soon as you feel up to it."

"Her Majesty?"

"Neo-Queen Serenity, the queen of the Senshi."

"Ah." Kaori pushed herself off the bed and stood. After a moment to get her bearings, she nodded to the white-haired man. "I'm ready, Kyouju."

Tomoe blinked.

Kaori paused, eyes widening. "I'm sorry," she said. "I'm not sure why I called you that."

"It's...it's okay," he replied. "It just so happens I am a professor." With a smile that, again, did not quite touch his eyes, he offered her his arm. "Shall we go then, Kaori-kun?"

"Hai, Kyouju." As they walked, the redhead's mind rang with echoes of his voice addressing her.

    *Kaori-kun*
        *Kaori-kun*
            *Kaori-kun*
                *Kaorinaito-kun*

                          *...hai, Kyouju...*

A number of buses had pulled to the edge of the relief camps in the ruined Juuban district. A JSDF captain and two police lieutenants walked along lines of assembled civilians, gathering everyone together to listen to an announcement.

"Minna-san," the captain said through a megaphone once everyone had been rounded up, "As a result of last night's declaration, this area is no longer territory of the nation of Japan. We've been authorized by the government and permitted by the leadership of Crystal Tokyo to come this morning to provide transport for everyone still remaining.

"In a moment, I'll ask you to form two lines." He motioned to the two policemen, who each stood near the front of a bus. "For those of you who wish to relocate within Japan, please join that line to board the bus to a temporary shelter in Itabashi-ku. The second line is for those who want to stay and assist with the rebuilding effort in Crystal Tokyo; a bus will take you to the Crystal Palace, where the Sailor Senshi will hold an orientation later this morning. Any who think they may desire to become subjects of Crystal Tokyo should attend the orientation; if you decide to remain Japanese citizens, another bus will be provided later to return you to Japanese soil."

As the lieutenants began calling for lines to form, and people began moving toward the buses, two people turned to one another. "Well?" the woman asked.

"You need to ask?" her husband replied.

"I thought you said you couldn't get used to it, though," she pointed out.

He shrugged. "We don't have much of a choice now, do we? She's far more important to us than anything that's out there."

"Yes, you're right, of course." With that settled, the Ainos joined the line by the bus for the Palace.

As the professor escorted Kaori into the throne room, they caught the tail end of Jupiter and Uranus telling of their bizarre encounter the previous night.

"...so the minion just...fell over and died?" Mars asked.

"Yeah. Strangest thing I ever saw. And then the crazy girl started crying, ranted a bit, then took off." Jupiter shrugged. "Reminded me a lot of the way Usagi and Minako used to act...err, apologies, Serenity-sama."

The Queen laughed softly, though her left eyebrow twitched slightly. "So...you don't believe this...Sailor XL, did you say?...will be any significant threat?"

"Not even close," Uranus snorted. Then, she turned, saw the redhead behind her, and hissed between clenched teeth.

Kaori was quick to pick up on the tension level as her presence was noticed. Sailor Uranus looked like she was ready to leap upon her and tear her throat out. Many of the Senshi looked concerned. Saturn, the apparent youngest of the Senshi, looked somewhat frightened, and the young man standing beside her frowned, eyes cold and hard.

The Queen stood from her throne, and inclined her head. "Kaori-san," she greeted.

The redhead bowed. "You're Neo-Queen Serenity-sama?" she asked.

"Hai." Seating herself again, the young queen looked Kaori over with her gentle, watery blue eyes. "Are you well, Kaori-san? We heard from Sailor Mercury that you were recently in a coma, and had been for quite some time."

"I'm feeling fine, Your Majesty," Kaori replied. "If a bit confused."

"That's to be expected," Serenity said sympathetically. "Memory loss can be quite disorienting." She went silent for a moment, and the crystal brooch on her chest glowed a bit more intently. Something in that light made part of Kaori's mind cringe, while another part of her wanted to embrace that shine...

"Hmm," the young queen frowned. "I apologize, Kaori-san. I had hoped to use the Ginzuishou to heal your memory, but...it appears that in this instance, nature must take its course. I do wish I could be more helpful to you."

"It's alright, Your Majesty," the redhead said. "I...I'm sure I'll remember sooner or later." Something flashed in her eyes at that moment.

"Have you remembered anything at all?" the Queen asked.

"Not much beyond my name," Kaori replied, shaking her head. "I've had...some dreams," she admitted. "They're not particularly nice. I...I've dreamed about falling off a tower. And, I think I dreamed about having done some terrible things...I woke up in a cold sweat when I had that dream." She shuddered. "Some people also seem familiar. The Senshi, for example...something feels familiar about many of you. Even Tomoe-sensei...seems familiar, though I'm not sure why." She paused. "Did I...did I know any of you?"

There was an uncomfortable silence.

"I see," the redhead replied. "So the only one here who doesn't know who I really am...is me."

"I'm afraid this is the truth," Serenity admitted.

"Then please...tell me," Kaori implored. "I need to know who I am."

The Queen looked around at the Senshi, who looked at each other, at the others in the room, and back at her. "Kaori-san," Serenity began, "you have to understand that, quite honestly, nobody knows much about you at all."

"Anything you know, I want to know."

Serenity sighed. "This may be hard for you to hear."

"I...I wasn't a very nice person, was I?" Kaori asked.

"No...no, you weren't," the Queen admitted. "When we knew you before, you were working for beings who wanted to destroy all life on Earth. You hated humans, and you caused a lot of suffering."

Kaori's eyes widened. "I...I see. And...I fought against you, and you defeated me."

Serenity nodded. "Your dream about falling off a tower...is the way you died the first time, during our battle against the Death Busters. You fell to your death, or so we thought, from Tokyo Tower."

"Sou..." The redhead frowned. "First time?"

The Queen grimaced. "You returned some time later. The second time...nobody ever expected to see you again. You were betrayed by the evil you served, and destroyed."

"But I survived..."

"Tomoe-sensei, who was also coerced into the service of the Death Busters, is the one who knows the most about you. When we first learned you were alive, he said you once told him that you are immortal."

"Immortal...so that's why I'm still alive," Kaori said, head bowed.

"Hai."

For a long time, the redhead was silent. At length, she glanced up at the young queen. "My name..."

"When you were our enemy, you called yourself Kaolinite."

*Kaorinaito-kun...*

Kaori shuddered. "I don't like that name. I want to continue to be Kaori."

"As you wish, Kaori-san." Serenity paused. "There...will be times when you may begin to remember, or when you have difficulty with what you have learned today. Please...if you ever wish someone to speak with, don't hesitate to seek me out, or any of the Senshi, or Tomoe-sensei. When we learned how different you are now from how you were before, we all hoped that you would be able to live a peaceful life, and—"

"And not harm any more innocent people?" Kaori asked bluntly. "I...thank you. I...I don't think I want to hurt anyone. No, I'm sure I don't." She sighed. "I'll need some time to rest and think."

"Yes, of course."

As she turned to leave, with the professor escorting her, she paused briefly. "Your Majesty, there is one other thing. A...fragment of a dream."

"Hai?"

"I..." Kaori frowned. "I'm not sure if it means anything, if it's a memory...I think I had a sister once. A very long time ago. If she still lives...well, if she even exists, or is just a dream..." With a sigh, she shook her head. "I don't even know."

"Anything that can help you remember might be important," Serenity encouraged.

"Perhaps." Kaori shrugged. "In any case, it's possible I once had a sister. I believe...I believe her name was...Beryl." With that, she motioned to her escort, and they left the throne room.

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

An interesting crowd filed off the buses that parked at the base of the palace steps.

The JSDF had not anticipated actually needing more than one bus to transport those who would go to the Crystal Palace; certainly nobody had seriously considered that any large number of people might want to stay in the ruined city-state and answer to the whims of an enigmatic group of young women.

The majority of the people who had made the journey to the heart of Juuban were young themselves, although a few older people dotted the crowd. The soldiers had been amazed when people from outside Juuban had shown up to board the buses, claiming to have known somehow that they needed to be at the palace now. They now stood around waiting, looking up at the palace, looking around at each other, and murmuring excitedly among themselves.

"Such a beautiful place inspires me..."

"They say the Senshi Queen looks like an angel."

"Has God truly sent an angel to this place...?"

"My destiny...the future I see for myself is here."

"Nyao."

"I want to draw the Senshi Queen's portrait."

"I'm not sure why I came here, but I feel drawn to this place."

"If it is God's will, I will do His work here, under the watch of His angel."

"Our destiny is what we make of it...and yet, sometimes fate brings us the thing we want the most."

"Nyao."

"...is it just me, or is that the ugliest cat in the entire world?"

"It's a very ugly cat."

"All creatures under God are beautiful. ...though I admit I can't honestly see the beauty here."

"This ugly cat may have a beautiful destiny."

"Nyao."

A few moments later, a teenager in a purple uniform strode down the Palace steps toward the crowd. "Ohayou, minna-san," he greeted. "I'm Commander Titanite of the Crystal Palace Royal Guard. The orientation you all came for will begin soon, but before that, we'd like to welcome you with a bit of refreshment. Please follow me to the palace commissary; the orientation will begin there in a short while."

Mercury, brows knit, studied the display on her computer and the map she was creating on a crystal pad. She'd spent most of the morning calculating the optimum geographical distribution for Crystal Points, and creating a basic city plan based on that distribution.

Between the Mercury Computer and her own formidable intelligence, it wasn't especially difficult work. Still, it required a great deal of concentration...she wanted to make sure no mistakes were made, that none of her calculations were off to more than one-tenth of one percent, so that the construction of Crystal Tokyo would proceed as swiftly as possible.

A musical chime sounded; Mercury absently called for the door to open. Luna walked in and nodded to her. "We're ready to begin the orientation, Lady Mercury."

The blue-haired Senshi sighed. "I don't suppose you can do it without me, Luna? I'm a bit busy trying to finish this distribution map..."

"Knowing you, that map won't take too much more of your time, and we're not starting the actual construction work until tomorrow at the earliest anyway. Besides, you're the best suited to this, other than Pluto, and...well..."

"She's not as much of a people person as I am, is that it?"

"As you say, Lady Mercury."

With one last sigh of mock reluctance, Sailor Mercury stood and stretched. "I could use a break," she admitted. "My calculations were starting to look like number spaghetti."

The advisor giggled.

Many of the assembled guests were rather surprised at how informal and sociable things were inside the palace. While the beauty and majesty of everything around them was no less awe-inspiring from the inside than it was from the outside, the ambience in the commissary was much lighter than expected.

This was largely in part due to the very friendly and personable hospitality of Kino Makoto and Tsukino Ikuko, who had plied the group with a delicious brunch and were moving among the outsiders, chatting amicably with everyone. The guests had also begun to mingle among themselves, and the atmosphere of the orientation was less that of a political function and more that of a block party, with the only thing missing being music.

"You're hovering rather nervously," a dark-haired man of about eighteen commented to the purple-clad boy who had earlier identified himself as Titanite.

"Hmm? Oh...don't mind me. My job is to hover nervously." Titanite laughed, running a hand through his messy brown hair.

The older boy smiled. "You're worried about something that has nothing to do with this bunch, aren't you?" he asked.

The young guardsman sighed. "A little. It's nothing, really. Just...my girlfriend had a bad dream last night, and I just don't like to see her upset by anything. I worry about her."

"Ahh." The older boy nodded. "You must really love her, to worry that much about her." For a moment, he was silent. "It's almost time."

"Hmm?"

"It won't be long until they start." The boy smiled. "I love someone too, though I haven't seen her in a long time and have difficulty remembering her."

"Really?" Titanite asked. "An old girlfriend?"

"Not exactly. Though I admit, I'm looking forward to meeting her again very much. And hoping..." He paused. "Ah, sorry about that. I didn't mean to ramble. By the way, my name is Urawa Ryo."

The door to the commissary opened just then, and three women walked in, two of whom were Sailor Senshi.

Titanite did not miss the way Ryo's breath caught in his throat.

"It's remarkable, how quickly and easily they do that."

Several volunteers were watching as Saturn, Titanite, and Uranus quickly and methodically sliced open the rusted hulls of a row of derelict buses that had been towed in from a Tokyo salvage yard. As they completed work on each section, Jupiter and a crew of burly workmen stripped down the mechanical parts and interiors of the vehicles, leaving only perfectly split, gutted shells.

It had come as something of a surprise to the citizens of Crystal Tokyo when they learned that their new housing would be constructed from old buses and portable worksheds. They had been assured that within six months, the new structures would be mutable into more aesthetically pleasing architecture, but the priority was function over style. "How functional is living on an old bus?" one skeptical man had wondered.

Then the crowds had seen the Senshi splitting open buses and riveting their hulls together to form more or less solid enclosures. Between these, the portables, and some rapid-fire carnival-style construction by helpful volunteers, a small city was forming around the Crystal Palace. Granted, it was a rather haphazard and unattractive city, but the Juuban refugees and new arrivals welcomed anything that signified a return of life to the dead area.

The group of Senshi stepped back as workers began assembling the dissected busses into another building, which was slid into place with help from Titanite (who had discovered his gravity powers worked in reverse as well), before being anchored to a mostly intact foundation where a convenience store had once stood.

Sailor Mercury appeared in the middle of the work group, startling several onlookers, who were still not used to the sight of Senshi appearing out of thin air. "Was that the last one?"

Uranus nodded. "Yeah. Everything's just like you wanted it."

The blue-haired Senshi looked over the rusted metal construct, and nodded. "Alright. Start getting the people to move out to the edge of the work zone. I've got six more Points to set, and once I'm done, I'll activate."

"Man, I can't believe it's activation day already," Titanite commented. "These two weeks have just flown by."

Saturn smiled. "Yeah. These people will be happy to have a real place to stay, I think." She then turned to the crowds. "Everyone, attention please! Sailor Mercury needs us all to clear out for a bit. We're about to commence activation of the Inner District in a few minutes." There were some murmurs from the crowd. "If everything goes according to plan, everyone will have a new home before nightfall, and you might just see something really amazing too!"

Mercury laughed softly. "Wish me luck, guys." She set a Point into the ground at the corner of the newly-constructed bus shack, then teleported away.

"Commencing activation!"

It began as nothing more than a sudden pulse of light from the Crystal Palace. The grand crystal spire, already shining brightly in the afternoon sun, began to glow silver-white, and the waning day became brighter and sharper.

Then, the light spread...and the people gasped.

Rusted shacks made of old buses, aluminum portable buildings, small barns, large circus tents, and carnival booths and attraction houses began to shimmer with silver light as the dozens of crystal rods wedged into the ground picked up the light from the Palace and spread it, like ripples spreading on water. Everything the light touched slowly began to transform into pure, shining crystal.

"Forty percent surplus expended. Completion...thirty-seven percent."

In some places, the transformation seemed to halt, even to reverse, before a second surge of light washed forth, restarting the process and reinforcing the existing crystal. The very ground became smooth and glassy.

"Fifty-seven percent surplus expended. Secondary ripple effect confirmed. Completion, sixty-five percent."

Everything began to shine so brightly it hurt to look at. The crowds on the outskirts of the district averted their gazes, save for those who were using smoked glass filters to continue to observe the change. The very air hummed with the power from the Crystal Palace, and a sense of peace and tranquility began to wash over the area.

"Seventy-four percent surplus expended. Completion, one hundred percent. First District at three percent efficiency and rising." Mercury sighed audibly, and smiled. "Activation successful."

The citizens of Crystal Tokyo rejoiced and swarmed into the streets of their shining new city.

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