Setsuna Meioh, aka Sailor Pluto, Guardian of the Time Gates, and many other associated titles, was an enigma to even her closest friends. Anyone who met her would describe her as cold as pack ice, and even the Outer Sailor Senshi thought that she could be ruthless when it came to preserving the timeline. While this was true, only two or three people had ever really tried to break through the armour that surrounded her, and get to the real Setsuna.
The truth was, Setsuna Meioh was lonely, terribly lonely. As the last survivor of the Silver Millennium, and nearly immortal due to her extended vigils with the Gates of Time, the duty that Queen Serenity had given her wore down on her psyche. Indeed, many were the time when she'd considered packing in the job and finding a successor; particularly after a journey into Italy in 1943, where to eliminate an indirect threat to the timeline, she'd had to... remove an honourable man from existence. She could still see the fear in the eyes of that Canadian officer , as her Dead Scream annihilated first the pistol in his hand, then his arm, and then the rest of him, leaving only a pair of smoking boots and a half-melted cap badge.
Setsuna looked out over the timelines. She knew the Ancient Enemy would rise again soon, and the Senshi would be re-awakened, but for now, everything was proceeding smoothly. In fact, she decided, it was time she had a much overdue holiday. Ordering the gates to locate somewhere she could go to unwind, she soon located a "Hinata Lodge" in Kanagawa Prefecture.
'A hot springs resort.... Perfect.' she decided. She picked up the telephone to make a reservation.
=====================================================
Setsuna sat in the park, stretching out her legs as she watched three children play in the nearby sandbox. One of them, a little girl with brown hair and deep soulful eyes was helping a boy make a sandcastle while a toddler played with the older girls' Liddo-kun doll.
"Hey, Kei-kun?" The girl asked the boy as they finished smoothing out the dome of the castle. "Did you know that if two people who love each other go to Tokyo University together, they'll live happily ever after?"
Setsuna stiffened in shock. The air, at least to her rarefied senses, was becoming heavy with Chaos Magic, and it was centred over the three children in the sandbox. She instinctively reached for her Henshin Rod, in case something terrible occurred.
Unaware of this, the children continued to play in the sandbox, before the brown-haired girl leaned over and impulsively kissed 'Kei-kun' on the cheek, making him blush. "When we grow up, let's go to Tokyo University together, 'kay?" she smiled. 'Kei-kun' blinked, but then nodded. The little toddler perked up then and began to say "Toudai!" in a cheery way.
Setsuna could only watch in dismay, as the Chaos Magic struck the two older children, affecting them in only who knew what ways. She looked up as she saw the parents of the two girls, and the boys' grandmother, arrive to pick them up.
"Naru! Mutsumi! Keitaro!" the respective sets of adults called. The young boy, whose name was Keitaro Urashima, stood up and waved to his grandmother. "I gotta go now Mu-chan, Na-chan..." he said sadly, before brightening. "But we can come and play here tomorrow, right?"
The girl with dark brown hair, Mutsumi Otohime, smiled and nodded. "Of course, Kei-kun..."
"Toudai! Toudai!" the last of the group, Naru Narusegawa, giggled in agreement.
=====================================================
It was a deeply troubled Setsuna Meioh who returned to the Gates of Time now. She paced backwards and forwards in front of the Gate for a long time, before turning to face the computer system that was integrated into it. Setting at the worktop, she began to create files for all three of those children. She hated when this occured, but the protocols for these occasions was absolute: Anyone exposed to Chaos Energy, no matter how small, had to be filed, investigated, and then either removed from the timeline entirely, or neutralised in some other way. Thankfully for her, the Tokyo University promise that Keitaro and Mutsumi had entered into had bled the worst of the Chaos Magic away. Nonetheless, they would both lead chaotic lives for as long as they lived... Needless to say, in that moment, Setsuna hated her job more than she ever had. Setting the computer to scan the timelines, with particular parameters to see what effect those three children would have, she went to find something to drink. The binge that she went on was truly epic.
=====================================================
Time passed; an instant, or an age. It was all the same at the Gates of Time. Setsuna Meioh looked at her files once again, wanting to make sure that everything would be in readiness for when she would step into her role as Advisor to the reborn Princess Serenity. She navigated to the Long Term Storage Files, in which she kept the most important documents: plans for Crystal Tokyo, archival information about the Senshi's past lives, and last but not least, the files of Keitaro Urashima and Mutsumi Otohime. Reading over them was a gruelling task. Privately, Setsuna was amazed that the two of them had become fundamentally good people, given the sheer hell that they'd both been put through.
Keitaro Urashima had been cursed that day long ago by a cocktail of myopia, bad luck, and low-grade dyspraxia. Aside from only his adopted sister Kanako (a somewhat left-handed blessing of the Chaos Magic had left him with a kind nature, and a dogged determination that could win people over, not too mention an almost comical level of indestructibility), no girl had ever been nice to him, and his academic scores had ever so slowly sank down, down, down... And it got worse.
Mutsumi Otohime had grown to be a kind, loving, and gentle woman, but was as fragile as a snowflake, and had once been described unkindly (though not without an element of truth) as being 'Mad as a Hatter'. Indeed, Setsuna had once watched Mutsumi for a whole day, and had been shocked by the amount of chaos that one woman had created. In the space of doing an hours' shopping, she'd fainted once, requiring a paramedic unit to revive her; caused a major traffic accident after dazedly wandering across a road; caused a police officer, a priest, and a shop assistant to have nervous breakdowns; and bought out an entire greengrocers' shop of watermelon. And that was just on one day!
Setsuna shook a little as she recalled that day. Yes, she reflected, those two were dangerous, mostly to themselves She ruminated upon this. All of a sudden, an epiphany struck her. Walking back over to the gates, she entered a series of equations into the device, and watched the numbers roll over with increasing interest.
It was as she'd suspected. For some time now she'd wondered why the two of them were effected by that day. Now she knew. Both of them had traces of Silver Millennium energy in their bodies. Most interestingly, though, was that they seemed to be able to unconsciously amplify the ambient energies in their surroundings.
"Of course... That's why they were exposed... Whoever did it wanted a natural chaos generator to mask their actions..." she considered. Focussing on Keitaro once again, she caught him on the telephone, speaking to his grandmother. Setsuna knew how the timeline was to play out from here; Keitaro would go to Hinata, infuriate most of the residents of the lodge-turned-dorm, but eventually bring them around. But, unfortunately, he'd mix up who his 'Promise Girl' was, and end up with a thoroughly unsuitable girl. To be fair, Naru Narusegawa was a well-meaning girl, but she was too insecure, and violent for a gentle, if clumsy, soul like Keitaro.
Setsuna glanced at the tracer on Mutsumi Otohime, and decided. She began to operate the Timegates.
=====================================================
Keitaro Urashima sighed discontentedly as he mooched along the street in Azabu Juuban. He'd failed his entrance exam to Tokyo U for the second year in a row, and his parents had kicked him out after they tried to persuade him to lower his sights.
"I wish they'd let me explain why, instead of talking over me... again. Story of my life, I suppose." he griped to himself. "I get punched at cram school, and find out I can't afford the tram ticket to Granny's' place... Oh well, I don't suppose things could get worse..." he sighed.
A huge explosion suddenly roared across the street, as a hideous thing smashed through a building. People screamed, and ran away in panic. Keitaro shook his head. "Great thinking Keitaro... Saying something that stupid here..." he said sarcastically as the hideous thing loomed over him. The youma, as that was what it undoubtedly was, seemed to snicker as it drew back a fist the size of a suitcase, ready to pound the unfortunate boy into next year. Keitaro threw up his hands in a token attempt to protect himself as the fist flew in.
*THOCK*
There was a sudden silence. Keitaro opened his eyes, and boggled. The huge fist had been successfully blocked by his left hand. The youma stared at its' fist, hardly noticing when Keitaro made good this opportunity, and began fleeing.
=====================================================
Meanwhile, around he corner, the Sailor Senshi were dispatching another enemy, when they saw a young man fleeing towards them, screaming "IT'S GONNA EAT MEEEE!"
Pluto leaned over and grabbed Keitaro as he thundered past. His feet flew out from underneath him and he slammed into the ground. Saturn and Venus glanced at her. "Trust me on this." she replied, before looking at the downed ronin. "Keitaro Urashima? We need your help."
Keitaro blinked up at the green-haired Senshi. "Hey... Don't I know you from somewhere?" he asked.
Setsuna almost baulked at that, before she rallied herself. "That is as maybe, Keitaro, but like I said, we need your help..."
She helped Keitaro up to his feet, before looking at Mars firmly. "Watch him carefully, and see he comes to no harm. He's going to be important in the days to come." Rei Hino (aka Sailor Mars) nodded slowly. She didn't have a clue what Pluto was on about, but when she was like this, you did well to listen to her.
Keitaro hovered about, looking like he was about to run at any moment, before Moon patted his arm. "Don't worry, you'll be fine." she said. Her calming voice soothed the anxious ronins' nerves, and Keitaro nodded. As the Youma came around the corner, though, his knees began to knock, and it took all his effort not to run off screaming again.
The Senshi all started firing off their attacks again, while Keitaro watched, gaping. The Youma roared its' outrage and thundered forwards. The Senshi all leaped back. But then Moon tripped on her ponytail, and crashed into Mars, who ended up in Keitaro's arms. "Mars! Use your Flame Sniper attack!" Pluto ordered. Without missing a beat, Rei fired her attack.
Something strange happened, though. The attack started off normally, but then ballooned to the size of a van, and was blue coloured. When it hit the Youma, it literally exploded, rending the evil monster into bite-sized barbequed chunks.
Even Pluto stared, shocked into silence by the sound and the fury. After nearly half a minute, Rei cleared her throat.
"Um... You can let go of me now, Urashima-san..." Keitaro blinked, and then looked around. Realising the monster was gone, the full weight of the day slammed into him, and he gently keeled over.
In the awkward silence that followed, Venus nudged him gently with her boot. He slithered along the road slightly, and said "Wow... So that's what it's like... to hold a girls' hand..." in a wavering voice.
"Setsuna-mama... who is he?" Saturn asked. Setsuna sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"His name is Keitaro Urashima... And, believe it or not, he's going to be a useful ally to our cause... I'll explain more in a bit, for now, let's get him to my apartment." She hauled him up, none too gently, either, and teleported out of there. She was followed in short order by the other Sailors.
They'd only been gone a few moments, when a busty brunette girl wandered out from a shop and cocked her head.
"Oh my... Was that.... Kei-kun?" she asked the turtle on her shoulder.
The truth was, Setsuna Meioh was lonely, terribly lonely. As the last survivor of the Silver Millennium, and nearly immortal due to her extended vigils with the Gates of Time, the duty that Queen Serenity had given her wore down on her psyche. Indeed, many were the time when she'd considered packing in the job and finding a successor; particularly after a journey into Italy in 1943, where to eliminate an indirect threat to the timeline, she'd had to... remove an honourable man from existence. She could still see the fear in the eyes of that Canadian officer , as her Dead Scream annihilated first the pistol in his hand, then his arm, and then the rest of him, leaving only a pair of smoking boots and a half-melted cap badge.
Setsuna looked out over the timelines. She knew the Ancient Enemy would rise again soon, and the Senshi would be re-awakened, but for now, everything was proceeding smoothly. In fact, she decided, it was time she had a much overdue holiday. Ordering the gates to locate somewhere she could go to unwind, she soon located a "Hinata Lodge" in Kanagawa Prefecture.
'A hot springs resort.... Perfect.' she decided. She picked up the telephone to make a reservation.
=====================================================
Setsuna sat in the park, stretching out her legs as she watched three children play in the nearby sandbox. One of them, a little girl with brown hair and deep soulful eyes was helping a boy make a sandcastle while a toddler played with the older girls' Liddo-kun doll.
"Hey, Kei-kun?" The girl asked the boy as they finished smoothing out the dome of the castle. "Did you know that if two people who love each other go to Tokyo University together, they'll live happily ever after?"
Setsuna stiffened in shock. The air, at least to her rarefied senses, was becoming heavy with Chaos Magic, and it was centred over the three children in the sandbox. She instinctively reached for her Henshin Rod, in case something terrible occurred.
Unaware of this, the children continued to play in the sandbox, before the brown-haired girl leaned over and impulsively kissed 'Kei-kun' on the cheek, making him blush. "When we grow up, let's go to Tokyo University together, 'kay?" she smiled. 'Kei-kun' blinked, but then nodded. The little toddler perked up then and began to say "Toudai!" in a cheery way.
Setsuna could only watch in dismay, as the Chaos Magic struck the two older children, affecting them in only who knew what ways. She looked up as she saw the parents of the two girls, and the boys' grandmother, arrive to pick them up.
"Naru! Mutsumi! Keitaro!" the respective sets of adults called. The young boy, whose name was Keitaro Urashima, stood up and waved to his grandmother. "I gotta go now Mu-chan, Na-chan..." he said sadly, before brightening. "But we can come and play here tomorrow, right?"
The girl with dark brown hair, Mutsumi Otohime, smiled and nodded. "Of course, Kei-kun..."
"Toudai! Toudai!" the last of the group, Naru Narusegawa, giggled in agreement.
=====================================================
It was a deeply troubled Setsuna Meioh who returned to the Gates of Time now. She paced backwards and forwards in front of the Gate for a long time, before turning to face the computer system that was integrated into it. Setting at the worktop, she began to create files for all three of those children. She hated when this occured, but the protocols for these occasions was absolute: Anyone exposed to Chaos Energy, no matter how small, had to be filed, investigated, and then either removed from the timeline entirely, or neutralised in some other way. Thankfully for her, the Tokyo University promise that Keitaro and Mutsumi had entered into had bled the worst of the Chaos Magic away. Nonetheless, they would both lead chaotic lives for as long as they lived... Needless to say, in that moment, Setsuna hated her job more than she ever had. Setting the computer to scan the timelines, with particular parameters to see what effect those three children would have, she went to find something to drink. The binge that she went on was truly epic.
=====================================================
Time passed; an instant, or an age. It was all the same at the Gates of Time. Setsuna Meioh looked at her files once again, wanting to make sure that everything would be in readiness for when she would step into her role as Advisor to the reborn Princess Serenity. She navigated to the Long Term Storage Files, in which she kept the most important documents: plans for Crystal Tokyo, archival information about the Senshi's past lives, and last but not least, the files of Keitaro Urashima and Mutsumi Otohime. Reading over them was a gruelling task. Privately, Setsuna was amazed that the two of them had become fundamentally good people, given the sheer hell that they'd both been put through.
Keitaro Urashima had been cursed that day long ago by a cocktail of myopia, bad luck, and low-grade dyspraxia. Aside from only his adopted sister Kanako (a somewhat left-handed blessing of the Chaos Magic had left him with a kind nature, and a dogged determination that could win people over, not too mention an almost comical level of indestructibility), no girl had ever been nice to him, and his academic scores had ever so slowly sank down, down, down... And it got worse.
Mutsumi Otohime had grown to be a kind, loving, and gentle woman, but was as fragile as a snowflake, and had once been described unkindly (though not without an element of truth) as being 'Mad as a Hatter'. Indeed, Setsuna had once watched Mutsumi for a whole day, and had been shocked by the amount of chaos that one woman had created. In the space of doing an hours' shopping, she'd fainted once, requiring a paramedic unit to revive her; caused a major traffic accident after dazedly wandering across a road; caused a police officer, a priest, and a shop assistant to have nervous breakdowns; and bought out an entire greengrocers' shop of watermelon. And that was just on one day!
Setsuna shook a little as she recalled that day. Yes, she reflected, those two were dangerous, mostly to themselves She ruminated upon this. All of a sudden, an epiphany struck her. Walking back over to the gates, she entered a series of equations into the device, and watched the numbers roll over with increasing interest.
It was as she'd suspected. For some time now she'd wondered why the two of them were effected by that day. Now she knew. Both of them had traces of Silver Millennium energy in their bodies. Most interestingly, though, was that they seemed to be able to unconsciously amplify the ambient energies in their surroundings.
"Of course... That's why they were exposed... Whoever did it wanted a natural chaos generator to mask their actions..." she considered. Focussing on Keitaro once again, she caught him on the telephone, speaking to his grandmother. Setsuna knew how the timeline was to play out from here; Keitaro would go to Hinata, infuriate most of the residents of the lodge-turned-dorm, but eventually bring them around. But, unfortunately, he'd mix up who his 'Promise Girl' was, and end up with a thoroughly unsuitable girl. To be fair, Naru Narusegawa was a well-meaning girl, but she was too insecure, and violent for a gentle, if clumsy, soul like Keitaro.
Setsuna glanced at the tracer on Mutsumi Otohime, and decided. She began to operate the Timegates.
=====================================================
Keitaro Urashima sighed discontentedly as he mooched along the street in Azabu Juuban. He'd failed his entrance exam to Tokyo U for the second year in a row, and his parents had kicked him out after they tried to persuade him to lower his sights.
"I wish they'd let me explain why, instead of talking over me... again. Story of my life, I suppose." he griped to himself. "I get punched at cram school, and find out I can't afford the tram ticket to Granny's' place... Oh well, I don't suppose things could get worse..." he sighed.
A huge explosion suddenly roared across the street, as a hideous thing smashed through a building. People screamed, and ran away in panic. Keitaro shook his head. "Great thinking Keitaro... Saying something that stupid here..." he said sarcastically as the hideous thing loomed over him. The youma, as that was what it undoubtedly was, seemed to snicker as it drew back a fist the size of a suitcase, ready to pound the unfortunate boy into next year. Keitaro threw up his hands in a token attempt to protect himself as the fist flew in.
*THOCK*
There was a sudden silence. Keitaro opened his eyes, and boggled. The huge fist had been successfully blocked by his left hand. The youma stared at its' fist, hardly noticing when Keitaro made good this opportunity, and began fleeing.
=====================================================
Meanwhile, around he corner, the Sailor Senshi were dispatching another enemy, when they saw a young man fleeing towards them, screaming "IT'S GONNA EAT MEEEE!"
Pluto leaned over and grabbed Keitaro as he thundered past. His feet flew out from underneath him and he slammed into the ground. Saturn and Venus glanced at her. "Trust me on this." she replied, before looking at the downed ronin. "Keitaro Urashima? We need your help."
Keitaro blinked up at the green-haired Senshi. "Hey... Don't I know you from somewhere?" he asked.
Setsuna almost baulked at that, before she rallied herself. "That is as maybe, Keitaro, but like I said, we need your help..."
She helped Keitaro up to his feet, before looking at Mars firmly. "Watch him carefully, and see he comes to no harm. He's going to be important in the days to come." Rei Hino (aka Sailor Mars) nodded slowly. She didn't have a clue what Pluto was on about, but when she was like this, you did well to listen to her.
Keitaro hovered about, looking like he was about to run at any moment, before Moon patted his arm. "Don't worry, you'll be fine." she said. Her calming voice soothed the anxious ronins' nerves, and Keitaro nodded. As the Youma came around the corner, though, his knees began to knock, and it took all his effort not to run off screaming again.
The Senshi all started firing off their attacks again, while Keitaro watched, gaping. The Youma roared its' outrage and thundered forwards. The Senshi all leaped back. But then Moon tripped on her ponytail, and crashed into Mars, who ended up in Keitaro's arms. "Mars! Use your Flame Sniper attack!" Pluto ordered. Without missing a beat, Rei fired her attack.
Something strange happened, though. The attack started off normally, but then ballooned to the size of a van, and was blue coloured. When it hit the Youma, it literally exploded, rending the evil monster into bite-sized barbequed chunks.
Even Pluto stared, shocked into silence by the sound and the fury. After nearly half a minute, Rei cleared her throat.
"Um... You can let go of me now, Urashima-san..." Keitaro blinked, and then looked around. Realising the monster was gone, the full weight of the day slammed into him, and he gently keeled over.
In the awkward silence that followed, Venus nudged him gently with her boot. He slithered along the road slightly, and said "Wow... So that's what it's like... to hold a girls' hand..." in a wavering voice.
"Setsuna-mama... who is he?" Saturn asked. Setsuna sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose.
"His name is Keitaro Urashima... And, believe it or not, he's going to be a useful ally to our cause... I'll explain more in a bit, for now, let's get him to my apartment." She hauled him up, none too gently, either, and teleported out of there. She was followed in short order by the other Sailors.
They'd only been gone a few moments, when a busty brunette girl wandered out from a shop and cocked her head.
"Oh my... Was that.... Kei-kun?" she asked the turtle on her shoulder.
