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Chapter 11: Red Sky at Morning

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Nephrite walked through the corridors of his manor. The click of his boots on the stone floor echoed through the hallways. It was unlit and empty and the closest he felt to being home. His dark crystal was snug in the palm of his hand. It gave off a slight magical signature, like heat or radio waves did. That, and the sharp edges of its prism form, was comforting to feel.

In his starlight chapel – the oldest part of the entire building’s structure - Nephrite released the dark crystal, and it floated to a position of prominence in front of the largest and center stained-glass window. It was too soon to ask for the identity of the next rainbow carrier; the dark crystal would need time to recharge, realign, before Nephrite could use it to divine the identity of the next rainbow crystal carrier.

He always felt the most capable of copious violence whenever Zoisite wormed his way into what should be Nephrite’s private space, looking over his shoulder at whatever his affairs were at the moment. Zoisite thrived at being annoying and intrusive. The fact that it was always supposed to be in service of someone else was an afterthought.

It was known throughout the Dark Kingdom that Kunzite and Zoisite worked together as allies, but the white-haired Southern King didn’t participate in any of Zoisite’s feuds, at least not openly. Kunzite only ever wanted to know what Nephrite was up to in the same sense that he wanted to know what was going on in all sectors of the Dark Kingdom.

He was the de-facto military leader of the entire realm, and more fool him. Why waste time writing useless reports no one would read? Why use youma troops on the rare youma rebellion instead of just blasting the insurgents out of existence with a Kingly wave? Why bother training, supervising, outfitting youma whose great-grandchildren’s great-grandchildren would live and die long before the lunar seal ever cracked open? Personal guards were one thing, but a fully functioning military was wasted time and effort.

Maybe it wasn’t a bad idea now, as they were preparing for a final assault on Earth and its human forces, but Kunzite had been playing the role for centuries. It was a hollow kind of discipline that in Nephrite’s opinion would make Kunzite utterly bland and banal – if he weren’t so powerful.

The humans had a fitting expression: Mutually Assured Destruction. Or was it a No-Win Situation? Humans had so many interesting little terms, but outside of things like astronomy Nephrite didn’t really pay attention to them. When it came to innate magical power, he and Kunzite were at about the same level. Kunzite commanded more youma troops, but Nephrite was the better fighter. The odds were never enough in any one King’s favor. Maybe that’s why they had all lasted so long, while despising each other as much as they did.

The dark crystal rotated half a turn in the air, catching the colors of dusk through the windows as it slowly spun. He didn’t think of those early days of the Dark Kingdom’s isolation very often.

It used to be, as long as Nephrite never outright killed Zoisite himself or overstepped outside his domain, he didn’t have to worry about overt retaliation. The game had changed, though. The stakes were raised, exponentially speeding forward to their ultimate goal of freeing their Great Ruler, who would kill anything that opposed her and dominate the Earth forever. And that would probably include those in her service who didn’t measure up.

So he might have to adapt as well. The first step was to bolster his defenses. Zoisite was the only creature to ever get through the wards at his mansion base, but if Kunzite finally deigned to pay a visit he might be able to break through just from throwing enough power or youma at it. With Zoisite spitting mad and probably fully healed too soon for his liking, Naru would be a target as well. Again. Very well, Nephrite was already planning to put wards around her home too.

But would that be enough? Anytime she wasn’t in her home or right by his side, she’d be unprotected. He’d just promised Queen Beryl, in front of dozens of witnesses, to continue draining Naru’s energy. That might be enough to keep the majority of youma away, but the ones specifically in Zoisite’s service? Or from the sociopathic King himself?

This was a mess. Naru was considered a special resource to the Dark Kingdom now, which granted a measure of protection and maybe even affluence. But she was also in danger from particular agents of the Dark Kingdom. And, occasionally she’d be drained of all her energy which would leave her weak and easy to attack - and if Nephrite intervened he might end up using some of the very same energy he just gathered from Naru leaving less to present to Queen Beryl.

Even with the mysterious new abilities she’d suddenly acquired, Naru would still need him to keep her safe. How the hell was he going to protect her while continuing his mission successfully?

The solution, as always, was to get rid of Zoisite. But after a thousand years and a few proxy assassination attempts, that had yet to happen.

On the topmost floor of his manor base, Nephrite faced westwards. The wind lifted his thick auburn hair as the sun, already well behind the horizon, sent out the final rays of daylight. The roof of this small tower chamber had crumbled long ago, before he’d even acquired the mansion, and now it was his bedroom loft open to the air and the sky.

He rolled his shoulders. Even full of energy, tension could make its way into his body. There was a phantom ache in his right shoulder. After renewing and updating his base wards, Nephrite would make use of the grand shower installed in his mansion, the best that modern human technology could offer.

For centuries in the Dark Kingdom, he’d made do with a single tub in his quarters. A giant copper barrel that needed an entire procession to be used: line with clean linens, fill with water, purify the water, heat or chill the water depending on his mood, hope the quality of soap was decent, keep a small knife in reaching distance, occasionally re-purify the water so he wouldn’t be sitting in a soup of his own filth.

With showers all he had to do was turn a knob and clean water rushed down. A most blissful, personal, and artificial waterfall.

He hadn’t even bothered to stop in his original quarters this last jaunt into the Dark Kingdom, the place he’d lived and slept in for hundreds of years. Once Nephrite had secured this place, he hadn’t looked back. He served the Dark Kingdom, but he lived closer to Earth. Now, it was where he returned any time he completed matters in the Dark Kingdom.

He always wanted to go back to the Earth realm, ever since the magical barrier sealing off Queen’s Beryl’s world from the Earth realm finished cracking open. The Dark Kingdom didn’t have Kobe filet mignon and single malt Scotch whiskey. It didn’t have automobiles of gloss and chrome, racing faster than the greatest of thoroughbreds, freedom and speed literally thrumming with a force measured in hundreds of horsepower. It didn’t have full-grain artisanal Italian leather, or the tiny horologium marvels that were Swiss wristwatches. It didn’t have the Dutch-born superjacht, an indulgence of nautical hedonism combined with all the swiftness of a modern military ship. It didn’t have private nighttime tours of le Musée du Louvre, or season tickets to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. It didn’t have air conditioning.

And it didn’t have any stars. That first night on Earth...

A stray thought suddenly took over all others: would their Great Ruler demand he abandon his mansion and other Earthly delights after they conquered the world?

Nephrite shook his head. What a foolish notion! He’d naturally be rewarded when the conquering was done. He was one of the conquerors, after all. He was the lead agent on this planet; it made sense to remain living on it as well. He’d be able to keep anything – anyone – he liked.

There was still much work to be done. Today, he had everything he could ever remember truly wanting: recognition and carte blanche from Beryl, genuine leverage and assets in their final mission. Sweet revenge on Zoisite, the cockroach of the Dark Kingdom.

Nephrite set to shoring up his wards, but his mind kept turning to a particular Earthly delight – visiting one well-recommended café in downtown Tokyo, with their delicious chocolate parfaits.

* * * * * * * *

Naru awoke with a slight shiver. The sun was long gone, and it was dark outside. What had she just been dreaming about? It seemed so important a moment ago, but - she couldn’t remember.

She ached all over. The last thing she remembered was being stuck in a pitch-black, sealed up room with no way out and the oxygen fading fast. Nephrite said that he would normally teleport away but he didn’t have the energy this time, so Naru naturally offered...

She put a hand to her neck, fingertips brushing over her pulse and collarbone. Her own fingers were too small and cool over her skin.

Nephrite must have brought her back home, then. Naru yawned and stretched. Her left sock was stiff with dried blood, but her ankle felt fine now. She put the clean one in her hamper, but took the dirty one to the bathroom. This part was normal for her. Cold tap water straight from the sink faucet ran over it while she gathered a little plastic washbasin and detergent from the closet. This was something a regular girl did.

She put the now-wet sock in the washbasin and poured a little detergent directly onto the spots of blood, one after the other, so it would soak overnight before going into the normal wash. But the basin didn’t stay in the bathroom; not where her Mom could see it. What if she noticed something? Why would Naru have a bloody ankle sock? What had she gotten up to while she was supposed to be at school?

Instead Naru crept back to her room and stuck it under her bed, the voluminous dust ruffle hiding everything. It should’ve all been done when the fabric was still freshly stained, not crusty and hours old, and now there was a chance Naru would have to throw away one half of a good pair of socks. And it should have been funny or awkward, hiding literal dirty laundry under her bed.

Instead it felt like a bad omen, of far more blood to come.

Where was Nephrite right now? What was he doing? Was he finally safe? When would she see him again?

Concentrating, she could hear her mother tinkering in the kitchen. She steeled herself and went to meet her maker, in a manner of speaking.

“Naru!” her mother greeted her when she stepped into the kitchen. She was in her nightgown, but there was a pot on the stove with a hint of a flame underneath keeping the contents hot. “You’re awake! I didn’t see your shoes at the door and thought you had disobeyed me, but I understood once I saw you sleeping. I should have known you’d still be tired after last night.”

Naru accepted a hug and tried to suppress her surprise. “Oh, right.”

Her mother peered at her, then licked a thumb to take to her daughter’s cheek. “You have something on your face, what happened?”

Naru quickly stepped back and rubbed at her face. She couldn’t feel the cut anymore, but some of her blood the youma had drawn was still smeared on her skin.

“Oh, uh – I had to deal with the worst gakko soji today,” she said, talking about the daily school cleaning that all Japanese students participated in. “Yeah, someone made a real mess! But I got it all eventually. I was tired, I didn’t check myself in the mirror afterwards. I’ll make sure to wash very thoroughly tonight.”

“I thought you might wake if you were hungry. Here, I made Baba’s Irish miso soup for dinner.” Naru, tired as she was, half-skipped to her seat at the table. She’d brought the soup for lunch to a group playdate years ago, and learned she must call it simply Grandma’s miso soup outside home. The other elementary school kids teased her for weeks about “unforgivable foreign contamination” even though she and Usagi agreed it was delicious.

“It smells wonderful! Thank you, Mom.”

Her reward for the day’s events was a hot meal followed by a hot bath. The heat and the steam relaxed all her strangely stiff, cold muscles. It was perfectly relaxing, and she almost nodded off a few times in the water.

Until Naru realized she didn’t have her book bag, having dropped it at some point in all the chaos at the hospital.

Then her thoughts began to swirl in her mind. This was bad and it was going to get worse, a lot worse, everything was going to come crashing down in her life, and all because of a stupid book bag!

Naru put her hands to her head. Think, think, think of a way to fix this!

Only some of her notes and textbooks were in it, so she hadn’t lost everything. But what would she use from now on? Her old randoseru, the traditional backpack for grade schoolers? Ew, no that would be complete social suicide, and why did she even think that. She might as well put her hair back in pigtails, resume speaking with a lisp, TALK AT THIS VOLUME AT ALL TIMES AND OCCASIONS, tell Umino she wanted to study bugs with him every weekend, and then prepare for even Usagi to abandon her for being so utterly uncool.

Thinking was so not getting her anywhere.

But she didn’t have a second bag ready to go. She’d start to fall behind in class, and her mother would notice that, and then Mayumi Osaka would notice her daughter’s good leather satchel, which she’d spent lots of money on, had gone missing.

What to do, what was she going to do – no, don’t panic! Don’t panic, STAY CALM. She was alive. Nephrite was alive and well, thanks to her. That’s what mattered. She could handle anything else. She would handle everything else. Somehow.

Coming in from the bathroom, and still a little damp all over, Naru re-tied the sash of her bathrobe and yawned, minty-fresh. At her little vanity, she picked up her hairbrush and started brushing her hair. Every piece of curly hair advice she’d found or read or been told said not to do that. But doing it the ‘right’ way took too long and gave her crunchy ringlets that were too severe, like a porcelain Shirley Temple doll. Brushing her hair while it was still a little wet left her with a pile of soft waves, even if they were frizzy, and Naru liked the way her hairbrush felt going over her head and down her neck.

A split-second change in the air, like the charge of ozone, was the only warning she got.

“Naru.”

“Oh!” Naru dropped her hairbrush, and it clapped on the side of her vanity before dropping to the carpet. He was just suddenly there. Nephrite was standing right there inside her bedroom. He was wearing the imposing grey uniform again instead of a mussed hospital gown, complete with jackboots and white gloves, and even a new jacket with no cut on the arm. Her hand went up to her chest and clasped the criss-cross of her fuzzy robe even tighter shut.

“You’re awake.”

There was a man in her bedroom – witness to all her stupid little girl decorations and messiness - she was completely naked under her robe -

“Yes?”

“You seem – all right. You’re not feeling any aftereffects from having your energy drained?”

“No?” She gulped, suddenly parched, and the stupid squelchy noise of her own throat was deafening. “No, I’m fine!”

“Good.”

It was about five steps from where she was to her dresser. Naru wondered what kind of suave ninja-like moves she would need to pull off in order to get over there from where she was standing, all while Nephrite was still right there in her bedroom and watching her.

Something occurred to her. “Are you ikiryō? Or – no, you’re clearly much better now. I mean the English version. I’m sorry, I don’t know what the word is. Starry traveling?” Naru then dashed to her dresser, hoping that the question would buy her some time, and spent some of the most agonizing few seconds of her life picking out a pair of pajamas that needed to be both cute and stylish. She missed the surprised look on Nephrite’s face, quickly leveled back out to his version of a neutral expression, which looked more like snobbish boredom.

“You mean astral projection,” he said.

“Oh yes, that’s it!”

“Well, I can do it, of course. But not tonight.” He needed to be at Naru’s home in person to cast protective wards.

“So – you’re really here? If I come over and poke you in the arm it won’t go right through like a shadow?”

“I don’t like being poked.”

In the silence that followed Naru tried her very best not to think of other ways to check if Nephrite was physically there. The rising flush on her cheeks was a barometer of how much she failed.

“I have to change,” she said, and hugged a pair of fancy pajamas she’d never worn before to her chest. “Stay right there.”

Idiot, where else was he going to go?! Naru opened and shut her door in a flash, to hide Nephrite from view in case her mother was in the hall. Back in the bathroom, she changed into her pajamas in record time and definitely, categorically, absolutely, did not put in her orthodontic retainer for the night.

Naru scrutinized herself in the mirror. She looked like a drowned, redheaded rat. What on earth did Nephrite see in her? He did see something, she knew that. She would never forget – never forgive herself – the spray of green blood slippery on her hands, or the heat and acrid smell of explosions, and it was all meant to kill her, but it almost took him instead—

She took a deep breath and tried to calm the drumming of her heart. He was alive. He was safe. He was so close. And even if he didn’t feel the same way it wouldn’t change her love for him.

Skipping class that afternoon had been the right choice. Naru didn’t even want to think about what would have happened to Nephrite if she’d continued prioritizing childish things like attendance points. He’d needed her. Even with the strange new abilities she’d found in herself, Naru would have to actually be near Nephrite to keep him safe. How could she do that if she was in school for so many hours of the day?

She tip-toed back to her room, gently opening and closing the door. Nephrite was looking at something on her bookcase, but turned his full attention back to her at the faint noise and small motion. Naru just stood there under his gaze, leaning against the door, staring back at him.

The two of them watched each other without speaking, waiting for the right words to come at the right moment. It wasn’t awkward at all to Naru. A flutter started in her heart, and rippled out through her entire body. They were together and alone. She wanted him to look at her.

Finally, keeping her hands behind her back, she walked over to him.

“So, it worked,” said Naru. “Taking my energy to make you better. I’m so glad - you saved us, me, again.”

“Well, I had to return the favor. You’re always protecting me with your life, and I—”

Nephrite looked away and wouldn’t say any more. He dragged a gloved finger along the spines of some of her shelved books: light novels, Boku no Chikyū o Mamotte manga, and translations of books from the Anne of Green Gables series. Naru hoped he also saw what was on the other shelves, the first aid instructional booklets and the study guides. She knew there was a ladies’ etiquette book in there somewhere. She was more grown-up than her storybook shelf suggested.

It took a while for him to start speaking again.

“You should know, I’ll need more of your energy in the future.”

“Oh,” said Naru, a hitch in her voice. “Do you need some right now? I know I didn’t stay conscious for very long last time, but I know what to expect now. I can handle it! Should I lie down this time?”

She scratched an itch on the side of her neck, over her sternum, then her neck again, and then she sat down on her bed with her hands jammed tightly under her thighs while lighting kicking her heels back and forth, because there was such a happy energy radiating from her whole body that had to get out, and even beaming up at Nephrite wasn’t enough to help her stay still.

He was so strong and dignified and handsome. It meant when he was surprised enough to openly look befuddled, like now, it was terribly cute. She didn’t think she could ever tell him that. As far as Naru was concerned, she was the only person who could get him to do that.

Although she wasn’t sure why. She had been completely serious when asking him about getting holiday time off from his supernaturally evil employers, and again just now when making sure he didn’t need any more energy to heal himself.

“Not... right now,” he said eventually.

Then Nephrite nonchalantly sat down next to her on her bed, and her dirty sock was still soaking in detergent underneath the bedframe where he couldn’t see but what if he smelled the detergent which wasn’t at all alluring, and then his left knee brushed against her right one, and she almost didn’t hear what he had to say because she had to resist the urge to lean in and put a hand to his leg.

“You’re in danger from the Dark Kingdom, Naru,” he said.

Things had progressed so much for them – Naru was certain to the marrow of her bones that no one else knew Nephrite like she did. She thought of his strong arm draped across her shoulders in Sankaku park, and when she thought further back to the nebulous night of Princess Diamond’s high society ball Naru remembered Nephrite guiding and spinning her around the dance floor like she was a delicate ballerina in his arms. She could have danced all night. Why did it seem like they were going backwards?

It wouldn’t do to seem like she wasn’t paying attention to Nephrite, so Naru said what came to mind first: “Well sure, that’s nothing new. I’m always in danger just from living in Tokyo. I feel like I get attacked by youma all the time, like I’m their favorite target.”

Nephrite frowned, though not directly at her. “This is different. You’re not just some human anymore, you’re associated with me now. Those who want to take me down will try and do it through you.”

Naru’s flippant statement about feeling like Tokyo’s #1 energy-draining victim suddenly felt in poor taste. She remembered the full-body panic when three youma appeared in her room to violently knock her out and kidnap her, leaving her mother passed out as a consequence. Then everything that happened afterwards...

Had it all really happened just one day ago?

There was probably still blood all over the ground in their spot under the tree, not yet eroded by time and nature. And anyone passing through the park would only notice unusually green grass, not the scene of carnage it really was.

“Oh,” she said quietly.

“I don’t want you to worry,” Nephrite went on. “I can protect you. You just have to be careful.”

“But I -!”

Nephrite waited a few moments, ready to listen in a way he wouldn’t for anyone else, but she didn’t continue.

Naru had been about to say, ‘But I killed a whole youma on my own!’ Except that wasn’t the full truth. She hadn’t done it on her own. If he hadn’t been there, they probably would have died. If he’d been there alone he definitely would have died, but still. Naru couldn’t imagine herself taking down a youma like that if she’d encountered it all by her lonesome, like down a dark Tokyo back alley, without the need to protect Nephrite fueling her. She certainly couldn’t have handled that evil spirit afterwards on her own.

It was a fluke. She had superhero strength, but her first win over a monster almost didn’t happen because Naru didn’t actually know anything about real fighting.

Did Usagi have to deal with anything like this?

Echoing some of her thoughts, Nephrite said, “You’ve got a secret advantage if any youma attack you, which should be enough to keep you alive until I come for you. But it couldn’t hurt to spend more time with your friend Usagi.”

“I still can’t believe she’s Sailor Moon. But I don’t know how I missed it, either. Her hair buns are so distinctive! It’s amazing no one’s accused her of being a copy-cat.”

Nephrite made a kind of noncommittal sound. "She projects powerful obfuscating magic in her sailor form. I thought you were Sailor Moon once, remember? Using a simple glamour to look different than your human self."

Naru almost frowned - hadn't she recognized Usagi on her own? But then, she hadn't seen through Mercury or Mars' illusions, just her best friend's.

And then she processed the rest of what Nephrite said. "You really thought I was Sailor Moon? Me?"

"Well, you were quite bold coming right up to me in the shopping center to ask outright if I'd sent those secret love letters. I thought you had me all figured out.” Something in his posture and his face slightly relaxed, like he was letting go of a sentiment. “Aren't most young girls too shy to speak to the person they have a crush on?"

A crush.

Just a crush.

Naru focused on the shiny red button at the top of Nephrite’s jacket instead of his face. Her mother had offered for years to start actively tutoring her in the jewelry business, and if Naru had taken her up on it maybe she’d be able to tell what type of stone it was. Was this worse than knowing he didn’t love her back? Of course he cared – but he didn’t believe her. He didn’t believe in her love. Maybe he didn’t believe in love at all.

She drew in a careful breath and then let it out, all through her nose. It would be all right. He was safe and healthy again and Naru would prove herself to him. “I think love makes a person brave,” she finally said. “But I still think the idea of me as a Sailor Soldier is silly, I wouldn’t be any good at it. If I had some kind of duty to hunt down monsters I’d probably cry and run away, and go right to my mom. No, I’m just an ordinary girl.”

Not so, in Nephrite’s opinion. Not so ordinary anymore. The memory of Josi’s head caving in was as sickening as it was savoring to remember how his would-be assassin was done in. Sweet schoolgirl Naru Osaka had done that. Some other magic was in play here, and now she was – well, she was his -

Nephrite cleared his throat so he could finish their talk, but Naru beat him to it with another question.

“So, is this your work uniform?” she asked, genuinely curious. “It looks like the one that man from the sky threat wore, but he didn’t have medals on his shoulders. Does that mean you have a higher rank?”

“Naturally,” he replied automatically, to Naru’s correct intuition about his high status. It took another moment to connect ‘sky threat’ to Jadeite’s massive nighttime illusion and his last operation on Earth, before he’d been sentenced to Eternal Sleep. Nephrite quite liked the grand yet commanding look of his gold and carnelian epaulettes; he supposed Kunzite felt similarly about his own uniform’s decoration, although he went even further with that damn cape.

Nephrite had a cape as well, but he almost never wore it. Capes looked imposing for all of three seconds until they inevitably snagged on something – boot heels, drinking cups with wine still in them, wind vortexes, clumsy youma servants getting too close, the steps of an escalator at a deserted mall late at night. His opinion of them was unwavering: no capes!

He suddenly furrowed his eyebrows, and flexed his upper right arm. “What happened to your other pajamas? The orange and green ones?”

“Oh, umm...” Naru had no idea why he would ask that. Of all the things to remember about her, did it have to be her laundry-day pajamas? Then again – he remembered! “Well, they’re in the laundry. My mom will probably mend them eventually, although she’ll have to use different fabric to replace the part I tore off.”

She tried to laugh it off. “It’ll be a real patchwork piece! I don’t normally wear jammies like that, actually.”

Jammies? What was WRONG with her. Is this how she was going to prove herself as a woman in love, come on Naru Osaka!

“This is normally more my style,” Naru went on, and gestured to the slim, light blue polyester pajamas she currently wore. They had a shiny finish, lacey edges, and puffed short sleeves, like a princess’s gown. The tight elastic from the detailed edges was already pressing deep grooves into her skin, but it was a very elegant look and therefore worth it.

He shrugged and said, offhandedly, “You do look nicer in blue than orange.”

A thrill ran through her body and Naru resolved to wear nothing but watery hues from now until the day she died.

“Naru?” Mrs. Osaka’s voice suddenly came loud and clear from the hallway past the bedroom door. “It’s long past your bedtime, even for a late night like tonight. Why do I still see lights on from under the door?”

Naru’s eyes widened. She leapt over her bed and the length of her bedroom in two strides and slammed off the light switch by her door. “Sorry Mom, goodnight Mom!” she said in a cheery tone.

Mrs. Osaka stood in place for a few moments, inscrutable behind Naru’s bedroom door. “Goodnight, Naru,” she finally said, and her daughter heard footsteps over the carpet walking away.

Naru tip-toed back to her bed and sat back down next to Nephrite. He had observed the display of modern parenting with detached interest. “Sorry,” she whispered.

Nephrite found himself whispering to match her. “What about your father?”

Naru blinked. Oh. She hadn’t thought of – not in a long time – how to explain —

“We don’t live with him,” she said, and turned her face to the floor. Even though the lights were off, she would have been able to make out Nephrite’s face, faintly troubled at her statement. But she only looked down.

“Have you thought about what I said before?” she suddenly blurted out, changing the subject and turning back to him.

“About what?”

“About leaving the Dark Kingdom for good.”

Even in the dim light she could see his posture go back to being stiff and closed-off. “I don’t want to talk about that.”

“You said you wanted to join Sailor Moon against the evil organization you work for!”

“That was a lie, Naru.”

“I know that, it was a lie. It doesn’t have to still be one. Are you really going to keep working for the horrible people who just tried to murder you?”

“Zoisite is far more than just horrible, but I certainly don’t work for him. I’ll find a way to finally take care of him soon enough. I’ve just made tremendous progress in my standing with Queen Beryl, I’d be a fool to suddenly throw all of that away to join the losing side.”

“What exactly is the losing side? What are you even fighting for?”

“For Earth. Our Great Ruler will awaken and rule over all realms, including this one. All things, all things and beings and their energies, they belong to her. There is nothing and no one more powerful – even the Sailor girls are just temporary nuisances,” he said. On autopilot, he recited: “When She Rises, All Will Fall Before Her.”

Naru stalled for a long moment at that, trying to understand. It sounded like something from a children’s fantasy movie. Even real-life terrorists only wanted to rule over their own territory, and nobody had ever succeeded in ruling the entire world. Alexander the Great only got so far, Napoleon and then Nazi Germany had invaded Russia during the winter, and so on.

She finally asked about the other thing that stuck out to her, something he might be more receptive to talking about: “Your boss is a woman?”

“Yes.”

Naru then curled in on herself, glancing towards the bottom of her bedroom door. They’d started to raise their voices, but even a minute later she still didn’t see the horizontal beam of light that would mean her mother had turned the hallway light back on to come and investigate.

“It doesn’t have to be a lie,” she repeated, almost to herself.

Nephrite put a hand to his forehead. “Naru...” He trailed off, and neither of them spoke. He was even more entrenched within the Dark Kingdom now than when they’d talked about it earlier.

The darkness of the night – not a true blackness like when they were trapped in the hospital, but a deep shadow peppered with city lights like stars - permeated the bedroom.

“What if...” Naru spoke slowly, because the idea was just coming to her and still forming in her mind. “What if I have a request?”

Nephrite brought his hand down. “Go on.”

“Well – all right, will you train me how to fight?”

He sat up straight and didn’t bother to hide his surprise. “Train you? To fight?”

So cute.

“Oh, well, if you have time, of course. Being a teacher is such an important occupation to dedicate oneself to. Um, have you ever taught anyone before?”

His reply was immediate, almost before she’d finished asking the question. “Of course I have.” He didn’t dwell on thoughts of the Gemini sisters or other youma that had come before.

Naru pinched at the fabric of her pajamas over her knees before speaking again.

“I think I have to learn how to fight. You’re constantly in danger. And with this strange gift, this super-strength or speed or whatever, I can’t get it right all on my own. And I think that might be just as dangerous. I don’t want to be a liability to you.”

“You’re not.” The lie was strangely heavy on his lips, but it came out as easy as ever.

“I don’t even know if this will last, but however long it does, I should learn to use it properly. You’re such an amazing fighter, Nephrite! Who better to teach me than you? It would be an honor if you would allow me to become your student.”

Naru’s gaze was open and hopeful as she looked up at him.

He held her stare, and then gave an over-exaggerated sigh. “I don’t know, I’m fairly busy collecting energy for that evil society I work for. Are you sure you don’t want to take one of those after-school karate classes with humans your own age? Break some boards for show, roll around on some cushy plastic mats? I hear some of them have snacks and juice after each session.”

Nephrite was only teasing. It might soon become his favorite pastime if it always produced the look on Naru’s face she was making now.

Naru sputtered an angry noise, too upset to form actual words. A few days ago, she would have accepted such a line from Masato Sanjouin the human businessman without question. Crushed on the inside but still smiling on the outside, simply grateful to be in his presence.

But after the most handsome, suave millionaire in the world personally climbed to her balcony like Romeo, under the cover of night, to confess that he was actually a supernatural henchman, but he was having second thoughts about his evil mission, and that was thanks to her loving influence, and then finding out her best friend was secretly a famous magical superhero, and then violently taking the life of a living creature’s, also dealing with monsters back to back to back, running around bloody and battered and sometimes in bare feet, having a major panic attack, volunteering to have her energy drained before they were both killed, getting Nephrite to put his arms around her and his hands on her, not to mention skipping school and after her mother had grounded her – she felt confident enough to scold him. It was for his benefit, after all.

Naru thumped at her bedding in exasperation. “Of course I’d rather learn from you than some common dojo! Take your safety as seriously as I do, Nephrite!”

He had to fight to keep a grin off his face. “And what’s in it for me, in return?”

Naru opened her mouth, and then promptly closed it. She keenly felt a blush that burned all over her face and was starting to go down her neck. “I – um. I don’t – um.”

She hadn’t thought this all the way through.

What could she possible offer the most handsome man in the world who was also rich and could do magic? Naru was just a middle class, middle school girl, she had nothing to offer. Story of her short life.

But then he replied: “A favor, then. That’s good enough for me.”

Nephrite had already decided her request was a smart one. It was practical of her to learn how to defend herself given she had some kind of special physical abilities that allowed her to stand a chance against youma. Plus, it would solve the problem of how to keep her close by more often. For her protection.

Nephrite could count on a thief’s hand the number of people whose company he actually enjoyed, including himself. Why not?

“You know, instead of childish snacks as a reward... I remember a certain promise to share a chocolate parfait with you.” A worthy celebration perhaps, once she could decapitate via sword in a single move. Well, he’d heard somewhere that students might respond better to positive reinforcement instead of berating them and assigning physical punishment every time they made a mistake. Nephrite supposed now, with Naru, it was as good a time as ever to try out that method instead.

Naru smiled, completely open and earnest and just for him. He remembered! “Yes. You did.”

Then, before she lost her nerve, Naru stuck out her right hand. She only remembered at the last second to do it at an angle so that she wouldn’t accidentally whack her new sensei in the torso. “Shake on it to agree!”

After a beat, Nephrite graciously took her hand, giving a handshake that was firm but didn’t squeeze too hard. Even with gloves on, he held her just right.

She could just melt into the bed, she really could, and maybe if she kept a strong enough grip she could bring Nephrite with her.

“You have a gentleman’s agreement, Miss Osaka.”

And then she nearly ruined it all with an unladylike half-giggle, half-snort kind of a noise. Naru slapped her other hand over her mouth to quiet herself, and Nephrite just baffled at her outburst. Well, that was better than being outright repelled by such childish behavior.

“What’s so funny?”

She shook her head, still fighting off the giggles.

“It’s just... it’s only been 24 hours, I think, since you told me your real name. And right here, too. Everything is so different! Except I still love you. That will never change.”

Their hands still clasped together, Nephrite gave her – gave into – a very small smile. Shaky, some might describe it.

For a moment Naru thought (hoped) that Nephrite would say the words back to her.

After another moment, he let go of her and stood up. “I’m going to set up protections around your home. I’ll be just outside,” he reassured her. Concealed from human sight, of course.

Using a slight hand gesture as his wordless command, a variety of objects appeared out of thin air around Nephrite. “I’ll bring you a communication crystal another time, this needs to be done first. If anything gets through, the spells will alert me and I’ll come to you.”

Naru stared at all the items now floating in her room, only some of which she recognized; thin shimenawa, handmade and expensive-looking ofuda, but also small and angry looking stone creatures? and a paper doll chain? and somehow a Jack O’ Lantern from something that was definitely not an orange pumpkin?

“You truly are a great sorcerer, Nephrite,” she said, beaming up at him. Then she brought up two fists to her chest in excitement, an augural picture of their future lessons together. “A warrior sorcerer! By the time you finish training me how to be a fighter, I’ll be able to stop youma myself and have them all unconscious in a heap for you by the time you get here.” She mimed an enthusiastic punch from each hand, one after the other.

If he liked kawaii things she’d be utterly adorable. Nephrite wondered if she would stay that way if she ended up crushing any more youma skulls like dry plaster with her bare hands.

Naru was unconscious for the first time she’d teleported. Now, she watched Nephrite and all his tokens literally disappear from her room, with a red shimmering glow like the milliseconds between a number change on the display of her digital clock.

She settled down further under her covers. He was just outside, like a brave knight defending her home. Naru watched some very faint outlines of geometric symbols and connecting lines that appeared on her bedroom walls, some evidence of the defense magic he was performing. For her. The thought was like a warm blanket on her bed to help her drift off into sleep.

And sleep came very quickly. But not easily.

Instead of another really weird and maybe mystically prophetic dream, she got regular old nightmares instead: she saw talon-like fingernails grow out of the dark and they stabbed her like a five-pronged spear. When she stumbled and whispered for help, the nurse sewed up the wounds in thick surgical thread but then didn’t stop, and eventually Naru was sewn up completely in a large, black cocoon. She kicked and cried and the audience cheered for the best version of “A Very Hungry Caterpillar” they’d ever seen, but no one could hear her inside. She wasn’t ready yet.

Stirring only half-awake some time later, Naru recognized the feel of someone brushing her hair back from her face. She made a questioning sound in-between ‘Mom’ and ‘Nephrite’ that didn’t make sense.

A gloved hand pressed against her forehead, and the pleasant weight of a spell pushed her mind back towards unconsciousness.

“Sleep well, Molly.” Nephrite’s voice was deep and soft, like crimson velvet, and she easily slipped down into a better dream.

* * * * * * * *

She shot up in bed, wide awake.

The clock on her bedside table read 7:28AM, two minutes before her alarm was set to go off, glowing the same red color as Nephrite’s teleportation aftereffect.

Even though he was long gone by now, she pushed back the bed covers and went to her Juliet balcony, throwing open the curtains. It was a normal day in Tokyo with all the light and noise of an early morning. Dawn was on her way, just over the horizon.

“Nephrite...?” she murmured.

This time she didn’t turn and slump against the sliding door, desolate and wretched, but she did lean her forehead against the cool glass. His words played over again on repeat in her mind, but she still didn’t understand.

“Who – who is Molly?”

* * * * * * * *

to be continued...

* * * * * * * *