At work the next day, Naru's co-workers questioned her about her injured hand. She told them she had burned it while cooking. Her manager put her to work in the stockroom for the day, since it wouldn't do for their elegant, stylish customers to be waited on by a salesclerk with a bulky bandage around her hand. Though most of the clerks would have considered this a disgrace, Naru didn't mind. It gave her time and privacy to think about the problem with Umino.

She couldn't go on with things as stagnant, uncertain as they were. But before she put any more effort into the relationship, she decided she needed to find out how committed Umino was to trying to fix things. It was unfair to him to keep dragging it out just because she was afraid of being alone, if he wanted something different, and it wasn't fair to herself to keep hanging on if she was unhappy and he didn't care about trying to help her be happier. Naru didn't know what she would do if they broke up; she would deal with that when it happened. Keep moving forward, one step at a time, she told herself.

During her lunch break she called Umino and told him she couldn't stop by his place that evening but she wanted to have lunch with him the next day. Umino agreed, sounding distracted and completely clueless. Naru hung up wondering if he would even notice if she dumped him.

* * * * * * * *

The next day, Thursday afternoon, Naru and Umino were walking from the biology building on the campus of Juuban University to a near-by diner that was popular with students. They hadn't said anything since Naru had stopped by the entomology department graduate student study room to pick up Umino, who had been deep in conversation with Yuki over a pile of papers on the table where they sat. Hunched up in her coat, Naru chewed her lip as they walked, still unable to decide how to bring up the subject of Yuki and where their relationship was going.

There was no other way but to be direct, she decided. "Umino," she said, staring down at the ground as they walked along the busy sidewalk, "how do you feel about Yuki?"

He suddenly grabbed her by the shoulder of her coat. "Naru, look out!" he shouted, pulling her back towards the building they were walking past.

Naru looked up. Two shimmering gray entities, not quite solid but with an unmistakably menacing aura about them, had blocked her and Umino's way. The other people on the sidewalk stood staring in shock at the apparitions. The things were faceless, but Naru could feel their attention directed at her and Umino. Not again, she thought. She pushed Umino farther back into the doorway of the building.

A familiar voice rang out. "You who threaten a young couple out on a date, I will punish you!" Sailor Moon appeared directly in front of the gray ghostly things. The crowd scattered out of the way. "And this time, die, dammit! Moon Princess Halation!"

Sailor Moon moved the elaborate pink-and-gold scepter she was holding in a complicated pattern, and as she finished shouting out her attack waves of light burst from the scepter and engulfed the gray creatures. Naru watched, expecting to see the monsters disappear, but instead the light disappeared, seemingly absorbed into the creatures, who suddenly loomed larger.

Sailor Moon fell to her knees. "No! What's wrong? Why doesn't it work any more?"

All at once Naru was overwhelmed by an all-too-familiar cold, weak feeling. The monsters were draining her energy and, from the looks of things, the energy of everyone else in the crowd. A few people tried to run away but collapsed unconscious on the sidewalk and street.

Naru's right hand burned. She remembered her weakness and frustration during all those attacks years ago, when she had been helpless to do anything, when others had endangered themselves to protect her. She remembered being unable to save - "That's enough!" she cried. "I won't be weak any more!" Not even understanding what she was doing, she raised her burning hand towards the monsters. "Leave us alone!" A burst of light blinded her as a huge wave of fire burst out from her hand. A second later the light was gone and her sight cleared; all that was left of the creatures were two faint smears of gray ash on the sidewalk.

Naru stared at her hand. The bandage was burned away, the skin on her palm was bright pink but otherwise appeared healthy and uninjured. Umino let go of her shoulder and stepped away from her. Naru looked at Sailor Moon, who was still kneeling on the sidewalk, staring at Naru with her eyes and mouth wide open.

"Naru-chan," the golden-haired heroine said faintly. "Are you one of us?"

The world rocked around Naru. She closed her eyes. Naru-chan. Exactly the way her best friend Usagi had said it for years, before they had drifted apart, because Usagi had seemed too occupied with her other friends and other mysterious concerns. Usagi...

"Why couldn't I do this back then?" Naru screamed at her lifelong friend. "Why couldn't I do this when it mattered? Why couldn't I save Him?" Blinded again, this time by tears, she started running through the crowd, which parted around her as though they were afraid to touch her.

She ran, blindly stumbling along the slushy, icy sidewalk, bumping into anyone who didn't move out of her way, until an ache in her side finally made her stop. Leaning against a wall, Naru gasped for breath in between her sobs. He didn't have to die, she thought. If I had known I could do that, he wouldn't have died, I would have been able to save him.

"Naru-chan." Naru heard Usagi's voice close in her ear, felt her friend's hand on her shoulder. "I didn't know you remembered him; I thought everyone's memories had been changed."

Naru shook her head, sniffling and wiping tears from her cold cheeks. "I remember all of it. I never forgot."

"If I had known, I would have told you about me, so you could talk to me about him."

Naru looked at Usagi. She was wearing a yellow sweater, black jeans, and blue fleece-lined coat. There was no trace of Sailor Moon except for the long bun-topped ponytails. Naru sniffled again and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Usagi seemed embarrassed. "It's dangerous for people to know about me. For me and for them. Plus it isn't just me, there are other people involved."

"Does Mamoru know?"

Usagi nodded. "Actually, he... he's part of this."

"And those other friends of yours."

“I can't tell you more, not without them saying it's okay, but we're meeting in a few minutes - I've called everyone together to talk about what happened, and I think you should come with."

Naru nodded her acquiescence, and the two young women began walking together. After several blocks, they came to an intersection where five streets met at the base of a hill, atop which sat a large shrine. "Come on," Usagi said, leading Naru up the long flight of steps to the shrine.

The Hikawa Shrine. "This is where your friend Rei lives. She's one of the Senshi, isn't she."

"I better not tell you that right now," Usagi repeated. "Not until I've asked them if it's okay."

They reached the interior area of the shrine and walked over to the residence on the right side of the grounds. Usagi knocked on the sliding wood-and-paper door, then opened it without waiting for an invitation. Inside, seven Sailor Senshi stood around a low traditional dining table. One of them was a girl with long, straight, black hair whom Naru recognized, from the few visits she had made to the shrine, as Rei, the young priestess who lived there. Despite the Sailor Senshi uniforms, she also recognized two of the others; tall, brown-haired Makoto and petite Ami, with dark, bobbed hair, had gone to the same junior high school as she and Usagi. Ami had been the smartest girl in the school. The other four were unknown to her, though she remembered seeing them as bridesmaids at Usagi's wedding: a young woman with long blonde hair, who looked about the same age as Naru and Usagi, two somewhat older women, one blonde and one aqua-haired, and a dark-haired girl in her mid-teens.

"Hi everyone, you all know who Naru is," Usagi said. She seated herself on one of the empty mats at the table, and the others followed suit. Naru took the last empty place, next to Usagi. "Luna hasn't been around, has she?" Usagi asked the group. They all shook their heads. "What about Artemis? Have you seen him lately, Sailor Venus?"

The girl with long blonde hair shook her head again. "Not in a week. Just like with Luna."

Usagi sighed unhappily. "Wherever they are, they're probably together. I wish they'd come back."

"They can take care of themselves," one of the older women said.

"No, they can't," Usagi said. "You weren't around that one time when Luna was being attacked by all those alley cats, or when Kunzite caught her and Artemis."

Luna was Usagi's small black cat, Naru remembered. She had an unusual crescent-shaped marking on her forehead. Naru assumed that Artemis was the blonde girl's cat. There had been a white cat, also with a crescent-shaped forehead marking, who with Luna had been guests of honor at Usagi's wedding reception. They had even had their own porcelain saucers of salmon and milk. Naru had thought it was unusual for cats to be allowed at a formal reception like that, but then a lot of things about Usagi were unusual. "Luna's missing?" Naru asked.

Usagi nodded unhappily. "I haven't seen her in a week. I've looked everywhere. I guess she'll just come back when she's ready." Usagi turned her attention back to the rest of the group and the business at hand. "I told all of you on the phone what happened and about what Naru did. What do you think?" She looked expectantly around at the other women.

"We don't know anything about her," one of the two older women, the one with short blonde hair, said. "What else she can do, why she can do it. Who she's with. We don't know anything."

"Well, don't you think she's probably one of us?" Usagi asked.

"She isn't a Sailor Senshi,” Ami said. “If I correctly understood your account of what happened, she didn't have to transform to attack. We do."

"Besides," Rei said glumly, "her attack works. Ours don't."

"You're right," Usagi said slowly. Her shoulders slumped. She looked at Naru. "I was hoping she was one of us. We sure could use some help."

"If she isn't a Senshi," the older blonde woman said, "we need to find out who or what she is, what she wants, and if she knows anything about what has gone wrong with our powers." Everyone was staring at Naru with curiosity and, in a few cases, suspicion. "Tell us what you can about what happened, Naru-chan," Usagi said.

"I don't know what happened," Naru said. She wished she could hide under the table, or just get up and walk out. Once again she was at the center of unfriendly attention from a group that she really didn't belong with, and she didn’t like it. "I didn't know I could do that until I did it. I was just thinking about how I hated being weak and not being able to protect myself and the people around me."

"Is that all?" Ami asked. "You had no hint, no warning, no one contacted you about your powers or about having a mission to carry out?"

Naru thought about Mikami Tetsiya, Yumeno Yumemi, and the painting. The burning sensation, the hint of flame she had seen on her palm as she studied the picture. Mikami-san's statement that Naru had powers and a destiny that she didn't know about. Suddenly she felt like she was being led into a trap. She knew nothing about the artist and the gallery owner; what if they were enemies of the Senshi? All at once it seemed like a good idea to get more information before she tried to answer any more questions.

"I don’t know anything," she said. “It just... it just happened. Out of nowhere. I was hoping maybe you could tell me what happened. But I guess you don't know any more than I do. All I can say is that I'm not your enemy, so please don't treat me like one." She stood up abruptly, jarring the table a bit. She needed to get out of there, away from their suspicions, away from the trap. "I'm sorry I can't tell you any more. Thanks for trying to help, Usagi." She hurried out of the house, knowing where she needed to go.

* * * * * * * *

In the silence after Naru left, Usagi looked at the others. "She's lying," she said. The rest of the Senshi nodded in agreement.

Michiru got to her feet. "I'll follow her."

"Okay," Usagi said. "Just follow, don't do anything else unless you're attacked."

Michiru bowed her head, then transformed and disappeared.