It probably wasn't very gentlemanly of him to disappear so quickly, leaving Naru-chan to face her mother by herself, but the questions would have been harder and the situation even more difficult if he had stayed. He had nearly panicked when they materialized in Naru's room to see her mother standing right there, but had remained clear-headed enough to set Naru-chan down carefully and disappear right away. Hopefully, her mother hadn't been able to catch more than a brief glimpse of him; with any luck, the blinding light accompanying his teleport would have convinced her that she was just imagining things.

He didn't return to the Chibas' apartment. He didn't know what to do. He only had about an hour left before he had to meet Kunzite, Zoisite, and Jadeite. He didn't know what he was going to tell them. He had failed in his assignment - well, he hadn't exactly failed, he had found Sailor Moon and the Senshi and convinced them to help him and the others, but an unforeseen obstacle had come up and he hadn't been able to find a way around it.

Not yet, anyway. He couldn't give up yet. Too much was at stake for him to give up this easily. There had to be some way to meet the voice's conditions without committing an even greater wrong. He teleported back to his mansion, slumped in a chair in the sparsely-furnished living room, and tried to think.

And fell asleep instead.