One-Sided Conspiracy

As Megami Hisui walked casually out of her room and into the Room Behind the Waterfall, she couldn't help but feel serene. The Room, normally loud and abuzz with some sort of mischeif, was so quiet and peaceful at half-past five in the morning. The remaining senshi were still asleep, and the Room Behind the Waterfall resembled a ghost town without each one puttering about doing something. Hisui sighed and strolled down the hallway.

It feels good to be awake before the sun rises, Hisui thought absently to herself. As she entered the main room, she heard a sound that, had it been a later time of day, would have been a normal and expected thing, but at five in the morning it was a freak occurrence. This sound was Kouno Chouko's undeniable squeal of delight.

Hisui shook her head, thinking she was imagining this sound. She crept towards where she had heard Chouko's happy squeal, which came from the area with the holovisions. Hisui's eyes practically grew to the size of dinner plates at what she saw there. Sitting on one of the sofas, swinging her Ryo-ohki-slipper-clad feet in the air, and bouncing on the sofa in joy was Chouko, apparently watching some program on a holovision.

Hisui came up to the hyper girl. "Chouko... what are you doing?? You usually aren't functional in the mornings until... about lunch time."

"Hmm? Oh, HI!!!" Chouko exclaimed, turning to Hisui with a bounce. "You wanna know why I'm up so early? Well... it's because there's gonna be an all day 'Z-Files' marathon!! Isn't that the coolest??"

"'The Z-Files'? Chouko, not for you to take offense, but you don't strike me as a person who'd understand political intrigue conspiracies." Hisui stated.

"I do, though! I understand this stuff! Besides... it's not always political thriller topics... sometimes there's monsters!" Chouko exclaimed, proceeding to growl and snarl in example of how a monster should sound. "Besides..." she began, stopping her monster example. "Mavin Duchofnee is really hot!"

Hisui shook her head. "You honestly woke up at 5 a.m..." Hisui began.

"Well... 4:30, actually. I had to bounce around the room a few times in excitement. And after that, I was REALLY thirsty, so I got a drink of soda, but I sorta spilled the whole liter on the floor, and I had to clean it up, but I ran out of paper towels..."

"You woke up at 4:30 a.m. to watch a day-long marathon of a show all by yourself?!" Hisui interrupted, not particularly wanting Chouko to drone on until the sun rose.

"No..." Chouko stated, looking down slightly. Hisui grinned slighty to acknowledge the fact that Chouko just may be more competent than she sometimes appeared.

"Mika's with me!!" the exuberant girl exclaimed. "So... I'm not alone!" At that comment, Mika bounded in from the kitchens, a large bowl of popcorn in her arms and proceeded to plop down onto the sofa. Hisui could only stare in amazement.

"Popcorn: check! 'Z-Files' t-shirt complete with catch phrase, 'The Truth is... Somewhere' adorned ever-so-lovingly on the front: check! The time, Chouko?" Mika said.

"5:29 and 42 seconds in the morning, SIR!" Chouko replied, donning the attitude of a soldier in boot camp. She then looked at her watch, shook it next to her ear, and muttered, "Give or take a few seconds... darn Burger Monarch kids meal watches..."

Hisui, meanwhile, had collapsed to the ground in surprise and frustration. Lying on the ground, she reminded herself, The next time I see one granule of sugar in the kitchens, I'm destroying it before these two get their hands on it...

As Chouko's slightly malfunctioning plastic watch struck 5:30, the 'Z-Files' marathon officially began. It was difficult to hear the whistle-like opening theme song over Mika's "Yahoo! Bring out the slobbering monster or government cover-ups!" and Chouko chanting, "Mavin Mavin Mavin Mavin..." as Mavin Duchofnee's name appeared in the opening credits, listing him as the portrayor of 'Wolf Muldur'.

After the theme song ended and the pre-show commercials ensued, Chouko turned to Hisui, who remained on the ground, still thinking about how to eradicate any sugar in the kitchens. "Are you alright? You didn't have a heart attack or something, did you?" the brown-haired girl asked.

"No." Hisui stated, standing up and brushing herself off. "The portion of my brain that deals with logic and the understanding of other people just exploded," Hisui said slightly sarcastically.

"That's not SERIOUS... is it??" Chouko asked, her voice sounding a bit worried. "'Cause something like that happened on 'The Z-Files' once! Only... it wasn't just part of these peoples' brains that exploded. It was the whole thing... kinda icky if you ask me."

"Oh, yeah! I remember that!" Mika added, turning to Hisui also. "Turned out to be evil flesh-eating worm things that burrowed into peoples' heads... didn't it?"

"I think so..." Chouko stated. "You don't have an evil flesh-eating worm thing in your head, right, Hisui?"

Hisui looked at the two girls with amusement on her face. "Not that I know of. I'll let you know if I find out I have a worm inside my head, okay?"

"Not just any worm!" Mika said. "An evil flesh-eating one. You have to watch out for those. The others... um... well... we don't really know what effect other worms have on brains."

Hisui shook her head and walked out of the room. Barely listening as the two girls chatted on the effects a normal garden-variety earthworm might have on the cerebrum, Hisui was thinking of a different cause and effect equation. What will the results be of two hyperactive, practically insane teenage girls watching an entire day of a show on the paranormal? Hisui thought. She paused for a moment to contemplate her own question. Well... it will be interesting to find out, that's for sure.

Four hours into the 'Z-Files' marathon, not much had changed Chouko and Mika. Sure, they had quickly and haphazardly dressed during a commercial break, yet the two were in the same state of mind that they had been earlier. Mika had kept her "The Truth is... Somewhere" t-shirt, but had managed to scrounge up a pair of baggy, comfortable bluejeans to wear. Also, Chouko's Ryo-ohki slippers had somehow made their way onto each of Mika's odango, much to the amusement of the blonde, who did not seem to remember how they had gotten there. She hypothesized it most likely occurred when the hideous sewer-dwelling vampiric mutant was revealed in the second episode, causing Chouko to panic and fall off the couch. Chouko was now dressed in loose khakis and a light pink t-shirt with a small blue butterfly on the front, as butterflies seemed to abound when it came to Chouko's wardrobe.

Breakfast had consisted of an immensely large bowl of popcorn, now lying upside-down on the floor with a few unpopped kernels scattered here or there. Many of the other senshi had awoken by this time, and many had found time to gawk at the two girls watching the holovision. It was a rare and, admittedly, somewhat frightening sight to see Mika and Chouko awake and functioning properly in the morning. One got the feeling that Armaggeddon was coming.

"Don't go in that cave, Muldur!" Chouko exclaimed. "There's a vicious, rabid hellbeast inside and it's probably already killed that irritating monitoring guy from the Agency! Get out of there!"

"Hey! Don't worry, Chou-chan! 'The Z-Files' wouldn't kill off one of its main characters! At least not before they hype it so that every being with eyes and a holovision in the galaxy is watching the show," Mika replied.

"Ara..." Chouko replied, still slightly anxious. "But I still don't want to see that icky rabid hellbeast again! I can't think of ANYTHING scarier!"

"What about Priire waking up on the wrong side of the bed on the day of an extensive blaster showcase event?" Mika questioned.

"Er... except for that..." Chouko replied, smiling.

Just as Muldur stepped into the cave, the show cut off into a commercial. "Commercials!" Mika exclaimed. "Last call for the restroom, getting a drink, and general stretching-of-legs!" The blonde stood up and stretched, while Chouko picked up the kernels of unpopped popcorn.

"Don't want Pinku-chan to find these on the floor... 'Chouko! You should be more responsible! If you want to be a Sailor Jedi, you have to learn to pick up after yourself!' Ha! This coming from a kitten who leaves her squeaky toys strewn all over my room..." Chouko muttered to herself.

"Pinku? ANYTHING'S a toy for her..." Mika said.

"Oh, yeah... that reminds me... I found, what, thirteen ribbons in her bed the other day? Something like that. Six of them are varying shades of the color pink -"

"Not mine!!" Mika cut in. "Pink... bleh..."

"Yeah, I guessed that. I think they're Annika's. Anyway, all I know is that they're not mine. Most of my ribbons come in this shade." Chouko stated, indicating the purple ribbon tying her braid. She stood up with the bowl which contained several unpopped kernals. "Gee... you don't think Pinku-chan is a kleptomaniac, do you?"

"Well..." Mika said, her expression giving away her opinion.

"Of all the cats in the world, I had to get the one with a knack for 'borrowing' things indefinitely." Chouko shrugged, walking towards the kitchen.

"You forgot the fact that she's equipped with a voice that could shatter glass!" Mika called back to Chouko, chuckling.

"BREAK GLASS, EH?!" came a very high-pitched, very angry, and VERY familiar voice. Lightyears across the universe, a pane of glass shattered, leaving a very confused housewife somewhere in the nicer area of Alpha Centauri staring at the former window in the kitchen with a mixture of shock and surprise.

"Pinku!" Mika exclaimed, turning to face the kitten who had seemingly appeared from nowhere.

"So! Now I'm a kleptomaniac kitten with the voice to break GLASS?!" Pinku exclaimed. The window in the laundry room at the house of the Alpha Centaurian housewife shattered, leaving the woman afraid of her home being attacked by some unseen force.

"No! You're a... very... kawaii and... sweet... and... innocent... er... and... pretty kitten!" Mika said, sweatdropping. "Now hold on, where did you come from, anyway?"

"Well, when a mommy cat and a daddy cat love each other very much..." Pinku began.

"NO! Not like that! I mean, how did you just seem to come into this room unnoticed!" Mika stated, exasperated.

"Oh. I'm a kitten!" Pinku exclaimed, bounding from the floor to the sofa. She proceeded to pace the top of the couch with an aire of dignity. "Kittens, as we all know, are young cats. You, Mika, being the senshi of cats, should know that we are the most refined of animals! We can creep up on victims, usually a gnat or some other pesky bug, unnoticed. We can pounce and surprise our masters! We can do basically anything without being found out or doing something stupid!" With that, Pinku giggled somewhat insanely, causing her to topple from the top of the couch, down to the cushions, and then to the floor, landing on her back. "Ow..."

Mika blinked. Right now she was more worried about Pinku's mental health than where she had come from. "Are you alright, Pinku-chan?"

"Waaah..." Pinku cried softly to herself. Realizing she had been addressed, she quickly leapt up and faced Mika. "Fine! Nothing happened! Just... er... usual kitten-esque grace and elegance!" A look of rememberance suddenly crossed the kitten's face. "Now... I KNOW you said my voice to break glass, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to surprise you, Mika."

"Surprise... me?" Mika asked, not sure of what exactly the kitten meant.

"No, no, no... not 'surprise'... surprise." Pinku grinned in an odd manner. "By tonight, you will be one VERY surprised girl! Now, I have to go shed all over Chouko's favorite sundress and hide some Tenchi Muyo! manga. She's been bad, too." With that, the kitten bounded out of the room, chuckling to herself.

Mika stared after the kitten with a confused look on her face as the commercials ended and 'The Z-Files' commenced. Chouko ran back into the room, practically diving onto the sofa. "Mika? Hello? Coruscant to Mika, come in Mika!" Chouko said to Mika, who still looked a bit disturbed.

"I think your kitten just threatened me, Chou-chan." Mika murmured, shaking her head. She sat back down on the sofa.

"Threatened? By Pinku?"

"Well, I dunno... she said 'surprised'."

"Eep... poor you. Surprise can be anything." Chouko stated. She looked back to the holovision. "NO! Watch out, Muldur!"

Nijihoshi skipped happily through the halls of the Room Behind the Waterfall. In her small hand was a letter, and the young girl was more than thrilled to deliver it. "Official Pretty Mail Girl, Nijihoshi Kusabana Chirudo! The Pretty Mail Girl takes her job with pride as she goes to deliver a letter!" she chirped to herself. "And today the Pretty Mail Girl shall be delivering a letter to..." Nijihoshi looked stopped her skipping and looked at the address on the letter. "Kouno Chouko! Yes, the Pretty Mail Girl will give Chouko this letter, and then it's OFF! Off again to deliver more messages, for a Pretty Mail Girl's job is never done! At least not until snack time." The small girl grinned to herself, then proceeded to skip down the hallway once more.

"Niji, Niji, Niji the Pretty Mail Girl! She isn't slow, doesn't charge a dime, she just delivers the mail on time! Niji, Niji, Niji the Pretty Mail Girl!" the five-year-old sang to herself, then repeated the song as she pranced into the room where Chouko and Mika sat riveted, watching 'The Z-Files.' "Aha!" Niji whispered to herself as she stopped abruptly around ten feet from the sofa. "The Mail Girl has found the receipient of the letter!"

With the sounds of an inhuman gutteral growl and a man's short scream of surprise coming from the holovision, Chouko and Mika teetered at the edge of the sofa. "Watch out, Wolf Muldur!!" the two said at once. With a happy spring in her step, Nijihoshi bounced over to where Chouko and Mika sat, leaping right in front of the holovision.

"AHHHHHH!!!!" Mika and Chouko screamed in unison, flailing their arms, knocking each other unconscious, and falling off the couch.

Nijihoshi blinked her large eyes innocently. "Big kids are weird."

Chouko awoke to see Nijihoshi sitting on the sofa, watching cartoons on the holovision. The groggy girl felt something in her hand, and a word registered in her mind. "Paper..."

Nijihoshi looked down at Chouko, who still lay on the floor. "Yup! Letters are usually made with paper, y'know. And I should know, because I am the Pretty Mail Girl Nijihoshi!" the girl smiled, then turned to her cartoons and giggled.

Mika had woken up as well, now. "AUUGHH! Now I won't know what happened to Wolf Muldur and the evil hellbeast! WHY!?"

Chouko sat up, looking at her letter quizzically. "I've got a letter?" She looked at the envelope and verified that it, indeed, was for her. "I've got a letter! Sugoi!"

"And with the happy words of another satisfied costumer..."

"You probably mean 'customer', Niji-chan," Mika corrected.

"And with the happy words of another satisfied customer, Niji the Pretty Mail Girl is off to find more letters to deliver!" Niji jumped from the couch and skipped off, singing, "Niji, Niji, Niji the Pretty Mail Girl..."

"Little kids are weird," Mika stated. She then paused for a moment before she dove onto the remote control and quickly changed the channel back to the 'Z-Files' marathon. "I can hardly believe it myself, Gulley... that hellbeast... I'm still in awe at what happened last night," the voice of Wolf Muldur stated.

"Nooooooooooo!!" Mika cried. "What happened?! What happened, what happened, what happened, what happened?!" the blonde chanted quickly.

Chouko, meanwhile, held the letter in awe. As she didn't have much of a family in this galaxy, she was busy trying to think of who she knew would send her a letter. She sat onto the sofa and inspected the letter while Mika pouted as the ending credits rolled.

Nijihoshi still skipped, but her happy Mail Girl song had ceased to be. With a sigh, Nijihoshi spoke to herself, "No more mail to deliver. BUT this proves how great the Pretty Mail Girl Nijihoshi is! I've delivered all my messages a LONG time before snacktime! 'Course there was only one I was given to deliver... but... that doesn't matter!"

The cheerful little girl exited the Room Behind the Waterfall into the beautiful Room of a Thousand Waterfalls. It's so pretty here... Nijihoshi thought to herself. With a smile, she regarded the elegant waterfalls and exotic water plants. However, something... more correctly, someone... was out of place there.

A small boy stood near the center of the Room of a Thousand Waterfalls. He gazed in awe at his surroundings, completely immersed in the exotic beauty of it all. He had a look to him that suggested that he thought he may have been in a dream, and that he was just expecting to wake up from the odd serenity of the waterfall-filled room. He looked to be about six years old, but there was a certain air about him that made him seem too aloof and shy for that age. He had spiky black hair, with green mixed in for good measure. As light hit his hair, it seemed to bring out the emerald hue in it. His deep blue eyes, taking in his surroundings, held an odd indescribable quality to him which added to his aloof and shy aura.

Nijihoshi looked at the awed boy for a moment, wondering if he was an Initiate who had gotten lost. Quickly, a smile came to her face at the prospect of a new friend. Completely ignoring the feelings of shyness radiating from this boy, she walked quickly up to him. "Hi!"

The boy looked startled that Nijihoshi had spoken to him. "Uh... h-hi..." he said quietly.

"I'm Nijihoshi, but my friends call me Niji-chan. What's your name?" the five-year-old asked.

"Kagerou..." the boy said softly.

"Huh?" Niji asked, not quite hearing what the boy had said.

"My... my name is Kagerou." the boy said, still shyly, but Nijihoshi understood it.

"Hi, Kagerou! So... why are you here?" Nijihoshi asked, definitely wanting to find out if he was simply a lost Initiate.

"Well..." Kagerou said in his soft manner. He looked down at his feet in either nervousness or shyness due to this girl's questioning. He sensed that he could trust this girl in what he had to say, though he wasn't sure why he could trust her. "I have to find the Sailor Jedi... I was sent here by my mommy and daddy because I guess I'm supposed to be a Knight or something..."

"REALLY!?" Nijihoshi exclaimed, surprising the boy. "That's great!! I'm a Sailor Jedi! I'm Sailor Chibi Corellia! All the other Sailor Jedi and Knights live in a big connection of rooms and hallways behind that waterfall. It's so fun!" Nijihoshi pointed to the particularly large waterfall which led to the ever-appropriately named Room Behind the Waterfall.

"I know they live there..." Kagerou said before he could stop himself.

"Then why haven't you already gone in?" Nijihoshi asked.

"I... I don't do well around lots of people..." Kagerou said, a slight blush to his face. "I'm... I'm really shy... and... I'm just not really good with people... people I don't know..."

"Oh," Nijihoshi said. Suddenly, she felt like she had to get to the bottom of this boy's shyness issue. Surely there had to be something that caused it, and she sensed that Kagerou was not your average six-year-old boy. An idea popped into her mind. "I know! I'll show you around, and if anyone asks, you're just a friend I met at the Temple! That way, people won't flock all over you saying, 'Aw! Newbie!' until you're ready for it! But... we'll have to watch out for Annika. She really loves little kids... and she can really go overboard on hugs."

Kagerou blinked in a disbelieving and confused manner. Up until now, all the kids his age wouldn't come within ten feet of him, calling him 'strange' and 'freak'. Suddenly, there was this girl his age willing to help him get used to the place he would have to live for... well, he wasn't entirely sure. The future was so hard to see, and infinite possibilities only made it harder. "Well... er..."

"Pleeeaaaaaseeee??" Nijihoshi asked, batting her eyelashes innocently.

"I... guess so... Nijihoshi." Kagerou muttered, still slightly flustered.

"Ah, ah! You can call me Niji-chan!" the girl said happily. She took a hold of Kagerou's hand and started to lead the dazed boy. "Come on!"

With Nijihoshi leading, the two children entered the Room Behind the Waterfall.

After reading her letter, Chouko folded it, placed it back into the envelope, and sat quietly on the sofa for a moment. As Mika was absorbed in the fact that Wolf Muldur was caught in the extensive laboratory of a scientist performing illegal cloning, she didn't even notice Chouko beginning to squirm happily, blushing madly, and giggling to herself.

With a joyous outburst, Chouko practically screamed, "AHH!!! KAMI-SAMA IN HEAVEN!!! YAY!!"

With a face-fault, Mika leaped up into the air and onto the top of the couch. "ACK!" she exclaimed. "Chou-chan?! How did you get so loud?!"

"Maybe all the singing lessons I took on Earth made my vocal chords really strong, or something. I'm not sure!" Chouko said superfluously. She cleared her throat and said, "Anyway... HE wrote to me!"

"Uh... remind me Chou-chan. Who's 'he'?" Mika asked. Chouko's response was a very quick one, from what Mika heard - it was a request for her to hold on a minute. Before Mika could say anything else, Chouko had run off in the direction of her room, yelling that she would be back in a minute. Mika watched as Chouko ran off, an obvious look of confusion on the blonde girl's face.

When Chouko returned, she had a holopicture in her hand. She handed it to Mika, and said, "'He' is Raeil, the boy I really, really like." Chouko smiled happily and indicated for Mika to look over the picture. She bounced around a few times, looking very pleased.

Mika blinked and showed the picture to Chouko. "This is Pinku," she stated simply, pointing to the holopicture that was obviously Pinku hamming it up for the camera.

"What?" Chouko asked, breaking out of her euphoria. "Ara... so it is!" She suddenly looked very embarrassed. "I guess I grabbed the wrong picture. Sorry, Mika-chan."

"It's okay, Chou-chan. I think I know who you're talking about, anyway. Isn't he that Padawan with the dark green hair that Pinku REALLY doesn't like?"

Chouko sighed. "Pinku-chan is overprotective of me. She thinks I shouldn't have anything to do with boys because I'm 'too young'. Sometimes, I think she'd treat me like a very big five-year-old if I ever let her. Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention she was having a very bad day when she met Raeil."

"Well, I'd feel safe being protected Pinku-chan, if I were you," Mika stated, smiling. She winked and continued, "What wards off weirdos better than a control-freak talking kitten?"

"True." Chouko said. She looked at the letter and stated sadly, "I just wish that he was closer to the Temple. Long-distance relationships have a history of falling apart, and I just don't want that to happen."

"And this the room where the more artsy senshi get to show off!" Nijihoshi proclaimed. She had taken it upon herself to show the slightly overwhelmed Kagerou into every single room that branched out from the Room Behind the Waterfall. "See all the pretty paintings and sketches and sculptures and stuff?" The small girl quickly led Kagerou to a particular painting.

"I REALLY like this one. It's of me, and it's really pretty and the colors are bright and I just really like it!" The painting, indeed, was of Nijihoshi. Captured in vivid paint, the visage of the little girl smiled playfully while holding a basket full of various brightly colored flowers. "My friend Chouko painted it for me when I really wanted to model for a painting. Chouko wants at least one of her paintings to be put in a gallery sometime, and I kinda want this one to be it." Nijihoshi grinned at Kagerou. "You probably know why by now."

Kagerou, meanwhile, looked as though he hadn't heard a word Nijihoshi had said. His eyes were glued to the painting. My mom painted this... wow. I didn't know she was this good! Better not tell Nijihoshi, yet... He now knew he was in the right place, but now he needed to worry about breaking the news to his mother, or in this case mother-to-eventually-be, without her panicking and breaking sound records in screaming.

"It's very pretty," Kagerou said, smiling a bit. Then, with a tug from Nijihoshi, the two were off to investigate the Room Behind the Waterfall once more.

A bit later, the two small children had reached the room where Mika and Chouko were reinacting an episode of "The Z-Files" while the local news interrupted their marathon, even if just for thirty minutes. While the girls' reinactment would seem odd in its own light, the strangeness of it all was only amplified by the fact that Mika wore the long empty popcorn bowl on her h ead like a battle helmet, while Chouko did the same with a colander.

"Muldur! They're shooting at us!" Chouko screamed in her best imitation of Special Agent Jaina Gulley. She folded her hands to what was most likely an imitation blaster, and proceeded to make firing noises. Mika followed the example, using her hand to blast at imaginary foes. The blonde noticed the two small children standing staring wide-eyed at them and stopped her parody. Chouko, however, continued shooting with the imaginary blaster for a moment, until Mika quickly nudged her in the side, causing the girl to snap abruptly back into reality.

"These are some of the big kids," Nijihoshi said, turning to Kagerou. "They're pretty much the weirdest things you can find here, and we see a LOT of weird things! Don't worry though, they don't hurt anything unless they go crazy. Too bad that happens so much."

Chouko frowned a bit. "Now I know how those poor animals on nature documentaries feel." The colander on her head slipped a bit, causing the brunette to give her improvised hat a wary glare before righting it.

"Hi, Niji. Do you have a new friend?" Mika asked.

"Yep! I'm showing him around," Nijihoshi said. Kagerou waved shyly. "We've got the WHOLE Room Behind the Waterfall to look at, so we'll be back later to see if you two are still being silly." She grinned and turned to Kagerou. "C'mon, I'll show you the kitchens, we can get a snack while we're in there!" The two made their way to kitchens, Nijihoshi talking bubbily the whole way.

"I wonder who that little boy was," Chouko wondered. A strange look settled on her face. "It's sort of like I knew him... it was freaky."

"Sounds freaky," Mika conceded. "What do you mean by that?"

"That's just it! I don't know! It's just... you know... identification, I guess. Deja vu, maybe?" She shrugged. "Well, since our little reinactment is basically shot, I guess I'll take the picture of Pinku back to my room." She retrieved the picture and headed off to her room.

Chouko placed the picture of Pinku on the dresser next to her bed, with the other things of interest that brought good memories. There was the picture of her Earth family from when she was two, the first time she had attended a festival. Chouko giggled at how she looked so cute in her little pink kimono. Another picture was the standard-issue "weird friends" picture with several of the senshi Chouko was closest to making faces ranging from hilarious to slightly disturbing. Also on the dresser was the stunningly beautiful butterfly crystal Yukiko had given Chouko for her birthday, despite the fact that Chouko still seemed to age by Earth standards. Finally, of course, was the picture Chouko had meant to grab earlier.

Chouko smiled at the picture of herself and Raeil, both posing very happy for the camera. Upon furthur inspection, she detected a slight blush to Raeil's cheeks. "Ooo..." She grinned and giggled. While she was still giggling, a few random thoughts subliminally connected in her mind. She stopped giggling abruptly at the connected train of thoughts. Looking at the picture of Raeil, and recalling the boy Nijihoshi was giving a tour to, she noted a distinct resemblance. Also, the plot from the episode of "The Z-Files" she had seen with Mika managed to wriggle its way into her line of thinking.

With a gasp, Chouko placed the picture back on her dresser, along with the letter. She grabbed onto each handle of the colander on her head, and ran out of her room, yelling, "MIKA!!! MIKA!!! CODE BLUE!! WE HAVE A FULL-FLEDGED CONSPIRACY ON OUR HANDS!!"

Mika stared at Chouko, who seemed to be hyperventalating. "Ah... Chou-chan? You were screaming something about a conspiracy...?" Chouko nodded and caught her breath.

"Mika! You know the episode of the 'Z-Files' we saw, where those people were performing illegal cloning, and the clones looked like the... um... clone-ees, only younger?" Chouko asked quickly, gesticulating wildly.

"Yeah... yeah..." Mika said, nodding with what Chouko had to say. "Go on."

"And you know that little boy Nijihoshi was giving a tour to?"

"Yeah..." Mika replyed, now anxious to see what this was leading up to.

"I think, and this is a theory here, so it's not developed properly or anything, that that boy was a CLONE!!" Chouko exclaimed, wondering exactly why it took several seconds for recognition to set into Mika's eyes. The theory made perfect sense, at least in Chouko's albeit strange mind.

"Hey... you may have something there, Chouko! But... a clone of who?" Mika asked.

"Of Raeil! The resemblance is kinda scary! That's probably why I had that deja vu-ish feeling earlier! See, it all fits together like one big jigsaw puzzle with the picture being the words 'Clone! He's a clone!'" Chouko exclaimed. She readjusted the colander on her head and continued. "You know what this means, right?"

"Uh-huh. It means... CHOUKO AND MIKA TO THE RESCUE!!" the blonde exclaimed, high-fiving Chouko. "But..."

"But... what?" Chouko asked.

"Well, there's just one tiny thing missing with this. WHY would somebody clone a Padawan without him realizing it?" Mika asked. She and Chouko stared at each other for a moment, then proceeded to move into positions where they thought the best. They thought and thought. In fact, they thought so hard, one wisecracking Earthborn probably would have begun humming the theme to Jeopardy.

"I've got it!" Chouko exclaimed. "Okay, you saw the first Star Wars movie back home on Earth, right?"

"Of course!" Mika exclaimed. "I practically have the movies memorized."

"Well, you know what Obi-wan Kenobi said about something called 'the Clone Wars'? Maybe it's that! Maybe that's coming up!" Chouko exclaimed, fret finding its way to inflect her voice.

"I dunno," Mika stated thoughtfully. "He said Anakin fought in it, and he's only thirteen. But... I dunno... he DID fly that ship during the Nubian crisis..."

"Or he didn't fight in the Clone Wars at all," Chouko muttered. "When I saw the movies back home, I sort of thought of Kenobi as a pathological liar."

"If Annika finds out you said that, she'll kill you," Mika said. "And I had no idea you knew words like 'pathological'."

"You know... neither did I," Chouko said, her eyes widening a bit. She shook her head. "We're getting off topic."

"So you think that this may be the dawning of the Clone Wars?" Mika asked. Chouko nodded slowly. "Then we aren't allowed to stop it. Of course, it might not be the beginning of the Clone Wars, and a situation completely apart from it. It could be EXACTLY like the 'Z-Files' episode, and a mad scientist is behind it all! If that's the case... then we can kick some major clone booty!" She pulled the popcorn bowl atop her head down a bit. "Yeah!"

"You think so, Mika-chan?" Chouko asked. "You think we CAN stop this?" Mika nodded resolutely. "But, I don't really want to HURT the kid Nijihoshi was with. It's not right to pick on little kids."

"Oh, of course. We'll just capture the clone and keep him until Special Agents for the Republic can come and get him. We can also tell them about the theory behind it all, and they can find the crazy scientist!" Mika exclaimed. Both of the girls were being whipped into a slight frenzy now, just planning on how they were going to go about their plan.

"Right," Mika continued. "First we need to find Nijihoshi and that kid. After that, I'm pretty sure we can move onto the next stage!" She leapt up from the sofa a bit too quickly, tripping and landing on her face. "Ow."

Chouko cleared her throat and cluched her hands on each handle on her colander/hat. "I have a bad feeling about this," she sighed.

Mika crept through the kitchens, a broom held tightly in her hands. If one was to listen very closely, it was apparent that she was humming the theme of "Mission: Impossible" to herself. Of course, her stealth would have been much improved, and more impressive, if she did not trip over something new every other minute. She eventually made her way to crouch behind a pantry door. She remained there, looking rather like a spy that had gone absolutely bonkers. That is, until she felt a hand tap on her shoulder.

Mika waved her hand dismissively, never looking behind. When the tap came again, this time more persistently, Mika whispered, "Chouko, I thought you said you were going to the library to see if you could find any information about mad scientists."

"I am not Chouko," said a slightly irritated and familiar voice. Mika spun around quickly, accidentally landing on her rear in the process and causing her popcorn bowl helmet to slide and cover her face. She slowly moved the bowl back onto her head, and grinned nervously at the rather annoyed woman who stood before her.

"Um... hi, Nom?" the blonde girl offered.

Nom crossed her arms and glared down at Mika. "What are you doing in my kitchen acting the way you are?"

"YOUR kitchen?" Mika asked. She then observed the look Nom continued to give her, and said, "Ah! Your kitchen, of course, sorry... heh heh. Um..." Mika stalled for a moment. "I was... ah... studying the mating habits of animal crackers?" She suddenly felt like smacking herself upside the head for saying that.

One of Nom's eyebrows arched slowly. In her usual voice, she stated, "I may not know what is going on, but I am not stupid."

"Well, you see, Nom, the real reason I'm in here like this is classified information," Mika said, looking a bit embarrassed.

"I see," Nom stated. "You have been watching that holovision show with Chouko again, have you not?"

Mika's eyes widened. "How did you know I was watching the 'Z-Files' earlier with Chouko??"

"It was an educated guess," Nom said, pointing to Mika's 'The Truth is... Somewhere' t-shirt.

"Oh," Mika muttered, looking at her shirt. "I completely forgot I was wearing this."

"Now, I want you out of my kitchen by the time I count to three. You could easily break something very important in here, Mika," Nom demanded, crossing her arms yet again.

"But Nom..."

"One..."

"I have to spy, I mean, stay here..."

"Two..."

"C'mon, Nom..."

"THREE."

Before Nom could act, Mika was scrambling out of the kitchen at break-neck speed, yelling something along the lines of, "DON'T KILL ME!!" Nom watched as Mika tore off, then proceeded to right all the things the blonde girl had knocked over while in the kitchen.

Pinku crept through the slightly ajar door quite easily. That was one of the good things about being a kitten, after all. "Let's see... let's see..." she muttered to herself as she bounded around in the room, inspecting everything. "What would be best..." The pink kitten wormed her way under the bed in the room, only to come out on the other side with a pouty look on her face. "Why can't I come up with anything? I'm usually so good with payback..."

"I've already warned her..." Pinku mused, looking thoughtful as she batted at a dust bunny. "So she'll be expecting something pretty major.... then why didn't she lock her door, at least?" The little kitten suddenly looked very angry as she flattened the dust bunny with her paw. "Maybe she wasn't even threatened by me!" She then sneezed from the dust bunny residue on her paw, looking very cute doing so. "I guess having your threats not taken seriously is one of the curses of being a pink kitten..." Pinku glared at the dustbunny she had previously flattened. "YOU find me threatening, right? Nothing scarier than a giant pink kitten!" She poked at the dustbunny once more. "Yeah, you're really threatened by me."

She pouted for a moment longer, when her eyes suddenly lit up with inspiration. A mischievous grin spread slowly on her face, and she crept out from under the bed. "PERFECT!!!" she exclaimed, doing a little dance in her inspiration. She bounded out of the room, and headed for another down the long hallway.

"Mad scientists... mad scientists... mad scientists..." Chouko muttered to herself. From the sound of her voice, she seemed to be wrapped up in searching. However, she actually held a large upside-down boardbook titled The Little Spaceship That Could in her hands, with a shoujo manga held inside it. Obviously, she hadn't tried very hard to conceal the manga. "Oooo... how's she going to get out of this one..." she whispered to herself, which was followed by a louder, "Mad scientists... where can I find something about mad scientists..." Distraction always was a fault of Chouko's.

"CHOUKO!!" Mika yelled as she ran into the library. Her outburst caused everyone who was in the library at the time to 'shh' her. "Oh, right, sorry." Mika whispered, looking embarrassed. "Chouko!"

Chouko looked up from her boardbook. "Oh, hi, Mika! I was... um... looking up information on..." She observed the title of her alibi book. "Ahh... little spaceships that could."

Mika peeked over the boardbook and noticed the concealed manga. "Ooh! I haven't seen that volume yet, Chou-chan. Here, let me read too..." She and Chouko read the manga, occasionally 'Oo!'-ing, 'Ah!'-ing, and gasping as the events unfurled in the volume. Distraction always was a fault of Mika and Chouko's.

"Is there something you wanted to tell me, running in like that?" Chouko asked flatly. "OO!! He's gonna kiss her!!" Chouko squealed.

"Umm... oh, right, Nom kicked me out of the kitchen, and I didn't see Nijihoshi or the kid anywhere." Mika stated, her mind absorbed in the manga. "Oh, no! It was all a romantic dream... poor Megumi..."

"It WAS?! Stop reading ahead of me!" Chouko whined.

"Hi!" a young voice proclaimed to Mika and Chouko, who were still wrapped up in reading the concealed manga. "Kagerou and I were wondering where you two were! We were looking ALL OVER the place!"

"That's nice..." the two girls echoed blankly.

"I know something you don't know!" Nijihoshi stated in a sing-songy tone of voice.

"That's nice, Niji-chan..." Mika and Chouko repeated.

"It's REALLY important!!" Nijihoshi said.

Chouko looked down from the manga to Nijihoshi and her companion, the strange boy from earlier. None of it really seemed to register with Chouko right away, as she smiled at the two small children and went back to the manga. She suddenly did a double-take, looking back down at the little boy and girl. "AH! MIKA! THE CLONE!"

It took Mika a moment to pry herself away from the interesting manga as well, but as soon as what was happening set in, she was in action too. "Oh! Right! I forgot ALL about that! Weird." She kneeled down to Kagerou's height and looked the startled boy over. "Hey, wait a second, Chouko... I thought Raeil had green eyes?"

"He does," Chouko stated. She kneeled to the position Mika was in. "But this kid... has... blue... eyes..." She blinked a few times in rapid succession, while standing up straight again. "And... clones... look... identical... so... blue... eyes... would... mean... Oh! Well, it seems I've jumped to a bit of a conclusion, then, haven't I?" She blushed heavily and placed her hand on her crimson cheek. "Boy, do I feel stupid."

"Awww... and I wanted to meet a real, live clone, too..." Mika pouted, standing up to her full height once more.

"What's this about clones?" Nijihoshi asked curiously. "Is THAT why you two were being so silly earlier?"

"Umm... yes. Yes it was," Mika said, improvising her answer that didn't come out sounding overly believable. What followed was an awkward silence that felt so long, three ice ages could come to be and melted away within it.

Nijihoshi and Kagerou looked at each other with matching expressions of confusion. Nijihoshi's confusion quickly faded into a mischevious grin, however, and she gave Kagerou a small push towards Chouko. The expression on the young girl's face held a sense of amused urgency.

Kagerou looked a bit surprised at the jolt, but that slowly faded to slight embarrassment as he stood fidgiting slightly in front of Chouko, who was wondering exactly what was going on. "I..." the shy boy started. He looked down at his feet and continued. "I... I have something for you." He reached into his pants pocket and pulled out a letter, presenting it to Chouko.

"Oh wow! Two letters in one day! I'm so lucky..." Chouko grinned, and took the letter from the boy's hands. "Thank you!"

Mika cocked an eyebrow. "What is it with small children being the mail couriers as of late? Is there a Union dispute going on?"

Chouko didn't listen as she opened the letter. She could feel something barely perceptible, something like a warning, only those words would not be appropriate. Warnings were usually connected to bad things, like on the several occasions when Nom warned her not to touch her cooking, only to spend the rest of the day hiding from said Dathomirian. Yes, Chouko decided that the feeling she got as she unfolded the letter was something along the lines of, "Hey! You'd better pay attention!"

She smiled as she began reading. "This handwriting's kind of familiar..." she noted to herself. As she continued reading, her face slowly paled slightly. After the pale had completed, her face seemed to turn a barely perceptible shade of light green. She brought the note closer to her face as she read, both hands now clutching the letter. When she had finished reading, she continued to stare at the paper for a moment, before her head slowly raised from its reading position. She stared blankly at nothing for a moment, before squeaking something unintellegible.

Mika moved her hand quickly before Chouko's non-responsive face, she poked the seemingly frozen girl tentatively, and finally plucked the letter from Chouko's hands, which remained in their clutching position. As Mika read, her eyes slowly widened. A grin then followed those widened eyes. "WOW!! Chouko's got a chibi! Or... well... a boy chibi. Cool!" She turned back to Chouko, who remained stiff. "Huh. You're taking it much better than I would have thought, Chou-chan. Oh, and by the way... uh... the future-you and the present - you both need to work on your spelling."

Chouko seemed to snap out of her daze right about then. She looked down at the small boy who stood before her and knelt to his height. An air of surprise still seemed to radiate from her as she asked, "I'm... well, I will be... I'll be... your m-mother??"

Kagerou nodded. "My mom told me you'd take the news funny," Kagerou said, and with that, he was back to being silent once more.

"You really know yourself well, Chouko!" Mika mentioned, grinning. The whole situation was proving very entertaining to the blonde girl.

Chouko smiled at Kagerou. "I still don't know your full name..." she began.

After a moment, the boy replied, "Kagerou Sepheus."

"I like it," Chouko grinned. "It's a very nice name! And... I think I'll call you 'Kage-kun'. Do you mind if I call you that?" Kagerou shook his head. Chouko gave the small boy a quick hug. "Then it's nice to meet you, Kage-kun! I guess I'll be your mom eventually... and I also can't believe how much I sound like a real estate agent right now."

Kagerou blinked a few times. He hadn't the slightest clue as to what a real estate agent was.

The remainder of the day had been very strange for Chouko, as she and Mika decided to introduce Kagerou to all the senshi they could find that were A) there and B) breathing. The general reaction seemed to be "Chouko... reproduces... in... the... future? OH MY GOD!!!" Of course, nobody actually SAID that, as there was a certain politeness factor one must add in, but the thought was most likely being yelled in their heads at random decibles. Naturally, some reactions were more memorable than others.

Rene had been rather shocked at the news, but that was to be expected. How else would somebody react if they discovered that they were a grandmother before they were even a mother? The elder Dantooine sailor, however, did decide that perhaps it was a good thing that Kagerou was now a member of the considerably large group that called the Room Behind the Waterfall "home". Just calling the Room Behind the Waterfall anything brought bad memories for Chouko of the time she tried to convince everyone to change the name from the Room Behind the Waterfall to "Phil". She had gotten Koumi and Kairiku in on it, but the whole thing just seemed to fizzle out once their plans slowly turned from playful to questionably pshycotic. Looking back on it, it continued to be something one shouldn't bring up in polite conversation.

Another person to be affected by Kagerou's introduction was Chouko's older brother, Tenchi. He was rather... surprised, at a lack of a better word... at finding out that he was technically an uncle. In fact, it was now late evening, and he was still in his room, a cold compress over his head, muttering to himself about it. Miyuki sat at his side, naturally, and had a look that hinted she was desperately trying to suppress giggles.

Meanwhile, Chouko and Mika had returned to catch the final episode in their precious "Z-Files" marathon after Kagerou had exhausted from coming from the future, THEN being escorted around all day and having to meet a majority of people he didn't know. Needless to say, he had fallen asleep very quickly on his newly-designated bed in his newly-designated room. Chouko's mind, however, wasn't on the program which played in front of her.

"It seems so... freaky," Chouko muttered to herself.

"A nutcase is killing people alphabetically because some secretive, most likely evil organization planted some microchip in his brain, of course it's freaky!" Mika stated, pointing to the screen.

Chouko blinked. "Guh?" she looked at Mika, then at the holovision. "Oh. Not that. I meant it's just weird that I have a kid in the future."

"At least yours isn't evil," Mika muttered, crossing her arms.

"At least yours can keep conversation," Chouko sighed.

"Conversation... evil... there's just not much of a comparison, Chou- chan," Mika mumbled.

"True, but you'd think that a kid of mine would talk a LOT more," Chouko said, turning to Mika. Her tone turned worried, "You don't think... there's something wrong with him, do you?"

"Probably not, but he does seem a little secretive, or something like that," the blonde girl paused, before brightening. "He'd make a great 'Z-Files' plot, I bet!"

Chouko sweatdropped. "Mika-chan..."

"Joking, joking, Chouko!" Mika giggled, waving her hands in denial. She straightened up, a grin still on her face, "Say, have you seen Pinku since earlier? She threatened me a while back, but I didn't really take it seriously..."

"Well, now that you mention it, I thought I saw her whispering something to Riko while giggling in a way that would make most chipmunks jealous," Chouko stated. "Why?"

Mika paled. "I... I think I'm... going to go... check my stuff now..." She got up from the couch and just stood in place for a moment before running like mad down the hallway. Chouko blinked as she watched Mika go off, and waited for a moment. "AHHHHHHHHHH!!!!" came Mika's scream after another moment of waiting. Chouko grew wide eyes, and ran to were the scream originated.

When she reached Mika's room, she saw her friend standing in her doorway, gaping in absolute terror. She turned her head slowly to Chouko, a look of revulsion on her face. "The horror. The horror. It's... it's... PINK!!"

Chouko peeked into the room to see that "PINK!!" was a very good way to describe Mika's room. Every item in the room was completely overwhelmed in cavity-inducing pinkness, saving the floor. She wandered into the room, amazed at it all. "Pinku did THIS?!" she exclaimed. She made her way to Mika's bathroom, to see a certain kitten's squiggly visage doodled on the mirror in pink lipstick, with 'Who's the smartie now?!' written beneath it. Chouko stared at the sight. "Now I have absolutely NO idea how she did THAT. Pinku doesn't even have opposable thumbs!"

"I don't care if her thumbs are opposable, posable, or even just plain able, all I want is to have this... this... ABOMINATION removed!" Mika yelled from the center of her room. She looked around, shuddering at the sight of such a pink room. "Hey... wait a second... some of this stuff isn't even mine."

"What do you mean?" Chouko asked.

"I mean, I don't own this stuff!" Mika said, her confusion steeping.

"Then who -?" Chouko began, but her question was cut short by a loud yell.

"HEEEEY!! Where's all my STUUUFF?!?" came a distressed scream from down the hallway.

"Annika," Mika and Chouko stated at once, looking at each other.

"I'll clean up the mirror, and you go explain this to Annika, okay? I can help move things back to the right rooms. It is my psycho kitten's fault, anyway," Chouko proposed. Mika nodded and went out of her room. "And... I'll remind myself to give Pinku-chan a lecture on vengeance," Chouko muttered as she left the room to get a rag.

On her way, she passed Kagerou's room, and peeked her head in to see the little boy curled up on his bed, sleeping peacefully. Chouko smiled warmly and whispered, "Welcome to the Room Behind the Waterfall, Kage-kun." After a quiet moment, she carefully closed the door.