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"Crystal Shower!"
The monster disappeared, disintegrated by the powerful attack. Sailor Corellia smoothed out her green skirt, then gave the girls around her two thumbs-up signs.
"Sim off."
"Who's here?" Sailor Corellia asked into the darkness as the simulated attack-program shut off. The girls around her disappeared; they were part of the program, too. She pulled a little wand from a special pocket sewn into her uniform, and with the press of a button, it grew into her old staff.
"Hey, whoa Hoshiko!! It's just me!" The lights came up and there stood Raven. "Nice stick - don't let Ippin see that!"
"Raven..." Corellia sighed. She shrunk her staff back down to wand-size, put it in her pocket, and walked over to Raven. She was suddenly aware of her outfit and the super-short skirt which came with it. She de-transformed, back into the outfit she'd been wearing; a white, puffy-sleeved shirt, a green jumper that came to her knees, a pair of green shoes and white socks, and a green ribbon holding her -- at that point down -- long brown hair back. Sutaru smirked.
"So what brings you all the way into the middle of the Jedi Temple, hmm?" Sutaru asked after giving him a little kiss on the cheek.
"Well... I just wanted to ask you if... you wanted to go with me to the Skydome Botanical Gardens tomorrow."
Sutaru smiled. Finally, a date with Raven! "Of course I'll go!" She hugged him, and they parted their separate ways, since it was nearly midnight there on Coruscant. Before leaving the room, however, Sutaru did a little jump-spin and beamed brightly.
Sutaru met up with Kairiku the next morning.
"Hey Kairiku! You'll never guess what happened to me last night!" Sutaru exclaimed brightly, though she had a Hapan pastry in her hand, half-eaten, with most of the missing part in her mouth.
"Raven asked you on a date?" Kairiku asked in her usual matter-of-fact tone.
Sutaru gulped. "How'd you know?"
"He and Anakin are pretty good friends. He told Anakin to ask me out too." Kairiku's cheeks went a little pinkish.
"A double date?! Cool! C'mon, we gotta go get ready!" Sutaru grabbed Kairiku by the wrist and nearly dragged the blonde to her room, before Kairiku could get a word in edgewise.
Meanwhile, out in the gardens, Raven and Anakin sat on a bench chatting about how strange their girlfriends were and comparing cute nicknames they'd given their girls. Anakin had just finished a little speech all about how he hated shopping, and yet Kairiku had dragged him all over the Coruscant Plaza Mall in search of the perfect pair of shoes for some Senshi party there was going on.
Raven cringed internally. He didn't much care for shopping either, but Sutaru hadn't yet taken him to the Coruscant Plaza Mall yet. His eyes drifted over to Xarae's white rose bush, out across the gardens. Standing behind it were Sutaru and Kairiku, and it was obvious that Sutaru had found out about the double date idea, since she'd taken the red parts of Kairiku's hair, pulled them into a bun, and left the sandy blonde parts down by themselves. Sutaru's hair had been pulled back into a 'do resembling Sailor Venus's, with a green bow. She wore basically the same outfit as the night before, only a pink shirt with the green jumper, and pink thigh-high wool socks with the green flats. Sutaru's eyes met his, and she smiled. Raven watched as Sutaru and Kairiku walked over to Anakin and him.
Sutaru met him with a hug and a kiss on the cheek, then sort of pushed Kairiku over to Anakin, though she didn't really need the urging. Kairiku hugged Anakin tightly, resting the side of her head on his shoulder. Sutaru smiled at Raven, who stood about a half-head taller than she. That meant that she had grown at least four inches since she'd met up with the Sailor Jedi.
Anakin had gotten Kairiku to relax a little, and she was now clinging lightly to his arm. "Hey, we gonna go to the Gardens or what?"
Sutaru laughed, and Raven chuckled slightly, then nodded. "Yeah."
They got to the Skydome Botanic Gardens in little over thirty minutes, and strolled around the Gardens for what seemed like hours. At one point, the Mysterious Garden song, "I Knew I Loved You," came on over the preprogrammed Comm-music system, and Sutaru signed it out to Raven in American Sign Language, a language she'd been taught by her mother when she was small.
Anakin and Kairiku had gone off on their own, leaving Sutaru and Raven to stroll around the Corellian Plant Life section. Sutaru smiled widely when she saw the array of different plants from her homeworld. Raven had his arm across Sutaru's shoulders, she had hers around his back. Raven looked over at Sutaru and smiled.
"You know I love you, right, Hoshiko?"
Sutaru smiled. "Yeah. I love you too." Sutaru raised up a little on her tiptoes, as Raven leaned down a bit to kiss her. They'd just pulled out of their kiss when a little girl walked up to them. She had pearlescent hair, like Kirana/Sailor Omwat, but the only blue in her skin was little freckles on her cheeks and shoulders. She wore a cute rainbow-colored tee shirt with white sleeves, jean pants, and big black boots. Her hair was up in heart-shaped odango.
"Mommy!" the little girl exclaimed, latching onto Sutaru's leg.
"Mommy?!" Raven and Sutaru said at once. Sutaru picked up the clingy five-year-old.
"Hey kiddo, why'd you call me Mommy?" Sutaru asked the rainbow-haired kid.
"'Cause you're my mommy! You are Chirudo Sutaru, right?" the girl asked in a not-quite-squeaky voice.
Sutaru nodded. "Yeah, but-" She cut herself off, remembering the week before's events. "Raven, you said the Omwati genes didn't affect you, right?"
Raven nodded. "Yeah but I don't see why-" he broke off. "Y-you mean.. this is our kid??!" Raven nearly fainted.
"Not that uncommon, Raven! I'm here, and my mother's mother isn't even born yet!"
"Point. So the Omwati genes turn up in this kid, meaning she's ours, in the future. Perfect." Raven didn't care much for little kids.
"Nijihoshi Kusabana Chirudo! You two keep mommy's name, I guess..."
"Whoa... that's some name. What's it mean, Hoshiko?" Raven asked.
"I think it's 'rainbow star flower child'," Sutaru said. She shifted the little girl to balance on her hip. "Sounds like something I'd name a kid... How'd you get here, anyway?"
Nijihoshi pulled a silver key from under her shirt; it suspended from a silver chain around her neck. It was encrusted with green and orange crystals.
"My crystal key!" Sutaru gasped. She'd used that to get to this time-frame in the first place, but she'd doubted that anyone other than herself and her sister could use it. "Okay kid, that's proof enough for me!"
Just then Anakin and Kairiku joined the group, and Kairiku immediately asked the logical question. "Who's that?"
Nijihoshi piped up. "I'm Nijihoshi Kusabana Chirudo. Pleased to meet'cha!" She held out her chubby-ish hand, and Kairiku took it in her own.
"I'm Shicchi Kairiku!" Kairiku said, smiling at the pearly-haired girl. "Sutaru, is this who I think this is?"
Sutaru nodded. "Yeah, this is my and Raven's daughter, from the future, of course..."
Nijihoshi's eyes suddenly dilated a bit. "Someone's comin!"
Just then, Sailor Sith Vortex stormed in. "Jedi! I found 'em!"
Sutaru put down Nijihoshi. "Raven, watch her! Corellia Crystal Power, Make Up!"
"Gungan Force Power, Make Up!"
Sailors Corellia and Chibi Naboo stood back-to-back. Corellia started her speech. "How dare you disturb this beautiful day! I won't stand for it!"
"And neither will I!" Chibi Naboo yelled. "On behalf of Youth and Duality..."
"And Magic and Strength..."
"WE SHALL MAKE YOU PAY!" they finished together.
"OOOOH I'm sooo scared!" Vortex sarcastically remarked.
"You will be! Naboo Swamp Envelop!" Chibi Naboo threw the greeny-blue water at Vortex, who was soaked to the bone. Chibi Naboo nodded to Corellia. "You're up!"
"Right! Corellian Lightning Bolt!" The combined water-and-lightning attacks resulted in Vortex being electrocuted, badly.
Off to the side, Raven was having difficulty keeping Nijihoshi from running into the battle. "Lemme go lemme go!" Nijihoshi yelled, finally squirming enough to get out of his grasp. "Corellia Rainbow Power, Make Up!"
Nijihoshi, to everyone's surprise, transformed into a Sailor Jedi. Her uniform was in green and orange, like Corellia's, but it had a rainbow panel in the skirt front and little rainbow hearts all over. She held a staff taller than she, with a large pink heart on top, circled by a rainbow.
"I am the youthful warrior of Rainbows and Magic! On behalf of my home world Corellia, and all other worlds around her, she will give me the strength to defeat you! I am Sailor Chibi Corellia!"
Vortex busted into laughter. "HAHA! Little kid... Sailor Jedi... HAHAHA!!"
Chibi Corellia snarled. "Rainbow Light Blinding Sparkle!" The attack blinded Vortex, but she escaped through a bolthole before Corellia and Chibi Naboo could attack.
Corellia and Chibi Naboo de-transformed and stared at Chibi Corellia. She, being a showoff by nature, spun her staff around herself once and smiled. Then she dropped her staff and groaned. A large pink light flashed around her, and her uniform disappeared, replaced by her original outfit. She fell to the ground in a heap. Sutaru quickly scooped up the little girl.
"Nijihoshi! Nijihoshi, wake up!!" She shook the girl gently. Unbidden tears welled up in her eyes. Raven, having watched this entire fiasco, wrapped one arm around Sutaru's shoulders, the other under Nijihoshi.
Raven pushed Nijihoshi's bangs out of her face. He suddenly felt very protective of this small child. "Nijihoshi, wake up!"
Sutaru's tears were falling onto Nijihoshi's eyelids. "Wake up, Nijihoshi! You did it! You ran her off!"
Nijihoshi's eyes opened slowly. Sutaru noticed a little, light blue star twinkling in the color of her left eye, a sign of her true powers. "M-mama?"
Sutaru hugged Nijihoshi. "Thank the Galaxy you're okay!" Kairiku and Anakin stepped over to the three, and Kairiku hugged Sutaru and Nijihoshi.
"Thanks for your help, Niji-chan. Without you, she'd probably gotten away with whatever she'd wanted!" Kairiku smiled. "Welcome to the Sailor Jedi, small one."
Exhausted, the three senshi and two Jedi decided it best to go back to the Jedi Temple. There, Nijihoshi would have the distinction of being the youngest resident of the Room of a Thousand Waterfalls, and the older Senshi seemed to enjoy the little child's company.
So ends the Story of the Rainbow Child.
