Sailor Moon X Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles and the Hare

Act 2: Fights & Flights

SAILOR MOON X TMNT: TURTLES AND THE HARE

ACT 2: FIGHTS & FLIGHTS

Chapter 25:

"Yuu...ichi...rou?" the bewildered Rei muttered incoherently after sensing that there was a male figure hovering over her. She found herself back in her room, lying on her own bed and tightly tucked in under the covers. How did that happen? Did her boyfriend find her in the mediation room and carry her back here late last night? What a sweet gesture of him, if that was true. She was hoping against hope that Yuuichirou had returned so she could speak with him about last night. Unfortunately, it was her bald and wrinkly grandfather who stood over her pillow and not the young man she truly wanted to see.

"Oi! You must be really sick!" the wiry old man grinned. He felt the top of her warm forehead with the back of his wrinkly hand and quickly pulled it back, shaking out his fingers as if he had just burned them. "To get me confused with that ugly, shaggy headed nincompoop? I guess you can't go to New York! "

"Where is he?" Rei snapped, not in the mood for her grandfather's jests. Her nightmare deeply troubled her, but she could not worry about it now. It was just a dream, after all. Sailor Moon and the rest of their team defeated Queen Beryl and Metalia a few years ago. There was no way that vile witch could ever return. But the realism of the nightmare was unsettling. Was this vision a dire warning similar to those she had experienced in the past? No, it couldn't be. The Sailor Team had vanquished all of their enemies. Her days fighting demons and monsters as Sailor Mars have been over for quite some time after the defeat of Galaxia.

Her plane would depart in only a few more hours and with so much left unresolved, Rei could not contain herself. She had to find Yuuichirou before it was too late to make amends. She swung her legs out from under her blankets and tried to stand up, but found that she was too weak to do so. Muscles throughout her body ached in soreness. Her nose dripped, her throat burned, and her forehead pounded.

"I saw him leaving the temple at dawn with a big duffle bag." Grandpa shrugged. He cracked open an amber bottle and poured its foul-smelling contents down Rei's throat before she could object. "The boy said he had an important errand to run early this morning."

"Are you certain he's coming back?" Rei nearly gagged from the awful medicine. She lay her dizzy head back down on her pillow and curled up in a blanket. "I am worried that he has left us."

"Bah! Who cares about him?" the stout old man let out a grunt. "If he doesn't return, then I say good riddance to that lazy bum!"

"You can't run the shrine by yourself while I am gone." Rei coughed, her throat aching with each syllable. "You are too old!"

"And you are in no condition to go anywhere yourself, young lady!" the grumpy elder mocked. "I guess you have to miss your flight and stay here with me and work, work, work all summer!"

"I am getting on that plane tonight, no matter what shape I am in!" Rei defied her obnoxious grandfather. "I just need some tea and a bit more rest. Speaking of tea, prepare me a cup of piping hot green tea! NOW! And send Yuuichirou in here the moment he returns!"

"As you command, your highness!" the stout old man shuffled out of the room to fulfill his granddaughter's demanding request.

"It was just a dream." Rei Hino reaffirmed to herself as she shivered under the blankets. She desperately needed to get some rest to regain her strength and tried her best to ignore the lasting image of Sailor Moon doused in her own blood, dying alone in the middle of a devastated New York City street. "A bad dream, nothing more."

Chapter 26

Usagi buried her head into a fluffy pillow as her phone continued to ring and buzz atop her cluttered nightstand. She had suffered yet another long and sleepless night, torn between mixed emotions of whether it was the right choice to accept her boyfriend's offer to pay for her ticket to New York and the ramifications it might have if she elected to do so. The sun had risen, its warm rays brightening up her room as they shined through the window blinds, but she had still not made up her mind.