Pretty Soldier Sailor Moon: Future

Chapter 47: A Fiery Debate Over Nothing

PRETTY SOLDIER SAILOR MOON: FUTURE

Chapter 47: A Fiery Debate Over Nothing

In an unused warehouse building on the outskirts of Crystal Tokyo, Apis had set up a temporary base there to store her mannequins and robot bees without worrying about prying eyes. She spent the next few days staking out Midori's room using remote cameras, but grew worried when she didn't see any movement for a whole week. That was until the Friday afternoon when Midori finally emerged with VesVes and went to Hikawa Shrine with her. Unbeknownst to anyone at the temple, Apis had teleported from the base and watched Midori to see if she could find a chance to strike.

She wasn't able to do anything yet, but did overhear something rather interesting. After Midori left the rear temple where Rei gave her the reading, VesVes had approached her and declared, "Good news! I managed to convince Seiji to let us volunteer as candy vendors tomorrow!"

"Candy vendors?" Midori raised an eyebrow.

"You don't know about chitose-ame? It called 'thousand year candy', and it's given to children every Shichi-Go-San celebration. Seiji was gonna sell them himself, but I talked him into letting us cover him!"

"More like you nagged the hell out of him until he begrudgingly gave in just to get rid of you."

"Hey, with someone as stingy as him, you have to break him down with persistence! He is such a perfectionist that it's not even funny!"

VesVes and Midori talked about these arrangements as they left Hikawa Shrine, while Apis quietly warped back to her base without anyone noticing her. She had to do some research into what this whole 'Shichi-Go-San' business was all about, but once she was educated enough, a plan started to form in her head.

The Camarilla found her smallest mannequin, opened a slot in the doll's abdomen and placed the Apple of Discord inside the compartment. She then dressed the mannequin in a pretty pink kimono with cherry blossom petal designs and a red obi, then tied its wig hair into a bun pinned with ornate flowers and ribbons. Once it was ready, she did the same for an adult female mannequin so it could masquerade as the child's mother, albeit without an apple. Apis then operated a remote control and tested the pair's walking patterns, spending the whole night to make sure they worked perfectly.

The next day, Apis took the two dolls and teleported from her hideout to the same area she hid out in Hikawa Shrine previously. Giddy with anticipation, she pressed the button on her remote and whispered, "Mission, start!"

****

Midori was bored out of her mind. She and VesVes were stationed at the shrine's small shop where trinkets and charms were normally sold, but today they were in charge of selling chitose-ame to people. Unfortunately, Seiji's expectations of them were far greater than they had anticipated. Not only did they have a quota to meet, but they also had to keep up with stock, promote the usual wares, and record every little detail that came up, not to mention that the bags of candy had to be made 'the traditional way'. If the girls tried to make them any other way, Seiji threatened to give them low marks and report them to their teachers.

Since Midori was on the tail end of her illness and feeling miserable, VesVes offered to be the smiling clerk who would pitch sales to the numerous families and children passing by. Despite Seiji's overbearing rules, VesVes was totally looking forward to talking with people and seeing how adorable the children were. On the other hand, Midori wasn't interested in any of this whatsoever. She remained in the back corner filling decorated bags with two sticks of candy – a red one and a white one, as Seiji insisted was 'traditional'.