Venus' Flame

Twelve: The Shooting Stars of Destiny

Minako gave a small glance at the ceiling before getting back to her Science homework. She found it almost impossible to concentrate, since she kept on thinking, constantly, of the battle she had just taken part in with the rest of her comrades and the meteor shower that appeared almost immediately after the first labyrinth of enemies had been cleared. It gave her an odd feeling in her chest which distracted her from the homework she was supposed to be doing. There was an hour before she needed to get to school, she still hadn't packed her bag, she still had her pyjamas on and she was yet to have breakfast.

No matter how how hard she tried, she just couldn't focus. She was halfway through the second page of a four page booklet, but even that did not motivate her to continue. She ended up slamming her pen on the page, creating a line of ink that went all over the page. The blonde sighed and put her notebook in her bag, concluding that it would be better if she started doing it at lunchtime. Even though the teenager was a superhero, one of the well known and popular Sailor Guardians, she knew she couldn't let her grades take a backseat to her hidden life. She threw off her pyjamas, which were a bright yellow and had orange dots on them, and hurriedly whipped her school uniform on.

Her advisor, Artemis, had been watching the whole ordeal with a small smirk crossing his features, knowing that no matter how old his owner had grown, she still would be the same Minako Aino he recruited back when she was fifteen. Though the girl had learnt to take her duties more seriously, she still had a long way to go before she could be a good leader of the Inner Sailor Guardians, Neo Queen Serenity's four Guardian Goddesses. He jumped into her satchel before she could hurl it over her shoulder. The Guardian he was supposed to raise and awaken was truly an enigma.

She hurtled off to school without time to say goodbye to her mother or father, one of which she refused to talk to regardless of the situation. She rushed across the road without bothering to look to see if any cars were coming her way, clearly lucky that she didn't get cleaned up by a car or cyclist along the way. In a flurry and a plume of smoke, she got to school right as the bell rung out to signal for homeroom. An odangoed blonde was running at her same speed, her advisor, Luna, following along on food at an almost equal speed. Minako and Usagi were essentially peas in a pond, considering how similar the two could be at times. They waved to each-other as they made their way into the building, both ending up having to stand outside the homeroom class, carrying pails of water on their heads.

Artemis burst out of the red bow wearing blonde's satchel in order to meet Luna again, and they talked for a slightly ahort amount of time before the teacher came out to check on the two girls, which was when Artemis disappeared into Minako's satchel and Luna sat at Usagi's side. The poor odangoed blonde was on the brink of plummeting from the pressure the water pail was putting on her head. Minako was much stronger and. with barely any sweat, was able to carry the pail for a little while before her body, too, began to feel pains from carrying the mass of water for that time.

The teacher eventually let them in, but not before Usagi managed to collapse, almost crushing her cat, Luna, and sending the water with her, which fell all over her. This made her very wet and nearly feel like bursting into tears, though she soon ended up realising that crying her way out of this was not going to be able to do her any more favours, and would probably land her in more trouble like this in the future. Minako lifted the blonde up by her left arm and managed to haul her up to her feet. Both girls bowed apologetically and were allowed inside for the last few minutes of class time. Minako slid into the seat next to Usagi's and decided to do the right thing and finish off her homework whilst she could.

Hours blurred together and it was eventually lunch break. Excitedly, Minako made a rush for a spot on the grass and sat down, making herself known to the rest of society, or at least the rest of the school. Naru chuckled and guided Usagi to Minako, knowing that the two got along really well with one another, and probably knew something that she did not. She decided not to dwell on that fact for the time being and just glanced at them contentedly.

"So, what happened when Makeda-san found out you brought your cat to school, Usagi-chan?" Naru asked the girl, clearly wanting to make conversation with her.

"He asked me a lot of questions, ones like 'what makes you think it is appropriate to bring that creature on school grounds?' He didn't leave me alone about it," Usagi laughed loudly about it with Naru. "Heh heh, not only that, but I had to say that Luna-chan was my support animal to have her even allowed into the rest of my classes!"

Their conversation was drowned out by a bunch of loud yells of ecstasy, the voices of many girls ringing out over anything that was happening around them. Before she knew what she was doing, Minako peeped through the bushes to see what exactly was going on.

"Seiya! Yaten! Taiki!" A girl that sat in the back row of Minako's homeroom classroom shouted out.

"Please sign the back of my book!" screamed another.

Ami walked to the three girls, Makoto in tow. Both of them had been at their respective clubs. "Oh, Minako-chan, what's going on over there?" Ami asked.

"Rare scoop! It looks like the Three Lights are coming back!" Minako hollered at the top of her lungs.

"YATTA!" Usagi screeched at the top of her lungs, clearly hearing their conversation.

"The Sailor Starlights, huh? I wonder why they're back..." Ami mused to herself, almost drowned out by a cheer that escaped Makoto's lips.

"You're kidding! This is awesome!" The brunette shouted out.

"Right, right?!" Minako nodded aggressively.

"I don't like this..." Ami muttered.