#like jadeite becomes south instead of east

[sakuracyanide]

gestures at pgsm zoisite.

in this essay i will explain how pgsm zoisite switches the colors & coding of the direction he's associated with from north to east and why that is fascinating -

[kyralih]

cardinal king, arc two, chapter six

Ongoing Sailor Moon fanfiction where the roles are reversed, and instead of Beryl and the Earth Kingdom attacking the Moon, the Moon Kingdom attacked the Earth Kingdom and now, thousands of years later, Mamoru and his Four Heavenly Kings fight to keep Earth safe.

While their past business was wrapped up in the First Arc of their story, their return to Tokyo was met with little in the way of peace, as Mamoru encountered a red haired, red eyed little boy who also calls himself “Mamoru” and insists on being with Usagi, despite the dangers that dog him at every turn. To make matters worse, a surprise attack has them down one King and leaves them with very little information to go off of to get him back.

Can they solve these mysteries before it’s too late?

For more information, media, and links to prior chapters, see this page: Cardinal King

Name reminders! Zoisite–> Hanada, Kaito –> North King Jadeite –> Moegi, Yuu –> South King Nephrite –> Midori, Nero –> East King Kunzite –> Kobai, Khalid –> West King

Morning came, and while his headache was gone he wasn’t exactly eager to push the envelope just yet. He dressed, pressing back the guilt of not attempting to find Yuu immediately by focusing on the plan to engage Luna and see what the Moon’s computers could do for them. As he got dressed he wished that the kid didn’t have such a monopoly over Helios; he missed being able to bounce ideas off of him – he even missed the snide remarks that typically peppered his morning preparations – but what Helios was doing was important, too: they had to keep an eye on Mamorin and see what they could glean from him about where he came from, what his motives were, how Usagi was involved in all of this. Why did those creatures want him so badly? What were those visions about, and how could they stop whatever that was from happening?

He tied his tie, combed his hair, and tossed his comb back into his duffle bag, tucking away the last of his things from his room at Midori’s. Over time he would have become more accustomed to the large rooms and even larger floorplans, but, circumstances aside, he was looking forward to returning home to his little apartment and the comfort it gave him. He checked the time on his communicator watch and gave one last look around the tidied room before he gathered his things and left, closing the door neatly behind him.

While he had expected to drop his stuff off downstairs and head back up to make sure the kid was ready for school – Yuu had done it the morning before, moving him from preparation to preparation yesterday morning with well-practiced ease, his younger sister Kimiko to thank for that, but after… but without him, Mamoru was the only one of them that had any experience dealing with kids and he had assumed he would be in charge of getting him ready; however, he found Rin dressed and having breakfast when he swung by the dining room after putting his things by the door, Khalid sitting across from him and keeping a general eye out.

“Morning,” he addressed, grey eyes glancing up from a newspaper. The kid turned around to look at him, his expression changing from interest to flat acceptance as he turned back to his porridge. Without missing a beat, Khalid cleared his throat, eyes sliding to the redhead.

“Morning,” Rin said gloomily to his breakfast.

What had he done to – Usagi. Right. “Morning,” he replied, more than a little impressed by Khalid and his apparent control over the situation. Khalid had never told them about any younger siblings or cousins or any situation at all wherein he would’ve gotten practice with wrangling children, but then, he wasn’t one to bring stuff like that up unless there was a reason to, and there never had been up until now.

‘Morning,’ Helios’s voice echoed sleepily in his head. ‘More nightmares, but he didn’t say anything useful.’ He heard the unisus fight off a yawn, ‘I’m going to sleep during his classes; here’s hoping they stuff personal belongings in cupboards so I can stretch out.’

He hadn’t even seen Helios; he looked around casually, but a short, swift tilt of Khalid’s head pointed to Rin, and sure enough, the “stuffed toy” Helios was stretched awkwardly across his lap, just the tip of his lavender colored tail visible beneath the table. He wanted to tease him about his snoring, but with Rin there he couldn’t even acknowledge he had heard anything.

“Mamoru,” Khalid addressed, his voice commanding attention despite the casual way he was looking at the newspaper; his brow perked curiously, Mamoru made to respond but Khalid continued without needing a response. “Did you pack your things and tidy your room as I had instructed?” …What? He didn’t even know how to respond, momentarily dumbfounded by the sudden change – until the kid pushed back his chair. Rin – he had meant Rin, not him. Letting out a low breath, he stepped aside as Rin hopped off his seat and made for the door, but the kid was stopped before he could leave with another steady set of instructions by Khalid, “Leave Helios here; you can have him again when you finish.”

Rin sighed moodily but obediently plopped Helios carefully on the edge of the table before leaving the room towards the kitchen and the set of stairs they had used Sunday morning. As soon as the door swung closed, Helios visibly relaxed and Mamoru cracked a smile at his silver-haired friend, asking, “What did you do?”

Khalid set down the paper, looking a little pleased with himself as he folded it neatly, “Nothing.”

“Nothing except intimidate the living daylights out of him,” Midori supplied, throwing open the door and marching in as though he had been waiting for the kid to leave. He sat down with his food.

“I didn’t intimidate him,” Khalid refuted, “I just set a standard that he needs to adhere to and will accept nothing less from him.”

“Intimidation,” Midori repeated, pointing at Khalid with his fork as he dug in to some sort of filled breakfast pastry. Khalid rolled his eyes and Mamoru chuckled; whatever it was, it worked. “I hope he tells us where to drop him off soon,” Nero continued between bites, “We shouldn’t have to play parents.”

Mamoru left to quickly put together breakfast, his eyes on the clock, settling for something fast as he rejoined them in the adjoining dining area. “Helios,” he asked, sitting down near the stretching unisus, who looked to give him as much attention as a half-awake creature could, “I think we should get a communicator for Usagi – “

The unisus nodded his head, ‘I put one together already –‘ In a flourish of his golden horn, a sixth wristwatch communicator clunked down on the table, ‘Just in case whatever is after Rin has its eyes on the Silver Crystal.’

Mamoru thanked him, taking the communicator and slipping it into his pocket to give to her later. It looked practically identical to theirs, though it had silver flourishes rather than accent stones matching their power gems. All in all it looked really respectable, but rather masculine… which meant she wasn’t really going to like it all that much. Even if she appreciated it as it was, he was already making a list of jewelry stores to visit to see about replacing the band to make it something she’d enjoy. …maybe she’d want to go with him. Butterflies fluttered softly in his stomach at the idea, but with everything else going on that afternoon he put the notion on hold. “I’m going to talk to her later about contacting Luna; Kaito and I were thinking last night that we might see if the Lunar computers could hone in on energy signals and help warn us when something abnormal pops up.”

‘It’s a good plan,’ Helios replied thoughtfully.

“What is?” Hanada asked, entering with a bowl of something from the kitchen. He sat down and tucked in as he waited for an answer.

“Attempting to contact the Lunar computers.” Kobai explained, offering nothing else as Kaito nodded once in understanding. “Did you find anything useful on the internet?” he probed.

Kaito swallowed and shrugged, taking a sip of water irritably. “There was gossip about the attack on the school, but everyone’s wrapped up in UFO’s and the leading theory is that it was caused by a UFO,” he rolled his eyes and took another spoonful in agitation.

“UFO’s?” Midori teased, snickering, “Like little green men UFO’s? What kind of sites are you part of, Kaito?”

“Forums that are usually on top of things,” he grumbled. “You know how close they got to figuring us out before – they’re just thrown off by some fuzzy images someone took with their camera of a “landing site” just outside the city. Some are even connecting it to Venus’s attacks, saying that those might’ve been the forward attack for an invasion or something,” he huffed gloomily.

Mamoru’s brows furrowed as he listened; he remembered how Kaito had to deliberately lead discussions astray on the Tokyo Underground site he frequented, pointing them to consider alternative avenues of thought to keep them from figuring out what was really going on. That they had turned into some science fiction fanbase was… …. Well it wasn’t too farfetched considering that was the site Kaito was using to track his movements as Cardinal King when he first started and Khalid’s exploits as the “Evening Star”, and, if he were being honest with himself, before he was personally involved in all that he thought people who were paying attention to the “Evening Star” nonsense were off-center, too. Still… UFO’s…

“Think it’ll blow over soon?” Khalid asked.

“I hope so,” Kaito replied, grumbling something like ‘Ridiculous’ as he finished his breakfast.

 Things went… surprisingly smoothly, especially compared to the day before. He was even able to concentrate during his classes, secure in the notion that if anything went wrong, Helios would be there in an instant and able to warn him immediately. Midori and Hanada found him at lunch, as had been their custom in the prior weeks, and he and Kaito suffered through Nero’s loud complaints about the homework he had piled up from just missing one day of classes, glancing around nervously as he muttered afterwards about how there should be some sort of special circumstances excuse for people who were tired from saving the planet when it came to classwork.

When school ended the three of them made their way to Crown, as they had agreed earlier that morning, and waited for Khalid, Rin, and Helios to arrive and hoped to catch Usagi by chance. Nero immediately distracted himself with a fighting game as they waited, while he and Kaito chose to start on homework in the downtime; he had barely gotten his book open when he was lightly elbowed; he looked over just for Kaito to flip over a page, focused entirely on his work, and casually utter, “Your girlfriend’s here,” a bemused smile tipping up the corner of his mouth.

He looked towards the door and his heart skipped a beat – sure enough, Usako was there, taking an exaggerated breath of the arcade air as she held the door open for two of her new/old friends: Mercury and Jupiter, their civilian names escaping him for the moment. Mercury’s uniform matched Usako’s while Jupiter’s did not; he was glad they were still able to coordinate despite not being in the same school. He stood, hesitating for just long enough for the three of them to get in and get used to the lower light before he would approach, the guilt of taking up Usagi’s time when she was trying to make friends with them staying him for even a moment longer; however, Jupiter spotted him, her green eyes landing on him with a flash of recognition, and while he couldn’t hear what she said, the next moment Usako turned her bright smile to him, his heartrate rising as though to meet her as she rushed over and embraced him, calling out her nickname for him. Her arms around him, he felt stronger and weaker at once, both energized and invigorated to do what needed to be done and wanting nothing more than to stay there with her, to tell her about everything that had happened, everything that had gone on, and talk things out. … but there wasn’t time for the latter. Gently he put his hands on her shoulders and pushed her back, smiling down at her, unable to help the small circles he traced with his thumbs.

“Usako,” he greeted warmly, pleased at the blush across her cheeks, but reality pulled too strongly to let them linger. “Could I…” he trailed off, glancing back at her waiting friends, “talk to you for a minute?”

Her brows furrowed with worry, turning her head to find Hanada and then the other direction, looking for – his heart jerked when he realized what she was looking for, that she was checking roll. Her voice wavered as she replied, “Sure! Let me just tell Ami-chan and Mako-chan – I’ll be right back.” She backed away, turned, and rejoined her friends; he took his seat by Hanada again, closing his textbook as he watched her explain something, her voice bright and excited as she dragged her friends over to a row of arcade games, sat them both down, and popped in a few yen to get the game started. Nero ambled over, made a few jokes, and then both of them made their way back.

As they settled at the little booth, Nero across from Kaito, Usagi across from him, she leaned in, and in a quiet voice of concern, asked simply, “Khalid?”

He shook his head, but before he could answer Nero replied, “He’s fine – jeez, Mamoru, what did you tell her?”

He rolled his eyes, but was grateful for the other’s tone – Usagi relaxed instantly, but bit her lip, “Did Mamorin run away again? I haven’t seen him – “

“Nothing like that,” he shook his head to reassure her, “There was an incident last night, and with any luck he won’t be attempting to run away again.”

“Last night?” she repeated.

“Long story,” Kaito replied, looking at their surroundings pointedly, “And not exactly what we wanted to talk to you about today.” She straightened curiously, waiting for him to continue. “Do you still have that belt?” Kaito continued, his tone casual but his green gaze pointed, “The one with the moonstones?”

She blinked, confused, but nodded her head, “I do – do you need it?” She looked back at him and he could practically see the questions in her eyes, questions he wanted to answer but knew Kaito was right to remind them that they were very much in public. He nodded.

“We wanted to try something,” he weakly explained.

She kept eye contact with him, her worry and concern practically drowning him with guilt. He gently took the fist she had made of her hands on the table, silently promising he’d tell her everything the moment he could, and slowly her hands unclenched to hold his. She nodded. “I’ll go get it –“

He squeezed her hands gently as she stood and she paused by the head of the table. “You don’t have to go now,” he said quietly, glancing over to the brunette who towered over the shorter girl intent on the video game in front of them. “I can get it from you later tonight – it wouldn’t work before the moon rises anyway, right?”

She smiled, following his glance. “Okay,” she stated quietly, looking back to him, “Tonight then.”

He wouldn’t miss it –

“It’s probably going to be later tonight,” Nero stated, breaking their mood entirely, “We’re fixing up his apartment and it’s an absolute mess –“

“Oh!” she nearly jumped, looking down at him guiltily, “I should help with that!”

“Don’t worry about it,” he smiled –

“Yeah, Kaito’ll cover for you,” Nero grinned, reaching over to wrap his arm around Hanada’s shoulder, “Won’t you, Kaito-kun~?”

The blond was none-too-pleased by the sudden hug.

Her brows furrowed nervously; he stood with her. “Don’t worry about it, really. And as for your questions earlier, here,” He dug into his pocket, passing over the golden crystal to retrieve the watch, which he then presented. “I know it’s not really your style – I can go with you sometime to replace the band, at least –“

“I love it,” she interrupted, smiling sincerely and offering out her wrist.

He fastened it securely, trying to ignore how soft her skin was; once it was set, she turned her arm to look at it. “When an alarm goes off, turn the hands to noon to open the channel,” he explained; she nodded, glancing up at him. “If you need to contact us, do the same – hands at noon. Once the conversation is over, click the face back down and it will automatically reset to the correct time.”

“Got it,” she replied, catching his hand as he moved to pull away.

“And don’t try using it for lovey-dovey stuff,” Nero broke in casually, causing Mamoru to roll his eyes. “There are no private channels on that thing – if one of us hears it, we all hear it.”

She laughed, “Okay! Well then, I’ll call all of you later about the belt!” Abruptly, she pulled him down and kissed him on the cheek. “See you later,” she said quietly, then pushed away, offering them a wave before turning to join her friends.

‘We’re here,’ Helios’s voice called before Mamoru could sit down again – before, even, Nero could say anything about his red cheeks. Gathering his things into his satchel, he cut him off with a nonchalant “Yeah, yeah,” and made for the door.

Khalid and Rin had just entered when he, Kaito and Nero made it to the door; he had hoped the kid wouldn’t see Usako – it’d make things easier to leave and let her have time with Jupi—Mako-chan and Ami-chan – but no such luck.

“Usagi-chan!” Rin exclaimed almost immediately, reaching out as though to go to her, but then he paused, “Who’s with her?” he asked, turning to look up at Khalid.

“Friends,” Khalid replied. “Friends that she hasn’t seen in a very long time – we’ll let her be then, shall we?”

“Okay,” Rin replied agreeably, shocking Mamoru in how easily he was turned aside. Shocking him further, Rin’s small hand grabbed his, as easily and casually as anything, though his eyes were locked on the girls with Usako. “We’re going to clean your apartment, right?” he asked absently.

“That’s right,” Mamoru replied, glancing at Khalid, but his attention was still on the kid, grey eyes narrowing as he followed Rin’s gaze. Nero looked perplexed, which satisfied Mamoru’s own feelings. What had gotten into Rin?

“We should go then,” the kid declared, pulling him back outside, only breaking eye-contact with the girls once they were completely out of the arcade. “How dirty is it, anyway?” he asked, his face screwed up curiously.

 …

“This is a disaster zone,” Rin declared matter-of-factly when they arrived, crossing his arms in the threshold. “What happened?”

“Gorilla,” Kaito said evenly, stepping through with his shoes on and passing immediately to the living room to stand staring at the space with his hands on his hips.

“Sewer monsters, I heard,” Nero corrected, stepping around the kid to plant himself in the kitchen, looking over the debris on the counters and the floor thoughtfully.

“C’mon, what was it?” Rin asked, staring up at Mamoru with his arms crossed.

Mamoru shrugged, “I don’t know, I wasn’t here when it happened.”

“Ghosts, then,” Khalid replied, pushing past both of them to stand where the table used to be. “What’s the plan?” he asked of Nero, who turned to look over the rooms.

“I’ve got people coming to take out anything broken, so I guess we just… pile everything broken on the floor in here. Replacement furniture will be arriving later.”

“Let’s hope the removal happens before the delivery, then,” Kaito remarked, his hands still on his hips.

Mamoru hoisted Rin up and carried him across the kitchen floor and over the upended table so the kid wouldn’t come into contact with any broken, sharp edges, and placed him beside Kaito. “You’re in charge of the objects to keep, okay? Arrange them nicely on this side of the room,” he motioned to the primarily untouched half by the window and his desk; that should keep him out of trouble. “We’ll hand stuff to Kaito, Kaito will hand stuff to you. Okay?”

Rin nodded, then moved closer to the window. “Okay.” Mamoru turned to get to work with the mess in the kitchen, but didn’t get far – “Is that blood on the couch?”

He glanced over just in time for Kaito to toss the cushion into the pile of broken things in the kitchen. “Might’ve been,” the blond replied, “Best to toss it, just to be safe. Looks like it’s time for a new couch.”

They got down to work; sorting things didn’t take too long. Beyond two mugs found miraculously intact beneath the upended table, most of what was on the floor and countertops was to be trashed; nothing that the fight touched seemed to have survived. He didn’t mind too much – it was just stuff – but it was weird to see it all go, having had most of those objects since he moved in years ago. As they were working, he heard Rin and Kaito giving each other instructions over tidying the living room. A few hours passed, Nero’s people coming in to clear out a few loads of broken objects as they continued checking on objects within his cabinets. He heard the TV click on not long after the third load was taken out and glanced over to see Kaito and the kid sitting on the couch together.

“Bored, are they?” Nero commented quietly, picking up a chunk of wood and miming throwing it at Kaito’s head – Mamoru held up a hand to stop him, playing along –

“This is where you ran into Mamoru, wasn’t it?” Kaito asked conversationally, the kid glanced away from the screen and over to him, and Mamoru and Nero immediately got back to work, though more quietly than before. “Do you parents live around here?”

“No,” Rin replied, returning his attention to the television screen.

“What were you doing here, then? Were you meeting up with them?”

“This is Ace Reporter Minami Koi, first on the scene at the attack on the school yesterday and the first at the attack on the ice-cream shop today –“

Everyone stopped working. Ice cream shop? Khalid immediately put down the cup he was holding and stepped over the broken chairs to see what was on screen; Mamoru and Nero followed. The news anchor continued, her perch comfortable in a chair across from a high-school aged young man with short-cut brown hair, who looked into the camera confidently when he wasn’t giving the hostess his attention.

“Minami-san, how did you come by both incidents so quickly?”

“A good reporter never reveals his sources,” Minami quipped with a smile; the hostess smiled and waved her hand as though to wave him off. “Honestly, though, as with any breaking story, you just have to keep an eye and an ear out for action. I just got to the right place at the right time when action hit.”

“That’s incredible! Especially for someone your age. Is there any reporter you look up to?”

“There used to be,” Minami replied, looking thoughtful and a bit forlorn. “I used to admire him – he was always first with the scoop, and his analysis of breaking news stories was always top-notch; I wanted to improve so I could get on his level, compete with him professionally; he used to admit to wanting to run a newspaper,” he laughed sadly, “I wanted to help him with that dream, but I never seemed to have caught his attention. And now… even with so many odd things happening in Tokyo, he is silent. I wonder what happened to him…”

“Well, Minami-san, you are in luck! Surely if someone so into the news is still in Tokyo, they would be watching this program – we have the latest, from the source to your screens, after all! Maybe if you call out to him, he will supply you with an answer!”

“That is a great idea,” Minami replied, smiling gratefully. Mamoru wanted the segment to finish already – what attack on an ice cream shop? “I’ll do just that. So I’m calling out to you, Hanada Kaito.” Kaito? “You, who inspired me so much, and have so let me down recently. You had such a promising future, and now, when the news is more important than ever, our streets are more dangerous than ever, you are nowhere to be seen. I want to get to the bottom of this story – if you are worth anything in the news business, you will meet me tonight for an interview at Chess Tower. If you do not show, I, and all of Tokyo, will be assured of your retirement from this fast-paced industry, and will no longer give you or your stories any credence. That’s seven o’clock, Chess Tower. Be there or be forever forgotten, Hanada Kaito.” And with that, Minami checked his watch, stood, and shook the anchor’s hand. With a smile and final wave to the camera, he left the stage, the anchor looking behind him questioningly.

“We’ll get back with Chieko-san just after these messages!” an announcer proclaimed.

“Idiot,” Kaito groaned halfway under his breath.

“That’s you, right?” Rin asked, muting the television.

“Yeah, that’s me,” the blond replied, checking his watch. “Of course he gives me half an hour to get there. Moron.” He stood and retied his hair, glancing around for a mirror to straighten his uniform. “No time to change or anything.”

“You’re going, then?” Khalid confirmed.

“Don’t really have a choice,” Kaito replied, “Not if I want to hold onto my reputation.” He finished looking himself over in the mirror, frowning slightly, and made for the kitchen. “I take four days off and they’re already calling me a has-been. I’ll show him. I’ll check in after I deal with this bottom-feeder.” He stopped by the door and waved.

“Going alone?” Khalid questioned, his tone a little heavier.

“Nothing to worry about. Except my sanity,” he opened the door but paused, glancing back, “Why don’t you guys go pick out Mamoru’s new furniture? Maybe pick up ice-cream on the way back?”

He meant for them to investigate the attack then. “Sounds like a plan to me,” Nero replied, stepping forward and cracking his knuckles.

“Great. Get some mint chocolate chip for me. Later.” He closed the door.

Turns out he didn’t have much for dinner for four, so they left soon after to find some food, the kid in tow, and then to make the rounds in furniture stores, hoping to hear more about which ice-cream place had been attacked so they could accidentally pick that one out, do some quick investigating, and then find an in-business store and get back to the apartment. The kid would never know what they were actually doing.

The plan went off pretty well; Nero talked them into getting something from his favorite hot dispensers, so they ate while walking towards the first furniture store. The third store they tried had the news on in the background; after ten minutes of wandering and “trying out couches”, they heard the name of the ice cream parlor that had been attacked; Mamoru “liked” the next couch they sat on and they immediately ordered it and got out, heading for a store called “Bob-Floy”. They had to catch a bus to get there, but Nero sold going there convincingly enough for Rin, despite saying he forgot what its name was.

The place was a disaster – there was practically nothing left, a though a natural disaster had hit in just this one spot. There was something weird in the air around it, too – like something was… missing, or something was present that shouldn’t be there. They wanted to investigate more; distracting Rin, Khalid was about to step over the police tape to take a look through the rubble when their watches went off.

7:15. Mamoru stepped away from Rin, motioning for him to stay put, halfway wondering how they were going to explain this away, and set the dial to noon, expecting to see Usako; it was getting late enough.

Instead, North King’s right eye and mask took up most of the central view screen, the camera angled to see behind the pillar he had his back pressed against. Minami Koi was there, but he was different – his hair was spiked, tipped with white, his eyes glowing bright blue as he looked around the black and white room carefully, a table flipped over before him, two plush red chairs askew. “Trouble at Chess Tower,” North whispered.

Minami looked exactly at them, and the image went dark.

Kaito.