Chapter 11: Another Story: Gaiden

Christmas was growing ever-closer, and while I was dreading the return to see my parents, it was all too easy to forget that ticking clock as I spent time with the other Senshi. Last night, we talked, we laughed, we joked and we traded stories of our exploits. We were like old friends even as we were technically strangers. They made me feel welcome among them.

I was almost asleep on my feet when I finally was forced to go back to my hotel. The other senshi had other responsibilities to consider, after all, and had to get to bed at a reasonable hour. And me… well…

It was seven o’clock in the morning when my phone ringing shattered my attempt to sleep off the massive jet-lag. Blearily, I pushed the soft hotel comforter off my chest and looked down at my phone.

I didn’t recognize the number, but there were only a handful of people who would be calling me with a Tokyo-based phone number. I answered the call and pressed the phone to my ear.

“もしもし?” I mumbled, wiping the sleep out of my eyes, “Hello?”

“Holy fuck, you’re still asleep? What the fuck kind of hero are you?”

Nao’s voice did very little to improve my mood. I gritted my teeth, “The kind of hero who was on a plane for thirteen hours to get here. Why are you calling me?”

“Why do you think?! You’re here… you’re Sailor Moon! Take some fucking initiative! Go out and look for trouble! Did you think this was going to be a vacation?”

God, she was a bossy little brat. “Can I get some fucking breakfast first? Or coffee? Or the chance to shower?”

“Fuck’s sake,” groaned Nao. “Fine… just meet me outside your hotel in an hour. We got work to do.” And with that, she hung up.

I rolled my eyes. She wasn’t wrong, but it would have been nice to get a little more time to recover. The night with the others had been fun and I had hoped to enjoy Tokyo a little more before I left. Make a vacation of it. Not immediately go back to work.

Clearly, Chibi Moon had different ideas. I sighed and forced myself out of bed. It was difficult as it was so very soft and comfortable, especially compared to my boxy slab of a mattress back at Gotham U. This was the most comfortable bed I’d ever slept in and this little brat was forcing me out of it?

Grumbling, I walked over the plush carpeting and to the pristine, white bathroom. Izumi had worked hard to make sure that I had a pleasant stay here in Japan. It was in Western style which both attested to the price of the hotel and afforded me the ability to actually fit into the shower as I shucked off my clothes. Getting upright also caused my body to realize a need for the toilet, which required a quick pit stop.

I reached down as I always had to relieve myself… but found nothing. Only as I looked down at my waist did I realize what was missing. 

It was gone. 

Finally. Now there was nothing physically tying me down to the maleness of my old body. My form had completed its transformation.

Lacking any other options, I sat down. Both to relieve myself and to think.

At first I was confused. Certainly it had gotten smaller over time and my chest swelling had made it more difficult to spot, but I thought I had more time to come to terms with its eventual disappearance. It had been far more sudden than I had expected.

It was that last transformation that had done it. I had decided to forgo a taxi and transformed into Sailor Moon to leap across the Tokyo skyline. I had been so tired afterwards that I simply collapsed into bed when I got back to my room. I hadn’t thought to check the progression of my changes when I reverted back.

But as I placed my hand between my legs, I couldn’t deny the truth:

My penis was gone. Without warning. Leaving a whole other apparatus in its place.

I sat down on the toilet, feeling… a mountain of emotions. Relieving myself was a strange sensation in its own right and required more attention than it used to, but I managed to work through it with trial and error. But the stark realization that I was, for all physical purposes, a woman… it left me unable to put coherent thoughts together.

It felt like a sudden shift, but truthfully, everything else about my body had changed. Even now, I cupped my breasts experimentally and realized that they were both fuller and rounder than they’d ever been. My hips had expanded noticeably and no masculine body hair remained on my skin. And now… 

I explored a little, identifying the various pieces I recognized from my relationship with Carla and from Human Biology classes. I tentatively inserted my finger inside myself, feeling the sensations within and with that single act came the full realization washing over me.

I have a vagina.

I have a labia. A clitoris. A vulva. A cervix. Ovaries. A uterus. These are mine now. 

My penis, my testicles and all of the associated parts were now gone.

Some fragment of my old male ego was upset by this. This was the point of no return and I would never feel the same sexual sensations ever again. I would never penetrate with my genitals ever again. I had fundamentally lost that part of myself.

But at the same time, there were the new possibilities that this brought on. I could, like Makoto, give birth. I could menstruate. I could receive pleasure from the inside out.

On some level, I felt guilty. Why me? Why should I get this while others didn’t? My talk with Izumi made it clear that there were others like me. There was a name for it, after all. Transsexual. How many others ached to have a body like mine? I vaguely knew that people would undergo surgeries and take hormones to change themselves. But this… my body had eclipsed all that.

I hugged my body to reassure myself of its presence and shape. I worried that someone or something would take it away from me when my unworthiness became known. I didn’t deserve this. I was just some stupid college kid in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were so many more deserving people who should have this gift rather than me.

“I need to do something,” I whispered to myself, my voice now softer and lighter than it had ever been, “I… need to help others like me. Nobody should have to live in the wrong body. I need to earn this.”

And while I knew it was true, I had no idea if I was capable of changing that. Certainly my Moon Healing Escalation ability could heal cuts, breaks and bullet wounds, but could it heal the fundamental wrongness of being born in the wrong body? Could I help others like me?

I didn’t know. And I was afraid to hurt other trans people if I tried. My power was dangerous if not handled carefully. And as I had learned in the past, there were some problems that magic simply didn’t solve.

Even if I didn’t count as being trans, then at the very least I resolved to do my best to help people who were . Whatever it took…I needed to help others who suffered like I suffered. That was the reason why I became a hero in the first place, after all. To help people in need.

My phone began to buzz on the sink again and I flinched in alarm as the sound shattered my thoughts. I scooped it out of the sink-dish and examined the call. It was Nao again.

“Where the fuck are you?!” she snapped angrily. “I don’t have all day you know…”

I didn’t know what to say to her beyond the truth. “I’m a woman…”

“Uh… yeah… no kidding,” said Nao, scoffing.

“I mean… my body changed,” I breathed rapidly, shuddering. “Completely.”

There was a long pause on the other end and I waited in a daze for any kind of response.

“Uh…” said Nao, the sharpness of her voice wavering, “Okay…?”

“Sorry…” I said, trying to shake my head, “I just… I wasn’t expecting it… and… I’m happy… but it all just feels so much more real now… And I’m… kind of overwhelmed… I don’t know what I’m supposed to do.”

Nao exhaled a sigh. “Look… get showered and dressed and we can go from there, okay?”

“Right… sorry…” I said, my voice still distant.

“Don’t worry about it…” and with that, she hung up.

Zombielike, I got up from the toilet and looked into the mirror. My new reflection.

This was me. Serena Moore. A naked woman. I am a woman. A naked woman without clothes. 

And with a vagina.

I looked down at it. As I considered it, it felt right… but did it really change that much? Was I any less of a woman now than I had been last night?

No… womanhood was a part of my very being. When that started was a question I wasn’t equipped to answer, but from the very moment I held that brooch in my hand, my inner womanhood resonated with it. Even if I’d never been chosen by Usagi, even if I had to go the “long way around” for my transformation through hormones and surgeries and even if I still had a penis… I would be a woman. Womanhood was a part of who I was beyond the mere shape of my flesh.

I let myself cry as I washed myself in the shower. Tears of joy for the new life I had. Tears of grief for the time lost. Tears of fear for the uncertain future and what it would hold. My body finally resonated with who I was… but it was the act of simply accepting myself which had made me complete.

I had just finished cleaning up and putting on a pair of jeans, a floral t-shirt and a denim jacket when the door of my hotel room was assaulted with a knocking. Grumbling as I combed out my still-damp hair, I wrenched open the door.

Nao was dressed in a frayed black t-shirt with fishnet sleeves to her wrists. Despite the winter chill, her jeans bore a number of holes. She shuffled her feet slightly, her combat boots studded and well-worn. She didn’t quite meet my eyes as I answered the door and considering the awkwardness of our last conversation, I didn’t blame her.

Behind her, Homura stood primly in her long purple dress and with a pair of matching hairbows nestled in her dark hair. Her elegant lolita style made a noticeable contrast to Nao’s vividly punk aesthetic. By contrast with her girlfriend, Homura was much less perturbed by my presence and seemed generally happy to see me. 

“Uh, hey…” said Nao, looking me over uncertainly, “Um… congrats on the new cooch?”

I snorted. “Yeah, thanks… sorry… I didn’t mean to spring that on you… but it was kind of a surprise. But a welcome one, obviously.”

She nodded, rubbing at her arm. “Uh… so… uh… did you still want to head out and patrol?”

I considered it for a moment and nodded, “You know what? Sure… no use staying in my room and obsessing or anything.” I picked up my jacket, purse and scarf and threw them on. “Let’s go.”

Nao breathed a sigh of relief and led the way out, clearly grateful to be past the moment of awkwardness. “So, Izumi said that you know you know your shit? Done the whole pro hero thing?”

I nodded. “I can handle myself.”

“Good,” Nao grunted, recovering some of her bravado, “Because I’m not here to babysit your ass. I just want to make sure you can keep up, you know?”

I caught Homura giving me a knowing look as Nao's facade slid back into place. I understood her, at least a little better.

We stepped back into the cold of the Tokyo streets and while Nao was insistent on continuing to brave the elements in a tee-shirt and fishnet sleeves for warmth, Homura’s insistence made her join her partner in putting on a jacket.

“The park is this way,” said Nao, pointing out the brief break of trees in the otherwise dense urban sprawl. “We can get out of sight to transform there.”

I nodded. It had become second nature for me to always keep an eye out for a secluded spot to change. “So how long have you been doing this? Being Sailor Moon?”

“Uh… officially? A year or so,” said Nao, blushing slightly, “But honestly, I kind of spent like six months… “borrowing” Mom’s brooch before she finally gave me my own.” She indicated my chest. “The one you’re wearing used to be mine.”

I pressed my hand against it protectively. “Right.”

Nao snorted in laughter and held up her own transformational trinket. It was incongruously pink, with a many-faceted pink diamond in the shape of a heart set into it. It was, I recognized, the Prism Heart Compact, last in use by her time-displaced doppelganger. Nao grimaced a little as she pocketed it. It didn’t exactly fit her, aesthetically.

“So… what’s on the agenda for fighting?” I asked, to change the course of conversation.

“I mean… Tokyo always has its fair share of bad guys to squash,” said Nao nonchalantly, “We still get youma showing up from time to time… the occasional kaiju, though we usually let Ultraman or the sentai teams handle those… and of course there’s the supervillains who get a little too big for their boots… and when all else fails, we can always shake some yakuza down when they start acting up.”

“What are the other heroes like here in Japan?” I asked curiously. I knew enough about their anime or TV properties, but as I had learned with the other senshi, reality was usually more complicated.

“Assholes. All of them.” she grunted, with a dark look. 

Homura chimed in. “Sorry. She doesn’t really like the other heroes of Tokyo. They have some difficulty accepting Nao-san as a real hero and not as some kind of joke,” said Homura sadly, “They see her as you first saw her. The child.”

“As Chibi Moon,” I said right before my brain could register what I’d done. Nao gave me a sharp glare, but didn’t react beyond that.

“It’s a pain in the ass,” she hissed, walking a little faster, “Makoto-san taught me how to fight… I’m stronger than my mom was at my age… I fucking took down a whole yakuza clan by myself. But everyone just keeps asking me about her. No matter how much I try, I can’t get out of her shadow. She’s in the stories, the old photos and her memories are still in my fucking head. I’m NOT her. She’s gone, because Mom didn’t want to fight a fucking world war to bring everyone under the New Moon Order or whatever the fuck.”

“I know,” said Homura, slipping her hand into Nao’s. “It’s okay…”

I nodded in sympathy. “I… get it,” I sighed, “I have to live up to your mom’s legacy… and get away from the person I used to be. The person who doesn’t exist anymore.”

Nao glared at me in irritation, but after a moment, her expression softened. “Yeah… I guess you would get it.”

We walked into the park, and Nao led me to a denser cluster of trees out of the direct eyeshot of onlookers. “Okay,” she said, pulling the heart-shaped compact out of her pocket. “Ready to do this?” Homura pulled out a small, miniature spear from her purse.

I nodded, placing a hand on my chest and my own brooch.

“MOON PRISM POWER! MAKE UP!” we cried in unison.

“SATURN CRYSTAL POWER! MAKE UP!” shouted Homura.

Transforming in sync with my fellow senshi was an unusual experience. I felt my own gathering of power as I always did, but this time I could feel the others shining right beside me. Their energies were both similar, and yet different from my own.

Nao’s was, like mine, the power of the moon. But where mine was the warm, pure light of a summer moon… full and bright, Nao’s was like the stark light of a crescent moon in the chill of winter… harsher and wreathed in shadow. She was trying so hard to escape from her past and the future that never was and from the looming presence of her mother. But from what I had seen, I was certain that person beneath that pain would grow into a hero in her own right.

Homura’s power was much starker. The crushing weight of untold power that only just barely fit into her small frame. I realized with complete clarity that she was an Outer Senshi for good reason. She wielded the massive weight of silence, death and the end of cycles. She could squash us like bugs if fully unleashed. But… as her transformation completed, I could feel the power brought to bear and contained. I felt her discipline take hold of the power and wield it according to her will. It would not overcome her. Not again.

I was left in a daze to process these feelings a solid minute or so after transformation. Nao seemed unphased, but she did give me a careful examination as she scanned me with her gaze.

Nao’s outfit wasn’t quite like the Chibi Moon of old. While there were still the hallmarks of the Sailor Scout serafuku with a pink color scheme, there were distinct differences in her costume, too. Small highlights of black were visible on her costume where mine were white. Her gloves were fingerless and her wrists had pink, leather, heart-studded bracelets on them. And rather than the heeled boots, they were instead thick and steel-toed, regardless of being pink. 

In her hands was the Moon Kaleidoscope, a sword-like weapon with a heart motif on the hilt and handguard. While it was pink and toyetic, the way she wielded it made it clear that it was still a blunt instrument capable of inflicting damage.

Small touches such as her lipstick being black and her multiple piercings being preserved through her transformation made it clear that she was not Chibi Moon and never would be.

By contrast, Homura in her Sailor Saturn garb was more true to form, but no less intimidating. A high school girl with a long, bladed glaive that she leaned on casually was something to be feared, skirt or no.

By contrast, all I had in my hands was the Moon Stick. A magic wand with a moon on the end was significantly less intimidating when compared to their weapons.

“Come on,” said Nao/Sailor Moon, leaping into the air, “The others are going to be waiting on us.”

Homura effortlessly followed and I tried to keep up with them as I navigated the unfamiliar rooftops and buildings. Tokyo had much sleeker and newer architecture than Gotham and it afforded less handholds of stone ledges and gargoyles and such. Wincing, I still tried to follow their lead, albeit a little more clumsily.

“So, can I ask something?” I said, trying to make conversation as we leaped from roof to roof.

“What?” said Nao, glancing at me briefly.

“So… your outfit is different,” I said, a little hesitantly. “I mean… from what I’ve seen from the other Senshi.”

“Yeah,” said Nao, not immediately following the thought as she leaped a few more rooftops forward. Finally, she stopped momentarily, perching on top of a railing on the edge of the roof of a karaoke parlor. 

You are reading story Secret Identity at novel35.com

“It started small. Like… my lipstick being different. But the more that I transformed…” she stared off into the distance, her face hard, “The more I came to realize who I really was. And my costume changed with me. A… reflection.” She looked over her shoulder towards me. “You don’t need to live in Mom’s shadow forever, Serena. Your outfit looks just like her’s because on some level you think that you’re destined to be her clone. You can be more… if you want to be.” She exhaled a sigh and leaped forward and continued forward without speaking anything else.

Homura, standing next to me, gave an enigmatic smile as she followed Nao, leaving me to once again, lag behind on unfamiliar rooftops. As I did, Nao’s words settled in my mind. She was more like me than I had realized and as I looked down at my outfit, I wondered how it would change and evolve as I let myself see the powers I wielded as my own.

Once again, I found myself in downtown Akihabara, surrounded by nerd culture and cosplayers as far as the eye could see. This had been where it all started and it was strange to be here again after all these years. 

Heedless of keeping a low profile, Nao leaped down from one of the buildings directly into the heart of the crowd. There was a general commotion of shock and awe, with people snapping pictures and shouting to be seen or heard or offer an autograph. Homura floated down to take her place next to Nao, both of them nonplussed by the crowd.

As I leaped down to join them, I was shocked to see that despite their fanaticism, they were keeping their distance as well. Nao and Homura, both of them well-armed, clearly communicated the idea that the fans could look, but not touch.

My presence landing among them redoubled their fervor. The crowd mostly made up of men in their teens and twenties pressed inward, all of them waving their phone cameras at me in glee. It was more than a little intimidating, but I reminded myself that I could leap away if I needed to.

It was difficult to parse the Japanese that washed over me. But the key phrases I kept hearing were “新しい 戦士!” or “外人戦士!” “New Senshi!” “Foreigner Senshi!”

Nao was having none of the hero worship, smacking her Kaleidoscope into her open palm threateningly. “どいてよ!” she barked, waving the weapon around, “Get out of our way!”

The crowd parted like water as Nao strode forward, with me and Homura following her lead. “クソ オタク!” Nao hissed, “Fucking nerds!”

In spite of her fury and the lack of boundaries of the gathered hero fans, I still took the time to bow at them as I passed. “ごめん” I said, humbly, “Sorry.”

Apparently, the fact that I was capable of speaking Japanese was a cause of delight to them as they oohed and aahed at my trick. Homura took my arm and dragged me forward. “Don’t encourage them,” she said quietly.

As we hit our stride, the crowds lessened slightly, but still brought up the rear. Nao looked visibly irritated as she scanned the area. “I fucking hate patrolling Akiba. Sweaty virgin nerds everywhere and all of them trying to snap a panty shot or ask me what my bra size is. I swear to fuck if one of them gets close…” She punctuated her fury with the snap of her scope on her palm again.

“It’s actually not that bad,” said Homura serenely, “I mean… it’s actually nice to be loved like this. To have people hm… ‘rooting’ for you?” She looked at me, “Is that the right word?”

I nodded. Nao spoke English more or less like a native from her dad’s work as a diplomat with the Japanese government. Homura managed to keep up well enough, but clearly hadn’t spent as much time with the language by comparison.

“I get why you two would be popular,” I said, looking over my shoulder to the hangers on trailing behind us, “But why are they so impressed with me?”

“Uh… because it’s you, dumbass,” Nao said, rolling her eyes, “I mean, you know they’ve got imageboards and forums and shit about us, right?”

I blinked in alarm. Of course I knew that. I used to be a member. 

I hadn’t checked them in ages since I fully took on the Sailor Moon mantle, and I now realized that with the podcast interview I did and with all of my exploits in Gotham, it was only common sense that the fandom in Japan would be clamoring to see the brand new Sailor Moon now that I’d more or less stepped into the spotlight.

“Uh… wow I guess I really am a hero or something,” I said, feeling slightly adrift at the idea.

“Or something,” snorted Nao.

“There they are,” Homura chimed in, pointing a finger down the street.

There was another crowd clustered around a video arcade, and as we drew closer (with another reminder from Nao to get out of her way) we saw through the crowd that four girls were the center of attention.

One of them was a nervous-looking girl in glasses at work on a claw machine. Her long hair was fashioned into a pair of braids running to the small of her back and tied off with yellow bows at the ends. Underneath her pink, puffy coat she was wearing a long, sunny yellow dress with leggings and fur-trimmed boots. Her features were contorted in concentration as she tried to maneuver the claw with the joystick, made more difficult by the other girl standing beside her.

She was the shortest of the four of them, but definitely the loudest. Her hair was tied up in a bun behind her head and her face was set in an almost permanent pout as she stabbed her finger more or less at random around the claw game case, giving contradictory directions to the girl navigating the claw. She wore a heavy blue coat and dressed in her school uniform (a pale blue tartan mixed with gold and hints of red) despite it being the weekend. She had another stuffed animal cradled in her other arm, clearly already won from the crane game.

On the other side of the arcade, a pair of girls were standing side by side at a nearby fighting game cabinet.

One of the girls had her hair tied back behind her head in a trio of small ponytails and had a terrifying snarl of fury on her face. She was dressed in an open boy’s school uniform jacket (dark black with gleaming gold buttons) and wearing a t-shirt underneath. Her legs were clad in patched and threadbare jeans and her sneakers were hard at work in giving the arcade machine the occasional kick of frustration. Next to her was a dented metal bat sticking out of a bag that she apparently had no problems in bringing to the arcade. She was furiously mashing on buttons in a desperate attempt to defeat her opponent.

Her opponent, on the other hand, didn’t seem too upset by the competition. She had a single loose braid which rested on her shoulder as she only half-considered the game in front of her and was casting sly glances to the surrounding crowd. She was dressed in a fur coat and a cosplay-grade maid outfit with a white apron, black dress, white stockings and shiny black shoes. Whereas her opponent was mashing buttons like a maniac, she was idly performing combos and evading attacks with small swishes of the joystick and taps of buttons.

Nao sighed and placed two fingers in her mouth to whistle for their attention. “おい!” she called out, “こっち！” “Hey! Over here!”

Despite their fervor, all of them snapped to attention at Nao’s command and lined up.

“Okay, Ceres,” she indicated the quiet girl at work on the crane machine, currently tending the pouting girl next to her, “Pallas,” as Nao identified her. “Juno,” she indicated the delinquent girl with the bat who didn’t seem too thrilled to be interrupted with her match, “and Vesta.” The girl in the maid outfit made a demure bow.

“それ が 誰?” snorted Juno, shouldering her bag and her bat. “Who’s that?” she stared at me doubtfully.

“新しい 仲間 だ!” cheered Palas, giddily, “A new friend!”

Ceres said nothing, pushed up her glasses and waved at me with a small smile.

“Ah! Enchanté, mademoiselle,” said Vesta, stepping up and curtseying before me. 

“みんな さ, それ が アメリカ人 のセーラームーンだ,” continued Nao, heedless of the madness of her cohorts. “Okay everyone, this is the Sailor Moon from America.” “今日は 一緒 に 働く.” “We’re working with her today.”

I blinked in alarm, looking over my shoulder. The onlookers were still present and drinking in every word, although Nao didn’t seem bothered by casually revealing their heroic identities.

I looked at her team with hesitancy. I knew, from the Sailor Moon series, that the Amazoness Quartet had once upon a time been a group of villains tricked into fighting against the Sailor Scouts. Only for the evil spell of Queen Nehelania to be broken and the four of them to be revealed as the chosen guardians destined to fight alongside Chibi Moon in the distant future. Once they were freed to be the Sailor Quartet, Ceres, Pallas, Juno and Vesta once more, they were sealed back away in their Amazon Stones to one day reawaken in the 30th century as the companions to the new Sailor Moon.

Of course, that future didn’t happen. And instead, Nao seemed rather overwhelmed with managing her team of half-baked senshi. All the same, they listened to her and she seemed to know what she was doing despite her age (although I supposed hundreds and hundreds of years of memories in her brain might have helped that). And at the very least, Nao actually had a team. 

I wasn’t certain how I’d find my own team, as Luna had expected, but I swore that I would try to be the best leader I could be.

“Come on,” said Nao, nudging me, “We got work to do.” 

I nodded, cautiously excited to see them all in action.

The quartet all pulled out matching necklaces, with colored jewels attached to them.

“CERES POWER!” “PALLAS POWER!” “JUNO POWER!” “VESTA POWER!”

“MAKE UP!” 

Their combined energy in transforming nearly blew me off my feet with the flash of light, rush of air and just sheer presence of their powers igniting in such an enclosed space. All of the arcade games and the lights flickered visibly in a brief power surge and the onlookers drew back in alarm.

The girls had transformed into what were unmistakably their Sailor Guardian forms. Their costumes were the same template as my own, with the senshi each having their appropriate colors. Red for Vesta with a deep purple bow, sky blue for Pallas with a darker blue bow, bright pink for Ceres with a lighter purple bow and Juno with a lime green outfit and a brown bow. While in the manga and anime they had outright ludicrous hairdos, their real life equivalents remained unchanged. However, all of them now had hair colors matching their primary colors.

“Okay,” said Nao impatiently, “Let’s go.” She held out her Kaleidoscope menacingly to the crowd as she turned back to them, “OUT OF THE WAY! MOVE IT! WE GOT SENSHI SHIT TO DO! GO BACK TO YOUR CAVES, YOU GODDAMN NERDS!”

They all obeyed dutifully as they all but scrambled over one another to get out of their way. Still trying to endear myself to my newfound fans, I bowed apologetically to them. “Sorry for the inconvenience. It’s nice to meet you all!”

There was another chorus of ooohs and aaahs from the onlookers, peppered with phrases like, “She’s so cute!” “Her Japanese is really good!” “I like her more than Chibi Moon!”

At that last one, the crowd immediately stopped dead silent. They stepped away from a singular nerd who now realized with a visible fear that he had fucked up.

He was in his twenties in a gray jacket and had arms loaded with purchases. His lank, greasy hair was plastered over his head and had thick-framed glasses over his eyes. Which were now wide in abject terror as Nao rounded at him.

“THE FUCK DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!” roared Nao in fury.

Homura, me and, surprisingly, the whole Sailor Quartet rushed forward as one to restrain her from killing the fan. With some struggling, we managed to wrestle her back towards us and with a shared nod, we all leaped into the air, with Nao swearing up a storm as we left.

A few rooftops away and after a deep breathing exercise or two, Nao calmed down. But all the same she looked miserable and turned away from all of us, standing on the edge of the building and looking out onto the city below.

I took an uncertain step forward, but Homura stuck out her arm and shook her head, now taking the lead. She approached Nao and put her hand gingerly over her shoulder. While I had no desire to listen in to their conversation, the wind and quiet unfortunately allowed it to carry.

“What the fuck do I have to do to get away from her?!” choked Nao, a faint sniff audible from her.

“They only know the story, Nao-san,” said Homura, stroking her hair, “They don’t know you. Not yet. Give them time.”

“IT’S BEEN OVER A YEAR, HOMURA!” shouted Nao, smacking her Kaleidoscope on the cement roof floor, cracking it visibly. I jumped in surprise at the sheer energy that erupted from it incidentally. It left an inch-deep divot in the cement. “I’VE DONE SO MUCH, BUT NOBODY CARES!”

“I care,” Homura insisted, gesturing behind herself to us. “Your mother and father care. Serena, Ceres, Juno, Pallas and Vesta care, too. All of the Senshi do. We know who you are and we know that you’re not her.”

Nao gloomily looked at Homura. “I remember, you know,” said Nao, her face stained with tears and contorted with agony. “I have her memories. The memories of her and you. I… I worry sometimes that you’re only with me because I remind you of her.”

Homura shook her head, leaned forward and planted a kiss on Nao’s forehead. “She’s gone. I mourn her loss, true, but I prefer you. I prefer the real Nao. Not the echo of a future that never was. I see parts of her in you, yes… but they are so much more fully realized in the person before me.” She wrapped her arms around Nao, “I love you. For who you are.”

I found my own tears joining hers. Nao had suffered so much in a past that wasn’t hers, just like me. She was desperately struggling to escape a legacy that was not her own. And no magic would change that for her. She simply had to live as the real her… and hope that others would learn to accept it. As would I.

I stepped forward. “Nao,” I said, trying to center myself. I wiped away my tears. “You’re Nao. Not her. I have to remind myself sometimes when I don’t feel quite real enough. Your name is Nao.”

Nao took heart from my words and Homura’s comfort, wiping her eyes.

“Come on!” cried Juno, grinning like a madwoman, “We didn’t wake up for that whiny little brat, we woke up to follow you, boss!”

“You’re our big sister!’ squealed Pallas, “We don’t want anyone else, okay?”

“Besides, she was an insufferable annoyance,” said Vesta, scrunching her nose, “Clearly you’re our real Sailor Moon.” She glanced at me. “Uh… No offense.” I shook my head, smiling.

Ceres swallowed hard and cleared her throat. “We know who you are. You are our leader because you are worthy of leading. You’ve made your identity your own, and we all aspire to do the same for ourselves.”

Nao closed her eyes for a moment and wiped at them. “R-right!” she insisted, her bravado suddenly returned. “Of course! No need to get all gushy about it, jeeze…”

Homura, standing beside her, nodded to all of us in gratitude. 

“Okay everyone,” said Nao, now authoritative. “Each of you keep your ears and eyes open. Any sign of trouble and we’ll jump on it and kick its ass! Move!”

The Quartet nodded and each of them spread out to the edges of the building. Nao sagged a little in Homura’s arms, but allowed her to lead Nao back to me.

“Thanks,” she murmured, looking at me, “This shit isn’t always easy.”

“I can see that,” I said, glancing at her allies. “Though I’m a little confused.”

She raised an eyebrow. “‘Bout what?”

“They… transformed in broad daylight, in front of the crowds of people,” I said, frowning, “They were recording it, I think.”

Nao nodded wearily. “Uh yeah…”

“What about their secret identities?” I asked, bewildered at her nonchalance.

“In order to have a secret identity, they need to have an identity to begin with,” said Nao with a frown, “Uh… Mom didn’t really talk about it in the stories, because it’s a little fucked up, but the Quartet… they weren’t exactly born like me, Homura or you. They were created.”

I blinked in shock. “What?”

“They were created by the old Silver Millenium to serve the future daughter of Princess Serenity when she came of age and sealed away in the Amazon Stones,” said Nao, looking visibly disgusted. “Obviously Silver Millennium imploded in a populist uprising before that could happen. So they waited, dormant, until Queen Nehelania showed up, brainwashed them and used them as her circus performers. They were sealed away again to wait for the heir to come of age again. Well, I came of age, took up the mantle of Sailor Moon and the stones released them.”

She looked over her shoulder, worry etched on her face. “The problem is that they were created to serve me. They have personalities, sure, but they’re kind of fuzzy. They can be a little robotic. I’ve been working on helping them become more human. I mean… I could try to tell them to pretend to be normal and take fake names and shit but…” she broke off, shaking her head. “Nobody should have to pretend to be something they’re not. I want to let them find their own identities. And their own names.”

I nodded in agreement. “So… everyone knows they’re superheroes?” I said, considering what a life like that would even look like.

“Eh… some people do,” she said, shrugging, “Others just don’t ask questions. Make their own assumptions. They just kind of live their lives and I try to help them find their own individuality and think for themselves.”

“I guess that’s all we could ask for,” I said, nodding. 

We waited in silence for another moment as another question raised itself in my mind.

“Hey… so you go by “Nao” right?” I said, eying her cautiously. “But your full name is Naomi?”

She nodded, but I noticed a slight blush and a shift in her posture. “Y-yeah.”

“Can I ask why?”

She pursed her lips for a second or two, and I worried that she might lash out at me. She finally released a sigh and glanced at me, sheepishly. “Uh… Naomi… it’s a little too… girly. I guess.”

I blinked in surprise. “Huh?”

“I mean… I’m not exactly like you or Mako,” Nao insisted, waving her hands dismissively, “And I’m not quite like Harumi, either. Like... it's not that I'm in the wrong body or both or anything... I guess…” she scratched at her chin. “It’s like… I don’t mind being a chick… it’s just I don’t feel like I fit into just the girl category. Like… I don’t want to be a guy, but I guess I…” She shook her head. “Like… I feel like I’m overflowing, I guess. Like, there’s too much of me to fit into this little girl-shaped shot glass.”

“Hm,” I said, frowning as I looked out into the sprawling city.

Nao looked at me pleadingly, “Does that sound… weird?”

I shook my head. “I mean… I literally got handed a uterus today… who the hell am I to decide what’s normal?” I smiled, as disarmingly as I could.

Nao smiled in reply. “T-thanks, I-”

“BOSS!” called out Juno, waving in excitement, “We got trouble!”

We jerked our heads over our shoulder to see Juno waving her arms frantically. All of us gathered around Juno to see what the fuss was.

All we needed to see was the plume of smoke wafting into the air in the distance. There was no further need for discussion. As one, we took to the air to investigate. 

For the first time since I had received my powers, I was rushing into danger alongside my fellow senshi. And in spite of all that had changed, I knew that I belonged.

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