Usagi Quest (CK3/Princess Maker) (Sailor Moon)

Taking two steps forward, the house pushes through the fire and the ice, and it starts to lift up, kicking into the air.

And in that last moment, as the house begins to kick off from the ground, Cure Windy goes hurtling through the air, her arms trailing back behind her as she carries the two forms of Sailor Neptune and Sailor Uranus - Their own hands clasped hard against her forearms.

Coming to a stop for only long enough to let go of the two Senshi, Windy darts forwards again.

The House's legs only barely manage to leave the ground, when not one, but three impacts slam into the back of the massive building, not only pressing it down back onto the ground, but also forwards. At that same moment, Jupiter and Venus rocket past the thing's legs, the shimmering line of Venusian metal lagging behind for only a moment. Catching onto the legs of the towering two story building, the entire beast begins to tilt forwards, the center of it's mass passing past where it touches the ground.

There is a second of groaning strain as the thing tries to fight against the power of gravity, but even as it tries, the two chain carrying Senshi pass each other, moving back around to try and bind the monster's legs once more.

The house crashes to the ground with an earth shaking BOOM, nearly thowing the gathered fighters off their feet. Venus glances over towards Jupiter, and gives the girl a nod. "Alright, you can let go now!" the girl says, carefully darting down under the building's writhing legs, and over towards Jupiter.

With a grin, the girl takes the other end of the chain, before layering them over one another, the two ends easily melding together into a single line. Then, with a glow of golden light, more chains burst from the line, all at various points, rocketing out and burrowing into the stone ground, locking the house's limbs out splayed long, where it can't pull them back in to get any kind of leverage.

Sailor Moon takes a breath, slowly allowing her guard to drop as she watches the house struggle against the bonds keeping it pulled taut. This thing...

It was unlike anything that the Senshi had seen before, and it was one of the hardest fights that they have had the misfortune of struggling against so far. The only threat which the Senshi have faced which was as strong was Kunzite over in London...

And Sailor Moon can't help but wonder if this is what their future is going to be like... If threats like this are slowly going to become the norm, and if fights this difficult are going to be what they always have to struggle against. The girl isn't sure, but she can certainly hope that the worry is wrong. Tilting her head, the girl allows the sounds of the Night Market to roll over her, and slowly listening Sailor Moon smiles...

The distant sounds of shooting are gone. The soft panicking murmuring that had been in each of the buildings are still there... but at the same time it isn't nearly as loud as it was when everything started. Even the sheer feeling of the alley has shifted, if only a little.

It seems to the girl that everything else is likely over, a feeling which is only strengthened as she hears a soft curse, and glancing over her shoulder she spots Kimiko, the member of the Police force with the Electric magic who helped them in the past staring with wide eyes at the massive knocked over form of the chicken house. "You..." She starts to say, clearly lost for words and unable to come up with anything more coherent than wild sputtering. "You... you... You fought that?" She finally manages, and the rest of the Senshi casually nod.

The leader of the Senshi isn't sure if her friends are just trying to play down the fact that they just fought a two story tall building, or if they are just as much shock as Kimiko... or if there is something else at work. Regardless, the reborn princess looks over towards Tuxedo Mask, opening her mouth to try and say something, but before she has a chance, there is a heavy creaking sound.

The Venus Love-Me Chains strain against the massive chicken shaped legs that the house is trying to pull in tight towards itself, and just like every other attempt so far, it simply can't manage to retract them completely, the chains are keeping the thing bound. At least at first, because as the legs continue to try and pull back, they begin to sparkle and shimmer, glowwing a pale green as the legs begin to fade, becoming clearer and clearer as the legs exist less and less, until the chain clatter to the ground, no longer wrapped around anything at all.

All together, all at once, each and every one of the Senshi are completely once more on guard, ready and waiting for something... Anything to happen. Time passes as they wait for the house to begin to move, and the seconds ever so slowly creep on through, until with a sharp CRACK, the front door of the side way laying house is knocked open. Inside, there stands Sei, who somehow... impossibly is standing on the floor of the building, completely in opposition to the fact that the building has listed entirely onto it's side. "Woah..." The non-planetary senshi mutters out, one hand coming up and rubbing at her eyes.

This is not at all what she expected to find when stepping out of the house. Sure, the girl knew that the inside of the house and the outside seemed to be... not so much separate, but when inside the house, the Senshi and the Cure hadn't felt the house moving at all, even so far as to have been completely unaware that the building had fallen onto it's side. "Alright, everyone." Sei calls out, screwing her eyes closed to avoid the odd view in front of her. "The house has been neutralized... but uh..." She pauses, glancing over towards where the ground is. "I think we need to do something about this..."

Leaping down out of the door, and nearly stumbling from the way that gravity and directions all twisted and warped when she passed through the door, the collected Senshi and the two Cures who were working alongside them all spend nearly a quarter of an hour, all trying to figure out how to shift and move the house without damaging the actual building itself.

On the one hand, it seems that they are quite lucky, as the fact that the magic effecting the house hasn't been completely wrecked and ruined. That means that the few times that they press or pull too hard, shattering a part of the building, the wood and the shingles, the railings and the roof all start to regenerate and heal even as they put the broken pieces back where they go. Eventually, the house is righted, and after another few minutes speaking with Genjuro, who has arrived with another group of individuals, an agreement is made.

For now... MCAT doesn't really have anywhere that they can put the building, both due to a lack of space, and because they don't have the means to easily move the house out of the alleyway, as the streets all around the Night Market are on the smaller side, the kinds that trucks tend to avoid because of issues moving around.

Combine that with the fact that they are already planning on setting up some kind of permanent base in the Night Market for the time being, someone to essentially sit on everything and make sure that no one tries anything funny, and the decision quickly becomes clear. It takes the work of every one of the Senshi to lift up the massive house, and even with everything that they have, the stone foundations of the building are crumbling and cracking in their hands. While the Senshi are strong enough to lift the building, the fact is that the pressure per hand size is far beyond what the stone is rated for, and that means that for all that moving the house is a struggle, they need to do so quickly too.

"Step!" Sailor Moon calls out, and each of the Senshi carefully takes a step in unison, before the reborn moon princess repeats her call, "Step!" With each of the Princess's declarations, the gathered group of magical girls move the massive two story building closer and closer to the spot where the building had sat only a few minutes ago, before the battle began. Twice the senshi have to come to a stop, putting down the building - Not because they were tiring or because the magic holding their own glamors were starting to fail, but instead because the cracks and the breaks to the foundation were reaching a point of nearly giving way, and the Senshi needed to allow the restorative magics time to repair the damage to the building.

Once the building is sat back down, the Senshi can truly and for real this time begin to relax and settle down. Then comes to debrief, and there is a lot to talk about, first and foremost is talking about all the different illegal items that the Japanese government had seized, arguing over where they needed to be stored, what would would be considered custody of the police, and what would be given over to MCAT. It was all a massive mess, one made all the worse by the fact that Samui was quite determined to give the Sailor Senshi their due.

All together, the arguments about what was given over to who, and what was going to be done with what all turned into a massive two hour waste of time, one that was starting to get closer and closer to the time that Usagi was supposed to be getting back home at the latest. In the end, there was only one final major thing that needed to be handled - A question that needed to be asked and answered.

There were still hundreds of captured slaves, bound by the cruel collars around their necks. The ones that Naru had the capacity to shatter with a single drop of her blood.

...

Even from where Sailor Moon is standing, she can feel the eyes on the back of her head, the fact that Naru has a very strong opinion about this.

[ ][Naru] Do not explain how Qiqi was freed
- Naru is not going to let this go without revealing that a way to free the slaves is possible, even if that means avoiding the safest option. And Frankly, you can't imagine doing the same either.
[ ][Naru] Say that Sei's blood is the blood of the All-Mother
- there is still a small amount of Naru's blood on her fingers that she would be use to prove once during all of this, and would create a personal action for Both Naru and Usagi that would have to be taken together to properly draw blood to give to MCAT
[ ][Naru] Give Naru's identity to MCAT
-- NARU'S PREFERED OPTION
- By dropping the glamour and revealing herself, Naru would have the capacity to travel to the MCAT base and give blood there. This will be an automatic weekly thing that happens, but there will be a Naru personal action to accelerate the process of freeing slaves
[X][FREE] Try to use the Blessing of the Planets
- Regardless of what you choose when it comes to Naru, the Senshi will try to free a slave using the other method mentioned.

"There is one other thing." Sei says softly, taking a moment to glance over to where the living house sits, unable to move or shift or do anything at all. "I know that this is asking a lot... But... Leaving the house like this..." Sei says softly, "I just... I want to visit." The young woman says simply, "Maybe I can help your people learn to train it." She says, and Samui is quiet for a long moment. It is clear that the woman does want to say yes, but at the same time, she is the leader of MCAT, and giving such an advantage to someone else is potentially troubling.

At the same time, there is something else that is rubbing at her, and after a long moment, the young woman sighs. "I can't leave you alone with this thing, no matter how much I trust you."

"That's fine." Sei says simply, "I just don't want to leave it like this."

Samui snorts, shaking her head. "You and your friends are too kind for your own good, one day that is going to come back to hurt you."

"Perhaps," Sailor Moon admits, but there is a smile on her face, "And on that day, it may hurt, having my trust thrown back in my face, but that won't stop me from reaching out a hand in friendship even then."

Samui is quiet for a long moment when Sailor Moon says that, before she sighs, a soft smile on her face. "I wish more people were like you, Sailor Moon."

---

Monday, June 2nd, 1992
Genai Long-Term Care Facility, Outside of Tokyo

Sailor Moon stands just beyond the tall wrough-iron gates that wrap around the hospital. The girl is very quiet, and more than little somber, enough that someone might not be entirely out of sorts to call the girl a ghost.

May 18th... May 18th was the day that she agreed to come and visit the young girl who has been infected with a strange virus, something different and more than anything that anyone has ever seen. That was fifteen days ago, nearly half a month.

For half a month, this girl has been suffering, and there have simply been so many things going on that each time she has a moment to stop and rest, a moment to try and get her bearings, there was always something else that sprung up, taking her attention.

This girl has been suffering, and in a way it is all her fault. Sailor Moon hates that feeling, and she isn't entirely sure what to do about it. Really... She knows that she should just go in there. She should just walk into the front doors and explain why she is here, who she is here to see, and just get the ball rolling.

Worse, there is the tiniest of voices in the back of her head, the faintest and weakest of words, but despite the fact that the girl can only barely hear them, the fact that she can barely register the question that this little voice has, it weighs on her.

Weighs on her more than the weight of the literal house that she picked up the day before.

What if this girl is dead?

What if... In the two weeks that Usagi has been so busy, going off to other countries and fighting to free slaves... That this young girl, the one that she agreed to help, the one that she was too tired to help after facing off against the Lotus Man...

If she is dead, because Usagi didn't have the energy to save her, after doing so much to help so many other people...

That terrifies Usagi in a way that she has never been afraid before, afraid in a way that feels foreign to even the faintest of whispered memories that rise up from the depths of her psyche. Finally, the girl can't hold herself back any more. Sailor Moon takes a deep breath, she slaps herself on the cheeks hard enough to create a faint echo, and she stands tall.

Sailor Moon enters into the hospital, looking back and forth, trying to find someone who might be able to direct her to the Hospital's director. "Hello ma'am," An elder looking woman sitting behind the counter across the lobby from her says, waving towards the Sailor Senshi. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"Ah..." Sailor Moon scratches at the back of her head as she approaches, trying to keep the worst of the embarrassment from her voice as she starts to speak. "Yes, I was supposed to meet with the Director on the 18th of last month, but had to reschedule." Sailor Moon says, "I was told that as soon as I had a chance to come a visit to speak with him about potentially trying to help one of the patients here." Sailor Moon explains. For a moment it almost seems like that was the wrong thing to say, as the woman's face becomes tight and closed, the woman's slate gray eyes going flatter than obsidian as she looks the girl over.

"And your name?" The woman asks, her tone frosty.

The Senshi doesn't let it get to her, instead locking eyes with the woman and staring her down as well. "Sailor Moon."

Continuing to look at the Senshi as if she had done something horrible, the woman picks up the phone on her side of the desk, quickly tapping out a handful of numbers before bringing the receiver up to her face. "Director." the woman says, immediately all the frostiness of her tone is gone as she smiles into the phone, "There is a woman here to see you. Says her name is... Sailor Moon? She says that she's here to go and give that poor girl more false hope."

There is a bit of squawking from the other end of the line, and at first the woman seems triumphant, but after a moment the look starts to fade, until she is once more scowling. Regardless, she nods her head. "Yes sir, of course sir. Right away sir." Replacing the phone back onto it's cradle, she turns and gives Usagi the best stink eye that she can. "The Director is up on the top floor." The woman says, "He's expecting you."

With that, she very visibly and very intentionally turns away from you, sitting with her back away from the door before she pulls out a magazine and flips it open. Usagi can recognize a dismissal when she sees one, and with a huff and a sigh she turns and makes her way through the halls of the building back towards the elevator.

Floor by floor passes, Sailor Moon watching as the number at the top of the elevator changes one by one, trying her best to ignore everything about what the woman said.

At the very least, there is one clearly good thing that she has to realize. The fact that the old woman seems to know exactly who it is that Sailor Moon is here to see... That means that the girl is almost certainly alive. That... That does more to buoy her spirits than anything else, because that means that she hasn't completely failed.

Finally reaching the top floor, Sailor Moon immediately notices the fact that there is a sign, pointing her in the direction of the Director's office. Making her way through the hall, Sailor Moon first and foremost wants to let nothing stop her, nothing hold her back.

Make it to the Director's office, and then heal the girl and-

"Can... Can you help me?" A tiny voice says. Without even thinking about it, Sailor Moon immediately comes to a stop. slowly, carefully, the girl starts to turn, trying to find the source of the voice. She looks one way, and then the other, before continuing back the first way again.
Standing there, just by the closest door is a small child. He can't be any more than five... Maybe six years old, dressed in yellow with a pillow in one hand, and a duck pillow in the other. Well, there goes the chance of making her way to the director without being stopped.

Surely, she would know better than to jinx herself anymore. Still, that doesn't stop the Senshi from taking a step closer to the boy, kneeling down so that she is on an even level with him. "Help you?" She asks, and the boy nods, bringing one hand up to rub at his eye. "The Bad Hat Man took it." The young boy says, and Sailor Moon is not entirely sure what he is talking about.

"Took what?"

"He took it." The young boy repeats. "The bad man took it away, and won't give it back." The boy says, and for a moment Sailor Moon... No... Usagi isn't sure what to do, she isn't sure what to say, before giving the young boy a nod.

"I'll find the bad hat man," She tells the boy, "But unless I know what he took, I can't help you get it back."

"He took everything." The young boy says, "He took all of it. Mama and Papa, and even me, but I want me back."

At this point, Sailor Moon is entirely unsure of what the young boy is meaning, but she is going to do everything she can. Thankfully, the director will likely be able to help her. "Okay." She says simply, "I'll find the Bad Hat Man, and I'll make him give you everything back."

"Thank you... Sailor Moon. I know I can trust you." With that, the boy carefully opens the door, before wandering back in. For a moment, Sailor Moon is tempted to follow after, but that is something that she can handle later, once she deals with the Director, and the girl that she is here to try and save.

Still, she's definitely going to keep an eye out for everyone's hat, and mention the boy to the Director as well.

Arriving at the Director's office, the Senshi knocks on the door, and after receiving a hearty "Come on in," She steps inside.

The Director is not at all what she expected, given just... just her experiences with hospitals, and how they are shown in various media. For one, the director isn't wearing the pale thin surgical garb that so many shows use to mark these kinds of people, but more than that...

The man is... To try and say it in a way that is a little less rude, perhaps he should lay off the pastries, and spend some time taking the stairs.

Dressed in a remarkably dapper suit that clearly fits him well, even if he is a bit overweight, the director of the Hospital is a man with an eternally rosy face, yet one that is clearly cheerful instead of angry.

"Ah, yes. Sailor Moon." The Director says, giving the Senshi a bow, "Here to try and help Miss Nodoka Hanadera?"