Chapter 3: Future Imperfect


Part A


After hearing Ami’s confession about her feelings for Urawa and for the future, Rei decides to explain her situation.

“Well, I think it’s my turn. I want to tell you guys what I want for the future…”


The other girls look at Rei and are surprised by that. ‘She’s been dodging this issue for so long… and now she’s ready to tell us all, it seems…’ is the common thought passing through the others’ minds.


“It all started about nine months ago. I was working on composing some music for a festival… and I was up all night trying to get the lyrics right…” Rei says, reminiscing about the night.

“That’s not hard to picture…” Ami says with a nod. “When you sink your teeth into something, you’re quite dedicated… especially when it comes to music.”

Rei cannot help but smile as a result of the compliment. “Thanks Ami.” Closing her eyes, Rei continues telling her tale. “It turns out that I wasn’t the only one up all night…”

“Oh…” Usagi says, wondering what’s going to happen next. “Then what?”

“I was about to call it a night so I went to get a quick snack. Guess who I found sleeping outside of my door?”

“Let me guess- it was Yuuichiro.” Makoto says, making an educated guess.

“It was…” Rei says with a nod. “I woke him up and asked him what he was doing… and he told me that he had been listening to me sing all night. All this quiet time we’ve had since Galaxia has opened new doors for me…”

“Having free time does help… if it was like the ‘old days’, then I wouldn’t have had time to contact Urawa…” Ami says with a slight blush.

“Can’t stop thinking about him, huh?” Makoto says playfully, causing Ami’s face to turn even redder. The soldier of Mercury says nothing but reaches for her computer and starts typing in a message as Rei continues…

“He agreed to help me out… listen to my songs and give comments. I guess that’s how it all started…” Rei says while a small smile forms on her face. ‘Yuuichiro… I hope you’re not mad at me for canceling that dinner date…’

Hearing that gets some wheels turning in Minako’s mind and she cannot help but ask: “Didn’t you write a song to go along with his music? I remember you mentioning something about a CD…”

“We’re still working on that… I still have those connections from when I was an idol, you guys remember that, right?”

“Of course… we had to bring you back down to earth, you were so into it…” Minako says while elbowing her friend.

“I’m sure you’d have done the same thing… we all know how much you like to sing and be popular, too- Sailor V!” Rei says while elbowing back. Minako sticks out her tongue at Rei and the two keep on arguing, while the other three girls shake their heads silently.


“Something’s never change…” Usagi says with a nervous chuckle.


Ami finishes her text message and sends it off to Urawa. Inside the message, she tells him about the invitation from her mother… and hopes for a “yes” reply back.


Makoto decides to break up this situation with something that everyone will like.

“How about some chocolate cake?”

All eyes turn and look at the brunette chef. “I think it’s time for a break…” she says while walking into the kitchen.

Rei and Minako stop fighting and the other two girls stand up and head into the kitchen. Makoto gets the cake and starts serving it to her friends, who eagerly await tasting the culinary creation…


“Good, as always…” Usagi says between bites. “Delicious!”

Appreciating the comment, Makoto cannot help but say “Thanks!” immediately. The other three girls say nothing until they finish eating…

“Very good!”

“Great!”

”Delicious!”

“It was nothing…” Makoto says with a slight blush. With the situation back to normal, she wants to hear more about Rei and her relationship with her boyfriend and so asks her to continue, hoping to get more information about how relationships work and how to keep them going, from her friends’ perspective.


“Well… we started working together and I got to talk with him a lot more then I had before. He’s actually got a pretty interesting background…”

“So when did you start dating?” Usagi asks the former secretively Rei, who had never really revealed that information to her friends before.

“Hmm… I guess we started dating about six months ago. We moved from friends to something more… and I have to say, it’s been pretty good ever since. I’ve never felt like this before- this never could’ve happened while we were busy fighting evil and saving the world…”

“I’ve never seen you so happy, Rei… you’re even in a good mood sometimes…” Usagi says jokingly.

“Ha-ha, Usagi” Rei says crossly. “But… I don’t want to see this end.”

“So that’s the issue- everything coming to an end.” Ami says, speaking her mind. “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know…” Usagi scratches her head. “We saw the future… we went there… and came back. Can we change it?”

Minako looks at Ami. “Can we? Is the future set… or can we all be happy?”


Shrugging her shoulders, Ami thinks about that- only one answer comes to mind.

“Let’s ask Setsuna- she is the guardian of time, after all…”

“Good idea…” is the common consensus from the other four Sailor Soldiers who are curious about their fate… and whether it could be changed…”


Across town, in Haruka and Michiru’s apartment, Setsuna slowly awakens from the vision she just had. Involuntarily, she shivers… and realizes that she’s covered in a cold sweat.

“What happened?”

Michiru helps her friend up. “You passed out over fifteen minutes ago. About a minute after you passed out, your rod stopped glowing and fell down to the ground.”

“Are you okay?” Hotaru asks while handing Setsuna a damp cloth.

“I think so… but I just saw something very disturbing…” Pluto says while taking the cloth and gently wiping the sweat off of her face.

That gets the other Outers attention immediately. “What did you see?” asks Haruka.

“It was a vision of the future… from Neo-Tokyo. I was in a ballroom… and then it went dark. There was a fog… and then a flame… and then screams and death…” Setsuna says while trying not cry. “There was so much pain… and suffering…”

“That’s the future? Was this before or after the invasion by the Dark Moon?” a very confused Haruka asks.

“It was after…” Setsuna says grimly. “I’ll have to look into this further… I have a really bad feeling about this.”

“Maybe you should do that here… in case you get caught up in a vision again.” Michiru says, worried about her friend.  

“Good idea…” Setsuna says while getting on her feet. “I’ll come back tomorrow afternoon then…”

Haruka gets Setsuna’s coat and puts on her own.  “I’ll walk you home, just in case.”


The two Sailor Soldiers leave and walk down the nearly empty streets, taking notice of the night sky as they head to Setsuna’s apartment.

“It looks so peaceful out there…”

“Yes… but I don’t think our lives will ever be completely quiet…” Setsuna adds. “It’s been nice, though, having all this time off from fighting evil…”


A stiff wind begins blowing, chilling both women to the bone and causing them to quicken their pace back to the apartment.

“Damn that’s cold…” Haruka says.

“Kind of like the future I saw…” Pluto says to herself softly.


The two are back inside shortly and Haruka warms up in the apartment for a few minutes before heading back. What she witnessed earlier in the evening weighs in on her mind on the walk home. ‘I wonder if these bad future… includes Michiru and I? I didn’t like what happened to Setsuna- something is definitely wrong…’



Back at Makoto’s apartment, the cake is now gone and the girls have changed into their pajamas. All eyes are on Usagi as she prepares to tell her story and what happened last month…


Part A Omake:

Rei and Yuuichiro are playing some of their new music for the visiting Ami and Urawa…

“That was good…” Ami says while clapping her hands.

“You two make a good pair…” Urawa says while also clapping.

Rei bows slightly. “Thanks!”

“We got another song… it’s not ours but we umm… changed the lyrics a little. Rei said it was perfect for you two…”

“Hmm… okay.” Ami says hesitantly, not knowing whether to be happy or fearful.

Urawa settles back in his seat and Yuuichiro starts playing the song.


A/N: The song “Wake Up Little Susie” is performed by  The Everly Brothers and was written by B.Byrant and F. Bryant . Copyright 1957 from Barnaby Records, Inc.
I changed “Susie” to “Ami” in the lyrics for humorous results…

Wake up little Ami, wake up
Wake up little Ami, wake up
We both been sound asleep
Wake up little Ami and weep
The movie’s over, it’s four o’clock and we’re in trouble deep…

Wake up little Ami, wake up
Wake up little Ami, wake up
Well… what we gonna tell your momma… what we gonna tell your pop
What we gonna tell our friends when they say “Ooh La La”

Wake up little Ami, wake up
Wake up little Ami, wake up
Well I told your momma that you’d be in by ten
Well Ami babe it looks like we goofed again
Wake up little Ami, wake up little Ami- we gotta go home

Wake up little Ami, wake up
Wake up little Ami, wake up
The movie wasn’t so hot
It didn’t have much of a plot
We fell asleep, our goose is cooked, our reputation is shot

Wake up little Ami, wake up little Ami
Well… what we gonna tell your momma… what we gonna tell your pop
What we gonna tell our friends when they say “Ooh La La”
Wake up little Ami, wake up little Ami, wake up little Ami…


Ami is totally red-faced after the song is done and cannot say a word. Urawa is blushing a little as well… he places a reassuring hand on Ami’s shoulder.

“It’s okay Ami… that kind of sounds like what happened that one time with us…” Urawa says with a nervous chuckle. “I know your friends acted the same when you told them…”

Softly, Ami agrees. “Yes… they did…”

Rei starts elbowing Yuuichiro. “See, I told you it was perfect!”

Having a sudden idea, Urawa begins grinning. “We’ll have to find a song for you two…”

“We’ll be waiting…” Yuuichiro says, wondering what the pair will come up with.

End Omake

I’ll have to find a song for Rei and Yuuichiro for another omake… but with Ami and Urawa on the case, that shouldn’t be a problem, right? ^_^

To be continued in Part B.