Rumor Is Poison For Relationship, And Love Is The Antidote!
Usagi’s Voice: The press says Keiko-chan and Seiya-chan are a pair? Ha! This is nonsense! I know Seiya-chan, so I’m not going to believe the rumor. But why are they looking at each other like that? Hey, Keiko-chan, stay away from my Seiya-chan!
Three Lights are in the middle of a live interview show on TV.
Female Interviewer (smiling): Seiya Kou-san, I believe that most of your fans are wondering who actually your girlfriend is. I know you’re not going to tell us her name anyway. But would you at least give us some hints, like what kind of girl she’s like?
Seiya (smiling): Well, she’s…um…she’s lovely, and um…spirited, um…optimistic, um…full of energy, um…brave…in one word, lovable, especially for me of course.
All the audiences in the studio laugh or smile.
Interviewer (smiling): I think we can see that. Well, some people said she’s from Juuban High School, your alma mater, and you met her there. Is that true?
Seiya: Well, she’s from Juuban High School but I didn’t meet her there. Aren’t we talking about my girlfriend a little bit too much? Let’s get to another topic, shall we?
[Title Screen]
Mamoru and Three Lights are in the boys’ changing room of a gym in a private club.
Yaten (unhappily): Who started this anyway? You know I don’t like exercises. Why did you make me to come here with you?
Seiya: Exercise is a good thing for your health. You’re a human now so please do something good for your human body, would you? Well, I’m ready. I’m going to the gym. The girls are probably there already. Are you guys coming with me?
Taiki: Not just yet.
Yaten: I’m not ready yet.
Mamoru: Well, I go with you then.
When Mamoru and Seiya get to the gym in their sportswear and with their sports bags, the girls aren’t there yet. They sit down on the seats beside the court.
Mamoru: Seiya-kun, there’s something on my mind that I’d like to ask you.
Seiya (seriously): What is it? Is it about the enemy?
Mamoru: No. It’s nothing serious like that. Um… I hope you don’t mind. I’m just curious. I have thought about it and I hope you don’t mind what I’m going to ask you.
Seiya (amusingly): I won’t mind at all. Could you tell me what it is now?
Mamoru (smiling embarrassedly): Do you – and I mean Yaten-kun, Taiki-kun, and you – feel uncomfortable in the boys’ changing room? I mean… you were… and now you’re… I’m sorry if you’re uncomfortable with the topic but I’m just curious.
Seiya looks at Mamoru with wide eyes first, and then Seiya laughs.
Mamoru (shocked): What are you laughing at?
Seiya (amusingly): I’m sorry. I just…(controlling himself from laughing.) Well, we don’t mind the gender thing that much on our planet like here on earth, not on Planet Kinomku, and not in Angel Constellation. The heart, the spirit, and the mind are more important than the appearance and the body for us. We don’t feel ashamed seeing that. Besides, we’re boys on earth. We’ve got used to our male appearance for a long time.
Mamoru (nods): Yes, you’re right. I’m sorry I brought this up. I was just curious.
Seiya (patting Mamoru’s shoulder): Never mind. It’s quite normal for you to ask this. Actually, I’m surprised you hadn’t brought this up earlier.
Mamoru: Then…
Usagi (smiling): What are you guys talking about, huh?
Suddenly, all the girls, except Setsuna, Hotaru and Victoria, show up with Taiki and Yaten. Seiya takes Usagi into his arms. Chiyoko and Mamoru exchange a glance and Mamoru shakes his head, but no one else notices that.
Seiya: I was telling him how I’m going to beat you all, especially Haruka-san.
Haruka (mockingly): Oh yeah? We’ll see about that. Why don’t we have a little one-on-one first, huh? What do you say?
Seiya (picks up a basketball): Sure!
Seiya and Haruka keep arguing while they are going to the basketball court. The others shake their heads or smile.
Michiru: They really are two children.
Chiyoko: Forget them! Let’s have a little fun. What do you guys want to play?
Usagi: I’m not going to play just now. I’d like to watch Seiya-chan and Haruka-san playing basketball.
Chiyoko: No way! You don’t have enough exercises.
Rei: Now, that’s an understatement. You should say she has never exercised.
Everyone laughs, except Usagi of course.
Usagi (pouting unhappily): Hey, that’s not true!
Rei and Usagi get into a fight but Chiyoko stops them.
Chiyoko (amusingly): All right, you two. Usagi, “you don’t exercise all the time,” how’s that? That’s why you’re not going to be the only little lazy girl around here today, ok?
Mamoru: Come on. She won’t focus on playing any games anyway. Let her do what she wants. We’ve got 12 people left, good enough for a volleyball game. So leave her alone then. What do you think?
Everyone yells for agreement. They play happily together. Usagi yells for Seiya all the time and Seiya smiles her back, which makes Seiya loses a lot. But Seiya is still very happy, and smiling all the time. About 45 minutes later, they take a rest on the seats beside the court. They’re having drinks.
Usagi: What are we going to do next?
Chiyoko: Next, I’m going to put you in a game, you little lazy thing!
Usagi: Ok, all right. Don’t get angry. But what’s on your mind?
Chiyoko: Badminton and tennis are my favourites. You asked me to teach you one day, remember? Let’s do it now!
Usagi and Chiyoko leave and go to another side of the gym, a room that people can practice badminton, tennis, and so on against the wall.
Seiya: Haruka-san, do you want to try tennis as well?
Haruka: How about a double game? You pick a partner. I pick a partner. Michiru?
Michiru (shaking her hand): Don’t get me into this! You know I’m not good at that.
Yuko: I have a suggestion: why don’t you get Keiko-chan and Akiko-chan to be your partners. They’re very good at exercises, especially Keiko-chan.
Haruka: Then let Keiko-chan be Seiya-san’s partner then. He needs more help.
Seiya: Hey! What did you just say?
Keiko bows 90 degrees to Seiya suddenly with both hands in front of her thighs (traditional bowing of Japanese women), which shocks everyone.
Keiko: Seiya-san, I’m not much better than Akiko-chan, but I’d be honored to be Seiya-san’s partner.
Yuko: Seiya-san, both Keiko-chan and Akiko-chan are very good at sport. There are not much difference between them. I think Keiko-chan will assist Seiya-san properly.
Akiko: And I won’t retain anything because I know Seiya-san can beat anyone and anything. Keiko-chan and I as which person’s partner won’t make any difference.
Seiya (shaking his head and speaking jokingly): I think the three of you will never be able to quit this habit, huh?
Everyone laughs, except Yuko, Keiko, and Akiko, who are smiling embarrassedly.
Haruka: So, are we on or what? Akiko-chan, you would be my partner, right?
Akiko: Certainly, let’s go.
Seiya, Haruka, Keiko, and Akiko go into the court and start their game. The others watch their little competition. The four competitors are trying the best they can. Near the end, Haruka and Akiko are few scores more than Seiya and Keiko.
Seiya: Oh, we’re losing!
Keiko: Don’t worry. We still have time, right? We’re going to make it.
Seiya (mockingly): You’re too optimistic, you know.
Seiya and Keiko try hard and finally, they make it by 2 points. They win!
Keiko (cheeringly): Yahoo!
Keiko jumps around cheering and then she hugs Seiya.
Keiko (smiling): Congratulations, Seiya-san. We won!
Seiya (smiling): Same to you!
The others congratulate them, except Chiyoko and Usagi of course because they are not there. Suddenly, some screams shows up.
Girls (overlapping): Oh my god. That’s Seiya’s girlfriend! See? She’s hugging him!
Soon there are screams and camera lights all around them. Shortly it becomes turbulence, and Seiya and Keiko become the storm center of course. All of them don’t know what to do and how to handle this because it comes out so suddenly. But at least Three Lights know that the best thing to do is to keep the mouths shut. However, someone, who is crying not far away, doesn’t think so.
Usagi (sobbing and thinking): Seiya-chan…
She then runs away. Chiyoko, who is standing besides her, runs behind her.
Chiyoko (with worried face): Usagi!
Seiya sees they leave and he quickly follow them.
Seiya (thinking): Odango…
Seiya runs very fast and leave the people in the gym behind very soon.
[CM Break]
Nicole transforms a lotus (not a hibiscus) into a girl. She has blond long hair and blue eyes, and is wearing pink bikini and short boots with white ribbons around her.
Nicole (unhappily): Go to Earth and get me back Prince Eric and Princess Irene.
Usagi’s thinking in her room at Chiyoko’s house alone, with a pen in her mouth. (The two couples have moved into Chiyoko’s house together, still remember?) Then suddenly, there’s a knock on her door.
Usagi (dejectedly): Who is it?
Chiyoko (outside the door): It’s me, Chiyoko. May I come in?
Usagi: No, because I’m doing my homework.
Chiyoko walks in the room and sees what Usagi’s doing. Usagi quickly pulls her pen out of her mouth and pretends doing her homework. Chiyoko looks at her amusingly.
Chiyoko: Doing homework, huh? I see. But how come your pen was in your mouth?
Usagi: I was thinking of a Math problem, ok? Now leave me alone. I’ve still got tones of homework to do, you know.
Chiyoko (sitting besides her): You were not thinking of a Math problem. You were thinking of a “Seiya problem”. You want to talk about it?
Usagi sighs and looks at Chiyoko. Chiyoko sees Usagi’s tears and quickly holds Usagi in her arms. Usagi is sobbing in her arms.
Chiyoko (patting Usagi’s head lightly): It’s ok. It’s ok.
Usagi (sobbing): No, it’s not ok. This is not ok. Seiya-chan left me. He dumped me!
Chiyoko: What are talking about? You almost made him cry by ignoring him these days. And now you’re saying that he’s dumping you?
Usagi leaves Chiyoko’s hug.
Usagi: He hugged Keiko-chan! Didn’t you see it? And when people asked him if she was his girlfriend these days, he said nothing! The whole school asking Keiko about that and she said nothing too! Now look at this newspapers…
Usagi picks up some newspapers besides her desk.
Usagi: The press says that Seiya-chan’s description of his girlfriend perfectly fit Keiko-chan: Seiya-chan is her boyfriend!
Chiyoko (rising her eyebrows): I don’t think this incident is the real reason you’re so upset. It’s just a slow match, isn’t it?
Usagi (sighs): You know me too well, Chiyoko. Yes, I’m still not very sure about why Seiya-chan is in love with me. I mean he’s so perfect, a lot of girls are around him, and he has a lot of choices. Why he picks me?
Chiyoko (smiling): Because you’re a lovely and caring human being who’s willing to sacrifice herself for other people, even though some of them may be your enemies.
Usagi: You think so?
Chiyoko (smiling): Seiya-chan told me so.
Usagi: He told you that?
Chiyoko (nods): Uh-huh. Look, I know you love and care Seiya so much that makes you become jealous when you see and hear something like that. I know I’d if I were you. But when I cool down, and when I think about it, I know he’s not going to leave me no matter what, especially after what we’ve been through. Not a chance in hell!
Usagi calms down, stops sobbing, and looks at Chiyoko.
Chiyoko: Usagi, Seiya didn’t hug Keiko-chan. Keiko-chan hugged him, because they just won Haruka-san and Akiko-chan. You hugged Mamoru-chan last time when we played the video games. Did Seiya and I say a thing? No! And I think you don’t know the press. If Seiya said Keiko-chan wasn’t his girlfriend, the press would make up all kinds of “proof” the next day to make Keiko-chan to be his girlfriend, in order to make their paper to be the bestseller. And more importantly, he didn’t want to give out your name to the press. You’d be surrounded if he did that. He just wanted to protect you. He always does. He wanted to protect your privacy. And one more thing, are you going to believe the press instead of Seiya?
Usagi (shakes her head): No. I’m sorry. I think I did something wrong.
Chiyoko: You should say sorry to Seiya. His heart is broken, knowing that you chose to trust the press instead of him. I saw him cried. You’d better talk to him.
Usagi (hugging Chiyoko and smiling): I know what to do now.
Usagi leaves her room and goes to Seiya’s. Usagi stands in front of his door and puts up her hand. Her hand stops in the air and she looks back to Chiyoko. Chiyoko gives Usagi a comforting and encouraging smile. Usagi smiles back and knocks the door.
Usagi: Seiya-chan.
But there’s no response. Then the doorbell rings and they open the door. It’s Keiko.
Keiko (smiling): Usagi-chan, Yuko-chan sent me. Seiya-san’s at the studio, recording new songs with Taiki-san and Yaten-san. Would you come with me?
Usagi smiles, nods, and follows Keiko to the door.
Chiyoko: Should I come with you?
Usagi and Keiko (smiling together): Sure!
The three girls are walking towards the studio on the street.
Keiko: Usagi-chan, I think there’s something you should know about me, or us. Seiya-san and Chiyoko-chan are our prince and princess. More, they’re our hope and religion. All of their people believe in them, like the God, the Lord, or the Jesus Christ, that includes the three of us. We’re honored to be with them on Earth as their friends. We’ll protect them and believe in them always. But I don’t think I’ll ever fall in love with Seiya-san in anyways. No one will fall in love with Jesus Christ, right? Calling them Seiya-san and Chiyoko-chan is already making us uncomfortable sometimes. It’ll be a sin for me to destroy someone who’s a saint in my heart. I won’t do that.
Usagi (smiling to Keiko): I know. I love him so I should trust him. I know it now because I believe in him too, in a loving way of course.
Usagi winks and they laugh. When they walk through a park, they hear a scream from the other side of the small lake suddenly. They rush there and see Lotus floating above the water. They get somewhere without any other people to transform.
Usagi: Moon Universal Crystal Power, make up!
Chiyoko: Protector Universal Crystal Power, make up!
Keiko: Euphrosyne Graceful Power, make up!
Like usual, the transformation scene start with Moon and end with her as well.
Lotus (softly): None of them is either Prince Eric or Princess Irene? That’s strange. I’d better move to somewhere else.
Moon: You’re not going anywhere!
Lotus turns around elegantly and sees Moon, Protector, and Euphrosyne.
Lotus (frowning): Who are you?
Moon: For love and hope…
Protector: the sailor-suited pretty soldiers…
Moon: Sailor Cosmos Moon!
Protector: Sailor Cosmos Protector!
Euphrosyne: And don’t forget. Bring the world merry and peace. Sailor Euphrosyne!
There together: In the name of the universe, we’ll punish you!
Lotus gracefully releases the ribbons around her to the three sailors.
Euphrosyne: Cheering Capriccio!
Lotus sinks to the water and disappears to avoid the attack from her. Three sailors are shocked. They look around but can’t find her.
Euphrosyne: Where is she?
Moon: She should be in the water. Don’t you think?
Protector: Be careful. Although she sank to the lake, she might come out from somewhere else.
Lotus: Good guessing!
Lotus appears behind them and releases ribbons suddenly.
Euphrosyne: Look out!
Protector: Hope Crystal Divine Light!
Euphrosyne pushes Moon away at the same time Protector attacks Lotus, which makes Moon’s head kiss the floor. Protector and Euphrosyne sweat-drop. Protector’s attack kills the ribbons but Lotus is still there. Moon gets up quickly.
Moon (shouting): Let’s do it together!
Euphrosyne: Cheering Capriccio!
Protector: Hope Crystal Divine Light!
Moon: Hope Crystal Eternal Light!
Lotus is destroyed (instead of “changes back to a flower and vanishes,” I’ll use this expression from now on). Three sailors exhale together.
Euphrosyne (worried): Look, Sailor Cosmos Moon! You’re chafed! The wound is so huge. His highness will kill me if he sees this.
Moon (smiling): Don’t worry. It’s just a little hurt. He won’t kill you for this. In fact, (smiling evilly,) I have an idea.
Protector and Euphrosyne don’t understand what she’s saying. They look at her together and then look at each other, with confusing faces.
Seiya (shouting): What is this???!!!
The three girls make it to the studio. The Three Lights are all there.
Usagi (pointing to her wound): This is because of you!
Seiya (pointing his nose): Me???!!!
Usagi (blushed): Yeah, I was thinking of you on my way here. So I didn’t pay full attention to the road, which made me fall down. Can you say this wasn’t your fault?
Seiya is blushed. Then he smiles, hugs Usagi and kisses her. Usagi hugs him back.
Seiya (softly): So that means you forgive me?
Usagi: I should be the one ask for forgiveness. I’m sorry I didn’t trust you enough.
Seiya: If you do really mind, I’ll tell the press about us later. I just wanted to protect you. You don’t know how crazy the press is.
Usagi: It’s ok. No need to do that. Later when they discover you haven’t spent much time with Keiko-chan, it’ll go off. I’m sorry for what I did.
Seiya: Being jealous means you love me. I’m happy for that actually.
Usagi (smiling teasingly): So you’re saying I should do it more often?
Seiya: Don’t even think about it!
Usagi laughs and kisses Seiya. The others smile.
Lotus: meanings - Belief, Faith, Religion colors – white, pink, etc.
There’re two legends about Lotus. The first one’s from Roman. Nympha (Nymphaea is another name of lotus) is a beautiful goddess living near the sea. She’s beloved and admired by all the gods and men. Another one’s from Germany. The water sprite from swamp will transform into lotus in order to attract people to take them and they can pull the people into the water and kill those people. So German believe lotus is bad luck. But actually, lotus is the most beautiful flower of the water. Lotus is named as “Queen of Water”. Dharma once said, “Lotus, something so beautiful, can grow from mud, something so dirty.” Maybe the most special thing about lotus is that something so beautiful, pure, and innocent, is from the dirt.
Actually, I’m not very satisfied with this episode. My original idea was to make three episodes for Graces, like what I did in episode 217 for Chiyoko. Comparing Chiyoko’s mature and elegant to Usagi’s childish and innocent implies that Mamoru should choose Chiyoko and Usagi should choose Seiya. – Many readers complained about Chiyoko. They said she’s too perfect and covers Usagi. The above is one of the reason I’m doing it. Besides, other characters like Ami and Haruka are better than Usagi. But the point of Usagi’s lovely character still stands, right? At least many of you speak for her. I myself love Usagi the most, and Seiya the second. I always hate people saying how stupid and dump Usagi is. But actually, I love her pure and innocent. Mature people may gain unnecessary pain sometimes whilst “foolish” people may retain their happiness all the time. (If you don’t understand such philosophical term, feel free to ask me or ignore it. But I believe that’s pretty much why Naoko-san created Usagi, not just because Usagi’s like her.) No one can ever compete to Usagi! Never! – Anyway, this episode for Keiko is influenced by Seiya and Usagi too much. The idea came to me and I couldn’t control it, and I always believe that I shouldn’t control the inspiration upon me. In addition, Keiko is just a second major character and her personality is too simple for me to think of an episode just for her. So I think this episode for Keiko is acceptable, right? (I hope.) Hey, if I write three episodes only about the Graces, fans of the Three Lights, or even the whole “Sailormoon” series, won’t read them anyway, right? So I forgive myself doing this and I hope you forgive me too (and more importantly, I hope Keiko-chan forgive me as well). All right, I’ll see you next time!