紅蓮華

[Ishikawa Rini]

It seemed she was floating. Starlight shone in the black of space, with no flickering or twinkling. The moon, however, pulsed, seeming to pull her towards that body.

She then found herself in a garden, surrounded not by the Grecian or roman style buildings she imagined thanks to her favorite anime, but by familiar pagodas and traditional buildings of Japan. Over the top of the tallest building, the blue-green marble of Earth hung in the glittering black sky.

Awed and uncertain, she took one step towards the buildings, but stopped when her footsteps seemed too loud for the tranquility of the area. Looking down, she saw the new white boots she’d had made for her Princess Serenity-style ring gear. The soles should make no sound, but even the slough of her feet across the paving stones practically reverberated in this place.

What was she doing here? Was this really the moon?

A shiver ran down her spine, making her feel like she was being watched and an intruder that would be swiftly dealt with. She looked around, but nothing appeared. She turned her eyes to the large castle… and froze.

There. Just at the top of the long flight of steps to the main entrance. A regal figure with a cloak of feathers…


“Hey Rini!”

Rini jerked upright, looking around wildly. The projector tv showed the title screen for the Sailormoon S movie. Jack was standing over her, a worried look on his face.

“You okay, Rini?” Jack asked.

Her heartbeat finally returned to something closer to normal. It was just a dream, probably brought on by the themes of the movie.

“Hai. I’m fine…”

---

“I came to Imperial to be with Maasu, and I thought that I would shine as brightly as her from the start… But I am not strong enough without my friends. I have come to accept that. Maasu and Uranusu can stand on their own, but I need them with me to succeed. So I start anew.

I could be upset about it, but I recognize that I am now competing in a different bracket. The abilities I have are not enough to compete on the level that Maasu and Uranusu are at. I could be jealous and angry, but I am happy for my friends. They have earned their honors and I could not be prouder of them. My abilities are different from theirs, so why should I be upset over something I cannot imitate?

I am still the Mahō-Hime. I am strong. I am powerful. I am more than capable for the challenge now before me.

When I last met Candy in the ring, we each had two women at our sides. I wonder though… If Mimi, Nancy and Candy had the capacity to work together, would they have fared better than they did?

My opponent does not know how to seek more than the accolades. Does she not know that success comes to those who pursue their best selves? How she has missed this is a puzzle, with such prime examples of this given to us all by Maasu and Uranusu.

I too only seek my own betterment. I did not ask for this opportunity, as I did not seek a place in the Heiress tournament. I may have only won one match in it, but I feel no shame or regret that my time in the tournament ended so quickly. My loss was given to me by a former champion. It pointed out, very clearly, that while I would not disgrace myself in a tag team with my friends, I was not ready for the level of competition.

So I will use this as the opportunity it is. I will find my feet again.

Candy… I respect your ability. You have the capacity to upset a match if facing the unwary. You have earned points in previous tournaments, so this means I must not take my victory as an inevitability.

You are certainly strong, but you have a tendency to show off when you should remain focused. You have done nothing noteworthy to explain why you think you are the best. You have been booked for four matches other than ours in the last twelve months and those showings were little more than footnotes in someone else’s record.

You were teamed with Nancy for a match against the Shadow Galactica. That match may as well have ended as soon as it started for how quickly you were defeated. Similar happened when you were teamed with Nancy again and Mimi joined you against Maasu, myself and our former ally.

There was the Battle Royale to qualify for the Iron Maiden. You managed to be the last eliminated from that before the entrance order could be established. A good showing, but not good enough and unsurprising given the caliber of women competing in that event.

And you won against Levitt, a newcomer who never should have left the institution which housed her.

You can lie to yourself, to the world, but you cannot hide your inadequacies from the moonlight. It will lay them all bare as it guides my way to the Gladiatrix Championship.
月 に かわって—

倒せ よ。”