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Rei was shocked when she learned that Kurama wanted to take a last minute trip for 30 days alone with her. He said that he knew that Usagi’s 26th birthday was coming, and he knew Rei wouldn’t want miss it for the world.
They sat on the highest mountain in Japan, having just arrived a day earlier but still hadn’t returned to the city. They lie in the grass, calm and Rei felt all the pressures of the world leave them. It didn’t matter that the green grass was wet from the rainfall from the night before.
The weather was beautiful and not too hot and definitely not cold. Okay, well, it may be a little too warm. Still, she didn’t mind it. They were both in much looser clothes than usual, not thinking about the world at large, what bad guy could attack, nor how anyone thought of them.
Rei wanted time to stop so that they could stay there forever in this moment forever. She asked Queen Serenity to forgive her this once for doing what she promised she would never do.
Fall in love.
“I wish we could do this again…” Kurama said with a smile. He looked almost apologetic as he looked up at the moon with a forlorn expression of a fox caught up in the moment. He stared at the watch on his wrist for the seventh time tonight.
“Of course we can do this again…” Rei chuckled at her fiancé.
His eyes widened but he said nothing. He looked shocked by what she said and chuckled more to himself than to what she said.
“I’m really proud of you,” Rei said as she turned to him. “Telling your mother the truth about who and what you are even if it wasn’t easy.” When she heard that he told his mother, she did the same with her grandfather and even her father.
“You say that like you didn’t take a huge step that I don’t know I could’ve done.” He smiled genuinely this time. It wasn’t his “nothing smile” that she’d seen him wear so many times especially in battle or around people he didn’t trust. “Forgiving your father… and talking to him… telling him everything you’ve felt all these years, that took courage.”
Rei blushed. Despite all that, nothing really changed besides her father calling every once in awhile to check in. It was a start.
“And despite being a priestess,” Kurama paused and took a deep breath. He coughed though Rei assumed he was probably a bit embarrassed by all this stuff he was saying. “And the fact that you claim to hate men, you chose to love me.”
Shuichi Minamino was Kaidou’s nephew. Kurama was the demon who possessed the baby and decided to live his life as Shuichi Minamino, a baby that Rei had known since she was a baby. Her first friend. Her only friend before Usagi and the sailor senshi came along.
Rei was sure that they both always knew something was different about the other. She could always feel the presence of a kitsune yokai deep within him, and he could probably always sense that beyond her spiritual powers, there was a fiery passionate goddess of flames resting inside of her, ready to fight and protect.
Still, Rei never told him about Sailor Mars, her past life, or the promise Princess Mars made to Princess Serenity that she would always protect her. One day, she would but not today. She’s already told him so much more about herself that she hadn’t even told the other senshi.
“Shuichi, er, I mean Kurama…”
Kurama placed a finger on her lips. “Listen for a moment. The cicadas sound like an enka performance.” Rei moved away from him, a little annoyed that he told her to hush.
She looked away and stared at the ground before begrudgingly doing as she was told. The cicadas really do sound like an enka performance… she hummed to the beat of nature, imagining Makoto doing the same thing. It made her think of the days of when they were young in Silver Millenium when they would sneak to Earth and admire all of its nature and sounds that they never got on the Moon.
“Do you prefer being called Kurama or Shuichi?”
Shuichi stared at his watch again and then at his hands, looked to the moon then at her. “Mars-hime, what do you prefer?”
Rei laughed but then suddenly felt her body go cold and it felt like blood rushed out of her face. What did he say? Did he just call her Princess Mars?
He smiled softly. “I just wanted to call you that one last time.” Rei stared confused. “In the Silver Millenium, before this mountain developed on this spot, you met a young kitsune. He had beautiful white hair, and you told him that you’d never seen a person or angel quite as beautiful as ‘the kid fox’ you met that day.”
Rei could see it now especially since she was barely even Rei Hino anymore. Since her 26th birthday, she’d began to receive even more of her previous life’s memories as Princess Mars. She’d grown even more beautiful and taller and was even able to use her powers without transformation. Her psychic abilities were unsurpassed by others and her ability to see in the spiritual world was complete.
“How did you know about that?”
Kurama looked at the moon once again then his watch. “I don’t have much time, do I?” He said more to himself than her. He raised his hand to the air as if he was trying to reach the moon as his body suddenly changed from a handsome red-headed male with green eyes and brown skin to a much taller, more beautiful, fair skinned male with long silvery white hair that went past his waist and his muscles became more defined. Where there was once a young man standing now stood a grown man with golden eyes that were so familiar to Princess Mars that it took her a moment to catch her breath.
This Kurama… he’s the same Kurama…
“Princess Mars, please… stay here. Stay with me; if you go back to the Silver Millenium, you will get caught up in that conflict and die with everyone else.”
Memories flashed before her about how many times they would meet after she would be reincarnated into a new time and new form. He always found her. He always warned her to not get involved in something.
Every time, she would leave. And every time, she would die and leave him alone.
“Please say my name one last time…”
Rei felt something wet sleek down her cheeks. Is it raining? She hadn’t even been aware of when she stood up or when he also stood with her, holding her. He felt so warm. His clothing was wet from the rain and his muscles felt good next to her. She was unaware that her clothing and body became that of Princess Mars as a response to his transformation.
Memories of the time that she allowed the sin of falling in love hung over her soul. She remembered their kiss. Every single kiss. Every single first because it was always the only kiss for every time she gave in. “My kitsune… my Kurama.”
He smiled. “This time… I’m leaving… it’s almost midnight.”
“What do you mean?”
“Once Neo Queen Serenity is borne into this world, the silver crystal will wipe out all youma, all demons, all creatures who don’t belong here…”
“Wait! What?! No!”
“I thought so…” he cupped her chin and laughed as a tear fell down. “You truly didn’t know, did you?”
“But… that’s not right. You can’t be right.”
“In all the death and destruction, Sailor Chaos will be born… and you will continue your fight alongside Sailor Moon and all the others… I’m…”
Before he could finish his sentence, Princess Mars, er, was it Rei Hino… it didn’t matter who threw themselves into his arms and kissed his lips. The kiss felt so right yet so wrong. It felt amazing and yet so horrible. There was this wave of anguish but also of peace and joy and calmness but for every good memory that came with the kiss, there was this pain of knowing too much and too little.
“I didn’t know if it was really you… but your aura never changed. The older you got, the more you reminded me of her… of the one who gave me my first chance at love.”
Rei said nothing.
“It’s 11:59 now, Rei.” Shuichi whispered as he turned back to the red-headed human. “I’m sorry.”
Rei hushed him this time and said something about listening to the cicadas. They sound like an enka performance.
Sixty seconds… I can feel the silver crystal’s power reaching out through the dirt and flowers and into every crevice of this planet.
“Thank you Rei…” His voice seemed so calm. He didn’t seem afraid of death at all. They moved to the song of the cicadas. Danced like it was the most beautiful song ever. Rei realized there wasn’t rain on her face. No, it was tears and they wouldn’t stop coming. “Thank you Mars for everything. It feels so warm, that light of the silver moon crystal. It’s no wonder that her power will truly bring peace to this planet. Please protect my mother in my place.”
There was silence.
“I love you,” she said but it was too late. Midnight promises a new era, a new day, and that new day forced a promise to be kept.
His body turned to dust and that dust was swept up with the wind. It turned towards the moon and danced to the music of the cicadas.
Alone. Just like her.