Makoto and Minako decided to go to the park for a picnic, after the other girls cancelled their plans due to other obligations. They had set up in a secluded field, and after eating, Minako had asked about Makoto's earrings. Happy to talk about it, Mako explained that she had gotten them from her parents. But after Minako had asked to hold one to see it up close, it somehow ended up falling into the grass. After frantically searching for a few minutes, neither girls could find the rose shaped piece of jewelry.

"Minako..." Makoto said with a growl. "I just told you how important that earring was to me, and you just lost one?" She pulled out her transformation wand and held it up. "Jupiter Crystal Power, Make Up!" In a flash of green light, Sailor Jupiter was standing in front of Minako, glaring at her.

Minako Aino, super heroine and future world idol, was in trouble.

For real, this time.

How could she have lost Mako’s earring?? Her trademark rose earring that was practically part of her identity that it carried over to her transformation just like Minako’s red bow! What would Mako—or indeed, Jupiter—be without one of those??

And now Mako was so mad she actually raged out like the Hulk and transformed into her green self. Was she going to punish Minako with senshi powers??

“M-Mako-chan, we can talk about this, surely?” she stammered, staring at Jupiter—with half an earring, which admittedly was distressing.

"Talking won't get my earring back!" Jupiter said. "So unless you want to talk about your last wishes..." The antenna extended from her tiara and crackled with static. The air felt charged around them. "there's nothing to say."

Oh, god, she was serious.

Well, there was only one thing left to do to survive. “Venus Crystal Power, Make Up!”

This was ridiculous, but maybe she could knock Jupiter out or something. And maybe she could also use the opportunity to show off who would really win in a fight of strength versus agility. Jupiter was always the strongest one, but Venus was fast and strategic. They might as well find out who was really the best fighter.

“Are you sure you want to take me on, Mako-chan?” she taunted with a smile. “You might regret it.”

Jupiter took a step back as Minako transformed as well. Just because she was angry at her didn't mean she had lost all sense of fairness, and she'd at least let Venus have a fighting chance against her.

"I'd worry about yourself if I were you!" Jupiter said. Her arms crossed in a familiar motion, and her eyes closed in concentration. The sky rumbled as an electrical charge built up in her. "Supreme Thunder Dragon!" Tendrils of lightning shot at Venus, condensing into a single dragon shaped bolt. It roared as it curved towards her like its namesake.

Venus readied herself, realizing that Jupiter was not messing around. Oh well, nothing better than an impromptu sparring session to test their skills and train themselves at the same time. Recognizing the familiar movements, Venus jumped a split second before the dragon-shaped thunder hit the spot where she’d just been standing, using her senshi agility to leap clear of the entire projectile. As she reached her peak above Jupiter, she didn’t wait until her feet hit the ground again before attacking. “Crescent Beam Shower!” Beams of light rained down from above towards Jupiter as Venus completed her arc and landed behind the other senshi.

Jupiter looked up as Venus leaped over her entire attack, and continued over her head. For a moment, the sun blocked her view of her, and then she heard the attack name. Beams of light fell like rain towards her, and Jupiter realized that it would be impossible to just move out of the way. Instead, she held her ground and tried to counter it. Drawing on the power of her crown of leaves, she spun on the ball of her foot and held her hands up.

"Jupiter Oak Evolution!" A storm of electrified leaves met the hail of lasers, and they exploded as they two attacks clashed. Smoke and dirt was kicked up as stray bits of both of their moves hit he field around them, obscuring Jupiter from Venus's view.

 It was silent for a few moments, and then Jupiter ran out of the dust cloud towards Venus. She quickly closed the gap between them, and she swung a punch, switching the battle to hand-to-hand combat.

Venus had to admit it was pretty impressive; Jupiter countering her attack with her own in order to negate it. For a moment, smoke and dust billowed up from the ground, cloaking Jupiter’s movements. And then suddenly Jupiter emerged without warning. Venus only had little time to react and dodged a tad too slow, causing the punch to hit her shoulder and threw her balance a little. “Ow!” she complained. “That really hurts!”

Without warning, and without even thinking too much ahead, Venus dropped down low, sweeping one of her legs quickly in a half circle arc, intending to knock Jupiter off her feet. “I didn’t know you had some anger issues, Mako-chan.”

Jupiter allowed herself a few seconds of satisfaction when her punch connected with Venus. She had expected to have a hard time getting a clean hit on her, since she was so fast. She frowned at her friend's jab at her. Just because she was a little quick to fight did not mean that she had a problem right? 

That earlier feeling of accomplishment quickly disappeared when Venus kicked her legs out from under her. Too surprised to catch herself, Jupiter fell over sideways. With a few new scrapes, she flipped back onto her feet, refocusing on Minako. "I don't have anger issues, take that back!" She aimed a powerful kick at her ribs.

Venus grinned when she managed to do exactly as she intended, enjoying the sight of the strongest senshi sprawled on the ground. However, as she expected, Jupiter didn’t stay on the ground for too long. Venus was already backing away to get out of her reach, and giggled at her outburst, cartwheeling almost happily to the side in order to avoid the kick.

“You really need to learn some better comebacks, too! Don’t worry,” she whipped out her chain, which quickly moved and tied itself around Jupiter’s legs with the hope of immobilizing her movement and preventing her from getting up again, “Minako-sama can teach you.”

Jupiter snorted at Venus's words. "You know, you can talk with your actions too," she said as Venus summoned her Love-Me chain. The chain lashed towards her, but Jupiter hopped out of its lasso before it could tighten on her. Seeing an opening, she grabbed the chain instead.

"And I think I'm much better at that!" Using all of her arm strength, Jupiter pulled on the chain, trying to drag Venus back to her.

Venus gasped when her chain missed. Well, well, look who had started getting fast! As Jupiter pulled the chain toward her, Venus grinned. She must think she was so clever. "Venus Wink Chain Sword!" she cried, transforming the chain into a sword. Which meant Jupiter would suddenly find herself holding the sharp end of a sword rather tightly. That couldn't be pleasant. "Oops. You mustn't touch someone else's toy without permission, you know. That's rude."

Jupiter dropped the chain-now a sword- like a hot piece of coal, already feeling the large cuts on her palms. She cursed and inspected her hands to see how bad she was hurt. The blade hadn't gone too deep, but it still stung. It would heal quickly though...

"That was a cheap move..." Jupiter said. It was the kind of move she expected from Venus though. She was an efficient fighter if anything. She backed away from the chain sword and held out her hands.


"Flower Hurricane!" She summoned a gale of rose petals that were razor sharp, and pushed them towards Venus.

Venus pulled the released sword triumphantly, quite proud of her own quick thinking. Honestly, if Jupiter hoped to outwit her, she’d have to try harder. When the hurricane of rose petals assaulted her, she ran as fast as she could out of the way, though some still shredded the top layer of her fuku and created deep cuts on the unprotected parts of her skin. They stung, but she gritted her teeth and continued rushing toward her enemy again, brandishing her sword ahead of her. With a powerful thrust, she aimed it toward Jupiter’s abdomen, curious how she’d block the sword with bare hands.

Jupiter's eyes widened as Venus charged past the Flower Hurricane with minimal injury, still holding the sword. When she went in for the stab, Jupiter knew that trying to grab it would only cut her again, so she turned to the side. The thrust went past her instead, leaving a small cut across her stomach where it had grazed her. It was better than the alternative, so she ignored the cut and jumped backwards again.

"Sparkling Wide Pressure!" She brought her hands together to create a ball of lightning, and threw it at Venus. As much as she enjoyed marital arts, fighting Venus up close with that sword of hers wouldn't end well for her.

Her stab missed, but she pretty much expected that. Jupiter was being wise with maintaining distance between them, so when she summoned the ball of lightning, Venus countered it with her own projectile. “Rolling Heart Vibration!” she sent the heart-shaped light beam toward the crackle of lightning, watching the two explode in mid-air.

They stood some feet apart now, and Venus smiled again. “Afraid to come close, Jupiter-chan?” she asked, before summoning her most powerful attack. “Venus Love and Beauty Shock!” The attack created not just one, but many heart-shaped projectiles that were now zooming with intense speed toward Jupiter.

Jupiter narrowed her eyes at Venus, but refused to take the bait this time, no matter how many ways Venus taunted her. When the Love and Beauty Shock was thrown at her, Jupiter was once again unable to dodge the all encompassing beams of light.

"Jupiter Coconut Cyclone!" An electric charge filled the air, and then exploded outward from her body, accompanied with a swirling blast of wind that ruffled her hair and skirt. Some of the projectiles were destroyed, but a few others, slipped by to strike her anyway. Jupiter crossed her arms to shield herself and tried to take the hits, but they eventually knocked her over completely, kicking up another cloud of dirt. 

"Ugh..." Jupiter sat up with a grunt, and then something shiny caught her eye in the grass. Could it be...? She carefully picked it up and blew the dust off it, revealing the object to be her other rose earring. 

"I found it!" she said loudly, getting to her feet. Despite how angry she had been earlier, and how bruised and cut up she was now, all she could feel at this moment was pure elation. Her earring was back, and she'd never let it out of her sight again.

Venus heaved a sigh of relief when she saw Jupiter find the earring. Thanks to her attack, even. She should really be thanking Venus, not fighting her.

"Yay! Now can we stop this silly fight and get back to our picnic, please?" she asked with a raised eyebrow and her hands on her hips. It was fun and all, but now she was hungry. Then her expression softened. "I really am sorry for losing it in the first place."

Jupiter rubbed the back of her head, blushing as Venus reminded her of their entire battle over a piece of jewelry. Maybe that was a little overboard...

"Yeah, sure. Sorry about flying off the handle like that, I know you didn't lose it on purpose..." she said, smiling again. "I think we still have dessert left!"