Chibi Usa found her awe over the hotel lobby interrupted by the cover of a what appeared to be a tabloid magazine. The pink-haired girl paused in mid-spin, uncomfortably staring at the strange and vague thing featured there, blurry and hard to see. She found herself thinking of all the monsters and creatures they had fought as sailor soldiers. It completely distracted her from fawning over the beautiful decor of this fancy hotel.

"...Has anyone heard anything about that?" she asked, gesturing to the cover with an unsettled expression on her face.

Usagi had never seen such opulence in her life. This hotel was amazing. She was not surprised that Haruka and Michiru got to stay there—no doubt it was the best hotel in the city! She twirled around a couple times around the lobby as they made their way inside, wanting to hug everything.

She was only distracted by Chibiusa’s question. Turning to follow Chibiusa’s gaze, she looked at the magazine rack questioningly. “What?” she moved a couple steps forward to see better, and then recoiled. A beast? That didn’t sound pleasant at all. Who had put such a horrid thing here? It seemed like it didn’t belong in this world of sparkle and glamor.

“This is our vacation,” she said pleadingly. “Please tell me we don’t have to fight a monster.”

Haruka scowled at the magazine the two Princesses were looking at. "You won't have to fight anything. That magazine is well known to be full of lies and outlandish theories about creatures that don't exist." Besides, even on the off chance that they did exist, Haruka was confident she could take care of something so pathetic looking on her own.

She felt a little bit better to hear Haruka dismiss the thing as a trivial lie, dreamed up by low-quality publications to increase sales. Still...

Chibi Usa eyed the cover again, side-stepping just a bit further away from the magazine rack.

There was something about it that made her feel quite uncomfortable.

"What will we do tomorrow?" she asked instead, hoping to change the subject.

Minako was slightly disappointed that they wouldn't get to hail a taxi, but she was determined not to let anything ruin her first experience seeing Times Square. When they arrived, she was left speechless by all of the lights, colors, life, and sounds surrounding her. This was the perfect place to get discovered! 

Right then and there, she decided that after school was over for good, she would come here to achieve her dreams of becoming a star. 

Smiling excitedly as images of herself standing onstage amongst millions of screaming fans floated through her brain, Minako followed the others to the ferris wheel. She was in her own world for most of the evening, and didn't really come back down to Earth until the bellhop laid his filthy hands on Minako's precious luggage. 

"Alright, now be careful with those. Do NOT let that one touch the ground, and do NOT yank them so hard! You've been trained for this, haven't you? It shouldn't be that hard for you to take multiple at a time," she directed. The last thing she needed was a broken flat iron or wrinkled clothes. She was about to put her hands on her hips and give a speech about damaging the precious belongings of young girls when a nearby magazine caught her attention. She didn't even really listen to what Haruka said about the magazine's cover. 

Scooping it up, Minako beamed and hugged it to her chest. "Guys, this is it! This is how I - I mean...we - can become famous! If we crack this case, we can totally become celebrities!"

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When Haruka pulled their van up to the hotel, Ami looked around at the various parts of it.  She saw the international flags out front, recognizing most of them, including the United States one on the far left and the Japan one somewhere in the middle.  Ami saw it as pretty much coincidence that the Japan flag was there; in her mind, it was only because Japan is a fairly well-known country in the world or because NYC must get a lot of Japanese tourists or something like that, instead of being due to the visit of any of their group.

When she turned to head inside, Ami noticed the bellhop taking a cart with their luggage inside also.  She followed the bellhop inside, and became stunned at the opulence she saw in the lobby.  She was so taken aback by all this that she half expected Haruka to tell them at some point that she was just kidding, that the hotel they were really staying at was elsewhere in the city.  But Chibi-Usa, Usagi, and Minako each seemed to be falling for it, so Ami gave no hint of that expectation of hers.


Ami continued taking in this hotel’s lobby until she was interrupted by noticing Usagi’s plea about fighting a monster.  She looked at their odango-haired leader and saw her looking at the cover of a magazine.  Ami walked over to take a look, and soon saw the picture of the beast and read the words on the cover.  In their years fighting various youma, daimons, etc., Ami had learned that science doesn’t explain everything; that’s why Ami didn’t dismiss the idea right away.  But after hearing Haruka dismiss the idea (and in so doing, also bash that magazine title), Ami realized her point.  So she told the two Tsukinos  (and anyone else who might overhear her) in a tone showing she completely doubted what Usagi had assumed, meaning to continue Haruka’s train of thought “Even if it does exist, we probably won’t have to fight it because it won’t attack while we’re here in town.”  Then Ami noticed Minako come in and do her act.  So Ami decided to continue that train of thought a little more, wryly saying in a voice loud enough for Usagi, Chibi-Usa, and Minako to hear “… or because Batman will track it down faster than we can.”

Usagi was relieved to hear Haruka’s reassurance that they wouldn’t have to fight anything. Of course! It was just a silly magazine making up stories. It was probably just a… dog or some equally innocent creature that someone had mistaken for a monster. Come to think of it, that ‘picture’ they got was so blurry it could literally be anything.

She was eager to hear the answer to Chibiusa’s question when suddenly Minako interjected. Usagi wasn’t sure she wanted to become a celebrity. Weren’t they celebrity enough back home, being sailor senshi and all? Besides, they would be leaving New York soon, so what was the point?

“Minako-chan, I’m sure there are a lot of similar cases back home you can crack instead. We literally face a new monster every few months or so. There are enough of those in Japan.” She fidgeted anxiously, really not liking the thought of facing a scary creature.

"I'd like our vacation to be an actual vacation for once..." Makoto said as the bellhop narrowed his eyes at Minako for her comments before disappearing into an elevator. She could do without weird sewer creatures interrupting, though if one had the guts to show up and ruin their visit, she wound't hesitate to fight it.

 After getting their room keys and heading upstairs, the group found themselves walking down a hallway of opulent suites. 

Haruka and Michiru had their own room, leaving three empty suites for the other girls to divide among themselves. Each room had two large beds in them, their own bathrooms and living rooms, and generous views of the New York skyline.

"How about we decide what to do in the morning over breakfast? That way you'll be better rested and can think more clearly," Haruka suggested to the young pink-haired princess.

"Okay!" Chibi Usa chirped in response.

She was doing pretty well right now, but it was very likely that the young time-traveler would pass out as soon as her head hit the pillow. They had quite a long flight to get here, and they'd already done so much in the few hours they'd been in New York City! Chibi Usa was lucky to have youth (well, sort of anyway) on her side, as far as being able to avoid most jet lag. Still, Haruka was quite right to suggest that rest would make her thoughts clearer.

Although she was still somewhat thinking about that rumored monster...

Usagi was glad when the conversation turned away from weird monsters that might or might not be lurking below Manhattan.

Their rooms looked just as opulent as the lobby, and Usagi couldn’t wait to sink her head into those plush pillows. “So who’s sleeping with who?” she asked as she peeked into the three rooms, which appeared identical for the most part. “I guess Mamo-chan and Chibiusa and I can take one room? We already sleep together most of the time anyway…”

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After Ami got upstairs and heard how many rooms they had and all, she peeked into one of the rooms and was amazed to notice it was about as fancy as the lobby downstairs.  “Oh, Haruka-san, you shouldn’t have,” Ami gasped.  “I don’t deserve this much luxuriousness!”


Then Usagi proposed that her, Mamoru, and Chibi-Usa sleep together in one of the rooms.  “That would be nice,” Ami replied pleasantly.  “That way, the four of us guardians can split the other two rooms.  Do any of you have a preference on who sleeps with who among us?” Ami asked, looking at Rei, Makoto, and Minako.

"Thank Michiru, she's the one that booked the hotel for you guys," Haruka responded to Ami's statement, flapping her hand dismissively.