Yuuta grinned at her response and bent down just enough to kiss her on the lips. 

"Thank you," he said, before pulling away again. He was right in front of Minako and Kazaki, but he couldn't bring himself to care at the moment.  Kazaki fake gagged and Minako awwed at the display of affection, and watched as Yuuta almost started to drag Amina out of the art section.

Completely dazed by the kiss, Amina allowed herself to be dragged down to the ddinosaurexhibit. She could feel the awe and excitement bubbling in her chest every time she saw dinosaurs. When she had told Yuuta that she had already seen the exhibit, she had lied, The exhibit hadn't opened until after she had left for Sapporo, the opening having been delayed by a month. She had been disappointed but promised herself she would go back to Tokyo to see it. 

Now time to keep a lid on your excitement and you mouth shut and you can make it through this exhibit in no time!  

Yuuta let Amina go when they got to the beginning of the exhibit, looking around at the multiple skeletons set up around the area. A few glass cases were set out, showing smaller fossils like foot imprints and skulls of younger dinosaurs. Yuuta walked over to a display of a skeleton of a flying reptile. 

"This one's a pterodactyl, right?" he asked, looking at Amina.

"Actually, that's a Quetzalcoatlus. It's in the same family as a Pterodactyl, called Pterosaur. Quetzalcoatlus is the largest animal to ever grace the skies," Amina explained. "It's wing span is over 30 feet alone. It ate other small dinosaurs and was a pretty opportunistic hunter. When it landed on the ground, it would walk using its two hind leg and its arms when the wing was folded up." 

When she realized what she was doing, she stopped talking. "So uh yah," she said awkwardly, wishing that the ground would open up and swallow her.

"Woah...." Yuuta looked up at the massive, birdlike creature, and tried to imagine what it would look like alive. "I knew dinosaurs were big, but that's crazy! You think I could take it on?" he asked jokingly, gently elbowing her. "A Sailor Senshi's gotta have a chance."

She smiled at his enthusiasm. "Well, as long as you stayed away from his beak, you probably would be alright. They were pretty quick and they make humans look like insects. I'd probably have a better shot than you being ranged and all." she smiled, relaxing somewhat.

"I can be ranged too..." Yuuta said, trying to look hurt, but then he spotted something else. A huge set of what looked like a jaw, with 3 rows of sharp teeth, was set up on the floor. The open jaws were taller than Yuuta. "This thing is huge!" he said, walking over for a closer look. The plaque nearby called it a set of prehistoric shark teeth.

Walking over to where Yuuta was standing, she was surprised to see a giant fossil of a sharks jaw, but with multiple rows of teeth. It was obviously larger than any shark alive today. At first she was confused, but once she took a look at the picture provided on the info card, she figured out what it was. 

"That's Megaladon. Although they somehow managed to mess up the jaw. There shouldn't be three rows of teeth like that," she explained in a huff. "Megaladon's closet living relative is the Great White Shark, so a lot of what we know about Megaladon comes from what we know about the Great White. While some species of sharks may have more than one row of teeth out at a time, Megaladon didn't. It had one set. Underneath the gum, multiple teeth sat, so when it, or any shark today really, lost one, it was quickly replaced. Think of it like a conveyor belt of teeth. When one is lost, one pops up." 

"Their teeth were pretty easy to lose as they weren't secured in the gums with roots like our teeth are. They're meat to be easily replaced as they get chipped and damaged easily and teeth play such a huge roll in their life. They were believed to eat whales and were one of the biggest things that ever lived in the sea. The teeth are about the only things you will ever find from a shark. The rest of the body is made of cartilage which because its made of organic fibers, decomposes after a few weeks, leaving just the teeth behind really."

Yuuta went to touch a tooth, fascinated. "And people are afraid of normal sharks, heh..." He looked up at the top jaw. "It could eat a family whole with this mouth. It's so big, but leaves barely anything behind. That's kind of depressing..." he said, thinking out loud.

"Yah, I definitely wouldn't want to be in the water with one of these guys, or any of the creatures that were around at that time." Yuuta continued to drag Amina around the exhibit, asking her questions. The others would occasionally ask some questions, when they came across something they deemed interesting. Soon, it was time to go and they all headed back to Minako's place to eat the cake. 

Amina was feeling quite drained. Either her friends were great actors or they actually had been enjoying themselves and her knowledge about dinosaurs hadn't scared them off. She'd been expecting to turn around and find them gone, or to tell her to shut up.

"Here you go." Makoto placed a large slice of cake in front of Amina. They were alone in the kitchen, Mako having pushed the others out into the living room to wait. "First cut goes to you," she said, before realizing that something was wrong. "You okay?" she asked, sitting down beside her. "I thought that you and Yuuta were having fun. Did something happen?"

Amina stiffened as Makoto asked her if she was alright. Crud, was she being obvious again? Forcing herself to smile, she responded, "I'm fine, just tired!" There was no way that she could tell Makoto what was really going on in her head.

Makoto looked at her closely, before seeming to give in and let it go. 

"Alright, suit yourself. I just want you to know that you can talk to us if you need to." She stood up from her seat and went to cut some more cake slices. "Or at least talk to your boyfriend about it, okay?"  she said, just before Minako and Yuuta came into the kitchen. 

"Oooh, can I have the next slice, Mako? Pleaaase?" Minako begged. 

"Fine, but you're getting a really small one. So small I'm going to have to measure it out. Yuuta, can you get me a ruler?" He laughed and started shifting things around in a drawer. Minako pouted. 

"That's so mean!"

"I'm just kidding!"

Glad that Mako had chosen to drop the issue, she turned her attention to her cake. How did one tell their friends that they were pretty much convinced that they were going to ditch her today or humiliate her because of her knowledge? There's no way you can put that without hurting people's feelings. 

"Children, if you continue to bicker, I'll put you in opposite corners for time out," she teased, deciding to put the issue aside for now.

Minako stopped trying-and failing- to push Mako away from the cake to bow to Amina.

"Sorry, Sensei," she said, before pointing a finger at Yuuta and Makoto. "Put them in the corner instead!"

"When did you become such a tattletale, Mina?" Yuuta went to sit down next to Amina while the two girls took their "argument" back to the living room.

"You know, sometimes I forget they're actually senshi..." he said, before taking a bite of the cake. "Wow, this is really good!"

"Makoto's a really good baker. I know she wants to open up her own bakery. Minako on the other than can't bake to save her life, so I'm glad Mako made it." She grinned before she took a bite of the cake. Yum! This had to be Makoto's best one yet! 

"Sometimes with the way that they act, you'd never know they were senshi, but when push comes to shove, they'll shove right back." Just as she was about to take another bite of the cake, the same sensation she felt before. Seriously, what were causing these feelings? She tried to glance around without alerting Yuuta because honestly, it could be absolutely nothing and her powers could be playing tricks on her for all she knew.

"Good thing someone around here can cook then," Yuuta said. "I can't make anything but breakfast, and Fuyuko and Kazaki are terrible." He lowered his voice. "Don't eat anything they bake for you either...." Then he noticed her glances. "Is anything going on...?" he asked, looking around as well.

"I'm just getting the same feeling I did earlier," Amina said. She frowned as she looked around. A tingling sensation began from her shoulder went all the way down to the tips of her fingers. Feeling unsettled, she got up from the table and walked over to the window. Her hands gripped the counter tightly as she saw nothing. What was going on? Were her powers playing tricks on her?

"You think it's an enemy?" Ganymede asked, standing up to see what she was looking at. He frowned and closed his eyes for a moment. "I haven't been sensing anything. Maybe its a spiritual thing..."

"Probably not," she huffed in frustration. "My magic is probably just going haywire and playing tricks on me." It wasn't even an exact feeling she was getting, just fleeting sensations. Before she could get any idea of where it was coming from, it always disappeared. 

"Ah, there you two are," a new voice called.

"Ami-chan! What are you doing here?" Amina asked, distracted from her thoughts. 

"I uh, made you this." Ami blushed, handing a long rectangular shaped box that had been wrapped in royal purple paper and tied decoratively with a emerald green ribbon. Amina raised her eyebrow at the colour choices. Was Ami-chan trying to tell her something? Gently removing the bow and paper, revealed a cream colour box. Opening it, she found what appeared to be a slender watch. Upon further inspection, it was just a watch, but it was a communicator similar to the one that the inner senshi wore. The band was deep purple as well as the metal cover for the match. On the cover was a design in light purple. There were three swirls that began from a central point. The face of the watch had the 12, 3, 6 and 9 in a royal purple and was made with quartz. 

"Ami-chan its beautiful! I'm just curious about the symbol."

"When I was researching symbols for spirit, this was the only one that felt right. I hope you like it."

"I love it," she said, running her thumbed over the design. For some reason, something about the design touched something deep inside her.

Yuuta looked at Amina's communicator, and found himself a little jealous. Maybe he should have gotten Amina something too... 

"And for your group, Ganymede," Ami said. Yuuta looked up. What else could there be? "Can you open up your communicator for me, please?" He nodded and tapped the watch on his wrist. The face opened up to show five buttons and a screen. The slightly larger middle button never did anything when he pressed it, and Kazaki had assumed it was for calling their princess, but the connection had been lost. "I noticed that there was no way for Makoto to call any of you, so I borrowed Fuyuko's communicator and took a sample of the signal it emitted to make calls, and then upgraded Mako's to pick it up again. The green center button should be functional now, try it." 

"Alright." Yuuta pressed the green button, and the screen turned on, displaying the sign of Jupiter. "Is this the call waiting screen?" 

"Hold on a minute..." Ami left the kitchen, and after a long pause, the screen changed to Makoto, still in the living room.

"It works!" she said, turning to look at something off screen before letting the call drop. He pressed the button again and his screen darkened.

Coming back into the kitchen, Ami gently took Amina's communicator to show her how it worked. "I've put in contacts for all of the Galillean senshi, with Yuuta being the first one, as well as ones for all the Inners and the Outers. I've sent them all your communication frequency as well. Yuuta, Amina's also in your communicator as well." She showed him a small icon, same design as the one on Amina's communicator.

"Thank you Ami-chan," Amina said. No one had ever really given her something so thoughtful before.

~~~~

Amina and the Galilean senshi spent their last few days hanging out with the inner senshi in Tokyo before heading back to Sapporo. As soon as classes resumed, Yuuta switched into the other English class that was running this semester, causing quite a stir in Amina's classroom.

"I swear to god, if I have to answer one more freaking question about why Yuuta switched out of my class, I will do something," she grouses, pacing Kazaki's music room in frustration. Her eyes were scrunched together as she remembered some of the comments have said in her class. She even had  one student, well meaning, she had to remind herself, ask her if she was alright, if Yuuta had harmed her in any way. She knew he had a violent past, but had it been honestly this bad that people were worried that he had beat her or something?

"Well, it does look suspicious..." Kazaki admitted, watching Amina pace. "Just tell them that he was failing and wanted to get a switch. It's not like they have the guts to ask him and confirm it themselves." Fuyuko entered the studio with her backpack on, and a pair of ice skates held in one hand. 

"You know there's a dog hanging around outside your garage door, right?" she said. "He looked really familiar, but he went and hid when I tried to pet him. Strange..."

"I know that it looks suspicious but seriously. This is getting old. Next one that asks is getting assigned 20 pages of extra work. They think he's like tried to hurt me or something," she said tiredly, collapsing onto the couch. She perked up a bit when Fuyuko came in and told them there was a dog outside. 

"Probably a stray. I hope it's ok though."

"I assure you, I am no stray Amina." a voice came from the door Fuyuko had just entered.

Fuyuko gasped and dropped her skates at the voice, turning around to look for who was speaking. Kazaki was already standing up and facing the door, her transformation bracelet visible on her wrist. She was glaring at the large dog sitting in the doorway. 

"Alright, who are you?" Kazaki asked. It wasn't a regular animal if it could talk, and she knew Percy was really an alien, so this one must not be from Earth either.

"My name is Keroberus or Kero if you prefer and I have been searching for you a long time," he said, walking forward a few feet before sitting, facing Amina. He ignored the two other girls in the room, his focus solely on his charge in front of him. Goddess, he wouldn't believe she was alive, after all this time! Now he would finally begin his duties. 

"What do you mean you've been searching for me, and how do you know my name?" Amina said wearily, slowly standing from the couch, left hand gripping her transformation pendent that she wore on a chain hidden under her shirt. She glanced over to Kazaki, unsure about what to do.

Kazaki shrugged slightly at Amina's glance. She had no idea what was going on here, but if this Keroberus was anything like her own Guardian, he would not be able to take on all three of them, so they should be safe. "Hey, sorry I'm late. I forgot my bag and had to go"- Yuuta said as he came up the stairs, only to stop when he saw the dog in the room. The dog that was now talking to Amina as his teammates looked on tensely. Just what was going on here? 

"Get away from her!" he said, hand already going to the badge on his school uniform. 

"Wait, Yuuta!" Fuyuko said, grabbing his shoulder. He glared at Kero, but stayed put.

"I know who you are because I am your Guardian and I've been searching for you for the last 20 years." He barely spared a glance to the male who entered the room and ordered him away from his charge. Right, like that was going to happen, not after he'd only found her. And for another thing, who were these people? He sniffed to air subtly. They smelled Jovian. What was Amina doing with Jovian senshi? 

"Guardian?" she said harshly. No, no this couldn't be right. She had no guardian. This had to be a lie. Every other senshi she knew who had a guardian had appeared when their charge needed them. She needed someone to show her how to use her power years ago. Whoever this creature was, he wasn't her guardian. 

"I have no guardian!" she said coldly, eyes clouding over with remembered pain.

Kazaki listened as Kero spoke. It took a guardian 20 years to find their senshi? How strange... If he really was supposed to be Amina's guardian, then what kept him so long?

"You heard her, so get out!" Yuuta said, pulling out of Fuyuko's grip. He could tell that the dog had said something that had stung her, and she clearly didn't want him around. Kazaki said nothing, still observing, though she didn't transform either.

"Of course you do," Kero responded, confused as to why she seemed to be rejecting him. This wasn't exactly how he had envisioned. "You're a senshi, are you not? Each group has a guardian to help guide them."

"If you were my guardian, why are you suddenly appearing now? Where were you when I needed you most huh? Where were you when I have 5 years old and everyone told me I was lying when I said I could see ghosts? Where were you when my empathy kicked in and nearly drove me insane? WHERE WERE YOU WHEN I WAS 16 AND WAS FORCED INTO A MENTAL INSTITUTION AND BEATEN ON A NEARLY DAILY BASIS? HUH? WHERE WERE YOU THEN! If you were my guardian, you would have been there. So you see, I have no guardian." She screamed, breathing heavily. When she realized what she had admitted, Amina paled. She had never meant to admit any of that to anyone. She thought she had put it all behind her. Her breathing became heavier as panic set in. She had to leave. They wouldn't want her around when they realized how damaged she was. She bolted for the door, slamming it behind her as she ran. 

"Amina, wait!" Kero said, moving to go after her. She had been beaten? Put in a mental institution? Oh Goddess, what had he done?