Being back in a somewhat familiar place was weird after 20 years of sitting that shack. Sure, the mansion was run down, but it wasn't rubble and splinters. Not like Hikawa Shrine... Seeing it torn down had hurt. The shrine was like a second home to them, the place where they hung out and had meetings and studied at, and now it was just...gone. Not only had Hypothesis destroyed their present, it had also destroyed their past. She couldn't imagine how badly the wreckage site had hit Rei.

For now, they were safe in Tomoe Mansion. Arriving after Haruka, Michiru, and Hotaru, she and Ami picked one of the rooms for themselves to use for themselves. Now that she was thinking about homes, Makoto realized that her apartment had most likely been destroyed as well. And the Crown Arcade, and the school, and who knew what other places didn't exist anymore.

Maybe it was best not to think about it...

"Ami..." she said after a long bout of silence. Now that they were alone, she felt like she was able to talk about what had happened in the shack. "I'm sorry for starting that fight with Haruka..."

To say that seeing her home become rubble had hit her hard would be an understatement.

The sight of it simply not existing anymore had made her blood boil. First they’d taken her princess. Then they’d taken her powers. And now they’d taken her home.

Rei had seriously reconsidered letting all those soldiers stay alive at that moment. She did not understand bloodlust—the true kind—until she saw that the sacred shrine that was both her sanctuary and home destroyed. And judging from the leftover charred marks, they had not only destroyed it. They’d burned it to the ground.

They had twisted everything precious to her—the flame that was her soul, the sacred fire—into something that destroyed something very important to her. And Rei was certain that this was a deliberate decision.

The sight of it alone had made her rage, had caused flames to appear on her fingertips before she knew what was happening, and it took all of Minako’s strength to restrain her and practically drag her to the next rendezvous point.

Her fire had not calmed down much since then, and by the time they both arrived in the mansion that used to be the Outer Senshi’s home, her sight was still tainted by a haze of red.

Ami had often heard the phrase ‘you can’t go home again’, but she never truly understood it until she saw the destruction of Hikawa Shrine. Everything about the past that they cared about was gone. Guilt stabbed her like a familiar knife as she thought about what Rei would feel upon seeing this. Leaving their adolescence behind when Crystal Tokyo was founded was one thing. She knew they would never hang out or study there anymore after that, but they could still go back and reminisce, as long as that building was still standing. But this was the kind of loss they could never recover from.

She had followed Mako in a daze as they continued on, thinking about how far they’d fallen through the years. Maybe immortality was a curse, after all. Maybe they should have grown old and die when things were still great. Now what was the point of staying young forever when all that was left in the world was ruin? Living forever certainly didn’t seem so appealing anymore.

She was pulled out of her glum reverie when Mako spoke. In that brief moment she was reminded of why she was still alive—what good still existed in the world. Mako was all that was good in her world. She was the only one left.

Ami had almost forgotten the incident she was talking about. She shook her head and smiled. “No, it’s okay. We all needed… we all had pent-up emotions. That was going to happen sooner or later regardless. And I’m… I don’t want to say glad, but I’m touched it happened because of me.”

Few people in this world ever made her feel truly special. Usagi had been the first. Mako was the second.

She'd never seen Rei so enraged at the sight of something in her life. It was so intense that it actually scared Venus, and she struggled to get her away from the former site of the shrine. 

Hikawa Shrine had been torn down. And by the looks of it, the pieces razed for good measure. When she and Mars arrived, there were only shattered stones and ashes to greet them. It may have been painful to Minako, but that shrine had meant the world to Rei. And she was murderous. The only thing that had probably stopped Mars from exploding into flames and going on a rampage to Hypothesis for her revenge was Venus being so close to her. 

Pulling her into a hug and pinning her arms to her sides were the only things she could think of that would restrain her, and she refused to let go until the fire faded from her gloves. It had been a task to get Mars to leave it behind, but they were both at the mansion now. 

"Rei..." Minako said, after guiding them into an empty room. She made sure to keep the door shut. Her friend could hold a grudge for a long time if she wanted to, so she knew she was still angry. "Come on, talk to me." It was better if she got it all out now than break later.



Ami's words lifted the nervous weight that had settled on her chest, and she sighed in relief. Now that she knew that Ami wasn't mad about it, she could relax. 

"Well, I'm happy that my outburst flattered you, at least," Makoto said, smiling back at her even as she blushed at her own behavior. And to be truthful, she was far less tense after her transformation and fight with Haruka, like she had finally scratched an itch that she couldn't reach. It hadn't been her finest moment, but it had felt good. Her Crystal Change Rod was still in her hands, being turned around by her fingers.

"It reminded me of before Crystal Tokyo. Before all of this happened." If she closed her eyes, she could still picture herself saving Usagi from a group of bullies on the way to school. Was it that long ago?

Rei stayed quiet. She saw nothing, heard nothing, felt nothing except the ever-burning flame inside of her. She hadn’t bothered figuring out where she was since Minako had pretty much manhandled her there. She glared at Minako, even as she knew Minako wasn’t the person she was really angry at. But she couldn’t talk. If she did… all of it would spill out. All the flames. And then she would burn this house down and that would not be good.

“I’m fine,” she said gruffly instead, in the most not-fine tone known to man.



Ami bit her lip to suppress herself from smiling. It felt wrong to smile at a time like this, especially since she knew what Rei was going through.

“I bet it felt good,” she said wistfully. Mako had been forced to sit still for practically twenty years when all she wanted was pummel an enemy and make them pay for all the pain they had inflicted on her and her friends. On Usagi. Ami couldn’t imagine suppressing all that instinct to fight for so long. Her, on the other hand… battle was never her reflex. It was her nature to analyze and solve problems. And yet this was a problem that had stumped her for twenty years.

“I just hate feeling useless. I thought I was good for something and then they took that away, too. And now… even if I wanted to get back to it, I can’t do anything to help us with this useless replica computer.” She threw the small blue computer onto the bed, hating it and missing it equally.

Minako tried not to audibly sigh. Rei was stubborn as usual, but she was at a loss for what to do about it. She eventually gave up on figuring out a strategy and kneeled in front of her, taking Rei's hands with her own to squeeze them.

"No, you're not," she said, meeting Rei's glare without flinching. "You're hurting, I can tell. Now please... talk to me, okay?" Minako refused to let her sit there and stew in her own rage. 



"You're never useless..." Makoto said, not even hesitating to think about it. Not to anyone who knew her, and certainly not in her own mind. She moved to sit closer to Ami, trying to cheer her up. "You'll figure out something, I know you will. We're going to get back our things somehow, and then we can go find Usagi and fix this mess." If anyone could correct what had happened to Crystal Tokyo, it was her.

Rei’s instinct was to pull back from the physical contact. She did not want anyone to touch her right now. But Minako was being her annoyingly persistent self, and Rei knew there was no shaking her when she was matching Rei’s stubbornness with her own.

She just felt… so angry. She wanted to take it out on Minako so badly, for forcing her to deal with it instead of keeping it hidden behind her walls like she wanted to. Why couldn’t Minako ever leave anything alone?

“Why? How would talking to you help?” she spat, resorting to hurting her back now. “It won’t bring back my h—” Her breath hitched, and tears threatened to spill out. “My home,” she said through gritted teeth. “They didn’t just destroy it. They burned it.”

She let out an anguished cry and flames appeared in her eyes again. “Get away from me, or you’ll get burnt, too.”



Ami stared at Mako in genuine wonder, shaking her head. “How can you have this much faith in me? After what you saw today… after the past twenty years?” She sincerely could not comprehend it.

“I’ve… we’ve lost everything. We don’t even know if…” She didn’t want to be the one who voiced the thought, but she did wonder every day. Was Usagi still out there? Why hadn’t she found them yet? Where were the senshi supposed to look for her?

“All we know is that someone out there is potentially trying to help us. But if every time we use our powers, they come ambushing us like earlier…” Her brain was whirling with analysis and potential solutions, trying to solve the problem at hand. But it felt like everywhere she turned, she was faced with a dead end. It seemed impossible.

Or maybe her brain was the one that had become dull after so long wallowing in failure.

And if she no longer had her intelligence, then what did she have?