Story: SM Rivals

======Rivals=====
Ami’s reaction was, by necessity, faster than it was intelligent. Much braver as well. She hurled a book directly into the face of the monster disguised as a librarian, and performed a rather clumsy shoulder tackle. Not the best tactical decision, but under the circumstances -

“Run!”

- It would be better if Aoi escaped. The civilian’s safety took priority, and sure enough Aoi took the cue to rush towards the door. Ami felt herself being flung backwards by the librarian’s shrug, and there was absolutely no way that strength was human, which was good because it meant her suspicions were completely correct.

“Not very smart for such an avid reader,” the librarian hissed. Her skin became several shades more towards a dazzling white than the pinkish tone it had before, and the hair grew wilder, bright white. “You should have simply given us your energy instead of trying to fight back. It would have been much less painful for you!”

“Unlikely,” Ami replied, drawing out her transformation pen. “Mercury make up!”

The transformation ended just in the nick of time, as the youma’s hair suddenly lashed out towards Sailor Mercury’s position. She rolled out of the way and tried to appraise her enemy: Its own transformation had completed, it seemed. Absolutely no way to mistake that for a person. After all, how many people looked like a giant walking origami sculpture? Still. This enemy clearly wasn’t actually made of paper in defiance of appearance: The table behind where she had been standing had been cut cleanly in two. Talk about a paper cut!

Right. So she needed a plan. Which meant stalling for time until the others were able to give her some backup, while simultaneously working out the enemy’s weaknesses so that they could be exploited later on. Fire seemed like the best bet to eliminate paper, but then again if she drenched it in enough water that might do the job as well…

“Blue Cheer Champion! Bringer of Calm and Soother of Souls has now arrived and is ready for battle!”

You could say that this was a testament to her brainpower. Most people would have spent a few seconds goggling at the bizarre sight of the new arrival, a cheerleader clad in blue yelling into an equally blue microphone. They would have been so confused that they didn’t exactly know how to react to it at all. Not so much with Mercury. She got all of that out of her system in the blink of an eye, and used that time to her maximum advantage.

“Mercury bubble blast!” she called, and then dove out towards the new arrival to tackle her behind some bookcases. Good thing too, as several strands of paperlike hair shredded the floor she’d just been standing on.

“Hey!” Blue Cheer yelped. “I was just about to stun that thing with a Serene Mantra before you… Saved my life, yipes that looks nasty!”

“Don’t thank me yet, Aoi,” Mercury continued. “We’re not out of the woods yet, and I think that thing has a few more nasty surprises for us.”

“… Hmph!” Blue Cheer tutted. “It’s not like you to tip your hand so quickly. Unless you not only figured out my identity, but also figured out that I’d figured out yours already?”

“That’s the only area you could ever beat me on,” Mercury said, pulling out her Mercury computer and beginning a scan. “The post-game dissection. Duck!”

Blue Cheer did so, displaying an incredible depth of athleticism that Mercury would have never expected from her old rival. The Aoi she knew would have never been able to do a perfect backwards somersault, never mind three in a row, never mind doing so while avoiding razor sharp papery tendrils and certainly would never have followed it up by making the last one go all the way up to the top of a bookcase twice her height.

“Well, at least now I know why you’ve been missing so many tournaments!” Blue Cheer called, twirling her megaphone in her arms before bringing it up to her lips. Mercury narrowed her eyes and watched carefully with great interest as Blue Cheer used her free hand to point to her upper left with arm fully extended, then draw that hand down in a semi-circle to her hip before pointing it in the same direction she was pointing her megaphone.

But more crucially, she was paying attention to the powerful magical buildup brewing in that megaphone as Blue Cheer did this brief dance in place. Interesting…

“Serene Mantra!” Blue Cheer called. “Quell our enemy’s fighting spirit!” There was a powerful magical blast of some sort directed straight at the youma while it lunged towards Blue Cheer’s position. Nothing seemed to be happening. A fact that Blue took almost too late, before cartwheeling out of position while Mercury pelted the enemy with a bubble to the side. Which sounded about as effective an attack as yelling at something.

“I don’t get it, that’s never failed before…” Blue whispered, staring at her megaphone as if it were a broken toy.

“What’s it supposed to do, <b>exactly</b>?”

“It’s supposed to shake the enemy’s confidence. Make them hesitate, make them unconsciously commit to a mistake. Why didn’t it work?!”

“Well, well,” the youma said. “Isn’t that a wonderful classical definition of irony? Your attack was supposed to make me doubt myself, but instead it’s only worked on you!”

This… Could turn into a very bad situation very quickly. The youma was folding its body into the form of a giant paper crane. Blue Cheer’s ability didn’t seem to work at all on the youma for reasons that might be worth exploring if they survived this battle. <i>When</i> they survived this battle. For the time being the best thing for them to do was get far, far away from that thing, which was easier said than done in a confined place like a library.

“If it’s not working on this thing… Then maybe I’ll try a different tactic!”

Blue stood up and drew her megaphone ready, her back to the wall, no possible retreat to her left or her right. The giant paper crane flying directly towards her.

It was a risky move, especially with the enemy bearing down on Blue’s position. It had recognised that she was absolutely not a threat, and was attempting to draw Mercury into again attempting what she had earlier: Put herself in harm’s way to save someone else. Regardless. In a feat of bravery that left Mercury astounded, Blue stood up in the face of the incoming death. She drew the megaphone to her lips. She stuck her free hand on her hips, extended her index finger and let it rise in a semi-circle until it was pointing diagonally above and away from her head.

“Serene Mantra!” Blue yelled through the megaphone. “You! Can! Win!”

The magic passed clean through the youma, completely unaffecting it. That wasn’t the target, you see. It was Mercury, standing behind the enemy and preparing her own attack. The emotion-altering magic hit her full force, and a funny thing happened.

You see, Ami has what is called an “eidetic memory”. Anything she sees, anything she experiences, she can remember. Perfectly. This is a terrific ability, but in a way it is also a kind of curse. You can remember everything. Every interaction, everything you see, everything you overhear… And that has a profound effect on a person. How can it not?

Ami was… Shy. Introverted. Did not make friends easily because she didn’t know how to deal with them without outright manipulating them, and that was not something she was willing to do. Ever. The only reason she became friends with Usagi is because the girl kept trying so hard, and even with the blatant intention of trying to use Ami to improve her own grades Usagi simply kept trying. Simply kept being a friend until it overcame Ami’s shyness.

The best thing to ever happen to her. But this might be a close second.

You see, Serene Mantra had two potential effects. The first was to shake the enemy’s resolve. Calm their fighting spirit, make them hesitate, make them open. The second was to, in a sense, do the exact opposite. Make the target focus. Make them forget their fear and their anger and their insecurity. Calm their soul and let them concentrate.

For the first time in her life Ami Mizuno was <i>concentrating</i>. Think about that for a moment and all that entails. Oh sure, she’d focused on a task before but there was always that little doubt in the back of her mind chattering away, the little insecurities keeping a fraction of her focus as she tried to dispel them, and often failed in doing so. For the first time they were gone. Completely. There was no hesitation in her thoughts or deeds. Even though she had perhaps ten seconds to act before Blue Cheer would be torn to shreds, that was perhaps double the amount she would require.

Time stood still within her brilliant mind. Her every conscious thought was devoted to a single task: Defeat the youma. What had she briefly seen in the Mercury computer? What had she seen of its attack patterns? Little details that might not have seemed important before.

Her bubbles had very little effect on this enemy. Therefore, water did not seem to soak into it. Or… Did it? She couldn’t see it in the mist and this demon was clever. Had it tried to trick her into thinking that it had been unaffected? Replay the moment of the attack: Bubble blast! Mist filling part of the library… The youma’s hair lashing out at Blue Cheer and - And its foot beginning to flatten out!

Of course. It had been a trick all along. It had avoided absorbing the moisture from the mist by flatenning itself out to the ground. From there it could freely scan their movements, creep along the lower portion and move out of the damp area before the mist could settle. Replay attack following the rescue: The initial angle was low, but then altered to make it appear much higher.

As for her second bubble strike… The enemy had attacked Blue Cheer, leaving its flank open for Mercury to strike. Replay: A concealed book among the folds. It could absorb the water from the strike, and by spinning around it could conceal depositing it among the other books spilling to the floor. This was the power of the perfect memory. Even if something wasn’t seen in the moment, the replay would catch it every single time.

Conclusion? Enemy was vulnerable to water-based attacks, but was attempting to conceal this weakness. And Sailor Mercury, stripped of her insecurity and introduced into a state of perfect calm, concluded all of that in the same time that it took her to bat an eye.

“Mercury bubble blast,” she called, dousing the area once again with mist. There was the sound of paper rustling within, but this time Mercury was ready. With a gesture she sent the mist downwards, and allowed herself a cocky smirk. “Risky move,” she said. “By flattening yourself like this, you’ve maximised your surface area. Now you will absorb the water from the mist much faster than you would have otherwise. Your own tactic has backfired completely.”

When the mist dissipated, there was nothing on the floor but a slushy mess of paper. The youma had lost all cohesion, lost its ability to move and become utterly defenceless. As Ami and Aoi watched, the mush glowed a few times, and then began dissolving away into nothing as though it had never been there at all. The innocent civilians around them were beginning to stir, but it would probably take them a few minutes to regain the energy stolen from them.

“Phenomenal work!” Blue leaped forward to tackle Mercury into a glomp much larger than the girl’s small frame would suggest. “You absorbed the details surrounding the confrontation, while it absorbed the H two O! That might not be irony, but it certainly is poetic justice!”

“I suppose it is,” Mercury mused, fidgeting slightly in the unexpected hug. “So… Would it be rude to ask you for further details about all this?”

The answer wasn’t entirely one that Mercury expected. Because when all is said and done, who ever expects to be kissed full on the lips by a superpowered cheerleader right out of the blue? So to speak.

“S-sorry…” Blue mumbled shyly. “It’s just… The truth is, I’ve had a crush on you for the longest time. You’re just so smart and pretty, and I always thought that if I beat you one day maybe you’d notice me. Kind of stupid for a smart girl, huh? Look, just… Forget that ever happened. Got it?”

Which was kind of the problem. That was the one thing she absolutely could not do. Of course, neither of them yet understood that Ami Mizuno had just undergone a rather severe alteration. While Blue Cheer’s magic was supposed to work for a short time on any particular given target, a Sailor Scout is far from any old regular target. Couple that with a kiss that could never ever be forgotten, and you have a rivalry that’s about to take a bit of an odd turn.

Especially since Ami wasn’t entirely sure if she had liked that kiss, even with her perfect recall.

1. Sailor Mars gets hit by Red’s “passion” increasing gloves, unleashing her perverted tendencies.
2. Sailor Mars’ fire attacks have an odd effect on Cheer Red, leaving her permanently hot and bothered.
3. Both of the above happen.
4. … Actually, what longer term effect has been made on Ami?
5. Go to a different fight (Jupiter/Green or Venus/Yellow).
6. Something else