Story: Sailor Moon Inspirational

Needless to say, but this was not how Usagi expected her first day of school to go. A unanimous vote for her to be class president, that's pretty much impossible. That was the first time she'd laid eyes on half of them, but they all gave enthusiastic support, seemingly off their own backs. This wasn't a prank, this wasn't a joke, they all seemed to have independently come to the conclusion that she was best suited for the job.

Long version: It was freaky. Short version: Aaaaargh!

So here she was trudging home and trying to make sense of it. What had she done to make them support her so heavily? Why was everyone trying so hard to be her friend? But the really, honest to goodness freakiest thing of all was -

"Good afternoon, Usagi!" a passing businessman said, tipping his hat to her.

"Afternoon, Mister Nagako!" Usagi cheerfully replied. "Well done on your promotion! You worked really hard to earn it."

"Ah, you're too kind as always! Cheerio!"

The two of them went their separate ways with smiles on their faces. Except there was one small problem that was starting to really honestly worry Usagi. Namely, she had never in her life met Mister Nagako before. Yet she knew full well that he was promoted. That he was married to a loving wife, and the two of them had a baby on the way so they really needed that extra cash.

That was freaky. The only sign of it she showed on her face was that her smile was a little more tightly wound than usual until she finally got home and let her whole body relax.

"I'm home!" she called, and then felt a high-pressure squirt of water hitting her right in the cheek. Ooh! Well, some things really don't change at all, do they? Brats will stay brats no matter what else was going on in her life! Shingo was standing on the stairs with a water pistol, smirking down at her...

"Gotcha!" he cackled, sticking out his tongue. "I always said you were all wet!"

"Don't you have better things to do with your time?" Usagi asked. Yelled. Glowered. A whole bunch of verbs typically reserved for the 'frustrated big sister of a prank-playing boy'.

Usually this was the point where Shingo, brat that he was, would squirt her a second time, say "Nope!" and then scurry off to his room before she could hope to catch up with him. Best thing too, as she didn't know what she'd do if she caught him.

This time, though... Shingo straightened his posture and furrowed his brow. "You know, you're right," he said. "This is really an immature waste of my limited youthful time. I should spend it doing more productive things, like setting up for my future and pursuing more intellectually stimulating pursuits. Thanks, sis! That was just what I needed to hear!"

And so it was that Usagi Tsukino perfected the mannequin challenge decades before anyone came up with the concept.

"Hello, dear," said her mother Ikuko. "How was school?"

"Guh..." Usagi... 'said'? More like gurgled unintelligibly. "Buh- But he... Shingo just... He..." She blinked and sniffed. "Is that dinner? Smells nice. Maybe a little basil?"

"Ah, that's it!" Ikuko suddenly declared, striking her fist into open palm. "That's what I was missing! Yes, with just the right dash of basil, the flavour should have the zest that I'm looking for! I'll have to try that right away!"

A full minute after she left, Usagi slowly turned her head and looked, first towards the kitchen, then upstairs. "WHAT IS HAPPENING?! Why does everyone keep reacting to me like everything I say is the best thing since a recursive sorting algorithm! Whatever that is!"

"Ah, that's it!" said her father Kenji while stepping in through the front door. "That's how I solve that issue at work! Usagi, you're brilliant!"

"GAAAAAH!"

<hr>
This morning at the Tsukino household. Breakfast: Stealth Edition. Usagi opened the door to her room and looked left, then right. No sign of anyone. She scooted downstairs and put her back up against the wall so she could peer inside the kitchen. Wait for it. The toast was on the table! Repeat! The toast was on the table! Wait for her mother to turn around, and as soon as she had -

Usagi lunged inside, grabbed the toast and was gone before anyone knew it. Running late to school with toast in her mouth, diligently not saying a word the entire way. Several people she never met before but also knew the names of said hello on the way.

Freaky. Completely and totally freaky! How did she know all this stuff, like, without having any cause to? Was she getting some sort of psychic vision of the future? Was that how she seemed to know just the thing to say that would make people happy?

The bell rang and she winced. Well, great start to her first day as class president! Can't even arrive on time. Seemed like it was time for the sequel you've all been waiting for, School Morning: Stealth Edition coming out sooner than planned! Usagi approached the back door of the classroom like it might bite her, then slowly pulled it open. This may have been a mistake. It meant that the noise might be a little quieter, but it would last longer. Biting her lip, she poked her head inside and -

"There she is!"

"Oh, Usagi! At last!"

"We were so worried about you!"

Mobbed. Totally mobbed by the other students. They virtually carried her inside, they were so enthusiastic. It felt like if she asked them, they'd act as her personal throne. Just sort of gather together in a big human pile and let her sit there for the duration of the lesson. Utter, unquestioned devotion from the entire classroom, plus the teacher.

Minus the blue-haired girl sitting over there looking as though she was working up the nerve to ask if she could join in. Ami Mizuno. They'd never been introduced, but Usagi somehow just knew her name, like she'd always known it. Their eyes met briefly, and Ami looked away.

Weird. She felt different from the others in more ways than one.

"Usagi, are you alright?" the teacher asked. "We thought something dreadful might have happened to you this morning."

"N-no, not at all!" Usagi said, feeling completely nervous. She should be in trouble for being late, right? "I just slept in, that's all."

"Slept in...?" the teacher, Miss Haruna asked. "Did you hear that everyone? Usagi was putting so much thought into how she might best conduct her time as your representative that she stayed up all night thinking and planning! Please, Miss Tsukino, tell us what you came up with before we begin class."

Internal screaming intensifies. This was it. She was at her limit and Usagi could take no more!

"What is wrong with you all?!" she yelled. "You're behaving like everything I say and do was - was -"

"Divinely ordained?" Ami quietly suggested, but Usagi heard it loud and clear.

"What she said!" Usagi sniffed. "It's really freaking me out, and I wish you'd all just cut it out, right now!"


Miss Haruna stepped in front of her to address the class. "You heard her. Usagi is correct. Nobody is perfect. Not you, not me, not her. We all have our faults, we all have our foibles."

Thank goodness. Common sense was kicking in again.

"That's why I want you all to write out what you think is your own biggest personal shortcoming," the teacher continued. "We'll all write our names on slips of paper, fold those up and keep them until the end of the year, where we can compare how much we’ve improved by year's end! That's a really good idea you came up with, Usagi. It'll really help the class see how they've developed over the year."

It was hopeless. Everyone was just, going along with it. Practically worshipping the ground that she walked on. Usagi bit her lip. "Miss Haruna?" she said. "Could you please hop on one leg?"

"Oh! Good thinking!" the teacher replied, beginning to do exactly that. "A little esoteric exercise never hurt anyone."

Huh. She could... She could get anyone to do anything she wanted. Make a suggestion, phrase it in the right way and people would follow along. The possibilities opened up before her. She could date the hottest guys, ace every test, eat whatever she wanted, sleep in, have others do her work for her and all she'd have to do is ask. She could do <i>anything she wanted</i>. Nobody would even try to stop her, they'd just... follow along. She could even take over the world.

Which was exactly the reason she wasn't going to.

"You can stop now," Usagi said. It would be so easy for her to skip out on class, come up with a lie about having to do other things and then go to the arcade to play for the rest of the day. So, so easy. But Usagi Tsukino, lazy daydreamer, was a good girl at heart. So she took her seat and got ready to be bored out of her mind.

Except that her mind simply didn't focus on the lesson at all. Instead, it focused elsewhere. She had an honest to goodness superpower. So? Shouldn't she be using it to do good things? Look around the classroom, she was surrounded by plenty of people that she could help. Her gaze settled on Ami again, and somehow she just... knew things about her.

Genius. As in, 'she should not be in this classroom, she should be in a research laboratory somewhere breaking ground in new theoretical fields' levels of genius. She already knew the syllabus back to front, probably even a few details the teacher didn't. She was a chess prodigy, had perfect recollection, and had absolutely no social skills because she didn't understand how other people think.

Which was such a shame. She was really cute and not at all arrogant about how smart she was. Usagi drummed her fingers on her desk. Actually... Ami was so smart that she might even be able to help Usagi work out what was going on with her. Or if not that then how to control it or limit the effects or... Or <i>something</i> more sensible than this.

And even if she couldn't do that, that poor girl needed to break out of her shell. There was a beautiful butterfly trapped in that cocoon, and Usagi fully intended to help it fly.

1. Usagi befriends Ami, helps her become more confident in social situations.
2. It turns out that Ami has a small amount of access to Sailor Mercury's powers already, and is freaking out about it.
3. Usagi tries to approach Ami - but other students or faculty members keep on getting in the way, because they want to talk to her as well.
4. Let's switch to Ami's reaction to what's happened so far.
5. Something else