437/Questions from a fish to a bunny

Questions from a fish to a bunny
Date of Scene:	16 September 2023
Location:	Radiant Heart Academy
Synopsis:	After lots of thinking about Naru's supposed trip, Coco transforms into Yellow Pearl Voice to seek to understand from Usagi why she sought to cover up Naru's disappearance, thinking the buntailed girl could have already known about Sunbreaker
Cast of Characters:	Coco Kiumi, Usagi Tsukino

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Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco has been thinking about why Usagi would hide Naru's disappearance. It didn't make sense to her why she wouldn't report her disappearance and try to get help. Sure, Naru texted her that Usagi probably didn't want people to worry, and Naru knows Usagi very well, but she still wants to ask her personally what were her reasons.

This is why she has decided to don her magical girl form to be able to speak freely about what was going on with Sunbreaker. The direct approach was surely the best to understand how much Usagi, right? She is walking around the school as soon as classes ended, trying to see where the blonde girl might be at.

Going around here and there, she spots the buntailed girl at the Sports Pavilion and she hurries up to her. "Hello, Usagi. I am Yellow Pearl Voice. I would like to ask you a question if you don't mind", Coco says after hurrying to her. "I don't think this will take up much of your time."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's a normal day at school - more normal than usual, even, since there's no mahou fite club after school today, and there hadn't been a single youma attack. It's why Usagi probably should have expected that something would go wrong, or at least, weird.

Still, even in her wildest dreams, she wouldn't have expected for a fellow magical girl to just walk right up to her. In public!

She freezes for a moment, staring in absolute gobsmacked shock, and then quickly looks around - there are other students in the Sports Pavilion, classes just got out, and some of them are taking note of the girl in bright, eye-catching yellow - before saying, "I - um - sure - but, maybe not here?"

A pause, as she feels the weight of those eyes, and considers the likelihood of Mamoru's friends being here. The last thing she needs is someone seeing Usagi Tsukino talking to a magical girl!

"Definitely, not here."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco nods. "Sure, that's fine, thanks for accepting to talk with me. I think an empty classroom would be fine." Coco walks alongside her to a classroom, peeking inside to check inside if it's empty. "Ok, this one is empty" she says, moving inside. Supposing Usagi follows her inside, once the door is closed, Coco turns around to look at her with a serious expression. "So, Usagi, Naru got recently kidnapped by a villain, Sunbreaker, and she luckily got rescued with everyone's help."

She grabs her right arm with the left one, taking a breath or two. "This is about you were spreading the voice that Naru was on a trip, which honestly was confusing, and weird for me since I don't know if it was really her, and was worried about her. Why were you trying to cover for Naru's disappearance instead of trying to get help from the police or similar people?" She brings up a smile. "I don't want to give the impression I'm mad, but this is important to me."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
They walk to a classroom and Usagi is trying to walk a little faster the entire time, make it not seem like she's with Yellow Pearl Voice, hoping no one notices or thinks to remember this later - and when she's in the classroom, once they're alone together - well.

She has a choice to make, doesn't she? She knows who Yellow Pearl Voice is. She knows she's someone named Coco, and a mermaid. She could explain the real answer, or she could lie, and keep her own secret.

But why would she do that? They're allies, after all.

"I had a lot of reasons," Usagi says, and she's smiling herself, a little. "But the biggest one is normal people don't know about supervillains, Coco-chan. The weird bounces off, and they don't remember it at all. If I went around telling people what really happened - they'd know Naru-chan and I knew about the weird. And that could put a bigger target on her. Sailor Moon can watch her own back, but Naru-chan..."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
As the realisation reaches Coco, she gets wide-eyed, and her mind gets stuck on the notion of Usagi being Sailor Moon. "O-oh", she says, her face quite flustered by what she just learned. "So... you are Sailor Moon, then... I just made things weird, didn't I?" She clears her own throat and tells Usagi. "So, that's why. I am really sorry. Your actions didn't make sense if you were unaware of magic, but they make all too much sense now."

She quickly bows to Usagi, copying what she thinks is the custom here in Japan. "I am sorry for making this weird. I fully agree with you then, and besides, now I have actually been really insensitive, since you were worrying more than anybody and doing more than anybody. I am sorry, Usagi."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"No, no, it's okay! You didn't make things weird and - honestly, I was kind of just hoping people wouldn't find out," Usagi says sheepishly. "I mean! I wanted the right people to know, but I didn't... I kind of assume everyone who knows me knows Naru-chan and you know, the other way around, but when Sunbreaker kidnapped her... I really had to figure out what to say and do, you know?"

Does any of that make sense at all?

"Plus - I mean. It does look bad! Naru-chan was missing for days, and normally a roommate would say something about that. It's a fair question. A bunch of fair questions."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Thank you, Usagi", Coco smiles relieved. "I guess there is no more need for me to be in this guise, isn't there?" she observes, going back to her normal student self. "How much does Naru know about all of this? About you being both Usagi and Sailor Moon?" she inquires. "She texted me she suspected you didn't want people to worry, so she probably doesn't, unless she was keeping your identity safe?"

Coco asks, thinking to herself that it would make sense that Naru wouldn't want to reveal that, as it had just been about a month since she learnt Coco was a magical girl, and they met sporadically at that. Not exactly the best way to gauge how trustworthy someone is.

"You don't have to justify yourself, your reaction makes sense. You had no reason to suspect I was acquainted with Naru when you told me Sunbreaker kidnapped someone. Honestly, I couldn't reconcile Naru's disappearance with the fact that she didn't share her trip on social media, at least, so I may have reacted a bit too strongly. I am glad she is safe now though, and as far from Sunbreaker as she can be."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"She knows everything I know, except secret identities," Usagi admits shamelessly, "I'm really bad about keeping secrets from Naru-chan, so I kinda gave up on that maybe a month into the whole thing."

It was for the best! It was stressing her out to keep secrets, and keeping Naru-chan ignorant would have just made it worse when Sunbreaker went after her, because it's not like not knowing about Usagi would have kept her from hitting Sunbreaker with a mop! She would have done it anyway, the same way she'd thrown a shoe at a monster.

"She's helping keep my secret. And, maybe I don't have to, but I want to. You would have been right to be mad, Coco-chan. I'd have been mad, if I was you and I thought someone made it harder to get help for Naru-chan."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco nods. "I'm not that great on the whole keeping secrets myself. I lasted barely 2 weeks with my roommate, and she wasn't even someone I knew for a long time like with you."

The mermaid is much calmer now than when Usagi first revealed her identity, still looking a bit guilty. "Still, you have been willing to hear me out with perfect calm, and that's really laudable, especially with all you had done for Naru. I have seen her around at school, and once or twice when I sang for her, and she is being back to cheerfulness very quickly despite not having access to any of her usual hobbies. That's no doubt thanks to how much you are doing for her even now."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Your roommate... is her name Cho-chan?" Because she was not very good at keeping secrets either, which was both a little funny, and maybe something Coco should know. Now that Usagi knows Coco is a mermaid, anyway.

"It's Naru-chan too; she's really strong, and she's always been the level-headed one between the two of us so... so she's really bouncing back. And - I can't be mad because someone's worried about Naru-chan. It's good, you know? If you're worried, you'll help her out!"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Yes, that's her name, why?" Coco asks, curiously. "Has she been talking about our dorm life?" she chuckles nervously. "That's a rather chaotic one, between our respective pets. Especially since we got acquainted when one of her monkey started eating through my make-up."

"Yes, of course, I would do anything to help her. And since we are on that subject, I have been thinking of giving her a welcome back gift - a book on the culture and art forms of the mermaid kingdoms. I think that's something that would interest her, since she has always been around with her sketchbook, even in the cafeteria, but can I ask you if my hunch is right, please?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"She kinda mentioned that you were a mermaid once - she played it off, I think it was a total slip of the tongue, but when you mentioned a roommate, I got to thinking of who might know about your secret, besides Amy-chan and Hannah-chan," Uasgi explains. If she had been wrong, she would have laughed it off, figured it was a coincidence, but since she's not wrong - "Wait, did you say pet monkey? There's a pet monkey in the dorms?!"

And here she'd been sorta semi kinda not really hiding Luna. At least Luna was just a cat!

"Oh, I think she'd love that! Naru-chan is really into art, and learning, and getting to study a totally new kind of art... she'd probably love that. We're going to do a welcome back party soon. It's a little late, but it's the thought that counts, so! I'll let you know the date when it's all figured out?"

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"Oh, she did that? I guess it's sort of hard not to let your thoughts drift in that direction with how big of a secret it is", Coco says pensively. "I am glad she could cover it up and you didn't make a big noise out of it. Did you think she was telling the truth? I imagine having access to magic opens your mind to lots of possibilities", Coco chuckles.

Coco nods energetically. "Yes, we have quite the busy pet life between the two of us. I have otters myself. They are my informants for the magical events in this city."

Coco's eyes shine when Usagi's mention the party. "Oh, that's awesome. It's going to be amazing for Naru, I bet! If you are planning a gift already, I would be willing to contribute to that, even with the tomes I am giving her."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Honestly? When she said she showed you the little mermaid and thought you were neat like a mermaid, I totally bought it. I didn't think it was possible... but the world is a strange one!"

Aliens, mermaids, talkign cats... their world is very different than she thought it was, just a few months before.

"Otters... monkeys... Luna would scratch me for saying just, but I've just got a cat."

Monkeys! Otters! What was next, bears?

"Of course! I'll let you know all the details, promise!"