View source for Backlash (Usagi Tsukino)

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2023/08/23
|Location=Juuban Ward
|Synopsis=Usagi Tsukino was laying in the sun under a tree when the world broke, and memory unfolded like the petals of a rose. 

Concurrent with Scene 300.
|Cast of Characters=43
}}
Usagi is laying in the grass. She has a blanket, she could be on that instead, but she's laid out on the grass under a tree instead, sunlight filtered through the trees. 

(She's sure to have an interesting tan, later.)

The afternoon sun is hot, but there's a breeze, swift and light, rustling the leaves of the tree above and the grass around her and even rustling the fabric of her skirts, and it's cool, refreshing, and her head is propped up thanks to her folded arms. She tips her head back just a little, smiling as the breeze carries the scent of summer flowers to her nose. 

It's a good day - a nice day - a cool day, so far. The kind of summer day that should be every summer day, where you had time to lazily wake, lazily dress, and lazily lay back in the grass. 

A day to laze. To breathe. To just be, because despite everything, there's nothing she can do to stop what's coming. Inai-sensei <i>won't</i> just let Usagi follow her around all day, and Hematite said he didn't want to hurt her so he probably wouldn't do anything too bad and she had the card tucked away <i>right next to her</i> so she could be an emergency exit (that's what will happen, right? if she asks for help and Inai-sensei appears, conveniently away from trouble?) whenever trouble happened.

That's why she's not at school, today. 

Nope, instead she's chosen to sprawl out a park in Juuban, not especially near her house, but far enough from school that it should be hard for an enemy (Hematite) coming after Inai-sensei to find her right away. And tomorrow it will be the ice cream parlor in Pikarigaoka, and the beach over in Yumegahama the next day, and so on and so forth until it was over. 

It was summer vacation. Hanging out, visiting random spots, no one would think twice about it! Even Luna had approved.

(Luna had not approved of texting with Hematite, but Luna also didn't know the passcode on her phone, and couldn't read the texts herself.

Otherwise she'd have way more to disapprove of.)

But so far, everything was going well. She might even doze off, which might not be so good for the plan, but, it was just such a nice afternoon...

Her eyes slide shut.

And then - sparks fill her vision. Usagi jolts, whole body jerking like she's snatched at a live wire, lips parting as, in the space behind her mind's eye, memories unfold like flowers blooming. 

It's her dream, breakfast on the table and a boy in her house, his expression pleading, his voice urgent, <i>Find the Silver Crystal</i> -

It's the day Shingo was born, her mama in the hospital, wandering off alone, roses in her hands, meeting a boy who cried like his heart was breaking, a rose passed from her hand to his -

It's a rose garden she's never seen, blooms a riot of color, vivid red the most common, and there's a boy, there's a boy she loves clad in black and gold, and to see him is to melt inside and smile and laugh and run into his arms, their friends watching from a distance, but all she can see is <i>him</i> - 

(who is that? who is that boy?)

It's watching that boy start to crumble, watching the light behind his eyes splinter and shutter, and his friends are <i>gone</i>, lost to him, they have to get them back - 

It's blood on the ground. Metallic scent heavy on the wind, screams in the air, an oasis of serenity in the chaos, just the two of them trying to figure out what to do, until <i>she</i> appears, and she <i>hates</i> her, didn't know she could hate like that but the boy grabs her, the boy throws himself in front of her and holds her in his arms and he <i>screams</i> - 

(In the waking world, she screams too. 

Her ears are closed to the sound, trapped in scattered folds of memory, but the agonized cry draws startled glances from every visitor at the park - 

<b>"ENDYMION!"</b> 

The few near enough to see the girl on the ground start to come closer -)

She can't, she can't, she can't, they're gone, they're all gone, they're all gone, he's gone and so are they and the world is empty and dark and she is all alone and there is nothing, there is nothing but that woman gloating and reveling and - 

There's a sword in her hands. She lifts it, arms shaking under the weight, the hilt in her hands but the blade isn't pointed at that woman, it's pointed at - 

The flowers of her memory burn away. 

A gentle hand shakes her shoulder. "Hey! Ojousan, are you alright?"

Usagi's eyes fly open. An older man is leaning over her, concern written across his face. The sky behind him is dim, thin red streaks the last gasps of sunlight.

"I - I'm fine! Sorry! I must have fallen asleep - had a bad dream -"

She's babbling and she knows it, quickly sitting up and waving her hands, bowing her head apologetically, trying to reassure the man that she's okay, accepting his light scolding as he warns her about falling asleep in the park and being a young girl alone and how the city isn't as safe as it used to be and how it was never safe enough for a girl to be sleeping alone in the park anyway and - 

By the time she's convinced him that she's very sorry and she'll never do it again, the memories are like mist, scattering further every time she tries to snatch at them. All she can really remember are his eyes - all she can remember is his pain. 

<i>Was that... Darien?</i>