Prelude to the Eclipse (Usagi Tsukino)

Prelude to the Eclipse (Usagi Tsukino)
Date of Cutscene:	04 November 2023
Location:	Radiant Heart Academy - Classrooms
Synopsis:	Radiant Heart Academy's Grade 9 Class C decided that for the Culture Festival, they wanted to host a test of courage. As part of those preparations, Usagi Tsukino's been scared, spooked, and set upon by all manner of ghouls and goblins - much to the amusement of her classmates. One last scare tips her over the edge, however, and with Hawk Moth looking for a new target, the birth of Sailor Eclipsde is complete!
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino

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It's been a hard few weeks as Usagi Tsukino, even outside of her double life as Sailor Moon. After all, Sailor Moon can fight the monsters and bad guys that ruin her day - Usagi Tsukino on the other hand? When the monsters are her classmates in costumes, and the bad guys are again, her classmates in costumes, she can't exactly get into a fight, not without getting in major trouble herself. The best she can say is that Naru-chan has continued to be her hero, her homeroom teacher has been a grade A ally, ordering everyone to stop teasing her in class, and Hinoiri-chan has been her bestest friend (who isn't Naru-chan) practically this whole month, because her necklace really did help in class - it was warm and soothing and helped her stay calm, even when her classmates begged and pleaded and sometimes tricked her into testing out parts of their test of courage.

All for the Culture Festival, of course. They definitely weren't just scaring her because it was pretty funny, and kind of amazing, how much she continued to stay scared, never getting enured to the fear or the costumes or the same tricks. It's not like they were a pack of sadists - and it wasn't like it the entire class either, it definitely wasn't all of them. Really, this long into the endeavor, there were just five of them who were still -

Really into this whole, scaring Usagi thing. Five of them who were really excited that Halloween had just happened, that every kid from Juuban at the school was whispering about youkai and demons and hauntings, and who thought it was absolutely hilarious that Usagi was still this afraid, all these weeks later. It had been three weeks of Culture Festival prep, and the fact that she still got spooked by their little pranks, their jumpscares, their steadily refined costumes -

Well, she was an easy target and they were lazy hunters.

She'd thought, with the Culture Festival underway, she'd finally be safe. She'd thought wrong.

Junpei Yamada is one of her classmates; one of the ones who's been having the most fun scaring her silly. It's not that he thinks of himself as a bully - it's just that when it's so easy, how can anyone resist?

Even after all these scares, it's like Usagi Tsukino just doesn't learn to be wary of the world - not properly. So of course, just as she's let in the latest group and is standing with her back to the entrance, he creeps in close, covered in his costume paint. He's one of their two zombies, the especially messed up one, with a fake dragging arm and goopy make up on his face to make it look like it melted off. He's super gross, and proud of it. "Hey, miss? You dropped something."

He's putting on a voice, mimicking his grandfather's Hokkaido accent.

Usagi doesn't suspect a thing. She perks up, and her voice is bright and cheerful as she says, "Oh, I did? Thanks mist-" and then she turns. And she sees him. And she screams, as loud as the recording, and scrabbles away from him, scrambling away so quickly that she trips over her own two feet and pitches backwards.

Junpei freezes, staring in blank faced horror as she falls. He has a moment of terrible fear where he thinks she might hit her head - the entire class knows how klutzy Tsukino-san is, how she was most likely to get a bump or bruise in the whole class - and now he'd just scared her into falling back and she was going to hit her head and probably crack her skull open and what if she actually died -

And then Usagi did hit the ground, and there was a crunch, sickening and loud enough that Junpei really did think she'd died. That she'd hit her head and any minute now he'd see the blood start to spill, start to gush forward and there would be absolutely nothing he could do about it. He rushed forward, already calling out apologies.

"Shit, shit, Tsukino-chan, you're alright, right, you didn't hurt yourself -" He stumbled to his knees to get down on the floor beside her and grabbed at her shoulder.

She jerked her arm away, rolling on the floor to get away from him. There was nothing but sharp relief in Junpei's chest, all the tension swept away because of course he'd been freaking himself out for nothing, of course she was fine. The relief was so instant and dizzying that he laughed.

Big mistake.

(Somewhere Else)

Hawk Moth was searching.

Somewhere in this city of millions, there was a person he could use, a person whose feelings were so great, the akuma they made would be able to defeat that wretched Ladybug and Cat Noir and finally steal for him their Miraculous! He just had to find them - the one he would use today. The one who would finally be enough to defeat those two.

And then he found her. The one who was perfect. Filled with the emotion of weeks worth of pent up, built upon stress, the anger of being mocked after being frightened, humiliation at the fright - all wrapped up in the desire to make the world suited to her own tastes. To stop putting up with the whims of others, and make them live according to her whims.

A butterfly flew to him, darkening in color as it was charged with evil energy. When the akuma was ready a window opened in his office, nad he gestured to it sharply, startling the creature into flight.

"Go my little akuma! Evilize that heart!"

(The Radiant Heart Academy Culture Festival)

Usagi Tsukino hadn't been this incensed in ages. Her shoulder and wrist throbbed where they'd hit the ground, having taken the brunt of her body weight, her communicator had crunched, and her jerk classmate was laughing.

"You think that was funny?! That hurt, you awful jerk! I can't believe I'm even here, helping with this stupid festival after everything you put me through you complete and utter -"

For better or worse, that was when the butterfly appeared before her, purple-black with streaks of light that crawled along its lenght like writhing bursts of energy. Usagi no longer heard Junpei's voice - even as it turned from laughter to an attempt at explanation. Instead, as Usagi stared at the butterfly, what she heard was a voice that spoke inside her mind.

"Sailor Eclipse! You've been terrorized by these wretched fools for too long! Why let them have their way? You want the world to be light and rainbows - and why not? You deserve a world of your choosing, where nothing can go wrong! I will give you that power - and as you use it, the joy you'll create will draw out Ladybug and Cat Noir! Steal their Miraculous! Bring them to me - and this power will be yours to keep!"

"I - I don't - "

But the little butterfly flew closer, fluttering on delicate wings, and she was angry. She was hurt. She did want all of it - a world of her choosing, that held none of the fear and frustration of the last few weeks, of even school becoming a place of fright.

And then the butterfly landed on her broken communicator, melting into the gold and pink metal to turn it the same purple-black the akuma had been.

The evil energy within the akuma broiled over - spreading across Usagi's body from the corrupted communicator. It was over in seconds - and Usagi Tsukino was no more.

Sailor Eclipse smiled and clapped her hands.

Junpei Yamada's last thought was that Tsukino-chan had been right. It really was no fun being scared.