Chapter Text
Lost Memories, a Sailor Moon story.
Chapter 1
“Motoki-kun, how are you?” Darian greeted as he walked into the arcade. After a quick look around he found he was the first of his friends to make it, which makes sense with the shorter school day for him. Something about a parent-teacher conference which he thankfully didn’t have to worry about. Motoki was behind the counter as always and he smiled brightly as he caught his friends’ eye.
“Hey there, Darian! I’m doing great and guess what? I have a gift for you,” Motoki said and reached down behind the counter as Darian sat down. “There’s a concert downtown tonight and I got tickets but both Sara and Keto had to cancel and I’ll be short staffed so I can’t go. So I want you to have these,” Motoki slid the envelope in his hand to Darian, who took it and looked inside curiously. Inside the packet was four tickets.
“ Deja-Vu ? Where have I heard that name before?” he mused as he looked at the decorated tickets.
“Oh they are one of the top newer boy idol groups around. they're signed to that small music company, DREAMERS.’ Motoki explained. “Oh, here, I can show you one of their performances.” Motoki pulled his phone up from his pocket and after a quick search on YOUtube turned the phone to show one of the latest shows.
Darian watched in interest as the four guys danced and sang. They all looked about his age and were really good. “How long have they been around?”
“About two years, I think. They mostly perform around their company though they have thrown surprise concerts at malls and such. I think they even left the country a few months back.” Motoki added then looked up at the door as a pair of kids came rushing inside. “Hello, Kane! Make sure to clean up behind yourself, ok?”
“OK!” Kane yelled as he and his friend rushed to the video games.
“Still, while they are pretty good, are you sure you want to give me these?” Darian asked as the song ended and Motoki locked his phone and put it away.
“Of course! You can even take Serena and some of her friends, if you can score a few more tickets.”
Almost like saying her name was enough to summon her rushed in Serena, her face bright and her smile wide as she zeroed in on her friend and boyfriend. “Motoki-kun! Darian, you’d never believe what happened at school!” she exclaimed as she rushed over to the counter. From behind her and moving at a more normal speed was a highly amused Naru, holding her hands behind her back.
“You got there on time and didn’t trip on the stairs to do so?” Motoki teased and laughed at the pout that was sent his way.
“No, I mean yes but that’s not it, Motoki-onniisan!” Serena said then grabbed Naru and pushed her in front of herself. “Naru won the inter-school contest with her essay on recent events and won concert tickets downtown!”
“Oh? Congratulations, Naru,” Darian said and Motoki echoed him with a grin.
“That is call for a sundie on the house,” he said and grabbed a bowl and with ease started making a sundie. Naru blushed and waved her hands back and forth.
“Oh no, it's not necessary, I can pay,” she blushed but Motoki just winked and finished with a cherry.
“Who’s concert is it?” asked Darian as Naru bashfully took the sundie and spoon.
“Oh, it's this great new group called Deja-Vu! They‘re having their first performance downtown and I’ve heard the tickets are sold out!” Naru answered missing the surprise on Darian’s face as well as Motoki’s. “And I won three of them, so I wanted to offer for you to come with Serena and me,”
“Well that is definitely some good luck,” Darian started but looked back at Motoki when he snort laughed.
“Scary good luck, because I just gave Darian four tickets to Deja-Vu myself.” Moo explained, making the girls gasp in happy surprise.
“On that’s great, we have enough tickets to share!” Serena said with a bounce in her step. She was so excited she missed the way Naru’s face seemed to drop a little before her smile was put back on her face. And while Darian was usually pretty observant, when he was focused on his girlfriend he usually missed things. So only Motoki noticed and he smiled a sad smile at her when he caught her eye.
“That’s a great idea, Serena. You can invite your friends and we can meet up at the bus stop right in front of the concert hall,” Naru said, her voice not giving away her feelings with practiced ease.
“Concert hall?” Asked Ami as she and the other girls finally walked into the arcade. They all waved and greeted the four as they walked up before Ami continued her question. “What is happening at the concert hall?”
“We have tickets to that cool idol group Deja-Vu and we can all go!” Serena answered holding up the envelope from Naru as she did. Rei’s face soured a little.
“I don’t really listen to idol music,” she said and to her surprise Mina nodded as well.
“And I had my fill from my star days,” she explained with a face of long suffering. “Seriously, all anyone wants to sing about these days are breakup songs and diss tracks.”
“I think it would be fun,” shrugged Makoto, tilting her head in thought. “Besides, it’d be rude not to make use of the tickets if they're there, you know?”
“Exactly!” Serena gushed as she wrapped an arm through Makoto’s and Naru’s, surprising the second girl into almost losing her sundie to the floor if Darian hadn’t reached over and grabbed it in time. “Besides, when’s the last time we’ve all gone out and done something fun?”
“Never,” muttered Naru low enough the others didn’t hear her as the other girls agreed to go. Naru quietly slipped her arm back and moved back as Serena excitedly hugged her other friends. Turning back to her melting sundie she shared a small sad smile and shrug with Motoki as he gave her pat a pat. Sadly, they both knew how it felt to be forgotten by their friends by this point. After a while, you get used to it.
Sometimes Naru wished she wasn’t so nice to Serena, because if she wasn’t she’d have brought up how she was feeling a long time ago now. But there never seemed to be time and when they were at school things were at least sort of the same; at least until two out of the three girls she had been replaced with appeared. When she won the contest she had imagined taking Serena with her and maybe inviting Melvin with them. But he had an alien -watching club meeting so Naru suggested Darian. Darian and her had at least shared a few conversations together at this point so she thought it would be fun. Now though…
Naru looked over at the other girls as they moved to a table as the blue hair’d one, Ami, ordered from Motoki. Darian had slipped over as well and was sitting next to Serena, the two of them looking as in love as Cinderella and Prince Charming. I’ll just have to hope I get to spend at least a little time with Serena. We’re supposed to be best friends after all…
(*.*)
When they all met up in front of the Tokyo concert hall, they had to push to get through the crowds to make it to the line to go inside. Standing around the line and making lots of noise were the fans who couldn’t get tickets but still wanted to show their support.
“Just how popular are these guys?” a overwhelmed Makoto asked as they found a spot thankfully in the shade of a tree. The amount of people, not just girls and not just teens there was nuts to her, but then again she never really went to live concerts growing up.
“A lot more than we expected, apparently,” Darian said just as overwhelmed though managing to hide it behind his sunglasses. This was crazy and if the tickets weren’t in his hand and if Serena wasn’t so excited he’d have turned right around at the sight of the line alone.
“This is so cool, I can’t remember the last time I went to a concert!” Serena squealed as she couldn’t keep herself from bouncing in place. Next to her Mina wasn’t much better, though she was busy talking J-Pop with a fan in line who had come decked out in both official and fan made merch. It seemed her words before didn’t mean she was immune to the energy of an excited crowd. “It had to have been before Sammy learned to talk, because he never liked my music and would pout a lot.”
“Are you sure that wasn’t you?” Rei teased with a regal raised eyebrow and narrowed eye, making Serena freeze up like a rabbit and laugh bashfully.
“I think it was when we went to see AKB48, at one of their graduation concerts,” Naru spoke up besides Serena and was rewarded with Serena smiling bright with stars in her eyes.
“That’s right! Oh those girls all looked so pretty, I wanted to be one of them too,”
“Until you found out all the work involved and changed your mind.” Naru finished for her and the two friends shared a giggle. “And mine too, after you told me about the stress the idols go through. I couldn’t imagine living such a busy and stressful life,” she added, tapping her chin in thought but not missing the shared knowing look Serena shared with the other girls. Before she could decide if she should ask about that, the crowd suddenly started cheering and screaming. “Oh my goodness, they're here!”
From their spot in line the seven teens could see the SUV pull up in front of the concert hall. A man in a black tux got out and opened the door and the cheers around them got louder. One by one the four members of Deja-Vu stepped out of the SUV and stood in line, looking over the crowd.
“Whoa, they look even hotter in real life,” Naru breathed and Serena and Matoko nodded in agreement, with Mina outright staring in interest.
The four men were about Darian’s height or taller and all of them were in semi-casual clothes. They each waved at the crowd as they walked, though one of them went as far as to shake a few hands as they did. The tallest, Kariuki Azubuike, had black long dreads styled like a mohawk and had golden color added to the ends in a fade. He looked serious but still open enough to nod to the crowd and send several of them swooning. He wasn’t the only one, as the next tallest, Kayne Williams, had the same vibe but was focused on the doors. He also gained quite a few stares for another reason that was shared with Kariuki, as the both of them were very melanin blessed. His hairstyle was interesting as well, with the sides shaved leaving the top of his head covered in many long brown braids.
The one shaking hands with fans had short red hair swept back into an almost windswept bun and seemed more then happy being outside as any of them. Which if you talked to his fans you’d find that as normal for Enkh Zaya who sometimes had to be dragged to his performances. And last but not least was Iason Semih, with his long blue hair down and framing his face he sent a kiss that sent fans to their knees. Amidst the fans starting a fan chant of their names the four men walked past the Scouts, Prince and Naru, locking eyes for only a second as they did, just like when everyone else. The girls blushed lightly at this and Darian just raised an eyebrow.
Once to the door Deja-Vu were let inside by a worker and after about five minutes the doors in front of the line opened and the line rushed inside as fast and as orderly as possible. In no time at all the seven teens found their seats in the front row. The concert hall filled up in record time and the pre-show music started playing some of the instrumentals of the groups’ songs.
“How long until they start?” Rei asked eyeing the closed curtain that moved slowly with the air conditioning breeze blowing through the room.
“The tickets said at 7:30, so in a few minutes.” Darian answered slinging an arm over Serena’s shoulders. True to his word soon the instrumental music faded out mid song and the curtain slowly opened as the first beats of the song started to play. Standing on the stage were the four men, posed to dance and now dressed in suits with different style jackets.
“I’m missing you, and you make me wait for you.”
“My heart aches so much that it’s beautiful, I am made and broken down by you.”
“My Memories have been flipped around, then one day, I saw myself.”
“Oh Yeah! Let me turn back time and go to where you are.”
“Let me stay with you,”
“Ooo eh ooooo”
As the the four danced and sang their heart wrenching song, the words seemed to resonate with four of the sailor scouts as they listened. Dancing a little or singing along they marveled as Deja-Vu performed their song and danced in perfect sync with each other. They finished that song and moved on, the concert being about two and a half hours and while it was standing room only the fans overall didn’t notice. Once the concert was sadly over and Deja-Vu did their last bow the cheering was so loud no one noticed the light rumble under their feet. After a woman came out and explained that those with the special tickets were to line up to the left for the meet and greet, the rest were to please leave through the other doors.
“Finally,” a relieved Rei breathed out as the group waited for the people in the back to leave and sort themselves out. She rubbed at her temples with a danty hand. Serena looked at her with a surprised raised eyebrow.
“You didn’t enjoy that?” she asked folding her arms and leaning into Rei’s personal space, causing the girl to lean back and look back unimpressed.
“I never said that, it was quite enjoyable. I just don’t really like all the cheering, much too loud. But the lyrics were deeper than I expected,”
“Oh, me too,” Matoko nodded as she loosened her ponytail a little. “Though I think I’ll look into them later, maybe buy a cd.”
Right then, before anyone could say anything more two things happened at once. Darian felt like he got his heart stuck in a vacuum hose and nearly fell over with the shock. The breath in his lungs rushed out and he grabbed at his chest.
“Darian!” Serena went to grab Darian to help him stay on his feet but then the ground underneath all their feet started to shake. The remaining people inside the room started to scream as several hit the ground from the shakes, the stage lights tinkling above and the music playing everyone out cut at the high point of the song.
“We need to move before we’re trapped!” Mina yelled as she slipped into leader mode as she helped up Rei.
“Shouldn’t have worn the heels,” Rei moaned to herself as the girls rushed for the door, Matoko helping Darian and Serena out of the room. The theater was built strong so while a few lights were wiggled loose the walls stayed where they were as the group escaped. By the time they made it outside with the crowd, the ground had settled and Darian could breathe again without more than odd phantom pain.
“Darian, what was that?” Serena asked, her hands hovering over his chest but not touching for fear of hurting him more. Darian was sitting on the ground with a hand in the center of his chest, eyes wide as his mind tried to make sense of what happened.
“I don’t know, but that was not normal. It felt like when I started being,” here he paused and just gestured to the rose pin on his jacket. The girls' eyes widened, well except for Naru who was doing a really good job of pretending to not hear what they were talking about; watching the security and police work. “But nothing like that at the same time. It's hard for me to explain,”
“Then let’s go somewhere where you can try to,” Rei suggested eyeing the crowds. Without a word the girls had formed a sort of perimeter around Darian and Serena and being in the open was getting to be too much.
“Yeah, lets go to my place, it’s the closest and the streets are going to be a mess for a while.” Matoko offered with a thumb point up the street.
“Great idea, Matoko. Oh, Naru!” Serena turned to Naru, who looked back at her in surprise at being addressed. “You should come too, I know the bus won't be here for a while,”
“No, it’s fine, you should take care of Darian, I can call my cousin, he’s in one of these buildings and he’ll take me home.”
“If you're sure,” Serena started unsure and Naru nodded with a small comforting smile. “Ok, I'll call you tomorrow, ok?”
“It’s a date.” Naru teased with a wink. The smile on her face slowly turned sad as her best friend and her crew left, merging into the crowd until they were gone from her view. Then with a sigh and dropping of her shoulders she turned and headed back inside the music hall. After slipping a tag from her purse over her neck and asking the right people, she was led to one of the rooms in the back. She opened the door and smiled weakly at the people inside. “Hiya, cuz,”