Chapter Text
“Yeonjun! Get up, you’re going to be late for school!”
Yeonjun sat straight up in bed, head swiveling back and forth in confusion as he rubbed his eyes. What day was it? It had to be Saturday, or maybe Wednesday? Either way, it was definitely still summer vacation. So why was his mom yelling?
He looked down at his phone.
August 29. Monday, 7:49 AM.
Yeonjun fell out of bed. Scrambling to his feet, he ran his fingers through his hair haphazardly as he dug through his closet for his uniform. He threw on the navy pants and white shirt as fast as he could, finding his jacket pressed and hanging on the door.
“Mom, where’s my tie?” Yeonjun yelled, swearing under his breath as he overbalanced while trying to put on his socks. He slammed into his dresser, sending the lamp on top clattering to the ground. After a cursory glance to make sure nothing was broken, he decided to leave it there and deal with it later.
“I have it, I just ironed it!” His mom yelled back. “Wooyoung’s already here, you’re going to make both of you late on the first day!”
Yeonjun nearly tripped over his bag in his haste to get downstairs, but he scooped it up and found his best friend standing at the foot of the stairs looking unimpressed. Wooyoung’s dark brows were raised in an expression of exasperation, and he shoved Yeonjun’s tie into his hands along with a piece of toast.
“Your hair looks stupid,” Wooyoung said.
“Good morning to you, too,” Yeonjun grumbled, flattening it with one hand as he put on his shoes. He could see blond sticking out everywhere in his peripheral, but his attempts to tame it were for naught.
“The principal is going to kill you if you’re late to the first day of senior year,” Wooyoung said lightly. “Actually, it would be pretty on-brand. Start the year off badly and it can only get better, I guess.”
“You know you’re walking with me, right?” Yeonjun retorted. “If I’m late, you’ll be late, too.”
“Yeah, but I have Ms. Im for homeroom,” Wooyoung replied. “She’s never on time. You have Ms. Park.”
Yeonjun swore. “Are you serious?!” He groaned, already dreading the number of tardies he was going to get this year. Ms. Park was punctual to a fault, and held her students to the same standard.
Wooyoung stared at him, plump lips falling open. “You didn’t even look at your schedule yet?”
“No, when would I have had time to look at it? In case you didn’t notice, my alarm failed and I woke up four minutes ago,” Yeonjun pointed out. The second part of the sentence was muffled slightly as he stuffed a massive bite of toast into his mouth.
Wooyoung looked amused. “Well, you’re totally screwed. Park for homeroom, Yoo for English, Hirai for math… You did get that art class you wanted, though, so that’s good.”
“How do you know all this?” Yeonjun asked, perplexed. The rest of the toast had already disappeared, and he was now buttoning his jacket and trying to smooth out some of the creases in his trousers. It was a good thing his mom hadn’t seen him on the way out, or he definitely would’ve been told off for the mismatching socks.
“You’ve gotta stop using the same password from seventh grade, dude,” Wooyoung told him, by way of explanation. “I could probably hack into your bank right now, if I wanted to.”
“You logged into my school account?!” Yeonjun exclaimed, miffed. He supposed that he should have been used to Wooyoung’s insufferable nosiness after so many years of friendship, and yet he was still somehow surprised.
“Of course,” Wooyoung replied nonchalantly. “And your email, and your iCloud. You know, having fourteen thousand unread emails probably classifies as a mental illness under the DSM-V. Also, you probably want to put your nudes somewhere slightly more sneaky than a folder labeled with nothing but a winky face.”
“You’ve seen my nudes!?” Yeonjun shrieked, stopping dead in the middle of the sidewalk. Wooyoung seized him by the arm none too gently and forced him to keep walking. It was 7:58.
“Dude, we’ve been friends since we were in diapers,” Wooyoung said. “We were each other’s first kiss. I’ve seen a lot more than just your nudes.”
Yeonjun could admit that was a fair point. “So what did you think? Was the angle okay? I wasn’t sure about the lighting in the last couple.”
“Honestly, they were a lot more tasteful than I was expecting,” Wooyoung answered, though it sort of looked like it was paining him to say so. “I still don’t think your precious Jungkook oppa from the arcade is going to bang you, though, if that’s what you were going for.” He said Jungkook’s name in a mocking girly voice, for extra savagery.
“I do not call him that, you brat. It’s sunbaenim.”
“Yeah. To his face, it is.”
Yeonjun went to put Wooyoung in a headlock, but the sound of the school bell interrupted him. He looked down at his phone, and cursed loudly. They were just outside the doors.
“Choi Yeonjun, no swearing on school grounds! Where is your tie?”
Yeonjun turned around at the sound of the principal’s voice, cringing as he made eye contact. The man did not look pleased.
“A-ah, sorry sir,” he stuttered. Wooyoung snickered as Yeonjun pulled his tie out of his jacket pocket.
“Late on your first day back?” The principal sighed. “I suppose that at this point I don’t need to remind you that tardiness gets you a detention.”
“Don’t worry, sir, he remembers,” Wooyoung said innocently. “I think he spent more time in detention last year than he did in class.”
Yeonjun threw him a dirty look, and Wooyoung cackled as the principal gave another long-suffering sigh.
They were both late to class, and yet much to his frustration Yeonjun was the only one in detention at the end of the day.
Yeonjun was on his way home, whistling to himself, when a hedgehog rolled onto the sidewalk in front of him. It was all balled up, but soon enough it uncurled and looked at him with beady black eyes.
“Hi,” Yeonjun started, unsure. He bent down to get a closer look, on all fours.“Wow, you’re such a cutie, look at you.” The hedgehog lifted its head to sniff at him, and Yeonjun put out a finger to poke at the bristles on its back. He was just about to straighten up and continue on his way when the hedgehog jumped, about a foot straight up in the air, and snatched his name tag in its mouth.
“Hey!” He shouted, shocked, as it rolled away again. The hedgehog disappeared down an alley, and Yeonjun made sure his satchel was secure before taking off after it. “I need that, my mom’s gonna kill me if I lose it again!”
The hedgehog, of course, paid no attention. It streaked around a corner, rolling with the speed of a professionally-thrown bowling ball, and went across the road into the back side of the park. It was rough and muddy terrain, and Yeonjun nearly fell on a protruding root as the hedgehog led him though the trees. He had no choice, though; his mom really would kill him if he came home with the breast of his jacket empty. On second thought, she was probably going to kill him anyways. She’d bought him a brand-new pair of white shoes for the beginning of the school year.
“Stop,” Yeonjun panted. “Hedgehog, come here, little hedgie-hedgie. Pleeeease,” he whined. He considered himself fairly athletic, but the August heat was stifling and he was sure that he’d completely sweat through his jacket.
To his immense surprise, the hedgehog stopped. It dropped his name tag on the ground about ten feet ahead of him.
“Good hedgie,” he murmured, reaching out for the shining piece of plastic. “Nice hedgie. Please don’t spike me.”
“Sorry about that,” a voice said.
Yeonjun screamed. It was a very undignified scream, and he fell backwards onto his butt. He whipped his head around looking for the speaker. He didn’t think it was possible that anyone could’ve followed him all the way here without him noticing, especially at the speed that he was running. There was no one there, and he was starting to think he’d imagined it when he heard the voice again.
“Right here. Hellooooo.”
Yeonjun screamed again. The hedgehog was talking to him.
“Like I said, my apologies. I needed to get you somewhere where we couldn’t be interrupted.”
Yeonjun gaped. He’d seen its mouth move, and heard a high, nasally male voice to match. It looked like a perfectly normal hedgehog, with tiny black eyes and a back full of spikes. On closer inspection, though, there appeared to be a strange crescent-shaped scar on its forehead.
“I– I don’t understand,” Yeonjun whispered. “Um– you can talk?”
“Yes,” the hedgehog said crisply. It didn’t seem keen on elaborating, because it steamrollered on despite Yeonjun’s open-mouthed amazement. “My name is Odi, and I’m here with a message for you, Choi Yeonjun.”
“How do you know my name?” Yeonjun asked, eyes narrowing suspiciously.
Odi pointed his little nose towards the name tag on the ground, and Yeonjun felt his cheeks burn. “You are Choi Yeonjun, correct?” He said.
“Yes, I mean– yeah, that’s me,” Yeonjun replied eloquently. “That’s my name tag.”
“Okay,” Odi said, sounding unimpressed. “I’ve come here with a message for you. The fate of the universe depends on you.”
“Uh, what?” Yeonjun was starting to think that maybe Wooyoung had put something funky in his lunch as a prank, or maybe he’d fallen asleep in detention and this was all just some wacky dream. “The fate of the universe?”
“Yes. A great evil is stirring, rearing its head once again, and all of humanity is relying on you to protect them.”
“Haha,” Yeonjun said weakly. “Very funny. Wooyoung, you can come out now. Joke’s up.”
“This is no laughing matter,” Odi replied severely. “You must take this seriously. It is of the utmost importance.”
The hedgehog stamped one of its tiny, clawed feet, and something fell from the sky. It smacked Yeonjun on the top of the head, hard, and bounced on the forest floor a few times before stopping at his feet. He swore loudly, rubbing the spot where it had hit and wincing.
“Ow, that hurt,” he complained. “What the hell is this thing, anyways?”
He bent down to pick it up. It was some sort of magic wand, he thought, a short metal staff with a large gold crescent moon on top. It was inlaid with colorful gems, and felt heavy in his hand.
“The Moon Scepter,” Odi answered. “It is imbued with the power of a wishing star, and will allow you to take your true form.”
“My true form,” Yeonjun repeated doubtfully. “And that is…?”
“A Sailor Guardian,” Odi said. “Sailor Moon, who fights for beauty and love.”
“Okay, that sounds like some professional, Grade A-level bullshi–“
“You wouldn’t know a Grade A if it fell out of the sky and smacked you on the head,” the hedgehog interrupted flatly. Yeonjun opened his mouth to protest, but Odi kept talking over him. “Just raise the Moon Scepter over your head, and repeat the words ‘Moon Prism power, make up.’ No, don’t argue. Just do it.”
Were hedgehogs supposed to be bossy? Yeonjun didn’t think so, but then again he’d never met one that could talk before. With one last unflattering comment under his breath, he raised the stick over his head.
“Moon Prism power, make up!”
There was a bright flash, and Yeonjun was temporarily blinded. He yelped when he felt his feet leave the ground not of his own volition, and realized that he was being lifted by an invisible force. The burst of light around him was swirling in different colors like a kaleidoscope, and when he looked down he saw that his uniform was shimmering and changing as well.
His feet touched the ground once more, no longer clad in his muddy white sneakers. Instead, he was now wearing a pair of scarlet knee-high boots with a single crescent moon printed at the toe. His wrinkly uniform trousers had transformed into a pair of fitted navy pants with a long red belt of some sort of satin-like fabric, and his jacket had vanished to reveal a short-sleeved white shirt underneath. There was a short blue sailor’s cape and another red ribbon at his neck, and white gloves covered his hands.
“Uh,” Yeonjun said eloquently, still reeling from the sudden transformation. “What happened to my school uniform?”
“It’ll come back once you return to your original form,” Odi replied dismissively. “Not important. What matters is that you get used to this one, since you’ll need it if you’re going to protect the universe.”
“Sorry… you want me to save the world looking like a gay version of Captain America?”
“Wha– Captain America isn’t even real. Can you focus for a second?” If Yeonjun could read hedgehog facial expressions, he’d say that Odi looked pretty annoyed right now. “Take the Moon Tiara off of your head, and practice throwing it a couple of times. If you miss in battle, you’ll be screwed.”
“The Moon–“ Yeonjun’s word were cut off when he touched his forehead, and realized that there was in fact a band of gold medal just under his bangs. When he pulled it off to look at it, he saw that it was in a strange ‘V’ shape with another crescent moon right in the middle.
“That’s the Moon Tiara. Very important. When you throw it, say ‘Moon Tiara action’, and the magic will be activated.”
“Throw it?” Yeonjun said. “How?”
“Like a frisbee,” Odi explained. “Don’t activate the magic now, or you might blow up this whole side of the park– but trust me, it’ll work when you need it to.”
“Trust you, yeah right. You’re a psychotic talking rodent,” Yeonjun muttered to himself. Nevertheless, he drew his arm back to throw the Moon Tiara, aiming for a tree about twenty feet away.
He missed, rather spectacularly. And missed again. And again, and again.
Odi looked like he might be on the verge of tears, if that was something that hedgehogs were capable of. “Look,” he sighed. “Definitely needs some practice, but I’m afraid that if we hang out here too long someone’s going to see us. Come back here after dark, and we can try again.”
“I have school tomorrow, though,” Yeonjun pointed out. “I need to sleep, and like– do homework, and stuff.”
Odi rolled his beady hedgehog eyes. “Sleep, fine, but don’t pretend that you’re actually going to do your homework. Be here at nine, sharp.”
“So bossy,” Yeonjun complained under his breath.
Odi made sure to run over his foot with his spiky little body before rolling off into the trees.
Yeonjun actually thought about doing his homework just to spite Odi, but in the end his English reading stayed unopened on his desk and his calculator remained in the very back pocket of his bag. It wasn’t as though he was intentionally failing all of his classes, it was just that Yeonjun thought that there were much better uses of his time than spending his youth slaving over a textbook– in this case, staring at Jungkook from the arcade.
“Hi, Yeonjunnie,” the older greeted, with a bunny-like smile. “Fancy seeing you here.”
“Hi, sunbaenim,” Yeonjun replied breathlessly. “I like your shirt.”
Jungkook looked down, and lifted the collar. “This is the arcade uniform, though. I wear this every time you see me.”
“I know,” Yeonjun said, with a grin. “You look good every time I see you.”
Wooyoung dragged Yeonjun away, positively howling in laughter at Yeonjun’s pitiful attempt at a wink. Jungkook was laughing, too, and pushed his dark curls away from his handsome face before returning to his spot behind the counter. Wooyoung made Yeonjun play the street fighter game first, because he was absurdly good at it and knew he would win every time. Yeonjun got his revenge on the rhythm dance game, though, beating Wooyoung by over three hundred points.
Yeonjun frowned when he got to the karaoke machine. He’d long-held the high score, or at least the only high score that actually mattered– Jungkook was the true master, and had achieved the only perfect score in the arcade’s history. However, it appeared that someone had usurped Yeonjun’s second-place spot.
“Weird,” Wooyoung said, shrugging. “Maybe someone just got lucky.”
Yeonjun tried a couple of times on Girls Generation’s “I Got A Boy” and 2PM’s “My House”, his two standout songs, but still “KTH” stayed stubbornly stuck above his flashing number on the end-screen. Annoyed, he decided to go back to the crane machine to see if he could win another plushie for Kai, his adorable neighbor down the street.
Against his better judgement, Yeonjun returned to the park that evening. The Moon Scepter, which he’d been half-hoping might disappear while he was at the arcade, was still in his school bag. He heaved a sigh that was much too forlorn for any normal seventeen-year-old, and snuck out of the house after dark.
“Pssst.”
Yeonjun just about jumped out of his skin when he heard Odi’s voice from somewhere near his ankle, but at least he didn’t scream this time. “Did you bring the Moon Scepter?”
“Duh,” Yeonjun answered. “But, like… what if there’s an emergency, and I don’t have it with me?”
“It’ll always reappear when you need it,” the hedgehog replied. “Throw it in the lake.”
“Uh… what?” They were standing at the edge of the park’s man-made lake, on the jogging trail, looking out over the moonlit water.
“Throw it. Are you going to argue every time I say something?”
“Yeah, if you say something stupid. I can’t just throw it in there, there are littering laws and stuff around here.”
Yeonjun couldn’t see Odi in the darkness, but he heard the hedgehog huff in frustration. “I just told you, it’ll come back when you need it, and it only appears for you. Try it.”
“Okay, but I’m not going to go fetch it if this doesn’t work. I didn’t bring a swimsuit.” Yeonjun wound back and flung the Moon Scepter in a mighty throw. It spun through the air, catching the moon’s light and flashing in an unnatural way, before disappearing beneath the surface of the water with a splash.
“Alright. Now put your hand out above your head, like you did before, and recite the phrase.”
Yeonjun did. He spaced his legs a little further apart, hoping not to be thrown off-balance when he got lifted into the air this time, and took a deep breath.
“Moon Prism power, make up!”
He felt a familiar metal rod appear in his grasp, and there was another bright beam of light as he started to levitate several feet off of the ground. The transformation was in no way subtle, and he really hoped that it wouldn’t attract the attention of the cops or any curious locals. He landed lightly on his feet. Once again, he was clad in the uniform of Sailor Moon.
The lakeside breeze lifted the red belt at his waist, and it fluttered in the breeze. He looked down at the spot where he knew Odi was, the hedgehog’s eyes reflecting the moonlight in shining pinpricks.
“Told you,” he said unnecessarily. “Now, let’s see if we can find a better spot for you to practice with that Moon Tiara. At the rate you’re going, the moment one of the Dark Kingdom’s minions shows up you’ll be dead in thirty seconds flat.”
They didn’t make it that far. In fact, they didn’t even make it back into the woods from the jogging trail when the sound of something in the lake reached Yeonjun’s ears. It was a splash that gradually grew louder and louder, until it was a roaring wave. His stomach dropped so far he was afraid it might fall out of his ass. With the speed of a rocket, something massive shot out of the water. Even though they were at quite a distance, droplets sprayed Yeonjun’s skin. He shivered inadvertently.
“I’m doomed,” he said with certainty. “I’m completely fucked.”
“Yeah, you might be,” Odi replied comfortingly. “Come on, run. Now!”
Yeonjun finally forced his legs to move right as a blast of water hit the spot where he’d been standing. It was so strong that it left a crater in the dirt, and Yeonjun was completely soaked. He had no idea where Odi had gone until he heard the hedgehog’s voice again.
“The Tiara. You have to hit it with the Tiara. Say ‘Moon Tiara, action’ right before you throw it, and it’ll activate the magic.”
Yeonjun barely registered his words. He was too busy gaping at the creature that had emerged from the lake, and was now hovering above the surface. It looked like something out of a science fiction novel, a gilled fish-like monster with slimy greenish skin and bulging yellow eyes that glowed like traffic lights. A mermaid’s tail emerged from its backside, if mermaid’s tails were bulging with muscles and covered in a line of razor-sharp spikes. It had a pair of drooping, swollen lips, that it pursed up again. Its cheeks swelled up, impossibly large, like two water balloons, and Yeonjun ducked.
The next jet of water whooshed over his head, obliterating a trash can next to the jogging trail. Yeonjun reached up to yank the Moon Tiara off of his head, fumbling a little. The creature was still way too far for him to be able to hit it. Even if he’d been a professional baseball player, he would’ve been hard-pressed to manage a throw like that– and although he was great at the baseball game at the arcade, he was nowhere near the skill level of the players that he and Wooyoung sometimes went to see on the weekends. He’d have to draw it in closer.
He dodged a couple more jets, gradually backing up towards the tree line. If he got behind the cover of the forest, the monster would have no choice but to follow him. It was a good plan, he thought, until the creature finally decided to get on dry land.
With a horrible squelch, the tail separated into two legs, thighs as thick as tree trunks. The feet were clawed, and left marks in the dirt wherever it walked. Yeonjun gulped. The monster’s cheeks began to fill with water once more.
He managed to get out of he way in time, but the tree that the blast had hit made a groaning sound before falling with a resounding crash. Yeonjun had luckily avoided the branches when it went down, but now he couldn’t see the monster. A fallen pine was blocking the space between them.
There was a moment of silence. Then, the tree started to rise off of the ground.
In a feat of impossible strength, the fish monster raised the entire thing directly above its head. Its yellow lamp eyes focused on Yeonjun once more, and its cheeks began to fill. This was his only chance. He tore the Moon Tiara off of his head, and brought his arm back.
“Moon Tiara, action!”
He nailed the monster dead-on. The tiara collided with its stomach, and there was an explosion of warm, sunshine-yellow light. The creature was blasted backwards, the tree flying with it, until they both skidded to a stop on the jogging trail. The monster slumped against the trunk, unmoving.
“Is it dead?” Yeonjun asked, voice trembling.
“No,” Odi said. “But– wait. I don’t think that’s just a monster.”
“What?” Yeonjun felt like his brain was melting, the combination of confusion and adrenaline like a toxic cocktail in his veins.
“Look.” Odi pointed his little nose in the monster’s direction. Sure enough, now that Yeonjun wasn’t terrified for his life, he was able to recognize the shreds of a black t-shirt and a tattered pair of shorts.
“That’s a… person?”
“It was,” Odi replied. “He’s been changed by the Dark Kingdom’s magic.”
“So what do I do?” Yeonjun asked. “I can’t just kill him.”
“Take the Moon Scepter,” Odi said quietly. “Wave it in a circle, starting from the top of your head and then down to your toes and back up, like a full moon. Then say ‘moon healing escalation.’”
“Who the hell made up these phrases?” Yeonjun muttered, but he did as Odi ordered. He brought the Moon Scepter up to his face, trying to make the circle as round as possible.
“Moon healing escalation.”
The monster’s prone body started to glow. It rose up to standing, head still slumped against its bare chest, and there was a burst of something glittery. The fish creature disappeared, and in its place was a boy who couldn’t be much older than Yeonjun. He was ghostly pale, with narrow eyes, a strong nose, and a mop of curly dark hair. Yeonjun rushed forwards to catch him before he could fall again, his considerable muscle mass making him grunt.
“Wha…” The boy’s words were weak and scratchy. “What happened to me?”
“It’s going to be a lot to explain,” Yeonjun said grimly. “I’ll have to take you to the hospital, come on.”
“You can’t,” Odi cut in. “If you take him and word gets out that there are supernatural entities on the loose, there’ll be mass panic among the humans.”
“So what am I supposed to do?” Yeonjun cried. “He’s obviously very hurt, and I’m not going to just leave him here to die.”
“I know a place not far from here,” Odi replied. “Can you drive?”
“No,” Yeonjun said. “But I know someone who can, and he should be getting off work right about now.”