The Past Life

I received a reply back from Venus a few days later. The contents of the letter were not as promising as I had hoped.

Dear Second Shitennou of Earth, Zoisite,

While my Queen is always concerned for the future of her daughter and the kingdom, she has decided that recent events are no cause for concern just yet. The Princess is happy to have made a new friend, and the Queen does not want to take that happiness from her daughter. I can understand her decision.

We will need to proceed with caution. Should and new developments occur I will let you know and I hope that you will do the same for me.

Sincerely,
- Venus

Of course, Queen Serenity's decision made sense, from her prospective at least. It would seem as though we were jumping on this issue too quickly. She would not be familiar with what the general opinion of the moon people was on Earth, or at least, not as well as we were. For now, we would be on our own in this matter.

The other Tennou as well as Master Endymion were practising out on the field that was viewable from the music room. Kunzite and Nephrite were sparring while Jadeite and Master applauded Kunzite each time he defeated Nephrite. This did nothing but fuel Nephrite's anger.

I shook my head, will he never learn that he needs to keep a reign on his emotions? I slipped the letter into my jacket pocket and made my way down the stairs and out to the field to join them.

“Zoisite! It's not often we see you out here,” Master said as I joined him and Jadeite. My skill with a blade was certainly behind that of Kunzite and Nephrite (or where Nephrite's ability should be), and I knew that I should practice to improve my skill, but I preferred to use magic in battle. Kunzite knew this and did not pressure me to practice as much as he did with everyone else, Master included.

“Master,” I nodded.

I stood to his right, while Jadeite was on his left. Jadeite must have noticed my short sword hanging from my belt. “Have you come to practice as well, Zoisite?” he asked hopefully.

“I need practice just as much as everyone else does. Besides, someone needs to get Nephrite to cool down.” Just as I finished my reply, Nephrite was once again thrown to the ground. Kunzite offered his hand to help Nephrite up, but it was slapped away in anger. Raising his hands as though defeated himself, Kunzite walked back to join the rest of the group. I went out to Nephrite, who was still sitting on the grass. I knelt down beside him.

“What?” he fumed, annoyed that he was about to get a lecture from me as well.

“You know what.”

“Yeah yeah, I've heard this before,” he said picking himself off the ground.

I stood as well, “then why won't you listen. This attitude won't do you any good in a real fight.”

I expected him to make a comment about this, but he said nothing. He just turned to find the water that had been set out on a nearby table. The truth of the matter was, we had never been in a real fight. The closest we had gotten was during a trip to one of the more distant villages Master was visiting. A group of bandits attacked us before they were fully aware of who we were. The fight had lasted less than 30 seconds.

After taking a moment to catch his breath, Kunzite joined me away from the others. “Do you think he'll ever learn?”

“I fear he won't until the situation is more serious than simple mock fights. By then it may be too late.”

“I hope we never face anything more than these mock battles.”

“Agreed.”

Kunzite motioned with his sword and changed the subject. “Shall we?”

“So long as Nephrite hasn't taken too much out of you. I wouldn't want this to be too easy,” I joked, moving a few paces away from him.

Kunzite smirked, holding his sword in front of him with his right hand. “Confident today, are we?”

I followed suit, holding my own blade so that it was parallel with the ground. “Should one go into a battle believing they will lose?”

“Never.”

I choose this moment to attack, though Kunzite had been expecting it. I was easily deflected, then Kunzite took the offensive. He swung his sword downwards and I brought mine up to block the attack, the loud clang of metal hitting metal rang out. I managed to push his sword off mine and to the side, then jumped out of the way when he swung it back at me.

I hid my left hand under my cape for a moment to ready a surprise I had been planning. As Kunzite began to swing his sword towards me again, I left the small energy ball fly off to the left, where it exploded in a bright white flash. I ducked under his sword and rolled on the ground so that I was behind him. I was kneeling on the gorund about to stand and raise my sword for the 'kill', when Kunzite surprised me by turning quickly and knocking the curved blade from my hands. Before I could react with any kind of magic, his sword was resting on my shoulder.

“You're slower today than you normally are,” Kunzite commented, removing his weapon and offering me a hand, which I accepted.

“I suppose I have a few things on my mind.” My back was to Master Endymion, so I reached for the letter in my jacket and pulled it out enough so that Kunzite would recognize the seal. I then slipped it back in my jacket.

“Shall we meet after dinner?”

“That would be fine.”

“So we won't be getting any help from the Queen then?” Nephrite asked after I had read the letter to the others gathered in the music room.

“Not unless she feels that her daughter is looking for more than just friendship from our Master. She likely feels that we are jumping to conclusions,” I explained. “The Princess is still quite young.”

“Aren't we jumping to conclusions?” Jadeite asked, breaking his usual silence during these meetings. “I mean, they've only met each other twice.”

“Yes, but the second meeting happened because Master took an interest in her. It would be better to stop it now, before this grows into something more than that,” Kunzite explained. “Not to mention, that if Master continues to visit the moon, as he seems intent on doing, certain groups may become... troublesome.”

Jadeite looked confused by this, so I attempted to explain further. “You know of such sects as Lunarian Plague, The Dark Crescent...”

“Groups that wish destruction on the moon. They're no threat to us.”

“Now what if word got around that Master was, perhaps, more than friendly with the Lunar Princess?” I asked.

Jadeite took some time to process the question. “They wouldn't...”

“Without a seconds notice,” Nephrite chimed in. “Things would get rather... messy for us.”

Jadeite had a worried expression on his face, finally understanding what the rest of us feared. Master's visits to the moon would be all some of these groups needed to make an attack on someone. The moon itself was well beyond their reach. The Earth Palace was not.