~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Tuxedo America | | Chapter 2: All in a Day's Work | | | | Started by ColdFury | | This party by Kate Malloy | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Mamoru was deep in thought as he rode his motorbike back to the dorms. Youma. Here. What on earth were they doing in California? Should he call Usagi? He shook his head. No. Not yet. He didn't want to disturb her. She deserved a normal life for a while. If things got more serious, then he'd contact her. Hopefully this was nothing more than a few isolated incidents. It wasn't entirely impossible that some of the youma survived after their leaders had been destroyed, and it was very easy to believe that they'd keep on with their normal routine of randomly attacking innocent people in an attempt to drain their energy. That was just what youma *did*, after all. Surely he and the Senshi would have already heard if there was something more than this going on in the world. Besides, it appeared that this town was used to dealing with this. The man and the woman who had helped him out back there - who were they? Where did they get their powers from? They weren't Senshi, obviously. If anything, they reminded him of the heroes from those sentai shows he used to watch on TV occasionally. He smiled. Who was he to doubt the existence of a real-life sentai team? Still, this whole incident had disturbed him. Though he still didn't want to let Usagi know about it, perhaps it would be a good idea to tell the others. Setsuna would probably be the best bet. With her work as a research assistant, she had access to a good amount of high-class computer systems. She'd be able to look into this for him. He'd e-mail her as soon as he got back in. ***** As he reached the door of his dorm suite, he heard voices coming from inside. For a moment he considered calling campus security, but quickly realized that his suitemates had probably moved in at last. He opened the door- -and walked right into the middle of an argument. Two young men stood on opposite sides of the living room, both staring angrily at each other. "I can't believe this!" shouted the one on the left. He had curly blond hair and pale blue eyes, and was nearly a head shorter than his opponent. "Out of all the people on this campus, I got stuck rooming with you!" The young man on the right simply grinned. "Tough luck, dear cousin," he answered, absent-mindedly flipping his reddish-brown ponytail back over his shoulder. "Ah, and it appears that our third occupant has arrived." He turned and smiled at Mamoru, green eyes sparkling. "I'm Ryan Jordan. A pleasure to meet you." He extended a hand. "I'm Chi... er, Mamoru Chiba," Mamoru replied, shaking Ryan's hand. "And sulking over in the corner there," Ryan continued, indicating the other young man, "is my cousin, Josh. Do be polite and come over here and introduce yourself." Josh just waved sullenly. "Hi." "You're cousins? You don't look very much alike." Mamoru observed. "We both take after our fathers," Ryan answered smoothly. "So you're from Japan?" "Hai," Mamoru answered without even thinking. Ryan laughed. "Indeed. I've been contemplating studying Japanese for a while now. Could I possibly get your help if I do?" "Ah...sure, I guess," Mamoru stammered, taken rather off-guard by the sudden change in subject. "Excellent." Ryan smiled again. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to finish unpacking. It wasn't my fault that we didn't arrive in time for the first day of classes." He headed to the bedroom on the left and shut the door. "Jerk," Josh muttered as he walked over to Mamoru. "Heya. Josh Reynolds." "Mamoru." Josh sighed. "And here I thought I was going to get away from Mister I-Know- Everything-Better-Than-You for a while." Mamoru was dying to ask exactly what the situation was between the two of them, but decided that it really wasn't any of his business. Yet. "At any rate, we won't be seeing him too often," Josh continued. "He's computer science, so he'll probably be either locked in his room coding all the time or stuck in the labs doing the same thing. Me, I'm pre-med, so I guess I'll be in the bio labs all the time. How about you?" "I'm pre-med as well." "Oh, cool! You have introductory bio lab tomorrow afternoon?" Mamoru nodded. "So do I! Great, maybe we can be lab partners, then?" "Sure." "Fantastic! I suppose we probably have lecture together, but considering that there's 500 people in that hall, I wouldn't worry about looking for each other." He grinned. Mamoru blinked. "Five hundred? Again?" "Maybe not quite that many. But definitely up there. Anyway, I gotta finish getting all my stuff set up too. Seeya tomorrow!" He headed to the bedroom on the left and closed the door. "This is going to be an interesting semester," Mamoru said quietly to himself as he went to get settled in for the night. It wasn't until much later that he realized that he'd forgotten all about e- mailing Setsuna. ***** Bloutite stood in HER office once more, waiting for her to acknowledge the fact that he had arrived. "WHEN DID YOU GET IN HERE?" "Just a few minutes ago, Mistress." "CALL ME 'YOUR HIGHNESS,' YOU IDIOT." Bloutite refrained from reminding HER of the last time SHE had demanded a title change. "NOW, NIMROD, EXPLAIN TO ME EXACTLY WHY YOU FAILED TO TAKE OUT THIS 'TUXEDO MASK.'" Bloutite suppressed a sigh. It was going to be a *very* long night... ***** *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* Mamoru wearily lifted one arm and whacked the off button of his alarm clock. Mentally, he went over the day's schedule. Bio lecture this morning, bio lab this afternoon, calculus and chem and ethics assignments to work on... "Welcome to college life," he muttered as he headed off to see about getting some breakfast. He noted that the door to Ryan's room was open. He glanced in as he passed by to see Ryan in front of his computer, already frantically typing. "Either he's very dedicated, or he really needs some friends," Mamoru thought as he went to the refrigerator of the small kitchenette and rummaged around in it, looking for the milk. ***** Forty-five minutes later, Mamoru was on campus and heading for his bio lecture. "Hey, Mamoru!" He turned to see Keith and Kelly waving at him. "How's it going?" Kelly asked as he walked over to where they were standing. "Fairly well. I'm on my way to biology right now," he stated. "Ah, good luck," Keith said. "Shouldn't be too bad. It's next semester that things start getting rough." "I'll keep that in mind," Mamoru noted. "Lecture Hall Five is that way, right?" He pointed behind a few other buildings. "Yeah," Kelly said. "I'd walk you up there if I weren't on my way to class myself." "No, that's all right," Mamoru replied. "I have to learn my way around here sooner or later, right?" "Well, stop by and visit us at the coffee shop later, okay?" Kelly said enthusiastically. "Sure," Mamoru answered. "See you then." "Seeya!" Kelly waved. "Nice talking to you again," Keith said with a smile. Mamoru watched them leave, then continued on his way to class. ***** Keith and Kelly waited until Mamoru was out of sight before resuming their conversation. "Honestly, those monsters are getting some nerve! Don't they know class is back in session?" Kelly exclaimed. Keith chuckled. "Well, 'Solaris,' it just means that we're going to have to be more careful from now on." "Right, 'Nightshadow.'" "I hate that name," Keith muttered. "Hey, I didn't pick it out. Anyway, what did you think of that guy in the tuxedo?" "It definitely seemed like that wasn't the first time he'd seen something like that. I'd say we're looking at a pro here." "But where did he come from?" "Dunno. I'll be keeping an eye out for him though. I wouldn't mind having his help again." Kelly nodded. "What about Mamoru? I told you that I felt some vibes coming from him. You don't think that he could be...?" "Nah, that would just be silly." "Yeah, you're right." ***** Meanwhile, another group of students was discussing their recent assignments. "I can't believe Twignacron and V-8 lost!" exclaimed a youma with a body made of traffic cones. "I thought they were at the top of the class!" Another youma that resembled a blue tiger with spikes sighed. "And now the professors are going to work us even harder!" "This bites," remarked a third, who was mostly reptilian in appearance. "California's probably the worst place to get into the evil business. You can't cross the street without running into some sorta superhero. I shoulda gone to Black Moon-Rutgers instead." "Yeah, or MIT," the traffic cone youma stated. "Or even Baltimore County." The other two youma just stared. "What?" "You're weird, Coneria." ***** Mamoru arrived at biology lab five minutes late. It had taken him forever to find where the actual lab was. Apologizing to the TA as he entered, he scanned the room. Josh was sitting at one of the tables in the back, and started waving as soon as he saw Mamoru enter. Mamoru slid into the seat next to Josh. "Have I missed anything?" he asked. "Nah." Josh handed him a syllabus. "She's just been going over this. Nothing big. We aren't even going to do any real work today." "How do you know so much about this?" Mamoru asked. "I've heard a lot from my brothers. Both of them went here. One was an chem major, and the other was physics." "Ah, I see." "You have any siblings back in Japan?" "No, I'm an only child," Mamoru said hesitantly. He didn't really like thinking about his parents, who had died in a car crash when he was six. Josh must have noticed the sadness in Mamoru's voice, for he didn't say anything further. Mamoru sighed. He really hadn't meant to make Josh feel bad. As the lab went on, he was only half-listening. He was grateful for when the TA stopped talking, told them all to be on time for the next meeting, and then let them go. "Hey, Josh..." Mamoru began uncertainly. "You want to get off campus for a little while?" "Nah, got too much work to do. This English assignment's going to take forever. I guess I'll see you back at the dorms?" "Sure. Good luck." "Thanks." ***** Mamoru sat in the library, an open chemistry book in front of him. Somehow he'd managed to forget most of the things he'd learned in high school. Of course, having to read complicated chemical procedures in a language other than his native tongue definitely complicated things. He gazed out the window over the campus. It was a nice view from up here. But something seemed wrong. His eyes narrowed as he noticed some sort of disturbance by one of the academic buildings. A large, blue...something was attacking students! Quickly, he gathered up his books and ran for the elevator. He hoped he could make it over there in time. But where exactly was he going to change to Tuxedo Mask? ***** "There's a monster on campus!" Kelly said to Keith. "I can feel it!" "They're getting bolder," Keith answered in a worried tone. "There's no time to waste! Let's go!" ***** Author's Notes: Hey, she's not a newbie! What's she doing writing for this? ^_~ Surprise! I voted for this one in 3i and had every intention of writing for it, mainly because a) Mamoru is darned cool and deserves a bit more attention of his own and b) that University of Black Moon - Berkley line had me cracking up. If nothing else, it very nicely explains one of my college professors who had gotten his degree from there. ^_^; Poor Mamoru. Not only is his girlfriend half the world away, and he has classes *and* youma to take care of, now he's got a pair of bickering roommates to deal with as well. I'm not exactly sure where Josh and Ryan came from. They just kinda showed up and wanted to get in the story. ^_^ Oh, yeah, and I worked a reference to my old college in. Yay UMBC! ;P Anyhow, very large apologies for the delay. Lots of stuff happened to me to keep me from writing, and I beg everybody's forgiveness. Especially Phoebe, who is a very very tolerant person. If she went and put this up, that is. Then again, if she didn't, how would you be reading this? ^_~