Star Squad

Mari lay in bed, asleep. This was Sunday, her one day off. Her mother had already left for work.

“Mari-san...” Hoshi whispered, in dog form, as he nudged her arm with his nose.

“Mmmn... not now mommy, its Sunday...” She mumbled as she turned over.

Hoshi had been up for three hours now. How any one could sleep until ten o'clock was baffling to him. “Mari-san. Wake up!” He practically barked it out.

“AHH!” Mari bolted up. She had forgotten about Hoshi.

“Good, you're awake.” He smiled.

Mari yawned and stretched. “Good morning Hoshi-kun...” She had finally remembered it wasn't a dream.

“How can you sleep for so long?” He questioned as she got up and went to the kitchen for breakfast.

“I don't know.” She yawned again. “I guess because I work so hard during the week that I'm tired on Sunday...but yesterday was really hard. I don't usually fight monsters...”

“I suppose that's true.” He nodded and transformed back into his human form.

Mari stuck her head in the fridge. “We're out of eggs...”

“Hmm?” He looked over her shoulder into the near empty fridge. “What do we eat?”

“You could eat the dog food mom bought...”

“That nasty stuff?!” He pointed to a bowl full of kibble that was on the floor. “I think not. Have you tasted it? Disgusting.”

“Huh...I guess you only eat human food.”

“Well...yes. There's no such thing as dog food in the Star Kingdom!”

“Then you'll just have to get breakfast with me.” She went back to her room and shut him out.

“Get it?”

“Yeah!” She said from the other side of the door. “I have to go out and get eggs, so I might as well spend the day out.”

“I don't understand your logic...”

She opened the door, fully dressed.

“If I have to go out, I might as well enjoy myself in the process.” She shoved a baseball cap on top of his head. “We can't let people see your ears.”

“Right...”

Mari led Hoshi to the park and stopped in front of a crepe stand. “What do you want?”

“I don't know. I've never had one before.”

“Really?”

“They don't have these where I'm from...”

“Two strawberry crepes please.” Mari told the man.

When they were done she paid him and gave Hoshi his. “You'll love them! Trust me.” She said as they walked over to a bench where they could sit and eat.

She looked at Hoshi expectantly, waiting for him to eat it. He took the first bite and glanced over at her, blushing a bit. “What? Is there something on my face?”

“No. I just want to know what you think.” She smiled a bit.

“Its good.”

Mari's smile got bigger. “Good!” She began eating hers.

They ate in silence watching people walk by. Few passerbys paid any attention to the pair.

“You done?”

“Yeah, I guess s-”

“Good!” Mari grabbed Hoshi's hand and ran off toward Harajuku station.

“Where the hell have you taken me?” He looked around at all the elaborately dressed teenagers.

“To look for the next member of the team. There's so many people here that one of them is bound to be one them!”

“Yes...that makes sense...” He scratched his chin.

“And I need new clothes!” She pulled him toward a store.

“Welcome!” The sales lady said as they entered the store.

“Mari-san-” He started to complain.

“It's okay Hoshi-kun. I just need to get a new skirt and then we go find her.” She grabbed a plaid skirt and went off to the dressing room.

Hoshi sighed and sat down outside of the small dressing room. “Teenage girls! Why did they have to be teenage girls? I'll have to put up with this even more after we find all five of them.”

Just as he thought this a large monster burst from the back room. It was so skinny that it looked like the dark gray skin had been stretched over its bones. It had large hooked wings and its head resembled a bat's.

“Kuikkorosu, you know what to do.” A woman with red hair and pale skin said to the bat monster. An upside down star was on her forehead.

“You!” Hoshi stared at the woman angrily. He remembered seeing her only once: when the dark army attacked the Star Kingdom nineteen years ago.

She disappeared without a trace, and at that the monster began to attack everyone in the store, stealing their energy.

“Mari-san!” Hoshi took off the hat.

“What?” She stuck her head out of the dressing room. “EEEP!”

Mari ducked back into the dressing room. “Star Crystal Power, Make-Up!” She transformed back into the yellow sailor soldier uniform and threw the door open, knocking Hoshi over in the process.

“I'm okay...”

“Sorry!”

The monster let out a high pitched laugh. “This is the new Sailor Star? She is a child!” The monster continued to laugh as it swiped a sharply clawed hand at Mari.

“AAHH!” She jumped out of the way.

“How dare you interrupt someone's shopping! As if that's not enough of an energy drain, you come here to attack all the innocent people enjoying their Sunday! I won't stand for this, especially since you ruined mine too!”

“Skip the speech, just kill it...” Hoshi thought with an exasperated look on his face. Hoping and praying that she wouldn't make a speech every time.

The monster laughed again and made another swipe at her.

Mari jumped out of the way. “Now!!”

She attacked the monster while she was still in the air. “Shooting Star Barrage!”

The brightly colored star burned the walls and pulled several clothes off of the nearby racks. Once again, it killed the monster.

“Yes! I did it!”

Mari canceled her transformation and left the store without buying her skirt. She and Hoshi continued to look around for the four remaining members of the Star Squad, but nothing turned up. Eventually they went home.

Mari walked into her room and fell onto her bead. “I'm pooped...”

Hoshi shifted back into dog form and sat down by her bed. “There's always tomorrow.”

Mari groaned and covered her face with the pillow.

“Its not that bad!”

“No, not that. I forgot the eggs...”