2631/Who's That Boy

Who's That Boy
Date of Scene:	19 June 2025
Location:	Cafe BAKE Neko
Synopsis:	Shortly after Scene 2629, Ami sits down with Masato and is beset upon by a strange boy, quickly revealed to be Minako in disguise. Wicked Lady has let Ami in on her game, and with the protection of the Mercury Computer and her own genius, Ami begins to enlighten her co-conspirators.
Cast of Characters:	Ami Mizuno, Nephrite, Minako Aino
Tinyplot:	Black Moon Clan
Tinyplot2:	BMC: Wicked Ride

---

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami hadn't moved for quite some time. She was staring blankly at the Mercury Computer's screen now, so far lost in thought that she wasn't even actually working anymore. Even her cappuccino had managed to go cold as she fingered at the handle. Her lower lip was caught pensively between her teeth.

She was still dressed for school, her backpack by her legs, and her work spread about the table before her. A pencil lay flat across a crudely sketched layout of the lunar wedding site and, to any casual passerby, might well look like some wishful fantasy.

At some point in there, she'd managed to fire off a couple of text messages. There hadn't been anything particularly alarming, just a request that they--Minako and Masato--come meet her in the Cafe. Ami felt the need for very specific shelter just now.

Nephrite has posed:
Having descended from his apartment, Masato looked... not his best. In fact, at a first glance, one would not have likely recognised that it was, in fact, Masato Sanjouin. He was sneaking down to the cafe, if anything, with sunglasses obscuring his features and his hair tied back and covered by a hood. That was the thing-- he was wearing a hooded sweatshirt that did not look anything like the other clothes he might normally be seen in public wearing. This, in deep maroon red, was matched by plain trackpants.

He was here for coffee, and procured it quietly enough, and had settled down wordlessly next to Ami to drink it.

He looked half asleep.

Minako Aino has posed:
In complete contrast to the two already within, Minako arrives!

Or rather Minato does. The blonde boy with immaculate, fluffy blonde hair carefully coifed. Unnecessary but fashionable 'glasses' were worn giving his boyish charm a bit of an intellectual look. Decked out in a school uniform himself he breezes in heading straight for the counter to place an order as well.

It might be easy to mistake him as just a customer. Just a regular customer, nobody important. At least not until the overly fancy, sugar-filled, whip cream topped (with sprinkles) coffee drink is obtained. Then Minato strides with easy confidence over to the table occupied by Ami and Masato to sink into the chair with elbows leaning on the table.

"Oh it has been a day! How are you two doing?" He inquires while dipping his head down to wrap his lips around the straw for a quick sip. "I heard there's a new boy in your life Ami-chaaaan," he sing-songs out with a sudden leeean to the side trying to bump his chin against her shoulder so he can peek at the Mercury computer. Ah ha. Work. That explains it.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
She had barely managed to register Masato as he settled down beside her. It certainly didn't look like the Masato she knew, at least unti she turned attention to the man with a squint. Ami peered in closer.

"Masato-kun?" She whispered. "Are you here in disguise?"

It was easy to mistake his dishevelled, thrown-together exhaustion for something so clever.

Then there was another boy. One who knew her. With his chin at her shoulder and a wide-eyed snap of her own head as he tried to spy the contents of her Silver Millenium supercomputer. Ami squeaked and snapped it shut suddenly.

"Have we met?" Her tone was distinctly startled.

I heard there's a new boy in your life... She blinked with a shake of head and stop-start open-close of mouth. "There is?"

Nephrite has posed:
A slight turn of Masato's head, and he was quiet for a moment as he registered the question slowly. Are you in disguise? His brow ticked into a slight frown, and mouth opened, and then shut again. He'd pried himself out of bed at a shameful hour to have overslept to, and not bothered at all about his appearence, because it was Ami-chan and because it sounded somewhat important to meet her here and because, well, he was still tired. Singing rehearsals had his throat feeling a little scratchy, though the coffee eased it.

"... Yes." He drank.

His attention, though, was shortly drawn towards the random blond boy that decided to spring himself upon them, who-- at a glance-- Masato didn't think he recognised, off hand. There was a familiar something, but his tired head wasn't clicking, and some sort of glamour probably obscured whatever else. But he was drinking a very specific order.

"Oh, Gods," he murmured, sounding vaguely affronted as he turned a look to Ami, "Don't tell me Mina-chan's got a cousin, too?"

Minako Aino has posed:
Minato sits up straight which frees poor Ami from the sudden close proximity, though it's only in surprise at the way she clicks the Mercury Computer shut. A glimpse of the items on the screen had been caught. It wasn't a surprise; that was on everyone's mind lately.

"Yes! I heard you're tutoring a British boy--" It takes a moment for Ami's shocked question of knowing him to register. The blonde blinks rapidly looking between Ami and Masato-in-hoodie at the conversation.

A look of consternation fixes on his face with just a small jutting of his lower lip as if pouting. "Oh. Ooooh, riiiight."

He reaches into a pocket to withdraw a golden crescent moon compact that he flips open to peer into the mirror catching a glimpse of himself with a sigh. It's clicked shut as he remarks, "I forgot I'm Minato right now."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami was still visibly flabbergasted. How could this random boy know quite so much? She nodded at Masato, then. "It has to be, right?"

After all, who else but a cousin of Minako's could be so filled in on her life right now? But. There was another conundrum here. Ami hadn't mentioned her newest tutoree to the Goddess of Love. For, precisely, this reason.

She frowned.

"You mean, Rome-kun?" Ami asked, slipping gaze back to Minato. "I swear, if she focused on her homework half as much as she did my absolutely not romantic life, she'd score grades almost as high as mine."

She shook her head.

And then eyed the compact with growing suspicion.

Nephrite has posed:
Masato swallowed down more coffee, and seemed slightly grumpy as his frown remained. Behind sunglasses, he squinted at Minato suspiciously as well.

"Still. If Mina-chan's noticed him, he must be good looking. Good looking British boys are rare. That means he's probably cocky." Masato noted with a slightly cold tone, evidently disapproving, and turned his head to Minato. "Rome-kun. Tsk. Don't encourage him, Mina-two."

Minako Aino has posed:
"Was that his name? Rome-kun," Minato muses thoughtfully. "Oh yes he was fairly cute. So was Souta-kun. His hair is almost as long as min--Mina's." Well it wouldn't hurt to hide it a bit would it?

While recalling the pair Minato's gaze takes on a glazed daydreamy sort of look as he gazes off overtop their heads. His smile increases, and a little girlish (Boyish?) giggle comes. Thankfully it doesn't go further than that as he opts to scoop up his drink in both hands to take another slurp with a self-satisfied 'hmhmhm!'

But then Masato mangles the name and he looks affronted. "MinaTO." Comes a firm correction with a waggle of the sugary beverage too close. "Honestly, Ami-chan keeping boys secret, Masato dressing down. What *is* this world coming to? This wedding has everyone out of character." Was. Was that a hint? Maybe he's enjoying this a tad too much as he reaches up to wiggle his own glasses in place.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami's phone buzzed and snatched up her attention. The device was snapped up, read, and a reply or two tapped out. Then more buzzing and more tapping. She chewed at her lip briefly before glancing up and around with a subtle shake of her head. A couple more messages later and the phone was face down in her lap.

"I wasn't looking at his cuteness, Minato-san." Ami smiled tersely at him. "I was looking at his grades."

She was turning ever pinker, all of a sudden.

Nephrite has posed:
Either the genes were terrifyingly strong in Mina-chan's family tree, or the hints were starting to click together in his brain, but Masato was still squinting. Even as he raised his sunglasses, sapphire blue eyes narrowed, and lowered them again.

From his pocket he pulled his phone out-- the unlocked background was a candid photo of Makoto, feverishly whisking a bowl of something, aproned and slathered in certain places with batter and flour-- and set about bringing up a selfie taken with Minako.

He held it up, glancing between phone and boy. Utterly uncanny resemblance, there. Unmistakable. Between the compact, and the drink order, and the familiarity... and the ability to wear disguises...

"That's you isn't it, Mina-chan?" He couldn't handle the idea of two of them, honestly.

Minako Aino has posed:
At the buzzing of the phone from Ami, Minato's attention shifts toward her again. There was always something going on with Ami though so there's no question of what's going on. If it needed to be shared, it would! It's the rest of the remark that earns a little cluck of his tongue. "You could look at both you know, Ami-chan. Though I guess if it's just for tutoring I don't have to warn him not to hurt you." Clenching a fist it's held aloft as he declares, "But if he does anything funny you let us know!"

It's with fist raised in such a declaration that Minato ends up caught by Misato. His head whips back toward the taller boy to look like a deer caught in the headlights. It only lasts a moment before he laughs warmly.

"You're not going to accuse me of trying to seduce anyone like this, are you? I was just taking a break and kind of... Hiding some," he admits with an innocent sip of his drink. "But yes, it's me! The one and only Mina!" A pause. "Just using my disguise compact a bit."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Still a little distracted by her phone, with a fairly intense little series of back and forths, Ami was taken a by surprise. It was Masato that noticed first, despite Ami's earlier suspicion of the compact.

Mina-chan.

Sapphirine eyes squinted over the top of glasses at the blonde boy and her mouth shaped itself into a very large 'O'. Then it snapped shut.

"Minako-chan!" Ami's voice dropped quiet and she leaned in closer. "You're an absolute menace!"

But, there was clear relief upon the senshi's face now. Ami sighed heavily.

"Well, now that that's settled. I can be a little more honest about the day." A pause and she hummed quietly. "Wicked Lady came to see me."

Nephrite has posed:
"Yes... keeping a low profile." Masato clears his throat. "Me too."

That's followed by him setting his phone down on the table and sipping at his coffee with a slightly evasive manner, glancing off.

At least until Wicked Lady is mentioned. Then, Masato's head whips back, and his half awakeness seems to spike into alertness, and he lifts his glasses to look at Ami with concern. "What? When?"

Minako Aino has posed:
"I wasn't trying to be! I was being good and just hanging out at the arcade." Instead of doing homework. There were reasons Mina was hiding out as Minato right now after all. One of them simply being the fact that she had been posing as Usagi, and Sailor Moon, and New Moon knew she was too. She needed another disguise to relax for awhile!

An emphatic nod is given in agreement with Masato. "Yes that, in cojito. Though I'm not sure what Mexican cheese has to do with it," he mutters beneath his breath.

Such curious thoughts are cast aside entirely as Ami explains what happened. Concerned, Minato reaches out to Ami consolingly sliding an arm around her without thinking again about how it might look.

"Are you okay? What happened? Should we be on guard? Did she find out abou the cake?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
A few traded texts later and Ami turned the phone for just a brief moment as proof.

"I've been... conferring with Mamoru-kun." Then she settled it back in her lap with an apologetic smile offered to Minako. "Which... You may get a delivery of two pallets worth of sandesh for us to enjoy."

Unfortunately, that's where the pleasantry settled and Ami flipped the Mercury Computer open again. A few minutes of fiddling there before the senshi nodded. At the very least, she was going to ensure that neither Demande nor Saphir could intrude, at least electornically jamming out any unwanted eavesdroppers. She figured Kazuo potentially overhearing was fine.

"You didn't notice the wifi going out earlier, Masato-kun?" Sapphires trailed to meet the Shitennou's own. "It wasn't all that long ago. Right here... She had concerns that I was getting a little too close to discovering something very important, and I probably was."

A fall to silence took her and Ami drew in a long, slow breath. Her voice dipped low.

"There's a very good reason why New Moon saw through your ruse as Usagi, Minako-chan." Ami closed her eyes. "And that's because she is Usagi-chan."

Nephrite has posed:
No, Masato didn't notice a damned thing, because Masato had been dead to the world, out stone-cold, in his bed.

"I did not. I was busy... meditating upon the movements of the heavens." He lied, but moved on quickly, because the revelation came about and the Veil finally parted. Brown brows rose, and sapphire eyes stared at Ami, because--

"Of course, she is," Blue eyes slammed shut just as fast, because it was blisteringly obvious to him as those gaps magic prevented finally connected in his head. Everything about that made sense, and the familiarity, and the strangely Usagi-things she did and said, some so eerily specific... Even how Wicked Lady spoke of her assistant. It was painfully clear.

"... You're jamming the signals again, and after this, we can't mention it unless it's through channels we know are secure, then?"

Minako Aino has posed:
"She what. She who. She."

Minato stares off into space. The corner of one eye twitches a single time as it all clicks into place. Moreso when it becomes obvious because of *course* she knew it was a fake Usagi, and then... "Mamo-kun has some explaining to do."

"I'm ordering so much dessert and putting it on his tab."

A huff of breath blows his bangs out of his eyes to get a better look at the computer that Ami brought out again. "Right, no mentioning it. Just another secret to keep."

"*So* many desserts."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Actually..." Ami grimaced. "We only have to do our best to make sure Wicked Lady and New Moon don't know that we know... Well, you and everyone else. Secret's already out on me, given the source."

Clack, clack. A terminal opened up on the computer.

"And, of course, Demande and Saphir absolutely can not know. Other than that, we should probably hook important people in." The look she offers Masato is apologetic. "Which, you probably have the best handle on who that might be. Makoto-san, obviously, and probably Rashmi-san. Aloe-chan... Sorry to add more to your plate, Masato-kun."

Ami shook her head. "Anyway. Give me your phones."

She held her hands out.

Nephrite has posed:
"Mamoru's been in the thick of all this. He's not playing games, and he couldn't reveal it for a good reason. More than that, you know Usagi would do anything to save Chibiusa-chan... what she told me in the garden, I totally understand. And what they've both been carrying..."

Masato plucked his from the table and set it into Ami's palm without hesitation. "I'll let Mako-chan know... I've been filling her in here and there. Rashmi's got a bit going on, but..."

He furrowed his brows. "This business with her possessed friend cuts it a little close to home. Knowing the truth won't be easy on her, but it'll be a problem she can solve."

Minako Aino has posed:
"No, I get that, I just." Minato reaches up to scrub a hand over his face dislodging the glasses resting on his nose. They end up tangled in his hair atop his head instead. "He asked me for permission to kiss New Moon in front of her when I was posing as Usagi-chan." And now that the truth was known it certainly didn't make it seem any better.

"Uuugh this is all so messed up!"

Even as he bemoans all the things that have happened, he obediently takes out the phone that was quite clearly Minako's to hand over. Apparently not everything changed with the disguise.

"We'll handle it. This has just become a bit more complicated in how we're going to keep identities secret with the wedding." Even he could realise that. "I'll have to talk to Izou and Veronica."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Masato's phone was first, though Minako's was set beside the computer for the interim. A short fiddle, and some mild disaesssmbly later, and Masato's SIM was set into the Mercury Computer. Commands keyed in, a whole mess of text scrawling across the screen, and then it was returned to the phone, put back together, and handed back to the Shitennou.

Then she started on Minako's.

"I don't want to be the one to doubt Izou-kun at this point, but I would probably hazard some caution with him in particular." Ami glanced Masato's way with a short shrug. "You know him better than I do, but he's close enough to Saphir to be offering up his old phone. Literally the last person we want this to slip to."

Ami pulled a face, and returned attention to the task at hand. Even so, she continued to speak. "As far as I can tell, the secret identity scramble at the wedding is mostly for Riventon's benefit. That'll probably have to go off as planned regardless."

The second phone was finished up and she offered it back to Minako.

"I've added you both to my little network. Messages to and from will pass through the Mercury Computer to keep them secure." Ami lifted her chin. "I think even Saphir would have trouble with some Silver Millennium encryption algorithms."

Nephrite has posed:
"Once the 'real bride' becomes apparent to everyone, there won't need to be a secret anymore." Masato agreed, taking his phone back with a hum-- a tiny Mercury icon was now present on the top right on his networks, and that made him smirk some. He raised his gaze to Minako.

"The impersonation during the battle is to make sure people don't realise, when New Moon turns up as the bride, what's actually going on-- we need everyone to believe that New Moon is Chibiusa-chan's best friend from Crystal Tokyo. Up until the truth is revealed about who that is..."

Masato was getting vague again now, as the jamming signal might have faded, "And the rest is to keep Riventon guessing on who belongs to which Henshin."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minato takes the phone back. It's simply held in hand while gazing at it clearly thinking about all that's being discussed with a pensive frown. "Izou is... Emotionally involved in a lot of ways. I know he hopes to convince them, or Saphir at least, to listen to the evidence he found in the future."

Fingers clench around the phone as it's finally drawn back to disapear into a pocket again. "I have to trust that we can count on him for the deception at least regarding Riventon, though. It's not like he's going to invite him to the wedding."

Mina again grows quiet as it's all explained. Then a simple remark of, "Worst plot twist ever. But," he adds a bit more firmly, "We'll get it handled." What else could they do? Giving up wasn't an option.

"I should probably go and change back before I head home or my parents will be really confused."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami sighed heavily, closing the Mercury Computer over again, and lifting her cappuccino for a sip. She swallowed and the blue-haired senshi pulled a face. One that was part grimace, part sad pout. Sapphirine eyes lifted to Masato pathetically.

"It's cold, Masato-kun." She closed her eyes. "It's been a very heavy day, today."

Nephrite has posed:
"Zoisite knows the Nise deal. We've at least discussed that much when Mamoru texted the group chat, in a small panic," Masato sighed, tipping up his own coffee to finish it as Minato moved to gather his things and go. "Right. Giving your parents a small heart attack when they find a random boy in your room might not be for the best, Mina-chan..."

He did glance now at Ami's neglected cup, though. Knowing that Ami is, specifically, very close to Usagi, the nature of the revelation must have been a double edged sword. That, and that being alone with Wicked Lady-- when not playing her game-- was likely uniquely terrifying.

Not so long ago, New Moon hugged Ami, right in this spot...

"I'll get you another, Ami-chan," Masato said quietly, reaching to take the cup and saucer from her.