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Title: COVER
Part 2
Rating: PG
Author: Alse
E-mail: alsepang@hotmail.com
Disclaimer: It is a widely known and indisputable fact that
Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takeuchi,
and whichever companies she has assigned rights of
merchandise, distribution, television, film, etc. This story
was not written for any profit and was never intended for
such purpose.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

CHAPTER TWO    ODANGO ATAMA AND MAMORU-BAKA


        The former Dr. Chiba who had been
interning at Tokyo General Hospital barely
three weeks ago walked into the head office
of the oddly named Silver Imperium Corporation.
He noticed that the head office took up all of
three floors of some of the primest office space
in downtown Tokyo. The design was refreshing and
highly intriguing. The floor he stood on was the
reception area, with cheerful dance music.
Dance music? Well, at least it was not
elevator music. After having gone through
sixteen floors of it, he was almost ready to
manhandle the speakers in the elevator. At
one end of the floor he stood upon, a flight
of broad, carpeted steps led up to the floor
above. At the other end, another flight of
broad steps led to the floor below. There
were people walking up and down briskly,
but with an unhurried air.  Large vases of
flowers lent their heady but pleasant
perfume to the air.

      The SI Corp was doing very well indeed,
particularly for such a small company. The
young man's lips tightened bitterly. He
approached the front desk, where a pretty
young woman sat speaking into the telephone.
She had dark brown hair that had
been pulled back into a classy chignon and
a squiggly curl trailed its way across her
forehead. She glanced up at the tall stranger
approaching her. For a moment, she gaped.

      It was the first inkling the young man had
that this corporation might not be what he
expected. The young woman had not gaped
in admiration-- he had seen enough such
looks to recognize them for what they were.
No, she had gaped in recognition, which
faded into a friendly welcome.

     He noticed that her name-tag said Akayashi
Petz. She replaced the receiver and looked
at him with a smile.

     "Good morning, sir. May I help you?"

     "I have an appointment with the president
and vice-president at half-past nine," stated
the young man. He handed her his card.

     The young receptionist glanced at it and
nodded briskly. "Ah, yes." She picked up
the receiver and pressed a few buttons.
"Tsukino-san? Ah, ohayo, Liew-san. Oh.
Chiba-san is here, Miss Liew. Hai, Miss
Liew."

     The receptionist replaced the receiver and
looked up at him with a smile. "They're expecting you--"
a funny little smile hovered around her lips--
"in the president's office. Just go up the stairs and
turn left. Her office is the door right at the
end, next to a Kaiou painting of Mount Fuji."
Again, the receptionist's lips twitched
with amusement and she practically beamed
at the young man. "Welcome to the SI
Corporation, Chiba-san."

     "Ohayo, Petz-chan!" A whirlwind swept by
the receptionist's desk and all that could be
made out was that it was female and blond.

     Chiba-san frowned. Had he seen that
whirlwind before? Somehow, it was rather
familiar.  He heard the receptionist laugh
happily and call out, "Good morning, Usagi-
chan!"

      Usagi? Rabbit? It was a strange name.
However, he had no time to dwell on names.
He had a job to do and a mission to
accomplish. Dr. Chiba took the flight of
stairs to the floor above and glanced about
for a painting by one of Japan's foremost
artists, Kaiou Michiru. He found that the
walls of the entire floor were practically
covered with Kaious. It must have cost the
company a small fortune. Money was surely
no object to this company, with their ill-
gotten gains. The young man's jaw
tightened.

       The upper floor was as cheery looking as the
floor below. There was a large lounge area
where two men sat, conferring over some
papers, intense expressions of concentration
on their faces. A third person glanced up
briefly from a perusal of the morning papers.
Again, there were vases of flowers
sprinkled here and there.

       The young man strode to the door at the end.
It was marked 'Tsukino Usagi, President,
Silver Imperium Corporation Private
Limited'. Was that the blond whirlwind who
had just swept by? He squared his shoulders
and rapped sharply on the broad wooden
door.

       "Come in!"

       Chiba Mamoru turned the doorknob and
entered.

      He nearly took a step back in pure amazement.

      "YOU?"

      "YOU?"

      "Eh?" This last from the third person in the
room.

      The office was beautifully furnished. It was
simply, but effectively done in a very pleasing combo
of cream and white. The carpet had an intricate design
done in gold, red, green and blue, but Chiba Mamoru
would notice this later. At the moment, what
really interested him were the two faces that
greeted him.

      The one he noticed first was that of the
blindingly beautiful blonde girl with the
slack jaw and disbelieving expression. He
remembered her clearly. She was of average
height, about five foot five, with delicate
features, enormous blue eyes and golden
hair set in the cutest hairstyle he had ever
seen-- two buns on either side of her head
and long golden ponytails streaming
downwards from those two odangos. He had
badly wanted to laugh, something he had not
done for as long as he cared to remember,
and he did not know why he wanted to
laugh. The golden vision in front of him
tickled him somewhere most people had a
heart. This was the beautiful young woman
who had crashed headlong into him this
morning.

       Tsukino Usagi's jaw dropped as a very
familiar young man entered her office. Tall,
stunningly handsome, with thick, dark hair
and those enigmatic, unfathomable dark blue
eyes-- it was that irritating baka from this
morning. Usagi stifled a groan. She just
*knew* that destiny or fate or whoever was
controlling these things was somewhere out
there, rollicking with laughter at her expense.

     "Odango atama?" murmured Chiba Mamoru,
raising an eyebrow and putting his foot into
his mouth.

     "Well, if it isn't the baka from this
morning," retorted Usagi. "And the name's
Tsukino Usagi, not odango atama!"

     The young man's eyebrow went even higher.
*This* was the president of the company? This
young woman with a penchant for crashing into
people? His eyebrow spoke volumes. Usagi looked
ready to fire another salvo, but someone else
hurled herself into the breach.

     "Dare? Dare-chan?"

      Chiba Mamoru stared at the other person in
the room, another young woman who looked
faintly familiar. She was the opposite of
Usagi, with black hair that *just* swept her
shoulders and large, quiet dark eyes, taller than
average, statuesque and with a cool,
composed elegance. She stepped forward
and held out a hand, looking him straight in
the eye.

     His mind went back to a time some six years
back. "Pamela?"

     She gripped his hand and broke into a wide,
pleased grin. "Hey, it really *is* you! It's
good to see you again, Mamoru-san, though
I admit that I did not connect you to the
Chiba Mamoru we were to see. I've always
known you as Darien Chiba. Welcome to the
company, Mamoru-san."

     "Thanks, Pam-chan. Tell me, you're the--?"
Mamoru asked questioningly. He did not recall
her position even though he had taken care to
study the profiles of the company's top executives.
His detective skills needed extra polish.

     "Vice-president here, A.E. Liew, at your
service." Pamela chuckled. "Here, I am called
Ai-chan."

     Usagi had managed to find her voice by now,
having lost it on seeing her vice-president
greet her enemy so warmly. "Ai-chan, you
know this-- this--"

    "Ah. At a loss for words again, odango?"

     Ai-chan threw the two funny looks. "Do
you two know each other?"

     "No," snapped Usagi.

     "Yes," answered Mamoru, just for the fun of
seeing Usagi go up in smoke. He hadn't had
so much fun since-- abruptly, his face
sobered as he remembered what he was here
for.

     Ai-chan stepped in firmly, feeling the heat
in the atmosphere. "Obviously, you have not
been properly introduced. The honour falls
to me." She cleared her throat. "Chiba
Mamoru, this is Tsukino Usagi, the
president of this company and a very good
friend of mine." Mamoru heard the warning
bell in her last few words. He heeded it.
"Tsukino Usagi, meet Chiba Mamoru, the new
vice-head of our marketing department.
Mamoru-san is an old friend of mine from my
varsity days." Usagi heard the warning bell
in Ai-chan's last few words. She scowled.

     "Now shake hands." Ai-chan would never
have dreamt that there would come a day
when she actually had to order her boss and
her old acquaintance around. It was even
stranger considering the fact that they
seemed to be extremely attracted to each
other...though no doubt Usagi and Mamoru
would have her head if she even hinted at
such a thing. She folded her arms
expectantly.

     Time to turn on the charm. "Hello, odango
atama," Mamoru said easily, holding out a
hand and conveniently ignoring Ai-chan's
gasp of mixed amusement and horror.

     Blue eyes snapped in response. "The same
to you, Mamoru-baka!"

    Tsukino Usagi and Chiba Mamoru gripped
hands and a beautiful new relationship was
born...


(c)Copyright 2001, Original storyline created by
Alsepang