Now I'm Here

<Chapter 4>

Now I'm Here

'Well, that all happened four years ago, so she can't exactly forget, I guess..'

Earth looked at Mercury after inhaling a gallon of fresh air.

"Hey, Mercury, you look quite pale.." She walked over to the silver-haired Sleeping Beauty.

"Thank you for worrying about me, Earth. I'm fine." Mercury responded.

"That's good."

Earth watched as Mercury breathed a staggering breath and let it all out.

Saturn started walking towards a city at the bottom of the hill.

"C.. city??" A bewildered Venus exclaimed.

"Yeah, I thought you learned about Enirity's geography in like.. Middle school. The population is big, just falling 35% below Earth's." Saturn stared at Earth.

"Well, I apologize for having so much living energy I could literally get rid of the entire Solar System by accident if I wanted to…"

The Planets stood in shock at the declaration and pretended not to hear anything for Earth's good.

"Hey, look!! New people!"

A short girl with pale brown hair jumped up to the large fence surrounding the town and greeted the four Planets as they approached her.

"Pretty.." Venus gasped at the word that had just escaped her mouth. "Pretty? Some random person?!" She stomped her foot and turned fuming.

"Don't worry, no one can beat you when it comes to beauty.." Saturn sighed as she patted Venus on the shoulder.

Mercury stood, staring up at the fence-girl with a solemn and unreadable face. Mercury wanted to explore the town without any outside interference, but the small girl on the fence had ruined her plans. Now she had to think up a new one, hoping that no one else would join them on their quest to find pure souls. Pure... Souls..? Mercury jerked her head upwards, now staring instead of glaring. Then stole Venus's mirror, aiming it at the brunette.

"How does this work..?!" Mercury turned to Venus, looking bewildered.

"Oh, silly, you can't use that~!" Venus beamed, teasing at Mercury, before taking the staff back and planting it in the ground.

"What are you.." Mercury twitched her left eyebrow as she scowled at Venus trying to tilt the staff at a certain degree.

"Where is that Sun.." Venus muttered as she continued to adjust the position of the mirror.

"Hey, whatcha doing?" The pretty brunette jumped off the fence, landing with a flourish in front of Venus to poke at her staff. The staff released a small pulse of electricity, shocking the girl back a few inches.

"Woahh.." She stared into the tilted angle of the mirror, taking in the opaque reflection of herself.

"Ahh, now I have to re-fixate the entire staff.. Stand still, girl." Venus complained towards the pretty one with a graceful scowl.

Then flipped her hair as she shone the mirror towards the new person. "There. Stay still."

Freezing as told, New Girl watched as Venus then pressed a little jewel on the staff-mirror. As the jewel slid into place, the mirror split into many small and thin panels, surrounding Brunette like a photo shoot.

*Click*

"Done~!!" Venus leaped back just before she became sashimi slices from the mirror snapping back into place.

"Aaand the results are... :0" Venus stood in surprise, disbelief shining on her face.

"W--What..?" Earth hopped next to Venus, turning 180 degrees to see the results floating in front of Venus's eyes in a shade of light pink.

"C--Completely... "

Everyone held their breaths, including the sheep on the top of a hill nearby.

"Pure..." Venus sighed.

"T--That means.." Saturn stared with pity towards the short girl with brown hair standing next to Earth.

Mercury, in an instant, drew her sword. The ring with a small silver jewel embedded in the middle floated and expanded, forming the symbol of Mercury(☿). The symbol turned into liquid Mercury, landing in the Planet Mercury's hands. She gripped the circular handle of her old companion 'Hydrargyrum,' glaring at the girl of complete purity.

"W--What are you doing..?" The brunette looked up at Mercury's sword flying towards her at an inhumane speed.

"Wait!!" At the command of the girl in front of the sword, Mercury halted.

'Why did I stop? She's a target, right? Pure.. Eliminate and collect Pure..' Mercury thought to herself. She reprimanded herself for hesitating, and thought that hesitation made her unfit to become a Planet.

"Before you kill me, could I know your name please..?"

"... I am Mercury."

"What a nice name! I'm Uri! I guess we're friends now!"

"What part of just exchanging names makes us friends?" Mercury murmured to herself as she released Hydrargyrum. The sleek liquid sword became a small silver ring again and slid onto Mercury's finger.

The other Planets continued to stare in shock at the exchange that had just occurred in front of their eyes.

Uri watched as the sword returned to it's wielder's hand and plopped down on her knees.

"No. Leave." Mercury glared yet again towards Uri and turned on her heel to walk away.

"Uhhh.. Can we talk now--" A still-shocked Saturn's face melted into sheer terror as Mercury averted her glare.

Venus knelt down and patted Uri on the head.

"It's ok, Mercury is fun when you get to know her."

"Uh... Mn." Uri stood up, knees still shaking, but then suddenly felt herself fade away.

"What..?"

"Hey yo, sis, long time no see~☆"

Mercury turned, moving her feet with a slow speed to face the person that replaced Uri.

"Wh.. Who are you?"

Having greeted everyone with a compliment, Ouranos went on to stare at herself in Venus's mirror again.

"Woahhh, I'm still beautiful after 4 years.." She stared at the badge on her school-uniform. Tugging at it, she took the barouche off, showing a small spherical golden badge with her symbol(⛢) and fluttering wings. The wings, as well as her skirt and boots, were a very pale blue. Her hair was turquoise, and her eyes shone a dark lavender purple. Ouranos pinned her badge back on and walked over to Mercury.

"What's wrong? You don't seem like yourself." Ouranos hugged Mercury, who wriggled away glaring at her, folding her arms.

On a normal day, Mercury would hug Ouranos back.

"Of course, I've slept for four years. Anyone would change in that time." Mercury shifted her gaze to Earth and Saturn, who hadn't changed at all. Then to Venus, who's speech pattern shifted to a bit duller than her usual flirtatious.

"Anyone and everyone." Mercury assured herself.

Ouranos blinked twice, staring at Mercury. She then just turned, walking to the gates outside the village as she returned to her human form.

"What.. What am I doing here.." Uri glanced towards Venus before watching Mercury with a careful eye.

"Ah, Uri. Hello again. You passed out, so we left you near the gate just in case anyone else came as we left." Mercury gazed towards Uri with an annoyed expression and pretended to walk away.

"Wait! Mercury!! I can be your group's tour guide for this town..? I know most hidden streets here too!!" Uri dashed up to Mercury, dragging her back to the fence.

"..... Alright." Mercury stood as Uri opened the gates to her little town.