The Chink In My Armor
By Klutz


	My name is Chiba Mamoru.  I am a seventeen-year-old high school student, 
living alone in Jubaan Tokyo.   The year is nineteen ninety-nine, and it is spring.  I am a 
very serious person, I study hard for school, and work my best at my job to pay for my 
apartment.  I appear to be a highly sophisticated person, with no weaknesses, and in fact, 
most people think I could care less about the rest of the world.  Fact is, I * do * have a 
weakness.  To be perfectly honest, I have hundreds of them, but my biggest weakness of 
all, the chink in my armor, is a small fifteen year old girl, two grades below me.
	Her name is Tsukino Usagi.  She is fifteen, turning sixteen on June 30th, living 
with her family in a split-level house in Minato-Ku.  She is completely relaxed, never 
studies, and doesn't really have to work hard for anything.  She appears to be a very un-
sophisticated person, with hundreds of weaknesses that everyone knows about.
	As you can see, we are almost complete opposites in the eyes of the world, but the 
truth is, we have more in common than she, or anyone else for that matter, know of.    
	We both love roses for one thing.  I saw her once, (ok, I followed her, so sue me!) 
in the park's rose garden.  She was sitting on a bench, my bench, in the middle of my 
usual clearing (I go there often to think), holding a single white rose to her face.  I froze.  
No one has ever been there with me before, and I was surprised to see her acting as if it 
was her usual thinking spot to.  She was talking aloud, but I couldn't hear her very well.  
She was mumbling into the rose with watery eyes, and it made me feel horrible.  As if it 
was my fault, and there should be something I could do about it. 
	Another thing, we both love Chocolate.  =) Chocolate is number one on my list of 
favorite foods, and I can tell by the way she smiles when she orders at the Crown Fruit 
Parlor, that chocolate is her favorite too.  I mean, she smiles all the time, but this was 
more of a smile for chocolate only.  I wish she had a Mamoru-only smile…  But back to 
the topic at hand.
	We both love to sleep in, (she's always late for sleeping past her alarm), we both 
love sunsets (yeah yeah, so I followed her to the park again!) and we both love crystals.  I 
think.  Well, I hear her talking to her friends and herself a lot about crystals. 
	I don't think she really knows who I am, we've never talked, but I do watch her a 
lot.  Maybe she knows of me through Motoki.  This whole thing feels like a dream to me, 
and maybe it is.  I woke up one day, doubting that true love ever was, and as soon as I 
saw her… all my ideals on the falsity of it flew out the window, and here I am now.  A 
lovesick fool, drowning in his own happiness.  But I would gladly drown in her eyes if I 
could.  A softer blue I have never seen, with such warmth and compassion I doubt she 
could ever hurt anyone.  
	But lately, there have been monster attacks around the city and Sailor Moon has 
re-appeared. She looks a lot like my Usako, but I doubt it could be her.  I just don't know 
though, I get the strangest feeling I have forgotten something along the way….

Klutz