"I still don’t understand," Shisou said to Chikyu.  "You say you’re my guardian?"
 "Yes," Chikyu said, explaining himself to her for the third time.  "I am here to watch over you, advise you, and teach you how to be a Sailor.  As you know, you are Sailor Earth—"
 "Yes, yes, I know all that," Shisou cut him off.  "Cypress told me."
Chikyu turned to Cypress, who was sitting nearby with the other Astros.  "Oh, yes, Cypress and Pandora.  How have you been?"
 "Just great, so far," Cypress said.  "You?"
 "Fine," Chikyu replied.
 "Um…Chikyu, I have a question," Shisou spoke up.
 "Yes?"
 "How come you can speak English?"
 Chikyu thought about that for a while, then replied, "I don’t know."
 

 Asteroid opened the door to the abandoned house and went inside.  She was trying to sneak in and make as little noise as possible, but apparently Master 9 heard her.  "ASTEROID!"
 "Yes?" Asteroid asked.
 "You failed."  Master 9 appeared before her.
 "How do you know that?" Asteroid asked.
 "That’s a stupid question, everyone knows Master 9 is psychic," Satellite spoke up, appearing behind Master 9.
 Master 9 glared at Satellite.  "Go away.  I don’t need your help."  Satellite hopped off, and Master 9 turned back to Asteroid.  "Now, Asteroid, about your failure…"
 "Wait!" Asteroid interrupted.  "I may not have failed completely.  I left one of our wraiths behind, so maybe it will get something done."
 "Good," Master 9 said.  "At least our wraiths are competent."
 

 "This is Kiken, my fish," Shisou said, showing the others one of her fish bowls.  This bowl had a red fish in it with long fins and tails.  "It’s a type of fish called a beta, and I have to keep it in a separate bowl from the others because it would probably kill the other fish if I left it in the same tank."
 "Cool," Daphne said, watching it swim.
 "Doesn’t the name Kiken mean ‘dangerous’ in Japanese?" Shiloe asked.
 "Yes, appropriate isn’t it?" Shisou smiled.
 "What’s that thing that’s crawling across the rug over there?" Sara asked, watching an animal with brown fur that looked sort of like a fox slink across the floor.
 "It’s a ferret," Shisou said.  She picked up the ferret and brought it over to show them.  "Her name is Megumi."
 "Cute," Marie commented.
 Moira looked nervous.  "Does it bite?"
 "No, not unless you make her mad," Shisou said.
Still wary of the ferret, Moira backed away.  "With my luck, I probably will make her mad."
Shisou set the ferret down and went over to another cage.  "And this," she said, opening the cage, "is Niji, my parrot."  She took a rainbow-colored parrot out of the cage, and the parrot squawked and said something in Japanese.
"What did it say?" Dani asked.
"It said ‘Hello, nice to meet you,’" Shisou explained.  Niji flew around the room and landed on a chair.  Chikyu, who was sitting near the chair, edged away from the other bird.
Shisou went over to a table where two terrariums were set.  She opened one and took out a turtle.  "This is a Galapagos turtle," she explained.  "It’s only a few months old now, but it’s supposed to get a lot bigger, eventually one meter…I mean, about three feet long."
"Cool," Shiloe said.  "May I see it?"
 "Sure," Shisou handed her the turtle, then opened the other terrarium.  "This is Hayasi," she said, taking out a snake.  Daphne, Sara, and Michelle backed away from the snake.  "It’s okay, he’s not poisonous.  Besides, he never bites."
 "You sure?" Sara asked.
 "Yes," Shisou replied.  She held Hayasi out towards them.  "Here, want to see him?"  They all backed away again.
 "Here, let me see him," Ryan said.  Shisou handed him the snake.  "You sure he doesn’t bite?"  Shisou nodded.
 "What’s the turtle’s name?" Shiloe asked.
 "His name is Mori," Shisou said.
 "I think he’s scared of me," Shiloe observed, noticing that the turtle had retreated back into its shell.  "Here, you can have him back."  She gave Mori back to Shisou, who put him in his terrarium, then went over to another cage.
 Meanwhile, Ryan still had Hayasi the snake.  He sneaked up behind Michelle and threw the snake at her.  Hayasi landed on Michelle’s head, and Michelle started screaming.
 "AAAAHH!  Get it off get it off get it off!"  Michelle was hopping up and down shrieking.
Shisou ran over to rescue Hayasi, who had started burrowing into Michelle’s hair.  She pulled the snake out, then tried to calm Michelle down.  "It’s okay.  Like I said, he doesn’t bite.  And if he does, he’s not poisonous."  Shisou put the snake back in its cage.  "Okay, now I want to show you one more thing."  She led them to the back of her apartment, into the second bathroom.  In it was a giant lizard, about six feet long.  "This is Chibiko, a Komodo dragon."
"Dragon?" Daphne asked.  She turned around and started to walk away.  "Okay, now I’ve seen everything."
"It’s okay, she doesn’t bite," Shisou said.
"Its name is Chibiko?" Shiloe asked.  "That means small child in Japanese, doesn’t it?"
"Yes," Shisou said.  "It’s sort of…um…what’s the word?"
 "Ironic," Moira supplied.
 "It doesn’t bite, or anything?" Sara peeked into the bathroom.
 "What does it eat?" Lilia asked.  "I thought Komodo dragons ate, like, small animals.  Or horses, or lions or something."
 "A horse isn’t a small animal," Marie pointed out.
 "No, this one doesn’t eat meat," Shisou said proudly.  "It doesn’t like meat, I tried to feed it some but it wouldn’t eat it.  I feed it two heads of lettuce every day, and it likes fruit too, like pineapple and things like that."
 "How old is it?" Ryan asked.
 "And is it going to get any bigger?" Michelle added.
 "It’s seven," Shisou said, "and no, this is its full size."
 "You sure about that?" Dani asked.  "Because right now, it’s growing."
 Shisou turned around to see that Chibiko was growing in size.  It started to turn bright green, and developed fangs and spikes on its tail.
 "Asteroid," Moira said.  "She must have made that thing into one of her wraiths!"
 "She never gives up, does she?" Lilia muttered.
 "…uh oh," Shisou said, backing away from the lizard.  "Um…someone should transform.  Just don’t hurt her."  Chibiko charged out of the bathroom and shot spikes off of its tail at Shisou.
 "Don’t hurt it?" Lilia repeated, dodging the lizard’s tail.  "What if it hurts us first?"
 "Spica Astral Star Power!" Shiloe yelled, already transforming.
 "Good idea," Ryan said, taking out his transformation pen too.
 "No, wait, don’t," Spica stopped him.  "I can take care of it on my own."  Her sword appeared in her hand, and she pointed it at the monster.
 "What are you going to do?" Shisou asked frantically.  "Don’t hurt it!"
 "I’m not going to," Spica said.  "I’ll heal it.  See?"  She waved her sword over the monster.  "Purity Healing."  The monster shrank, lost its fangs and its spikes, and turned back to its normal color.  Spica put her sword away and detransformed.  "Done."
"Back to normal," Lilia said.  "Maybe not for long, thougb," she thought.