"Fatal Exposure"



By Meara



Prologue 





********************





The envelope from the University of Tokyo sat just where Usagi had 

placed it almost half an hour ago, right in the middle of the kitchen 

table.  She's started to open half dozen times, only to chicken out 

at the last moment.  Then she decided that news like this (good or 

bad) always went better with a piece of Mom's chocolate cake.  If she 

was going to have the cake, she had to have milk to go with it.  So 

with a production that would have made Cecil B. DeMille proud, she 

took her time to cut the precisely perfect sized slice of cake and a 

glass that was filled to the exact top.  Savoring each mouthful Usagi 

ever so slowly consumed the confection, never taking her eyes off the 

dreaded envelope.  The envelope, predictably, didn't move. But at 

last, Usagi did.



She examined it from across the room.  She peered at it up close, 

tilting her head to the left then to the right.  Finally giving an 

exasperated sigh Usagi knew there was only one thing to do.  She 

rubbed the tips of her fingers together like a safecracker warming 

up.  With only a tiny pause, the top of the envelope was torn open as 

she mumbled a heartfelt prayer.



"Oh please, " she whispered, "Oh please, please, pleeeease…"



The supplication turned to joy as she read the first sentence.  When 

her mother came in the door from grocery shopping, she saw her 

daughter literally jumping up and down.  It took her a long moment to 

understand the frenzied words that tumbled out of Usagi's mouth.



"I'm in, I'm in, I'm in! They accepted me at Tokyo U!"  She danced 

around her mother before enveloping her in an ecstatic hug.  "I'm 

going to college!"



Usagi's mother hugged back and taking the letter looked at it with 

her excited daughter.  "It says that we need to reply to this letter 

within thirty days and with the attached medical forms completed."

She raised both eyebrows as she added "And a very large check."



Usagi stopped jumping and snatched the letter back.  "What?!  I don't 

want to go to the doctor."



Ikuko smiled as Usagi peered closely at the letter, trying to find a 

loophole.  Her little girl had never enjoyed a visit to the family 

physician.  All though the days of dragging a screaming Usagi into 

the office were gone, it was still difficult to get her to go without 

a fuss.  "I'm sure it's just routine, honey.  Most colleges just want 

to make sure you're up to date on your inoculations and that you're 

not carrying some hideous communicable disease that they could be 

sued over.  It'll probably be little more than a blood test."



Well", Usagi grumbled unhappily, "if I have to get a little blood 

drawn to get into college, I suppose that's a sacrifice I'm willing 

to make."



Even as she said the words, a chill ran down her spine.   In years to 

come, she would realize that it was actually a rare flash of 

precognition that had disturbed her that day.  The receipt of that 

letter had marked the beginning of the end.  Her life as Tsukino 

Usagi would come crashing down around her in a way she could never 

had imagined.