Act 50 Stars 1

Usagi bids Mamoru goodbye as he leaves to study overseas, while the rest of the Guardians ease into life at their new high school. A recurring meteor shower, a set of dazzling young idols, and a merciless stranger soon tear the calm apart. This first chapter of the Stars arc, penned and illustrated by Naoko Takeuchi, lays the groundwork for the saga's darkest and final struggle.

Beneath a night sky Usagi and Mamoru share a kiss, and she wishes on a falling star that he never leave her. Far off, a long-haired woman studies the glow of the Silver and Golden Crystals and gloats that such brilliance will soon crown her ruler of the universe. Ordinary mornings return: Usagi sulks under a poster of the Three Lights, Hotaru and Chibiusa stroll to class hand in hand, and Setsuna privately frets over how long the quiet can last. Minako learns that Usagi's mood comes from Mamoru's approaching trip to school abroad.

At the airport Usagi swallows her tears as Mamoru promises to write and to come home; he slides a heart-shaped ring onto her finger and they kiss. Mid-sentence his body dissolves in a burst of light, the Golden Crystal spills loose, and a woman in gilded armor grabs it before disappearing. Usagi faints and is caught by Seiya of the Three Lights, who spirit her off in a taxi as fans mob them. She wakes in a daze and wanders away without a word of thanks, still oblivious that Mamoru is truly gone, and the next day can only tell her friends that he boarded a plane for America.

Meanwhile Chibiusa decides to head back to Crystal Tokyo and report to Neo-Queen Serenity about the Pink Moon Crystal and the Sailor Quartet, then fades away, leaving the group aching from both her absence and Mamoru's. At the Fantastic International Music Festival the girls watch Haruka and Michiru perform until the Three Lights commandeer the stage. Backstage the idols make their introductions, and Seiya tells Haruka he admires the way she runs like the wind, sensing the two are much alike.

Concealed behind the scenes, a girl gloats that she has tracked down ten bearers of Sailor Crystals and that Lady Galaxia will be delighted. Calling herself Sailor Iron Mouse, she hurls the crowd into panic and looses Galactica Crunch; Uranus and Neptune fire back with Space Turbulence and Submarine Violin Tide, only for her bracelets to swallow the energy whole. A disembodied shout of Star Sensitive Inferno then crumbles Iron Mouse to dust, her bracelet disintegrating after her. Three figures in leather materialize atop the stage and vanish in silence, leaving the shaken Guardians to puzzle over who they are. The installment debuts Juban High School, the Galactica Palace, the Three Lights and their hidden Starlight identities, Sailor Galaxia, and the Shadow Galactica menace.