Usagi Abandoned: The Falling-Out of the Sailor Guardians

By night the guardians rehearse a deception aimed at Queen Beryl, pretending to turn on Sailor Moon and pressure her into surrendering the Moon Stick. The scheme is Usagi's own idea: by making it look as though Sailor Moon means to abandon her allies, she hopes the enemy will draw her into the Dark Kingdom, where she can rescue Mamoru. In the Dark Kingdom, Beryl and Kunzite puzzle over odd energy readings tied to the Silver Crystal and dispatch the monster Oniwabandana, who has been spying, to gather more.

The creature reports open conflict among the guardians. Beryl weighs whether it signals a genuine rupture or a trap, and Kunzite admits he cannot yet tell.

Disguised as a fast-rising photographer named Nana Asahina, Oniwabandana captures the guardians brawling, and their staged split soon lands in a magazine. To sell the act, Sailor Mars is entrusted with the Moon Stick and the Silver Crystal, and Sailor Moon sends the photographer a note offering to quit and meet at Juban Cemetery at eleven. Kunzite reads the message and decides to appear in person.

At the graveyard the photographer reveals herself as the monster and Kunzite arrives, dangling a reunion with Prince Endymion in exchange for the Silver Crystal. He opens a black portal to the Dark Kingdom, but the monster instead seizes Sailor Moon and demands the crystal by force. The hidden guardians hold back until Sailor Mars can no longer bear watching Sailor Moon choke and breaks cover with the others. Kunzite claims he saw through the charade all along and slips away, and the guardians together destroy the monster, with Sailor Moon finishing through Moon Healing Escalation to restore the photographer. The episode closes on Moon and Mars trading barbs and sticking out their tongues.

This is the season's final chapter to feature a monster-of-the-day and the last time a human is turned into one, and it marks the closing first-season appearance of Naru and Mayumi Osaka. The plan itself never appears in the manga, where the guardians never bargain the Silver Crystal for Mamoru. The DiC dub, retitled Fractious Friends, altered the handling of the Moon Stick so that Mars simply kept it rather than being entrusted with it, and cut the moments of Mars kicking Sailor Moon.