Act 5 Makoto - Sailor Jupiter

A tall transfer student walks into Juban Public Middle School just as Usagi, Ami, and Rei begin poking at rumors of a cursed wedding-dress boutique. Naoko Takeuchi's fifth chapter, the fifth of the Dark Kingdom arc, introduces the fierce yet tender Makoto Kino and charts her turn from friendless newcomer into the newest fighter on the team.

Usagi drifts through a hazy dream where a distant figure resembles Mamoru before Luna nags her awake and out into the rain, tardy as ever. Lost in thoughts of Tuxedo Mask, whom the cat keeps warning her to keep away from, she strays into traffic, and a strikingly tall girl wearing rose earrings shoves her clear of an oncoming car. At school the same newcomer draws stares, scolded by the principal for her outgrown uniform and trailed by gossip that a brawl got her expelled elsewhere. During lunch she plucks a stray baseball out of the air before it can strike Usagi, shares her generous meal, and asks where the neighborhood arcades are.

The pair drift to the game center, where Ami and Motoki turn up and the tall girl finally gives her name as Makoto. Ami passes along a rumor that the shop supplying Naru's cousin is haunted by a jilted bride's ghost who lures men and hijacks brides. The friends carry the tale to Rei's temple on Sendai Hill, and as Makoto departs Rei senses the next Guardian has surfaced. That night a shop mannequin drifts loose, seizes Motoki, and sends him to bewitch Makoto, while Mamoru feels the disturbance and slips into his Tuxedo Mask guise.

Tuxedo Mask leads a sleeping Usagi to the scene, and Luna rouses Ami and Rei to give chase. Cloaked as a groom by her transformation pen, Usagi becomes Sailor Moon, and beside Mercury and Mars she condemns the foe for preying on women. Grasping that Motoki's spell was a fraud, Makoto hoists the bridal specter overhead as Jupiter's emblem flares on her brow; Luna flings her a pen and she awakens as Sailor Jupiter, Guardian of Love and Passion. The apparition proves only a shadow cast by the true culprit, Nephrite, whom Jupiter blinds with Flower Hurricane before finishing him off with Jupiter Thunderbolt.

With Nephrite destroyed, only Zoisite and Kunzite are left inside the Dark Kingdom, and a grieving Zoisite is pressed by Queen Beryl to seize the Silver Crystal without delay. As Sailor Moon steadies the drained Jupiter, Tuxedo Mask melts away, and Luna realizes he steered Usagi here so she could reach Makoto. Makoto admits that Motoki reminded her of a former sweetheart who broke her heart at her old school, and that she transferred because she sensed a larger calling as a Guardian. Luna closes the chapter by presenting Sailor Moon with a crescent Moon Stick, charging her to lead the team and protect both the lunar princess and the Silver Crystal. The installment marks the first appearances of Makoto, the named Motoki, Kunzite, and Rei's grandfather.