HOT CONTROVERSY 2
A Sailor Moon Sekkushiaru Roman

by Sailor Mac
		
	"But you can't just censor *everything*! I mean, half the paintings in the
Louvre and the Metropolitan are nudes! What, are you going to just toss
them out just to get rid of. . ."
	Raye put her fingers to her temples. . .having to listen to bickering
along these lines everywhere she went was giving her a headache. She
couldn't remember the last time she saw a group of college-age people who
were *not* debating the pros and cons of erotic material.
	They came to her temple and fought between prayers. They argued at Crown
Cafe, at the arcade, at the mall. . .
	And even here at Bookstore Asahiya.
	Raye busied herself with studying the contents of the rack of manga and
anime magazines, trying to shut out the voices from the women's magazine
rack in front of her. . .but to no avail.
	"You have *no* idea what you're saying! You're just an extremist!"
	"I am *not*! I just believe in responsible handling of that kind of material!"
	"Banning the Playboy Channel from the cable system altogether is *not*
responsibility! It's just censorship!"
	Shut up, Raye thought. Just shut up and go away. . .
	As if they'd heard her, the two combatants started to walk away, toward
the cash register. Raye breathed a sigh of relief, and went back to the
manga magazines, trying to decide whether she wanted a Nakayosi or a
Ribbon.
	It's so nice to have that be my biggest decision, she thought. It's so
nice to not have the Deathbusters around anymore, to not have my dreams
every night plagued with visions of doom. . .She got flashes every once in
awhile of an enemy still to be met in the future, but the flashes seemed
far away. . .the crisis wasn't coming for awhile yet. She had time to just
be a *young woman,* not a world-savior.
	However, a bit down the rack from her was a young woman who wouldn't mind
being a world-savior at all. In fact, that's what she was striving for.
Only her weapons involved words and political action, not magic fire.
	Lori Westland, president of the university's Women United chapter, was
enjoying a few minutes away from campus. . .which she sorely needed. Since
she'd gotten the ball rolling on having a university-wide vote on whether
pornography should be banned from the campus, it seemed her life was an
endless cycle of campaigning and leaflet-writing, atop of her normal school
duties. She'd had thrown up her hands and given up some time ago - if she
didn't feel so passionate about her cause.
	"I didn't know you still read manga, Lori," said the girl next to her. Her
name was Pamela, she was a classic follower-type, always looking for a
cause to latch onto. At this moment, Lori's cause would do very nicely.
	"Just the action-type stuff. I'm not into sappy romance."
	"Nothing wrong with a good love comic every once in awhile," said her
other friend, Meghan, who was kneeling on the floor. "Long as it doesn't
exploit women. Here, like this. . ." She started to stand up, something in
her hand. . .not looking at who might be standing above her.
	"OUCH!" Raye said as the older girl collided with her. "Hey, look where
you're going!"
	"Gomen nasi!" Meghan said quickly, shrinking away. She was ready to take
on pornographers - especially if Lori, her heroine, demanded it - but she
had never been able to handle one-on-one confrontations with people around
her age.
	Lori gazed at the magazine - titled "Boy Heaven" - with disinterest as
Meghan handed it to her. "See, it's a romance manga that doesn't exploit
women - because there's no women involved!"
	Lori began flipping through it idly. . .this kind of thing did nothing for
her, no matter what the gender of that participants. Moony eye-gazing,
hand-holding, kissing. . .
	Then, she realized the two boys in the pictures were going *way* beyond
kissing. And it was being shown in *detail.* Her porn radar went into
overdrive.
	"Do you know what this *is*!" she whispered loudly to the others. They
looked at each other, then at Lori, and shook their heads. "This is *gay
porn*!"
	"Porn?" said Meghan. "I used to read it, and I never saw any. . ."
	Lori held the magazine up, and the other two gasped. "*That's* what they
have right in front of the manga racks," Lori said. "Right next to that
magazine that carries 'Card Captor Sakura'. . .out where kids can get their
grubby little hands on it."
	"I. . .I can't believe it," Meghan said. "It wasn't like that when I was
younger. . ."
	Lori almost slammed it shut and tossed it aside. "It just goes to show
you, this stuff is *everywhere.*" Her blood was really flowing now. .
.seeing that magazine had the crusader in her up. She wanted to take on the
entire world and cleanse it of smut! Break time was over. . .it was time to
get back to work.
	"I don't know about you," she told the others, "but I'm going back to
campus. I have things to do."
	"We're coming with you!" said Pamela.
	"Yeah!" Meghan added. The three of them left.
	Raye stared at the magazine Lori had flung aside. She'd heard the whole
conversation. What's inside it that was so *bad*? she thought. Is it really
*pornographic*? Her curiosity was very quickly getting the better of her.
	Before she could change her mind, she grabbed it and headed for the
checkout counter.	
	Walking down the street, she hugged the manga to her with both arms,
covering the title and front illustration - a shirtless bishonen lounging
on satin pillows - from the world. She felt embarrassed to be carrying it.
. .but she also couldn't wait to look at it.
	What's in this thing that could make those girls so upset? she thought. Is
it *really* something all that bad? Or are this Lori and her cronies the
kind of people who see evil everywhere, even where it doesn't exist?
	She felt her heart practically pounding with anticipation of finding out.
Is it just because I'm curious? she thought. Or does part of me genuinely
hope it will turn out to be something *really* sexy?	
	Once she got back to the temple, she ran straight to her room and tossed
the manga under her pillow. She certainly didn't want her grandfather or
Chad to find it. . .she'd *die* of embarrassment.
	"Hey, babe," she heard Chad call from down the hall, "how was the
bookstore? Find anything good?"
	"No, I didn't," she said as she quickly changed into her temple robes.
"Same stuff I read before. . ." She walked out of her room and almost
bumped into him. He caught her in his arms and kissed her. "Too bad. Well,
that means you'll have to find something to do tonight other than read. How
about going to the movies?"
	Normally she'd say yes. . .but the thought of that manga was burning in
her brain. . .
	"Maybe tomorrow. . .Amy said she'd help me with my math homework over ICQ
tonight." She felt a huge twinge of guilt over lying to her lover,
something she was *not* in the habit of doing.
	"Okay. . .guess I can just practice guitar tonight." (And wake all the
dead in Tokyo, she thought. . .when Chad practiced, he seemed to want the
entire world to know he was practicing).
	She did her chores as fast as she could, and was glad when her grandfather
sent her to Daikichi Sushi rather than cooking dinner. Sushi was a nice,
fast, easy, low-cleanup supper. . .
	It still seemed like eternity before she could get back to her room and
lock the door behind her. She slid the manga out from under her pillow and
stared at the cover for a moment. The titles of the stories inside seemed
no different from the titles of stories of other shojo manga. . . "Never
Forever," "Love Hungry," "Heartthrob Alley," "Bliss," "Go the Extra Mile".
. .
	The only difference. . .all the participants were bishonen boys. I've
never seen anything like this before, she thought.
	She opened the cover and started to read. The first story was about a love
triangle at a boarding school. Gil was secretly in love with Mike, but Mike
didn't seem to give him the time of day. . .meanwhile, Brent was
romantically pursuing Gil, who was resisting him at every turn.
	Hmm, she thought, pretty much standard soap opera stuff, except for the
gender of the participants.
	Then, she hit the first explicit love scene, and her insides churned. Two
boys in each other'sarms, their hands roaming each other's bodies. . It
looked. . .so. . .strange. . .She slammed the manga shut, and was ready to
toss it across the room.
	But then, slowly, she pulled it back and opened it again. They can't *all*
be like that, she thought. . .can they?
	She opened to the second story, which was about longtime lovers who were
facing a crisis in their relationship in the form of a flirtatious new boy
in town. Again, the soap opera stuff. . .but at least it was done with some
humor, as if the artist refused to take what she was doing too seriously.
Raye always liked that kind of thing. This one had no explicit sex, just
some kissing. . .and it was less jarring than the first time she saw it.
	She moved on to the third,  a boarding school-based rich boy/poor boy
romance. This had the nicest artwork of any of the stories she'd come
across yet. . .they boys actually looked halfway realistic, if still
extremely pretty. There was explicit sex in this one, and she started to
flip quickly past it. . .then stopped, curious to see how this obviously
talented person would handle such a scene. And the image was lovely, the
bodies attractive, the poses graceful. . .
	Feeling her face flush, she flipped to the fourth story, about two runners
training for the Olympics who found themselves attracted to each other. It
was done in a rather moody style, with closeups of brooding faces and lots
of internal monolouge. It sucked you into the characters' heads. . .and
into the story. Raye was so fascinated that she didn't mind when the story
began leading toward an explicit sexual fantasy sequence. . .and when the
fantasy itself appeared, she didn't look away. It looked quite lovely, as a
matter of fact. . .almost like a love ballet.
	Then, she hit the fifth story. . .the one that struck the biggest chord
with her. Dex, a rock musician, was facing the last night of his tour. .
.and the last chance to confess his feelings to his bandmate, Cory. This
was obviously an artist who knew what she was doing. . .she paid as much
attention to the dialogue as to the images. Both were stunning.
	There was a scene in the dressing room where Dex had Cory backed up
against the wall, and was saying, "Look, I don't give a damn about forever.
I could be dead tomorrow. . .we all could. But all I care about is being
able to hold you in my arms *now*, so I can say to the world that I knew
what love was like. . .if only for a moment."
	Cory was so overcome by this that he crushed his mouth against Dex's. .
.and then was a series of pictures of them together in Dex's hotel room,
touching, kissing, stroking, and ultimately consummating their love, Cory
held in Dex's lap.
	By this time, she was fanning herself. And thoughts started to churn in
her head. . .I should find this ugly, or at least alien. It's got nothing
to do with me. . .I'll never know what boy-boy love is like. Why do I find
it so beautiful. . .and exciting?
	Suddenly, she felt cold all over. This isn't right, she thought. I have a
boyfriend, I'm a red-blooded, healthy female. . .I *shouldn't* find this
stuff so compelling, so exciting! Something must be *wrong* if I do. . .oh,
Gods, that Lori was right, this *is* nasty stuff! She tossed it away as if
it were coated with poison, then jumped into bed, yanking the covers over
her head as if she could hide from the feelings the pictures had aroused.
	But sleep wasn't coming. The hot and cold feelings were warring within
her. . .the excitement over seeing the manga, and the guilt. Would I be
feeling so guilty, she thought, if I were looking at something that showed
a boy and girl in an erotic situation?
	She knew what the answer to that was.
	Does this mean I'm a homophobe deep down? she thought. I've always
considered myself to be open-minded. . .
	She jumped out of bed and walked to her window, looking up at the night
sky. A nearly-full moon cast a silvery glow over the cherry trees that gave
the temple its name. Looking at the natural world always had a calming
effect on her, made her feel closer to the gods.
	She knelt on the floor, her head resting atop her hands on the windowsill. She let her mind empty out and become open. . .
	Thoughts of the gods began drifting into her head, and she began to think
about all the stories of *their* love affairs. In almost all cultures, gods
loved each other and loved humans without restraint, without rules, without
regard to gender. And they never saw it as anything other than beautiful
and right.
	Mars certainly wasn't playing by the rules when he took me as a lover, she
thought. Does that make what happened between us any less good, any less
right? No.
	Dex and Cory, and those other couples in the manga. . .they were in love,
too, just as she had been with Mars. Love is a matter of the heart and
soul, she thought. Do things like gender and status matter? No.
	I'm being silly, she thought. I'm too old. . .I've seen and experienced
too much. . .to be thinking like this.
	She snapped out of the meditative state, using the windowsill to help her
climb to her feet.
	How late is it? she thought. It can't be *too* late, because I can still
hear Chad practicing.
	She put on her robe and slippers, and headed out into the hall, following
the sound. Sure enough, he was sitting on his bed, strumming away on a
red-painted electric guitar.
	Swinging open the door, she said, "You're gonna bring Hendrix back from
the dead, playing like that."
	He gave her a big smile. "Because I'm so good?"
	"No, to kick your butt." She sat on the bed next to him, leaned over and
gave him a kiss. "Why don't you call it a night, Chad?"
	"I would if I had a reason to."
	"Well, that could be arranged!"
	He reached over and yanked the plug of the guitar out of the wall. Both of
them laughed.
	"I'll be back in a moment," she said, kissing him again and heading for
the bathroom.
	She'll be in there forever, he thought. Raye has been known to set world
bathroom time records. He put the guitar back in its case and in the closet.
	Getting up from his bed, he stretched and went to the kitchen, in search
of a cold drink and some Kasugi Peanuts And You. The drink he found. . .the
peanuts were missing. Raye probably has them in her room, he thought.
	Sure enough, they were on her nighttable. . .with some manga flung atop
it. Chad definitely didn't share Raye's passion for love stories, although
some of the more action-oriented things she read were cool. He picked it up
and started to flip through it idly. . .
	Then, he realized what it was, and his heart stopped.
	What the *hell* is Raye doing with one of these things? he thought.
	Raye came out of the bathroom and peeked in Chad's room, not seeing him
there. She headed to her own room. . .where she saw him on her bed, staring
at "Boy Heaven."
	Oh, NO, she thought. Oh Gods, what does he think of me. . .
	"It's for research," she blurted out quickly. "You know, that pornography
controversy at the college. . .Darien and Adam are involved in it and we're
helping them gather information on both sides, and. . ." She sank to the
bed and said, weakly, "Okay, I admit. . .I read it."
	He shook his head. "It's not the kind of thing you usually read."
	She was about to snap, "So what do you mean by that?" But she caught
herself, and instead, said, calmly, "Yes, it is. It's a romance manga,
isn't it?"
	"Well. . .um. . .I guess you could say it was, it's just. . ."
	"Just that it's a male-male romance?" She put her hand on top of his.
"Look, I know you may not be comfortable with it. A lot of guys aren't."
	"You may say that."
	"But, when it comes right down to it, it's just love, right? Love is love."
	He looked at her, then at the manga. "Man. . .I've seen these things
before from the outside. . .but I never knew they got so. . ."
	"Explicit?"
	"Yeah." He flipped a couple of pages. "Nice artwork, though." He shook his
head. "Gods, I can't believe I'm looking at one of these things!"
	She hugged him. "And you're surviving it."
	He put the manga aside. "I know a lot of guys who are into seeing two
women together, but I had no idea women were so into seeing two guys."
	"Women like seeing love and men being sensitive. There's nothing wrong with that. But that doesn't mean they find their own men. . .any less sensitive. Or deserving of love."
	He kissed her. "You never cease to surprise me, babe. I think that's one
reason why I love you so much."
	"I love you, too." She kissed him, deeper this time, her fingers tangling
in his hair, pulling him closer and closer. . .His arms came around her,
pulling her closer.
	Somehow, the idea of her looking at that manga. . .of being so open about
sex, all forms of sex. . .was turning him on, big-time.
	They eased apart, and he said, "Maybe we should go to my room. It's
further away from your grandfather's."
	"Sounds like an idea to me."
	They moved toward his room, leaving "Boy Heaven" laying face-down on her bed.
* * *
	As soon as his door closed behind them, she felt the fire in her blood. .
.a fire of such intensity that it almost alarmed her.
	He took her in his arms and she brought her mouth to his, making a long,
low noise in her throat as he kissed her, her tongue coming out to caress
his with fierce longing. She let her hands roam boldly up and down his body
as the kiss went on, reaching down to cup and caress his manhood through
his pants. Chad growled, pulling away from her long enough to gasp, "Oh,
gods, honey. . .that's *incredible.*"
	She brought her mouth to his again, as she began to work on his shirt,
which quickly landed on the floor. Her palms ran up and down his chest and
stomach, her fingers gently squeezing his nipples, making him let out
another groan. Her leg slipped between his as she began to kiss her way
down his neck, and she pushed upward gently, pressing his most sensitive
area again.
	"Ohh. . .gods, Raye, I don't know how much more of this I can take. . ."
	"You're gonna find out. . .because there's a lot more to come."
	As they kissed again, she reached down and unfastened his pants, letting
them drop to the floor. She ran his fingers along his thighs, sighing at
the feel of soft skin over hard muscle. . .and a picture flashed in her
mind of Cory doing the same thing to Dex. I'm living the fantasy, she
thought. It's becoming real, tangible. And as she realized this, a slow,
lazy heat began to steal over her entire body, and she moaned.	
	Another picture from the manga popped in her head. . .and she smiled to
herself. She knew exactly what her next move was going to be.
	Slipping away from her lover, she moved slowly behind him. He started to
turn around. "No," she said. "Stay where you are." And she pulled her
clothes off rapidly, then pulled her lover to her from behind, so her
breasts were flattened against his back. She kissed his neck, letting her
tongue run up and down it as her hands reached around his body, moving down
his chest, slowly, rubbing lazy circles on his stomach, flicking teasingly
in and out of his navel. She began to move her hips, pressing her womanhood
against his buttocks, rubbing back and forth. He felt the soft wetness
against his skin, and leaned his head back, letting out her name on a sigh.
	She moved her hands lower, until her fingers were lightly brushing his
erection. She began to move them up and down, up and down, her fingertips
barely touching the flesh. Her right hand moved upward and cupped the head,
rubbing it with a circular motion, while her left began to pump his shaft.
"Ohh, honey," he gasped, feeling so weak-kneed he almost lost his balance.
When her left hand moved further down, cupping and gently massaging the sac
beneath, he almost lost it. He tossed his head forward, then back, his
breath coming in ragged pants, his heart hammering, fiery tingles running
over every part of his body.
	He didn't think he'd ever felt so damn good in his life. If she learned
what she was doing from that boy manga thing she'd been reading. . .he
wanted to shake the hand of the artist!
	The more she pleasured him, the more he felt filled with an urge to make
her feel her good, too (hey, it was only fair, wasn't it?) Somehow, he
found the presence of mind to ease her relentless hands away from him. He
turned around and kissed her fiercely again, easing her back onto the bed.
His fingers came up to tease her nipples, rubbing them, squeezing them
ever-so-gently, caressing them. Gods, her skin felt so goddamn nice. . .he
could just go on touching her forever and ever and die a happy man.
	She moaned as the pleasure flowed through her, a stream of lava running
from her breasts to her womanhood, and she parted her legs wide, an open
invitation to explore, to touch, to taste.
	He knelt near the junction of her thighs and kissed her lower stomach
almost reverently. He pulled back a moment, just gazing on her, taking in
her perfection. This is my woman, he thought. This gorgeous, fabulous
creature loves *me*!  I gotta be the envy of hundreds of guys when they see
us together in public. . .
	Then, he brought his head to where she wanted it most. Her eyes flew open
and she gasped as his tongue penetrated her, then began a rapid in-and-out
thrusting motion. Her head was spinning, and her hands reached down to
grasp his head, to tangle her fingers in his hair. . .oh, gods, she
thought, the pleasure, so much pleasure, I could go mad and love every
second of it.
	He slowed his pace down for a few seconds, rolling his tongue around
inside her, making her shudder. . .then, suddenly, it was out of her and up
to her pearl, where he swirled it around and around in rapid circles.
	"Oh, oh, OH!" she cried, the gathering storm within her ready to break. .
.and a couple more flicks over her jewel did it. Her hips rose up off the
bed and she shrieked as wave after wave of ecstasy passed through her. She
was drowning, drowning in a sea of liquid fire, and it was absolutely
magnificent.
	As she collapsed back to the bed, she felt his lips on her nipples, gently
kissing one, then the other, before his mouth closed on the right one and
he began to suck. Part of her was saying, no, not yet, I don't know if I
could handle the pleasure so soon. . .but another said, yes, yes, YES! The
latter won out. She writhed beneath him, uttering wordless love sounds that
were like the sweetest of poetry to his ears.
	He pulled away from her, and she felt the loss like an amputation. . .but
it was just long enough to get a condom out of his nighttable and put it
on. She rolled over and crawled across the bed to where he was sitting,
then jumped on his lap, impaling herself on him. Her hips started to move
in a steady thrust as her arms gripped him, her mouth clashing with his. .
.then, she leaned back, her arms over her head, her hips moving in a slow,
sensuous bump-and-grind. He cried out, moaning, "Yes. . .oh, my love, that
feels good, soo good. . ."
	She leaned back toward him, thrusting more urgently, only one thing on her
mind, having both of them achieve fulfillment. His hands gripped her
bottom, squeezing, kneading, as she buried her face in his shoulder and he
ran his tongue up and down her neck.
	Then, the first spark was struck deep within her, and it rapidly grew and
grew into a forest fire. She stiffened, then shrieked, her entire body
trembling with the ecstasy that was roaring within her, and the tugging of
her sheath touched off an answering explosion within him. He let out a yell
as he was flooded with liquid heat, as he released himself.
	She sagged against him, both of them panting, clinging tightly to each
other. He tumbled backward, pulling her with him, quickly getting rid of
the condom so he could take her into his arms again and kiss her.
	"I love you, babe," he said.
	"I love you, too."
	She snuggled into his embrace, feeling totally relaxed, at peace with
herself and the world. . .and just a bit different from normal, a bit
wiser. . .she knew she hadn't *made love with a man,* she had just *made
love.*
	She felt flooded with love and happiness as she fell asleep.	
* * *
	In the university pub, Lori sat at one of the back booths, surrounded by
other girls. . .girls who were hanging on to her every word.
	"It's a symptom of a sick society, plain and simple," she said. "People
just degrade each other again and again and again, and other people get
their jollies looking at the degradation."
	"And it's our duty to break the cycle?" Pamela said.
	"Exactly," Lori said. "Get rid of the filth, and the sickness it
perpetuates will go away. Maybe if men don't have so-called *beaver shots*
to look at all the time, they'll start seeing women as *complete people*
and not *objects.*"
	"But what about the boy-porn stuff you were showing us the other day?"
said Meghan, who was sitting next to Pamela. "That's not turning women into
objects. There's no women *in* it!" She shook her head. "I can't believe
the manga I used to read has gone so far into the gutter. . ."
	"Dehumanization works both ways," Lori replied. "Those kind of things
reduce men to a collection of body parts for women to ogle. Come on, how
many women do you know that read those things for the *stories*? They want
to see bare-assed pretty boys! It's just garbage, pure and simple, and
people don't need it!"
	Just then, she heard a male voice next to her saying, "Excuse me. . .can I
have a word with you?" She turned, and saw a dark-haired boy about her age,
with a couple of other boys beside him. She gave her friends a
"who-the-hell-*is*-this-guy?" look. They just shrugged. She got up from the
table and followed him to a corner.
	"Okay," she said, "who are you?"
	"My name is David Chase. I'm president of the campus Freedom League."
	She gave him a blank stare. "The *what*?"
	He heaved a deep sigh. That was the reaction he always got.
	"We stand up for people's rights. . .including the right of free speech.
Which you have no right to stomp on."
	"I don't stomp on *anybody's* basic rights. I just want to protect people
from filth."
	"Do you realize what you just said? You contradicted yourself!"
	Lori bristled. "I don't know what *your* definition of free speech is. .
.but the last time I looked. . .obscenity was *not* covered under *free
speech*!" She started to head back to her table. He followed her.
	"Who's to say what's obscene? Every person has a different definition."
	She sat back down. "Anything that involves degradation. . .is *obscene*!
Anything that reduces a human being to a collection of bodily parts. . .is
*obscene!*"
	"Yeah!" Pamela chimed in. "Are you trying to tell me all those animes with
women being raped and liking it aren't obscene?"
	"What if it has artistic merit?" said one of the boys next to David, a boy
Lori recognized from her political science classes as Tommy Malone. "You
can't call something *obscene* if it's a genuine work of art."
	"There's nothing artistic about violence!" Lori was almost shouting now,
rising up out of her seat. "It's just sick and perverse, and there's no
place in a civilized society for it!"
	"You're advocating censorship!" David replied. "What kind of *civilized
society*, as you put it, puts restrictions on what people can see or hear?"
	"One that respects the dignity of its citizens," Lori said in a cold, hard
voice. "And now, if you excuse me, I have some studying to do." She picked
up her bookbag and purse and stormed out of the pub. Her friends paused,
looked at each other. . .then followed her.
	David watched her go, shaking his head. "She's got a brilliant mind. She's
got determination. If only her philosophy wasn't so twisted. . ."
	"Ah, who cares about her?" said his other friend, Mike Nolan. "Everybody
knows she's just a loose cannon! Besides, the majority of the people on
campus are on *our* side, right?"
	"Mike," he sighed, "nobody knows who we *are*! Nobody knows our name!"
	"So? We can change that, right? Hey, if that loudmouth can broadcast her
message all over campus, so can we!"
	David was a bit taken aback by that. He preferred to do things more
quietly, more subtly. Going all over campus trumpeting his views usually
wasn't his style.
	But maybe, he thought, this time it's necessary. Maybe I'll *have* to
fight fire with fire.
	"Tell you what," he told Mike. "You e-mail half the members of the group
tonight, I'll e-mail the other half. We're going to have a meeting
tomorrow. . .to plot strategy."
* * *
	In her dorm room, Lori shut the door behind her and took a deep breath,
trying to drive away the rage that had her trembling.
	How *dare* that David Chase just come stomping up to her like that,
spouting a bunch of crap about smut having *artistic merit*? Didn't he know
the *damage* that it did? Didn't he know how many women were raped and
attacked every year by men who consumed porn?
	She tossed the bookbag under her desk and sat down, turning on her
computer. She lived alone by her own choice. Lori needed periods of time
where she could just think deeply and quietly, no distractions.
	She'd needed them more than ever since the antiporn crusade had swung into
full gear. She'd always been an advocate against porn. . .but before,
nobody wanted to listen to her hold forth on the topic. Even the members of
her own campus women's group were more interested in discussing sexual
harassment and pay equality.
	That was before the public revelation of the obscene Sailor Mercury
stories on the campus Web site. Suddenly, everyone was debating porn. And
when she talked. . .people started to listen.
	At first, she noticed two or three more people coming over to her table in
the lunchroom or pub. Then that became five, then seven, then ten. . .and
they were hanging onto her every word. Suddenly, the girl who, for so many
years, had been a nobody found herself a *somebody*, a genuine campus
celebrity. People were actually pointing her out to each other in
classrooms, in the library, in the campus bookstore.
	It was baffling, in a way, that she could have gotten such a big following
so quickly. But it was also thrilling.
	Lori wasn't used to being a superstar. For years, she'd been someone who
just hid in the shadows. . .hid from the memories that still haunted her.
	A picture flashed in her mind of a menacing male figure approaching the
bed where she'd slept as a child, the sounds of heavy breathing audible
from the tape playing in the living room. . .
	She stood up abruptly, shaking her head as if to chase the thought away.
She walked quickly across the room to her window, hugging herself. Outside,
the moonlight shone on the posters she had hung up. . ."Keep our campus
CLEAN! Vote YES on the porn ban!" Across the bottom of one, somebody had
written, "You go, Lori!" A sense of pride swelled in her, a sense of
accomplishment. . .all the years of feeling worthless seeming to be swept
away.
	Then, she saw a couple walk past the sign, hand-in-hand. They paused but a
second, barely glancing at it. . .then turned their attention back to each
other, kissing, wrapping their arms around each other. . .
	She quickly buried the pang she felt inside under steely resolve. There's
so much to do, she thought. So much I still need to do. . .there's still so
much garbage out there, and that election is only a few weeks away. . .
	She ran for her computer, thinking, it's time to go back to tracking the
latest stuff posted on that literary page. . .
* * *
	Raye felt like she was experiencing deja vu. Once again, she was standing
before a rack of manga, trying to decide what she wanted - she and Chad had
stopped at the Yaohan complex as he was driving her home from school. He'd
gone to the grocery store, she to the bookstore.
	And once again, that redhead and her two friends were coming in. What, do
they go from store to store looking for manga to complain about? she
thought.
	Meanwhile, Lori was feeling in a rather cranky mood. Between David Chase
and her bout with depression the night before, she knew that the least
little thing she saw would set her off. As they approached the manga racks,
she saw that something. . .a manga called "Boyz." Probably more of the same
thing I saw yesterday, she thought. She reached for it. . .and crashed into
Raye.
	"Hey! ExCUSE me!"
	But Lori didn't say a word in apology. She was flipping through the
magazine, part of her desperately hoping she'd find something so she could
hold it up to the other two and rally them to protest it. . .so she could
be Lori the ringleader, the figurehead, the person everyone looked up to.
	Fortunately, her next turn of the page yielded a mildly erotic scene
between two bishonen who were so androgynous it was impossible to determine
their gender. Holding it where Pamela and Meghan could see it, she said,
"Just like the other place," she said. "Filth put out right next to the
mangas for third graders!"
	Raye heard that. . .and after last night, she just wasn't going to sit
there and listen to talk like that.
	"What's wrong with that?" she said.
	Lori was taken aback. "What do you mean, what's WRONG with that?"
	"It's filth!" said Pamela. "Right out where kids can get their grubby
little hands on it!"
	"Oh, gimme a break!" said Raye. "It's a *love* manga, that's all. It's
harmless!"
	"HARMLESS?" Meghan chimed in. "It's reducing boys to a collection of body
parts! Who the heck reads these things for the *stories*?" (My Gods, Lori
thought, they're practically breathing fire!)
	"As a matter of fact," Raye said, "*I* do. Maybe you should try *reading*
one of them sometime instead of just looking for one picture out of a
thousand in the book to bitch about."
	The black-haired girl was starting to *really* get on Lori's nerves. "I
wouldn't be caught *dead* reading one of those things!" she snapped.
	"Then it's *your* loss, isn't it?"
	"What do you mean, *my* loss? My life isn't any less rich because I don't
read that kind of stuff. I read *quality* stuff instead."
	"Well, I guess our definitions of quality are different." Raye picked up
the copy of "Boyz." She hadn't intended to buy it originally. . .but now
she wanted to, if only to make a statement to this trio of loudmouths.
	At that moment, Chad entered the store, came over to Raye, and kissed her.
"I'm done shopping. Almost ready to go, babe?"
	"I just have to check out," she said, shooting a withering glare at Lori.
	Lori opened her mouth to say something. . .but before she could, Pamela
said to Chad, "Hey! Do you know that your girlfriend's reading manga about
boys making love to other boys?"
	"Yeah," he said. "So?"
	"SO? You mean you don't have a PROBLEM with it?"
	"Nope. Why? It ain't as if she's looking at *real* other boys. I ain't
gonna feel threatened by a *drawing.*" He pulled out his wallet and handed
her a couple of bills. "My treat."
	"Thanks!" She ran for the cash register.
	"Can you believe that?" Meghan said as they watched them leave. "A *guy*
who doesn't mind his girlfriend reading *that* kind of manga?"
	Lori watched them leave hand-in-hand, fuming, her stomach churning. She
tried to tell herself it was *just* because they'd beaten her in the
argument. . .and very quickly buried the flicker of fear that Pamela and
Meghan were starting to get out of hand.
	"I want to get back to campus," she told the other two. "I'm being
interviewed by the Herald" - the university's newspaper - "in a couple of
hours, and I need to be ready." Before the others could say a word, she
stalked out the doors.
	She smiled as she thought of the interview. A chance to spread her views,
again. A chance to rally the whole campus to her cause. A chance to wipe
pornography - and the hurt it had caused - off the face of the earth
forever. . .
* * *
	Once they were settled back in the van, Raye leaned over and gave Chad a
kiss. "Did you mean what you said in there?"
	"You'd better believe it! I don't know what's up with that girl. . .she
seems too uptight for her own good." He squeezed her hand.
	"I don't know what's up with her either," Raye sighed. I wish I knew, she
thought. To act like that about romantic stuff. . .she must have had a real
jerk of a boyfriend or something.
	"Aw, the hell with her," Chad said. "Let her stew. I don't give a damn
about people like that. I've got you. . .that's all that matters."
	I think last night brought us even closer, she thought. That Lori. .
.without realizing it. . .did a very good thing for us. If it weren't for
her, I wouldn't have picked the other one up, and we probably wouldn't have
had such a sweet,hot evening.
	"I love you," she said.
	"I love you, too."
	As they drove home, he with one hand on the wheel, the other clasping
hers, she thought, and the manga itself wasn't bad, either. Hmm, wonder
when the next one is coming out. . .I just *have* to find out what happens
next with Dex and Cory. . .

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I'd like to send a *huge* thank-you to my editor on this
series, Steve Savage, whose input has been absolutely invaluable. He's a
good editor and friend, and he also writes. Check out his all-original
fantasy series, Xai, at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/xai/ Trust me,
you'll love it!

Special thanks also go to the members of Lemon Tree and to all the readers
who've written me (sailormac@wjjz.com) to give me comments on my fics! 

And thanks to Sailor Skuld, who has just retired from ASMR. She was the first
webmaster to publish my work and has given me inspiration and
encouragement throughout my "career." I'll never be ableto thank you
enough, M-chan!

Standard Sailor Moon disclaimers apply. These characters ain't mine, I'm
just borrowing them for a little while.