Fanfic / Celestial Warrior Moon

Celestial Warrior Moon is a Darker and Edgier Alternate Universe Fanfic of Sailor Moon. So needless to say, it is very, very different from both the manga and anime, approaching the story from a completely different angle. The story includes several OCs, though they've been strictly regulated into the supporting cast so as not to take any of the limelight off the main characters. The author has changed how transformations and powers work, and has even gone as far as to introduce the Sailor Senshi/Scouts out of order just to shake things up. The villains and monsters have been made much more menacing and dangerous, leading to much more intense violence during fight scenes.

While it follows the same basic outline of the original story, the main characters instead transform into armored Ladies of War, armed with swords, bows and arrows, and other such weapons instead of Princess Classic-style magical girls who wear sailor fukus and tiaras. The roles of Luna and Artemis have also been changed considerably. In this fic, they're members of a secret organization called The Keepers, which is made up of descendants of the Moon Kingdom's royal court. They basically play the role of The Men in Black.

Clumsy, lazy, underachieving 14-year-old crybaby schoolgirl Usagi has her whole world flip-turned upside down one fateful day while studying at a friend's house. They're attacked by The Rake (yes, really). As she flees through the streets, a cat she encounters turns into a full grown woman and saves her by giving her the power of the Celestial Warriors to defend herself from the beast. Now it's her task to protect planet Earth against the forces of evil responsible for the attack. This cat-lady, Luna, tells her that she is predestined to be a magical warrior who must find the reincarnated princess of the lost magical Moon Kingdom to restore peace and harmony to the world, else it covered in an eternal age of darkness. First, though, she must gain allies in the form of other reincarnated warriors. Second, learn how to be their leader, and then finally discover the secret within herself to save the world. She must find the courage to confront the evil masterminds, The Dark Kingdom, perhaps even sacrificing everything along the way.

The story can also be read here on Wattpad.

---

Celestial Warrior Moon has examples of the following tropes:

• Adaptation Inspiration: The fic follows the same basic plot as the manga and anime, but the tone and style have been dramatically changed into something more resembling The X-Files with magical girls.
• Adaptational Badass: Tuxedo Mask, who has been made into Phantom Mask, a Batman-like figure that wields a sword and gets into the thick of things and manages to hold his own. He's thrown no roses and made no cheesy one-liners here. Usagi and the other girls count, too. The nature of their powers makes getting up, close, and personal with their opponents necessary, so the fighting is a lot more intense.
• Alien Geometries: Pretty much all the Eldritch Locations that Usagi and her friends have been dragged to, but especially The Land of Black Leaves.

• All There in the Manual: This guide to The Keepers basically explains how the whole thing works.
• Alternate Continuity: The fic bares only a passing resemblance to both the anime and the manga, but used influences from both of them. It's setting itself up to develop in a direction divergent from both.
• Amazon Brigade: The Celestial Warriors. The are a group of kick-butt magical girls after all.
• Amusement Park of Doom: Dream Land, much like it's counterpart from the anime. Of course, this time it's a given, since freaking Nephrite funded it!
• Ancient Conspiracy: The Keepers are a rare benevolent example. The Dark Kingdom plays it straight, though.
• Author Appeal: WeirdRaptor definitely likes Valkyrie Profile and creepypasta. You can also tell Jupiter is one of his favorite Senshi.
• Badass Normal: Makoto, before taking up the mantle of Jupiter. She takes on The Rake and even gets in some good blows, Evan style. After that, she faces a freaking Siren down!
  • Don't forget her fight with Zoicite, which is directly lifted from the anime.
  • In chapter 32 the bride's mother kills an arachnotaur and is prepared to throw down with Nephrite.
• Barrier-Busting Blow: Done twice consecutively by The Face Taker.

• Body and Host: Anyone that's been infected by The Rake can become it's new host.
• Body Horror:
  • The Rake can regenerate itself by taking over the corpse of his victims and reshaping them into himself. Meep!
  • That's to say nothing of poor Crane Game Joe when the youma sleeping inside him is awakened. The slow, horrible transformation seems to imply that the insect-like monster grew and burst out from inside him!
• Bloodier and Gorier:
  • The monsters in this fic are very violent and very brutal. Gone are the energy-sucking cute monster girls. In their place are creatures like The Rake.
  • Cranked up to eleven as of Chapters 11 and 12 with the introduction of The Face Taker. Exactly What It Says on the Tin.
• Breather Episode: One of the things the author does commonly between chapters focusing on the plot and battling monsters is include one that just focuses on the daily lives of the girls while setting up the next encounter.
• By the Power of Grayskull!: Averted. The girls' transformations into Celestial Warriors are wordless.

• Calling Your Attacks: So far only Moon and V have engaged in this, with Moon Blade Boomerang and all of V's attacks from her original manga, respectively.

• Crash-Into Hello: Usagi to Mamoru in the first chapter. She hopped a fence and jumped right into him as he was passing by. Ouch.
• Creepy Child: In scenic Lightless City (a location within The Land of Black Leaves), there are the Eyeless Children. Give them one of your eyes, and they'll stricken someone else blind for you. Refuse payment, and they'll just hunt you down until you give up both.
• Creepypasta:
  • This is where the author is pulling from for a good chunk of the monsters, which so far have included The Rake, The Pocket (renamed The Face Taker), The Bleeding Tree, The Old Man and the Eyeless Children from The Lightless City, and more.
  • There have also been a lot of allusions to The Slender Man, but that particular pasta monster has yet to appear. In all likelihood, it's all build-up to his inevitable appearance.
• Crossover: With Creepypasta in general.
  • And The Lord of the Rings, apparently, at least in the setting's distant past.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Zoicite owns Jupiter when they go one-on-one at the radio station

• Dark World: Three so far. The Land of Black Leaves, Niflheim, and The Beldam's lair.
• Darker and Edgier: This fic inserts beasts from classic myths and legends and Creepypasta monsters in all their glory for the heroines to fight. This much should go without saying.
• Deconstruction Fic: The police get involved with the attacks, the monsters leave bodies, there is property damage, and the stress is showing signs of taking its toll on Usagi.
  • The author has also made great use of news broadcasts to keep readers updated on how much the general public has figured out for itself.
• Determinator: Usagi, full stop. Though showing a lot of signs of being traumatized and beginning to become depressed over her circumstances, she still isn't giving up the fight and has soldiered through every obstacle standing in her way.
• Die or Fly: Does Awakening just in time not to be ripped to shreds by The Rake after witnessing it murder at least one person and then beat the crap out of all your friends before mercilessly chasing you down the streets of Tokyo in the dead of night count?
• Doorstopper: Over 1 million words, 94 chapters, with each chapter being about 10,000 words long, and counting!

• Dragon with an Agenda: Zoicite is fast shaping up to be this, if not an outright example of The Starscream.
• Early-Bird Cameo: So far, Ami, Makoto, Rei, Kunzite, Nephrite, Minako during her time as Sailor V, and Haruka.
  • So far, of the reincarnated Seven Great Youma, Grandpa Hino, Reika, and Crane Game Joe have all made early on appearances and only one of them has been turned.
  • One of Sailor Uranus's techniques, Space Sword, made it's appearance when a particularly nasty beast had Haruka backed up into a corner.
• Eldritch Abomination: The unnamed Entity, which is the real leader of the Dark Kingdom. Its described as being nothing short of Lovecraftian.
• Eldritch Location: The Land of Black Leaves. The entire place is a collection of nightmares and horrific monsters that drag humans into their world to 'play' with them until they 'break'.

• Evil Plan: Queen Beryl plans to Take Over the World and usher in an eternal age of darkness under The Dark Kingdom's unnamed ruler, otherwise known as The Entity.

• Fangirl: Makoto is a HUGE Sailor V fan in this fanfic. She even has a poster of her on her wall at home.
• Fanon: In-Universe example. Chapter 27 reveals that Natsuna Sakurada, the Police Superintendent from Codename: Sailor V is the older sister of Miss Haruna, Usagi's homeroom teacher. Them being sisters has long been a common fan theory among Moonies for years. The author apparently decided to roll with it.
• Foreshadowing: Just look at the Shout-Out section below. The author couldn't be making it more obvious that Slender Man is going to be making an appearance if he tried.
  • Also, all of the Shitennou have been introduced, as well as the Seven Great Youma, though the latter hasn't been awakened yet.
  • Not only that, but the author has taken steps to foreshadow just about every major upcoming plot point. Numerous elements that won't come into play until much later have already been mentioned and built up. We've seen Nephrite and his crew working on the black crystal which will be used to awaken The Seven Great Youma, for instance.

• Good Is Not Nice: Pious, the Keeper of the Records. One of the High Keepers, he is a very abrasive and confrontational individual who is very critical of every mistake Usagi and the others makes. Of course, when you consider how much is on the line, this becomes somewhat justified. Thus far, he's also been one of the more competent of the Keepers. To quote the author (with permission): "I can understand why most of my readers won't like Pious. He's a jerk, but he's also a competent jerk."
• Hero of Another Story: Sailor V. The implication at this point is that her struggles from Codename: Sailor V are happening behind the scenes.
  • The Dark Agency and Phantom Ace, both from the Sailor V manga have been mentioned.
• Hero Secret Service: And this time they actually have an actual secret service with thousands of agents keeping an eye on things worldwide known as The Keepers.
• Historical Badass Upgrade: This story somehow manages to do this for England's Elizabeth II, who frankly doesn't need the help. As this fic tells it, she was a high ranking Keeper who apparently spearheaded several important operations to save the world, and saved the underwater city of Atlantis from The Dark Kingdom by having a Keeper-manned submarine launched.
• Human Resources: Played a lot more darkly than "The Dark Kingdom tries to suck human energy", though that does happen, too. Usually it's more along the lines of sucking the life energy out of humans that have just been horribly mutilated beyond repair.

• Invisible to Normals: Not in the sense that no one recognizes the girls as the Warriors, but in the sense that there's a whole second fantasy world always lying just around the corner of every day life that humans have trained themselves not to see.

• Jerkass and Jerkass Has a Point: Pious. He is abrasive, unflinching, unfriendly, domineering, critical, shrewd, and calculating. He believes that the Warriors are too frivolous and frankly not ready to properly fulfill their duties, and... given how many near misses the Warriors have suffered thanks to either lack of experience or caution, it's kinda hard to argue his point.
  • However difficult he may be to get along with, he does his job well. With him in charge of investigating Jadeite and Nephrite's energy drain victims, the Keepers have successfully zeroed in on how they are being targeted. Word of God confirms that he is supposed to be an unpleasant, but competent individual, so this also crosses into Good Is Not Nice.

• Mad Artist: Chapter 16 reveals that one of the monsters, The Beldam, created elaborate sculptures out of the remains of her victims, resulting in a catacombs with walls made up of clay and human bones as well as chandeliers and a the sculpture of a dragon.
• Mad Scientist Laboratory: Nephrite's lab, which is located underground and can be access through an abandoned silo which The Face Taker guards.

• The Masquerade: The Keepers have imposes this on the secondary world of creatures, monsters, and other mythological beings. It's explicitly stated in the backstory that part of the main reason mankind was being held back from progress was because they spent most of their days cowering in fear of monsters or were fighting them off.
  • Broken Masquerade: At least partially as of Chapter 18: The Ball. The fact that monsters do exist has been exposed to the public at large, and the whole thing's been gradually more and more exposed with each passing chapter ever since.
• Monster of the Week: Yep, but with a twist. Not all the monsters have been killed after their encounter with the Warriors (one was even let go and another came back for more). In fact, one thing the author seems to be trying to avoid is having meaningless monsters of the week.
• Mood Whiplash: Oh, man. This fic lashes back and forth from the silly light-hearted nature of the Sailor Moon anime into the levels of darkness that'd make Elfen Lied give a silent nod of approval. And it does so often enough that's probably broken a few necks by now.
• My Greatest Failure:
  • It's a little early to tell, but it appears that Usagi views Crane Game Joe's death and Entomon's subsequent escape as this.
  • Makoto considers the entire past year to be this. Apparently she fell in with the wrong crowd, started doing drugs, physically assaulted at least one close friend, and disappointed her senpai, as well as going through four schools in that time frame.
• My Greatest Second Chance: How Makoto views working with the Keepers for the above reason.

• Noodle Incident: A few. Apparently, The Dark Kingdom laid siege to Atlantis, which is a living underwater city in this setting, with some kind of ship which was downed by a Keeper-manned submarine. Oh, and Elizabeth II (back when she was a high ranking Keeper prior to becoming Queen of England) spearheaded the operation.
  • And this next one crosses with The Great Off Screen War. Something called The Underground War occurred shortly after Elizabeth II retired from The Keepers in order to become Queen. All we know is that the Keepers fought in it, and it's been outright stated to have been a hellish ordeal by Luna.
• Not Using the "Z" Word: Averted. Each and every monster has been quickly identified by name and species.
• Oh, Crap!: Dozens, but a particularly light-hearted one is when Usagi accidentally lets slip in the middle of class that Makoto's injury was a knife wound.

• Parental Abandonment: Ami's mother never has time for her and no father in sight, Rei's relationship with her father has probably not changed, and Makoto's parents died in a plane crash.
  • Chapter 22 confirms that Rei's relationship with her father is the same.
  • Chapter 24 reveals that Mamoru was orphaned at a young age following a car accident. He was adopted by a councilor who was treating him for the amnesia he suffers as the result.
• Quirky Miniboss Squad: The Shitennou for The Dark Kingdom, as always.
• Real Women Don't Wear Dresses: Averted. In fact, now they wear armor-plated dresses!
• Refusal of the Call: Both Usagi and later Ami, initially. It took a little convincing before either would commit to being Warriors.
• Sailor Earth: Lampshaded. She's already been mentioned and her absence commented on.
• Secret-Keeper: Naru to the Celestial Warriors.
  • Now he even has his own brain-washed proxy, to boot.
• Sleazy Politician: Rei's father, Takashi Hino, is shaping up to be this.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: Thus far, Celestial Warrior Moon has been a much, much darker take on the franchise, but the author has not made his intentions concerning the End Game known yet, so it could go either direction at this point.
• Small Role, Big Impact: The Rake. Though only present in the first few chapters, The Rake is instrumental in setting the tone for both the story and all the villains that would follow after him. Through him, the author also introduced the story's heavy horror elements, the first of the multitude of dark worlds that exist in the setting, and lays down the first bits of Foreshadowing for the Slender Man's eventual appearance.

• Stalker without a Crush: In the early chapters, the Rake enters Naru's house and enacts his usual M.O. by skulking around her neighborhood, lying in wait for the right moment to attack.
• Starter Villain:
  • The Rake. Chapters 1-5 are basically a little mini-arc within the story where the famed creepypasta monster plays the role of main villain.
  • Zoicite, starting at Chapter 6. Yes, really, but not a straight example. While it's true that Zoicite takes Jadeite's place as the first primary Shitennou to go up against Usagi and her Warriors, it comes with a twist. He's acting as a distraction for Jadeite and Nephrite. While he keeps the Warriors busy, they gather energy from humans to feed The Entity.
  • Also diverging from the norm, Zoicite survived the events of the doom bus, which was where Jadeite died in the manga and where Zoicite suffers his first true defeat in this fic. However, he was merely badly injured and taken out of commission for a while. Nephrite temporarily takes over his duties while he recovers.
  • Now Zoicite's back as of Chapter 18. It seems like the first three Shitennou are all lobbying to play this role.

• Tokyo Is the Center of the Universe: Played straight initially, but the fic is shaping up to subvert this with the latest development concerning a monster that's killed some civilians in the U.S.
  • It also looks like the plot of Chapter 4 of the manga/episode 22 of the anime, which involves the Senshi and the villains both attending a masquerade ball to get their hands on a jewel which might be the Silver Crystal (it's not), will be taking place in Buckingham Palace, London, England.
  • Now the story's gearing up to go to Germany...and Cleveland, Ohio.
• Urban Legend: There actually is a silo on Shoe-Factory Road in Barrington, Illinois that's said to be haunted, where chapters 11 and 12 are set. Though, it's not guarded by The Face Taker in real life.

• Wendigo: The Rake has been given elements of this, such as the cannibalism and the "coming back to life by body-jacking its victims" part.

• The World Is Always Doomed: Lampshaded. The Keepers have outright stated that there's always something trying to destroy humanity.
• Xenafication: Not played entirely straight. They're more akin to Valkyrie Profile-style warrior maidens, but the trope still holds.

---