ChibiTaru

ChibiTaru is the femslash ship between Chibiusa Tsukino and Hotaru Tomoe from the Sailor Moon fandom.

Canon
In all the adaptations and in the original source material, Hotaru and Chibiusa meet after Chibiusa’s hat flies away at the amusement park. Delighted by Chibiusa’s friendliness and having never had friends before, Hotaru invites Chibiusa to come to her house whenever she wants so that they can hang out. Later, the two meet again when Chibiusa, as Sailor Chibi Moon, fights off a Daemon in front of Hotaru’s residence, Chibiusa gets injured and Hotaru displays her amazing healing abilities by restoring Chibiusa’s health and healing her injuries, making Chibiusa wonder exactly who this mysterious girl is.

Chibiusa takes Hotaru’s invitation and visits Hotaru at her house. The two usually have tea with each other although they occasionally go out to the movies. While visiting one day, Chibiusa witnesses one of Hotaru’s seizures. Hotaru believes that her seizures might drive Chibiusa away but Chibiusa, although frightened, still stays by her friend’s side. I think this is one of the more significant parts about their friendship and it’s undoubtedly why Chibiusa is one of Hotaru’s most precious friends. Hotaru doesn’t have a lot of friends and is sometimes even ridiculed at school because of her sickly condition, but Chibiusa is one of the people to stand by her despite all of that.

When visiting Hotaru’s house at one point, Chibiusa discovers something about her she didn't know about: Hotaru has a cyborg body in order to make up for the injuries that she had suffered from a car crash when she was a child. Frightened, Chibiusa runs away only to stop herself and run back, realizing that she was hurting her friend by abandoning her. Hotaru, after having her father use her body as a vessel to serve Pharaoh 90, transforms into Mistress 9. Both Chibiusa and Hotaru fall into darkness. Hotaru as Mistress 9 and Chibiusa as Black Lady, although a large difference between is that Hotaru was given over to Pharaoh 90 without her consent and Chibiusa willingly gave herself up to the Black Moon Kingdom. However, Chibiusa knows what it’s like to be pulled into corruption and also how to pull someone out of it, so she essentially becomes this beacon of light for Hotaru, showing her what love and friendship is, and Hotaru is eventually able to snap out of it and ends up sacrificing herself to save everyone, thanking Chibiusa for her friendship before she leaves.

Hotaru is reborn as a child and ages up quickly but spends most of her time growing up with Michiru, Haruka, and Setsuna, so we don’t see a lot of interactions between Chibiusa and Hotaru. However, Hotaru and the rest of the outer Senshi do reunite with Sailor Moon and the inner Senshi and it’s apparent that she and Chibiusa are as close as ever.

Sailor Moon Crystal
One night, Hotaru is asleep in her room, dreaming about three shadowy figures that are carrying three mystical treasures until she awakens out of fright. Some time later, Hotaru has another seizure and is offered assistance by Chibiusa, which she refuses; stating that she always has these attacks. Still in pain, she watches in shock when a Daimon appears out of nowhere and begins wreaking havoc. She's even more confused when she sees Usagi and Chibiusa transform into Sailor Moon and Sailor Chibi Moon. She later notices a cut on Sailor Chibi Moon's elbow and heals it. She tells Chibiusa to leave before the security guards come and introduces herself before leaving.

Some nights later, she begins noticing that she could not suppress the dark being within her any longer. She tried harder, but was quickly overwhelmed by the being. By the time Sailor Chibi Moon arrives to protect Hotaru from the Outer Senshi, the evil thing within her takes full control of Hotaru's body, transforming it into a grown woman, calling herself Mistress 9, who immediately steals Chibiusa's Silver Crystal, as well as her soul. Within the body, Hotaru is ensnared in thorny vines, but she still fights against Mistress 9's control. Hotaru's capable of partially suppressing it from using Chibiusa's Silver Crystal, but can not prevent her from swallowing it completely. Hotaru remains strong and tries to stop the invader from gaining more power. She leads the Silver Crystal to Chibiusa's soul and encourages her to fight on and that she would always be there to protect her. She hugged Chibiusa, saying that she would definitely save her and the Silver Crystal from being destroyed. She expresses sadness, feeling the destruction of her father.

She remains obstinate and resolves to stop Mistress 9 from escaping her body and absorbing the spirits' of Chibiusa, and the four Inner Sailor Guardians. She cannot stop Mistress 9 from breaking out of her body, so Hotaru takes the inner Senshi and Chibiusa's souls, and the Silver Crystal, out of the body and returns them to their owners. Knowing that she has little strength left, she appears at Mamoru's apartment and returns the soul and the Silver Crystal to their rightful owner. She cries, glad that Chibiusa was safe again. As Mistress 9 begins to grow even stronger, and as her consciousness begins to fade away, she admits how glad she was to have met Chibiusa and that she truly loved her. Mistress 9 finally breaks out of the body and Hotaru fades away.

Fanon
ChibiTaru is not such a popular ship compared to all the femslash ships that the Sailor Moon fandom has. However, it is one of Chibiusa's, and Hotaru's, most popular ships. Many fans of this ship see the incredible potential their relationship has of being much more than just a very close friendship, and of the two young girls discovering a beautiful relationship with each other. Some people have argued that there's a big age gap between the two of them. However, that's far from the truth, since both of them are around the same age. Chibiusa herself confirms that they are in the same grade several times in the manga.

Fandom
FAN FICTION

Trivia

 * Throughout the manga, they share some homoerotic moments. For example, during act 36, right after Hotaru saves Chibiusa and she goes to fight alongside Sailor Moon, Mamoru thinks to himself that it feels like he "has given his daughter away as a bride." And in act 50, when Mamoru had flown off to the US and Usagi hadn't heard back from him, so she was feeling lonely and grumpy. At that time, she sees Chibiusa and Hotaru being really happy together and holding hands, and remarks the fact that they sure look "too close". Hotaru then asks Usagi why she seems suspicious of this if her and Chibiusa are holding hands the same way in which Usagi and Mamoru do.