Author Notes
Okay, the last you heard from me concerning this story (sorries go out to both Silver Sailor Ganymede and Lady-Dragonguardian) was in September '06. It's now February and I will begin university very shortly however I'd like to think this is a work that needs a lot of thinking and has to be done correctly. As promised this is a sequel to: Till the End, however I'd like to think it is a stand alone piece as well for so much more work has gone into it than in Till the End (which in comparison was written over the process of one sitting.). The concepts in this story are completely different to Till the End where all the characters died, however it must not be taken seriously. The world in which I use is a product of my imagination. Also I let loose a lot of hints (... er because I was kinda thinking of this one and got distracted...) from the previous fic about characters that will come and play a part later on. The hints aren't neccessary to enjoy the story. They just make you go: oh! so that's what she was prattling about insane and all...
By the way I do not own Sailor Moon and other characters written in her production, I would also like to mention that I do not own the mythologies that will come into play, however you will notice them all melded together. Points for guessing which myth is which as which character.
Also, this first chapter is not an indication of what the rest of the story will be about, although it's completely OC. This stories main characters include: Tomoe Hotaru, Tsukino (Chibiusa) Usagi, Chiba Mamoru, Kino Makoto and 3 OC characters (who are important to the main plot line and are not Mary-Sues and John Does. 2 of these characters had brief appearances in Till the End. Too brief however to be much use in this story.) Other information is unknown. This story will be set when Hotaru will be beginning her first year at highschool. I also have to say that the Pairing is based entirely on the fact that Mamoru and Hotaru are the main characters, and not a romantic based pairing, I think it supports canon... at least my brain hasn't given me any indication that it doesn't.
Warning: updates on this story will be slow, as will replies to reviews (although they will come… with random comments) because I am me and this takes time. Wish me Luck.
Till the Last Chiba. by Sirenic Griffin
Episode One. The Prologue.
Before she'd been born her parent's, or to be more precise her father and grandfather for her mother never had much influence when it came to any matter in which she was concerned so, they'd decided to call her (assuming she was male) Akira, meaning intelligence, brightness for her great grandfather.
On her birth she'd been labeled that name. Akira. But that wasn't for honor. It was for mockery. At least mockery for her mother. They'd placed their hopes in her producing a male heir but like her mother, and various concubines before her she'd only produced a female child. Akira. Most of the other girl children died before they reached a year old. Doctors said it was due to the collation of so much DNA that was similar. A fancy explanation telling her family to stop keeping the heritage inside the Chiba family.
It hadn't worked against the stubborn patriarch. He'd decided long ago, just like his long line, that the Chiba blood had to remain as pure and undiluted as possible. He wanted to keep the blood of the gods as condensed as possible. So the women had children too weak to survive or had weak female children. Because females babes somehow were stronger. But male dominated family didn't think of it that way. They blamed the women. It was their fault.
Her mother had been lucky to survive bearing her but she hadn't been what was wanted and her father kept coming to her mother. Kept trying to get a male heir. It was horrendous. They never noticed her.
Intelligence. Brightness. Akira Chiba was the brightest star.
A child prodigy. Shame nobody noticed.
The twelve year old grimaced at the scenery. At what the after glow of a vision of a car accident left.
A man stood before her. His skin pitch black. His hair a dark red and his eyes burned blue. One hand firmly held a heavy hammer.
Warmonger.
The other hand burned into her left shoulder painfully.
The red yukata her mother had made for the festival was already singed there. It made a stark comparison to her other shoulder.
Another hand.
That let off an icy, but nice sting.
She knew the other man stood behind her. She knew he was far taller than the black man. His white-blonde hair braided, and grey eyes full of mischief and white skin pressed against her shoulder.
His other hand held a rope.
She couldn't see it but she knew.
It was her gift. The gift nobody knew she possessed. They said she was intelligent and she was.
They said she was bright and she was.
Nobody had any idea what gifts twelve year old Akira Chiba possessed…
Except these two gods.
One she'd never seen before who burnt like fire, smelt like ash and slaughtered without remorse.
And one who'd she'd seen twice… with an icy touch, a trickster heart and who smelt like peppermint.
And they were fighting over her.
One to kill her.
The other she had no idea about.
It was the problem with gods. She could never foretell the future around them.
Memory.101.
Akira first met the icy stranger when she was five. Almost exactly nine months before the birth of her younger brother Shin.
Her mother had been worrying, needlessly over the future and brooding. She was in her twelfth year of marriage to her husband Mamoru Chiba. The time had been 7:30 when Akira had received a vision of the man walking away from the temple, white bear skin robes billowing out behind and a pile of documents in his arms.
Her father was supposed to be home at 5:00 and his late nightshifts were never that much later than 5 and her mother's constant gaze at the clock meant she had no idea what was going on. But she rarely did. Mamoru Chiba rarely talked to her.
It had gotten to such a stage recently that she knew her mother was seriously considering immoral acts to release herself. She knew her mother wanted to be born a male. That way Shinji Chiba, her father, would've been content to leave the Chibara Shrine in her very capable hands however she wasn't a boy. Shinobu Chiba instead had to deal with the idea her father believed that she could, in no shape or form run a temple. Shinobu Chiba instead had dedicated herself to a priestess's, a miko's, study which her father did approve of, and bow to the man Mamoru Chiba who ran the temple business. Mamoru Chiba who was in fact Shinobu's second cousin.
Akira hated that. She knew genetics. She knew, even at five years of age, that so much inbreeding in a family was bad no matter how much her grandfather believed that he kept the heritage together like their blood line was something special. It was the reason that the clan was dying out. That there were so few of them and why so many women were being tormented with the fact that none of their children lived past the age of two.
The men blamed the women. The women blamed themselves. All for the fact that they chose to keep their blood 'pure'. Her grandfather had then preached that they were part of the oldest clans in the world. . A clan that, her grandfather had stated showing various documents as proof had existed before the Ancient Greeks and Egyptians even thought about building their little boats. Akira simply thought it was sick and that he was trying to inflate the clan's self importance.
Her mother thought the same but kept silent, knowing it was better to be silent than incur someone's wrath.
The program that was on before 7:30 finished and Akira glanced up at her mother who was sitting dazedly mending patchwork.
"Mama? The news is on again… didn't Otou-Otou want you to tape it?" She spoke forcing the words that made her sound like the five year old she was supposed to be. Her gifts made it impossible for her to live the normal life. She knew what she saw as her mother looked down at her. Disappointment. Her first son Akira. Her mother's hand scrunched the fabric. Creasing it.
She was looking into space and Akira let out a heavy sigh. Her bright blue eyes watching her mother cautiously. That should've been the first clue to them that there was something different about her. Blue eyes in a dark race. Her father had taken it as something freaky and could never look her in the eye. It could've hurt if Akira was as sensitive as the girl's she went to school with. Like the ones that loved her wavy black hair. Like the ones that everyday would braid it and cry as it fell apart. They were innocent. Children.
Her mother still hadn't replied to her and Akira knew she'd have to play with her gifts to get a response.
Her mother was worrying about female rights and whether life would change. She scrunched her nose and hoped for her prophetic aide.
"It'll change." She whispered and her mother's eyes flew to hers and she touched her mother's hand. She wasn't so good at her developing ESP powers. They all required skin contact. She shoved the images gathering in her mind into her mothers.
Visions. Women walking laughing in western clothes.
A blonde girl screaming 'Pervert' at the top of her voice at a dark haired boy with blue eyes.
A bunch of girls confronted four men. Step for step. Each wearing a different colour.
A blonde, short haired woman smirked as she climbed onto a motor bike and left her competitors in the dust.
A girl spun in an alluring white dress, a violin's music dazing an audience, leaving an German with his mouth dropping open.
A woman in street clothes stretched lazily and checked her nails, walking over a bunch of men's faces, as she lamented over a broken nail. They were obviously beaten up.
A girl sighed, despairingly as she gazed at a ranking board. Her name was the first on the list. Genius girl.
A woman stood in miko garbs whacking a man clad in blue priestly garbs over the head and chucking him out of the temple.
Her mother gaped at her for a moment and she suddenly felt uncomfortable. Was it that freaky? Till then she hadn't dared to use her gifts around other people. She knew she had to break the spell.
She danced over to the television and fiddled with VCR. One of the four modern inventions in the shrine. The first being the telephone. The second the car, and the third the television.
The image of the man approaching the shrine appeared again and Akira blinked.
The phone rang and her mother got up, her mending pooling on the floor. And Akira got a chance to gaze at her mother's kimono. She'd changed from the miko garbs. It must've been because of her mother's and father's anniversary.
"Mushi Mushi, Chibara Shrine." Her mother's dull voice spoke over the television report.
"Hai. This is Shinobu. Mamoru has somethi- " Her mother's voice raced for a moment before she was cut off.
"You won't be home tonight? I understand. Hai. I'll make sure Akira goes to bed." Akira blinked and knew she had to make a quick get away. Her mother held the phone away from her ear and took a deep breath and clenched her other hand. The phone looked like it was taking a lot of tension.
"Hai. Ja'ne." She put the phone down.
"Of course I'd understand Mamoru-baka. You fucking dolt." She screamed to the ceiling and what followed were far worse extremities. Akira tuned them out except for the whole: SATAN TAKE ME! And began to pay slight attention to the television report.
"Police Officers believe their to be a connection in the mass murders that have began occurring throughout Japan. If anyone has any information regarding these deaths or the victims please – "
The television flashed over forty images in her face, most looked oddly familiar. It was about to give futher information when her mother switched it off.
"Mama, I'm going to visit cousin Saki. She thinks she can beat me in Go." Akira burst out, anxious to get away. Her senses told her not to be in the temple that night. Her mother nodded. And Akira got all the way to the door.
"Be polite to the guest." She told her mother before running to the steps and the gate and crashing into the man who seemed both angelic and demonic at the same time.
A few minutes later she could here them conversing.
"That's not very polite." The mans voice was deep and almost put her to sleep. It sounded like her mother took a step backwards.
"Aw, come now. Is that anyway to treat a guest?"
"I didn't invite you." Her mother's voice broke and for a moment Akira considered going back to help her.
"I don't even know who you are!" He laughed and made a rustling noise as he sat down. Obviously his western clothes were not used to sitting down Japanese style.
"Of course you invited me. If you think about it." Her mother wasn't talking.
"My name is complicated, however I can tell you where I live, I live…" And he paused for effect.
"Near Venus." Her heard a thumping noise as her mother fainted and the man caught her. Akira nodded and decided to leave the adults be. AS much as she hated Saki she might as well visit her.
Memory 101.
"You said you wouldn't interfere in our work, brother." The black man seemed to spit and Akira blinked. She knew gods appearances changed drastically but she figured this was too much of an extreme. They were just too different. And the way the fireman said brother made it sound like the word was simply just a title. She heard the white haired man chuckle behind her.
"And I haven't. You've killed the few remaining children with true Chiba blood - "He began and Akira began to have a sinking feeling. Her old music box sat in the corner. It's old counting tune repeating over again.
One two. Tie your Shoe.
She shook it off.
"No I haven't. There's this little brat, and the ones down the road and I left him alive." The iceman scoffed.
"You haven't gotten to the brats there yet and he needs to survive to fulfill a prophecy. However so does this one." The fireman glared at the taller man behind her.
"Yeah. What one?" He said scoffing and iceman laughed at his infuriation.
"Pandora."
Memory 101.
He'd said that the second time they met. She'd taken her four year old brother to the park. Shin loved the roses that the old gardener grew there.
The eleven year old just loved the peacefulness. It was so much better than at home where her grandfather was always complaining about her mother and how she wasn't fulfilling her duties and her father always disappeared to somewhere she knew was unethical.
Her brother had cut himself on of the roses and had been bitting his lip so he wouldn't cry.
It wasn't manly. Her grandfather had said about crying. He grandfather hated crying. He found it annoying and intolerable. It showed weakness.
They'd named Shin for Shinji but left it at Shin. It meant 'True' her grandfather had said and the boy was. He was always truthful. He never lied.
After he cut himself the four year old walked over to her and stuck out his hand and she'd looked at him helplessly. She had prophetic powers and sometimes ESP however that came and went. She couldn't heal… and she had no band aids. Then something happened.
Golden light emerged from the cut and it healed himself. She heard horse hooves and glanced up. The white man was there and he was riding a brilliant stallion.
Shin loved it.
"That's special, that gift." The man said and Akira glanced at him.
"That's my brother. He'll always be special." She said. Truthfully. There was no emotion there and the white man blinked.
"I'm sure you're special." Akira met his eyes.
"Really? I'm worthless. Just ask my family." The man jumped down from the horse and Shin crowed in delight and tried to climb up. The white man ignored him.
"How old are you?" He asked. Eyes gazing at her. Grey, scary eyes, just like Shin's when he was trying to be serious and studious.
"Eleven." She added sullenly and he clicked his fingers and a box appeared in his hand.
"Just old enough," He said smiling and gave her the box. Inside were two very different earrings. Both drops.
On one a little brown cube was at the end, and on the other a dark red sphere. He grinned.
"They belonged to a friend of mine. Pandora." She blinked and gazed at his hand.
"As in Greek mythology?" He shook his head in denial.
"I see… why are you giving them to me?"
"She was a Chiba also." That wasn't an answer but Akira had to deal with it. She smiled.
"Okay. But I need to repay you." He began to shake his head but Akira grapped his hand. Nothing. It was odd, usually she got visions of people. None.
"Okay. You'll have four children, by two women, you have a strong personality and a good heart and should live-" She gazed at his life line… or the place it should've been. Nothing. Just like the usual instinct. She blinked.
"I can't tell your future." He laughed.
"Can you usually?" Shin had then decided that it was impossible to climb up the horse.
"Onee-chan knows everything. She can tell the past of any object. The future and what your thinking right now." He withdrew his hand suddenly.
"I've got to go."
Memory 101.
"Pandora?" The fireman's eyes widened considerably.
"Are you sure?" Iceman shook his head.
"It could be one of her descendents." Fireman scowled.
"However I am sure that she is a sailor scout of Earth." Fireman glared at him.
"Are you making excuses brother?" Iceman shrugged.
" Ask her about the three roses on her brother's ankle. Ask her what they mean." Fireman scowled.
"Answer. Girl." He said roughly and Akira nodded, almost unsure. Where they talking about her brother's birthmark? The discoloration was a point of shame for her grandfather and he always covered it up.
There were three spots about the size of her thumb print. One was white, the other red and the third black. She felt the answer in her brain.
"Life, Dreams and Blood. The elements which make Terra different." Fireman's eyes widened and he nodded.
"For that she will live." Iceman nodded.
"However she must be taught a lesson before the gods." Iceman nodded again and the two exchanged a smile. Akira's world went dark.
Memory 101.
"Police Officers believe their to be a connection in the mass murders that have began occurring throughout Japan. If anyone has any information regarding these deaths or the victims please – "
Akira gazed at the television as she watched her father fumble with the keys to the car. A music box was playing, her younger brother, aged six, was playing with a rubex cube, eyebrows furrowed in concentration.
The mass murders still continued, six years later.
"Shit. He'll be here soon." Her father swore and Shinobu just rolled her eyes. They didn't know who but her father had come home in a rush. It had been just after her mother had received a call from the police.
Dearest Aunt Kyoko was dead. Hit by a rushing car. Accident. But Akira knew perfectly well it wasn't. Her father by the looks of it did to. She also knew perfectly well that the chances of there being any other family than the ones she saw before her were slim. They were all dead. Someway or another.
Saki was still alive...
Akira was not pleased. She knew why the murderers had left her family last. They were easy to find and easy to make a connection.
Chibara temple guardians dead.
Wait! All those people who are dead they were somehow connected through blood. Oh no. Akira smiled to herself as her old grandfather tottered downstairs and put his gear in the backseat. That left four seats.
One for her father. Mamoru Chiba, as the driver - the only one with the ability. He'd forbidden her mother to learn and the old geezer was too set in his ways.
One for her mother. Shinobu Chiba, as the supposed 'matriarch' of the family. That was the passenger side backseat. Her grandfather refused to sit back there.
One for her grandfather. Shinji Chiba. The passenger seat. He always said that the road looked pretty but he failed to mention he was the worst backseat driver.
And one left for her little half brother. Shin Chiba. The third male to ever bear that name...
Akira smiled again. She knew she wouldn't be going. She was beneath notice, for her grandfather assumed that they would not find her worthy of killing. A girl after all could not inherit the powers of the Chiba dynasty.
It was then she remembered the music box tune and the distorted version a friend had whispered around the campfire at camp. She said it was so cool she ort to right a movie with it in.
Akira smiled. There would be a movie with those words but not all the way as Seiko had done it. Or tried.
One. Two. He's coming for you.
Three. Four. It's gonna be war.
Five. Six. He can hear you dicks.
Seven. Eight. He's at the gate.
Nine. Ten. He'll kill the men.
She couldn't remember it all but it sounded ghastly.
She waved as her imouto looked out the back of the car. He hadn't done up his seat belt and was looking at her curiously. He was waving but he was obviously worried. Akira smiled.
For a boy who had been blessed by Lugh his only real talent was healing himself. Not like her. Nothing like what she could do.
Her minds eye awakened for a moment.
Her brother was still looking out the back of the car. Her mother was fussing and it looked like complaining about her absence while her father dismissed it and grandfather pointed to the road.
It warped. It moved. And her father lost control.
Right near the bridge. She recognized the landscape. It was in Tokyo, near Juuban. A good distance away from the the Chiba Prefecture.
The car went flying over and her brother went flying straight through the windscreen and into the ditch. The car however kept going straight across the ditch and into the rocky wall on the other side.
She heard swervings cars. People calling for a phone. An ambulance. the Fire rescue team.
Her imouto was alive. And her vision faded.
She felt a sharp pain on her shoulder and glanced up. There stood a tall man. His hair as red as blood and his skin darker than anything she'd ever seen before.
His blue eyes penetrated the stillness and gazed right into her soul. She suddenly knew that that was what those around her must feel like around her own eyes.
"Another freak." It muttered and drew its hand high. Akira took a step backwards.
She could hear crying now.
A young girl not more than eight years old. She was lying next to an exact replica of herself and a boy the exact same age. There was a car. And the girl's hands seemed burnt but nothing else.
There was also one body.
Hers.
The pain was overwhelming till she felt pressure on the other shoulder. It hurt less.
It felt good.
She glanced up to see the opposites facing each other.
The black man with his black hair and eyes and the white man with his white-blonde hair and grey eyes.
He smiled and she could have sworn she saw wings behind each of them. Black vampire wings and white angel wings. She dared not move.
Each if them wanted her, for what purpose it was for all to guess.
End Notes:
Like it? Loathe it? Give me your opinion. I need to know and I will reply to your review eventually. I promise as well as I will try to read your own works if time provides.
This is different from past attempts. I need opinions.
Also, again, I am unsure how to rate this and will need suggestions because I awful at applying ratings as well as genres because I don't have a clearcut view of them while writing. Any suggestions would be much appreciated.