The Paradise Lost in the Moonlight
Author: Jadeite
Translate: MTL
Orginal Language: Chinese
Disclaimer: Sailormoon is the property of Takeuchi Naoko, Kodansha and Toei Animation. This is a fanfiction of Sailor Moon, with neither illegal nor financial purpose.
He is an everyman, he was an everyman, until he was drawn into an extraordinary event.
He enjoyed his childhood in his hometown.
In where he once lived, the sky was always crystal blue; in where he was born, the mountains and the streams were always graceful and pure. He loved his hometown.
But what impressed him most was the legend passing on in his hometown. It was a legend about the moon.
People who were telling the legend believed that after the death of a moral, the soul of the dead one would fly to the moon, which is the heaven full of happiness and harmony.
He loved the legend, as everyone else did.
When the curtain of night fell, he often sit on the soft grassland holding his knees staring at the moon, and imagine the days and nights of his passed-away families and friends in the paradise. He never felt sad, since he knew those people had simply moved to a new home, to which he would move one day in the future. These thoughts made him smile, and he waited for another day to meet in the paradise, he waited patiently in the dream.
Time flies with one after another nights shined by the moonlight. He grew up, he was far from his childhood, and far from his hometown.
He didn't reach the moon, instead he reached Elysium, the flourishing capital with numerous changes for high-classed lives according to people. There he would be able to gain fame, to gain better life, which his lovely but barren hometown could never offer.
After all he could not wear the crystal blue sky as clothes; he could not have the beautiful grassland as meals, nor could he keep the pure, graceful landscapes as money and wealth.
People kept the common sense. Before he had wandered for too long in Elysium had he found a job, so he became a soldier of the royal palace.
His salary was no more than enough, nor did his work tougher than acceptable. Every day he worked hard, every month he gained his salary, and he was living an honest life. The only pity was that he seldom had friends, people with higher class looked down upon him, same as his looking upon those with lower class.
Fortunately he had fellow-villagers among the soldiers. During off-hour they gathered and made small talks.
Once he mentioned the old legend about the moon, and the little boy staring at the moon for nights.
But he received nothing but laughter, they laughed at him as if he was a three-year-old idiot, before told him that someone had already lived on the moon. Legends were legends, and no one would believe in them except a naïve idiot like him.
The settlers on the moon, who was known as the lunarians, had built the palace named Millennium. However they were not born on the moon, instead, they were long-lived creatures who owned the sacred silver crystal from the depth of the space.
He cursed them because of fury, although he had also dimly heard about the lunarians that he was unwilling to admit. He was stubborn that would not believer in things that he had never seen with his own eyes.
Yet it didn't contradict with his believing in that legend.
However, the truth would finally come true. Coincidently he got a chance to go visit the moon.
It was on the day for celebrating the grown-up of the moon princess. The prince of the earth was invited, and the king ordered some soldiers as well as the guardians to follow the prince in order to protect him.
He was included.
They stepped on the grand way which was glittering being too wide and empty for them. In the front of the terrain visitors five young lads are talking about something beyond his understanding. He could identify the one with short, dark hair as their prince, and they were following for his safety. However he could even not gather his attention.
Again he remembered the old legend, in which the moon was the paradise full of happiness and peace, the paradise for the death.
The way between the moon and the earth was usually closed. Because of either pride or prudence the lunarians seldom contacted with the earthlings, from the beginning to the present.
Well, the fellows was not lying, there were settlers on the moon. He knew the truth, but still unwilling to give up the dream grew from his childhood.
He walked thinking, and his breath was like being taken. Sweat wetted his hands as if he was on the pilgrimage.
When he stepped onto the moon he felt himself on the solid ground. He stung himself to make sure that he was not in a dream.
He narrowed his eyes observing the lunarians, he saw many people but without a single one familiar.
He didn't find his dead families or friends, nor did he find anyone of his dead neibourhoods.
Preposterous. It was he who was still alive stepping on the ground of the moon instead of those passed-away people.
He felt something breaking down inside him. He knew it was his soul, his dream lasted through his whole childhood.
He felt his anger and hatred towards the lunarians, for their having stolen the moon.
The Millennium stole the sacred paradise in his dream of hometown.
He wanted to take the revenge, if only he dared, for disobeying the king would be a disaster to him.
Until one certain day.
He could never remember how long it had been since he was back from the moon, the only thing in his memory was the unusual atmosphere in the palace.
A faint voice spoke to him, and then the voice became clearer and clearer. He had just turned over one's duty so he allowed his curiosity to take him to the voice.
It was red-haired lady speaking waving her sword and shield. The crowded of soldiers echoed her every sentence. He tried he best but it was still too noisy for him to catch her words.
Except her last words.
She said, attack the moon.
He was taken aback. Before he got back his mind the lady led her army flooded to the glittering way leading to the moon. He was pushed by the exciting people, and could even hardly keep himself standing.
—Attack, attack the moon, for the paradise once belonged to us.
A voice echoed in his soul, leading him to lift his shield and sword.
—Kill the lunarians, and the slaughter would give the pure paradise back to us.
The voice continued, leading him to move…
His blood was like burning, and he was taken by the nerve filled with excitement. He began to believe that he was a warrior, who would fight for belief, fight for dream, fight for his hometown, fight for his families and friends. And if he died, he would die fighting with hornor.
No longer hesitating, he joined the lady, marched towards Millennium waving his sword.
…
At the end of the battle, when the deadly cold white light of the silver crystal was swallowing the whole space, he came to an end as everyone else did. A the moment he was embracing the death, he saw the moon which had shined his dream, purely, gracefully…
That was the paradise, that was his paradise. With never lunarians, never the palace of Millennium, but only with his families, his friends and his neighborhoods, who were welcoming him warmly.
That was the paradise…
He closed his eyes being satisfied, and the last smile appeared on his lips, like the brightest light at that moment.
...
-FIN-