Chapter 1

"Another dead end…" A dark haired man dressed in a white lab coat glared at his computer monitor, the only light in his shadowed study. "All I can find are dead ends!" With a frustrated sound, he stood up and swiped the files off his desk. Stacks of papers recording data from multiple tests fell to the floor and he stared at them, breathing heavily. He'd been at this for years, trying to find the perfect solution to what plagued Japanese society-no, the world's society for generations.

Energy. Everyone needed a source of power, but it was a proven fact that Earth only had so many sources to offer. Eventually, conventional ones would run dry, and the population would turn to riskier things. Wind, water, thermal heat, nuclear... Japan had already suffered enough from unstable energy. They needed something reliable, but still endless.

Dr. Isamu Kimura had researched and tried every possible method he could dig up, but his projections all failed or proved too finicky to be trusted. Was it possible that today's science did not hold the answer? Maybe it was time to look in a more unorthodox place…

Calming down, he ignored the mess on the floor and walked over to a large bookshelf. The texts lined up on it were mostly various chemistry, natural science, and physics books, but the very top row was different. Dusty from lack of use, this set of leather bound pages held a different kind of knowledge. They were all over old legends from ancient people, and they often held accounts of things more amazing than tangible science of this age. They spoke of magic.

Ten years ago, Isamu would have never believed such a thing, but with that he had seen recently, he was starting to open up to the idea. Monsters stealing the life forces of the innocent, people mutating into beasts, and nightmares come to life had plagued Japan as of late, and all of these threats were neutralized by a group of young girls who referred to themselves as Sailor Senshi. What other explanation could make sense of their incredible feats than magic? That was the kind of thing he needed.

He was lucky his partner had always enjoyed those kind of mythical stories outside of work. Isamu grabbed one at random, blew the dust off it, and cracked it open.

Silver and Gold: Tales of Two Kingdoms

He skimmed the novel, reading bits and pieces of old legends about the Earth and Moon during the time before things were recorded. Were there really such powerful civilizations that long ago? The beginning of one chapter caught his attention, and he stopped to read it in full.

The Energy Within

Every living being in existence has a spirit, an energy within them that defines who and what they are. They are considered the seeds of life, and they are rumored to be birthed from a central point in space, the shared origin of all. Even the stars grew from these seeds. Some seeds are brighter than others, and some grow stronger with time, but they all share the quality of never truly dying. Even if the body holding it decays with age, the seed will return to its origin to rest, and then create a new body to be housed in. Flesh is fallible, but these shining beacons are everlasting.

"An interesting theory…" This society's explanation of souls was something to think about. They seemed to believe that energy simply existed within everything, like precharged batteries. Marking the section, he flipped through it again until he came upon another chapter.

Legend of the Woodstar

In a distant Kingdom, there was a gem that held the power of nature itself. Born from the will of a great Thundergod, it fell from the sky and into the hands of a maiden. This child became the favored one of her people's god, and with that blessing commanded both the gentle woods to grow and the ruthless lighting to smite. That gem was called the Woodstar, as the green jewel glowed and pulsed with power and life.

She guarded the gem in a beautiful temple deep in the forest, and many made pilgrimages to seek her help and advice. But as with any bright light, shadows were formed behind it. Ones with darker intentions appeared to take the Woodstar for themselves, and the maiden pleaded for help to keep it safe. Her Thundergod relented, and made four smaller gems that took the form of humans. They held their own power, but their destinies were tied to the Woodstar forever. With her four new guardians, the maiden was able to repel any twisted foes that dared to take her gem. But as the years faded, so did she, as she was only mortal.

Eventually she died, and the Woodstar disappeared with her. Her guard faded as well, and her people waited with baited breath to see what would happen next. Soon after her death, a new child was born, and on her brow was the sign of their god. She had been reborn, and within her lived the Woodstar, now a part of her very spirit. Her four guardians reawakened and resumed their positions, though they too had different forms. And so the cycle continued, generation after generation. The maiden's purposed changed slowly but surely, until she was just as much of a warrior as her guardians, and she could finally take an active role in protecting her kingdom of thunder and oak.

"The Woodstar…" Isamu muttered, absorbed in his thoughts. It was a vague story, but the object it described sounded amazing, and very similar to the seeds he had read about just before. If it could create life and summon lightning with no repercussions, then it would theoretically be an amazing energy source. But did it exist? Was a living thing capable of carrying around all that power? Taking the book, he sat down as his cleared desk and started looking up more sources. With each new story that complimented the theory, his eyes grew brighter.

"I can work with this…But how to find this fabled object?" He needed defined characteristics to look for, quantifiable things to track.

Excited now, Isamu started building a virtual model of a theoretical Woodstar, and estimating the readings it would give off. Once he had that completed, a tracking program could be created, and he could start scanning for what he was looking for, though he already had a certain starting point in line. The only beings on Earth that had ever displayed anything near that kind of power were those Sailor Senshi and the things they fought. He had a feeling in his gut that they were linked to this in some way. It was only a matter of time before he could find that connection…

Isamu picked up a small wooden picture frame and moved it closer to his workspace, smiling. The photo inside was of a young, redhaired woman and himself standing together.

"We're so close to what we've dreamed of now, Chiyo, I know it…"