Miss Murder
By: Tenshi no Yupiteru
Mystery/Action/Adventure/Angst/Drama/Suspense
Timelines:
Gundam Wing: Three years after Endless Waltz
Sailor Moon: After the Earth has been frozen for 1000 years and birth of Crystal Tokyo
Age List:
Nadia, Xiao Lang, Ryuiji (4)
Usagi (Chibi Moon), Cory (Ceres), Ayden (Juno), Rhiannon (Vesta), Lola (Pallas) (18)
Hotaru, Helios, Hiiro, Duo, Quatre (19)
Trowa, Relena, Wufei (20)
Ami, Minako, Lady Une (38)
Clutching a bullet wounded leg, she limped down a scarcely illuminated hallway leading to her bed chambers, her pallid face contorted in agony. She had finally returned from her latest mission: the assassination of Vierze Romefeller. Blood trickled out from between her pale fingers, seeping into her black silk sweater and painting her pants in a crimson liquid, as she hissed in pain. The muscles in her thigh constricted before slackening, sending bolts of sharp pain up her leg to her brain through her nerve system.
Slipping a silver key into the key hole, she jerked it several times to get the key snugly fit in the knob before yanking it left to open. The door swung open to reveal a violet room decorated with lamps, pictures, books, various weapons, and clothes strewn across the floor.
"Bloody bastard just wouldn't stay dead after one shot," she grumbled, thinking about how the now-very-much-deceased Vierze had fought to stay alive just to call the local authorities. She had been amused when she blew his hand off, along with the telephone as he tried to dial the number. A sickening smirk crossed her face before she shook her head of her train of thought.
She slowly headed to her desk, which was covered with random newspaper articles, textbooks, what appeared to be a thin book - instead it was a black laptop whose screen glowed a dim blue, as well as other various things. Plopping down into a black leather chair, she winced in pain as she did so. Then dug around the drawers for a pair of fine tweezers. Upon finding them, she steadied her leg and pulled down her skin-tight leather pants, leaving the lower-half of her body clad in only her underwear. Slowly counting backwards from five, she ripped the bullet out from her wounded leg; a sharp gasp emitting from her mouth. A sigh of relief escaped her as she laid her non-blood covered hand upon the wound, sealing it shut with some help from her power of healing.
Lurching forward, completely forgetting about the previous wound, she began to flip through the stuff on her desk, swearing vehemently in a language not known to man. Her black nails clicked fiercely against the mahogany surface when she was unable to find what she had been searching for - an article related to the death of Neo-Queen Serenity of Crystal Tokyo. Violet eyes flickered over articles tacked upon a double-sided see-through board, scanning for the man she had just executed. When they landed on him, she sneered and removed it from the board, marked out his face with an X, using her own blood to do so. She then taped it on a separate board which was decorated with the faces of numerous others covered by the same X.
A nefarious smirk crossed her thin lips as she leaned back in her seat, arms serenely placed on either armrest, then she let out a sinister, yet bitter, laugh. Standing up, she ripped another picture, this one of a wheat-colored hair woman, off the board. As she traced the woman's face, she murmured under her breath in a vindicated tone: "I take the cake when I capture her."
Missing all three of the alarms she had set the night before, she threw the black and violet covers from her pajama-covered form and began scrambling for clothes and things that she need whilst screaming, "CRAP! I'M LATE! I'M SO SCREWED! SHISHO-SAN (Librarian -pun intended)WILL HAVE MY HEAD!"
As she finished pulling on a pair of dark blue leggings and a long-sleeve black dress that ended at mid-thigh, she slipped on a pair of black and blue stripped socks before shoving her feet into a pair of black clogs and grabbing her light blue scarf, earmuffs and a gray wool coat. Rushing out of her bed chambers with her library identification card and black bag filled with school items, she found her blue haired companion perched on a seat that bore resemble to a waterfall, studying several blue screens. She snuck a blueberry scone from the kitchen, hollering, "OHAYO AMI-MAMA!" (Good Morning Ami-mama)
Ami, the blue haired woman whose navy eyes were glued to the screens in front of her, nodded and responded, "Hotaru-chan, remember that you're under the name of Hikage Yoshiko (Quiet Child of the Shadows). People will being to wonder about you if you keep telling them your name is Hotaru. Be sure to find out where that third pilot is staying and go to your classes with Small Lady and Helios-kun, alright?"
"Mmm-hmm," was Hotaru's distracted reply as she munched on the scone. "Ja ne, Ami-mama!" (Goodbye Ami-mama)
Shaking her head, Ami muttered to herself as she closed a blue compact laptop, "She will never stop calling me 'Ami', no matter how many times I remind her. Oh well… I shall contact Setsuna today. Maybe she will have information regarding this matter."
Hotaru scampered off to the huge teleportation center in the mansion, in what had been known as a ballroom many centuries ago; putting on her coat, scarf, earmuffs, and book bag as she went. She skidded to a halt as she entered, murmured in her native Saturnian tongue words that revealed the teleportation sphere. It looked like a miniature three dimensional version of Earth, about three feet diameter, with nine rings revolving around it - like the planets encompassed the Sun in an elliptical pattern - that had planet symbols attached to the rings. Carefully dodging the rings belonging to Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus, she found her planet symbol of Saturn, touched it and murmured, "Teleport from White Moon Kingdom, Lunaria, Moon, to Peacecraft Library, Sank, Japan, Earth."
With a violet flash, Hotaru shimmered out of sight, leaving only moondust in her wake.
Finding herself in a dark alley in Sank Kingdom, Japan, she looked up at the dark sky that allowed snow to drifted gently and slowly from the expansive sky. Inhaling deep, Hotaru's face was content and serene for a moment.
Looking down at her watch, she swore softly, serene face disappearing and immediately she bolted from the alley, wasting as little time as possible in turning left and running towards the Peacecraft Library. She bumped into several people and apologized repeatedly, continuing on her trek to the library. She spotted the library and tried picking up her pace, but found her lungs cramping under the strain of trying to gather air. 'Shit, this is not the time for this to happen!'
As soon as she opened the front door, stepped inside, jumping from foot to foot to shake off the snow, as she swiped her card and then heard a screech resound from the third floor: "YOSHIKO, YOU ARE LATE FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS WEEK! I WILL NOT TOLERATE YOU SHOWING UP LATE ANY MORE!"
Everyone who was in the library had turned their heads at the sound of the head librarian screeching at her only employee/assistant. They all looked at the violet-black haired girl with pity in their eyes, but returned to their work as Hotaru, under the name of Yoshiko, winced, quickly bowed to woman standing in front of the railing on third floor.
Softening her voice, Hotaru apologized before hurrying to put her coat and bag away before she could be yelled at any more this morning. The head librarian, Shisho, made her way down three sets of stairs, her arms crossed under her bosom. Her dark brown hair was tied back in a taut bun away from her sharp face, her brown eyes were narrowed at the girl she knew as Yoshiko.
Hotaru noted that Shisho wore her traditional dark blue dress with matching tights and shoes, then bowed again to her, apologizing once more, mentally calculating how tight Shisho's bun must have been pulled for the librarian to be this furious at her.
"I won't be late again, Shisho-san, I promise I won't! Please don't fire me!" Hotaru forced herself to act like a cowering child, fearing the wrath of the head librarian.
Shisho sighed, uncrossed her arms, telling 'Yoshiko' she was not going to be fired and ordered her assistant to shelve the new stock of books that had come in. Hotaru immediately let go a deep sigh of relief as she found the box of books and began working.
Four hours later, she excused herself from working, swiped out, then headed to grab lunch with her best friend, Chiba Usagi, and Usagi's boyfriend, Pegasus Helios.
Untying her hair from the bun Shisho-san made her wear her hair in, Hotaru hummed along with the music she was listening to, not seeing the man walking in front of her attempting to cool a cup of coffee. As she walked smack-dab into him, she let go of her violet locks, yanked out her headphones, immediately apologizing.
When laughter reached her ears, Hotaru's head snapped up and caught sight of a pair of soft purple eyes filled with mirth that belonged to a brown haired man. "It's alright, kid, it's just coffee."
Her forehead crinkled into a frown - she wasn't a kid! - she was nineteen for Hades' sake! His companion was the same height as he, with darker brown hair and Prussian blue eyes that she found herself recognizing. It was then that Chiba Usagi, dressed in red and black, spotted Hotaru standing next to the two men and launched herself at the dark haired girl, loudly shouting, "SHI-CHAN!"
Hotaru had just enough time to spin around on her right heel before she landed in the snow like a snow angel with a thud; her back pressed into the delicate flakes, a pink haired girl on top of her. She mumbled for only her friend's ears, "01, 02 in range."
The pink haired Usagi took note of the fact, while poking the violet haired girl, happily chirped, "Shi-chan, you are coming to lunch with us, aren't you? You are off work, aren't you?"
Hotaru groaned and covered her flushed face with her pallid hands, then heard the same male - 02 - she had accidentally walked in to, speaking with her best friend.
"Is your friend alright? She took quite a fall there!"
Usagi giggled before she scrambled off of Hotaru and replied, "Shi-chan should be fine… I didn't break any bones, did I, Shi?"
Hotaru grumbled as she accepted the gloved-hand up from the man. After letting go of his hand, she swiped her own hand at the back of Usagi's head, but the pink haired girl was prepared for it and ducked, giggling. "I swear you have that planned out so well that you don't break any of my bones, Usa-chan! And just why should I join you for lunch when you left me behind this morning before getting me up?"
Usagi's response was a simple hug that Hotaru found herself returning before Helios came running up to the two girls, panting for air. His pink haired girlfriend giggled, released Hotaru and kissed Helios's flushed cheek as he mumbled, "Jeeze, Usa-chan, you're going to kill me one of these days chasing after you…"
The brown haired man that Hotaru had run into smiled at the scene while his companion held a blank stare at the three. The first man caught sight of a photo that had ended up in the snow during their interactions. Picking it up, he studied it and his eyes widened. In the photo were thirteen people; ten girls and three guys. His violet eyes landed on the three teens standing before him in photo as well as a brown haired male hugging the dark haired girl. He tucked it into his coat pocket before anyone noticed. His companion gestured to the stopped cars with a nod of his head and two left the three teens to themselves.
Once classes were over, Hotaru caught up with Helios, Usagi, and four other girls - Cory, Ayden, Rhiannon, and Lola Shouwakusei - who were sisters surprisingly enough. They teleported themselves back to what Usagi called "the base," but it was where they had lived and trained for the past nine years… since the untimely death of Usagi's parents. Shaking her head, Hotaru pealed off her coat, earmuffs, and scarf before sighing, ignoring the animated chatter of Usagi and the four sisters. Helios noted the dark haired girl's withdrawal from the group.
"Are you alright, Hotaru-chan?" he kindly asked.
Hotaru's violet eyes looked up into a pair of golden orbs, searching for answers, searching for a piece of serenity. Shaking her head, she replied, "I'm fine. I just lost my picture of the whole gang."
The white haired young man nodded as she turned back to her studies. Staring at the books in front of her, she decided to slack off - one night wouldn't kill her; besides she already knew the material they were covering - to study the layout of the Peacecraft Mansion her victim was residing in. Pulling out the blueprints, she began calculating where the former Gundam pilots would be staked out and the best place, as well as fastest, in order to take their victim hostage.
A dark shadow loomed over the spread out blueprints, gathering Hotaru's attention as she jumped out of her reverie and looked up at the blue haired woman who had taken them in nine years ago. Silence, in a heavy pregnant wave, consumed the room as Hotaru softly asked, "Ami-mama, is something wrong?"
Ami gave the violet haired teen a small smile as she took a seat beside her adopted children. "It's nothing to worry yourselves over."
Lola, the youngest of the sisters with light blue hair tied in a bun atop of her hair, scooted closer to the only mother-figure in her life, somehow knowing why Ami was seemingly remote and rested her head against Ami's leg in comfort.
"Is Minako-oba-san (Aunt Minako) doing any better?" asked the red haired Rhiannon.
Ami's dark blue eyes clouded with tears as she shook her head gently.
"They expect her to live a month longer at the most, minna (everyone)." She switched gears so fast, the girls knew not to pester her with questions, "Hotaru-chan, have you decided the best course of getting in of the mansion to obtain Miss Peacecraft without problems?"
The dark haired teen smirked, violet eyes alit with something akin to sadistic humor, as the four sisters, Helios, and Usagi turned their undivided attention to her, "Well…"
A loud, exasperated shout came from a brown haired man seated at an oval table with six others inside a soundproof room, which the assistants working outside of the room were extremely glad for; these bursts were rare, but ear-numbing. Banging his head against the table, he asked, "And just WHY can't we find anything on this 'Miss Murder' assassin?"
When no reply came, he continued to ramble: "We have the best of the best working on this case. These murders have been going on for two years! For Solo's sake, the assassin leaves letters that we should be able to crack and figure out who were dealing with! No, nobody can make any sense of who they came from and nobody's been able to discover just how these famous politicians, government workers, doctors, and whatnot are related! WILL IT EVER STOP?!?"
"Maxwell, I highly advice you stop hitting your head against the head before Chang gags your mouth shut with the use of your braid," recommended the brunette female sitting at the head of the table with her arms folded over her dark pink dress suit jacket. Three men were seated on her left and two were on her right.
Duo Maxwell was very lucky he wasn't sitting next Wufei Chang, otherwise he would be braid-less. The blonde haired man sitting beside Duo rubbed his temples before thinking aloud: "Well, yesterday - April 17 - Vierze Romefeller was assassinated. Is there something special about either the date or Vierze that stands out?"
From the other side of the table, Chang Wufei, a Chinese man with his black hair tied tightly at the nape of his neck, grunted, "Winner, we went over this -"
Wufei was interrupted by the tallest of the group, Trowa Barton, whose brown hair covered one of his emerald eyes. "Wasn't there another assassination around the same time last year?"
Lady Une, head of the Preventers, sat as the head of table and flipped through several pages, skimmed the page before her brown eyes widened when her pointer finger stopped moving. Clicking on a screen, the page she was looking at was brought up on a computer screen behind her.
"Barton is right. There was a man murdered in April - identical date - last year. But there is no connection via families. The man was named Diecisiet Darlian. He was a distant nephew of Relena's adoptive parents." She pulled up all the cases and looked for the dates, and began listing the dates: "The first assassination was on August third, two years ago, followed by one on September tenth, then two in October - the twenty-second and the twenty-ninth - then nothing for the entire month of November. December fifth is the next assassination, followed quickly by one in January on the twenty-seventh, then nothing in February, then March sixth, April seventeenth, and the last one is on June thirtieth before the dates begin to repeat."
The five males weren't able to make anything out of the dates. Hiiro Yui, a man with unruly dark brown locks and a pair of piercing Prussian blue eyes, grunted out: "Then June thirtieth is the next date for an assassination. There are no leads to who is the next targeted victim."
Lady Une miserably thought, 'Ironically enough that's Usa-chan's birthday. Even more so since she died on the same day,' but turned her attention to the situation at hand. Duo's head snapped up from the table as he remembered the picture he had discovered earlier, "Hey, Lady Une, I found this picture. What do you make of it?"
Handing over the picture, Lady Une's brown eyes widened as she stared at the picture. Holding back the tears that weld up in her chocolate brown eyes, her lips twitched, giving signs of a smile passing them. However, her voice was tight, as if someone had choked her, as she asked, "Where did you get this, Maxwell? I haven't seen these people for nearly… a century now."
"A century?" Duo gaped. "Just how old are you anyway?"
She glared at the young man with braided hair as she looked up from the picture, "It has nothing to do with my age, Maxwell. The …situation… happened while you were all merely babes. Now, where did you get this from?"
Duo shrugged nonchalantly, a frown adorning his handsome face, as he answered, "The violet haired chick dropped in it the snow around lunch today."
Gripping the picture, she was unable to wrap her mind around the young girl being alive, but she did not doubt what Maxwell had said. She mumbled aloud: "This might be the break we were looking for…"
Scanning it into the computer, Lady Une thought of the best way to explain how the photograph would help them, while she waited for results as she began her tedious, but necessary, explanation of the people. "Yui, have you ever looked up my file?"
Hiiro's head snapped up from glaring at his laptop to give her a sharp nod.
"You've been looking at the wrong file," Lady Une replied coolly as the computer brought up the results. Hiding them from the former Gundam Pilots, she brought the picture to their attention. Standing up, she pointed to blonde female wearing a gold crown in the middle of picture being held by a black haired man, "That is Neo-Queen Serenity and her husband, King Endymion."
Placing her hands on the edge of the table, she cleared her throat: "What I am about to tell you is something that you will not learn anywhere else. It is not necessarily classified information; just take note that not too many people are aware of it. Neo-Queen Serenity and King Endymion, along with the majority of the people in this picture, were … eliminated… as people; but more importantly, from history."
