Sailor Moon Odeum; Droculus
Chapter One – Dragon at the Gates
It had been a long winter. In fact, it had been the longest winter that Kage could remember. The expanse of cold and bitter days seemed endless, a droning blend of gray skies merging together into one seemingly endless twilight that had also drove him into folly - faded and jaded the very essence of him. There almost wasn't a single moment that he could separate from another, for it all seemed like one long nightmare to him. The screams and hollowing shrieks of a thousand poor souls cried out in his mind as payment and recompense for the terrible things he had done in that sweltering haze of hatred-swept memories. If he stared too long into the recent past, he would find himself unable to find a solitary purpose to his continued existence and would let dire thoughts take him to a final place.
In retrospect, there was one element of that dream-state that was easy to single out and grab onto for comfort and commitment.
Her.
She was the reason. She was the reason for everything now. With all of the talk and show of gods and devils, Kage could not help but to wonder of fate and some kind of cosmological design that was being played upon by some greater force, like fingers through string and wood. But really, thinking about that was not his kind of thing. He would leave that sort of thing to the mystics and the scholars - the Yamitos and the Kurais of the world. No, all he thought about now was her.
That made him chuckle to himself. If only she knew how she was on his mind now, considering the long and dismal night they had weathered to get to this point. He had put her through hell, but she had remained devoted to him and determined to break him from the superficial madness that had turned him from a beast of majesty to a creature of terror. That girl still loved him even after he had beaten her, though he had taken just as many in return. The fact that she readily could beat him senseless was one aspect of his attraction that still sent a quiver of delight through his spine and caused an uncontrollable smile to creep over his face. It was one among countless others that was the source of this mental obsession with the girl he had left behind in order to regain himself and estimate his worth as a lover. Such was the burden of a warrior's code. It was nothing compared to the lover's code, but he would work on that when he could conquer the lighter. Taming the fear in his heart was the only thing he could think of to prove his devotion to her, as if it could somehow equal the pain she had gone through because of him. But he could not allow himself to be with her while this fear ate away at his already fragile state of being; to burn what frail bridges had been built in the name of love.
If it was the last thing he did, he would purify himself of doubt and fear - fear that could bring tears to that girl once more. Such was the foundation for his journey.
That night still lingered in his mind and pleasantly stayed fresh to his memory, if only because he would not let one detail slip away. It had one of those nights where the air was so biting with cold that it felt like it was scalding your skin, yet the world had no hold on the detached hours spent in her apartment. Even the windows had frosted over on the outside, as if to shroud them from all other things. Yes, that night was a treasure that defied his ability to describe it in clumsy words. He had laid at her side for hours, staring at her with his newly bestowed Ryuugan so hard that he feared they would somehow radiate his new obsession. She had fallen asleep some time before, but he could not let sleep take him when he knew what the next day held for him – for them both. It had been the first time he had ever laid on a sleepless night, and felt grateful that he could not find a temporary peace in sleep, instead feeling grateful that it would not come and take him away. His fingers had stubbornly continued to stroke the length of her arm, trying to soak up her soft skin in preparation for the morning, no matter how hard he tried to leave her undisturbed. A few times, she had stirred, lost in dreams that twisted her brow but never woke her. He wondered what she dreamed about, idly. Then she would always nestle in closer to him and an unconscious smile would sneak over her lips, causing him lose the pensive expression he was wearing and smile as well. That last night had been all about her, yet he was still finding time to be selfish and saturate himself with her being.
The Ryuugan were truly incredible. It had only been a matter of weeks since they had been put upon him, yet he already knew more about the nature of existence than he could even try to comprehend. Everything he saw now was in layers. He could see just as anyone else could, yet there were such brilliant colors superimposed over it that sometimes he felt that reality might be blotted out by them. 'Colors' was not even accurate; it was more like metallic, inky splotches that moved like light reflecting off of water, prone to any given stimulus that would send it all into madness and then settle just as quickly as it started. He had given up trying to explain it to her. He lacked the brainpower. Instead, he simply told her that when he looked upon her now, he could only think of an old poem written by Basho he had read in his younger days. When she heard it, she blushed wildly and seemed content with the explanation.
From all directions
Winds bring petals of cherry
Into the grebe lake.
However, he had pondered upon her appearance greatly. The aura she possessed due to her powers as a soldier was fairly standard, at least to him. Like the frills and ribbons of her uniform, it was a brilliant green that had almost blinded him the first time he looked at her, like a newborn opening its eyes to the world for the first time. Had she known just how powerful she was, he feared she might even become an arrogant idiot like he was. No, he knew she was too good for that. Even if she had known, she would still be the caring thoughtful girl that had broken him. No, that wasn't right either. She hadn't broken him.
She had fixed him.
What he hadn't expected was the other part of her, the deeper and more impressive aura that enveloped her even without her uniform. It was white, not marred by colors or any kind of hue that would take away its brilliance. In fact, he swore, at times when he wasn't looking right at her but she was still well within sight, that he saw beautiful glowing wings spreading out from her in a display that awed him and even took his breath away, Whenever he turned to look, all he saw was afterthoughts, yet he could not deny the fact that they had been there. All of them had a semblance of these wings, even Kurai, Suteki and the unforgiven Yamito. This fact hit him hard as he had not yet seen any trace of such brilliance on himself, as he stared at himself in the mirror in her bathroom. It was not surprising to him, for his sins had been great and his mind still teetering from side to side, and because he had fallen so far from the graces of his birthright, he felt that the stain he could bring to her flawless being was too much a danger and that he would truly never forgive himself if he were to diminish it even slightly.
So, he left that morning.
It had been warmer than expected, that morning that promised an unclouded day, but he still shivered as he told her that he was leaving. He hadn't even had the courage to look at her when he said it, showing just how pathetic he really was and propelling him in his opinion that he was too dirty, too soiled for her fair life.
It was silent for awhile, with his majestic Ryuugan cast away from her and his ears listening to her shallow breathing. It was stupid to wonder if she was hurt, but it couldn't be helped. Later that day everyone had agreed to meet in the park for a picnic, and the day had even lent itself well for the purpose, yet this decision meant that she would be going alone – alone again. Yamito would be there as well, but Kage was running away from that too. This recently found cowardice sent a chill of disgust through him, yet he would not change his mind. It was something he had to do. He hoped she would understand.
Then, she had stepped forward and slipped her arms around him, pulling him hard against her and laying her face across his chest. Again, she didn't say anything, but rather just wanted to be held and comforted in this cruel and twisted thing he was doing to her. Closing his mystical eyes, he just held her as tightly as he could allow, waiting for her to rattle with tears in his arms. But she denied him. All she did was whisper to him, her voice surprisingly powerful for its volume.
"You know how much I love you, right?' she had said.
Kage had winced at first, then pondered the question lightly. She loved him completely, even ferociously. His body still ached from a few beatings she had put him through in order to get it into his thick head that she felt this way. All that she had done to profess her love for him ran through his mind, yet all of the grand things she had done seemed sullied by his simple response. "Yeah," he said.
But, it appeased her and she looked up at him, forcing him to open his eyes as she placed her hands on his cheeks and made him look down into her enamored eyes. His own Ryuugan seemed to pale in comparison, yet she did not look away. "Then go. Find whatever you need to find. Even if you fail, or you get too tired to go on, I'll be here waiting…in our home," she said with a smile and slipped her hands from his cheeks, moving to her ear as she fiddled with something.
Home? Their home? It made Kage wince, it was so good. He had a home now? He could say that he never had a home, but that wasn't true. Even though he had lost his parents when he was young, he had always been home when Mika was with him. His younger sister had been his entire life, and even if they had no place to sleep sometimes or the Child Agencies tried to separate them into foster homes, he had held tightly to her and preserved his only family through plight and predicament. For a long time, the monastery where Kage learned his Ryuskuuken style of fighting was home, for it was where he spent the happiest days with Mika. Then, his world was crushed and he was sent into chaos when she, along with all of the monks, were killed by his great foes. After that, for years upon years, he had no home. He lived through death and war and never called anywhere his own, mostly because his Earth was crumbling around him. Even though his friends had been with him, he was too broken to allow them close, to let them be shredded upon the shards of his soul. No, he was destitute from then on, not caring enough about anything to want a home, or even need one. His revenge kept him focused on those long, sleepless nights.
It shocked him as she placed it in his hand, letting his Ryuugan look over the precious item and the significance it possessed. He knew that it meant a lot to her, so he looked to her in an uneasy fashion. She just laughed lightly and closed his hand. "Please wear it for me? I want you to remember that you always have a place here," she said, endlessly able to show him how beautiful she was. Even as tears were held back in the corners of her eyes, she smiled and made him feel loved – assured him that she would never give up on him. It hollowed him out, thinking how amazing this girl was. It only made him more determined to cleanse himself.
Placing his free hand to cradle her loving face, he failed to hold back his smile and took one long, last breath of her pure essence. "I will," he answered, and closed his hand around the object, which by its very nature pierced his skin and stung his hand. But he didn't care. She still wore the locket around his neck that had meant so much to him, the one that held a picture of a young Kage and Mika, but now also framed into the opposite slot was a cheap photograph of Kage and Makoto taken from one of those booths meant for schoolgirls and kids. But she had gone on about how much she loved it, so he had put into the locket as well.
Now, something that she cherished was in his hand and bound to stay with him. This gift was one that he would cherish, and protect to the very end.
A sudden lurch of the train jarred him from his daydreaming and Kage yawned, inwardly cursing the distance between where he was and where he had to be. The train ride had been droning on much like a winter day despite the Chinese countryside basking in Spring's warmth, a rattle and hum of unsure location but ultimate destination. At least this time, Kage knew it would end soon. After all, his ticket showed him a finite time and destination, like a fortune teller's prediction but only far more probable and much less mystic. By this time, he had sworn to himself that he would not look out the window again and try to mediate the things that he saw in the blurring countryside of Jiangsu province. These god-given Ryuugan eyes he possessed now were overwhelming at times, but twice as much when trying to comprehend the lives of a hundred-thousand Chinese citizens in the passing of a callous train ride's invasion into pain, joy and the mundane. With the amazing spectrum visible to him now, it was all he could do in order to maintain his orientation when standing still in a crowd, so moving across populated areas was far more than he could handle.
"These Ryuugan," he thought to himself, "are as much a curse as a gift." True, Kage's fighting ability now transcended even his own wildest dreams and the things he now knew of existence would have made wise men quote equations and scientists say prayers, but it was also because he knew of these things that made the Ryuugan take on a decidedly darker tone. If Kage was a cynic before, the things he saw now placed him in an entirely new level of disgust with the bowels of humanity.
Had it not been for her, Kage could have easily turned back into the villain he once was. Once again, he chuckled as his thoughts turned back to her, his head turning without thought to glance into the countryside even against the throbbing pain in his head. His fingers had been toying with the rose earring in his left ear since he had gotten on the train, and he found himself doing very often without thinking. It was becoming a habit now, the hard edges of the rose stinging the ends of his fingers but still remaining as a pleasant distraction from his solitude. It made him think of her, even as he stared out over the blurring blues, greens and browns of the countryside. Idly, he did not see the inky splotches of humanity that was visible in every moment of the day, but rather a pale, blurry reflection of her in the infinitely vast space between the pane of glass and the background of passing green and blue.
For a moment, he even blinked and wondered if it was real; her smiling face and loving green eyes beckoning him to return to her. It was the lurching of the train as it slowed that brought him from his daydream once more and back to his reality. After glancing about the car the moment after their break in speed, Kage looked back to the window and found nothing but the inky splotches once more, the seeded hate and misery present in the world today. She had regressed to his memory once more.
"It's about time we got there," he snorted under his breath and slipped his broad sunglasses over his face again, apprehensive about facing the world once more through eyes that viewed every thought, moment of sin or potential suffering.
Stepping out onto the platform, Kage's bag came down with a muffled thud and he took the moment to stretch himself out, letting his muscles and joints breathe and move after sitting in that train car for eleven hours. The rush of blood relit his desire to find the person he was looking for and the sign at the platform told him that he was in the right city.
Five days had been spent in Beijing – five days of scouring the back alleys of an insanely large city hoping to stumble across any information about the man he had been instructed to find when these Ryuugan were bestowed.
In the ancient middle land of your world, you will find the keeper of the dragons. This man will show you the true nature of the Ryuugan. Seek him out, young dragon. Seek out Liu Kuan Yin.
The voice had been frightening, and even as Kage lie dying at the hands of his greatest foes, it shook him with fear. Then, in that pallid flash of light, he had been given these mystic Ryuugan eyes, the eyes of the dragons, and allowed to fulfill his revenge. Yes, he still did not know why. As a Scion, he knew his duties and why he possessed his powers, yet the moment he died was the exact moment he was born again, born with these new abilities that defied his wildest dreams. His Acrolyth Scion form was nothing compared to it. Despite that fact, he was merely human and no longer had any purpose to his power. Power without purpose becomes destructive, and Kage yearned to know why he was given the Ryuugan.
So, he left his beloved and newly earned peace to find it, traveling to the middle country and searching out this Lui Kuan Yin. Logic promised that he would be able to find this man easily in China, making him eager to finish and return to his new home. At least, he thought this at first. Chinese was far more difficult to muddle through than he thought it would be, so Kage often got cities and names wrong. Also, no one seemed to know this man, and Beijing had turned into dead end for him. Such was only a fraction of the difficulties he had suffered thus far in the quest to find the purpose of these Ryuugan granted on him by the steward of the dragons. Then, seeing the distant glow night after night to the Southeast, he got on a train and headed towards it. He didn't know what it was, but he did know that the Ryuugan promised something of interest there, for it lingered just beyond the horizon like a distant city at night, beckoning him to come.
After re-assessing his situation and re-reading the sign a few more times, Kage let out a forlorn sigh and slung his bag over his shoulder, taking a look up through the dark lenses of his sunglasses to look at the bright, yet wholly singular beauty of the sun. In preparation for his assault on the unsuspecting bowels of China and as a product of the change in his powers, Kage had altered his image. His hair was the only thing that he kept the same, for the throw-back onto the ancient days of bushido set well with him and conveniently kept his long hair out of his eyes. Good for fighting; bad for fashion. He didn't care about fashion anyway. Everyone looked at him with his hair tied back like some wandering samurai, even when he was still in Japan, but it only proved to amuse him and validate keeping it that way. Also, his clothes were very loud. A dark teal, hooded jacket was as far from his last uniform as a Scion as one could get, with yellow stripes running down the sleeves and a distinctly shimmering appearance from the fabric. He wore yellow pants that had a contrasting dark teal stripe running down the sides, with dark boots sheathed over his great weapons. Because the Ryuugan now set him so out of place, Kage wore bizarre sunglasses that were a single dark lens held by an elastic strap around his head. In the lenses, right over his eyes, were single lengths of red plastic that distorted the vision of a normal viewer, but, for him, were points of reference against the wild chaos visible to the Ryuugan. With a single rose earring in one ear, a platinum hoop in the other and a wry grin over his face at the reactions of the world, Kage adjusted on his shoulder the bag containing all personal belongings he bought in Beijing and smiled wider at the welcoming of the Shanghai sun. "Looks like I need to stop and ask directions like a good little tourist," he remarked and moved into the flowing streets of the city.