Shi no Ouji
"Prince of Death"
A DBZ/Sailor Moon crossover by LadyRivka
NOTES: This is a sequel to "Fireflies". Hotaru is 16 in this fic, it takes place after Sailor Stars. Also, if my Japanese for "prince of death" is off, tell me! – L.R.
Hotaru was in bed, sound asleep.
For the past week or so, she had been having unusual dreams. Dreams she was too scared to tell her Haruka-papa or her Michiru-mama, or even her Setsuna-mama, about. Dreams of the kind stranger she had met in the woods four years prior, when she had ran away from the tyranny of her father and his assistants. Dreams of the Silver Millenium…
And, she swore, as she did unconsciously now, that sometimes the two would get mixed up together.
She dreamed she was outside her castle, conversing with a gentleman, about eighteen or so, with long black hair, mounted on a magnificent steed. He said he had come from the moon Titan to claim the Princess' hand in marriage.
Then she saw Metallia and her minions destroy the Kingdom of Saturn…and the young man fell off of his horse. Hotaru could hardly keep her breath as she watched the young man die. Her prince.
"Keep in mind, I will love you forever. And remember, my name is Shigeru. It will always be Shigeru."
"Mine will always be Hotaru…if we meet again…"
Metallia blew the Kingdom of Saturn to cinders…
And then Hotaru woke up, in her, bed, panting for breath.
Jinzouningen Juunanagou had gone to town, on one of the rare occasions he did so. This visit was not to converse with his sister or her husband; no, this was to find out about who the hell he was before Gero got his filthy little hands on he and his twin. He was genuinely interested in seeing his past; as a matter of fact, he was quite hung up on it. It felt like there was some kind of hole in him, something that all the bionic devices in the world couldn't fill…but he felt knowing the details of his life as a human would.
He approached the town library, intent on looking through newspaper files and microfiche for anything about a pair of missing teenaged twins. After thirty minutes, he found what he was looking for. He felt a strange feeling of déjà vu when he read the articles…
There was the unmistakable proof of the pictures. A bright-eyed blonde girl and a slightly dour-looking boy with long black hair. And the names…the names seemed so familiar…they called out to him from the printed page.
Mosuka Shigeru.
Mosuka Miki.
It was lunchtime in the Outers' house, and Hotaru had seemed to lose her appetite over the dreams she'd been having.
Setsuna was worried. "Hotaru, what's wrong?"
"I've been.." She hesitated.
"Go on," urged Michiru gently. "We want to know what the problem is."
Hotaru gulped. "I've been having these visions lately…I met a young man, a cyborg like myself, actually, in the woods when I ran away from my father four years ago. And someone who looks like him…well…"
"Well, what?" bellowed Haruka.
"I've been having visions of the Silver Millenium and how Saturn was destroyed, and I strongly suspect that the man I met in the woods may be the prince of Saturn." A look of gravity imbued Hotaru's face.
"Did he tell you his name in the vision?" asked Setsuna.
"Yes…Shigeru. But the problem is he goes by a number now. Juunanagou. Number Seventeen. He has long since forgotten his name, his identity, his humanity." A tear slipped from Hotaru's eye. Before long, she was weeping uncontrollably.
Does he still have a soul? she thought. Or did the machines inside remove it?
If he doesn't have a soul, do I? I must, I must…
By then, Hotaru was extremely upset, forced to contemplate things she would have never thought of had she not met the man in the cabin.
"Calm down, Hotaru," said Setsuna knowingly. "I'll take you to the library. It'll help you relax."
"Th-thank you," gasped Hotaru as she and Setsuna walked out the door to the library.
Hotaru looked around the poetry section- Joyce, Keats, and other authors she liked, while Setsuna looked at the stacks of physics books. She took out Ulysses and turned around…
And there sat the man she had met four years prior, poring over a newspaper.
She just stood silently over his shoulder for a minute, reading the article along with him. Something about kidnapped twins.
Then she saw the picture of the boy…it looked exactly like the boy, the prince, from her dream. And she noted the caption under the photo:
Mosuka Shigeru.
Hotaru let out an audible gasp, and Juunana turned around to greet her, eyes cold.
"What is it? Are you amazed about how handsome I was, too, Hotaru?" he smirked.
"You-you remember me? From four years ago?"
"How could I forget? You've grown into a beautiful young woman, Hotaru…"
"Thanks! Now, why are you reading that article?'
"I want to know who I was before I was cyborgated. I have no memories…"
"So you're relying on a newspaper article?" Hotaru giggled.
"I have to. You don't know what it's like, having no memory."
"Do you dream?"
"Occasionally."
"What about?"
"A girl who looks like you…says she's some kind of princess or something. And I'm a prince on a black steed…"
"I have the same dream. We are remembering the same past…"
"What?" Juunana stared incredulously at her.
"Yes, the very same past. A past more distant than you or I, as normal mortals, could ever comprehend. Thousands of years ago, on Saturn…"
"You're crazy."
"Touch me. You will remember, I promise." Hotaru focused her thoughts on the Kingdom of Saturn and invited Juunana to take her hand, which he promptly did.
His name…his identity, millennia old, forever Shigeru…came back to him. He was in tears, this sixteen-year-old girl bringing back what it took an old man to erase.
"I am your prince," he sniffled.
"And I am your princess."
"Aishiteru, " he said as he leaned in to kiss her.
~*end*~
