AUTHOR'S NOTES:
This is part one of the story. Part two will be up tomorrow, barring any horrible malaise. Reviews and comments are appreciated, either on this site or through e-mail at yakofdarkness@yahoo.com. Enjoy the story. ~YoD
Destiny and the Fire Maiden
By Yak of Darkness
Hino Rei had forgotten how beautiful Tokyo looked when it was lit up at night. From her window view, the city dazzled like a neon carnival. The brightly colored lights shouted of all the wonders that could be found in the buildings below—shopping sprees, all night partying at clubs, and romantic evenings for two . . .
The last was the reason that Rei was here tonight, in the elegant restaurant atop the tallest skyscraper hotel in Japan. She was still in awe over how perfect this night had been. Renting a paddleboat at the pond had turned into an evening horse-drawn carriage ride through the park's forested trails, and now this wonderful dinner. For the first time in almost a year, Rei felt happy and at peace.
There was no Dark Kingdom to worry about tonight. There were no aliens, or youma, or Cardians. There were no destinies or Sailor Soldiers. Rei was not Sailor Mars tonight; she was just a beautiful girl in a new red silk dress sitting across from the handsome man she had fallen for.
Rei looked across the table and saw his bright blue eyes absorbed in their gaze into hers. "What are you thinking about, Mamo-chan?" she asked.
Chiba Mamoru smiled. "Sorry," he said, twirling some pasta onto his fork, "you just look too beautiful tonight not to admire."
Rei tried to hide her blushing by wiping her mouth off with her napkin. Tonight had been an endless stream of compliments on her beauty, grace, spirit, and power. Mamoru had praised her so much that it was almost too much—almost, she thought with an unavoidable giggle. She had dated Mamoru sporadically before, when she had still just become Sailor Mars, but she never knew the depths of his feelings for her until tonight. She had figured that any feelings Mamoru harbored had been drowned by the memories of their shared past—and by his memories of Usagi.
But that was all gone. Rei had her Mamo-chan, and nothing else mattered. The whole night had a beautiful surreal quality about it, and Rei loved every minute of it. She was about to ask Mamoru if they could end their night together just staring up at the stars, but blinked at the sudden intense glare that shone off of his eyes. It was bright, surprisingly bright. She felt every light from the Tokyo skyline reflecting off of Mamoru's eyes and into hers. She wanted to look at him, but had to turn away from the fierce shine. Rei tried to close her eyes, but the yellow glow pierced her eyelids, threatening to tear everything she had away from her. Rei couldn't let that happen. She tried to fight it. She screamed—
Rei woke up in her bedroom in the Hikawa Shrine, sunbeams shining through her bedroom window. She sighed. It was all a dream. That was all anything felt like anymore—just a futile dream.
* * *
Rei ran through the motions of beginning her day at the temple. She threw on her white and red robes, tried without luck to get her hair to lie down before finally tying it back, and went out to the front of the shrine to sweep the steps. She loved the connection with nature that she felt at the shrine, but it didn't even begin to take away from the seemingly endless, robotic, and monotonous nature of her work. Yuuichirou was going to be in downtown Tokyo all day, looking for food and supplies and handing out brochures about the temple, while Rei's grandfather was out in the woods, trying once again to teach a special martial arts class to a group of female students, leaving Rei alone for the day.
It would not be so bad, though, she thought. Ami was going to be coming by later to help Rei study for entrance exams. The tests were more than a year away, but Ami had insisted that all her friends start working on them now, and Rei had nothing better to do today. Until then, her twin crows could keep her company.
She continued her rhythmic, dreamlike sleeping, with Phobos and Diemos occasionally perching on her shoulders to talk about their adventures in the woods. The birds flew freely over Tokyo's cityscape. They spent their time away from the shrine soaring above the rest of the world, feeling warm air under their wings. They had no other goal in life but to fly . . .
Rei shouted and tossed the broom to the temple's steps. She was restless and bored. With the Makaiju twins defeated and school on break, Rei and her broom had become far too well acquainted with one another for her tastes. She took the band out of her hair and shook the long, ebony strands out. Her fire had gone dormant and atrophied, and she needed to release it.
But first, she needed to reconnect with her primal, spiritual self. Not as Hino Rei or Sailor Mars, but as her true essence, whatever it may be.
* * *
The fire in the shrine's inner sanctum burned brightly as Rei focused her energy and chi while staring into the blaze. Through all of Rei's life, the flames had shown her the future, shown Rei her destiny. Now, she wanted to divine her present, to see what she was and what she could be.
"Rin, pyou, tou," she murmured, staring into the heart of the fire.
"Sha, kai, jin," Rei's voice escalated as her incantation grew stronger.
"Retsu, sai, ZEN!" she shouted, the flames leaping to punctuate her chant. Her eyes glazed over as visions filled her mind. In the smoke, she saw herself as Sailor Mars. She could feel the presence of a monster . . .
The flickering fire began to twirl and leap from the altar.
. . . Multiple creatures surrounded Rei, crawling across the ground, talons scraping at her legs. She charged a Fire Soul and blasted them away. The beasts screamed as they scattered, and a tall man with hair that seemed to dance with the fire took their place . . .
The flames began to swirl in a whirlwind around Rei.
. . . Rei clasped her hands together, trying to form a Fire Soul Bird. The strange man slowly drew closer to Rei, and an unearthly shout boomed in the background . . .
The burning tempest surrounding Rei began to scream and spin out of control.
. . . The man absorbed the Rei's phoenix into his body and laughed. With a wave of his hands, he lifted Rei in the air and spread her arms out to the side. Rei tried to scream but found her voice was silent. Her hands felt cold and began to tingle. Rei twisted her head and, to her shock, found that a translucent blue crystal was forming around her arms, freezing them in place. She struggled to break free, but the stone held her captive. Another shock of cold hit her from behind, and Rei was finally able to scream—
"Are you okay, Rei?" a familiar overly boisterous voice called out from behind her.
Rei's robes were soaking wet, and her drenched hair dripped puddles onto the shrine's floor. She looked down and saw that she was kneeling in a pool of dirty water. Rei shook her head. "Usagi . . ." she grumbled.
Rei turned and saw Usagi standing at the back of the room, one of the buckets that was used to catch water running out of a leaky gutter in her hands. "There was a lot of fire," she explained, obviously quite pleased with what she had done. "You're lucky I got here in time to save your life, Rei-chan."
Rei sighed and flicked water from her hands. "Usagi," she said slowly through gritted teeth, already feeling her daily reservoir of patience fading, "you have seen me meditate here a million times. The fire always jumps off of the altar, and it always goes back. Why did you feel the need to put it out?" Rei shouted the last few words.
Usagi was taken slightly aback by Rei's anger. "I know, Rei," she replied, "but you should have seen the fire. It was especially, uh . . . flame-y today." She put the bucket down on the floor. "You're mad now, but you will thank me later."
"Usagi-chan," Rei groaned, "sometimes, I swear—" She cut herself off. "I'm going to get cleaned up," she said with a resigned tone, walking out of the room. "Do something useful and get some towels, please."
* * *
Rei's drive towards self-discovery had been dampened with the altar room, and she had resigned herself to spend the day working. The warm shower water helped to relax her a little bit, but Usagi undid whatever good it had accomplished through what must have been a physical aversion to not bothering her. After the two had wiped the shrine's floor clean, Usagi decided to stay and hang around the temple for a while, and had been there, pestering Rei while she was trying to work, ever since.
"Hey, Rei-chan," Usagi asked, "do you ever think about the future? Like, are we going to be Sailor Soldiers all are lives, or will we all do other things when we grow up?"
Rei grumbled, sweeping harder. "I never have," she lied, praying Usagi would just leave. "All of the work around here keeps my mind occupied."
Usagi giggled. "The only thing I do know for sure is that Mamo-chan and I are going to stay together forever." Her mind wandered in a daydream for a moment before she snapped back to reality with a blushing smile. "Rei-chan," she said excitedly, "you have to hear what he said to me the other day, it was so cute!"
Rei sighed as she began to tune out what would inevitably be Usagi's ramblings about her plans for the future as a sailor-suited housewife with hundreds of bratty Chibi-Usagis running about. ". . . and we'll have a big house with a huge flower garden with different colored roses for every day of the year . . ."
"Wonderful," Rei muttered, ignoring how little sense that made.
". . . loves my cooking so much! On Mondays, I can make odangos . . ."
"That's just super," Rei spat.
". . . impossible to find a man better than my Mamo-chan." Usagi sighed. "Everything is so perfect."
Something snapped deep inside Hino Rei. She flung her broom against the temple wall with a crash and glared at Usagi. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!" she screamed. "Dammit, Usagi, I don't want to hear about how perfect things are. Of course you think everything's wonderful—you always get whatever you want." Usagi tried to respond, but Rei cut her off. "I'm just oh so very happy for the wonderful life that you and Mamoru are destined to have together," she said venomously, "and I'm glad you guys didn't let things like present-day relationships get in the way of a dream that ended more than a thousand years ago!"
Rei stormed away, leaving a speechless and hurt Usagi on the stone stairway at the Hikawa Shrine. She tromped over to the gate and saw Ami walking in the other direction, a load of textbooks in hand.
Ami paused when she saw the angered look on Rei's face. "Are you okay?" she asked.
Rei ignored the question. "Change of plans," she growled. "Help Usagi study or something . . . just keep her the hell away from me."
Ami was stunned by Rei's outburst, but before she could ask what had happened, Rei had left the shrine and dashed out of sight.