Illusion of Nothing
Chapter One - Creation
A sweet sound of a soft bell's tinkling smoothed through the air, startling a small family of birds as they flew upward as a calico came gracefully down a long dirt path.
Around it's neck, a bell sang with each gallop, the cat moving fluidly until it disappeared into the horizon. The final thing to be seen was a tail, flicking across the skies as the bell's cries faded and the birds floated back down.
A girl lay against a towel, near a small and private lake. She dressed in a modest black bathing suit, strapped across her shoulders to tie behind her neck. She relaxed lazily, her eyes closed. Her hair was dark brown, pulled to the sides in thick braids, though her bangs, or the two slender bits curving across her eyebrows were accounted for, were thin and wispy. She was pale skinned, as if she had a lack of sunlight for a long time.
And of which she was enjoying at that moment. She heard the cat's arrival as the bell ended in a sharp note. She opened a soulful burnt ochre eye, peering at the calico. Clad in splotches of black fading into light brown and then gray, with white fur surrounding each patch, the cat's light green eyes blinked, looking as lazily as the girl was feeling.
"How cute," she spoke, a soft childish tune. She sat up carefully, her bones protruding slightly. She was waspish, with a barely enough figure to be distinguished as female. She reached out and gently stroked the cat's head, before drifting to touch the bell. "How pretty."
She smiled at the cat. "There's no tag. Who are you, pretty kitty?"
The cat meowed imprudently, a slow purr shifting in the girl's fingers. Feline eyes gazed back at the girl who smiled, a sad look crossing her face. "Oh, I wish I could keep you... but I don't think you want to be around someone who's not staying long."
Her hand pulled away, holding the side of her face as a look of suffering passed across her eyes. "It hurts, kitty. I just wish.. just wish I could do something to fight.."
The cat meowed. The girl looked up in surprise and then mingled anger and sadness as the cat once more fled into the horizon. Light glinted in the sand as the girl's eyes widened.
The collar lay in the sand, gleaming with a clean shine. She touched it and breathed in deeply. She picked it up and studied it before placing it around her left wrist. It hung limply as she looked over the small lake. She wished she could go swimming but she didn't have the strength for it.
She stared at the bell and began to think about the news that had drifted down from the city. She had overheard her parents talking about it. Apparently, another person who was like Sailor V, Sailor Moon if she remembered correctly, was being seen more often and often saving the day.
The girl wished she could be like that. She would give anything to be anyone but herself.
As she wished this, she rung the bell, the tinkling taking over the other sounds in the air as the girl's world turned black.
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"Usagi!" Shingo banged on the bathroom door. "Come on, already! Let me in!"
"I'm not done yet!" Usagi hollered back. She finished drying her hair and took a brush. She winced as a series of loud banging ensured. "That's not going to make me leave, monster!"
"Idiot!" Shingo howled. "I need to go! NOW!"
"Wait your turn!" Usagi howled back.
"Usagi!" Came a familiar sharp tone. Her mother, Ikuko, stamped a toe in quick session. "You can clean yourself up in your room. Let your brother in!"
"Why do you always take his side?" She raged as she stomped out, carrying her things. She uncermoniously dumped it all on her bed, mumbling all the while.
"Usagi, try to be considerate, won't you?" Luna's aggravated voice came from under the pile.
Usagi flushed. "I'm sorry, Luna. I got kicked out of the bathroom." She went to her mirror, fluidly placing her hair up. Luna rummaged herself out, staring at Usagi's back in annoyance.
"Could've helped me," she quipped dryly. Usagi wasn't listening. "Are you still depressed?" Luna asked, though rather gently.
"No, I'm not," Usagi's expression reflected in the mirror told Luna otherwise. "I'm heading out, want to come?"
"I'll stay here for a while then meet up with Artemis at the base."
"Fine," Usagi ran out, neatly jumping down the stairs. She shouted a quick good bye to her mother as the door slammed.
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"Wow, have you guys read THIS?" Minako breathed. "They're having a sale at the candy shop! Let's go!"
"Minako, we're waiting for Usagi!" Makoto pointed out.
"But it's on SALE! It'll all be gone!"
"And if we do get there in time with Usagi, it will then truly be all gone," Rei muttered.
"Let her be, Rei. She's not feeling well," Ami admonished.
"I do let her be!" Rei retorted, crossing her arms.
"WOW!" Minako's eyes bugged out.
"Listen, when Usagi gets here, we'll go to the candy shop," Makoto began.
"Not that! THIS!" She waved the paper in the air, jutting a finger at it excitedly.
"We can't see it if you keep making it move like that!" Rei snapped.
"There's been a sailor senshi appearance!" Minako gasped, her face red.
"We just fought Wiseman! Of course we'd.." Makoto began, being to be annoyed.
"No! It's someone else!" Minako watched four hands lung for the paper.
Once the fight was over and Ami held it tightly in her fingers, with a frazzled look and a pointed glare at the others who stared sheepishly at the ground, she cleared her throat.
"Rumored accounts of sailor senshi build as a new face appears that is not of the norm. With a features of a calico, a self-proclaimed Sailor Copycat arrived today at Juuban Park where she was seen making duplicates of a ten-speed bike. Approached by authorities, she pulled out a gun and threatened the police for stopping her at her search. A battle ensured as the senshi fired back at the police and then disappeared. No one was injured in the gunfire, though the gun from the senshi was found to have melted down from an unknown cause."
"At this point and time, we have nothing on this figure. We don't believe this new character to be in alliance with the other senshi due to compiled data and.." Ami trailed off.
"Sorry I'm late guys!" Usagi ran up with a bounce in her step. She noted the looks on the others faces. "I'm not THAT late, you know?" She pointed out, instantly to her defense.
"Not that, this!" Minako ripped the paper from Ami and showed it to Usagi, tapping a forefinger in agitation. "Can you believe this?"
Usagi blinked as she studied it. "It says of a Sailor Copycat? Someone dressing as a senshi?" Usagi asked finally.
"Not quite though a hostile one. She drew a gun," Rei breathed. "We have never done anything against people as a whole, I don't get this at all!"
"While we think about this," Minako mused. "Why not hit the candy shop?"
"How can you think about that?" Makoto cried out.
"It's on sale!"
Usagi perked up. "Oh boy! Let's go!" She took off, Minako at her heels.
"Guys!" Ami called out weakly. "Oh well. We can discuss when I looked this up."
At the candy shop, Usagi flinted back and forth between decisions.
"You don't have any peanut butter cups?" A young girl's voice asked hopefully. "I've been in the mood for them."
"Sorry, those were the first things gone," the cashier said sympathetically. "We have other types with peanut butter," she offered.
The girl stood still, her skin pale and translucent in the white light of the store. She rubbed at tired burnt ochre eyes, the eyes puffy from exhaustion.
"Maneshi!" An older gentleman entered the building hurriedly. "Honey! You do not run off without telling someone! Your parents are frantic!"
"Uncle Shirano, I'm sorry. I just wanted some peanut butter cups."
"We can go into another store," the man waved her toward him. "Come child, you need to rest."
"I want my cups," she insisted, a undercurrent of anger blossoming. "Uncle! Please!"
"Do not beg," he told her frankly. "And do not be so disobedient. You must rest, doctor's orders."
He was a middle-aged man, with weathered, tanned skin, with vibrant brown eyes that expressed emotions minutely. He was dressed in rather clean and fanciful clothing, loosely around and layered despite the summer heat.
"I'm sorry," He bowed apologetically to the cashier. "Thank you anyways."
"But Uncle Shirano!" She protested all the way she was led out of the building.
"Sheesh, what a crybaby," Minako sniffed. "Kids today!"
"She was barely younger than we are!" Rei glared. "She was like ten or something?"
"Does it really matter?" Usagi butted in. "Help me pick!"
The group took their time, or in actuality, Usagi did while the others groaned each time she changed her mind.
They had drifted toward the far back, away from the windows as Usagi seemed just about to pick out something. There was a tremendous sound of glass breaking as a senshi-clad person stood ready, a look of resolution on her face.
And in mere seconds, the group knew why she'd been described as calico-like. With puffy hair ties at the ends of her pigtails and a feline shaped mask covering the bridge of her nose and up to end in pointed ears, her eyes peered out of feline cutouts, edged in brown and black. Her choker was white with a golden bell at its center, dangling against her throat. Her collar was splotches of brown, gray, and black, with bits of white showing through. Her bodice was a strapless bathing suit, with the top edge rimmed in white fluff. Her gloves covered two-thirds of her arms, with the edge rimmed in white fluff. Her boots were flat-heeled and ended midway up her thigh, also edged in white fluff. The bodice, gloves, and boots fabric were splotched in black, brown, and gray, with white showing as well. She has a length, long-haired tail flicking, tied to the back just above her buttocks with a white bow ribbon. She wore a paw shaped brooch, the three toes white with the round pad edged in black metal. The inside was gray with a single white diamond that center.
And on her left wrist dangled a beaded bracelet, where a bell jingled harmoniously.
"Nyah!" She rubbed at her face playfully. "Lots of sweets! This will be delicious!"
"What do you think you're doing!?" The cashier shouted. "The glass!"
"Leave me alone!" The senshi shouted. She rung the bell as a net materialized in thin air. She threw it over gracelessly over the cashier who fumbled to get out.
"Let's see? I think I want them all!" She grinned zealously.
"What do you think you're doing?" Came a voice from the back.
"Nyah?" The senshi perked up.
Sailor Moon stood with the others in line. "What do you think you're doing, ransacking this candy shop when it's all on sale? I am Sailor Moon and in the name of the moon, you're punished!"
"Sailor Moon, huh?" The girl smirked at the group. "I should thank you. You gave me a way to fight," she grinned, canine teeth sharpened. "I am the illusionist of reality, Sailor Copycat! I can make the impossible happen!"
"Burning Mandala!" Sailor Mars lunged forth, shouting.
"Cat's Bell Overcome!" She rung her wrist in the air, the bell echoing as flames emerged and lunged back at Sailor Mars's own attack. The attack disintegrated in the middle, fading out in a veil of smoke.
The area cleared, Sailor Copycat running out with quickness in each step.
"Stop!" Sailor Venus shouted. "Venus Love Me Chain!"
"Cat's Bell Overcome!" A weak version of Venus's attack barreled from the thrown hand as it met the other. The senshi shrieked as the implosion shot her up forward. She landed on her feet, crouching as she pounced in the air, twisting to face the group.
"Cat's Bell Imitation!" A rather strange gun formed as she aimed and water sprayed out.
"A water gun?" Mars cried out with disgust. "That's so childish!"
The senshi ran with quick steps before she seemingly lost the grip on the gun. As the others stopped to stare at it, she disappeared from sight.
"The gun.. is.. is.." Jupiter gaped.
"It's dematerializing," Mercury breathed. "How bizarre!" She had clicked on her goggles as she gathered information. "She creates but the dna structures are imbalanced. They eventually decompose."
"Eww..." Moon rubbed her nose. "We need to head on out."
"Let's go!"
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Sailor Copycat dingled the bell absently, her fuku falling away as Maneshi resurfaced. There was even more drawn lines of exhaustion.
"I don't know where to start," she said mournfully. "If I don't find out anywhere soon, I won't have enough time."
She attempted to walk but her world tilted as her eyes crossed as she fell to her knees.
"Monomane!" A elder man, in his late forties, came toward the girl. "You are to be resting. Do you want things to worsen?" He bit out. "We're doing all we can and all you can do is play! Disobedient child! You make your mother worried sick. It's time to be a grown up and stop playacting!" His hair was grayed and fringed tightly to his scalp. Dark brown eyes, constantly narrowed, bore into the other's pale face. "Come on, child, this time you will take a nap!"
Maneshi staggered to her feet, to feel a arm encircle her. "You need to sleep. Monomane. You need to conserve your strength."
"Yes, Father." She walked slowly with him, her mind reeling.
'It's not playacting, not this time,' she told herself sternly. 'Next time it won't be about sweets or anything useless! I'm going to get what I'm looking for, no matter the cost!'