Minako Aino and the Secret Society
A Back Home AU
by Warringer
Chapter 1
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Minako followed Inspector Lesley Moody out of the elevator that had brought them into one of the subterran levels of the New Scotland Yard building and the smell immediately called up pictures of the past.
She stopped and closed her eyes, trying to shut away the pictures.
"Are you okay?" she heard Lesley ask and opened her eyes again, breathing in deep.
"Sorry," she said in a low voice," The smell..."
Lesley nodded.
"I can understand that," he said," This is a mortuary after all..."
Minako shook her head a little.
"It reminded me of the time after First Impact," she said and walked up to him to follow him through one of the larger rooms, lined with rows of cold chambers.
"I helped in Nerima and Jubaan in the rescue effort."
She gave him a weak smile.
"So I don't think I'm going to throw up because of the smell or the sight of dead bodies. I saw my share of them back than. Still creeps me out..."
Lesley nodded. Minako shuddered and looked left and right to the cold chambers. It wasn't really the sight or smell of a dead body, but another thing. Any dead body still had a minute amount of life energy in them and it had freaked everyone during Nerima and Jubaan, until Amy had explained that the human body died slowly after the heart stopped or what ever killed it, slowly using up what was left of life energy. Another thing were the large number of symbiotic bacteria that lived in the intestine tract of the human body and had their own life energy and continued to life for quite some time, as well as the life forms that took care of decompositions.
"Here we are," Lesley stated and Minako looked at the face of a very small woman in a white lab coat who smiled at her.
"Dr. Amanda O'Conner, one of our coroners."
"Pleased to meet you," Dr. O'Conner said with a smile and extended her hand towards Minako." Lesley told me you wanted to see the bodies of the Orbany case."
"Minako Aino," she answered and shook the coroners hand.
"Nice to meet you," Dr. O'Conner answered and pulled a step ladder up to her and stepped up on it looking at the number of the cold chamber." Mr. Marcus Orbany. One of the latest victims of this strange string of homicides."
He opened the chamber and pulled out the tray with the body on it. He pulled back the sheet covering the body and frowned. Minako stared down at the broken pale body of a heavy set man.
"He died of bloodloss," he stated and closed his eyes for a moment." His genitals were cut from his body."
Minako closed her eyes and winced.
"The cut is very neat and clean and most likely done by a surgeon using a scalpel and under full anesthesia However... According to the reports they were cut of by his wife using a kitchen knife . There are also a large number of broken bones. Obviously done by something along the lines of a sledge hammer. However, the body lacks the hematoma that would normally develop in such a case. A sledge hammer also wouldn't completely shred the muscle tissue into mince meat."
Minako winced again at the rather detached and cold voice of Dr. O'Conner, which was quite different to the tone she had used at the meeting. But Minako knew that the coroner once stated the facts and tried not to get attached to the people...
Dr. O'Conner pushed the tray back into the cold chamber and closed it before pushing herself and the step ladder to the next chamber.
"Daniel Orbany," she said, opening the chamber." The nine year old son of Mr. Orbany."
Minako breathed in deep as she looked down at the pale body of a young boy, whose entire face was completely unrecognizable. But this wasn't the first time she had seen such a mutilated body.
"He is completely covered by hematoma and his face seemed to have meet with a sledge hammer. It also broke his scull and he died from a multitude of bone fragments in his brain. He had also been..."
O'Conner herself stopped and breathed in deep.
"...been raped before he died. Maybe while he died."
Again the cvold chamber was closed and they went to the next chamber.
"Marcy Orbany, the twin sister of Daniel."
As Minako looked into the girls face she couldn't help but notice how cute she had been, maybe she would have grown up to be a beautiful teen who would have turned the heads of a number of boys.
"Her dead was less gruesome, but only barely."
Minako's glance went deeper and she caught sight of two patches of red just beneath the sheet and a red line across her throat.
"Like her brother, she has been raped before her death and the culprit, or rather culprits as I found several samples of sperm from different males. But that is not all. They cut large patches of skin from her chest with what looks like a kitchen knife. But again the cut is too clean and neat for a kitchen knife. She than was killed by slitting her throat and massive blood loss."
For Minako this was slowly turning into something else than the broken and mutilated bodies she had seen in Nerima and Jubaan. Back than she hadn't known much about them or how they died.
As O'Conner closed the cold chamber, Minako had to fight with all her power not to vomit at the spot.
"And finally, Mrs. Anna Orbany."
Again Minako stared down at a pale dead body. But there was something different about her.
"Mrs. Orbany was raped before her death and she is the only one who hasn't been mutilated or other wise killed in a brutal way. In fact I have no idea what she died of. The report says that she died from an overdose, but there weren't any substances in her blood besides some acetylsalicylic acid, commonly called Asperin."
Minako stared at the body until it suddenly made click.
"There isn't any life energy left in her," she said with a low voice causing O'Conner and Lesley to blink.
"What?" O'Conner asked and looked at Minako as if she had grown a second head.
"I believe she refers to the 'youma related homicides' several years ago. These youma were 'stealing' life energy after all."
Minako nodded weakly.
"If a body doesn't have life energy in them they simply die."
O'Conner gave Minako a short glare before her face lit up a little.
"Oh yes... Minako Aino... You were Sailor V back than."
Minako again nodded weakly.
"So Mrs. Orbany was drained by a youma?"
Minako shook her head.
"That is not possible," she said," Pluto told us that any youma was destroyed after the destruction of their masters..."
Lesley crossed his arms and seemed to think for a moment.
"She was drained of all her life energy."
Than he blinked.
"That would mean a normal dead body would have life energy?"
"Yes," Minako said with a nod and explained.
The two employees of Scotland Yard nodded after she finished.
"Sounds about right," O'Conner said," So the flora in her ingestion tract is also dead."
"But what could have drained her?"
O'Conner shrugged and closed the cold chamber again.
"Sorry, that I can't help you more, but there is an overdose waiting for me. Not that he would run away."
Lesley smiles weakly and put his hand on Minako's shoulder.
"You want to go to the toilet," he asked and Minako just nodded as she felt bile raising up.
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Minako couldn't help but stare a little at the rows of houses that looked exactly the same. Left and right of the street the houses were standing and as she looked into the other direction, the street continued with the same houses.
"Number 34 Privet Drive," Lesley said as he looked at the house he had parked in front of. "The home of the Orbanys."
Minako turned to look at the house, while Lesley watched her, leaning on the car. The house didn't look very different compared to the other houses in the street, only the yellow plastic band that spanned across the yard and the seal on the door was setting it apart from the rest of the rather bald houses.
"These houses always remind me of 'Podpeople'," Lesley noted dryly.
Minako looked at him and the snug look on his face.
"I grew up in one a street like this," he said with a shrug." I'm glad that I was able to escape to London."
"You should have followed the footsteps of your father, young man," a high pitched voice suddenly said from behind.
Lesley looked startled and rapidly adopted a face that seemed to say 'Please shoot me now' before turning to face the owner of the voice.
"Mrs. Corvington," he answered and moved slightly to allow Minako to get a look at the woman in question." I didn't knew that you moved."
The woman in question was looking very much like Minako always imagined an elder British woman, of course this image had always been colored by Mrs. Marple. Graying hair, a little smaller than Minako, black clothes and a small dog, a West Highland Terrier by the look of it, who was sniffing at Lesley's leg.
"I have moved in with my son," Mrs. Corvington noted before looking towards the house that used to belong to the Orbanys. "I heard you made it to Inspector. Are you responsible for the death of the Orbanys?"
Lesley sighed and nodded, while the dog had enough of sniffing at the leg and looked up towards Lesley.
"Yes."
Mrs. Corvington shook her head and sighed loudly.
"Bad thing that," she said and Lesley rolled his eyes.
Or course the elder woman saw it.
"Don't roll your eyes on me, young man."
She sighed again and the small white terrier jumped up on Lesley's leg.
"They were such nice people," she said," I can't imagine why someone would do something this horrible to them. The kids were such sweethearts."
While his owner continued to unpack her gossip about the Orbanys and the rest of the neighborhood, the dog began to hump Lesley's leg. Mrs. Corvington didn't notice or pretended that she didn't notice, while Minako couldn't help but try and suppress a giggle as Lesley tried to shake of the dog.
"They were so much nicer than the Dusleys from Number Four. Their Dudley is such a bully, always picking on poor Harry. Just like his father."
Mrs. Corvington shook her head.
"These Dusleys are not normal," she said and tried not to speak so loud and failed miserably.
Minako had this feeling that Mrs. Corvington was speaking as loud because of the horsefaced, blond woman that passed them on the other side the the street, glaring at the Orbany house.
"They way they treated poor Harry. He is much better off in that school he is now."
The woman shook her head.
"I can't imagine how such a nice boy could be place such as the St Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys."
Again she spoke a little louder, just enough to cause the horsefaced woman to stop and glare at Mrs. Corvington, before striding away with her nose pointed towards the sky as if she was something better.
"I take it that was Mrs. Dusley," Minako noted as she looked after the woman, glad to be distracted from the dog.
"Why yes," Mrs. Corvington said." She is always spoiling her son, Dudley, while poor Harry got nothing."
Lesley rolled his eyes again and sighed.
"Mrs. Corvington, I fear that I have to cut my visit short. I just wanted to show my new partner the site of the crime we are investigating. We need to be going."
His eyes were going to Minako who got the clue and got into the car, a 2006 VW Beetle with fusion cell and E-Drive.
Mrs. Corvington smiled at Lesley and nodded, pulling at the leash of her dog, who obediently let go of Lesley's leg, leaving a small wet spot as it seemed.
"Of course," she said."I hope you find the one who was responsible. But be careful, I suspect that it were Wizards..."
Lesley nodded and got into the car himself.
"Oh, could you please look after Harry Potter at St Brutus and make sure he gets treated nicely? He has such a hard life with the Duselys."
Lesley set on a fake smile and nodded.
"I will see what I can do, Mrs. Corvington," he said and started the car." It was nice to see you again."
As the car silently began to move the elder woman waved after them and Lesley showed a face of disgust.
"Mrs. Corvington was our neighbor in my childhood," he said and rolled his eyes." That woman lived of gossip. That and all that talk about Wizards and Witches that torment her in her sleep..."
He shook his head.
"Crazy old woman..."
Minako looked at him with a smug grin.
"And what am I, chopped stomach?"
Lesley blinked and looked at Minako for a moment.
"What?"
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"Wait a minute," Lesley suddenly said and looked at Minako.
Minako blinked rapidly.
"Eyes on the street," she said as Lesley narrowly avoided crashing into a truck that came down the street.
"Sorry..." Lesley said, his eyes locking back on the street as the truck passed them with bellowing horn.
"This name," he said after a moment," Harry Potter, I've heard it before. And 'Dusley'. That name also rings a bell."
"Oh?" Minako asked and looked after the truck.
Lesley nodded and concentrated to find a place where he could stop.
"I was about to tell you about that particular case anyway. It was last September. The first attack of what could be described as Youma."
That got Minako's interest, as Lesley looked around and found a place to park his car.
"Or at least something very similar to Youma anyway. The thing is that several of these creatures attacked Privet Drive. More exactly The Dusleys and Harry Potter."
Minako shook her head.
"That can't be. Youma don't wok well with each other. And there haven't been any Youma attacks I know of since 2002, when we defeated Sailor Galaxia. They were always destroyed when we... dealt with their masters, mistresses... whatever..."
By now Lesley had parked the car and pulled his cellphone from his pocket.
"Interesting. Especially since it seem that you, or rather Sailor V, has defeated these Youmas..."
"What?" Minako looked at Lesley as if he had grown another head.
"I know," he said with a chuckle." I already checked. As the attack happened, you were busy with a concert in Kobe."
"Than what did happen."
"I have no idea."
Lesley shrugged and opened his cellphone by pulling the flexible screen sideways out of the phone, causing the organic display to light up and stiffen as it had been pulled out completely.
"I got a friend at SCD5," he noted and let the fingers of one hand glide over the touch sensitive display.
"Inspector Donning," a pleasant female voice came through the speaker of the phone, while the display didn't change.
Lesley chuckled a little.
"Hey, Anne, it's Lesley."
The woman on the other end counter chuckled.
"Moody, what can I do to you?"
Lesley snorted.
"Inflict some help on me," he answered." I need you to look into a young boy, Harry Potter. As far as I know he was sent to a place called..."
He thought for a moment, trying to remember what it was.
"Ahh... yes, St Brutus's Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys..."
"What?" Anne's voice came over the phone." There is no place called 'St Brutus'. But I do have a hit on this Harry Potter."
Lesley looked puzzled at that little piece of information.
"Are you sure that this St Brutus doesn't exist? My... tab isn't usually wrong."
"I am sure," Anne replied." Why do you want that info about the Potter boy?"
"One of those cases of mine," he said." That Youma Attack last September."
Anne chuckled.
"Okay, here it is. Harry Potter, born July 31st 1991 to James Potter and Lilly Potter, born Evans. Orphaned October 31st 1992, send to live with his aunt Petunia Dusley, born Evans, sister to Lilly Potter, and her husband Vernon Dusley. Hmmm..."
Minako and Lesley both looked at the display, even if they didn't see much.
"There are quite a few cases for child abuse filed against the Dusley, but the investigators never found much. Quite the opposite. It seems that the Dusleys have always been good to Harry."
Lesley shook his head.
"Doesn't match my... tab..."
"Sorry," Anne said," but that is what is in the system."
Lesley nodded.
"Can you tell me where Harry goes to school? I need to talk to him and from what 'I' know I don't think that it would be good to talk to these Dusley's."
"One moment... Ah, yes... Some private boarding school named Hogwarts... No address..."
Lesley sighed.
"Thanks anyway," he said," I owe you one."
Anne chuckled again.
"I know this nice Indian Restaurant where you could invite me to."
Lesley laughed.
"I try to remember," he said with a grin." I guess I'll see you later than."
"Later, Lesley."
With that he pushed the display back into the phone and sighed again.
"So much for that..." he said dryly.
Minako looked at him, as he leaned back.
"And what now?"
"No idea..."