The next day, the two girls got up early. They hurried to get ready and had a short breakfast before the rest of the Tsukino family. When Ikuko asked in a surprised voice where they were going in such a hurry, her daughter simply told her they wanted to go for a walk around the woods.
Ikuko seemed happy that her daughter finally seemed to perk up, now that one of her friends was with her.
The girls left the house and walked through the forest, until they reached the bottom of the biggest hill that was rising over the lake.
Usagi listened to the nice sounds of the wind and the birds, but then this idyllic orchestra got interrupted by a loud noise coming from behind the hill.
"What is that?" she shouted in surprise. "Sounds like machines."
Rei nodded. "Yeah, Mr. Moroto - Grandpa's friend - already told us that they are building an expressway nearby."
Usagi couldn't help but feel anxious. "All of this noise... won't it scare the local animals away?"
"Well, there's nothing we could do about it. It looks like that construction company already got the permission from the local authorities. They still had to adjust the path for their expressway, because of the castle. From what Mr. Moroto said, I believe the people were worried that the construction works would endanger the old ruins. I can't say I'm too happy about it either..."
"I agree," Usagi nodded. "Aren't there enough expressways already? I mean, people could always come here by train."
"Well, as I said, there's nothing we can do about it," Rei said. "Come on, let's check out the ruins! I'm really curious what the old castle looks like from the inside."
After entering the ruins, they realized that not much of the old building was standing anymore, except for parts of the main building. They climbed into the big courtyard through a small chasm in the ruined wall around the castle.
"Um, Rei? Can we just go in here like that? I mean, isn't this ruin landmarked or something?"
"True, but as long as people don't leave too much garbage behind or do anything that would damage the old walls even further, this place is free to visit for everyone."
Usagi clumsily stumbled over a big pile of boulders. "Do you really believe that we can find something about the city I saw in here?"
"I think so," her friend nodded. "This is the oldest building around here. If there would be other clues around the lake, they probably have already been taken to some museum."
"Let's ask Mr. Moroto and your grandpa about that later," Usagi said. "Oh, wow! Would you look at those pillars? I wonder how old they are..."
They searched around the ruined place for a while, but couldn't really find anything that would help them any further.
"Well," Rei sighed. "I really didn't expect anything else. Still, it was worth a try... and seeing this place has been worth it anyways, huh?"
"You can say that again," Usagi nodded. "There aren't such things in the big city, that's for sure."
They walked back through the big hall of the castle (of which only two walls were remaining), but before they reached the courtyard, Rei suddenly stopped and pulled her friend behind a wall.
"What? What's up?" Usagi asked.
"Ssshhhh," Rei hushed. "There's someone there..."
The two girls carefully peered around the corner to take a closer look at the figure that was standing right in the middle of the courtyard... and luckily, it wasn't looking in their direction.
But they were surprised to see that this was not a human... it was a creature that looked even stranger than the bluish gnome Usagi had seen the previous day.
It kinda resembled a large rodent, about as big as a dog, with yellow fur and a striped back. It's tail had a strange zigzag shape, and there were two red patches on its cheeks. It sniffed around the air, but didn't seem to notice the two of them.
"That's one strange animal," Rei whispered. "But that's not the one you saw, right, Usagi?"
Usagi shook her head. "See? I told you there would be strange creatures living in these woods."
"I have to admit, this is amazing," Rei mumbled. "We've seen Youmas, Droids and all kinds of other monsters before, but this thing... it looks so gentle. Unlike all of the other non-human creatures we met."
"You think he's looking for some food?" Usagi whispered.
"Usagi... how would you know that it's a male?"
"Um, I dunno..." She scratched her head. "He looks like it..."
The priestess sighed. "Never mind..."
Suddenly, the strange animal's head turned around, as someone else entered the courtyard. It was a boy, younger than Usagi and Rei, and he wore tattered jeans and a dirty shirt.
"That's that Ash kid I met the other day," Rei said in bewilderment. "What's he doing here?"
"It looks like they know each other," Usagi noticed.
She was right, the yellow animal was greeting the boy in some weird language neither of the girls could understand. Ash replied in the very same language, and then he gestured eastwards, where they could hear the noises from the construction site.
The yellow creature seemed to be angry because of something, because it growled, and for a short instance, Usagi believed she could see some sparks dancing around its cheeks.
The boy then said something in a harsh voice, which was accompanied with a resolute gesture. The creature lowered its head and nodded, then it walked over to a big pile of rubble.
Ash followed it, and then... they were gone.
Usagi blinked. "Huh? Did I miss anything? Where did they go?"
"I'm not too sure..." Rei mumbled. "But let's be careful anyway... They could still be around. And while that creature looked somewhat cute, it also seems to possess some strange powers."
They slowly tiptoed over the rubble-covered floor of the courtyard, until they reached the big pile of stones behind which Ash and his strange little companion had vanished.
Rei took a deep breath, exchanged a quick look with Usagi, and then the two girls nodded and stepped around the rubble.
And gazed upon the rectangular hole that was in the ground.
Usagi peered inside. "Wow, that's pitch black," she said. "I can't see anything. Not the boy and not his little animal pal."
"Who knows what's down there..." Rei muttered. "But still, if Ash knows something about those creatures, we should probably go after him. I'd really like to ask him some questions..."
"But it's so dark in there," her friend whined. "How will we see anything?"
"Calm down, you're not a crybaby, are you? Let's transform and I can use my fire powers to light the way. Ready?"
"O-okay," Usagi muttered and grasped her brooch.
"MOON CRISIS, MAKE UP!"
"MARS CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE UP!"
And after transforming into their Senshi forms, they nodded at each other with determination and dropped through the hole in the floor, first Sailor Mars, followed by Sailor Moon.
The drop wasn't too deep, but after both Sailor Senshi had landed in the dark cave underneath the ruin and looked up, they saw that the hole was too far up above their heads, so a normal human being shouldn't be able to reach it without the right tools.
Lucky thing they could always use their Senshi powers to boost their jumps and reach the hole easily.
Mars summoned a tiny flame that was hovering over the palm of her hand, and they looked around. The room wasn't very big, and there was only one exit: A small doorway directly in front of them. They could hear voices in the distance.
"Looks like we'll still be able to catch up with them," Rei said. "Let's hurry!"
"You think this is a good idea?" Sailor Moon whined in a small voice. "It's creepy down here..."
"Stop whining and get moving," Mars snapped in an irritated tone of voice. "Really, sometimes I wonder if all those battles we had in the past actually had some impact on you... you still behave like a five-year-old at times. Now hurry! I'm really curious where this leads."
"Really?" Usagi muttered. "Well, not me..."
They walked through the doorway and found themselves in a narrow corridor with a very low ceiling. A little bit lower, and they would hit their heads when standing upright. Mars went ahead with her light, and Moon followed her meekly.
The walls were covered with strange-looking engravings, but they had no time to look at them more closely. They just followed the voices in front of them.
Suddenly, they were standing at a crossway. "Now where did they go?" Mars muttered and looked from one corridor to the other.
Moon looked right, where she believed to see a dim flicker of light. She also thought she heard the voices coming from there. "I think they're over there!" she shouted. Quickly, the two Senshi followed the right path.
But very soon after that, the voices were dying down, and the flicker of light vanished.
"We'll never catch up with them like this..." Rei muttered. "Hopefully, there aren't too many of those corridors down here..."
A few minutes later, they reached yet another junction.
"Which way?" Usagi asked.
Rei thought about it for a while, then she gestured right again "That way! If we always go in one direction, we'll surely find the right way."
Usagi wasn't so sure about that, but she followed her teammate all the same.
While they were walking, Rei held her flame close to the walls. "Would you look at those engravings?" she muttered. "I wonder how old those corridors are..."
Usagi just wanted to reply something, when they entered a circular cave with no less than six various exits.
"Oh, now what?" Usagi whined.
Rei came to a stop and frowned. "This is a downright labyrinth..." she murmured. "We should have brought a compass or something like that..."
She looked at the various doorways that were leading out of the room. Every single one looked the same. "Getting out of here won't be easy," she sighed.
Usagi sat down on the ground. "Whatever, I need a break... we've been walking for hours now..."
"Don't be silly, it has just been 30 minutes, more or less."
"Still..." the moon princess griped. "I'm tired and hungry. Let's rest for a while... please?"
Rei groaned. "For all I care... Fine, we seem to have lost them anyway." She sat down next to Usagi and let her flame hover next to her. She smirked. "I learned to do that trick last week, you know?"
Usagi wondered if she or the other Senshi would be able to do similar things with their powers, but she was too hungry to think about it.
She reached for her pocket, but realized that her Senshi fuku didn't have any pockets. "Now where did that bag of jelly beans go that I brought with me?" she wondered.
She searched through her subspace pocket from which she always pulled her Moon Rod and other Senshi tools, and smiled when she was able to pull out her jelly beans.
"Want one?" she asked and offered the bag to her friend after opening it.
Rei shook her head. "No, thanks. I'm still thinking about a way how we'll get out of here without getting lost..."
Usagi shrugged, then took a green jelly bean and put in in her mouth.
Rei was stumped. If all corridors looked the same, how would they even realize that they wouldn't walk through the same ones again and again? What they needed was something to mark the paths they came from...
Her gaze fell upon the colorful jelly beans within Usagi's grasp, and suddenly she got an idea.
She quickly snatched the bag out of her friend's hands and jumped to her feet. "Hey!" Usagi shouted. "Don't hog them all for yourself!"
"Usagi, that's it! I finally know how we can avoid getting lost," the Senshi of Mars shouted in excitement.
"Really?" Sailor Moon asked. "Um, how?"
"With your jelly beans! Here, look!" Rei took one of the sweets out of the bag and placed them next to one of the six doorways. "See? We'll just take this way, and if we ever come here into this room again, we'll know that we've been here already."
Usagi was amazed. "Rei, you can be ingenious sometimes, you know that? Even Ami wouldn't have come up with a great plan like that."
Rei smiled proudly. "Right! Now, let's get out of here!"
While they were running down the corridor, Usagi suddenly smirked. "You know, we wouldn't be able to get out of here if I hadn't brought the jelly beans."
They ran through the darkness, heading into various directions once they reached other junctions. Every time they did that, Rei placed one of the colorful jelly beans down at the floor. Sometimes, they reached a dead end and had to go back the way they came, and sometimes they reached junctions they had passed previously. In such a case, they would take a way where Rei didn't drop a jelly bean before and continue on their way.
After about half an hour, they still couldn't find an exit. "I don't believe it," Rei grumbled. "How big is this labyrinth?"
"Rei, look!" Usagi gestured ahead. The corridor they were following suddenly ended at a doorway that was bigger than the ones they had passed previously. It's frame was decorated with old paintings of strange animals.
Curiously, the two girls entered a big hall that was lying behind the doorway. Two big, but dark candelabras were standing next to a big stone block that resembled an altar.
Rei moved her light around. All over the walls, they could see the same gravures that were also covering the corridor walls.
"Incredible..." Rei whispered. "What is this place?" She went closer to the wall. "Those signs... what are they supposed to be? Some old hieroglyphics?"
Usagi stood next to her and looked at the wall as well. "You know, those look very much like regular letters. Look, if you take that one and erase the weird circle with the dot in the middle... it almost looks like an 'M', does it?"
Rei gasped in surprise. "You're right! But what people would write with such strange letters?" She looked over the writings in confusion. "Every single letter has this weird circle with the dot inside. Let's see if I can translate it..."
She squinted her eyes. It was difficult to decode the strange letters with only her dancing flame as a source of light.
"O-U-R W-O-R-D-S S-H-A-L-L R-E-M-A-I-N H-E-R-E F-O-R T-H-E A-G-E-S." she translated the first sentence. She scratched her head. "Strange... I wonder what that means."
"Rei, look here!" Usagi was standing next to the altar and gestured at the strange item lying on top.
Rei walked over to her and looked down at the weird, spherical item. It was about as big as a tennis ball and its top half was colored red and its lower half white. There was also a small button-like contraption on its front.
Usagi picked up the ball. "Weird! What do you suppose this is?" she asked her friend.
"Wait!" Mars suddenly shouted. "Don't touch the button!"
"Huh? What?" Sailor Moon asked in confusion. Unconsciously, her fingers closed around the ball and pressed the button...
With a slight 'click', the two halves of the strange ball opened up.
Usagi gasped.
"Oh no! Now I've broken it!"
Her fellow Senshi sighed. "You haven't broken it, it seems to open when someone presses that button." She took the empty contraption out of her friend's hand. "Still I wonder who would put something like that down here... and what's stored within such a thing at all?"
She looked closer at the ball. It seemed kinda old, with a scarred surface and a squeaky joint. Rei shrugged. "Who knows for how long this thing has been lying down here... Still, we should take it with us. Maybe Ami can tell us more about it, when we take it back home."
They looked around the room. "Well, as there's no other exit in here, I think we should go back and try to find another way."
"Yeah, okay!" Usagi nodded.
They went back through the dark corridor until they reached the last junction. But when they looked down at the ground, they gasped.
"The jelly bean!" Usagi shouted. "It's gone!"
"You're right! Damn, what now? I can clearly remember that I put it down there."
"That... means we have to go the other way now, right?" Usagi asked, a little bit uncertainly.
Rei nodded. "Yeah, but I wonder... jelly beans don't simply vanish into thin air. If there's someone around here who sabotages our only lead back to the surface, we're done for."
She then snarled. "I bet it's that kid with his yellow-furred friend. Maybe they're sitting just around the corner and have the time of their life, laughing at us, while we walk around like two dopes without a clue."
The two Sailor Senshi ran into the other corridor and followed it for a while, until they once again entered the circular room with the six doorways.
"Well, here we are again..." Sailor Moon sighed.
Mars checked the other doorways. "There are still some jelly beans left, but I know I dropped more of them in this room. There has to be someone down here who picked them up. Just why..."
"Hey, Mars!" Moon suddenly spoke up. "Do you hear that?"
Rei listened. And she could hear something, coming out of one of the tunnels. It sounded like the snuffling and panting of some animal, almost like a...
"A dog?" Usagi wondered. "How did a dog get down here?"
"I dunno," Rei replied. "Perhaps it's just a stray dog that fell down the hole in the ruins."
The snuffling and panting came closer, and they looked towards the doorway where it came from... one of those, where one of Rei's jelly bean markings were still lying.
But only until the wet, slobbery tongue of the dog slurped it up and pulled it back into its muzzle. It wasn't Ash who had taken the jelly beans... it was the dog.
The dog?
The more the two Senshi were looking at the four-legged creature standing in front of them, the more they were convinced that this was anything else... but not a dog!
It's fur was as black as the night, and it had three bony white protrusions growing on its backside, looking almost like the ribs of a skeleton. Another bony protrusion was circling its long, slender neck, just like a necklace. Two long, curved horns were rising from its skull.
The beast was bigger than a doberman, and it bared its teeth while snarling dangerously at the two girls. Saliva was dropping from its jaws and onto the cavern floor.
"Wha... wha... wha..." Sailor Moon muttered in fear. "What's that?"
"I don't know, but it doesn't look too friendly," Mars grumbled. "Looks like it's itching for a fight."
Indeed, the monstrous dog-creature's snarling increased in volume, while the beast lowered its head, preparing to pounce.
But Sailor Mars was faster. "Burning Mandala!" she shouted, and the fiery rings flew from her hands, at the monster.
The creature flinched in surprise as the fire singed its fur. Angrily, it shook its head.
And then... it simply looked back at the two girls and continued to advance.
"Wh-what?" Mars gasped in surprise. "How's that possible? It simply took my attack like... like it was a simple blow to the face."
Usagi felt very nervous. "Rei... maybe we should leave it alone." The stare that dark beast was throwing her gave her the creeps.
For once, Rei agreed with her blonde friend. "Right... maybe... maybe it will leave us alone once we leave."
They turned around and blindly chose one of the doorways. They didn't know where it would lead... but they didn't mind at that moment. If only they would get away from that creepy dog.
But their hopes were squashed as soon as they heard the angry bark of the monster, and its growling and panting, as it ran after them.
"Maybe... maybe we can confuse him by taking different ways," Usagi suggested while she stumbled through the darkness.
"He'll track us down with his nose, I'm sure," Rei shouted back. "Besides, if we lose each other now, we might lose sight of each other as well."
Only once dared Usagi throw a glance backwards to their pursuer, but she wished she didn't do it. The image of the savage beast, how it ran after them with bared teeth only made her scream in fright.
They had fought many monsters before, various creatures that were even more frightening than this one. But now they were alone, without their friends, and Mars' attack really didn't seem to faze the beast. In addition, they've been stumbling through the darkness for at least an hour, and in that condition, most people would likely react like this.
When Usagi believed to feel the hot breath of the creature on her neck, she yelled: "WHAAAAAAAAH! He's closing in on us!"
"Quick, this way!" Rei shouted and pulled her friend into a side tunnel.
Just as Usagi stumbled after her friend, the dark body of the beast shot past them like a living cannonball.
"Hurry!" Rei grunted. "He'll be after us again soon enough."
"But where should we go?" Usagi whined.
She was right... there was no way out of this situation. They had to fight. As long as they couldn't find the exit, and the monster could find them, they would never be able to escape.
"Well, we simply have to win! That's all, right?" Rei tried sounding confident, but failed miserably.
Usagi didn't feel any better. She saw how Rei's fire attack didn't work on that creature. Hopefully her own attacks would be more efficient...
She gulped when she heard a loud snarl echoing through the darkness. It sounded awfully close...
She leaned over to her friend's ear and whispered: "Do you suppose he..."
And then she could only yelp in surprise, as something grabbed both her and Rei and pulled the two of them backwards.
Usagi instantly wanted to defend herself against the unknown assaulter, but a whispering voice hissed: "Be quiet! If he hears us, it's all over. Those beasts can almost hear as good as they can smell."
Because it sounded like this person, whoever it was, wanted to help them, Sailor Moon calmed down and simply nodded. She threw Rei a sidewards glance and saw that she didn't move.
Suddenly, it occurred to her that their unknown savior had pulled them backwards... but there had been no corridor behind them. Just the solid wall.
"How did..." she started.
"Quiet now! Here he comes!"
And Usagi watched how the fearsome image of the black beast came walking past their hiding place, wherever this was. He growled angrily and even looked into their direction, so that Usagi feared he would pounce on them every second.
But after a while, the creature snorted and walked away. Its panting died away, until it was gone.
"I think we can go out now," the stranger whispered. "He's gone now."
"Th-thanks," Usagi nodded and stepped back into the corridor. Rei and the other person followed her. Confused, Usagi looked at the wall behind her and pushed against it. Solid rock.
"How... how did you do that?" she whispered and tried seeing the face of their savior. But it was way too dark, and during the wild chase, Rei's light had gone out.
"Oh, just a simple trick," the boy (was it a boy?) shrugged. "I already know how to deal with those guys."
"But what in the world is that thing?" Mars asked. Her heart was still pounding. "I've never seen anything like it before."
"A Houndoom! Nasty fellows, and persistent as well. You're lucky I was nearby. A little bit closer, and he would have had you for lunch."
"Who are you anyway?" Rei asked. "Are you that boy, Ash...?"
"We should go now," the stranger said without reacting to her question. "I might have confused him, but he might come back. And there are others like him. You shouldn't have come here in the first place. This is not a good place for your kind."
He walked ahead and waved them. "Here, come this way! Or do you want to play tag with the Houndoom again?"
He had a point, and so the two Senshi decided to keep their questions for later.
Their guide - they still couldn't see him very clearly - lead them through the labyrinth. Without hesitating even once, he chose a certain path until they reached a long passageway. At its end, they could finally see light.
Usagi and Rei breathed sighs of relief and picked up their pace.
When they stepped out into the sunlight, they felt as if they would have spent an entire month under the earth. It was true that the natural habitat of humans was above the earth, not underground.
"Go down the hill and you'll reach the village," the stranger said. "It's not far, just go straight ahead."
"Sure," Sailor Moon nodded and turned around. "And I want to thank you again for..."
She stopped in mid-sentence. There was no one that could have listened to her. She and Rei were the only two persons standing there.
And on top of that, there wasn't even a tunnel, a cave entrance or something similar where they could have come from. Behind them, they could only see a smooth stone surface, without any cracks or other visible openings.
She then remembered what the stranger had said to them: 'This is not a good place for YOUR KIND.'
"Sailor Moon..." Mars mumbled. "I said it and I'll say it again: Something very, very strange is going on here..."
