Chapter 2: The Glaive
Hotaru awoke from a long slumber, after viewing the movie with Rini and the seizure she had it was very tiring on her. She kept thinking about Sailor Moon and the woman watching her. They were dressed almost exactly alike, as was she in her dream. But what was that dream about? She couldn't put her finger on it but she felt a type of reality to it, as if she was actually destined to be who she was.
Shaking the feeling off she put on a sweater and a pair of black jeans and walked outside to the park to retrieve her basket she had left while in a blind rush to get to the theater. Walking the same path she took to get to the old Sakura tree, she was a little anxious to get there. She suddenly stopped walking, and her eyes widened a little. Two girls, who happened to go to the same school as Hotaru did, walked by giving her suspicious looks and whispered very quietly about her. Hotaru walked past them without any emotion, why are Haruka and Michiru always giving me cold stares? Hotaru thought.
All of a sudden a blast of energy shot out of nowhere hitting Hotaru square in the chest. She toppled over on the ground as the pain shot through her, looking up she saw a hideous spider monster with the same black star on it's forehead as the monster Sailor Moon had to fight.
"Poor little girl!" the monster hissed, as it fired off several energy blasts. Hotaru stood up and covered her head, bracing herself for the next blow…..
"Burning Mandala!" a voice called out. Hotaru looked as the monster was engulfed in flames. On the hill a girl with long silky black hair, dressed in a red suit similar to Sailor Moon's, held her hand out where her attack had projected out.
"Arrgh! Insolent fool!" the spider beast said, "Black Lightning Strike!" Black lightning spewed out of the spiders six arms (two were legs) at the girl.
"Mars Snake Fire!" the girl hollered as a snake shaped out of pure flame flung out at the black lightning making each of them collide, but the lightning was stronger and sent the girl hurtling over into a Sakura tree. Hotaru looked over to where the girl had fallen and saw another girl, this one dressed in a green suit, similar to the girl in red's, with curly brown hair tied back into a pony tail.
"Flower Hurricane!" the girl cried as a storm of flower petals flew out at the spider monster.
"Burning Mandala!" the black haired girl shouted as the same bolt of fire shot out at the creature making it incinerate into the summer day. Hotaru felt it coming again….another seizure.
Hotaru was dressed in the same outfit again. She had a golden tiara and the shattered diamond brooch and choker. She had earrings shaped like the planet Saturn and she was wearing a Sailor Fuku like Sailor Moon except it had a deep blue shade to the skirt, chocker, and shirt collar. She had knee-high boots that were laced all the way up, and the sleeves of her shirt resembled thick flower petals. She had comfortable elbow-length gloves with blue ends and looking at her arms, her burns were gone. In her hands she wielded a glaive.
Examining the glaive more carefully she looked at her reflection through the glaive and had a happy feeling. Wow! I look………cool. Hotaru thought. She smiled at her reflection then looked behind her. The woman was there…..
"Chronos Typhoon!" the woman yelled holding out the heart shaped top of her staff, which held the orb. A gust of heavy, purple colored, wind flew out at Hotaru.
"Silent Wall!" Hotaru yelled, without even knowing she would say that. A heavy barrier blocked the wind gust. Hotaru ran towards the woman as she held out her staff.
"Dead Scream!" The woman bellowed, her staff top started to glow a neon purple and it flew around her and headed straight for Hotaru. Hotaru sprinted away from the neon energy ball and watched the orb return to it's owner. Hotaru grasped tightly to the glaive and charged at the woman. Thrusting the glaive at the woman she saw a storm of red fly past her eyes. She looked at the woman who blocked the heavily bleeding wound with her hands. Hotaru dropped to her knees, as her opponent smiled with a hint of pain in it.
"Dead……Scream!" The opponent hollered and sent Hotaru flying back. Hotaru screamed in pain as she hit the ground. Her eyes began to swell with tears but she blocked them back. Staggering from the ground she focused her gaze on the woman's eyes. She clutched the glaive again and charged in at her opponent again trying to strike the same wound she created. She saw the shower of red again but it wasn't enough to make the opponent stagger. Hotaru braced herself for the next attack that her opponent was going to make.
Instead of a wind gust or purple orb attack the opponent kicked Hotaru with great force, but Hotaru was just a little quicker and went to strike with her glaive. The opponent smiled as the glaive inched closer towards her.
"Garnet Orb!" she screamed as a barrier hit the glaive sending Hotaru backwards. Hotaru charged again but as the woman held out the Heart shaped staff top Hotaru snatched it and kicked her opponent to the ground. The woman struggled to get up from the darkness, when suddenly the woman's body exploded sending a hideous bird monster out of it's shell. Hotaru glared at the orb as it dissolved into thin air.
"Ha! I can't believe you're the last one!" the monster shrilled.
"What are you talking about?" Hotaru asked grinding her teeth.
"Oh, you won't have to worry about it when I am done with you!" the monster bellowed, "Black Diamond Shards!"
Lifting up it's winged hands shards of black glass flew in a shower at Hotaru. The shards split through her, she felt the thousand painful memories she had experienced that year and tears shot out of her eyes and trail her as she fell to the ground.
……………….Then she awoke……………………………
"Hello?" she heard a voice say. Hotaru opened up her eyes and saw a beautiful Shinto priestess with raven-black hair and pale eyes. She reached for Hotaru's hand as her long black hair whisked over her shoulders. Willingly Hotaru grasped her hand and looked around her, as the moon's light glowed upon her face. The fight she had just experienced seemed real, but was it?
"Thank you." Hotaru nervously whispered. In response the priestess smiled happily at the girl and walked away. Hotaru ran home for supper with tears being suppressed.
There has to be some explanation of why that girl seems to have an aura of power. Rei thought. She sat in front of her fire and began to channel its energy, after all she was Sailor Mars. What her mind saw was a trio of Sailor Scouts, in which two she had never seen. The tallest one was Sailor Pluto, the one who was supposedly dead, the one who could stop time.
