Disclaimer: Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon was created by Takeuchi Naoko, and published by Kodansha. The anime was produced by TV asahi, Toei Agency, and Toei Animation. As this fanfiction is written purely for the entertainment of the author, she makes no material profit from it.

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Proof of Life

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Rei did not consider herself a suspicious person but neither did she believe in coincidence. For seven days, the same quiet shadow of a woman had come to pray at the shrine, and for seven days, Rei had endured the same gruesome, blood-soaked visions every time she sat before the Sacred Fire. Not once had she seen the small woman's image in the vision, but somehow, she was a part of it. It was not the first time Rei had seen more than she understood, and often people were represented in ways that made sense only in retrospect.

With her head bowed and her back to Rei, the woman looked no different from any of the nameless housewives and office ladies who patronised the shrine, and yet, there was an aura around her that Rei had never felt before. If she didn't know better, she would have said it was familiar, somehow, like it belonged to an old friend.

Or an ally, though that idea startled her so much she nearly dropped the box of charms she was unpacking, and Rei cursed her clumsiness. The sound of her voice caused the praying woman to turn, her face a waxy white. Rei's eyes narrowed, and she noticed the way the woman hunched in on herself, thin arms wrapped around her mid-section. Any lingering doubt she might have harbored that the stranger was connected to the images from the Fire evaporated at that sight; the blue-haired woman with the china doll's face was being hunted, and she knew it.

Smoothing her hands across the cool silk of her hakama, Rei forced herself to wait a moment before placing the charms on the counter and making her way towards the woman. Showing her own sudden nervousness would do more harm than good, with the woman looking as skittish as a hare.

The waiting figure at the torii stopped her short, however, as did the way the woman seemed to stand a little straighter as one arm wrapped around her shoulders. Rei wished she could make out the second stranger's face, but they were too far away, and the taller figure remained facing away from her until they were out of sight. Uneasy, Rei remained where she was, at the top of the stone stairs, and wondered what it was about the long, sleek ponytail that had set her heart to racing so. Above her, the crows that always flocked to the shrine shrieked, their caws enough to unsettle anyone, but Rei hardly heard them. She had the disturbing notion that the Fire's recent visions had been a warning, one that it was too late to heed now.

Shivering despite the morning's unseasonable warmth, Rei turned just in time to stumble over another unfamiliar woman, and froze the moment she caught sight of long blonde hair spilling across grey stone steps. Long hair against grey stones, and pale blue eyes wide with surprise. Blonde hair and a red bow, red like the blood that pooled beneath her, coating the ivory-handled knife beside her, red like the lips of the woman who stood in the shadows, curving in a cruel smile, her butterfly wings exotic against the dull, peeling walls. Rei had just enough time to be grateful she didn't have far to fall before she fainted, her crows' distant calls the last, harsh sound she heard.

--

They stopped at a small café not far from Hikawa Jinja, and Ami sank into an empty booth without a second thought. Makoto had been missing for a full week now, and aside from Taiki, no one else had so much as noticed. That scared her nearly as much as her friend's disappearance - Kino Makoto had a wide circle of friends, and she was not the kind of woman whose disappearance should have gone unremarked. And yet, when Ami mentioned her, she was met with vague, unconcerned shrugs or outright confusion, as though they couldn't quite figure out who she meant.

Taiki interrupted her thoughts, placing a latté on the table in front of her. "You need to stop doing this," she said, her deep alto full of the same worry Makoto had shown the last time she'd visited. Ami squeezed her eyes shut against the memory, and wasn't surprised when Taiki's hand covered one of her own.

A strangled whine escaped her throat, and Ami forced herself to meet Taiki's eyes. "What else am I supposed to do? She's gone, and if - if he - if it's because of me ..."

"Don't, Ami."

Taiki's voice brooked no argument, and Ami quieted, leaving the sentence unfinished. Taiki's hand was still on hers, warm and real in a way little else had been for too long. Since he had started that game, with rules Ami didn't know and a prize she didn't think she could let him win. It wasn't chess. There would be no simple checkmate, no one move she could build up to that would stop him. Ami wasn't certain anything would stop him.

"Seiya's coming back," Taiki said, apropos of nothing until Ami looked up and caught the determined edge in her eyes. "He's taking some time off, staying with an old friend from uni. I told him we'd meet him at the airport."

"You want to tell him." Her voice was even, but Taiki winced regardless.

"He can help," Taiki started, and then cut herself short. She'd never been good with arguments, and Ami was too far gone to care.

"No," she said. "He can't. He's your friend, Kou, not mine, and I'm not dragging someone else into this." She didn't even know what this was, but Makoto had been the first person she'd told about him, and now she was gone. Ami refused to think past that; gone was bad enough, but if another person disappeared ...

"I shouldn't have said anything at all."

That earned Ami a glare, but she ignored it, her eyes going from Taiki's face to the untouched drink before her. She'd gone to Taiki as soon as Mako had stopped returning her calls, and in the week since, the tall lawyer had done more to keep her sane than anyone. But if Makoto's disappearance was related to Zoisaito's game - and Ami couldn't see how it could be anything else - then all she'd done was endanger another friend. "I'm sorry."

Before Taiki could say a word, Ami fled. She still had no idea what she was doing, but she refused to stand back and just let things happen any longer. A game ... You had to play to have a chance at winning, and she'd been letting him make move after move against her. Somehow, she was going to take the next turn.

--

The blonde was sitting next to her futon when Rei opened her eyes. It was like waking up to a ghost, and Rei couldn't quite suppress her shudder at the woman's small, tight smile. Those blue eyes turned questioning, but there was no way to explain, so Rei returned the smile and pretended she hadn't seen the pretty blonde murdered in her bed, pale throat slit from ear to ear.

"Kumada-san carried you in," the woman said, toying with the waistband of her skirt as she spoke. It was a nervous habit, and the only visible sign she gave that she might have been discomfitted by a perfect stranger collapsing on her. "Are you all right?"

Rei smiled again, the lie coming easily to her tongue, slipping from her mouth before she could think twice about it. "I shouldn't have skipped breakfast this morning - I hope I didn't hurt you. Thank you for your concern."

She continued to smile until Yuuichirou returned and saw the woman out, and then hurried to prepare herself to sit before the Fire once more. She felt sick at the thought, but there was no time to mourn Aino Minako, the woman who would die while a butterfly watched.

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Author's Notes:
Written for day 20 of SM-Monthly's March SailorStars challenge. Thanks go to Kasey for the beta!