THE SUPERIOR MAN
Chapter 4: "Bonnun's Prey"
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
"Mercurious!" Ami gasped with alarm. Her henshin stick was out.
"Mercurious?" Usagi asked. She knew who the real Mercurious was and this multi-colored spirit wasn't him.
"STOP CALLING ME THAT, YOU RUDE WOMAN! THAT IS NOT MY NAME!" roared the hovering spirit. "How dare you insult me again by calling me that! My name is Loci Bonnun!"
"How dare YOU work your evil magic on an innocent man like Fujihara-kun!" Ami shot back, eyes flaring with protective anger.
"Ho ho ho!" Bonnun laughed into her sleeve. "Not as innocent as you think! Otherwise he wouldn't have fallen under my influence . . ."
"Mercury Planet Power Make Up!" Ami shouted.
As Usagi looked on in confusion, Ami transformed in an instant into Sailor Mercury. Bonnun, though, merely steeled herself for an attack.
"You let him go," Mercury barked angrily, "THIS INSTANT!"
"Yes!" Bonnun replied with excitement. "Let your passion overwhelm your reasoning! Give in to your worldly desires! You only make me stronger!"
By now it had occurred to Usagi to transform into Sailor Moon. Not liking what she was seeing from either Bonnun or Mercury, she pulled open her communicator and hit a specific button.
"MERCURY!" Sailor Mercury shouted, her hand snapping down to her side. "AQUA RHAPSODY!"
The titanic wave cascaded toward Bonnun, seeking to engulf her and then flash freeze around her. But the water peeled away as it neared her, dividing and flowing around her. Bonnun threw back her head and laughed.
"I'm far stronger than I was twenty years ago," she taunted. "Your powers can't touch me." Her eyes narrowed gleefully. "Oh, but I can still touch you."
Her hand shot out and energy beams of yellow and violet mixed and swirled as they impacted with Mercury. The senshi was shoved back and toppled to the floor, Sailor Moon's squeal of alarm in the background.
"Ahh," Mercury grimaced as she struggled to rise up. "My head - - so hard to think."
"And you're even more of a treasure of worldly passions than you were then," Bonnun gloated as she floated up to Mercury, closing the gap between them. "Since you don't seem to really know me, I'll tell you. I am Bonnun and I feed on the emotions that debilitate the mind. I usually linger in the Ichiban Prep School because teenage minds are such a kaleidoscope of raging, warring passions and desires. But I've found adults will work as well."
Mercury struggled to get up, but she suddenly lacked strength and coordination.
"You think you are above such emotions, but you're not," Bonnun gloated. "You only deny them, and by denying them, you make them stronger. Desire denied or suppressed becomes frustration and that's even more delicious than simple lust."
"No," Mercury whimpered, struggling to get up. But Bonnun reached toward her and the senshi swooned back onto the floor.
"You yearn for him," Bonnun leered, "as he yearns for you. But you deny it and suppress it, fear it and hide it away, as he does, until you're both a pair of bubbling cauldrons . . ."
"That's enough!" shouted Sailor Moon. Bonnon turned to her, irritation clear on her face. "Ami's feelings aren't something for you to trifle with! Neither are Fujihara-San's! You release them right now!"
Bonnun smiled. "Make me."
For a moment, Sailor Moon wondered how she was going to do that. But Mercury groaned and it seemed to spur Sailor Moon into action. The Moon Tier appeared in her hand.
"Silver Moon Crystal Power Kiss!" Sailor Moon called out. Silver energy shot out, surrounding Bonnun. The spirit flinched back, but the energy engulfed her. Mercury and Hayami both groaned as Bonnun drew more energy from them.
Then her crystal energy dissipated. Sailor Moon gaped. Bonnun was still there.
"I actually felt that!" Bonnun gasped in surprise. "You're stronger than you look! But I can draw from two victims at once. That means I can stand up to you."
"Oh yeah!" Sailor Moon retorted. She aimed the Moon Tier at Bonnun again.
Bonnun waved her arms, the sleeves of her kimono splaying. And suddenly the room turned into a black pool of nothing. There was no ceiling, no walls and no floor. There was no furniture, no door or windows, nothing for Sailor Moon to use as a reference point except for Bonnun and the prone bodies of Hayami and Sailor Mercury. Startled, Sailor Moon stepped backwards. The floor behind her seemed unsolid. Lacking reference points, she stumbled. There seemed to be no walls or floor to catch her. The Moon Tier fell from her hands as Sailor Moon frantically grabbed for support from something. Finally her hands blindly found something solid and she grabbed onto it, desperately holding on so as not to fall any further into - - nothing.
"I'm drawing energy from you, too," Bonnun told Sailor Moon. "It isn't as intense as with them, but it's there. Your desires for sweets and sleep, desires that keep you from focusing and sap your will. It's there and it's very tasty."
"Mercury!" Sailor Moon called out. "Please, you have to shake it off! You beat her once! You can do it again!"
"I'm stronger than I was then!" Bonnun snapped. "And her frustration and suppressed desire is deeper. I bathe in its dark glow and I've never felt this good!"
More yellow and violet energy struck Sailor Mercury. She arched up and let out a guttural howl.
"AMI!" wailed Sailor Moon.
Every time a doctor or nurse passed his hospital room, Jin Hatarakiburi seemed to know a little more about medicine. By the time the dietician came around with his evening meal, Jin felt he knew enough that he could replace any of the medical staff of this hospital. And the highest he'd finished was graduating plumbing school.
"And how are we feeling this evening, Hatarakiburi-san?" the dietician asked. She was an older, motherly type, slight of build, glasses weighing down her face, looking like a stiff wind would blow her away. Hardly a walking advertisement for nutrition. But then he didn't look like a doctor, either.
"Actually," Jin frowned suddenly, "I kind of have a headache."
"I'm sorry to hear that," the dietician sympathized. "Would you like me to tell the duty nurse?"
"That depends," Jin replied, smiling at the memory of the nurse he woke up to. "Is Nurse Haikurabi on duty?"
"Well," the dietician - - her name Jin suddenly realized was Mai Tanaka - - smiled knowingly. "I see you're getting better in some areas. I don't think Haikurabi is on duty at the moment." She patted his hand. "Besides, she's married."
Jin scowled and Mrs. Tanaka placed his tray on the tray stand over his bed.
"Oh, don't be too disappointed," Tanaka playfully admonished. "At least she'll hold your hand when she takes your pulse. Now you be sure to eat up. It'll help you keep your strength up and help you get the stiffness out of those injured hands of yours."
"Yes, ma'am," Jin said distantly. Already forgotten, Tanaka turned and left. The man stared at his wrapped hands.
Suddenly he got the urge to remove the gauze wrapping. In the storehouse of medical knowledge he suddenly had, Jin knew that the type of burns he had shouldn't be healed in this short a time. He knew that unwrapping them risked the skin improperly healing, or worse becoming infected. And yet, when the last of the gauze fell away, his hands were soft and beige and perfectly healed. Jin just stared. He knew this was impossible.
As impossible as him knowing the things he now knew.
Unable to comprehend it, Jin set it aside and picked up his bowl. A few bites in, his mind began to wander, back to Tomoyo Haikurabi. There wasn't anything really remarkable about her, but Jin still felt a deepening attraction to her. As the taste of the last bite of food he took lingered on his tongue, Jin recalled Haikurabi leaning over him, her black hair framing her face on both sides, her soft hands touching his arm.
And suddenly she was there, standing by the foot of his bed. She was dressed in her scrubs, stethoscope draped over her neck. For a moment he was startled by her presence. Then Jin looked closer and noticed that the back of the room could be seen through her. It wasn't really her, just a ghost or apparition.
"Projection," his mind suddenly thought.
That's what she was: a three-dimensional picture standing before him. And he had created it. He didn't know how, but he knew he had created it. And if that was the case...
The projection of Tomoyo Haiburabi smiled warmly at him. Then she reached up and languidly began undoing the top button of her scrub shirt. Her eyes locked on him the entire time, she undid the second and the third. Her hands brushed away the flaps of the top, a hint of flesh from her soft shoulder peeking through. Her hand grasped the fourth button, the one at her bodice. Jin stared, mesmerized. Even though he was manipulating the projection, it still held him spellbound.
Out of the blue, a sudden searing pain shot through his head. Jin grabbed his head with his hands, curling up on the bed into a little ball. The flesh under his hands, the flesh of his forehead and temples, throbbed. If felt like his brain was trying to push through his skull and escape. Jin's breath came in quick gasps. He wanted to scream out in pain, but couldn't muster the strength and coordination to take in the necessary air to scream. It hurt. Everything hurt.
"Good evening Hatarakiburi-san," the duty nurse said, strolling into the room. "Tanaka tells me you have a . . ."
The paper cup with the analgesic tablets dropped from the nurse's hand and rolled along the floor. She stared open-mouthed at Jin for three seconds, then scrambled back out the door to summon help. Jin didn't see or hear her. His attention was focused on what was happening to him. Though he couldn't see what was happening, he could feel it. Impossibly, it felt like his skull was expanding. Jin couldn't understand how that could be. It wasn't scientifically plausible.
But then, neither had anything else that had happened so far.
"Yes!" Bonnun shouted gleefully. "Feed me! Make me as strong as any demon! Oh, if only there was a way to make this last forever!"
"You leave her alone!" Sailor Moon shrieked. She dangled impotently from a big black glob of nothing and Bonnun laughed at her demand. The senshi looked around, but the Moon Tier was nowhere to be found. Nothing, in fact, could be found save for her and Bonnun, Hayami and Mercury.
Hayami groaned weakly. Sailor Moon didn't like the sound of it.
"S-So weak," Mercury wheezed out. Her transformation began to fade, reverting back to Ami Mizuno. Panic began to flood into Sailor Moon's mind. She had to do something.
"Moon Tiara . . .!" she began to say, reaching for her tiara in a desperate move to distract Bonnun away from Ami and Hayami. Then she realized: She had no tiara in her Eternal Sailor Moon form. Blue eyes widened in horror, then clamped shut in anguish at her failure. Ami and Hayami were both going to fall prey to this evil spirit and there was nothing she could do to stop it. "No!" she cried.
And the sound seemed to reverberate through the small apartment. Bonnun looked over in time to see the crescent moon mark on Sailor Moon's forehead vibrating oddly and in synchronization with the two red amulets on her odangos. In seconds the sound built until the sound waves buffeted Bonnun violently. The spirit barely righted herself as the cacophony died down. She stared in shock at the dangling senshi. Sailor Moon stared back in amazement.
"Did I do that?" she squeaked.
As if in answer, a section of the inky nothing surrounding them exploded inward, pushed by a gigantic fireball. It revealed the apartment building hallway. Framed in the doorway was Sailor Mars. The red senshi walked into the room, unaffected by the black nothing surrounding her. Her gaze was as cold as her fireball was hot.
"Who are you?" demanded Bonnun warily.
"I know what kind of spirit you are," Mars replied with contempt. "Your kind lurk in attics and doorways, preying on people in their weaker moments, fanning their flaws until it's a fire that consumes them. No respectable demon will associate with your kind."
"Big talk from a mortal!" Bonnun snapped.
Mars produced one of her sacred wards. "You picked the wrong people to leech off of," she said, pressing the ward to her forehead. "Ami is my friend, and so is Sailor Moon. And I even consider Fujihara-san a friend. And I don't like spirits preying on my friends!"
The ward shot from Mars' hand and headed straight for Bonnun. She threw her hand up reflexively and managed to block the ward with her forearm. The spirit flinched back. But to the surprise of all, Mars most of all, she didn't dissipate. Everyone stared for a moment. Then Bonnun began to smile.
"Of course," she grinned maliciously. "I taste it now. The worldly desires that weaken you, priest."
Sailor Moon stared at Mars in shock.
"The desire you have for the one person deep in your heart that you burn for above all else," Bonnun continued. "The yearning that you suppress because you fear rejection, fear betrayal, fear lying crushed and broken again, your heart in tatters."
Mars grunted like she'd been punched in the stomach. The senshi sank to one knee.
"Mars!" Sailor Moon cried out in alarm.
"Three of you to feed off of!" Bonnun squealed. "How could I get so lucky! I am going to be the most powerful Loci in all of Japan!"
"Feed off this!" Mars snarled, throwing her hands out in front of her. "Burning Mandala!"
The flaming sacred symbols surrounded Bonnun and she shrank back from them. The light from them cast a kaleidoscope of shadows and illumination on her face that seemed to suggest the spirit's supernatural power leaking away. To the side, Sailor Moon was awkwardly trying to climb up out of the nothing she was dangling in. Mars strained to maintain the Mandala, but she could feel it begin to weaken. Bonnun was right. Her emotional turmoil was sapping her powers. She needed to put earthly desires aside and become in tune with her spiritual center.
With that, Bonnun sundered the Mandala and it faded from sight.
"You're even more dangerous than that one," Bonnun growled. "As much as I'd love to drain you, it's too dangerous to leave you or her alive."
Mars watched Bonnun began to gather yellow and violet energies between her two hands. She doubted the others could see it. What she didn't doubt was the lethal tint of the energies. If they struck her, they might be strong enough to kill her. Even if they didn't, given her emotional turmoil, they were sure to incapacitate her and leave her, and the others, easy prey for Bonnun. Her hand went to her side, fingers splayed.
"Mars!" she spat out, hoping she was fast enough and strong enough. "Flame Sniper!"
The energy shot from Bonnun's hands like a cannon shot. It barreled toward Sailor Mars. Mars began to bring her flaming bow up, but began to fear she wouldn't make it. Then a swirl of white trimmed in yellow and blue passed in front of her. It took Mars a moment, but she realized Sailor Moon had jumped in front of her and taken the cannon shot of mystical energy full face.
Even more remarkably, she was still standing. As yellow and violet energy swirled around her, Sailor Moon glanced back at Mars and smiled.
"It's OK," she grunted. "Bonnun doesn't have as much effect on me as she," and Sailor Moon grimaced slightly, "as she does on you." She bluffed a confident wink. "Get her."
Mars nodded gratefully. She leaned to one side, aimed her bow just to the right of Sailor Moon's hip, and fired. The fiery arrow cleaved the room and pierced Bonnun chest high, passing through her form and dissipating behind her. Bonnun stiffened in shock, falling backwards. She tried to say something, but couldn't manage any sound. Her form began to crumble into dust, first her ancient kimono, then her yellow and purple hair, and finally her squat, thin body. The very last element of her seemed to pop, leaving behind the merest wisp of smoke.
Instantly the room returned to what it had been. Ami and Hayami went limp where they lay. Sailor Moon collapsed in a heap before Mars, propped up only by her arms pressed against the wood floor.
"Sailor Moon, are you all right?" Mars exclaimed.
"That hurt," Sailor Moon pouted. Mars reached over and began massaging her princess's shoulders.
"Thank you for shielding me," Mars said. "It was a stupid thing to do, though. You could have been killed."
"Well you could have been killed worse," Sailor Moon replied petulantly. It drew a warm smile from Mars.
Prying herself up from the floor, Mars went to check on Ami and Hayami. Sailor Moon faded back to Usagi. The moment her transformation faded, she heard her cell phone ringing. Emitting a sigh of fatigue, Usagi fished it out and answered it.
"Honestly, Usagi," she heard Luna fume on the other end. "Are you THAT busy that you can't answer your phone? This is the fourth time I've tried to reach you!"
Usagi pulled the phone from her ear and glared at it with narrow eyes.
Continued in Chapter 5
