Chapter 4

Haruka and Michiru's friend waited in front of the door the hotel accommodation occupied by girls and he already lost his patience. The performance of the young violinist was supposed to be held in an hour but she locked herself her lover in the luxury apartment and didn't answered the mobile phone calls. Girls were in the bed and slept blissfully in embraces. Michiru was naked and her dress was left carelessly on the floor nearby Haruka's trousers. The blonde's white shirt was crumpled under her back and the girl's pants were unzipped and moved to her knees'. One of her hands was pressed to the body of her lover and the second one squeezed smooth linen lingerie of the green haired girl. Michiru was the first who heard persistent tapping. She woke up, moving slowly along the bedding not to wake her sleeping companion up, when matters of the outside world started to come to her mind. The girl looked at the wall clock on the wall and then remembered about her performance fo Tokiyama's audience.

"Damn it!" She swore aloud simultaneously heading for the exit.

"Is it you Koji?" She asked through the closed door.

"Michiru! What are you two doing there! You should be in the room for guests and prepare for the performance. Everything is ready apart from you!" The boy replied.

"Sorry, it completely slipped my mind! We will be there right away!" Michiru answered trying to collect lost fragments of her wardrobe. She took her pants from Haruka's hand and the bra from under her back and later She also picked thrown to the ground dress up a moment earlier.

"Haruka! Clean the room. I'm going to change in the bathroom. We have no time!" She ordered the sleepy blonde.

"Right. This little shit disturbed us again." The girl commented on Koji's appearance, simultaneously pulling pants on her rear end.

The man in the white suit waited for Michiru's performance in his private room. Because of the lasting party he could free himself of Tokiyama, whom he didn't like more and more and whose intrusive questions made him angry. The grey haired man was plunged in a reverie or meditation, he seemed to be mentally far away from the hotel afloat sky-high above territory of Japan. He knew that in a short time, after the finished performance of the person, who had interested him since the first day of his visit in Tokyo, he would be able to carry out the last part of his intricately prepared plan. He looked at his ring and the walking stick decorated with the head of the demon, thinking about the last obstacle standing before him on the road to the ultimate realization of the target, Haruka Tenou. He imagined rising high above the board of the airship, almost reaching stars. He could see the strange spark appearing on the blackness of the cosmic emptiness, a little brilliance heralding coming of the stage on which he was going to have his ultimate performance.

The time Michiru's performance finally came. The girl prepared to play one of her most known music. The room in which she was supposed to give a demonstration of her talent wasn't too big, there were just a few rows of chairs and each of them were occupied by rich man from the world of the business or the woman keeping them company as well as journalists broadcasting the party for television, the radio and the press. Tokiyama and his older companion and the most important person for Michiru, her lover were also there. Haruka sat in one of the first rows, very close to the owner of the airship. She could obtain such a privilege since it was one of requests of the young violinist. Lights in the room grew dim and the girl took the instrument to the hand. She looked at Haruka smiling to her gently and started playing. Once again sounds of the melody coming from the violin of the girl had flooded the hearing sense of all present. Each of them was excited with the unusual show of the girl's talent. Haruka was also gazing at green haired woman like hypnotized, even though she repeatedly had kept her company during concerts in the past and she knew by heart every note of the music created by her. She looked at the shapely body of the girl dressed in blue dress, her graceful moves, storm of the curly hair and lightings mirrored in her blue eyes. She experienced the vision of being in the boundless space only with beloved, surrounded by waves of the ocean churned up by the raging gale. Girls imagined that they had spent time in their own company above the sea shore under sky full of twinkling stars and the music created by Michiru found its way only to ears of her fair-haired beloved. The violinist played completely automatically, without the participation of the consciousness, while her mind reached Haruka's thoughts. After a moment, the girl noticed that somebody else had sneaked into her closed world of meditation. Somewhere in the distance, on the border of mental landscape of the night beach, a man in the white suit and with the wooden walking stick stood. Michiru could not notice any details on his face, but she was convinced that his eyes had been directed only and exclusively at her person. Scenery started changing and the woman became an observer of the completely different vision. She was floating above a large city full of huge futuristic buildings, green and extensive gardens with colorful crystal growing straight from the earth. The central crystal glass tower reached clouds and its bright walls seemed to transmit the own inner light. Michiru awoke from the trance and after a moment got back to the reality noticing that she already finished to play the music. People beat applause, some of them wanted to thank her with standing ovation. The girl ignored them, she couldn't even hear the noise coming from the room. She was tired out and frightened and on top of all that she thought about the strange event which she had experienced a few minutes before. When she turned in the direction of the audience and looked at the place in which there was Tokiyama, she noticed the grey haired man fixing his eyes on her as intensively as during the hallucination.

After the concert, the party - the main event of Tokiyama's hotel flying voyage started. It had quite dull and stuffy atmosphere but the majority of conversations taking place around concerned businesses conducted by companies belonging to participants in the party. Michiru had short chats with young women fascinated with her music, but all the time she was mentally miles away, thinking intensively about the strange vision she had experienced during her performance. Koji covered all conversations with journalists, praising her and the music created by her to the skies. The girl overlooked when the boy appeared beside her.

"How are you doing?" He asked.

"Guess. From ten persons I come across only two were able to exchange a few words about the music with me. The majority of these people probably thinks that I'm a part of the company organizing parties."

"Don't judge them so severely. Mr Hitoyama..." The young man said pointing at the short, bald man in the dinner jacket.

"Mr Hitoyama talked to me about the possibility of your performance on the Asian route of his orchestra. He is a composer. Guy was almost moved to tears by your music."

"Are you sure that he meant the music? I noticed earlier that he had looked at my breasts all the time."

"Michiru... not so loud."

"Why? I'm telling the truth. Even blind would notice."

"Do you want me to have a serious talk with him?" Haruka joined the conversation, because she overheard a few last statements.

"Don't even fool around. Do you want a scandal?"

"But the little shrimp would never again look at what doesn't belong to him."

"How here do you like the party?" Michiru decided to change the subject of the conversation.

"It's so unnaturally here. But it's better than I thought."

"Girls, I won't be disturbing you. I will question Hitoyama for the details associated with his orchestra." Koji left girls full of hope for settling the contract for his friend.

"Michiru, I observed you all the time. Do something trouble you, Am I right?"

"I don't know... I simply thought that I had seen something strange. When I played to the audience."

"It was probably the stress. Hardly anyone had a chance to perform in the hotel afloat above Tokyo earlier. You astonished all of them."

"Looking at this party I think that I astonished them perhaps for five minutes. They came back to their money right away."

"Yes... look at Koji... he's moving amongst all these stuffed shirts as fish in the water."

"At least he forgot his fear of flying."

A three men came up to talking women.

"I had doubts during the concert, but now I'm sure that I recognized you." The one of them said.

"You are Haruka Tenou, aren't you?" The second asked, fat person in glasses as thick as bottoms of bottles.

"Yes... that's me... how can I help you?" The blonde asked.

"We are your faithful fans. We have seen every rally in which you participated."

"Thanks."

"Can we talk with you for a moment? We have always wanted to meet you personally, but duties didn't permit it earlier."

"Yes. I already started being bored." The girl announced gladly.

"Michiru... can I leave you for a moment?" She asked her green haired companion.

"Of course. You also deserve the moment of pleasure." Michiru replied.

"I'll go to get some fresh air. We are on quite small altitude, so the observation deck should be open for visitors."

"Remember to come back here before a dance begins. I won't forgive you this night." Haruka announced following the three of her newly discovered fans. The grey haired man watched when Michiru was coming out of the room, heading to the upper deck. He smiled knowing that a moment of his action finally came.

Hotaru was sitting in her room reading the book in a glitter of the bedside lamp. At some point the girl felt uncomfortably. She was under the impression that somebody looked at her, although she knew very well that even Setsuna hadn't been in the flat that night. Surprised, she put the book back to the bed and slowly approached balcony slightly opened doors. She felt cold air on the skin and the pale light of the moon falling on her face. Air was humid and probably forecast coming rains. Hotaru looked straight ahead at darkness surrounding her trying to notice something which could explain her strange premonitions. In a vain. In the distance, lightings of the city blinked and a monotonous noise of the two-way street was heard. The calmed girl deciding to go back to the room. She looked at the sky on which the red light flashed. Some plane was returning from the intercontinental voyage.

Michiru stood on the small observation deck looking at the black sky surrounding her from every side. She was pleased that her beloved rescued her from questions of journalists and guests of the party. The girl was lucky, because the subject of motor races about which the blonde knew a lot, had been interesting to the group of businessmen from Tokiyama's company. Michiru looked at lights of the city below and darkness of the Tokyo Bay's water. She became calmed, when she could see her element again, even if it was so far away from her. The young woman heard someone's steps and the clatter of the wooden walking stick against the surface of the deck. She wasn't pleased with the company, but she didn't want to be rude leaving the observation deck precisely in the same moment, when somebody else appeared on it. At the some point, the older man in the white suit loomed into view from the shadows. He came up to the girl, leaning his walking stick against the balustrade. When Michiru looked at the head of the demon decorating it, she felt unpleasant shiver.

"We have a beautiful night today, don't you think?" The mysterious man started the conversation.

"Yes... it so serene here. One can rest after intense day."

"Exactly. You deserve a moment's peace in the surrounding of the nature after such a fantastic performance. You were phenomenal."

"Thank you."

"Your music really moved me today. And I've heard and seen a lot in my life. When I closed my eyes, I was able to see images flowing into my soul and thoughts with your sounds. For a moment I was moved right in the middle of raging ocean storm."

"I'm pleased that my music has such an influence on people. You saw exactly what I tried to express through the speech of my violin."

"Will you come inside? It will soon get cold here. There's a party inside and a plenty of persons waiting for the conversation with you."

"I prefer to stay here with the stars a little longer. Our voyage has not ended yet and I'll have a time for fans of my music."

The grey haired man looked at the starry sky. He smiled.

"Stars. I can see that you're a romantic. But I should not be surprised, because only the sensitive person can create such a beautiful music. You have so beautiful soul. Have you ever thought what was up there, far behind stars?"

"Boundless outer space."

"And have you thought about wonders that can hide in such a boundlessness?"

"There are things which neither I nor you can imagine."

"Don't you think that the Universe in which we live isn't the only and the first one, but one from infinite amount of worlds existing in all moments of time and space. What we can see, our bodies, the Earth, stars even the entire space and time are only a thin cover lying on the edges of endless many-world, bigger than imagination of craziest of all people. In this hyperspace, one can travel to distant worlds and any age imaginable. In bubbles of this multidimensional structure it is possible to create mini-worlds lasting without changes through eons."

"I'm sorry, but deliberations about the theoretical physics aren't my strong point. Perhaps my friend Hotaru would talk with you about this topic. I don't have a clue about the existence of worlds which you are mentioning."

"But you know about them... this knowledge is hidden deep in your immortal soul." The man looked at the girl with a blood-curdling look. Michiru felt the cold wind on her skin.

"Perhaps we should return to the party... it's really getting cold here." She said.

"Can such a cold disturb strong and proud Neptune?" The man asked pointing his walking stick at the girl. The unpleasant wind became more intense and bitterly cold. Michiru felt it in every point of her body."

"Who are you?"

"I am Father Time, Chronos, one of the longest living gods of the entire multiverse. When our journey ends you will remember everything about the magnificence of our wonderful civilization!"

"I don't intend to go with you anywhere!" Michiru knew that the stranger hadn't had good plans towards her. She turned around with the intention of returning to the inside of the flying machine and finding her partner. When she took a few steps, the whole construction of the zeppelin shook as if some huge rock hit it. The girl lost her balance and fell down. A strong gale wailed around her and the man in the white suit approached her, not being in a hurry, because he thought that all the time in the universe belonged to him. On the top of all that the flying machine seemed to pick up speed, rising up into the layer of clouds hanging above the sleeping city. Michiru reached for the magic mirror. She had no time for the transformation, therefore she hoped that using the talisman would let her render the opponent harmless even if only for a brief lapse.

"Submarine..." She wanted to attack with one of her spells, but when she said its first words she felt a great pain in the whole body. Instinctively, she dropped the mirror but it didn't stop its preparation for shooting the magic energy. The entire power gathered in the talisman was radiated directly at the girl's body. Michiru shouted frightfully, simultaneously being surrounded by a blue glow getting out of the mirror's inside. The man in the white suit came up to her with a lazy step. He looked at the woman trapped by her own weapon pleased with the success of his mission. Between the girl and her talisman an odd feedback was opened, effectively immobilizing her and simultaneously giving her a nagging pain. After a few minutes of the fight against the energy, Michiru lost her consciousness. She was floating in the column of the blue light created by the mirror's surface. The man raised the walking stick above the head and eyes the eyes of the demon on its end glowed in red. A strange ball of the fire appeared above the airship, expanding with every passing minute.

Meanwhile a panic exploded inside the zeppelin. At first, people alarmed with a too fast rise of the machine started losing their patience and they walked restlessly along the corridor and inside the room in which the party was held. Men talking with Haruka also lost all willingness for the conversation, when shaking of the machine became more and more perceptible and sounds of creaking of material subjected to too great stresses brought to the mind the blackest scenario. Haruka remembered that Michiru had come out to the observation deck and still didn't come back from there. She felt chills going down her spine, when she realized how dangerous is staying outside the vehicle cabin, while it gained the altitude. She decided to find the girl and to get her into the cabin, where they would calmly wait for the end of a temporary technical trouble of the machine. Unfortunately, all her hopes were gone when unnaturally red light flooded boards of the aircraft. People froze at the spot looking at tongues of the whirling fire forming in the distance. Shouts, crying and curses were heard all over the corridors. Haruka didn't think long. As soon as she noticed the strange atmospheric phenomenon, she immediately dashed off in the direction of the observation deck. She quickly came at the top and the first image she came across was the man standing by her beloved who was unconscious and levitating in the beam of the light. The girl turned into Sailor Uranus.

In the same time, Tokiyama went to his private lodgings. He managed to go down the corridor without disturbance, because the people were taking care of themselves in such a dramatic moment of life. The man closed the door by a few locks and then sat down in the middle of the floor. Fiery brilliance painted walls and furniture of his cabin, reminding him of what was supposed to happen soon and that he was partly responsible for this.

"You really want to kill all these people, you monster..." He said to himself. He closed his eyes and hid the head in hands like he tried to somehow escape from the responsibility.

A cold and extremely strong wind struck Sailor Uranus from each side, causing that the girl was keeping her balance with an effort. She was grasping the balustrade of the deck with one hand and gripped her sword in the other. In spite of all inconveniences, Haruka moved towards her target. When she looked overhead, her heart was touched by a fear. Above airship, on the sea of twinkling stars, a huge, flaming gate formed in the very centre of the whirling ball of fire. Pazuzu holding Sailor Neptune's mirror was standing on the second end of the private deck. The man seemed to be adamant to the strong gale's force or the unnaturally increasing speed of the flying machine. Unconscious Michiru was floating in the blue beam of light, next to the man.

"Leave her alone!" Uranus shouted.

"I need her to restore the old world. You can't understand it!" The man shouted.

"I'm not going to even try to understand anything of your sick plan! The sight of a son of a bitch treating Michiru like an object is enough for me!"

"What will you do? Are you going to fight with me? Here, so close to my land?" Pazuzu announced looking at the girl with a mocking smile on the face.

"I'll fight with you even in the very heart of this fire hell!" Uranus replied pointing at the opening doorway.

"Remember that her body is very delicate, like everything what surrounds us." The man announced.

"I don't need charms to fight with you!"

Haruka found energy needed to overcome the wind inside herself and attacked the grey haired man with the sword. Pazuzu parried f the weapon the girl with his walking stick. After a moment, he pushed her using only one hand. Uranus wasn't prepared for such a great physical strength of the man who seemed to her to have a weak body.

"I can see that you're a tougher little shit than you seemed to me." Haruka replied smiling.

"But now I also know that I don't have to restrain myself." She added. She prepared for the next attack. In the same time, Pazuzu pointed his ring with a dark blue jewel at the girl.

"I think that it will be familiar to you... Dead Scream..." He whispered and a ball of purple light emerged from the ring and immediately dashed towards the woman-warrior. Haruka, hearing the familiar spell and seeing its visual effect, was struck dumb. Thousands of thoughts flashed in her mind, all questions unanswered. How somebody as him could know the spell of one of her good friends? Why was he able to use it with an agility greater than Setsuna? The surprise and a moment of inattention turned out to have fatal consequences for Uranus. The girl was hit with the magic ball, pushed by its power beyond fences separating the deck from the chasm lurking behind it. Haruka fell from the airship and glided with a large speed to a meeting with the hard earth and the certain death. The man in the white suit came up to the luminous column holding Michiru prisoner and put the magic mirror under the feet of the girl. A drop of strange liquid separated from mirror's surface and glided up, towards Sailor Neptune's body. The blue lighting became with more intense, swallowing the unconscious woman up, while the strange liquid life form drew her into the inside of the mirror. After a few minutes the beam of light disappeared along with girl who became a prisoner of her own weapon. Chronos picked the mirror up from the deck and floated in the direction of the fire whirling inside the infernal gate. When the man disappeared in the odd space-time corridor, the aircraft approached flames close enough that plating of balloons carrying it in the air had caught fire. People inside the machine got into a panic. They were running from place to place trying to save themselves, although they knew very well that they had no hope for survival. Others were crying, praying or looking through panes at the element raging outside the flying hotel, whose appearance they hadn't been able to explain rationally. Somebody fell into a rage and broke everything on his path, armchairs and decorations in the room in which the green haired violinist had the performance not so long ago. The fire got to the inside of the vehicle, it caught corridors, flowers and expensive paintings hanging on walls. A woman was running with her hair and the dress being on fire like a torch. Somebody reached the cabin of pilots and attacked the captain of the vessel with a knife, because he blamed him for the disaster. The pilot was hit in the heart with a cold blade, but before he died he managed to fire a few shots at the body of the assailant. Soon the machine was defeated by the fire and started breaking into pieces. Tokiyama was sitting in his cabin on the floor. He covered ears not to hear screams of people burnt alive behind the door of the room. The man lacked courage to move even by a millimeter and he knew that his only hope for survival came from the mysterious man in the white suit for whom he had done a favor. The flaming wreck of the flying hotel fell like a meteorite burnt in the atmosphere.

Meanwhile, Hotaru Tomoe was sitting on the sofa in her room watching TV. The program bored her very much, she could not find something what would interest her even for a few minutes. At some point she switched the TV set to the channel on which they the news were broadcasted. The girl became pale and her eyes widened from a terror. She heard new information coming from Tokyo. Tokiyama's flying hotel with Japanese businessmen and people from the upper classes had an accident. It broke down in air and tumbled down into waters of the Tokyo Bay like a stone.