Apologies in advance for this episode doesn't quite fit the episodic structure I was trying to do for each episode. In trying to keep each chapter relatively consistent in length, I've had to chop off a bit of this episode and continue it in the next one. But hopefully you'll still enjoy this chapter all the same.
Please don't forget to review and leave your predictions, ideas, critiqies or whatnot...
~In this world, there exists two types of souls: those that are sustained through a pure heart and able to guide themselves to through the outerworld. We can equate these souls to the majestic shooting stars of our cosmos.
However there are also those whose souls are deprived of a heart, unable to sustain themselves without feasting upon others – forever hungering the satisfaction of a heart – but never able to fill the dark void which tears through their chest each and every waking moment. They are the black holes of our galaxy, consuming the stars and all in its path.
...But some posses a hunger far greater than a mere human could withstand...It is this immense yearning for fulfilment which drives some of the darkest forces to plague their misery on earth...It is these forces which the Sailor Senshi must thwart in order to save those of pure heart...and to save the very earth itself from becoming a Hollow's Domain...~
Sailor Moon B
Episode 3: Ichigo and Rukia. A Run-in at the Mall!?
Cirucci stood back and gazed in her own amusement at the frustrated Loly's pacing down the hall. Hidden within the shadows of a nearby corridor, Cirucci waited for the hopeless Espada to pass her by before she began her stalk.
I can't let this little upstart bring down the reputation our Espada any further. If she messes up this job, I'll be sure to 'take care' of it.
She continued down the hall, wondering where Loly was heading. She wasn't going towards the lab as usual but towards the main throne-room of Las Noches: the Ivory Palace of the Espada and Hollow.
That wench! Why is she going all the way to see him? She shouldn't be able to face him of all people after these last two failures. What's she planning?
"I like'a this game you play Cirucci," Dorodini appeared from the shadows behind Cirruci, spooking her a little. "I like it when you girls get a little...naughtee!"
"Shh!" Cirruci hushed the white Matador as she crept out of another hall and found Loly entering the doors of the throne-room.
"Ahh, little Missy Lolita is paying him a visit during his Siesta no?" Dordoni rubbed his chin at the thought of this tasty scenario.
"Listen you!" Cirucci pulled the silly Spaniard by the ear. "The idea of spying is to not be detected so shhhhhut up already!"
"Okay, madam please just let go of the ear hey?"
As the two snoopers watched Loly enter those tall, foreboding doors, they dashed over, viewing inside the throne-room from behind the space that was left ajar.
The throne-room was quite unimpressive for such a room. Not much furniture lived in there, leaving one to think they were viewing a white marble ocean over a midnight horizon. There was of course a throne at least in the room: a thin but high set of stairs ascending seemingly forever into the dark wall which made up the rear of the room (if there was even a rear wall there was another matter for the eye to judge entirely).
For such a large palace with shiny floors and massive rooms and halls, there really wasn't many around to look after the place. That was perhaps what made this white palace so sad and pitiful; not the lack of furniture or unique features, but the lack of life in general.
Loly entered the throne-room which was occupied by one other person – and he wasn't even on the invisible throne! The person, who had his back turned, was robed in white just like the other three Espada. He seemed to be clothed in more of this mysterious sheet than any of his comrades though as none of his flesh could be visible from this angle. Even the back of his head was impervious to vision thanks to a bony white helmet which extended down the nape of his neck and grew up to a solitary jutting horn – his partner broken off from the other side.
The man swallowed by both black and white detected the other presence in the room. "The Tenth,"
Loly left her usual stubborn manner and brought herself down to one knee, her pigtails flowing down her shoulders as she lowered her head. "I'd like to request a stronger Hollow for my next mission to the World of the Living."
Cirucci almost choked at the girl's straight out way of making the request. Surprisingly the man in white didn't seem offended or swayed by Loly's abruptness and looked as though he had moved his head in some way to signify either an affirmative or declination.
"Do you remember what we are after?" the figure spoke without much deviation in tone or volume.
"The Great Soul...The Daikonpaku correct?"
"That is correct Tenth. And are you aware of the reason we require the Daikonpaku?"
"Yes." Loly's answers were becoming more humble as she felt the pressure of facing this man. "To restore our fallen comrades and restore our Land of the the Eternal Night to its former glory."
"Indeed." The intimidating frame of cloth answered. "That is why we must find the Daikonpaku as soon as possible with what little resources we have at our disposal..."
He paused and in one swift motion, twisted on his heel so he could meet his gaze with the pigtailed subordinate. His face could hardly be called human – or at least, it would be sad to think of this man's face as human. With skin as pale as his own clothes and black streaks trailing down his gloomy eyes like ink-stained tears; it was as though he was always looking down at others, pitying them for possessing something he had thrown away a long time ago.
"Go and see the Seventh. He should give you the Hollow Shrieker to use on your next mission."
Loly didn't look up (or rather was too afraid to look up and meet those eyes) as she fully prostrated before this demon of a presence. "Thank you for your generosity Master Ulquiorra, I promise I won't fail on our Espada's behalf this time."
Cirucci felt weak at the knees herself when she focused on Ulquiorra's most terrifying expression – his constant empty, emotionless and indifferent expression, as he sought to wrap up this meeting with the one he simply addressed as 'Tenth'.
"You won't fail this time Loly. I know even a Hollow like yourself...still clings to her life too much to risk failure..."
~/~/~
Loly buried her head in her pillow for the remainder of the night. Finally within the relative solitude of her chambers, she had suffered the terror and humiliation from both Ulquiorra and the Seventh upon receiving her new Hollow.
She wondered if the 'whore' and the 'pervert' had been watching her cry this whole time. Never before had she felt so afraid. Such an emotion was unbecoming of her kind – yet that Ulquiorra drew an aura of fear from his very flesh and bones. There were aspects of the Hollows and Espada, even Loly had yet to comprehend or discover.
Damn! I hate feeling so weak and pathetic. If only you were still around. If I could bring you back, then I wouldn't have to fight all my battle alone anymore. If I at least had you to back me up, then I wouldn't be looked down all the time by that stupid bitch whore Cirucci and that other filthy guy.
Loly lifted her face out of the pillow and produced her devilish smile. Yes! I'll find the Great Soul and use it myself to bring you back and restore my own powers. Then I could even match that bastard Ulquiorra.
Determined to find that needle in a haystack of human souls, the pigtailed Espada left her room with a new and deadly determination. Wait just a little longer...Menoly...
~/~/~
The weekend provided the girls a chance to go out and spend a day at Juuban's newly established Shopping Mall. This was a perfect chance to get Usagi's mind away from Mamoru and give her a chance to catch up and make up for lost times.
"Gegh!? I can't even fit into a 14!?" was the voice of Usagi when she emerged from a clothes store change room, defeated from every teenage girl's never-ending crusade against the dreaded clothes size. "Wagh! I've gained weight again!"
"Oh come on Usagi! It's no big deal!" Rei tried coddling the crying bunny whilst the other girls held the artefacts they had already claimed from half a day's clothes shopping. "Just hurry up and change into the 16 for crying out loud."
"Are you saying I'm fat!?" Usagi sobbed a puddle of tears as she held onto the clothes Rei gave her as though she'd just been handed a lump of coal instead. "Wagh! Fine, I'll change into your 16, Rei-chan!"
"Well if you had stopped gobbling doughnuts and cakes everyday and left the house more often you wouldn't have gained any weight in the first place U-sa-gi!" Rei strained her words, feeling like she was dealing with a child a third of Usagi's age. "And besides, Makoto's a 16 and she doesn't make a fuss and cry over it!"
"Ehehe, now-now Rei-chan..." Makoto held a nervous smile as the others awaited Usagi's tranformation behind the change room curtain.
"Umu..." Usagi sulked as she flicked open the curtains and revealed her new dress, a neat looking, orange summer dress with spaghetti shoulder strands and some gold decorations down at the hem. "At least it hides my big butt."
"Yeah that's the way Usagi!" Rei tried to cheer her up but on seeing Usagi's lips curl and eyes water she knew she had made another indirect blunder.
"Wagh! So Rei-chan does think I have a huge butt! Wagh!" And with that the defeated crybaby retreated into the change rooms; she would leave this clothes store without the prized treasure of a Summer outfit yet again.
"Man! What am I supposed to say that won't set that girl off?" Rei thought to herself aloud with a huge sigh. At least she was glad to see Usagi crying in her usual trivial way rather than the far more serious tears she had been shedding until recently.
It had already been a month since school began and Summer was just about to hit the girls like a sweaty and uncomfortable ton of humid bricks.
Nearly two months had already passed since Mamoru's sudden and mysterious death. The only light these girls could see for now was that Usagi's initial period of grief seemed to have calmed down and she was now back to her usual activities: going to school, hanging out and studying (albeit not very well!) with the girls.
Rukia and Ichigo had also spent nearly a month at Juuban high and were already making themselves quite famous throughout the school. Just about all the sports clubs wanted Ichigo and nearly every club wanted Rukia as their representative – from the Calligraphy club to even the Occult club for some odd reason. If they wanted to they could have both stood up for School Council Presidents and win just about all the school's votes between them.
As famous and desired as those two were, they still largely kept to themselves. Hanging out alone atop the school's roof floor during the day and sticking with each other after school as well.
And on this weekend the pair had found themselves at the same shopping mall as Usagi's friends. Of course, from the look of Ichigo, he seemed to serve mainly as Rukia's mobile bag rack as she carried about her wistful shopping deeds.
"Come on Rukia! We've been walking around these same shops five times already? Can't we stop and have some lunch?"
Rukia didn't seem to shed any sympathy for her bag rack as she sleuthed into another clothes store. "Hmm...Actually I don't think we've been here yet!"
"Aww!"
"Alright, just let me take a peek in this store then we'll get you something to eat okay?"
Rukia was one of those girls with a deadly smile. Ichigo had known for quite some time not to turn down a girl with a smile like that and took a huge gulp of pride. "Um, okay."
It was Minako's turn to lift Usagi's confidence as they left the store empty handed. "You know I hear that some stores number their clothes bigger than their actual size, so you might still be a 14 Usagi-chan!" But then she looked a little conflicted with herself and raised a finger to her chin. "Or maybe it was the other way round...Haha anyway-"
"Wagh!"
"Oh Mina-chan you've done it again!" Rei snapped as she tried to settle the crybaby's storm before it got out of hand. "Stop it Usagi you'll make a scene.!"
"Everone thinks I'm faaa-t! WAAGH!-"
A pair of familiar faces from Juuban high put the plug in Usagi's floodworks right away as Rukia and Ichigo blinked oddly at the bunny rabbit's earlier display.
"Hey you guys are in our class." Ichigo recognised at least three of the five girls staring at him. "Oh and hey it's you Dumpling Head!"
"Grr." Usagi growled, never in the mood for receiving that pet name.
"Hey you two must be those new transfer student's I've heard about!" Rei's eyes seemed to sparkle with a little more shine than usual as she offered her hand. "I'm Rei Hino. I go to a Catholic School so that's why you haven't seen me around your school with these girls ehehe!"
"Is Rei blushing?" Makoto wondered just before she copped an elbow to the gut.
"I don't think I've seen you in our class either." Ichigo pointed out the short, blue haired girl hidden behind the other girls.
"Oh, please excuse me. I'm Ami Mizuno." Ami leapt in front of the other girls and offered a bow as opposed to a handshake. "I go to the same school as Usagi, Makoto and Minako but am in a different class. I've seen you two around school a lot, everyone in my class talks about you too."
"Wait she's blushing too!" The other four girls whispered loudly.
"Huh? No I'm not it's just..." Ami couldn't hide her nerves any longer as she hid her smile behind a hand. "I finally got to meet the student who aced last month's mock exams, Kuchiki-san."
"She's blushing over Kuchiki-san!" They all whispered quite audibly again.
"It's nice to meet you too Mizuno-san." Rukia bowed in kind. "You're the Ami Mizuno who made the finals for last years English and Numeracy competitions didn't you? I'm sure we could both learn a lot from each other."
"They're both so formal!" The quartet added some more commentary on the situation.
"Hah! If you four knew what Rukia was really like, you wouldn't be praising her formality but rather her amazing acting abili-OOF!" Ichigo seemed to suffer Makoto's fate with the mysterious l from his side.
"Haha! Kurosaki-san is shouting me lunch today." The raven-haired girl beamed. "We should all get to know each other better...Let's have lunch – Ichigo's treat!"
"HAGH-OOF!"
And so after recovering the orange haired bag rack from the floor the party proceeded to the food courts for a lunch sponsored by a poor sucker boy's salary.
~/~/~
"WOW! So you both live and work in a shrine too!?" Rei had her notepad ready for some reason as she kept throwing questions at the pair (but mainly directed at Ichigo). Various papers, plastic cups and a few lingering fries occupied the remainder of the table.
"Yeah, it's only a small shrine just on the outskirts of town." Rukia continued her humble language much to Ichigo's disapproval. "We make just enough money to support ourselves while we're still at school."
"I see. So I guess going out shopping like this must be a rare treat for you then." Makoto peered down at the collection of bags at Ichigo's feet.
"Actually, the Shrine isn't our only job now eh Rukia?" Judging from Ichigo's wink there must have been something a little more classified between them.
Rukia beamed her brightest smile so far. "Yeah, we both work night shifts at Moses Burger occasionally as well!" she said, which brought Ichigo's face down to the table with a thud.
"How do you guys find time to study?" Ami wondered since studying was one of the five food groups according to this whiz kid. "Both your grades are quite admirable."
"Yeah, maybe Kurosaki-san could give us a few after-school tutorials eh Usagi?" Minako gave the irritated bunny a few nudges.
"So how long have you all known each other?" Rukia wondered as she slurped down to the ice of her Danny's Beverage.
"Since Middle School," Minako answered. "But technically I've known these girls for slightly less than they have."
"We all kinda just met up in a span of a few weeks in our second year of middle school." Makoto added. "We all kinda revolved around Usagi."
"Interesting," Ichigo remarked as he threw a French fry in his mouth. "I guess those Dumplings act as magnets too eh?"
"That's it!" Usagi nearly jumped onto the table as the other girls tried pulling her down. That cup and straw looked like a dangerous weapon in her hands right now.
"Stop calling her names Ichigo." Rukia scolded the bleach head. "Sorry Tsukino-san, Ichigo is actually quite shy around girls so he pretends to be mean when he first gets to know them."
"What, I do no-hph!" With Ichigo cut off by a burger wrapper mouth-gag, Rukia let out a cheer and continued.
"He was always calling me similar names when we first met. He really means no harm though do you Ichigo?"
"Php hrph thrph-OWPH!" And with Rukia's friendly pull of his ear, the bleach haired coughed up his gag and apologised.
As the awkwardness of that situation cleared up, Rei moved on to another question.
"So where did you guys transfer from?"
That question brought a pause to Rukia as she averted her gaze from a moment. "Karakura."
"Yeah, I remembered you saying that," Makoto said. "I can't think of what part of Japan Karakura is located again?"
Rei looked a little puzzled by the name of that town. "Karakura? But isn't that the place where-"
A wave of screams suddenly cut off the group's conversation as tables and chairs were upturned and thrown about by another large monster. A Hollow had invaded the shopping centre, a place ripe with human souls to harvest.
"Oh my God! What is that thing doing all the way here?" The girls screamed as they ducked under a table to avoid a flying chair.
"Wait, you guys can see that thing too?" Rukia said before biting her tongue. "I mean, yeah we've gotta get out of here before he spots us."
Meanwhile Loly was laughing and dancing on a table as citizens fled in all sorts of directions, running into each other amidst the stampede and chaos. "HAHA! That's it Shrieker! Open up all their souls, find the Daikon and you'll be awarded with a feast tonight!"
"You've brought me to a gold mine of souls gehehehehe!" the Hollow Shrieker cackled with a high chirp as he sent a bunch of tinier monsters to go out and pursue the fleeing patrons and crack open their souls. Eventually the floor was covered in bodies and their souls criss-crossed in chains.
"Now one of these suckers has to have have the Daikon." Loly jumped off the table as she began the arduous task of inspecting each soul one-by-one.
"What's that little girl doing around that Monster?" Minako whispered as the group tried to work out a plan. "Ichigo, Rukia, what should we-"
But at some point it looked as though the pair of transfer students had made their escape and vanished leaving only Usagi's gang in the firing line of a hungry soul eating carnivore. "Hey guys, now's our chance to transform."
All five nodded as they raised their hands (or in Usagi's case, brooch) in the air and shouted their transformation commands in unison.
"MERCURY PLANET POWER: MAKE UP!"
"MARS PLANET POWER: MAKE UP!"
"JUPITER PLANET POWER: MAKE UP!"
"VENUS PLANET POWER: MAKE UP!"
As the water of Mercury splashed over Ami's body...and the raging flames of Mars coiled around Rei's body...and the intense storms of Jupiter seized Makoto...and the intense force of love enveloped Minako's body the four Sailor Senshi were coming to life in their warrior forms, ready to overcome evil and fight for love and justice.
"MOON ETERNAL: MAKE UP!"
Usagi's transformation into Eternal Sailor Moon was the most elegant and beautiful of all the girl's transformations as angel wings opened up and welcomed the ultimate Sailor Senshi and leader of the Solar System's guardians. With the five combined forces of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and the power of the graceful Moon, they would thwart this Hollow menace and protect the innocent souls of the people of Earth.
"LET'S GO!"
Usagi: I can't fight that monster! I'm afraid!
Ichigo: Now's not the time to be scared! That Hollow doesn't stop for crybabies y'know!
Usagi: But, that face, that mask...He's not like any of the others before.
Ichigo: That's because he's a truly evil monster. He'll stop at nothing to devour the souls of innocents.
Usagi: But I can't let that happen!
Ichigo: Then will you run away or fight?
Usagi: I'll...
Next time on Sailor Moon B: "Loly's Last Stand!? Usagi's New Power!?"
~The Moonlight carries the message of love~