A/N: Thanks for the reviews! I'm so happy to hear that you all are enjoying this story so far. :)

James Birdsong: Thank you!

Guest: I'm definitely cheering for Takeo and Mikio as well, though of course, I don't want to spoil things right now in regards to how the direction of the story would go. ;)

More information will be added about King Sisyphus in the next chapter, so watch out for it. Thank you for the lovely review.


Chapter 7

He was here for Takeo.

Whoever had gotten their hands on Mikio—Sisyphus—was now here for Takeo.

As her heart thudded against her chest, she tightened the grip around her henshin pen. Ami prayed that her Senshi sisters would be back soon. Subconsciously, she reached backwards and grabbed onto Takeo, if only to make certain that he was still behind her.

Perhaps he knew what he was worrying about because the next second, he wrapped his hand around hers, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

Azurite took a step towards him, his eyes on Takeo.

"Word of advice, since we had known one another at one point in time," he said nonchalantly, "it would be much less painful for you to come along with me quietly and obediently."

"I don't have any reasons to trust you," Takeo said. "After all, you've joined the evil side, haven't you?"

Surprised, Ami whipped her head around and stared at him.

He has his memories!?

"Oh, don't give me that," Azurite sneered. "Don't play the 'holier than thou' card when you yourself had been taken by the Dark Kingdom. Just because we'd been locked inside that cave doesn't mean we don't know what's happening on Earth."

Something flashed through Takeo's eyes, and momentarily, his eyes flickered over to Junryo, who gave him an imperceptive nod. Just as quickly, Takeo's eyes were back on Azurite.

"What have you done to Mikio? I don't believe that he would've joined you willingly," Takeo said before Azurite could look backwards and notice Junryo.

"Why don't you ask him yourself?" Azurite asked.

Takeo laughed. "I'm hardly interested in hearing words from someone who was brainwashed or under evil influences. They never include a figment of truth in them." He paused before saying, "So back in that cave in Malawi, Mikio accidentally released you, you and your little group of miscreants."

An ugly look appeared on Azurite's face and he growled, "Miscreants? How dare you call us miscreants?"

Takeo sniffed haughtily. "Of course you're miscreants." His eyes slid to one side and for a moment, Ami thought she saw uncertainty. "Why else would our liege lock you inside that cave if you weren't?"

"You know full well why we were locked in there," Azurite said angrily, taking a step forward.

"Yeah, because the group of you were miscreants," Takeo said, his face brightening.

"You—"

It almost seemed as if Azurite would attack him then and there. However, he inhaled deeply and soon had his temper back under control, though his eyes were still flashing dangerously.

"I'm not here to argue with you. Now come along. Don't make me force you," Azurite said.

Takeo laughed. "Does it look like it would be easy for you to force me to come along with you?"

Azurite paused, his eyes contemplative once again.

Takeo's hand tightened around Ami's but she hardly noticed it. Her mind was overworking on the fact that he had his memories back. When did it happen? As far as she knew, none of them should remember anything. At least, that was what Helios had told them. What was going on? Did Takeo have more information on King Sisyphus? If that was the case, she would have to do everything within her power to stop Azurite from abducting him. But what if Takeo had his memories because he was on Azurite's side? But if he were, he didn't have any reason to display this act in front of her. There didn't seem to be any point to it.

"You don't have your powers," Azurite finally said.

"You can't be certain about that," Takeo said with a confident grin.

"Well then," Azurite said slowly, his eyes narrowed and his lips curved upwards in a lazy smile. "Since you won't come along quietly …"

"Did you actually think that I would?" Takeo asked with a laugh.

"... then we will have to—"

"Jupiter Oak Evolution!"

It was like the sound of a blessing or the angels singing. Ami didn't know and didn't care anymore, even when Azurite managed to duck away from Sailor Jupiter's attack. All that matters was that the other Senshi were here, and her heart soared before her intelligent mind remembered something else. A crucial word.

"... then we will have to …"

" … we …"

We.

Before Ami could alert the others, a strangely sweet smell filled her nostrils. As her head swirled, she tightened her grip around Takeo's hand, and right before she fell unconscious, she felt the familiar sensation of being warped away.


"Ami-chan!" Jupiter yelled as she witnessed her friend and Takeo being teleported away by a man dressed in black.

"Retreat," he said simply to Azurite before he, too, disappeared into thin air.

"Till the next time we meet, ladies," Azurite said sarcastically with a bow.

Before the Senshi could stop him, he vanished.

"Ami-chan," Mars whispered softly, her hand on her mouth.

Jupiter and Venus both stared at the place where Ami and Takeo had been just seconds before, unable to speak or move, and they probably wouldn't have, if Junryo hadn't chosen that moment to stumble over to that precise area.

Like a wounded being, Jupiter immediately leapt over to where Junryo was standing and grabbed him by his neckline.

"You had something to do with this, didn't you? That's why they've caught him and not you!" she shouted into his face.

"What the—"

"Jupiter!" Venus exclaimed, shock written all over her features.

"Jupiter, stop!" Mars ran over to where Jupiter was and grabbed the hand that was holding onto Junryo. "He doesn't have any negative energy surrounding him. You know that. You've seen … what was in the data."

Jupiter's arm shook as the truth of Mars's words was processed in her mind. Biting back tears, she released Junryo's shirt.

As if he hadn't just been at the receiving end of Jupiter's anger, Junryo straightened the shirt he was wearing before he tilted his head upwards to look at Jupiter. Cold fury swam in his eyes and it was huge contrast to the calmness that he had pulled over his face.

"If this is how you deduce who are your enemies and who are you friends, no wonder your friend got snatched away right in front of your eyes," Junryo said.

With a growl, Jupiter attempted to lunge at him, but fortunately for Junryo, she was held back by Venus and Mars.

"Jupiter, stop. Now," Venus commanded.

Despite still breathing heavily, Jupiter allowed her muscles to relax. However, her eyes were still glaring at Junryo.

"Don't give me that bullshit, Kobayashi Junryo. We have every right to suspect you, even if there are no negative energy surrounding you," she spat out.

"What? Just because I've been kidnapped by the Dark Kingdom?" Junryo said just as coldly.

Jupiter, Mars, and Venus stared.

"You have your memories?" Venus asked quietly.

"Unfortunately, I don't," Junryo said, his anger barely repressed. "And mind you, I'm not particularly happy about this because I'm being randomly attacked by Jupiter here for things that I don't even remember."

"Then how do you remember the Dark Kingdom?" Mars asked.

Perhaps it was because Mars's voice was calm and held no accusations or perhaps it was because the person who'd asked was not Jupiter, but when Junryo answered, it held a lot less malice and plenty of more confusion and unhappiness.

"I don't remember it. Granted, I did felt as if I should know that name when that person that kidnapped your friend and …" Junryo trailed off, a look of deep thought on his face.

"Were you friends with Takeo-san?" Mars asked, releasing her grip on Jupiter and taking a step forward towards him.

Junryo shook his head. "No … yes … I don't know. I feel like we should be, but … everything is ..." He sighed. "I don't even know how to explain it to you."

"Please try," Mars said.

"Why do you care?" Junryo asked, curiosity entering his eyes.

Mars shook her head. "There are reasons … but it's not my place to tell you."

"Everybody!"

Jupiter, Mars, and Venus turned around, only to find Usagi and Mamoru walking towards them.

"Why are you trans—Oh!" Usagi halted in her words when she noticed Junryo.

Mamoru, on the other hand, stopped in his tracks the moment he saw him. Junryo's face turned pale, and he took a step backwards. Out of reflex, Mamoru reached out his arm towards Junryo but stopped in the middle.

As if he'd been struck, Junryo cringed. Before anyone could react, he did something that froze everyone on the spot.

He ran.


He didn't know how far he had run. Perhaps he had been running ever since he realized he was missing a part of his memories.

Finally, he stopped and leaned against the wall of the building. His body shivered from the emotions that overwhelmed him.

The pigtailed woman … she must be Usagi Tsukino, the daughter of his boss … the man standing next to her must be the boyfriend she'd mentioned at the exhibition …

Junryo wasn't a coward. He never considered himself a coward. But the moment he saw Usagi's boyfriend, he felt fear. He was afraid. He didn't know what he was afraid of, since that man looked kind enough. But there was something inside him that told him that if he made further contact with that man, he would be confronted with his deepest nightmares.

Why are you running? You wanted answers, didn't you?

He wanted to know the truth, but he didn't know if he were ready for the nightmares.

But what if the truth is the nightmare itself?

Junryo scrubbed his face with his hand, removing the sweat. It wasn't from the running, that much he knew. He wasn't the type to visit the gym all the time, but that short sprint was hardly enough to make him break a sweat. No, this … this was cold sweat. He felt as if a boulder had been dropped on his gut, and he wanted to retch out everything he had eaten since that morning. However, he didn't.

He couldn't.

He continued to run.


"Mamo-chan?" Usagi asked tentatively, worry swimming in her eyes.

He didn't immediately answer. He couldn't immediately answer. He'd just watched one of his friends—he refused to use the word "former"—run away. Was he such a terrible and scary liege that none of them were willing to return to him?

When Helios had approached him with the plan, he'd thought that it would be, at most, a matter of weeks before he had his friends back. While they had been in the stones, he had been led to believe that they were close to him, like brothers. But no. Life was, yet again, cruel to him.

"Do you know which Shitennou he was, Mamoru-san?" Venus asked carefully.

Her words broke him out of his daze. Forcing a smile on his face, he first patted Usagi on the hand.

"I'm fine. Don't worry. I was just …" He sucked in a deep breath. "I was just shocked. That's all." He looked towards Venus. "Yes, I do know who he … I do know which Shitennou he is."

"So you know … if Takeo is also a Shitennou?" Venus asked.

Mamoru nodded. "Yes, he is."

Mars, Venus, and Jupiter kept their eyes at him, and he realized that they were waiting for him to tell them.

"Jadeite and Zoisite," he said, his voice near a whisper.

It was at that moment that he realized how much it hurt just to speak their names out loud, even more so now that Jadeite had chosen to run away from him.

"What about Yukimura-san?" Venus asked.

"Mamoru-san wasn't there when Takeo-san introduced him to us," Mars replied.

It was Mamoru's turn to stare at Venus and Mars. "Yukimura-san?"

"Yukimura Mikio. He was a friend of Takeo-san's. We … suspect that he might be another one of the Shitennou," Venus explained with some difficulty.

Mamoru stood there, shell-shocked. Just when he thought that nothing could surprise him even more, Mars spoke up.

"Mamoru-san … you might want to prepare yourself," she said.

Mamoru could almost see her mentally choosing which words was better.

"Yukimura-san … might be under negative influences," she finished.

Mamoru swayed on the spot.

"Mamo-chan!" Usagi exclaimed, concerned.

Closing his eyes, he held up his hand and shook his head, trying to signify to her not to worry.

"It's … fate …" Mamoru said slowly. With a bitter laugh, he said, "I should've expected it, shouldn't I? Mars did mention the karmic circle and everyone did say that it was extremely hard to break that."

"Mamo-chan," Usagi said as she embraced him, burying her head in his chest.

He took the comfort she gave, thanking the heavens above that at least he had her by his side.

"At least we know why I was having headaches for the past couple of days," he said, attempting to joke with her.

In answer, she hugged him a bit tighter instead. He sighed and rested his head on hers, wondering where everything went from here.

His mind was in chaos (pun not intended), and he had no idea what to do anymore. He didn't even know where the boundaries were. Helios had been vague, to say the least, and Mamoru had no idea if he would be free to even approach the Shitennou on his own. He was just so … lost.

"There's something else," Jupiter spoke up.

The tone of her voice scared Mamoru, and he almost wanted to tell her to stop. However, there was something in there that also told him that this was something of importance. Therefore, he braced himself for whatever she had to say.

But he truly believed that nothing would've prepared him enough for what she said next.

"Ami and Takeo … they got taken by Azurite."


Finally, he stopped.

Placing both hands on his knees, he tried to catch his breath. With emotions still running high, it was no easy task though he welcomed the trouble. It gave him time to think about where he should go next.

Glancing around him, he found himself in unfamiliar territory.

No. That would be a lie.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, he knew that he had been here before. Everything was both familiar and unfamiliar to him, from the bus stop hardly two meters away from him to the flight of stairs leading upwards to who-knew-what. No, he knew he had been here before.

And for some reason, he knew it must've been during those missing days of his life.

The area was peaceful. Light wind blew amongst the trees. The street itself wasn't exactly barren, but there was a lot less people than the other streets he had just passed by. Junryo was almost not surprised to see that most of the people who traveled this way made their way up the staircase.

Almost as if he knew what stood at the top of that small hill.

A small group of schoolgirls softly chatted with one another as they descended the staircase, and a couple of them shot bashful glances towards him before dissolving into soft giggles. However, his attention was hardly on them.

He kept his eyes focused on the staircase, trying to decide what to do.

A small part of him urged him to continue running. A larger part, however, instructed him to go up. He had no idea why. It wasn't as if he would get any help in recovering his memories up there.

Would he?

He did not know. All he knew was the interesting combination of guilt and hope festering at the pit of his stomach.

The soft noise of something falling to the ground beside him caught his attention, and he tilted his head towards the object, only to find …

A talisman for good luck in love.

He didn't know why he knew that, but he knew that this meant that there must be a shrine up there.

Crouching down, he picked it up just as one of the schoolgirls approached him.

"I'm terribly sorry. That omamori was mine," she said.

Glancing at her, he straightened up his body before handing the talisman back to her.

Ignoring her hopeful gaze and the muffled giggles from the other girls, he looked towards where the shrine should be. Tentatively, he took the first step forward, and before he could lose his courage, he climbed all the way to the top of the stairs.

His mind faintly registered that the name of the temple was "Hikawa Shrine". Two crows stood on top of the booth where talismans were being sold, and he couldn't help but imagine that they were eying him with suspicion. Somehow, he had no doubt that if he took one step out of line, they would not hesitate in attacking him.

A young man with shaggy hair that covered most of his face was busy selling the talismans; other than that, Junryo could not spot another volunteer.

"Would you like to work here as a volunteer?" a voice spoke up behind him.

Junryo swirled around, perhaps a bit too quickly, but the short, old man standing behind him appeared unfazed. A grin was still imprinted on the old man's face, but so was mild confusion.

"Say … have you been here before?" the old man asked.

"I …" Junryo started to say before he realized how dry his throat was. Swallowing hard, he attempted to speak again, "I don't know."

Upon hearing this, the smile dropped from the old man's face. "You are troubled, young man."

Junryo nodded, running a hand through his hair.

"You say you don't know instead of yes or no … why are you so uncertain, young man?" the old man asked.

A bitter smile appeared on Junryo's face. "A piece of my memory from five years ago is missing … I don't know what happened then … but I just know that … I don't even know how to say this without it sounding strange, but I felt a pull towards this shrine while I was … walking past it."

He wasn't sure why he was telling the old man all of this. He didn't even know the old man, but for some reason, he just did.

Almost as if he wanted to explain himself.

The old man hummed in thought and rocked back and forth on his heels. "Five years ago, five years ago … there had been a young man who'd worked here five years ago." He observed Junryo's features a bit closer. "Five years is a long time and I'm afraid my memories are not what they used to be, especially since he hadn't been here for very long before he disappeared. I just recall that he was a very handsome young lad, just like yourself, and the young girls he would attract here were numerous."

The words from the old man tugged on something inside his mind. It was almost like a forgotten dream, one that he was desperately trying to remember, but every time he thought he'd grasped onto it, it was gone.

"Do you want to recover those memories?" the old man asked.

Junryo stared at him. At that moment, he knew, this was the moment, the deciding moment. Either he walked away and be plagued by missing memories forever, or he took it on and embraced his past.

And his future.

He didn't know why, but he knew if he answered "yes" to the old man's question, his future would be decided for him. There would be no turning back. His days would no longer be normal and he wouldn't be just "Kobayashi Junryo" any longer. Millions of could bes whirled through his mind. He lost track of time, and he was thankful that the old man had the patience to wait for his answer.

In the end, he gave the only answer he could give.

"Please … help me."


A/N: Reviews are love. :)