A/N: Hey guys! So this was also sort of a quick one, just kinda a filler to be able to get back to the main story! That's why its kinda short (longer than the last one though!) but the next chapter will be back to the main story and you'll get to find out about what happens to Usagi and Mamo-chan!
So its official, I hit some inspiration and I'm just gonna keep writing now! I really don't care anymore that its nearly 5am here now and I haven't slept in about 22 hours! I feel no sleep! I need no caffeine! Sailor moon keeps me up all night and this is what it sounds like:
R&R Folks! Hope you all enjoy this one! Even if it is a filler for now, It'll lead up to other things later on, I promise :)
Thanks guys!
Chapter Seven
The wind was cold and bitter that evening and the sky was as black as ever, the moon hiding beyond the clouds of midnight and ash, though it was only four o'clock. The only audible sound was the loud jeering of drunken men coming from the pubs in the alleys, and the occasional automobile passing by, perhaps driving through a few puddles of water creating a splash on the concrete. The lights of the city shone bright in contrast, casting a warm yet polluted glow over the surrounding outskirts. There was not a sane soul in sight.
There, hidden in the shadows of the towering buildings in an alleyway, stood Yoshio and his band of witches, waiting for their first prey to emerge from around the corner. After about ten minutes, a tall slim man with the luck of a black cat exited through the back of a restaurant to take out the leftovers of that afternoon in preparation for dinner. As he was walking towards the large bin with his back turned, Yoshio grabbed the young man from behind, put him in a headlock while covering his mouth, and grabbed his left wrist with his other hand.
"Please do not struggle; I don't intend to hurt you, I am simply in need of your assistance. Your use is for a noble cause I can assure you, now allow me to begin. *Hada ni mahō no baindo no hebi o shite mimashou. Anata ga kare no shiki-ka ni kobura o teikyō shite 1tsu dake, no yō ni sanka shite mimashou." Yoshio chanted as a green aura surrounded them and he felt a burning sensation coming from the man's wrist. As this happened, the man began to scream in agony, though Yoshio kept his tight hold over the young man's mouth. After a few seconds, the heat died down and the man collapsed on the floor of the alley.
"Now, my name is Ichihara and I will be your master from now on. Is that understood?"
"Yes master." The young lad whispered, not moving a muscle. He had been set into a trance so it seemed.
"Now, pick yourself up and tell me your name and age."
The man picked himself up steadily, "Hokozawa sir. I am twenty two years old."
"Perfect," He clapped and turned to face the others, "Mari, Mori, my brethren, this marks the once hundredth and final person we need in our army before executing our first heist tomorrow." A fire was in his eyes now that had not been present in years.
"And what would you have us do then?" Inquired Mari, her arms crossed questioningly.
"We break into the Electrical Control Center of course! We will right their wrong! Of all the men they could have let off, they chose me: the man who dedicated ten years of hard labour, the man whose wife is dying, the man who needs to support his family more than ever. Why would they choose that man? It's ironic really!" He laughed crazily, "The plan is this, I use my old passes to let us in after hours, you all patrol and protect me while I head up to the safe unnoticed and steal the cash for the day. You all will take care of any guards or security measures you come across. I would inform you of then, however they change every night in their outlines and plans, so I have no idea how security is set up. We then break out with whatever we can, and then we will go from there."
Suddenly the back door swung open revealing a cook with a ladle in one hand and a steak bread knife in the other.
"Hokozawa what's taking you so- what's going on here? I thought I told you no guests on the job! I'm sorry folks but I'm going to have to ask you to leave." The cook stated in a nonchalant manner as he went to usher the young man back inside before Yoshio could step between them. He put his head in his palm and sighed.
"And I had hoped there wouldn't have had to be any casualties, Hokozawa, kill him." He commanded of the lad as he pointed at the terrified cook.
"Wait, hang on a second!" He pleaded, backing into the wall behind him, his hands extended in attempts to stop his employee. "Hokozawa, snap out of it! What have you done to him?" He demanded of Yoshio, fear consuming his voice as the boy inched closer step by step.
"Nothing, he is simply fighting for a great cause," he stated simply and coldly, turning away.
Hokozawa raised his left fist and grabbed the poor man by his neck, choking him as he slowly lifted the cook higher with his back pressed against the wall as he struggled to break free of his grip of immense force. The cook in an act of desperation slit Hokozawa's wrist with the knife, causing him to drop him on the floor, allowing him to run past Yoshio in an attempt for escape, though he was blocked by Mori and Mari who them snapped his neck, allowing him to once again drop to the ground, though this time dead.
"Pity. Now, come Hokozawa, you will come with us for tonight before we commence tomorrow." He turned around and horror flooded his eyes at the sight he saw. His final catch needed was reacting, though he didn't understand why or how. There was the young man screaming in agony, a purple liquid oozing from where he had been cut rather than blood, foam pouring out of his mouth, as he went into a spasm on the ground. Something about the sight pulled the strings of Yoshio's heart for the first time at the scene and he picked the man up, immediately putting him into a frozen trance. "I'll take him to the hospital, wipe his memory, and break the bond. We'll simply have to find another to be the hundredth tonight before tomorrow. I'll meet you both back at the warehouse in the city before setting out again tonight."
"Are you sure? After all that trouble? Besides, this is a reaction with the magic clearly! Its rejecting him! His heart must have been too pure. There is nothing no doctor can do for him and you should respect that if you don't want it to reject you as well!" complained Mori. He made a good point.
Yoshio hesitated before coming to a conclusion, "No, I will take him. As I said, we will find another and I will meet you at the warehouse later. Is that understood?"
"Yes 'master', of course," mocked Mari with a deep curtsey before retreating to the shadows stubbornly and begrudgingly.
Yoshio took the man in his arms to his car at the end of the alley, guilt beginning to take a small home at the back of his mind, though he tried his best to shrug it off. He opened the door after much difficulty in trying to support the unconscious youth in the meantime. He laid him across the back seat before shutting the passenger door and entering through the other side and igniting the engine. The hospital thankfully was only a few minutes away from this spot, so this would allow him to perhaps have a quick visit with his wife should time allow while remaining anonymous in dropping off the boy. Eventually, when they arrived at the hospital, he would have to lift his sedative charm, or the boy would never wake. He felt slight pity for the doctors who would have to deal with him. Slight. The man would now have the strength of an ox, and with that thrashing behaviour... he shuddered at the thought. It would take a few days for his influence to wear off after releasing the curse, so he wished luck, hoping it would not retract too much attention from the other patients.
They arrived at the hospital after a few minutes of silence had passed. Yoshio parked the little old mess in an empty stall out of sight and stood up into the lot. He quickly scanned the lot to ensure there was nobody close enough to see, which there wasn't. He charmed his face to be unmemorable, to ensure that any who laid eyes upon him, would not remember his face nor could it be recorded by any means, though this would mean that he could use no other magic for the next two hours except to undo charms already cast. He walked over to the other side of the bucket and opened the passenger door. He gently hauled the young man out of his car, slung him over his shoulder, and shut the door before walking towards the emergency room entrance, a place he was all too familiar with.
He carried him just inside the doors of the ward and sat him down before walking back out. As soon as he was back through the sliding doors to the outside, he snapped his fingers and lifted the curse. Deciding not to disturb his wife that night, he returned to his car and leave to return to the warehouse without looking back once.
Meanwhile in the Hospital...
Mamoru was just about to check out of the emergency room and trauma ward in order to head home for the night and spend some well deserved time relaxing with his beautiful girlfriend when screams broke out in the hallways. Dropping his items, as any emergency worker would, he ran down the hall to check to see what all the commotion was about. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw nurses ushering terrified patients out of the waiting room and doctors struggling to pin down one man who was raging in a frightening manner.
The man was perhaps no older than he was at twenty three, he was thrashing in an involuntary but forceful and frightening manner, and there was foam spewing in his mouth. He was snapped out of his state of shock when another doctor yelled frantically, "Chiba! Quick! Help us strap him down onto a bed and sedate him!"
Mamoru ran over and put all his strength into helping the others hold him against a wall while another man grabbed a sedative to subdue to victim, though it seemed to have no effect.
"Yazu, get a tranquilizer! We need something stronger than these sedatives or he may go into a state of cardiac distress, we don't know yet what is wrong with him so hurry!"
"Yes Dr. Chiba!" Piped a small nurse who then ran down the hallway, returning as fast as she had left with the requested medications.
Mamoru practically grabbed the drugs out of her hand before she had even let go of them, prepared the needle, and stabbed it into the leg of the thrashing patient. Slowly, his movements began to slow, became less forceful, and hen his entire body went limp, the other doctors catching the man before he had a chance to fall over and placed him on a bed in a room nearby with a few IV's, sedatives, and other medications and machines hooked up to him. Mamoru and Yazu were given charge of him until notice of leave was granted, in order to try determine what was causing so much trauma in the poor young man.
"So much for going home early," He thought to himself with a disappointed sigh as he put his belongings back inside his desk before heading back to the ER to inspect the unknown patient. "Why on Earth is a hospital short of staff in an emergency room?" He shook his head at the thought, trying to come up with the reasons why the director had not scheduled more staff. He walked down the hallways, the lights eerier than they normally seemed, as if there was something evil at work here. Could it have something to do with that man he was now to check on?
He finally arrived to the room where there lay the mysterious man fast asleep on the bed where Yazu was examining the machines connected to him.
"They telling you anything out of the ordinary?" He inquired.
"No, the machines aren't, but that's why it's so bizarre," she trailed off looking helplessly and lost towards him.
"You mean his behaviour and the foaming in his mouth earlier? There are no signs aren't saying a thing? We gave him a sedative not a cure," he replied baffled.
"That, but also this," She motioned for him to come closer to the bedside and took the patient's left arm which was bandaged up to the elbow. She carefully removed the gauze and tape wrist up, revealing a black tattoo of a skull and further up a cut. Though the cut was oozing a purple substance rather than blood.
"What in God's name is-" Mamoru stared at the wound, completely dumbfounded yet fascinated. "Have you run any blood tests yet to determine why it's this colour or this viscous? It's certainly coming out at an alarming rate, so you or the other nurses should replace the bandage every so often."
"Yes, yes, of course I have, but honestly isn't this a bit alarming?"
"Alarming? Tell me Yazu, what isn't alarming in a hospital? I've seen stranger I can assure you, but yes, it is rather puzzling and I'm sure we'll be able to figure it out once the test results come back! Until then, keep him under sedation and keep changing that bandage. Everything else seems to be normal yes? So why don't we leave him here and call it a night shall we?" He said with a smile, trying to escape a little quicker in order to finally head home.
"I suppose there is nothing we can do at this point anyways," she sighed, "Alright then. I suppose I'll see you later then! When is your next shift?"
"Two days from now; I asked for a couple days off since I had to work over Christmas. That certainly did not make Usagi happy at all," He chuckled with a smile of defeat, "so this will be to make up for it partially."
"But only partially!" Yazu winked with a smile, having heard plenty about his beautiful girlfriend. "I suppose I'll see you when you get back then. I'll be here for another five hours or so, so have a good evening Chiba! Go home and rest after all that mayhem! I'll call you at home when we get the results back."
"Thank you Yazu! I will try, and yes, please call when they arrive. I want to know exactly what's going on here with our man."
"Have a good evening then Doctor," she waved with a smile as he walked out the door.
"Thank you and the same to you," he returned just before turning the corner to finally retrieve his items and go home.
Although he had not admitted to it, Mamoru was indeed worried. Not only did he have no idea what was wrong with the patient or how to cure him, but the bizarre symptoms mixed with a feeling of uneasiness did not settle well with him. There was something more to the man with the skull tattoo, and he was determined to discover exactly what that was.
He navigated his way through the halls thrilled to finally be able to make his way home, eat, and see his Usako after a long day. He found his office, walked to the old wooden desk which was covered in photos in frames of him, Usagi, and Chibiusa, grabbed his bag from underneath, and walked back out locking the door behind him. From there he strode quickly out the front doors of the emergency room and to his car out in the parking lot (he had decided to stop riding his motorcycle for the winter). He hastily unlocked the car and drove home as quickly as he could, trying his best to avoid as much traffic as possible on his way. After all, if he delayed any longer, Usagi would probably end up attempting to cook dinner, and everyone knew that was a death waiting to happen within itself.