BEHIND THE MASK
Chapter 10: "Falling Dominoes"
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
Michiru felt the bed rustle and turned over. Haruka was sitting on the side of the bed, pulling her jogging pants on. The drowsy artist reached over and gently ran her bent index finger down the woman's spine.
"Why do you want to leave a warm bed for the cold morning air?" Michiru murmured, part seductively and part plaintively.
"You knew I was crazy when you took up with me," Haruka responded, peeking over her shoulder at her mate.
"So I did," Michiru smiled. "I'll have breakfast ready for you by the time you're back. Any requests?"
"You in just an apron," Haruka smirked as she zipped up the jogging suit jacket.
"You ask for that EVERY morning," Michiru replied cynically.
"Well, you haven't given it to me yet," Haruka quipped. She bent in and kissed her love. Then she headed out.
"One of these days I may just," Michiru mumbled to herself, her mouth curled. "Just to see the look on your face."
Out in the cool, sharp morning air of November 1, Haruka jogged down the walk and turned left, as she always did. Her destination was the same: the track at the high school five blocks down. There she would do four hundred meters at top speed, rest for a few minutes, then do four hundred more. It was a chance for her to go all out again, and it was a chance to not have to think about the things that always seemed to trouble her. Short term worries like finances, racing strategy and how Junko was getting along despite having an ex-boyfriend harassing her. Long term worries like where she fit into the world, and would she some day lose Michiru and be left alone. Because when she ran, she was like a car engine, not thinking, not planning, just working to wring one more second of speed out of her body.
The instincts she'd honed, both as a senshi and as a teenage runaway in a world waiting to pounce on an unwary moment, alerted her to the car passing in the opposite direction. It was a dull moss green Mitsubishi compact, driving along the street at a standard pace, just like the four other cars that had already passed her since she started for the high school track. Nothing to worry about, her senses told her peripherally - - until the car began to slow. That was unusual enough to warrant a glance from Haruka, if only to see why the car slowed. Nothing was in the street. She glanced again at the driver. His face was hidden by the roof of the car. His left hand was on the wheel as his right hand was raising up.
And there was a gun in the right hand. It was a Firestorm FS22M .22 automatic pistol. It was a ten shot double action pistol and she was perhaps four meters away from the barrel. The driver was leveling the pistol directly at her.
All this information processed in Haruka's mind in the moment it took for the gun to aim at her. She was already diving behind a parked car when the first shot squeezed off. It whizzed over her right shoulder as she got behind the car. Huddled down behind the car, her henshin stick appearing in her hand, Haruka both heard and felt two more slugs pop into the car she was behind. The roar of the Mitsubishi's engine told her that her assailant had accelerated off. Haruka shot to her feet and saw the moss green Mitsubishi arrive at the end of the block and make a hasty left. As long as he was going away from their house and Michiru, Haruka decided to let him go for now. She glanced at the parked car and saw two bullet holes in the trunk. A higher caliber pistol might have sent the bullets through the trunk and into her.
Why this had happened was evident the moment Haruka had spotted Akinori's face as she dived for cover. So her threat to Akinori hadn't gotten him to back down. If anything, it had upped the ante. Haruka headed back home at a sprint. For it now occurred to her that she had to get over to Junko's house and protect her sister. Knowing the behavior pattern Akinori was exhibiting, Junko would become a target sooner or later.
Makoto came out into the living room of her apartment with a tray of breakfast food. Usagi's eyes lit up at the prospect of a meal. She had just awakened from dozing in her chair. Sanjuro was still asleep on the sofa where he had succumbed sometime earlier. Ichiro was still asleep in the bedroom after a restless night. Twice he'd awakened, plaintively calling out for his parents and Akiko. Ami was still at work on her computer. Rei was long gone, back to the shrine to do a fire reading.
"Did you get any sleep?" Makoto said softly to Ami, so as not to disturb Sanjuro. She set the tray down on the coffee table and Usagi helped herself to some rice.
"No," Ami said, replying as she worked through her amazing ability to multitask. "I suppose I should. I just couldn't seem to break away until I'd exhausted every avenue of inquiry."
"Find anything?" Usagi murmured through a mouth full of rice. Makoto sat on the chair arm next to Ami.
"On Akiko's location? No," Ami grimaced. They all felt Makoto sag without looking. "I'm sorry, Makoto. I just don't have enough information to form a sufficient hypothesis."
"You did your best, Ames," Makoto sighed. "We'll just have to hope that Rei can come up with something."
"Mako-Chan, you should eat something," Usagi urged.
"I'm not really hungry," Makoto said forlornly.
"Mako-Chan, you hardly slept last night and now you won't eat. You have to keep up your strength! You have to stay strong so you can be there when Akiko needs you!"
"She is correct, Makoto," Ami added. "Abusing your health because you feel helpless or guilty won't aid the situation." Makoto nodded listlessly, probably only because Ami said so, and brought up a piece of toast to nibble on. "I was successful in pinpointing the location of Kukoro Ishikawa. I have current locations for both his home and his 'business office'."
"Great," Makoto whimpered. "I know where my target is. Now all I have to do is kill him."
"No, Mako-Chan. You can't do it," Usagi told her.
"What other choice do I have?" Makoto replied. The anguish she felt was physically crushing her. "I can't let Akiko die."
"We haven't heard back from Rei yet," Usagi countered, gently grasping Makoto's hand with hers. "Rei's very good at finding out the impossible. And I'll go to Ishikawa-San as Sailor Moon. Maybe he knows who wants him dead and can help us find them. Don't give up hope, Mako-Chan. We'll find Akiko and we'll bring her back safely."
Makoto nodded, a timid smile creeping onto her face. Usagi beamed at her. Then they glanced at Ami. The woman had eased back into the chair for just a second and was now sound asleep.
"I guess I'm becoming boring," Usagi quipped. She and Makoto exchanged ironic looks
With the blue Fiat's engine already gunning in her ears, Michiru raced out the door and into the garage. She was barely in the car when Haruka pulled out. The car sped into traffic as she buckled her seat belt.
"You're certain Junko hasn't left for school yet?" she asked Haruka. It was a question with dual purposes: to ascertain information and to draw Haruka's attention away from the driving urge the woman had to get to her destination as fast as possible. That desire, she observed, was already making Haruka reckless.
"I'm not certain of anything right now!" Haruka replied. Only her expertise at driving kept the Fiat from ramming a car from behind that was stopped at an intersection.
"I'll call ahead and warn them," Michiru said. She brought her cell phone out and input the Tenoh's number. Ten rings went unanswered.
"No answer?" Haruka asked fearfully.
"No," Michiru told her reluctantly.
Arriving at the Tenoh house, the two women found the police and paramedics already there. Parking the Fiat in the middle of the street, Haruka jumped out and barreled to the house. A uniformed officer tried to stop her, but she easily pushed him aside and burst into the house. Inside, medics were treating both Gert and Himeko. Gert was on the floor, with several welts on his face and blood dribbling from his mouth. Himeko had an ugly bruise on the side of her face.
"Where's Junko?" Haruka whirled and demanded of the officer coming to retrieve her.
"Just who are you? This is a crime scene," the officer countered.
"Junko's my sister! Where is she?" Haruka demanded again.
"He took her," Himeko said. She was still loathe to speak to her estranged daughter, but more important matters overrode her feelings. "That boy, Akinori Masumoto. He had a gun. He showed up at the door maybe ten minutes ago. He hit Gert with it! He just kept hitting him with that gun! I tried to stop him and - - he hit me. He dragged Junko out of here. I couldn't stop him."
"I was afraid of this," a man said. He was behind Haruka and had entered unseen. "Masumoto was due in Family Court this morning on various charges. When he didn't show, his caseworker notified us. We were coming here to warn you, but I guess we were too late. I'm Fujiyama of the Tokyo Police. Tenoh-San, did you see which way he went?" Himeko shook her head.
"He's driving a 2006 moss green Mitsubishi," Haruka told the detective. "And he's armed with a .22 Firestorm automatic."
"How do you know this?" the detective asked.
"Because he took three shots at me about fifteen minutes ago," Haruka said as she headed for the door. Pausing at the door, she turned back to the detective. "Better get a broadcast out on that. And tell your people they better find him before I do."
Ignoring calls to wait, Haruka sprinted back up to the Fiat. Michiru had just enough time to get back in before Haruka pulled away. As she drove, Haruka related what happened in the Tenoh home.
"Just like we feared," Michiru grimaced. Her hand went up and her henshin stick appeared. After transforming into Sailor Neptune, she summoned the Deep Aqua Mirror. Catching Haruka's curious glance, she said, "They didn't have any idea where he's headed, do they? Do you?"
Haruka's confusion eased. "No," she replied and went about concentrating on her driving while Neptune set about trying to divine the answer they sought from the face of the Deep Aqua Mirror.
In his office far enough away from the gambling and prostitution parlors he controlled so that he wouldn't be easily implicated in their operation, Kukoro Ishikawa sat personally auditing the ledgers of the previous days receipts. While it was a dangerous thing to keep ledgers that could be used as evidence against him, Ishikawa had so much money coming in that ledgers were necessary to make sure he wasn't being cheated. For Kukoro Ishikawa did not abide someone else taking something he felt belonged to him.
He was a thin man of forty-four, with thinning black hair atop a square-ish head. Black rimmed glasses covered sunken eyes and a wide nose ran between sunken cheeks. He had a vaguely cadaverous look to him and when he frowned, he looked quite stern. When he smiled, though, he looked creepy and ominous, so he rarely smiled. His jacket was off and his tie was pulled out to allow his collar to be unbuttoned. There were guards outside the office and a .38 pistol in his desk drawer, so Ishikawa felt safe.
That's why he was so surprised when Sailor Moon walked into his office. The fact that she had to slide in through the door sideways to accommodate her costume's white wings only slightly detracted from his alarm.
"How did you get past my guards?" Ishikawa demanded. As he did, he closed the ledgers and slid them into his desk drawer, next to the pistol. He kept the desk drawer open.
"I apologize for that," Sailor Moon replied. She seemed genuinely disturbed by the event, which made her appearance even more alarming. "But I just had to talk to you, Ishikawa-San, and they were really being unreasonable. They're perfectly all right. They're just - - sleeping."
"I don't have anything to say to you," Ishikawa glowered. "If this is a bust, my lawyer will have me out in an hour."
"I'm not here to arrest you," Sailor Moon assured him. She considered her words for a moment. "Someone is trying to-to force - - someone I know - - to, well, to kill you. I just was wondering if you know who that person might be and where I could find him. So I could stop him."
Ishikawa stared at her, trying to ascertain if she was serious. A Sailor Senshi volunteering to protect someone like him? It had to be a trick.
"I don't need your help," he dismissed her brusquely. "Nobody's after me. I'm a respectable businessman and I don't have any enemies."
"Actually, you do," Sailor Moon persisted. "I want to stop this from happening. My friend is being forced to do something she doesn't want to do - - that nobody should be forced to do. And someone very dear to her is being threatened, and I want to stop that, too." She took a step forward, spreading her hands out. "But I want to stop this to save you, too. Because everyone deserves a chance to live. It doesn't matter who you are or what you've done. You have a life and you deserve that life. And I want to protect that. Please help me to do that."
The Yakuza lieutenant stared up at Sailor Moon. Her words and her presence were doing something to him. He had - - feelings. They were unfamiliar feelings, feelings of comfort, the warm comfort a person felt when he was with someone who loved him, who cherished and adored him. It was a safe feeling, a feeling that he could trust that person, that he was secure and wouldn't be betrayed. They were feelings he hadn't felt in a long, long time.
Ishikawa shook his head. No, it was a trick. People weren't like that.
"I'm a respectable businessman," he said again. "Nobody's after me. Now leave before I have you thrown out."
"Ohh!" Sailor Moon exclaimed and stamped her dainty foot on the floor. "Why do you people have to be this way!"
Ishikawa started to reach for his gun. That's when he saw a crystal emerge from Sailor Moon's chest. It was multi-faceted and glowed silver in the low light of the small office. His hand felt along the drawer until it found the gun, then tightened around the grip. Everything in the office was illuminated by a silver glow. For a moment, Sailor Moon seemed to be wearing different clothes, a strapless gown with wings.
Then he felt such an overwhelming warmth flood through his body. He thought he'd known bliss in his life, the bliss of seeing his fortune grow, the bliss of beautiful women on his arm despite his less than stellar looks, the bliss of power over people bigger and stronger than he was. But they were nothing compared to the bliss he felt now. Such utter joy and contentment flooded through his mind and body that it seemed unimaginable. Everything he had done in his life up to this point was meaningless. They were false thrills he'd deluded himself into believing were joyous. This, this was true bliss.
"I've got lots of enemies," he murmured, not really wanting to sully this blissful moment with thoughts of his previous life, but loathe to disappoint the person who had inspired such bliss within him. "Someone in my line makes enemies."
"I'm sorry to hear that," Sailor Moon told him and he could feel she meant it. "Does anyone stand out? Or did anything recently happen?"
Ishikawa shrugged. "There was this punk a few months ago. He made a play for one of my bar girls. Wouldn't listen when he got warned off, so I put the word out on him."
"That's terrible!" Sailor Moon gasped reflexively.
"I'm sorry," Ishikawa found himself mumbling. "It's the business. You have to do things like that to maintain control. I was just going to have him roughed up. Scare him off. But Ayuma tried to protect him. She got beaten. Lost an eye. Broke her jaw. She's worthless now. It cost me a perfectly good bar girl. So I had to do it. I had to put a hit on him."
Sailor Moon swallowed her indignation. "Who was the man? Do you know?"
"Name's Hojo," Ishikawa frowned, for memories of the incident were dulling the bliss he felt. "Hojo Fuijitsu - - he's a small time grifter. Real ladies man. Can't imagine he'd have the balls to try, though he's got the reason, I guess. Nobody else comes to mind. Unless it's a hit from a rival clan."
"Would they force an innocent person to do their work for them?"
"No," Ishikawa shook his head. "That's a small timer's play. Somebody who doesn't have any way to do it himself. It's probably Fuijitsu."
"Thank you," Sailor Moon said. The silver crystal withdrew and suddenly the euphoria Ishikawa felt was like ashes in his mouth. Sailor Moon bowed to him penitently. "I apologize for doing that to you," she offered. "It's just - - lives are at stake and I was running out of time." She turned to leave.
"Wait!" Ishikawa stopped her. "I - - don't go. I - - I can make it worth your while! Don't go, please!"
Sailor Moon smiled. "Dedicate your life to helping people instead of taking from them," she told him. "Then you'll have that feeling again. I promise."
And she awkwardly slid out of the door sideways. Ishikawa leaned back in his chair, the emptiness of his life surrounding him again. This time he noticed how empty it really was. It seemed to threaten to close in on him and crush him. But he wasn't sure that perhaps Sailor Moon's advice was too late for someone like him.
Outside on the street, back in her other identity so as not to attract undue attention, Usagi contacted Ami on her senshi communicator.
"I'll get to work tracking down this Hojo Fuijitsu," Ami said on the other end. "It's a substantial lead, Usagi. Good work. Was it very difficult to obtain?"
"I had to go farther than I wanted to go," Usagi frowned. "But we have to find Akiko, so I guess I don't have the luxury of feeling bad about it. Did Rei find anything?"
"Rei hasn't reported in yet," Ami grimaced. "I tried to contact her and received no response. Perhaps you should swing by the shrine and check in on her."
Usagi was already moving in that direction.
Continued in Chapter 11