For five months, Yukio had been unable to locate his brother. No one had seen him since that night against the Black Moon Clan, but the Lady Earth claimed that a soldier from the Moon had brought three people to Point D. They'd had a note from the prince, begging to allow them entry into the noble class. It was a gift to their daughter, Miyu.
They had been granted it, but the soldier had long left before any could question him to Hirokazu's whereabouts.
Now Yukio was walking the streets once more. Officially, it was reconnaissance. The Lady Earth had a strange feeling and this mission had come straight from her. Investigate the bay area around Tokyo. Yukio used what little spare time he had to locate his missing brother. Was he dead? Had he been captured? Five months was entirely too long.
He passed several giggling teenage girls in uniforms. They were talking about school and boys.
"Pardon me," he said to them. "Have any of you seen a young man from the Moon named Hirokazu? He has dark blonde hair and blue eyes."
They stopped and thought.
"No, sir," the smallest of the group said. With a dejected sigh, he nodded and walked on his way with a 'thank you'.
He had seen nothing like what the Lady had described.
"The monsters of my worst nightmares, indeed," he groaned. He rounded the corner and continued on his way. For the past few months, they had made no headway against the Moon, though they lost no footing for that matter. Then out of the blue, the queen announced they could not attack the Moon until a new threat was dealt with. But she had not given him an idea of what that threat could possibly be.
'You will know it when you see it.'
He rounded another corner and stopped to take a seat on a broken crate. His legs ached from the walking and he felt as though he'd earned his rest. After several minutes, in which the sun began to descend, he stood again to return home.
That was when he heard the screams.
He ran towards the sound and stopped at the sight of the monster. It towered over him, and few things were much taller than he. It stood on two legs and was holding one of the girls he had passed earlier in its talons. She looked to be struggling to breathe as her body began to shrivel up.
Without a second thought, he picked up a length of piping and filled it with dark energy. When it was fit to explode, he hurled it at the creature. It embedded in the pavement several yards away. The girl stopped shrieking as her body crumbled to dust and blew away in the wind.
His blue eyes went wide. The monster turned its gaze to him and began lumbering that way. Yukio turned and ran as fast as he could. If nothing else, it would give the other girls time to escape, assuming they were hiding somewhere. He rounded a corner and watched in his horror as the… the THING passed through the wall as easily as still air!
"What in the name of all that is merciful IS this?!" he screamed as he kept going. Anything he could grab he would pump full of dark energy until his own levels began to drop. If he used any more, he would be rendered helpless.
Not watching his footing, Yukio tripped on a broken section of pavement and fell. He curled in on himself as the items he'd been readying as projectiles hit the ground around him and exploded. He turned to get up when he felt his body lift from the ground. Though he couldn't lay a hand on the creature, it held him easily. He felt a strange sensation throughout his entire body.
'Is this… what it feels like to die? Is this how Ukito felt… when I-'
He almost missed the sight. When he opened his eyes, a soft blue light flowed over both him and the monster. Its body began to turn solid. He was not going to question having his life handed back to him. Using up almost everything he had left, he slammed both of his hands into its midsection. The blackness pooled from his palms and began to rot the monster away. It dropped him and roared in what could only be described as pain.
Breathing hard, he pushed himself up to see a woman, a Sailor Soldier, standing on a light post. She stared down at him and nodded before leaping off. He didn't get a good look at her face.
"What…? Was she… in white?"
Hirokazu hadn't moved much since Miyu's death. The motel was abandoned now, but he did his best to keep it repaired. Some days, he didn't move at all. The memories would cripple him beyond repair and he would cry to himself.
Today was a cleaning day. He was moving around slowly, dusting off his things. As he had the energy for it, he planned to clean all of the rooms. It was something to take his mind off of getting that poor girl killed.
After watering his plants, he noticed movement outside his window. Probably kids again, coming to explore the 'haunted' building. He frowned and went to go chase them off. He threw the door open to yell and faltered.
"…Princess Serenity?"
The princess, his cousin, stood there as a Sailor Soldier, dressed in white. She removed the mask from her eyes and smiled at him. "How did you recognize me?"
He stood aside to let her in. "Your hair, mostly. I see you have let the color begin to grow back in." He closed the door behind her and stood there as she took his chair.
"You are very observant."
"May I ask why you are here?"
She laughed at his bluntness and settled in to a smile. "I would speak with your mother. Ah, but I would rather risk my entrance to your home escorted."
"You're an idiot." Hirokazu turned to continue his cleaning. Serenity frowned.
"Wh-"
"Entering the Dark Kingdom? Even in such a state, you risk yourself. I will not play part in another needless death." He slammed the cleaning cloth down and turned to stare at her. "Not after Miyu!"
"Your mother will not have me executed! She is under Oath!"
"And your mother, dear cousin, is insane! She would have you executed as 'tainted' if she knew such a thought crossed your mind!"
Both stared at one another for long, long moments. Hirokazu eventually broke his gaze and walked to the door, mumbling something about another room needed cleaning.
"That is why I come to you." Her words stopped him dead and he turned to look at her. "Mother has found… well, as she would call it, 'a problem', and is having it 'taken care of'."
He sighed and went back to what he was doing, heading to the next room over. She followed him, disbelieving of his actions. "Hiro! I need your help!"
"You need to return to your life of comfortable ignorance, while the option is still present to you," he warned. "Do not lose your innocence."
He opened the door to enter the room and coughed because of the dust. He planned to dust the room, but stopped when the princess grabbed his arm and forced him to turn around.
"Mother has summoned them here! The Outer Sailor Soldiers!"
He had no idea what to think of that. He stared at her, waiting for her to elaborate on why this was such a terrible thing.
With a frown, she let him go. "If you refuse to help, I will go to your mother myself!"
He ignored her as best he could and went about cleaning the room up. She couldn't believe his actions. She needed his help, and he refused her. She grabbed his shoulder again, but he jerked free to continue on his way.
"Princess, when I came to the surface, all I wanted was to see what the Earth had to offer, even though it meant my life would be forfeit if your forces found me. All I have succeeded in doing was getting an innocent girl slaughtered in the most horrible of ways. I want nothing more to do with your war or your ambitions."
She puffed up as though it would get him to see things her way. He just arched a brow at her and shook his head.
"Hiro, please, I need your help! If they arrive before I have completed my goal, it will be for naught!"
He waved a hand in dismissal as he turned to dust one of the suitcase racks in the room. With welling anger in her, Serenity stormed out of the room and slammed the door behind her. In his own anger, Hirokazu lifted a glass and felt it shatter in his hand, embedding glass into the skin.
"Damn…"
Princess Serenity easily walked through the entrance at Point D after having appeared nearby. Being a Sailor Soldier gave her access to a wealth of power and energy that she had never had before and that all thought was unavailable to her. She ignored the guards who were following her and ordering her to stop. They didn't recognize her or they would have tried to capture her… or would have allowed her on. It was no secret back home that the Dark Kingdom wanted her dead, and what better way to boost their morale than to have the Lady Earth perform the deed?
However, the Lady Earth would not harm her. She was under Oath, to both the Queen and the Princess. That was why she had not appeared on the front lines.
No… Hiro had said that she had lost her brother right after the invasion; it was sadness that kept her from battle. But the Lady Earth had no siblings, right? She was from elsewhere and had come here alone. Could Hiro have lied to gain sympathy? He had declined to have the 'brother' reincarnated, though, specifically citing that they were aligned with the Dark Kingdom.
The palace was in sight, and she was now running to avoid the guards. One managed to grab her wrist and she looked back to him. Her eyes went wide. This was one of her mother's personal guards, and he seemed… frightened to see her there.
Yanking herself free, she managed to make it through a window and was steadily making her way along the outer wall now, listening to the man shout for her return. She was almost to the window that led to the throne room and was wondering why the guard had been there. Had he defected?
Peering in to aim her landing, she nearly fell from the ledge.
Talking to the Lady Earth… was her mother. And the Lady Earth did not look happy.
The Lady Earth stared hard at the queen before her. "You have the AUDACITY to walk into MY kingdom and demand MY help for your twisted schemes and desires?!" she roared.
Queen Serenity stood there. "You are under Oath to help me. Should you refuse me-"
"GET OUT!" She stood and drew her sword. "I have nothing to fear from your empty threat of death! Leave now, or leave in pieces!"
Queen Serenity was in disbelief. None had defied her before, yet here was this… this THING that dared to. The Lady Earth lunged at her and swiped several times with her blade. The runes carved in the metal sang in an eerie dissonance. It was haunting and beautiful.
She backed away from the first and second swings and was stuck on the third. The guards who had come with her ran in and saw it. It made no sense to them. The Lady Earth, the Sailor Guardian of the Planet Earth, had gone against the Moon Queen. And she was still transformed.
"Take your insane queen from my sight and never return here again," she ordered. With a rough motion, she swung the sword to her right with enough force to cause the blood to splatter off the blade. "She attacked me, first."
The doors closed shut as Queen Serenity was led from the room and Sailor Earth went back to her throne. She leaned her sword against the seat.
"You can drop in now, Princess."
Princess Serenity was stunned by what she had witnessed. She jumped in and landed on the floor as she slipped on her own pigtail, undoing that side. Lady Earth looked back at her and sighed in annoyance before marching over and going to put it back up.
"Why are you even here? I assume your mother doesn't know about this." She straightened the pigtail out and stepped back. "…did you dye your hair?"
Serenity looked down. "It… it was Hiro's idea." She expected to have a sword at her throat for mentioning the prince and a demand to know where he was. All Sailor Earth did was nod.
"Of course. I assume this to mean he is still alive?" Serenity nodded. "Good. Now, please leave."
"But I need your help!"
"As did your 'mother'. I refused her, what makes you think I will help you?"
Serenity bit her bottom lip before speaking again. "I can't let her kill that little girl! Just because she 'may' be a threat!"
"Well. It's good to know that you still have a heart. Your mother was demanding my help in killing her. Now," she sat down "leave."
Serenity wanted to cry. The Dark Kingdom had been her last hope for the girl. The Lady Earth saw the look on her face and sighed.
"Child, I have more problems to worry about than one little girl. A very serious problem has creeped its way onto this planet, and, regrettably, I am one of only two who can even deal with it. Your appearance and costume aside, you are not capable yet."
"Help me! That's an ORDER!" Serenity screamed. "I am the princess, and I ORDER you to help me protect that little girl!"
Sailor Earth went to grab her sword and halted. The tiara on her forehead began to fade out more and more with every closing inch. She pulled her hand back and felt her tiara once more. The princess was more confused than she had ever been. The Lady Earth struck her mother and was fine. By simply acting as if to refuse, the request of the princess was threatening her powers.
"Very well. I will grant this girl asylum. Bring her." She leaned and put her head in her hand. "Now leave. Your appearance is enraging to me, and I would like to lower my blood pressure."
With a smile, the princess nodded and went to climb back up to the window and leave. Once she was safely gone, the Lady Earth groaned.
"I thought I was done with you, and now here you are in spirit demanding more help." She stood and grabbed her sword to make way to the training grounds.
"And now I have to help you with this girl. Hmph. Sailor Saturn had best be worth it."