Hi everyone! I hope you've had a lovely thanksgiving! I spent all day yesterday slaving away in the kitchen and all day today slaving away at my computer so I could get this update out to you guys! :) I know it's not as long as the last one but I've spent all day on it and I need a break haha! It's also kind of expositiony? I dunno if people will like it...
anyway THANKSGIVING:
I wanted to thank everyone who has been consistently reviewing! I'm thankful for all new and old followers and for everyone who enjoys this story. Quick note to Anom: Chibiusa wont be making an appearance in this story! No need to make things more complicated then I'm already making them... lol.
OKAY here we go! Please review! I want lots of people to read this story, and I think people find it by the reviews, right? I have no idea how people find this actually... well whatever! Revieeewww!
Lots of love
~angelina
"It's much more complicated than I thought." Ami admitted, still rapidly typing into her computer and pausing every once to take a sip of her soda. "I'm disappointed I didn't know more about it already."
The three girls were clustered around a small desk on the ground. Printed paper littered the area, and for once Ami didn't care. She was intensely focused on the monitor of her computer screen, typing rapidly into it, miles away from their present situation. She was entering the deep web, the little known part of the net that harbored drug dealers, and gangsters. Here, she was anonymous. So was everyone else, though, and it made what little information she could find almost impossible to trace. She clicked her tongue in frustration and let out a short annoyed sigh.
"We're only three people, Ami .We can't do everything." Mako said, rubbing her temples.
"Mm." Ami agreed. "Still, it's a massive oversight. The Black Moon Clan, the Death Busters, and the Dead Moon... That's three Yakuza clans we didn't know about. We've got enough to worry about with Terra."
"They were out of our district. We couldn't have known, we've been focusing so much on making Juuban safe..." Mako tossing up a crumpled piece of paper and catching it distractedly. "Besides, gangster stuff shouldn't have anything to do with what we do! If Mamoru wasn't involved this wouldn't even be our area of concern."
"No, Ami is right, Mako. This is unacceptable." Minako was looking through some of the print outs that were scattered on the floor. She shuffled through them quickly, her mind working a million miles an hour, "I should have asked Rei what she knew."
"It wasn't our business." Mako repeated, and held up a hand when the two began to argue, "Until now. So let's deal with it and stop feeling sorry for ourselves. What do we know?"
Ami smiled. Mako was good to have around because she always got straight to business. When Minako made plans it could get overly complicated, and Ami couldn't help but get bogged in the details. Mako helped them muscle through the details and get to the core of the problem.
"Okay so. There are five main Yakuza clans, all of which happened after Mizuki left power. Each is headed by someone different and each have high level generals that execute orders. Usagi was most likely taken by the Black Moon clan. Mamoru said he recognized the red head as one of the higher ranking generals in Black Moon. Rubeus." Ami paused and looked up to make sure everyone was listening and the nodded, "I've done some research on him, and needless to say the list of crimes he has committed is...extensive."
Mako opened her mouth to ask something but Ami put her hand up. "Wait, I'm almost done. I've only been able to uncover one other general. Esmeralda, age 26, long green hair. Her crimes have been a lot messier and she's had a lot of close calls with the authorities. She's also much more desperate than Rubeus which may make her more dangerous."
"And you have no idea who the main general is?" Minako asked, picking up the papers again, reading while she listened.
"Only a few rumors, nothing that's conclusive. It seems that the way the Yakuza function now, none of the bosses are flashy or showy. It's too dangerous." Ami scrolled over her information and sighed. "There's something here that's missing, though. When I spoke to Mamoru he mentioned the same thing. There's no /reason/ for them to kidnap Usagi. She's been well hidden, her aura hasn't manifested itself... whatever power she has is dormant, and nobody knows about it."
The girls were silent for a moment.
"I hate to bring this up, but Usagi's very pretty. They may be trying to sell her to someone." Minako's expression was grim, but Ami shook her head quickly.
"There are plenty of pretty girls in Juuban. None that they would need to send a general to pick up." Ami countered, "Besides, I've been posting around on the internet asking if there are any blonde call girls and I haven't gotten any positive results."
"Well at least you're thorough." Mako muttered angrily.
Ami didn't let the comment hurt her. She knew Makoto was feeling useless. But then, all of them were. It had been eight days. Eight days! Ami had asked if the teachers had heard anything but she'd been waved off. Miss Tsukino had gotten special permission to go visit a distant uncle for a few days, they'd said. She hadn't pushed the matter. Adults didn't listen when they didn't want to. And there was always a chance she would raise suspicion if she asked further questions.
Minako had taken to spending the night at Rei's house, who was the only one of them who could realistically do anything. Nobody had seen Mamoru since Ami had spoken to him. She had learned more in those few hours with him than she had during her failed searches on the deep web. Yakuza politics were much more complicated than she had imagined. And although Mamoru had been preoccupied with his own thoughts when he had spoken to her, he had been meticulous in his descriptions of their inner workings.
"I think I need to speak to Mamoru's mother." Ami finally said with a sigh. She was missing information. They all were, in fact. It hadn't escaped her notice that Mamoru had avoided questions about his mother's dispersion of the previous incarnation of the Terra clan. When she had pressed him, he had finally admitted he didn't know a lot about it.
"I agree." Minako said immediately, "Mako, let's go meet Mars at her place, see if there are any new developments."
"There won't be." Makoto muttered as she got up, and then jumped a little when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
Ami smiled up at Makoto, putting as much trust and affection as she could into her expression. "Mako…it'll be okay. We'll find her."
When they left, Ami leaned against her door and covered her face. She wished she could be as confident as she sounded.
Ami would never admit it, but she felt incredibly at home at Mizuki Chiba's apartment. It was quiet, and orderly and it had a lot of books. It also had a lot of visible weaponry, but she decided to ignore that part. The smell of jasmine wasn't quite as strong as the musty smell of old furniture, but it was pleasantly present.
The blue haired girl watched Mizuki quietly, and Mizuki watched the blue haired girl. They had been sitting across from each other for what seemed like an eternity, but neither broke the silence. In the end, they didn't have to. The sound of the tea kettle pierced the stillness and Ami quickly got up to tend to it. Sometimes she felt that with certain people there were unspoken rules, things that needed to be done before business was attended to. Mizuki was one of these people.
Ami had knocked on the door, introduced herself and told her that she needed to talk about the dissolution of the Terra Clan. Mizuki had nodded with a polite smile and invited her in to have some tea. No mention of the Yakuza, no mention of the Terra. Just tea. And so Ami had helped Ms. Chiba back into the house, gotten the kettle out and put the tea on.
She poured the hot liquid into the cup and waited the necessary two minutes before disposing of the tea leaves and carefully pouring two cups. She placed the first in front of Mizuki, and the second in front of herself. She didn't drink, and neither did Mizuki.
"Thank you." Mizuki finally said, "You're very polite. And you know how to make green tea properly."
"I've read a lot about it." Ami said with a quiet smile, watching the steam rise up from the cup. The clock ticked loudly, almost impatiently.
Mizuki took the first sip.
"Why did you disband Terra?" Ami asked immediately, smile still in place. She had no doubt that Mizuki knew exactly who she was. You didn't get to be the leader of five Yakuza clans without having any brains.
"You're quite direct." Mizuki said dryly, setting down her cup with a small porcelain click.
"My friend is missing. She's been kidnapped by the by the Black Moon clan for reasons I can't understand." Ami said, voice equally mild, polite smile still in place, "You've got information that might be useful to me."
"What does that happen to do with me? Kidnappings happen all the time."
Ami knew she was being tested, and she pursed her lips, taking a sip of her own tea. "With all due respect, Ms. Chiba, I don't have the inclination to play games right now. I need to save my friend."
Mizuki blinked and then let out a short laugh. "She must be really special. This friend of yours."
There was a hidden question in those words. The tension in the air was suddenly palpable, and Ami looked up sharply, "That's right. She's very special to me."
Mizuki nodded and took another sip of her tea before sighing and leaning back. The tension eased. "So you want to know why I disbanded Terra after all those years of working to unite the yakuza under one banner."
Ami nodded, staring at her verbal opponent. Mizuki was an interesting woman. It had taken Ami a lot of digging to find more information about Mamoru Chiba's mother. She had found references to a woman called 'the dragon', someone who knew most of the people that needed to be known, who could control who got what money, what shipments were pushed were. She was described as ruthless and power hungry. Ami suspected Mizuki was the dragon, but had decided not to mention to Minako that Mamoru's mother was possibly still a violent and pervasive presence in the yakuza clans. Perhaps Mamoru was just a front for her more secret business.
It seemed hard to believe that this woman could be capable of what she had read, though. Ami would have said she was a good judge of character, but her internal sensors seemed skewed. Mamoru, after all, never read as evil. And Mizuki was proving to be similar. Although Ami was on the defensive, Mizuki had done nothing to arouse her suspicion.
"There was an evil I couldn't stamp out." Mizuki said, after a time. Her eyes were hard and her mouth drawn into a thin line. "That's why I disbanded Terra after all those years."
"Evil?" Ami asked quietly, frowning slightly. She didn't like the sound of this.
"That's right. I don't know how else to describe it." Mizuki said quietly, looking straight into Ami's eyes. "But everywhere I turned, every change I made for the better was undermined. People that I thought I knew were suddenly different. There was something wrong with them. Something hidden inside that I couldn't get to. There were killings…"
"There were killings before Terra as well." Ami reminded her, trying to gauge Mizuki's honesty.
"That's right. But not like this." Mizuki looked away, her face still and impassive. "Somewhere along the line in my rise to success, something evil took root."
"That seems idealistic. Gangs will always have bad members, plans that go wrong."
Mizuki understood that Ami wasn't arguing, merely questioning. She smiled. "It took me five years to join the clans under one banner. I was eighteen when I started. Bickering between yakuza I can handle, normal gang violence… Those are things I knew how to deal with. But no, it's something else. I didn't understand what it was, but this darkness… I had to leave before it consumed me. I could feel it creeping up towards me, each friend that I lost, each general that fell to its influence… Soon enough I'd be consumed by its fire." She looked up and stared into Ami's blue eyes, and she looked so tired. "I knew wasn't strong enough."
"Strong enough?" Ami pushed, leaning forward.
"That's right." Mizuki nodded. "I wasn't strong enough. I would have fallen. Just like the others."
"I don't understand what you mean." Ami murmured, looking away uncomfortably.
"Yes you do." Mizuki said firmly, "You know exactly what I mean. All you have to do is think back a little."
Ami's eyes snapped up and she opened her mouth, and then closed it. This woman knew too much. She had known Mamoru was open with her, but did he really tell her everything? Had he told her about their shared pasts? Surely not…he wasn't stupid, was he?
"Ami Mizuno. You must be careful. My son doesn't tell me everything that happens under Terra now, but I knew the other clans are involved." She paused and sighed, worry lines tight on her face. "They aren't as strong as when I brought them together, and separated the evil is weaker… but it's there. Do you understand me?"
When she left Mizuki's apartments the older woman's words echoed around in her brain.
An evil took root. I would have fallen. I wasn't strong enough.
Mizuki was right. Ami did know what she meant. She had a feeling the answer to her questions lied in the past. But she wished it wasn't true.
There was a seed of an idea blooming in her mind that frightened her more than she was willing to admit.
Blood on her hands, soaking, dripping into her dress. It was white, like snow, like her mother's hair. And the red was like the rose he'd given her on their first meeting. Mostly, she felt surprised by how warm it was. There, to her right. His sword. A gift from their kingdom to his. The hilt found its way into her hands, and she noticed that her hands were sticky. The steel was cold and she almost felt it slip out of her fingers but her grip tightened. Someone was saying something, but she couldn't make out what it was.
Eight days.
Usagi Tsukino hadn't been home in eight days. She couldn't say she was uncomfortable. She was kept well fed, well groomed (they let her shower every day), and she even had a fairly nice comfortable bed to sleep in. The windows in her room were high, too high for her to see out of. She was scared. When she wasn't bored and tired, she was scared. She'd listlessly sit in the small undecorated room and wonder what was going to happen to her.
After she had gotten in the car with the redheaded man and the two women who had attacked her, they had refused to answer any of her questions. When she hadn't stopped asking, Rubeus had finally ordered her gagged. And then they had put her in this room, and only opened the door to put food in it. After initially looking around for an exit Usagi gave up. She wasn't an action super hero, she was just a girl. A girl who was most likely going to be shipped overseas and sold to the highest bidder.
Or maybe they'd just kill her and try to steal her inheritance… not that she had much of an inheritance to speak of. Just enough to get herself a nice apartment and to be able to eat for a few years. She had taken to sleeping most of the day. Her sleep brought nightmares and awful dreams, half remembered when she woke up. Sometimes she'd wake up screaming his name.
Not the strange one that eluded her memory, his name. Mamoru.
The door opened softly and Usagi glanced at it from her place on the bed. Then she started. It wasn't the usual woman who brought her food, it was someone else. A man with white white hair, an upside down black crescent moon tattoo, and hazy purple eyes entered the room and shut it with a quiet click. He looked like royalty. Or what she would have imagined royalty looked like. Something about the way he carried himself was graceful, he almost seemed to float into the room, and to the foot of her bed.
Usagi shrank back, feeling sudden adrenaline course through her system.
"She was right. You are quite beautiful, Princess." The man said in a light tenor voice blinking back at her with those soft lavender eyes.
"Who are you? Why are you keeping me here?!"
"Ah yes. She did mention you'd lost your memories." The man brushed aside his hair and smiled at her, "There's no need to be afraid. My name is Demand."
"You kidnap me and you expect me not to be afraid?" Usagi spat, keeping her distance.
"A necessary evil, I'm afraid. Those friends of yours keep you under a tight watch. We never would have been able to get near you to tell you what you need to know if we hadn't brought you here."
"Tell me what I need to know— Look I don't know what you're talking about, I just want to go home, okay? They haven't let me talk to anyone, and I don't know what sick game all of you are playing, and I just— what do you need from me?!" Usagi's voice was quivering and her hands were shaking. The stress was coming to her all at once. She could feel herself begin to panic. Her breath caught in her chest when she felt a hand on hers. It was warm, almost hot.
Demand squeezed her hand, "Miss Tsukino it was very important for you to come here. We used what methods we deemed necessary, but understand our intention was never to hurt you."
Usagi looked into his hazy lavender eyes and then away. She still felt afraid. Too afraid to yank her hand away from his. "I just don't understand what you want from me." Her voice was small, but she tried to keep it from shaking. "I want to go home."
"We want you to know the truth." Demand said, firmly this time, tightening his hold on her hands, as if sensing her displeasure. "Miss Tsukino, you've been having dreams."
Usagi blinked and glanced at him again, feeling a chill crawl up her spine.
"Dreams that you can't explain. Recurring ones, ever since you were a child. Violent dreams."
"How did you— I haven't told anyone about my dreams." Usagi whispered, drawing her hand away from his finally and holding her own arms tightly.
"I've had them myself, Princess." Demand said with a small smile. "It's how I was able to recognize you. And recognize your companions."
"What are you talking about?" Usagi felt like a broken record, and she was so tired of it.
"Miss Tsukino… your dreams…" Demand looked down for a moment and then back up, "They're not dreams. They're memories."