Chapter 35: Trouble at the Hikawa Shrine
Running through the small wood that surrounded the temple grounds, Rei knew that the monster was chasing her. She'd run away to not accidently endanger her grandfather when she would battle the monster... whatever kind of monster that was, since she'd never seen something like that before. From her miko training she knew that the thing was completely devoid of any form of energy, which was unlike any monsters the Senshi had to face before.
As she ran, she saw the outer perimeter wall, meaning that there was nowhere else to go. With her back to the wall, she quickly pulled her transformation wand out of her robe... but not quick enough.
"Ahhh!" she screamed in surprise, when suddenly the monster grabbed her by the wrists and constrained the wrist of the hand holding the wand hard enough that she had to let go in order to let blood flow into her hand, her wand cluttering to the ground. She scrambled to reach for the wand with her other hand, but another tendrill grabbed her other hand and pulled it away from the transformation wand. End result, she got pinned to the wall.
Kaolinite slowly stepped out from behind a tree. "Mikuji, this girl's crystal is shining bright. Extract it so that you can check if there's a talisman inside."
"Gladly..." Suddenly the monster gripped Rei's robe and ripped it open to expose her upper body, much to the horror of the girl.
Kaolinite rolled her eyes. "Mikuji, please don't be so dramatic. You know you can extract it through the fabric."
Mikuji licked her lips. "I know... It is just more fun to humiliate my prey before the final strike." Ripping open her own shirt, the Daimon revealed a star-shaped tatoo between her breasts, from which a black tendrils erupted, reaching into Rei's bare chest.
"Ahhhhhh!" Rei screamed when her entire body was burning from the forceful extraction of her heart crystal. Even the mutliple burns she got from accidentally touching the sacred fire were not as bad anymore compared to this excruciating pain. Even dying had not felt as bad as this. Her body began to convulse from the pain. Her screams filled the morning air as the world stood still and silent.
The silence was broken by a soft chuckle. "A little sadistic, aren't you Mikuji? Well, once you've decided to finally do the deed, call me. I have other things to do in the meantime." That said, Kaolinite teleported away.
Rei continued to scream in pain. It seemed as if this monster wanted to torture her to death, and she didn't even know, why and who. All she knew was, that it hurt so much... Her sight already became blurry, when suddenly.
"OW!" The monster stopped her attack and held her side, where she'd been hit by a glowing discus.
"Stop that! I'm Sailor Moon and I won't allow you to hurt her!"
Mikuji suddenly gave the heroine, whom she'd spotted standing at the top of the wall, a cold smile. "Ah yes... The self-proclaimed defenders of this pitiful city. I will enjoy this... and you won't!"
-CM-
Mamoru Chiba sighed as he sat at the counter in Crown Fruit Parlor, looking at the test paper that Usagi had thrown at him. Sure, her grade wasn't the best, but he'd obviously overdone the teasing and angered her.
'Maybe I was too hard on her,' he thought, looking at the barely passing grade.
He'd gotten the test from a depressed Usagi earlier that day and had immediately started to tease her about how badly she'd done on it. He was only trying to help her, to make her do better, but maybe he'd gone overboard and she'd looked quite hurt. He hated hurting Usagi's feelings, but he was usually honestly unsure what was her being a crybaby, and when he'd really gone too far.
"I'll apologize to her next time I see her..." he mumbled, finally.
Just as he said that, a waitress that looked roughly his age set his drink in front of him. "Here, one Fruit-special..." She then noticed his expression. "So, not that it's any of my business, but who are you going to apologize to?" the woman asked, sitting down next to him.
He looked at her, surprised. "Don't you have work to do?"
She waved her hand at the almost empty palor. "Today is a slow day, the few other customers are already served... So, who are you supposed to apologize to?"
Mamoru thought for a moment of telling her to go away, but decided not to. The woman looked far too nice to simply dismiss her. "Usagi. She's… my girlfriend, sort of," he said, not sure how to explain a destined love from a past life.
To be honest, he'd have loved to wait a little for her to become older. He was five years her senior and he'd to be careful what they do in public, as he'd already heard the whispers of people. Thankfully Usagi understood that they couldn't officially appear as a couple in public until her 16th birthday, which was still a little over a year away.
"So, what happened?" she asked, leaning against the counter.
"You ask a lot of questions, don't you?" Mamoru asked, slightly annoyed.
The woman shrugged, and looked away. "I can leave you alone if you want. You just looked depressed."
Mamoru sighed. "I teased her about a mark on a test, and I think I went a little overboard," he finally said.
"Well, that certainly was not very nice. I think if you honestly apologise to her, she'll forgive you," the woman suggested.
Mamoru was about to respond to that when he felt something in the back of his head. He recognized the feeling. He'd felt it several times, and it usually meant Usagi was in danger. He didn't know how or why the feeling came, but he obeyed it without thinking. Quickly, he grabbed his wallet, slammed a thousand yen bill down on the counter, and started running out of the parlor.
"Wait, your… change?" Kasumi just saw him leaving her field of view. She'd seen some weird customers since starting as a waitress, but this behaviour was more like something she'd expect to see in Nerima.
-CM-
Running as fast as he could, Mamoru quickly found a side alley where he could change identities without much of a problem. Once inside, a red rose appeared out of nowhere in his hand and from one second to the other, he'd turned into Tuxedo Mask and took to the rooftops to reach where his sixth sense was leading him.
Literally flying over the rooftops, it still sometimes awed him how his transformation made him so much more powerful. He was capable of much more than he led on, but looking at his normal tactics would make everyone to think he was a wuss. He'd even already heard Usagi complain that despite her liking these last second rescues, it felt disappointing that he actually was so much weaker than them.
If she only knew.
It was actually that he was capable of much more, which was hindering him. When he'd been under the control of Queen Metallia as the evil Prince Endymion, he'd tapped into his true powers. That was now biting him into the ass, as it had created the irrational fear in him, that using too much power would again turn him into the evil version of Endymion. That was why he didn't like to summon his armour and used only little of his power.
He knew of course that he couldn't keep this up forever.
It wouldn't be long before he'd be forced to take a much more active role in battle. Actually, he knew that since when he'd had to rescue Usagi from Prince Diamond, before the man could force himself on her. He couldn't be a good protector if he was actively restricting himself. He know that one more huge crisis, and he wouldn't hold back any longer.
He heard the blood-curdling scream of Rei as he neared the Hikawa Shrine. 'Oh damn. That smells of trouble!' he silently cursed.
-CM-
Things were not going according to plan.
The monster had surprised Sailor Moon by suddenly letting its hair coiling around her like a snake, before slamming her head-first into the outer wall. And while she'd been dazed, the monster had bound the others, who'd been attracted to the site by the noise, to trees before they could transform. She'd done so with Moon as well after a moment, before turning her attention back to Rei.
"One moment and I'm right back..."
Once more the beam hit Rei in the chest, as her scream of agony resumed. It felt like her very being was sucked out of her body. It was a horrible experience and thankfully she lost consciousness in the middle of the process. A glowing crystal manifested, hovering in front of her chest.
The Daimon looked at the crystal, then snorted in disappointment. "How disppointing, no talisman..." She then turned her attention back to Sailor Moon. "Looks like I'll have a consolation prize."
"No, no…" Sailor Moon gasped when the monster suddenly grabbed her brooch and started to squeeze hard. The brooch cracked under the pressure.
"You were fond of this, aren't you?" Mikuji gloated.
Moon's eyes widened in horror when she felt the transformation magic seeping out from the brooch and fading rapidly. The uniform faded away and after some seconds left Usagi in her civilian outfit. Mikuji eyes danced with a crazed light as she tossed the worthless jewelry to the side, the brooch now more looking like a deformed piece of junk.
"No…." she gasped. However, just as the monster was about to strike her with another blow that would likely finish her off, a red rose streaked through its hand. Mikuji screamed and Usagi sighed in relief. "Tuxedo Mask?" she asked, looking over to see said man standing on the shrine's wall.
Indeed, there was Tuxedo Mask standing on top of the wall. However, unlike normal he wasn't making a speech. Instead he saw that all of the girls were out of the fight... And then he saw the broken brooch lying on the ground. He knew by then what must have happened and was seething in anger.
"And who are you supposed to be?" the Daimon snorted, while her hand reformed itself.
"Your worst nightmare." The Daimon was not concerned when seeing the buffoonish looking man jump towards her. This however changed fast when the cane of the man transformed into a sword and he effortlessly hacked off the Daimon's right arm, black blood shooting out of the wound.
"Aaaarrrgghhhhh! You bastard, I'll..." Mikuji was able to finsih that.
"Nothing! World Shaking!" "Deep Submerge!"
The Daimon was barely able to turn around, before a ball of golden-glowing energy slammed into her, followed by a ball of surprisingly destructive water. It didn't even have the time to scream, before the magic that gave life to it disappeared, returning it to the form of a normal tree. The crystal egg fell to the ground and shattered, the dark essence of the Daimon pouring out of it, before dissipating.
Tuxedo Mask wasted no time to cut the others from the trees, while the mysterious rescuers landed in front of Rei to look at the hovering crystal.
"No, it is not what we look for... Thankfully."
"Good, I would have hated myself, if it would have been."
"Hey, you two?" "Who are you?" "What are you doing to our friend?"
Turning around, Uranus and Neptune looked at their audience. Ami looked with interest at Neptune, but didn't let it show on her features. Uranus held up her hands as a peace gesture. "We are not here to cause you any harm, we know however, how to make your friend better."
Neptune wasted no time to free Rei from the wall. Her friends quickly held her, asking what was wrong with her.
"Here..." Neptune only said, taking the crystal and blushing a little at the sight of Rei's bare chest, before moving it over her heart. She re-absorbed it without problem, letting out a gasp when life returned into her.
"Thanks... but still, who are you?" Tuxedo Mask asked, while helping up Usagi, who was franatically checking her brooch.
"I'm Sailor Uranus." "And I'm Sailor Neptune. And we are here to kick monster ass." Then on a silent sign, both of them jumped over the wall and disappeared.
-CM-
Nodoka looked out the large windows in the living room of Setsuna Meiou's home, bored. Setsuna had left earlier in the day, citing paperwork that needed to be done, and both Ranma and Haruka had left again as soon as they'd dropped off their school stuff. This left her bored with the aftereffects of yesterday's drinking spree on her mind.
'I know I'm probably going to regret this, but I wish something would happen...' she thought
She'd already been kidnapped once while here, and Ranma and Haruka had been attacked in their sleep. Knowing that she didn't want that kind of excitement, the former Saotome walked back to the large chair at one corner of the room and sat down, reaching for her tea cup.
Just as she raised it to her lips, she heard the sound of a knock on the front door. She was so startled that she almost sloshed the tea over the edge of the cup, but quickly regained her composure and set it back down on the table next to the chair before getting up and walking to the door.
She let out a quiet sigh of relief when she opened the door to see a somewhat familiar blonde-haired woman. "Mrs. Tenoh?" She asked.
"Hello, Saotome-san," the other woman said, smiling and bowing. "My husband is off on a business trip to Europe, and I decided to visit Haruka-chan myself. Is she in?"
"I'm afraid she's out at the moment but will return soon," Nodoka said, considering correcting the other woman about her last name, but decided that it wasn't polite. "Would you like to have a cup of tea with me and wait for her and Ranma to get home?"
Mrs. Tenoh nodded and entered the house, carefully sliding off her shoes and replacing them with house slippers before following Nodoka into the living room.
Nodoka herself was just glad for the company, though she still wondered where on Earth Ranma and Haruka were right at the moment.
-CM-
The Inner Senshi plus Mamoru were all sitting in Rei's room, Ami closely watching over the raven-haired priestess as she slept in her bed while scanning her with her computer. After the horrible experience Rei had went through, it was a wonder she wasn't cotamose. The others were sitting around the table in the middle of the room, Mamoru looking worriedly at the despondent Usagi, who was looking down at her damaged transformation brooch.
Ami moved over from where she had finished examining Rei, and shook her head as she took a seat at the table. "I haven't been able to look over my readings in detail yet, but there aren't any others that I can remember with this effect," she said.
"Is Rei alright?" Usagi asked, her voice almost too soft for the other Senshi to hear.
Ami nodded. "She should wake up soon... I can't explain exactly what had happened, but from what I got, I seemed like almost all her life energy had been at once sucked out of her body and forced to take crystal form. And that also means part of the soul."
Minako grimaced. "That sounds really painful. Rei had screamed a lot when it happened."
"It WAS very painful for her. It probably felt for her as if her heart was ripped out. And although there won't be any lasting damage, this had been rather traumatic for her. So please don't take it personal if she's in a foul mood the next days," Ami told them.
"Ok... but now... We have two new Senshi instead of one. And although they were polite enough and saved us from this thing, they pulled a vanishing act right afterwards," Makoto said, pulling the conversation to the other big development of the day.
"What I don't get... Why do they appear only now? All of us awakened really closely together, But it's been months since then," Mamoru wondered. The whole thing made no sense to him.
Usagi frowned. "It's a little strange that they just showed up as these new monsters started to attack," she muttered, causing the others to blink in surprise.
"Usako, are you alright?" Mamoru asked, turning the smaller blonde's face to look at him. "That's not usually your attitude towards newcomers."
Usagi shrugged. "I'm sorry," she said, briefly returning her look to her damaged brooch. It was obvious to the others that the monster damaging it, and the loss of her powers that came with it, was disturbing her greatly.
Artemis finally had enough after watching this. "Please let me look at the damage done to it."
Usagi complied and Artemis carefully opened the damaged transformation item. Right away, the shimmering Silver Crystal greeted them. "It's actually not as bad as I feared. Only the brooch was damaged, the crystal is still intact."
"Why? is that good?" Minako asked.
Artemis sometimes wondered how the once intelligent Senshi of Venus could have become such an airhead. "It means Usagi still can transform into Princess Serenity if the need arises. Actually, with the power of the crystal it would be easy for her to repair the brooch..." Seeing Usagi's mood brighten up, he added the bad news. "...however, there is one small problem."
He looked to Luna and the black mooncat took over. "You see... This is actually a rather delicate usage of the crystal and Usagi won't know how to do it, as Princess Serenity hadn't known, either. Remember she'd been a young teenager at the time of her death. The Queen never had had a chance to teach her the finer points of how to use the Silver Crystal."
"Can't you look up in your computer about that? There must be something about that in all the data," Mamoru asked Ami.
Ami sighed. "Probably yes, but there is a problem. My previous life secured most of the files with a password. I feel the damn thing at the back of my mind but can't put it into a word." Ami looked really frustrated about it, so they let it rest.
"I'm feeling a little tired," Usagi muttered. "I think I should head home."
The other three Senshi looked between each other, coming to a conclusion. Senshi business could wait, as long as things didn't get any worse. "We'll see you tomorrow, Usagi," Makoto said, smiling reassuringly.
The blonde rabbit-girl nodded and smiled at her friends, before standing up and heading for the room's exit. Mamoru quickly followed, obviously going to walk the girl he loved home.
After the two had left the room, Ami looked at the other two conscious Senshi uncomfortably. "You know, she has a point." The blue haired girl said. "Remember how Ail and An showed up before the Cardians started attacking? It also brings me to why I wanted us to meet in the first place."
"You really think someone is impersonating Senshi to get close to us?" Minako asked, surprised.
"Well, Artemis said that Neptune looked slightly different," the taller brown haired girl offered.
"Concerning that... You won't believe me what I found out about her..." Ami felt that this would be a rather lengthy explanation.
-CM-
"I can't believe you did that," Haruka muttered, as she and Ranma walked down the street towards Setsuna's house.
The redhead shrugged. "It worked, didn't it?"
"You flirted with him to get a free dessert," the blonde sputtered, throwing up her arms.
After the whole battle had been over, Ranma's stomach had protested quite loudly that after all the excitement it needed to be fed. So they'd went to the next fast food retailer and Haruka had then looked baffed how Ranma, who otherwise was very insistant on a male image, had flirted shamlessly to get a freebie.
"And he was dumb enough to do it when I had an obvious date, right?" Ranma countered, evenly.
Haruka just blinked rapidly. "Are you sure you're actually a guy?" she asked, deadpan.
Ranma just rolled her eyes, but Haruka reached over, wrapping her arm around the shorter girl's shoulder. "We're almost home..." she said.
Ranma just nodded as the two turned onto the path leading to the house. Much to both of their surprise, as they walked up the path they saw the front door opening, letting out Haruka's mother.
The older woman looked at the scene, her daughter with her arm wrapped tightly around the upper torso of a short red-haired girl, and began to frown deeply. Marching forward quickly as Nodoka exited behind her rather puzzled, she walked up to Haruka angrily.
"Hi, Mom," Haruka said, smiling at her.
"'Hi Mom?'" her mother replied while glaring at the younger blonde, who backed up a bit and let Ranma go. "What are you doing with this… girl… when you are engaged, young lady?" she demanded.
At that comment, Ranma started giggling softly as Haruka sputtered. To add to it Setsuna came home right then and already could see how this would end and felt it would be better to prepare some calming tea in advance.
-CM-
"You sure you're alright, Mom?" Haruka asked, standing beside the coach that they moved the older woman to after her fainting spell when Ranma turned back into a boy, as she shakily took the cup of tea that Setsuna had made from Haruka's hands.
"I'm fine, Haruka-chan..." her mother said. "It's just… a lot to take in, that's all."
Inwardly, she was of two minds about what she had seen in the past hour. She knew that some very odd things existed in Tokyo proper. Having seen the news, it would be impossible to not know that; but now she learned that her daughter was engaged to one. Still, the way Haruka was looking at her so worriedly also allayed one of her fears that she'd had ever since the girl had run away from home. Still, she had some questions to ask.
"I am going to have a VERY long talk with your father when he gets home," Mrs. Tenoh finally said, after sitting silent for a moment.
Haruka laughed. "Yeah, I thought he'd told you," she explained. "I'm sorry that you passed out like that, but people usually don't believe when Ranma just tells them about it."
The other just nodded, taking a sip of her cup of tea. She looked off into the distance, deep in thought. Initially, she'd found Ranma a rather rough, though still acceptable young man, but now she started to re-evaluate him, or her. She wanted to treat the person Haruka was currently with harshly, if only because, at least half the time, her daughter was still with another woman, which would be bad for the family image.
But then she stopped herself. Was that really being fair? She'd accepted Ranma originally because she'd thought that her daughter had finally 'seen the light,' and that was pretty well it.
"Haruka, I want to know something, and I want you to answer me truthfully," she finally said, coming out of her deep thoughts. The younger Tenoh jumped, as if startled, but then nodded. "How do you feel about Ranma?"
Haruka wanted to respond immediately with something, but she wasn't sure what to say. She let her mouth open and close a few times, then started slowly. "He's… very different," she finally said, and seeing her mother's raised eyebrow, continued. "It's hard to explain. I mean, I just... Mom, let's say he's the only man who truely understands me AND the only man I want to spend my life with."
Her mother was about to say something, but Haruka continued before she could. "What I mean... other men just don't excite me. Just him... That he also turns into a hot woman is a big bonus as well... You know... very good for a healthy relationship."
"I see..." her mother said, looking mildly troubled. 'Damn,' she thought, 'My daughter is really totally in love with him.' "That's all I wanted to know, though I'm going to have to talk to Ranma at some point... Now, how about you tell me what's been going on with you since I last visited?"
-CM-
"So that means our first try was a failure?" the Professor asked.
"Yes, our Daimon encountered, as you predicted, the opposition," Kaolinite reported.
He turned around and in the darkness, she could see a big smile under the reflecting glasses. She found that surprising, considering the news. "Even better... Our master has a score to settle as well..." he laughed.
END
Beta-read by Tribun.