Day 5 part 2

7 AM

Rei crossed her arms as she sat in the main room of the Hikawa Shrine. "I don't like this."

Jadeite said. "What if he's killed her?"

Kunzite said. "I don't think he has. Every person he killed has been found quickly. I think he's toying with her… he's toying with all of us. When we were still under Beryl's control, he would toy with her." He paused a moment then continued. "It's why Rei woke in a bed. He's just trying to get into our heads. Artemis, have you pinged her phone?"

The cat shook his head. "Not yet."

Rei said. "Ami, I'm glad you're okay. Although, why did you not want visitors?"

Ami said. "Even though I've been healed, there was still some lingering pain from the arrow. I didn't want anyone to worry. Everyone needed to focus on stopping the person behind all of this."

Nephrite put an arm around her. "I stayed with her so she wouldn't be alone."

Artemis muttered. "I heard."

Nephrite and Ami blushed. Ami squeaked out as she tried to hide her face behind the throw pillow. "You heard?"

Jadeite chuckled. "So not wanting visitors was actually just wanting alone time."

Rei crossed her arms. "Now I'm going to have to cleanse that room with holy water." Ami let out another squeak.

Usagi said. "I think I know where Minako is." Ami sat up, putting the pillow in her lap, relieved the focus was no longer on her and Nephrite's nighttime activities.

Makoto asked. "Where?"

Usagi said. "Initially it seemed he was framing Nephrite. He disguised as Nephrite when he attacked Kunzite and then immediately attacked Ami. The only reason we didn't immediately go after Nephrite is because Kunzite faked his death then let Artemis know."

Jadeite nodded. "You think he took her to Nephrite's house?"

Usagi sighed. "Maybe, but Nephrite is still alive. Surely by now he realizes we know it isn't Nephrite. Minako has to be at either Kunzite or Jadeite's house."

Jadeite said. "There's no way he'd take her to my house."

Makoto asked. "Why?"

Jadeite shrugged. "He hates my cat. Last time he was over, he almost ran out when he left. He spends more time at Kunzite's. Sometimes I wonder if it's his second home."

Rei smiled. "You have a cat?"

Jadeite asked. "What's so amusing about that? I have a cat. Zoisite doesn't like the cat so Zoisite avoids my house."

Rei leaned slightly toward him. "I thought he would stay over sometimes."

Jadeite nodded. "He used to but then I got a cat. The cat would try to help him play his keyboard and swat at his hands. Then there was that time the cat tried playing with his hair." Rei giggled.

Nephrite said. "I guess we're going to do all the butt kicking while Rei and Jadeite flirt." Jadeite threw a throw pillow at him. Nephrite caught it then spoke in a semi-serious tone, acting appalled. "We are in a holy place." He gestured around the room. "A scared shrine." Giving him a stern look, he said. "How dare you throw things."

Jadeite scoffed. "Says the guy who wanted to kill all the suspects because he was tired of trying to figure things out."

Rei held up her hands. "Enough of your childish antics." The computer beeped and she said. "Artemis, that beep on your computer, does it mean you found her?"

Artemis nodded. "Yes, I have a location now. Minako is… well, her phone is at Kunzite's house."

Kunzite nodded. "Makes sense. He thinks I'm dead and probably thinks he won't be disturbed there. I'll draw up the layout." He grabbed a pen and paper and quickly drew a rough sketch. "This is the front door. Someone needs to go through it to distract him. It's best if it's Mamoru because he can feign not knowing anything. That might throw Zoisite off long enough for the rest of us to get inside undetected."

Mamoru nodded. "I can claim I'm retrieving something I left behind."

Rei pointed to a hallway that seemed to have no entrance. "What's that?"

Kunzite smiled. "A secret passage. Only Mamoru and Minako know about it. I doubt Zoisite has discovered it. Ami and I will use it since he thinks we're dead. Nephrite, you will come with us. Rei, Jadeite, and Usagi will go through the back door."

Artemis said. "Don't let your guard down. Yes, Choppi has been destroyed. Zoisite should be okay now if that's what's controlling him, but we can't assume. There might be something else controlling him."

Rei said. "We need to go as soon as possible."

Kunzite said. "There's a place nearby we can teleport to. It's here." He pointed to a place on the paper. "We'll teleport together. Once there, we'll use the heat sensor to find out which room they're in. If they're even there. Mamoru will knock on the door loud enough for everyone to hear then he'll go in. Rei, Jadeite, wait fifteen seconds after you hear him knock to enter. Do not let Usagi out of your sight. Artemis, you will slip inside when Mamoru goes in."

They nodded. Rei said. "Using a heat sensor will only be useful before we try going in. Once he knows we're there, he might teleport."

Usagi said. "If it wasn't Zoisite, he could help us locate Minako. Whatever bad guy this is, picked the worst shitennou to turn evil. I can't think of anyone who would have been as bad as Zoisite has been."

Nephrite looked around as everyone faced him. "What? You really think I'd be worse than him?"

Jadeite said. "You have a temper. When you tried being a cop, you wanted to punch people instead of arresting them. Kunzite had to restrain you multiple times."

Nephrite got annoyed, remembering all those idiotic civilians. "People are stupid-"

Rei shook her head before he began ranting about people. "Don't. We know how stupid some people can be. Look, if you were to turn evil, you'd be more violent, but Zoisite is more dangerous because he can locate people and he's been very discreet. He might be using Soul Flight to commit the crimes so his physical body is sitting at the piano. He even framed Shingo for his crimes. We don't need to stay here any longer than necessary. Does everyone agree with Kunzite's plan?"

Mamoru said. "The plan sounds good. I don't like being away from Usagi, but we need the element of surprise. Although, why hasn't Makoto been assigned to anything?"

Kunzite said. "She will stay behind. We need at least one human to stay behind to handle things that come up regarding Shingo."

Makoto crossed her arms. "I'll kill him. If I go, he'll die. I know you want to save him, Usagi, but after what he did to Motoki and then having the nerve to hug me, offering his condolences… If I get my hands on him, he's dead. So, it's really best if I stay behind."

Nephrite looked around having realized what the senshi had done. "This vacation was really to keep an eye on us."

Artemis shook his head. "It was originally planned to get away from everything and to take Usagi's mind off Luna. When Queen Serenity visited us, we realized we could use this opportunity to monitor the shitennou. We already suspected a shitennou, but after her visit, we were even more certain. I told them to check the place for blind spots, squeaky floorboards, and such."

Ami nodded. "We barely got it finished in time. Even leaving sooner than planned, it took us longer than anticipated to do all of that."

Nephrite said. "If we had left on time, then you wouldn't have gotten any of that done." Ami nodded and Nephrite crossed his arms. "Huh. I guess it's a good thing someone let the air out of the tires and removed them from Kunzite's car."

Everyone went wide-eyed and Rei turned to look at Artemis. The cat said. "W-well, we needed to buy time to do those things. That was the only thing we could think of that would buy us the time we needed, but not cause too much damage."

Kunzite half smiled. "I appreciate you two not destroying my brand new tires."

Artemis nervously chuckled. "We don't need to waste anymore time sitting here talking." Everyone stood and transformed, except for Makoto. Standing in a circle, they held hands, teleporting to the spot Kunzite had indicated.

Nephrite fumbled with the heat sensor, trying to turn it on. Jadeite said. "Hand it to Kunzite or someone who knows what they're doing. I don't even know why Artemis gave it to you. You break everything."

Nephrite glared. "I don't break everything and I know what I'm doing. It isn't working… What the-" He swatted and let out a string of curses.

CRACK.

They stared at the busted heat sensor. Jadeite scoffed. "You were saying?"

Nephrite shook himself, looking himself over, as he ran a hand through his hair. "There was a bee."

Irritated, Jadeite shook his head as he took a step toward Nephrite. "That's no excuse to smash the device."

Nephrite raised his voice, taking a step toward Jadeite. "It tried to land on my face!"

Sailor Mars stepped between them. "Hush. We don't need to be heard and lose what little advantage we have." Pointing to the guts on the tree, she looked at Nephrite. "You don't have to worry about the bee anymore so you can stop checking yourself."

Nephrite relaxed as he ran a hand through his hair again. "Now what?"

Jadeite opened his mouth but Sailor Mars glared at him. He closed his mouth and Tuxedo Kamen said. "We stick to the plan. Right now, it's the best we have. Now let's go before anymore bees try to smooch Nephrite."

AN: One more chapter remaining and then it's the epilogue!