The Men that Must Die, Part 4: Smile, Though Your Heart is Aching
Four years earlier...
Smitten with the young priestess's good looks, Yuuichirou practically begged the Shrine's owners to accept him in as an apprentice. Grandpa Hino quickly agreed, then swiftly went to his chambers for a good night's rest - He had just fallen from thirty feet to the floor due to Zoisite's attack a few minutes earlier, and was starting to feel the effects of his Rainbow Crystal. But Rei was not particularly enthused in receiving this complete stranger at her home.
"Why do you wanna stay with us anyways?" she asked him in an annoyed tone after her grandfather left.
"This is a place of peace," Yuuichirou spoke while he meekly scratched the back of his head. "At the moment, it is what I need the most."
Was that an attempt to impress her? Rei thought. It didn't work at all.
"Listen, you said you wanted to become... An apprentice here, right?" Rei resumed while raising one eyebrow in disbelief. "I'm warning you, you'll do a lot of work and you'll receive very little, if at all."
"I don't care about money," he nervously answered. "Listen, if you think it's too inconvenient for me to stay, don't worry. I'll arrange some other place to sleep."
"That's very tempting," the raven-haired girl ended blurting out.
"Then, if you excuse me... I'll be on my way." He picked up his duffel bag and stepped towards the staircase of the Shrine. "I apologize for the inconvenience."
Rei at first stood in silence as he went on his way... But something made her have a change of heart before he even crossed the torii gate. "Wait... Uh, forget what I said. Stay the night over at the guest room. We don't have much, but..."
"Ah, don't worry!" He cut her in a chipper way. "I don't mind comfort at all."
She shook her head, then led the young man to the guest room, which was completely empty. She went back and forth through the house to provide him with a futon, a pillow, and a glass of water for refreshment. He took them all with no complaints; rather, he smiled satisfied at her hospitality.
"Thank you very much, miss, uh..."
"Rei. Rei Hino."
"Thank you very much, Miss Rei," he repeated himself excitedly. "I promise you, I won't do anything!"
"Okay, okay... Settle down, will you? Listen, I'm only doing this because... I hate to think I turned away from helping someone in need, so don't get any ideas, okay? They're not gonna happen."
Yuuichirou bowed his head with certain shame. "Okay, well, uh..."
"Well, good night."
"Yeah... Good night."
Rei sighed as he closed the shoji door. Her first impression of Yuuichirou couldn't be worse. Not only did he look like a hobo, with his shoulder-length unkept hair and traces of a beard, he severely lacked a spine, and that was one trait he never liked in a man. As long as he left as soon as possible, it would be all fine. One night enduring his presence could be feasible.
(xx)
Rei was at a complete loss for words at the sight of Yuuichirou. Worse: going to battle with a revived foe of hers, wielding a sword, and telling her he's there to die. She counted that he would stay safe in Switzerland, but there he was... Saving her grandfather from bloody death. What were the chances of something like that happening? She wanted so much to see him again, know what he was up to lately, thank him for his gifts, give him one half of her cousin's necklace, and... Perhaps, confess her true feelings.
But that was simply not the right time. Jadeite, the very first major villain she's ever faced, supposedly her betrothed in the Silver Millenium, was ready to pass her family through his sword and his evil magic. And if it weren't for Yuuichirou, her grandfather would be done for.
"Father!" Rei's uncle Toshirou got up and ran to save his father. The old man managed to crawl back to his son's side while Yuuichirou parried Jadeite's blade with his own.
"Guys, run away!" the young man advised while still clashing blades with the Heavenly King.
"You're not going anywhere," Fréamund affirmed. "Akumetsu, what are you waiting for? Butcher these men!"
Akumetsu... Somehow, that name sounded familiar to Rei. But why did the cloaked man call Jadeite that?
The Heavenly King simply pushed Yuuichirou away with a kick in the gut and tried to give chase to Grandpa Hino and his son Toshirou. But then, a familiar figure wearing a cape, a top hat and a ballroom mask somersaulted between them. "Enough with this," Tuxedo Mask affirmed, then turned to face the mastermind. "This is a sacred place of prayer and good fortune. Don't sully it with your infernal presence!"
"Why, hello there, Endymion!" the dark servant greeted him with malice. "I will finish you off by my own hand!"
"I told you already, I'm not Endymion! And if you want a piece of me... Come and get it!"
In a single bound, Tuxedo Mask leaped away, while Fréamund ran after him.
"Stay right there, kids!" Jadeite playfully warned Rei and Yuuichirou while he accompanied the other men. "The fun part will begin soon."
Not wanting to be any more part of this travesty, Toshirou and Grandpa Hino ran to the streets, believing Rei and the recently-returned Yuuichirou could be enough to face off against the other assailant. The raven-haired girl tried to go after them, but Yuuichirou stopped her.
"Tuxedo Mask went after them," he explained. "And we are more than enough to handle the rest."
"How can you be so sure of that!?" Rei felt comfortable enough to chastise her former helper, even if he had a point.
"I know, I know. You're mad at me as you always were. I figured as much," the long-haired casually answered her, like he didn't take it seriously.
"Seriously, Yuuichirou..." she changed her tone to a more concerned one. "He's going to kill you!"
"I told you before. If it is for you, Miss Rei... I don't mind dying."
A haiku. Was that to impress her, or... an omen of things to come?
"Yuuichirou, I don't want you dead, you hear me? You will run away with grandpa and uncle Toshirou, and leave those criminals to me. This is an order!"
But the young man simply picked up his sword and swung it around, acting like he didn't hear what she had to say.
"Are you deaf or what? I'm talking to you!"
He turned around with a look of seriousness that the raven-haired girl had never seen upon his face. "I'm not deaf. I heard you loud and clear. I'm sorry, Miss Rei, but this I cannot do. First of all, you're in no position to boss me around anymore. Secondly... Since when do you care so much whether I live or die?"
The tone and the phrases somehow dismounted her fabricated outrage. In normal situations, Yuuichirou would have already grovelled at the mere sight of seeing her angry. That feeling of impending doom that fell on Rei's bosom, it was the same she felt when he left for college. But this time, it was different: He was risking being gone for good, right before her very eyes. Why do you want to do this...
(xx)
Eighteen years earlier...
Yuuichirou arrived at the Kumada household when he was a runt of four, with a letter written by his mother addressed to one Koutetsu Kumada. According to the letter, which the father of the house read aloud, he is the biological father of the boy, and his mother, a middling prostitute from Osaka named Aya Shishiko that died of an undisclosed illness just a few days ago. He had sired him during a private orgy in which both he and his wife participated, alongside top-tier politicians and high-ranked millionaires. The letter made it clear she never asked him for any help, despite living in squalor, but once she knew she would be gone, she did not want the child they had together falling to destitution, and thus sent him there, at their winter home in the Japanese Alps.
The boy had all the facial features of his father, and he recognized all too well the woman the letter referred to.
To Mayumi Kumada, the wife and de-facto head of the house, this was very much an unwelcome surprise. "You know one is supposed to wear protection in those swinger parties!" The matriarch exclaimed exasperatedly upon reading the letter. "You've never seen me getting some other schmuck's child in my womb. Now look! You have a bastard of your own! What the hell are you gonna do?"
"He will live with us," her husband affirmed. "If only to remind me of being more responsible in our little escapades from now on."
Koutetsu Kumada was the head of Kumada Technologies, a multi-national company specialized in computer sciences and electronic equipment, and one of Japan's leading resources for all things involving hardware and chipsets. In a country that heavily welcomed and invested in new technologies, it made enormous fortune and influence for Koutetsu and his direct family.
"And what are the neighbors and the board of directors going to think of this, huh?" Mayumi resumed her barrage of complaints.
"I'll tell them we adopted him, okay? Or that he's a grandnephew, or a cousin twice-removed, something like that."
The discussion only didn't go further because the child's stomach grumbled audibly. "I'm... I'm hungry..." the boy shyly stated.
"Oh, my," Koutetsu lamented. "Yuuichirou, right? Well... Wait just a minute. I'll prepare breakfast for you." He hurriedly left the fireplace room.
Mayumi then addressed the boy, eyebrows furled in clear discontent over the entire situation. "Listen up, and listen good. You may be your father's son, but you're nothing to me, and you're nothing to the family's business either. My daughter Sayaka is the one that will inherit everything, and I'll make sure of it. Understood?"
Yuuichirou silently nodded, though all he understood was that she was angry at him for being there.
"Good. Now go to your father. The least I see you around, the better."
(xx)
The first thing Shinozaki felt when he opened his eyes in the complete darkness of the Underworld was a plain bulk inside his mouth. He took it off, and saw the strange coin he had received not too long ago, along with the two jewels. But why would that be in his mouth? Would it make any difference? He was dead after all. "Mom is gonna freak out when she hears of this..."
"No, she won't," spoke a familiar figure.
Shinozaki turned around and opened a wide smile when he recognized the figure. "Dad!" He went to his presence and gave him a heartfelt hug. "I'm so glad to see you again, dad..."
"So am I, kid!" His eyes emitted a red glow. "Come with me to burn forever!"
"What the- Hey, you're not my father! Where is he!?"
"Sucking cocks in the depths of Tartarus! Hahahahaha!" Saying this, the specter showed its true ghoulish form, grabbed Shinozaki by the neck and put him in a fierce stranglehold, then tried to move his head towards its crotch. "How about you suck mine?"
Before it could violate the young man, however, a strong flash of light made its figure melt upon itself, which blinded Shinozaki briefly. Once he felt he could open his eyes again, he found two people: One was a tall man with long and slick red hair, the other was what seemed to be a humanoid cat.
Upon seeing him, Astar smiled for the first time in quite some time. "I remember you. I saw you in Makoto's dreams."
"You... Saw me?"
"Indeed. It's a long story, but... It seems the plan Bast told me is still on course. Let me help you reach the other side of the Styx."
Shinozaki was obviously confused at this turn of events. "Wait a minute... What plan? What the heck is going on?"
"The Heavenly Kings will explain to you better," Bast interrupted while Astar nodded. "For now, you have to trust us on this one. Astar will transport you to where you need to go right now."
"Relax, we are on your side," Astar explained. "All you need to know is that your death was not in vain, and won't be here in the Underworld for too long. If everything works out as I planned... You will return to your family. And form a family of your own with Makoto." To this, Shinozaki felt some creeping flush on his face.
"You and the other men that must die will be of great help," Bast added. "To close the gap between Hell and Earth, and to restore the flow of death and rebirth."
"The what?"
Upon touching Shinozaki, both he and the Angel felt like they were floating, despite not leaving their place. The Angel's hair started to flow upwards as if he was indeed falling, and his eyes started to emit a bluish glow. "Let us make this simple: You have received three items, right?"
"Yes, I did..."
"Excellent. When my earthly body died, it left behind all the necessary items I intended to give out to the Sailor Guardians, and to the future Royal Consorts, to help them out in these times of need. You received the Nephrite Light Gem, which awakened part of your memories of your past life and your latent abilities of that age. You received a Hipoccratic Bloodstone, which keeps your earthly body physically alive without your soul to give it function. And you received an Obol, the token that gives you proper authorization to cross the Styx, undergo your training, make your vows... and become a Heavenly King yourself."
"So that's why the one named Nephrite wanted to kill me. I think... It all makes sense now," Shinozaki spoke after some silent pondering over his and Bast's words.
"Good. The rest you'll know at the right time. Now, go."
Astar and Bast then disappeared from Shinozaki's sight. He still felt like he was floating, but eventually found himself stepping on a purple structure with moist, quasi-organic walls. Is this... Where I am supposed to be?
He felt a strange heat on the palm of his left hand. When the young man checked it, he saw engraved on his hand a circumference with two crossed lines inside it, and the symbol of Jupiter etched on their intersection. The more he walked through that strange landscape, the more he felt heat on the marked hand, soon realizing it is a signal that would lead to his final destination. "Somehow, I feel confident this is all true... Alright, I'm in."
(xx)
"That guy is coming back, isn't he?" Yuuichirou asked.
"I'm afraid so," Rei answered. "I just hope grandpa and uncle Toshirou are fine."
"They are. I'm sure of it." The young man picked up his sword once more. "And if he comes back, we can work it out. Not anymore as master and servant but..." He measured his words at this time. "But... As battle partners. Brothers-in-arms, or, uh..."
That's the old Yuuichirou she knew, and she couldn't help but smile on a corner of her mouth. For some reason, she also felt a flush on her face at that moment - for the first time in his presence, at least. But she, too, was careful with her words. "Sure, why not?"
"Oh, going for the 'lovebirds forged in the heat of battle' angle?" Jadeite told them just as he returned to the Hikawa Shrine in a single bound over the torii gate. "Cute little scene, but it won't do you any good!"
"Transform and fight, Miss Rei," Yuuichirou told her. Rei was even more astonished - How could he know she was a Sailor Guardian? But did it matter at that point? With her transformation Pen at her hands, and with no sight of her relatives, she felt comfortable in calling for her powers.
"Mars Planet Power, Make Up!" She called for her powers and went to Yuuichirou's side.
"Two against one is cheating," Jadeite commented.
"Oh, don't get me started with that," Sailor Mars spat at him.
"Before we start this fight, let me tell you," Yuuichirou addressed the Heavenly King. "You threatened the only places and people I ever cared about, and that I won't ever forgive. But still..." He pointed his sword at him and drew his famous frank smile. "Thank you very much for this opportunity... Uemon Akumetsu. May the best fool win."
And Jadeite returned the strange courtesy. "You were the fiercest prizefighter I knew in the Silver Millenium. If circumstances were different, we could have been friends... Herakles."
Herakles... That name was also somehow familiar to Sailor Mars.
Then she saw both men smiling at each other as they readied their weapons. Is that what they call "male bonding?" Two enemies ready to hack and slash at each other suddenly praising one another? Men are so weird, Sailor Mars let herself think while shaking her head at the absurd scene ahead of her. Especially when she saw both men charging at each other, screaming like maniacs like that was a scene straight out of a jidaigeki movie.
The result of the charge was that Jadeite was slashed through his belly... but he promptly started regenerating himself. As for Yuuichirou, he seemingly fell, but quickly got up.
"Burning Mandala!" the Guardian called for her attack, seeing a breach in Jadeite's defense to burn him. And indeed, it did burn through his upper body, but again, he regenerated, leaving only his sweatshirt in flames. He promptly took it off, revealing a pale and slim but well-toned physique, but with a strange red glow in his mid-section, just above his belly button.
But what did worry Sailor Mars was that when she turned to see Yuuichirou, he saw his nose was visibly broken, leaking blood like a burst pipe down to his chin. But for some reason, he smiled proudly, displaying his wound like one wears some kind of badge of honor.
(xx)
Ten years earlier...
"Can't you do anything right?" His father complained in the dinner table while showing the rest of the family his report card. The boy barely scraped above average in all subjects. To top it off, he was rather stressed out over the fourth straight month of failing sales and deliveries, and wanted to lash out at something. "We pay you one of the most elite schools, and the best available textbooks, and you can't score better than 65!? What the hell are you doing instead of studying? I'm not raising a goddamn bum!"
Yuuichirou snapped back as best as he could: "I'm not a bum!"
In a fit of rage, Koutetsu got up and struck Yuuichirou straight in the face, breaking his nose in the act. Neither Mayumi nor Sayaka cared at that display of abuse, and kept slurping on their entrée soup cups.
"Never fucking raise your voice to me again, you ungrateful insect," Koutetsu seethed at him, then pulled him out of the table and dragged him all the way to his room. "And don't you cry! I'm not raising crybaby faggots in this house either! Now, stay there! No food for the weekend for you!"
For not being able go beyond average, he got a broken nose, and would starve for three whole days. The child was in a constant state of fear and uncertainty, in a home that never really accepted him. And still, it was all he had, and he had it better than hundreds of millions, at least from a purely socioeconomic perspective... Or so he remembered his teacher say.
He opened the window of his room, and contemplated jumping down the balcony, only backing off after a chilling wind blew and made him shiver. He then half-opened his room's door, which had a chain lock from the outside that didn't permit it to be opened by Yuuichirou. He saw his father back on the dinner table with his family. He was not only calmer but engaged in a good conversation with his stepmother and step-sister. Laughing, even.
"They're happy when I'm gone." Seeing some innocent logic behind this, he tried to open a smile...
(xx)
Overwhelmed by the suicidal wraiths, Nephrite and Adamas had no other choice but to cut through their enemies and make an escape. Naturally, the more they battled, the more enemies appeared - The toll of suicides in the Universe was never-ending, after all.
The road through Suicide Valley got narrower the more they stepped out of it. To make matters worse, some sort of steam clouded their escapeway. And both knew what it meant, and what place they arrived at.
"Wait a minute... This is River Cocytus, is it not?" Nephrite asked when they approached a narrow patch of the riverbank.
"I'm afraid we have no other choice but to jump," the masked warrior spoke out.
The long-haired Heavenly King turned his head back and forth between the steaming waters of the hellish river and the approaching wraiths and cormoraxes. "I am not going there!"
"It's either that, or being torn apart by the army the Legionnaire of Vanity rose up," Adamas explained. "There is no other way! Jump in there and reach the other side!"
Adamas had no other choice but to drag Nephrite with him into the Cocytus, where neither of their enemies dared to enter. Thus, all they could do was to swim across the fiery river. The acidic burning they felt all over their skins was unbearable... But worse, Nephrite thought, would be if he didn't find Shinozaki in time, then all in the Universe would suffer a similar fate, if not even worse. So he swam in all the styles he knew, as fast as he could, ignoring all signals of exhaustion and burning.
It took almost two hours of non-stop swimming in the boiling, stormy waters of Cocytus for the Heavenly King to reach the other side. His skin was red and full of blisters and rashes, like it could peel off with the minimum effort, and he was too exhausted to get up once he reached the shore.
"At least... At least we made it, didn't we," Nephrite commented to Adamas. But turning around, he saw nobody. "Adamas? Where are you?" Adamas!?" He got up with some difficulty, searched around the surroundings, but saw no signal of the man. "Tch, he didn't make it..."
Rather than mulling any further, he simply got up and trudged the best he could along the riverbank. He knew Cocytus was one of the rivers of the Hades, along with Lethe and Styx. If he followed at least one route, he could find his proper destination easily. Whether it would lead to his target, however, would remain to be seen...
(xx)
"Let's see how you react... When I tear down your house!" The Heavenly King then turned around to the Hikawa Shrine, ready to release some kind of dark magic toward the temple's structures.
"NO!" Both Sailor Mars and Yuuichirou screamed out at the sight. "Take him down, I'll go to the temple!" the young man told the Guardian while he ran toward the Shrine.
The Guardian of Fire managed to dissipate his magic with a well-applied Fire Soul, and eventually held down Jadeite and push him back, but the Heavenly King then transformed his right arm into some kind of gelatinous limb. Sailor Mars swiftly dodged it, but it wrapped around Yuuichirou's left arm, which started to be constricted to the point of crushing. He released a pained scream towards the skies, while Sailor Mars had to stifle her own. Sounds of squished flesh and cracked bone could be heard, with blood trickling down the gelatinous wrapping.
"How do you like that, you crazy, impertinent son of a bitch," Jadeite blurted out in his astonishment.
"What did you just call me..."
His rage burned so hard, he started to hack through his crushed, trapped arm. Both Sailor Mars and Jadeite looked at the scene befuddled. Any scream of agony he might have released was muffled on his throat. He chopped, and chopped, reducing the link of his elbow joint until he freed himself from Jadeite's Shoggoth limb... By completely amputating his left forearm all the way to the elbow. More blood dripped from the wound, and by the time he finished, the Guardian had to stifle her gag reflex.
He took off his denim jacket and his undershirt. The sight left Sailor Mars even more awestruck: Not only did he reveal an imposing and broad physique... It revealed his back was almost completely covered in scars of cuts and burns. She had never seen his uncovered back before.
And yet, right below his look of pain, there he opened a proud, pleased smile on his face once more...
(xx)
Nine years before...
"Ouch! OW!" Little Yuuichirou was naked and lying on Mayumi's lap, on the receiving end of a belt lashing from his stepmother. "It hurts! Please stop! STOP! I'm sorry! SORRY!"
"Never enter here without permission ever again, you little son of a cheap whore!" Mayumi spoke as she kept beating on the boy. The skin on his back and on his buttocks was crimson red and eventually tore open in different parts.
"Why do... Why do you hate me..." the child asked.
"Hate?" Mayumi asked as if she had been insulted. "This is love I'm giving you! Would you rather be on the streets? Huh?"
"N-no..."
"Then shut up and put up!" One final whipping, and he dropped Yuuichirou on the floor as she got up. "You're the son of a rich family now! Act your class, or it is the gutter for you, and I'll tell your father you ran away. Now get out of my sight!"
Still in the nude, he went back to his room and held back his tears as best as he could. After all, both his father and "Mrs. Mayumi" kept telling him that he, as a man, is not supposed to cry. Eventually, the will to weep subdued, but the searing pain of the leathery scourge that his stepmother inflicted upon him was still there. And while the cuts in his skin closed on their own, the wound upon his mind was still very much open. And they were shown in the most unlikely way - A smile.
"If I die... will they love me?"
A few minutes later, Mayumi opened Yuuichirou's door to hand him the clothes she had torn apart to apply her punishment upon him. She did not expect him to be so respectful.
"Thank you, Mrs. Mayumi!" he cheerfully said with a content smile on his face, as if he wasn't naked and disfigured all over his backside. Upon hearing and seeing that, the matron's look was of shock and horror.
(xx)
It didn't matter if it was Sailor Mars' fire power, or Yuuichirou's newly-acquired swordsmanship. Nothing seemed to properly hurt Jadeite, whose body regenerated upon every attack. The couple managed to run away into the backyard, where they could catch on some breath - And where the Guardian could cauterize the wound of Yuuichirou's cut-off arm.
"The things you make me do," the heroine complained as she used her power to properly close the wound.
Yuuichirou seemingly did not mind either the fact he no longer had a left forearm and hand, nor the fact that Sailor Mars was a mess of feelings right beside him. "He's got... the power of a Shoggoth, have you noticed?"
"Huh? How do you know?"
"You see... this Jadeite guy came all the way to Zurich to attack me... and he used that thing called Shoggoth for that. Me and Tuxedo Mask, we managed to kill it, and then told me... He'd kill your grandfather and your uncle, and make you watch it all, if I didn't come."
The heroine finally understood what made him come back. "What a heartless bastard..."
"So yeah, first, you do away with its body, then destroy its core. It's some sort of red glowing ball that floats in the air. It has to be quick... Or else it runs away to recover its body... Problem is, we are too tired and hurt. I have an idea."
"No big ideas!" Sailor Mars told him concernedly, fighting back tears while looking at what was left of his left arm. "Yuuichirou, seriously..."
He simply picked up the sword to his side and showed its extension. "Bless this blade with your flames, and stab through his chest. I'll only be a decoy this time, I promise."
"Are you sure..."
"I sure am," he answered confidently. "I saw it shining through his ribcage. Now let's go." He got up with Sailor Mars' help. "I won't give him the pleasure to see me fall. I will die standing up."
"Stop saying you'll die, you stupid yutz!" the Guardian affirmed once more, no longer hiding her concern over him. "Why... Do you smile at a time like this?"
Even from behind all the blood that still trickled from his broken nose, Yuuichirou could still give out his usual naïve, but honest smile. "It's either that, or give in to anger and despair."
It certainly was not an empty platitude - In fact, it made perfect sense. Rei was once again flushing pink at that, for the first time over something he's ever said.
"Are you two finished?" Jadeite spoke as he jumped from the household's ceiling down to their level.
"The only thing finished here is you, blondie," spoke Yuuichirou as he ran towards the villain. He tripped and fell, giving leeway to Sailor Mars to charge, flaming sword in hand. Once the sword broke in through his torso, a strong stream of blood started to spill. She was breaking through the Shoggoth core and burning through Jadeite's innards at the same time.
Strangely enough, the Heavenly King did not offer a single resistance. Not just that, he was actually smiling in the face of imminent death. "Agnys, my love... How glad I am to die by your hand."
"I'm not your love, you twit," Sailor Mars murmured to him while driving the blade further in his core, with more blood flowing.
"Heh... Proud and defiant as always," Jadeite spoke while bursting on fire. "Pride was your undoing in the Silver Millenium. Then again... So was mine..."
While his body ignited, Jadeite still had time to release one last projectile of black mass towards his true target. It hit Yuuichirou through his right eye. A crimson flow fell down his face, and his brain functions started to falter then and there. Sailor Mars shut her mouth with both hands at the sight of the fatal blow.
Any lesser man would have fallen dead upon that impact... Yet, Yuuichirou still stood. He promised Sailor Mars as much, and he felt a good man would always back his word through actions.
This is how it ends. Cue the last breath, the bowels emptying, the body becoming cold and stiff. But you know what? Somehow, I feel like it was all worth it in the end.
I've pratfalled a thousand times. I've apologized to people a thousand times. I've got beaten to the punch, I cried in public, I made an ass of myself, and I lost so many times, I even lost count. But, if it's true what Chiba said, and I earned Miss Rei's love... It will be all worth it. All the embarrassments, all the hopeless and stupid attempts to win her over... Worth it. If my death is of her benefit, and thus of benefit for the whole world... Then I am glad to enter the Makai at this tender age.
I just hope I put up a good fight in the end.
(xx)
Four years before...
Finally, upon graduating from high school could Yuuichirou feel free somehow. Travel on his own, see the sights he'd like to see, all without the chains of the Kumada bloodline culling him from the rest of the world. Mayumi, of course, could finally get herself rid of the "bastard" whose presence reminded her of the sham of a marriage she got herself into.
"Yuuichirou," called the dreaded voice of his father. Always submitted to his will to the very end, the young man turned around. But what he saw was not the angry, frustrated businessman whose look and presence he always dreaded. Ahead of him, was a visibly broken man whose actions started to weigh on his body and on his face.
"I know I've been a shitty father... And you may never find it in you to forgive me, which I understand."
"Don't say that, dad..."
"But it's true," he continued. "But, I wish that someday, one day... We can make up for the years we treated you badly, your stepmother and me. Here." Koutetsu gave his son a presentation card. "This is my personal number. I can guarantee you this will go straight to me. Call me whenever you need my help, monetary or otherwise... Or if you just wish to talk. No matter what, you are still my son, and there is no shame in using your privileges for a good cause, okay?"
Finally, he gave the first and only embrace he's ever given to his one male heir. It felt so strange to Yuuichirou to share a tender moment like that with not just a man, but his own father. A man who had no qualms beating him, making him starve and stay out of the house during blizzards as punishment. His mind simply was not prepared for it.
"Some people are so poor, all they have is money," Koutetsu spoke once more. "And being with you all these years... I realized I've been the poorest man in the world all along. But you, Yuuichirou... You're still young, and you can learn to steer to your own path. Please, heed to this advice... Don't follow my footsteps. Be yourself, and fight for what you want. Don't be afraid of being a loser, because one victory is worth a thousand losses. And be a good man, because there are too many bad men like me out there."
"Thank you, dad..."
"Best of luck for you, my son. Put up a good fight now."
Stepping out of the Kumada manor felt relieving to the young man, but Yuuichirou still felt it was not enough. On that day, he could finally let down the bitter tears of his existence up until that point. He was a man, indeed, but above it all, he was a human being, with emotions he kept bottled for appearance's sake. He spent hours sobbing on his own in the farthest and loneliest alley of the first city he could find. And once he felt relieved, he opened the largest smile he's ever drawn. He felt confidence, and hope for a better future for himself. "No more crying," he said while cleaning himself on a public fountain. "I cried all I had to cry. Time to conquer the world!"
In his year-long journey, he learned countless trades and skills, and developed a taste for rock music and physical exercises. Whenever he felt stressed out, or the bad memories of his childhood crept up his mind, he took laps around the block of whatever city he was staying in, and performed exercises with the weight of his body. He let his hair grow down his shoulders and cover his eyes, a symbolic way to show the world he would no longer conform to typical societal norms. Above it all, he followed his father's one and only advice: To be himself, and to be a good man above it all, even if he was unwanted and unwelcome wherever he ended up.
One night, Yuuichirou couldn't find vacancies at the homeless shelters and hotels in the Minato district. Tired of walking around so much, and having being dismissed from his latest job as a loader at the Tokyo Harbor, slumber reached his head when he sat down a staircase that led to what seemed to be a Shinto temple. He didn't mind - It was far from the worst place he's ever slept in, and there was something about the peace of that shrine that felt pleasing to him. But it didn't take long when some kind of kerfuffle woke him up. He heard a loud thud on the nearby floor, birds crowing, and some people screaming. "Uhh... What's going on in here?"
"Who are you?" A girl in miko clothes with long and slick threads of raven-black hair and shining purple eyes asked him.
Something inside of the young man snapped upon seeing that girl. It was like he had seen her before, perhaps out of a good dream. He made no effort to hide that he was instantly head over heels at the sight of her, and promptly went to where she was tending to her fallen grandfather.
"My name is Yuuichirou Kumada!" He introduced himself effusively while bowing down in submission and reverence. "Please, let me in as an apprentice! PLEASE!"
(xx)
Snow started to fall and cover the sacred grounds of the Hikawa Shrine in white and grey. Sailor Mars observed as Jadeite's corpse burned to ash and as the enormous bloodstain let out by the Shoggoth's core somehow evaporated, despite the cold climate. What truly concerned her, however, was Yuuichirou. He stood there, inert, covered by a few snowflakes, looking up as the blood from his right eye socket kept falling down his face and dripping on his breast. Perhaps... He was somehow still alive?
Only when she finally approached him did he plummet to the floor. True to his word, he only gave up his ghost when Jadeite passed on first.
Rei closed her fists in such anger that she cut through her gloves and her palms' skin. Her head throbbed, her face burned, her chin shook, her breathing became uneasy, and her knees gave in.
"No! NO! NO!" She screamed as she pulled part of her hair. "You piece of fucking shit! Is this why you came back, you goddamned good-for-nothing macho prick? You made me worry for you... Just for that!? HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME!? FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU! BURN IN HELL! BURN IN HELL FOREVER!" As she exclaimed out her wroth, the Guardian punched his inert body. Eventually, her voice gave out and she got tired of her unfruitful attempts to chastise and punish the former servant. It would do nothing to correct what just happened: Yuuichirou was dead, having thrown away his life to defend her and the one place that sheltered him in his time of need. She started to cry uncontrollably, having never felt this kind of pain ever since her mother passed away.
She remembered the day she met Yuuichirou, when he practically begged her and her grandfather to let him in as an apprentice, mostly because he just wanted to be near her. All she wanted was for him to get out of her life as quickly as he entered. It took him about three years for him to leave, and by the time he did it, she wanted badly for him to stay, except her pride didn't let her say it aloud.
But how did that happen? He had nothing in a man that she considered "attractive"... But he had everything in a human being that she liked and wished to see more of. And in spite of, or perhaps due to this dichotomy, she grew fond of him. Now that Yuuichirou was gone for good, it all came back. The times he defended her against monsters beyond his comprehension with his own life. The times she yelled at him and treated him wrong, and he answered with gentleness and care. The times she did treat him right, mostly out of pity. All because... He dared to love her.
All Sailor Mars could do was embrace his battered and bloodied corpse, and tell him all she never told him when he was alive. All the things that were stuck on her throat regarding him. "I'm... I'm sorry, Yuuichirou... I'm so sorry... I could have treated you better when I had the chance... I could have... Kissed you, when I had the chance. I could have told you I loved you when my heart ached... I could have told you to attend some college right here, so that... So that you didn't have to leave me. I could have... I should have..."
No longer feeling any evil presence, Grandpa Hino and Toshirou climbed back the steps of the Hikawa Shrine, only to see who they thought was Rei embracing the dead body of Yuuichirou - tattered, missing one arm, wearing a crimson mask of blood, and somehow smiling. Except... The girl wore a sailor fuku with transparent shoulder pads, long-sleeved gloves white and knee-high boots. None of them were aware she had just acquired the next level of her Sailor Guardian powers.
"Oh, by the heavens..." Toshirou lamented. He recognized his son Kengo's necklace wrapped on the dead man's neck, and knew well what it meant - This was Rei indeed, and there laid dead the man she loved.
Neither father nor son had the gumption to approach the raven-haired heroine in her bereavement. They simply saw her with a shocked look on her face, sobbing softly. Whatever tears she shed ended up as hardened, whitened marks on her cheeks due to the mixture of the freezing winds, the snowflakes that fell, and the heat aura that she emitted.
"They saved us, and he paid the biggest price for it," Grandpa Hino lamented. "Toshirou, go to the Shrine's main room and make all the preparations for Yuuichirou's funeral."
Toshirou silently obeyed and left. Only then did the old priest approach whom he undoubtedly recognized as his granddaughter to offer some kind of comfort.
"I loved him..." the Guardian muttered almost inaudibly.
"Huh?"
"...Nothing."
Grandpa Hino understood perfectly well what his granddaughter had just said. Under his breath, he simply spoke "I know," and then drew a couple of bead necklaces from his hakama's pocket. "Join me in prayer for his soul," the old priest told Sailor Mars while handing him one of the necklaces. Without taking off her eyes of her beloved's dead body, she took it, laid down his body on the floor, and clasped it on her hands, together in silent prayer. The small flecks of snow that kept falling served as his shroud.
(xx)
Minako was in tears as she held the lyrics sheet upon which she had finished composing a new song. She had just heard of Yuuichirou's death through her communicator, and summed to the strange case of Ryo, and the disappearance of Shinozaki, she felt like she needed to purge the gall that accumulated in her soul. Love was losing, and her time was close...
Looking down my window I see snow
And down below, I see the city and somehow it hurts me so
I've let you go
My heart screams out your name every night
I don't feel right, for all the hours without you are yet to come
Because you're gone
Ever since you told me you'd be leaving, I've been wishing
Forget me not, forget me not
Once I see you parting at the station, I'll be weeping
Because you're gone, because you're gone
Dim light of the street post, hear me now
And tell me how, will I be able to just let my heart go on
And move along
Words unsaid and hours wasted here
I'm now in fear, for all that's left are memories past of times undone
And this sad song
Ever since you told me you'd be leaving, I've been wishing
Forget me not, forget me not
Once I see you parting at the station, I'll be weeping
Because you're gone, because you're gone
"Mina? I'm coming in," a female voice spoke. It was her mother Retsuko, concerned over her daughter not getting out of her room since breakfast.
"Mama..." The blond girl quickly clung to her mother's legs without getting up from her chair. "Oh God, I..."
"Mina, what's wrong?"
"I'm so scared, mama... Just... Just hold me."
And hold her she did. Retsuko was never one to show much emotion, but for her one and only daughter, who felt fragile for the first time in ages, she felt she could open up a bit more. "My dear little girl..."
"I don't wanna lose you... Or dad, or... Or Daisuke, or anybody else..."
"But, Mina... You won't lose any of us," her mother calmly told Minako while caressing her hair. "Why would you fear such a thing?"
"I'm..." How could she explain her anguish to her mother in a way that didn't involve the words Sailor Venus? "Uh, I don't know... Those strange attacks happening lately..."
Retsuko chuckled a bit. "Oh, my silly little girl... We are taking all the care in the world about that. And besides, don't you know? There are these heroines, the Sailor Guardians. They've been doing a damn good job fending off with those cases."
Lying, of course, did nothing to alleviate the Guardian's sorrow. "I... I am..."
"What now?" Retsuko asked.
Minako feigned a smile to hide it all. "I'm feeling better now. So much better. Thanks a lot, mom... I mean it!"
Her mother caressed her head once more, then left, taking care to close the door softly.
All Minako could do was to hold back her tears. All in vain. Her deepest fears - That of her Sailor Guardian duty being tantamount to leading a lonely, suffering existence - were taking over her mind once again. She had never felt like that since her talk with the late Astar, and now it was all returning like she had never learned a single thing from it.
Soon after, Artemis came in through the window. She saw his partner laying on her bed while undoing her red lasso, and he felt the environment heavy and somber. "Minako... Is there something wrong?" the wise cat concernedly asked.
"Of course there is," she dryly answered. "For a Sailor Guardian, there's always something wrong."
"I guess... You'll be better off alone. Excuse me." As if knowing what his owner and partner would do, Artemis knew he wouldn't be of help for whatever Minako was feeling at that moment, so he left through the window once more.
The Guardian of Love felt even worse upon treating Artemis so coldly, after almost implicating her mother in her struggle. As she turned to her side, Minako felt a familiar craving that grew between her legs, summed by a strange heat on her face and torso. She put one arm across her breasts and the other hand inside her shorts, rubbing and sticking two fingers on her private parts, as she often did in times of distress. In between increasing movements on her hips, muffled moans and bites on her lower lip, Minako kept going in her private moment until she felt the relief of sexual climax creeping across her body.
As the blond girl felt her accelerated heartbeat subdue and played a bit with the stickiness of the fingers she used to please herself, she reflected how that was only a temporary solution to a mounting problem. Yet, at that moment, a few moments of relief was all she wanted, and her subconscious convinced her body and her soul that she needed it. And just as she expected, Minako felt shame over what she had just done. Her body felt serene, but her mind was still clouded in disarray. This is so fucked up...
Obvious Evangelion reference is obvious.
The song she composed is a mostly-accurate translation of another personal favorite song, Jeanette's "Porque Te Vas"
litakino1987, espero que haya sido de tu agrado. A ver si te pareció angustiante!
Next chapter: Phantom Ace meets his fate. Mamoru takes an important decision based on what he learned so far.
Greetings from the Hospitaller Knight.