NUMACHI NO KYUKETSUKI
Chapter 6: "Walking In Her Shoes"
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
Standing at the very corner where her friend Kasumi had disappeared three nights ago, Junko Tenoh turned and glimpsed a person coming toward her. Momentarily she tensed until she recognized the student, Hiroki Yoshida, from her Education 404 class. Yoshida was tall and gaunt, with glasses and no fashion sense. He reminded her of the language teacher she'd had in seventh grade.
"Tenoh," Yoshida nodded as he approached. "No finals today?"
"No," Junko shook her head as the pair ambled across the street. "I'm free today and I only have Advanced Geometry tomorrow."
"Saving the worst for last, eh?" he chuckled.
"How about you?"
"I've got Ancient Literature AND English," Yoshida sighed. "Not looking forward to it."
"Have they announced the grades on the Ed 404 finals yet?"
"Not yet. I think Sensei is going to wait until Friday." Junko noticed Yoshida begin to grow uncomfortable. "So, had lunch yet?"
"I just ate," she replied, nodding to the Chinese restaurant. "Sorry."
"It's OK," Yoshida said, glancing back at the restaurant. She noticed him grow even more uncomfortable. "Um, any, uh, word on Kasumi-Kun?
He hadn't meant it that way, but his question was like dropping a large dripping blanket on top of them both. Junko was brought back to her mood of frustration and helplessness. Yoshida sensed it immediately.
"No, nothing," Junko replied forlornly.
"Well, something will break," offered Yoshida. "Did you hear? The Sailor Senshi are involved. They're sure to find her."
"I hope you're right," Junko nodded. "I've got to get back home. Good luck on your finals."
"Thanks. You, too."
Junko headed home, barely noticing the bustle of midday campus life. Yoshida was only showing concern, but his question had dredged up everything she'd gone through over the last three days and drowned out Haruka's warnings. As she reached the corner by the bus stop and began to step into the street, the shrill sound of an auto horn shook her from her preoccupation. A car whizzed by, narrowly missing her.
"What's the matter with you, Junko!" the girl thought. "You're not going to help Kasumi if you're in the hospital! And you're not going to help her moping like this!" She quickened her pace home. "Maybe Michiru and I can puzzle something out until Haruka gets back. Hopefully she's there."
When Junko entered the apartment, she found Sailor Neptune sitting on the sofa. The Senshi was gazing into a mirror and Junko recognized it as the Deep Aqua Mirror, fangirl that she was. Cautious so as not to disturb Neptune's concentration, Junko silently closed the door and crept over. She peered over Neptune's shoulder, but could only see her own reflection in the glass. Then Neptune sagged. The mirror dropped into her lap, her arm suddenly too weak to hold it. Neptune exhaled with fatigue.
"I'm sorry if I disturbed you," Junko offered.
"Not at all," Neptune sighed. "I'd seen all I could see. To be honest, I didn't even realize you were here until you spoke up."
"Are you OK?"
"Using the mirror can be draining," Neptune admitted.
"Let me get you something!" Junko exclaimed and scurried off. She returned moments later with some bottled fruit punch. "It's all we have besides Diet Coke. Honestly, Kasumi lives on the stuff."
Neptune took the bottle and drank some. Junko noticed that the mirror had disappeared. To her untrained eye, the Senshi did seem a little more stable.
"Thank you, Junko," Neptune smiled. "That did help."
"So, did you see anything?" Junko asked, a little more desperately than she wanted to sound.
"I did," Neptune replied soberly. "It wasn't Kasumi, though." Junko deflated.
"What did you see?"
"I'm," Neptune hesitated, "not entirely sure. I believe I saw whatever Uranus encountered in the marsh."
"Numachi No Kyuketsuki?" gasped Junko. "What is it?"
"I'm not certain," frowned the Senshi. "The picture was very dark. It was a dark shape moving through the thick foliage. I couldn't get a clear glimpse of what it was exactly. But it was big, bigger than a normal human. And it wasn't human. I could sense that through the mirror. Other than that, I know as much as you do."
"Could you tell if it has Kasumi?" prodded Junko.
"I got no sense of Kasumi. As a matter of fact, I went into that session specifically looking for Kasumi. But I couldn't get a sense of her at all."
"Does," Junko began anxiously, "that mean she's dead?"
"No," Neptune told her. "It means that the presence of this - - Numachi No Kyuketsuki, for lack of a better name, is so overwhelming that it's all the mirror can sense. Kasumi may be very much alive, but her presence is being drowned out. I'm sorry."
"You did your best," Junko replied, sinking down onto the sofa. "Maybe the only way to find her is to clean out that marsh first and get rid of whatever is in there."
"If it comes to that," Neptune said. "A better course would be to exhaust all other avenues of investigation first."
Just then there was the sound of the door buzzer. Neptune faded away, replaced by Michiru Kaioh. Absently Junko got up and was about to open the door. But Michiru's hand on the door stopped her. Junko looked up at her curiously.
"You have a peep hole," Michiru advised her. "It's there to protect you. You really should take advantage of that instead of opening your door without knowing who or what is there."
Chagrined, Junko peered through the peep hole. Instantly she flung the door open. On the other side was a man and a woman in their middle forties. He was thin and reserved, with thinning black hair, pencil mustache and glasses. She was shorter, thick and fading, with black hair and tired eyes.
"Nobumura-San!" Junko gasped and bowed to them. Michiru did the same out of respect. Junko turned to her. "Michiru, these are Kasumi's parents."
Haruka stood on the corner, on the spot Kasumi had disappeared from and where Junko had been just forty-five minutes prior. She closed her phone, having traded information with Michiru on what each of them had learned. The woman looked around the area once again.
"Come on!" Haruka thought to herself. "There's got to be SOMETHING here!" She examined the sidewalk and the ground by some bushes for something that would speak to what had happened to Kasumi after she disappeared. Several students passed her and gave her odd looks. Haruka ignored them. "I suppose it's possible she got pulled into these bushes by someone. It was pretty dark and that tree overhead probably shields the area from the street light. But there are no tracks that I can see."
Haruka squatted down and felt the ground.
"Pretty dry," the woman judged. "The kind of ground that wouldn't easily leave tracks. Kind of rare for a climate like Niigata. Luck was on the side of whoever grabbed her." She thought a moment. "I don't have any other leads. I may as well follow this theory and see if it holds up."
Venturing past the bushes, Haruka found herself on the front lawn of a small residence. It was dwarfed on the north side by a large apartment building, four stories tall, with a driveway to underground parking. On the other side of the street was another small residence and three more apartment buildings.
"Assume someone grabbed her," Haruka thought. "They're going to want to avoid well lit areas so they won't be spotted. They wouldn't cross the street, so the east side is out. They wouldn't go due north because someone from the apartment building would spot them. South puts them in the bookstore parking lot. And the only way to go west is to skirt that home."
Following her logic, Haruka walked around the small cottage, keeping as far away as she could. The bushes along the street acted as a fence for the lot and extended behind the property. As she walked, Haruka studied the ground and the bushes, looking for some trace of what happened three nights ago. The bushes ended at the south wall of the neighboring apartment building.
"So there's no way out of this. That means if Kasumi was dragged into those bushes, she'd have to be in this . . ."
Haruka stopped. Something on the ground caught her eye. She stooped down and picked it up. It was a broken metal chain with a crucifix on it. The chain itself was plain stainless steel, as was the cross. Quickly Haruka whipped out her phone.
"Michiru? Put Junko on the phone!" Haruka said breathlessly. "Junko? Did Kasumi wear a necklace of any kind?"
"Yeah," Junko replied. "She always wore this necklace with a Christian cross on it. She and her parents are Catholic. Did you find something?"
"Yeah. Sit tight. I'm going to need you to identify something," Haruka told her. "But I have to check on a few things first."
Disconnecting, Haruka slipped the crucifix into her back pocket. That's when she noticed the bushes. There was a slight parting between two bushes where the crucifix had been.
"Not natural, either," Haruka mused. "Like something passed between them and broke off a few twigs and leaves."
Standing, Haruka stepped through the bushes. Behind them was a small service road. Looking down, she saw some dried twigs and leaves on the pavement, indicating someone has passed through the bushes just as she had. On her right as she faced west was the apartment building. There was a dumpster next to the building and an access door next to it. Looking due west, Haruka could see the Chinese restaurant and its dumpster, as well as some receptacles from the businesses next to it.
Looking farther west, she saw the marsh. The service road was a straight line pointing to it. Resisting the idea to head for the marsh, Haruka pulled out her phone as she walked over to the apartment building dumpster as she called Detective Kinogura.
"This is Sailor Uranus," Haruka said into the phone. "Anybody check the apartment building north of the corner where Kasumi disappeared?"
"Only to canvas the residents. Why?" Kinogura replied.
"I just traced a pretty convincing path from the corner to a service road that leads to the building's back door," Haruka said, lifting the lid on the dumpster and peering in. "Somebody could have snatched Kasumi and dragged her to this place's back door pretty easily."
"And she's in one of the student residences?" Kinogura asked skeptically.
"Maybe. Maybe she's in the basement, locked in with the air conditioning equipment," Haruka argued. "Or maybe not. We won't know until we check."
"Is there some evidence pointing to her actually being in the building," Kinogura asked. "I'd need a warrant to search the building and to get a warrant, I'd need probable cause."
"I'll get you your warrant," Haruka told him. "Just let me call the Palace. You just be ready to go."
Satisfied the dumpster held nothing but garbage, Haruka disconnected and then dialed the Crystal Palace. As she did so, she headed west along the service road.
"Crystal Palace," came the honey-sweet voice. "How may I direct your call?"
"I need King Endymion. This is Sailor Uranus. Code is 262118," Haruka replied. As the operator transferred the call, Haruka looked around. "She could be in either of these houses, too. Or in any of those homes along the next street." The marsh caught her eye again. "Any further distance would be pushing it, unless she was put in a vehicle of some kind. Hello, Endymion? I'm working a case with Michiru over in Niigata. The police need a warrant to search some private residences for a missing student. Yeah, that one. Think you could order the locals to issue one?"
His response didn't please her.
"Rules aren't going to matter if she ends up dead," Haruka shot back. "And the longer it takes to find her, the more likely that is. I don't like it either, but it's got to be done."
She scowled.
"Yeah? Tell that to Serenity." A smile curled her lips. "Hey, if it goes south, I'll take the rap. You can hang me out to dry."
Disconnecting, Haruka arrived at the restaurant. There was nothing of interest in the restaurant's dumpster. Looking over the building from the outside, she determined that it probably had no basement and that it was unlikely Kasumi was being held in the kitchen or stockroom.
"Unless they're all in on it," Haruka muttered. Dismissing the thought, Haruka considered her next move. Once again, her eye drifted to the marsh. Haruka mulled over the pros and cons of approaching it again for a few moments.
Then she headed for it.
As she approached, Haruka could hear the murmur of a crowd. It didn't surprise her, but it did disappoint her. The news coverage had brought the curious, just as she feared. As she emerged from the mouth of the service road, Haruka glanced to her right. Standing there in the gate of the walled yard of his home was the local she'd talked to yesterday morning. Haruka recalled Michiru naming him Hajime Inoue. Inoue was staring across the street at the gathering of gawking pedestrians with unconcealed disdain. He noticed Haruka and waved to her, then went back to frowning at the crowd across the street.
Haruka's attention returned to the crowd as well. There were a dozen people there, mostly students, peering into the marsh to get a look at Numachi No Kyuketsuki. Cars would slow down as they passed as well so the drivers could get a look. Some of the crowd hung back by the curb, while others pressed up against the chain link fence trying to see the monster that had been on the news. Across the street and past the intersection, a van from the local station that had broken the story sat, waiting to see if something else happened.
Turning, Haruka decided to backtrack along the service road. This was the first lead she'd gotten and she didn't want to be distracted from it. A noise caught her ear and she turned back. Three of the college students had jumped the fence and were in the marsh. For a moment, Haruka considered going over and ordering them out. But she turned away. She didn't have time to deal with juvenile demonstrations of macho bravado. The trail might get cold again. She had to concentrate on finding Kasumi. Kasumi was the one in the most danger. And she owed it to Junko, too. If those fools wanted to risk whatever was lurking in that marsh, it was on them.
She had gotten eight steps down the service road when she heard a piercing scream in the distance. It was from the marsh. Haruka ran up to the street again just in time to see two of the students scale the chain link fence like Hell itself was after them. The crowd became anxious. The camera crew emerged from the van.
"It got Kyusuki-Kun!" one of them cried.
"What was it? Did you see it?" the crowd asked.
And another scream of terror pierced the air. That was enough for Haruka. She barreled across traffic at top speed, transforming as she ran. One car was too close and Sailor Uranus was forced to leap onto the hood and over the moving car. Landing, the crowd parting in awe of her, Uranus took one step and then vaulted the fence. Upon landing, she stopped and listened for the wind to guide her. Every eye was glued on her and cameras filmed. Her destination secured, Uranus plunged into the thick foliage with an eye for danger.
Emerging from the other side, Uranus found herself ankle deep in water and muck. It wasn't her chief concern. On her left, she found the third student, his body tightly coiled by a fifty foot python, the body close to two feet in diameter. His eyes were bulging and his face was a deep red. Sunlight glistened off of green-gray scales offset by black scales in a rough diamond pattern. Her gaze panned up to the head as the student writhed in the constricting coils. Then popping up behind him was the head of the serpent.
It was a woman's head. She had three feet of long, fine, straight black hair, a round face and beady, squinting eyes beneath thick eyebrows. The skin was almost white as death and porcelain in texture. Red lips parted and revealed a mouth full of tiny, pointed teeth, save for a pair of curving fangs coming from the top and a smaller set curving up from the bottom of her jaw. She hissed a challenge at Uranus, but stood her ground. It was a nure-onna, just as Rei Hino had described.
In response, Uranus summoned the Space Sword.
"Space Sword Blaster!" Uranus bellowed, throwing energy arcs at the creature.
The arcs struck low on the body, as Uranus consciously tried to avoid hitting the student. They gashed severe cuts into the lower body of the nure-onna. The coils came loose and the limp student slid from its grasp. Uranus stayed wary and her caution was rewarded. The nure-onna slid along the wet marshland with surprising speed and was on Uranus in a second. But the Senshi leaped forward and the creature was caught by surprise. It lunged up at her, missing the Senshi's boot by fractions. Uranus turned in midair and flung more energy arcs at the creature. They struck home and it reared up, hissing in agony.
Uranus hit the apex of her leap and descended, landing in the water and sinking in the ooze until half of her feet were covered. She pivoted, ready for a counterattack. All she saw was the tail of the monster disappearing into the brush headed north. Crouching, Uranus prepared for an attack, her head swiveling back and forth. But after a time, she realized that no further attack was coming. Cautiously she made her way over to the unconscious student. Kneeling down, Uranus discovered that he wasn't just unconscious. Her teeth clenched; Asphyxiated.
Just like Tokita's sister.
A gasp came up from the crowd watching on the other side of the fence, a crowd that had now swelled to four times its previous size. Sailor Uranus emerged from the dense brush with the body of the student flung over her shoulder. She vaulted over the fence and was met by the reporter who had broken the story.
"Sailor Uranus, what was it?" the reporter asked.
"Everybody needs to clear out of this area!" Uranus shouted to the crowd. "NOBODY goes near this marsh until we've had a chance to deal with it! GOT THAT?"
She got stunned stares in return. Uranus ignored them and headed for a police car that had just pulled up. She opened the back of the car and laid the body of the student in the back.
"Sailor Uranus, was that man killed by the monster?" the reporter persisted.
"Get some officers down here to keep this crowd back," Uranus told the officer emerging from the car. "That body needs to go to the morgue. And I need to talk to Detective Kinogura."
"Sailor Uranus . . ." the reporter began to ask.
"Not now," grunted Uranus, climbing into the police car with the body. "You want to be useful? Tell people to stay away from this marsh."
Continued in Chapter 7
