Chapter 1: Rei
It began so fast. We had gone to school one day, a normal day. But I felt something wrong. I knew it. I don't know why the sacred fire hadn't warned me.
I walked down the halls of the private girls' academy I attended. I was about to reach my biology class when I saw the girl. Her hair was astounding. And I thought Usagi and some of our former enemies had odd hair.
This girl had bright pink-red hair (but very much darker than Chibiusa's), spiky, down to her knees, and it had a strange resemblance to a crab's frame. Her clothed made heads turn. She was decked out in a green jacket over a purple vest-skirt and yellow pants. Her cynical smirk and small, vicious eyes seemed out of place on her twelve-year-old face.
The moment she saw me, be both froze. I could sense it; she wasn't from this planet, nor was she anywhere near her appeared age. I did not know it at that time, but she knew that I was not a normal earthling, or an original earthling for that matter.
Instinctively, I reached for an ofuda out of the dimension where our sailor fuku come from, commonly known as mallet space. I grabbed three and struck her in the forehead. She did nothing. She stood there, wide eyed, and then broke out in nasal pitched laughter.
She spun on her heels and bounded off. I sped after her, down the hall, the stairs, and out the main doors. When we were out of the school, she halted at the entrance. Then she faded. It was one of the things that a normal person would freak over. But not me, little Miss "I see people turned into Sailor Chefs at least twice a day".
I transformed and concentrated on her ki, and where it was. She was at Juuban. Usagi! Ami! Makoto! Minako!
I remembered that we no longer needed four other senshi to teleport, as long as the lone senshi was teleporting closer to the others. I arrived at Juuban to discover the students running out of the building. That girl was on Juuban High's roof, setting off explosives. She was blowing up Juuban High School.
Ami was dowsing the flames as best she could, but it was futile. They had to retreat. And it was lucky they did. The girl had set off the bomb by the gas pipes, I suppose. The building burst into a ball of heat and light, the most fire I have ever seen at one time. It crumbled, and with students still in it and in the surrounding area. Ten dies, and hundreds injured.
Mamoru gave us news one afternoon about two weeks later that almost made Usagi pee her pants in fright. Mamoru was going back to America to attend the collage that he tried to the first time, and Usagi would have none of it. Just like our known and loved Usagi to be so stubborn, ne?
Then Ami made a suggestion. I must explain something about Ami, first, though. I was always portrayed as her best friend. But in actuality, I really don't like her. I could never really like her as a person or a senshi. She is weak. Some say that she is the brain of the team. But she never really contributed to the fight as a "brain". Only once did she fight alone with Usagi. Honestly, I think that the whole team could survive with only Usagi, as she is now, alone. Usagi really doesn't need us, especially Ami. She humors us by letting us believe she needs us. But enough of that, as I was saying. Ami's Great Idea.
She presented to us with the news that she had been offered a collage scholarship (and she hadn't even finished high school yet) to the same collage as Mamoru. Figures, doesn't it.
It was decided. We, all six of us, were going to Los Angeles, to spend a semester in America.
That was the stupidest idea had ever heard her say. Mamoru would have been fine without us! The Los Angeles Police Department would have been fine without us! But the sad part of it all was that even I had not realized what a moronic idea it was.
The plane ride was lovely. Makoto, of course, didn't ride with us. She took a boat, for that poor girl has that fear of planes. The highlight of the flight was the people who sat next to and nearby us. We flew in one of those jumbo jets with eleven seats in each row with two isles. I had window seat on the left side. I sat next to a woman, about in her 20's, with beautiful, long purple hair in two pigtails. Her red eyes were unnatural looking. She wore a strange purple and white kimono-like gown. On her other side sat a woman of similar age with cyan blue, spiky hair. She gave off exactly that same aura as the girl that blew up Juuban. It was strange, but I felt two of the cyan-haired girl's presences, like she had another self somewhere on the plane. In fact, I felt a lot of strange auras on the plane, and they weren't the senshi with me.
Anyways, the punk-looking girl wore an odd mustard-yellow and green striped dress that went to her ankles. Her and the purple-haired girl wouldn't stop arguing! Finally, the punk-girl got up and sat a few rows behind us and on the other window side of the plane, next to a boy with a tremendous aura, like a senshi's. Exactly like a senshi's, but he was male. But then again, Seiya, who looked just like him, and the Starlights were guys too…
The girl next to me probably noticed that I was staring at the boy, probably breathing heavy in a rather embarrassing was, and cleared her throat. I looked at her, and she apologized and introduced herself. "Good morning, nice to meet you," she smiled and gave a polite nod. "My name is Ayeka Jurai, and that," she said, stressing the way that it makes the object sound as if an animal, "was Ryoko, um, Hakubi." She said as if she didn't know her last name.
"Devil Caller!" I gasped, suddenly aware of what her name meant and that it told me why she had that aura.
"Well that is what she likes it to mean," Aeka said, tired sounding. "But I suppose, um, that her mother meant for it to mean Excellent Child. But Ryoko may be a child in everything, but she is certainly not excellent." Ayeka finished, expressing her dislike for Ryoko, and simultaneously leaving me to find out the real reason for Ryoko's aura.
I didn't realize it then, but the Excellent Child was never even thought of when she was named.
"The boy she is sitting with is MY Tenchi Masaki," she growled. "Are you with the blonde girl next to them?"
"Oh, yes," I said. "That is my friend Minako Aino. Oh! I've been so rude! My name is Rei Hino."
"It's nice to meet you," Ayeka smiled, totally missing the fact that Rei had been impolite.
At that moment, a girl came up to sit in Ryoko's abandoned seat. The girl was about 8, with blue hair, slightly darker that Ryoko's, in a style like Usagi's without the buns. Ayeka introduced her to me as Sasami Jurai, Ayeka's onnechan. I also picked up from Ayeka and Sasami's conversation that they were traveling with two more people on the plane, a woman named Mihoshi and a woman named Washu.
It turned out that these people, Ayeka and her friends, would influence our lives more than we could ever know. In fact, if that Tenchi fellow were female, he would have been a senshi. Sailor Jurai.
Why, you ask, did I not sense danger emanating from these six people? It is simple. I am a senshi. I fight evil. My psychic skills have sharpened over the years as a senshi, but only to detect evil. Ayeka and her friends were not evil, just powerful. That is why when I walk down a sidewalk and pass a priest or priestess of another temple not in their garb, I do not attack. I don't feel evil, only power. For all I knew, Aeka could have been a priestess. But still, that did not excuse my ignoring of Tenchi. I suppose that all I wanted to do is stop fighting evil, and relax. Perhaps I just ignored the powers, especially Tenchi's, because I just didn't want to believe it, I didn't want to fight anymore.
This plane ride would change all of our lives, senshi and alien alike, especially mine. But in my case, it wouldn't be a change in my life forever, but rather a lack of life forever.
TBC
It began so fast. We had gone to school one day, a normal day. But I felt something wrong. I knew it. I don't know why the sacred fire hadn't warned me.
I walked down the halls of the private girls' academy I attended. I was about to reach my biology class when I saw the girl. Her hair was astounding. And I thought Usagi and some of our former enemies had odd hair.
This girl had bright pink-red hair (but very much darker than Chibiusa's), spiky, down to her knees, and it had a strange resemblance to a crab's frame. Her clothed made heads turn. She was decked out in a green jacket over a purple vest-skirt and yellow pants. Her cynical smirk and small, vicious eyes seemed out of place on her twelve-year-old face.
The moment she saw me, be both froze. I could sense it; she wasn't from this planet, nor was she anywhere near her appeared age. I did not know it at that time, but she knew that I was not a normal earthling, or an original earthling for that matter.
Instinctively, I reached for an ofuda out of the dimension where our sailor fuku come from, commonly known as mallet space. I grabbed three and struck her in the forehead. She did nothing. She stood there, wide eyed, and then broke out in nasal pitched laughter.
She spun on her heels and bounded off. I sped after her, down the hall, the stairs, and out the main doors. When we were out of the school, she halted at the entrance. Then she faded. It was one of the things that a normal person would freak over. But not me, little Miss "I see people turned into Sailor Chefs at least twice a day".
I transformed and concentrated on her ki, and where it was. She was at Juuban. Usagi! Ami! Makoto! Minako!
I remembered that we no longer needed four other senshi to teleport, as long as the lone senshi was teleporting closer to the others. I arrived at Juuban to discover the students running out of the building. That girl was on Juuban High's roof, setting off explosives. She was blowing up Juuban High School.
Ami was dowsing the flames as best she could, but it was futile. They had to retreat. And it was lucky they did. The girl had set off the bomb by the gas pipes, I suppose. The building burst into a ball of heat and light, the most fire I have ever seen at one time. It crumbled, and with students still in it and in the surrounding area. Ten dies, and hundreds injured.
Mamoru gave us news one afternoon about two weeks later that almost made Usagi pee her pants in fright. Mamoru was going back to America to attend the collage that he tried to the first time, and Usagi would have none of it. Just like our known and loved Usagi to be so stubborn, ne?
Then Ami made a suggestion. I must explain something about Ami, first, though. I was always portrayed as her best friend. But in actuality, I really don't like her. I could never really like her as a person or a senshi. She is weak. Some say that she is the brain of the team. But she never really contributed to the fight as a "brain". Only once did she fight alone with Usagi. Honestly, I think that the whole team could survive with only Usagi, as she is now, alone. Usagi really doesn't need us, especially Ami. She humors us by letting us believe she needs us. But enough of that, as I was saying. Ami's Great Idea.
She presented to us with the news that she had been offered a collage scholarship (and she hadn't even finished high school yet) to the same collage as Mamoru. Figures, doesn't it.
It was decided. We, all six of us, were going to Los Angeles, to spend a semester in America.
That was the stupidest idea had ever heard her say. Mamoru would have been fine without us! The Los Angeles Police Department would have been fine without us! But the sad part of it all was that even I had not realized what a moronic idea it was.
The plane ride was lovely. Makoto, of course, didn't ride with us. She took a boat, for that poor girl has that fear of planes. The highlight of the flight was the people who sat next to and nearby us. We flew in one of those jumbo jets with eleven seats in each row with two isles. I had window seat on the left side. I sat next to a woman, about in her 20's, with beautiful, long purple hair in two pigtails. Her red eyes were unnatural looking. She wore a strange purple and white kimono-like gown. On her other side sat a woman of similar age with cyan blue, spiky hair. She gave off exactly that same aura as the girl that blew up Juuban. It was strange, but I felt two of the cyan-haired girl's presences, like she had another self somewhere on the plane. In fact, I felt a lot of strange auras on the plane, and they weren't the senshi with me.
Anyways, the punk-looking girl wore an odd mustard-yellow and green striped dress that went to her ankles. Her and the purple-haired girl wouldn't stop arguing! Finally, the punk-girl got up and sat a few rows behind us and on the other window side of the plane, next to a boy with a tremendous aura, like a senshi's. Exactly like a senshi's, but he was male. But then again, Seiya, who looked just like him, and the Starlights were guys too…
The girl next to me probably noticed that I was staring at the boy, probably breathing heavy in a rather embarrassing was, and cleared her throat. I looked at her, and she apologized and introduced herself. "Good morning, nice to meet you," she smiled and gave a polite nod. "My name is Ayeka Jurai, and that," she said, stressing the way that it makes the object sound as if an animal, "was Ryoko, um, Hakubi." She said as if she didn't know her last name.
"Devil Caller!" I gasped, suddenly aware of what her name meant and that it told me why she had that aura.
"Well that is what she likes it to mean," Aeka said, tired sounding. "But I suppose, um, that her mother meant for it to mean Excellent Child. But Ryoko may be a child in everything, but she is certainly not excellent." Ayeka finished, expressing her dislike for Ryoko, and simultaneously leaving me to find out the real reason for Ryoko's aura.
I didn't realize it then, but the Excellent Child was never even thought of when she was named.
"The boy she is sitting with is MY Tenchi Masaki," she growled. "Are you with the blonde girl next to them?"
"Oh, yes," I said. "That is my friend Minako Aino. Oh! I've been so rude! My name is Rei Hino."
"It's nice to meet you," Ayeka smiled, totally missing the fact that Rei had been impolite.
At that moment, a girl came up to sit in Ryoko's abandoned seat. The girl was about 8, with blue hair, slightly darker that Ryoko's, in a style like Usagi's without the buns. Ayeka introduced her to me as Sasami Jurai, Ayeka's onnechan. I also picked up from Ayeka and Sasami's conversation that they were traveling with two more people on the plane, a woman named Mihoshi and a woman named Washu.
It turned out that these people, Ayeka and her friends, would influence our lives more than we could ever know. In fact, if that Tenchi fellow were female, he would have been a senshi. Sailor Jurai.
Why, you ask, did I not sense danger emanating from these six people? It is simple. I am a senshi. I fight evil. My psychic skills have sharpened over the years as a senshi, but only to detect evil. Ayeka and her friends were not evil, just powerful. That is why when I walk down a sidewalk and pass a priest or priestess of another temple not in their garb, I do not attack. I don't feel evil, only power. For all I knew, Aeka could have been a priestess. But still, that did not excuse my ignoring of Tenchi. I suppose that all I wanted to do is stop fighting evil, and relax. Perhaps I just ignored the powers, especially Tenchi's, because I just didn't want to believe it, I didn't want to fight anymore.
This plane ride would change all of our lives, senshi and alien alike, especially mine. But in my case, it wouldn't be a change in my life forever, but rather a lack of life forever.
TBC