PLEASURE (Part 11) by Sievert Dinar
Disclaimer - Sailormoon is owned by a lot of people, most of whom
are not me, so don't get all worked up about my using the
characters in ways they weren't meant. I'm just a common or garden
fanfic writer without a hope in this dark and cruel world. Maybe.
Warning - R Rated Fanfic
This fanfic is, essentially, a horror story, and contains scenes
that could be regarded as disturbing to people. I dare suggest that
you behave responsibly whilst reading this.
She had had them over that night, and hadn't found the
courage to talk to them about what had happened.
Makoto had been upset about a crank call, and spent most of
the night receiving much sympathy from everyone. Through it all,
Rei had found herself (mostly) ignored. That they were studying at
the Hikawa Shrine, in her room no less, didn't seem to warrant her
any more attention in their eyes.
Of course, she hadn't found the courage to speak up. And
they'd left. Left without knowing what had happened there that
very morning. Nobody knew. Except her. And the other girl.
Now it was the next day, and she was walking to school, as
she had done the previous morning. Not as shellshocked by events,
but just as introspective.
Even Usagi hadn't noticed how quiet she was.
She sighed, holding her school satchel in front of her as she
made her way down the street, trying to meld in with the morning
crowd, on their way to work or school, or wherever it was that
people decided to go at this time of the day.
"Are you simply going to allow the sacrifices to bring you
down within? If you let them, they've won, and they'll kill you."
The newcomer shouted at her. "They play at your sense of self.
That's their power."
Rei looked from the girl to her four old acquaintances, lying
on the ground, trying to stand, yet not quite succeeding. She felt
the urge to go to them, to help them.
They were dead. All of them. They had killed themselves.
They shouldn't have been here.
The newcomer stepped to her side, placing a hand on her
shoulder. "In this world you have to be cold. Not allow yourself
to feel attachments to people. That's how the world destroys you.
No matter how strong your are outside, you'll fall apart from the
attacks aimed within." She leaned close to Rei's face. "You can
feel it, can't you? Sadness. Grief. Pain. You want to help
them, to comfort them. She shook her head. "The only way you can
help them now is by allowing them the peace of death."
"Who are you?" Rei galred at her, and the newcomer removed
her hand, feeling as if she had been bitten.
"Strong spirit." The girl smiled. "Ah well, I guess I can't
get through to you until I get your fuckin' trust. My name is
Niemo Kasumi, and I'm here to help you."
"Help me?"
"Well, someone had to. I was just passing by, and saw what
was happening." She smiled. "Well, not really. I've been looking
for that bitch you met earlier... The one who dropped the
sacrifices here. She plays with the spirits of the dead, you
know."
Rei looked at the four girls, now getting to their feet.
"You don't say." She mumbled with obvious bemusement.
"Yes, well, if you just keep your mind on things, I'll show
you what should be done with sacrifices."
"Sacrifices?" Rei frowned. She'd heard the term used
before, somewhere, in one of the ancient Shinto texts that she'd
read, in reference to the spirits of suicides. Kasumi answered for
her, anyway.
"That bitch takes the spirits of suicides... Willing
suicides, and places them in some kind of alternate dimension. Not
sure how she creates it, or why she does it. I just know that she
does." Kasumi paused as one of the 'sacrifices' lurched forward.
She gestured for Rei to get behind her as the girl approached, her
hands outstretched.
"Rei-chan..." The girl managed to get out before Kasumi sent
her reeling back towards one of the statue monuments with a flying
kick. As she did so, her coat flew off, and Rei could see the
tattoos that ran along her arms and legs.
"You..." Rei stammered. "Are you Yakuza?"
"Baka." Kasumi turned and picked up her coat. "You think
they let girls into the Yakuza, except as madams and whores." She
snorted. "I wasn't that lucky."
"Then what..?" Before she could say anything more, the
sacrifice of her friend, Azusa, glomped her from behind, her arms
loosely wrapping around her.
"Rei-chan." The girl whispered. "Please, die with me."
And Rei went ballistic.
Somebody brushed by her as she ran through the events of that
dark early morning. She fell back against the wall that lined the
sidewalk and stared at the girl, who stared back. For a moment,
she thought she recognised her. Only for a moment. The girl had
a strange expression on her face, as if she were looking for
something.
The girl leaned forward, studying Rei closely, then shook her
head. "No, you're not the one. Close, but not the one. I've got
to find her. Got to talk to her." The strange girl then looked
from side to side, then leapt over Rei, clambering up onto the
wall. Once there, she crouched on all fours and studied everyone
who passed her by, much to their amusement.
Rei swallowed and did her best to walk away from the weirdo.
She didn't need to add another person to her already overstocked
collection of strange acquaintances. And even as she did so, she
remarked on the bloodied bandages that she had seen peeking out
from underneath the girl's sleeves.
She'd seen bandages like that before.
The shrine grounds had been consumed with flame. The
sacrifices had been immolated and cleansed. Rei almost thought
she heard Azusa thanking her. And then everything went still.
Still and empty, as if nothing had happened.
Rei fell to her knees, staring blankly. She had no idea
what had just happened. But whatever it was, it was pretty
spectacular, and had practically drained the life out of her. She
found she couldn't bring herself to stand.
Then she looked around for Kasumi. The girl with the tattoos
was nowhere to be seen, and she started to panic. What if the girl
had been caught up in that... in that inferno, or whatever it was.
She stared around the ground, half-expecting to see Kasumi's
smouldering corpse. But there was nothing. Not a sign that the
girl had even been there.
And at that split second, she reappeared, as if she had
simply gated her way out and back in to the grounds, kneeling
behind her with her backpack. "Well, that was certainly
impressive." The girl's voice had made her jump. "Oops, sorry.
Didn't mean to frighten you."
"What..." Rei started, but she felt dizzy and almost fainted
into the girl's arms.
"What happened?" Kasumi finished for her, then smiled,
helping Rei to her feet, whether Rei wanted to be on her feet or
not. "Well, I'd say that, whatever latent power you have within
you, you used it to burn the living crap outta those sacrifices."
Kasumi grinned toothily. "Wish I could do that. It would have
made my life so much easier."
"I didn't..." Rei tried to gather her thoughts. "I don't
know what I did. One of the girls grabbed me from behind, and I
just... I can't remember."
"Oh, I'm sure you'll remember in time." Kasumi smiled, then
pointed east. "Whoo, is that light in the sky I see. Must mean
dawn is breaking. I guess breakfast would be nice. What do you
think?"
"I think..." Rei stared at her. "I think I'd have preferred
this to have been a normal morning."
A small distance away, SHE watched the scene with an amused
smile on HER face. And then SHE disappeared. There was a lot of
work to do.
"REI-CHAN!" She heard the voice as she turned the corner,
towards her bus stop, bringing her out of her reverie. She paused
and looked for its source, and saw Usagi running across the street,
avoiding moving cars by mere inches in some cases. Colourful
language passed between Usagi and the drivers, making Rei sweatdrop
in embarassment.
Eventually Usagi reached her, grabbing Rei by the shoulders
with a desperate expression. "Rei-chan, thank the stars I found
you." She paused to catch her breath, taking huge gulps of air.
She'd run quite a distance that morning.
Rei noticed that Usagi was wearing normal clothes, not her
uniform. "Shouldn't you be on your way to school?" She quizzed.
Usagi shook her head.
"No. Well, not yet, anyway. I have a good excuse. Mako-
chan is in trouble."
This caught Rei's attention. "Mako-chan? Why? What's
happened?"
And Usagi told her what had happened. And Rei felt faint,
like she had the previous morning. Kasumi had been right. That
bloody girl had been right.
Kasumi sat opposite Rei at the low table in her room,
greedily stuffing down mothfuls of rice and fish, and noisily
slurping her miso. Rei's breakfast lay practically untouched as
she watched the girl's lack of consuming etiquette.
"So, are you going to tell me what all that was about?" Rei
levelled her gaze at Kasumi, ignoring the rice that was flying from
her bowl onto the table.
"Nope." Kasumi replied, mouth full. "At least, I wish I
could tell you anything that would be of help. Unfortunately, I
can only give you pointers as to what to do when that bitch appears
again. Which shouldn't be too far away."
"Who is she?" Rei looked down at the table, frowning.
"She... She knew about me. Secrets I didn't want other people to
know. Big secrets."
"Yes, well..." Kasumi put the bowl of rice down onto the
table and patted her stomach. "She's like that. You can't hide
anything from her. She's too powerful."
"What is she? When she was there, I could feel her power. I
have not FELT a being as powerful as her before." Rei paused,
looking up at Kasumi warily. The girl waved at her disarmingly.
"You don't have to hide anything from me. I'm not gonna
tell, and I probably already know." She grinned. "I do like
keeping up on current local events."
Rei shook her head, looking back down at the table. "She is
like a goddess. But the power she emanated was neutral. In all my
time... as a priestess... I have felt beings who were good, or
evil. Spirits, Oni and the like. But I have NEVER felt a being
that contained power so completely... unaligned."
"That's because her power IS unaligned. It is completely
neutral and amoral." Kasumi cleared her throat, then sat herself
up straight, warming to her theme. "She does bad things for good
reasons, and good things for bad reasons, and gains power as she
does so."
"But why did she come to me? What does she want from me?"
Even as Rei said that, she remembered what she did to the
sacrifices, and she knew. Kasumi nodded.
"She gathers spirits of willing suicides, and uses that
spiritual energy to fight... something even worse than she is."
Kasumi sighed. "And it isn't going to get any better. Do you
have any friends?"
Rei fumed. "What do you mean, 'do I have any friends'? Of
course I have friends."
"Whoops, sore point. Sorry." Kasumi grinned, waving at Rei.
"What I mean is, do you have any friends who you THINK has power?"
Rei felt the blood drain from her face. "You don't mean..."
Kasumi nodded her response, her expression becoming serious. Rei
swallowed, then waved her away, trying to feign confidence. "I'm
not worried about them. I know one of them can certainly look
after herself. That cow wouldn't dare lift a finger to hurt her.
She'd get it back just as bad."
"You think so?" Kasumi cocked her head to one side. "Do you
really think she'd be able to withstand an attack from within?"
Rei felt the coldness return. "She'll take your friends down, one
by one, eating away at their fears, their insecurities... their
pasts. And she'll consume them, using what power they contain to
destroy the next one even faster. And faster and faster and
faster." Kasumi paused to let this sink in. "With the power I saw
you display just now, she'll be unstoppable in her desire to
consume the spirits of all. She wouldn't even have to hide in the
shadows anymore, masquerading as an ordinary person."
"What can I do?" Rei asked, quietly.
"Try and minimise the inevitable damage. When it comes
along." Kasumi crossed her arms. "And it WILL come along.
Probably sooner than you expect."
Yuka watched as the girl she had bumped into walked away with
the blond.
The blond.
Yes, that was the one SHE had told her about. The one SHE
wanted on her side, to join them in their fight against the
parasites. Yuka almost jumped for joy, like a monkey, in her
crouched position on the top of the nearby wall.
She jumped down and followed them.
Wherever they would lead her.
The End of Part Eleven
=^.^= niya
Sievert Anathea Dienar sievertd@start.com.au
Disclaimer - Sailormoon is owned by a lot of people, most of whom
are not me, so don't get all worked up about my using the
characters in ways they weren't meant. I'm just a common or garden
fanfic writer without a hope in this dark and cruel world. Maybe.
Warning - R Rated Fanfic
This fanfic is, essentially, a horror story, and contains scenes
that could be regarded as disturbing to people. I dare suggest that
you behave responsibly whilst reading this.
She had had them over that night, and hadn't found the
courage to talk to them about what had happened.
Makoto had been upset about a crank call, and spent most of
the night receiving much sympathy from everyone. Through it all,
Rei had found herself (mostly) ignored. That they were studying at
the Hikawa Shrine, in her room no less, didn't seem to warrant her
any more attention in their eyes.
Of course, she hadn't found the courage to speak up. And
they'd left. Left without knowing what had happened there that
very morning. Nobody knew. Except her. And the other girl.
Now it was the next day, and she was walking to school, as
she had done the previous morning. Not as shellshocked by events,
but just as introspective.
Even Usagi hadn't noticed how quiet she was.
She sighed, holding her school satchel in front of her as she
made her way down the street, trying to meld in with the morning
crowd, on their way to work or school, or wherever it was that
people decided to go at this time of the day.
"Are you simply going to allow the sacrifices to bring you
down within? If you let them, they've won, and they'll kill you."
The newcomer shouted at her. "They play at your sense of self.
That's their power."
Rei looked from the girl to her four old acquaintances, lying
on the ground, trying to stand, yet not quite succeeding. She felt
the urge to go to them, to help them.
They were dead. All of them. They had killed themselves.
They shouldn't have been here.
The newcomer stepped to her side, placing a hand on her
shoulder. "In this world you have to be cold. Not allow yourself
to feel attachments to people. That's how the world destroys you.
No matter how strong your are outside, you'll fall apart from the
attacks aimed within." She leaned close to Rei's face. "You can
feel it, can't you? Sadness. Grief. Pain. You want to help
them, to comfort them. She shook her head. "The only way you can
help them now is by allowing them the peace of death."
"Who are you?" Rei galred at her, and the newcomer removed
her hand, feeling as if she had been bitten.
"Strong spirit." The girl smiled. "Ah well, I guess I can't
get through to you until I get your fuckin' trust. My name is
Niemo Kasumi, and I'm here to help you."
"Help me?"
"Well, someone had to. I was just passing by, and saw what
was happening." She smiled. "Well, not really. I've been looking
for that bitch you met earlier... The one who dropped the
sacrifices here. She plays with the spirits of the dead, you
know."
Rei looked at the four girls, now getting to their feet.
"You don't say." She mumbled with obvious bemusement.
"Yes, well, if you just keep your mind on things, I'll show
you what should be done with sacrifices."
"Sacrifices?" Rei frowned. She'd heard the term used
before, somewhere, in one of the ancient Shinto texts that she'd
read, in reference to the spirits of suicides. Kasumi answered for
her, anyway.
"That bitch takes the spirits of suicides... Willing
suicides, and places them in some kind of alternate dimension. Not
sure how she creates it, or why she does it. I just know that she
does." Kasumi paused as one of the 'sacrifices' lurched forward.
She gestured for Rei to get behind her as the girl approached, her
hands outstretched.
"Rei-chan..." The girl managed to get out before Kasumi sent
her reeling back towards one of the statue monuments with a flying
kick. As she did so, her coat flew off, and Rei could see the
tattoos that ran along her arms and legs.
"You..." Rei stammered. "Are you Yakuza?"
"Baka." Kasumi turned and picked up her coat. "You think
they let girls into the Yakuza, except as madams and whores." She
snorted. "I wasn't that lucky."
"Then what..?" Before she could say anything more, the
sacrifice of her friend, Azusa, glomped her from behind, her arms
loosely wrapping around her.
"Rei-chan." The girl whispered. "Please, die with me."
And Rei went ballistic.
Somebody brushed by her as she ran through the events of that
dark early morning. She fell back against the wall that lined the
sidewalk and stared at the girl, who stared back. For a moment,
she thought she recognised her. Only for a moment. The girl had
a strange expression on her face, as if she were looking for
something.
The girl leaned forward, studying Rei closely, then shook her
head. "No, you're not the one. Close, but not the one. I've got
to find her. Got to talk to her." The strange girl then looked
from side to side, then leapt over Rei, clambering up onto the
wall. Once there, she crouched on all fours and studied everyone
who passed her by, much to their amusement.
Rei swallowed and did her best to walk away from the weirdo.
She didn't need to add another person to her already overstocked
collection of strange acquaintances. And even as she did so, she
remarked on the bloodied bandages that she had seen peeking out
from underneath the girl's sleeves.
She'd seen bandages like that before.
The shrine grounds had been consumed with flame. The
sacrifices had been immolated and cleansed. Rei almost thought
she heard Azusa thanking her. And then everything went still.
Still and empty, as if nothing had happened.
Rei fell to her knees, staring blankly. She had no idea
what had just happened. But whatever it was, it was pretty
spectacular, and had practically drained the life out of her. She
found she couldn't bring herself to stand.
Then she looked around for Kasumi. The girl with the tattoos
was nowhere to be seen, and she started to panic. What if the girl
had been caught up in that... in that inferno, or whatever it was.
She stared around the ground, half-expecting to see Kasumi's
smouldering corpse. But there was nothing. Not a sign that the
girl had even been there.
And at that split second, she reappeared, as if she had
simply gated her way out and back in to the grounds, kneeling
behind her with her backpack. "Well, that was certainly
impressive." The girl's voice had made her jump. "Oops, sorry.
Didn't mean to frighten you."
"What..." Rei started, but she felt dizzy and almost fainted
into the girl's arms.
"What happened?" Kasumi finished for her, then smiled,
helping Rei to her feet, whether Rei wanted to be on her feet or
not. "Well, I'd say that, whatever latent power you have within
you, you used it to burn the living crap outta those sacrifices."
Kasumi grinned toothily. "Wish I could do that. It would have
made my life so much easier."
"I didn't..." Rei tried to gather her thoughts. "I don't
know what I did. One of the girls grabbed me from behind, and I
just... I can't remember."
"Oh, I'm sure you'll remember in time." Kasumi smiled, then
pointed east. "Whoo, is that light in the sky I see. Must mean
dawn is breaking. I guess breakfast would be nice. What do you
think?"
"I think..." Rei stared at her. "I think I'd have preferred
this to have been a normal morning."
A small distance away, SHE watched the scene with an amused
smile on HER face. And then SHE disappeared. There was a lot of
work to do.
"REI-CHAN!" She heard the voice as she turned the corner,
towards her bus stop, bringing her out of her reverie. She paused
and looked for its source, and saw Usagi running across the street,
avoiding moving cars by mere inches in some cases. Colourful
language passed between Usagi and the drivers, making Rei sweatdrop
in embarassment.
Eventually Usagi reached her, grabbing Rei by the shoulders
with a desperate expression. "Rei-chan, thank the stars I found
you." She paused to catch her breath, taking huge gulps of air.
She'd run quite a distance that morning.
Rei noticed that Usagi was wearing normal clothes, not her
uniform. "Shouldn't you be on your way to school?" She quizzed.
Usagi shook her head.
"No. Well, not yet, anyway. I have a good excuse. Mako-
chan is in trouble."
This caught Rei's attention. "Mako-chan? Why? What's
happened?"
And Usagi told her what had happened. And Rei felt faint,
like she had the previous morning. Kasumi had been right. That
bloody girl had been right.
Kasumi sat opposite Rei at the low table in her room,
greedily stuffing down mothfuls of rice and fish, and noisily
slurping her miso. Rei's breakfast lay practically untouched as
she watched the girl's lack of consuming etiquette.
"So, are you going to tell me what all that was about?" Rei
levelled her gaze at Kasumi, ignoring the rice that was flying from
her bowl onto the table.
"Nope." Kasumi replied, mouth full. "At least, I wish I
could tell you anything that would be of help. Unfortunately, I
can only give you pointers as to what to do when that bitch appears
again. Which shouldn't be too far away."
"Who is she?" Rei looked down at the table, frowning.
"She... She knew about me. Secrets I didn't want other people to
know. Big secrets."
"Yes, well..." Kasumi put the bowl of rice down onto the
table and patted her stomach. "She's like that. You can't hide
anything from her. She's too powerful."
"What is she? When she was there, I could feel her power. I
have not FELT a being as powerful as her before." Rei paused,
looking up at Kasumi warily. The girl waved at her disarmingly.
"You don't have to hide anything from me. I'm not gonna
tell, and I probably already know." She grinned. "I do like
keeping up on current local events."
Rei shook her head, looking back down at the table. "She is
like a goddess. But the power she emanated was neutral. In all my
time... as a priestess... I have felt beings who were good, or
evil. Spirits, Oni and the like. But I have NEVER felt a being
that contained power so completely... unaligned."
"That's because her power IS unaligned. It is completely
neutral and amoral." Kasumi cleared her throat, then sat herself
up straight, warming to her theme. "She does bad things for good
reasons, and good things for bad reasons, and gains power as she
does so."
"But why did she come to me? What does she want from me?"
Even as Rei said that, she remembered what she did to the
sacrifices, and she knew. Kasumi nodded.
"She gathers spirits of willing suicides, and uses that
spiritual energy to fight... something even worse than she is."
Kasumi sighed. "And it isn't going to get any better. Do you
have any friends?"
Rei fumed. "What do you mean, 'do I have any friends'? Of
course I have friends."
"Whoops, sore point. Sorry." Kasumi grinned, waving at Rei.
"What I mean is, do you have any friends who you THINK has power?"
Rei felt the blood drain from her face. "You don't mean..."
Kasumi nodded her response, her expression becoming serious. Rei
swallowed, then waved her away, trying to feign confidence. "I'm
not worried about them. I know one of them can certainly look
after herself. That cow wouldn't dare lift a finger to hurt her.
She'd get it back just as bad."
"You think so?" Kasumi cocked her head to one side. "Do you
really think she'd be able to withstand an attack from within?"
Rei felt the coldness return. "She'll take your friends down, one
by one, eating away at their fears, their insecurities... their
pasts. And she'll consume them, using what power they contain to
destroy the next one even faster. And faster and faster and
faster." Kasumi paused to let this sink in. "With the power I saw
you display just now, she'll be unstoppable in her desire to
consume the spirits of all. She wouldn't even have to hide in the
shadows anymore, masquerading as an ordinary person."
"What can I do?" Rei asked, quietly.
"Try and minimise the inevitable damage. When it comes
along." Kasumi crossed her arms. "And it WILL come along.
Probably sooner than you expect."
Yuka watched as the girl she had bumped into walked away with
the blond.
The blond.
Yes, that was the one SHE had told her about. The one SHE
wanted on her side, to join them in their fight against the
parasites. Yuka almost jumped for joy, like a monkey, in her
crouched position on the top of the nearby wall.
She jumped down and followed them.
Wherever they would lead her.
The End of Part Eleven
=^.^= niya
Sievert Anathea Dienar sievertd@start.com.au