S.I.U. - The Sailor Investigation Unit
by DARK DAY FOR ANIME (Mark A Page)
Disclaimer - all characters pertaining to the series Bishoujo Senshi
Sailormoon are owned by Takeuchi Naoko, Bandai and Kodansya. All
other characters were thought up by me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Kimi watched the water drip from the verandah, outside her
bedroom window. She clicked her fan open and shut to the soft
sound. The same sound she heard when she had discovered her
mother's body....
The gentle, grim dripping of her blood, having travelled
across the floor and over the small ledge that lead to the rock
garden. Kimi had been playing before an audience of nobody, and
enjoying the freedom her lifestyle had given her, when she made the
gruesome discovery.
Like the good actress she was, she had put on a show of
tragedy for the audience who heeded the calls of her horrified
cries. She loved her mother, but her mother had been a very strange
woman.... It never occured to Kimi that she might be, in some
manner, just as strange.
"It was not a good idea to upset your father like that." She
turned to the voice of the newcomer, a tallish woman with short,
light hair, dressed in a sports jacket, t-shirt and jeans. For a
moment, Kimi shivered, then gestured for her to enter her darkened
private domain.
"I did not wish to upset him. He knew it was to happen,
anyway. Besides, it is of no concern to you, or your beloved
girlfriend, for that matter...." She stepped over to the small
table that sat in the middle of her room and knelt down, sitting
poised. The newcomer shrugged and stepped over to the other side of
the table, sitting down roughly. "I take it that you have dealt
with the Mizuno dilemma...." Kimi asked her with wide eyes....
Insane eyes. The newcomer tried to ignore them, yet they fairly
glowed within the darkness.
"She is now in the hands of the police. It shan't be long
before she makes a full confession."
Kimi closed her eyes, smiling. "Ah.... The honourable Doctor
Mizuno.... If only she hadn't been so impatient. This problem
should not have become quite so.... messy."
"Messy for you, perhaps..." Came the expected voice from the
doorway. Kimi did not turn to look at the first woman's partner.
"Did I ask for an opinion of my perceptions from you?" Kimi
snapped. "The two of you only did what you had to, to prove your
loyalty to my father. That is all."
"And did we pass the test?" The woman with the long,
aquamarine hair in the doorway asked, arrogantly. Kimi didn't allow
herself to be baited.
"Why don't you ask him. I am quite sure he is willing to
elucidate. You might even gain a reward."
"I sincerely doubt that." The short-haired woman stood.
"What do you intend for us to do next?"
"Nothing, for now." Kimi snapped her fan open and placed it
over her mouth. "I have already arranged the silencing of the other
witness...."
----o
Part Twentyone
Moonlight Flit
----o
Aoi stood from the shower, allowing the water to drip from
her body onto the floor. The cold of the air, mixed with the
rapidly condensing water vapour filled her hazy mind with thoughts
of the past day.
It had been altogether too long.... From the moment she had
entered the motel, where the body of Jupiter, whom she now knew as
Kino Makoto, was found, everything seemed to go downhill. She was
probably going to be chewed out, if not suspended, for what she had
done with the Mizuno girl. Kaji wasn't particularly good at keeping
his trap shut about these kinds of things. Miki was probably going
to get the chop, too.... Poor girl.
After discovering the identity of Sailormoon.... Tsukino
Usagi, she had thought everything would go smoothly.... Soon, she'd
have the Tsukino girl in custody, along with Mizuno.... And then
the murder investigation would be cleared up in no time! Pity
things didn't work out that way.
She hit herself on the head a couple of times, and rested said
head against the bathroom mirror, sighing to herself. Then there
had been the little disaster with the ghost girl, who wasn't as
ghostly as she appeared.... Flying all over the city, then into a
wall at great speed....
Aoi stood back and wiped the mirror, staring at her face. Her
dark brown hair hung, wet and tangled, and her face was drawn and
tired. What she had lacked over the last few days had been sleep.
Excluding the little shuteye she had caught when that Hayakawa girl
had appeared in the back seat of her car....
No matter how she looked at herself, she still appeared the
pathetic wretch she'd always considered herself being. Face too
thin, body measurements out of proportion, bandy legs.... You name
it, she was looking at it right now. With a shake of the head, she
grabbed a towel from the bathroom rail and proceeded to dry herself
with it, starting with her hair and working down her body.
She felt the need for a smoke right now. She could feel the
nicotine withdrawals already. Ignoring it, she wrapped the towel
around her middle and grabbed another from the rail, wrapping that
around the mess of her hair. She then reached over to her muddied
clothes, picking them off the hook near the door.
Something fell from the coat, rattling against the floor. Aoi
looked down through the residual mist. The object was green, long,
and had a kind of ringed end with a symbol in the middle....
Jupiter's henshin pen!
----o
Miki slowly turned. There was not only one presence, but two.
The woman, dressed in an elegant, light blue business suit, and a
dark-haired, pale skinned, teenaged companion, dressed in a severe,
black skivvy and jeans.
"Who.... Who are you? How did you...?" Miki croaked,
dropping the receiver in pure terror. The green-haired woman put
out one of her hands.
"Jupiter.... It's alright. Whatever the drugs have done to
your mind, we'll somehow deal with it...."
"WHO ARE YOU!" Miki barked, taking a step back as the two
women moved forward, tentatively. Unfortunately, the table with the
phone was sitting behind her. She stumbled, and fell roughly over
the top of it.
"JUPITER!" Was the last thing she heard before she cracked
her head against the carpeted floor. Darkness overcame her.
And then she found herself in the back of an ambulance. She
could hear the siren wailing, the movement of the vehicle. There
was a medic staring down at her face.
"She's come round...."
"What? Again?" She half-turned, and found the world spinning
as much as it did the last time this happened. From her dazed point
of view, she could see a suited figure, sitting next to her.
"Has her family been contacted?" The medic asked.
"We could only get in touch with her mother. Her father has
passed on, apparently...." The suit replied.
"Ju...." She started to say.... "Where is...." She reached
out an arm and grabbed hold of the suited man.
"It's alright, dear. Calm yourself." The medic took her arm
and placed it back on the stretcher.
"Ju...." She croaked again. "...piter...."
"What did she say?" The suit looked up at the medic.
"Something like 'Jupiter', I think."
"Jupiter?" The suit shook his head. "What in Kami's name is
that supposed to mean?"
"She's delirious. Probably some past responsibility being
dragged from her mind. It happens quite frequently."
Miki felt darkness encroaching again, and she closed her eyes,
allowing it to swamp her....
----o
Aoi picked up the pen and stared at it. She had forgotten it
was in her pocket.... She had asked Kaji to give it to her, more or
less as a keepsake of the historic occasion, of finding the body of
a dead Sailorsenshi.
Well, it had been the first, after all. things had progressed
slightly, since then.
She smiled slightly, letting out a single, soft chuckle. With
Jupiter now dead, she wondered what the pen was hanging around
for.... Probably waiting for a replacement to arrive. Be funny if
she shouted out something like "Jupiter Planet Power, Make Up" and
suddenly found herself wearing a green Sailorsenshi fuku. She'd
never live down the embarassment.... Especially with that pair in
her loungeroom.... Pagan and Mhare. Whatever their names were.
She'd had more strangers in her house today than at any previous
occasion.... She didn't like the thought.
Sighing, she tucked the transformation pen in the top of the
towel that was wrapped around her body, opened the bathroom door and
carted her dirty clothes to the laundry....
----o
Miki stood in the loungeroom, dressed in a casual long-sleeved
windcheater, jeans and sneakers, with a small backpack containing
her study books. She was now ready to go to her classes, although
she had plenty of time to get there.
Only she DIDN'T need to go to any classes, because she had
none. This wasn't her life. She was an officer of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Police....
Even as she thought that, it vanished from her mind. It was
imperitive that she leave for her classes NOW. She walked over to
the front door, fiddling for her keys, in the pocket of her jeans.
She opened the front door, and heard a sound from within the
apartment.
"Hi, you've reached Mako-chan's phone. I'm sorry, but I
can't answer at the moment. So can you please leave your name, your
message and a contact phone number, if required, after the tone.
I'll get back to you as soon as possible."
*BEEP*
"Jupiter! I know you're still in your apartment. You know
who this is. Answer the phone, now! Before it is too late, answer
the damned phone." Miki waited for a few seconds, then.... "Look,
Jupiter, I can make this hard or I can make it easy.... Either you
answer the phone, or I shall come over there and do you for a
dinner, you understand?"
The answering machine, yet again. It was the same voice as
before. Miki felt compelled to answer it, but for some reason, she
decided not to, and stepped through the doorway.
"What the hell are you doing, you idiot? Answer the damned
phone. I don't have all day...." The woman's voice demanded. Miki
ignored it, shutting the door and locking it behind her.
----o
The world had started to get hazy for Usagi. Her body felt
both pleasure and pain, all over, and she felt incredibly tired.
She hugged her body with her arms, astounded at how thin they felt.
It was as if all of her perceptions of her own physical shape were
being warped.
She stared at her gloved hand. Her fingers seemed thin and
spindly. Not the hands of someone who was young and in the prime of
their life. Of course, it could have been because she was so small.
She'd never thought about her physical dimensions before, except
when she thought she was getting fat.
"Getting harder to go on, isn't it?" The invader of her mind
said, without much in the way of concern. No, that wasn't
technically correct.... The girl did have SOME concern, but those
were of a purely physical nature. It sickened Usagi to think about
it, being pursued by someone with a mind so dark.... Although the
darkness was sectored off so very well. One would have never known
the depths of that darkness upon pure social contact. The link the
girl had made with her went far beyond the communications of simple
reflection.
The corridors had started to go in circles. Very soon, they
all looked the same to her.... Corridors.... The blandness of them
all. Their dark and musty nature, the grimy buildup along the
walls.... Usagi fought to stop herself making contact with them....
The stench made her physically ill, as she passed locked and bolted
doors. Doors she had only just realised she was passing. Were
these the cells in which they were keeping Mina-chan? She couldn't
focus upon them, properly.
"Now you seem to have reached the place Lysithea wanted you to
reach, and in the state of mind he wanted you to be in when you got
there...." The girl's thoughts echoed. "I find a particular thrill
at the thought of a being such as yourself in mortal danger. Please
do not disappoint me."
Mortal danger? Usagi mustered her senses and looked from side
to side at the doors that lined the corridor. Each and every one of
them had grilles in them. Open grilles, through which she could see
eyes, staring at her from the darkness that lay within.
At first she thought she had hit paydirt. Cells! Cells in
which prisoners could be kept! Lysithea had been right, after all!
She smiled, but soon stopped after the expression made her dizzy
with nausea. Now all she had to do was find Mina-chan amongst them
all....
She heard an exclamation of amusement, both within her mind
and without. She turned to look behind her. A figure stood there.
A silhouette, of the young girl who had been pursuing her, the dark
kimono falling to the ground, covering the movement of her feet. In
the twilight gloom, she appeared like a phantom, a spectre, floating
over the floor without effort.
"Look around you, Sailormoon. Do you think we would keep the
likes of your comrade here?" The girl gestured, her arms
outstretched. Usagi stared at the hands on the girl.... Small,
soft, yet clawed. The shadow on the girl's face could not hide the
glint reflecting from her eyes, and the whiteness of the teeth that
glowed within the darkness. Usagi swallowed as the girl put her
hands together in a deliberately benevolent gesture. "Go on,
Sailormoon, look at their eyes. The eyes of our cousins.... Family
we daren't acknowledge, lest we bring down upon ourselves the
realisation of what we truly are. You have already seen the dead of
such cursed creatures. Now witness the living."
Shivering, Usagi managed to tear her gaze from the girl, and
looked up at the grille in the nearest doorway. The eyes that
stared back could not even vaguely be described as human. Visions
of the girl with the head of an arachnid entered her mind as she
turned from one door to the next. The eyes stared back at her with
madness, with hatred.... and with hunger.
"Yesssssssss....." The girl rubbed her hands together. "What
do they convey to you, Sailormoon? The love that you wish to impose
upon this world? They were never given a choice as to what they
would become. In your perfect world, such creatures would die in
the same pain and torment to which you have imposed upon all your
other enemies...."
A sickened pall of fear shot through her, and she turned,
moving on, her stumbling gait faster now.... More urgent.
She had been lead into this place.... Lysithea had sent her
here.... to die at the hands of whatever lay beyond those doors.
Kami help her if any of them had been forced open, the residents of
those particular rooms, running free.
Then, with a loud clang, all the doors around her unlocked,
and swung open by themselves....
----o
Carey sat calmly at her desk, watching as documents scrolled
across her computer terminal, feeding her information supplied by
the operations centre in the vast hall below. Setsuna stood at the
window, gazing down into the hubbub of activity.
"A most impressive layout you have here." Setsuna turned
aside, her expression of admiration not matching the expression on
her face. Carey didn't bother to look up.
"Better than yours, that is for sure."
"We never required one. Whatever organisation we form shall
be total in its nature."
"Hmph. You were always very good in the art of the
overstatement." Carey pressed a button on her keyboard and smiled.
"He's made it as far as the barracks. Now THAT is impressive."
"Not exactly, since you've had everyone ignore his presence
until he reaches your office." Setsuna turned and leaned against
the window ledge. Carey chuckled.
"Yah, but his pace is wonderfully quick for someone who is,
for all intents and purposes, in enemy territory." She looked up at
Setsuna, then turned to the office door. "Come in, Joachim."
The door opened, and Joachim Schneider, in the traditional
white Japanese gown he had worn to dinner within Gen's residence,
entered. He frowned at Carey. "And I only just arrived. You
really must stop this propensity for prompt efficiency."
"Oh Joachim, you flatterer." Carey smiled, nodding. She then
turned back to her computer as Joachim registered Setsuna's
presence.
"And to whom do I owe the pleasure of this most beautiful
lady's company?" He bowed slightly, making Setsuna blush, shifting
on her feet uncomfortably.
"Her name is Meiou Setsuna. She is an.... old acquaintance of
mine." Setsuna was glad Carey didn't say friend.
"Most pleased to meet you, Meiou-san." Joachim stepped over
to Setsuna and took her hand, kissing it. Setsuna came close to
spitting the dummy at Carey's knowing smirk, but somehow managed to
contain herself.
"The pleasure is all mine, I can assure you." Setsuna
swallowed hard. She really wanted to belt Carey one, now. Joachim
smiled at her, then turned back to Carey.
"I hear a member of the Coven has invaded the walls of our
fortress. I trust you are doing something about this?"
"Never fear, Joachim, I am doing my utmost to track him down.
In fact, I expect him to walk through my office door in
approximately...." Carey looked at her watch. "....Eleven
minutes. A conservative figure, of course."
"Of course." Joachim dipped his head in deference. "You are
the grandmaster of manipulation, as they say."
"Thankyou."
"However, this is not what I came to see you about...."
Joachim stepped up to her desk as she rattled of some commands with
her mouse.
"The latest on the Aino girl?" Carey looked over at Setsuna,
who had stepped up beside Joachim. The German looked aside at her.
"Is it safe to talk about such things with her here?" He
asked. Carey sniffed.
"I suppose it won't do any harm. She won't be able to do much
with the information. That's not her job, anyway."
Joachim shrugged. "Anyway, I hear she has recovered."
"Indeed, she has. According to the latest analysis by Doctor
Bartholemew, we have confirmed a diagnosis. She is definitely of
the species Succubae Major, Class 1b."
"Hmm.... Rather high up in the food chain." Joachim rubbed
his chin. "She may need to go through some of the training a lot
sooner than we expected."
"It gets better. Because of the suppressive effect of her
being a Sailorsenshi, her basic impulses have become stronger.
Given lease, she could be more dangerous than your common or garden
Tani-class Wamphiri."
Both Joachim and Setsuna stared at her. "That bad, huh?"
Joachim shook his head. "We may need to up the security on her."
"And use only teachers and specialists with The Blood. That
shall suppress her desire to feed, whilst being taught how to feed
when the time comes...."
----o
"Naoko-chan...." Rumiko's soft voice echoed in the darkness
of Naoko's room. There was no response, nor could Rumiko smell the
distinct scent of her sister, using her superfine olfactory senses.
In short, nobody was home. Rumiko wondered where her sister
could be.
Without thinking, she strode into the high-walled main room,
up to the foot of Naoko's queen-sized bed. Rumiko stared down at
the light golden covers, matching the decor of the carpets and
walls. Rumiko despised Naoko's love of the bright and the flashy,
much preferring the solid depth of the maroon decor of her own room.
Softly, she dropped the tube she had carried from the labs onto the
end of the bed. Within it, she could see the pale red liquid,
washing around.
She turned from the bed and walked from the room, forgetting
what she had just done, as Naoko wanted her to.
----o
"There, she should be alright, now." Pagan lifted his hand
from Ami's face and flexed it. "Dammit, now I've got cramp."
"Suffer and live." Mhaere, sitting across the other side of
Aoi's loungeroom, at the small table set near her television set,
sneered without concern. "How long shall she be out for?"
"A good few hours, yet. She's just suffered and unsuffered
cerebral damage. You can't expect things to hurry along at the pace
you want to go. In short, suffer and live."
"Touche'." Mhaere smiled as Pagan looked down at the towel he
was wearing.
"Can I have some clothes, now?"
"Why don't you ask the mistress of the house?" Mhaere
chuckled at Pagan's predicament. He sighed and plodded from the
loungeroom, into the hallway, wandering towards Aoi's bedroom door.
At first, he wondered whether he should barge in on her private
domain. She could even be in the process of changing. Now that
WOULD be embarassing....
Nah, he'd heard her get out of the shower ages ago. She'd
said something, although he didn't know what, then went silent. Oh
well, there was only one way to find out.
He stepped into the doorway. "Yo, Kikotsuka-san, have you got
any...." He went bug eyed at what he saw.
Aoi turned to him, hands clenched up to her face, which was
the most amusing mask of tragedy he'd ever seen. She was dressed,
from head to toe, in Sailorjupiter's green and white fuku.
"It's not my fault...." She stammered. "I only did it to see
what would happen. I didn't expect it to actually work...
Honest..."
----o
Hotaru sat on the small stone pillar, staring across the empty
grounds of the Hikawa shrine, picking at the base of her senshi
fuku. Artemis sat next to her, equally as bored. The pair had had
about enough of Rei's rampant paranoia.
After checking through all the buildings within the temple,
including the storage shed, of all places, Rei had decided to take a
recce along the shrine's surrounding wall, seeing if anyone was
hiding in the bushes and such. Hotaru had given up at this point,
and decided to wait until Rei had satisfied herself that there was
nobody else here. Artemis, being the great shirker of work that he
was, and still slightly dazed from having ten times his weight of
metal pots drop on top of him, opted to do the same.
Luna, for her part, thought it best to humour Rei as much as
possible, and look like she was taking the responsible position of
following her around. A good twenty minutes before Rei was
finished, however, Luna came wandering back to where Hotaru and
Artemis were sitting, an exasperated expression on her face.
"Either they're hiding really well, or she's in desperate need
of medication." Luna plonked herself several feet from the stone.
"We can't ignore the possibility that someone may come after
her. But I think her fears may be a bit premature."
"Shouldn't we be trying to get her into some place of safety?"
Artemis looked at his two companions. "I mean, that was what you
came here for, wasn't it, Saturn? To round her up, and anyone else
you could find?"
"Hmm.... Yes, it was. But I sincerely doubt that she's in
the frame of mind to listen to anything I have to say...." Hotaru
pointed to the base of the stairs, where Rei was tearing open the
small letterbox set just inside the front gate. "I think she's
taking this a little too far."
"I HEARD YOU, SATURN!" Came the voice from across the yard.
She angrily threw the letterbox's contents on the ground and came
stamping up the stairs and across the yard. "I happened to be
looking for mail bombs, if it is any of your concern."
"That's just silly." Artemis sweatdropped.
"Oh yeah? You think it's silly do you? Well, let me tell
you a little something...."
BANG!
Blood sprayed across Hotaru's face. There was a cry of shock
and pain....
END OF PART 21
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Chapter - "Necronomicon"
DDFA ayanami@internode.on.net
Version 1.0 - 21st May 1998
by DARK DAY FOR ANIME (Mark A Page)
Disclaimer - all characters pertaining to the series Bishoujo Senshi
Sailormoon are owned by Takeuchi Naoko, Bandai and Kodansya. All
other characters were thought up by me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Kimi watched the water drip from the verandah, outside her
bedroom window. She clicked her fan open and shut to the soft
sound. The same sound she heard when she had discovered her
mother's body....
The gentle, grim dripping of her blood, having travelled
across the floor and over the small ledge that lead to the rock
garden. Kimi had been playing before an audience of nobody, and
enjoying the freedom her lifestyle had given her, when she made the
gruesome discovery.
Like the good actress she was, she had put on a show of
tragedy for the audience who heeded the calls of her horrified
cries. She loved her mother, but her mother had been a very strange
woman.... It never occured to Kimi that she might be, in some
manner, just as strange.
"It was not a good idea to upset your father like that." She
turned to the voice of the newcomer, a tallish woman with short,
light hair, dressed in a sports jacket, t-shirt and jeans. For a
moment, Kimi shivered, then gestured for her to enter her darkened
private domain.
"I did not wish to upset him. He knew it was to happen,
anyway. Besides, it is of no concern to you, or your beloved
girlfriend, for that matter...." She stepped over to the small
table that sat in the middle of her room and knelt down, sitting
poised. The newcomer shrugged and stepped over to the other side of
the table, sitting down roughly. "I take it that you have dealt
with the Mizuno dilemma...." Kimi asked her with wide eyes....
Insane eyes. The newcomer tried to ignore them, yet they fairly
glowed within the darkness.
"She is now in the hands of the police. It shan't be long
before she makes a full confession."
Kimi closed her eyes, smiling. "Ah.... The honourable Doctor
Mizuno.... If only she hadn't been so impatient. This problem
should not have become quite so.... messy."
"Messy for you, perhaps..." Came the expected voice from the
doorway. Kimi did not turn to look at the first woman's partner.
"Did I ask for an opinion of my perceptions from you?" Kimi
snapped. "The two of you only did what you had to, to prove your
loyalty to my father. That is all."
"And did we pass the test?" The woman with the long,
aquamarine hair in the doorway asked, arrogantly. Kimi didn't allow
herself to be baited.
"Why don't you ask him. I am quite sure he is willing to
elucidate. You might even gain a reward."
"I sincerely doubt that." The short-haired woman stood.
"What do you intend for us to do next?"
"Nothing, for now." Kimi snapped her fan open and placed it
over her mouth. "I have already arranged the silencing of the other
witness...."
----o
Part Twentyone
Moonlight Flit
----o
Aoi stood from the shower, allowing the water to drip from
her body onto the floor. The cold of the air, mixed with the
rapidly condensing water vapour filled her hazy mind with thoughts
of the past day.
It had been altogether too long.... From the moment she had
entered the motel, where the body of Jupiter, whom she now knew as
Kino Makoto, was found, everything seemed to go downhill. She was
probably going to be chewed out, if not suspended, for what she had
done with the Mizuno girl. Kaji wasn't particularly good at keeping
his trap shut about these kinds of things. Miki was probably going
to get the chop, too.... Poor girl.
After discovering the identity of Sailormoon.... Tsukino
Usagi, she had thought everything would go smoothly.... Soon, she'd
have the Tsukino girl in custody, along with Mizuno.... And then
the murder investigation would be cleared up in no time! Pity
things didn't work out that way.
She hit herself on the head a couple of times, and rested said
head against the bathroom mirror, sighing to herself. Then there
had been the little disaster with the ghost girl, who wasn't as
ghostly as she appeared.... Flying all over the city, then into a
wall at great speed....
Aoi stood back and wiped the mirror, staring at her face. Her
dark brown hair hung, wet and tangled, and her face was drawn and
tired. What she had lacked over the last few days had been sleep.
Excluding the little shuteye she had caught when that Hayakawa girl
had appeared in the back seat of her car....
No matter how she looked at herself, she still appeared the
pathetic wretch she'd always considered herself being. Face too
thin, body measurements out of proportion, bandy legs.... You name
it, she was looking at it right now. With a shake of the head, she
grabbed a towel from the bathroom rail and proceeded to dry herself
with it, starting with her hair and working down her body.
She felt the need for a smoke right now. She could feel the
nicotine withdrawals already. Ignoring it, she wrapped the towel
around her middle and grabbed another from the rail, wrapping that
around the mess of her hair. She then reached over to her muddied
clothes, picking them off the hook near the door.
Something fell from the coat, rattling against the floor. Aoi
looked down through the residual mist. The object was green, long,
and had a kind of ringed end with a symbol in the middle....
Jupiter's henshin pen!
----o
Miki slowly turned. There was not only one presence, but two.
The woman, dressed in an elegant, light blue business suit, and a
dark-haired, pale skinned, teenaged companion, dressed in a severe,
black skivvy and jeans.
"Who.... Who are you? How did you...?" Miki croaked,
dropping the receiver in pure terror. The green-haired woman put
out one of her hands.
"Jupiter.... It's alright. Whatever the drugs have done to
your mind, we'll somehow deal with it...."
"WHO ARE YOU!" Miki barked, taking a step back as the two
women moved forward, tentatively. Unfortunately, the table with the
phone was sitting behind her. She stumbled, and fell roughly over
the top of it.
"JUPITER!" Was the last thing she heard before she cracked
her head against the carpeted floor. Darkness overcame her.
And then she found herself in the back of an ambulance. She
could hear the siren wailing, the movement of the vehicle. There
was a medic staring down at her face.
"She's come round...."
"What? Again?" She half-turned, and found the world spinning
as much as it did the last time this happened. From her dazed point
of view, she could see a suited figure, sitting next to her.
"Has her family been contacted?" The medic asked.
"We could only get in touch with her mother. Her father has
passed on, apparently...." The suit replied.
"Ju...." She started to say.... "Where is...." She reached
out an arm and grabbed hold of the suited man.
"It's alright, dear. Calm yourself." The medic took her arm
and placed it back on the stretcher.
"Ju...." She croaked again. "...piter...."
"What did she say?" The suit looked up at the medic.
"Something like 'Jupiter', I think."
"Jupiter?" The suit shook his head. "What in Kami's name is
that supposed to mean?"
"She's delirious. Probably some past responsibility being
dragged from her mind. It happens quite frequently."
Miki felt darkness encroaching again, and she closed her eyes,
allowing it to swamp her....
----o
Aoi picked up the pen and stared at it. She had forgotten it
was in her pocket.... She had asked Kaji to give it to her, more or
less as a keepsake of the historic occasion, of finding the body of
a dead Sailorsenshi.
Well, it had been the first, after all. things had progressed
slightly, since then.
She smiled slightly, letting out a single, soft chuckle. With
Jupiter now dead, she wondered what the pen was hanging around
for.... Probably waiting for a replacement to arrive. Be funny if
she shouted out something like "Jupiter Planet Power, Make Up" and
suddenly found herself wearing a green Sailorsenshi fuku. She'd
never live down the embarassment.... Especially with that pair in
her loungeroom.... Pagan and Mhare. Whatever their names were.
She'd had more strangers in her house today than at any previous
occasion.... She didn't like the thought.
Sighing, she tucked the transformation pen in the top of the
towel that was wrapped around her body, opened the bathroom door and
carted her dirty clothes to the laundry....
----o
Miki stood in the loungeroom, dressed in a casual long-sleeved
windcheater, jeans and sneakers, with a small backpack containing
her study books. She was now ready to go to her classes, although
she had plenty of time to get there.
Only she DIDN'T need to go to any classes, because she had
none. This wasn't her life. She was an officer of the Tokyo
Metropolitan Police....
Even as she thought that, it vanished from her mind. It was
imperitive that she leave for her classes NOW. She walked over to
the front door, fiddling for her keys, in the pocket of her jeans.
She opened the front door, and heard a sound from within the
apartment.
"Hi, you've reached Mako-chan's phone. I'm sorry, but I
can't answer at the moment. So can you please leave your name, your
message and a contact phone number, if required, after the tone.
I'll get back to you as soon as possible."
*BEEP*
"Jupiter! I know you're still in your apartment. You know
who this is. Answer the phone, now! Before it is too late, answer
the damned phone." Miki waited for a few seconds, then.... "Look,
Jupiter, I can make this hard or I can make it easy.... Either you
answer the phone, or I shall come over there and do you for a
dinner, you understand?"
The answering machine, yet again. It was the same voice as
before. Miki felt compelled to answer it, but for some reason, she
decided not to, and stepped through the doorway.
"What the hell are you doing, you idiot? Answer the damned
phone. I don't have all day...." The woman's voice demanded. Miki
ignored it, shutting the door and locking it behind her.
----o
The world had started to get hazy for Usagi. Her body felt
both pleasure and pain, all over, and she felt incredibly tired.
She hugged her body with her arms, astounded at how thin they felt.
It was as if all of her perceptions of her own physical shape were
being warped.
She stared at her gloved hand. Her fingers seemed thin and
spindly. Not the hands of someone who was young and in the prime of
their life. Of course, it could have been because she was so small.
She'd never thought about her physical dimensions before, except
when she thought she was getting fat.
"Getting harder to go on, isn't it?" The invader of her mind
said, without much in the way of concern. No, that wasn't
technically correct.... The girl did have SOME concern, but those
were of a purely physical nature. It sickened Usagi to think about
it, being pursued by someone with a mind so dark.... Although the
darkness was sectored off so very well. One would have never known
the depths of that darkness upon pure social contact. The link the
girl had made with her went far beyond the communications of simple
reflection.
The corridors had started to go in circles. Very soon, they
all looked the same to her.... Corridors.... The blandness of them
all. Their dark and musty nature, the grimy buildup along the
walls.... Usagi fought to stop herself making contact with them....
The stench made her physically ill, as she passed locked and bolted
doors. Doors she had only just realised she was passing. Were
these the cells in which they were keeping Mina-chan? She couldn't
focus upon them, properly.
"Now you seem to have reached the place Lysithea wanted you to
reach, and in the state of mind he wanted you to be in when you got
there...." The girl's thoughts echoed. "I find a particular thrill
at the thought of a being such as yourself in mortal danger. Please
do not disappoint me."
Mortal danger? Usagi mustered her senses and looked from side
to side at the doors that lined the corridor. Each and every one of
them had grilles in them. Open grilles, through which she could see
eyes, staring at her from the darkness that lay within.
At first she thought she had hit paydirt. Cells! Cells in
which prisoners could be kept! Lysithea had been right, after all!
She smiled, but soon stopped after the expression made her dizzy
with nausea. Now all she had to do was find Mina-chan amongst them
all....
She heard an exclamation of amusement, both within her mind
and without. She turned to look behind her. A figure stood there.
A silhouette, of the young girl who had been pursuing her, the dark
kimono falling to the ground, covering the movement of her feet. In
the twilight gloom, she appeared like a phantom, a spectre, floating
over the floor without effort.
"Look around you, Sailormoon. Do you think we would keep the
likes of your comrade here?" The girl gestured, her arms
outstretched. Usagi stared at the hands on the girl.... Small,
soft, yet clawed. The shadow on the girl's face could not hide the
glint reflecting from her eyes, and the whiteness of the teeth that
glowed within the darkness. Usagi swallowed as the girl put her
hands together in a deliberately benevolent gesture. "Go on,
Sailormoon, look at their eyes. The eyes of our cousins.... Family
we daren't acknowledge, lest we bring down upon ourselves the
realisation of what we truly are. You have already seen the dead of
such cursed creatures. Now witness the living."
Shivering, Usagi managed to tear her gaze from the girl, and
looked up at the grille in the nearest doorway. The eyes that
stared back could not even vaguely be described as human. Visions
of the girl with the head of an arachnid entered her mind as she
turned from one door to the next. The eyes stared back at her with
madness, with hatred.... and with hunger.
"Yesssssssss....." The girl rubbed her hands together. "What
do they convey to you, Sailormoon? The love that you wish to impose
upon this world? They were never given a choice as to what they
would become. In your perfect world, such creatures would die in
the same pain and torment to which you have imposed upon all your
other enemies...."
A sickened pall of fear shot through her, and she turned,
moving on, her stumbling gait faster now.... More urgent.
She had been lead into this place.... Lysithea had sent her
here.... to die at the hands of whatever lay beyond those doors.
Kami help her if any of them had been forced open, the residents of
those particular rooms, running free.
Then, with a loud clang, all the doors around her unlocked,
and swung open by themselves....
----o
Carey sat calmly at her desk, watching as documents scrolled
across her computer terminal, feeding her information supplied by
the operations centre in the vast hall below. Setsuna stood at the
window, gazing down into the hubbub of activity.
"A most impressive layout you have here." Setsuna turned
aside, her expression of admiration not matching the expression on
her face. Carey didn't bother to look up.
"Better than yours, that is for sure."
"We never required one. Whatever organisation we form shall
be total in its nature."
"Hmph. You were always very good in the art of the
overstatement." Carey pressed a button on her keyboard and smiled.
"He's made it as far as the barracks. Now THAT is impressive."
"Not exactly, since you've had everyone ignore his presence
until he reaches your office." Setsuna turned and leaned against
the window ledge. Carey chuckled.
"Yah, but his pace is wonderfully quick for someone who is,
for all intents and purposes, in enemy territory." She looked up at
Setsuna, then turned to the office door. "Come in, Joachim."
The door opened, and Joachim Schneider, in the traditional
white Japanese gown he had worn to dinner within Gen's residence,
entered. He frowned at Carey. "And I only just arrived. You
really must stop this propensity for prompt efficiency."
"Oh Joachim, you flatterer." Carey smiled, nodding. She then
turned back to her computer as Joachim registered Setsuna's
presence.
"And to whom do I owe the pleasure of this most beautiful
lady's company?" He bowed slightly, making Setsuna blush, shifting
on her feet uncomfortably.
"Her name is Meiou Setsuna. She is an.... old acquaintance of
mine." Setsuna was glad Carey didn't say friend.
"Most pleased to meet you, Meiou-san." Joachim stepped over
to Setsuna and took her hand, kissing it. Setsuna came close to
spitting the dummy at Carey's knowing smirk, but somehow managed to
contain herself.
"The pleasure is all mine, I can assure you." Setsuna
swallowed hard. She really wanted to belt Carey one, now. Joachim
smiled at her, then turned back to Carey.
"I hear a member of the Coven has invaded the walls of our
fortress. I trust you are doing something about this?"
"Never fear, Joachim, I am doing my utmost to track him down.
In fact, I expect him to walk through my office door in
approximately...." Carey looked at her watch. "....Eleven
minutes. A conservative figure, of course."
"Of course." Joachim dipped his head in deference. "You are
the grandmaster of manipulation, as they say."
"Thankyou."
"However, this is not what I came to see you about...."
Joachim stepped up to her desk as she rattled of some commands with
her mouse.
"The latest on the Aino girl?" Carey looked over at Setsuna,
who had stepped up beside Joachim. The German looked aside at her.
"Is it safe to talk about such things with her here?" He
asked. Carey sniffed.
"I suppose it won't do any harm. She won't be able to do much
with the information. That's not her job, anyway."
Joachim shrugged. "Anyway, I hear she has recovered."
"Indeed, she has. According to the latest analysis by Doctor
Bartholemew, we have confirmed a diagnosis. She is definitely of
the species Succubae Major, Class 1b."
"Hmm.... Rather high up in the food chain." Joachim rubbed
his chin. "She may need to go through some of the training a lot
sooner than we expected."
"It gets better. Because of the suppressive effect of her
being a Sailorsenshi, her basic impulses have become stronger.
Given lease, she could be more dangerous than your common or garden
Tani-class Wamphiri."
Both Joachim and Setsuna stared at her. "That bad, huh?"
Joachim shook his head. "We may need to up the security on her."
"And use only teachers and specialists with The Blood. That
shall suppress her desire to feed, whilst being taught how to feed
when the time comes...."
----o
"Naoko-chan...." Rumiko's soft voice echoed in the darkness
of Naoko's room. There was no response, nor could Rumiko smell the
distinct scent of her sister, using her superfine olfactory senses.
In short, nobody was home. Rumiko wondered where her sister
could be.
Without thinking, she strode into the high-walled main room,
up to the foot of Naoko's queen-sized bed. Rumiko stared down at
the light golden covers, matching the decor of the carpets and
walls. Rumiko despised Naoko's love of the bright and the flashy,
much preferring the solid depth of the maroon decor of her own room.
Softly, she dropped the tube she had carried from the labs onto the
end of the bed. Within it, she could see the pale red liquid,
washing around.
She turned from the bed and walked from the room, forgetting
what she had just done, as Naoko wanted her to.
----o
"There, she should be alright, now." Pagan lifted his hand
from Ami's face and flexed it. "Dammit, now I've got cramp."
"Suffer and live." Mhaere, sitting across the other side of
Aoi's loungeroom, at the small table set near her television set,
sneered without concern. "How long shall she be out for?"
"A good few hours, yet. She's just suffered and unsuffered
cerebral damage. You can't expect things to hurry along at the pace
you want to go. In short, suffer and live."
"Touche'." Mhaere smiled as Pagan looked down at the towel he
was wearing.
"Can I have some clothes, now?"
"Why don't you ask the mistress of the house?" Mhaere
chuckled at Pagan's predicament. He sighed and plodded from the
loungeroom, into the hallway, wandering towards Aoi's bedroom door.
At first, he wondered whether he should barge in on her private
domain. She could even be in the process of changing. Now that
WOULD be embarassing....
Nah, he'd heard her get out of the shower ages ago. She'd
said something, although he didn't know what, then went silent. Oh
well, there was only one way to find out.
He stepped into the doorway. "Yo, Kikotsuka-san, have you got
any...." He went bug eyed at what he saw.
Aoi turned to him, hands clenched up to her face, which was
the most amusing mask of tragedy he'd ever seen. She was dressed,
from head to toe, in Sailorjupiter's green and white fuku.
"It's not my fault...." She stammered. "I only did it to see
what would happen. I didn't expect it to actually work...
Honest..."
----o
Hotaru sat on the small stone pillar, staring across the empty
grounds of the Hikawa shrine, picking at the base of her senshi
fuku. Artemis sat next to her, equally as bored. The pair had had
about enough of Rei's rampant paranoia.
After checking through all the buildings within the temple,
including the storage shed, of all places, Rei had decided to take a
recce along the shrine's surrounding wall, seeing if anyone was
hiding in the bushes and such. Hotaru had given up at this point,
and decided to wait until Rei had satisfied herself that there was
nobody else here. Artemis, being the great shirker of work that he
was, and still slightly dazed from having ten times his weight of
metal pots drop on top of him, opted to do the same.
Luna, for her part, thought it best to humour Rei as much as
possible, and look like she was taking the responsible position of
following her around. A good twenty minutes before Rei was
finished, however, Luna came wandering back to where Hotaru and
Artemis were sitting, an exasperated expression on her face.
"Either they're hiding really well, or she's in desperate need
of medication." Luna plonked herself several feet from the stone.
"We can't ignore the possibility that someone may come after
her. But I think her fears may be a bit premature."
"Shouldn't we be trying to get her into some place of safety?"
Artemis looked at his two companions. "I mean, that was what you
came here for, wasn't it, Saturn? To round her up, and anyone else
you could find?"
"Hmm.... Yes, it was. But I sincerely doubt that she's in
the frame of mind to listen to anything I have to say...." Hotaru
pointed to the base of the stairs, where Rei was tearing open the
small letterbox set just inside the front gate. "I think she's
taking this a little too far."
"I HEARD YOU, SATURN!" Came the voice from across the yard.
She angrily threw the letterbox's contents on the ground and came
stamping up the stairs and across the yard. "I happened to be
looking for mail bombs, if it is any of your concern."
"That's just silly." Artemis sweatdropped.
"Oh yeah? You think it's silly do you? Well, let me tell
you a little something...."
BANG!
Blood sprayed across Hotaru's face. There was a cry of shock
and pain....
END OF PART 21
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Chapter - "Necronomicon"
DDFA ayanami@internode.on.net
Version 1.0 - 21st May 1998