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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Miyuki stared at the figures, flitting through the darkness,
with the total air of passionlessness that had followed her
throughout her life.
She sniffed and slammed the ammunition case into the handle
section of her self-made revolver, staring at the dark metal object.
It was the only thing she had felt any attachment to for much of her
seventeen years of life.
She looked up again as one of the figures started clambering
over the walls, looking for someone like her. They wouldn't find
her, of course. She had the bearing of a corpse when she wished to,
and one of the things looked for by those pursuing her had been
signs of life.
----o
Kaji sat, miserably, in the chair at Shimazaki's desk. He'd
received word, as soon as Miki had been taken away in the ambulance,
that both Katarin and Shimazaki had brought Doctor Mizuno in, and
the woman had virtually confessed to the killing of Sailorjupiter.
Now she was in one of the (albeit, more comfortable) holding cells,
awaiting her first interview.
He felt tired. The day had been, altogether, too long, and
he'd not had any sleep since yesterday. On top of that, there
hadn't been any word about Aoi, not since the reports of three
figures, flying through the city, had stopped.
Kurabuto had only just left, after debriefing him on the
events at the hospital where Doctor Mizuno had worked. Any moment
now, he expected the SIU chief to come barging in, asking a few hard
questions about Aoi's recent activities, and he was buggered if he
knew, precisely, how to answer them. He never truly understood
Aoi's motives, although he'd sympathise with her, sometimes. It was
obvious that she saw exposing the Sailorsenshi as her ticket out of
the SIU and into a more glamourous field on endevour.
Most women within the police force of Japan were prevented
from serving on the frontline of criminal activity, their duties
suppressed to nothing more than a public relations exercise. Aoi
had been one to break through those regulations, and he admired her
for that. What he didn't admire was the personality required to do
it. Still, she WAS his partner.
His mobile began to buzz, making him jump from his musings.
He grabbed it from the desk and answered.
"Akunatsuka...." He waited for a reply. There was none.
Frowning, he tried again. "Akunatsuka. Who is this?"
"Officer Akunatsuka Kaji of the Sailor Investigation Unit?"
The voice was soft, almost dead. There was a slight husk to it, but
it was definitely the voice of a young woman.
"Yes, I do answer to that name. Who is this?"
"The Hikawa Shrine, south of the Budan Markets. Attend the
scene. Senshi dead there."
"What did you say?" It was too late, the line had gone dead.
Well, he thought, add that to yet another weird event to cap off a
very weird day.
----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.
----o
Miyuki placed her mobile phone in her jacket and brushed her
long, black hair from her face. Her ice-white eyes had not shifted
from the figures within the shrine grounds. That Akunatsuka person
sounded like all of the other idiots she had faced in her life.
Most of them were dead now.
Like her family. They attempted to impose their will upon
her. She studied them, strange objects that they were, wondering
what drove them to do what they did. It stunned her, when she
reached the age of understanding, that she had been spawned by them.
She ended their lives that day.
----o
"We can't ignore the possibility that someone may come after
her. But I think her fears may be a bit premature." Hotaru sounded
less than sure of her words, but decided it worth saying, anyway.
"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."
----o
For some reason, Kaji found himself out of the office and
rapidly pacing down the corridor, towards the elevator that would
take him to the car park.
The voice. Something about the voice seemed to drive him on.
He'd heard that voice before, somewhere. Something to do with
another case he'd been involved with, before he'd joined the SIU.
A massacre scene. Fifteen members of a Yakuza family killed.
All looking as if they'd not had the opportunity to defend
themselves, each with a single gunshot would to important parts of
the body. The division he'd worked for had been given a prior
warning of events, by a young woman with the most dead voice that
anyone had heard.
He'd heard that voice, just then.
----o
"I HEARD YOU, SATURN!" Shouted Rei 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.
----o
The lone figure that had been searching around the ground was
now walking back towards the others, looking rather angry. Miyuki
could never understand such emotions. There was no point in getting
angry with someone. If they tried to do some negative act against
you, kill them. It was that simple. She wondered why nobody else
could understand. Certainly, her substitute parents could never
understand.
She bounced the revolver in her left hand, well used to its
weight, then lifted it towards the moving figure. She had nothing
against these people, but a job was a job, and money kept you fed
and clothed, with a roof over your head.
----o
"Oh yeah?" Rei stared daggers at Artemis. "You think it's
silly do you? Well, let me tell you a little something...."
A shot rang across the ground of the Hikawa Shrine. The left
side of Rei's chest exploded outwards, splattering blood across
Hotaru's face.
Rei stared down at the wound in shock, then let out a
horrified cry as she tasted blood in her mouth. Hotaru leapt from
the stone and caught Rei as the fire senshi began to lose strength
in her legs....
----o
Part Twentytwo
Necronomicon
----o
"Well, I must say.... Those clothes certainly look good on
you." Pagan grinned as he stared at the short green skirt Aoi was
now wearing. Mhaere, standing behind him in the doorway to Aoi's
bedroom, was trying to suppress a giggle.
Aoi shook her head, feeling uncomforatble with the tiara she
was wearing. She'd twice tried to remove it, but it wouldn't leave
her forehead. "Stop making jokes." She stared at Pagan and noticed
the appreciative direction of his gaze. "And don't get any funny
ideas. I very much HATE wearing sailorfukus, even one that belongs
to a Sailorsenshi."
"Hmm...." Mhaere stepped into the room and studied the design
of the Sailorjupiter uniform. "I'd say this is something of a retro
design. If I'm not mistaken, the Sailorjupiter fuku has made
several stages of progression from this one."
Aoi blinked, then turned to the mirror, set in her wardrobe
cabinet. Despite hating the way the skirt and bodice hugged her
frame, she had to agree.... This design was reminiscent of the
original Sailorjupiter fuku, according to the photographic evidence
she had been made to study during her time with the SIU. "Bizarre.
Maybe the uniform develops along with the skills of its bearer...."
Aoi snapped out of her musings and shook her head. "Iyaa! How the
hell am I going to get out of this thing?"
"Why don't you de-henshin?" Pagan smiled. Aoi stared at him,
dubiously.
"You just wanna see if all this comes flying off in the
process, don't you?"
"You read my mind." His smile was just so sweet, she wanted
to deck him one.
"Regardless.... I don't think the henshin pen has made a wise
choice in baptising you as the new Sailorjupiter." Mhaere stepped
up to Aoi and knelt down, tugging at the skirt. "Strange material."
"It's a lovely mixture of cotton and flesh." Aoi looked down
at her. "The clinical pathologist, back at central, did an analysis
of the original Sailorjupiter fuku."
"Cotton and flesh? Whose flesh?" Mhaere let go of the skirt
as if she'd been playing with diseased slime.
"My flesh, fool. Whose else would it be. Apparently the fuku
creates a hybrid design, using genetic material of the wearer.
Besides that, why do you think the pen made a bad choice?"
"Because you probably don't have the Heart Crystal of a
Sailorsenshi. Or the Star Seed. You realise you need both to be
one, don't you?" Mhaere blinked, wiping her hand on her jacket.
"Well, of course I knew about both.... But then.... Well,
let's face it, there is only so much one can know about the
Sailorsenshi. Without actually studying them...."
"Hmm.... I thought as much. Trying to cover up your own
investigative ineptitude with excuses...." Mhaere giggled.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY I'M NO GOOD AT MY JOB, EHHHHHHH!?!?!"
Mhaere cowered as Aoi ranged over her, looking like a Fury on too
much coffee."
"Joke... joke..." Mhaere made room between Aoi and herself as
Aoi rounded on Pagan, whose hand had somehow found it's way up her
skirt....
"Just checking for the henshin pen...." He put up his hands
as Aoi's face went bright red.
"WHAT ABOUT THE HENSHIN PEN? HENTAI! SUKEBE!" Aoi whapped
Pagan one over the head.
----o
Usagi screamed as something reached out for her.
She managed to crawl along the floor of the corridor, just
missing the diseased and warped limb as it lashed out, making
contact with the large wing-like structure on her back, tearing
it away viciously. She felt that, and cried out in pain and mortal
terror.
The corridor seemed roll around as she glanced back at what
she had just avoided becoming part of.... A free for all between a
group of indescribable horrors that had emerged from the cells after
the doors had been thrown open by some force.... Probably created
by the dark young woman who had been toying with her for her own
amusement. All thoughts of Minako had left her mind, now.... It
almost seemed as if she'd never get the opportunity to rescue her
friend, now.
She swallowed and scrabbled away as something large and
amorphous started slithering its way towards her.
Much to Naoko's amusement, the monsters from the cells started
to attack each other, as if fighting over a piece of their newfound
prey. Casually, she strode between them, completely ignored, almost
as if she didn't exist at all.
All of her attentions were on Usagi. She felt something about
this girl after making the mindlink with her. She wanted to know
what it was that she was feeling.
----o
"And how are you feeling?" Shimazaki simpered with an almost
false air of concern as he looked down at Doctor Mizuno... the woman
sitting within the bare but comfortable holding cell, staring ahead
as if her mind was elsewhere.
She didn't even register his question as he stepped in from
the doorway. "Mizuno-sensei?" He knelt down, and noticed how pale
her complexion was. He could see she was trying to hold back tears
with all her self-control.
"How.... does it look like I'm feeling?" She whispered to
him. He took a breath and nodded.
"Uhh... Not particularly good. Is there anything you want?"
"No thank you." Her gaze hadn't changed. "I'm quite fine,
just sitting here. Where is Ami-chan?"
Shimazaki swallowed, pausing. "Uh, she's elsewhere at the
moment." She turned her eyes to him, making him feel uncomfortable.
"She's safe. Really."
"You're sure of that?" Her question was so pointed, he could
feel the jab.
"Hai. I'm sure she's safe. She's.... uhhh... Currently with
a female officer." She turned her eyes, once more gazing forward.
After a few seconds of wordless thinking, Shimazaki stood.
"Well, if you're okay, I'll just take my leave and see what is
holding up the rostered lawyer."
"I won't be requiring a lawyer, thankyou." Her statement took
him by surprise.
"Umm... It's police procedure. We can't interview you
without one...."
"I won't be requiring one. It's too late for that, now."
Shimazaki blinked at her, then tried to put on a reassuring
smile, annoyed that she wasn't looking up at him to be reassured by
it. "Well, whatever the case, I'll go look, anyway." He nervously
turned and stepped from the cell. He relaxed as soon as the duty
sergeant closed and locked the cell door behind him.
"A bit chilly in there?" The duty sergeant looked at him,
grimly. Shimazaki nodded.
"Rather. I'd keep her on watch, if I were you. I think she's
in one of THOSE frames of mind."
The duty sergeant nodded. "Do you think we'll need someone to
sit in on her?" The pair started on towards the main desk of the
holding cells, passing towards a couple of burly officers who were
bundling a youth into another cell. Shimazaki looked at the thin-
faced youth for a moment as he spun around, facing the doorway.
"Well, you don't have to be that rough." He bowed to the two
officers, smiling. The duty sergeant shook his head.
"That's about enough from you." He brushed the officers aside
and grabbed the door, slamming it shut and immediately locking it.
"Hey! Don't I get a cup of coffee, even?"
"You'll be lucky." The duty sergeant snapped his fingers at
the officers. "One more word out of him, and Kami help me, I'll
forget procedure...." He turned back to Shimazaki. "Now, where
were we?"
"Who was that?" Shimazaki nodded back to the cell door as
they made their way forward. The duty sergeant shrugged.
"Just some punk.... Small time Yakuza boy by the name of
Aba Kensuke. We've had him in here before.... Threatening small
shop owners in Akihabara."
"What's he doing in here, then?" Shimazaki blinked. "This
isn't exactly the kind of place one locks up small timers like him."
"He's in because of a raid on a local... ahem...
establishment. He was in posession. Damned good stuff, too. Must
have cost the locals a fair yen."
"How good?"
"Enough to kill you if you were stupid enough to take it. But
at least you'd die happy...."
Shimazaki rubbed his chin for a second, thinking. "Who's in
charge of this case?"
----o
Hotaru dragged Rei across the yard as the cats scampered in
every direction, seemingly all at once. Not a bad effort for two
cats.
Rei was mumbling something. It sounded a bit like "I told
you so... I told you so..." Well, there was nothing like humility,
thought Hotaru.
For a few moments, she wondered why their attacker hadn't
pressed her attack. It chilled Hotaru to think that the person
wasn't all that concerned about what she did to escape, or
retaliate. Then again, it showed overconfidence, something that
Hotaru could use to her advantage, if it came to that.
Too bad she didn't know where their attacker was.
----o
Miyuki wandered, slowly, around the shrine wall, arriving at
the open gate as if unconcerned whether she was spotted or not. She
watched Hotaru's efforts to get her wounded comrade to a safe place.
She chuckled, licking her lips. She thought she recognised
Hotaru's face from somewhere, but put that thought from her mind.
Only one reason why she was here. No point concerning herself over
stray memories.
----o
Usagi stared up into the face of a terror greater than her
mind could have created, more indescribable than a floating mass of
amoeba.... and cringed as barbed spikes shot out, reaching for her body.
She had now managed to get to her feet.... somehow. She
couldn't feel her feet anymore, as if all bloodflow had stopped.
She just knew that she was higher than she had been before.
Now only the amorphous object was pursuing her. The rest
seemed more interested in each other. The benefit of this was that
she was being chased by something that had about as much trouble
moving about as she had. Not that that was much of benefit. The
dark young woman who had been chasing her was only a few steps
behind.
She wondered why the thing was ignoring the girl.... And
concentrated on her mind... the link that the girl had made to
communicate with her. There was a kind of pulse emitting from her
mind. A calming pulse.
She tried to create that pulse....
----o
Doctor Mizuno couldn't hold the tears much longer. What was
keeping that idiot police detective, anyway?
"Hey! I said HEY! I want a cup of coffee. Hey! Are you
listening to me?" She could hear the voice of the young man in the
cell, some way down the corridor. He had been like this for some
time, and she was starting to get annoyed with his babbling. "Oi!
Don't just walk by.... Hey!" She thought she recognised the voice.
But couldn't be sure.
If what that officer Shimazaki had told her was the truth,
then Ami was, at least for now, safe. She was glad happy about
that, but knew it would only be a matter of time before someone
caught up with her, no matter what she was....
It had been some surprise to her when she discovered that Ami
was Sailormercury. She couldn't believe that someone like her
little Ami had lived such a stressful existence. Of course, she
found this out in a manner she didn't want to.... And Ami had found
out a few things about her that she didn't want known, either.
Their relationship hadn't been the same, since. Not that it
had been all that good to start with. There had always been an
iciness between them, dating back to the breakup of her marriage....
She could hear the unlocking of her door, but didn't bother to
look up. Probably just another duty officer come to check on her.
She sighed as the door swung open. Ami.... She probably wouldn't
see her again. There was so much she wanted to say to her daughter,
to explain things.... To explain why she did what she did....
"Hello, Mizuno-sensei. I'm sorry to keep you waiting." She
glanced upwards, and saw the gun pointed towards her head. Her eyes
traced the arm of the gun's owner, and stared into his smiling face.
"Don't you know you should never keep a lady waiting? You
really need some work on your social skills."
He giggled.
----o
The duty sergeant sat at his desk, tapping the end of a pen on
a small clipboard as he watched a prisoner being escorted through
the arrivals area from one of the cell blocks. He almost fell out
of his seat when he heard the gunshot.
"What the hell...?" He stood as the officer with the prisoner
turned, looking at him, blinking. The duty sergeant swallowed.
"Was that a gun discharging?"
"Either that or someone is playing with firecrackers in the
station." The officer shrugged.
"HEY! HET! WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE? WHO FIRED THAT THING?
HEY! I'M FEELING SCARED IN HERE!" The duty sergeant could hear
Kensuke shouting from his cell. Stepping over to the entrance to
the holding cell block, he noticed a shaft of light, cast across the
floor of the corridor, coming from an open door.... from one of the
cells.
Doctor Mizuno's cell.
----o
"Hmm? You want to have the haul tested?" Abe, the senior
sergeant of the drugs squad blinked at Shimazaki's request.
Shimazaki nodded. He'd made the request after after thinking
things over. There had been a large amount of illegal narcotics
pumped into the body of Sailorjupiter shortly before she had been
killed.... Ironic that, less than 24 hours later, there should be
a large drugs haul involving Yakuza.
"Well, I suppose so, though I can't see how a connection could
be found between that found on the SJ murder scene and what we've
got in here."
"You know, better than I do, that each shipment contains
impurities that can be traced back to the same source."
"Yeah, but still.... The amount you had found on the scene
was so small...."
Shimazaki didn't get an opportunity to answer that. Katarin
entered the small Drugs Squad office with a pale expression on his
face. Abe and the two other DS officers stared at him with
surprise, enough to make Shimazaki turn.
Katarin leaned against the doorway, breathing heavily. "For
Kami's sake, why did you run off like that?"
"Why? What's up?" Shimazaki put his hands in his pockets,
sniffing. It was unusual for Katarin to be so worked up over
anything.
"Doctor Mizuno...." Katarin took a long breath. "Somebody
has shot her.... She's dead!"
END OF PART 22
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Chapter - "Nothing Sacred Nothing Savoured"
Thanks to everyone for their feedback on "Across the Border".... I
do have these occasional moments where an idea is just TOO strong to
put off until I finish other projects. ^_^
I hope to get the next chapter of AtB, as well as UID II, out this
week. However, I might also be a lazy bastige and not do anything
at all. Well, it all depends if the people in my life stop annoying
me enough to give me the time to do it. ^_^;;
For anyone who wishes to know, the titles of some chapters of SIU,
such as "Sweet Seduction" and this one, "Necronomicon", refer to
events and subjects I haven't got around to writing about, yet.
Other things have put their ugly mugs in the way. ^_^;;
-Mark-
DDFA ayanami@internode.on.net
Version 1.0 - 26th 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.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Miyuki stared at the figures, flitting through the darkness,
with the total air of passionlessness that had followed her
throughout her life.
She sniffed and slammed the ammunition case into the handle
section of her self-made revolver, staring at the dark metal object.
It was the only thing she had felt any attachment to for much of her
seventeen years of life.
She looked up again as one of the figures started clambering
over the walls, looking for someone like her. They wouldn't find
her, of course. She had the bearing of a corpse when she wished to,
and one of the things looked for by those pursuing her had been
signs of life.
----o
Kaji sat, miserably, in the chair at Shimazaki's desk. He'd
received word, as soon as Miki had been taken away in the ambulance,
that both Katarin and Shimazaki had brought Doctor Mizuno in, and
the woman had virtually confessed to the killing of Sailorjupiter.
Now she was in one of the (albeit, more comfortable) holding cells,
awaiting her first interview.
He felt tired. The day had been, altogether, too long, and
he'd not had any sleep since yesterday. On top of that, there
hadn't been any word about Aoi, not since the reports of three
figures, flying through the city, had stopped.
Kurabuto had only just left, after debriefing him on the
events at the hospital where Doctor Mizuno had worked. Any moment
now, he expected the SIU chief to come barging in, asking a few hard
questions about Aoi's recent activities, and he was buggered if he
knew, precisely, how to answer them. He never truly understood
Aoi's motives, although he'd sympathise with her, sometimes. It was
obvious that she saw exposing the Sailorsenshi as her ticket out of
the SIU and into a more glamourous field on endevour.
Most women within the police force of Japan were prevented
from serving on the frontline of criminal activity, their duties
suppressed to nothing more than a public relations exercise. Aoi
had been one to break through those regulations, and he admired her
for that. What he didn't admire was the personality required to do
it. Still, she WAS his partner.
His mobile began to buzz, making him jump from his musings.
He grabbed it from the desk and answered.
"Akunatsuka...." He waited for a reply. There was none.
Frowning, he tried again. "Akunatsuka. Who is this?"
"Officer Akunatsuka Kaji of the Sailor Investigation Unit?"
The voice was soft, almost dead. There was a slight husk to it, but
it was definitely the voice of a young woman.
"Yes, I do answer to that name. Who is this?"
"The Hikawa Shrine, south of the Budan Markets. Attend the
scene. Senshi dead there."
"What did you say?" It was too late, the line had gone dead.
Well, he thought, add that to yet another weird event to cap off a
very weird day.
----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.
----o
Miyuki placed her mobile phone in her jacket and brushed her
long, black hair from her face. Her ice-white eyes had not shifted
from the figures within the shrine grounds. That Akunatsuka person
sounded like all of the other idiots she had faced in her life.
Most of them were dead now.
Like her family. They attempted to impose their will upon
her. She studied them, strange objects that they were, wondering
what drove them to do what they did. It stunned her, when she
reached the age of understanding, that she had been spawned by them.
She ended their lives that day.
----o
"We can't ignore the possibility that someone may come after
her. But I think her fears may be a bit premature." Hotaru sounded
less than sure of her words, but decided it worth saying, anyway.
"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."
----o
For some reason, Kaji found himself out of the office and
rapidly pacing down the corridor, towards the elevator that would
take him to the car park.
The voice. Something about the voice seemed to drive him on.
He'd heard that voice before, somewhere. Something to do with
another case he'd been involved with, before he'd joined the SIU.
A massacre scene. Fifteen members of a Yakuza family killed.
All looking as if they'd not had the opportunity to defend
themselves, each with a single gunshot would to important parts of
the body. The division he'd worked for had been given a prior
warning of events, by a young woman with the most dead voice that
anyone had heard.
He'd heard that voice, just then.
----o
"I HEARD YOU, SATURN!" Shouted Rei 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.
----o
The lone figure that had been searching around the ground was
now walking back towards the others, looking rather angry. Miyuki
could never understand such emotions. There was no point in getting
angry with someone. If they tried to do some negative act against
you, kill them. It was that simple. She wondered why nobody else
could understand. Certainly, her substitute parents could never
understand.
She bounced the revolver in her left hand, well used to its
weight, then lifted it towards the moving figure. She had nothing
against these people, but a job was a job, and money kept you fed
and clothed, with a roof over your head.
----o
"Oh yeah?" Rei stared daggers at Artemis. "You think it's
silly do you? Well, let me tell you a little something...."
A shot rang across the ground of the Hikawa Shrine. The left
side of Rei's chest exploded outwards, splattering blood across
Hotaru's face.
Rei stared down at the wound in shock, then let out a
horrified cry as she tasted blood in her mouth. Hotaru leapt from
the stone and caught Rei as the fire senshi began to lose strength
in her legs....
----o
Part Twentytwo
Necronomicon
----o
"Well, I must say.... Those clothes certainly look good on
you." Pagan grinned as he stared at the short green skirt Aoi was
now wearing. Mhaere, standing behind him in the doorway to Aoi's
bedroom, was trying to suppress a giggle.
Aoi shook her head, feeling uncomforatble with the tiara she
was wearing. She'd twice tried to remove it, but it wouldn't leave
her forehead. "Stop making jokes." She stared at Pagan and noticed
the appreciative direction of his gaze. "And don't get any funny
ideas. I very much HATE wearing sailorfukus, even one that belongs
to a Sailorsenshi."
"Hmm...." Mhaere stepped into the room and studied the design
of the Sailorjupiter uniform. "I'd say this is something of a retro
design. If I'm not mistaken, the Sailorjupiter fuku has made
several stages of progression from this one."
Aoi blinked, then turned to the mirror, set in her wardrobe
cabinet. Despite hating the way the skirt and bodice hugged her
frame, she had to agree.... This design was reminiscent of the
original Sailorjupiter fuku, according to the photographic evidence
she had been made to study during her time with the SIU. "Bizarre.
Maybe the uniform develops along with the skills of its bearer...."
Aoi snapped out of her musings and shook her head. "Iyaa! How the
hell am I going to get out of this thing?"
"Why don't you de-henshin?" Pagan smiled. Aoi stared at him,
dubiously.
"You just wanna see if all this comes flying off in the
process, don't you?"
"You read my mind." His smile was just so sweet, she wanted
to deck him one.
"Regardless.... I don't think the henshin pen has made a wise
choice in baptising you as the new Sailorjupiter." Mhaere stepped
up to Aoi and knelt down, tugging at the skirt. "Strange material."
"It's a lovely mixture of cotton and flesh." Aoi looked down
at her. "The clinical pathologist, back at central, did an analysis
of the original Sailorjupiter fuku."
"Cotton and flesh? Whose flesh?" Mhaere let go of the skirt
as if she'd been playing with diseased slime.
"My flesh, fool. Whose else would it be. Apparently the fuku
creates a hybrid design, using genetic material of the wearer.
Besides that, why do you think the pen made a bad choice?"
"Because you probably don't have the Heart Crystal of a
Sailorsenshi. Or the Star Seed. You realise you need both to be
one, don't you?" Mhaere blinked, wiping her hand on her jacket.
"Well, of course I knew about both.... But then.... Well,
let's face it, there is only so much one can know about the
Sailorsenshi. Without actually studying them...."
"Hmm.... I thought as much. Trying to cover up your own
investigative ineptitude with excuses...." Mhaere giggled.
"ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY I'M NO GOOD AT MY JOB, EHHHHHHH!?!?!"
Mhaere cowered as Aoi ranged over her, looking like a Fury on too
much coffee."
"Joke... joke..." Mhaere made room between Aoi and herself as
Aoi rounded on Pagan, whose hand had somehow found it's way up her
skirt....
"Just checking for the henshin pen...." He put up his hands
as Aoi's face went bright red.
"WHAT ABOUT THE HENSHIN PEN? HENTAI! SUKEBE!" Aoi whapped
Pagan one over the head.
----o
Usagi screamed as something reached out for her.
She managed to crawl along the floor of the corridor, just
missing the diseased and warped limb as it lashed out, making
contact with the large wing-like structure on her back, tearing
it away viciously. She felt that, and cried out in pain and mortal
terror.
The corridor seemed roll around as she glanced back at what
she had just avoided becoming part of.... A free for all between a
group of indescribable horrors that had emerged from the cells after
the doors had been thrown open by some force.... Probably created
by the dark young woman who had been toying with her for her own
amusement. All thoughts of Minako had left her mind, now.... It
almost seemed as if she'd never get the opportunity to rescue her
friend, now.
She swallowed and scrabbled away as something large and
amorphous started slithering its way towards her.
Much to Naoko's amusement, the monsters from the cells started
to attack each other, as if fighting over a piece of their newfound
prey. Casually, she strode between them, completely ignored, almost
as if she didn't exist at all.
All of her attentions were on Usagi. She felt something about
this girl after making the mindlink with her. She wanted to know
what it was that she was feeling.
----o
"And how are you feeling?" Shimazaki simpered with an almost
false air of concern as he looked down at Doctor Mizuno... the woman
sitting within the bare but comfortable holding cell, staring ahead
as if her mind was elsewhere.
She didn't even register his question as he stepped in from
the doorway. "Mizuno-sensei?" He knelt down, and noticed how pale
her complexion was. He could see she was trying to hold back tears
with all her self-control.
"How.... does it look like I'm feeling?" She whispered to
him. He took a breath and nodded.
"Uhh... Not particularly good. Is there anything you want?"
"No thank you." Her gaze hadn't changed. "I'm quite fine,
just sitting here. Where is Ami-chan?"
Shimazaki swallowed, pausing. "Uh, she's elsewhere at the
moment." She turned her eyes to him, making him feel uncomfortable.
"She's safe. Really."
"You're sure of that?" Her question was so pointed, he could
feel the jab.
"Hai. I'm sure she's safe. She's.... uhhh... Currently with
a female officer." She turned her eyes, once more gazing forward.
After a few seconds of wordless thinking, Shimazaki stood.
"Well, if you're okay, I'll just take my leave and see what is
holding up the rostered lawyer."
"I won't be requiring a lawyer, thankyou." Her statement took
him by surprise.
"Umm... It's police procedure. We can't interview you
without one...."
"I won't be requiring one. It's too late for that, now."
Shimazaki blinked at her, then tried to put on a reassuring
smile, annoyed that she wasn't looking up at him to be reassured by
it. "Well, whatever the case, I'll go look, anyway." He nervously
turned and stepped from the cell. He relaxed as soon as the duty
sergeant closed and locked the cell door behind him.
"A bit chilly in there?" The duty sergeant looked at him,
grimly. Shimazaki nodded.
"Rather. I'd keep her on watch, if I were you. I think she's
in one of THOSE frames of mind."
The duty sergeant nodded. "Do you think we'll need someone to
sit in on her?" The pair started on towards the main desk of the
holding cells, passing towards a couple of burly officers who were
bundling a youth into another cell. Shimazaki looked at the thin-
faced youth for a moment as he spun around, facing the doorway.
"Well, you don't have to be that rough." He bowed to the two
officers, smiling. The duty sergeant shook his head.
"That's about enough from you." He brushed the officers aside
and grabbed the door, slamming it shut and immediately locking it.
"Hey! Don't I get a cup of coffee, even?"
"You'll be lucky." The duty sergeant snapped his fingers at
the officers. "One more word out of him, and Kami help me, I'll
forget procedure...." He turned back to Shimazaki. "Now, where
were we?"
"Who was that?" Shimazaki nodded back to the cell door as
they made their way forward. The duty sergeant shrugged.
"Just some punk.... Small time Yakuza boy by the name of
Aba Kensuke. We've had him in here before.... Threatening small
shop owners in Akihabara."
"What's he doing in here, then?" Shimazaki blinked. "This
isn't exactly the kind of place one locks up small timers like him."
"He's in because of a raid on a local... ahem...
establishment. He was in posession. Damned good stuff, too. Must
have cost the locals a fair yen."
"How good?"
"Enough to kill you if you were stupid enough to take it. But
at least you'd die happy...."
Shimazaki rubbed his chin for a second, thinking. "Who's in
charge of this case?"
----o
Hotaru dragged Rei across the yard as the cats scampered in
every direction, seemingly all at once. Not a bad effort for two
cats.
Rei was mumbling something. It sounded a bit like "I told
you so... I told you so..." Well, there was nothing like humility,
thought Hotaru.
For a few moments, she wondered why their attacker hadn't
pressed her attack. It chilled Hotaru to think that the person
wasn't all that concerned about what she did to escape, or
retaliate. Then again, it showed overconfidence, something that
Hotaru could use to her advantage, if it came to that.
Too bad she didn't know where their attacker was.
----o
Miyuki wandered, slowly, around the shrine wall, arriving at
the open gate as if unconcerned whether she was spotted or not. She
watched Hotaru's efforts to get her wounded comrade to a safe place.
She chuckled, licking her lips. She thought she recognised
Hotaru's face from somewhere, but put that thought from her mind.
Only one reason why she was here. No point concerning herself over
stray memories.
----o
Usagi stared up into the face of a terror greater than her
mind could have created, more indescribable than a floating mass of
amoeba.... and cringed as barbed spikes shot out, reaching for her body.
She had now managed to get to her feet.... somehow. She
couldn't feel her feet anymore, as if all bloodflow had stopped.
She just knew that she was higher than she had been before.
Now only the amorphous object was pursuing her. The rest
seemed more interested in each other. The benefit of this was that
she was being chased by something that had about as much trouble
moving about as she had. Not that that was much of benefit. The
dark young woman who had been chasing her was only a few steps
behind.
She wondered why the thing was ignoring the girl.... And
concentrated on her mind... the link that the girl had made to
communicate with her. There was a kind of pulse emitting from her
mind. A calming pulse.
She tried to create that pulse....
----o
Doctor Mizuno couldn't hold the tears much longer. What was
keeping that idiot police detective, anyway?
"Hey! I said HEY! I want a cup of coffee. Hey! Are you
listening to me?" She could hear the voice of the young man in the
cell, some way down the corridor. He had been like this for some
time, and she was starting to get annoyed with his babbling. "Oi!
Don't just walk by.... Hey!" She thought she recognised the voice.
But couldn't be sure.
If what that officer Shimazaki had told her was the truth,
then Ami was, at least for now, safe. She was glad happy about
that, but knew it would only be a matter of time before someone
caught up with her, no matter what she was....
It had been some surprise to her when she discovered that Ami
was Sailormercury. She couldn't believe that someone like her
little Ami had lived such a stressful existence. Of course, she
found this out in a manner she didn't want to.... And Ami had found
out a few things about her that she didn't want known, either.
Their relationship hadn't been the same, since. Not that it
had been all that good to start with. There had always been an
iciness between them, dating back to the breakup of her marriage....
She could hear the unlocking of her door, but didn't bother to
look up. Probably just another duty officer come to check on her.
She sighed as the door swung open. Ami.... She probably wouldn't
see her again. There was so much she wanted to say to her daughter,
to explain things.... To explain why she did what she did....
"Hello, Mizuno-sensei. I'm sorry to keep you waiting." She
glanced upwards, and saw the gun pointed towards her head. Her eyes
traced the arm of the gun's owner, and stared into his smiling face.
"Don't you know you should never keep a lady waiting? You
really need some work on your social skills."
He giggled.
----o
The duty sergeant sat at his desk, tapping the end of a pen on
a small clipboard as he watched a prisoner being escorted through
the arrivals area from one of the cell blocks. He almost fell out
of his seat when he heard the gunshot.
"What the hell...?" He stood as the officer with the prisoner
turned, looking at him, blinking. The duty sergeant swallowed.
"Was that a gun discharging?"
"Either that or someone is playing with firecrackers in the
station." The officer shrugged.
"HEY! HET! WHAT'S GOING ON IN HERE? WHO FIRED THAT THING?
HEY! I'M FEELING SCARED IN HERE!" The duty sergeant could hear
Kensuke shouting from his cell. Stepping over to the entrance to
the holding cell block, he noticed a shaft of light, cast across the
floor of the corridor, coming from an open door.... from one of the
cells.
Doctor Mizuno's cell.
----o
"Hmm? You want to have the haul tested?" Abe, the senior
sergeant of the drugs squad blinked at Shimazaki's request.
Shimazaki nodded. He'd made the request after after thinking
things over. There had been a large amount of illegal narcotics
pumped into the body of Sailorjupiter shortly before she had been
killed.... Ironic that, less than 24 hours later, there should be
a large drugs haul involving Yakuza.
"Well, I suppose so, though I can't see how a connection could
be found between that found on the SJ murder scene and what we've
got in here."
"You know, better than I do, that each shipment contains
impurities that can be traced back to the same source."
"Yeah, but still.... The amount you had found on the scene
was so small...."
Shimazaki didn't get an opportunity to answer that. Katarin
entered the small Drugs Squad office with a pale expression on his
face. Abe and the two other DS officers stared at him with
surprise, enough to make Shimazaki turn.
Katarin leaned against the doorway, breathing heavily. "For
Kami's sake, why did you run off like that?"
"Why? What's up?" Shimazaki put his hands in his pockets,
sniffing. It was unusual for Katarin to be so worked up over
anything.
"Doctor Mizuno...." Katarin took a long breath. "Somebody
has shot her.... She's dead!"
END OF PART 22
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Next Chapter - "Nothing Sacred Nothing Savoured"
Thanks to everyone for their feedback on "Across the Border".... I
do have these occasional moments where an idea is just TOO strong to
put off until I finish other projects. ^_^
I hope to get the next chapter of AtB, as well as UID II, out this
week. However, I might also be a lazy bastige and not do anything
at all. Well, it all depends if the people in my life stop annoying
me enough to give me the time to do it. ^_^;;
For anyone who wishes to know, the titles of some chapters of SIU,
such as "Sweet Seduction" and this one, "Necronomicon", refer to
events and subjects I haven't got around to writing about, yet.
Other things have put their ugly mugs in the way. ^_^;;
-Mark-
DDFA ayanami@internode.on.net
Version 1.0 - 26th May 1998