Version 1.0 - 9th Aug 1998
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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 and Silent Mobius are owned by Takeuchi Naoko, Kia
Asamiya, Michitaka Kikuchi, Bandai, Studio Tron, Kadokawa and
Kodansya. All other characters were thought up by me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ami walked, happily, along the cold night street, allowing the
rain to dance gently on the top of her head. It had been a long
time since she dared feel some semblance of a simple pleasure of
life. Like walking in the rain. She'd always run for shelter, when
the rain would come. But now she LOVED IT!
Nobody to tell her what to do, anymore.... Her mother was
probably dead, and there were an unknown number of people, out there
somewhere, who wanted to kill her or worse. So she decided to do
whatever she wanted, now strangely freed of whatever barrier it had
been that she had placed on herself.... Desires she'd always had,
but had kept hidden under the facade of the quiet intellectual, more
interested in study than in life.
Well, of COURSE she was SMARTER than anybody else. That was
how it was MEANT to be. She was a born GENIUS! They just didn't
APPRECIATE her SUPERIORITY to them. She put her hands on her hips
and laughed out loud with maniacal joy. "Yes!" She thought to
herself. "I am a living legend!"
She continued on her way, turning a corner and stepping into
a street, lined with expensive town houses, with lots of equally
expensive European cars parked outside. Ami stared at the cars,
angrily. These bloody yuppie freaks, flashing their wealth so
obviously and arrogantly! Her family had been one of the old rich,
people who knew how to be wealthy but maintain a modicum of
intelligence about putting it on display.
She hated these kinds of people, and promptly went from car to
car, letting down the tires. When one of the owners spotted her
through his front window and came out of his house to remonstrate
with her, she decided it was time to show him REAL power. To whit,
she changed herself into Sailormercury before his astonished eyes,
and thumped him to the ground with a multi-point Mercury Aqua
Rhapsody.
After laughing maniacally, hands on hips, over the poor
bastard's dazed form, she ran from the street into another which was
lined with shops, and proceeded to smash the shopfront windows,
humming 'Morning Moon' as she did so.
Until her stomach grumbled. She stopped as she placed a hand
on it. Unfortunately, none of the shops were food shops, and none
of the owners who were currently charging at her looked very likely
to help feed her LEGENDARY stomach.
So, after showing what can happen when one with superpowers
learns just a little of self-defence martial arts, throwing the
irate owners in every direction, she decided that she might have to
find some way to make money, to fill her LEGENDARY stomach.
She looked down at the short, blue skirt of her senshi fuku,
and at those LEGENDARY legs of hers, and decided that selling
herself might just be an option. After all, what man could resist
a GOOD LOOKING, nay GORGEOUS young lady like herself with a
combination of the PERFECT BODY and PERFECT BRAIN, dressed in a DAMN
SEXY blue sailorsenshi fuku?
She'd wipe the floor with all the other INFERIOR girls on
offer!
----o
"Aoi...." Pagan whispered as she paused. She shook her head
and turned away once more.
"My mother was the same, you know.... She was an obsessive
woman, always throwing herself into whatever it was she'd chosen to
do with her life.... She was also addicted to more prescription
drugs than is possible to name, off the top of your head. I spent
my entire childhood having to look after this.... this woman... who
had never once shown me an ounce of affection..." She paused. "Who
spent all her time getting totally wasted, sometimes even overdosing
when things got really bad.... I had to act as her safety valve,
even after she was hospitalised.... Right up until the moment she
succeeded...."
Aoi sank down, sitting on her haunches, one hand up against
the wall. Pagan watched her as she clenched her other hand, blood
running as her fingernails dug into her palm.
"You see? You see this?" She turned to him, holding out her
wounded hand and showing the tears on her face. "I can't even cry
unless I'm in pain.... I don't FEEL anything. The only opportunity
I get to FEEL is when I'm angry. And you wonder why I make myself
angry, so often? It's like a drug.... I HAVE to feel angry. It
makes me feel a tremendous pleasure.... Not from the control it
gives me over others, but the enactment of EMOTION...." She
chuckled, bitterly.
"Do you think.... that gives you an excuse.... for the way you
behave?" Pagan asked, carefully.
"I don't know why I'm telling you this.... I just.... I
just.... Who the hell else can I tell, you know?"
Pagan stepped over to her and knelt down beside her, placing a
hand on her shoulder. "I really don't think telling me this will
help you salvage your reputation, any...."
"Oh, you...." Aoi lifted her unwounded hand to slap him, then
wrapped it around him and started to bawl. Pagan, surprised by this
sudden turn of events, didn't react for a good minute or so. Then,
for some reason unknown to him, he held onto her, trying to calm
her.
"Being a crybaby doesn't suit you at all, you know?" He
mumbled as she slowly settled. Then she pulled herself away from
him and stared into his face, feeling a tremendous sense of madness
overwhelm her.
She clamped her mouth over his, passionately, and was elated
to find him responding in kind....
"Yes, you two be that way." Mhaere whispered to herself as
she stood, quietly, outside the doorway of the room, planning the
moment when she would barge in on them....
----o
Part Twentynine
Psychosis Rift
----o
It was some time later, as Kaji watched the ambulance taking
Hotaru/Saturn away, that he realised that neither Aoi nor Pagan had
returned. Nor was Mhaere anywhere to be seen. He turned to the old
priest, who had also been helping co-ordinate the medics and police
investigators that had arrived in bulk after Kaji's calls for help,
standing next to him.
After glancing in the direction of Mars, who had turned out to
be Hino Rei, the granddaughter of the priest, sitting sullenly some
distance away in the care of one of the investigators that were now
combing the grounds of the shrine, along with the two talking cats,
he queried the old man. "Where did officer Kikotsuka and that naked
guy get to?"
Rei's Grandfather turned to him, surprised by the question.
Uhh... I'm not certain. I sent Kumada-san to look for them and the
red-haired Caucasian girl...." He paused for a moment. "Strange,
you know.... The three of them... Just fell out of thin-air...."
"I know. I saw it, myself." Kaji rubbed his chin as the old
man paused, trying to gather his words together in his mind.
"I've.... seen a lot of things in my life. I was a soldier
during the war, you know.... I served as part of the home defence
force because of my training as a priest." He paused. "Because of
that, I had been sent to remote places where the spiritual
emanations have culminated in a long succession of strange events,
some I'm not sure even happened.... Lights in the sky.... Haunted
old buildings.... Monsters in the wooded valleys...." He paused
again. "But.... I've never seen anything, not even in all my years
as a priest, to match what I've seen today."
Kaji smiled, nodding. "I know what you mean. It hasn't been
one of my good days, either. And I get the distinct impression that
it isn't going to get any better." He reached into his pocket and
pulled out a packet of cigarettes, opening it. "What do you think
it was, some kind of worm hole?" The old man rubbed his chin,
considering Kaji's question seriously.
"I've seen wormholes, before. I was once called upon to seal
one up at a construction site when beasts from another realm started
making their way through. Very dangerous event... Quite a few
people were hurt." He nodded. "Yes, it certainly wasn't a
wormhole, but I have seen this kind of thing before." He turned to
Kaji, who had lit a cigarette that was hanging from the side of his
mouth. "You seem to have a very open-minded attitude to these
things, officer."
"I've had to." Kaji chuckled, blowing smoke into the air.
"I'm a member of the Sailor Investigation Unit. I look into the
affairs and events involving your granddaughter and her friends."
Kaji looked back over at Rei. "I take it you had no idea she WAS a
Sailorsenshi?"
"No. No idea at all. She's going to get a right scolding
when I get an opportunity." The old man thought it over for a few
moments, only then realising the ridiculousness of his words. "What
can I do or say? She's been running around, these last few years,
trying to be some kind of superhero. I've always pictured myself in
those terms.... The priest who runs about the country, exorcising
spirits and demons, left, right and centre.... I shouldn't have
expected her to be any different. After all, there are elements in
her personality that are very much like mine." He smiled,
shrugging.
"Oushou! Oushou!" The sound of Yuuichirou's voice rang
across the courtyard as he approached the pair, running. They both
watched as he came to a screeching halt in front of them, trying to
catch his breath. "I'm sorry.... I found them.... Those three
that fell from the sky...." He leant down on his knees, puffing
heavily. "I'm just not as fit as I used to be."
"And?" Kaji sniffed with impatience. Yuuichirou looked up at
him, shrugging.
"They're having an argument."
"They're what?" Kaji raised an eyebrow. "Well, I have to
say, that shouldn't be too difficult where Aoi is concerned."
----o
"What do you mean, take Pagan but not me?" Aoi stood at the
far side of the wardrobe room, hanging onto Pagan's arm. Not long
before, Mhaere had made the pretence of barging into the room as Aoi
and Pagan were beginning to get, for want of a better term, a little
excited. What followed was a comical scampering of the two to the
opposite ends of the room, babbling some apologies for not seeing
her immediately. When, of course, Aoi noticed it was Mhaere, her
territorial side took over, and she was back across the floor and in
between Pagan and Mhaere like the Great Wall of China.
"Look, I can't have anyone else getting involved in this, and
I'm certainly not having YOU involved.... Not with the powers you
posses.... It might only make things worse than they are, now."
Mhaere sighed, adding to her memory the fact that she should never,
again, let Pagan out of her sight, especially within 100 miles of
Aoi.
"Look, girlie.... I don't HAVE any powers, understand? I'm
just normal people. And anyway, we have to get back to my house,
otherwise those girls will take Ami.... I can't have her ending up
in the hands of some psycho cult type of group, not after having
finally bagged a senshi like her...." Aoi clutched onto Pagan's
arm, VERY tightly. "Besides, you're after Pagan, yourself. I'd be
stupid to give him over to you."
"Since when have YOU shown any interest in him? Relations
between the two of you have been fairly cool up until now...."
Mhaere shook her head. "No, you're just distracting me.... Pagan
wanted proof of Lysithea Caprice's activities, and I must give it to
him, regardless, because what Lysithea is doing is more dangerous
than any of us realise."
"She's right." Pagan nodded, looking at Aoi, who looked back
up at him. He sighed. "If what she says is right, Lysithea is
planning to open the barrier between Earth and Nemesis.... I've
known him for years.... I can't believe he would do such a thing...
Use the Coven in this way.... But I have to see for myself."
Aoi looked deflated. "You prefer to go with her, without me?"
He swallowed, sweatdropping.
"Actually...." He started, but didn't get an opportunity to
continue. Chuckling to herself, Mhaere clicked her fingers, and
both she and Pagan faded. Aoi watched in disbelief as their forms
became mere shadows, then dissipated.
"You...." Aoi clenched her fists, angrily. "YOU BITCH! I'LL
GET YOU FOR THIS!"
----o
Shimazaki leaned back in his seat, staring at the office
ceiling, thinking to himself. There really didn't seem to be
anything more he could do, right at this moment....
His one and only remaining witness/suspect to the killing of
the Sailorsenshi Kino Makoto, Doctor Mizuno, had been murdered in
the holding cells of the station, and the killer had escaped,
somehow, dashing away at the speed of light, too fast for even the
Duty Officer at the time to see....
He considered the "invisible girl" who had taken off with both
Mizuno's daughter, Ami, who had also presented herself as
Sailormercury, and that damned Kikotsuka woman.... But it just
didn't seem right.... Why try and kidnap one and kill the other?
Surely, if you wanted to silence both, just kill both.
The office door opened and he turned to greet Abe, who
entered, smiling. "Hey, Shimo-san, guess what?"
"I'm sure you'll tell me, anyway. What?"
"Kaji's found Kiko-san, safe and well.... And a couple more
Sailor girls. Ain't that great?"
Shimazaki rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm just over the moon.
Was one of those Sailor girls Mizuno Ami?"
"Sorry, he didn't say. But one of them was badly wounded....
Had to be taken off to hospital. I heard she was Saturn, of all the
ones that could have been found."
"Shee...." Shimazaki bit his lip. "Handle with care, lest
you set off the end of the world."
"Hmm." Abe nodded. "Anyway.... Where's Go gone? I've been
looking for him."
Shimazaki gestured to the empty office. "As you can see, he
ain't here. As to where he's gone, your guess is as good as mine.
He scarpered almost as soon as he'd told us about Mizuno's death.
Dunno where."
Abe nodded. "Strange that.... Your boss told everyone to
keep their mouths shut about that, for up to two hours after it
occured."
"Yeah, but Katarin's Major Crime. He'd know straight away as
part of his job...."
"Who told him? Your boss certainly didn't, and he wasn't
anywhere near the holding cells at the time.... I just seemed
strange."
"Maybe someone told him. I dunno.... The old man has kept
both Katarin and me away from this, cos of our work on the Kino
case."
----o
"You're sure you're not interested? I mean, have a look at
me. I'm cute, sexy and I wear a bitchin' sailorfuku...." Mercury
hung from the arm of the embarrassed salaryman who, nevertheless,
found the concept of bedding a Sailorsenshi attractive.
"Ahem.... I'm sorry.... I have to go HOME to my WIFE and
KIDS. Now, if you will excuse me...." He tried to pull himself
away from her, but she was determined.
"Aww... Come on, I need the money and I'm hungry. You just
don't like me, do you?" She batted her eyelids at him. After
swallowing, and nervously peering at everyone who was staring at
them as they walked past on the busy city street in the middle of
the nightclub district, he shook his head.
"Really, I'm sorry, Miss Sailormercury or whatever you wish to
call yourself.... I'm not into.... Not into..." His eyes bugged
as she loosened the bow on the front of the fuku, putting a greater
amount of cleavage on display. He only just managed to tear his
eyes away. "No! I'm sorry! Now, please, let me be on my way!"
He wrenched away from her, much to her surprise, and started
to walk away. Mercury was furious. "YOU DICKLESS BASTARD! I BET
YOU'RE FUCKING IMPOTENT! AND YOU'RE UGLY, TOO, YOU OLD BASTARD! I
WAS GIVING YOU AN OPPORTUNITY TO RELIVE YOUR YOUTH AND YOU GO AND DO
THIS! WELL, SIT ON THIS, EUNUCH-SAN!" She gave the salaryman the
bird and tromped away, arms crossed, bundling anyone who dared get
in her path aside. "Damn. Maybe I'm not as saleable an item as I
thought...." She paused. "What am I saying? I'M DAMN GOOD! He
just had no TASTE!" And with that, she started laughing maniacally.
Then her stomach grumbled. She paused and put a hand to her
belly. "Ahhh.... I wanna eat...." She turned to her left, and
started to drool as she spotted the cafeteria. In seconds, she was
jammed up against the window. "Oooohh.... Fooooooood....." She
started to shiver as she watched the patrons downing cakes, coffee,
liqueurs and such. "How dare those people in there eat in front of
the great SAILORMERCURY! MERCURY AQUA RAPSODY!"
What followed was not pretty.
----o
Hotaru opened her eyes to the pale, anemic, white-walled
silence of the hospital room, and the eyes of the young woman who
had killed herself, only hours before, in her presence. Hotaru
blinked, trying to focus her dazed and confused mind on the equally
dazed and confused face of Miyuki.
"You.... contrive to return to the light...." Miyuki mumbled.
"And force me to come with you...." She swallowed, rubbing a hand
on the side of her temple to which she had held her gun. Hotaru
momentarily looked around the room, trying to work out why Miyuki
was being allowed to visit her.... Here, inside the emergency ward
of the local hospital. The silence that filled her private room was
louder than she could bear.
There was nobody else in sight. Just Miyuki, looking frailer
and more frightened than Hotaru could imagine the girl ever being.
She came across as someone who was used to comfortable absolutes and
resolutions.... Anything that harboured in between rattled her. To
be brought back to life, after attempting to kill herself to get
away from Hotaru must have come as something of a shock.
"I.... just didn't.... want you to... die..." Hotaru croaked,
feeling drained of all her energy, helpless as a rag doll underneath
the patently inadequate covers of the hospital bed, feeling the
unpleasant sensation of tubes and monitors, hooked up and running
into her arms and nose. It astonished her to think that she could
ever reach this poor condition, simply by exercising her own powers.
That and the wound that had been delivered, courtesy of Miyuki and
her gun.
Miyuki studied her, with the casual eye of a predator studying
its prey, trying to size them up and decide whether to move in for
the kill. "I could kill you now, you know?" She said, flatly.
"Kill you, and there wouldn't be a single thing you'd be able to do
about it."
Hotaru met her gaze. "Would... you?" She coughed, feeling a
tight, burning sensation in her chest. She didn't want to look down
to see the wound that was causing the discomfort. The look on
Miyuki's face when her eyes were lowered to that part of her torso
was enough to tell her how bad things were. "I... take it... that I
survived... the operation...?"
"My aim has never been poor. I have always killed with every
deliberate shot. With you, I aimed to kill. And I failed. It is
that simple. Your heart was merely grazed, your lungs suffered most
of the damage." Miyuki paused for a moment. "But then, you really
don't need to know the full extent of your injuries, do you? As far
as your concerned, if it hurts, it must be bad. All of your kind
think the same way."
"What... is different.... about me?" Hotaru coughed again,
feeling more discomfort. Miyuki didn't answer, staring at her.
Hotaru wondered if the girl was thinking.... She knew, through the
probing of her mind, that Miyuki was more than a deep thinker, the
opposite of her cold and sullen exterior. But her thoughts were
askew, in a way that Hotaru could not even begin to fathom.
"Yes. What is different about you?" Miyuki pulled her pistol
from her jacket and held the business end up to Hotaru's face. The
Saturn senshi almost wet herself on the spot. "I could kill you,
right here, right now. Nobody would know who did it, because they
wouldn't be able to catch me. Understand? I'm too good for the piss
poor security guards the hospital hires. I'm too good for the
law itself. I get away, every time, with what I've done."
"Does it.... make you feel good..?" Hotaru croaked, "Does it
fill you... with a sense of thrill? A thrill... that is lacking...
in the rest of... your life..." She coughed, feeling drool run down
the side of her mouth as a shiver ran through Miyuki.... An almost
uncontrollable anger, building up within her. She hated the
sensation of emotion. It disturbed her thoughts.
"Shutup, and shutup now. I won't say it again. I am not some
benevolent enemy that has a 'good' side that can be convinced of the
right moral position to which you and your kind subscribe." Miyuki
bit her lower lip to hide the sneer that tried to cross her face.
"I know you sailorsluts better than you think.... I've had
experience with you, before." Her trigger finger trembled. "Not
only the way you hurt Kimi, by exposing her mother to the law,
forcing her to kill herself to maintain the family honour.... And,
Kami knows, that is more than enough to punish you.... No, it is
the two-faced nature that exists amongst you...."
"What... are you talking... about?" Hotaru peered into the
barrel of the gun, the entire scene washed with a sense of
surrealism. Miyuki's finger continued to tremble, like she wanted
to silence her one time mistress.... Hotaru wondered whether she
should try to calm the girl by entering her mind, once more, but
decided, considering the effect that had on Miyuki the last time,
she'd probably end up with a bullet through the brain that much
quicker.
"I'm talking about those traitorous bitches.... The ones
you call Uranus and Neptune...." Miyuki spat the names like they
were venom. "Do you realise for how long they have been working
against you? Do you realise their culpability in the death of your
comrade, Jupiter?" Hotaru was too dumbstruck by these words to give
her an answer. Miyuki nodded. "No, I can see you don't know. How
does it feel to have been so totally betrayed?"
"I... don't believe... you..." Hotaru could feel tears coming
to her eyes. Was Miyuki trying to deceive her? No. There would be
no point, and someone like Miyuki didn't do anything without a
point. But surely, creating some fantasy with which to base her
contempt for Saturn was enough of a point, a reason.... But the
more Hotaru thought about it, the less likely that seemed.
"Yes. You do." Miyuki's tone became flat and lifeless, once
more. "There is no alternative. You now face a situation that is
beyond your control and understanding. That is why you Sailorsluts
are in the appalling state you are now. Do you know where your
friends are? Apart from Mars, I think not." Miyuki lifted the gun
away from Hotaru's face.
"I know... where some of them... are..." Even as she said it,
Hotaru didn't sound so sure of herself. Miyuki shook her head and
replaced the gun in her jacket, looking tired and pale.
"What did you do to me? How did you stop my death? My
dying?" Miyuki started to wander around. "How did I get here?
This hospital...." She gestured around the room. "I feel... I can
feel Kimi.... I can feel her, alone, in the darkness.... Where is
she? Where has she gone? What is her destiny?" She leant herself
against the far wall, at the edge of Hotaru's vision, and slowly
slid down....
"Dione.... is searching... for her... longtime friend. Are...
you going... to allow her... to meet the... destiny you foresee?"
Hotaru rasped. Miyuki sat on the floor holding her face in her
hands, making not a sound. "Understand... Iapetus... Understand
why... I saved you..."
Hotaru watched as Miyuki vanished, in silence. The rushing
winds of eternity, in its infinite silence, blowing through the room
in all its terrifying magnitude, settling, replaced by the normal
sounds of the hospital. Hotaru sighed, and closed her eyes.
END OF PART 29
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Next Chapter - "Bad Karma"
_________
/ @ \ DDFA (The Right Dishonourable Mark A Page)
/ / ^ ^ \ \ ayanami@internode.on.net
/\
\/ \/
\___________/
/_/ \_\ PU
--------------------------------------------------------------------
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 and Silent Mobius are owned by Takeuchi Naoko, Kia
Asamiya, Michitaka Kikuchi, Bandai, Studio Tron, Kadokawa and
Kodansya. All other characters were thought up by me.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Ami walked, happily, along the cold night street, allowing the
rain to dance gently on the top of her head. It had been a long
time since she dared feel some semblance of a simple pleasure of
life. Like walking in the rain. She'd always run for shelter, when
the rain would come. But now she LOVED IT!
Nobody to tell her what to do, anymore.... Her mother was
probably dead, and there were an unknown number of people, out there
somewhere, who wanted to kill her or worse. So she decided to do
whatever she wanted, now strangely freed of whatever barrier it had
been that she had placed on herself.... Desires she'd always had,
but had kept hidden under the facade of the quiet intellectual, more
interested in study than in life.
Well, of COURSE she was SMARTER than anybody else. That was
how it was MEANT to be. She was a born GENIUS! They just didn't
APPRECIATE her SUPERIORITY to them. She put her hands on her hips
and laughed out loud with maniacal joy. "Yes!" She thought to
herself. "I am a living legend!"
She continued on her way, turning a corner and stepping into
a street, lined with expensive town houses, with lots of equally
expensive European cars parked outside. Ami stared at the cars,
angrily. These bloody yuppie freaks, flashing their wealth so
obviously and arrogantly! Her family had been one of the old rich,
people who knew how to be wealthy but maintain a modicum of
intelligence about putting it on display.
She hated these kinds of people, and promptly went from car to
car, letting down the tires. When one of the owners spotted her
through his front window and came out of his house to remonstrate
with her, she decided it was time to show him REAL power. To whit,
she changed herself into Sailormercury before his astonished eyes,
and thumped him to the ground with a multi-point Mercury Aqua
Rhapsody.
After laughing maniacally, hands on hips, over the poor
bastard's dazed form, she ran from the street into another which was
lined with shops, and proceeded to smash the shopfront windows,
humming 'Morning Moon' as she did so.
Until her stomach grumbled. She stopped as she placed a hand
on it. Unfortunately, none of the shops were food shops, and none
of the owners who were currently charging at her looked very likely
to help feed her LEGENDARY stomach.
So, after showing what can happen when one with superpowers
learns just a little of self-defence martial arts, throwing the
irate owners in every direction, she decided that she might have to
find some way to make money, to fill her LEGENDARY stomach.
She looked down at the short, blue skirt of her senshi fuku,
and at those LEGENDARY legs of hers, and decided that selling
herself might just be an option. After all, what man could resist
a GOOD LOOKING, nay GORGEOUS young lady like herself with a
combination of the PERFECT BODY and PERFECT BRAIN, dressed in a DAMN
SEXY blue sailorsenshi fuku?
She'd wipe the floor with all the other INFERIOR girls on
offer!
----o
"Aoi...." Pagan whispered as she paused. She shook her head
and turned away once more.
"My mother was the same, you know.... She was an obsessive
woman, always throwing herself into whatever it was she'd chosen to
do with her life.... She was also addicted to more prescription
drugs than is possible to name, off the top of your head. I spent
my entire childhood having to look after this.... this woman... who
had never once shown me an ounce of affection..." She paused. "Who
spent all her time getting totally wasted, sometimes even overdosing
when things got really bad.... I had to act as her safety valve,
even after she was hospitalised.... Right up until the moment she
succeeded...."
Aoi sank down, sitting on her haunches, one hand up against
the wall. Pagan watched her as she clenched her other hand, blood
running as her fingernails dug into her palm.
"You see? You see this?" She turned to him, holding out her
wounded hand and showing the tears on her face. "I can't even cry
unless I'm in pain.... I don't FEEL anything. The only opportunity
I get to FEEL is when I'm angry. And you wonder why I make myself
angry, so often? It's like a drug.... I HAVE to feel angry. It
makes me feel a tremendous pleasure.... Not from the control it
gives me over others, but the enactment of EMOTION...." She
chuckled, bitterly.
"Do you think.... that gives you an excuse.... for the way you
behave?" Pagan asked, carefully.
"I don't know why I'm telling you this.... I just.... I
just.... Who the hell else can I tell, you know?"
Pagan stepped over to her and knelt down beside her, placing a
hand on her shoulder. "I really don't think telling me this will
help you salvage your reputation, any...."
"Oh, you...." Aoi lifted her unwounded hand to slap him, then
wrapped it around him and started to bawl. Pagan, surprised by this
sudden turn of events, didn't react for a good minute or so. Then,
for some reason unknown to him, he held onto her, trying to calm
her.
"Being a crybaby doesn't suit you at all, you know?" He
mumbled as she slowly settled. Then she pulled herself away from
him and stared into his face, feeling a tremendous sense of madness
overwhelm her.
She clamped her mouth over his, passionately, and was elated
to find him responding in kind....
"Yes, you two be that way." Mhaere whispered to herself as
she stood, quietly, outside the doorway of the room, planning the
moment when she would barge in on them....
----o
Part Twentynine
Psychosis Rift
----o
It was some time later, as Kaji watched the ambulance taking
Hotaru/Saturn away, that he realised that neither Aoi nor Pagan had
returned. Nor was Mhaere anywhere to be seen. He turned to the old
priest, who had also been helping co-ordinate the medics and police
investigators that had arrived in bulk after Kaji's calls for help,
standing next to him.
After glancing in the direction of Mars, who had turned out to
be Hino Rei, the granddaughter of the priest, sitting sullenly some
distance away in the care of one of the investigators that were now
combing the grounds of the shrine, along with the two talking cats,
he queried the old man. "Where did officer Kikotsuka and that naked
guy get to?"
Rei's Grandfather turned to him, surprised by the question.
Uhh... I'm not certain. I sent Kumada-san to look for them and the
red-haired Caucasian girl...." He paused for a moment. "Strange,
you know.... The three of them... Just fell out of thin-air...."
"I know. I saw it, myself." Kaji rubbed his chin as the old
man paused, trying to gather his words together in his mind.
"I've.... seen a lot of things in my life. I was a soldier
during the war, you know.... I served as part of the home defence
force because of my training as a priest." He paused. "Because of
that, I had been sent to remote places where the spiritual
emanations have culminated in a long succession of strange events,
some I'm not sure even happened.... Lights in the sky.... Haunted
old buildings.... Monsters in the wooded valleys...." He paused
again. "But.... I've never seen anything, not even in all my years
as a priest, to match what I've seen today."
Kaji smiled, nodding. "I know what you mean. It hasn't been
one of my good days, either. And I get the distinct impression that
it isn't going to get any better." He reached into his pocket and
pulled out a packet of cigarettes, opening it. "What do you think
it was, some kind of worm hole?" The old man rubbed his chin,
considering Kaji's question seriously.
"I've seen wormholes, before. I was once called upon to seal
one up at a construction site when beasts from another realm started
making their way through. Very dangerous event... Quite a few
people were hurt." He nodded. "Yes, it certainly wasn't a
wormhole, but I have seen this kind of thing before." He turned to
Kaji, who had lit a cigarette that was hanging from the side of his
mouth. "You seem to have a very open-minded attitude to these
things, officer."
"I've had to." Kaji chuckled, blowing smoke into the air.
"I'm a member of the Sailor Investigation Unit. I look into the
affairs and events involving your granddaughter and her friends."
Kaji looked back over at Rei. "I take it you had no idea she WAS a
Sailorsenshi?"
"No. No idea at all. She's going to get a right scolding
when I get an opportunity." The old man thought it over for a few
moments, only then realising the ridiculousness of his words. "What
can I do or say? She's been running around, these last few years,
trying to be some kind of superhero. I've always pictured myself in
those terms.... The priest who runs about the country, exorcising
spirits and demons, left, right and centre.... I shouldn't have
expected her to be any different. After all, there are elements in
her personality that are very much like mine." He smiled,
shrugging.
"Oushou! Oushou!" The sound of Yuuichirou's voice rang
across the courtyard as he approached the pair, running. They both
watched as he came to a screeching halt in front of them, trying to
catch his breath. "I'm sorry.... I found them.... Those three
that fell from the sky...." He leant down on his knees, puffing
heavily. "I'm just not as fit as I used to be."
"And?" Kaji sniffed with impatience. Yuuichirou looked up at
him, shrugging.
"They're having an argument."
"They're what?" Kaji raised an eyebrow. "Well, I have to
say, that shouldn't be too difficult where Aoi is concerned."
----o
"What do you mean, take Pagan but not me?" Aoi stood at the
far side of the wardrobe room, hanging onto Pagan's arm. Not long
before, Mhaere had made the pretence of barging into the room as Aoi
and Pagan were beginning to get, for want of a better term, a little
excited. What followed was a comical scampering of the two to the
opposite ends of the room, babbling some apologies for not seeing
her immediately. When, of course, Aoi noticed it was Mhaere, her
territorial side took over, and she was back across the floor and in
between Pagan and Mhaere like the Great Wall of China.
"Look, I can't have anyone else getting involved in this, and
I'm certainly not having YOU involved.... Not with the powers you
posses.... It might only make things worse than they are, now."
Mhaere sighed, adding to her memory the fact that she should never,
again, let Pagan out of her sight, especially within 100 miles of
Aoi.
"Look, girlie.... I don't HAVE any powers, understand? I'm
just normal people. And anyway, we have to get back to my house,
otherwise those girls will take Ami.... I can't have her ending up
in the hands of some psycho cult type of group, not after having
finally bagged a senshi like her...." Aoi clutched onto Pagan's
arm, VERY tightly. "Besides, you're after Pagan, yourself. I'd be
stupid to give him over to you."
"Since when have YOU shown any interest in him? Relations
between the two of you have been fairly cool up until now...."
Mhaere shook her head. "No, you're just distracting me.... Pagan
wanted proof of Lysithea Caprice's activities, and I must give it to
him, regardless, because what Lysithea is doing is more dangerous
than any of us realise."
"She's right." Pagan nodded, looking at Aoi, who looked back
up at him. He sighed. "If what she says is right, Lysithea is
planning to open the barrier between Earth and Nemesis.... I've
known him for years.... I can't believe he would do such a thing...
Use the Coven in this way.... But I have to see for myself."
Aoi looked deflated. "You prefer to go with her, without me?"
He swallowed, sweatdropping.
"Actually...." He started, but didn't get an opportunity to
continue. Chuckling to herself, Mhaere clicked her fingers, and
both she and Pagan faded. Aoi watched in disbelief as their forms
became mere shadows, then dissipated.
"You...." Aoi clenched her fists, angrily. "YOU BITCH! I'LL
GET YOU FOR THIS!"
----o
Shimazaki leaned back in his seat, staring at the office
ceiling, thinking to himself. There really didn't seem to be
anything more he could do, right at this moment....
His one and only remaining witness/suspect to the killing of
the Sailorsenshi Kino Makoto, Doctor Mizuno, had been murdered in
the holding cells of the station, and the killer had escaped,
somehow, dashing away at the speed of light, too fast for even the
Duty Officer at the time to see....
He considered the "invisible girl" who had taken off with both
Mizuno's daughter, Ami, who had also presented herself as
Sailormercury, and that damned Kikotsuka woman.... But it just
didn't seem right.... Why try and kidnap one and kill the other?
Surely, if you wanted to silence both, just kill both.
The office door opened and he turned to greet Abe, who
entered, smiling. "Hey, Shimo-san, guess what?"
"I'm sure you'll tell me, anyway. What?"
"Kaji's found Kiko-san, safe and well.... And a couple more
Sailor girls. Ain't that great?"
Shimazaki rolled his eyes. "Yeah, I'm just over the moon.
Was one of those Sailor girls Mizuno Ami?"
"Sorry, he didn't say. But one of them was badly wounded....
Had to be taken off to hospital. I heard she was Saturn, of all the
ones that could have been found."
"Shee...." Shimazaki bit his lip. "Handle with care, lest
you set off the end of the world."
"Hmm." Abe nodded. "Anyway.... Where's Go gone? I've been
looking for him."
Shimazaki gestured to the empty office. "As you can see, he
ain't here. As to where he's gone, your guess is as good as mine.
He scarpered almost as soon as he'd told us about Mizuno's death.
Dunno where."
Abe nodded. "Strange that.... Your boss told everyone to
keep their mouths shut about that, for up to two hours after it
occured."
"Yeah, but Katarin's Major Crime. He'd know straight away as
part of his job...."
"Who told him? Your boss certainly didn't, and he wasn't
anywhere near the holding cells at the time.... I just seemed
strange."
"Maybe someone told him. I dunno.... The old man has kept
both Katarin and me away from this, cos of our work on the Kino
case."
----o
"You're sure you're not interested? I mean, have a look at
me. I'm cute, sexy and I wear a bitchin' sailorfuku...." Mercury
hung from the arm of the embarrassed salaryman who, nevertheless,
found the concept of bedding a Sailorsenshi attractive.
"Ahem.... I'm sorry.... I have to go HOME to my WIFE and
KIDS. Now, if you will excuse me...." He tried to pull himself
away from her, but she was determined.
"Aww... Come on, I need the money and I'm hungry. You just
don't like me, do you?" She batted her eyelids at him. After
swallowing, and nervously peering at everyone who was staring at
them as they walked past on the busy city street in the middle of
the nightclub district, he shook his head.
"Really, I'm sorry, Miss Sailormercury or whatever you wish to
call yourself.... I'm not into.... Not into..." His eyes bugged
as she loosened the bow on the front of the fuku, putting a greater
amount of cleavage on display. He only just managed to tear his
eyes away. "No! I'm sorry! Now, please, let me be on my way!"
He wrenched away from her, much to her surprise, and started
to walk away. Mercury was furious. "YOU DICKLESS BASTARD! I BET
YOU'RE FUCKING IMPOTENT! AND YOU'RE UGLY, TOO, YOU OLD BASTARD! I
WAS GIVING YOU AN OPPORTUNITY TO RELIVE YOUR YOUTH AND YOU GO AND DO
THIS! WELL, SIT ON THIS, EUNUCH-SAN!" She gave the salaryman the
bird and tromped away, arms crossed, bundling anyone who dared get
in her path aside. "Damn. Maybe I'm not as saleable an item as I
thought...." She paused. "What am I saying? I'M DAMN GOOD! He
just had no TASTE!" And with that, she started laughing maniacally.
Then her stomach grumbled. She paused and put a hand to her
belly. "Ahhh.... I wanna eat...." She turned to her left, and
started to drool as she spotted the cafeteria. In seconds, she was
jammed up against the window. "Oooohh.... Fooooooood....." She
started to shiver as she watched the patrons downing cakes, coffee,
liqueurs and such. "How dare those people in there eat in front of
the great SAILORMERCURY! MERCURY AQUA RAPSODY!"
What followed was not pretty.
----o
Hotaru opened her eyes to the pale, anemic, white-walled
silence of the hospital room, and the eyes of the young woman who
had killed herself, only hours before, in her presence. Hotaru
blinked, trying to focus her dazed and confused mind on the equally
dazed and confused face of Miyuki.
"You.... contrive to return to the light...." Miyuki mumbled.
"And force me to come with you...." She swallowed, rubbing a hand
on the side of her temple to which she had held her gun. Hotaru
momentarily looked around the room, trying to work out why Miyuki
was being allowed to visit her.... Here, inside the emergency ward
of the local hospital. The silence that filled her private room was
louder than she could bear.
There was nobody else in sight. Just Miyuki, looking frailer
and more frightened than Hotaru could imagine the girl ever being.
She came across as someone who was used to comfortable absolutes and
resolutions.... Anything that harboured in between rattled her. To
be brought back to life, after attempting to kill herself to get
away from Hotaru must have come as something of a shock.
"I.... just didn't.... want you to... die..." Hotaru croaked,
feeling drained of all her energy, helpless as a rag doll underneath
the patently inadequate covers of the hospital bed, feeling the
unpleasant sensation of tubes and monitors, hooked up and running
into her arms and nose. It astonished her to think that she could
ever reach this poor condition, simply by exercising her own powers.
That and the wound that had been delivered, courtesy of Miyuki and
her gun.
Miyuki studied her, with the casual eye of a predator studying
its prey, trying to size them up and decide whether to move in for
the kill. "I could kill you now, you know?" She said, flatly.
"Kill you, and there wouldn't be a single thing you'd be able to do
about it."
Hotaru met her gaze. "Would... you?" She coughed, feeling a
tight, burning sensation in her chest. She didn't want to look down
to see the wound that was causing the discomfort. The look on
Miyuki's face when her eyes were lowered to that part of her torso
was enough to tell her how bad things were. "I... take it... that I
survived... the operation...?"
"My aim has never been poor. I have always killed with every
deliberate shot. With you, I aimed to kill. And I failed. It is
that simple. Your heart was merely grazed, your lungs suffered most
of the damage." Miyuki paused for a moment. "But then, you really
don't need to know the full extent of your injuries, do you? As far
as your concerned, if it hurts, it must be bad. All of your kind
think the same way."
"What... is different.... about me?" Hotaru coughed again,
feeling more discomfort. Miyuki didn't answer, staring at her.
Hotaru wondered if the girl was thinking.... She knew, through the
probing of her mind, that Miyuki was more than a deep thinker, the
opposite of her cold and sullen exterior. But her thoughts were
askew, in a way that Hotaru could not even begin to fathom.
"Yes. What is different about you?" Miyuki pulled her pistol
from her jacket and held the business end up to Hotaru's face. The
Saturn senshi almost wet herself on the spot. "I could kill you,
right here, right now. Nobody would know who did it, because they
wouldn't be able to catch me. Understand? I'm too good for the piss
poor security guards the hospital hires. I'm too good for the
law itself. I get away, every time, with what I've done."
"Does it.... make you feel good..?" Hotaru croaked, "Does it
fill you... with a sense of thrill? A thrill... that is lacking...
in the rest of... your life..." She coughed, feeling drool run down
the side of her mouth as a shiver ran through Miyuki.... An almost
uncontrollable anger, building up within her. She hated the
sensation of emotion. It disturbed her thoughts.
"Shutup, and shutup now. I won't say it again. I am not some
benevolent enemy that has a 'good' side that can be convinced of the
right moral position to which you and your kind subscribe." Miyuki
bit her lower lip to hide the sneer that tried to cross her face.
"I know you sailorsluts better than you think.... I've had
experience with you, before." Her trigger finger trembled. "Not
only the way you hurt Kimi, by exposing her mother to the law,
forcing her to kill herself to maintain the family honour.... And,
Kami knows, that is more than enough to punish you.... No, it is
the two-faced nature that exists amongst you...."
"What... are you talking... about?" Hotaru peered into the
barrel of the gun, the entire scene washed with a sense of
surrealism. Miyuki's finger continued to tremble, like she wanted
to silence her one time mistress.... Hotaru wondered whether she
should try to calm the girl by entering her mind, once more, but
decided, considering the effect that had on Miyuki the last time,
she'd probably end up with a bullet through the brain that much
quicker.
"I'm talking about those traitorous bitches.... The ones
you call Uranus and Neptune...." Miyuki spat the names like they
were venom. "Do you realise for how long they have been working
against you? Do you realise their culpability in the death of your
comrade, Jupiter?" Hotaru was too dumbstruck by these words to give
her an answer. Miyuki nodded. "No, I can see you don't know. How
does it feel to have been so totally betrayed?"
"I... don't believe... you..." Hotaru could feel tears coming
to her eyes. Was Miyuki trying to deceive her? No. There would be
no point, and someone like Miyuki didn't do anything without a
point. But surely, creating some fantasy with which to base her
contempt for Saturn was enough of a point, a reason.... But the
more Hotaru thought about it, the less likely that seemed.
"Yes. You do." Miyuki's tone became flat and lifeless, once
more. "There is no alternative. You now face a situation that is
beyond your control and understanding. That is why you Sailorsluts
are in the appalling state you are now. Do you know where your
friends are? Apart from Mars, I think not." Miyuki lifted the gun
away from Hotaru's face.
"I know... where some of them... are..." Even as she said it,
Hotaru didn't sound so sure of herself. Miyuki shook her head and
replaced the gun in her jacket, looking tired and pale.
"What did you do to me? How did you stop my death? My
dying?" Miyuki started to wander around. "How did I get here?
This hospital...." She gestured around the room. "I feel... I can
feel Kimi.... I can feel her, alone, in the darkness.... Where is
she? Where has she gone? What is her destiny?" She leant herself
against the far wall, at the edge of Hotaru's vision, and slowly
slid down....
"Dione.... is searching... for her... longtime friend. Are...
you going... to allow her... to meet the... destiny you foresee?"
Hotaru rasped. Miyuki sat on the floor holding her face in her
hands, making not a sound. "Understand... Iapetus... Understand
why... I saved you..."
Hotaru watched as Miyuki vanished, in silence. The rushing
winds of eternity, in its infinite silence, blowing through the room
in all its terrifying magnitude, settling, replaced by the normal
sounds of the hospital. Hotaru sighed, and closed her eyes.
END OF PART 29
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Next Chapter - "Bad Karma"
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