Crystal Tears Chapter 3: Making Naru's Mother
By Aisuru
A dark swirl with traces of dark energy appeared in an alley in Tokyo. Only a stray cat watched as the swirl grew larger and a blond-haired man appeared in its midst, hovering inches off the ground. He straightened his gray
uniform and reduced power on his levitation until his boot-clad feet touched the ground. The portal closed.
Jadeite walked out of the alley and into the bright sunlight. His first stop was a clothing store. After a short assessment of the regional fashion, he grabbed a pair of name-brand jeans, a maroon knit shirt, and a baseball cap, and headed into a dressing room. Putting the gray uniform and white gloves in a subspace pocket, he dressed in the local clothing, remembering to remove the tags, and silently teleported back into the alley to avoid a complicated exchange about the local currency.
Now dressed inconspicuously (if you ignore the boots), with the ball-cap shading his eyes from the offensively cheerful sun, he returned to the sidewalk, going in the opposite direction of the clothing store he had just shoplifted. He consulted a hand-drawn map, marked with the jewelry stores that had been ransacked in earlier searches for the elusive silver crystal. Window-shopping, he looked for a jewelry store with high quality gems, where Amethyst's creations would not appear out-of-place, and very few salespeople. He stopped searching when he found Osa-P. The shop was very exclusive, and only one woman, a classy redhead, could be seen interacting with the customers. The customers were all women, and their longing as they gazed upon the highly priced merchandise was so intense that Jadeite was almost tempted to skim off a little of the energy ahead of time.
Marking the Osa-P on his map, he headed towards the deserted alley he would use to teleport back to the Dark Kingdom, stopping when a display in a bookstore window caught his eye. Tucking the map into his jean pocket, he walked into the store. The window display had showcased a book of fairytales. Realizing that Amethyst would be under forced isolation when he could not be with her, for her own safety of course, he thought she might enjoy having a book to read. He easily picked the pocket of another customer, and used the Japanese currency, which the checkout woman called yen, to purchase the gift.
*****
"Not bad, not bad at all!" Zoicite teased, not hiding his appreciation of Jadeite's butt in the blue jeans. Jadeite glared at Zoicite, not at all flattered, and with a snap of his fingers he was clad in his usual gray uniform.
'That does it, I'll only wear uniforms from now on,' Jadeite thought.
Kunzite cleared his throat, slightly amused at Jadeite's discomfort. "Could we please start the meeting?" he asked. When the generals were all seated, he continued. "Jadeite, report on the child, what was her name again?"
"Her name is Amethyst, sir," he responded. "Her awakening was successful, and she is currently residing in my own rooms. She claims to have no telepathic abilities. I have not yet had the opportunity to assess her abilities
in the travel of alternative planes."
"What about her gems?" Zoicite asked, suspicious that Jadeite had left out the one talent the child was supposed to possess.
"Her gems?" Jadeite asked as if surprised by the question. "We have all seen her ability at gems," he said, referring to the purple energy-storage gem she had held when they found her. Kunzite raised an eyebrow, wanting more information, so he continued. "I had the chance to study her energy-storage gem. She made it herself. It was simple in design, as one would expect a child to make. I'll admit it held the captured energy very well, but I don't think it was anything special." To make his point, he pulled the purple gem out of a subspace pocket and held it out to Zoicite.
Zoicite snatched the gem from Jadeite and levitated it between her hands. "It's very pretty," Nephrite commented, knowing almost nothing about gems.
"Shut up and let me concentrate!" Zoicite snapped, annoyed that Nephrite had never commented so on Zoicite's gems. The gem slowly rotated, suspended between his hands, and Zoicite closed his eyes, feeling the bonds that made up the gems and the swirling energy trapped within it. It was very simply made, but beautiful in its simplicity. The girl did have talent, but without training she could never
develop her talent, and Zoicite was going to make sure none of the gemology specialists would ever work with that creepy child.
Zoicite broke his concentration, unceremoniously tossing the stone back to Jadeite. "It's pretty alright," he commented, "Pretty simple. Pretty weak. I don't see how she'll ever amount to anything useful to Queen Beryl's
cause."
"What do you plan on doing with the child," Kunzite asked.
Jadeite would never share his plans with the other generals, and he realized he needed a cover. "Amethyst visited several of our best youma creators, as you may remember, so she may have assimilated vast amounts of knowledge in that area. I will teach her to create youma."
"You will train her?" Nephrite asked with a smirk. "First she's living with you, now you'll train her in person? I didn't know little girls were your type!"
Jadeite swallowed a burst of anger, forcing his face to be calm, his temper to be level. "You would rather me throw her to those wolves we call the Dark Kingdom citizens? She wouldn't last a day! Rumors are already circulating about the only child survivor of the long sleep." He turned to Kunzite. "If this child is to be under my protection, I must be allowed to protect her from the others under our command."
Kunzite nodded. "Go ahead and train her in youma creation," he stated. "And keep her safe in your quarters. We are planning energy gathering missions on earth, and this will require more youma. I had thought Nephrite should be allowed to investigate her abilities in alternate dimensions, but now I think it better to postpone that until Nephrite can show a little more maturity."
Nephrite glared at this comment. Zoicite giggled, distracted from Amethyst's special treatment by Kunzite's rebuking of Nephrite. Jadeite visibly relaxed. Now he had a good cover for the time he would spend with Amethyst on his energy-gathering plans. 'And who knows,' he wondered, 'Amethyst may actually be able to create a youma or two.'
*****
Jadeite returned to his quarters, deep in thought about his first energy-gathering mission, which was scheduled for the next week. He looked at the pile of gems that would be the focus of his mission. "When I replace the gems in Osa-P with those Amethyst created, I will be able to gather energy from all of those foolish women lusting after them," he boasted to himself. He sat down
picking up one of the gems and letting it levitate above his palm as he studied it. He would need to find settings for the stones and create a youma replacement for the woman in charge of the Osa-P.
As Amethyst was still asleep, trying to regain the energy she had spent in the creation of the gems, he gathered the tiny stones into a silken pouch and prepared for yet another journey to earth.
*****
'No more jeans for me,' Jadeite thought as he entered an exclusive store selling men's suits. After careful observation of how the components of the suit fit together and receiving the clerk's aid in selecting one of the most expensive, Jadeite drained the clerk of non-essential energy and left the store. The man would most likely be found within the hour and it would be determined that he suffered from exhaustion. It was doubtful the man would remember his encounter with Jadeite, and even if he did it was unlikely he would be taken seriously.
In his new suit, Jadeite approached a jewelry store several blocks from Osa-P. He asked the elderly man working there if he made custom settings for stones. The man was delighted when Jadeite opened the silken bag and displayed Amethyst's masterpieces. After agreeing to give the man one of the larger diamonds in exchange for his services, Jadeite left the shop, but not before casting an illusion in the shop. Any potential customers would find the shop unusually uninviting, so the man would have plenty of time to work, and the old jeweler, never noticing the passage of time, would likely finish the settings after two or three days of working around the clock. Jadeite allowed himself a sarcastic grin. "Stupid humans," he muttered.
His next stop was the Osa-P. He chose a quiet corner of the jewelry store, made himself inconspicuous by illusion, and watched. The customers called the red-haired woman Osaka-san, so Jadeite considered that this woman must be the owner of the shop. She was friendly with customers, very knowledgeable about gemstones, and was fixed in her prices. As he watched, several customers came
in to look, grumbling as they left that nothing was ever on sale in Osa-P. It seemed that a sale would be the perfect way to attract energy-donors.
He teleported directly to his quarters, snapping his fingers to become garbed in the gray uniform again. He found Amethyst sitting up on the bedroll, blinking sleepy eyes. He hunched down beside her. "Hello, Amethyst-chan. Have you been awake long?"
Amethyst shook her head in the negative. "Where are the gems?" she asked.
Jadeite raised an eyebrow. "You could tell that they were gone?" he asked, surprised. At her nod, he said, "They are in the hands of an earthling jeweler. He is fitting them into settings so we can go ahead with our plan." When Amethyst only continued to look at him, he realized that she was awaiting orders of what to do next. 'The loyalty of Dark Kingdom children runs deep,' he thought to himself.
"Amethyst," he began, "I would like to train you to be a youma creator. Am I right in assuming that you assimilated such knowledge?" he asked. At her nod he
continued. "Have you ever made a youma?" he asked, already knowing she would shake her head in the negative. "What exactly do you know about youma creation?"
Amethyst blinked the last of the sleep out of her eyes as she began a discourse on youma creation. She not only knew the methodology of youma creation, but she also related to him the philosophy behind it - why certain youma were better suited for fighting and others for energy gathering, why certain rogue spirits made the most loyal youma, and what exactly was required for a youma to successfully mimic another creature. "Would you like to make a human?" Jadeite asked.
It took Amethyst several days of one-on-one training with Jadeite and a few disguised trips to Tokyo before she had created a youma clone indistinguishable from the original Osaka. While it was common for youma creators to mimic the human form so their youma could blend in with crowds, it was technically very difficult to match a particular human. While Amethyst's Osaka was a bit more exuberant than the original, Jadeite was sure that even those close to Osaka could be convinced of the youma's authenticity once Jadeite had added an illusion or two.
As midnight approached in Tokyo, Jadeite and Amethyst teleported inside the old man's jewelry shop. The old man was keeled over at his workbench in a back room, obviously the first victim of Amethyst's jewels. By some chance luck, he had finished the settings of all the gems except for the large diamond Jadeite had promised as payment. "Keep the diamond," Jadeite said with a cruel gleam in his eye. "And thank you for the energy."
Amethyst collected the pieces of jewelry, admiring the craftsmanship. "You have served us well," she told him, before raising her original purple stone and capturing his remaining life force energy.
*****
Author's Notes:
PLEASE email me at aisuru_chan@yahoo.com or leave me a review. I need
feedback! Let me know, do you like Amethyst? Or do you think she is pure evil? Come on, guys, give the girl a break, she is only six years old - give or take a thousand years. Of course, she did just kill an unconscious old man...
By Aisuru
A dark swirl with traces of dark energy appeared in an alley in Tokyo. Only a stray cat watched as the swirl grew larger and a blond-haired man appeared in its midst, hovering inches off the ground. He straightened his gray
uniform and reduced power on his levitation until his boot-clad feet touched the ground. The portal closed.
Jadeite walked out of the alley and into the bright sunlight. His first stop was a clothing store. After a short assessment of the regional fashion, he grabbed a pair of name-brand jeans, a maroon knit shirt, and a baseball cap, and headed into a dressing room. Putting the gray uniform and white gloves in a subspace pocket, he dressed in the local clothing, remembering to remove the tags, and silently teleported back into the alley to avoid a complicated exchange about the local currency.
Now dressed inconspicuously (if you ignore the boots), with the ball-cap shading his eyes from the offensively cheerful sun, he returned to the sidewalk, going in the opposite direction of the clothing store he had just shoplifted. He consulted a hand-drawn map, marked with the jewelry stores that had been ransacked in earlier searches for the elusive silver crystal. Window-shopping, he looked for a jewelry store with high quality gems, where Amethyst's creations would not appear out-of-place, and very few salespeople. He stopped searching when he found Osa-P. The shop was very exclusive, and only one woman, a classy redhead, could be seen interacting with the customers. The customers were all women, and their longing as they gazed upon the highly priced merchandise was so intense that Jadeite was almost tempted to skim off a little of the energy ahead of time.
Marking the Osa-P on his map, he headed towards the deserted alley he would use to teleport back to the Dark Kingdom, stopping when a display in a bookstore window caught his eye. Tucking the map into his jean pocket, he walked into the store. The window display had showcased a book of fairytales. Realizing that Amethyst would be under forced isolation when he could not be with her, for her own safety of course, he thought she might enjoy having a book to read. He easily picked the pocket of another customer, and used the Japanese currency, which the checkout woman called yen, to purchase the gift.
*****
"Not bad, not bad at all!" Zoicite teased, not hiding his appreciation of Jadeite's butt in the blue jeans. Jadeite glared at Zoicite, not at all flattered, and with a snap of his fingers he was clad in his usual gray uniform.
'That does it, I'll only wear uniforms from now on,' Jadeite thought.
Kunzite cleared his throat, slightly amused at Jadeite's discomfort. "Could we please start the meeting?" he asked. When the generals were all seated, he continued. "Jadeite, report on the child, what was her name again?"
"Her name is Amethyst, sir," he responded. "Her awakening was successful, and she is currently residing in my own rooms. She claims to have no telepathic abilities. I have not yet had the opportunity to assess her abilities
in the travel of alternative planes."
"What about her gems?" Zoicite asked, suspicious that Jadeite had left out the one talent the child was supposed to possess.
"Her gems?" Jadeite asked as if surprised by the question. "We have all seen her ability at gems," he said, referring to the purple energy-storage gem she had held when they found her. Kunzite raised an eyebrow, wanting more information, so he continued. "I had the chance to study her energy-storage gem. She made it herself. It was simple in design, as one would expect a child to make. I'll admit it held the captured energy very well, but I don't think it was anything special." To make his point, he pulled the purple gem out of a subspace pocket and held it out to Zoicite.
Zoicite snatched the gem from Jadeite and levitated it between her hands. "It's very pretty," Nephrite commented, knowing almost nothing about gems.
"Shut up and let me concentrate!" Zoicite snapped, annoyed that Nephrite had never commented so on Zoicite's gems. The gem slowly rotated, suspended between his hands, and Zoicite closed his eyes, feeling the bonds that made up the gems and the swirling energy trapped within it. It was very simply made, but beautiful in its simplicity. The girl did have talent, but without training she could never
develop her talent, and Zoicite was going to make sure none of the gemology specialists would ever work with that creepy child.
Zoicite broke his concentration, unceremoniously tossing the stone back to Jadeite. "It's pretty alright," he commented, "Pretty simple. Pretty weak. I don't see how she'll ever amount to anything useful to Queen Beryl's
cause."
"What do you plan on doing with the child," Kunzite asked.
Jadeite would never share his plans with the other generals, and he realized he needed a cover. "Amethyst visited several of our best youma creators, as you may remember, so she may have assimilated vast amounts of knowledge in that area. I will teach her to create youma."
"You will train her?" Nephrite asked with a smirk. "First she's living with you, now you'll train her in person? I didn't know little girls were your type!"
Jadeite swallowed a burst of anger, forcing his face to be calm, his temper to be level. "You would rather me throw her to those wolves we call the Dark Kingdom citizens? She wouldn't last a day! Rumors are already circulating about the only child survivor of the long sleep." He turned to Kunzite. "If this child is to be under my protection, I must be allowed to protect her from the others under our command."
Kunzite nodded. "Go ahead and train her in youma creation," he stated. "And keep her safe in your quarters. We are planning energy gathering missions on earth, and this will require more youma. I had thought Nephrite should be allowed to investigate her abilities in alternate dimensions, but now I think it better to postpone that until Nephrite can show a little more maturity."
Nephrite glared at this comment. Zoicite giggled, distracted from Amethyst's special treatment by Kunzite's rebuking of Nephrite. Jadeite visibly relaxed. Now he had a good cover for the time he would spend with Amethyst on his energy-gathering plans. 'And who knows,' he wondered, 'Amethyst may actually be able to create a youma or two.'
*****
Jadeite returned to his quarters, deep in thought about his first energy-gathering mission, which was scheduled for the next week. He looked at the pile of gems that would be the focus of his mission. "When I replace the gems in Osa-P with those Amethyst created, I will be able to gather energy from all of those foolish women lusting after them," he boasted to himself. He sat down
picking up one of the gems and letting it levitate above his palm as he studied it. He would need to find settings for the stones and create a youma replacement for the woman in charge of the Osa-P.
As Amethyst was still asleep, trying to regain the energy she had spent in the creation of the gems, he gathered the tiny stones into a silken pouch and prepared for yet another journey to earth.
*****
'No more jeans for me,' Jadeite thought as he entered an exclusive store selling men's suits. After careful observation of how the components of the suit fit together and receiving the clerk's aid in selecting one of the most expensive, Jadeite drained the clerk of non-essential energy and left the store. The man would most likely be found within the hour and it would be determined that he suffered from exhaustion. It was doubtful the man would remember his encounter with Jadeite, and even if he did it was unlikely he would be taken seriously.
In his new suit, Jadeite approached a jewelry store several blocks from Osa-P. He asked the elderly man working there if he made custom settings for stones. The man was delighted when Jadeite opened the silken bag and displayed Amethyst's masterpieces. After agreeing to give the man one of the larger diamonds in exchange for his services, Jadeite left the shop, but not before casting an illusion in the shop. Any potential customers would find the shop unusually uninviting, so the man would have plenty of time to work, and the old jeweler, never noticing the passage of time, would likely finish the settings after two or three days of working around the clock. Jadeite allowed himself a sarcastic grin. "Stupid humans," he muttered.
His next stop was the Osa-P. He chose a quiet corner of the jewelry store, made himself inconspicuous by illusion, and watched. The customers called the red-haired woman Osaka-san, so Jadeite considered that this woman must be the owner of the shop. She was friendly with customers, very knowledgeable about gemstones, and was fixed in her prices. As he watched, several customers came
in to look, grumbling as they left that nothing was ever on sale in Osa-P. It seemed that a sale would be the perfect way to attract energy-donors.
He teleported directly to his quarters, snapping his fingers to become garbed in the gray uniform again. He found Amethyst sitting up on the bedroll, blinking sleepy eyes. He hunched down beside her. "Hello, Amethyst-chan. Have you been awake long?"
Amethyst shook her head in the negative. "Where are the gems?" she asked.
Jadeite raised an eyebrow. "You could tell that they were gone?" he asked, surprised. At her nod, he said, "They are in the hands of an earthling jeweler. He is fitting them into settings so we can go ahead with our plan." When Amethyst only continued to look at him, he realized that she was awaiting orders of what to do next. 'The loyalty of Dark Kingdom children runs deep,' he thought to himself.
"Amethyst," he began, "I would like to train you to be a youma creator. Am I right in assuming that you assimilated such knowledge?" he asked. At her nod he
continued. "Have you ever made a youma?" he asked, already knowing she would shake her head in the negative. "What exactly do you know about youma creation?"
Amethyst blinked the last of the sleep out of her eyes as she began a discourse on youma creation. She not only knew the methodology of youma creation, but she also related to him the philosophy behind it - why certain youma were better suited for fighting and others for energy gathering, why certain rogue spirits made the most loyal youma, and what exactly was required for a youma to successfully mimic another creature. "Would you like to make a human?" Jadeite asked.
It took Amethyst several days of one-on-one training with Jadeite and a few disguised trips to Tokyo before she had created a youma clone indistinguishable from the original Osaka. While it was common for youma creators to mimic the human form so their youma could blend in with crowds, it was technically very difficult to match a particular human. While Amethyst's Osaka was a bit more exuberant than the original, Jadeite was sure that even those close to Osaka could be convinced of the youma's authenticity once Jadeite had added an illusion or two.
As midnight approached in Tokyo, Jadeite and Amethyst teleported inside the old man's jewelry shop. The old man was keeled over at his workbench in a back room, obviously the first victim of Amethyst's jewels. By some chance luck, he had finished the settings of all the gems except for the large diamond Jadeite had promised as payment. "Keep the diamond," Jadeite said with a cruel gleam in his eye. "And thank you for the energy."
Amethyst collected the pieces of jewelry, admiring the craftsmanship. "You have served us well," she told him, before raising her original purple stone and capturing his remaining life force energy.
*****
Author's Notes:
PLEASE email me at aisuru_chan@yahoo.com or leave me a review. I need
feedback! Let me know, do you like Amethyst? Or do you think she is pure evil? Come on, guys, give the girl a break, she is only six years old - give or take a thousand years. Of course, she did just kill an unconscious old man...
