Disclaimer: I don't own Sailor Moon! ^_^
Hm....I get the feeling that there are going to be some inconsistencies in this, you know,
with the Stars manga? Gomen nasai if there are. Ah, but anyway- hey, this is kinda' complicated
to write. Why? Oh, 'cause I have to switch from writing 'he' to 'she' when the Starlights
transform....*shrug*....um, sorry that the chapters in this are turning out to be so short. I didn't
originally intend for it to be that way. Hopefully they'll get longer as the fic progresses, ne? ^.^;;
Ja!
Seiya had stopped running some time ago- after racing through the streets for several breathless minutes- and with him Taiki and Yaten had slowed to a walk as well. Now somewhere in the heart of what had once been the thriving city of Tokyo, Japan, they surveyed their surroundings with heavy hearts and horrified eyes.
What could have possibly happened in the year they had been gone?
They could only guess....
"It's a ghost town." Seiya whispered harshly.
"No, really?" Yaten replied sarcastically, "I hadn't noticed."
"Yaten." Taiki chided, making the silver-haired youth roll his eyes. His eyes continuing to play over the ruined city, Taiki's lips pressed into a thin line and his demeanor became grim. "....I hope THEY at least made it through whatever happened."
He didn't have to explain who he was referring to with the word 'they'; both Seiya and Yaten were fully aware that he was talking about the Sailor Senshi, and both of them held the same faint hope inside of them. Their friends HAD to have made it out....but....from the looks of the city, not much HAD survived....
"I'm sure they're fine." Yaten shrugged, trying to sound nonchalant and not quite managing it. "They're like cockroaches, for Kami-sama's sake! They could survive a nuclear holocaust-"
Seiya glared at him; "will you shut the hell up-?!"
"Just because you're worried about Tsukino-san-"
"And you're not worried about Minako?"
"Why would I worry about HER?" Yaten demanded, suspiciously defensive, "she's my bloody STALKER!"
"Oh come off it!"
"At least I don't follow her around like a puppy-"
"Guys!" Taiki snapped finally, making them both blink. The brunette folded his arms over his chest. "Fighting is going to get us nowhere. We need to find out what happened and see if anyone is left ALIVE here. So what should we do first?"
A long silence fell over them and they all considered their options. If anyone WAS left alive, where could they be? And if there was no one left, then what? Seiya, of course, had only one mind set; find Usagi. Now. Make sure she's safe. Now....but Taiki and Yaten, despite their friendship with the senshi of Earth, were able to think ahead more.
"I'm going to Odango's house." Seiya announced after a moment. "Maybe she's there."
"Are you kidding?" Yaten rolled his eyes, "she's not going to be-"
"Yaten! Enough!" Again, Taiki broke up their quarreling. Looking at Seiya, he nodded slightly; "it's as good a place as any to start."
"Alright then."
They set off, Yaten grumbling along the way, to Usagi's house. There was no way of knowing if she would be there, of course, besides checking....but the situation looked grim, and all of them- Seiya included- doubted that they would find anything. Still....they had to check. And if she wasn't there, as they all thought was going to be the case, they would simply move on and check someone else's residence....
....until their found them all....dead or alive....
"Here."
Seiya stopped at the fence in front of Tsukino Usagi's home and looked upward at the window, remembering the time he had showed up at her house in the middle of the night. She had come out onto the balcony in her pyjamas and spoken to him, jokingly calling him a Peeping Tom....
He almost smiled at the memory, but instead he pushed the gates. Unlocked, they swung open at his touch. Unlocked? That isn't a good sign.... Stepping over the property line, he approached the front door with Taiki and Yaten just behind him.
The door, too, was unlocked, the window next to it shattered.
The black-haired ex-celebrity, with the others following his lead, entered the house. It felt strange, being back there; he had only been to Usagi's home a handful of times....Taiki and Yaten had only been there once....and that had been a disaster, to say the least. It felt weird to back on Earth in general, but to be going into the Tsukino residence....without knocking, without being invited....it just felt....WRONG....
Seiya no baka. His mind said, I doubt anyone would mind, given the circumstances.
But still....
"Hello?" He called, "anybody here?"
His own voice echoed back from down the hallway. A blink. He hadn't known echoes like that could happen in a house. But he pushed those thoughts- trivial as they were- to the side. No one had answered his call.
"Shimatta."
Walking to the first doorway, he peered around the corner and into the kitchen; pots and pans were out on the stove and counter top. A cutting board beside the sink held the remains of a rotting head of lettuce, the knife that had been used to chop it on the counter. Various other vegetables littered the floor; a bag of flour sat, opened but unused, on the island in the center of the kitchen.
"Kami-sama," Yaten muttered from behind him.
Agreeing wholeheartedly, Seiya stepped over the debris on the floor and approached the stove. Lifting the lid from the pot that was sitting on one of the elements, he frowned at the liquid that was still inside. It might have been soup, but he really couldn't tell anymore.
"Tsukino-san's mother was cooking?" Taiki asked softly.
"Hm." Seiya nodded, "whatever happened, it happened fast...."
He was about to set the lip back onto the pot when a stifled gasp from Yaten made him pause. He looked over his shoulder; the other boy was standing across the kitchen from him, behind the island. Yaten was staring downward, his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open slightly.
"Yaten?"
"Oh-" The silver-haired youth stepped back, nearly bumping into Taiki who was approaching from the side. Swallowing, Yaten repeated what he had said earlier; "oh Kami-sama!"
"Seiya...." Taiki whispered, "her mother-"
"What?" Seiya blinked, surprised at them. Not since the battle with Galaxia and the loss of Kakyuu had he seen either of them show the kind of terror and sadness that they were displaying now. Still holding the pot lid, he took the handful of steps around the island to see what was causing their reactions-
-and stopped.
The pot lid fell from his hand, landing on the linoleum with a ear-shattering crash.
He ignored it.
"Oh no-"
The corpse that was sprawled on the floor in front of them was nearly rotted away to bones; only a small streaks of flesh still clung to the star white of the skeleton. A soup ladle was clutched in one bony hand, and the lower jaw was sagging in a silent but no less horrible shriek. Long purple-blue hair, some of it still attached to the skull, spread out around it.
Seiya had never met Usagi's mother, but he had the feeling he was looking at her- or what remained of her- now.
He had to consciously fight the urge to throw up.
Dead....dead....oh....Kami-sama! Kami-sama, no! Are they all dead? Is Odango....
"No!" He said, his voice soft but forceful. Shaking his head he stepped back, his shoes crunching on broken glass as he retreated from the corpse. Yaten and Taiki backed away after him, their eyes still on the body. "No!" He repeated, louder.
"Seiya-"
Something snapped inside the black-haired youth at the sound of his name and he whirled around to sprint out of the kitchen. Taiki shouting after him was lost on his ears as he ran through the house, swiftly checking rooms as he went; no one in the dining room; in the living room, two more bodies, both male- Usagi's father and possibly a brother? He didn't know, and he didn't care.
Reaching the stairs to the second level, he took them two at a time.
Behind him, Taiki and Yaten were scrambling to follow.
"Usagi!" He burst through the doorway to her bedroom without a second thought and his eyes searched the room frantically....
....and found nothing.
The room was in shambles, yes; books, stuffed animals, electronics and other worldly possessions were thrown about. A set of bookshelves had been knocked over. The dresser drawers had been pulled out and their contents spilled across the floor. The bedclothes had been ripped from the mattress and the headboard of the bed itself had been spit in two.
But despite the wreckage, there was no sign of Usagi.
Thank God!
"All the other rooms are like this, too," Taiki said from the hallway. He and Yaten had been following Seiya, of course, but had also taken the time to really CHECK the rest of the rooms in the house. "It's almost as if someone wanted to ruin the house and everything inside of it as well."
"What the hell could have done all this?" Yaten wondered out loud.
"I don't know." Taiki responded flatly.
Seiya was silent. She's not here....she's not here....she's not DEAD.... but even as he thought it, he knew it was a rash conclusion. She hadn't necessarily been at home when the destruction occurred. I have to find her....please, Odango, be alright! Be ALIVE!
He was about to turn and leave the bedroom when something among the wreckage caught his eye. Walking farther into the room, he stooped and picked up a picture frame. His heart wrenched when he turned it over.
Usagi stared back at him, Mamoru and a little pink-haired girl by her side.
Mamoru....
He will have protected her. He said he would.
"Seiya?" Taiki's hand came down on his shoulder and he jerked his head around, dropping the picture back onto the ground. The taller boy looked concerned; "we still have a lot of places to check. She's not here....at least we know that much, ne?"
Seiya nodded, "yeah...."
"Hurry it up, would you?" Yaten snapped from the doorway, sounding annoyed; "we don't have all-" he broke off when something touched his arm, and jumped a foot into the air, falling into the room; "ahh!"
"Yaten!"
"What-!"
The silver-haired boy sat on the ground for a moment, wincing, "shimatta! What the hell was-"
"Yaten-kun?" A voice asked softly.
"Huh?" Yaten blinked, surprised, then; "A-Aino-san!"
The blonde emerged from the hallway to stand just inside the bedroom. "It's me...."
"Minako!" Seiya exclaimed, "what are you-? I mean, where-?"
Minako looked at him, eyes shining with tears; "is it really you? Seiya....Taiki...." she turned her gaze to Yaten, who had scrambled to his feet and was staring at her in shock. "....Yaten...."
"Aino-san, what-" he began.
"Yaten!" With a muffled sob, Minako flung her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly, burying her face in his shoulder. "Yaten-kun! You're back....you're....it was horrible....they....they...." she trailed off into helpless sobs for a long moment, then simply repeated; "it was horrible!"
"Whoa, whoa!" Yaten struggled to untangle himself from the blonde, an extremely uncomfortable look on his face; he had never been good with that sort of thing. "Aino-san, what happened?" Minako didn't respond and instead continued to cry into his jacket. "Aino-san! Come on, focus!" Shaking her lightly, he stared at her intently; "Minako, you have to tell us what happened."
The sound of her first name made Minako pause. Taking several shuddering breaths, she released Yaten and stepped back to look at him. "Y-you called me....you called me Minako i-instead of Aino-san!"
"Y-yeah, well," Yaten shrugged it off; "don't read too much into it."
"Minako-" Taiki said from behind them, "what are you doing here?"
"Here...." the blonde looked around vaguely, "I- don't know. I've been looking for....the others and....I just ended up here...."
"What happened? Minako, tell us what-"
"They came...." she said, interrupting what Seiya had been saying. "They came after you left....from the sky....they just came and....and everyone died...." her eyes welled with tears and she trailed off again.
"Here-" Yaten said, uncharacteristically nicely. Ignoring the odd looks he received from Seiya and Taiki, he reached out and pulled the blonde in to hug her again. Holding him tightly, Minako again buried her face in his shirt. "....we're here, we can help. It's okay...."
He says he doesn't care, but....
"They were so powerful...." she said, her voice muffled, "....so powerful....the whole city....all of Tokyo....they killed them all...." a pause and a handful of sobs, then; "....anyone without the blessing of a planet....we managed to survive, but....they're hunting us down....one by one....we hid....and now....now I can't find anyone....they may have been caught and...."
Seiya knew what she wasn't saying. Caught, in that tone, meant 'killed'.
"You keep saying 'they'," Taiki said to her, "who do you mean?"
"....." Minako looked up at them, past Yaten's shoulder. "The Oscuridad," she replied softly, her eyes taking on a far-away look. "The Oscuridad. There was so much power....so much...."
"Minako, what do you mean?"
The blonde's eyes still held the far-away feeling as she responded. "Their power was awesome....greater than any I've seen...." she trailed off, and a half-smile played upon her lips. Yaten couldn't see it, of course, but Seiya and Taiki certainly did, and both of them suddenly felt dread well up inside themselves. "....the greatest power in the universe...." she whispered, "....dark....seductive....wonderful...."
Yaten jumped slightly at the last word, "wonderful? Minako, you-"
Minako smiled over his shoulder at the other two, and clamped her fingers into the cloth in the back of Yaten's jacket. Tilting her head back, she brushed her lips against his ear, even as he attempted to push her away. "Oh yes," she said softly, "....most wonderful...."
"Yaten!"
"Kami-sama!"
"M-Minako! Shimatta!" Yaten shouted struggling push her away; "Kami-sama! What-?!"
And Minako, still smiling darkly, opened her mouth, licked her lips once, and dug her
teeth into his neck.
_____________
Me: Yeah, okay. More notes at the end of the chapter. Sometimes I do this....um, the word "Oscuridad" is Spanish for "darkness". (I just got a Spanish dictionary so I'm going to use a handful of words from it in this. Mostly because I've used all the good words-that-can-be-used-as-names from my Japanese dictionary u already.) Minna, I have a question- do you think, given the content of the story, that I should maybe up the rating? I'm thinking possibly, but I'm not sure how much violence and death constitutes NC-17. Anywho, let me know. Ja again!