Chapter Four: Gray Demon

Chibiusa awoke with a sense of confusion and uncertainty to find herself lying in a field of tall grass. She looked up into the sky, it was clear and the sun was warm. She closed her eyes and inhaled, the air was so clean, so pure.

'Where am I?' she thought to herself as she reopened her eyes. The last thing she remembered was being thrown into the time portal by Pluto after the palace had been attacked. She sat up from the ground and looked around. Surrounding the field was a wall of trees and forests, nothing was familiar to her. She rolled her eyes and sat up from the grass, 'Okay, no problem. This has happened before, I'll just find the Senshi again just like before with Prince Diamond and Sapphire,' she thought as she began making her way though the heavy grass. Luna P followed in the air beside her like usual, always faithfully beside her.

She must've walked almost five miles through thick forestry before finding a faintly noticed path running along beside a small lake. After following it for a few minutes, she saw ahead of her a large clearing where she could almost hear voices.

"God, it's about damn time-"She groaned annoyingly as she pushed her way through more trees and braches. She thought to herself that perhaps it wasn't a good idea to wear shorts and tank top that day, even if she didn't know that this would all happen.

She pushed away a large tree branch to find a large village resting on the large clearing. She heard the voices of hundreds of people, she smelled what she thought was fish and noodles in the air; and as she looked closer at the people, she noticed all of them wearing kimonos or old fashion Japanese clothing.

Chibiusa stared in complete awe and confusion, "Where the hell did Pluto send me?!" As she began walking towards the village, she greatly regretted her clothes. She began to blush embarrassingly from the looks and stares she received from the townspeople; she needed to get real clothes so she wouldn't look like such an idiot. Even Luna P seemed slightly embarrassed as it slowly sunk behind Chibiusa and snuggle against her back to almost seem to hide.

The first thing on Chibiusa's agenda was to get herself some 'normal' clothing to fit in better with the crowd (the last thing she wanted was to be noticed). She found a small store off the side of the market place which seemed to be selling kimonos and clothing. In a breath of relief, she walked into the shop and began looking over the choices she could make. The store clerk was a large elderly man with a long white bear and stained shirt. As Chibiusa was making her selection, she could've sworn that he was staring at her chest with her tight tank top. She blushed slightly in a greater regret than she had felt before and grabbed a kimono to try on in the other room.

As Chibiusa walked into the other room to change, she didn't notice a tall, young, gray-haired woman staring at her from a noodle stand across the street. Her hair was cut short and flared out behind her ears and her eyes shined a dark red in the sunlight. She wore a brick-red kimono with elaborate black designs sown into the fabric. Across her waist was a thick black sash which held a samurai sword sheath tightly against her side. Her eyes narrowed on the door which Chibiusa had walked through and slowly took a step away from the noodle stand.

Chibiusa stepped out from the dressing room wearing a blue kimono with green embroidery. It fit very nicely on her and made her almost look a little taller.

"You pay now," The store clerk said dully as he reached his hand out. Chibiusa froze and slapped her hand against her forehead.

'Oh Shit! I don't have any money!' she thought, panicking to herself. She turned to tell the clerk of her brokenness, but was interrupted by a small sack of money hitting the counter loudly. She turned her head to find the gray-haired girl standing darkly in the doorway.

The store-clerk smiled greedily as he grabbed the sack of money and picked through it to count the yen. Chibiusa stared, somewhat confused at the woman who had been oh so generous in paying for her.

"Uh, thanks-" Chibiusa stuttered as she stepped forward towards the girl, but the girl stepped away and walked off without a word. Chibiusa stood, now in complete confusion as she watched the girl walk away. She quickly turned to the store-clerk, busy with his counting, and snapped her fingers to gain his attention.

"Hey! You! Who's that girl?" she asked curiously. The store-clerk took a break from his counting and scoffed.

"Girl? Ha! That's no girl, you fool. I remember her as a boy fifty years ago, she looks the same now as she did then. She's a demon, that woman. She wanders around, sometimes helping random people when needed, but usually causes trouble. She never ages, never grows any older, and never will die," he explained as he placed the gold coins inside the sack.

'A demon?' Chibiusa thought to herself as she looked outside again to see the girl had disappeared within the large crowd of people.

As Chibiusa walked out from the store with her new kimono and Luna P floating closely beside her, a loud crash erupted loudly further down the market place by a mask stand. The stand was thrown violently into the air and crashed heavily onto a small group of people caught up in the confusion. Chibiusa looked over to the commotion to find a man twitching violently as he walked in the middle of the road.

"I can feel it.it's so powerful!" he shouted darkly as his skin broke along his shoulders to reveal a dark green demon skin underneath.

"Ahhh! Demon!" a woman screamed as she ran away, causing the people to follow. The demon looked up, it's human skin fell away to reveal the ugliness underneath. It's bright red eyes glowed angrily as it stared directly at Chibiusa standing alone in the center of the road.

"The lost crystal!" he growled as he charged violently towards her, claws grown out from his fingers and teeth bared.