A Dark World
An SI/Mega X-over
By Tomas Megarson
E-Mail me at: NighthawkTM@Yahoo.com
See my page at:

Disclaimer: The characters, settings, and places of "Sailor Moon"
were created by and belong to Naoko Takeuchi. The characters,
settings, and places of "YuYuHakusho" were created by and belong to
Yoshihiro Togashi. The characters, settings, and places of "Black
Cat" were created by and belong to Yabuki Kentaro. The characters,
settings, and places of "Bubblegum Crisis 2040" belong to those who
created the anime, and are too numerous to name here.
Chapter 5

The sun was barely touching the sky above the Hikawa shrine as
a cool breeze blew through the air. There was a touch of morning dew
on the grass giving it a sheen as though it had been newly polished.
The dirt path that led from the shrine itself to the stone steps that
led from the street below, allowing the public to come to pray when
they felt the need, was beginning to be drenched by the slowly
creeping sunlight. There was, however, a distinct lack of people
visiting the shrine ever since it had been burned down in a fire the
year before. Even after it had been rebuilt it was rare for anyone to
visit to pray.

The reason for that lack of visitors stumbled up the last
step, a grin spreading across his face as he viewed his home. He
wasn't a priest, a monk, or even a religious person. The truth was he
hadn't been to a service since he was nine and that didn't bother him
one bit.

The slight breeze that carried the morning air did nothing to
move Tomas' sweat drenched hair. The black t-shirt he was wearing was
likewise soaked and his gray sweatpants clung to his legs. His arms
were hanging limply at his side as he began to stumble his way across
the large yard and to his home.

Tomas hadn't expected to be in the kind of shape he was in.
Whatever had made him younger then he should be (and shorter as well)
seemed to have also given him far better stamina then he'd had before.
He actually managed to run somewhere around two miles from his guess,
though he felt like hell now. His previous best before having to walk
had only been three-quarters of a mile.

As he stumbled his way to the door and quietly opened it, his
slightly insane grin turned to a frown. He might have run farther
then two miles, now that he'd thought about it. He hadn't had a watch
on so he had no real way to judge how long he'd been out running, and
though he knew his previous best time for a mile was a bit over twelve
minutes, he had no clue how well he'd done this time.

Still, it didn't really matter all that much to him. This
morning he was really just testing his new life out before Botan
arrived to begin his training as a spirit detective. Not that he was
all that thrilled over that mess, mostly because he was sure it was
going to lead to his death rather quickly. He knew how to fight, but
it wasn't like he was a natural at it like most anime characters
tended to be.

Sliding the door closed behind him, Tomas promptly dropped to
the floor, glad for the slight moment to relax. He only took a moment
for his breather before he began to untie the laces on his sneakers
and pull them off. Rolling onto his knees, Tomas pushed himself back
to his feet, glad that enough of the exhaustion had faded in that
short break so that his legs were no longer shaking.

Moving through his home, Tomas let his gaze take in the bare
walls and the small amount of furniture spread throughout the room.
He'd have to do something about that. eventually. Walking as quietly
as he could on his tired legs, he moved to Eve's door and opened it.
Inside the still dark room he could see Eve curled up in her bed.
Watching her in the slowly growing light, Tomas felt something grab at
his heart with some kind of need, almost shaking it in its necessity.
It was a strange feeling to him, and one he'd only felt a couple of
times before.

It was a feeling of protection; a deep seeded need to keep the
young blonde girl safe. Releasing a tired sigh and doing his best to
shake the feeling off, Tomas moved toward the sleeping girl. It was
strange to him that Eve could affect him so much even though he'd only
known her for a day. It was definitely going to take him some time to
get used to it. Or maybe not, given how well he was already dealing
with it. Shaking his head and shoving the thoughts aside, he reached
down and took Eve's small shoulder in his hand and began to gently
shake her. "Time to get up, Princess. You've gotta get ready for
school."

Slowly, as the shaking continued, Eve's eyes opened. Her gaze
turned up to Tomas and a smile came to her face as she sleepily sat
up. "Good morning, Daddy."

Smiling back at the girl, Tomas replied, "Same to you. Why
don't you get dressed while I go fix up some breakfast?"

"Okay!"

Walking out of the room and closing the door behind him while
Eve almost bounced out of bed, Tomas shook his head. "Man," he
whispered under his breath as he headed into the kitchen, "she's
nothing at all like canon. Loosing her memory really fucked up her
personality. She was never hyper before."

Pulling his mind from the strangeness of it all, Tomas opened
the fridge and looked into it. "Hmm...what to make?" Thinking for a
few moments, he shrugged and pulled out a carton of eggs and the milk
jug. "Pancakes will do. I can make those from memory, at least. I
gotta buy a cookbook or two today or there's never gonna be a Japanese
meal in this place again."

As he began to search through the cupboards for the other
ingredients and the dishes he'd need to cook up the pancakes, he
shifted his thoughts to what he had planned to do that day. The
training with Botan, well, he wasn't sure how that was going to go, or
what it would contain. After that was done his plan was to find a
local high school and enroll. While he could have probably tried to
find some low paying job, that would have sucked, and since he wasn't
sure about the laws about people his age and school, it was safer to
go. Besides, if he had to be in school for seven hours a day there
was less chance of getting sent to track down some demon that would
kill him. Dying really sucked.

Lost in the mix of cooking and his own thoughts, Tomas never
noticed when Eve walked into the kitchen and sat down at the table.
The room was silent except for the sounds of cooking for another ten
minutes. Finally, with the last pancake cooked, Tomas grabbed the
plate he'd been stacking them even as he turned off the burner and
turned to face the table. At the sight of Eve sitting there, he had
the decency to blush slightly. "Sorry Eve, I didn't hear you come in.
I'd have given you the earlier ones to eat."

"It's okay, daddy." Eve looked at the plate stacked with the
pancakes as Tomas grabbed a couple of plates and forks from their
places. "Umm...daddy, what is this?"

Going into the fridge to pull out the butter, Tomas frowned.
"They're pancakes. Hmm...I need to go shopping." Not finding any
maple syrup, Tomas dug around the fridge some more, finally smiling as
he came across a container of strawberries. "They're an American
breakfast, or from somewhere. I never really found out." Sitting
down at the table, Tomas opened the strawberries and gave Eve a plate
and fork. "They're good, put some of the strawberries on them and eat
up."

A silence grew between the pair as they began to eat. The
strawberries, Tomas was pleased to discover, were fairly sweet and
went rather well with the pancakes. With no complaints coming from
Eve over the meal, Tomas was fairly sure it was a decent success.
Still, however, as the silence grew longer Tomas knew something was
wrong, and it wasn't hard to guess what the problem was. Knowing what
he had to do, he spoke up. "Eve, you wanted to know about your
mother, right?"

Looking up from her breakfast, Eve's eyes widened in surprise.
"I thought..."

Tomas gave a small shrug. "Well, if you're old enough to ask
and worry over it, you're old enough to know." Now, he wondered, how
bad was she going to take this, and how bad was he going to screw up
telling her? "You're mother's name was Chisato. She was a rather
beautiful girl, from what I can remember. She died in a fire just
after you were born with your father, Keiji."

"With...my father? But...you're daddy...?" Eve's face was a
mix of being stricken and confusion as she spoke.

"I am now," was Tomas' reply. Boy, this was not turning out
good from his perspective. "Your parents and I were very close
friends, practically family. When they died, I couldn't let you go to
an orphanage, so I adopted you." Tomas paused for a few seconds
before the word crap ran through his mind. If Eve did the math, she'd
know that he was far too young to adopt her at the time of her
parents' deaths.

Luck, however, was with him for at least a moment. Eve seemed
to be lost in her own thoughts, tears slowly building in her eyes.
Getting up from his seat, Tomas walked around the table to Eve and
enfolded her in a hug, hoping he was playing this right. "Hey, I am
your dad. I love you, and I'm going see that you grow up safe and
happy, just like Keiji and Chisato would want. Don't you ever forget
that, Eve."

After what could have been an eternity, Eve wrapped her arms
back around Tomas. "I love you too, daddy." Eve spoke the words with
both a sound of determination and of finality. It was easily clear
that she had made up her mind as to who she considered to be her
father.

"Right, Princess." Backing out of the hug and ending the
tender moment, Tomas smiled at Eve. "Now, why don't you go brush your
teeth? You've got to leave for school soon."

Giving Tomas a big smile, Eve nodded her head and got out of
her chair to head for the bathroom. Glad that that whole problem had
apparently been successfully dealt with, Tomas through the dishes he
had into the sink and the remaining strawberries away. With that
done, he went for his bedroom when a knock at the front door caught
his ear. Wondering who it was, he changed his destination and went to
the front door and opened it.

"Oh, umm...good morning, Tomas"

Blinking, Tomas looked at Rei standing before him and spoke.
"Yeah, morning. What's goin' on, Rei?" He thought she had said she
didn't need to take Eve to school anymore since he wasn't working.

"These are some friends of mine, that's all." Rei blushed
slightly as she continued. "I forgot that you weren't working
anymore."

"Oh, well, it happens." Tomas shrugged slightly. "I'm glad
you did, though. I went out for a jog this morning and I haven't had
time to get a shower in yet." Thinking for a second, Tomas gave a
smile. "Actually, I got a knew job, but its far, far less demanding
on my time, and I need to get in shape for it. If you could keep
taking her school, it'd help me out a lot, otherwise I'll probably
have to get up at five."

"Well, it doesn't bother me any, so I'd be happy to, I guess."

Tomas gave Rei a smile. "Great, thanks, I appreciate it."

"Well, you're welcome." Looking behind Tomas into the shrine,
Rei asked, "so, where is Eve?"

"Brushing her teeth and getting her books, I hope. That what
I told her to do after breakfast." Glancing over his shoulder and
still not seeing Eve, Tomas turned back to Rei. "Say, if you come
somewhat earlier, you can join me and Eve for breakfast. I'm sure
she'd enjoy the company, and it's no harder for me to cook for three
people then for two."

"Oh, um, I'll think about." The offer had clearly caught her
off guard, not that that had been Tomas' intent.

Tomas, thinking a bit more, just started talking. "You know,
I really do owe you for the help you've been with Eve. It would have
been a lot harder if you hadn't been here."

"Don't worry about it, its not a problem."

"Still," Tomas said, "I feel rather bad about relying on you
so much and never really doing anything in return."

Rei gave Tomas a slight smile. "You rebuilt the shrine. I
don't think anyone else would have. Grandfather would be happy, I'm
sure." Rei's smile took a slightly side look as she finished
speaking.

"Hey, I got an idea," Tomas said, wanting to change the
subject. "Why don't you come over for dinner Saturday? Hell, bring
some friends and we'll make it a small party. Eve loves meeting new
people, and I wouldn't mind it either. I'll invite my...one friend,
and you can invite yours."

Rei blinked at Tomas. "One friend?"

"Yeah," Tomas shrugged, "I never really had time to make any
friends before...well, today, actually."

"Oh, I'm...sorry."

"Hey, its okay. I get by."

A silence grew between the pair for a moment when Rei spoke again,
"Good morning, Eve-chan."

"Good morning, Rei-san!" Eve chirped happily while coming up
from behind Tomas. As he stepped aside the girl slipped past him.
"Bye daddy."

"Have a good day in school, Eve. You too, Rei." Tomas gave
the pair a small wave as they walked away. He remained in the doorway
until the pair had walked away before stepping fully outside and
closing the door behind him. Sitting down outside, Tomas rested his
back against the wall and closed his eyes. So far the day hadn't gone
too badly, but he wasn't sure how long that would keep up. As his
mind turned over the facts, ever so slowly he drifted into a light
doze.

***

It was a short time later when a hand shaking his shoulder
woke Tomas up. His eyes opened to take in the female face before him.
A couple of years ago had this happened he'd have made some quiet
comment about being awoken and asked what was going on. He'd changed
a lot since he'd been in high school, however, and his reacted by
saying the first thing that came to mind. "You know, that's a rather
pretty face to wake up to. I could get used to it."

Blinking and standing back up, Botan gazed down at Tomas, the
very faint touches of a blush creeping onto her cheeks caused by the
comment. "Umm, thank you, I suppose."

"You're welcome." Tomas eyed Botan for a moment, taking in
the jeans, light green shirt, and denim jacket the girl was wearing.
All in all it looked pretty good on her, and made it rather easy to
forget she was the Grim Reaper. Climbing to his feet, Tomas gave
Botan a grin. "So, how ya doin' this morning, Botan-chan?"

"I'm alright. Its been an easy day, actually." Botan
surprised Tomas with a smile. "Since Koenma made me your partner,
he's given most of my duties of taking people to the afterlife to
other spirits. It's a rather nice change, actually."

"Sound's good, Botan-chan. So, what's the agenda for today?"

Botan looked a bit ashamed as she answered. "Not much,
actually. There's not too much that I can teach you. A lot of stuff
you'll have to learn on your own. I do have some neat tools for you
though, like this!" Reaching into her pocket Botan pulled out what
appeared to be a small bronze ring. "This is the..."

"I recognize that!" Tomas cut Botan off quickly as he took
the ring from her. "This thing will let me look through stuff, like
an x-ray machine, but it uses my Rekki."

"Yes, that's right." Botan nodded as she watched Tomas hold
the ring up to his eye and look around with it. She blinked as he
came to look at her for a moment and pulled the ring down. "What is
it?"

"Nothing," Tomas replied, a grin coming to his face. "Just
something I'd be better off not doing. So, what else is there?" Tomas
asked as he slid the ring onto one of his fingers. It wasn't
comfortable, but his sweatpants didn't have any pockets in them for
him to use.

"Well, there's this as well," Botan said, pulling a small
compass out of the same pocket that had been holding the ring. "This
will lead you to demons. I'm sure it will be very helpful to you."

Taking the compass Tomas nodded, "Yup, very useful," keeping
away from the demons, he added to himself. Shrugging at the compass
since the needle was pointing north, he turned his attention back to
Botan. "So, anything else?"

"You seem to know a lot about this."

"As I told you when you came for me, I read manga." Giving
Botan's confused look a shrug, he continued, "Don't worry about it.
It's not a big deal. Is there anything else?"

Looking at Tomas, Botan shrugged. "Well, do you know how to
use Rekki?"

"I've never done it, but I think I got the theory behind it.
Just concentrate it on a finger, aim, and shove it away. Oh, and
right now I should only be able to use it once a day."

Botan nodded. "Bingo, bingo! The more you practice with it
the more often you'll be able to use it. I guess there's nothing else
to try to teach." Botan gave a sigh. "I wonder what I'll have to do
for the rest of the day?"

A smirk came to Tomas' face. "Well, I need to go take a
shower. You wanna join me?"

Botan looked at Tomas and blinked. "What do you...you
pervert!" she exclaimed as she got the implications.

Tomas' defense was a shrug. "Hey you're a cute girl, you
can't fault me for asking."

"As a matter of fact, I can!"

Sighing in defeat, Tomas finally gave up. "Fine, fine, I
won't ask again, sheesh." Still, it had been funny to watch her
realize the question. "Anyway, I was serious about needing a shower.
I've got things to do this afternoon, and I need to look fairly decent
and not stick of sweat and B.O."

"Oh?" The perverted remark set aside, Botan asked, "What do
you need to do?"

"Well," Tomas gave Botan a smile, "I promised someone I'd look
into going back to school. I'm gonna head over to one of the local
high schools and see if I can't register. I'm not sure what's needed
to do so."

"Oh, well, that's good. School will make you smarter, and a
detective needs to be bright."

"Yup, I agree." Turning around, Tomas opened the door. "Feel
free to come in and hang out if you want, Botan-chan. I don't mind."

Botan gave it some thought for a moment before shaking her
head. "No, I'll go back and see if Koenma needs something. You never
know when a case will come up."

"Right, got it." Tomas headed inside, but quickly turned
back. "Oh yeah, Botan, I'm throwing a small party Saturday. Will you
come to it? Its just gonna be a few people and dinner, but if we're
going to be working together you should get a chance to meet Rei and
Eve at least."

"A party? Well, I don't mind, so sure, I'll come." Botan
gave a smile. "Thank's for inviting me."

"Always happy to. Anyway, I'm off to shower." Giving Botan a
wave he continued, "See you later, Botan-chan. Have a good day."
Tomas caught Botan's goodbye just before the girl faded away and he
closed the door.

***

Walking out of Juuban High School, Tomas shook his head. That
had not gone well. Not gone well at all. First he'd needed to pay
application fees, then fill out a books worth of paper work, and then
he'd been given an entrance exam to take, since he hadn't been to
school since he was seven according to records.

The exam had begun well enough, and he'd breezed through the
math and science sections of the exam, though they had been time
consuming. The English section of the exam was a complete joke to him
given he was American, at least originally. Although the strange look
the verbal exam tester had given him a strange look when he'd shifted
into his Jersey accent. After those three he'd been feeling pretty
good about himself. Then he'd hit the Japanese history section.

He was so screwed, he was sure of it. That section he'd known
almost nothing on. He took his best guesses and swore at the fact
he'd never got around to taking any classes on the subject when he'd
had the chance. That section was the true killer on him, and he
wasn't sure how the damn thing had been weighted. He just knew that
he'd done bad.

Sighing away the frustration, Tomas turned his attention to
the world around him, not that that was all that interesting. The
only good thing about it was that it was not that damn exam. There
were a number of small stores around, but none that interested him.
Of course, for a store to interest him, it'd have to either sell video
games or books. His tastes were so limited at times, not that it
really bothered him.

Checking his watch, Tomas noticed he still had a couple of
hours before Eve would get out of school. He wasn't really sure what
to do with those hours as he turned another corner. He considered
finding somewhere to buy more furniture for the Shrine, when his eyes
caught something far more interesting; a cute girl with a depressed
expression standing by the curb. The grin that came to Tomas' face
quickly vanished as he fought to decide whether to actually speak to
her or not. In the end, he made his choice. "Hey, you don't look too
good," he said to the girl, "something the matter?"

The girl turned her head to look at him, and Tomas fought the
urge to cry out in surprise. He should have known something like this
would happen, but it hadn't occurred to him that he'd run into Nene
Romanova. Thinking back for a second to what killed him, he realized
he shouldn't have been all that surprised by it. He brought his
attention back to Nene.

"Nothing I want to talk about with a stranger."

Blinking, Tomas shrugged. "Okay, I'm Tomas. What's your
name?"

Blinking back, it seemed that Nene had been caught off guard
by the response. Before she could really think about stopping
herself, she replied, "I'm Nene."

"There," Tomas grinned down at the girl, "we're not strangers
anymore. You really do look like you got a lot on your mind, so, do
you want to talk about it?"

Finding herself unable to resist the impulse, Nene smiled for
a moment at the outrageousness of it all. Still, she hesitated a bit
before replying, "I don't really think I should talk about my problems
with someone I just met."

Shrugging at the response and not too surprised by it, Tomas
replied, "Well, how about we go grab something to eat, and if you feel
like talking about it in a bit I'll be here." Looking around for a
moment, Tomas spied something that made him grin. "There's an ice
cream shop down the street. What do you say we go get some?"

Nene's eyes lit up at the mention of ice cream. She thought
about it for a few moments taking in Tomas's face. He seemed around
her age, and he certainly didn't look like some criminal dressed in
the slacks, dress shirt, and tie that he was. And most of all, he'd
mentioned ice cream. Deciding that it was alright, she nodded and
smiled. "Okay, lets go."

Walking down the street, the pair moved quietly for a few
moments before Tomas asked, "I take it by the uniform you're with the
police."

"The A.D. Police, actually."

"It must be rather exciting at times. I've come across a
berserk boomer before. It was really nasty." Nasty for him, Tomas
thought, recalling his death again. Damn, but he was remembering that
a lot. Maybe it'd fade with time, but he doubted it.

"Not for me," Nene was saying, "I tend to just handle calls,
actually." Slightly embarrassed by her answer, she asked, "What do
you do?"

Tomas gave a short laugh, glad he actually had a job now.
"I'm a detective for...a private organization, actually." Giving Nene
a smile, he continued, "I just started today, however. I'm not really
sure what I'm in for." Turning away from Nene, Tomas grabbed the door
handle and opened the door to the ice cream shop, holding it open for
Nene. "After you."

Giving Tomas a smile, Nene walk through the door, and looked
over her shoulder as he followed her in. "So, what's the organization
you work for? Maybe I've heard of it."

"Umm..." that was a tricky question for Tomas to answer.
Still, he gave it a shot without too much lying. "Afterlife Inc. The
owner is really into the occult type stuff." Glancing at an empty
booth, Tomas spied a newspaper on it. His luck, it appeared, was
really with him today as the page the paper was opened to had a photo
of a youma on it. Picking up the paper, he pointed the picture out to
Nene. "Stuff like this thing, I suppose."

Glancing at the paper, Nene shivered slightly at the sheer
ugliness of the thing. "Well, I'm glad someone wants to do something
about those things. I've heard the chief wants to get the
authorization to let the ADP deal with them, but someone high up is
resisting his efforts."

The conversation paused for a few moments as the pair got
their turn and ordered their ice cream. Tomas paid for both of them
and the pair got a booth before continuing to talk. The conversation
turned into a bit of small talk about the weather and the city before
Nene asked, "So, how old are you?"

Shrugging, Tomas replied, "I'm sixteen. You?" he asked,
though he already knew the answer.

Nene, however, didn't hear his question. "You're only
sixteen? But you act so mature."

With a shrug, Tomas replied, "I've had a hard life and I've
got a daughter to care for. I don't really have much time to act
like a kid."

Nene blinked at that and edged slightly away from Tomas.
"A...daughter...at your age?"

Tomas nodded, not noticing the slight edginess in Nene.
"Yeah, she's ten and a real cute girl." His mind came back to Nene as
he took in her shocked expression. "Oh...OH! Sorry about that,"
Tomas gave a slightly nervous laugh. He had just realized how bad all
that had sounded. "I adopted her. Eve, that's her name, is the
daughter of a couple of old friends of mine. They died, and I could
let Eve get put into an orphanage, so I took her in. She lost her
memory, though, so she doesn't remember her real parents. I've told
her about them, though."

"Oh," Nene took that in for a few moments before giving Tomas
a smile. "That's really nice of you, and it must be hard."

"Yeah," Tomas agreed, "but I grew up as an orphan, so I know
what it's like."

Glancing down at her watch, Nene shot out of her chair.
"Augh! I'm late for getting back to work! I'm sorry, Tomas, I really
gotta go! Maybe I'll see you again! Bye!"

"Um, yeah...hey, wait a second!" Shooting out of his own
chair, Tomas quickly ran after Nene, catching up to her as she reached
the door. "I'm throwing a small party Saturday night. If you want,
feel free to come, and bring along some friends."

Nene stopped moving and turned to face Tomas. "A party?"

"Yeah." Scratching the back of his head, Tomas gave a nervous
laugh, "Actually, right now it seems I might be the only guy there. I
haven't really had any time yet to make friends, so I'm trying to meet
new people. Please, if you want to come, invite anyone you want. Co-
workers, friends, neighbors, whatever."

"Hmm..." Nene thought for a moment and shrugged. "Where is
it? I'll give it some thought."

"At the Hikawa Shrine. Its not too hard to find. I live
there, actually."

"I know where it is, I used to go there occasionally to pray
before it got burned down." Nene gave Tomas another smile. "So
you're the one who had it rebuilt? Maybe I will come, if only to see
whether you got it right or not." Tomas almost got a chance to reply
when Nene's eye's went wide again. "Gah! Work! Gotta go, bye bye!"

Following Nene out the door, but not running after her as she
took off down the street, Tomas shook his head. "I don't know what's
more insane, that I invited her, or that she agreed to come." Tomas
thought for a few moments before raising his right hand and staring at
Soul Eater. "This is your fault," he muttered at the True Rune, "I
just know it is. Damn it, what ware you getting me into?" Sighing in
frustration, Tomas turned and walked away.
Author's Notes: Well, chapter 5 is now done. If this was a manga,
you could consider this the end of Volume One. Chapter 6 will pick
up...somewhere. Probably the party, but I haven't decided yet. It
may start before the party. We'll see.