chapter | part seven: trust revisted
[Hotaru finds herself on a dead end street. That's when she sees them hiding in the shadows, a group of about five people. All were just a bunch of lowlife thieves, here to take whatever that was worth anything on their victims and then leave them for dead.]
Thug1: Hey, where are you headed pretty thing?
[They have her surrounded, and there was no way she could escape the group. Hotaru just clenches her fists and wrap them around herself. Yahiko was right about it not being safe to be walking around by herself. Perhaps it was a bad move to split up just to be able to cover more land within the city than to go at the city in groups. She turns to face the direction of where she had came from, only to face the ones from behind her.]
Hotaru: Please leave me alone.
Thug2: We know you must be carrying some loot on you. We all saw how you just manage to come into the city in brand new garments and into one of the biggest rooms available. It's no secret. So just hand over what you have!
Hotaru: I... I don't have any money on me. I swear!
Thug3: Well, well then. Looks like we'll just have to shut you up then. Can't have anyone running to tell the police about our little group, and the dead don't talk.
[Hotaru started to feel faint again. The same kind of faint that she used to experience as a child. She closed her eyes to hopefully make the world stop spinning around her.]
Hotaru: I cannot black out now. Why is this happening to me now? I thought that after Mistress 9 was defeated, I had been cured from this weakness of mine.
[With her eyes closed, Hotaru hear screams. At the first scream she quickly opens her eyes only to see what had happened and what was all the screaming about. She wasn't sure if her eyes were playing tricks on her or what, but she saw that same man that she could have sworn was watching her awhile ago. This time it wasn't in a small instant, it was real and infront of her. He seemed to be trying to save her, but instead of rescuing her away from these thugs, it was what she saw that frightened her more then anything before. He had just easily and swiftly killed three from behind.]
Hotaru: I never seen someone die in front of me like that before. Sure the sailor senshi defeated and lay to rest many evils, but to see so much blood.....
[Hotaru started to lose her conciousness again, but this time it was from seeing so much blood and death in front of her. What she didn't notice was how the other two, standing right next to her, went to avenge their friends' deaths. However, they only met up with the same fate that the other three had. It was so close to Hotaru that some blood had even splattered on her. She puts her hand up to one of the blood stains on her kimono that she was wearing, and looks up to the young man who seems to be conflicted at what he had done. He turns to look at her with a confused look.]
Hotaru: A rain of blood. Am I next?
[That's when she really started to lose her concious state. She started to black out, but before she did, she noticed a hand had quickly gone out to catch her from landing right on her face. Then she was in total darkness.]
[When she came to, she saw herself in a similar room to the one that was rented out for her own group. She looks down to see that she had been cleaned up and changed. There was no more blood on her, and she was wearing what appeared to be a robe of some sort. She takes a slow look around the room and sees the same young man from before sitting down on the floor next to her with a short sword in one hand propping himself up so as not to let him fall over. She slowly tries to get out of the futon that she was laying in so as not to awaken the young man.]
Hotaru: I wonder how long I have been out. I got to get back to the others before they start worrying............ I wonder if he is the one..... Oh no, my communicator.....
[She takes a closer look at the young man, only to see that his face was that of a man not to far from her own age. In fact he was a rather good looking man.]
Hotaru: He's so young.
[She goes quietly off in search of her own clothes and her communicator only to find a new set and her own thrown into a basket. First she goes into the basket and searches the ruined clothing to find her communicator. It was still there where she had put it, deep within the one of the stitchings of the kimono so as to make a small pocket for it. Then she picks up the new set and sees that they were infact her size, and then takes another look at the man still sleeping away. She goes over to where he is on the floor again.]
Hotaru: [in a whispered voice] Sorry I can't stay...... Thank you for helping me out.
[She looks at him and then at the futon on which she was on. She takes the blanket that was on top, and slowly tries to place it on top of him without disturbing his slumber. Unfortunately it didn't work out as she had planned. He awoke suddenly and just stared at her with those same eyes of confusion. He gets up so suddenly that Hotaru falls over onto the floor, and then he just continues to look at her with his sheathed sword clenched in left hand. Then he finally speaks.]
Young Man: Sorry about that. I didn't mean to hurt you.
[He goes over to help her up, and as he does so he finally smiles down at her.]
Young Man: If you're wondering, I wasn't the one who changed your clothes, it was the landlady's help. Those new clothes are for you, I thought you might need them and that I owed you them for ruining your other set. [He smiles again.]
Hotaru: It's okay. How long have I been out for?
Young Man: Not to long, probably under about two hours, I think.
Hotaru: No way. I thought I would have been out longer then that. You bought me new clothes and carried me here within two hours?
[This time not only did he give her that same smile to her, but he gave off a small laugh as well.]
Young Man: It wasn't that hard actually, and I move pretty fast. By the way I didn't happen to catch your name. Mine is Seta Soujiro.
Hotaru: I am Tomoe Hotaru. Thank you for saving me back there.
Soujiro: Actually, I've never done anything like that before, rescuing someone. Normally I would have taken out everyone, even yourself. For some reason I hesitated, no, actually I didn't even think of killing you. When I saw you on the street, something about you caught my eye. You've never seen that much blood before have you? You fainting like that.
Hotaru: I don't know. I don't know if I fainted from seeing all that blood or from something else.
Soujiro: Something else?
Hotaru: Well...... when I was younger, I used to be weak and would have these black outs.
Soujiro: Weak?.... The weak....
Hotaru: Huh? What about the weak?
Soujiro: Oh nothing, something from my past as well.
Hotaru: He actually might be the one. Would you like to talk about it?
[Soujiro sits there thinking for a few moments and gives another one of his smiles.]
Soujiro: I don't know. However, I wonder why I couldn't bring myself to raise my sword at you,.... even now. It's Strange.... I have been trying to keep a low profile in this city while I'm just passing through. There are people here that I'm not sure if they would be happy or not if we crossed paths, and I don't want to attract any attention to myself. Sorry for talking so much, if you would like, I can escort you back to where you are staying at.
Hotaru: Actually......, I was thinking that since it looks like we are staying at the same place, I am just going to hang around here with you. I must find out for sure if he is the one. Our room is actually quite crowded, and I promise I won't get in your way.
Soujiro: No, I don't think that is such a wise idea. I'm just passing through, so I won't be around here for long.
Hotaru: Is it trouble for me to stay?
[Hotaru clutches the communicator that she had hidden underneath the robing.]
Hotaru: I'll just have to get in touch with the others and let them in on this later when I can get alone.
Soujiro: It's been awhile since I actually had someone I could just talk to. Well, it's only for a short time while I'm here. Not that she'll really be in my way. No, it's no trouble. Alright, I'm sure that there's another set of bedding in such a big room.
[Soujiro stands up straight and straightens out his own clothing.]
Soujiro: Well, I'll give you the room so that you can change into those new clothes. I hope they fit, I had to take a guess at measurements. Oh, and whatever it is that you left in your clothing, I didn't think was something of importance. I couldn't figure it out. Sorry if it's damaged. I'm going to see what I can do about getting some food for dinner.
[Soujiro heads on out the door leaving Hotaru alone in the empty room. She pulled out the communicator, looks it over, and looks back up to where he had left. He knew that she had taken it out from the basket after all. She gets back up and heads on over to the door to make sure that no one was around. After closing the door, she takes out her communicator and makes contact with her fellow outer senshi.]