You know the drill. I don't own any of the things on page 1, nor do I own any of the bands mentioned in this chapter.

Chapter V: All's Fair In Love And War

Int. Apartment 211, Hiwaka view apartments - September 19th 2002, 1:35 pm.

Mark had returned after collecting a parcel from the post office at the bottom of the hill. He didn't seem too worried about the fact that something was attacking the Electric District while he was out, although he was mortified when he saw the ruins on TV earlier. He greeted his flatmates, all of which were glued to the only English-speaking news channel after the news had come through that a bomb had exploded in the electric district, the news channel not believing the story that a guy with magical powers attacked, nor did it believe that the Sailor Scouts had returned, despite knowing all too well that there were four sets scattered throughout the world.
"Why would anyone want to attack Tokyo when Japan is not in the middle of any political situations at the moment?" Mark looked extremely anxiously as the other three, slightly agitated by the events of that day.
"Don't know, dude. Japanese news is saying that it was definately a dude causing a loada, like, major explosions, and that there's, like, been a positive sighting of the Sailor Scouts by many eyewitnesses, but this channel doesn't, like, buy the story. They're, like, saying that it was a bomb." Mark looked slightly more anxious. It was then that he remembered about Raye. She was going to go on a shopping trip the day before, but Mark had slighly injured her ankle. He thought that maybe she had in fact gone shopping today to make up for not being able to yesterday.
"I gotta go again guys. I just gotta check if someone's alright." As quick as lightning, Mark rushed out of the door and down the stairs.

Int. Hiwaka Shrine - September 19th 2002, 1:40 pm.

"Okay, okay. I'm coming." Mina was slowly walking to the cottage's back door to check who was knocking so frantically. She opened it to see the guy who was leaving as they visited Raye yesterday.
"Hi. Do you know if Raye's in please?" He looked worried.
"Yeah. She's in but she can't see you right now. She's not feeling too well." The man looked even more worried.
"Oh. Okay. I was just worried in case she got caught up in those bomb blasts earlier. If-" He was cut short as Mina looked down at the floor.
"I'm afraid she was. Me and a friend were just watching over her and someone else who got caught up." The man looked distressed as he looked above. After a short pause, he spoke again.
"May I... see her?" His voice trembled slightly. Mina paused for a while.
"Okay. One question though, who are you?"
"The name's Mark Davison. I helped your friend to get back here yesterday when she twisted her ankle." Mina nodded and stepped aside.

There was still a slight aroma of the chinese meal Raye had cooked for him the night before. Mark slowly made his way down the small hallway towards the lounge, butterflies invading his stomach as he had no idea what state she would be in. As he turned into the lounge he saw her stretched out on a few cushions on the floor, her limp, unconscious body decorated with plasters and bruses.
"No... Raye..." It had seemed that all the guns in the world had just fired directly at his heart. As he slowly approached her Lita was about to confront him, only to be held back by Mina.
"Leave him. He's the guy that brought her back here yesterday. He seems sweet enough." Lita stared at Mina disapprovingly.

As Mark started to kneel down, he noticed that her eyelids were starting to twitch slightly. He immediately looked back towards the other two girls.
"Hey, I think she's coming back around." Mina and Lita looked suprised as they rused over to her side. Raye's eyelids trembled before finally opening to see Mark's anxious face, followed by Lita's and Mina's behind him.
"Uh? Mark? What are you doing here?" She spoke softly, still in pain.
"I heard on the news that there was a bomb blast in the Electric District. I just came to check if you're okay." She smiled before looking towards the unconscious Serena to her right.
"Serena okay?" She looked anxious as Mina began to speak.
"I dunno. She's still out cold and it doesn't look like she's gonna come round any time soon." Mina looked at Mark. "Could you leave us for a second, please? We need to tell her something in private."
"Of course." Mark stood up and left the room, sitting himself back down at the kitchen table. Lita bent over Raye.

"Good to see you've come back around." A faint smile appeared on Raye's face.
"Thanks. Why was Mark talking about a bomb blast?" She looked slightly puzzled as to why he thought a bomb was to blame.
"Some cover-up story by the government." Lita was in conspiracy theory mode. "The whole of the civilised world has been in fear of terroroism ever since 9/11. If the government go ahead and say 'Oh yes. There's a madman from that group the Sailor Scouts were fighting a few years ago and he's trying to reduce Tokyo to rubble, but that's no reason to panic.', you've got a city in chaos. If they say that it was a bomb, people will be scared to go out, but nowhere near as scared as if the government announce that the Negaverse is on the loose again. Plus there's the economy..." Lita was demonstrating her polititians' skills to the max.
"Sounds like they did the right thing then." replied Mina, trying her best not to look confused.
"Yeah. Girls, what exactly happened after I was knocked out? And why didn't the outers turn up?" Raye was trying to lift herself up but was ushered down again by Mina.
"I don't know why the outers never turned up. Just after you were blasted, the creep was about to take a swipe at me, and to be honest I was frozen to the spot." Lita sighed as she tried to recall what exactly had happened. "Suddenly the guy just burst into flames and was sent flying into a nearby wall. The chicken teleported out of there before he found out who sent that fireball."
"Did you see who it was?" Raye was still trying her hardest to sit up.
"No. That's the strange thing. Not a single trace of anyone except panicking civs. It's a shame Amy's in Berlin. We could have asked her to scan the area." Lita paused. "Whoever that was, they saved my life."

Mark was fiddling about with his palmtop pc. It was a unique design; A thin black rectangle with its top-left corner a slanted edge. Printed on the back was a strange red symbol. It had always been very reliable and was taken wherever Mark went.
"Hmmm... Interesting." Mark had just found something of great interest. He was about to read further about the information he had just recieved, but was interupted by Mina. He casually turned the palmtop off as he looked up at her.
"So, er, what brings you to Tokyo?" Mina tried to sound polite despite her curiosity.
"Oh, I've come here to study at south Tokyo university. I'm aiming for degrees in computing and music. I'm in the same music group as your friend in there." Mark couldn't help but smile at Mina's charm.
"Cool. I'm doing PE studies there. I'm hoping to become a world-class volleyball player. I'm already in the Japanese national under-21 female and mixed squads. My other friend in there, the brunette, Lita Kino, she's studying law there. She originally wanted to go study Law at Oxford or Cambridge, but she didn't want to leave her friends behind since one of our other friends had already left for Berlin." Mark smiled at the thought of England being mentioned once more.
"Just wondering..." Mark had remembered what Raye had told him about Mina on that night. "Have you ever been to England?" Mina's already broad, semi-permanent smile broadened.
"It's funny you should ask that. I lived in London for a fair while a few years ago. I lived with the family of an old friend of mine, I think it was near Notting Hill." Mark didn't seem too suprised.
"Cool. Have you ever been to Liverpool or Southampton?"
"Nah. I've only ever been to London. I've heard they're renamed Liverpool airport airport after John Lennon."
"Yeah. It's been on the cards for a while now. I was born in Liverpool, but I moved to Southampton about ten years ago."
"Cool. I've seen a couple of Merseyside derbys on TV. I always try to catch it if it's on." Minako smiled once more as her white cat entered the kitchen. "Just wondering, are you a red or a blue?"
"True blue Evertonian. We've been a bit crap recently, but we've got a new manager in for this season and so far he's getting the results in." Mark stated with a great sense of pride.
"Yeah. I don't really follow soccer, but I've always supported Everton in the derbys. I've heard that Wayne Rooney's a bit of a genius with the ball, and a bit of a hunk as well!" giggled Mina.
"I wouldn't know about him being a hunk, but he's one of the best lads we've had in the squad in years. I heard he kept banging the ball into the back of the net in the-" He was interupted by Lita shouting.
"Mina! Serena's waking up!" Mina looked down the hallway in suprise before getting up and dashing to the lounge.
"Stay there." Mina called back at Mark.

Only Mark and the white cat remained in the kitchen. Mark called it over. Much to his suprise the cat sat down in front of him and looked up at his face. He noticed that there was some sort of golden crescent on the cat's forehead. Mark flicked out his palmtop once more before he decided to talk to the cat.
"So I guess you belong to Mina then." The cat still stared at him, tipping its head to one side. Mark tapped his screen a few times. "I don't know. Some guy with mega powers destroys the electric district and the scouts were almost blasted to smitherines..." The cat now looked rather awkwardly at Mark. "Oh well, if in doubt, fire's the best remedy." The cat stood up and pranced away to the lounge.

A fair while had passed and Mark thougt that it was probably time to leave since he hadn't been called back to the lounge. He rose and made his way to the lounge where he saw the four girls engaged in conversation, the two cats sitting at the side. Mark made sure he could be heard.
"Sorry to disturb you. I really must be going now. I've told the guys I was only gonna be out for a few minutes." The group looked at him before Raye quickly spoke.
"No. Please stay. I haven't thanked you for visiting me." She had one of those innocent looks on her face that no-one could say no to.
"Ay, go on then." Mark walked over to the group before sitting himself down on the dark green carpet lining the floor.
"I don't think I properly introduced you all to each other yesterday. Serena, Lita, this is Mark." Raye looked back towards Mark. "Mark, this is Serena." Mark shook the extended hand of the woman with the two blonde bunches atop her hair. "And this is Lita." Mark turned to shake the hand of the reluctant woman with the tied-back brunette hair. "I believe you've already met Mina." Mina blushed slightly.
"Pleased to meet y'all." Mark looked over to the two cats at the side. "Cats. Cool." He turned back towards Raye. "I know that Mina owns the white one. Is the dark one yours?"
"Nah. She belongs to Serena. She's called Luna. Mina's cat is called Artemis."
"Luna and Artemis, eh? Cool names. I guess you're all into mythology, then." Artemis started to approach Mark again before deciding to sit back down again by Luna.
"Not really. I guess the people at the sanctuary just had a thing for the Romans and the Greeks." Just then a rumbling sound was heard. Everyone except Serena looked around in panic.
"Whoops. Guess I'm a bit hungry. You got any cookies, Raye?" Serena chuckled as she clutched her stomach.
"SERENA!!!" called out everyone except Mark, who was giggling at the situation.

To the side Luna and Artemis were whispering about Mark and the situation which had arisen, making sure that Mark couldn't hear. The last thing they wanted was a civilian to find out that they were talking cats.
"He looks like a normal civilian. I don't see anything special." stated Luna, disbelieving Artemis.
"If you haven't noticed, the Scouts look like normal civilians as well! All I ask is that you get central to do a quick search for the name 'Mark Davison'." Artemis was becoming rather annoyed with Luna.
"Okay. I'll do it. Just don't get your hopes up." Artemis looked down at the carpet.
"So, any more news on this American Negaverse thing?" He spoke softly with a great undertone of sadness.
"Nothing except brace yourselves. My counterpart in New York says she will try to get some of the New York senshi to fly to Tokyo to help us out. London says it hasn't sent out any senshi to Japan, but their Mars senshi has gone missing." Artemis quickly looked back at Luna.
"London's Mars senshi has gone missing. All the more reason to suspect this guy."
"Artemis, this is no time to jump to conclusions. I'll do a search and tell you tomorrow. That's the end of the matter." The cats focussed back in on the group.

"Yeah! Tenacious D are the greatest!" called Serena as the group discussed the current state of rock music. "Who else would sing a tribute to the greatest song in the world or advice to guys about gettin' it on?"
"I like to listen to Slipknot's music when I'm feeling angry. I can't believe Corey Taylor's unmasked himself though!" replied Raye who was clearly passionate about this topic. "There's times where I feel that people are nothing more than maggots, a plague to this planet."
"I like Crazy Town. I can't wait to hear their new album. I just think that Shifty's so cute!" Mina blushed at the thought of her idol. "I don't really like rock though."
"I've got a bit of a strange mixture of rock CDs. I've got most of Limp Bizkit's stuff and Rammstein, but I like to listen to Feeder and 'A' when I'm in a bit of a calmer mood." said Mark as Serena nodded.
"So, er, how long have you been living in Tokyo?" asked Serena eagerly.
"Just over two days. I've flown here to study Music and Computing at south Tokyo University. I live in the apartments just across the road." All except Lita listened enthusiastically. "I live with three flatmates. The latest guy came yesterday, some surf dude. He says he's a bit of a local here."
"What's he called?" Raye seemed slightly agitated in the way that she spoke.
"Chad. Chad Kumada."

Raye froze as more memories of that night when she had so carelessly took her life into her own hands. It was bad enough that Chad had returned to Tokyo, but now he was living just across the road from her. The words echoed in her head as fears of seeing him once again took control of her. She tried to recall her memories of al the good times she and Chad had together, but it was to no avail. All she could think about was that night when he came by to say his goodbyes with no warning. Tears formed in her eyes as her friends tried to comfort her while Lita stared scornfully at Mark, who was totally unaware as to how much pain would be caused by what he had just said.
"Oh. I'm sorry. Did I just upset you or something?" Mark was quite suprised the way that Raye had broken down.
"No, no. I'm sorry. Just some ghosts from the past haunting me." sniffled Raye, clearly upset.
"I think it'd be best if I leave. Thanks for your time ladies." Mark swiftly left before any of the girls could convince him to stay any longer.
"I don't trust that guy one bit." Lita was in a particulary foul mood. Mina immediately rose to his defence.
"Come on Lita, give the guy some slack. He's only been here two days. He's one of the politest foreigners I've ever known, plus he's from England."
"So? The guy's just upset Raye if you haven't just noticed."
"Lita, please." Raye was still upset, but was trying her best to stay calm. "He didn't mean it. He has no idea about what Chad did." Lita reluctantly relented upon hearing this.
"Okay. Just don't expect me to be the best of friends with him. There's something about him that I don't like."

Int. Apartment 211, Hiwaka view apartments - September 19th 2002, 2:40 pm.

No sooner than Mark had closed the apartment's door behind him he was bombarded with questions from Jack.
"Hey mac, where've ya been this past hour?" Mark turned around to see Jack almost in his face. He also noticed that Chad was busily strumming away on his guitar as usual. Because of this he thought that it would be inappropriate to discuss Raye in the presence of Chad.
"Is it okay if I tell you someplace else? I want to tell you in private." He made sure that Chad wasn't listening in from behind the mop covering his hair.
"Sure. Personal problem?" Mark lead Jack to the kitchen.
"Not with me, no. You know that girl I had that date with last night?"
"Yeah?"
"She was caught up in that so-called bomb blast earlier." Jack looked shocked.
"Is she...?"
"No, she's alive. She was unconscious for a fair bit though. I've just been having a conversation with her and a few of her friends. The problem's this: when I mentioned that I was living with Chad, she froze and nearly broke down into tears. I decided to make a quick exit after she had calmed down in case I said something else to upset her. It's obvious that she knows him, but I don't know the relation." Jack shook his head in slight pity.
"D'ya think he might be an ex-boyfriend?" Jack thought that this might explain her behaviour.
"Possibly. I might ask him a couple of questions about her, but I don't want to get too personal."
"True. You two've been getting along the best out of the four of us. You're both great musicians, and we love the free concerts!" Mark smiled at Jack's comments.
"Yeah. I'll see if I can get him on his own before asking. If they are old flames, I guess that the last time they met ended in heartbreak, probably for her."
"But won't Chad living here make things more complicated if you do get the girl in the end?" Jack didn't want the apartment to be turned into a warzone over the sake of a woman.
"I'll cross that bridge when I reach it." With that Mark returned to his room to do some programming.

Int. Apartment 211, Hiwaka view apartments - September 22nd 2002, 6:00 pm.

It was a few days before Mark managed to get Chad alone in the flat to talk to him about Raye. Chad was on the sofa drinking a can of cold beer while watching a rock channel. Mark sat down beside Chad, silent for a few moments before finally plucking up the courage to talk to him about her.
"Chad."
"Yeah? Wassup dude?"
"I'm just wondering, do you know of anyone called Raye Hino?" Chad immediately looked up at his face, suprised that Mark knew Raye.
"Yeah. I do. Why'd ya ask, dude?"
"I bumped into her a few hours before you arrived here. To tell you the truth, I wasn't looking when I was trying to answer a call on my mobile and ended up bumping into her and knocking her over." He saw a slight glimpse of agression on what could be seen of his face. "She sprained her ankle slightly, so I helped her back to her temple and looked after her until her friends arrived. She told me something about you being a friend of hers." Chad lowered his agression slightly.
"Yeah, dude. Once upon a time. We did actualy, like, go out with each other for a while, which majorly rocked, but I left the country for like a year out when our relationship was, like about to hit the rocks. She saw that as an insult and she's, like, been majorly sour with me ever since, which is, like, totally bogus, if you know what I mean." Mark felt very uneasy knowing that he was friends with the ex-boyfriend of the woman he loved.
"So, you've come back to try and patch things up with her?"
"Yeah, I feel we might be, like, able to, like, make a fresh start of it this time. I've also come back to, like, do my degree in music." Seriously big alarm bells began to ring in Mark's head.
"Err, which university are you studying at, exactly?" He was seriously hoping Chad was not about to say south Tokyo.
"South Tokyo Uni, dude. Where else?"
"Holy shit... This is catastrophic!" was the very first thought that passed through Mark's head. Not only was his new friend going to battle with him to win Raye's heart, but he was also going to be in his music classes. Mark's world was starting to crumble. He quickly tried to think of a reply without mentioning his thoughts.
"Cool. I'll be seeing you in the seminars then."

Everyone went to bed early that night awaiting their first day of university. Mark was feeling particulary troubled, knowing that Raye would definatly not be pleased to discover that Chad was also taking music. He couldn't help but think to himself for a good hour what exactly had gone on between Raye and Chad the year before and why they looked so hurt and distressed whenever they talked about each other. This was no ordinary romance gone wrong, and now he had found himself caught up in the middle of it all. The shadows of their past haunted him until he eventually fell asleep.

End of Chapter 5.