Chapter 6: Revealing Secrets
They had arrived at Rei's grandfather's Shinto shrine an hour earlier. First they had mended their wounds and broken bones with ancient Shinto medicinal magic, and Artemis and Luna knew some healing magic as well. They were sitting in one of the small buildings, which had wooden walls, standing upon a small stone foundation. All of them - except Gohan - were nervous, Rei's announcement that Gohan could obliterate the planet with ease still ringing in their ears. Finally Usagi was the one who asked the burning question, "Ok, you know our secrets, now you tell us yours? Who are you? What are you? Because there's no way you're just a human being!"
"Actually," Gohan answered with a slight smile. "I /am/ human, just not one hundred percent so, and I /do/ know pure Humans who are as - or at least nearly as - strong as I am, and could have done what I did with the same ease." The group of warriors and two cats around him just looked silently at him, some a little astonished, but mostly just waiting with impatience dripping from their faces for an actual answer. Gohan sighed, and then continued, "I was born on Earth, in a different dimension from yours. My mother - still very much alive - is the crown princess of the king of the Ox kingdom. I have a little brother Goten, who got me here. My father is Son Goku, and he's one of the last surviving Saiyan's - a race of ruthless, evil, sadly once noble, warriors. He was sent to the Earth to destroy it when he was just a baby, but he got knocked on his head and forgot who he was. Instead he became Earth's greatest hero . . . He /is/ dead, he sacrificed his life to save the world."
The group looked at him with large dumbfounded eyes. Finally Ami's sharper mind digested the information first, "That would make you the crown prince of this Ox kingdom, and a half-Human, half-Saiyan hybrid." Gohan nodded. "How did you get here? Magic?" Ami asked frowning over Gohan's statement that his little brother got him here.
Gohan shook his head, and gathered his thoughts, trying to figure out how to say this. "About a year ago, in /another/ dimension an ancient and evil Hellgoddess tried to get back to her own dimension. The only way for her to do it, was to utilize an equally ancient dimensional key. Unfortunately that key opened /all/ dimensions everywhere at the same time, including ours. During the time the tear was open, quite a few people from other dimensions got sucked through and ended up stranded in our dimension by the time the Hellgoddess was stopped and the tear closed. Since then one of my friends - Bulma Briefs is her name, a friend of my father's even before I was born - has been experimenting with an interdimensional ship, so we could send them back home. My little brother managed to sneak into the lab room just when we were about to send the first prototype with a living being inside across the dimensional barriers. I managed the get Goten out of the way, but I was sucked along for the ride."
"A year ago?" the white cat Artemis frowned, and then looked at Luna and then at the girls. "So /that's/ how the Negaverse managed to regain entry to our realm, they must have used that dimensional tear."
"Damn," Ami cursed uncharacteristically, the others looking at her with wide eyes of shock, "That's why you enjoyed discussing hyper-dimensional physics with me so much! All those 'what if?' questions, there was no 'what if?' about them, am I right? How often did you laugh at my answers?"
Gohan grinned a little, and said, "Not often, a few times your answers were a little amusing." Ami folded her arms across her chest, and hmpfed with indignation. Gohan smiled at her. "Sorry," he apologized.
Usagi got up then and walked over to Gohan who looked puzzled at her. Usagi stuck out a finger and touched his cheek. "What was that for?" Gohan asked, feeling his cheek where she had touched.
"Just wanted to see if you were real," Usagi told him with a large eyes. "Till now, every alien I've seen were evil and wanted to kill me."
"Not evil here, and only half-alien. Remember, Bunny?" Gohan told her, smiling. Usagi narrowed her eyes at him, and sat back down.
"How do you know about the Hellgoddess?" Rei asked, intrigued by Gohan's mention of a god as if it was nothing.
"Well, another Saiyan, who had escaped Vegeta's - the Saiyans' home world - destruction into that other dimension came to our dimension on an important errand just before the portal opened. His ship is basically what Bulma's designs are loosely based upon," Gohan answered and looked around the room for any more questions.
"You won't be staying here," Makoto stated suddenly, sad at the revelation.
Gohan shook his head, "The moment I fix my ship, or Bulma finishes a new one and sends it to me, I'm going back home. I've really enjoyed being here, but it isn't home."
"An evil kami," Rei said softly, marveling at the concept. "An evil goddess, straight out of legends and myths. How come you talk about it like that's no big deal?"
"Because it isn't?" Gohan tried with hunched eyebrows.
"BECAUSE IT ISN'T!?!?" Rei exclaimed in disbelief. "Look at me, I'm studying to be a Shinto priestess. I believe in kamis, but I've never seen one, if they've ever been visible, real life, 'hello, how are you?' present, it's been eons ago . . . and although I believe they are still around, I have no proof; I don't /know/ they are real, or ever /have/ been real. How can you talk about gods, like they're no big deal!? As if you've met one in person!?"
"Two, actually, one being the successor of the first," Gohan told her. Rei's jaw dropped, so did the others. "The first was Kami, that was his name 'Kami', like my name is 'Gohan'. He was kami of the Earth, it's guardian. The second kami's name is Dende. He's about as old as I am, a year a younger I think, we've been friends, kind of, even before he took over position as the god of the Earth." The others looked in disbelief, as Rei sputtered out something unintelligible. "Of course, that's my dimension," Gohan added to temper his statement and their reactions, "I've got no idea whether there is even /one/ god in this dimension." Gohan scratched himself behind his ear thinking it over. "I could go check if the Sanctuary exists here as well, or something similar," he contemplated thoughtfully.
The team, including the cats, now looked at him mouths agape. Here a fellow mortal was casually mentioning to go look up a god and say 'hi,' as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "Y-you can?" Minako wondered, getting her bearings straight. She was the least religious of them, and so she managed to pull herself together first. "That would be . . . awesome."
"Ok, then," Gohan said with a smile. "Let's go visit kami." Some of their jaws dropped even more. Gohan walked outside the small building, the team of heroines following him. Gohan closed his eyes and reached out with his senses to where the Sanctuary was located in his dimension. He didn't really sense anything, except a certain something, a lingering, a presence somehow blacked out. "All right," Gohan said, hovering into the air, "let's go."
"HOLD IT!!" Usagi screamed hysterically. Gohan looked down at her with a puzzled face. "Are you nuts!?" she asked, quite pissed of. "You're in luck nobody recognized you this afternoon, or the media would be out looking for you already: exclusive interview with hero Son Gohan." Usagi shuddered once at that, "You need to put on a costume, disguise yourself, like a proper super hero."
"I'm not a hero," Gohan answered looking somewhat taken aback.
"Nevertheless," Minako added to Gohan. "Usagi is right, you'd not only endanger your own privacy, but ours as well. You need to put on a costume."
"Yeah, Gohan," Ami added.
Gohan scratched his head, and asked, "Where do I find one?"
*****
The girls had scrambled for an hour, mixed existing costumes they could get their hands with cloth they sowed together. But eventually Gohan stood in a deep red and black outfit, that looked a lot like a ninja uniform. The suit went out over the back of his hands, giving him a dangerous look, and the black patches were such it gave somewhat the appearance of tiger stripes. He also wore a ninja's mask, leaving only his eyes visible, except that it stopped at his hair line, leaving his hair uncovered and visible for anyone. Gohan looked at himself in a mirror somewhat, and tried out the suit, moving around in it. He had been quite self-conscious about the hole disrobing in front of the girls thing, seeing Makoto's and Ami's reactions to him clothed. But they had seemed quite in control - of course they, and the others, were drooling whenever Gohan couldn't see. The girls had told him they had used some of their magical trinkets to make the costume sturdier than if it was just sowed together (also neatly covering up the fact that none of them really knew how to sow together a full costume, seeing as their costumes magically appeared and disappeared).
"That looks good," Luna commented looking at the newly clothed, and style-improved Gohan.
"Yeah, awesome!" Makoto added with a wide grin.
"Wow, scary and cool," was Minako's comment.
Usagi grinned widely, and called out enthusiastically, "Yeah, we're good!!"
"Now we only have to come up with a name," Ami said as Gohan turned around and looked at his friends.
"How about Superman!?" Usagi blurted out, and the entire group looked at her like she was insane. "Well, it's a classic."
"Ultra Ninja," Makoto suggested with a bright grin. "He fights for truth, justice, and the Japanese way."
Gohan outright glared at Makoto for that suggestion. "You make me sound like a washing detergent," he told her.
"And that sentence behind it," Artemis added with a growl. "It sounds bad enough with 'American way' behind for that comic book fool, this is just disgusting. There are more people in the world than just the Japanese, or American, or whatever."
She shrank back a little and said, "It was just a suggestion."
"Ninja V," Minako suggested suddenly with a bright smile.
"Oh, right," Rei commented with an annoyed face, "Minako and ego? Nooo, of course not. I only give other heroes my moniker, Sailor V, Ninja V!?"
"I can't help it that using V gives a whole air of being shrouded in mystery," Minako countered with a smug grin.
"I like it," Gohan stated, making Minako's grin widen, and Rei's scowl deepen, "but I'm making a slight alteration for the better: Ninja Z." Minako's face fell just a little, and Rei stuck out her tongue at the blonde. "All right then, everybody transform, then we can go and see if we can find god." The team was still amazed at the casualness with which Gohan talked about a god, but they quickly performed their transformation dances. Being so close by, Gohan's eyes suddenly widened: for a brief few moments they had been naked, although their forms were mostly reduced to a silhouette by the light show. Gohan blushed, and was glad the mask covered his face so nobody saw. Once the five magical girls had finished their impressive transformations, the whole group, including the cats went outside. Then Gohan burst his energy around him, and he said, "Everybody get a little closer." They did as he told them, clustering close by Gohan, and then he expanded his ki flame around them. The girls swallowed, looking nervous, so did the two talking guards. "Ready? Okay then," Gohan said.
"WAIT!" Usagi screamed out. She had been bluffing about being cool with flying, now she was too scared to actually do it. She screamed out, too late though, and Gohan and the whole group lifted off the floor, not too fast, since Gohan was mindful of his friends not being able to handle the g-forces he could generate if he accelerated as fast as he really could. "AAAAAHHH!!!!" Usagi screeched out, much to the other Sailor Soldiers' dismay.
*****
Gohan suddenly slowed down, and carefully looked around himself. The Sailor Soldiers looked around with astonishment, taking in the beautiful vista of north-west Canada, close to Alaska. "Hmm," Gohan muttered as he carefully let his senses go outward. This was where the sanctuary was in his dimension, coordinates wise that is - climatologically or country wise it was completely different.
"Wow!" Minako muttered in awe, still incredibly impressed by the flight over here. She had felt free like a bird, on occasion fear gripped her heart, as if sitting in a roller coaster, and now the beautiful sight.
"A-are we th-there yet?" Usagi whimpered peeking out from behind her hands.
Rei sighed in irritation, "No, and don't be such a baby, do you see any of us being scared like that? Not even Luna and Artemis are afraid."
The cats were looking just astonished as the girls, but Luna had to say, once again, "I don't see how there could possibly be a kami - at least one you can just look up. I think we would have known, we've fought for the Earth, and for the Moon, and throughout our solar system. I think . . ."
"WE KNOW!" the girls called out in irritation at hearing the cat's complaint for the hundredth time.
Gohan had ignored their squabbles - lest he go insane, he thought - and told them, "These are the coordinates of the Sanctuary back home, but it isn't here." Gohan thought for a moment, before adding, "Now it doesn't have to be anywhere near here, but I'm willing to bet it's close by, somewhat on the roof of the world and all." The girls looked around, but other than the stunning vista they saw nothing, and Ami said so. Gohan nodded thoughtfully, and then grinned, "Oh, you're a tricky one. Hold on." Gohan then shot forward with a smile on his face, and then shot up, up in the air diagonally still shooting forward. He made a back to the left - the north - and shot onward. The Sailor Soldiers looked with wonder at the onrushing beauty, more and more trees covered in snow.
After another few minutes, and fifty or so kilometers Gohan slowed down again. He hung in the air, the girls looking expectantly at him. "Yep, right there," Gohan pointed after piercing the veil.
"Huh?" Makoto muttered, voicing all of the others' thoughts.
Gohan chuckled, and said, "Just wait." Again he shot forward, traveling another kilometer or so, flew a little upward and then gently lowered himself down. To the soldiers' surprise they heard Gohan step onto something they couldn't see. Then they felt the energy that was keeping them up fall away and they dropped down. They were about to scream out in fear and dropping to their deaths, when they too stepped onto something, and they moment they did, the illusion dropped away, and they gasped out.
There it was; this Earth's sanctuary. They were standing on the courtyard, and a yard it was, with beautiful flowers and trees, growing fruits. Amazing, although it seemed they were in open space it was pleasantly warm here, even though moments earlier it had been cold out. They were standing on a sandy path, that crossed with another sandy path in a ninety degree angle. That crossing path ran from the edge of the circular plain they were standing on, straight to an imposing building that was to their right. The building seemed like a cathedral, grand, imposing, mysterious, and yet there were pieces that were bulbous and seemed straight from the Middle East, then there were parts with gargoyles, and monsters and towers, partly Cambodian partly Scandinavian influences, it seemed as if every last religion, or culture of the Earth was somehow mixed in the towering building, that seemed as tall as some sky scrapers in New York. The building however, was not old and grey looking as some older buildings do today, it was white some places, had shining golden roofs, and silver parts elsewhere, some of it looked like modern day glass structures, then there were other bright colors mixed with less so - in short the temple looked as beautiful as it did imposing and mysterious.
The Sailor Soldiers looked at the building with mouths agape, so did the cats, and even Gohan, used to quite a lot, looked at it enraptured - this temple was far more imposing and awe inspiring than the temple at home. Thus captivated, none had noticed the old man casually walking to them, but they did now. The man - grey hair, wide and dignified, grey beard to mid chest, and wearing ethereal and officious looking robes - walked toward them using a cane that reached to his chin. The cane was made of silver - or at least a similar looking material - embroidered with gems and crystal. It gave it an air of royalty, or of power.
"Ah," the man started, taking a few final steps and stopping about a meter away from the astounded group. Casually he let his eyes wonder over the girls, drinking in their beauty, and he said, "You are a sight for sore eyes. Forgive me, I haven't had any company - certainly not feminine ones - in centuries. How beautiful, all of you." The girls blushed at the flattery, but still shocked into silence. "The Sailor Soldiers, and Son Gohan. High visitors to; I have been monitoring your exploits - most impressive, especially for ones as young such as you. My name is Sarudahiko."
Finally there was a reply, one from Rei. She took a step forward to the man, and as she knelt down in front of him, she said, "Sarudahiko-kami-sama, I am honored to be in the presence of the god of the Earth, guardian of the crossroads to heaven."
"Oh, please child, get up, I am not worthy of such praise," the god stated with a grimace, and grabbed Rei's left arm and pulled her back to her feet. She stayed standing, but kept her head inclined not daring to look at him.
"You know my name?" Gohan asked a little surprised.
Sarudahiko smiled as he looked at the boy, "Indeed, when you arrived here, I followed your path back, and made contact with my counterpart. Dende had some interesting stories to share, you are quite the hero, are you not, boy?"
"Nah," Gohan said giving a quick bow, "I'm no hero, I just did what I had to do." Sarudahiko gave a knowing smile, and nodded at Gohan.
"You really are a god?" Luna asked partially in disbelief, as Rei took several steps back in reverence.
"Very much so, Luna," the god answered. "I have been her now, uh . . . Mr. Janeda."
A golden haired spirit coalesced next to the god, his skin pure white. He took a bow, and asked, "Yes, lord kami."
"How long has it been exactly? Since I started here?" the god asked. "I apologize, but my memory is no longer what it's once been."
"3965 years, kami, do you wish to know the exact months and days?" Janeda asked.
"No, that's quite alright," Sarudahiko answered. "Janeda is the caretaker of this place, he's been her long before I was here. How long ago again?"
"Almost forty thousand years, kami," Janeda answered with a smile. God nodded once, gave a gesture with his hand. "I'm a genie, once I was trapped inside a cannister by an evil wizard, and people all over the universe had me fulfill all kinds of wishes. I had started to believe everyone was selfish, until I once reached this planet, and after a few masters one boy wished for my freedom. It left an impression on me, and he wandered the world, impressed with humanity, until finally a thousand years later I found this place. The kami then took me in, taught me, shared his wisdom, was my friend, after he died I decided to stay, and look after this place. I've been here ever since."
"How come we've never known about you?" Artemis asked the god with an edge to his voice.
The god answered, "Why would I give you knowledge of my existence? Did you ever seek me out? Did you ask for help? Besides, you didn't need me, when humanity doesn't need you, you let them solve their own problems."
"We were fighting against the Negaverse, they were evil! Our kingdom was destroyed, our people all but completely wiped out, and you tell me we didn't need help!?" Luna said, growling like the cat she was, some of the Sailor soldiers looking surprised at the outburst of the cats.
"I'm the god of the Earth, I guard this planet . . . not its moon," Sarudahiko stated powerfully, making the two cats jerk back some. "Tell me, Sailor Soldiers, you've had history in school. Does history record an alliance with a moon kingdom a thousand years ago, and a great fight?"
"No," Ami answered intrigued and the others shook their heads.
"What then?" the god prompted the brainiac.
"The Dark Ages, bows, crossbows, iron armor and swords, horse drawn carriages, feudal lords ruling over peasants, and that's the most advanced," Ami answered in a very abbreviated nutshell.
"Exactly," god replied in a powerful statement. "Do you think, if you're alliance with the Earth was as well forged as you think it was, the Negaverse would have stood a chance back then?" The cats stayed silent. "You see, while your people enjoyed luxury on the moon, and so did the Earth kingdom you were allied with, the rest of the world was starving because they had to pay ridiculous high taxes to their feudal lords. Now the Earth kingdom wasn't participating in the practices, but they sure didn't do anything against it, not even discouraged the practices. You definitely didn't, after all, all you saw was a nice tranquil world from where you sat, and as long as your Earth allies said nothing was the matter, you never came down to look either. Perhaps if prince Endymion ever came to power, but he would have been forced stuck on the moon with the queen, wouldn't he? And although a good man, he was naive and in love. You think those half starving people were in any position to fight on your behalf? Hell, how about know of your existence?" Sarudahiko shook his in sadness. "No, fighting to keep you in power would not have been good for the world I'm charged to protect. Best was to just let it play out, and decide what to do afterwards. And it worked out better than I dared hope." He then around the group of girls, and he said with a smile, "You were reborn, each and every one of you a better, and more knowledgeable person than you were back then, and this time you succeeded against the Negaverse, relatively quite easy I might say."
"You were the queen of a Moon Kingdom, Bunny?" Gohan asked surprised at that information.
"Yes, apparently," Usagi breathed in ever mounting irritation at Gohan's nickname for her. The other girls didn't really know what to say. Usagi then turned back to Sarudahiko, and said, "Easy? We all died!"
"But you beat them did you not, you destroyed them completely, finally, and all on your own, no legions of soldiers on your side like last time," he answered her with a smile. "And now you are here, revived."
"What about this time then, and the aliens that attacked just now!?" Artemis joined his old friend.
God actually chuckled, and said, "Do you see me? I'm an old man these days. Once I could have taken on the aliens, these days I'm but an old man. Gohan here, could beat me with ease. No, fighting is something I can no longer do, although I could still defeat you girls I'd say."
Everybody was silent, stunned at that revelation. Only Gohan wasn't, he just stood there, looking at the interaction between the guardian god of this Earth and the team of magical heroines. Then Ami, always the curious one, asked, "Are there any other gods? And where are they?"
"Ah," Sarudahiko said, looking up to think for a moment. "There were once. Once there was a god for practically everything. But they have all moved on, ascended, or died, and no one to replace them. They knew themselves, the more humanity's knowledge grew, the more they matured, the less the gods were needed, and so I alone remain, as a final guardian of this lovely planet."
"So the Shinto religion has it all right then, the others are wrong," Rei muttered, head downcast, not daring to look at the exalted being. "I don't know whether that makes me feel good or bad, now that the mystery is gone."
"Not really, I /am/ the /only/ god left, thus to a certain extent monotheists are very much correct," he told her with a smile, "The religious philosophers are very much correct: it's like the elephant and the blind men, they all have a piece of the puzzle, but non the entire elephant."
Rei looked at the mysteriously smiling god in astonishment, not really knowing what to make of that - or realizing she was 'showing him disrespect - and so she muttered, "Everybody's right except the atheists then."
The god's smile deepened, and he said, "Oh, I don't know about that. The definition of kami, or god, does always include beyond human reach or comprehension. Since I'm very much a human being, kept alive so long by the magic of this place, I'm not really a god using that definition, which means there is no god at all." Sarudahiko turned around, grinning deeply, as he saw and heard the gasps of everyone except Gohan, knowing he had thrown them for a loop they'd take ages to figure out. "Everyone's right," he added, made a dramatic pause, and finished with saying, "except fundamentalists of course, they're just plain crazy."
Sardahiko continued on his way, and told his aid, "Mr. Janeda, would you be so kind and give them a tour of the place, or just tell them which places are off limits."
"Of course, kami," the genie said, and then turned to the group and gestured toward the building. Still dazed by the enormous meeting, the Sailor Soldiers carefully went where the genie directed them. Gohan happily following, he couldn't wait to see the insides of the beautiful building.
*****
"That was so incredible," Makoto muttered, hours later, well after dark in Gohan's apartment. He had offered to buy them pizza, and so the five girls and two cats had stuffed themselves into the half-Saiyan's tiny apartment. "We just met a kami, guys!" she said amazement on her face. "And did you see the temple . . . incredible."
Ami nodded absentmindedly, taking in the parts of a technical marvel the likes of which she could only dream of. Her eyes shone with excitement as she carefully examined the interdimensional ship in the corner of the apartment, making sure not to touch anything. She was smart, but this was something she had never seen before. She couldn't begin to fathom what kind of horrible things she could do to it if she touched anything, so she kept her hands away from it. The doorbell rang, and Gohan opened it, taking the pizzas and paying for them. He returned to the room and started handing out the pizzas. He kept four full pizzas for himself, and despite knowing, the girls watched in amazement as the Saiyan started scarfing them down. "What?" he asked mouth half full as he saw their stairs.
"Never mind," Minako quickly said, and started to eat half of the pizza she was sharing with Makoto.
"Some god," Artemis muttered as he and Luna started on the pizza Gohan had put open on the ground.
"He was awe inspiring," Rei whispered, still dazed by the surreal experience and took a gentle bite from her pizza she was sharing with Ami.
Usagi, well away with eating her own pizza, said, "He was so cool, did you guys see how he knew all of us. A god considers us heroines."
Ami finally tore herself away from the interdimensional ship, and said, "The readings I took are going to be a fascinating study." She then took her first bite from the pizza.
Gohan stopped eating for a moment, three quarters of the way through his second pizza, and said, "Providing he let you keep any of the readings."
Ami looked up at him startled, never considering that possibility, "Providing that, yes."
