Chapter 8 – Where everything starts all over

In the afternoon dark clouds appeared in the sky and in a few hours it started to rain. Everyone sat inside reading magazines, watching TV or trying to find something to do.

"I wanna play something!" Goten complained, pulling his father's sleeve.

"Can't help you," Goku replied. "It's raining outside."

"Not very badly though," Haruka said, entering the room. She was soaking wet and her blonde hair was dripping. "Just a bit cloudy…"

Michiru stared at her. "You went outside with that shower?"

"No, I took a bath with my clothes on. Of course I went outside. Someone did laundry yesterday and hung all the clothes out to dry. Dry, yeah. Here, take this." Haruka threw a big soaked ball of clothes on the floor. "Airhead…"

"Reminds me of a story where Mom was busy with her new invention and left all the laundry outside right after the hurricane warning," Trunks chortled.

"And it flew away?" Haruka asked over her shoulder.

Trunks nodded. "They found it eventually… near the Papaya Islands."

The next morning was bright and very warm; there wasn't a single cloud in the sky and the birds were singing as loudly as they could. The air felt cleaner than usually, since the rain had absorbed a lot of exhaust fumes and chemicals in the air. People were breathing deeply and enjoying the pretty morning. The breakfast in Haruka's house's kitchen wasn't that sunny though.

"Hotaru?" Michiru asked, filling another plate with oat flake porridge and giving it to Vegeta. The Saiyan prince muttered something about baby food but then grabbed a spoon. He had trained for an hour before the breakfast and was as hungry as a wolf.

Hotaru nodded. "It said "tonight, where everything starts all over.""

Haruka raised her eyebrows. "Where everything starts all over? What does it mean with everything? Things can't start again, they can only continue. That's life."

"Maybe for your point of view," Vegeta said slowly, "but demons know far more about things in life."

"Maybe we're looking at this from the wrong angle?" Goku asked. "If I was a demon, I would first think of a place for showing up and then think of a riddle what would go for the place."

Michiru nodded. "Good point. Now, if you were a demon, where would you show up?"

When the sun was about to set, the sky was dark orange and the shadows were long, Haruka's yellow convertible stopped in front of huge old rusty gates.

"We're taking a very wild guess here," Haruka said, getting out of the car. "There are dozens of cemeteries in Tokyo."

"But this one's the oldest that still exists, as you said," Vegeta replied. "Besides, once this demon had so much trouble with informing us, I think it would even show up when we would go to the kindergarten."

"Kindergartens are spoooky at night," Trunks remarked.

"It's a Christian cemetery," Michiru said. "Ancient Japanese burned their dead people so they made no cemeteries. This one here was built after the merchants came from the West, a little after founding Tokyo. Shall we go inside?"

"It's not dark yet, there's nothing to be afraid of," Haruka told the two kids who were examining the old gates with slight disbelief.

Hotaru was the first one to go inside. She looked at the weedy graves and oblique tombstones. Then she raised her head and looked at the old church in the other end of the cemetery. "Over there, I think."

"Let's go inside then." Vegeta went down the old footpath and the others followed him after hesitating a bit. The tombstones and ancient mossy crosses reached to the sky which turned darker and darker as the sun set.

The Saiyan prince pushed the door of the church open. It gave a loud screech and rattled a bit. Everyone stepped inside and admired the old benches, the altar and the pictures on the walls. The ceiling was very high above and looked like some huge animal's skeleton.

"Gothica," Michiru said.

"It's pretty," Trunks esteemed.

"Do you really think a demon would show up in a church?" Goku asked Hotaru.

"Most demons are atheists," Hotaru replied. "Religion was created by humans. Church is only a big house with dead aura for them."

"I hope it shows up, and fast," Vegeta remarked. "I'm not interested in sitting in some old church and waiting for a demon to show up. I've seen enough hideous creatures in my life… and afterlife… and it's probably nothing that serious anyway."

"Let's wait until midnight," Hotaru suggested.

"What are we gonna do here for…" Trunks checked his watch. "Four hours??!"

"Play tag?" Goten proposed.

About half an hour later the two kids were finishing their fifth tag game over the benches, the altar and all the sarcophagi that were placed by the walls of the church. Vegeta was sitting on one of the benches and watching the two with his left eyebrow twitching.

"Future Saiyan warriors…" He looked at his watch. "Who came up with this stupid all-demons-show-up-at-midnight idea?"

"That's when the old day dies and a new day is born," Michiru replied. "An eternal circle which begins and ends in the same spot but never actually ends at all."

Haruka closed her magazine. "Hotaru…? Now where's that girl again?"

"I'm right here." Hotaru was sitting a little away from the candlelight, in a shadowy corner, on top of a sarcophagus. "What is it?"

The Saiyans gave her a wow-she's-a-creepy-one look. Haruka frowned a bit. "It's a bad idea to sit on top of a sarcophagus made of stone, especially with your bad health. How did that last vision of yours sound again?"

Hotaru frowned. "Tonight, where everything starts all over. Or something like that."

"I don't get your logic," Vegeta frowned. "What things start all over in an old church? A maternity clinic would make more sense…"

"Yeah, but a church sounds more reasonable," Michiru said. "Besides, according to all sorts of religious beliefs people are reborn after they die. And since people are often buried in churches, their new lives therefore start from there too."

"Actually it takes a year before a dead soul is sent to another body," Goku remarked. "And it's a lot of paperwork too."

"Ever been dead?" Haruka asked him with a small frown.

"A few times," Goku agreed.

Vegeta grunted. "If something won't happen soon, I'll go home. I think I remember a slice of pizza in the fridge…"

Haruka glared at him. "My breakfast for tomorrow!"

Vegeta glared back. "Does it have your name on it?"

Michiru sighed and muttered something about maturity and healthy food. Goku muttered something about thinking that the slice had seemed so lonely in the fridge. Haruka's and Vegeta's eyes narrowed as they both turned their heads on the same time to look at Goku.

It took ages before Vegeta finally checked his watch for the twelve hundredth time and said: "Almost midnight."

Goku yawned loudly. "Good…"

Suddenly a low deep sound filled the church. It was an ancient church bell which was tolling up in the tower. 3… 5… 8… 12 tolls.

"Finally…" Vegeta grunted.

"And… who's ringing the bell?" Michiru asked slowly.

The Saiyans turned their heads as they sensed a rapid wave of energy. A black whirl of mist appeared above the altar and thickened. A human-like creature formed out of the mist and stretched itself. Then it opened its huge black wings that looked like they had been a huge hurricane – tattered, torn and tangled. The creature was skinny and clothed in some black cloth.

"Greetings, mortals," it said with an unpleasant grin. The creature's teeth were white, long and sharp. Its eyes were sharp as well, narrow and cold.

"Who are you?" Vegeta asked as his eyes narrowed too.

"Who I am? I'm the demon of the night, the crawler inside the darkness, the lurker in your nightmares. My name is not necessary for you to know." The creature stretched its wings again and slid down from the altar. "You must be eager to know why I am here."

Six pairs of rather sleepy eyes looked at it. "Well… yeah, kinda." There was another pair of eyes deeper in the shadows – Hotaru's eyes, awake and curious.

"Thousands of years I've lurked in the shadows," the being said and looked around the church. "Thousands of years alone, locked inside my own reality. I didn't like that life. It was so far away from all you humans, so isolated from all those sweet tasty dreams you dream. I needed food. But I had no way to come to your world, for the only chance for me to travel is through human mind. And then, at one moment, I discovered her."

Everyone looked at the sarcophagus in the shadows. Hotaru stood up and stepped out into the candlelight. "You found me," she said. "How?"

"Your mind is so close to our world," the creature replied. "That's how I found you, floating near the edges of my reality. So I used you to build myself a way into your pathetic little human world."

Hotaru nodded. "Nice. And once you're here, what are you planning to do?" The Saiyans gave her a curious look and moved away a bit. The girl was really spooky at the moment. She was slim, pale and seemed like a regular young girl with bad health but she talked and acted like an adult. And her purple melancholy eyes hid something deep inside her soul.

"I've finally come though the gateway that separates my world from yours," it replied. "And once I'm here, I can get as much food as I want. I can eat all the dreams of the humans and turn your world into the same lifeless place as the world I came from. That's the purpose of my meaning." It cackled quietly.

"Always the same old story," Haruka remarked with boredom. "Do you world-conquering, dominating, over-taking, whatever-doing evil creatures ever think of the possibility of someone being there to stand up against you?"

Vegeta raised his eyebrows and looked at her. "Where have you lived? Thinking of possible losing always brings down the fighting moral."

"And who do you think would be powerful enough to stand up against me?" the creature asked with a smirk. "Don't think I don't know you Saiyans." The four Saiyans seemed shocked. "We dark creatures know more than you can possibly imagine. Don't come with this Sailor Scouts story either," it looked at Haruka and Michiru, "your powers are too materialistic for someone like me. Well, it's been nice but I have a world to take over. Goodbye, see you in your nightmares!" The being cackled again and spread out its wings. A cold breeze filled the church as the demon of the night flew out of the door, with its black coat fluttering behind.

Everyone was quiet for a second.

"This will be a long night," Haruka then announced. "Let's go!"