Title: Usagi is Dead II Dead is Usagi Part 1
Author: Dark Day For Anime (Mark A Page)
Email: darkdayforanime@hotmail.com
Fic Rating: R
--------------------------------------------------------------------
USAGI IS DEAD II DEAD IS USAGI
by DARK DAY FOR ANIME
Diclaimer - Sailormoon is owned by Takeuchi Naoko and Bandai, so
these characters really belong to them, except ones I made up. You
know who they are! They're the ones that run around doing bad
things to the original cast. ^_^ Well, most of them, anyway.
Part One
Skipped on the Winds of Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Usagi found herself lying in a double bed, within a strange
room. And everything was dark.
Well, not entirely dark. There were streetlights shining
through the window. There were noises, too. Comforting noises
of civilisation, coming from both outside the window, and just
on the other side of the door, on the opposite side of the room.
A hotel, she thought to herself. I'm in a hotel suite. Now
all I have to do is work out WHY I'm here. And where here is.
She slipped out of the bed, and noticed she was wearing
nothing more than her underwear. She looked around for some sign
of her other garments, but there were none to be seen.
Opposite the bed was another door. Gently, she padded across
the soft, carpeted floor and opened the door. A bathroom. That was
about all. She switched on the light to the room. A small,
flickering bar light came to life above the mirror. On one side was
a shower with adjoining tub, on the other a toilet. And there still
weren't any clothes anywhere to be seen.
She switched off the light and turned back into the main room.
To her left, in the direction of the window, was a small table
sitting next to the room's television and fridge. There was only
one chair to the table. She shook her head, then turned the other
way.
By the door, which was set off the main room slightly by the
bathroom wall, was a suitcase rack. She stepped up and looked
around the corner, but there were no suitcases there.
She sighed in frustration. Without clothing, she couldn't
just walk out and ask anyone where she was. She plodded over and
sat on the end of the bed. Her eyelids felt heavy. She wanted to
sleep. She felt she could sleep for eternity.
And that was what she feared the most. She felt that, if she
fell asleep now, she WOULD sleep for an eternity. Rubbing tired
eyes, she forced herself to stand and walk over to the window.
Outside was a street. A main street. With cars running back
and forth. To her left was an intersection. Cars would slow down,
stop, and leave intermittently. Why was she so fascinated with this
scene? After all, this could be anywhere in Tokyo.
Only it couldn't be. Not now. Tokyo was dead. The Tokyo she
remembered. And so should she be.
The body had given birth to another that carried the soul of
Serenity. One that called itself Usako. But the mind could not go
with that body, and so a fusion had to occur... One that would only
be successful if both parties were willing....
Somehow, it seemed like a dream to her. She pressed her hands
against the window and felt the cold.... The night air tearing the
heat from the glass. She stepped back, rolling her now-cold fingers
and thought of Mamoru, and how she killed him.
There was nothing to think about. All the memories were
there, but the emotional attachments were gone. It was like there
had been no relationship at all. The same happened when she thought
of the senshi... All those who died, all those who tried to kill
her. But they couldn't have, because she was alive. She was here.
She was now.
She might as well have been another person, for all the effect
those memories had on her.
She was on the third floor, wherever she was. She leaned as
close to the window as she possibly could, pressing her face hard
against the glass. Trying to see.... Down the street, either way.
What could she see? Nothing. Nothing that would be out of place.
No landmark that she could recognise. In fact, the entire street
was bland and sterile. Businesses and Department Stores. And they,
too, were bland and sterile. None of the visual razzmatazz one
normally came to expect from commercial entities.
No, everything on this street looked functional. Like they
had been designed merely for the purposes of distribution, rather
than the experience of shopping.... of doing business.
Usagi looked for a latch on the window. In most modern
hotels, the windows didn't open. One too many leapers had mitigated
the dubious pleasure of fresh air through a hotel window. Much to
her surprise, there was a latch. She pulled the handle aside and
felt the frame click open, slightly. She pushed the window forward,
its hinges making it open upwards and....
The building across the road reached out to her, claws lashing
out with hungry abandon. She let out a short cry and pulled the
window shut, jumping back.
Nothing had changed. The view from the window was exactly the
same as it had been before. Usagi stood, staring at that view for
several long moments, before approaching the window again.
She took hold of the latch, pulling it aside again, and once
more, she felt the frame come loose, ready to open. Rather than
push it quickly, she slowly made a gap in the base, peering through.
Visions of hell awaited her. Outside lay not a normal
streetscape, but a biomechanical monstrosity. The sky was an ebbing
orange and black. The buildings pulsated with life, tubes filled
with liquids of some description running down from their rooves.
The street was like a railway of giant teeth and bone, along
which ran cars that looked more like a cross between arachnids and
rhinoceros beetles.
In the walls of the buildings, inserted almost at random, were
hundreds of black, unblinking eyes. She could feel them watching
her.... Predatory... Hungry...
She shut the window and locked it. Once more, the outside
world returned to its peaceful, domestic normality. She shivered
and pulled the curtains across. She wanted out of this place,
wherever it was.... She wanted OUT of it.
The phone rang. It made her jump, since she hadn't noticed it
before. It sat on a small table beside the bed, next to the clock
radio. She stared at it as it rang through close to twenty times,
and she got the feeling that it wasn't going to stop until she
answered it.
She stepped up to it, picked up the receiver, and answered
softly. "Hello?"
"Go back to sleep, you fool." The phone went dead. Usagi
stared the the earpiece and shook her head.
"Easy for you to say." She put the phone down and sat on the
end of the bed. Only one thing she could do, now. She stared at
the entrance door, biting her lip. Regardless of whether she had
next to no clothes on, the only way out was through that door. Then
and only then was she going to get any answers.
She stood and walked to the door, placing her hand on the
doorknob. She snatched it away. It was as hot as Hades.
She looked at her hand, expecting it to be seriously burnt.
But it was fine.... No pain at all, the skin unblemished. She
looked back at the doorhandle, dubiously. Someone, or something,
was doing their level best to make sure she stayed in this room.
She turned back to the bed, studying the bedclothes. After a
few moments of thought, she plodded over and grabbed the blanket
cover off, wrapping it around her hand. Then, going back to the
door, she took hold of the doorknob again with her insulated hand.
She could feel the heat, but this time it wasn't so bad. She
turned the hand and...
...Was thrown back against the suitcase rack. She landed
rather painfully on her tailbone, and spent several moments making
strange groaning noises through gritted teeth. The blanket cover
fell from her hand as she reached back, touching the base of her
spine.
The phone rang again. She looked aside, frustrated. She
jumped off the rack and stepped across the room, answering the phone
rather less than nervously this time.
"What do you want?"
"I said go back to sleep! Is that instruction a little hard
for you to grasp?"
"Who is this, anyway? What do you want?"
Too late. The phone went dead once more, and Usagi slammed
the receiver on the hook rather too harshly. She'd had enough of
this game. She marched back to the door and began to slam her fists
against it.
"Hello? Somebody! Anybody! Get me out of here! Please!
Help me!" The phone began to ring once more. She ignored it and
started thumping the door with both her fists, her voice getting
louder and louder.
Then she was grabbed from behind. She let out a cry as she
felt herself being dragged from the door, through the wall and into
the bathroom, where she was unceremoniously dumped into the bathtub.
She looked up just in time to get a faceful of cold water. She
shrieked and thrashed around in protest until she was thoughroughly
soaked, then the water stopped.
She lay there, dripping wet, as water trickled down the drain,
listening to the sound of the ringing phone. She did this for close
to an hour. And the phone just kept ringing.... She'd managed to
tolerate its sound for that length of time before it began to play
on her senses.
She let out a strangulated cry and bundled herself from the
bathtub, back through the bathroom door, across the room and
answered the phone.
"Just WHO THE FUCK are you?"
"Don't you like me?"
Usagi spluttered. "ANSWER THE QUESTION!"
"I've tried to make you nice and warm, but you reject my
efforts." She laughed.
"Of course I reject them. Where am I? Who are you?"
"You hate me! I knew you would! All the other rooms said
we'd be good together, but I had this feeling. Well, that's it.
I'm not tolerating a guest like you staying in me. Get out!"
And with that, Usagi found herself being hurled out through
the now-open entrance door.
----o
The township of Kushada was one of the largest new settlements
on mainland Honshu, roughly thirty miles south-west of Shin Kobe. A
land-developer who happened to have survived the Cataclysm had made
the town his personal plaything. After all, it wasn't everyday that
you were given the opportunity to build an entire community from
scratch.
The main street of Kushada was fairly busy for a town of some
fifteen thousand people.... Not many when one compared it to the
reborn old cities, but considering the town had become something of
an economic hub, not entirely unsurprising. The street was
certainly at its best at night, when all of its establishments were
lit up, as it was now.
The large, black transport rumbled down the main street. It
was eyecatching as it passed by, but then, it was designed to be.
"Functional and attractive", had been the motto of the Sakura
engineering company for the SK 3700K. And that it was. Like a
cross between a truck and a sportscar, it turned many an
appreciative eye, mostly due to the common knowledge of its price
tag.
The transport stopped in front of the town medical centre, an
institution that had been set up almost immediately post-Cataclysm
to handle the wounded. Now its place in the main street could only
be described as questionable.
Made mostly out of woodframe and weatherboard, its initial
construction materials were the wreckage of other buildings. Ever
since that time, it had been added on to, until it outgrew
reasonable planning standards.
A group of youths, who were standing outside a bar on the
opposite side of the street watched as the doors of the transport
glided open like wings. They wolf-whistled as a young woman
emerged. Attractive and slim, with straight black hair and pale
skin, dressed in a simple minidress, she turned to them and flashed
a smile.
They all turned and walked into the bar as quickly as they
could. She almost laughed. One of these days, one of them was
going to have the balls to take her on. They wouldn't last very
long... but it would make an amusing change.
"Are you finished scaring off the guys, Hotaru?" Said the
husky-voiced woman from the back seat. Hotaru turned to Makoto
and shrugged.
"I don't know. Should I be?"
"Some of them were good looking, too. I can never travel
anywhere with you and meet the guys, can I?"
"You do a pretty good job of scaring them off, yourself.
You and your "old boyfriend" complex." Hotaru chuckled. Makoto
shook her head and stepped out of the transport. She wore her
hair short, these days. She'd long grown tired of trying to
maintain long hair. Unlike Hotaru, she was dressed in a heavy,
thick coat that covered a simple blue dress. It wasn't often
that Makoto would wear dresses, these days. She hated them. But
one had to keep up appearances when one was out visiting the
savages.
"Are you fighting again, Hotaru-oneechan? Mako-oneechan?"
Umi stepped out of the car, looking from Hotaru to Makoto. Now,
at thirteen, Umi was already quite tall. Her long, slightly wavy
blue hair ran down low, and she was dressed in a loosely flowing
black dress. It was the first time they had taken Umi on one of
their little mercy jaunts, and she was enjoying the visits.
Of course, the downside to all this was the fact that they
had to leave Setsuna behind. Even though she was only a year
younger than Umi, the girl had proven to be somewhat willful, and
they preferred it that she remain with Arachne until their return.
All the same, Umi was beginning to display some worrying
signs, herself.... One being an undue fascination with her dream
powers. Arachne didn't seem overly fussed, saying this was only
natural for someone who was going to become a Water Miko. But it
was altogether too much like her previous lives for Hotaru or
Makoto. Even Usako worried sometimes, and Usako wasn't usually
one for worrying....
Usako stepped from the front passenger seat and turned to the
single light that was on, out the front of the medical centre. She
folded her hands across her front and sighed, shaking her long,
silver-white hair, worn down. CereCere stepped out from the back,
next to her. The pair looked like bookends, wearing long, floral
one-piece dresses. The only difference was that CereCere had
maroon-red hair. CereCere's facial features were strangely similar
to Usako's, something that often lead to some confusion about their
origins.... CereCere had to protest, once too often, that she was
not an Usagi clone.
"I see why they call it the patchup house." CereCere sniffed.
"Its an architectural dog's breakfast."
"It is also the oldest building in town. One must expect
these things." Usako sighed. "We promised them we would call upon
them. Now we must make good our promise." Usako turned to
CereCere. "Before we attract too big a crowd." She nodded past the
redhead at a small but growing crowd, watching them on the footpath.
CereCere shrugged and turned to Makoto, peering across the
roof of the passenger section. "Mako-chan, can you and Hotaru bring
in our bags. Usako and I shall meet with the director of the
centre."
"Aww, you get all the easy jobs." Makoto scratched her nose.
"It is because I have a basic understanding of social decorum.
Do you remember the time I allowed you to negotiate accomadation on
Onyx?"
"Yeah yeah yeah, alright. No need to push the old stories
about." Makoto pointed to the box-like rear of the transport and
nodded to Umi. "Come on, then, show a bit of initiative."
Usako turned to CereCere. "Are we going?"
"Unn." CereCere nodded, and the pair stepped up to the front
door, CereCere waving Usako in.
The front hall was rather more impressive than they imagined
it would be. A simple reception desk with office behind, with new
carpet and softly painted, pastel coloured walls running down a long
corridor. The office was empty, so they waited for someone to pay
attention to the door buzzer.
"By the way..." Usako looked at CereCere. "What did happen
on Onyx?" CereCere smiled, knowingly.
"Mako-chan got a little miffed after the owner of a hotel
refused us accomadation. We were off the planet in no time to avoid
having to pay compensation for the damage caused."
Usako chuckled. "Hell hath now fury like a senshi scorned."
They both turned as an elderly man in a white medical coat,
shirt and trousers stepped out from the nearest room along the
hallway. He smiled and held out his hand as he approached them.
"Ah. The famous healer, Usako. A pleasure to meet you, my
dear." He shook Usako's hand, and she smiled sweetly. "I'm Kameju
Gennosuke, the director of the centre."
"Pleased to meet you, Doctor Kameju." She turned to CereCere.
"This here is one of my entourage, CereCere Paridis."
CereCere smiled. "Hajimemashite." She bowed slightly.
Kameju smiled. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Paridis."
Usako gestured to the door. "We have further members of our
party handling our luggage outside. Where are we to stay?"
"Ah yes...." Kameju nodded. "Follow me." He gestured down
the corridor and moved on his way, Usako and CereCere following.
"I here you ladies have been looking for a woman with two
cats." Kameju looked aside as they reached a door at the end. He
looked at them as he opened the door. "It was on the newsprints
just last week."
Usako nodded. "We're more interested in the cats themselves.
We have been searching for them for years." Usako stepped through
the door, which lead to a T junction. The corridor lead to either
side of the building, then turned both ways. Kaneju and CereCere
stepped through after them.
"Why are the cats so important?"
"They simply are. The woman had taken them with her shortly
after the Cataclysm. I feel she was actually searching for us, but
it has been close to nine years now. They have to have gone,
somewhere."
"I seem to remember, some time ago, back in my home town in
Hokkaido, stories of a woman who was travelling around with a pair
of talking cats. What was her name again.... Kiko.. something."
"Kikotsuka Aoi." CereCere said, simply. "And it is her who
is important to me, not the cats."
"To each their own, CereCere." Usako smiled at her, archly.
----o
Usagi lifted herself up from the carpeted floor of the hotel
corridor, trying to shake the darkness from her mind. Every time
she looked up, the world started to do little jaunts, which made her
feel nauseous.
She'd never been lifted up quite that rapidly, in such a brute
manner, and thrown with equally brute force. Of course, she'd been
beaten, zapped, smashed and all sorts of nasty things during her
life, but never thrown out of a room by something that wasn't there.
She finally got to her feet and stared down the corridor.
It went on forever. Just an endless row of doors,
disappearing into a dark, distant spot. She spun and looked the
other way. The same thing. Only this way, she could see a woman,
a cleaner of some description, pushing a trolley with her cleaning
equipment. Her pace was slow, and Usagi could hear the sqeaking
of the wheels.
Usagi turned to the doorway she had been thrown through, but
it was now closed. She looked down at her lack of clothing and
shivered. Well, it was too late now to turn back. With a sigh, she
trotted along the corridor after the woman.
"Hello... I say, hello. Can you tell me where I am, please?
Or, at the very least, some idea of where I can find the reception
desk?"
Usagi placed a hand on the woman's shoulder, and she turned.
She almost had a heart attack, and took several steps
backwards....
The woman had no face.
END OF PART ONE
--------------------------------------------------------------------
DDFA darkdayforanime@hotmail.com
8th Mar 1998
Author: Dark Day For Anime (Mark A Page)
Email: darkdayforanime@hotmail.com
Fic Rating: R
--------------------------------------------------------------------
USAGI IS DEAD II DEAD IS USAGI
by DARK DAY FOR ANIME
Diclaimer - Sailormoon is owned by Takeuchi Naoko and Bandai, so
these characters really belong to them, except ones I made up. You
know who they are! They're the ones that run around doing bad
things to the original cast. ^_^ Well, most of them, anyway.
Part One
Skipped on the Winds of Time
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Usagi found herself lying in a double bed, within a strange
room. And everything was dark.
Well, not entirely dark. There were streetlights shining
through the window. There were noises, too. Comforting noises
of civilisation, coming from both outside the window, and just
on the other side of the door, on the opposite side of the room.
A hotel, she thought to herself. I'm in a hotel suite. Now
all I have to do is work out WHY I'm here. And where here is.
She slipped out of the bed, and noticed she was wearing
nothing more than her underwear. She looked around for some sign
of her other garments, but there were none to be seen.
Opposite the bed was another door. Gently, she padded across
the soft, carpeted floor and opened the door. A bathroom. That was
about all. She switched on the light to the room. A small,
flickering bar light came to life above the mirror. On one side was
a shower with adjoining tub, on the other a toilet. And there still
weren't any clothes anywhere to be seen.
She switched off the light and turned back into the main room.
To her left, in the direction of the window, was a small table
sitting next to the room's television and fridge. There was only
one chair to the table. She shook her head, then turned the other
way.
By the door, which was set off the main room slightly by the
bathroom wall, was a suitcase rack. She stepped up and looked
around the corner, but there were no suitcases there.
She sighed in frustration. Without clothing, she couldn't
just walk out and ask anyone where she was. She plodded over and
sat on the end of the bed. Her eyelids felt heavy. She wanted to
sleep. She felt she could sleep for eternity.
And that was what she feared the most. She felt that, if she
fell asleep now, she WOULD sleep for an eternity. Rubbing tired
eyes, she forced herself to stand and walk over to the window.
Outside was a street. A main street. With cars running back
and forth. To her left was an intersection. Cars would slow down,
stop, and leave intermittently. Why was she so fascinated with this
scene? After all, this could be anywhere in Tokyo.
Only it couldn't be. Not now. Tokyo was dead. The Tokyo she
remembered. And so should she be.
The body had given birth to another that carried the soul of
Serenity. One that called itself Usako. But the mind could not go
with that body, and so a fusion had to occur... One that would only
be successful if both parties were willing....
Somehow, it seemed like a dream to her. She pressed her hands
against the window and felt the cold.... The night air tearing the
heat from the glass. She stepped back, rolling her now-cold fingers
and thought of Mamoru, and how she killed him.
There was nothing to think about. All the memories were
there, but the emotional attachments were gone. It was like there
had been no relationship at all. The same happened when she thought
of the senshi... All those who died, all those who tried to kill
her. But they couldn't have, because she was alive. She was here.
She was now.
She might as well have been another person, for all the effect
those memories had on her.
She was on the third floor, wherever she was. She leaned as
close to the window as she possibly could, pressing her face hard
against the glass. Trying to see.... Down the street, either way.
What could she see? Nothing. Nothing that would be out of place.
No landmark that she could recognise. In fact, the entire street
was bland and sterile. Businesses and Department Stores. And they,
too, were bland and sterile. None of the visual razzmatazz one
normally came to expect from commercial entities.
No, everything on this street looked functional. Like they
had been designed merely for the purposes of distribution, rather
than the experience of shopping.... of doing business.
Usagi looked for a latch on the window. In most modern
hotels, the windows didn't open. One too many leapers had mitigated
the dubious pleasure of fresh air through a hotel window. Much to
her surprise, there was a latch. She pulled the handle aside and
felt the frame click open, slightly. She pushed the window forward,
its hinges making it open upwards and....
The building across the road reached out to her, claws lashing
out with hungry abandon. She let out a short cry and pulled the
window shut, jumping back.
Nothing had changed. The view from the window was exactly the
same as it had been before. Usagi stood, staring at that view for
several long moments, before approaching the window again.
She took hold of the latch, pulling it aside again, and once
more, she felt the frame come loose, ready to open. Rather than
push it quickly, she slowly made a gap in the base, peering through.
Visions of hell awaited her. Outside lay not a normal
streetscape, but a biomechanical monstrosity. The sky was an ebbing
orange and black. The buildings pulsated with life, tubes filled
with liquids of some description running down from their rooves.
The street was like a railway of giant teeth and bone, along
which ran cars that looked more like a cross between arachnids and
rhinoceros beetles.
In the walls of the buildings, inserted almost at random, were
hundreds of black, unblinking eyes. She could feel them watching
her.... Predatory... Hungry...
She shut the window and locked it. Once more, the outside
world returned to its peaceful, domestic normality. She shivered
and pulled the curtains across. She wanted out of this place,
wherever it was.... She wanted OUT of it.
The phone rang. It made her jump, since she hadn't noticed it
before. It sat on a small table beside the bed, next to the clock
radio. She stared at it as it rang through close to twenty times,
and she got the feeling that it wasn't going to stop until she
answered it.
She stepped up to it, picked up the receiver, and answered
softly. "Hello?"
"Go back to sleep, you fool." The phone went dead. Usagi
stared the the earpiece and shook her head.
"Easy for you to say." She put the phone down and sat on the
end of the bed. Only one thing she could do, now. She stared at
the entrance door, biting her lip. Regardless of whether she had
next to no clothes on, the only way out was through that door. Then
and only then was she going to get any answers.
She stood and walked to the door, placing her hand on the
doorknob. She snatched it away. It was as hot as Hades.
She looked at her hand, expecting it to be seriously burnt.
But it was fine.... No pain at all, the skin unblemished. She
looked back at the doorhandle, dubiously. Someone, or something,
was doing their level best to make sure she stayed in this room.
She turned back to the bed, studying the bedclothes. After a
few moments of thought, she plodded over and grabbed the blanket
cover off, wrapping it around her hand. Then, going back to the
door, she took hold of the doorknob again with her insulated hand.
She could feel the heat, but this time it wasn't so bad. She
turned the hand and...
...Was thrown back against the suitcase rack. She landed
rather painfully on her tailbone, and spent several moments making
strange groaning noises through gritted teeth. The blanket cover
fell from her hand as she reached back, touching the base of her
spine.
The phone rang again. She looked aside, frustrated. She
jumped off the rack and stepped across the room, answering the phone
rather less than nervously this time.
"What do you want?"
"I said go back to sleep! Is that instruction a little hard
for you to grasp?"
"Who is this, anyway? What do you want?"
Too late. The phone went dead once more, and Usagi slammed
the receiver on the hook rather too harshly. She'd had enough of
this game. She marched back to the door and began to slam her fists
against it.
"Hello? Somebody! Anybody! Get me out of here! Please!
Help me!" The phone began to ring once more. She ignored it and
started thumping the door with both her fists, her voice getting
louder and louder.
Then she was grabbed from behind. She let out a cry as she
felt herself being dragged from the door, through the wall and into
the bathroom, where she was unceremoniously dumped into the bathtub.
She looked up just in time to get a faceful of cold water. She
shrieked and thrashed around in protest until she was thoughroughly
soaked, then the water stopped.
She lay there, dripping wet, as water trickled down the drain,
listening to the sound of the ringing phone. She did this for close
to an hour. And the phone just kept ringing.... She'd managed to
tolerate its sound for that length of time before it began to play
on her senses.
She let out a strangulated cry and bundled herself from the
bathtub, back through the bathroom door, across the room and
answered the phone.
"Just WHO THE FUCK are you?"
"Don't you like me?"
Usagi spluttered. "ANSWER THE QUESTION!"
"I've tried to make you nice and warm, but you reject my
efforts." She laughed.
"Of course I reject them. Where am I? Who are you?"
"You hate me! I knew you would! All the other rooms said
we'd be good together, but I had this feeling. Well, that's it.
I'm not tolerating a guest like you staying in me. Get out!"
And with that, Usagi found herself being hurled out through
the now-open entrance door.
----o
The township of Kushada was one of the largest new settlements
on mainland Honshu, roughly thirty miles south-west of Shin Kobe. A
land-developer who happened to have survived the Cataclysm had made
the town his personal plaything. After all, it wasn't everyday that
you were given the opportunity to build an entire community from
scratch.
The main street of Kushada was fairly busy for a town of some
fifteen thousand people.... Not many when one compared it to the
reborn old cities, but considering the town had become something of
an economic hub, not entirely unsurprising. The street was
certainly at its best at night, when all of its establishments were
lit up, as it was now.
The large, black transport rumbled down the main street. It
was eyecatching as it passed by, but then, it was designed to be.
"Functional and attractive", had been the motto of the Sakura
engineering company for the SK 3700K. And that it was. Like a
cross between a truck and a sportscar, it turned many an
appreciative eye, mostly due to the common knowledge of its price
tag.
The transport stopped in front of the town medical centre, an
institution that had been set up almost immediately post-Cataclysm
to handle the wounded. Now its place in the main street could only
be described as questionable.
Made mostly out of woodframe and weatherboard, its initial
construction materials were the wreckage of other buildings. Ever
since that time, it had been added on to, until it outgrew
reasonable planning standards.
A group of youths, who were standing outside a bar on the
opposite side of the street watched as the doors of the transport
glided open like wings. They wolf-whistled as a young woman
emerged. Attractive and slim, with straight black hair and pale
skin, dressed in a simple minidress, she turned to them and flashed
a smile.
They all turned and walked into the bar as quickly as they
could. She almost laughed. One of these days, one of them was
going to have the balls to take her on. They wouldn't last very
long... but it would make an amusing change.
"Are you finished scaring off the guys, Hotaru?" Said the
husky-voiced woman from the back seat. Hotaru turned to Makoto
and shrugged.
"I don't know. Should I be?"
"Some of them were good looking, too. I can never travel
anywhere with you and meet the guys, can I?"
"You do a pretty good job of scaring them off, yourself.
You and your "old boyfriend" complex." Hotaru chuckled. Makoto
shook her head and stepped out of the transport. She wore her
hair short, these days. She'd long grown tired of trying to
maintain long hair. Unlike Hotaru, she was dressed in a heavy,
thick coat that covered a simple blue dress. It wasn't often
that Makoto would wear dresses, these days. She hated them. But
one had to keep up appearances when one was out visiting the
savages.
"Are you fighting again, Hotaru-oneechan? Mako-oneechan?"
Umi stepped out of the car, looking from Hotaru to Makoto. Now,
at thirteen, Umi was already quite tall. Her long, slightly wavy
blue hair ran down low, and she was dressed in a loosely flowing
black dress. It was the first time they had taken Umi on one of
their little mercy jaunts, and she was enjoying the visits.
Of course, the downside to all this was the fact that they
had to leave Setsuna behind. Even though she was only a year
younger than Umi, the girl had proven to be somewhat willful, and
they preferred it that she remain with Arachne until their return.
All the same, Umi was beginning to display some worrying
signs, herself.... One being an undue fascination with her dream
powers. Arachne didn't seem overly fussed, saying this was only
natural for someone who was going to become a Water Miko. But it
was altogether too much like her previous lives for Hotaru or
Makoto. Even Usako worried sometimes, and Usako wasn't usually
one for worrying....
Usako stepped from the front passenger seat and turned to the
single light that was on, out the front of the medical centre. She
folded her hands across her front and sighed, shaking her long,
silver-white hair, worn down. CereCere stepped out from the back,
next to her. The pair looked like bookends, wearing long, floral
one-piece dresses. The only difference was that CereCere had
maroon-red hair. CereCere's facial features were strangely similar
to Usako's, something that often lead to some confusion about their
origins.... CereCere had to protest, once too often, that she was
not an Usagi clone.
"I see why they call it the patchup house." CereCere sniffed.
"Its an architectural dog's breakfast."
"It is also the oldest building in town. One must expect
these things." Usako sighed. "We promised them we would call upon
them. Now we must make good our promise." Usako turned to
CereCere. "Before we attract too big a crowd." She nodded past the
redhead at a small but growing crowd, watching them on the footpath.
CereCere shrugged and turned to Makoto, peering across the
roof of the passenger section. "Mako-chan, can you and Hotaru bring
in our bags. Usako and I shall meet with the director of the
centre."
"Aww, you get all the easy jobs." Makoto scratched her nose.
"It is because I have a basic understanding of social decorum.
Do you remember the time I allowed you to negotiate accomadation on
Onyx?"
"Yeah yeah yeah, alright. No need to push the old stories
about." Makoto pointed to the box-like rear of the transport and
nodded to Umi. "Come on, then, show a bit of initiative."
Usako turned to CereCere. "Are we going?"
"Unn." CereCere nodded, and the pair stepped up to the front
door, CereCere waving Usako in.
The front hall was rather more impressive than they imagined
it would be. A simple reception desk with office behind, with new
carpet and softly painted, pastel coloured walls running down a long
corridor. The office was empty, so they waited for someone to pay
attention to the door buzzer.
"By the way..." Usako looked at CereCere. "What did happen
on Onyx?" CereCere smiled, knowingly.
"Mako-chan got a little miffed after the owner of a hotel
refused us accomadation. We were off the planet in no time to avoid
having to pay compensation for the damage caused."
Usako chuckled. "Hell hath now fury like a senshi scorned."
They both turned as an elderly man in a white medical coat,
shirt and trousers stepped out from the nearest room along the
hallway. He smiled and held out his hand as he approached them.
"Ah. The famous healer, Usako. A pleasure to meet you, my
dear." He shook Usako's hand, and she smiled sweetly. "I'm Kameju
Gennosuke, the director of the centre."
"Pleased to meet you, Doctor Kameju." She turned to CereCere.
"This here is one of my entourage, CereCere Paridis."
CereCere smiled. "Hajimemashite." She bowed slightly.
Kameju smiled. "Pleased to meet you, Miss Paridis."
Usako gestured to the door. "We have further members of our
party handling our luggage outside. Where are we to stay?"
"Ah yes...." Kameju nodded. "Follow me." He gestured down
the corridor and moved on his way, Usako and CereCere following.
"I here you ladies have been looking for a woman with two
cats." Kameju looked aside as they reached a door at the end. He
looked at them as he opened the door. "It was on the newsprints
just last week."
Usako nodded. "We're more interested in the cats themselves.
We have been searching for them for years." Usako stepped through
the door, which lead to a T junction. The corridor lead to either
side of the building, then turned both ways. Kaneju and CereCere
stepped through after them.
"Why are the cats so important?"
"They simply are. The woman had taken them with her shortly
after the Cataclysm. I feel she was actually searching for us, but
it has been close to nine years now. They have to have gone,
somewhere."
"I seem to remember, some time ago, back in my home town in
Hokkaido, stories of a woman who was travelling around with a pair
of talking cats. What was her name again.... Kiko.. something."
"Kikotsuka Aoi." CereCere said, simply. "And it is her who
is important to me, not the cats."
"To each their own, CereCere." Usako smiled at her, archly.
----o
Usagi lifted herself up from the carpeted floor of the hotel
corridor, trying to shake the darkness from her mind. Every time
she looked up, the world started to do little jaunts, which made her
feel nauseous.
She'd never been lifted up quite that rapidly, in such a brute
manner, and thrown with equally brute force. Of course, she'd been
beaten, zapped, smashed and all sorts of nasty things during her
life, but never thrown out of a room by something that wasn't there.
She finally got to her feet and stared down the corridor.
It went on forever. Just an endless row of doors,
disappearing into a dark, distant spot. She spun and looked the
other way. The same thing. Only this way, she could see a woman,
a cleaner of some description, pushing a trolley with her cleaning
equipment. Her pace was slow, and Usagi could hear the sqeaking
of the wheels.
Usagi turned to the doorway she had been thrown through, but
it was now closed. She looked down at her lack of clothing and
shivered. Well, it was too late now to turn back. With a sigh, she
trotted along the corridor after the woman.
"Hello... I say, hello. Can you tell me where I am, please?
Or, at the very least, some idea of where I can find the reception
desk?"
Usagi placed a hand on the woman's shoulder, and she turned.
She almost had a heart attack, and took several steps
backwards....
The woman had no face.
END OF PART ONE
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DDFA darkdayforanime@hotmail.com
8th Mar 1998