Chapter 13: Triskaidekaphobia
Basil stared at the calendar. It couldn't be that horrible day. It just couldn't be! He was sure that this one was the day he would die! He nervously touched a pair of scissors that lay on his desk. Should he risk using them? If he cut the date out of the calendar, would the bad luck disappear? He had to try it, lest his whole day be fraught with...
"Basil, what ARE you doing?! Why are you cutting up your calendar?" asked a firm but somewhat amused voice. He turned around to see Sakura watching him.
"I thought maybe if I cut the 13 out, today's bad luck would be changed, eh," he answered sheepishly.
"Today's bad luck?! But today's just started. If you're looking to prevent bad luck, then don't cut up your calendar, you'll have a big hole on the other side," Sakura said, trying to stay stern but failing. She nearly started to laugh at him.
"But it's Friday the 13th! Where I come from, that's really bad luck!" Basil protested. Sakura looked confused, then she understood.
"Oh right, Mom told me that in some cultures, 13 is the bad luck number. Here in Japan, 4 and 9 are bad luck, but I really don't believe that myself," Sakura shrugged. Basil gasped.
"Then we share the same belief, eh! Because 4 plus 9 is 13!"
"No, not 4 plus 9, just 4 and 9 on their own. I don't know how to explain it myself." Sakura left then, leaving Basil confused and a little frightened.
"I can't believe that our tentacle monster didn't scare off and disgust the Senshi! I thought for sure they would associate it with sexual anime!" Umi ranted.
"Umi, I don't think that was a good idea, though, those two probably have never seen Puni Puni Poemi and certainly not any sexual anime, so there would be very little chance of them making the connection," Fuu pointed out.
"You know, I think the next Senshi is someone who's scared of the number 13. Maybe we should use that against him," Hikaru suggested meekly.
"How would we do that? There's no animal that looks like the number 13," Umi replied skeptically. Hikaru drew a cube on a piece of paper; each side was numbered with "13" in Arabic numerals.
"Hmm, I think we could create this kind of monster. Good idea," approved Fuu. Surprisingly, Umi didn't argue with her and the three girls got ready to carry out their plan.
After breakfast at the Mizuno house, there was a knock on the door. It was Setsuna Meiou, who said she had a Senshi bracelet for a certain someone, and Serena was with her too. An idea popped into Sakura's head and she pulled Serena to the side.
"Could you explain to Basil why 4 and 9 are bad luck in Japan? I bet you could explain it in English to him, maybe he'd understand better that way since he's from Canada and you're from Scotland," she requested.
"Aye, I know about that superstition from being an anime fan. I'll explain it to him. I'll even give him his magical Senshi bracelet, Setsuna said I could do it," Serena agreed eagerly, then she went off in search of Basil. She found him hiding in his room, scared to come out not only because it was Friday the 13th, but because he was also shy. She didn't speak at first, she just set the black Senshi bracelet in his lap.
"Is this for me? Does this mean there's a monster?" he asked tentatively.
"It's for you, but there's no monsters right now. It's from Setsuna since your powers are going to be like hers used to be when she was Sailor Pluto. Sakura also said you had a question about Japan and unlucky numbers," Serena added, now speaking in English.
"Yes. She told me that here in Japan, 4 and 9 are unlucky. Why is that? Because they add up to 13? But a lot of other numbers do, so I'm confused," Basil responded. Serena sat down near him on the floor, guessing that he might not like her on his bed.
"First of all, 4 is usually more thought to be unlucky than 9. That's because the word for 4, 'shi,' sounds exactly like the word for 'death.' That's why 'yon' is a substitute word for the number 4. As for 9, 'ku' sounds like the word for torture, so 'kyuu' is often substituted. I don't know why the language was set up that way, that's just what I know," Serena explained.
"I never noticed that. I still think 13 is scary, though. I just know there's going to be a monster battle today, and I'll probably die in it," Basil whimpered, starting to cry.
"Don't give up before it's happened! Sakura and I are Sailor Senshi too and we can help you fight it. There probably WILL be a monster, but that's not because of the day. That's just because the Magic Knights like to target us Senshi when we first awaken to our powers," Serena said, trying to cheer him up.
"Maybe that. Or maybe it's the bad luck of..." Basil cut off, gasping. There was a strange clunking noise coming from downstairs.
"Let's go down. It's probably the monster. That's odd, it sounds like it's trying to climb up the stairs," Serena noted, "Peanut Butter Power, Make Up!"
"Licorice Power, Make Up!" Basil added, deciding that if today was bad luck, then it might just be bad luck for the Magic Knights as well. The two of them headed for the stairwell, where they saw a strange sight. A gigantic blue cube was clunking its way up the stairs; the oddest thing was, on each side of the cube was the number 13, in bright orange numerals.
"Good, you two are transformed, and now we have it surrounded. We can...oh Basil, how typical. Men are such wimps," sighed Sailor Milkshake, as Sailor Licorice had slumped to the ground in terror at the 6 number 13s that menaced him.
"Come on, Basil. If you hate the number 13 so much, why don't you just destroy it? Attack the thing that scares you," Sailor Peanut Butter encouraged him. And it worked. He stood back up shakily and pointed a hand at the numbered box.
"Dead Scream!" he called, oddly not whispering it like Sailor Pluto had before him. The pinkish-purple ball of energy shot out of his hand and hit the cube monster, making a gaping hole through it. Sailor Licorice roared with anger, leaping down the stairs and smashing into the monster, rolling down the stairs with it until it was only a mess of shards that were quickly disappearing.
"Deep Submerge!"
"Fruity Punch!" Sailor Milkshake and Sailor Peanut Butter threw their own Senshi attacks at it, making sure it was gone.
"Impossible! I thought he was too scared to fight it!" Fuu gasped, watching the scene in the water mirror.
"I think he could beat it because he was scared. He just turned that into anger, and...well...okay, that was kind of suprising," Hikaru admitted.
"I think we need to change our plans. These monsters just keep getting destroyed. What if we kidnapped one of the Senshi and stole his or her transformation bracelet?" Umi boldly suggested.
"What if they just capture you again? What if they kill us?" Fuu asked.
"They won't. Not if we say we'll destroy the bracelet. They'll probably do anything we want them to," Umi declared.
"How did you get that kind of energy? I thought you were too scared of the monster," Sakura asked, back at the Mizuno house.
"I hate that number! And I hate you! Everyone called me a wimp and now I'll show them with my Sailor Senshi powers! Dead..." Sailor Licorice started to call out his attack again, but Sakura grabbed the brooch on his chest, causing him to detransform.
"That's enough, Basil. No attacking the other Senshi," she scolded.
"Shut up! You represent everyone who's ever made fun of me!" Basil screamed, and he punched Sakura in the face. Sakura tackled him to the ground.
"Enough. Don't put your silly representations on me, I just was stating a fact about men. And you are proving another fact to be true, that men can't control their emotions," Sakura snapped.
"Stop stereotyping him. That's probably why he thinks it's okay to do it to me," Serena pleaded as she ran down the stairs to them.
"Do it to you? What's stereotyping? What did I do to you?" Basil asked, momentarily startled out of his anger.
"You said I was thrifty just because I'm Scottish. And I thought that Sakura taught you how to stereotype people," Serena said meekly.
"But isn't that true?" Basil asked, confused. Sakura stood up and shoved him aside, stomping away. He looked back at her, hurt in his eyes.