Sailor Moon Requiem 03 : Whispering Waltz
There is nothing in the world quite like the smell of a hospital. And then it hits me, the old, stale smell of overly recycled air and cleaning chemicals. Bleach, disinfectant, blood, it's the scent of a lingering death.
I walk up to the front desk, the information desk, and ask about Hotaru. They give me a room number, and a brief, almost sympathetic smile. Take the second left, they tell me, then go straight down the corridor. Number fifty-seven, you can't miss it.
And they're right, there's no way I can miss it. It's not because the numbers are brightly painted on the doors, because they're not. It's because Haruka's shouting at the top of her lungs, and underneath all of that I can hear Michiru, sobbing softly, and then, if I listen just a little more, the faint, steady beep of a heart monitor. I quicken my pace just a little. I can only hope Haruka isn't doing anything too foolish.
I open the door to find Haruka towering over another woman, her eyes like cobalt diamonds, hard, and cold, and filled with fury.
"Damn it," Haruka's voice is hoarse, almost likes she's been crying. "Why didn't you tell us she was being bullied? We're her parents, we had a right to know!"
"Haruka, please." Michiru has managed to snare one of Haruka's arms and she's pulling it, trying to hold her lover back.
"Michiru," Haruka growls. "Stay out of this." And then she turns back to the other woman, Hotaru's teacher, I think. "Well, damn it, are you going to answer me?"
I narrow my eyes. Haruka has always had a bit of a temper, she always will, but her anger will not get us anywhere, not here. Besides, she looks like she's about to hit Hotaru's teacher, and the last thing we need is for Haruka to get arrested.
"Haruka Tenou, that is enough."
She whirls around and gapes at me, stunned. She probably didn't hear me come in. For a moment she looks embarrassed, like a child caught with their hand in the cookie jar, and then the anger returns, and it's as hot as before.
"Setsuna," I can hear the fury in her voice. "You took your sweet time getting here." She stops there, but I can hear the implication : was there something more important?
"Haruka," It is Pluto who speaks now, not Setsuna. "You will sit."
She stares at me again, and I see her fists clench at her sides. But in the end she takes a seat by Hotaru's bedside and sits down. It is then, for the first time that I let myself look at Hotaru.
She looks so pale with her dark, almost black, purple hair plastered against her forehead, her skin like faded alabaster. On the angular plane of one cheek I can see a tinge of purple, a bruise, and I glance downwards at the chart that details her injuries. She has a cracked rib and bruising to the chest, stomach and face. Those are not the sort of injuries you get in a fight, they are the sort you get in a beating.
I turn my eyes, fully aware of how intimidating their crimson depths must be, upon her teacher. She squirms beneath my gaze and I take a moment to enjoy that guilty, savage pleasure.
"What happened?" I need not threaten her with any physical violence, because unlike Haruka, my tone carries more than just the threat of violence.
"I…" She stutters as she tries to meet my gaze. "I…" and then she picks herself up and almost staggers from the room. "I think you should come with me."
I follow her and motion for the others to do the same, but not before I throw a final, warning glance at Haruka. She returns my look with a glare.
The teacher leads us to another room, not that far from Hotaru's, with a young girl, perhaps the same age, as my daughter upon it. I steal a look at her chart. A broken ankle, a fractured jaw, severe bruising to the face, concussion and a suspected fractured cheek bone.
"This girl…" The teacher says at last, pausing as if unable to believe what she's saying. "This girl and Hotaru got into a fight."
"Bullshit!" Haruka's voice cuts across the room like a whip. "No way would my daughter ever get into a fight and besides," she lowers her voice. "We all know that Hotaru isn't capable of something like this."
"I thought so to," the teacher says. "I though so to… but it took me and three other students to get her off Chihiro and even then it took another four to hold her down long enough for me to get Chihiro away from her."
"Toshida-sensei." We all turn to find another schoolgirl by the door, her face still slightly moist from her tears, the edges of her shirt crumpled in her hands. "I was wondering if you wanted anything from the hospital café?"
Something about the girl is familiar, and then it clicks. She is one of the 'nice' girls, the ones who never picked on Hotaru. To be honest, they weren't exactly friendly either, but they were kind enough.
"Excuse me," and my voice is soft now, as I lower it just enough to soothe the obviously jittery girl's nerves. "You're one of Hotaru's classmates, did you see what happened?"
She looks startled for a moment and looks at her teacher who simply nods. With a sigh, and something that was almost a sob, she began to speak. It takes her all of two minutes to tell us what happened. By the time she's finished it takes all my will power not to storm out of the room and wake Hotaru up. I need to know if it's her because all of it, the fighting, the cold, brutal efficiency, all of it, was not Hotaru's, it was hers…
"Lady Pluto, I am honoured that you have chosen to join us."
Instead of bowing, I simply incline my head. I can see the mirth dancing in my Queen's eyes, for we have known each other a long time, she and I and this is merely another one of our games.
"The honour is mine, my Queen." The corner of my mouth quirks up, but she knows exactly what it means. Why so formal, old friend?
Low murmurs of discontent rumble through her entourage as she returns my smile. The others have never understood my 'disobedience', though I can hardly blame them. Few live as long as I do, and fewer still know how close my Queen and I once were, how close we still are.
"Leave us," she says, dismissing the courtiers and seneschals and other officials with a wave of her hands. And then, when we are alone in the hall, its vast emptiness all around us, she speaks again. "It has been some time, Pluto."
"Yes, my Queen, it has." And it has been. Twenty years? Thirty? I've long since stopped counting. "But then, I am sure this is no mere social call."
"No," and she smiles, a soft smile. It's the smile I love, not the smile she puts on for the masses, but the one she smiles just for me. I smile back. "It is not." And then she gestures once more with those graceful hands of hers and an image forms in the air.
"What is this?" The images are a mass of colour, purple, crimson, black. It is impossible to make sense of any of it. "Serenity?"
"Wait."
And then the images slow, coming sharply into focus and my eyes widen. There is a girl there, perhaps twelve years old, and she is wearing… no…. no…
A youma jumps at her from the side and she merely turns her head and it is gone. It explodes in a shower of gore, as if cleaved by some tremendous invisible blade. More of the youma appear, leaping at her from all sides, some even bursting up from under the ground.
Her hands blur. Steel hard flesh is reduced to pulp and bones shatter. Her foot lashes out. Her kick catches one of the youma in the head. It dies in a heartbeat, its brains, as well as most of its skull splattered onto the wall behind it.
Violet light curls around the girl's fist and she smashes it into the youma nearest to her. It seems to shake for a moment, its whole body quivering like an enormous bowstring, before it snaps and comes apart. The youma are trying to run now, but they don't get far. Ribbons of lavender light lash out and whatever they touch simply ceases to be. She kills them with a calm methodical brutality, using the ribbons to immobilise them before finishing them off with her bare hands. Calm and efficient, she is death given flesh.
"Pluto," my Queen's voice snaps me from my observation. "Do you understand now?"
"Saturn." The name leaves my lips almost like a curse. "Saturn has awakened."
Author's Notes
Yo! Nice to see you all back again for another chapter of my fic. As you can tell, this is again separated into two parts, basically the present, and the past. Hopefully, I've been revealing things at the right rate ( I don't want to give everything away, but I don't want to be too obtuse either ). As you have probably noticed, it isn't exactly canon either, but given the complete lack of effort put into the history of Saturn or Pluto… heh, we're not losing much.
As always, I encourage all of you to review. You don't know how much a difference it makes. Besides, I practically live off reviews, so don't let me go without ;;.