Chapter 24 – An old fiend
The room they entered now was huge and rather well lit. Hundreds of candles bordered the walls and the floor was covered with bamboo mats. The door closed behind them and they noticed that the monk hadn't entered. They were on their own now and they looked around the room to see the Master.
There he was, sitting on a bamboo mat with his legs crossed right in front of them on the other side of the room. The Master was obviously very old, his beard was at least ten feet long and his face was covered with deep wrinkles. It looked like he was asleep but when Bulma stepped forward he opened his eyes and smiled.
"Welcome," he said. "How may I be of assistance?"
"We are looking for a small orange crystal ball with red stars on it," Bulma said, bowing slightly: she wasn't sure how exactly she should behave. "It must be in this temple."
"Ah yes," the Master nodded, "more than a year ago a white stone came flying through the sky and landed in the woods near the temple. One of the monks brought it here and we have been keeping it here ever since. Some days ago the stone turned into a crystal ball you just described."
"We must have it," Goku persisted. "Will you give it to us?"
The monk didn't reply. His eyes closed again and it looked like he had fallen asleep again.
"Hey Master," Vegeta called, "wake up and answer!"
The Master startled and moved a bit. Then he opened his eyes again and they noticed with surprise that the look on his face had changed. The Master's eyes were now cold and somehow yellowish. And he was smirking.
"No," he said. Everyone blinked. Haruka and Michiru glanced at Hotaru and gasped quietly. They had expected to see a pale frightened girl but Hotaru's eyes had turned dark purple and her face was furious.
"Why?" Bulma asked. The monk's grin got wider.
"It is a relic and must never be taken out of the temple," he said slowly. His voice was different now, it was… metallic.
"We need it, old man!" Vegeta said with irritation in his voice. "It doesn't belong to you!"
The Master's grin was now so wide that it was surprising his head hadn't fallen off yet. "Finder's, keeper's."
"That man is nuts," Goku said with surprise.
"No." Everyone turned around to see Hotaru was glaring at the Master with her eyes gleaming and narrowed. "Saturn Crystal Power!" As the transformation was complete, the girl stepped forward and pointed her Silence Glaive at the monk. "He's possessed."
"Smart girl, smart girl like you've always been," the monk cackled. The candle flames flickered. A cold wind whizzed past them even though there was no window or another entry where it could've come from.
"Show yourself, coward!" Sailor Saturn's voice was sharp and demanding. "Hiding behind an old monk… where's your arrogance now?"
Now the monk's eyes flashed in fury. "This is my only way of existence, Sailor Soldier of Death!" he boomed. "And it's your fault… your fault!"
Saturn didn't pay attention to that. "Show yourself!" she called and pulled the Glaive through the air. It started glowing. The Master gasped and fell over. Something dark and semi-transparent slid out from under his body, curled on the floor, gathered itself together and formed into…
"What?" Bulma gasped.
"Oh crap," Haruka and Seiya said at the same time.
"This is getting old," Vegeta snorted.
It was standing in the middle of the room, dark wings spread out all over the place, cold eyes narrowed, sharp fangs gritted, long claws scratching the air. It was semi-transparent and they could see the monk through it.
"You again?" Goku demanded. "I thought we had gotten rid of you!"
The demon of darkness Saturn had destroyed with her Death Reborn Revolution and the others' powers was standing there, right in front of them. Exactly the same, completely unharmed and at the moment very angry.
"Yes," it hissed furiously. "You did. You defeated me, worthless human scum…"
"Ahem," Vegeta interrupted with a frown. The demon seemed confused.
"And Saiyan scum," it added with hesitation. Vegeta grinned. "You have earned my everlasting hatred and contempt, I will curse you all every single day and I swear…"
"Look, you can see right through it," Trunks said to Goten.
"I wonder if I could throw a stone through its butt?" Goten asked.
"Worth a try," Trunks chuckled.
The demon took a deep breath. "Are you listening?"
"Pretty much," Seiya agreed with a grin. "You were about to swear something… well?"
The demon could feel that it wasn't in charge of things any more. "I swear that I'll… I'll…"
"Hey, you have a halo above your head," Yaten commented. There really was a golden halo floating above the demon's black head. The creature gnashed.
"May I at least finish?" it asked sarcastically.
"Honestly, your speech wasn't very interesting," Goku admitted. "Besides, I already got the point. You're dead."
"A dead ghost, just like the ones we say in the Afterworld," Haruka nodded. "Actually it makes sense. We killed it, didn't we?"
"And I will forever curse…" the demon started again but Taiki interrupted it.
"Is there any way to get rid of it now?" he asked. Sailor Saturn shook her head.
"It's a ghost. It can't be killed twice."
"They sent me…" the demon started.
"There are many ghosts that possess people," Saturn remarked, lowering the Glaive and ignoring the demon. "They probably didn't want it in the Afterworld to float around in the Hell and sent it here. Those powerful monks are able to keep it here so that it wouldn't wander around on the planet."
"Exactly…" The creature was interrupted again.
"If that Master is one of the wisest and most powerful humans on this planet then how come that thing," Vegeta pointed at the offended demon, "got out and took over his body?"
Saturn looked at the creature. "Yes, I'd like to know that too."
"What, now it's my turn to answer?" the demon asked sarcastically. The Silence Glaive whizzed through the air.
"Talk!" Saturn demanded. The creature sighed and sat down, folding its wings together.
"That Master or how they like to call the human has extreme mental powers," it said. "He has complete control over me. I'm weak now, I will never be as powerful as I was and I'm trapped in that human's body until he dies. That won't happen for another couple of hundred years and by that time there will be another human powerful enough to take control over me."
"Complete control?" Seiya asked. "You took him over a minute ago."
The demon shrugged. "He's old. Sometimes he forgets that he's supposed to control me."
"So you're actually able to take his body over, leave the temple, gather an army of darkness or something like that and take over the world?" Trunks asked.
The demon snorted. "With a body that can't move ten steps without getting a heart attack? Give it a try yourself kid, I'd love to see you accomplishing that."
"So…" Vegeta frowned, "can we get that Dragonball now?"
The creature peered at the Glaive. "Heck, why not? It's in the garden; they stuck it somewhere in a pond. Go find it yourselves, and hey Saiyan prince," Vegeta had gone to the door already, "slam the door open real hard, will you?"
Vegeta kicked the massive door open and the monk who had been listening behind the door fell on his back in the middle of the hallway. The demon chuckled. Sailor Saturn turned back into Hotaru and as the Silence Glaive disappeared, the demon turned back into mist and curled back into the Master. Goku closed the door again and they went back towards the entrance.
"That was even easy," Yaten said when Vegeta took the Dragonball out of the pond behind the temple.
"Yeah, luckily we have our canary," Haruka agreed. "Do you think it won't bother us any more, Hotaru?"
"Unless it finds a younger body," Hotaru agreed. "The Master is powerful enough to control it though, it won't leave the monk. That demon had physical powers; mentally it wasn't stronger than any other nightmare. So Bulma, where's the next Dragonball?"
"Not far away from Western Capital," Bulma replied. "That's the one we could've retrieved first if you hadn't wanted to fetch Goku. Shall we go?"
"Sure," the others agreed and went back to the plane.