Moon Cats: Fearful Symmetry

Chapter 3

"I don't think like this, Artemis." Reika Hagisaki said, lowering her camera and glancing at the white haired man in a trench coat. He was writing in a notebook when she spoke and finished, before looking up.

"I know I don't like it. You feel it to, don't you?"

"Yes. Something big... Something Magical happened here. I just don't know what yet."

Artemis nodded. "Well that's why we got that big library for you. These symbols were very clearly drawn and look vaguely familiar to me. We found out what mean and I bet we find out what they are up to."

"I agree. I also have all the pictures I need." She stood, stretching. "And here I thought I'd just work in the offices."

"Yeah, well I didn't actually plan to work, so I can relate." Artemis also stood, his eyes running over the pattern of bloodstains. "That's weird."

"What?"

"The body was in the middle of the circle, right?"

"Yeah, that's what the pictures show."

"The why isn't there any blood there?"

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Mamoru had resisted the urge to gag when the cover was removed from the body that once housed the soul of a girl named Himeko. One long gash covered her stomach displaying for anyone who saw her why she wasn't alive any more, and Mamoru couldn't help but see a resemblance between the girl and Rei Hino. They both had long black hair and strong chins though her nose was a bit more button like then Rei's. "Thoughts like that aren't going to help." He muttered to him self.

"Sister or girlfriend?" A tired, older voice asked from behind him.

"Pardon?"

"Does she remind you of your sister, or your girlfriend?"

"A friend of my girlfriend, and my own." Mamoru replied, surprised. "How did you know?"

"Because she reminds me of my grand daughter." The man who was speaking stepped into view, looking down at the girl with sad eyes.

Mamoru considered the older man for a moment. He was short, maybe only five two, with iron gray hair and a care worn expression. Slightly over weight he still seemed to be swallowed by his lab coat and green surgical scrubs.

"My name is Mamoru Chiba, I'm the Medical expert for the CAPPA, such as I am."

"I've heard about you, Doctor Chiba. I'm Dr. Hari Kensi. I'm the Chief Medical Examiner, and have been expecting you."

"I was expecting the doctor who led me in to help me."

"I like to meet all the new folks, and I have the time."

"Oh. Well it's...almost a pleasure to meet you." Mamoru smiled sickly.

Dr. Kensi nodded, with his own vague grin. "I was wondering how you'd react when you saw the girl."

"I seemed to disappoint Dr. Hotori."

"Of course, you showed emotion." Dr. Kensi shook his head. "He's one of the 'technician' types. That's my term for the ones who treat the people coming over our tables as broken machines, and not people."

"But not you?"

"No." The old doctor looked Mamoru in the eyes. "I stated as a family practitioner back before the city kept multiple ME's on staff. One of my patients, a sixteen-year-old girl I'd been treating since she was in pigtails, was murdered. The police asked me to do the autopsy."

"That must have been hard."

"You don't know the half of it son. But they caught the bastard because of the hairs I found between her fingers."

"Never went back, huh?"

The old man laughed. "Just the opposite. I happily practiced private medicine for three more years before a virus had most of the doctors in the city out of action and the police remembered me and asked me to do another autopsy." He shrugged. "They caught that one in the process of killing another woman. All my years as a doctor and that woman was the first life I'd ever directly helped to save, instead of just improve."

"That's when I never went back, so to speak."

"Did you ever get used to this?" The young doctor asked.

"No, and the look in your eyes tells me you won't either. I think I'm going to like working with you."

"Thank you." Mamoru sighed, then returned his attention to the job at hand. "Now what can you tell me about her?"

"As you can see, the knife wound stretches across the abdomen. The slash is shallow enough that none of the internal organs were badly injured, not that they had to be. They did this specifically so she'd bleed to death."

"Someone pinned her arms and legs by hand while it was happening, and she was on her back as demonstrated by several scratches and cuts from her struggles. That isn't the strange thing though..."

"What is? I haven't read the report yet." It hadn't been in the files sent to CAPPA for some reason.

"She sat at least a day before being discovered, so you tell me what's missing?"

Mamoru recognized the challenge in the older mans voice, and looked the body over carefully. He slipped his gloved hands under her and lifted slightly, looking under her. "You said she was on her back right?"

"And found that way, yes."

"Then why hasn't her blood settled in her back?"

"Quite simple, Dr. Chiba. She doesn't have a thimble full of blood anywhere in her body."

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Lt. Hibuki leaned back as his Chief of Detectives entered his office. "What's up Hiroshi?"

"Nothing good. The Detectives are completely stumped and Mamoru didn't find anything new on the most recent victim. Luna and he are currently searching databases for oogie boogies that steal victims' blood and draw with it. He does agree with the ME's office that her blood couldn't have been drained by 'normal means'."

"And what did Artemis and Reika find?"

"I quote. 'Bad Magic, Artemis no like.' He said they were going to write up their actual impressions of the scene, but they are both damn sure of the scene, but they are both damn sure that magic happened in there."

"They are also looking for symbols matching the circles with several of the interns right now."

"Then at this point we're waiting to see what they find?"

"I hate to say it, but yeah. Unless something else happens it's a research game. The boys and me are going to do some nosing around anyhow, something might pan out."

"Do it." He watched the detective leave. "I just hope nothing else does happen."

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Sailor Mars gasped for breath. Earlier in the evening a youma, not strong but fast, had appeared in the shopping district and began terrorizing shoppers, draining the occasional person as it went. The Senshi had arrived and begun a merry chase through the city, ending up in the wharf district and a hulk of a ship in the scrap yard. "Sailor Moon! Look out!" Sailor Mars yelled as the youma the inner Senshi were fighting fired super sonic chopsticks at the blond.

Sailor Moon yelped, and threw herself to the side to avoid the rapid-fire attack. She landed steadily, in spite of the old hulk of a ship's list. Unfortunately the old deck was rusted nearly clean through and collapsed from the weight.

"AHHH!"

"Sailor Moon! Jupiter Thunderclap Zap!" Rage guided the tallest Senshi's aim, her ball of compressed plasma hammering into the Youma's stomach, vaporizing its torso."

Mercury and Mars rushed to the hole where the Senshi's leader had disappeared. "Sailor Moon! Are you all right?"

"Yeah..." The distant reply came quickly. "I landed on some nets or something."

Down in the hold she reached up and removed her Tiara. "Moon Tiara!" She called, lighting the jeweled headpiece up like a lantern. "I see stairs, so I'll..."

She stopped speaking when her mind finally identified what was filling the floor of the hold, her blue eyes widening in horror.

She barely managed to hit the emergency "ALL CALL" on her watch before she started throwing up.

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"What do we have here, Shimaka?"

"Nothing good. Artemis is inside taking pictures while Mamoru checks the body. Mamoru was the first on scene somehow."

"Good." Hibuki wasn't really surprised. "So what exactly is it that we have here?"

"It's one of ours, and I'm betting it's the real first victim. This scene is old, and messed up thanks to rats."

Hibuki nodded. "Give me the details. And who called it in?" pretending not to already know the answer.

"Believe it or not, Artemis said the Sailor Senshi themselves called our office. One of them figured it would fall into our bailiwick. Go figure." He opened his notebook and glanced over his notes before beginning.

The description did match all the previous murders. One girl, on her back, dead in a circle of her own blood. He let Shimaka lead while talking, finding Artemis and Mamoru directing several staff from the CSI division. "Find anything?" Hibuki asked, his tone displaying his pessimistic.

To his surprise it was misplaced. "Yes we did. The girl's clothing was found in a corner, which in and of it's self is a new bent on things. What we found WITH the clothes is the real bonus." Artemis held up a plastic evidence bag, inside of which a strangely colored metal pin could be seen.

"What is it?"

"The symbol it's self is a stylized Vietnamese symbol meaning 'Cool spring'. The runes on the floor are an old Chinese base dialect that developed into the modern Vietnamese. Reika was translating the words from the last site when the call came in for this."

"Is this a break?"

"In and of it's self, maybe not. However this pin is Electrum!"

"What is electrum?"

Mamoru chuckled. "I asked the same thing. It's basically an alloy of silver and gold combined. It's not all that common, and was never real popular."

"And is likely ritualistic. The pin had on it fibers that look identical to all the fibers found under the girls fingertips. I bet they had to replace it."

"Shimaka, tomorrow you and your boy's are going jewelry shopping." Hibuki said. "It seems gentlemen that the hunt is on!"