Disclaimer: I do not own Sailor Moon, nor do I own the works of H.P. Lovecraft.
Chapter 9: Confession and Abduction
After making sure Ami was perfectly okay, Satoru and Erica headed back to their apartment. There was mostly silence between them during the trip back. More than once Satoru had attempted to strike up a conversation, but Erica was too lost in thought to hear him. What troubled Satoru was the serious expression on Erica's face; he had a bad feeling about what it was she might be pondering. When they finally entered the apartment, Satoru decided to confront Erica about what she was likely planning.
"You're thinking we should eliminate Ward, aren't you?" Satoru deduced.
Erica looked at Satoru seriously for a few moments and nodded. "I don't like the idea, but he doesn't seem to be leaving us much choice. I cannot allow him to call upon the power of Yog-Sothoth."
"Is this Yog-Sothoth really so terrible?"
"There was an incident near this city connected to Yog-Sothoth that occurred back during the 1920s or 1930s. It happened in a rural community known as Dunwich. The whole thing all started with a crazy old man named Whateley, who was in fact a practitioner of the occult. Whateley offered up his daughter to Yog-Sothoth, and Yog-Sothoth impregnated her, causing her to later give birth to two sons. The first son was just barely capable of passing as human and carried out the wishes of his father through his grandfather's guidance, while the other son…was something barely human at all.
"Both of Yog-Sothoth's sons were thwarted by the efforts of a Miskatonic University professor, but had they succeeded all life on this planet would've been totally destroyed! The lifeless rock this planet would've become would've been pulled from the solar system and transported to some unknown place for some nameless purpose."
"Okay, but from what I understand, Ward doesn't intend to call forth Yog-Sothoth himself, just borrow his power momentarily. Unlike this Whateley person you're talking about, his intentions seem good."
Erica adjusted her glasses. "There's an old human saying that's appropriate here. I believe it goes, 'The road to Hell is paved with good intentions.' Ward is essentially planning to make a deal with the devil, and such deals never turn out well. Yog-Sothoth may not be an active threat, but if given the opportunity he would not hesitate to destroy this planet! Therefore I can't allow Ward to do anything that might provoke him. If it means I have to kill Ward in order to stop him, so be it."
Satoru sighed. "Okay, but could you at least give me a little more time to come up with a better solution? I'm not crazy about Ward, but I don't like the idea of killing him, and I'm sure Ami would definitely object."
"…Very well, but time isn't something we have in abundance. If Ward is to be stopped, it will have to be soon."
"Good enough. If you don't mind, I plan to tell Ami about what we've just discussed."
"I don't need the blessing of either you or Ms. Mizuno to do what I have to," Erica pointed out as she adjusted her glasses again. "Since we're on the subject of Ami though, perhaps there's something else you should discuss with her, such as the real feelings you have towards her."
Satoru was so startled that he staggered back and nearly fell over the coffee table. "You…you want me to confess to Ami? Are you insane?"
"The worst thing Ami could do is reject you, correct? We tried indirect methods to let her know how you feel and they blew up in our faces. At this point, it's just best to rip the Band-Aid off and let her know how you feel. Besides, if my instincts are right, she likely feels the same way as you."
"I wish I shared your confidence."
Erica smiled and shrugged. "Do what you want. But I think it'd be far better for you if you just confessed and got it over with. No need to prolong your suffering, right?"
With those words, Erica walked off towards her room. Satoru meanwhile went over and sat on the couch to ponder the pinkette's suggestion.
The evening of the following day, Ami had gone back to the Miskatonic campus to meet with Satoru. Satoru had sent her a text message telling her he had something important to discuss. The truth was Ami had something important to discuss with him as well. Ever since her most recent vision of her lost past life memories and almost losing Satoru out there on the beach, Ami realized there was something she had to admit: she had feelings for Satoru. This was something Ami had realized since her earliest visions of her memories from her former life, but she had been in denial about it.
Ami thought perhaps her denial stemmed partly from the old taboo regarding romantic relationships between people from the Earth and the Moon that existed during the old Silver Millennium. She was certain this was the reason she denied her feelings back during her previous life. There was no such taboo now though, and Ami now felt it was perhaps best to admit her feelings for Satoru rather than keep pretending they didn't exist. Otherwise, those feelings would continue to be a distraction. The only problem was Ami was far from an expert when it came to romantic confessions.
The truth was Ami wasn't exactly a regular on the dating scene. In fact, as far as she knew, this was the first time she had ever really been in love with anyone. Of course back during her high school entrance exams all of Ami's friends insisted she had fallen in love with someone who kept beating her on the mock exams, but to this day Ami insisted he was nothing more than a rival. In any case, Ami didn't know exactly how to go about confessing her feelings to Satoru. She had already gone through multiple scenarios in her head and nothing seemed quite right.
Ami found she wished her friend Minako were there to help her. She had even tried calling Mina for some advice earlier, but for whatever reason, her phone couldn't be reached. Ami suspected Mina simply turned her phone off because she was busy. Mina was after all in the middle of filming a movie she had been selected to star in, so it was only natural she'd have her phone off while they were shooting scenes. Whatever the case though, Ami realized she was going to have to do this confession on her own.
Satoru at long last arrived at their appointed meeting spot on campus. Ami took a deep breath to try and steady her nerves as he walked up.
"Glad you could make up," Satoru told her as he came up. "There's something important we need to talk about."
Ami held up her hand to silence him. "Before we get into it, there's something important I need to tell you first."
"Okay. Go ahead."
Ami folded her hands behind her back and began to fidget a little. "Alright, well…I've been trying since last night to figure the right way to say this to you, and I think perhaps the best way is to simply be honest."
Satoru looked at Ami intently as an awkward silence fell between them. Ami noticed that Satoru suddenly looked a little nervous.
"Okay…here it goes," Ami spoke before taking a deep breath and clenching her fists at her sides as she pinched her eyes shut. "I think I'm romantically attracted to you and would like to know if you feel the same way!"
When Ami opened her eyes, she found Satoru had a totally stunned expression on his face. Another awkward silence fell between them, one so thick you could cut it with a chainsaw. Meanwhile, Ami's confession was so loud, it had caused the few people on campus who had been passing by at the time to stop and give them weird looks.
Ami quickly began to panic. "Oh god! Oh god! I can't believe I just did that! Okay, look. We can just forget this ever happened, okay? I don't know what I was thinking. The look on your face clearly says you don't…"
Before Ami could finish, Satoru grabbed her by the arm, pulled her in, and planted a firm kiss on Ami's lips. The small audience they had gained thanks to Ami's awkward confession began to clap. A few of the onlookers were even filming videos of the kiss on their phones. The couple broke apart for air by the time their spectators finally began to disperse.
"I have feelings for you as well," Satoru admitted. "I realized it a while ago, but of course, I didn't know how to tell you or even if I should. The reason I was so stunned earlier was that I was certain you'd reject me."
"Why on earth would you think that?" Ami asked.
"I…I don't know! Why did you seem to think I'd reject you just now?"
Ami opened her mouth to respond but found she was lost for words for a few moments. "Okay, good point. I guess…everyone just has that fear of rejection when confessing to the person they like?"
Satoru shrugged. "I suppose so. To be honest, I did try to make my feelings known to you once before. Maybe you might remember a love letter that was taped to your door a few days ago?"
Ami's face turned bright red. "That…that was from you?"
"I didn't sign it or anything. At the time I thought it best to take a secret admirer approach and gauge your initial response."
"Well…I'm afraid I didn't even read it. I tend to have a sort of…violent reaction to love letters. It has nothing to do with you though!"
"It's quite all right. I probably just should've been up front with my feelings in the first place. So, um…where do we go from here?"
"I can tell you where you can go," a voice interrupted. Ami and Satoru looked and saw Irene standing before them. "Ami can come with us, and you Mr. Petrov can just die."
Suddenly a manhole cover in the nearby street passing through the campus burst open and a least a dozen Deep Ones erupted out. All of them were armed with tridents and harpoons. The bystanders still in the area quickly fled when they noticed the Deep Ones emerging from the sewer line. Meanwhile the fish-frog creatures quickly surrounded the couple and pointed their weapons at them.
"Guess we'll have to put a pin in our conversation for now," Satoru realized.
Ami nodded. "Just be more careful this time."
The two of them quickly transformed to their alternate identities and the battle began. All at once, the Deep Ones charged at Mercury and Zoisite, but before they could get very far Zoisite kneeled down and struck his sword into the ground, erecting a Geoforce Barrier to repel them. At Mercury's command, Zoisite dropped the barrier and she blasted all of the Deep Ones with her Shine Snow Illusion attack. The Deep Ones were frozen solid in an instant.
Zoisite charged in and quickly slashed his sword into each of the frozen fish-frogs, shattering every one of them to bits. Irene was totally stunned by how quickly her band of Deep Ones had been dispatched. A moment later though, a massive blue-grey blob burst from the still open manhole. Mercury and Zoisite knew the creature could only be a shoggoth. As soon as the blob had appeared, Irene's look of shock had been replaced by a triumphant smirk.
Meanwhile, the shoggoth had already begun to transform. Already there were several eyeballs of various sizes floating inside its body like pieces of fruit inside a Jell-O mold. The very front of the creature meanwhile formed into a large beak like the kind belonging to a squid, while several green vine-like tentacles covered in long red thorns burst from the sides of its body.
As soon as the shoggoth finished forming its temporary appendages, it let out its signature cry. "TEKELI-LI!"
"I was really hoping we wouldn't have to fight one of these again," Mercury remarked.
"I could try the same tactic we used before," Zoisite suggested.
"It's not like we have anything to lose. Do it!"
Zoisite nodded and slashed his sword through the air. "Star Crystal Cage!"
Six lights flew from Zoisite's blade and changed into four-pointed crystals that quickly surrounded the shoggoth. At Zoisite's command, the crystals connected together by bolts of yellow-green lightning and zapped the monstrosity with an even more intense blast of electricity. The shoggoth screeched in pain before collapsing into a pile of dust. With the shoggoth dead, Zoisite and Mercury turned their attention to Irene. Suddenly the air became filled with the sound of a familiar voice chanting a spell in a strange unfamiliar language.
In an instant the sky clouded over and rumbled with thunder. Before Mercury or Zoisite could figure out what was happening, a massive bolt of lighting came down, struck Mercury, and knocked Zoisite to the ground at the same time. Zoisite looked up in time to see Mercury unconscious and trapped inside a twister of water. An instant later, Mercury's Sailor Guardian transformation become undone. Zoisite looked towards Irene and turned just in time to see Reverend Jim walking up next to her, chanting the spell they had heard earlier from a large open book he had.
"Magnificent, isn't it?" Reverend Jim asked once he finally finished the spell. "This is the power found in the sacred R'lyeh Text I now hold! The power granted to me by Great Cthulhu!"
"Let her go!" Zoisite ordered.
"I'm afraid I cannot oblige, good sir. You see Ms. Ami is needed to help fulfill a higher purpose, which means I have to take her back with me. Don't worry though. She will be treated like a queen once her duty is finished."
"Over my dead body!" Zoisite declared as he raised his sword.
"That's sort of the idea, my boy," Reverend Jim responded before chanting a single word from the R'lyeh Text.
As soon as the word left his lips, a bolt of green lightning shot from Reverend Jim's hand and struck Zoisite in the chest. Zoisite fell to the ground, dropping his sword in the process. With the last of his strength, Zoisite attempted to reach for Ami, who was now several feet off the ground inside the twister, but within a few seconds, his world went totally dark.
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