Chapter 57
The minute Makoto had walked back into the kitchen with a subdued Ami and Ryo behind her, Touma's stomach began a slow, torturous decent to his feet.
When Ryo had initially failed to return with Ami, he'd optimistically thought his leader was finally straightening out what was going on between them. When they hadn't come back after a few minutes, Makoto had been laughing when she'd volunteered to go pry them apart.
She wasn't laughing now.
She and Ryo hovered around Ami protectively, faces grim, as the woman plodded in and seated herself at the table quietly. The hair on Touma's arms and neck rose, standing straight out, as he took them all in. Makoto seated herself back in her spot next to him, fidgeting with her napkin sullenly.
Both she and Ami were pale, and Ryo's face looked like a thundercloud as he sat and started dishing food for Ami and them himself almost forcefully. He passed the utensils to Shin, who looked comically baffled at the turn in mood as he began absently dishing himself katsu.
When everyone had filled their plates, Touma muttered the obligatory thanks and reluctantly dug in. As the first taste hit his tongue, its texture the perfect combination of crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, he got over the gloom in a hurry.
It didn't matter that the mood was down, Mako-chan's cooking was still Mako-chan's cooking, and it would take a lot to spoil it.
They ate silently for several minutes, even Usagi subdued by the currents on the air, until Shuu cleared his plate in record time, straightened, and said, "That's it, I can't take it anymore. What is it?!" to the table at large.
Beside him, Usagi shrugged, giving him an uncertain smile before casting a supportive glance toward Mercury. Ami hunched her shoulders beneath the stare, her eyes hidden beneath the fringe of her bangs. She was pushing the same amount of food around on her plate that she'd started with, and Ryo looked frustrated enough to burst.
When Ami seemed reluctant to elaborate, Touma turned an expectant stare on Makoto. To her credit, she didn't duck her head or look sheepish. She met his stare head on with a hard one of her own before casting her gaze around the table.
The other Senshi were giving her varying looks – Minako and Rei both shrewd, but with a shadow of dread lurking behind their no nonsense expressions. Usagi was practically pleading Jupiter with her eyes not to say what she thought the woman might have to say.
Finally, Makoto fixed her electric green gaze over Ami's hunched figure, her eyes softening with compassion.
"Ami figured out what's going on. It's not good. Chaos is back," she explained bluntly.
Touma thought he had a decent grasp about the gravity of that news, but when the rest of the Senshi collectively lost what little color they'd had in their cheeks and Usagi's eyes went hollow and distant, he realized that the Senshi might have given them some idea, but they'd withheld the finer details.
The table sank into a thick silence as the Senshi collected themselves and the Troopers waited to see what might come next.
"It's all right. We've done it before, right? We can do it again." Usagi's voice was thin and frail, even if her face was hard and determined. Shuu was looking at Usagi with concern, his brows furrowed as he tried to figure out how to help her. Rei shot her a look Touma didn't quite understand, scowling, and then fixed Makoto with a troubled stare.
"I don't understand. We dissolved Chaos back into the cauldron. We reset the entire Universe. How did it come back this quickly? How did it manage to get the cauldron this time when it couldn't last time?" She gestured expressively.
"There was a build-up last time. We fought Chaos over and over again before it got strong enough to try and fuse with the cauldron in the first place, so I'm not understanding how it's suddenly back after all of that, stronger than ever," she snapped. Makoto shrugged helplessly. Ami made an odd noise then, and cleared her throat.
"Well. That's half the story," she said, and beside her Ryo twitched, fixing her with an intense stare that told Touma whatever was coming next would be a surprise to him as well. Hadn't they all had enough surprises lately?
"Half?" Minako asked sharply. Ami nodded, and then sighed, rubbing her face, exhaustion creeping across her expression.
"Yes. It appears that Chaos merged with whatever it was that pulled us into the Underworld. My theory is that when Chaos couldn't merge with the cauldron, it did the next best thing and merged with an entity that could fuse with the cauldron. I'm not sure if that's what happened, but given the pinpoint precision the enemy from the Underworld used to target us, Chaos as a puppet master makes sense," she rasped.
Silence blew across the table like the aftershock following a nuclear bomb at the revalation.
That sounded….bad. Really bad.
"What does that mean?" Usagi whispered, lost. "What do we do?"
Minako turned, fixing Usagi with a sharp stare, steel in her deep blue eyes. "It's after us, isn't it? Chaos wants to make this personal.. And as long as it's after us, it's not going after anyone else. Maybe…maybe this is some kind of revenge thing or something. I don't know. But we can exploit that to keep this Universe safe. And I think it's the only thing we can do right now until we can find out more about what it wants," she said firmly.
Usagi straightened, looking pale, and Minako's expression softened.
"Hey, it's ok. We've got this right? Maybe this other monster has a new weakness we can exploit. We've got lots of eyes and ears on it. An answer is bound to come up soon," she said with more cheer. "In the meantime, we can be thankful it's only looking for us."
Usagi shook her head, tears scattering with the motion. She looked down and away for a moment, wrapping her arms around herself and hunching inwards.
"How many times do I have to keep losing people? How many times do I have to watch my friends suffer before I'm finally strong enough to keep you safe? Because I'm never strong enough, Mina-chan. Every time I think I'm strong enough to keep you safe, I'm not. How am I supposed to watch you all do this again? I can't. I won't."
She raised her face then, looking at them all. "If I lose you again, if I go through this again, I'll break," she whispered. The Senshi all looked lost for a moment. Haunted, as they all relived memories Touma could only guess at.
Minako propped a cheerful smile on her face, reaching out across the table tentatively.
"Hey, c'mon Usagi. It'll be ok. We can do it," she said softly. "It's trying to set traps for us but so far they've been pretty weak, right? Maybe it doesn't have a foothold here yet. It's taking random hits and hoping something connects. That has to tell us something," she tried to reassure her.
"Maybe I don't have the history here, but I'm not exactly feeling thankful right now," Seiji cut in, his tone like a knife. He'd trained the cool grey of his gaze on Minako. "This monster what? It's killed you all before? And that's not even taking into account what that monster from the Underworld put you all through. All of us. Maybe you're all ok with being targeted, but I'm not okay with you being targeted. I can't be. Knowing something that evil and that powerful is focusing all its attention on you? Yeah. Gratitude isn't in my vocabulary right now," he snarled.
Minako met his glower, that same core of steel in her eyes. "If they're focused on us, then civilians –all those Star Seeds we rebirthed – are safe. At least for now. I'm not going to let this thing do to your Universe what it did to mine. If that means I'm carrying a target, that's fine with me," she shot back. "It buys us time."
"Time for what?" Seiji snapped. Touma blinked at him, completely unprepared for Korin to lose his temper.
Seiji just…didn't lose his temper.
"Time for something vile enough, evil enough, that it laid waste to an entire Universe, a Universe where it trapped you, isolated you, and hunted you down to come finish the job? How can I be okay with the idea of you at the mercy of something so…monstrous? It took everything from you. It tried to destroy you. If we'd been even a few minutes later, it might have succeeded. So no. I am not okay with you all running around as bait for this demon to buy us time," he growled.
Minako flinched as if she'd been struck, but the expression was gone from her face almost as quickly as it had appeared. Not quickly enough to not be noticed, however, and Seiji's own expression twitched in response but then held firm.
She stood up, slamming her hands on the table as she leaned into his space, her lips curved in an angry sneer. "What else are we supposed to do?! I don't exactly see any other options on the table right now," she hissed back. "This is the best we have, unless you've got a different plan. I'm not going to fail twice. I'm not going to stand by and let this thing come here and….destroy everything!" she yelled, angry tears rimming her lower lashes. "I won't fail again, do you understand me?! I. Will. Protect. The Princess. And. This. Universe. With. My. Life. I don't care what it takes. We are Senshi. And this is what we do," she growled at him.
Seiji rose, fists clenched, and leaned into her space. He opened his mouth, but was cut off.
"Hey! Cut it out!" Makoto snapped. They both turned to look at her, chests heaving, faces pinched, but confused now instead of angry. They both seemed to realize they'd lost control of themselves at once, flushed, and sat, refusing to make eye contact.
Makoto crossed her arms. "There's no point fighting about it. We're targeted. We can't change that. Whether we go out or stay here, this thing is going to bring the fight to us. What we should be talking about, is how we're going to deal with that. We need a way to leverage battles so that we can figure out what this thing is up to."
Touma nodded. "As much as I don't like it either, these are the circumstances. I think we're going to need to work more closely with Lady Kayura and the Masho. Unfortunately. Something is going on in the Youjakai, and I'm concerned that this thing is exploiting that realm to get to ours. We don't have a lot of time, so we need to leverage every angle we have." He paused, taking them all in.
"We keep going as we have. Senshi don't go out without at least one of us around. I'm sorry, but that's the way it needs to be right now. If you can get anything off the enemy – goad them into talking – or figure out how to get…er…samples, like Minako did, do it. We need everything we can steal from them," he said firmly. A small wave of relief flushed through him when everyone merely nodded.
"I lost my family. We lost Neptune and Uranus and Pluto and Saturn. We lost Luna and Artemis. And…Mamo-chan," Usagi's voice broke and she looked away for a moment before continuing in a low voice, unwilling to meet anyone's eyes. "I can't lose one more person. I can't. I won't." She looked at them all then, and Touma didn't know how he felt when it became clear that she meant to include the Troopers in that statement.
Ami reached out and took her hand, squeezing silently and trying to smile. Usagi squeezed back and let go of her grasp. "I need a nap," she said flatly, and headed upstairs. Once she was gone, Ami put her face in her hand and sighed heavily, but didn't move or say anything else. Ryo wrapped an arm around her shoulder and pulled her into his side, trying to comfort her.
"I can't believe I didn't see this," she finally murmured.
"Don't," Venus warned her. "We don't have time for that." Ryo shot her a dark look that she ignored. Ami nodded woodenly.
"You're right. Let's head back to the office and see what the data might tell us," She rose, and Ryo looked like he might protest, but Venus and Mars swept out of the room with her. Beside him, Makoto rose as well, exiting the kitchen somberly.
The Troopers sat in silence for a moment after they exited.
"I've been running some of my own analysis," Nasuti said into the vacuum. Touma started, feeling guilty for forgetting she'd been there. "And I think maybe one of the reasons that the Senshi have been targeted is that having their essences sourced in something like a starseed makes them…" she trailed off, looking unsettled.
"Makes them what?" Shin said softly, smiling at her encouragingly.
"Well…easier to target. I haven't found a single thing in our Universe that compares to a starseed. There isn't a single source that can be pinpointed here that would give a monster like that the advantage," she concluded softly.
Touma frowned, thinking. "But do we really know what to look for?" he wondered. "If what Ami said is true, it was one of the Senshi's old enemies that told this other monster where to look or what to do. I imagine the Senshi might never have known about starseeds if they'd never been targeted to begin with. Is the difference between us just that we don't have some bitter enemy pointing out our greatest weakness?"
The thought wasn't comfortable, and the Troopers all shifted uneasily. Nasuti nodded, her face determined. "That's a good point. I didn't find any specific source, but that doesn't mean that this thing can't figure out a different way to exploit any weaknesses we might not be aware of. I know I keep saying this, but please be on your guard," she said softly.
They all nodded at her and then lapsed into their own silences. Touma surveyed their collective with shrewd eyes, trying to read the room. Ryo looked…well, angry seemed like maybe too mild a term. Rekka didn't do well with the abstract. He wanted someone to point him in a direction so he could start leveling targets.
Shuu on the other hand? Touma flicked his eyes over to Kongo. Instead of sharing Ryo's anger, Shuu looked determined. He had focus, even if there was a layer of anxiety beneath it. He was worried about Usagi, and rightly so. The Senshi had barricaded themselves into a do or die mentality, but that in turn had isolated Usagi.
He imagined a lifetime – or even several lifetimes of putting someone else first formed habits that weren't easily broken – but Usagi didn't look like she was going to take that lying down. Touma could sense a loneliness in her, a fear of abandonment, and given what he knew of the Senshi, she wasn't being unreasonable. He frowned at Shuu. "Maybe someone should check on Usagi?"
Kongo didn't need another excuse. He was up and out practically before Touma finished his sentence. He sighed as the man left, rubbing his face with his hand tiredly.
Somehow it figured that Shuu would be completely into someone as damaged and unavailable as Usagi. And speaking of damage…
Touma moved his gaze over to Seiji. Korin's outburst from earlier had been a symptom and not the root of the problem.
Minako was the leader of the Senshi. But more than that, she had a ruthless, relentless drive beneath her sunny demeanor that undercut any attempt at trying to keep her safely tucked behind the sidelines. Seiji…didn't do well with people he cared about putting themselves at risk. Oh, the Troopers he trusted. But he hadn't been looking at Minako the same way.
And Minako was a warrior. She had a different set of skills than Seiji, but she was his equal. She was also probably picking up on the feeling that Seiji wanted her to stay back safely and let him take charge.
And that wasn't going to help her get through any struggles. She'd already been in a tailspin. Was already feeling vulnerable and weak. Seiji tying to coddle her while not admitting that he was trying to coddle her was a disaster in the making.
Touma winced. He had no idea how to talk to Korin about it. He'd tried talking to Ryo, and that seemed to have failed spectacularly. So as much as he wanted to give both guys a clue, he decided to keep out of it.
Hopefully, they'd figure it out.
They'd been lucky until now. Or maybe just under the pressure of time and battle. They'd gotten along well so far, but he was a bit concerned that might change as things became more complicated. The Senshi were driven. Unlike the Troopers, they had a single unifying purpose in Usagi, and that kept them obsessively pushing forward.
Shin sighed then. "This is a bit of a mess, isn't it?" he said out loud, echoing Touma's own thoughts. He ran a hand through his hair and smiled ruefully. "If it were Arago that had come back and destroyed my whole life…pulled an entirely new dimension of innocent people into my fight…I can't say I would be able to stand aside and let someone else take the lead either. If a monster had destroyed my family, murdered my friends…nothing would stop me from eradicating it. I can't blame them. I understand. And I'm going to do everything in my power to support them, without holding them back. I can set my personal feelings aside, because they deserve that from me," he said quietly.
Touma nodded with Nasuti. Seiji huffed a breath, and Touma watched as his fists clenched before he forced himself to loosen them. "Yeah," Korin said roughly," Yeah…" He pushed back from the table and held himself rigidly as he left the kitchen. Ryo put his elbows on the table and put his face in his hands.
"This blows," Rekka muttered into his palms. "I don't know what I'm supposed to do."
"There isn't a whole lot we can do to change things right now. But we're working at it," Nasuti encouraged softly. "I'll keep doing my own research and see what I can find. We'll pull Lady Kayura in and see if there's anything she might be able to contribute. As much as it's worrisome, it makes sense to combine our efforts. We don't have a lot to go on, but we have some leads we can follow, and the Youjakai may have more."
Touma nodded. "As angry as Seiji is, Minako is right. This thing is primarily focused on the Senshi, and hopefully that will give us time – time for us to figure things out. I want the Senshi to be safe, but they are warriors. They're not being unreasonable. They're not shutting us out. Even if I hate the risks they're taking, those risks kind of make sense, right?" he added quietly. Ryo grimaced, but nodded reluctantly. Shin, at least was calmer and more thoughtful.
"I wouldn't want to do anything to upset the balance between us right now. If the Senshi feel like we're trying to push them aside because we're worried about their safety, they'll be more likely to act without us. It's important not to trample them," he added. Touma nodded in agreement. Ryo looked even more glum, but Touma guessed that might be because the reasoning made sense to him.
"I'm going to work out," Rekka muttered, and left the kitchen with a huff. Shin chuckled in the amicable quiet that followed.
"Hopefully he'll cool off. I'm out for a swim," Suiko said smoothly, rising as well. Touma turned to Nasuti once he was gone.
"So where are we setting up this alternate research base?" he asked wryly. She smiled.
"The library, of course," she replied, rising. Touma followed her down the hall towards the library. They passed her office, and he peered into the doorway to see the Senshi crowded around Ami, who sat at the Mercury computer, their faces all hard and determined.
He sighed as he passed, unable to keep the worry from worming through his system.
He understood Seiji. Part of him felt kinship with the anger Korin had expressed, but he was smart enough to understand that giving in to the emotion would only push Makoto away. If he wanted to keep her close, he had to be rational. He couldn't give in to the panic, the rage that wanted to eat up his logic.
He wanted to shut her away where she'd be safe.
But nowhere was safe. That was reality. He couldn't be with her twenty-four seven. He had to trust in her ability to protect herself, and trust that she would reach out to him if she needed help. He loved her. And part of what he loved about her was her strength, courage, and resilience. He had to trust in those things. There couldn't be love without trust.
And giving his anger over the danger, over the emotional damage she was still healing from, free reign, would only make things worse. He sighed again.
He was going to need to talk to Seiji afterall, before he did something irreversibly damaging to his relationship with Minako. And he was going to need to do it soon.
