Castle in the Sky
Written By: Lady Lunar Phoenix
A/N: This should be short, I hope. I plan... I believe.
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The kick back wind from the explosion flung Soma's coat against his legs, as well as pushed the women behind him a good enough distance that one slammed into his back. He looked down at his phone and its waiting email, then turned his head to look over his shoulder.
"Hurry up and get out of here, we can't hold it back while you casually stroll away!" The red skirted woman snapped at him, her back the one pressed against his.
He looked at the discotheque mashup that was supposedly the 'threat', and shook his head. It was maroon in color, slender with no real gender or slip of clothes on its body. The eyes were glass like with the lack of genuine emotion or soul and its facial features were far too smooth to have its own identity.
"You know my lunch break is almost over..." the blond with the red ribbon commented and the statement alone was enough to make Soma smirk slightly.
It made sense though, they felt old enough to have full time jobs or something occupying their time beyond just fighting monsters. Though he couldn't positively identify what they looked like off the cuff. But they were clearly capable of magic and there really wasn't anyone else around... so with a final look at his cell, he saved the email and turned to face the women.
"Here I'll make it easy for you guys and help out, its the least I can do considering you're trying to 'protect' me and all.." Soma offered which was a shock, to say the least, for the group.
"You can't stay here!" The pigtailed blond argued while the pink haired version with more bunny ear action hair pipped up.
"Mother is right! That's a Youma who's-" her words were cut off as said Youma suddenly took action.
"If the fool wants to offer me his energy!" Even the voice wasn't really 'alive' it was computer like, sterile of life cold and sharp. Like a computers' attempt at sounding cruel without any data, even its looming posture implied instructed cruelty. It also had a pair of what appeared to be smooth stones in the palm of its hands. Holding said hands out got it's off blue tone stones to discharge a white light that hit him and... well supposedly 'absorb Soma's energy' though to be honest... Soma didn't feel all that 'absorbed' indeed he watched as the white light rapidly turned dark then black. "What... What is this?! I-I can't stop!"
The voice shrieked, stumbling back in growing desperation while shaking its hands as though it might break the connection.
Soma merely sighed, as he thought about which soul would be useful for this monster, Red Minotaur would be dangerous with the women so close. So he finally opted for the disc soul, generating the large buzz saw like disc as he walked past the startled black haired woman. He flung the disc out and watched as it, with brutal precision, decapitate the monster, rather the 'Youma' mid wail. Both the disc and the Youma disappeared one fading out of sight, the other in a rather disco ball style explosion of color.
He waited, watching as the light faded, and outside of the colored lights there was no sign of a soul releasing. Rather instead it was a good sized mannequin meant for a store front window that still had 'its' head at least. It fell to the ground with a solid thunk and ended up on its back, the body frozen in a pin up girl position. Peculiar, but hardly what he would consider alarming.
"Who are you? Not just anyone can overpower a Youma and manifest weapons out of thin air like that!" The pink dressed woman asked in both awe and trepidation, the others curving about him almost bowl like in their position.
"The same could be said of all people walking around in sailor suits and hurling elemental magics by color," Soma quipped with a half smirk at said women. Then gave a prompt little salute, "now if I'm not mistaken one of you needs to get back to work and I have the rest of my day sooo."
"Yikes he's so right, sorry but my break is over!" that was the orange flavored one.
"Mine too being a chef can be tight..." the first woman he met added, and suddenly those two scattered to the four winds leaving only the two pigtailed women and the fire starter with Soma in the empty street.
There was this awkward silence as the blond and the pink haired women shared concerned glances then looked back at Soma. Before the older woman took lead with a, "soo Hi! I'm Sailor Moon and this is my daughter Sailor Small Moon."
"And this is our friend Sailor Ma..." The pink haired woman began when suddenly said woman gave a 'ha' and proceeded to slap one of those little talismans that Mina was prone to using from time to time. Both women bore this small, gold, crescent moon shape on their foreheads centered over their third eye of the brow. Which seemed to be a rather odd accent to put on when someone was going to fight anyone. Well fight anyone outside of the normal human stuff that happened in one's day to day life.
"Demon begone!" Sailor 'Ma' announced as she pinned the strip of paper to his forehead because why not...
What could 'possibly' go wrong from slapping a demon sealing talisman on a guy, who happened to be a Dark Lords', forehead. Well to be fair, what they got was Soma's vision started picking up the subtle heat waves that showed the warmth of a living body. Which sounded fun until one recalled he was on a city street and thus surrounded by heat absorbing concrete so it looked like he was standing in a harsh heat wave. He felt his fangs slide back into place and that never meant things were going to end well for him.
"Was that 'really' necessary?" Soma asked in a droll voice as he reached up and pulled the talisman off his forehead. The look the trio gave him meant his eyes must have either slit themselves, again, or turned gold, again.
"You're a vampire!" Sailor 'Ma' accused him automatically, and looked to be bracing to hit him with a fire spell.
"I'm human," he corrected on instinct.
"You have fangs," Sailor Small Moon pointed out, taking a step back from him.
"And your eyes don't look human anymore," Sailor Moon pointed out joining her daughter in backing up.
"Your daughter has pink hair, and I can't pick up any hair dye residual scent on her so it has to be natural," he countered easily. Though now that he was forced to have access to his other non human abilities he could see other things. The divine like aura about Sailor Moon and the lotus like blossom at the center of the bow she wore on her chest.
"Well, yes..." Sailor Moon admitted, reaching up and affectionately tweaking a pigtail on the other woman. The casual contact bespoke that this 'was' a mother daughter pair and that in itself was interesting as well. For the Sailor Small Moon was at least a decade or more older than Soma's current human age as well.
"You're an undead abomination and you need to die!" Sailor 'Ma' snapped and a 'Flame Sniper' was shot at him because sure, why not?
He slipped the fire resistance elemental properties of one of his armors into his outfit, even as he equipped a fire demons' soul for added protection. "I 'was' an undead abomination for a little over 900 years thanks for asking. But seeing that I was forced back into being human, would it be too much trouble to let me be 'human'?"
"He 'did' help us, Mars," Sailor Moon pointed out, casting a glance at Sailor Mars as though to suggest that the Sailor Scout try to settle down a bit.
"We didn't need his help! And he's probably the one that sent it anyways," Sailor Mars argued as she tried a cleansing fire spell. Which was doing nothing more than making the ease for which Soma could revert back to full human all the slower.
"Oh her name is Sailor 'Mars', wouldn't have guessed on my own, what between the constant fire spells and the combative personality." He snarked before growing momentarily thoughtful, "Sooo the green dressed scout with lightning must be Jupiter, but I'm blanking on the other blond... since you seem to all be named after planets."
"Oh, that's Sailor Venus, and you're right that 'was' Sailor Jupiter using lightning, Mercury couldn't make it because of her patients. Uranus and Neptune are out of the country though and they have Saturn with them and Pluto is..." Sailor Moon began cheerfully, as Mars smacked herself in the head and Small Moon proceeded to grab her mom squeaking in a fierce whisper about not blabbing about the other scouts.
"Oh, but he helped us and he seems pretty nice," Sailor Moon commented, sounding a rather endearing mix of naivety and authority. Like some naive royal, he would even venture though the fact that she had a child would imply there was a mind under the odangos. "Besides, if he really was evil, wouldn't he burn up? I mean we're in sunlight and he's not burning like a vampire would."
And there folks was the actual brain part of her.
"You're right, I'm not, because I have a human soul and haven't sold it," Soma amicably acknowledged as he internally kept pushing back the 'cleansing' so that he could once more look human. Since talking with fangs wasn't always enjoyable, they were pretty obviously there and it was always a conversation stopper. "Now if you ladies don't mind, I would like to get on with my day."
He tried to walk past them, when Mars put herself in the way causing Soma to give a resigned sigh.
"We have a duty to this world! And you're going to have to do more to prove to me you're not involved in these Youma attacks than just your say so!"
"Are you serious? How am I supposed to prove 'that'? Might as well throw me in the ocean in concrete boots as the test." Soma retorted in mild annoyance. Only to see all three women look at him with this clueless blank stare causing him to sigh. "Salem Witch Trials, you bind a woman and throw her in a pool of water, if she drowns she's innocent but dead. If she floats she's a witch and burned at the stake."
"OH!" Sailor Moon and Small Moon both had expressions of surprise and the excitement of learning something new. Albeit dark since there was a delayed reaction to the 'dark' aspect of that historical tidbit. That's when the expressions shifted to a bit uneasy one.
"Right so... unless you three can come up with something, I'm out," Soma offered and when the trio couldn't say anything he gave a slight nod before walking off. He pulled out his cellphone and reopened the saved email he was writing to send off to Arikado.
Reddish brown hair, nice on the eyes, and she can cook! You like sweets as I recall, so maybe you can see about finding a woman? You'd look nice with a woman on your arm, might help your cold personality. She even comes equip with lightning magic and the ability to defend herself, so its not like you'd have to protect her all the time. Though if she shows up with a long black haired woman wearing a good amount of red and smells of fire and smoke? Might want to not let her know you're not 100% human, she seems a bit racist if you get my meaning.
She distrusts non humans and auto assumes the worst if you don't.
Mina said she found a new cafe with a dessert menu only style so I figure I'm going to go and try that out tomorrow. Hopefully there won't be any interruptions like there was today, and out of curiosity. Have you ever heard of the Sailor Scouts? I've heard of them, seen some newspaper articles about them. But I honestly didn't know they were still around, for that matter, that they are, literally, still around. Like in their 50's and one has a grown daughter I guess the title gets passed down because she got listed as 'small moon'. Amazing what you find in Japan.
So do you feel like typing out a series of responses that makes me feel like I'm communicating with a living being? Or should I expect a near Bot like level of short answers and long bouts of aristocratic disdain for my attempt to be pleasantly sociable?
The reason you are still gainfully employed as a Vampire Hunter,
Cruz, Soma.
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"Mom, seriously, when will you learn not to just trust everyone you meet?" Chibi Usa asked looking over at her mom. The trio had split up so that they could find private places to power down and not attract the attention of civilians. But Chibi Usa always stuck by her mom's side when they went into battle, simply by proxy that there was only one of her. Though she did wish they could all just go to a central location after battles.
It wasn't easy being a Sailor Scout after all.
Her parents and the other scouts weren't teenagers anymore, hell neither was she! The Scouts were now in their 50's and the battles wore more and more on them. Skid marks, bruises, limping from injuries and they weren't young enough to just bounce back anymore. More over the other scouts couldn't seem to find a guy to settle long term with. She was the only, in a sense, active next generation scout and there was no team mates her age to be found.
"I hear you guys, but I can't just automatically condemn every new person I meet as being evil because of what they were born as. Just because he uses Darkness or is a Vampire, Human whatever, he deserves to be treated with an open mind." Usagi replied as she tried not to make her limp more obvious.
"But...!"
"Sweet heart I understand, but in my past life I saw first hand what happens when race or place of birth was used against them. Perhaps we could all be living in that age of peace, and I may not be a Queen but the least I can do is show the proper decorum." Usagi explained as they walked down the street towards their own respective homes. The day was so nice now, but she was long indifferent to the ability to step out of a battle and into a normal day.
The yowl of cat voices brought a halt to their conversation, as Luna, Artemis and their grown daughter Diana stood waiting for them.
"Hey guys! No need to worry about us!" Usagi greeted cheerfully as she began to bend down to pick up the trio.
Chibi Usa beat her at the act though, thanks to her mothers' slower action time due to the battle. All three cats climbed up into her arms and into their respective positions with care for their own aged joints. Their voices a constant chirp of welcome, with Luna reaching with an extended paw towards Usagi. Her once pure black fur now heavily seasoned with salt rather than pepper, but her eyes still had a feline glow of devotion.
It was less evident with Artemis, salt on white was a lost cause, but he tried to jump over to Usagi's shoulder and with a yowl missed his mark. Or maybe just couldn't do it right at that moment, his claws digging into her shirt as he tried to keep from falling to the ground.
"Artemis!" Mother and daughter cried out as Usagi swung her her shoulder closer to her daughter in a desperate attempt to give him some type of momentum to get up or at least have Chibi Usa catch him. While Luna climbed up Usagi's right shoulder and braced her hind feet on the woman's breast so that Usagi could catch Artemis as well.
Chibi Usa was able to get Artemis in her arms as Diana followed her mothers' example and quickly her dad was detached from Usagi's shoulder and was giving this embarrassed purr as Usagi took up Artemis in her arms.
"I'll call you when dinner is ready," Chibi Usa finally said in the silence while Luna switched between scolding and nuzzling the white cat. With her mothers' nod, she took Diana and herself into her home and mentally went over the recipe she would make for her parents.