Chapter Two – A Distant Engagement

Night was falling once more. It lingered on the horizon and was chasing the light from the sky, the long-dipped sun painting the distant skyline in a fading orange that was only prolonged through the slowly arousing city lights – a lucid yellow glow that was slowly growing to defend against the pure permeate of night. With it came the cool night air that gave relief to a city that had been staggered by the surprisingly warm breezes of a growing summer spell. But the relief was only physical. Somewhere, in the hearts and minds of twenty-five million people lingered a coarse doubt, an itching thing that was warning them that something was definitely amiss, as if a great and terrible infection was slowly, but silently, creeping through the veins of the city. Or, it was that the wound had yet to come.

"We've gotta sleep where?!" cried a desperate voice on the outskirts of a great looming park. Suteki's voice nearly brought the entire city upon them and truly revealed the horror in his young life. A great, hollowing pout played across his face as he presented his case before Yamito and Kurai, desperately hoping beyond hope that what they had said was not the cold, hard truth; like the cold, hard ground he would be sleeping on that night. He could barely believe it.

Yamito shrugged apathetically and didn't even look at him. "Do you want a bed to sleep in or have food to eat? Until we find a source of income, you'll have to get used to sleeping outdoors, Hitoshi. Besides, you've had to sleep on piles of debris for the past year and a half. Why is this any different?" he replied languidly.

The hard facts were the hardest on Suteki. Memories of five-star accommodations still rolled around his head and he longed for the past, where his family's houses and vacations and everything else still burned violently in his memory. The sights and sounds of this Tokyo taunted him, because he could see everything that he had known in the majestic planks of metal sticking up from the ground and sparkling with fervor. His life had been opulent until all life had been slaughtered. But now, in a new world, he wanted luxury again. "But there wasn't a warm bed and a shower twenty meters down the road! We could stay in a decent hotel for a whole night! I'll starve! Just let me have a bathing house!" he howled and pointed towards a hotel they had passed which the others had not even noticed due to the tremendous prices advertised nearby.

But Suteki was different. He would break in if he had to! His Scion powers would make it perfectly effortless, this devious plan growing in his mind. But a glance from Yamito dashed his hopes on the rocks and he would not even suggest it, knowing that the rebuke would be too harsh to risk. He was defeated. Reality was often more real than Suteki cared for.

It was about this time that Kage rejoined the group, strolling up to the three with a very blank look on his face. The others, especially Yamito, became quiet as he approached and faced him, the three at odds with the one. Kage stopped a distance away, lingering just beyond comfortable speaking distance and remaining ominous in his silence. He was naturally looking at Yamito, the anger and rage so obviously displayed him for him in green eyes and his face glowed by the orange embers of a lit cigarette. Great clouds of smoke were billowing out around his vicious expression, though the chemicals did soothe his temper quite a bit – enough to return to them with his purpose in mind. Then he unceremoniously reached into the pocket of a worn leather jacket, an article he had picked up in the course of his day, and threw a wad of money onto the ground in front of them. It was easily ranging in the tens of thousands of yen, and judging by the girth of the wad, it was nearly enough to keep Suteki happy. In that light, Suteki was nearly beside himself in joy, more so at the sight of luxury than his brooding friend, and chose brightly between the two when he fell on the wad and started rooting about like a pig; talking; laughing as if he had just won the lottery. Even Kurai knelt to engage the wad of money, if only to keep Suteki from hording it and to further refine their resources. That left only Kage looking at Yamito and Yamito looking right back at Kage.

Kage blew out a curling plume of smoke and would not relent in his glare at Yamito, but he finally did speak in a voice that seemed much cooler. "Not bad for a day's work. All I had to do was imagine everyone I met today was your bastard-ass and beating the hell out of them made me feel a lot better. This town's got a shitload of muggers" he said flatly, plucking the cigarette from his lips and flicking ashes at him. Yamito grimaced slightly, but said nothing to his offended comrade. Kage did not lose stride and flicked the ashes of his cigarette towards him once more despite having none to slough; his posture not once backing down from the duel. "You know what you took from me. You should also know that I'm never gonna forgive you it. But, since you're pretty much the only person alive that I can't beat, your ass-kickings get handed out to the bastards of this new, pretty little hell hole, Yami-yaro," he snarled.

"I don't regret what I did. Now we all have a chance to move on with our lives and try to be normal. If that doesn't suit you, Kage, then be damned in your resolve to hate everyone and everything," Yamito replied, irked by the new nickname, and turned from him, obviously drained by the constant agitation between the two. It was surprising to him that Kage dwelt so heavily on his mind, but he was keenly aware that he had indeed taken the only chance for revenge from him, something that he knew the brawler held in the highest of offence.

Walking down the road ahead of them, Yamito began to pull at his shrine robes and feel offended by them, mostly because they were attached to the world that they had left and the memories that were stored there. As soon as he could, he would find alternate clothing and continue his assimilation into this new world. However, feeling a tugging sensation at the depths of his mind, he stopped and stared off towards the sounds of a cavernous park. It called to him, but also held something to tweak his mind, as if a part of himself were trapped somewhere beyond and thrashing about like a fish in very shallow water. There was something there that interested the darkness inside of him and he felt it stir inside. That sensation was unnerving. Without any regard to the others, he broke into the trees and moved towards the mark.

The group of Sailor senshi was in a small circle in a secluded part of the park, trapped by fence of trees and shrouded by the late night. After a fierce training session, it was just a break. Scattered about the place were covert soldiers, idly chatting or watching but not making much noise. A late night such as this was viable as a training session mostly because no one was around to eavesdrop, and the park departed from the lights of the city enough to promise discreet moments for secrecy. Still, it was the underlying training part which disagreed with Usagi.

Eternal Sailor Moon was lying on the ground, her chest rising and falling with great effort and her throat whistling at the passing of labored breaths. Obviously, training wasn't her strong point or her favorite hobby. "Do we have to work so hard, Luna? I was thinking we could take a break since it's so quiet!" she cried without sitting up.

The small cat was sitting on a rock a distance away and she looked at her flatly, the smirk playing on her face the expected response to her whining. "If you ever stopped training, Usagi, all of those sweets would go right to your behind," she said plainly. Most of the others started agreeing loudly and even Uranus and Neptune, who had decided to step in with them this time, smiled at the jab. Sailor Moon was not so amused and stirred in fury.

"That's not funny! Don't you all remember what Neo-Queen Serenity looks like!? You're all just jealous because I can eat what I want and still be gorgeous in the future!" she howled back and was on her feet now. Such a display of energy did not go unnoticed by Luna and she casually looked to the side at Super Sailor Mars, nodding covertly with little sympathy for the offended Sailor Moon.

She was already in the process of it. "If you're ready to go again..." Sailor Mars said with a sigh and began once more, meeting Sailor Moon's gasp with a call of her own. A loud shriek filled the area as a fireball bloomed across the ground, starting it once more and consuming the night again with bitter practice for weary soldiers.

It was more than he could imagine. Suteki was leaning heavily on a branch as he peered at the scene, his blue eyes nearly popping from his head to get a closer look. All of his weight lay on the branch and he was breathless, seeing the forms beyond moving about like something from his wildest dreams. He could barely stay lucid long enough to speak. "Okay, pause – hot girls, short skirts and little sailor outfits? Seriously, I think I just whitewashed my briefs," he said deliciously while his eyes played devil at a distance. The obvious euphoric tone made his thoughts on this clear, though none of them even regarded it as unusual. The peripheral of life was always his biggest thrill.

"How very bizarre. They have powers very much like our own, but they are so different. Perhaps it lends true that every dimension has a certain class of warriors set to defend the meek?" Kurai suggested, though continuing to try and assess the alignment of these figures. He did chance to look upon Yamito for his thoughts, but Yamito was deeply staring at the figures with the kind of expression that warned of his mood. It was the kind of expression that meant he was bothered by his other side and that was easily enough reason to leave him alone. Kurai, heeding the aura around him, sighed slightly and looked back to the senshi with a sort of saddened expression. Inwardly, he felt relieved by the expression, but said nothing about it.

Suddenly, there was a quick crack and Suteki went sprawling to the ground in a fit of wild observations and protest, getting a face full of dirt and sneezing into the dead leaves. Kage lifted his fist away from the broken branch and looked down at him, the red embers of his cigarette lighting the indifferent look in his eyes. "Damn, you're annoying. Rub one off in the bushes and shut your hole," he said sternly. With a flick of his finger, he sent a flutter of ashes down onto Suteki's head, but the blonde was not paying attention. A viewpoint on the ground was just as good and Suteki kept exploring all of the possibilities, his chin resting on his hands and not even the dirt of the ground deterring him from his flights of fantasy. As he was still giggling to himself and muttering, Kage snorted and pressed Suteki's face into the ground with his foot, cursing again under his breath about how annoying he was.

Hearing the night become quieter again and feeling the squirm under his foot, he looked to Yamito sharply. Kage, as they all knew, thought very differently than all of them. "Putting a bit of lace on this, don't you think? Having powers and long legs don't make you the good guy," he said, mostly in hopes of spoiling Yamito's calm expression.

Yamito could have been another dimension away. The fire reflected in his eyes and gave him chills that rivaled a fall from a high place. A group of soldiers for this planet existed and illustrated that many things were a constant in all levels of existence. It redefined the rules for him. He felt lighter, more at ease. It had been something he had wished for since Ryu was hurt, and despite the fact Kage was waiting for a reply, or some kind of reaction, he just turned away.

As his figure disappeared into the dark, Kage snorted and watched him through his fiercely animalistic eyes. It was a cardboard reaction.

Kurai seemed to understand and he smiled a bit, looking back to the Sailor senshi with a sort of distant regard only offered to the untouchable. "It seems we Scion are obsolete in this world. You may be quite right, sempai, but I sense no ill force here. I, for one, hope they lead peaceful lives. A place this beautiful could only exist in a world protected," he remarked and smiled to the scowling figure. With his lost dreams stirring about in his head and the chance to pursue them just ahead of him, Kurai smiled as he looked back to the girls, keen to the vibes he was getting from them.

Kage leaned against a tree and stared at the senshi; almost snorting with every breath but unable to look away from the fantastic arrangement of ability and powers that, despite his best efforts, he could not dismiss. "Peace is the advent of war. They ain't training for nothing," he said in a moment only regarded by the fierce. Heavily set against the tree, he was intent on watching until the end and ignored the others, for battle and trial were his only interests now. This was the only thing he had seen in this world which interested him and could take his mind off the objective hatred he felt. It was the obscure which gave Kage relief.

Kurai eyed him a moment, but then also watched. Before long he turned and left, trying to find Yamito in an attempt to understand his thoughts and feelings, which he only superficially assumed at the moment. Only Suteki remained with Kage, laying on the ground with a disoriented expression and dirt ground into his nose. Their own powers denied, they regarded the reality of their situation with a pressing urgency, whether from relief, interest or pure desire. These senshi were the guardians of this world. There was no need for the unknown Scion. In that, they each knew for sure.