Some time later, Rei and Usagi were back in their civilian forms, walking back to the residence where the Tsukino's were staying.
"You're right, Rei..." Usagi murmured. "All of this... is too strange. But..." She looked up at the top of the hill, where they knew the ruined castle to be. "Even more than that, I wonder just what those creatures are... and I wonder what Ash and his friend are up to."
"Yes," Rei nodded. "They seemed to be pretty agitated. And then this guy who saved us..." She sighed. "I wonder who it really was."
"Now what are you doing here?" a sudden voice startled them.
They turned around to see an old man wearing a priest's robe standing behind them, slightly taller than Rei's grandpa, with a grey beard that was hanging down to his stomach.
"Moroto-san!" Rei sighed in relief. "You startled us."
"I'm sorry! But still, I wonder what two young girls like you are doing out here this late."
He was right, it had become pretty dark. While both Usagi and Rei didn't have a watch with them, they realized that it had to be early evening, as the sun was slowly starting to set. They must have spent more time down in the labyrinth than they thought.
"Oh, we were just walking through the forest," Rei explained. "And we kinda lost track of time."
"I see..." the old man nodded. Then he looked at what Rei was holding in her hand. "And what do you have there?"
Rei looked down at the strange ball they had found within the labyrinth. Even though she had hold onto it for all that time, she almost forgot about it. "Oh, that... We... we found it up in the castle."
"You took it from there?" Mr. Moroto almost seemed alarmed.
"I thought it's allowed to go in there," Usagi spoke up.
The old man looked at her. "You must be Rei's friend, huh? Yes, you're right, it's allowed to enter the ruined castle. However... it's not allowed to take anything from there."
He then smiled at the two girls. "But I don't have to tell anyone about this, right? How about you just give that to me, and I won't tell anyone."
Rei hesitated. This ball might be the only clue they had. But her grandfather's friend wanted to cover up for them... so she had to be grateful, right?
She handed the ball over to him. He smiled. "Thank you! I'll make sure to hand it over to the proper authorities."
"What do you think this is, anyway?" Usagi asked.
"This?" Mr. Moroto looked down at the ball. "Oh, I'm not too sure... looks like some sort of container, don't you think? But then again, I'm not a historian, so I wouldn't know." He laughed.
"Moroto-san..." Rei spoke up. "You know, we're actually very interested in that old ruin up there... you know much about this region, so can you tell us more about it?"
Moroto looked up to the top of the hill. Then he nodded. "I guess I can do that. But not today. It's getting dark, you see? Your grandfather already told me that you're gonna spend the night with your friend, so why don't the two of you go back before this young lady's parents are starting to worry?"
The two girls weren't too satisfied with that, but they sighed and nodded. If this nice old man was already willing to tell them what he knew, they had no reason to wait until tomorrow, right?
They bid Mr. Moroto farewell and returned to the residence.
Usagi's mother was already waiting for them. "Finally," she shouted as they entered the house. "I was starting to worry!"
"Yeah, we kinda lost track of time," Usagi apologized. "Sorry about that!"
But her mother shook her head. "Not because of that! I know it's your vacation, after all. It's because of that explosion."
Usagi and Rei were confused. "What explosion?"
"Don't tell me you didn't hear it," Shingo said from where he was sitting. "We could even hear it over here, although it was on the other side of the big hill."
"It came on TV," Usagi's father added. "They said that it happened on the construction site of that speedway they are building. What is strange, as the foreman showed to the reporters that they wouldn't use any explosives at all."
"An explosion at the construction site...?" Usagi murmured.
She and Rei exchanged a quick glance, and both of them were pretty sure that they were thinking the same: Ash and his little animal friend had been looking over to the construction site when they saw them inside the ruin. Maybe their intentions weren't peaceful at all...
After going back into their room, they decided to pay the ruined castle another visit in the morning. If Ash and that creature would appear again, they would face them. And then they would have to give them some answers.
Koji Moroto was slowly walking back to his temple. The sun had vanished behind the horizon, and the full moon was the only light that was illuminating the path.
Just before he reached the temple, however, he turned around and looked at one of the trees surrounding his home. "You can come out now!"
A black-haired boy with a dirty shirt and tattered jeans stepped out from behind the tree. "Did you get it?" he asked.
Moroto nodded and handed the red and white ball over to Ash. "Here you are! And next time, be more careful! The two girls almost died in there!"
"Well, they shouldn't have spied on us," the boy grumbled. "Our plans are far too important to be disturbed by two meddlesome girls!"
The old man closely looked into the youngster's face. "Is there really no other way to do this?"
"If there were, I wouldn't do this, you know that!" Ash gestured in the direction of the construction site. "I would leave them alone if they would only harm nature... what is a crime on its own. But those people... they are destroying the Alph Corridor! And I won't let that happen!"
"All of this doesn't add up..." Rei murmured. "I mean, it's pretty obvious that Ash... or at least someone he knows... is responsible for what happened at the construction site. But what do they have against it? Is it just because they want to protect nature? And what about that labyrinth? You'd think people living around here would know if there's a hidden maze underneath the ruined castle and strange creatures living around."
"Yeah, I get what you mean," Usagi nodded. "Auntie wouldn't have allowed us to stay at her summer residence if she knew about those creatures. And she and her family visit this place very often... I bet she would have noticed by now."
"We have to go back to the ruin tomorrow," Rei decided. "We have to find out what's going on here. There are human lives at stake here."
Usagi sighed. "I wish the others were here... but someone has to look for Luna. I'd still prefer to go and search for her, but as we're here now..."
"Right," Rei nodded. "We have to make most of this situation. Maybe tomorrow we'll find out more."
And just like they planned, they once again left early in the morning the following day, after a short breakfast.
Ikuko looked after her daughter and her friend in confusion. "Strange! Since when did Usagi turn into such a nature lover? She has always been a city child, if you know what I mean."
Her husband Kenji chuckled. "Well, maybe sitting in the house all time is getting way too boring for her tastes."
"That might be it," Ikuko nodded. She then threw an angry glare towards her son, whose fingers were busy with his Gameboy. "If only other children of mine would do the same."
"Quiet, you're breaking my concentration," Shingo mumbled. Ikuko simply shook her head.
The ruin looked just as it did the day before. Usagi looked around before going in. "No dirty kid or strange animal around," she finally said. "Shall we take a look around?"
"In a minute," her black-haired friend replied. "I just wanna check up something..." And she walked around the pile of rubble behind which she knew the entrance to the labyrinth to be.
"You wanna go down there again?" Usagi gasped. "I think I saw enough the last time."
"No," Rei said. "I just wanna see if Ash and Co. might already be down there... Um... wait a second... WHAT?"
"What, what's up?" Usagi asked as she followed her friend around the rubble.
Rei gestured down to the hole. "Look at this! It's gone! All gone!"
"What do you mean?" Usagi came closer and looked down the rectangular hole. Then she gasped.
As there was no shaft leading down into some ancient cave, but only a very shallow hole that was ending abruptly in solid rock. When Rei climbed down into the hole, her waist was still above ground level.
"That can't be," she grumbled in irritation. "There has to be an entrance somewhere around here. We didn't just imagine walking around for hours in that labyrinth, did we?"
Usagi wanted to say something, but then her gaze wandered off to the left, by chance. She whispered: "Rei, come out of there and look at this! But be quiet!"
Rei did as she was told and carefully peered around the pile of rubble. And blinked when she looked at who had appeared in the ruined courtyard.
It was a rider. But not some normal villager who was out for a morning ride. This guy looked like some kind of ancient warrior, clothed in a leathery breast plate and grasping the hilt of an impressive sword, whose sheath was hanging at his side. The brown-haired guy looked as if he was only slightly older than Ash. But his steely gaze and his posture made him look mature.
Even stranger than the rider was the horse on which he was riding. It wasn't really a horse, but something resembling a unicorn... the two girls could see the white horn adorning the animal's forehead! But most impressive were the blazing flames that were burning around the steed's neck and backside, as if they would be forming its mane and tail. Strangely enough, the rider didn't seem to be fazed by the fire at all.
Luckily, he didn't seem to see them. Instead, his gaze was aimed at a certain young boy who had just entered the ruin: Ash! And his strange, yellow-furred companion was with him as well.
Rei and Usagi ducked down behind the rubble. "This looks like a downright conspiracy," Usagi whispered. "And Ash is not the only human who's in league with those weird animals."
"I wonder why he is clothed so... archaically," Rei pondered. "Let's listen to them, maybe we can find out more about what they are planning."
Meanwhile, the rider rose his right hand and greeted Ash and his companion. Ash replied something they couldn't understand. They were once again talking in that weird language. After some time, Ash made a waving gesture with his arm and left the ruin. The mounted warrior and the yellow creature were following him.
"Let's follow them," Rei whispered, and Usagi nodded. They followed the strange threesome down the hill, into the forest, to a big clearing.
And right to an assembly of the weirdest creatures the two Senshi had ever seen in their life.
There were human-sized creatures with blue skin and enormous muscles. There were colorful butterflies fluttering through the air, as big as a human child. There were four-legged animals with green skin and strange plants growing from their backs. And there were also several humans among the weird gathering, some of them riding on other creatures.
Ash repeated his greeting, and some of the other beings and humans returned the gesture.
Ash and his companions then started talking with each other. As before, Rei and Usagi couldn't understand a single word, but they all seemed very agitated.
"This is somehow amazing..." Rei murmured. "How could all of those beings hide from the humans living nearby, if there are so many of them?"
"Well, there are some humans with them, right?" Usagi whispered back. "Maybe they helped them out."
That was a logical explanation, but somehow Rei doubted that this was the truth. Those humans over there didn't look like they would be locals. They made the impression as if they just came out of a fantasy novel, the way they acted and were clothed.
Rei didn't know if they could fight with all of those creatures at once, even if she would know what kind of powers they might have. Still, if all of them would attack the construction site...
But then something happened that made her worry about their own lives... Usagi didn't notice how her upper body had slowly tilted over as she was looking down at the assembled creatures, and then she tripped over a thick branch, lost her balance and rolled down the small slope, right into the clearing.
Rei groaned.
Usagi shook her head. "Oof, clumsy me..." She then looked up... and right at the tip of a sharp sword that was pointed directly at her face.
The brown-haired boy had dismounted from the unicorn and was now threatening her. He said a few harsh words in his language. In the corner of her eyes, Usagi could see that the others were as angry as he was. Many of the creatures were growling at her, and one or two of the other humans also drew their weapons.
The brown-haired boy's sword slightly moved backwards, as if he was getting ready to strike.
'Oh no!' Rei thought frantically. 'Usagi!'
"Gary!" The voice was hard and firm, and neither Usagi nor Rei didn't know what it meant... only much, much later would they learn that is was the name of the armed boy.
But the unicorn rider did not move at first, Ash had to repeat the word before he sheathed his weapon. But he and the others still threw glares of hatred towards the blonde girl.
Ash said a few sentences that sounded like commands and gestured to his right. There were some complaints and grumbling, but they all obeyed, even the brown-haired boy, as he mounted his steed and followed the others. Only the yellow-furred animal stayed behind and looked at Ash questioningly. Ash said a few calm words and repeated his gesture. Finally, the creature seemed to sigh, nodded and followed the others.
In the end, he and Usagi were the only two remaining.
The black-haired boy looked up to where Rei was standing. "You can come out! Only Pikachu saw you, and he won't tell."
Suspiciously, but still glad that Ash seemed to have saved her friend, Rei came down into the clearing.
"What's going on here?" she demanded to know, after she helped her friend up. "And why did you help us?"
"What's the matter with you two?" the boy snapped back. "Are you crazy? You're lucky that you're still alive! Not all of them obey me like that, you know?"
"But who are they?" Usagi asked. She had calmed down a little bit. "Where did they come from? And what do you plan to do with the workers at the construction site?"
Ash glared back at them. "It's for your own good if you don't know. Now leave! Go home and don't tell anyone about this! This doesn't concern you!"
"Well, it does concern us if you and your crazy bunch are about to attack helpless humans," Rei angrily replied. "Why are you doing this? The explosion yesterday... that was one of your friends, right? So, what's the big idea?"
"You don't understand anything," Ash grumbled. "They... they're destroying the Alph Passage with their so-called 'construction'. And that's something that I cannot allow! We must stop them! With force, if necessary!"
"But what IS the Alph Passage?" Usagi asked. "Is it the labyrinth we've been in?"
"I've already said enough," Ash muttered. "Now, as I said: Go! I won't be able to save you a second time!" And then he turned around and ran away.
Usagi looked at her friend. "I wonder... if he's really a bad guy, you know? He did save me from those others, after all. And perhaps they have a good reason for all of this..."
"Even so," Rei grumbled. "We can't let them simply hurt innocent people. There has to be another solution to this. Now let's hurry and follow him! We have to stop him and the others!"
They raised their transformation items.
"MOON CRISIS, MAKE UP!"
"MARS CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE UP!"
Transformed, the two Sailor Senshi hurried after the footsteps of the boy, clearly visible in the soft soil of the forest.
"The nerve..." Sailor Mars grumbled angrily while they were following the many footsteps of Ash and his companions. "He can't just bring his freaky friends out of nowhere, attack the construction site and demand they should stop their work. After all, those men only do their job."
"I wonder why they are so upset..." Sailor Moon sighed. "This 'Alph Passage'... do they live there? Is it their sanctuary or something like that? Or is it something else?"
"Well, I'm planning on finding out," Rei grumbled. "And that boy better watch his mouth the next time, or else I don't know what I'd do."
They then quietly followed the trail for a while.
After some time, they heard something. The sound of flowing and rippling water...
"A waterfall?" Usagi asked as she recognized the noise.
"We must be near the place where the small river Grandpa told me about is flowing into the lake," Rei explained. "He said that the water is flowing down a waterfall, directly into the lake."
They stepped out of the forest and looked upon the lake. For a short instant, Usagi expected that the waters would turn crystal clear, like they did two days ago, and she would see the sunken city again.
But no such thing happened.
Rei looked around. "Hey, where did they go? I can't see them anywhere."
"Well, we can still follow their footsteps, can we?"
"No, we can't," Rei said. "They're ending here, for some reason."
She was right. The footsteps of Ash and the others were leading directly to the edge of the lake, then ended.
"You suppose they swam through the lake to reach the other side?" Usagi pondered.
"I don't think so," Rei replied. "I don't really believe that unicorn with the flaming tail would tolerate water. And if they took a boat, we should be able to see them."
She scratched her head. "Damn, they're not making this very easy..."
Sailor Moon looked over to the waterfall. "You know... I once saw a cartoon where the hero hid in a cave behind a waterfall. Perhaps that's where they vanished."
"Sailor Moon... such things only happen on TV, you know?"
"Well, we won't know for sure if we don't give it a try. I'll just take a look..."
Rei groaned. "Usagi... you're wasting our time here."
But after a short while, her meatball-headed friend shouted: "I was right! There's a cave in here!"
"No way..." Rei murmured in disbelief as she climbed over the rocks that were lying along the lakeside. She didn't know what amazed her more: That there was actually a cave behind the waterfall, or the fact that Usagi was actually right for once.
As she peered through the flowing waters, she could see the hidden cave as well. "Maybe this is another hidden tunnel," she suspected. "But it doesn't look as dark and narrow as the tunnels of the labyrinth."
Usagi grinned. "Looks like this is where they vanished. Well, let's go after them!"
Rei hesitated for a short while, then carefully balanced along the edge of the water, until she reached the waterfall. She quickly stepped through and shivered as the cold water flowed along her back.
Usagi quickly followed her. "Brrrrrr..." she shuddered. "C-c-cold..."
The cave was indeed a tunnel, much bigger than the tunnels of the hidden labyrinth they had explored the previous day. It also looked like the sunlight shining through the waterfall was illuminating it sufficiently.
The Senshi looked at each other and nodded. Then, they walked over the wet cavern floor, as they followed the tunnel.
But just after they took a few steps, Usagi suddenly felt woozy. "Whoa..." she muttered as she staggered around. "What the...?"
It had felt as if something soft had hit her neck, near the shoulders. And then, she felt lightheaded. The way Rei was staggering around made her suspect that her friend was feeling the same.
"W-w-what?" Rei groaned. "D-did you hit me, Usagi?"
"Of course not," Usagi replied, slightly offended. "I got hit by something as well..." She looked up at the ceiling of the cave. "You think it was a pebble that fell down from up there?"
"A rock would have hurt," Rei said. "But that felt like... like... Well, as if someone had thrown a pillow at me from behind."
Usagi looked around the floor. "There's no pillow lying around here..."
"I know that," Rei grumbled, upset at her blonde friend's ditziness. "Go on ahead instead of saying stupid things!"
"Meanie..." the moon princess muttered as she continued to walk through the cave.
"I wonder if Ash and his friends have reached the construction site by now," she then wondered.
"Let's hope not," Mars said. "If they managed to cause an explosion, I don't want to know what else they might be able to do. So let's hurry up so we can catch up with them."
But as they very soon realized, they wouldn't catch up with them in a while.
Mars and Moon just stared in surprise when they reached the dead end of the tunnel.
"Well, one thing is for sure," Usagi sighed. "They didn't go that way."
"What the hell?" Rei mumbled in irritation. "If they didn't go through the waterfall, where else could they have gone?"
She looked around to see if there was some other way, maybe a hidden passage they didn't see. But there was nothing.
"Man, what a waste of time," the Senshi of Mars groaned. "And who knows how far they have gone by now?"
"I think we would have heard something by now then, right?" Sailor Moon asked. "I mean, the construction site is not that far away, is it?"
"That's true," Mars nodded. Seeing that they had no other choice, they turned around and walked back the way they came.
When they reached the waterfall, Rei looked grimly at the flowing water. She wasn't exactly looking forward to the inevitable cold shower.
"All right," she grumbled. "Let's get this over with..." And together, they stepped through the water.
And just seconds later, the water came crashing down on them with the force of a sledgehammer and pressed both of them down into the depths of the lake.
Confused and in panic, they both struggled wildly against the powerful pressure that was coming from above. They didn't know what was going on, and at the moment, they really didn't care. They only knew that they had to reach the surface soon, or they would drown.
They've both been swept some distance away from the waterfall by now, and so they began paddling wildly, hoping they would reach the bright surface of the lake in time.
But only after a few strokes Rei realized that she wouldn't make it. She would only be able to hold her breath for a few seconds, and that was it.
But just before she abandoned hope, a dark shape came zipping through the water. To the paddling girl, it felt as if a strong hand was grabbing her right arm and pulled her upwards. She then felt how she was downright catapulted towards the surface... and then she broke through it with a mighty gasp.
After taking some breaths, she realized that Usagi's head had appeared right next to her. She swallowed a few times.
"Th-thank you... Usagi... I thought I was gonna die down there." She then grinned. "I didn't know you could swim that fast. And how did you manage to hold your breath for such a long time?"
"I... I didn't..." Usagi coughed. "It wasn't me," she said. "I thought you were the one who saved me."
"Huh?" Rei wondered. "But if not you, who else did...?" She looked around, but there was no one else there. No boat, no other swimmer...
But then something occurred to her. She turned to take a look at the waterfall... and gasped as she saw what was pouring down into the lake just behind them.
It wasn't the small waterfall they saw before... not at all! Coming down the enormous cliff with a thundering roar was a massive waterfall, at least as wide as a four-lane highway. No wonder the massive force of that thing had pressed them down into the depths of the lake, which...
Which wasn't the lake they knew.
The lake in which they were swimming was at least twice as big as the lake near the summer residence of Usagi's aunt, and the castle sitting on top of the hill wasn't a ruin... it was a massive, intact stronghold, towering over the lake which was not the same lake they had seen earlier that day, just as the castle over there, on the other side of the lake, wasn't the ruin in which they had seen Ash and Gary.
After the two Senshi finally reached the shore, as weak and tired as they were, they came to a very simple conclusion...
"Rei... we're saved!"
"Yes. But... I believe we're not in Japan anymore, Usagi."