BISHOUJO SENSHI SAILORMOON
~MIRAI~
PART XII: CRISIS
by: Komillia (komillia@hotmail.com)
Disclaimer: Sailormoon belongs to Takeuchi Naoko and Kodansha, not me.
Although most of the characters in this fanfiction are original and
created by me.
Some Japanese words I use:
arigatou = thank you
okaa-san = mother
hime-sama = princess
kisama = rude way of saying "you"
hai = yes
* * * *
She was floating in pure light, again. This time she didn't feel the
same peace as she had before. She had this strange feeling of déja vu
and it was troubling her deeply. What was this place anyway? Why was
she there in the first place?
"Saviour of the galaxy... I and the creatures in this world
beg of your help and forgiveness."
Usagi opened her eyes and managed to stand up even though she was
still floating. Before her stood a woman who seemed like she was
nineteen, just like Usagi. But then again, Usagi hadn't been nineteen
in a long time and the woman's eyes told her the same thing. What was
the woman's name again? Usagi searched her mind for the right name.
What was it? Then she remembered it. Shanti.
"Shanti-san... where am I?" Usagi asked.
Shanti looked so sad from where Usagi was standing. She folded her
hands and looked downwards. Why was she so sad in the first place? Her
eyes, her face, her voice, everything was sad about her. Had something
happened to her which had condemned her to a life of sadness? As much
as Usagi would have liked to ask Shanti what was wrong she knew that
perhaps it would be too painful for Shanti to answer.
"Shanti?"
Shanti looked at Usagi which her large, sad, violet eyes. They looked
so much like the eyes of someone that Usagi had known long ago. "Lady
Serenity-sama, saviour of the galaxy, please help this world to return
to the way it used to be!"
"How can I?" Usagi asked. "I don't know how. How can I know
how to help this world if you don't tell me?"
Shanti looked away. Usagi waited for a while, but then she realized
that Shanti didn't seem have an answer. Disappointment filled Usagi's
eyes and she looked downwards at her own hands. Her own hands, that
could do nothing to save the world she loved so much. It didn't matter
that she was the princess of the Solar System and Sailormoon if there
was nothing she could do. She wasn't strong enough to do anything.
"So there is no way?" she questioned Shanti, not even trying
to hide the disappointment in her voice. "Is there no way to return
this world to the way it used to be? It used to be such paradise
during my mother's and father's rule on the Earth. But now... is all
their, and the other Sailor Senshi's, work just going to be destroyed
and there's nothing I can do about it but watch?"
"There is one thing you can do," Shanti suddenly said. Usagi
immediately looked up at Shanti.
"Tell me!" she urged.
Shanti took a deep breath and then spoke calmly. "Saviour of the
galaxy, you and three others must defeat Chaos who roams freely in
this world. You must find the three others. Only the four of you
together can defeat him, or else... this world is doomed."
"How do I find the four others?" Usagi asked. Shanti looked
sad once again.
"Free me..."
* * * *
"Does everything look okay?" Chie asked nervously as she
walked back and forth in the room. Yasha sighed.
"Chie, everyone looks just fine," she assured. "You've asked
me and the others at least ten times and you have spent three hours
cleaning up, so why shouldn't it look fine? What's the big deal
anyway? We're just having a Senshi meeting with a new addition to the
group."
Chie suddenly stopped and looked at Yasha as if she thought that Yasha
was insane. She stood silent for a while, then opened her mouth. No
words came out, as if she didn't know what to say. Then finally, she
said something.
"This isn't just another Senshi meeting," Chie stated
seriously and Yasha could see that Chie was actually being nervous.
"Nature is coming. *The* Nature. The Senshi who grew up in the Crystal
Palace and who is friends with Neo-Queen Serenity and the Sailor
Senshi. She's like a legend for crying out loud!"
"Chie, does it ever occur to you that you are the
granddaughter of Sailorvenus and that we actually have lived with the
princess of the entire world for quite a while?" Yasha pointed out and
smiled. She laughed when she saw the look on Chie's pale face. It was
like she hadn't thought about it at all. Yasha rose from the couch and
put her hand comforting on Chie's tense shoulder.
"Everything is alright," Yasha said. "Take it easy, will you?
You don't have to worry about everything. Nature is coming to discuss
the situation here, not to inspect on how good the house is looking."
Chie didn't answer her. Instead she seemed to be staring at something.
Yasha looked surprised and waved her hand in front of Chie's face.
"Chie? Are you listening to me?"
"That vase over there... it doesn't fit in with anything else
in this room."
As Chie ran off to adjust something else, Yasha left the room with a
sigh. In the hallway she caught sight on Hikaru standing behind the
stairs but the moment he saw her he took off through a door without
saying anything. Yasha frowned when remembering that Hikaru had been
acting like that for the past few weeks. She wondered what was going
on with him.
[I'll find out...] Yasha thought, still looking at the door
that Hikaru had left through. [Somehow. Really soon...]
* * * *
"The kids are delighted that you are visiting us," Freya told
as she and Kenji walked through the park together. It was a warm
morning and one of the few mornings that Freya allowed herself to
leave the damp basement that housed most of the Zealots, including
herself. After Dahlia's death and the attention that the kidnapping of
Amano Keiko had gotten, Freya had been spending most of her time
covering the tracks so that NSS wouldn't find them. Or anyone else.
She had been grateful that Kenji had come to visit them and offered to
accompany her on a walk. Freya didn't share Kenji's beliefs and he
didn't shared hers, but they respected each other and were friends.
"I'm glad that I have such an impact," Kenji replied with a
smile. "I never thought that I would be so liked by the Zealots and
constantly be called 'Kenji-sama'."
"They see you as a future leader, that's why," Freya explained
as she sat down on a park bench. They were in a park not far from the
basement and very few people were there. It was a good thing that they
could talk without being disturbed. "Your mother was a great Senshi
and you are too. I guess that they hope that you would step up as the
leader the day that I die. To be honest so do I."
"Don't talk like that," Kenji protested. "You know that it's
bad luck to talk about your own death. Is something troubling you?"
Freya looked at him, she didn't look troubled at all. Instead she
sounded very casual about it. Dahlia's death had made her realize that
despite that Senshi were more powerful and lived for a long time, it
didn't make them immortal.
"Why should I not talk about it?" she asked. "I know that it's
gonna happen someday, I just don't know when. When the time comes, I'd
like to make sure that someone competent lead the Zealots in my place.
The only person that I have in mind right now is you."
"You're not afraid that I'll turn the Zealots into another
version of the Shin Senshi?"
Freya laughed, for the first time in several days. "A little. Though I
can't imagine them running around trying to clear Crystal Tokyo from
demons like you do."
Then the smile on her lips faded away and a sad and serious look came
across her beautiful face.
"Honestly, Kenji. I've talked to some of the children. Most of
them have sensed some kind of distrubance and that something big is
going to happen soon. I don't know if it's demons or NSS. If it were
NSS, I would be prepared to fight. But demons... we know nothing about
them. They have been on Earth for over fifty years and no one knows
where they come from or if there is someone controlling them.
Sometimes, not knowing what tomorrow will bring scares me. But what I
fear most of all is what will happen to the Zealots. Many Zealots have
been caught recently and killed or mysteriously vanished because they
refuse to tell the police and NSS where we are located. The children
are afraid and I'm afraid of what will happen to them. What if one
betrays us and people come to destroy us? What will happen then,
Kenji? What will happen to us Senshi?"
Kenji put his arm around Freya's shoulders and she leaned her head
against his shoulder. For once she let herself be comforted instead of
comforting someone. She took Kenji's other hand and held it softly.
"Don't worry about it, Freya," Kenji assured. "Nothing's going
to happen to the Zealots as long as you stay careful. We're all
Senshi, we don't just give up without a fight."
"What if something does happen?" Freya questioned. "Just
promise me something."
"What?"
"Promise me that if anything happens to me... you'll take care
of them. Especially the children."
Kenji smiled faintly and squeezed Freya's hand lightly. "I will," he
promised and Freya settled with an answer as simple as that.
"Arigatou... I appericiate it."
* * * *
She looked into the mirror with anxious eyes. In a few minutes she
would meet up with a woman who had known her mother. Who had been
friends with her grandmother. Grandmother? Tomo had never known of her
grandmother, her mother hadn't spoken of her. She wondered what her
grandmother was like. Nature had said that Tomo's ancestors had been
Senshi for a long time. How long? What kind of Senshi was her
grandmother? What was her name? What was she like? Why had Arai Natsu
never spoken about her?
Tomo dropped the brush, it bounced once against the floor
before settling down. She tried to resist the urge to cry. Her roots
was something that she avoided thinking about, it only brought her
tears. Now that she was so close to finding out, then why was she so
sad? Was she afraid that her entire life was built upon something
blurry and non-existant?
"Tomo-chan?"
Tomo turned around and saw Yasha standing next to the door with a
friendly smile on her lips. As if Yasha understood what was going on,
she approached Tomo and hugged the younger girl.
"There's nothing to worry about," Yasha comforted. "Just try
and listen to what Nature has to say before you jump to any
conclusions."
"What if I find out something that I don't want to know?" Tomo
asked while leaning her head against Yasha's shoulder. "What if..."
"You can't think about it that way," Yasha cut off with a soft
voice. "Your mother loved you very much and you were closer, weren't
you? In some way, isn't that all that matters? I mean, who cares if
your mother turns out to have worked at a circus or something? She was
your mother and loved you for who you were."
Tomo giggled for a short moment. "I don't think that she worked at a
circus," she answered. "But I guess that no matter what Nature tells
me it doesn't change anything." Tomo pulled away from Yasha and looked
into Yasha's eyes. "But Marika-san... you sound so wise when you talk
but... why does it seems like you never stay in touch with your own
mother?"
Yasha smiled again but only faintly this time. "Sometimes I wish that
I could follow my own advices," she replied. "But the problem between
my mother and I is different. *We* are too different and we refuse to
accept each other. That's why."
"Shouldn't you be trying to stay in touch with her anyway?"
"Maybe," Yasha shrugged and walked towards the hallway. "But
right now we have something else to focus on. Are you coming? Nature's
already here."
* * * *
Moriyama Sachiko, also known as Nature, put down the cup of tea after
sipping at it. It had tasted delicious. Miyako had always been good at
making good tea, it was nice to see that her daughter had the same
skill. As Sachiko sat in the living room she carefully eyed the
members of the Shin Senshi. Before going to the meeting she had asked
Valkyrie for some information about them. Sachiko believed that she
could identify them all. Sakura Chie, the leader and the daughter of
Manano Miyako. Akira Kazuo, Hermes Knight and possibly a reincarnation
of an earlier Senshi. Hikaru Aodh, Ares Knight and American-Japanese.
Tsukino Usagi, Sailormoon, the princess. Was it fate that had taken
the princess to Shin Senshi or was it just a coincidence? However, it
was only those four who were with Sachiko in the livingroom. She knew
that four of them weren't there. Yamazaki Kenji, Izukawa Misao, Marika
Dahl and, the most interesting one of the missing ones to Sachiko,
Kamiya Tomoko.
The third Archangel. Sachiko had lived to know the two earlier
Archangels, but after Arai Natsu had escaped the claws of her mother
the third Archangel had for long remained a mystery to Sachiko. She
wondered what the "new" Archangel was like. It didn't take long before
Sachiko had the chance to find out. She heard someone coming down the
stairs and shortly afterwards two women entered the living room. One
was tall with amazingly long, black hair while the other was short and
had green hair. From the picture that Sachiko had seen she knew that
the shorter one was Kamiya Tomoko and the tall one was Marika Dahl, or
known to her friends as Yasha.
"I'm sorry that we made you wait," Yasha apologized as she and
Tomo sat down on available couch where Hikaru sat. "But we're here
now."
"Unfortunately, Kenji-kun was unable to be here," Chie told.
"And I think that Misao-san has been delayed. We should start start
without them, though. We'll fill them in later."
Sachiko nodded, agreeing with the decision. "I might as well start
introducing myself," she began. "My name is Moriyama Sachiko, I'm more
known as Nature when I'm a Senshi. Two years ago I stayed behind on
Earth to take care of a few things and before I had the chance to
travel to the Moon Kingdom, all contacts with the Moon Kingdom and the
Earth were broken. Which is why I'm here and not there. The main
reason why I approached you is that I've heard from the Zealots that
you are much like a 31th century version of the Sailor Senshi in the
21th century."
Hikaru chuckled at that remark. Yasha nudged and glared at him.
Someone quietly entered the livingroom, yet she caught the attention
of everyone. It was a girl with blue hair and red eyes, whom Sachiko
recognized as Izukawa Misao. Misao, who had looked so happy and
cheerful on the picture, looked tired and depressed. Despite that, she
tried to smile.
"I'm sorry I'm late," Misao apologized. "Please go on."
She eyed the room for an available seat. Her face looked disappointed
when she saw that the only seat was next to Akira, more disappointed
than usual. But despite that she sat down next to him without a word.
"Anyway," Sachiko continued. "I require your assistance for
something that could take us to the Moon Kingdom."
Everyone in the room stiffened and stared at Sachiko with shocked
looks on their face. No one spoke for a long time, they weren't sure
if they had misunderstood Sachiko's words. But what was there to
misunderstand? She had spoken very clearly.
"The... the Moon Kingdom?" Chie finally stuttered. "Are you
serious?"
"As serious as I can be," Sachiko confirmed. "There is a
method of several Senshi teleporting, however it requires powers and
hasn't been used for a long time. The Sailor Teleport. Neo-Queen
Serenity and the Inner Senshi used it to teleport to a location where
they could find Queen Beryl if I remember correctly. I would like to
use to same method to teleport to the Moon Kingdom. Of course,
everyone else who's contributing their powers will be teleported to
the Moon Kingdom too."
"I can finally go back home..." Usagi whispered to herself.
She rose from her seat and walked over to the window. Her eyes were
distant and she might as well could have talked to herself.
"Okaa-san... and the other Sailor Senshi. I'll get to see them all
again."
"There is a problem though."
Usagi was snapped back to reality and turned to Sachiko. "What kind of
problem?" Usagi wondered anxiously. "Whatever that problem is... we'll
fix it. As long as the Sailor Teleport works."
"There might be a chance that the Sailor Teleport won't work,"
Sachiko told. "I do not have the proper knowledge to know how to
concentrate the energy on teleporting. I was hoping that either
hime-sama or Akira-san would know everything about it."
The gazes of the people in the room automatically turned to Usagi
first, who looked disappointed and sad. She looked downwards.
"To be honest I don't have a clue about how to use the Sailor
Teleport," she sighed. "If I had, I would have suggested it a long
time ago. I'm sorry."
After hearing Usagi's answer the gazes turned to Akira. He blinked in
surprise when he discovered it, Akira wasn't the kind of person who
was used to being the center of the attention.
"Why do you think that I would know anything about the Sailor
Teleport?" he asked Sachiko.
"Because, if I'm correct, you are a reincarnation of a knight
of the Silver Millenium," Sachiko explained. "I figured that you might
know something because teleporting was pretty common in the Silver
Millenium."
"I'm sorry," Akira apologized. Though he sounded sincere his
voice was somewhat cold. "But I have very few memories from the Silver
Millenium. And I would like to keep those for myself."
"I bet," Misao muttered under her breath but she failed to
notice the look that some of the Shin Senshi gave her. Akira shot her
an irritated look from the other end of the couch where he was
sitting. While Sachiko believed that Akira was just easily angered,
the others knew that it was something else.
"What was that supposed to mean?" Akira snapped. To his
surprise and everyone elses, it didn't seem like Misao was teasing him
as usual. Instead, she had a rather hurt look in her eyes.
"I bet that you would like to keep the memories to yourself,"
Misao hissed angrily. "How long were you planning on letting me guess?
I know everything, Akira. Everything."
"Who told you?" Akira immediately demanded to know.
"Hikaru."
Akira's icy glare turned from Misao to Hikaru. Hikaru ran his hand
through his hair with a frustrated sigh. Akira stood up with a
clenched fist behind his back.
"Look, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to..." Hikaru began.
"Kisama, I thought that you could be trusted," Akira cut off
without paying any attention to the apology that Hikaru about to say.
Chie stood up as well.
"Akira, calm down," she urged. "Let's sit down and talk this
out."
"We can't talk this out," Misao protested and stood up as
well. She looked at Akira, the look on her face was a bit calmer but
filled with disappointment. It was that moment that Akira realized how
much Misao's eyes looked like Triton's. Even though it had a different
colour, it was the same. How strange it was that he hadn't noticed it
before.
"It was for the best," Akira said coldly. Misao disagreed.
"You had no right... no right at all, to keep that away from
me. I don't care what you meant to me in the past, or what I meant to
you. Whatever respect you had for me obviously never existed."
With those words, Misao pulled out her transformation pendant that
hung around her neck and under her shirt. She yanked the pendant away
and the string that it was attached to broke. She didn't say a word as
she lifted Akira's hand and gave him the pendant. After that she just
turned around and left. They could all hear the front door being
opened and then slammed. It didn't take long before Akira left the
livingroom himself, still holding the pendant tightly in his hands.
"Akira, wait," Yasha called. She stood up and went after him.
The remaining ones in the room, Chie, Usagi, Tomo and Sachiko, turned
their attention to Hikaru.
"I didn't mean to do any harm," Hikaru murmured with a
regretful voice. "Misao asked me about it and I couldn't lie to her."
"It's okay," Chie comforted, she sat down next to Hikaru. Like
a motherly or sisterly figure she put her hand on Hikaru's to show
that she wasn't angry with him. "He's just upset. Let him cool off a
bit and he and Misao will eventually solve this."
Shortly afterwards Yasha returned to the livingroom. She looked at
Hikaru with her usual "I-am-so-upset-with-you" look. Chie, Usagi and
Tomo knew what was going to come.
"Moriyama-sama, why don't I show you around the house?" Chie
offered and stood up along with the two other girls. Sachiko could
take the hint and followed their example.
"Sure," she accepted. "But please call me Sachiko and skip
the sama thing."
Sachiko and Chie chatted on their way out, followed by Usagi and Tomo
who exchanged worried glances with each other. When the four women
were finally gone, Yasha walked over to Hikaru who was still sitting
on the couch.
"Do you know what you have caused?" she demanded. "You had no
right to tell Misao about her past."
"I know."
"We all promised Akira that we wouldn't tell her if he didn't
tell us to. He had his reasons even though we didn't agree. What you
did was wrong."
"I know."
"That's not the only thing that I want to discuss with you.
The last few weeks you have been avoiding telling me what really went
on while I was in the hospital. I know that you had something to do
with me getting better and I would like to find out why."
"I know."
That Hikaru kept repeating the words "I know" angered Yasha more than
he could imagine. She was already upset as it was. The first weeks
after coming back from the hospital she had assumed that Hikaru was
simply busy with something. But the last weeks she had been more and
more convinced that something happened to him while she was in the
hospital and he wasn't too eager to tell her about it. But something
inside Yasha demanded to know, it was far beyond curiousity.
"Stop saying that!" Yasha yelled and sank to her knees in
order to look Hikaru in his eyes. "Stop treating me like I'm stupid!
You can easily go, break promises and tell others' secret but you seem
to have no problem with hiding your own!"
Hikaru looked forwards so that his eyes met hers. He raised his hand
and stroke Yasha's cheek softly with his fingers. For a few seconds
Yasha actually believed that he was going to tell her something. But
when he leaned his head forwards to kiss her she realized that it was
just something to distract her. Instead of recieving the kiss, she
backed away from him and refused to be distracted.
"I want to know, Hikaru," she stated. "You let Misao know what
Akira was hiding. Why can't you let me know what you are hiding? Why
won't you tell me?"
"I won't tell," Hikaru insisted. "For as long as I live, I
won't tell you."
For some reason, Yasha felt like she had been stabbed by a knife. Her
eyes went cold, she rose to her feet and left the livingroom as soon
as she could.
* * * *
"I'm sorry, that must have sounded so... disfunctional. I
assure you, we're usually not like that at all. It's just that we have
been having some problems lately."
Sachiko smiled towards Chie, as if she understood Chie's situation
completely. "That's okay. I usually tell myself to not get stuck on a
first impression. I just hope that Akira-san and Izukawa-san can solve
their problems."
"They will," Chie replied as she and Sachiko entered the
kitchen. They sat down on the chairs next to the kitchen table. "Akira
and Misao were deeply connected in their past lives, Akira was aware
of that but not Misao. They aren't getting along so well nowadays and
that's why he didn't want her to know."
Sachiko nodded shortly and stroke a few strands from her face. "It
isn't always easy to be a leader. Are you comfortable with the role,
Chie-san?"
Chie shrugged. "Not always," she answered. "It's not a choice that
I've made. But I don't see anyone else volunteering for the job.
Besides... It's been two years and I'm starting to get it."
"Just like your mother."
Chie immediately focused her attention towards Sachiko. "Did you
say... my mother?" she asked slowly. Sachiko nodded.
"Hai, I did," Sachiko confirmed. "Your mother wasn't too happy
about being assigned as the leader of the Victory team first but
eventually she grew fond of her position. Not because of the power,
but because that she wanted to be the link that bonded all the Senshi
of the Victory Team."
"I have heard a lot about them," Chie pointed out. "Yet they
remain a mystery. Besides my mother I don't even know who they were."
Now it was Sachiko's turn to look like she was depressed. But despite
that she answered Chie.
"The Victory Team were one of the best. I knew them because
for a while I was stationed on Mars, where they spent six years of
training. All of them were relatives to the Inner and the Outer Senshi
because they believed that they could defeat whatever evil deity that
is behind the demons. I remember them all, your mother was the oldest
one and the youngest was only five years old when she joined. There
was Astarte, who was your mother, Chronos, Maia, Callisto, Oceania,
Harmonia and Archangel."
* * * *
"That jerk..." Yasha muttered to herself as she kicked a stone
out of her way. She had been walking around the house probably three
times and thinking about no one else but Hikaru. Hikaru, he was always
keeping her busy. Either he was disturbing her or he was distancing
himself from her.
"He's an idiot..." Yasha tried to convince herself. "Why do I
care anyway? It's not my problem if he doesn't want to tell me. But
it's killing me. And... why did he try to kiss me again?"
She smiled to herself when she realized that she had been talking to
herself. Deciding to stop walking around, she stood leaning over the
tall fences that bordered lawn from the road. That day, so many weeks
ago, at the hospital. Hikaru had kissed her. Was it a way for him to
distract her? She had asked him twice about where he had been while
she was at the hospital, each time he had tried to kiss her.
[He knows that it will distract and confuse me... that's why,]
Yasha thought. [I guess that the question isn't why he does it... it's
why I get distracted by it. My feelings for Hikaru aren't crystal
clear but why am I so anxious to find out where he was? And he said
that he kissed me at the hospital because he really wanted to know
that I was alive. I don't know if I should believe him or if that was
just another attempt to dodge the truth.]
"Isn't it amazing... how much a person can mean to you?"
Yasha raised her gaze and to her shock a woman who looked just like
Hecate stood on the other side of the fence. An memory came to Yasha's
mind. The memory of Hecate's barrier reflecting an arrow aimed for
her. The memory of being pierced by an arrow that Yasha had shot
herself. Startled and somewhat scared, Yasha backed several steps from
the fence. But that was when she saw that the woman wasn't Hecate, but
they looked very much alike. The dress was more bluish than Hecate's
and the hair was darker. Despite the resemblance, Yasha was sure that
this wasn't Hecate.
"Who are you?" Yasha asked, her heart sill pounding of fear,
though not as much as before.
"It doesn't really matter," the woman said and smiled.
Hecate's smile was mocking, this woman's smile was sinister. "...as
long as I have this."
She slowly pulled out something from her pocket. Yasha wondered if she
should take the chance to run back into the house or she should stay
and see what the woman had in her pocket. The last option then showed
itself. In the palm of this unknown woman was Yasha's henshin stick.
"Where did you get that?!" Yasha snapped and reached out for
it. The woman backed away from the fence and the henshin stick was
soon out of range.
"It wasn't very hard with everything that was going on in your
house," the woman answered. "After all, you were all busy with your
personal problems. So what are you going to do, Sailormedusa? You
aren't in your transformed form and you can't transform without this
little thing."
"Damn you..." Yasha hissed angrily, her eyes narrowing in
anger. "What do you want from me?"
The woman's dark eyes turned more sinister and cold, if that was
possible.
"I want you to suffer."
* * * *
"I can't believe this..." Misao murmured. She had repeated
those words at least twenty times. Misao, Usagi and Tomo sat outside
the garage, half leaning against the wall. Misao hadn't been able to
wander off very far since she was unfamiliar with the area outside the
house. She was already upset as it was, the last thing she wanted to
do was to get lost.
"I'm sorry that we didn't tell you, but Akira made us
promise," Tomo explained. "We wanted to tell, but he said that it
wasn't our business."
"I'm not mad at you two," Misao told her two friends. "It's
Akira that I'm mad at. How could he keep this away from me?! I know
that he doesn't like me very much but he had no right to."
"Maybe he was afraid."
Both Misao and Tomo looked at Usagi, not really understanding what she
meant. Usagi in return smiled softly towards Misao.
"Maybe he was afraid that you would replace the Triton that he
remembers," Usagi guessed. "We are all aware of that you are very
different from the Triton he knew, on the inside and the outside."
Before Usagi had any time to explain her theory futhered, they all
heard a voice calling for them. The three of them rose and walked
around the corner, where they saw Kenji standing.
"Are you home already, Kenji-san?" Tomo asked. Kenji, who
hadn't been aware of their presence, turned around and looked relieved
when he saw them standing there.
"I'm glad that the three of you hadn't wandered off
somewhere," Kenji told. "Something has happened. I've already told
Chie and we're all meeting up in the livingroom. It's Senshi
business."
The three girls immediately followed Kenji back into the house and
into the livingroom. Chie was walking back and forth with a frown.
Akira and Hikaru were both silent and sat as far away from each other
as they could. To their surprise neither Sachiko or Yasha were there.
"There has been a demon attack," Chie informed as soon as she
acknowleged their presence in the room. "Not the usual one, it's a
major attack. I heard on the radio that there are at least hundreds of
them in every district. Special forces are fighting them, as well as
some Senshi. But that's not enough. There are places where the demons
roam freely and there are innocent civilians there. We have to go to
those places and help, now. Where's Yasha?"
"I haven't seen her since she talked to Hikaru," Usagi
replied. "Isn't she here?"
"No... I wouldn't count on it."
Usagi turned around to see Sachiko standing behind her with a note
and a lock of dark hair in her hands. She stepped aside and allowed
Sachiko to join them.
"I found this while I was looking for her," Sachiko told and
handed the note over to Chie. "The note is probably from a foe and I
believe that the hair that I'm holding is Dahl-san's."
Chie quickly grabbed the note and read through it in a few seconds.
She frowned once again. "Damn it... they have taken her."
"Who?" the majority of the people in the room asked. Chie
passed the note on to Kenji and sighed in frustration.
"The enemies... whoever they are."
Kenji read through the note as well, probably even faster than Chie
had. "It says that it's time for revenge," he said. "And that we
should come to the Crystal Palace if we want Yasha back. This person
who has taken Yasha says that he or she has taken her because he or
she is trying to avenge our former enemy, Morpheus, it says."
"But why Yasha and not anyone else?" Usagi questioned.
Hikaru heard Usagi saying that, his eyes held a look of fear mixed
with shock. Then he suddenly rose from the couch and walked over to
the exit. Chie grabbed his arm before he could go any further.
"Wait, where are you going?" Chie demanded to know. Hikaru
shrugged Chie's arm off him.
"I'm going to find Yasha," Hikaru replied. "They took her
because Yasha killed Morpheus."
"We were there but Yasha fired the arrow," Tomo suddenly
recalled. She had been there, along with Usagi and Hikaru when Yasha
had fired the arrow as Sailormedusa. "That's why they want her."
"We got to get her back," Hikaru went on. Chie didn't know
what to say. What was more important, the life of a friend or the
lives of thousands of innocent people? Both.
"Wait here just another few minutes," Chie ordered with her
most firm voice. "We won't have time to discuss this. We have to split
up. The demons aren't just in one unprotected place, they are in many
different places. . And we have to get Yasha back as well."
Then her gaze turned to the people she was speaking to. First Akira
and Misao, then Sachiko, Usagi and Tomo, and lastly Kenji and Hikaru.
"Akira, Misao. You two go to the nearby farm and stop the
demons from wrecking it. I don't care what your problems are, you will
co-operate. Your attacks are powerful together and the problems can be
solved later. Sachiko-san, if you don't mind helping us I would like
you to take Usagi and Tomo and fight off the demons that have taken
over the streets in Juuban. Kenji and I will fight in the outskirts of
Juuban and try to prevent them from spreading to other districts. As
soon as you're finished, go to another area where you think the
civilians might need help. Hikaru, you go and save Yasha. Do you think
that you can handle it on your own?"
"I'll get her back," Hikaru promised. Chie, who seemed
satisfied with the answer, turned to Tomo.
"Tomo, he needs to get to the Crystal Palace as fast as he
can. Do you think that you can fly him over there and then get back to
Juuban in time?"
Tomo nodded. "You can trust me, I can do it."
"Good." Chie then spoke to everyone, but looked at Akira and
Hikaru when she did it. "I know there we have some problems in the
group right now, but we have to put them aside for the time being.
Innocent lives are at stake as well as Yasha's. Please keep that in
mind... and do your best."
For a while I took a break writing "Mirai" but now that school's over,
I'll have a lot more time to write. But what I would like to know is
what you think about my characters. Is Tomo and Kenji too kind hearted
to be real? Do you think that I write too little about Usagi
(Chibiusa) in this story? Are Shanti's sad eyes getting annoying? Do I
have too many original Senshi and is it getting confusing? Let me know
what you think, because I have plans on throwing in some other new
Senshi (again).
Komillia (komillia@hotmail.com)
12 June 2001
Next:
Sailormoon Mirai Part XIII: Battle rage
Ares is trying to find Yasha while the others does their best trying
to fight off the demons. Who is this person who wants to lure the
Shin Senshi to the Crystal Palace and is Ares alone strong enough to
save Yasha?
~MIRAI~
PART XII: CRISIS
by: Komillia (komillia@hotmail.com)
Disclaimer: Sailormoon belongs to Takeuchi Naoko and Kodansha, not me.
Although most of the characters in this fanfiction are original and
created by me.
Some Japanese words I use:
arigatou = thank you
okaa-san = mother
hime-sama = princess
kisama = rude way of saying "you"
hai = yes
* * * *
She was floating in pure light, again. This time she didn't feel the
same peace as she had before. She had this strange feeling of déja vu
and it was troubling her deeply. What was this place anyway? Why was
she there in the first place?
"Saviour of the galaxy... I and the creatures in this world
beg of your help and forgiveness."
Usagi opened her eyes and managed to stand up even though she was
still floating. Before her stood a woman who seemed like she was
nineteen, just like Usagi. But then again, Usagi hadn't been nineteen
in a long time and the woman's eyes told her the same thing. What was
the woman's name again? Usagi searched her mind for the right name.
What was it? Then she remembered it. Shanti.
"Shanti-san... where am I?" Usagi asked.
Shanti looked so sad from where Usagi was standing. She folded her
hands and looked downwards. Why was she so sad in the first place? Her
eyes, her face, her voice, everything was sad about her. Had something
happened to her which had condemned her to a life of sadness? As much
as Usagi would have liked to ask Shanti what was wrong she knew that
perhaps it would be too painful for Shanti to answer.
"Shanti?"
Shanti looked at Usagi which her large, sad, violet eyes. They looked
so much like the eyes of someone that Usagi had known long ago. "Lady
Serenity-sama, saviour of the galaxy, please help this world to return
to the way it used to be!"
"How can I?" Usagi asked. "I don't know how. How can I know
how to help this world if you don't tell me?"
Shanti looked away. Usagi waited for a while, but then she realized
that Shanti didn't seem have an answer. Disappointment filled Usagi's
eyes and she looked downwards at her own hands. Her own hands, that
could do nothing to save the world she loved so much. It didn't matter
that she was the princess of the Solar System and Sailormoon if there
was nothing she could do. She wasn't strong enough to do anything.
"So there is no way?" she questioned Shanti, not even trying
to hide the disappointment in her voice. "Is there no way to return
this world to the way it used to be? It used to be such paradise
during my mother's and father's rule on the Earth. But now... is all
their, and the other Sailor Senshi's, work just going to be destroyed
and there's nothing I can do about it but watch?"
"There is one thing you can do," Shanti suddenly said. Usagi
immediately looked up at Shanti.
"Tell me!" she urged.
Shanti took a deep breath and then spoke calmly. "Saviour of the
galaxy, you and three others must defeat Chaos who roams freely in
this world. You must find the three others. Only the four of you
together can defeat him, or else... this world is doomed."
"How do I find the four others?" Usagi asked. Shanti looked
sad once again.
"Free me..."
* * * *
"Does everything look okay?" Chie asked nervously as she
walked back and forth in the room. Yasha sighed.
"Chie, everyone looks just fine," she assured. "You've asked
me and the others at least ten times and you have spent three hours
cleaning up, so why shouldn't it look fine? What's the big deal
anyway? We're just having a Senshi meeting with a new addition to the
group."
Chie suddenly stopped and looked at Yasha as if she thought that Yasha
was insane. She stood silent for a while, then opened her mouth. No
words came out, as if she didn't know what to say. Then finally, she
said something.
"This isn't just another Senshi meeting," Chie stated
seriously and Yasha could see that Chie was actually being nervous.
"Nature is coming. *The* Nature. The Senshi who grew up in the Crystal
Palace and who is friends with Neo-Queen Serenity and the Sailor
Senshi. She's like a legend for crying out loud!"
"Chie, does it ever occur to you that you are the
granddaughter of Sailorvenus and that we actually have lived with the
princess of the entire world for quite a while?" Yasha pointed out and
smiled. She laughed when she saw the look on Chie's pale face. It was
like she hadn't thought about it at all. Yasha rose from the couch and
put her hand comforting on Chie's tense shoulder.
"Everything is alright," Yasha said. "Take it easy, will you?
You don't have to worry about everything. Nature is coming to discuss
the situation here, not to inspect on how good the house is looking."
Chie didn't answer her. Instead she seemed to be staring at something.
Yasha looked surprised and waved her hand in front of Chie's face.
"Chie? Are you listening to me?"
"That vase over there... it doesn't fit in with anything else
in this room."
As Chie ran off to adjust something else, Yasha left the room with a
sigh. In the hallway she caught sight on Hikaru standing behind the
stairs but the moment he saw her he took off through a door without
saying anything. Yasha frowned when remembering that Hikaru had been
acting like that for the past few weeks. She wondered what was going
on with him.
[I'll find out...] Yasha thought, still looking at the door
that Hikaru had left through. [Somehow. Really soon...]
* * * *
"The kids are delighted that you are visiting us," Freya told
as she and Kenji walked through the park together. It was a warm
morning and one of the few mornings that Freya allowed herself to
leave the damp basement that housed most of the Zealots, including
herself. After Dahlia's death and the attention that the kidnapping of
Amano Keiko had gotten, Freya had been spending most of her time
covering the tracks so that NSS wouldn't find them. Or anyone else.
She had been grateful that Kenji had come to visit them and offered to
accompany her on a walk. Freya didn't share Kenji's beliefs and he
didn't shared hers, but they respected each other and were friends.
"I'm glad that I have such an impact," Kenji replied with a
smile. "I never thought that I would be so liked by the Zealots and
constantly be called 'Kenji-sama'."
"They see you as a future leader, that's why," Freya explained
as she sat down on a park bench. They were in a park not far from the
basement and very few people were there. It was a good thing that they
could talk without being disturbed. "Your mother was a great Senshi
and you are too. I guess that they hope that you would step up as the
leader the day that I die. To be honest so do I."
"Don't talk like that," Kenji protested. "You know that it's
bad luck to talk about your own death. Is something troubling you?"
Freya looked at him, she didn't look troubled at all. Instead she
sounded very casual about it. Dahlia's death had made her realize that
despite that Senshi were more powerful and lived for a long time, it
didn't make them immortal.
"Why should I not talk about it?" she asked. "I know that it's
gonna happen someday, I just don't know when. When the time comes, I'd
like to make sure that someone competent lead the Zealots in my place.
The only person that I have in mind right now is you."
"You're not afraid that I'll turn the Zealots into another
version of the Shin Senshi?"
Freya laughed, for the first time in several days. "A little. Though I
can't imagine them running around trying to clear Crystal Tokyo from
demons like you do."
Then the smile on her lips faded away and a sad and serious look came
across her beautiful face.
"Honestly, Kenji. I've talked to some of the children. Most of
them have sensed some kind of distrubance and that something big is
going to happen soon. I don't know if it's demons or NSS. If it were
NSS, I would be prepared to fight. But demons... we know nothing about
them. They have been on Earth for over fifty years and no one knows
where they come from or if there is someone controlling them.
Sometimes, not knowing what tomorrow will bring scares me. But what I
fear most of all is what will happen to the Zealots. Many Zealots have
been caught recently and killed or mysteriously vanished because they
refuse to tell the police and NSS where we are located. The children
are afraid and I'm afraid of what will happen to them. What if one
betrays us and people come to destroy us? What will happen then,
Kenji? What will happen to us Senshi?"
Kenji put his arm around Freya's shoulders and she leaned her head
against his shoulder. For once she let herself be comforted instead of
comforting someone. She took Kenji's other hand and held it softly.
"Don't worry about it, Freya," Kenji assured. "Nothing's going
to happen to the Zealots as long as you stay careful. We're all
Senshi, we don't just give up without a fight."
"What if something does happen?" Freya questioned. "Just
promise me something."
"What?"
"Promise me that if anything happens to me... you'll take care
of them. Especially the children."
Kenji smiled faintly and squeezed Freya's hand lightly. "I will," he
promised and Freya settled with an answer as simple as that.
"Arigatou... I appericiate it."
* * * *
She looked into the mirror with anxious eyes. In a few minutes she
would meet up with a woman who had known her mother. Who had been
friends with her grandmother. Grandmother? Tomo had never known of her
grandmother, her mother hadn't spoken of her. She wondered what her
grandmother was like. Nature had said that Tomo's ancestors had been
Senshi for a long time. How long? What kind of Senshi was her
grandmother? What was her name? What was she like? Why had Arai Natsu
never spoken about her?
Tomo dropped the brush, it bounced once against the floor
before settling down. She tried to resist the urge to cry. Her roots
was something that she avoided thinking about, it only brought her
tears. Now that she was so close to finding out, then why was she so
sad? Was she afraid that her entire life was built upon something
blurry and non-existant?
"Tomo-chan?"
Tomo turned around and saw Yasha standing next to the door with a
friendly smile on her lips. As if Yasha understood what was going on,
she approached Tomo and hugged the younger girl.
"There's nothing to worry about," Yasha comforted. "Just try
and listen to what Nature has to say before you jump to any
conclusions."
"What if I find out something that I don't want to know?" Tomo
asked while leaning her head against Yasha's shoulder. "What if..."
"You can't think about it that way," Yasha cut off with a soft
voice. "Your mother loved you very much and you were closer, weren't
you? In some way, isn't that all that matters? I mean, who cares if
your mother turns out to have worked at a circus or something? She was
your mother and loved you for who you were."
Tomo giggled for a short moment. "I don't think that she worked at a
circus," she answered. "But I guess that no matter what Nature tells
me it doesn't change anything." Tomo pulled away from Yasha and looked
into Yasha's eyes. "But Marika-san... you sound so wise when you talk
but... why does it seems like you never stay in touch with your own
mother?"
Yasha smiled again but only faintly this time. "Sometimes I wish that
I could follow my own advices," she replied. "But the problem between
my mother and I is different. *We* are too different and we refuse to
accept each other. That's why."
"Shouldn't you be trying to stay in touch with her anyway?"
"Maybe," Yasha shrugged and walked towards the hallway. "But
right now we have something else to focus on. Are you coming? Nature's
already here."
* * * *
Moriyama Sachiko, also known as Nature, put down the cup of tea after
sipping at it. It had tasted delicious. Miyako had always been good at
making good tea, it was nice to see that her daughter had the same
skill. As Sachiko sat in the living room she carefully eyed the
members of the Shin Senshi. Before going to the meeting she had asked
Valkyrie for some information about them. Sachiko believed that she
could identify them all. Sakura Chie, the leader and the daughter of
Manano Miyako. Akira Kazuo, Hermes Knight and possibly a reincarnation
of an earlier Senshi. Hikaru Aodh, Ares Knight and American-Japanese.
Tsukino Usagi, Sailormoon, the princess. Was it fate that had taken
the princess to Shin Senshi or was it just a coincidence? However, it
was only those four who were with Sachiko in the livingroom. She knew
that four of them weren't there. Yamazaki Kenji, Izukawa Misao, Marika
Dahl and, the most interesting one of the missing ones to Sachiko,
Kamiya Tomoko.
The third Archangel. Sachiko had lived to know the two earlier
Archangels, but after Arai Natsu had escaped the claws of her mother
the third Archangel had for long remained a mystery to Sachiko. She
wondered what the "new" Archangel was like. It didn't take long before
Sachiko had the chance to find out. She heard someone coming down the
stairs and shortly afterwards two women entered the living room. One
was tall with amazingly long, black hair while the other was short and
had green hair. From the picture that Sachiko had seen she knew that
the shorter one was Kamiya Tomoko and the tall one was Marika Dahl, or
known to her friends as Yasha.
"I'm sorry that we made you wait," Yasha apologized as she and
Tomo sat down on available couch where Hikaru sat. "But we're here
now."
"Unfortunately, Kenji-kun was unable to be here," Chie told.
"And I think that Misao-san has been delayed. We should start start
without them, though. We'll fill them in later."
Sachiko nodded, agreeing with the decision. "I might as well start
introducing myself," she began. "My name is Moriyama Sachiko, I'm more
known as Nature when I'm a Senshi. Two years ago I stayed behind on
Earth to take care of a few things and before I had the chance to
travel to the Moon Kingdom, all contacts with the Moon Kingdom and the
Earth were broken. Which is why I'm here and not there. The main
reason why I approached you is that I've heard from the Zealots that
you are much like a 31th century version of the Sailor Senshi in the
21th century."
Hikaru chuckled at that remark. Yasha nudged and glared at him.
Someone quietly entered the livingroom, yet she caught the attention
of everyone. It was a girl with blue hair and red eyes, whom Sachiko
recognized as Izukawa Misao. Misao, who had looked so happy and
cheerful on the picture, looked tired and depressed. Despite that, she
tried to smile.
"I'm sorry I'm late," Misao apologized. "Please go on."
She eyed the room for an available seat. Her face looked disappointed
when she saw that the only seat was next to Akira, more disappointed
than usual. But despite that she sat down next to him without a word.
"Anyway," Sachiko continued. "I require your assistance for
something that could take us to the Moon Kingdom."
Everyone in the room stiffened and stared at Sachiko with shocked
looks on their face. No one spoke for a long time, they weren't sure
if they had misunderstood Sachiko's words. But what was there to
misunderstand? She had spoken very clearly.
"The... the Moon Kingdom?" Chie finally stuttered. "Are you
serious?"
"As serious as I can be," Sachiko confirmed. "There is a
method of several Senshi teleporting, however it requires powers and
hasn't been used for a long time. The Sailor Teleport. Neo-Queen
Serenity and the Inner Senshi used it to teleport to a location where
they could find Queen Beryl if I remember correctly. I would like to
use to same method to teleport to the Moon Kingdom. Of course,
everyone else who's contributing their powers will be teleported to
the Moon Kingdom too."
"I can finally go back home..." Usagi whispered to herself.
She rose from her seat and walked over to the window. Her eyes were
distant and she might as well could have talked to herself.
"Okaa-san... and the other Sailor Senshi. I'll get to see them all
again."
"There is a problem though."
Usagi was snapped back to reality and turned to Sachiko. "What kind of
problem?" Usagi wondered anxiously. "Whatever that problem is... we'll
fix it. As long as the Sailor Teleport works."
"There might be a chance that the Sailor Teleport won't work,"
Sachiko told. "I do not have the proper knowledge to know how to
concentrate the energy on teleporting. I was hoping that either
hime-sama or Akira-san would know everything about it."
The gazes of the people in the room automatically turned to Usagi
first, who looked disappointed and sad. She looked downwards.
"To be honest I don't have a clue about how to use the Sailor
Teleport," she sighed. "If I had, I would have suggested it a long
time ago. I'm sorry."
After hearing Usagi's answer the gazes turned to Akira. He blinked in
surprise when he discovered it, Akira wasn't the kind of person who
was used to being the center of the attention.
"Why do you think that I would know anything about the Sailor
Teleport?" he asked Sachiko.
"Because, if I'm correct, you are a reincarnation of a knight
of the Silver Millenium," Sachiko explained. "I figured that you might
know something because teleporting was pretty common in the Silver
Millenium."
"I'm sorry," Akira apologized. Though he sounded sincere his
voice was somewhat cold. "But I have very few memories from the Silver
Millenium. And I would like to keep those for myself."
"I bet," Misao muttered under her breath but she failed to
notice the look that some of the Shin Senshi gave her. Akira shot her
an irritated look from the other end of the couch where he was
sitting. While Sachiko believed that Akira was just easily angered,
the others knew that it was something else.
"What was that supposed to mean?" Akira snapped. To his
surprise and everyone elses, it didn't seem like Misao was teasing him
as usual. Instead, she had a rather hurt look in her eyes.
"I bet that you would like to keep the memories to yourself,"
Misao hissed angrily. "How long were you planning on letting me guess?
I know everything, Akira. Everything."
"Who told you?" Akira immediately demanded to know.
"Hikaru."
Akira's icy glare turned from Misao to Hikaru. Hikaru ran his hand
through his hair with a frustrated sigh. Akira stood up with a
clenched fist behind his back.
"Look, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to..." Hikaru began.
"Kisama, I thought that you could be trusted," Akira cut off
without paying any attention to the apology that Hikaru about to say.
Chie stood up as well.
"Akira, calm down," she urged. "Let's sit down and talk this
out."
"We can't talk this out," Misao protested and stood up as
well. She looked at Akira, the look on her face was a bit calmer but
filled with disappointment. It was that moment that Akira realized how
much Misao's eyes looked like Triton's. Even though it had a different
colour, it was the same. How strange it was that he hadn't noticed it
before.
"It was for the best," Akira said coldly. Misao disagreed.
"You had no right... no right at all, to keep that away from
me. I don't care what you meant to me in the past, or what I meant to
you. Whatever respect you had for me obviously never existed."
With those words, Misao pulled out her transformation pendant that
hung around her neck and under her shirt. She yanked the pendant away
and the string that it was attached to broke. She didn't say a word as
she lifted Akira's hand and gave him the pendant. After that she just
turned around and left. They could all hear the front door being
opened and then slammed. It didn't take long before Akira left the
livingroom himself, still holding the pendant tightly in his hands.
"Akira, wait," Yasha called. She stood up and went after him.
The remaining ones in the room, Chie, Usagi, Tomo and Sachiko, turned
their attention to Hikaru.
"I didn't mean to do any harm," Hikaru murmured with a
regretful voice. "Misao asked me about it and I couldn't lie to her."
"It's okay," Chie comforted, she sat down next to Hikaru. Like
a motherly or sisterly figure she put her hand on Hikaru's to show
that she wasn't angry with him. "He's just upset. Let him cool off a
bit and he and Misao will eventually solve this."
Shortly afterwards Yasha returned to the livingroom. She looked at
Hikaru with her usual "I-am-so-upset-with-you" look. Chie, Usagi and
Tomo knew what was going to come.
"Moriyama-sama, why don't I show you around the house?" Chie
offered and stood up along with the two other girls. Sachiko could
take the hint and followed their example.
"Sure," she accepted. "But please call me Sachiko and skip
the sama thing."
Sachiko and Chie chatted on their way out, followed by Usagi and Tomo
who exchanged worried glances with each other. When the four women
were finally gone, Yasha walked over to Hikaru who was still sitting
on the couch.
"Do you know what you have caused?" she demanded. "You had no
right to tell Misao about her past."
"I know."
"We all promised Akira that we wouldn't tell her if he didn't
tell us to. He had his reasons even though we didn't agree. What you
did was wrong."
"I know."
"That's not the only thing that I want to discuss with you.
The last few weeks you have been avoiding telling me what really went
on while I was in the hospital. I know that you had something to do
with me getting better and I would like to find out why."
"I know."
That Hikaru kept repeating the words "I know" angered Yasha more than
he could imagine. She was already upset as it was. The first weeks
after coming back from the hospital she had assumed that Hikaru was
simply busy with something. But the last weeks she had been more and
more convinced that something happened to him while she was in the
hospital and he wasn't too eager to tell her about it. But something
inside Yasha demanded to know, it was far beyond curiousity.
"Stop saying that!" Yasha yelled and sank to her knees in
order to look Hikaru in his eyes. "Stop treating me like I'm stupid!
You can easily go, break promises and tell others' secret but you seem
to have no problem with hiding your own!"
Hikaru looked forwards so that his eyes met hers. He raised his hand
and stroke Yasha's cheek softly with his fingers. For a few seconds
Yasha actually believed that he was going to tell her something. But
when he leaned his head forwards to kiss her she realized that it was
just something to distract her. Instead of recieving the kiss, she
backed away from him and refused to be distracted.
"I want to know, Hikaru," she stated. "You let Misao know what
Akira was hiding. Why can't you let me know what you are hiding? Why
won't you tell me?"
"I won't tell," Hikaru insisted. "For as long as I live, I
won't tell you."
For some reason, Yasha felt like she had been stabbed by a knife. Her
eyes went cold, she rose to her feet and left the livingroom as soon
as she could.
* * * *
"I'm sorry, that must have sounded so... disfunctional. I
assure you, we're usually not like that at all. It's just that we have
been having some problems lately."
Sachiko smiled towards Chie, as if she understood Chie's situation
completely. "That's okay. I usually tell myself to not get stuck on a
first impression. I just hope that Akira-san and Izukawa-san can solve
their problems."
"They will," Chie replied as she and Sachiko entered the
kitchen. They sat down on the chairs next to the kitchen table. "Akira
and Misao were deeply connected in their past lives, Akira was aware
of that but not Misao. They aren't getting along so well nowadays and
that's why he didn't want her to know."
Sachiko nodded shortly and stroke a few strands from her face. "It
isn't always easy to be a leader. Are you comfortable with the role,
Chie-san?"
Chie shrugged. "Not always," she answered. "It's not a choice that
I've made. But I don't see anyone else volunteering for the job.
Besides... It's been two years and I'm starting to get it."
"Just like your mother."
Chie immediately focused her attention towards Sachiko. "Did you
say... my mother?" she asked slowly. Sachiko nodded.
"Hai, I did," Sachiko confirmed. "Your mother wasn't too happy
about being assigned as the leader of the Victory team first but
eventually she grew fond of her position. Not because of the power,
but because that she wanted to be the link that bonded all the Senshi
of the Victory Team."
"I have heard a lot about them," Chie pointed out. "Yet they
remain a mystery. Besides my mother I don't even know who they were."
Now it was Sachiko's turn to look like she was depressed. But despite
that she answered Chie.
"The Victory Team were one of the best. I knew them because
for a while I was stationed on Mars, where they spent six years of
training. All of them were relatives to the Inner and the Outer Senshi
because they believed that they could defeat whatever evil deity that
is behind the demons. I remember them all, your mother was the oldest
one and the youngest was only five years old when she joined. There
was Astarte, who was your mother, Chronos, Maia, Callisto, Oceania,
Harmonia and Archangel."
* * * *
"That jerk..." Yasha muttered to herself as she kicked a stone
out of her way. She had been walking around the house probably three
times and thinking about no one else but Hikaru. Hikaru, he was always
keeping her busy. Either he was disturbing her or he was distancing
himself from her.
"He's an idiot..." Yasha tried to convince herself. "Why do I
care anyway? It's not my problem if he doesn't want to tell me. But
it's killing me. And... why did he try to kiss me again?"
She smiled to herself when she realized that she had been talking to
herself. Deciding to stop walking around, she stood leaning over the
tall fences that bordered lawn from the road. That day, so many weeks
ago, at the hospital. Hikaru had kissed her. Was it a way for him to
distract her? She had asked him twice about where he had been while
she was at the hospital, each time he had tried to kiss her.
[He knows that it will distract and confuse me... that's why,]
Yasha thought. [I guess that the question isn't why he does it... it's
why I get distracted by it. My feelings for Hikaru aren't crystal
clear but why am I so anxious to find out where he was? And he said
that he kissed me at the hospital because he really wanted to know
that I was alive. I don't know if I should believe him or if that was
just another attempt to dodge the truth.]
"Isn't it amazing... how much a person can mean to you?"
Yasha raised her gaze and to her shock a woman who looked just like
Hecate stood on the other side of the fence. An memory came to Yasha's
mind. The memory of Hecate's barrier reflecting an arrow aimed for
her. The memory of being pierced by an arrow that Yasha had shot
herself. Startled and somewhat scared, Yasha backed several steps from
the fence. But that was when she saw that the woman wasn't Hecate, but
they looked very much alike. The dress was more bluish than Hecate's
and the hair was darker. Despite the resemblance, Yasha was sure that
this wasn't Hecate.
"Who are you?" Yasha asked, her heart sill pounding of fear,
though not as much as before.
"It doesn't really matter," the woman said and smiled.
Hecate's smile was mocking, this woman's smile was sinister. "...as
long as I have this."
She slowly pulled out something from her pocket. Yasha wondered if she
should take the chance to run back into the house or she should stay
and see what the woman had in her pocket. The last option then showed
itself. In the palm of this unknown woman was Yasha's henshin stick.
"Where did you get that?!" Yasha snapped and reached out for
it. The woman backed away from the fence and the henshin stick was
soon out of range.
"It wasn't very hard with everything that was going on in your
house," the woman answered. "After all, you were all busy with your
personal problems. So what are you going to do, Sailormedusa? You
aren't in your transformed form and you can't transform without this
little thing."
"Damn you..." Yasha hissed angrily, her eyes narrowing in
anger. "What do you want from me?"
The woman's dark eyes turned more sinister and cold, if that was
possible.
"I want you to suffer."
* * * *
"I can't believe this..." Misao murmured. She had repeated
those words at least twenty times. Misao, Usagi and Tomo sat outside
the garage, half leaning against the wall. Misao hadn't been able to
wander off very far since she was unfamiliar with the area outside the
house. She was already upset as it was, the last thing she wanted to
do was to get lost.
"I'm sorry that we didn't tell you, but Akira made us
promise," Tomo explained. "We wanted to tell, but he said that it
wasn't our business."
"I'm not mad at you two," Misao told her two friends. "It's
Akira that I'm mad at. How could he keep this away from me?! I know
that he doesn't like me very much but he had no right to."
"Maybe he was afraid."
Both Misao and Tomo looked at Usagi, not really understanding what she
meant. Usagi in return smiled softly towards Misao.
"Maybe he was afraid that you would replace the Triton that he
remembers," Usagi guessed. "We are all aware of that you are very
different from the Triton he knew, on the inside and the outside."
Before Usagi had any time to explain her theory futhered, they all
heard a voice calling for them. The three of them rose and walked
around the corner, where they saw Kenji standing.
"Are you home already, Kenji-san?" Tomo asked. Kenji, who
hadn't been aware of their presence, turned around and looked relieved
when he saw them standing there.
"I'm glad that the three of you hadn't wandered off
somewhere," Kenji told. "Something has happened. I've already told
Chie and we're all meeting up in the livingroom. It's Senshi
business."
The three girls immediately followed Kenji back into the house and
into the livingroom. Chie was walking back and forth with a frown.
Akira and Hikaru were both silent and sat as far away from each other
as they could. To their surprise neither Sachiko or Yasha were there.
"There has been a demon attack," Chie informed as soon as she
acknowleged their presence in the room. "Not the usual one, it's a
major attack. I heard on the radio that there are at least hundreds of
them in every district. Special forces are fighting them, as well as
some Senshi. But that's not enough. There are places where the demons
roam freely and there are innocent civilians there. We have to go to
those places and help, now. Where's Yasha?"
"I haven't seen her since she talked to Hikaru," Usagi
replied. "Isn't she here?"
"No... I wouldn't count on it."
Usagi turned around to see Sachiko standing behind her with a note
and a lock of dark hair in her hands. She stepped aside and allowed
Sachiko to join them.
"I found this while I was looking for her," Sachiko told and
handed the note over to Chie. "The note is probably from a foe and I
believe that the hair that I'm holding is Dahl-san's."
Chie quickly grabbed the note and read through it in a few seconds.
She frowned once again. "Damn it... they have taken her."
"Who?" the majority of the people in the room asked. Chie
passed the note on to Kenji and sighed in frustration.
"The enemies... whoever they are."
Kenji read through the note as well, probably even faster than Chie
had. "It says that it's time for revenge," he said. "And that we
should come to the Crystal Palace if we want Yasha back. This person
who has taken Yasha says that he or she has taken her because he or
she is trying to avenge our former enemy, Morpheus, it says."
"But why Yasha and not anyone else?" Usagi questioned.
Hikaru heard Usagi saying that, his eyes held a look of fear mixed
with shock. Then he suddenly rose from the couch and walked over to
the exit. Chie grabbed his arm before he could go any further.
"Wait, where are you going?" Chie demanded to know. Hikaru
shrugged Chie's arm off him.
"I'm going to find Yasha," Hikaru replied. "They took her
because Yasha killed Morpheus."
"We were there but Yasha fired the arrow," Tomo suddenly
recalled. She had been there, along with Usagi and Hikaru when Yasha
had fired the arrow as Sailormedusa. "That's why they want her."
"We got to get her back," Hikaru went on. Chie didn't know
what to say. What was more important, the life of a friend or the
lives of thousands of innocent people? Both.
"Wait here just another few minutes," Chie ordered with her
most firm voice. "We won't have time to discuss this. We have to split
up. The demons aren't just in one unprotected place, they are in many
different places. . And we have to get Yasha back as well."
Then her gaze turned to the people she was speaking to. First Akira
and Misao, then Sachiko, Usagi and Tomo, and lastly Kenji and Hikaru.
"Akira, Misao. You two go to the nearby farm and stop the
demons from wrecking it. I don't care what your problems are, you will
co-operate. Your attacks are powerful together and the problems can be
solved later. Sachiko-san, if you don't mind helping us I would like
you to take Usagi and Tomo and fight off the demons that have taken
over the streets in Juuban. Kenji and I will fight in the outskirts of
Juuban and try to prevent them from spreading to other districts. As
soon as you're finished, go to another area where you think the
civilians might need help. Hikaru, you go and save Yasha. Do you think
that you can handle it on your own?"
"I'll get her back," Hikaru promised. Chie, who seemed
satisfied with the answer, turned to Tomo.
"Tomo, he needs to get to the Crystal Palace as fast as he
can. Do you think that you can fly him over there and then get back to
Juuban in time?"
Tomo nodded. "You can trust me, I can do it."
"Good." Chie then spoke to everyone, but looked at Akira and
Hikaru when she did it. "I know there we have some problems in the
group right now, but we have to put them aside for the time being.
Innocent lives are at stake as well as Yasha's. Please keep that in
mind... and do your best."
For a while I took a break writing "Mirai" but now that school's over,
I'll have a lot more time to write. But what I would like to know is
what you think about my characters. Is Tomo and Kenji too kind hearted
to be real? Do you think that I write too little about Usagi
(Chibiusa) in this story? Are Shanti's sad eyes getting annoying? Do I
have too many original Senshi and is it getting confusing? Let me know
what you think, because I have plans on throwing in some other new
Senshi (again).
Komillia (komillia@hotmail.com)
12 June 2001
Next:
Sailormoon Mirai Part XIII: Battle rage
Ares is trying to find Yasha while the others does their best trying
to fight off the demons. Who is this person who wants to lure the
Shin Senshi to the Crystal Palace and is Ares alone strong enough to
save Yasha?