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Chapter 7: Another (part 2)
"It's a little boy soul" Mars mumbled to her when their eyes met. "I can feel it"
The legs of the sailor guardians then took their fighting stance, anticipating quick movement in any second.
It did not take long, indeed, for the youma to start its attack. Its two arms shockingly extended like they were made of rubber bands, and soon found their path to Sailor Mars' neck. The fire-senshi let out an aching yelp, before contorting her face in agonize as the grip around her skin got tighter and tighter.
"Mars!" Terror had completely filled Sailor Moon's eyes, and somehow delaying her from delivering fast assistance to her comrade. From the corner of her eyes she caught Luna dashing out from where she stood and flying to one of the devilish arms, and in a moment later she heard the youma growl upon the little cat's bite.
Sailor Moon saw Mars put a delicate touch on her own neck a second after the cold, terrifying grip had left her thanks to Luna. It seemed like the devil would not spare her even a single moment to check on her best friend, however, for when she was about to approach Mars, a loud thud was heard. She then spotted her feline pet groaning on the ground.
"Dang it, it is just as fast as the one we faced previously" The fire-senshi said; one of her eyes were still wincing in pain.
Moon's sapphire eyes were fixed on the wounded Luna, but her mind was processing something else. She had to act quickly, she thought, or else this monster in front of them would hurt or even kill Mars or Luna. She did not know why, but at that moment she swore she was so desperate to banish this youma as fast as possible.
Her moon rod had come to her hold in a second, and she stood up firmly to meet the youma on eye level. "Be gone from our life! Please!"
Her effort did not even reach half of it when the said monster had flown to her so timely that she could not believe her own eyes. By the time she had the chance to blink she realized that the dark, blurry face of the evil little thing was then right in front of her by a few centimeters. She tried to evade, but it was to no avail. Her legs had wanted to cooperate, but they could not; it was as if they were locked by the terrifyingly overwhelming presence of negative energy. A short moment after her eyes witnessed one demonic arm swung speedily towards her head, her ears once again heard a loud thud, and her brain was forced to drag all her body parts to shut down.
"Sailor Moon!" Amidst her foggy sight, the voice of Mars still managed to touch her hearing. It felt like it took all of her power to simply open her eyelids, and even when they did open, everything was still covered by a half-screen. Slowly and painfully, everything then went dark.
For what it seemed like minutes to her, she seemed to be unable to recall why she was lying on freezing tiled-floor and not her bed, or why Rei had turned to Mars and was at that moment sitting in front of her with great anxiety, or why she had gone to sleep in the first place. It felt to her like she just woke up from a short, yet long rest at the same time. As her pupils began zooming in and zooming out to search their focus, the ugly events that had occurred that day finally returned to her mind one by one.
She managed to snap her eyes open at last, and her body simultaneously jolted up to sit. "Is everything okay!?"
Instead of an answer, dizziness was what she gained. Immediately, her muscles gave out again and she would collapse to the ground if it was not for Mars' hold.
"Everything's alright. Just lie down first, Sailor Moon" The fire-senshi's voice was smooth and tranquilizing, like the total opposite of her usual bold one. "It is still lurking somewhere in this building, though. We managed to escape to save you first"
"Are you alright, Mars? Luna?" She looked with intense worry at her two companions.
"I am fine, save for the scratches and some aching bones" Luna replied her back, smiling. "But really, you should put your concern on Mars instead"
"Ssshh, Luna!" An annoyed glare was thrown at the dark cat by the senshi in red fuku.
"What's wrong, Mars? Rei?" The princess alternated all her focus back to the dark-haired girl. Mars had somehow averted her caring gaze. "Mars, I am serious"
A brief sigh escaped Mars' lips. "When I said nothing is worth a concern, then nothing it is, Usagi. C'mon, we'd better find a way out of here"
"But the youma?"
"We're planning to lure it out to the open ground. It is too dangerous to fight inside such a dangerous construction building as this" Luna responded.
"Think you can stand up, Usagi?" Mars looked deeply at her.
Usagi nodded. "I think I am alright now"
The fire senshi initiated the movement first, followed by the princess. Sailor Moon could see the raven hair moving in front of her as the owner of the said hair led their way. It was dark around save for the little amount of light that was permitted to the room through the tiny ventilations on the wall, which made her realize that they might be in the deeper section of the building. The clink-clank sound of Mars' heels and the tapping from her own boots echoed all around. The high temperature did not seem to help brightening the mood up either.
For some reasons this youma just had to turn up during such a peaceful day, where she could have been doing something else with Rei just like what they had already planned. It was not that she was complaining of fighting again; it was the fear. It was the anxiety of not knowing what terrible things could happen – like you fall into deep water and you do not know whether you will resurface ever again.
She was desperately in need of someone who could convince her that she was thinking all the way wrong, that she was strong and all would be well if she believed in her heart. Mamoru – that name had always been the one passing by in times like this. She wanted to whisper that name, either because it was already an automatic habit to call his name whenever she felt fear, or because she sincerely needed him. She did not know, but her lips parted anyway.
"Mamo-chan" It almost sounded like a wind.
She did not look, but for some reasons she knew that Luna had stopped to look at her. Mars, however, had appeared as if she had not heard a single thing that the princess had spoken out as the stiletto of her heels continued knocking the floor. The two sailors and the cat then continued the walk, and it was not until they drew nearer to a big door with the exit sign above it that the fire senshi halted to contemplate.
A second after, Sailor Moon could see her companion's face turning to her and she could spot her violet eyes. What seemed to be behind those eyes, though, she was unable to decipher. Mars' stare felt to her like a juice of austerity, resentment, and disappointment.
"It's always about him, isn't it?" The fire senshi muttered. "It's him that you miss. It's him that you want to be here to protect you right now"
"No, Mars. It is not like I was…"
"Why can't you toughen up a little bit?" Mars cut her off, and how hurt she sounded almost made the princess gulp down all the words she was building in her head. "Just accept the fact that a new enemy has indeed arrived in our world, won't you? You need to be stronger, or else nobody can protect you when you are alone"
"You are saying that I am too weak to protect myself? I can protect myself enough already and I– " The statements that were flowing out just like that from her mouth had brutally died down when a booming sound of a crack on the ceiling took over the room.
"It's him!" Luna yelled.
In a flash, the three could witness the return of the same evil figure which made a rough landing on the floor. Its demonic eyes were fixed at them like it was more than ready to eat them alive. A blink and its arms suddenly stretched out from their normal size and flew speedily to where the three were frozen still. Moon widened her eyes and pushed her legs with all her might to evade the reaching dark hands. By the time her feet touched the ground again she was relieved to realize that Mars had apparently mimicked her reaction just now.
"We have to attack it fast!" Mars shouted from the other side as the arms that had just attacked them were still stuck to the wall, creating a massive crack on it.
"Okay!" The princess answered before preparing her only weapon – the rod, in her grip. She rushed herself to be ready enough to launch the attack upon noticing that the youma had taken back the outstretched arms.
"Mars Flame Sniper!"
She heard the fire-senshi casting out her attack and soon the sight of the blinding, hot beam of a fire arrow came to life. Like a tiger not wanting to lose its target, the fiery missile travelled fast all the way from where it departed to its aim.
The absence of any kind of voice or sound from the little evil thing did not make Sailor Moon less assured that Mars' weapon had indeed hit, or at least scraped the youma's dark skin. She gazed at the petite monster, awaiting signals of pain or damage from it. A moment later her assumption was proven to be true as the youma brushed its right arm lightly, but much to the senshi's horror, the attack had appeared to irritate it instead of damaging it.
She swallowed her saliva the moment the youma altered its stare from its arm to no other than her fellow senshi. What occurred next she had predicted, but she reacted a little bit too late to anticipate it and Mars did not look to be all set for it either. The devil had darted towards the fire senshi and had instantly knocked her off the ground just with a simple, yet hard smack on her head.
"Mars!" The princess' scream was filled with panic. She had only moved a few steps towards her comrade when she noticed with great terror that the youma had once again moved on from its previous prey to a new one – her.
She could then feel cold skin creeping around her upper waist and when her eyeballs rolled down, she saw the pair of cold hands touching her two sides. It all took place too quickly for her that she was not even allowed to think of a way out when she suddenly felt the floor was getting further and further down there. It dawned on her then, of what the youma was about to execute, but it was all too late for a second later she had been slammed hard back to the spot where she had been picked.
"Usagi!" Having tried to collect herself together, she could hear Mars uttering her real name.
It was a bit blurry when she regained her vision, but the dark shadowy image of the youma was still too distinctive for her to miss out. She made an attempt to stand up on her own, but dropped to the floor again in the middle of the process. She let out a gasp of fear when the dark-filled hands had touched her for one more time. Quickly, her two gloved-hands found their way to those of the enemy's, pushing them so they could go away, but her resistance seemed to be futile.
"Mars flame sniper!"
From the corner of her eyes she spotted Mars' projectile dashed out towards the youma for the second time that day. The princess then moved her focus back to the little monster and watched as the weapon hit the youma's chest, went through it, and vanished into thin air. Despite inflicting no damage whatsoever, it seemed like Mars' last attack was all that it took for the youma to reach its boiling point.
The evil hands then did put Sailor Moon down, only to be swung in such a speed towards where the fire senshi was located. Loud thud could be heard when the muscular arm whacked Mars, forcing her body to clash violently with the wall. With all the energy left in her body Sailor Moon managed to erect and she was welcomed with the sight of her comrade's body plummeting slowly to the tiled floor.
"I cannot stand this anymore!" Luna cried out from somewhere in the middle of the scene, and soon her tiny figure could be seen darting to their adversary. Focusing her gaze, the princess could see the cat on the top of the youma's back; she was putting her claws in good use by clinging to the skin of the enemy and was trying to deliver however small injury she could to the devil. "Sailor Moon! Check on Mars!"
She waited for a few seconds before she finally commenced on what Luna commanded her to do. She was, of course, concerned about the little feline as well, but if she froze on her spot instead of doing any action she would make Luna's effort go for nothing. So off she ran hastily to where Mars was still laid motionless; her face was kissing the ground and her bangs were hiding her eyes from the princess.
"Mars!"
The smooth surface of her glove gently caressed the face of the fire senshi while the owner of the glove waited anxiously for any sign of life from her friend. The twitching of Mars' eyes was what eased her worry, and a moment later those violet eyes opened up weakly.
"Are you alright?" were the first words that came out of the fire-senshi's lips.
"I am, don't worry about me. Are you hurt, Mars?"
"I… No, I am okay" The fire-senshi then put her weight on her elbows. Trying to put herself to a kneeling position she then made the effort to pull one of her legs, but the attempt did not even last for seconds when her body descended again. What raised the princess' concern was the painful groan she produced after that.
"Mars! Are you really okay!? Please just tell me if you're hurt. Please just be honest and don't pretend all the time" Moon looked at Mars attentively. Even when she could hear the youma's growl and Luna's high-pitched grunt in the background, her attention to Mars was undivided.
The fire-senshi, though, refused to reply her intense stare by closing her eyelids again. There was this kind of expression on Mars' face, and Moon wondered if she had wounded Mars' pride in some ways. A while later, however, that resentful look of hers had dissolved into a tender one.
"I think it managed to injure my waist" She said.
"Just now? How come?"
The fire senshi shook her head. "When you passed out earlier. But now it's growing worse because of that slam on the wall"
"God, why didn't you tell me, Mars!? Why did you have to keep it to yourself!?"
"It doesn't matter" Mars coldly brushed her off. "What matters now is to think of how to defeat this enemy"
Sailor Moon was silent, but it was not the way to repulse this youma that was on her mind. It was the fact that it had been the second time Mars got hurt because of her again. Yes, she was hurt again. If this continued, if they would indeed be facing a new set of terrifyingly strong monsters such as this one again, it was not totally impossible that Mars could get killed just to protect her. Should they just let the others know about what was happening? But…
"Aaargh!"
Luna's cry was what slapped her back to reality, to what was more necessary to be done right at that moment. She altered her attention to the battle scene; Luna was struggling to stand on her four legs despite the fresh scars all over her body, and the youma appeared more than ready to kill her right at that second.
Eyes were set and legs assisted her to stand up. Determined, Sailor Moon called the rod back to her hold and turned her physique to face the direction of her target. She did not care if she had to unleash all of her power at that moment if she could turn everything back to normal – back to their halcyon period.
"Starlight Honeymoon Therapy Kiss!"
She felt a bright, overwhelming energy surging out from her body. She felt determination that was much more solid bursting out as she released the illuminating gleam from her weapon. Maybe it was the anger that she was suffering, maybe it was fear, but either way it triggered everything in her to banish this youma from existence.
"Go away!" She yelled while tears started trickling down from the corner of her eyes. "Go away and don't ever hurt Mars again! Don't hurt anyone ever again! Don't disturb our peaceful life!"
With that, she felt that everything that had already come out strong from her just grew even more powerful. The blinding pink light had filled the whole room by the time the little evil made a trial to protect itself from destruction by covering its face with its palms. Both parties were standing strong, each with their virtuous and dark power respectively. Sailor Moon realized that she had been pushed a few meters behind by the force, but her legs rejected to give out as she stood firm and her grip on the rod tightened.
In a sudden moment of outburst she made a decision to let everything out. The warm beams of pinkish light had evolved bigger to a sphere, making the big room pregnant of it. Tiled floors had cracked and were broken into pieces. She could not see anything anymore – not of the youma, not of Luna, and not of Mars. It was as if she even no longer had control over her own body and she was letting the energy flow out freely out of her like a river. Flowing and flowing, until she felt like none of it was left inside her body.