Chapter 5: Sailor Mars
In the district of Juban, there are several nods to tradition. One said nod to tradition is a centuries old shrine, named the Hikawa Shrine, close to the Minato Ward where Usagi lives. Priests, their assistants, and shrine maidens have kept up with the shrine for as long as it has been in existence. Inside the shrine, during a weekend day nonetheless, a young shrine maiden was selling various charms to the populace. Especially popular among girls are the love charms she would sell.
A pair of visitors arrived just outside of the shrine. Gohan, Goten and a surprise visitor with purple hair stopped on their walkabout of the city. The older half-saiyan seemed to have his hands full with the two children, as the two of them had several prizes from the arcade that the three of them visited earlier. Gohan was given some money from the purple haired boy's mother, who was a visiting Bulma and he had spent a good portion of the money on the two at said arcade.
Gohan stopped when he saw the shrine. The teen saw this as an opportunity to impart some of Japan's traditional culture onto the two kids. The children looked up to Gohan as he had his eyes on the centuries old buildings. One of the monks came down and invited the three of them to climb the steps.
"Goten, Trunks. This is an old shrine. Everything on the grounds is considered sacred, so don't run around. Don't touch anything," Gohan warned the two kids.
"I wonder if it has Ghosts?" Trunks asked, causing Gohan to glare at the boy. As the older saiyan was about to apologize to the monk, the gray haired man simply waived it off.
"It's ok young man, the child is just curious," the monk said to try to ease Gohan.
"Thank you sir," the teenager said in relief.
"Gohan why are we stopping here?" Goten asked.
"Actually, I thought it would be neat if we learned a little about history and culture. You might think it's boring, but you will thank me later," Gohan assured the little saiyan duo. Goten and Trunks both shrugged their shoulders as the trio went up the steps and past the archway.
On past the arch there were a few buildings on this shrine. Gohan could hear some of the clergy fire bows and arrows from one of the buildings. As the young man took in the ancient ambiance of the temple grounds, Goten and Trunks noticed two crows flying in the sky. It seemed like those birds were watching them for some reason. The boys were watching the movements of the crows as they went to roost on one of the nearby trees.
Gohan looked up and saw those same two crows. The birds and the saiyan looked at each other, as each black bird crooked their perspective heads to the side. An unexpected thing happened however, as the birds flew to the teen and landed near his feet. Noises came out of their mouths, as if they were communicating to each other. One of the birds hopped onto Gohan's shoulder, causing the saiyan to laugh slightly. The other was on an outstretched arm, since the saiyan decided to play along with the crows.
This didn't go unnoticed by the monks and the shrine maidens. Especially the shrine maiden that sells the love charms to young girls. The girl had just finished a sale when she noticed Gohan walk up with the two crows. The man seemed like he was not being bothered by the birds, and the birds seemed like they enjoyed perching on their temporary roost.
The maiden thought that this was strange, since most visitors tended to stay away from the black birds. She walked up to the boy and looked at the two avian clingers. The crows understood what that look meant and the two of them flew off of the boy and into the air.
"I'm really sorry for Phobos and Deimos. Though they usually don't take to strangers like they seem to take to you sir," the maiden pointed out.
"No bother miss. I do have that affect on animals sometimes," Gohan replied with a goofy smile and rubbing the back of his head.
"Well then sir, enjoying your visit to the shrine?" the maiden asked.
"Hmm, why yes of course," Gohan replied.
As Gohan was conversing with the maiden, he couldn't help but feel that something was different about her. The boy couldn't quite place his finger on it, but felt he had to figure out that mystery later as the maiden walked over to the children. Goten and Trunks were playing with Phobos and Deimos. Goten was making funny faces at Phobos, while Trunks was petting Deimos. The maiden called the crows to her and they flew toward her. The maiden put some seed onto the ground so that the crows could eat.
"Now it's my turn to apologize," Gohan told the maiden, but the girl waived it off. The girl stopped and a thought had just crossed her mind.
"I'm sorry, I must go to practice my Archery. Please take your time and if you need to leave prayers, feel free to do so," the black haired miko told the saiyan.
"Before you go, may I ask your name," Gohan shyly asked the maiden. The girl was taken aback by this. Most guys would either hit on her and find out they have no chance, or just shy away from her entirely. The young woman, who had yet to smile at any time during this juncture, managed to actually smile at the young man.
"Rei Hino, now what is your name," the girl introduced.
"Gohan Son," Gohan said as he bowed respectfully to the miko.
"Well Mr. Son, or should I be so bold and say Gohan, enjoy the rest of your visit," Rei said with a little smile as she left to do her duties. Gohan took a breath and nodded. Goten and Trunks saw the entire exchange and ran up to their chaperone.
'Wow Gohan, that girl was really pretty!" exclaimed Goten, to which earned a snicker from Trunks.
"I guess Goten has a girlfriend!" Trunks said, with the girlfriend part being drawn out as a childish tease.
"Trunks, that's not fair! Besides you like my babysitter!" Goten pointed out.
"Well….that's...different.." Trunks shyly replied, Goten catching him off guard on the rare occasion.
"It seems like the two of you have yourselves a crush. Before we get into any crazy arguments and disturbed this place, I think it's time we go to the altar and say a little prayer toward dad," Gohan suggested. The two kids quieted down, because they knew that Gohan would tell their moms, and the boys feared their moms. Gohan lit a candle and knelt down for a prayer.
Dad, I hope you are having fun in other world. I know you don't blame me and you are not angry at what happened six years ago. It took me some time to forgive myself. Though I hope I never forget the lesson that I learned on that day. I've kept my training up and have more control over Super Saiyan 2, much to Mom's chagrin. I'm also in high school now and you ought to see Goten. He grows more everyday. Mom and I actually have been able to teach him how to fight. Yeah, Mom actually teaching him was more of a shocker I know.
Allies have been found. I might not have to do the job of protecting earth alone much longer. Though the people I help might not fit our definition of 'strong' they do have some pretty good magic attacks. It's a mystery, I just hope to find the source of this evil and take it down.
Well Dad, I'll talk to you later.
Gohan put out the candle and rose to his feet. The two boys nodded to the teen and the three left the Hikawa Shrine.
Rei Hino went over to the archery range and lifted up her traditional oversized bow. The young woman nocked an arrow to the string and pulled back. The woman aimed her shot at the target and held her breath. After a few moments, the miko fired her arrow toward her target, hitting the bulls eye.`A few more arrows flew and hit various places on the bulls eye.
Thoughts went to Gohan and the two boys, and she started missing the center. Something about the three saiyans felt strange to the shrine maiden. From the whole situation with Phobos and Deimos, to their energy seeming not entirely normal, those thoughts clouded the mental process of the young girl and more arrows missed the bullseye. The fact that she was distracted was not lost on the monk who watched over her archery training.
"Your distracted Rei," the monk with the ponytail and glasses pointed out.
"Sorry, it's just that I've been feeling all these strange energies lately," Rei pointed out.
"Perhaps a session with the sacred fire will clear your mind," the monk suggested. Rei pulled all her arrows out of the targets and placed them in the quiver as she put the bow and quiver back in their proper place.
Rei made her way to the chamber of the sacred fire. Kneeling before the kindling flame, the young woman began making hand gestures and chanted 'Rin, pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, sai, zen.'
A few moments pass and the fire strengthens greatly, causing it to almost touch the ceiling. Images came from the fire of a bus that suddenly disappeared. The premonition then showed a young man, missing an eye, subduing the passengers into a deep sleep. The image then showed that same figure assault her and two others before dying out.
'Evil is in this world. Question is, how do I expose it and put a stop to it. I must make people aware of this when they come to the temple. That should get the evil one curious and then hopefully we at the shrine can contain it,' was the hope of Miss Hino.
A few days later, Usagi, Luna and their friends went to the Hikawa Shrine. The group of four girls looked over the place as they were searching for the maiden. The girl who sold love charms to the women was a high priority apparently to the young teenagers. The girl was not hard to find as Usagi spotted the girl selling those charms to a group of high school girls, though the one with the pigtails just had her arms crossed.
'Apparently Videl is not a huge fan of love charms. Though that girl with her over there sure does. She might try to use one on that blond boy and…..wait a minute isn't Gohan usually with them. Not that I care that Gohan hangs out with them or anything. Though I think that the blond girl...Erasa I think has a thing for him. Of course Gohan can date who he likes, since I have no control on who he ends up with. Ok why in the hell am I thinking about him again...well he's actually nice and everything and he does have a nice smile and well...oh damn it! The t-shirt looked so good and...ok now I'm just getting into pervert territory.'
Usagi all of the sudden snaps out of her thoughts as she was heavily shook by both Ami and Naru. Her head snapped to and fro as she tried to get her faculties straight. Daydreaming was a skill of the young blond girl after all. The girls went over to Rei, who all of the sudden pulled out a piece of paper.
"Evil Spirit, Begone!" shouted the maiden as she threw it onto Usagi's forehead. The girl went down immediately, startling the group and even shook Rei herself a bit.
The group of girls were inside one of the building of the shrine, looking after the knocked out Usagi. A sandy blond headed gentleman showed up to hand Rei some hot soup and left just as quickly. Naru commented how gorgeous he looked, which caused Usagi to shoot up from her bedroll and shout about the whereabouts of the young man. Luna just slapped her forehead at the whole ditziness of Usagi, since she could not speak in front of Naru.
"How come I didn't get to see the gorgeous guy!" Usagi lamented
"Well, actually the only thing I would consider a flaw was that he had on a white eye patch," Naru replied.
"Actually my grandfather hired him last week. He must've felt ugly losing one of his eyes and grandfather felt sorry for him to a degree," Rei pointed out. Usagi took her broth with noodles and slurped the noodles up before drinking the broth. Usagi took a short breath and proclaimed that she felt all better, much to the laughter of the group. Rei even managed to laugh a little at the bun-headed girls antics. The group noticed, which caused Rei to go back to her more stoic demeanor.
Rei walked outside along with the three girls and the cat. A crying woman was at the shrine's altar as two other women were comforting her. Rei went over toward the group, where the concerned mother looked upon her with sadness and searching for answers.
"Rei, you know that Mei's missing?" questioned the concerned woman.
"Oh no!" Rei said as those were the only words she could come up with.
"This neighborhood has always been dangerous," the mother proclaimed.
"And now there is this 6pm Demon Bus, not that we are implying that this shrine is dangerous," one of the mother's friends pointed out in a snarky tone.
"Let's get out of here," snipped the other friend. The two women said a bunch of stuff on how weird Rei is and how she could sense the supernatural.
Usagi's ears perked up at the mention of the supernatural. The blond then turned to Rei, and Usagi asked a question.
"Was this girl Mei, your friend?" Usagi asked.
"Yes. She would come here to play after school while she waited for the bus to take her home. This shrine and this area is surrounded by five hills. There is a legend about a sixth hill, one said to appear every so often. The hill is supposedly a gateway. The 6 pm bus has been coming and going over this hill and disappears. Those that believe the legend say that the passengers of that bus are spirited away."
The next day in Juuban High, classes were leaving for the day. A conversation dominated the schoolyard though about more people disappearing and how it was linked to the Demon Bus. Gohan and his normal group were sitting at a nearby bench. Videl had a puzzled look on her face as if she was trying to figure something out. Gohan was also pondering about the bus legend. Erasa looked absolutely terrified while Sharpner tried to present a tough guy aura with his arms crossed.
"I don't want to be taken by the Demon Bus. You'll protect me, right Gohan!" Erasa said as she was able to drop her terror stricken look for just a moment and gave him a wink.
"Argh! Erasa! Knock it off! That bus is probably not real!" Videl interjected as she was clearly annoyed by her blond friends antics.
"Videl! More people are disappearing! At least the police should look into it is all I'm saying!" pouted Erasa in retort. Then a devilish smile appeared upon her face.
"Oh I see Videl...jealous are you," teased Erasa.
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Videl shouted, now clearly embarrassed. Before this could devolve any further, Videl's phone rings.
"Hello..oh hello Captain…..Hikawa Shrine….I'll be there," Videl said before throwing down her capsule copter and jumping in. The group gave the young woman a wide berth as she started the engines and flew the copter to the sky. Gohan looked up and couldn't help but admire her skill with flying such a complex machine. Gohan's phone rings however, and it was Bulma on the other line.
"Gohan, you hear about all the disappearances?" Bulma asked.
"Yes, how about I get somewhere to where I can talk to you without interference," Gohan suggested. The boy then snuck into a back alley way, to which he would then continue the conversation.
"Now Bulma, yes I have heard of all the people who vanished," Gohan replied.
"Do you think the person behind this was the guy you injured the other day?" Bulma asked.
"Possibly. If it is I'll need to finish the fight," Gohan said, regretting that he let Jadeite slip.
"Gohan, the guy seems to be really slippery from what you tell me. Did you get his name?" Bulma questioned.
"No. I just fought the guy because he was affiliated with all the monster attacks recently. I'll investigate the Hikawa Shrine. It's near where everyone says the Demon Bus stops," Gohan pointed out.
"Just be careful Gohan. And if it is that guy….send him to the same place you sent Cell," Bulma pointed out. Gohan gave a 'will do' and the two hung up the phones.
Usagi went over to the shrine, along with Ami, to check on Rei. The Sailor Senshi watched as Rei boarded a bus. The bus read "6pm" on the LED sign, causing the two other girls to react. Reasoning that their new friend is in danger, Ami and Usagi made their way to the bus and went inside. The bus was to capacity, but there was room for three more people in the backseat. Ami looked up and noticed that Gohan was on the bus. A part of the bluenette was scared that her friend was throwing himself into danger without even knowing it.
Usagi also looked at that same direction and happened to see the alter ego of Tuxedo Mask. The blond was frozen because she saw the young man that she would probably have to sit beside. Gohan noticed the three of them and waived them over to the spaces. Usagi reluctantly walked up and sat beside him while Rei and Ami sat on the other side.
"Why hello there," Gohan simply greeted the three of them with his usual smile. The girls smiled back nervously. Not much time was spent conversing before the bus started up and started going towards its destination. The bus went towards its destination as the passengers talked. Gohan, Luna and the three girls on the other hand were just being silent, somehow thinking as to how they would survive this situation.
Gohan was worried to be sure, but knew that if he kept his eyes on his surroundings that the mystery could probably repeat itself. A huge rescue, followed by the total fall of that man with the eye patch would be in the cards. The saiyan felt that deep down he had to finish the general once and for all.
Ami was planning a strategy for her and Usagi, who probably was a mess mentally at this point. The alter ego of Sailor Mercury knew that this could be a big test for her and her friend. She made sure that she had her little computer in her purse and an ability to track this enemy should they try to be stealthy.
Rei just wanted everyone that has disappeared to be safe. She didn't want the whole thing about a haunted hill to be true. The shrine maiden hoped that she would find all those people and free them. The little girl known as Mei was especially important to her.
Usagi on the other hand was a bit of a mental mess. She was sitting beside Gohan, which made her nervous enough. She could be battling a bad guy who would actually try to kill her, something that she isn't accustomed.
A dark tunnel all of the sudden opened up. The bus went right through it before coming to a stop. The bus doors opened and the driver rose from it's seat. It was none other than Jadeite, who had gotten the undivided attention of everyone. Gohan noticed how undivided the attention was and immediately transformed without being noticed.
Jadeite raised a hand up as to try to use a magical attack to knock everyone out. However, Tuxedo Mask had other plans as he flew into the one-eyed general and the two of them crashed through the front windshield. Jadeite bounced up and down on the ground around 15 feet while Gohan landed on his feet. Flying toward a rising Jadeite, Gohan was ready to assault the general. Jadeite however had other ideas as he fired his magic blast at a crowd to his left. The saiyan saw the crowd and the blast and immediately flew toward the attack. After getting in front of it and blocking it with his cane, Gohan slammed his weapon onto the ground to break the ice.
"Coward!" proclaimed Gohan as he felt disgusted by the actions of the general.
"Coward...oh dear boy, I say it's a part of war! Just like what you did to me!" Jadeite proclaimed to Tuxedo Mask, the cracks to his sanity beginning to show.
"You attack people who have nothing to do with our fight. For what, just for giggles," Gohan replied.
"No you simpleton! I take energy to feed our great ruler! I'm sure she would love to feast on your energy...on your very soul! If you don't want these good people to die...then surrender!" demanded Jadeite.
"You think you can just make demands and I will just simply comply. You are no different than any other evil I've fought. You are no different than Freeza and his forces. Who are you to try and force my surrender," Gohan replied.
"I don't think you understand," Jadeite pointed to the crowd and saw that three others that were dressed just like him surrounded them. Gohan was shocked when he saw the three of them, though they were just standing around. The boy had a decision to make.
However, a discus of light flew toward Jadeite. The general jumped out of the way and Gohan caught the disk. The object was the tiara of Sailor Moon. All of the sudden, Sailor Moon and Mercury appeared behind the general as he turned around. The two senshi started giving their standard speeches as Luna appeared beside Tuxedo Mask.
"Tuxedo Mask, please help the crowd. We can take care of Jadeite," Luna told Gohan.
"Jadeite….so you found out his name…..." Gohan replied.
"I know that's impressive and all, but you need to get to that crowd!" Luna exclaimed. Gohan nodded, put down the tiara and ran toward the group at the cat's behest. The tiara disappeared.
Sailor Moon and Sailor Mercury were prepared to fight Jadeite. A glow appeared onto Sailor Moon's forehead and her tiara materialized onto that same surface. Laughing, the general felt that the two senshi were not the caliber of his last opponent.
Usagi became increasingly angry the more he laughed. Ami tried to encourage her to focus on the task at hand, but to no avail. Usagi tried to charge up another Tiara Boomerang, but Jadeite saw this and waved his hand. A blizzard flew where he waved and knocked Sailor Moon a few flips before landing butt first onto the ground.
"Sailor Moon, do you honestly think that you are at my level. Pathetic! I'm going to kill you both in front of him!" shouted Jadeite at the senshi, wanting to inflict any kind of pain to Gohan that he could.
"You must really hate Tuxedo Mask!" shouted Moon.
"You stupid girl….I want to kill you most of all. Then I will bring him low and kill him also," Jadeite said with more and more derangement in his voice. The general then threw ice projectiles at the senshi, who barely dodged them.
"Shabon Spray!" shouted Mercury to surround him with her trademark mist. Jadeite however swung his hand to freeze the fog and have it shatter. Undaunted, his hands extended outward and fired two blasts at the two senshi, who were blocking with their forearms. The general pushed his power upon the senshi, and as a result both ladies arms were in a block of ice.
Rei watched as the general and the two guardians fought. When she saw that the Dark Kingdom fighter was about to freeze them, her instincts kicked in. She ran up to the general and grabbed one of his arms. She began to freeze, but unlike anyone else the ice melted as soon as it formed onto the miko. Jadeite was taken aback by this development and shoves Rei forcefully onto the ground.
Luna took this as an opportunity, made a red and gold pen appear and toss it to Rei. The cat instructed her to shout "Mars Power, Make Up," something to which the girl nodded and recited the phrase. Rings of fire surrounded the girl covered in light. What appeared before Jadeite and her fellow senshi was a girl with a red and white fuku, black bow at the front and red high heel shoes.
"I am the Pretty Guardian who fights for fire and for passion. I am Sailor Mars. In the name of Mars, I'll chastise you!" Rei shouted at Jadeite. The general was preparing a technique in response, but a newly thawed out Usagi and Ami had other ideas.
"Moon Tiara Boomerang!" shouted Usagi as she threw her energy powered crown. The tiara wrapped around Jadeite and bound his arms to his sides. The one-eyed general struggled to get out of his magically powered bondage. As he struggled, Nephrite came at him back first and collided into him. The two generals smashed into the brick wall, Jadeite's head taking the impact of both Nephrite's back and the brick wall before both of them fell forward to the floor. The generals got up slowly, though Jadeite struggled somewhat because of the golden ring wrapped around his torso.
Nephrite looked at his fellow general before all of the sudden creating a portal. Jadeite loudly damned his ally in vain as the more free general leapt through the portal with a smirk on his face. The betrayal distracted the general with the eye-patch so much that he didn't notice Sailor Mars preparing an attack. The fire senshi had a small slip of paper appear between the tips of her index and middle finger.
"You kidnap all these people, now you pay! Evil Spirit, Begone!" shouted Mars as she created a ring of fire and then threw the burning slip of paper. The slip became an inferno that targeted the bound general. Jadeite screamed as the fire consumed him more rapidly than a normal fire would. The fire fed on the evil in his soul as he quickly was cremated alive.
A portal opened up and the crowd and Gohan shouted for the crowd to leave. The people got up and all of them ran toward the portal with some of them lifting up the more weaker one's that were too tired because of their captivity. Gohan then went to the senshi and shouted for them to escape. The three of them ran toward the crowd to make sure that they left.
As the kidnapped victims left the scene, a scarred Zoicite and Kunzite appeared in front of Gohan and beside the remains of their fallen comrade. Kunzite lifted his hand and a glass coffin appeared behind them. Zoicite created a black crystal urn out of thin air. The general then took the lid off of the urn and pointed it downward. Jadeite's remains were sucked into the container and Zoicite shut the lid. The generals then glared intensely at the senshi and Tuxedo Mask. The senshi were getting the last of the people through the portal while Gohan kept an eye on the glaring generals to make sure that they weren't going to attack.
"You all have committed a grand sin today. For our fallen comrade, we will take our revenge. You will not know where, or you will not know when. But mark my words, you all will be begging for death before we are through. Sailor Mars may have taken his life, but you Tuxedo Mask….took his pride. You made him become a shell of his former self. For that sin, I will personally enjoy your demise most of all. Our ruler will especially love taking your energy and I will personally feed you to her," Kunzite threatened to Gohan.
"You can try," Gohan simply replied. Kunzite snorted in response before the two generals opened their portals and leapt through them. Gohan stood there for a few seconds before he left with the group.
Luna was back at headquarters as she looked onto the display of her supercomputer. She typed away with her paws as two pictures appeared upon the screen along with a name. One looked like Gohan in super saiyan 2 as a preteen and the other was the black haired teenager of the same name. Luna looked back and forth at the pictures as if she were trying to figure out a mystery of sorts. One thought was on her mind as she couldn't help but speak it out loud to herself.
'Are you really the boy who saved the world all six years ago….Who are you….Gohan Son?'
A/N: Ok that took longer than anticipated. I had so many different scenarios as to how to do this chapter. I believe that I did it justice. Hope you all enjoy this chapter. Thank you.