"What a nice day. Even the truckers behaved like actual people and managed to treat us with respect."
"Ah… Honda-san? Is it that late already?"
"Oops. Seems like you woke up Manager-san with your complaints, Eri-san. Héhé."
"Wasn't it you who were too noisy in closing the office door too noisily, Masak-kun? Besides, I wasn't complaining."
"Héhé. I know, Eri-san. I was only teasing you."
"I'm happy to hear you had a good day, Honda-san. But I also want to hear it when you have a complaint. Though human beings don't all have the same capacity for self-improvement, we always find a reason to try."
"Destroy. Aftermath. Hell. Life. Infinite. Alternating between despair and hope, Ami Mizuno deals with the results of Gretchen's struggle for deliverance. Deal with your past to create a better future!"
When, a little over a week after the meeting on the new enemy, Ami closed the German textbook on immunology she had been studying at her desk, She and her friends had worked out a rotation for them to patrol the city in pairs of two with either Hotaru, Chibi-Usa, or Usagi on stand-by.
Despite the disappearing act two of the four golems faced thus far had performed, it was clear that the creatures in themselves weren't so powerful that the presence of either three was strictly necessary to redeem them.
The territory of Minato-ku was partitioned among the thirteen Senshi and Mamoru so that a different duo regularly patrolled each and Rei had fewer patrol hours due to the time they would spend meditating together and doing fire readings.
Ami herself, Haruka, and Taiki also had fewer hours in which they patrolled the streets because they took turns using the observatory to see if they could spy the angels Michiru saw in her visions.
so now they had a practical plan to hunt for the golems at large while actively hunting information about their main enemy.
After stretching her arms behind her head, Ami left her seat and returned the book she was reading to the shelf on the left side of her desk.
Her eyes lingered over the book on Jewish mysticism she recently bought.
'Why golems?' Ami pondered. 'Or angels for that matter… If there are angels, does that mean there is also a devil?'
After lunch and before study, the young genius had changed into her pale violet tank top and yellow leggings.
Walking over to the closet at the foot end of her bed, she found the violet sweatband she was looking for and tilted back her head while pulling it over her dark-blue hair.
Then she took her sailor communicator from the small safe inside the closet and bound it around her wrist.
"Oh?" Saeko Mizuno reacted upon seeing her daughter's outfit when Ami entered the living room. "Are you going out?"
"My friends and I started jogging lately," Ami smiled at the woman in the short magenta skirt and white blouse who sat on their green velvet three-seat sofa, watching a historical drama. "We think it'll help us study better."
"Remember to stretch. And I hope you bought good running shoes," Saeko grinned. "You've only ever been into swimming when it came to sports. Runners are much more at risk of injury."
"I know. We went shopping together and geared up on proper outfits. Setsuna-chan and Hotaru-chan lent us their expertise."
Ami stared at the television screen for a moment and then at her mother who was rocking her right leg up and down over her knee.
Upon spotting that she was being watched, Saeko folded her arms over her stomach with a pout.
"Yes. I know I've been gaining weight," The woman joked to hide that she was conscious of the slightly more stout physique she started to adopt.
"I'll see if Yukari-chan and me can organize a jogging group with the other doctors at the hospital."
"I think you look just fine, Mother," Ami smiled as she walked over to the woman and bowed to kiss her on the cheek. "Good luck at work this evening."
"Thank you, my dear girl," Saeko happily said when her daughter opened the door to the right of the television set and left the apartment. "Have fun jogging with your friends."
After using the elevator to descend the apartment building to floor level and walking out of the lobby, Ami nimbly hopped down the short flight of stairs to the park around the building.
"Hey there!" Seiya called out to her while standing around on the grass lawn of the park. "You're right on time. I think I could set my watch to you."
"Thank you, Seiya-kun," Ami blushed as she approached the male idol who was dressed in a sleeveless white T-shirt and black shorts.
"I'm more impressed that you were already waiting for me. I can imagine you're still tired after your first concert yesterday."
"Oh? I am, to be honest," The Kinmokuan chuckled. "I was nearly falling asleep while standing around. Make-up is hiding the shadows under my eyes. All the more reason to come here and get my blood pumping."
"Haha," Ami giggled. "I swear I didn't notice. Let's get going then!"
Seiya hurriedly started jogging when his terrestrial friend suddenly departed.
"I expected it to be rather noisy here, given the proximity to Shinagawa Station," He confessed when they were on the footpath of Zakurozaka. "But it seems peaceful enough around here."
"The noise is okay. We live on the other side of the building anyway," Ami breathed. ". How was your opening concert?"
"An unmitigated success. We were exhausted afterward and fell asleep on the train back from Sapporo. We went straight to bed after we got our luggage back into our apartment."
"I was questioning whether it might not have been wise to be partnered up with someone else today," The blue-haired genius to his left worried while looking at Seiya's face. "We already had trouble when Mina-chan and Hotaru-chan tried to tackle that problem the day Mina-chan was so tired."
"Don't worry though," Seiya grinned. "I'm quite alright after sleeping on the train and getting some hours more in bed. I'm not at my best but I feel a lot better already, now I'm getting some exercise.
The concert was great though. I knew we had to open in Sapporo. The crowd was as wild for us as I expected."
"I know," Ami smiled. "We saw people chanting along to Chasing Comets on the news."
"Hahaha!" Her Kinmokuan friend laughed with a tear in his eye, thinking back to the times he and his brothers sang the song, hoping their Princess would hear it. "Yes. That was such a cathartic moment. I was close to tears and shaking in my boots. What a beautiful moment to have our fans on Earth chant the words we wrote, wishing for the deliverance of our homeworld.
But I'm glad the response to the songs of our new album was so amazing We were worried about their popularity during the tour, but the people of Hokkaido made their feelings loud and clear."
"I'm glad you had a good start to your tour," Ami said as they continued their jog along Nihonenoki-dori Street. "We're all looking forward to seeing you perform here in a few weeks."
"Thank you, Ami-chan," Her friend smiled. "We'll plan to put our best foot forward when we do. You and your friends did so much for us, we want to repay the selfless kindness you showed us. That's why we will do all we can to help you protect the people of this planet against your new enemies."
"We appreciate all you can do to help, Seiya-kun. We know it's not easy for you to find time to help. If Rei-chan could find more information about the angels Michiru saw in her vision we might better allocate our resources."
"Right…" Seiya muttered while stoically looking ahead. "Ami-chan, There's something I wanted to ask you."
His blue-haired friend curiously stared up at the blank face of the tall Kinmokuan, wondering what the young man suddenly had on his mind.
"That's okay," She said. "You can ask me anything you want."
Seiya surprised her by showing her a shy look before he spoke.
"What's an angel?" The boy sheepishly grinned.
"She totally is one, isn't she?" Haruki Akabane whispered to his friend while both occasionally glanced at the girl in the long sleeveless livid summer dress and white knitted bolero jacket sitting opposite them two tables ahead without being noticed. "With her long pale-blonde hair and her sweet smile."
"Yeah," Kousei Ikeda gushed. "Mayer Margarete-san is rightly mentioned in one breath with Hino Rei-san as the two legendary beauties of T.A. Girls' Academy. The snowflake and the flame. Since she enrolled at the start of the school year, her name passed the lips of every high-school boy in Minato-ku."
The two friends had entered Yakitori Kayo innocently observing the man at the end of the bar and the slightly younger man sitting at the bar closer to the entrance. But as soon as they turned their faces left, their trained lecherous eyes recognized the three third-year students of Minato Ku's catholic high school seated at the table heading the nearest of two rows of three tables.
Junko Sakai and Asuka Arai curiously regarded the boys when they walked past them and tried to glance at their new classmate, Margarete Mayer, before taking their seats at the table in the back corner of the restaurant.
"I feel the awkward gazes of two Juuban Public High boys aiming over my back," Junko peevishly shared as she closed her eyes and pinched her lips. "And I suspect those boys are currently talking some embarrassing nonsense."
"Let's simply ignore them, Junko-chan," Margaret smiled at the diminutive redhead in the flowery green summer dress. "When you are in the company of faithful friends, you don't need to feel bothered by the impure gazes of immoral young men."
"We don't have to deal with this kind of thing at school," Asuka absentmindedly said while savoring her tsukune yakitori skewer. "Although I worry I might have trouble finding a boyfriend when I graduate because I'll be inexperienced at dealing with them."
Gretchen observed the girl with the low double bright-purple ponytail who sat to the left of her friend Junko wearing a light-brown corduroy dress.
Back in Germany, someone like Asuka would have been called simple.
Once Gretchen started to befriend Rei Hino and the other girls in her class, Asuka slowly endeared herself to the Bavarian with her sincere character.
The girl reminded Gretchen of the time so long ago before the centuries of agony and the depravities, privations, and tortures of hell when she herself could still be considered innocent.
"You may be a handful sometimes, Asuka," Junko grinned at the girl beside her. "But you're hella cute. So I guarantee you'll soon enough find a nice guy who'll want to pamper you."
"I don't know if he'll keep wanting to pamper me if we get into conflicts like I sometimes do," Her friend sighed. "I'll be happy if he tries to understand me and won't be mean."
"That's why," Gretchen stated with a gentle look. "Your friends will thoroughly screen any boy interested in dating you. There are a lot of insidious men out there, Asuka-chan. But you can count on Rei-chan, Junko-chan, and me to weed out the fiends."
"Oh? Thank you, Gretchen-chan," Asuka piped up while Gretchen smiled at Haruki and Kousei with eyes filled with loathing. "But I wouldn't want Rei-chan to screen the boys who want to date me. They might get hurt."
Behind Gretchen, a man in his forties entered the restaurant wearing brown trousers and a red and white striped T-shirt.
Having been informed of his identity and of the sequence of events expected to unfold after his arrival, the blonde took a bite from her hasami Yakitori skewer and listened intently.
"Good afternoon, Yoshida-san," Touki smiled and waved at the stout man in the beige pants and summer jacket sitting at the other end of the bar.
"Urawa-san," Hiroshi Yoshida smiled when he looked up from his glass of beer. "How's your day been?"
Gretchen smiled subtly during the conversation her two companions were having about Rei's participation in her Muay Thai club's upcoming tournament when the man sitting at the bar near the entrance looked up from his drink and watched Touki taking a seat beside his friend.
"I've had a nice day. Thank you," The latter said with a glance at his friend's half-empty glass of beer. "Slept in. I had a nice lunch. Did some private paperwork and laundry. Watched a movie. And here I am at our regular yakitori date."
"Good," Hiroshi nodded. "You look like you were able to get some decent rest to start your next week of work. When I saw you last week you were all stressed out."
"Yeah. I wasn't much fun that time," Touki grimaced while Hiroshi drank the rest of his beer. "Sorry about that. This job eats me up. The responsibility and the working hours… It's just too much for me to bear with the state of my mind after my recent depression."
"I always admire you for your dedication though," Hiroshi said while regarding his friend. "But if you can't handle the work why don't you quit? You keep asking to be reinstated in your old job, but your bosses ignore your appeals every time you do."
"Can we order please?" Touki asked the young man standing behind the bar.
"Good afternoon. What can I get you, Okyaku-sama?" The mustachioed man in the white uniform and cap asked both men.
"I'll have another glass of Asahi and a serving of shiro yakitori," Hiroshi said.
"A glass of Asahi for me too," Touki quickly decided. "And a mix of shiro and hasami yakitori."
"Very well, Okyaku-sama. I'll serve you a nice glass of Asahi," The young man behind the counter winked.
"Ah… Who'll hire me, Yoshida-san?" Touki sighed. "To be honest, my job at the supermarket isn't even that demanding and I still can't handle it. This is the only kind of work I know I'm competent at. The Azabu Group took over most supermarkets in the area. If I quit, nobody else would hire me as a warehouse employee if I told them my latest function was that of a store manager. They'll start to suspect all kinds of stuff. Especially if I tell them about my absence from the workforce due to hospitalization."
"Here are your beers, Okyaku-sama," The waiter announced while placing two big glasses of beer before each man. "The skewers are coming up."
"Sorry, Urawa-san," Hiroshi said as he left his barstool. "I have to visit the restroom for a minute."
Touki heaved a sigh when his friend disappeared behind the door behind him.
The slender man in the loud T-shirt looked around at the wooden bar and the decorations.
Something made him look to the right and he saw a man in his thirties sitting at the opposite end of the bar staring at him with a weird grin.
Uneasy at the look of the strange man with the wavy flame-shaped dark-gray hair with white highlights, Touki looked at his drink.
"Don't look away from me, "Giggles". I want to talk with you."
Feeling uncomfortable, Touki looked up to see the man in the black trousers and the white X Japan T-shirt come over and take the seat to his right.
"I've been sitting there on my own the entire time," The guy said with an amused grin. "And I just finished my fourth beer, so I thought I'd join you and your pall here for a drink.
I heard you work at Azabu-Juuban Supermarket. I bought a bouquet of pretty dahlias there for my girlfriend recently."
"That's nice," Touki reacted with an awkward smile, hoping Hiroshi would return soon. "I hope they were to her satisfaction."
"They certainly were," The younger man chuckled while he took his wallet from the pocket in the side of his pants. "Look here. She looks happy, doesn't she?"
Touki nervously glanced at the picture the man with the flame-shaped hair got from his wallet.
A woman with long black hair dressed in the same X Japan T-shirt her boyfriend was clad in smiled and winked while holding a bouquet of fresh pink dahlias.
"Can I have another glass of Suntory Premium?" His companion asked the waiter who responded with a nod.
"She looks very happy," Touki said while his stomach turned inside of him upon starting to ponder what was going on.
Hiroshi returned from the restroom and took his seat while frowning at the sight of his friend occupied by the stranger who had come into the restaurant soon after him about an hour ago.
"Yeah. She is very happy. Dahlias are her favorite flower. Like the song. Hey, what's your name?"
"I'm Urawa-san," Touki muttered, feeling increasingly tense while suspecting that Eri Honda had said something she shouldn't have to the wrong person.
Fighting his usually counterproductive brain he managed to break out of the stupor these kinds of situations usually locked him into and quickly inquired what he needed to know to confirm his suspicions. He already vaguely remembered seeing pictures of the man and his girlfriend at his employee's home when he visited two weeks ago.
"What… What's your name?" He asked.
"Oh? I'm a modern guy," His companion said with a grin. "You can call me Kaze-kun."
Which meant he didn't want to share his surname with Touko. Certainly not when his wallet invited the question of proving any claim he would make as to his surname.
"That looks like a nice beer," Kaze told the waiter as the man brought his glass. "Say, it's my birthday today, so I wondered if you could do me the pleasure of playing my favorite song?"
"Certainly, Okyaku-sama," The waiter nodded. "If the other customers don't mind and if we have it in our compact disc collection. What song would you like to hear?"
"I love the song Dahlia from X Japan. That's a beautiful song, isn't it, Urawa-san?"
Having just emptied his glass, Touki felt dizzy at the insinuating smirk of the younger man.
Trying to control his breathing he turned his eyes on the wooden bar for a moment before looking at his companion.
"I suppose your older brother must have had a good laugh when his wife told him about my reaction to her singing in the store?" Touki asked in as even a tone as he was capable of.
"Didn't it occur to Honda-san how unwise it would be to play these kinds of games with his wife's employer?
I won't take this out on her, because she hasn't done anything wrong, but I hope you'll share with your brother how pitiful it is to feel threatened in his relationship by someone as pitiful as me."
"Hahaha! Sorry, Urawa-san," Kaze laughed while holding up his hands in surprise. "I don't know what you're talking about."
The man turned back to the waiter, ignoring Touki completely.
"So… Do you think you have it in the restaurant's collection?" He chuckled. "I'm eager to listen to X Japan's majestic Dahlia while drinking here with my new buddy."
"I'm sorry, Yoshida-san. I'm not feeling too well suddenly," Touki apologized to his friend while leaving his seat. "Please eat the rest of my yakitori. I'll call you on the phone later today when you get home."
"It's alright, Urawa-san," A worried Hiroshi said. "Get home well and take as much rest as you need. I'll hear you later."
While Touki paid the waiter and stumbled towards the restaurant's exit, Gretchen gripped her lower abdomen with both hands and gasped for air to the consternation of her friends.
"Are you alright, Gretchen-chan?" Asuka asked her. "You look a little pale."
"No…" Gretchen grimaced. "I'm sorry. I thought I would be okay, but it seems my cramps are playing up after all."
"I have some medicine," Junko suggested.
"Thank you, Junko-chan," Gretchen attempted a smile. "But I'm afraid I'll have to go home and lie down for a while before I feel better."
Upon leaving the restaurant, Gretchen could still see Touki walking off eastward with his eyes downcast.
"That one is none of my concern," The blonde muttered while walking over to the other side of the street and turning incorporeal behind the cover of a parked Toyota. "I hope I won't have to wait long."
The Bavarian waited about 5 minutes, seeing three men and a woman enter the restaurant at a quarter to five.
Finally, Kaze Honda was satisfied that Touki's afternoon with his friend was ruined and left Hiroshi sitting at the bar on his own.
Gretchen followed the man with the dark-gray/white hair down Hijirizaka.
When the street merged with another he crossed the road and turned into the street to his left, walking into another izakaya in the second building from the corner.
This izakaya was smaller than the other. Kaze walked over to a slightly obese man who otherwise had about the same size and build as him and sat at the bar with a glass of shōchū in his hand.
"Hey, Ani," He smiled while taking the seat next to Daken Honda. "Wanna hear a funny story."
The man next to him brushed his wavy purple hair from before his eyes and grinned malevolently.
"Let's hear it," He chuckled before taking a sip of his liquor. "How did that loon react?"
"Can I get a bottle like his?" Kaze asked the man on the other side of the bar while pointing at his brother's drink.
Then he turned to the man in the white T-shirt and the blue jeans to his right, confused for a moment as to why the restaurant's front door opened abruptly without anyone coming in.
"Well…?" Daken asked with an amused frown.
"Must have been the wind," Kaze muttered while he accepted the bottle of shōchū and the glass from the waiter. "You should have seen the guy when I showed Reiko's picture with the…"
"Haaahahaha!" His brother laughed, knowing what he was talking about.
"Hahaha. With that bouquet of Dahlias in her hands."
"I love how she winked when you took the picture. Hahaha. That crazy guy," Daken laughed. "Making such a fuss about a woman singing a song."
"An X Japan song too," Kaze grinned while toasting with his brother.
"Best band in the world," Daken smiled broadly. "Only a lazy little freak who tries to slime his way into his employee's pants could think otherwise.
"Using the knowledge gained through love in order to harm another human being is a truly despicable… sin," Gretchen almost spat while standing with her back to the two brothers. "Tatzelwurm. I wish you good luck in procuring the merchandise we need to purchase our freedom."
Oblivious to the danger they faced, Daken and Kaze drank and shared their amusement at Touki's emotional anguish and mental fragility while a small clay ball fell to the floor and split in two.
Around the same time, Touki passed by Ami and Seiya as they continued their jog up Hijirizaka.
Neither recognized the other. Each was walking their path despite the things they found in their way.
'I need to make some changes in my life,' A panicking Touki pondered as he continued on his way. 'I can't believe that guy is going so far as to send his brother to stalk me in my private life! Honda-san, Your husband is scary!'
The slender man with the graying dark-brown hair watched an athletic man with short-cropped black hair in his late twenties pass him by while jogging in a dark-blue T-shirt and black shorts with blue running shoes.
'I can't push her away when I see her at work,' Touki reflected. 'Honda-san is a dear and kind friend. But I have to be firm and tell her she's not to drive me home after work anymore or there's no telling what her husband might try next.'
'Huh? Oh! That's the izakaya Urawa-san often visits with his friend on Sundays,' Ami reflected when a few minutes later she recognized Yakitori Kayo to her right.
"Let's continue to the crossroads up ahead…. and then we'll search the block," Seiya suggested while jogging to her right.
Ami nodded and smiled.
"If your fatigue catches up with you… you can maybe take a rest… while I search…"
"I'm alright… Don't worry," Seiya winked at her.
"Geez," The bluette grinned while rolling her eyes. "Such a typical man."
Continuing homebound, Touki's musings on how to deal with the situation Daken Honda created evolved into frustration at the way he was scared from his buddy time with Hiroshi.
'I was looking forward to having a good talk. I'm sorry, Hiroshi-kun,' He sadly reflected. 'I have to find a way to stand up to that guy if he continues to stalk me at Yakitori Kayo.
One thing is for certain: I can't ever again allow a woman who isn't romantically interested in me to befriend me. I can't take the stress and anxiety of getting beat up or harassed by their boyfriends or husbands anymore.
I hate those selfish spoiled bullies! All I want is to live in peace! If I'm never going to meet a woman who loves me for who I am anyway, at least let me live in peace.'
"I'm sorry… I didn't get to meet your mother," Seiya told his terrestrial friend as they passed the merger of streets before the crossing minutes later. "Yaten and Taiki tell me she is an amazing doctor."
"She certainly is," Ami smiled. "But Ryo-kun made me promise… to become an even more…. amazing doctor."
"Is that why you agreed… to join Hotaru-kun when she asked… Yaten if he'd teach you about Kinmokuan medicine?"
"I can't let Hotaru-chan overtake me…" Ami chuckled with an embarrassed smile. "If Yaten-kun… is going to tutor her… on the basics of Kinmokuan medicine… I want to be there too."
Seiya laughed out loud when they stopped at the crossing with Sakurada-dori Avenue
"Such a typical woman," He teased.
"What is that?!" They suddenly heard behind them.
Both Sailor Senshi turned around, startled by the man bellowing those words at the top of his lungs at the merger of Hijirizaka and Jizo Street.
"Everybody run!" They saw a guy in a blue T-shirt and black shorts yell while standing and staring at something beyond their view. "Those lion-monsters are attacking anyone they can… ugh-ugh… get their hands on with their poisonous breath!"
"Quick," Seiya sharply addressed Ami. "Let's transform under the recessed portico of that karaoke bar."
Glancing to the right, JGSDF Major Yori Maki coughed once more from straining his vocal cords and saw the two Senshi move out of sight. He ran straight back into Hijirizaka as fast as he could.
It was pure chance that he had seen the creature's attack. But it had been a wise course for him and the others to agree on decking themselves out in jogging outfits once they learned about the new hobby the Sailor Senshi had taken up. Because it seemed Mizuno Ami and Kou Seiya hadn't seen the monster's attack or its victims.
It was an even greater chance - he considered - that he was able to alert them and run away with his life intact.
"Somebody call the police!" The tall man in the blue T-shirt and black shorts yelled at bystanders who hadn't yet made themselves scarce, causing most of them to scatter "Call emergency services!"
To Yori's satisfaction, he saw a handful of people take their cellphones out of their pockets upon hearing him call out while they joined him in running towards the mall on the south side of the street to seek refuge.
Nowhere else but Tokyo would someone screaming about monsters have this effect, he reflected.
Reaching the safety of the building and entering through the double doors together with the people he evacuated from Hijirizaka, the apprehensive young man turned and carefully watched the entrance to Jizo Street through the mall's glass wall-height windows.
People behind him waited with bated breath while the few who heeded his earlier appeal were talking to the emergency services operators on their cell phones.
Back in the entrance to the karaoke, the Sailor Change Star appeared over Seiya's left ear as he exclaimed his transformation command:
"Fighter Star Power, Make Up!"
As Seiya struck a pose with his head raised and his right fist before his chest, three stars soared up into the sky before swooping toward him.
The light from the stars formed Sailor Star Fighter's long navy-blue boots, her hotpants, her bikini top with the winged golden star in the middle of her chest, her neckerchief, and the long gloves over her raised arms.
Sailor Star Maker's long black ponytail trailed behind her and she grinned confidently while her beaded golden tiara with the star in its center and her two golden star-shaped earrings appeared. Performing a backward somersault, she landed elegantly while striking a pose with her right arm to the side and her left hand on her hip.
Next to her, the Mercury symbol activated on the fluid blue Mercury Orb as Ami exclaimed her transformation command: "Mercury Crystal Power, Make Up!"
Ami raised her Crystal Change Rod in her right hand, the Mercury Orb attaching itself to the rod.
The blue Mercury symbol then launched itself from the orb of the Crystal Change Rod and five swelling currents of water flowed from the tips of the star on top.
The young woman twirled around her axis while the swelling currents of water washed around her body until it was submerged in the cool liquid.
Standing with her feet close together, Ami joined her hands while firmly holding onto the Crystal Change Rod.
Large ripples expanded from the water's surface around Ami's body while it was momentarily illuminated in a shimmer of bright light.
Bubbles burst from around Ami's body and the light flashed itself out, revealing Super Sailor Mercury as she turned around, dressed in her deep blue boots, her blue skirt with the large light-blue bow on her lower back, her long white gloves, her white leotard and the deep blue heart at the center of the light-blue bow over her breasts, her segmented white shoulder pads, her blue neckerchief, and the golden tiara with the deep blue crystal on her forehead.
Super Sailor Mercury raised her arms while the two long light-blue ribbons attached to the back of her skirt trailed around her.
A shiny bright harp appeared behind her as she struck a pose, standing in an A-stance with her arms lowered to the sides.
Fighter and Mercury ran headlong into Jizo Street while the latter called Hotaru on her Sailor Communicator. They were aghast to see several men lying unconscious in the street while traffic into the street had earlier been halted by the sight and a long column of abandoned cars was lined up on the west side of the street.
"I see no sign of the enemy!" Sailor Star Maker exclaimed as she looked around and Mercury got onto her knees to check the unconscious men's vital signs. "But we have to get these people to safety before they attack."
"Saturn says she'll be here in 10 minutes," Mercury told him.
Her fellow Senshi wandered around two of the men lying on the street with his back to a small tree growing on the edge of the footpath near the entrance to an izakaya.
"Watch out!" Mercury exclaimed.
Fighter jumped to her side with a look of shock on his face when a large lion head popped out of the izakaya's glass entrance door and breathed a puff of yellow gas at him.
"Hold on, brother," A two-and-half-meter tall spindly reptilian creature with a lion head that showed a red number 5 on its forehead said while pushing the similar creature out of the building. "These aren't beta males. They're ladies."
"You're right, bro," The other golem grinned at Mercury as she got to her feet. "More ladies for our harem."
"I suggest you learn to treat other men with respect no matter the alphabetic designation you like to give them…" Mercury exclaimed while she and Fighter adopted a defensive stance. "before you attempt to start a romantic relationship with any woman."
"Needless to say there will be no harem ending for either of you," Sailor Star Fighter quipped.
"Mercury!"
The symbol of Mercury appeared in the palm of Mercury's hand, a roaring maelström washing out of it.
"Aqua Rhapsody!"
The maelström shaped itself into a silver harp which Mercury played with virtuosity.
Unbound streams of water burst forth from the instrument and merged into an unstoppable vortex that launched straight at its target.
'It's a good thing I learned from my fellow Soul Merchants that our golems still need help at this point!' Gretchen reflected while watching the attack from afar.
The young woman instantly turned corporeal and appeared at about six meters distance from Mercury and Fighter in a long salmon-red dress with a broad beige band along the hem of the skirt and a light-green bodice while her long blonde hair was done up and covered by a beige silken bonnet.
The Bavarian raised her right hand and chanted: "Frigid heart, hear my call! Send my frosted feelings forth!"
To Mercury's dismay, her attack froze in mid-air before it dissipated without harming Tatzelwurm.
"Let's make ourselves scarce, bro," One half of the creature chuckled while running past Mercury and Fighter.
"But bro! What about our harem?"
"We have a third opponent, Sailor Mercury!" Fighter exclaimed while the second creature ran past them to the other side of the street.
His friend watched in the direction the Kinmokuan pointed and saw Gretchen's form just before the young woman turned incorporeal again.
"Fly up ahead to bar their way forward and cover me against that girl, Sailor Star Fighter!" She exclaimed while turning and running after the golems. "We need to save the people caught by those creatures! They only have four more minutes to live!"
"Two times the golem means half the time to get the job done, ladies!" The lion she was in pursuit of taunted.
Sailor Star Fighter flew overhead of the two creatures as they jumped over the cars jammed up in Jizo Street because of their attacks.
Mercury watched the reptilian creatures awkwardly leap from car roof to car roof over the abandoned cars.
Remembering that there was a medium-sized car park to the right of the road in between a group of ten-story buildings, the clever bluette hatched a plan.
"Fighter!" She yelled while her friend landed on a red Honda Civic. "Let's launch our attacks together!"
"I get you!" A grinning Sailor Star Fighter winked before turning her attention to the golem that was running up to her.
"You're going to either move out of the way or get your pretty body pawed, lady!" The creature chuckled.
"Ew, you fiend," Fighter smiled.
A ring of bright stars circled her body while she held up her Sailor Star Yell in her right hand.
"Star…!" The young woman with the long black ponytail exclaimed while raising her right hand.
At once, all of the bright stars were drawn up toward her Sailor Star Yell.
"Serious…!"
Sailor Star Fighter lowered her arm and pointed her Sailor Star Yell at her opponent.
"Laser…!"
… And fired a searing hot ray of light at her opponent.
At the same time, Sailor Mercury targeted the golem running right behind its partner.
"Mercury!"
The symbol of Mercury appeared in the palm of Mercury's hand, a roaring maelström washing out of it.
"Aqua Rhapsody!"
The maelström shaped itself into a silver harp which Mercury played with virtuosity.
Unbound streams of water burst forth from the instrument and merged into an unstoppable vortex that launched straight at its target.
As she had calculated, being caught by an attack from the front and one from behind, the two golems were forced to run for cover in the enclosed car park to their right where they would be trapped.
"They're ours now! Great plan, Mercury!" Sailor Star Fighter exclaimed.
Both women ran in pursuit of the golems, intending to free the people the two creatures had absorbed into themselves at once.
Determined to help Tatzelwurm catch its prey, Gretchen reappeared behind them.
The young woman in the light-green bodice and the salmon-red dress raised her right hand and chanted: "Frigid heart, hear my call! Send my frosted feelings forth!"
Upon seeing their path blocked by a meters-high wall of ice, Sailor Mercury turned to face the blonde Bavarian.
"I'm sorry, Sailor Mercury!" Gretchen exclaimed while frightful bystanders huddled together among the houses behind her. "But I'm collecting these souls and you aren't going to stop me today!"
A deeply concerned Mercury consciously took note of every detail in Gretchen's dress before the girl turned incorporeal once more.
A ring of bright stars circled Sailor Star Fighter while she held up her Sailor Star Yell in her right hand.
"Star…!" The young woman with the long black ponytail exclaimed while raising her right hand.
At once, all of the bright stars were drawn up toward her Sailor Star Yell.
"Serious…!"
Sailor Star Fighter lowered her arm and pointed her Sailor Star Yell at the wall of ice.
"Laser…!"
To her frustration, the attack didn't seem to damage the ice wall.
"Try it again, Sailor Star Fighter!" Mercury urged the blackette. "We have to get through immediately!"
Reasoning that since Gretchen hadn't directly attacked them she might not intend to do so, she again turned around and joined her attack with Fighter's.
"Mercury!"
The symbol of Mercury appeared in the palm of Mercury's hand, a roaring maelström washing out of it.
"Aqua Rhapsody!"
The maelström shaped itself into a silver harp which Mercury played with virtuosity.
Unbound streams of water burst forth from the instrument and merged into an unstoppable vortex that launched straight at its target.
A ring of bright stars circled Sailor Star Fighter while she held up her Sailor Star Yell in her right hand.
"Star…!" The young woman with the long black ponytail exclaimed while raising her right hand.
At once, all of the bright stars were drawn up toward her Sailor Star Yell.
"Serious…!"
Sailor Star Fighter lowered her arm and pointed her Sailor Star Yell at the wall of ice.
"Laser…!"
The attacks impacted the ice wall together, creating a small crater.
Mercury pricked her ears up at the sound of approaching emergency vehicle sirens.
"Once more!" Sailor Star Fighter exclaimed. "This time we're getting through!"
"Mercury!"
The symbol of Mercury appeared in the palm of Mercury's hand, a roaring maelström washing out of it.
"Aqua Rhapsody!"
The maelström shaped itself into a silver harp which Mercury played with virtuosity.
Unbound streams of water burst forth from the instrument and merged into an unstoppable vortex that launched straight at its target.
A ring of bright stars circled Sailor Star Fighter while she held up her Sailor Star Yell in her right hand.
"Star…!" The young woman with the long black ponytail exclaimed while raising her right hand.
At once, all of the bright stars were drawn up toward her Sailor Star Yell.
"Serious…!"
Sailor Star Fighter lowered her arm and pointed her Sailor Star Yell at the wall of ice.
"Laser…!"
As their attacks impacted the meters-high obstacle, the crater they caused widened considerably.
"Let me finish the job for you so you can spare your strength," The Senshi heard the deep gentle female voice from a timely person standing in between them.
Mercury's heart pumped eagerly when she saw a translucent reflective Silence Wall orb easily boring a wide hole through the wall of ice.
"Thanks, Sailor Saturn," Fighter turned to wink at the friendly smiling black-bobbed stoic who finally arrived on the scene.
Mercury hurried through the hole in the wall, her eyes scanning the environment for the golems she was chasing.
Cars were parked diagonally compared to the wall in a row to her right, with extra parking space to the right and the left at the end of ther row up ahead.
"I'm here with you, Mercury!" She heard Saturn exclaim behind her as the blackette followed her into the parking lot. "Fighter is standing guard outside but she's hailing the emergency team to join us."
Then, as she walked past the end of the row of cars, Mercury saw them.
Turning the corner to the right into the extra parking space of about eight meters by eight in between three buildings where four more cars were parked Mercury spotted the bodies of Daken and Kaze Honda face-up and motionless on the concrete floor.
"No… No… It can't be," She muttered as she got onto her knees and checked Daken's breathing.
"We're too late?!" Hotaru wondered out loud as she saw the scene and ran the last meter before falling to her knees and performing the same action to Kaze Honda.
The sound of hooves behind them didn't distract the two young women from their task and Mercury started to alternate between the application of chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while Saturn placed her hands on Kaze's chest and let her healing power flow through the man's body.
"Mission accomplished, brother!" Tatzelwurm cheered while he and his other half rode towards the parking lot's exit on the horse form of Salza. "If you have a job to do it is your duty to give it your all! Incompetents or kids who are used to getting everything on a silver platter aren't enough to stand in our way!"
"But I'm still standing in your way just the same!"
A ring of bright stars circled Sailor Star Fighter while she held up her Sailor Star Yell in her right hand.
"Star…!" The young woman with the long black ponytail exclaimed while raising her right hand.
At once, all of the bright stars were drawn up toward her Sailor Star Yell.
"Serious…!"
Sailor Star Fighter lowered her arm and pointed her Sailor Star Yell at her opponent.
"Laser…!"
… And fired a searing hot ray of light at her opponent that baked the frighteningly rearing Salza and the equally dumbfounded two parts of Tatzelwurm who yelled "Salvation!" as the three of them were reduced to an exquisitely enameled porcelain representation of folkloristic creatures.
Gritting her teeth, Fighter ran toward the figurine. Hoping that it may still help the golems' victims
But before she could reach it, the Kinmokuan despairingly saw Gretchen take shape beside the reduced form of her defeated opponents and pick the statuette up in both hands.
"I'll take this with me, Sailor Star Fighter," The blonde dispassionately said as she straightened herself.
The Bavarian turned incorporeal once more, with Fighter grasping into thin air as she halted at the place the young woman had stood.
/I'm honestly a little frustrated sometimes that I can't create an anime all on my own, with moving images and a soundtrack. So when I think of a song while writing a scene I want to share that experience.
I advise you to search for Kyoko Koizumi - Yasashii Ame (Official Video) on youtube and play it in a new window while reading the following scene/
When Touki Urawa entered his apartment about ten minutes later he was mentally exhausted and catching his breath due to the haste with which he had hurried to reach the safety of his home.
How ironic - the distressed man reflected - that he would find calm in a place of his domicile to escape the emotional trauma inflicted on him in his previous home.
How infuriating that he was forced to mentally repeat the experience of the students who used to live next door to him playing Dahlia on top volume every night at midnight and jeering at the way they were further destroying his already damaged brain at the end of the song. After which treatment, they continued to harass Touki with a series of loud rhythmic knocks on the wall at regular intervals throughout every night.
Touki seated himself on the sofa before his television set.
"I hate those assholes," The man groaned and whined while clasping his hands and leaning forward with a fierce look on his face. "I wish some group of yakuza soldiers would corner them in an alley and just rip them apart. Those cowards. Those assholes. I wish they'd run under a truck or something so they can never treat anyone like that again."
As a diversion, Touki with trembling hands took his remote and turned on the television, zapping through channels from an R&B song to a soap opera to the local news.
".. the two men who lost their lives in a Jizo Street parking lot."
His eyes now fixed on the television screen, an already despairing Touki feared for the life of his friend, Hiroshi.
"Not that too," The man incredulously gasped.
He nervously regarded the images made by an overenthusiastic cameraman who had ventured into the parking lot with the police and paramedics once Sailor Star Fighter assured them the coast was clear.
But when the store manager recognized the X Japan T-shirt Kaze Honda had been wearing in the izakaya and the glimpse of Daken Honda's face from the half-obscured corpses visible in the footage, only one person was on Touki's mind.
"Oh no… Poor Honda-san. Poor Honda-san. She doesn't deserve this. What happened?"
Ami was crouching against a wall in the crowded mall in Hijirizaka. As the rain started to pour down on the emergency workers outside, Seiya and Hotaru watched the bluette's trembling hands with concern.
"There was nothing we could do, Ami-chan," Hotaru whispered to her pale-faced sadly grimacing friend. "The enemy captured their souls so it was pointless even to try and save their lives with my powers."
"I know that," Ami muttered while staring at her hands.
"I'm sorry guys. At least we were able to bring salvation to those three golems," A troubled Seiya whispered. "And we have an idea of who our enemy is."
The Kinmokuan looked at the police officers outside who were trying to get traffic going again with the sudden shower washing over the ambulances that were starting to leave with Tatzelwurm's male victims and their traumatized girlfriends, wives, daughters, mothers, sisters, and friends.
Yori Maki carefully observed the trio from his position among the crowd who first sought shelter from the golems inside the mall.
Those same people were now staying inside the mall because of the rain, providing him the perfect urban camouflage.
"We can fight with our lives on the line to save people only in as far as it would bear results," Hotaru attempted to comfort her friend in rather too stoic a manner. "We can even bring people back from the dead, but we aren't omnipotent.
Sometimes we just can't change fate and there's no shame in accepting that."
"But…"
Seiya and Hotaru inclined themselves towards their crouching friend to better hear what she was whispering.
"I know all that," Ami said. "This isn't the first time we couldn't save someone…
But I realize now that if I want to improve and become a great doctor, I'll also need to improve as a Sailor Senshi."
The blue-haired genius sternly looked up at her concerned friends.
"If going forward, losing as a Sailor Senshi means I won't get a chance to save someone as a doctor then the only conclusion is that I'll have to strive to get more powerful so there will be less chance that I lose the battle to save that person as a Sailor Senshi."