THE SPECTER OF SUTŌKĀ
Chapter 10: "Justice"
A Sailor Moon fanfic
By Bill K.
Queen Serenity stood at the window of her office, a window that overlooked the grounds of the palace and the city beyond it. Though she looked, she didn't see. She was still preoccupied with worrying about Michiru; whether they could find her; whether she was safe.
She didn't even turn when Yuri, now seventeen, peeked in. He had something on his mind, but seeing his adoptive mother so pensive, so concerned, washed his trivial concern away. The youth walked over and touched her shoulder. Serenity turned and, recognizing him, gave her son a melancholy smile.
"You shouldn't worry like this," Yuri suggested. "They'll find Kaioh-San and bring her back safe."
"It's not that I don't trust everyone to do that," Serenity told him. "I just hate the thought that she might be suffering. You know how things like that upset me." She looked down, embarrassed, for a moment. "Did you need to speak to me about something?"
"Well, I . . ." Yuri began. Just then Serenity got a signal on her Senshi communicator.
"Artemis has located the rental truck Inken-San has been using, Your Majesty." Luna advised her.
"You did?" Serenity exclaimed happily upon hearing the message. "That's great! I'll go tell Rei-Chan! You tell the others!" She paused a beat. "AND DON'T CALL ME YOUR MAJESTY!"
Cutting the black cat off before she could reply, Serenity flashed her son a naughty grin.
"Oh, this is wonderful! I have to tell . . ." then she stopped. "Oh, I almost forgot. You wanted something, didn't you?"
"It can wait, Mama," Yuri assured her. "Go save the day."
Serenity nodded and buzzed out of the room. She almost flew down the hall, but as usual stopped short when she reached the door of the shrine. Taking a deep breath for courage, the Queen slid the door open. Inside, Rei's great-grandmother Moriko was leafing through an ancient text. She looked up at Serenity.
"Rei-Chan has not finished yet," Moriko told her.
"It's OK! Artemis found them!" Serenity squealed. She glanced hesitantly at the door to the room where Rei did her fire readings. "You think it'll be OK to disturb her? She usually doesn't like that and I really don't want to get yelled at."
"I think it will be all right," Moriko said, rising.
The two women ventured down the hall. Gently they slid the door to the room open. Rei was knelt in front of a blazing fire pit, her eyes blank and in a trance. Small pieces of wood were next to her to feed the flames. Silent chants emerged from parsed lips. Her face was flushed and she was covered in perspiration. The room was hot from the heat of the fire. Cautiously the two newcomers ventured in.
"Rei-Chan?" Serenity said cautiously, kneeling behind her friend and poking her in the back with her index finger. There was no response. "Rei-Chan!" Serenity said and poked her again. Still nothing. Serenity grasped Rei by the shoulders and shook her. Finally the priest's consciousness returned to this plane.
"Serenity?" Rei mumbled in confusion. She glanced at Moriko off to the side. "How long was I at it?"
"Too long," Moriko replied. "If the gods have nothing to tell you, persisting will only make you a pest."
"Are you all right?" Serenity asked.
"Nothing a glass of water won't cure," sighed Rei.
"Good! Artemis found Inken-San!"
"He did? Let's go!"
Rei got up and scurried for the door, closely followed by Serenity. At the door, she turned to Moriko.
"Are you going to be all right here?" Rei asked.
"I'll be fine," the fox spirit assured her. "I still have a little research to continue."
As the two left, Moriko returned to the ancient text and the passage she'd just found concerning the Wawa Long.
Makoto and Minako hurriedly entered the cats' office in answer to their communicator summons. They found Sailor Mercury already there, typing on her Senshi computer.
"OK, so where is the little rat?" demanded Minako without the usual playful lilt to her voice. Everyone noticed.
"We traced his GPS signal to a rural area south of Yokohama," Artemis informed them. "I guess he reached his destination."
"Or he was stopped by the prefecture police," suggested Mercury without looking up. "Or he encountered mechanical trouble with the truck."
"Or he encountered Uranus trouble," chuckled Makoto. "So are we waiting on Serenity?"
"Of course," scowled Luna.
"I kind of hope he did run into Uranus," grumbled Minako. "It would serve him right."
"What's eating you?" Makoto asked. "Is it the stalking thing?"
"Yeah, it's the stalking thing," Minako said sharply. "It isn't enough that an entertainer busts her ass trying to put on a good show and make people happy! They have to put up with being stalked, too? Put up with being harassed or kidnapped or, well, you know."
"The only difference between someone famous being harassed or murdered and an average citizen being harassed or murdered is that the victim is famous, thus the crime garners more notoriety," Mercury postulated. "It happens just as often to someone who isn't famous and possibly more, although I'd have to do a statistical study to prove that assertion." She glanced up at Minako. "The motivating factor isn't the fame of the victim, but the general lack of respect for the rights and dignity of other people."
"I suppose," sighed Minako.
"I'm here!" Serenity exclaimed, sweeping into the room. Rei was a few steps behind her. "Does anybody know where I'm supposed to go?"
Smothering grins, Makoto and Minako glanced at Rei. Rei was grinning as well, but shook her head and waved them off.
"I have the coordinates, Serenity," Mercury told her. "I can guide the transport bubble."
"Great! Let's go!" And she grabbed a hand each of Makoto and Rei.
"Perhaps the helipad on the palace roof would be a safer place to teleport from?" Luna suggested pointedly.
"Oh. I guess you're right," Serenity squeaked. "Well, come on! Michiru-San needs us!" And everyone headed for the door.
"Please take care," Luna said, then added, "YOUR MAJESTY!" Serenity turned back and stuck her tongue out at the cat.
"You do that on purpose, don't you," Artemis remarked. Luna smugly remained silent.
Sailor Uranus followed the trail in the ground of the empty wheat field. As she walked, she tried to suppress the nagging fear that she was too late and that she'd never see Michiru again. That was something she wasn't sure she could face and really didn't want to test the theory. It was a fear she battled whenever they went on missions. Now it was a fear that had entered her private life.
Encountering a thicket of trees and bushes, Uranus approached cautiously. Inken might be laying in wait to ambush her. So, too, might some wild creature either being territorial or desperately hungry enough to try to eat her. As she approached, Uranus saw the uprooted trees and the almost swampy mud in the thicket.
"Michiru's Deep Submerge attack could cause this kind of damage," Uranus thought as she picked her way through the fallen trees. "And Inken somehow has control of Michiru's attacks. Was he attacked by something? Or was he just showing off for her benefit?"
Uranus scanned the area carefully, in case Inken had diverged and gone off in another direction. Something, whether experience or a sixth sense, told her that Inken was close. Then she saw the boar, broken and lying at the foot of a tree trunk, dead. Peering further into the brush and fallen timber, she spotted the three boar piglets, all drowned.
"The boar must have attacked him to protect her young," Uranus surmised. "But that doesn't explain the uprooted trees in the other two directions. Was he under multiple attacks?"
Surveying the area, the Senshi spotted a figure crossing an empty field in a roughly westerly direction. She couldn't quite identify the figure, but she knew that brown coat. Quickly bounding out of the thicket, Uranus took off after Inken at a dead run.
"INKEN!" Uranus bellowed as she ran. "STOP RIGHT THERE!"
Inken turned, then turned back and immediately began running. Uranus continued to chase him. Already she had cut the distance between them in half, for there were few people on this planet who could outrun her and Inken wasn't one of them. What concerned her was the farm house in the distance on their right. Inken was drifting toward it.
"WORLD SHAKING!" Uranus shouted.
A geo-force bubble tore across the field and detonated in front of Inken and to his right. Uranus hadn't sought to strike Inken for fear of injuring Michiru. She wanted to herd him away from the farm house so there was no risk of a hostage situation. Inken staggered to the side and came to a stop.
"LET MICHIRU GO!" roared Uranus, closing even closer to him.
"NO!" bellowed Inken. "SHE'S MINE! I TOOK HER! SHE'S MINE! YOU CAN'T HAVE HER! NOBODY CAN HAVE HER BUT ME!" Uranus continued to charge. "DON'T COME ANY CLOSER! I STOPPED YOU ONCE!"
"I WASN'T READY THEN!" Uranus snarled.
Inken began to dig into the pocket of his coat. Uranus continued to charge, ready to leap or dodge if he managed to get an attack off. Inken continued to grope in his coat pocket, becoming more panicked with each passing second. He backed up several paces as he groped, but Uranus was upon him. A fist impacted with a nose and Inken went down as if he'd been shot. Standing over him, Uranus grabbed him by the lapels and hauled him to his feet. A frightened shriek escaped Inken's throat as Uranus pressed her face to his. Blood dribbled from his nostrils.
"WHERE IS SHE?" Uranus demanded. Inken's mouth moved, but nothing came out.
As a tow truck was pulling up to impound the rental truck, the two waiting police officers turned to the sound of a whipping wind. Moments later, Sailor Moon and her four Senshi stood next to the truck. It was an astounding sight for the two police officers. They'd never met a Senshi before. Now in the span of under an hour, they'd met five.
"Did you arrest the driver of this truck?" Mercury asked them.
"No," replied one of the officers. "It was abandoned when we got here."
"Curious," Mercury frowned. "According to records, this is the home of Inken-San's parents and a logical possibility for his destination."
"Haruka's Reventon is over there," Jupiter pointed them to the sports car parked near the truck. "You suppose he saw Uranus was after him and got spooked?"
"You didn't see where they went, did you?" Sailor Moon asked the officers.
"The other Sailor Senshi went off in that direction," he pointed to the empty wheat field. There was a barely visible path through the brown field. "I don't know about Inken-San."
Just then, everyone heard an explosion in the distance.
"That sounded like Uranus's World Shaking attack!" Mars exclaimed.
"Sounds like she caught up to Inken," Venus judged. "Let's go pull her off of him before she kills him!"
"I've got a faster way!" Sailor Moon said.
Becoming Serenity, she enveloped herself and the Senshi in a silver bubble. The bubble levitated off of the ground and headed west. Just over a thicket of trees, they saw two figures struggling in the middle of a field. It was easy to make out the sandy blonde hair and blue bow and skirt of Sailor Uranus. Serenity brought the bubble down near them.
"WHERE IS SHE!" Uranus demanded. Inken was speechless with fear. Instantly Jupiter shot forward.
"Don't do anything anybody will regret later," Jupiter said as she hooked her arm under Uranus's arm and across her chest, gripping the shoulder with her hand. She tried to pull Uranus away. It took Venus to help before the Senshi's grip was broken and she was pulled away. Inken dropped to the ground. He sat there, wide-eyed in alarm. Then he felt a presence beside him. Turning, Inken found Queen Serenity squatting next to him. Her eyes were so deep and blue. Her skin was so soft. With a disarming smile, Serenity reached out and gently stroked Inken's brow. Never in his life had he experienced anything as soothing.
"WHERE IS SHE, DAMN IT!" Uranus fumed as she struggled against the twin grips of Jupiter and Venus.
"Please," Serenity said to him with a voice like an angel's song. "This has gone on far too long. I know you think you had a very good reason for doing this, and your admiration for Kaioh-San just got the better of you. But what you did is wrong. We mustn't treat other people this way. Won't you tell me where she is? Won't you tell us how to free her? Please?"
Inken stared at her. Suddenly the thought of letting her down, of disappointing this angelic creature was akin to a mortal sin to him. As Inken struggled to talk, Mars stared at him, trying to read the truth in his jumbled, troubled brain. Mercury studied him as well, looking for some expression or movement that would provide her with the clue to solve this puzzle. For his part, Inken continued to stare at Serenity, his jaw quivering. On top of everything that had gone wrong for him in the last twenty-four hours, now he had to endure this.
"Please, Inken-San," Serenity coaxed. "Tell us where she is."
"I-I don't know," he mumbled, on the brink of collapse. "The Wawa Long must have fallen out of my pocket - - when I ran. I don't know where it is now." He looked back forlornly at Serenity. "I'm . . .sorry . . ."
Continued in Chapter 11