The hair on the back of his neck stood up as a strange sensation brushed along his spirit. He looks up from the inventory list and focuses on his sixth sense. He had never felt a reiatsu like this before. Grabbing his cane his left the shop.
.o0o.
He followed the strange reiatsu until he reached a shrine. This particular shrine was popular among tourists who came to visit the town but as it was still quite early in the morning, the place was mostly empty. So he quickly found the origin al the reiatsu—a girl with long black hair who was talking to one of the shrine maiden. Pretending to look at the opening hours for the little shop, he walked closer, determined to get a better read of her reiatsu. It felt warm and friendly, yet there was something wilder hiding underneath it, just out of reach. It did not feel like that of a Shinigami neither like that of a Quincy. A voice pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Excuse me. The shop will open at 9am."
He turned his head, seeing the shrine maiden that had talked to the strange girl smiling at him.
"But in the meantime I can recommend taking a tour of the shrine the surrounding area. The flowers are quite beautiful at this time of the year."
He nodded his thanks and left. The girl with the long, back hair had disappeared. He could still faintly feel her reiatsu but decided to return to the shop.
.o0o.
Rei's entire body was covered in goosebumps. She had felt something brush across her spirit while she was talking to the shrine maid and quickly said goodbye. While leaving, her eyes were drawn to a man standing at the shrine shop. His face was cast into shadow by a green and white, striped hat. Rei shuddered and hurried to get away.
Karakura Town turned out to be a strange place. The moment she had gotten off the train her sixth sense went haywire. She kept sensing bad spirits but those sensations went as quickly as they came, making it impossible to pinpoint them.
She wandered the streets aimlessly, gently rubbing her temples. She had come to Karakura Town for the weekend, wanting to visit the place ever since her grandfather had mentioned it. He had worked at the shrine she visited during his youth and was on good terms with the current priest. Though, he did call him eccentric. Rei smiled at the thought. Her grandfather was quite the eccentric himself. The priest, in a stroke of bad timing, was currently on vacation himself, so she asked the shrine maiden to give him her and her grandfather's regards.
Rei spotted a small café and went in, ordering some green tea. Sitting next to the window, watching the streets slowly coming to life with people as the town woke up and the stores opened. She took a sip, instantly relaxing. She nodded to herself. She would not let some weird sensations get in the way of her vacation. She was probably still tense from the events of last month. Nodding to herself once again, she grabbed her comic out of her bag and started reading.
.o0o.
"Yoruichi? Yoruichi, are you there?"
"What is it Kisuke?"
"I'm presuming you felt that strange reiatsu as well?"
"And I'm presuming you went out to check on it."
Kisuke smiled.
"Spit it out. What did you find?"
"The reiatsu belongs to a girl. Sixteen, maybe seventeen years old. Long black hair. Up closer, it felt warm and friendly, but also wild. I couldn't get a better reading. I was interrupted and then she was gone."
"Do you think she is dangerous?"
"Difficult to tell. We would need more information."
"You want me to follow her, don't you?"
He smiled again.
"You know me too well."
"Scientists," Yoruichi laughed, "I'm on my way to stalk a girl then."
"If you say it like this, it sounds creepy."
"That's why I'm following her. If you'd followed, she would call the police on you."
"You hurt me."
"See you later."
.o0o.
Around lunch time the next day, Rei was more than ready to leave Karakura and its weirdness behind. If she could have taken a train back to Tokyo earlier, she probably would have done it. This was not how she had expected her break to go. To the strange sensations of bad spirits that came and went since she had arrived, were now added shadows in the corner of her eyes that were gone when she looked at them, distant screams, and she could have sworn she had seen someone walk right through another person.
She checked her watch. Still two more hours before her train left. Entering the train station café, she ordered a glass of iced tea and a slice of strawberry cheesecake. The weather was nice so she sat at a table outside. She wondered whether she should ask her grandfather if Karakura had always been this weird but decided against it. Her grandfather might be a good priest but he himself had told her several times that his abilities were much weaker than her own. It made sense, she guessed. She wasn't a normal girl after all. She snorted. Well didn't that sound arrogant. Then she sighed. She'd rather be a normal girl at this point. Had been for an entire month. But she got that nagging sensation that this would not last. She shook her head.
"Stop it, Rei. This town is making you paranoid."
"Meow."
Rei almost dropped her fork. Looking down, she saw a black cat staring intently at her. For a brief moment, she thought one of her friends had come to Karakura as well but realized it was just a normal cat. She slowly reached her hand down, waiting while the cat sniffed at it.
"Meow."
Rei took this as permission and gently pet the cat.
"Well hello there, little guy. Did you take pity on me talking to myself?"
The cat sneezed, making Rei laugh. It made itself comfortable at her feet and she went back to enjoying her cheesecake.
After she ate, she checked her watch again. Half an hour left. She bent down and the cat looked up at her.
"Thank you for cheering me up, good Sir, but I must leave now."
The cat got up and meowed again. Rei took her empty plate and glass inside and made her way to the platform, the black cat following her. It sat quietly next to her until the train arrived. Rei waved it goodbye, feeling a little silly doing so, and got on the train. It started moving after she sat down. She glanced out the window and saw the black cat still siting there, watching the train leave the station. Rei shook her head. Even the cats in Karakura were strange.
.o0o.
Yoruichi watched the train leaving the station before stretching and leaving as well. She walked through back alleys, jumping from fence to fence, eventually arriving in front of a shop. A man was sitting on the porch, looking up from beneath his striped hat. He smiled.
"You're back."
"I am." The cat jumped onto the porch. "I understand now what you meant when called this girl's reiatsu strange, Kisuke. I have never felt something like this either."
"What do you think she is?"
"That's what I would like to find out?"
Kisuke looked up at the blue sky, waving himself some air with a fan.
"I could follow her," Yoruichi said eventually, "she got on a train towards Tokyo. Assuming she lives there I should be able to find her."
"You think you can find her, as strange as she is, among millions?"
"Are you questioning my abilities in tracking down people?"
"I would never."
"I'm quite curious myself. I'll find the girl."
"Good luck, my friend."
A few minutes after the cat had left, Kisuke got up and stretched.
"The world of the living sure doesn't get boring."
.o0o.
A Wednesday two weeks after Rei's weekend in Karakura finds her and her friends meeting up in her room at the Hikawa shrine for a study session. Though, there was not much studying being done. Rei was fighting with her friend Usagi over a comic book she took from the shelf without asking. Again. Rei pulled on the tail of one of Usagi's hair buns.
"Put it down! I wasn't done reading it!"
"Common Rei, you know how Usagi is," a girl with long, blond hair said. She put down a brush on top of her school book and tied a red ribbon in her hair.
"Are you taking her side, Minako?" Rei shot the girl an angry look.
"I'm sure Minako isn't taking any sides," a girl with a ponytail said, raising her hands slowly in a don't shoot me motion when Rei's angry stare met her. "So can you please stop fighting? We wanted to study."
Minako laughed, clapping her friend on the back
"Common Makoto. We all knew Ami would be the only one to actually study."
The four girls looked over at said friend. The girl with short hair sighed.
"If you go on like this, you will fail all your exams. Especially you two." She pointed at Minako and Usagi. The latter dropped the comic.
"Mama will be so mad if I bring home another bad grade. She will kick me out. I will have to sleep in the streets." Tears well up in her eyes. "I will turn ugly and Mamo won't love me anymore and I will end up lonely and unloved."
Rei let go of Usagi's hair and snatched the comic, while Makoto gently pet Usagi's hand.
"There, there. Please don't cry. We will help you study for the tests. Won't we girls?"
Minako nodded but Rei stared outside, a slight frown on her face, her hand with the comic book hovering over the shelf. Ami was following her gaze.
"Rei? Rei? Hey!"
She turned her head back towards the girls. Makoto looked concerned.
"Is everything alright?"
"I… Yes. Yes. Everything's fine."
"You felt something, didn't you?" Ami asked, still looking out the window.
"Yes… How… Did you feel it too?"
The girl nodded.
"It was very faint. If you hadn't reacted to it, I might have missed it entirely."
Minako and Makoto stopped frowning, straightening their backs. Even Usagi stopped crying, though she was mostly looking confused.
"I did not feel anything. You?"
Makoto shook her head. Usagi looked between her friends.
"What are you talking about?"
Rei looked down on the table.
"I did not want to mention it at first. I thought it was just leftover stress from the events of last month. But," she took a deep breath, "ever since my trip to Karakura Town, I started… sensing strange things. Sometimes, I also hear weird, distant screams. I see shadows in the sky or in the corner of my eye but they are always gone before I can get a good look. And… I think I can see… ghosts now."
Usagi paled.
"G-g-g-ghosts?"
Rei shot her an annoyed look.
"No need to freak out. They are not the horror movie type of ghosts you're probably imagining right now. They look like regular humans but people walk straight through them. It seems like nobody can see or hear them. And they have a single chain attached to them." She points at the middle of her chest. "Right here."
Ami grabbed her notebook, jotting down the information in neat, small handwriting.
"Are you sure they are ghosts? They could be anything, maybe a new enemy?"
At the word 'enemy' the girls glanced at Usagi. She was staring at her hands, lips pressed together in a thin line. Rei shook her head.
"No. They are not enemies. I am sure they are harmless. I don't feel any negative energy coming from them. Though, most of them look quite sad and lost."
"That would make sense," Makoto added, "if they are ghosts, I mean."
"I am quite sure they are."
Ami put her pen down.
"I trust your instincts for everything spiritual, Rei. But I would also like to make sure. Do you think we could ask one of those people if they are, in fact, ghosts?"
Usagi's head shot up.
"T-t-t-talk to g-ghosts? No no nonono. That sounds scary. I don't wanna talk to ghosts!"
Minako laughed.
"You'd think after all we've been through Usagi would be less of a scaredy-cat."
The other girls joined Minako and after a moment, Usagi laughed along. Makoto pet her hand again.
"Don't worry Usagi. We won't let any ghosts hurt you. Rei says they are harmless."
"Probably."
"Not helping, Rei."
Ami closed her notebook with an audible snap.
"It's late already. Let0s do it tomorrow after school."
The girls nodded in agreement then looked at Usagi who was combing through one of her hair tails with her fingers.
"Soooo… we're going ghost hunting?"
"Yes."
"In the middle of the day?"
"Yes."
"Well… It is less scary during the day. But if I see anything creepy, I will run and leave you all behind. I will not fight any evil spirits."
"We won't have to fight any evil spirits."
"Ok. I'm coming too."
.o0o.
The next day, Rei was waiting in front of her friends' school, watching as the students were streaming out of the building.
"Rei!" Minako waved, the rest of the group following a few steps behind her. "Soooo. Where are we going to go for some ghosts? An abandoned hospital? A murder site?"
The girl shook her head, letting her long, black hair fall into her face. She pushed it back behind her ear again.
"No need for that. There is a ghost of a woman in the park nearby. I saw her on my way here so she should still be there."
Ami nodded.
"Let's go."
They reached the park and Rei led them to a bench next to a small lake. On the bench sat a woman with shoulder-length, dark hair, streaked with grey. She was staring at the water.
"Can you see her?" Rei whispered.
Ami nodded. The other girls however looked between each other, before squinting at the bench again.
"She looks a bit… fuzzy."
Rei and Ami looked at Makoto.
"Fuzzy? She looks as clear as any living person."
Makoto shrugged.
"Let's get closer," Minako suggested. "Maybe we can see her better then.
They did so. Usagi grabbed Ami's hand, looking at her with wide eyes.
"I have a bad feeling about this."
"She is just a regular ghosts. No need to be scared."
Usagi looked between Rei, Amy, and the woman on the bench who was still staring at the lake, seemingly unaware of her surroundings. They stepped closer. Makoto was the first to speak.
"Hello?" The woman did not react. "Would it be okay if we asked you a few questions?"
The woman looked up, blinking slowly at the girls.
"You can see me?"
They nodded.
"Are you… are you dead too?"
"No. We're still… alive." Rei hesitated. "We are kind of new to the whole… ghost seeing thing."
The woman nodded and turned back towards the water. Rei looked at Makoto and mouthed: "What now?"
Makoto shrugged.
"Why are you still here?" Minako suddenly asked.
"Minako! I'm so sorry for my friend. She didn't mean to-"
"What? Maybe we can help her pass over!"
The woman smiled.
"You girls are very kind." She stopped smiling. "You should leave. Bad things happen around here."
"Bad things? Is this how you died?"
"Minako!"
"Common! If we wanna help her pass over, we need to find out how she died! If she was murdered. We need to bring the killer to justice! Does she still have some unfinished business? We can d-"
"Mina!" Rei hissed. "How can you be so insensitive?"
Usagi squeezed Ami's hand, then she let go of it and walked up to the woman. Rei and Minako stopped fighting, watching with slightly open mouths as Usagi sat down next to the ghost. She took the woman's hand into her own.
"You shouldn't have to suffer in this world anymore."
The woman smiled at Usagi and she smiled back.
"You have such a warm and friendly soul, young lady." A faint glow enveloped her. "They like souls like yours," her voice echoed quietly. Then she was gone and a small, white butterfly flew towards the evening sky.
"Usagi… did you just send her over?"
"Maybe it was just time for her to go."
"We should leave too," Rei said. "Something is coming."
"Something evil?"
"I'm not sure. But it feels different from the woman just now."
Shortly after they had left the park, the bench where the woman had sat, toppled over with nobody around. The only witness was a black cat.
.o0o.
Over the following days, two things happened. The girls started noticing more and more ghosts all around Tokyo. And those ghosts started noticing them too.
One day on her way to Rei's place, Minako ran into the ghost of a young boy. He was standing at the bus stop with her, making weird faces at the people around him. At a particularly funny face, Minako could not help but snort and the boy looked at her.
"You can see me?"
She nodded. With a yelp, the boy started running. Minako set to follow him but her bus arrived and the boy had already disappeared into the crowd.
The same evening, Ami visited her mother at the hospital to bring her dinner. Her mother had to take over a shift unexpectedly as one of her co-workers broke his wrist. On her way upstairs, Ami ran into several ghosts, most of them in hospital gowns. They noticed her but none of them talked to her. When she gave the food to her mother she asked:
"How do you handle it when one of your patients dies, mom?"
She put a hand on Ami's shoulder, a sad smile on her face.
"By trying even harder to save the next one. But sometimes, all we can do is make their time before they go as comfortable as possible."
While Makoto was on her way back from grocery shopping, she noticed the chair in front of the small flower shop she liked to visit was not empty. It had been empty for almost a month, after the mother of the owner had died unexpectedly. But now the old woman was back, sitting in the chair. Makoto waved at her, a little surprised. Then she noticed the chain.
"Ah, Makoto." The woman waved back. "I was been a while. You were so busy these days, you stopped greeting me. I started to think you had forgotten about me."
Makoto looked around before answering.
"I would never forget you. I… I was just with school. We had a lot of tests."
The woman nodded.
"You should study a lot and get a good husband. How are things with the boy you mentioned last time?"
Makoto blushed.
"Ah… he has a girlfriend already."
Rei learned to ignore the ghosts she met. She felt a bit guilty about it in the beginning but realized quickly that letting them know she could she them would lead many of them to follow her around. And when they realized she was a shrine maiden, they would bother her to send them over or to help them resolve their unfinished business. Rei was not able to send them over and, not wanting to give them false hope, she pretended not to notice them until they went away.
Usagi on the other hand… did her very best to avoid every single ghost. She was still scared of them would sometimes start crying when a ghost got too close. This usually did drive away any ghost but also lead to a lot of stares and whispers from the people around her.
After the events of the past days, it did therefore not surprise the girls when the ghost of a high school girl approached them during their Sunday afternoon study session at the Hikawa shrine. Their curiosity turned to worry quickly however when they got a closer look at the girl. Tears were running down her face.
"Please. Please you have to help her!"
"Help who?"
"My girlf- my friend, please. Someone… Something is… Please it will kill her!"
The girl fell sobbed and Makoto jumped up.
"Lead the way.
She spun around walking then running, the five girls close behind her. They were running for several minutes when they heard a distant explosion. A giant cloud of dust at the end of the street pointed towards the source. And the ghost girl was running right towards it. They turned a corner and through the dust they saw a giant, six-limed monster looming over a girl wearing the same uniform as the ghost that lead them there.
"What the fuck is this thing?"
The monster let out an inhuman scream, closing in on the girl who was frantically crawling backwards.
"We need to transform. Now!"
"Mars Crystal Power…"
"Mercury Crystal Power…"
"Venus Crystal Power…"
"Jupiter Crystal Power…"
"Silver Moon Crystal Power… Make up!"
.o0o.
Yoruichi observed the scene with curiosity. The girl with the long, black hair and her equally strange friends followed the spirit without hesitation. Yoruichi had felt them getting closer and closer to the hollow, ready to step in to prevent them from getting killed but they surprised her. They did not hesitate to engage in battle. She was even more surprised when the girls transformed. They were now wearing colourful skirts and white gloves, one of them even had a pair of wings. But what Yoruichi found the most interesting was their reiatsu; it had suddenly become much stronger and clearer. This did not go unnoticed by the hollow either who now abandoned its prey for a tastier meal. It attack. The girl with the red ribbon in her hair grabbed the spirit and dragged her with way, away from the hollow. She pushed the spirit towards her friend and told the to run. They did.
Meanwhile, the other girls started their counterattack. A wave of water hit the hollow, followed by a strike of lightning. The monster screamed. Getting angrier, it reached for the girls with one of its clawed hands. They jumped away with an agility normal humans should not have. The girl from Karakura summoned a bow and aimed at the hollow's head. A flaming arrow hit it right between its eyes. A crack formed in the bone of the mask. The monster screamed and thrashed.
"Now, Sailor Moon!"
The girl with the wings stepped up, holding a long rod in her hands. She aimed at the hollow and with a yell a bright light erupted from it, hitting the hollow.
.o0o.
Sailor Moon put all her effort into the attack. The monster let out another of its blood-curdling screams and with a sudden movement it hit the street hard enough to make the ground shake. She stumbled and her attack wavered. The monster grabbed the chance and disappeared into a dark hole in the air.
"Sailor Moon! Are you alright?"
Her friends came running to her. She nodded.
"The monster escaped. Why did my attack not work?"
"None of our attacks seemed to have much effect on it."
"If anything, they made it even angrier."
"We should leave. Before the police arrives. Unlike ghosts, we're not invisible to humans."
They left the scene and transformed back. Minako stretched.
"I did not expect that I had to transform into Sailor Venus again."
"I said goodbye to Jupiter already." Makoto rubbed her shoulder. "And the bruises. I wasn't gonna miss the bruises."
Ami shook her head.
"I shouldn't have left my Mercury computer at home. I could have tried to analyse the monster."
"I kind of expected to have to transform into Sailor Mars again," Rei said quietly, "ever since we started seeing ghosts, I just knew something would happen."
A sniff turned their attention to Usagi.
"Usagi…"
She smiled at her friends but it did not reach her eyes.
"I'm starving. Let's get something to eat."
.o0o.
Yoruichi hopped on the train right before the doors closed and immediately went to find a spot to hide. Stowaway cats might not need to pay a fine but they were kicked off the train either way and she was not in the mood to walk all the way back to Karakura Town. The trip only took a few hours and soon Yoruichi found herself in front of the shabby store again. In the court were two children, a boy and a girl, with brooms. While the girl was sweeping the floor, the boy was swinging the broom back and forth, yelling comments about a fictional baseball match. Yoruichi meowed. The girl stopped sweeping.
"Yoruichi! Welcome back! I will go get the boss.
She leaned her broom against the porch and hurried inside. A clashing sound could be heard from within and then Kisuke came outside with wide open arms.
"Yoruichi! I missed you! Kids, go inside."
The children did but not without giving the two of them a curious look. Kisuke sat down and patted the spot next to him.
"Take a seat. I am afraid I'm all out of milk though."
She jumped up the porch.
"That is alright."
"I'm taking you cam back with information on our strange tourist."
"Her and her friends."
Kisuke looks down at the cat with raised eyebrows.
"There are more like her?"
"There is five of them."
"Five of them. The world of the living sure becomes stranger each day." He laned back, looking up at the sky. "So tell me, Yoruichi. What happened in Tokyo?"
And Yoruichi told.
Kisuke stayed quiet for a while after his friend had finished. By now the sun had gone down and the fading moon was rising.
"So there are five people in Tokyo who do not only have the ability to see spirits, but also have powers of their own. And yet those powers did not help them much against a low level hollow."
"From what I gathered, these girls only picked up the ability to see spirits after their friend came back from Karakura."
"It is possible for her to have picked up the ability her. Karakura does have quite the dense spiritual energy. The interesting part is how quickly she must have picked it up then."
"And the fact that she spread it to her friends. But the powers they used against the hollow came naturally to them."
"So they must have had those for a while. You said they transformed? They did not leave their body like Kurosaki does?"
"They were not in spirit form but after their transformation their reiatsu were much higher."
Kisuke tapped his chin with his fan.
"Curious. Very curious. How come we haven't heard of anyone like them. I have to admit, I don't keep an eye on Tokyo nut people with such abilities must have been noticed by the Soul Society at least."
"The Thirteen Divisions might have just ignored them since they did not meddle in Shinigami affairs."
"That does sound like old man Yamamoto."
Yoruichi hesitated before adding:
"I did hear a name during their fight though. It did not sound familiar to me but you have more knowledge and the strange and bizarre than I do."
Kisuke stopped tapping his chin to look at his friend.
"Do tell."
"Sailor Moon."
He opened his fan.
"Why do I get the vague feeling that I should know that name?"
.o0o.
"You're late, Usagi."
"I'm sorry. I had-"
"Detention."
Usagi laughed awkwardly while her friends sighed.
"You're hopeless without Luna."
"Don't say that, Minako. She was just a hopeless when Luna with around."
"Reeiiiiii."
"Girls. Could we please start the meeting?"
"Sorry, Ami. What do you have?"
"I put the information we have into the Mercury computer. It is not as much as I would have liked but here we go." The girls got closer. "I entered both the information about the ghosts we saw over the last few days, the monster and how our attacks did not work against it."
"And?"
"Nothing." Ami closed her small computer a littler harder than necessary. "I have nothing we do not know yet."
Makoto crossed her arms.
"Then what are we supposed to do? How do we defeat these monsters?"
"Maybe we just didn't have enough time? That thing disappeared, maybe Sailor Moon's attack would have worked if we had a little more time?"
"No." Usagi shook her head. "I don't think so, Mina. I could sense that it was useless."
Rei frowned.
"What do you mean by that?"
"You know, usually when I use my attacks-" Usagi puts a hand on her chest, right above her heart. "-I can feel the evil leaving the object or person." She dropped her hand. "This time I felt nothing."
The girls stayed silent, each deep in thoughts. With a sudden motion, Makoto stood up, startling Usagi, making her fall of the porch.
"I refuse to give up. If we can't fight these monsters with our current powers, we just have to get stronger!"
"Yes. But how?"
"I might be able to help you."
The girls spun towards the unexpected voice. A man in a green and white striped hat was smiling at them.
"I've seen you before," Rei noticed, "you were at the shrine in Karakura."
"Allow me to introduce myself. I'm Urahara Kisuke. And I can teach you how to kill those monsters."
_
AN:yeah...rewriting the first 3 chapters in hopes it will motivate me to continue the story, because I really want to continue it (andbecausemywritingstylewasgarbage)
