It was the next day before most of the group could gather again, and it also happened to be on a Friday night. Most of all the inner group made it, with the exception of Makoto who had to pack in some extra studying time. The group also made a collective decision to invite Meian, since her name was cleared the day before, and on good authority as well. So on the insistence of Usagi, the rest were urged to give Meian another chance - whether she was given one in the first place at all, no one was sure.

So the group was at Usagi’s house in her TV room, with Usagi playing a game on the PlayConsole with Minako, Rei and Ami sitting on the floor directly behind them, and Meian furthest back on the couch. The two blondes had been hogging the system for hours now, which annoyed the hell out of Shingo. They were action games, fighting games, racing games, first person shooter and so on, and no matter which genre they tried, Usagi repeatedly lost to her ribbon-topped friend.

“Beat you again!” Minako laughed, and gave a light shove to Usagi on her left.

“Can’t you let me win just once, Minako?” Usagi pleaded, with a full puppy dog look on her face.

“No way!” Minako declared, and continued the game they were playing.

“Usagi, can I use your phone?” Meian asked as she stood up.

“Sure, it’s over there somewhere.” Usagi said. She never once took her eyes from the screen and motioned with her hand quickly towards no particular area. Meian left, and once Rei knew she was out of visual and audio range, she directed her attention to Ami at her right.

“Ami, what do you think about this whole situation?” Rei asked, making sure she didn’t speak so loud that it would distract either of her friends who were playing the game in front of her. “You know, about Meian and Sailor Syrin. Can we really trust her?”

“For the most part, yes, I think so. It would be a good idea for the time being to be careful, just to be on the safe side. I think we should give her the benefit of the doubt, at least until she can prove to us for absolute sure that she’s trustworthy.” Ami explained.

It was then that Meian made her way back to the room, and settled herself back on the couch.

“You know Meian, I was wondering.” Minako said, her brain switched from the conversation, to the game she played. “What was Lady Saeryn saying about you not deserving to be a senshi and all that?”

“I’m not exactly sure. I’ve never met her before in my life, so it could only be something from when I was first created as a senshi. Even so, my memory of when I was first created in the future as a senshi is hazy. It’s better when I’m in Senshi form though.” Meian explained from her place on the couch.

“In the future? You mean Crystal Tokyo?” Rei asked, and turned around half a circle to face both Meian and the girls who played the game.

“I don’t think so… “ Meian mumbled, and reached into her memory as much as she could. “It was far into the future I think because… I don’t think Earth was there. I think it was destroyed.”

The game chimed a losing tune as Minako lost her concentration on the game from what Meian had said. Everyone in the room seemed to be taken a little aback at what the newcomer said, and wondered if this was a big joke.

Minako asked the next question. “What about the others, Meian? Was the planet Venus there, or Mars?”

“Hmm.. Planet Mars was there. But I don’t think Venus or Mercury were there for that matter. But… I do remember the sun being really big - a lot bigger than usual. Something must have happened to it.” Meian said, as she saw that Ami wrote something down as she spoke.

“But what I remember the most was this excruciating pain in my chest, and my heart stopped for a minute. I then remember seeing a giant spirit, glittering lights, and the overwhelming feeling of being lost…. And I think that’s all for now….. I think.” Meian said and looked down at her hands which were folded in her lap.

A silence fell in the room for a moment or two, the PlayConsole forgotten from the subject matter of the conversation.

“Well I’ll say one thing, I’m sick of sitting down for so long.” Usagi said as she jumped up from where she was seated, and stretched out before she sat on the couch next to Meian.

“Meian! How about a few games?” Minako said, and held up the controller that Usagi used. She waved it around in the air as to tempt Meian further.

“Against you? No way.” Meian joked, her spirits lifted at the gesture, since she just visited a particularly dark place in her memory.

“Aw, come on! I’ll be gentle!” Minako said, who just wanted someone to pummel through the game.

“Oh no she won’t.” Usagi said, her hands still sore from having played for so long.

“Okay, fine.” Meian gave up as she got up from where she was, to sit on the floor next to Minako, and Usagi replaced her on the couch. “You’re going down.”

“Oh no, you are!” Minako beamed, and resumed the game.

“Beat her, Meian! Avenge my death!” Usagi called from behind them, cheerfully. The others turned their heads to look at her like she had grown another nose - or three.

“…. I was joking?” Usagi said innocently, and waved, and affirmed that she had not lost her mind.




The next day, on the Saturday in a downtown skyscraper, Meian worked in her part time job as a junior secretary for one of the executives at Toshiba-EMI. They needed some extra work done, and she was asked to work for some overtime.

The office space itself was really well done. It had mainly a beige and black theme going - beige walls and cubicles, grey desks, black chairs with metal legs and wheels. The lights were bright white, and the shelves were mainly metal, or black wood if one had a fancier office. The elevator rested in the middle of the office, with support beams in between those and the floor-to-ceiling windows. There was a ring of offices along the perimeter of the office with half-frosted glass with patterns of lines on them, as walls in between those and the cubicles. There were solid walls between each of the private offices.

Meian returned to her desk with some tea, and sat in her seat, then entered a long sequence of data into her computer. She listened to music in one ear through an earbud headphone with one ear, and left the other ear free to listen if she was called over by one of her peers or her boss. Meian stretched her arms as she sat, and as it so happened, she was called over by a work friend who needed help with her computer.

“Meian! I need help with my computer, it’s doing something weird!” a female work friend called out from a few cubicles behind her.

“Be right there, Yurika!” Meian called out, saved her work, and left her work station for a few minutes to help her. As she walked over, she added; "You probably have too many programs on at once again, go easy on it!..."

It was now that someone new entered into the relatively quiet workspace; a woman dressed in a finely tailored business suit, marched down the space as if she owned it all. She looked around to see if Meian was there, and seeing that she wasn’t anywhere in sight, the woman walked over confidently to Meian’s vacant workspace and sat down at her desk. She snooped around her computer for a while, but instead of messing with her data and made her life miserable like she could have, she instead pulled something out of her pocket. It was a vial, which contained a substance with a slight red colour, but with the consistency almost that of honey.

“Even a little bit of this is enough. I need to make sure she gets this…” the woman murmured, careful not to speak loud enough so that she would disturb everyone.

She poured the whole contents of the vial into Meian’s green tea, stirred it in, got up and simply walked away.

“Time to kick it up a notch, Syrin.” Lady Saeryn said as she exited the office, apparently she had blended in so well that no one really noticed that she didn’t work there.

A few minutes after Lady Saeryn left the office, Meian returned to her desk, but also toting with her a stack of new papers to work on, and plopped them down on the desk. At the same time, she dropped back into her seat and sighed. She took a few sips of her tea, and scooted her chair back up to the desk. She took a second to look to her pink fish clock that was situated next to her monitor and wished that she could leave right that minute.

“Just three more hours…” Meian said as she got back her task, doing the grunt work for some old bozo.




Later that night, the Senshi which Lady Saeryn encountered, now identified as Sailor Nzeano was running through a forest as fast as she could. She eventually stopped, and looked at the amount of blood that was on her skin. Even though such skin was black, she could still see a little of it; and she could feel it, the hot sticky substance that clung to her flesh.

She looked back to the direction of which she came from, and once she heard that she wasn’t being pursued, ran over to a cold stream, stood knee-deep in it, then dropped her staff on the grass next to her. She washed as much blood as she could from herself and off of her fuku, only some of the blue and green came back through the deep crimson which stained her entire body.

The Sailor Nzeano of before, and the Sailor Nzeano of now seemed to have many differences. Sailor Nzeano, in this moment, didn’t seem to be crazed or bloodthirsty at all. She was like a child; sick from the blood, panicked and very much terrified.

“What’s happening to me?” Sailor Nzeano asked to herself, her soft voice trembled along with her hands from the shock, and also from the temperature of the water. She got out and sat on the grass up against a tree, curled up into a ball. She got herself as close as she could to herself so she could increase her body temperature.

< Those images in my mind. It’s as like I’m not in control of my body. Please, someone has to be able to help me! If Saeryn-Urai isn’t able to, then maybe the senshi I heard about… the senshi of the Saeryn Clan. Perhaps she will help me! Before I lose my mind again! > Sailor Nzeano thought as she retrieved her staff and ran out of sight.




1:21 am.

Meian tossed and turned in her bed, and tried as hard as she could to get to sleep.

“I took some sleeping pills half an hour ago…. Meian, you should be asleep soon….” she spoke aloud to herself. If this were to continue, she would probably get so frustrated that she would wake herself up even more, and the sleeping pills wouldn‘t have a chance to work.



3:46 am.

Still wide awake. Meian’s hair was now in a frazzled mess, and she was frustrated at this point. She sighed to the silence of the room, turned on the lamp, and read a small book on the stand next to her bed.



A few seconds before Meian’s alarm went off, she was still in bed, wide awake, having never been asleep at all. She, on her side, watched as her alarm sounded, and slowly took her time to shut it off.




It was an agonizingly slow day for Meian. She actually had to stay late on Sunday to finish her work because she nearly fell asleep every ten minutes, so it took her twice the amount of time to get the normal amount work done. In fact, it was now night, and it had been an hour since most people in the office left to go home. All that remained were the janitorial staff, and there was just one of them here today, with the addition of a few random other office workers. Meian was running on fumes now, and had been working for about three hours straight, when usually she would take a break every hour or two.

< Usually my body would be forcing me asleep… which is odd… > Meian thought as she took a moment or so rest from her work, since her hands were starting to hurt her. She continued to work, then figured that it was the caffeine rushing through her system that was doing it.



A while later, Meian was nearly done her work, and was finishing up while listening to her music through the same earphones she had on the day before. She did, however, hear a thump, and immediately took one of her earphones out. She was frozen for a few seconds, and tried to hear if the noise continued. It didn’t, so she continued with her work, and placed the headphone back into her ear.

It would be another few minutes until the noise was heard again, but it was louder, and closer this time, with a crash which followed it. Meian jumped right up from where she was seated, put the headphones down, and went to investigate it. She didn’t have to go far, as just slightly down the way, a couple of cubicles over, she saw Yurika slumped against one of the cubicle walls to her right.

< Wait a second, I thought she went home... > Meian thought, as she continued to look to Yurika, across from a shattered pane of glass which separated the private office from the rest of the main floor. Yurika was obviously thrown clear through it.

Meian rushed to her peer, but as soon as she got to her side, she only had to look slightly to the left to see how something like that was possible. Yurika’s boss was in the middle of transforming into a Kindred.

Meian, before the Kindred could fully mutate and be able to attack, ran to a random cubicle, away from the monster, and called the first number which came to mind; Sahkyo. After two rings, she picked up.

“Sahkyo, you have to help me NOW!” Meian pleaded as she gave no time for the woman to say a simple ‘hello‘, and at the same time, wished the woman would hurry up to respond to her.

“What’s going on, Meian?” Sahkyo asked, Meian’s tone and panic told her immediately that she was not joking around.

“It’s a Kindre-!” Meian’s line was cut off suddenly, when all of a sudden, the Kindred was right behind her. It tore the main part of the phone from its wires, and threw it against the wall, breaking it into several pieces. Meian still held the receiver part of the phone against her ear, some of the curled wire still dangled and swayed from the bottom.



Sahkyo immediately hung up the phone, and traced the call to find out where Meian called from. She redialed the number, but only got the answering service in response. However, it told Sahkyo it was the Toshiba-EMI building, and Sahkyo knew that’s where Meian had a part time job, and she knew exactly where it was. Sahkyo kicked into high gear and called Minako. She told her hurriedly of what happened, and told her to get as many senshi as she could to the downtown building as she recited the address of where it was.



Meian whipped what remained in her hand from what was once the phone at the Kindred, and ran away to distract it, as she tried to think of a good strategy. She henshined into Sailor Syrin once she made sure that the entire floor was vacant. Once she spotted Yurika again, she tried her best to distract the Kindred monster enough that it would leave her alone in such a vunerable state. Sailor Syrin used everything; chairs, plants, anything she could to slow down the monster behind her. She eventually toppled over enough items in the Kindred’s way so that she could get a good distance away from it. Instead of an escape using the elevator, she took another turn to the left and ducked into the walled off section of the office which was used as the mail and supply room. Sailor Syrin could hear the Kindred as it tore through the office to find her, and wracked her brain to think of a plan, constantly thinking that this was her first battle alone.

That thought alone made her stomach turn.

Back in the main area, the Kindred sniffed the air for Sailor Syrin, and started to slowly walk to the other side of the office, almost near where Yurika was still knocked out. It started to pass by the mail and supply room, and stood in the doorway which linked to where Sailor Syrin ducked into a moment earlier. Instead of finding the terrified senshi, it found a small, noisy wind-up toy which was abandoned on the floor, which made noise and bopped around the place. It did though, create quite a ruckus for such a small thing.

The Kindred was perplexed for a moment, and walked a few paces nearer to the toy to further inspect it, but heard a noise from behind. It turned its wide body around, knocked a few things off the shelf once to its right, and saw that Sailor Syrin was at the doorway. She left no time to let it attack her, and stepped forward into the room, and grabbed a horizontal metal pole that was used as one of the supports for the shelf. Sailor Syrin pulled and dislodged it from the shelf, which made all the supplies cascade onto the floor like a waterfall. This movement took a lot of her muscle, but she was able to get it done. As a final precaution, she also pulled out another pole one shelf above the one she just collapsed, to make the task to get over all of the office supplies that much more difficult. She wanted to delay him -- no, it, as much as possible if help was on its way.

As the Kindred climbed and punched his way through the mess, Sailor Syrin tried to calm her breath which shot in and out of her chest, while she stood on guard with both poles in her hands. She also tried to stall as much as she could while her element stabilized enough so that she could send out an attack.

Sailor Syrin had to run from the Kindred a lot earlier than she thought, since it took only a minute for the monster to figure out how to get himself out of the mess of paper, printer and Xerox machine cartridges. She ran away from it, since her element didn’t stabilize enough at all for her, and ran to a corner office not too far away from her own desk. She got into the office quickly, slammed the wood door as fast as she could, and barricaded herself using the shelf beside her, close to where the glass walls began. So until it came for her again, Sailor Syrin tried to concentrate in her mind a powerful attack to use in response.

The Kindred was eventually able to break the glass enough to fit an arm through it, right beside the bookcase, presumably to try to reach Sailor Syrin on the other side. Sailor Syrin backed up a few steps before she saw a chain of hearts wrap around the Kindred’s neck and pull it back, with shards of glass stuck into the creature’s arm. A few paces back now, the Kindred lurched to the side, revealing that it was Sailor Venus on the other side.

“Sailor Venus! Thank God!” Sailor Syrin called out, and looked through the glass to see if anyone else showed up. Not only did Sailor Venus show up, but Sailor Arcas, Sailor Mars, and Sailor Moon followed as well. Sailor Moon rushed to the corner office where Sailor Syrin was, while the other two dealt with the creature. Sailor Syrin pushed the bookcase back to where it was, and Sailor Moon opened the door. The senshi of the Moon walked up to Sailor Syrin with a concerned look.

“Sailor Syrin, are you okay?” she asked as she held the other senshi’s shoulders.

“Yeah, I’m okay.” Sailor Syrin nodded, her expression showed more than what she spoke; she was shaken, sick to her stomach, as the adrenaline still pumped through her.

“Come on, we have a Kindred to bring down!” Sailor Moon happily declared, let go of her shoulders, and headed the way out of the office and into the main area, with Sailor Syrin following after a few seconds.



By the time the senshi had brought down the rather weak Kindred monster, the office was in shambles. No item was in its place, and Sailor Syrin dreaded the time when she had to explain this to basically everyone in the office when they got there tomorrow.

The group dehensined, relieved that the fight was over. Meian had to sit down right after, so she sat on the floor, propped up on the edge of one of the cubicle walls.

“We should go, guys. I think I can manage to lie that I wasn’t here, and left just before this happened. I hope.” Meian said, got up again, and stretched her arms a little as she watched the collar which once belonged to the Kindred disintegrate. “Yurika should wake up soon and alert the authorities.”

“Yeah, let’s go.” Rei said, but all except Meian started to walk out of the office. Sahkyo noticed this and stopped.

“Meian, are you coming? I’ll drive you home.” she offered.

“Yeah, I’ll meet you down there, I need to gather some of my things. Can you wait a few minutes?” she asked, and motioned her left hand to her desk.

“Sure, just don’t take too long.” Sahkyo said, and followed the others to the elevator.

“Remember to thank the others for me! I can’t believe I forgot!” Meian called out as she disappeared, and Sahkyo waved her hand in acknowledgement behind her.

Meian then collected random items from her desk and placed them into her schoolbag and purse. This took her about thirty seconds, as the need to get out of the building was a little too strong for her. She was nearly done when she saw a shadow in the corner of her eye, and when she directly looked at it, she saw that it was Saeryn-Italus in his battle gear.

“What do you want?” Meian asked, not really wanting to see him at the moment. She continued to gather her things, and place things in order before she shoved them into her bag.

“That’s no way to greet me. You will address me as Saeryn-Italus, or Brother, if you wish.”

“Yes, Aniki.” Meian deferred, since she knew that he could snap her neck any time he wished to.

“That’s better. I know what it means in your language. Aniki means 'elder brother', does it not?” said Saeryn-Italus, or Aniki now, happy with that - for the time being. “I was here, watching your battle with the Kindred before you received the help you begged for. The people of our Clan never beg. It is below us, you understand me?”

“Wait a minute! Why didn’t you help me, Aniki?” Meian asked, a little shocked that she could have been killed easily by that creature.

“The creation of a Kindred, although unfortunate, was indeed fortunate here so I could see more of your battle skills - or lack thereof. I have decided that we will instead start tomorrow.” Aniki finished, and turned away to exit the floor.

“Start what?”

“Your training. Go home and get some sleep. For you, the first training will be exceptionally difficult.” Aniki said, as he took the stairs down, and out of the building.

Meian took no time to get out of the building, and when she was at the street, with Sahkyo waiting for her with her car running, she saw Aniki nowhere. It was as if he actually disappeared.




Late the next day, Monday evening in a forested, hardly-visited area of a fairly large park near where Meian lives, she and Saeryn-Italus had just started their training. Meian wasn’t late as he thought she would be, as she was just a few minutes shy of the deadline when she showed up. He also noticed that as she set her belongings down near the edge of the training area he had prepared, that she looked a little frustrated.

“Tell me what is wrong.” Saeryn-Italus ordered.

“Well I’m sorry, Aniki, I’m just a little beyond frustrated. I didn’t get any sleep again last night, and I’m starting to feel a little rangy.” Meian said as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail and put a sweater on. She was also angry that she had to put an abrupt end to the time she had spent at home with her sister and her boyfriend, since they planned something special for her today.

“Mouth off again to me and I’ll give you something to mouth off about.” he threatened, his eyes showed that he wasn’t joking in the least. Meian’s eyes widened, the look he gave her shook her to the core. It wasn’t just a simple look, but the energy around the eyes. She couldn’t put her finger on it either.

Saeryn-Italus went to one of the trees and picked up two long objects which were leaned against the side of it. He tossed one of them to Meian, and she saw that it was a wooden sword, crafted by hand. They were at least four feet long, and had a lot of weight and strength to them. Before she could look back to her trainer, she felt a strong and sudden impact on her forearm, which caused her to fall to the ground, then hold her arm where she felt the strike. Meian looked back up and saw that Saeryn-Italus stood above her, the very point of the sword close enough to her face that if she moved even slightly, she would touch it.

“What the hell was that for?!” Meian yelled, but only felt a slap to the face from a very strong hand. She then felt a rather rough tug of her hair, as he had grabbed onto a good few locks immediately after he slapped her. Meian winced with a hiss of her breath, and looked to him through the thin spaces between her eyelids.

“You will NEVER speak to me that way! Do you understand?!” Saeryn-Italus screamed at her, and gave her a light shake of her head as emphasis. “You will ONLY address me with the utmost respect! Am I making myself clear?!”

“Okay, okay.” Meian gave up, who just wanted her hair to remain on her head. She also wanted for the legacy of a bald senshi to remain with Sailor Arcas, and leave it at that. Saeryn-Italus let her go with a shove of her head, and walked over to the central part of the training area.

“These will do for now. Pick up your sword.” Saeryn-Italus ordered, and motioned with his own crafted sword to hers which was now beside her on the grass.

Meian remained on the ground for a moment, and resolved not to let the whole hair-tug incident bother her - this was probably how he communicated with everyone. Or so she hoped that was the case. She got up and dusted off her jeans and stood opposite to him, the sword at her side.

“Ready, Aniki.” she said, the man nodded in response. He didn’t even seem sorry that he was so strict with her.

He then charged towards Meian, and did an upper cut with his sword, but Meian miraculously was able to make it mostly out of the way. Saeryn-Italus continued to charge at her, but either dodged or was hit by his sword. If they were real swords, she would have not survived it. She was repeatedly smacked in the arms, legs, back, chest and neck when she wasn’t able to dodge the attacks.

“Attack me, Meian! Stop taking the coward’s way out!” he barked at her, a way for him to encourage her to defend herself.

“Why aren’t you letting me have a turn?” Meian asked, and dodged another blow.

“Because your enemy will not!” He responded.

Aniki made a good point though.

The next hour mimicked such a pattern for this first training session; Meian was struck by Aniki’s sword, she was stunned and couldn’t fight back. He would continue to attack and order her to retaliate, and she either couldn’t or refused to. Meian, after that first hour, just simply collapsed onto the ground, and refused to let out the tears which threatened to fall. She could handle much pain, yes, but Aniki also hit the same spots over and over again, and she was sure that she would get at least one or two nasty bruises - if she was REALLY lucky. She only cried a little bit, and decided to try and go after Saeryn-Italus one or two more times before she gave up for the night.

Saeryn-Italus also noticed these few tears, and scoffed. “Don’t let me catch you doing that again, ether.”

“Yes, Aniki.” Meian nodded, again reminded herself to keep her hair where it was - on her head.

Aniki decided that it was enough for a first training session, and that he would work on getting her endurance - nay, her entire battle skills - up to par. They took a rest on the ground, but Meian was really uncomfortable, as he struck her lower back several times, and it would ache for at least a few days.

Meian hated taking the subservient role. She also hated that she had to take this abuse simply for the reason that he was one of the only people that she could trust. She didn’t know why she let him treat her the way he did, and continued to, but if this was for the better and would make her stronger, then she would have to see it through - right? She hoped that it would be worth it, in the end.

It was silent for a very long time as the two sat on the ground, faced to each other, and with a partial distance away from one another. Meian didn’t exactly know what to say in this situation, and neither did Aniki.

“So… can I go now?” Meian asked after a while, as she thought that she had enough rest after the session and could make it home on her own steam, since her back felt better as well.

“Not yet. I know this is a custom here on this planet, for this day,” Aniki said, as he pulled something out of the pouch which was strapped to his right thigh. He looked at it for a minute before he tossed it over to the ground in front of Meian. “So this is now yours.”

Meian picked up the item, but didn’t look at it, only to the man in front of her.

“How….? …. Thank you, Aniki.” Meian said in response, not wanting to get a slap for not thanking him in an appropriate way. She didn’t want to set him off again and lose a limb this time.

Meian looked down at her hand, and found that it was a small box. It was made of a peculiar stone, etched with symbols and designs that she couldn’t figure out the origin of. One thing was for sure, that it wasn’t from this planet. Meian opened the box, and found that in it was a long strip of metal which was curled and twisted around itself numerous times, which had light etching which gave it texture, so it must have been used a lot. She wasn’t sure why, but in three places, it had worn and torn away pieces of cloth tied around near the ends to keep them attached. Looking at it, one wouldn’t have guessed that it would have any magical property. On the whole, it took just over the size of her palm, and the box it came in took a little more than that, and both looked like they were very old.

“It’s a relic used by the Saeryn Clan. The Great Saeryn first made it for me, and it has been passed down through each of the children to aide them in battle. It is a support device, and used to heal the body from the smallest of gashes to a grave mortal wound. Once you are trained enough, you will be able to use it. Keep it safe, there’s no replacing it.”




20 minutes later, Meian returned - more like limped - home, and everyone must have turned in by now, so she was as quiet as she could be. She trudged around the apartment, and put away random items from her short birthday celebration, one that she was reluctant to even leave, but thought twice to consider Aniki’s threat that he would come and ‘get her’.

Which she was sure that it would result in pain.

Meian got herself to her own room through the dim lighting, and stood in the doorway for a minute before she dragged herself to her bed, and collapsed on it, fully clothed.

Meian doubted again if she would get any sleep this night either.




Much to Sailor Nzeano’s horror, she indeed lost her mind again. She was curled up into a fetal position, somewhere in a warehouse in Tokyo’s industrial district.

She was also surrounded by nothing but darkness in a giant room, with a thick layer of blood on the concrete floor, bodies scattered as far as she could see in this dim light. Her staff laid on the ground in front of her, the spikes and smooth parts of it coated with the same blood as was on the floor. She raised her hands like she has done so many times before, and saw only the glimmer which shone of the blood which was again, all over them.

“How did it get this far? I don’t mean to do these things….” Sailor Nzeano whispered, the sound echoed off the walls and back to her ears. The sickening smell of blood attacked her senses, of which she was all too used to by now.

For as long as she had been in this city, she has been woken up by these senses; blood, bodies and the cries of help from the ones soon to die. Had she been in the control of another being? She couldn’t recall, but then again, she probably wasn’t meant to if she had been. The one thing she remembered in these times of lucidity was once having the feeling of absolute, pure rage. And in these states, could she do something to others like the scene that she now saw in front of her? Did she keep doing these things with her own two hands - or staff in this case?

She couldn’t have….. But it was true. The evidence was all over her. Every time she was in control of her thoughts, and was aware of herself, she had to clean blood off of herself.

She still didn’t find the senshi she had been looking for; the senshi of the Saeryn Clan. She remembered how Saeryn-Urai denied her mercy, so she hoped that the senshi she will continue to look for would take pity on and help her.

Sailor Nzeano had a very unfortunate past. From the moment she discovered she was a senshi, fortune had not smiled on her. Yes, she was a senshi, but was not blessed with a guardian to help her along the way. She remembered this, but it was very vague. Her life continued to pass through her mind - even if it might have been an illusion. Her decline started the minute she became a senshi, and searched through many galaxies to try and find a teacher to help her to use her powers the way they should have been, but found not a thing.

The same pain now started to plague her body, and ran though her like poisonous water. She could feel it even now, as she recalled her life, her insides and her limbs throbbing under the familiar sting. The pain started to swim swiftly through her body, and soon she would wake up again in the state she was now, in a different place and time, with destruction all around her.

If she could not find the senshi who belonged to the Saeryn Clan, she feared the worst, both for herself and for the people around her: innocent people who did not deserve the wrath of a senshi too far gone to be saved such as her.

She started to panic, grabbed her staff and got up and then out of the warehouse she was in. Some of the still not dead of the bodies which littered the floor called out to the movement of another person, to find some sort of help, but Sailor Nzeano never looked back. She tried to get to a source of water to wash herself off, so the blood wouldn’t stain the fabric of her fuku.

“I have to end this.” Sailor Nzeano mumbled as she turned a corner and out of the area.




It had been two weeks since Meian started her training with Saeryn-Italus, or ‘Aniki’ as she called him, and her abilities had already started to improve. She was a little more agile, had more stamina, and her strength started to build up. This didn’t mean that her trainer had slacked, it meant the opposite actually - that he was getting tougher and tougher on her each day that she trained, and the duration of such training nights went from one hour to sometimes four.

This particular training session was especially long - it had been going on for about seven hours now, and they were in a sword duel at the moment. Meian now was able to get a good jabs in to her trainer, but saw something out of the corner of her eye, which distracted her from the training. Aniki then only took that opportunity to pull off an attack combination with his sword, and landed a particularly hurtful blow to Meian’s already bruised shoulder. Meian cried out, but Aniki wouldn’t hear anything of it.

“Concentrate!”

Aniki also noticed that she had gradually become more and more tired during the training sessions, despite her progress with it. Meian still looked wildly around her, and tried to pick up any shadows or light for it being night at the moment, and only had the glow of the lamp that Aniki had on, and also the glow which came from the Moon.

He could see her frustration increase, as well as her exhaustion level, and lowered his wooden sword.

“Tomorrow we will start with real swords. I will give you a day’s rest. Get some sleep.” Aniki said, as he packed up his items.

< If. > Meian thought as she plopped down onto the ground for several minutes, and tried to recover from such a long session. She eventually managed to drag herself up to her feet, and walked over to her belongings. She put her heavy jacket on which hung from a trimmed tree branch, and headed home. She did think on the bright side, that she had that day off. She dreaded though, that she would probably just use it to catch up with homework.




It was a cool November night, and Meian has had the apartment to herself for the majority of the evening, so she was curled up on the couch, with a long, heavy skirt and a sweater, trying to relax. One thing was different about tonight also. She had been informed by Heisuke - Kaya’s boyfriend - that he was going to propose to her sister tonight! So Meian was all set up, the remote control in one hand, and the phone right next to her so she wouldn’t miss that call.

It was around 6:00pm now, and Meian started to become a little worried.

< Kaya, if you don’t say yes, I swear -- > Meian thought, when the phone startled her from her left. She muted the television, picked up the phone, and heard a few delighted squeals from the other end. Heisuke had just proposed to her a minute or so ago, and they were now headed to their Aunt’s place, where their parents stayed for a few days. Their Mother had a doctor’s appointment, and decided to make a weekend out of it.



As a nice change of pace, Meian decided that tonight she would have a bath instead of a shower. Their bathtub wasn’t the biggest in the world, but she figured that it was uncomfortable because she wasn’t used to taking one. After the relaxing soak, Meian slipped into her fluffy robe, loosely tied it, and walked into the living room to watch some more television and slip into a warm blanket.

That was, until the doorbell rang.

Meian, who was very relaxed at this point, made a noise which was a cross between a sigh and a groan. Reluctantly, she went to the door and looked through the keyhole to find none other than Ronin standing there, with bags in his hands. Meian unlocked and opened the door, and he held the bags up near his head, and grinned.

“Up for American movies and junk food?”

“Neither of them sound very good right now…” Meian dreaded a night dedicated to explosion-filled guy movies, which starred a certain over-steroid-pumped Austrian actor. “Come on, they’re a good combination! Besides Meian, we haven’t seen much of each other in the past two weeks, and especially since you’ve been out with that hunk of rotten meat you call ‘Zen’.” Ronin said as he made his way into her apartment, took the door from her hands and closed it for her. He walked over to a small side table and put down the two bags he had, filled with the bounty of snack foods and videocassettes he wanted to share with her.

“Alright, Ronin.” Meian smiled. “I’ll be right back.”

Meian turned away to go and change, but just as she turned, her robe loosely tied at the time accidentally opened and slid down her left arm - thusly exposing her left shoulder all the way to her waist.

Both Ronin and Meian’s faces turned a bright shade of red as both looked down and saw her exposed bosom. Ronin stared at it for a brief moment, delighted at the sight, but on the other hand, Meian couldn’t be more embarrassed. She brought up her right hand to cover herself, but as she did so, she did not see Ronin’s expression turn from one of shame to that of worry as he saw dark splotches which marred her skin. Ronin reached out to her with his left hand and caught it before she could even make herself decent.

There were two large bruises; a long one on the outer part of her arm, and smaller, darker one slightly below her collarbone. With his other hand, he reached out to the bruise near her neck and gently brushed it with the pads of his fingers, since he didn’t want to cause her more pain.

Meian winced and struggled to cover herself up and to get herself out of his grasp, but she was too weak at the moment to struggle against him. Ronin’s eyes filled with an unidentifiable anger, and he looked at her.

“Mei… Meian. Is Zen hurting you?” He asked.

There was silence then on both their parts.

“IS HE?!” Ronin yelled, wanting the question to get through to her.

There was silence once again.

“I’ll kill him… You know, I should have done something when I first noticed a few scrapes and bruises those weeks ago, you know here and there, but I figured that you hurt him back! I didn’t know that he was hurting you like this! Now I know the reason why you‘ve been so distant these past two weeks! Damnit, I‘ll KILL him!” Ronin was in full anger mode, let go of Meian’s hand and took his coat from where it was slung over the back of the sofa, and started to march his way out of the apartment.

“Ronin, just stop for a minute!” Meian called out just as he had his hand on the doorknob, since she was a little stunned at his outburst just a short moment ago. He turned around abruptly, and gave Meian a glance - such a look she was not used to, especially from him. She sighed shakily before she started to speak again. “It’s not Zen.”

Ronin took his hand away from the doorknob, and gave Meian one last chance before he would storm out and raise some hell.

“I… “ Meian began. She sighed, and racked her brain for what to say, and how to word it for him. “I just haven’t been sleeping at all lately, for the past few weeks...And I’ve just been clumsy, and that’s why I have these bruises. Please don‘t be mad.”

“I’m not buying it.” With a shake of his head, Ronin turned to the door again.

Just as Ronin turned the lock, Meian reached into the last bit of energy she had left, ran over to him, and locked her arms around him. Ronin couldn’t put up much of a fight at this time. Yes, he was angry, but he also had the mind not to hurt one of the only friends he really ever had - and would put up with him.

At this moment he was also reminded of Meian and the effect she had on him. It was also a particular shampoo she frequented to use, which always touched a soft spot inside him - a sweet smell which for him, could identify her if she were stuck in crowds of people.

< You’re losing it, Ronin… > his inner voice remarked.

“Ronin, please… I don’t need you to go fight my battles. I just need a friend.” Meian added. “I need you…”

Ronin’s resolve collapsed as his heart leapt at her words, and ceased his rampage out of the door. Meian was relieved as he relaxed in front of her. She was frustrated and physically shaken not only for the fact that she was exhausted in every sense of the word, but also for the fact that every sense that she possessed told - no, screamed at her to tell her best friend exactly what was going on. However she knew that if she told him, she would put him in a dangerous position, and she didn’t want harm to come to him.

“I just need you to be here, Ronin. I’m…. just tired, all the time. Please Ronin, we can talk about it after a movie.” Meian’s voice was softer now, as she laid her cheek on Ronin’s back.

All she could do, was just let it out. Meian cried, but not so much that it could be heard from the next apartment. Meian didn’t even know that she held in all this tension and frustration, but she was glad that Ronin was there. Meian’s arms grew limp around Ronin, and he was able to turn around in her arms and hug her back.

“Okay, Meian. I won‘t kill him…. Yet.” Ronin said quietly, and brought his hand up to rest on the back of her neck. “Go and get changed, take your time, and I should have the movie and snacks set up by the time you get back. But be warned, if you‘re not back in ten minutes, I‘m starting without you.”

Meian nodded, smiled a little, and reluctantly walked out of Ronin’s embrace to go to her room.

Ronin though, just felt like punching something. Something else was going on that she hasn’t told him about, and he needed to find out what. He felt powerless in this moment however, whether she had just told him the truth or otherwise.



Chapter Sixteen