Chapter Seventeen
< How many months has it been since all this started? > Meian thought, as she dodged an attack from Aniki. < It’s had to have been at least two. Attack after attack from the Kindred. Some are a lot bigger than others, but… actually, most smaller ones can be taken down by just one or two senshi, including myself. >
Meian was in another training session. She was weak not only in body and mind, but she was also weakened spiritually.
< What worries me is that there haven’t been any attacks in the last few days since Sailor Nzeano … was killed. They’re gearing up for something, and I’ve never been more on edge. >
Earlier on that day, she had lost her job at the music company. Her boss caught her a little dazed because of her extreme fatigue and thought she had slacked off. She couldn’t explain it actually, her energy just… crashed. Never mind for the fact that nearly everyone in the office suspected her for the near destruction of the office because she was one of the last people in that night. Meian had been slipping up a lot recently because of her complete absence of sleep, and with all those factors in mind, her boss had enough, and she was axed.
So even with all this, Meian didn’t seem to care.
Meian and Aniki were in their usual place of training, and since Meian lost her job, in Aniki’s eyes, she just gained time to train with him. It actually has now been eight hours since the end of school, dead midnight, and Meian had run out of usable energy half-way through.
She just didn’t have it in her anymore.
Meian felt a sharp pain in her leg, and she collapsed to her knees, looking up to the lone street light which had been placed here.
“Get up!” Aniki barked at her, but Meian made no movement. “Now!” < She won’t be able to tell, but the high demon in her is starting to awaken in that human shell. It is faint though. The aura is undeniable. >
“Very well, then.” Aniki sheathed his sword, and threw it next to a bundle on the ground beside one of the trees which circled the small area. “Since you will not put any energy into your training, it must be all these distractions here on your Earth. Friends, family, et cetera. Therefore I will remove you from this place, and you will come with me to a planet to train which will be more suitable for your development. Training you here would only be a further waste of my time. Additionally, it will be impossible for you to reach your potential here on this rock.”
“Wait, Aniki…” Meian began, but he stopped her with a motion of his hand.
“The time is not now. But it will be soon, and there will be a sign which will tell us when to go. It could be anytime, but I suspect by your development so far, that it will be soon. Do not blame me, youngling. You have no one to blame but yourself.
“I am disappointed though. You have barely been trying.”
< It’s because I haven’t slept in a month, you -- > “How long will I be gone?” Meian asked instead.
“That will also depend on you, but seeing from the lack of effort that you have shown since the beginning, it could be more than four months on Earth’s schedule. Now go.” Aniki ended as he picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder.
“You should be ashamed of yourself. I’m doing you a great honour by training you myself, and you have put it to waste.” he added before he transported himself out of the area.
Meian waited a few moments before collapsing to the grass-covered ground on her side.
She had been giving it all her effort. She was seeing things, hearing things, been attacked and then was forced to attack. Battle after battle, training after training, night after night. And if she did go away, then what would her family say? What would her friends say? She dreaded the thought.
Meian arrived home at around 12:30 that night, barely able to walk anymore, and didn’t feel actually, that she wanted to live. She was quiet as she could when she closed the door, but noticed that a few of the living room lights were on. Meian dropped her bag next to the door, and hung up her coat.
“Kaya, is that you?” Meian asked to the direction of the living room as she removed her shoes. She bent down to arrange them so that they took up the least amount of room, but as she got back up, she found herself staring directly at Ronin.
And he didn’t look too happy.
“Ronin? What --”
“Where the hell have you been??” he demanded. “You didn’t come home after school, I thought you were dead in a ditch somewhere!”
< Close to it, Ronin… close to it. > Meian thought as she didn’t even respond. He sighed, but as she turned her head away from him, he lightly touched her forehead where a bruise appeared on her. Meian made no movement to back away. Not only that, but she ignored it when the sting from the bruise entered her brain, as she had more energy to react. Nor did she have the energy to decide whether or not to question how Ronin knew that she didn’t come home.
Nor did she have knowledge that he installed cameras to keep an eye out on her in case something like this were to happen.
“Meian, where have you been?” he asked again. “Did you go see Zen again? Did you go back after all that he said to you, and he decided to smack you around a little?”
“No Ronin, of course not, but…” Meian said, but instead of giving excuse after excuse, she just made an outright lie. If Aniki were going to move her off of the Planet to a completely alien environment, she had to start lying. She didn’t like the idea, but it had to be done to protect him. “I… Just came back from speaking to my parents. They know this and I think you should know too… The truth is.. That I’ve been physically abusing myself… So, I’m going to live with a few relatives on Shikoku. The family decided that I will go on the pilgrimage to the temples there.”
“… There are 88 of those damn things!…... Why?” Ronin asked, a little bit stunned at this development.
“A lot of people do it for different reasons. Mine is to find the direction in my life that I need and to find spiritual healing so I don’t hurt myself anymore.” Meian explained.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” He asked, never knowing before now what religion she might be.
“I suppose…. I just thought I could deal with it. Just like I thought that if I stayed with Zen long enough that he would change, that… eventually, things will even out, but… it hasn’t turned out that way in the least. Boy was I wrong.” Meian explained.
“Well…. I’ll respect your decision then. I don’t have to like it.” Ronin said, “When are you going?”
“Soon. I just don’t know exactly when. But I’ll give you a call when I’m leaving for the airport.” Meian promised, knowing that he’d want to be a part of this.
Meian yawned, and stretched out her arms.
“Sleepy?” Ronin asked, only to get a laugh from Meian. “What’s so funny?”
“I…. Sleep and I really don’t get along that well. I haven’t slept well or at all in the last week.” Meian was under exaggerating, but she didn’t want him to worry that much.
“Well then, come on…”
Ronin said as he took her by the hand to her bedroom. He let go of her in the middle of her room, and went to the door. Meian frankly, thought that he had something else in mind, and was relieved when he let go of her.
“Get dressed for bed.” he said, and as he closed the door, he added; “If you’re not ready in two minutes, I’m coming in anyways.”
Sure enough that two minutes later, Ronin was back into the room, and Meian was in a flannel pajama top and bottom, in a plain blue colour. Ronin nodded his head and walked over to her.
“Now, you’re going to get into bed, and I’ll be here to make sure you get to sleep.” he said.
Ronin turned down the covers, and held a hand out to her to guide her in. She did so without too much fuss, and by this time, she didn’t have much energy to do so. As Meian laid down, Ronin pulled up a chair beside the bed and pulled up a book that was on her study desk.
“You’re going to read the play that my class is going to put on?” Meian asked as she sighed, and faced Ronin on her side, and pulled up the blankets up to her chest.
“Yeah, I mean why not? If this turns out to be porn after all, then all the better, and I don‘t make much noise anyways. Now sleep.” Ronin said as he leaned back in Meian’s chair, and she tried to relax.
Even though Ronin watched her. Besides, he only had her best interests at heart.
At that same time, Lady Saeryn was working on a hand-held poker game in her own office, which was in a very unknown location. She finished up a few games, and thought to herself;
< Stupid Saeryn-Italus. Telling ME to take off the spell on Meian. I say she could have gone longer without sleep. Actually, that’d be funny to see… >
As she lost one of her hands on the small electronic device, she placed it down on her desk, and leaned back into her chair.
< Oh well… Something much more delightful will happen instead to her, so… I guess I just need to be patient. > She thought as she turned off her lamp and left the room.
The morning came very quickly, as Meian had actually fallen asleep sometime during the night and hadn’t realized it until she woke up. It took her a while for her eyes to adjust to the light, but when they did, she noticed that Ronin no longer sat next to her bed in the chair.
< I can’t believe it…. I slept for the first time in… months. I’m still tired as hell, but at least it’s a little less now. > Meian thought.
She started to rise to rest on her elbow, but found that she couldn’t move normally due to a snag in the blankets. It took only a few seconds for her brain to register the familiar smell in the room, but couldn‘t find the source. She turned around to the wall and found Ronin sleeping very soundly - and rather ungracefully - on his back, on top of the covers. He probably slipped in sometime during the night after he knew she was asleep.
Ronin then stirred, shifted to lay on his side and spooned Meian in his half asleep daze. He had also placed his wandering left hand on Meian’s hip, dangerously near her more private of parts.
Meian was more or less frozen in place. She didn’t know whether to just wiggle out of his grasp or pillow-whip him to death for it. She turned under his arm, and kept her hip where it was so she wouldn’t give him an excuse to lay a hand where it shouldn’t go. When Meian looked at Ronin, he was very much awake, and sheepishly raised an eyebrow.
“Come on, it’s just me.” Ronin said, obvious to say that he should get a free grope or two because he wouldn’t hurt her. He knew that it would never happen, but it was always worth it to try.
Well, no one said that he didn’t have a secret plan of his own.
“Okay sleepy head. Get ready, I’m taking you and your friends to a baseball game.” Ronin said as he hopped over Meian, and got out of the bed, and went down the hall.
So it was a baseball game this time. Meian, still in bed and very comfortable where she was, started to do a few calls to the numbers which she knew belonged to part of their group. She dialed a number, and as she waited for someone to answer it, she stretched out, and loved how it felt to wake up after a night of slumber again.
Besides, show Meian one person who would turn down a free Baseball game.
From the second that Lady Saeryn had learned that a good group of senshi were going to be gathered, she was overcome with delight. She got Sailor Illargia and she went to the stadium, but disguised both herself and her senshi in regular clothes, so no one was the wiser. Lady Saeryn took out some makeup and covered up most of the scratches on Sailor Illargia’s face, and some concealer for the dark circles which were constantly under her eyes. So despite for one having white hair which faded to a light blue, and the other for having plum-coloured hair, they looked for the most part, normal.
As soon as the majority of the crowd were in their seats, the two peered into the stands from a crowded part of the seats, and looked around to find Meian to see where she was. Of course if you find one of them, you’ll find them all. Lady Saeryn wanted to waste as little time as possible.
As she looked out to the crowd, the disguised senshi saw - more like sense - several shadows behind them. Sailor Illargia walked away from Lady Saeryn, who was having a little too much fun looking at all the people when they didn’t know they were being watched. She might be a closet voyeur, who knows.
“Good. You all made it.” Sailor Illargia said as she addressed a group of humans whose eyes were glowing, and wore the same outfit - a plain beige top and bottom, with black shoes. “I want all of you to close off the gates here. The rest of you will stand by at this gate, and remain inconspicuous. You will get the signal from me to change.”
In the stands, practically all 13 of the group showed up, which made Meian a little curious as to how Ronin could afford all of the tickets. She questioned him earlier, but he said that he could handle it. So, whatever contact he had with the ticket master, he was a lifesaver, and all of them could sit together in the audience. And quite close to the playing field as well, which was surprising.
The players started to spread themselves throughout the field, as the opposing team took the plate. The group settled themselves in for nine long innings of what they hoped would be a lot of fun.
“Goddamnit.”
“Meian?” Ronin asked, a little concerned.
“Ronin, I forgot something in the car, can you go and get it for me?” Meian asked of him.
“I just sat down, can‘t you get it?” Ronin complained, but got up anyways, and admitted defeat. “Alright, what is it?”
“It’s my camera. I think it dropped out of my purse when I picked it up from the floor of the car, so it might be underneath a seat somewhere.” Meian said in a very thankful tone, and called after him when he started to jump up the stairs, and took them one or two at a time. “I owe you big time!”
“I’ll hold you to that!” he called back, now out of the seating area.
It wasn’t noticed right away, but all of a sudden a woman appeared just a little ways from second base, and refused to move. Even when the umpire and security came to get her out of the way - mainly for her safety - they couldn’t move her. The woman started to glow, and her civilian clothing disappeared to reveal her true appearance.
As Sailor Illargia.
Setsuna sat up in her seat, and said to Michiru on her right;
“That’s the senshi who appeared in the castle. Sailor Illargia.” she said, and had to speak over the crowd, which was alive with voices of speculation. ‘Is this an act?’ ‘Is she an alien?’
That question was never answered, as Sailor Illargia’s hands started to glow with the same light, and pointed her fingers to the men around her. Immediately their bodies went limp, and collapsed to the ground, and left only their starseeds which floated in the air.
< Come out and play, Saeryn… > the voice of Lady Saeryn echoed through Meian’s mind, which sent a chill up her spine. If her suspicions were true, then they were in for a lot more trouble than just a light show.
“Guys, that senshi won’t stop until we’re all dead.” Makoto said as she kept her eyes trained to the field.
“I think Lady Saeryn has something to do with it… I just heard her voice in my head.” Meian said, not wanting to hold information like that from them.
“Oh god.” Hotaru said, looking to Sailor Illargia, who saw an energy blast going right towards them. “DUCK!”
The energy blast barely made it past them, singed the tops of the backs of their seats, and instead attacked the people in the row behind them, which included a few more rows after that.
All of those attacked had their starseeds ripped from their now lifeless bodies. Screams erupted as the destruction finally became real, and crowds started to evacuate out of the building. The same people which Sailor Illargia spoke to before all this happened stood at every other gateway out of the area. A few seconds passed before their illuminated eyes overwhelmed them and fully morphed into Kindred monsters, and started to attack random people as they fled. Of course they couldn’t attack all of the bystanders, so thankfully some were able to flee, unharmed. This of course was a good thing, which only meant that Lady Saeryn wants their attention more than anything.
Starseed after starseed floated towards the centre of the stadium, and gathered in a ring around Sailor Illargia. The senshi, henshined, now in full sailor form had a huddle to try and get a handle on the situation.
“Alright guys.” Sailor Moon started. “Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune, and Sailor Jupiter, all of you help the people trying to exit the stadiums through the main entrances, and then lock them so they can‘t get back in. We have to make sure they make it safely out of the building. We’ll try to take care of whatever Sailor Illargia and Lady Saeryn have planned.”
“I’ll try my best, Sailor Moon. The rest of you, be careful.” Sailor Jupiter said as she followed the other two out of the seating area.
As soon as the senshi turned their attention to the senshi in the middle of the field, the ring of starseeds vanished, and Sailor Illargia lowered herself to the ground, then ran away. The senshi quickly split themselves off and tried to cover as many gates as they could to try and cut Sailor Illargia off. The most strange thing was that where there once were Kindred, they were nowhere to be found, which just left empty halls, as all of the spectators had fled by this point.
After ten minutes of the chase, the senshi started to tire out. Sailor Mercury finally stopped, and pulled out her very handy computer to try and locate the enemy, as just running around in a nauseating circle didn’t seem to work for them anymore. The status of all living beings in the stadium showed up in a mini map on the computer display, and showed a high concentration of energy in the field where Sailor Illargia was.
“Everyone, stop! They’re back in the field!” Sailor Mercury recited, and jogged to the next gate so she could see for herself. As she looked to the field through her visor, it reported that there were at least 143 life forms out there, in the field alone. “Oh no…”
“What is it, Sailor Mercury?” Sailor Arcas asked, she as well as all in the group were trying to gain their breath again.
“There are at least 140 life forms out there. Almost all of them are Kindred.”
“Come on out, Sailor Senshi! It’s just all of us, now!” Sailor Illargia called from the field, her eerie voice echoed even through the hallways which they were in.
From their different places throughout the place, the sailor senshi took the safest route and only stood in the doors to the area. What Sailor Mercury had reported from her computer was true. The field in front of them just teemed of the bodies of the Kindred, and the scent of blood assaulted their senses from those who had perished at the senshi’s hands.
“Well, now that I have your full attention, I will be leaving now for the castle. Oh, Sailor Pluto, I do believe you know where I mean. Ta ta for now…” Sailor Illargia said before in an instant, she disappeared, along with every single Kindred which had come with her. The stadium was a deadly silence before the whole group of warriors gathered where the kindred once were, and quickly talked between themselves.
“So what was this? Just a chance to kill random people for just fun?” Sailor Neptune asked, a little ticked off by now.
“This is horrible!” Sailor Mars said, still looking to the loss of life as evidenced by the vacant bodies.
“Does anyone know what she meant about a castle?” Sailor Uranus asked.
“I think I do.” Sailor Pluto reported, then looked up. “Charon!”
As sure as the sunrise, Charon appeared just above them, and floated down in a small spiral to stop right in front of Sailor Pluto.
“Yes, Princess!” Charon said in her high-toned voice, and did a little bow to her.
“We need to do a Sailor Teleport, we will need you to help guide us the way to the Castle.” Sailor Pluto requested of her handmaiden. “I know you are more than capable of doing so.”
“You can count on me!” Charon exclaimed, as she levitated near the centre of the group, and waited for Sailor Pluto’s signal to begin to guide them.
“Alright then, I think we should determine who’s going.” Sailor Venus brought up. “Sorry to bring it up, but this might be a set-up to get us off Earth and attack while we’re away.”
“You’re right,” Sailor Moon thought for a moment, and continued, and spoke in a very confident voice. “Okay! Sailor Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Pluto, Syrin and Arcas will come with Tuxedo Kamen and me to Charon Castle. The rest of you are more than capable of protecting Earth, or at least taking down a few good Kindred. Okay?”
Sailor Saturn, Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune all took a few steps back and gathered in a small group, and watched as the rest of the senshi started to gather their energy for the teleport. Each senshi held the hands of the one beside them, as they closed their eyes. Sailor Moon however, noticed that Sailor Syrin seemed a little lost, and didn’t know exactly what to do.
“Don’t worry, Sailor Syrin.” Sailor Moon said, and then told her exactly what she told ChibiUsa the first time she had to travel with the senshi off of the spaceship. “Just think of the place you want to go to, and we’ll all make it there together.”
Sailor Moon’s assured smile was enough for the newer Senshi, and Sailor Syrin concentrated as much energy as she could. She was scared for a few reasons; the fact that her element is still in flux and could throw off the teleport and they could end up Gods know where, and that she would do something wrong anyways, and the teleport would be a colossal failure. What Sailor Syrin didn’t know was that the other senshi had similar concerns.
Those fears were elated as soon they were no longer on Earth, but flew through a windy tunnel, all still in the gigantic circle, and followed the tiny figure of Charon through it. The tiny sprite emitted a light that all could follow her, even though it was very tempting to close their eyes from how dry they became.
The senshi, with the addition of Tuxedo Kamen and Charon, soon felt their surroundings change as the wind died down, and all started to feel normal again.
They had successfully transported themselves to the metal corridors of the Charon castle.
Immediately after Sailor Illargia transported out of the stadium, she had appeared again in Charon castle, and right away she started on another goal. Instead of walking, she floated amongst the corridors of the structure, since her legs had tired out in all the activity of before. She flew as fast as she could through the palace, and carried a string of glowing light behind her. She took tiny sections of that string, which acted as a magical tape for the newest creation - Kindred Mirages - to locate themselves throughout the Palace.
Sailor Illargia was especially confident with the Kindred Mirages. Not only were these full fledged Kindred monsters, but they had the ability to possess small amounts of magic to use while in battle.
Content with the work Lady Saeryn asked her to complete, and with the tiny strips of the tape distributed evenly throughout the corridors, she returned to the Throne room.
As she floated to the front door to the ancient room, she finally started to walk on the ground again, her cold, dead feet barely carried her as she walked painfully over to Lady Saeryn. Sailor Illargia fell to her knees in front of the other woman, in her full demon incarnation, and held out her hands. An orb of dusty lime green and maroon swirled energy, it materialized into a velvet pouch, filled with pointed objects. Lady Saeryn accepted them, and yanked them out of Sailor Illargia’s hands, with the senshi then returning to her feet.
Lady Saeryn opened the top of the bag and looked inside to find a sea of starseeds, with some glowing more brightly than others. She appeared to be very pleased.
“Are they to satisfaction?” Sailor Illargia asked with a small tilt of her head.
“You did very well. I’ll put them in a toy chest for later. They’ll be safe.” Lady Saeryn said as the pouch disappeared slowly, with the last thing seen was the inner spark of light from the starseeds themselves, and not the appearance of the pouch. “Now onto more important matters.
“Sailor Illargia, the senshi are bound to show up here, so you’ll be able to have a little fun with them, because I’m sure they’ll attack you directly. However,” Lady Saeryn started, as she took a step towards the senshi, well aware that if Sailor Illargia wanted to rip out the starseed from her forehead, she had no power to stop her. “If you are to encounter Sailor Syrin directly, you are not allowed to harm her, even on purpose. If you do, I will have no problem with killing you, and I will personally make sure that you are never incarnated again. Are we understood?”
“Understood.” Sailor Illargia repeated. She wasn’t sure if Lady Saeryn had that kind of power, but if she did then she probably had very powerful friends. If she had the guts to make such a threat, then she was probably referring to The Dragon.
The Senshi group materialized in a small, dark corridor of the Castle, around the bottom of one of the outer rims. Charon, already emitted a glow, began to make her light brighter, and Sailor Pluto commanded her staff to glow for added illumination.
They saw that the corridor was metal all around, and looked very futuristic. Panels were on the walls which resembled the floating command entry keyboards which were in the security room which Sailor Pluto visited before coming back to Earth. The floors and ceiling were highly reflective, but weren’t of the same quality of say, a mirror.
The group followed Sailor Pluto and Charon through the corridors, and at the same time had to dodge and duck behind the walls to avoid being spotted by Kindred.
The senshi waited around a corner for a Kindred to turn their back to dodge into the next hallway, and had to be as quiet as they could. After reaching a secure hallway, Sailor Pluto whispered;
“We’re almost in the same area as the Security Room. I’ll guide us there, and it isn’t that far away. I want to see what these monsters did to my Castle.” she said as she gripped her staff tightly, almost so that if she wasn’t wearing gloves, that one could see her knuckles going white.
It took the senshi an additional ten minutes to get to their destination, and Sailor Pluto quickly sprinted to the other side of the Security Room to switch it on. She then entered in several command codes to completely seal the door from the inside, and to activate the security orbs, which were the equivalent to cameras. At the same time, she pushed a button on the bottom panel, which made another floating control board rise to the level of the others, more or less.
The vertical rectangular view screen sectioned off for the top to become a complete map of the Castle, and the bottom sectioned off to several parts to accommodate all of the security orb data as well. The map revealed that about seventy Kindred monsters still in their human form waiting in the hallways for them.
“Oh man… This place is like a mine field.” Sailor Jupiter said, and let all the information settle in.
Sailor Pluto brought up one security camera which was linked directly to the throne room, and showed a complete break in the wall, but from her shields that she erected before she left, nothing was lost. The data feed also showed that Lady Saeryn happily sat upon the throne which of course rightfully belonged to Sailor Pluto. At her side, levitating in the air, was Sailor Illargia. Several attendants around them were the same alike-dressed people who were at the stadium not thirty minutes ago.
Sailor Pluto kept a stone face on, and punched in a few controls for the computer to map out a direct travel path to the throne room, but at the same time to dodge all of the locations where the Kindred were. She studied it for a few seconds, committed it to memory, and closed the window. She closed down the computer, and lead the group out again.
The double doors to the Throne room slid open with ease, but what the senshi saw there was quite different from what they saw on a giant view screen with a fuzzy image output.
Broken pieces of the wall were scattered along the floor which also had hundreds of cracks in it, the tapestries with Pluto’s symbol were torn to shreds, and what was left of them still hung on the walls. A good percentage of the lights no longer worked, so the whole hallway was only half the brightness of what it usually was. The whole place was filthy to say the least, and not only that, had the stench of rotted flesh so strong it most certainly clung to the walls.
“It’s going to take weeks to clean this place…” Sailor Arcas whispered, after which she got a few strange looks from the others.
As the senshi slowly walked into the throne room’s main area, they were about half way between the entrance and the Throne itself, when a noise was heard from behind them. Two Kindred appeared, fully morphed, and were about ten or eleven feet in height as compared to normal when they would be only eight or nine. The two stood just inside the doorway, and then after a few seconds, brought out spheres of energy from their monstrous hands, and flung it towards the intruders.
The group was thusly split up into two; in group one was Sailor Moon, Sailor Mars, Sailor Venus, Sailor Pluto, and Sailor Syrin; and in group two was Tuxedo Kamen, Sailor Mercury, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Arcas. There were only about two seconds to make this decision, so it was unknown if the groups were equal.
The first group ran towards the Kindred Mirage on the left, which then jumped above them, and landed on the other side of the room, very near to the throne. This left the second group to run in the opposite direction. Sailor Mars stopped in her tracks, and lifted her arms.
“Mars Flame Sniper!“ she called out, and sent about three of her arrows towards the Kindred, to distract the Kindred until the others could catch up with it. The Kindred Mirage screamed as it tried to pat out the fire which started on his shoulder. As soon as the flames went out, the Kindred was surrounded, and had physically nowhere to go - Sailor Mars however, was still a ways away, with her hands poised to send another attack towards the beast.
The Kindred started his way towards Sailor Moon, but Sailor Venus thought of a plan. She nudged Sailor Pluto next to her and whispered a few quick words while Sailor Mars distracted it again with more arrows of fire. As the fire interrupted the vision of the beast, Sailor Venus called upon her Love-Me chain, ducked down, and ran around the front of the beast and then around the back of it, taking the chain with her as it was held by Sailor Pluto. Sailor Venus yanked on the chain, which caused the beast to fall, and she tied the chain in knots a few times to make sure it wouldn’t wiggle free.
“Everyone, attack it now!” Sailor Venus instructed, and the rest followed. All senshi in the group sent their attacks one by one, and with Sailor Moon’s attack as the final blow, defeated the Kindred Mirage.
The first group then ran over to the others, who were still in the process of defeating the other monster, since they had been fighting it since the beginning of the other battle. The Kindred Mirage gave up a good fight though, but with the addition of the other senshi, it went down quickly.
After moments of dead silence around the room, the senshi continued their walk towards the throne itself, and at the same time they passed by the already rotted remains of their foes. However, when they looked again ahead of them, they found Sailor Illargia who stood directly in their path. All she did was look at the senshi, and nothing else. The group halted their steps, unsure of how to approach her until she spoke.
“Hello again, Sailor Pluto.” she said, and did a little wave. She also scanned the group for Sailor Syrin as she lifted her right hand, and the starseeds which once belonged to the Kindred rose from the ground. As they floated to her hand in the silence, Sailor Illargia pondered on Lady Saeryn’s words from earlier;
‘“If you are to encounter Sailor Syrin directly, you are not allowed to harm her. If you do, I will have no problem with killing you, and ….. never incarnated again.’
“I’m glad you came though…” Sailor Illargia added then when the starseeds came to rest in her hands. Now that she knew where Sailor Syrin was, she could concentrate her powers more easily.
Sailor Illargia started to raise her other hand then, and while the senshi were still a ways away from her, it did not detract from the strength of this power. All the senshi besides Sailor Syrin started to get unbelievably strong headaches, and some even collapsed to the floor in pain.
“What are you doing to them??” Sailor Syrin demanded, while she asked herself why she wasn’t effected by it. After no response, and the increased situation of the others, she started to panic. She really hasn’t been in a battle alone for a long time. “Answer me!”
With no response, Sailor Syrin ran towards Sailor Illargia, and once she was at a reasonable distance, she wanted to send out an attack, but couldn’t feel her element stabilize.
< Come on, center… > Sailor Syrin pleaded with her element, and almost by sheer will, it centered nearly perfectly.
“Yes! Saeryn Souls Release!” With a roar, her attack distracted Sailor Illargia, but not enough to remove her hold on the other senshi.
As the attack continued, the colours changed from the usual purple, black and grey; there were first reds, then yellow, and then finally a light lavender and white energy which amplified Sailor Syrin’s attack a good three times from normal. In the middle of these intense energies, Sailor Illargia’s hold was broken on the senshi, and it was Sailor Moon who first recovered from it. Sailor Moon witnessed the final moments of Sailor Syrin’s attack, but as she looked towards the energies she used, something seemed very familiar about it. She couldn’t figure out why, but…
“Endymion? King Endymion?” Sailor Moon whispered as she looked behind her to find Tuxedo Kamen, alive and rising to his feet as he felt the eyes of his lover on him. He gave her a concerned, questioned look, but Sailor Moon’s attention was once again diverted to the situation in front of her. Both senshi in front of her were exhausted; Sailor Syrin stood on her feet, yet Sailor Illargia fell to her knees, with her hands supporting her upper body on the floor.
Sailor Syrin’s attack finally finished, she stood for a few moments, hunched over, and did not move as her arms hung in front of her. She finally moved again as she wobbled on her feet, staggered backwards, and her fuku started to fade on her body. Sailor Syrin slowly fell backwards, but Sailor Moon wasn’t recovered enough to run up and help her. Instead, Tuxedo Kamen anticipated this when he first saw it, and darted past Sailor Moon to get to Sailor Syrin and caught her at the very last second. What remained of Sailor Syrin’s fuku drifted away, and was replaced with her civilian clothes; as for Meian though, she was drained in every sense of the word, and allowed Tuxedo Kamen to lift her up to her feet again.
Lady Saeryn made a very quiet appearance, so when the senshi were mainly concentrated on Tuxedo Kamen and Sailor Syrin, she knelt next to Sailor Illargia who was near death. She looked like she had something positive to say, and patted the weak senshi on the shoulder as she lay crumpled on her side.
“You didn’t hurt Sailor Syrin. Come on, let’s go,” she said, where it was nowhere near what Sailor Illargia wanted to hear from her. Something more like a ‘job well done’ or ‘I’m proud of you’ would have satisfied her more.
Lady Saeryn was spotted by the senshi just as she teleported Sailor Illargia and herself out of the Castle. Immediately after, the armies backed off from where they were just outside the Throne Room, and the majority of the lights came back and operated again in not only the room they were in, but if they were operational here, then the whole system must have reset itself.
Tuxedo Kamen made sure that Meian wouldn’t lose her balance as he joined his love in the little group they had formed a ways away from her, as Aniki suddenly showed up beside her.
“That was quite a show. Meian, we leave tomorrow. Losing your power was the signal I needed. Pack only clothing.” he said as he crossed his arms and disappeared quickly.
Meian had really no time to react or even protest. Frankly, she felt forced into this, but felt she had no choice now. He probably had a way now for her to regain her powers, so now she was in even deeper than she was before. She felt trapped. And alone. In any case, Meian rejoined the group in front of her, and listened in on the conversation currently in progress.
“…. So Sailor Pluto, don’t tell me you’re going to clean this up all by yourself!” Sailor Jupiter asked the taller senshi.
“It looks like it, but I will escort all of you back to Earth, then return here with Charon. It will take a while to repair the castle and try to clean it up at the same time. It will take one or two months.” Sailor Pluto explained.
“It will take no time at all while I’m assisting you, Princess!” Charon exclaimed, with a small flutter of the bottom of her clothes. Sailor Pluto seemed to appreciate her words.
“Thank you Charon. Actually, you could start by going to the security station and input commands as the system reboots itself. Can you do that for me?”
“Consider it done!” Charon exclaimed with a traditional salute, and flew off, through the entrance, and disappeared around the corner.
“Let’s get back home, guys. I don’t think there’s anything else we can do here.” Tuxedo Kamen said.
The group once again formed into a circle, and with the addition of Sailor Pluto to help them, were able to get back to Earth with the minimal of problems. Several members of the group had already started to make up excuses to whomever was waiting for them there to explain their absence, and also hoped that the others of the group were still there.
The senshi materialized in an empty corridor of the stadium, near to where the dehensined outers were at the time. The group immediately dehensined, and made sure that the coast was clear before making their entrance into the hallways. Some Police were there, but didn’t pay the group much mind. They probably assumed that they had already been questioned, and let them be. Not that a lot of them actually saw the group, since they had already been busy with processing all the papers of death and vandalism that were sure to be produced from this event.
Near to the entrance, not too far away from where they transported to, they found the others, but then decided to gather later on to talk about it.
The group exited the building, and found several ambulances and police cars gathered at the main entrance. Several other cars were also in the parking lot, presumably belonging to the deceased inside. The others of the group besides Meian had worked something out between each other, but she had come to the stadium with Ronin, and looked for his car. She spotted it a ways away, and said that she was going to get a drive home with him.
The others were piling into the automobiles when she realized that she had forgotten to tell them about when she had to leave, and only remembered when the three cars were pulling out of the parking lot.
Meian slowly walked over to Ronin’s car, and saw that the figure there was indeed Ronin himself. Soon enough, he spotted her too, since his attention was on the camera of which he was sent outside to get in the first place. Once he saw Meian, he held up the camera to eye level so she could see too.
“I got your camera.” Ronin said, with a hint of aggravation.
“Ronin, I’m sorry. We were held up in there because the police just asked question after question…” Meian explained, placing her jacket beside him on the car, and then stood in front of him with her knees against the front bumper. “But I do appreciate the thought.”
“It’s alright. I just don’t like waiting so long, you guys were in there for at least an hour.” Ronin said as he shifted closer to Meian, still seated on the hood, and went so far as to put both of his feet on the ground with one on each side of the girl before him. He handed her the camera, and then crossed his arms. Meian looked at the camera as she held it, tapped one end against her other hand, but then got an idea. When Ronin hadn’t expected it, she turned it on and…
“Ronin, think fast!” Meian said as she quickly took a picture of Ronin just as he looked towards her.
“Hey!” Ronin protested, and tried to grab the camera from Meian. The two spent the next three minutes that way, with Meian hiding the item behind her back, and Ronin trying his very best to get the camera from her.
Thinking back on the day before, Meian smiled as she remembered that little pocket of happiness in her life, no matter how short it was. She was seated on the sofa in the living room of her home, and had the phone placed in her lap, instead of on the side table where it usually was.
She picked up the receiver and held it to her ear with her shoulder as she held the phone with one hand and slowly dialled Ronin’s number with the other.
Meian has never been more terrified in her life. Aniki would be there in ten minutes to transport her to a completely other world, and only God knew if it was anywhere even close to Earth. Half of her wanted to say on Earth, and the other half wanted to say ‘fuck you’ to Saeryn-Italus for even suggesting it, and kick him out on his rear.
Then again. If she refused, he could just as easily take her away against her will. So really, it was a better idea just to go along with it than to risk physical injury like so many times before. Very often, she just really wanted to punch his lights out, and --
“Hello?” Ronin said from the other end, after the phone had rung for several turns. Meian wasn’t sure at all, but she thought she could hear the sounds of passion come from a television set or a computer on the other end. Suddenly, she was thankful that video phones hadn’t been invented yet. She decided to ignore it.
“Hey Ronin, uh… what’s up?” Meian asked, obviously implying the video being played at the other end of which he neglected to turn off as soon as the phone rang. What was more to consider was that Ronin never really had any shame to begin with, and continued to play the movie even though Meian was listening.
< Come on Ronin, I know what porn movies are, but at this time of day? > she thought.
“Meian, you can hear them, do you need to ask?” Ronin laughed. “What did you call for, Meian?”
That was a good question. She hated calls like this - in fact, she had just finished a call with Kaya and her parents, and told them that she was about to go. Meian just wanted to blurt out to Ronin that she won’t even be on Earth for the next several months, but she remembered that she had to keep up the façade of going to the airport to take a plane down south to Shikoku.
“I uh…” Meian began, regretted now that she hadn’t rehearsed what she wanted to say. How DO you say things like this? “….Just wanted to make sure you’re okay.”
Meian could hear Ronin relax and stretch into his seat as the noses increased from his computer. “Oh yeah… I’ll be dandy. Is that all you called for, Meian?”
“Yeah, I think so… “ Meian said as there was a loud knock at her door that even Ronin heard from the other end. The video he watched was reaching the end, and coincidentally, the lady on the tape was also reaching her own peak. “I gotta go, Ronin. See you… soon.”
Meian hesitated for a long moment before she hung up, but he simply just put the phone back and continued to enjoy his entertainment.
Meian got up quickly and placed the phone back into it’s proper place and angle, and jogged a little to the front door to find Saeryn-Italus in full battle gear, ready to go. He stood in the doorway to the apartment and saw the three bags that Meian had packed to bring with her.
“You are bringing one bag.” he said flatly.
“Serious?” Meian asked, inwardly groaned since she really did pack all she needed.
“Bring the one with the warmest of clothes.” he said, and kept his eyes on Meian until she picked her bag, set it next to the door, but forgot to do anything about the other two.
With her selected bag in tow, Meian locked the apartment and stood in the hallway in front of Aniki until he cast a spell to transport the both of them, and sent their energies through the stars. With that, Meian was gone.
It was another five minutes from that moment until Ronin’s movie finally ended, and he closed down his laptop so he himself could also cool down. He reflected back to his and Meian’s conversation. She sounded a little different - and she even hesitated a little before she hung up the phone… what was that? What was wrong with her? It sounded to him that someone was picking her up to go shopping at the mall or something.
“Wait a second.” Ronin mumbled aloud.
“Soon. I just don’t know exactly when. But I’ll give you a call when I’m leaving for the airport.”
“Oh my God…” Ronin kicked himself in the ass, mentally. < That was the fucking call! >
Ronin picked up his cell phone, quickly got dressed, and hi-tailed it out of his building and into the parking garage. He roared down the streets, weaved in and out of traffic, and attempted to dial his cell phone to call Meian.
< You’re not leaving until you get a pep-talk from me, Meian. At least let me say goodbye, come on. >
After several tries and counted nearly thirty rings in total, he gave up and flung his phone into the back seat. At that moment, he had already arrived at Narita airport, got out and locked his car, and jogged in wide strides.
He spent nearly an hour going along the huge corridor, finding local aircraft carriers which serviced only Japan’s five islands. What made it even more difficult was because there were thousands upon thousands of people there - all getting in his way, which forced him to duck and weave through the bodies.
There were about five Japan-exclusive airlines in total, and all five had no records of Kyuudou Meian buying a ticket, or anyone by a description which Ronin gave them.
Neither was there a plane leaving for Shikoku this day.
Ronin was at a complete loss of what to do, and was at a standstill in locating Meian. Deep down however, he was furious. Furious at Meian for not to just come out and tell him what was going on, that she would run away and not leave him a way to find her, and to leave so quickly. He wanted to find out what was going on, and right at that moment.
He made his way out of the airport and got into his car, and drove off as quickly as he could.
The week for Ronin was stressful and seemed very, very long. He worked Takeji, his personal hacker/ cracker/ electronics master overtime to continue the search for Meian in any way he could; Bus ticket records, car rentals, fairies to the island, anything that he could find out, but Takeji found nothing to report to him. In his own words, she vanished into thin air.
Ronin couldn’t accept this.
“People just don’t ‘vanish into thin air’, Takeji, you have to give me something here.” Ronin said into his cell phone, seated in his car once again, parked in an unknown location.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Ronin. You’ve seen the security camera film yourself. She left her apartment, but after that, the camera never picked her up again. Unless she went to the roof and jumped off, I really can’t explain this.” Takeji said, really at a loss right now. He’s never really experienced something this bizarre.
< Check this out, Meian, I put up those cameras to help protect and keep an eye on you, but it never worked. Great friend I am, right? > Ronin mentally berated himself.
“Well, I got you the address of that friend you suspect, right? Go cool down somewhere, Ronin, before you explode. Literally. Look, I have a call on the other line, I’ll talk to you later.” Takeji hung up, and the silence around Ronin’s car took over.
Ronin if anything, became even more angry. This all began when Meian started to hang out with this Usagi person, and it just went on from there. That had to be it. Whatever was going on with her, he was absolutely sure that Usagi or her friends would know about it, and would tell him something. They had to. They were the ones responsible, and he was absolutely sure about it now!
Ronin shut his car off, zipped up his coat, and got out of his car, and stepped onto the sidewalk.
Right outside the Tsukino residence.
The whole group finally got together at Usagi’s house the Saturday after the massive battle at Charon Castle. Even Setsuna, who took a break from her salvage mission from what remained of the Castle and the Kindred. It was now a later hour, the sun was almost down, and they had already discussed all they could about all these ‘Saeryn’s showing up, Sailor Syrin, and Sailor Illargia.
“Setsuna, you said that you were looking through your library since you were trapped there for a while. Do you know anything about this Sailor Illargia?” asked Luna. Goodness only knows where she had been with all that was going on.
“What I had been able to gather there was fairly sparse, Luna. About herself as a senshi, I read a few sparse details describing her as “The Light Of The Dead”, and has a natural ability to guide starseeds to where they need to be - at least in her own home galaxy. I can only speculate as to why she would affiliate herself with Lady Saeryn, though.” Setsuna informed.
“Maybe she owes Lady Saeryn something.” Hotaru suggested.
“Perhaps. Since no one was able to kill her, she will probably show up in the near future.” Setsuna also suggested.
“Sailor Syrin. Goddamn her.” Haruka mumbled, getting a nudge from Michiru. “Well really! She could have defeated her with so much of a push! She’s fucking useless!”
“Haruka, that’s not nice to say.” Ami said, as she kind of felt bad for speaking about Meian while she wasn’t there.
“You know it’s the truth, Ami. Someone has to say it.” she defended herself.
“Hmm… “ Luna began. “Take a look at this newspaper article, girls.”
Luna tapped over a portion of the first section of the paper, as written by Sahkyo Woods. It was a few pages into it, and it had a section called “Charitable Organization Opens Doors”.
“Based on the description you gave me earlier, that woman to the left looks awfully suspicious.” she added, and Rei picked up the paper.
“Luna is right. If I didn’t know any better… I’d say that was Lady Saeryn.” Rei said as she looked at the group, and handed the paper to Mamoru.
“This… can’t be good.” Minako added, her tone lower than her usual one.
Another pocket of time passed in silence, and daylight was getting sparse. The group was actually almost finished their little conference when there was a rather loud knock at the door, which even made the most prepared of senshi in the group jump.
“I’ll get that!” Usagi announced in a chipper voice, jumped up, and walked calmly to the door.
Once she opened it though, was a whole other story. Once she saw that it was none other than Ronin on the other side, she gave him a huge smile.
“Well hey Ronin, come on in!” Usagi beamed, but once Ronin didn’t move after she said that, she got a little concerned. “What’s wrong?”
“I’ll tell you what’s wrong! Where the hell is Meian?!” Ronin demanded, charged into the house, and took Usagi by the throat with his left hand, and even lifted her off of her feet. He shook the hand which held her up for emphasis. “I’ll ask you again!! WHERE IS MEIAN!?”
“I can’t tell you…“ Usagi said as she brought her hands up to hold Ronin’s wrist, but his grip never decreased.
“Hey, get off of her!” Mamoru yelled, the last scream from Ronin had gained the rest of the group’s attention - and concern. Mamoru rushed towards Ronin, but as soon as he got into arm’s reach, Ronin backhanded him with his free hand, and sent him to the ground.
“SIT DOWN and SHUT UP!” Ronin screamed at Mamoru, his attention then going back to Usagi. “Like hell you can’t tell me! You put her up to this! You made her leave!”
“I promised….” Usagi choked out, but at the same time, saw a glimmer of a small, frightened little boy in his eyes.
Haruka finally jumped in, and since she went around through the kitchen, she wasn’t spotted so easily like poor Mamoru. She brought Ronin into a headlock which finally caused him to loosen and break his grip on Usagi’s neck, which sent her to the floor and immediately coughed for air. Makoto and Ami then went to the aid of Usagi and Mamoru - the two were fine, if not just shook up from the suddenness of this.
Ronin broke himself free from Haruka’s headlock, and soon the whole group of women gathered around him. Haruka, Makoto, and Mamoru went towards him all at once; Mamoru held Ronin’s hands behind his back to try and get him to cool down. Since he seemed to be in some sort of rage, Haruka wanted some free payback on Mamoru’s behalf, and hit Ronin in the jaw, but it did nothing to stop Ronin’s anger - probably if anything, increased it. Ronin wiggled free of Mamoru’s grasp and elbowed him in the stomach, and went straight for Haruka - he had no qualms to hit her, because as it is commonly known, Haruka is often mistaken for a man.
Ronin took a few sloppy tries to punch Haruka before he actually did, and even then, it was a poor excuse for one since she was very fast. Makoto jumped in then, and did a foot sweep across Ronin’s legs and brought him to the ground. Makoto wasted no time and pressed her foot on Ronin’s neck, and repressed his air supply until he was rendered unconscious after a good amount of struggle on his behalf.
Luna then sprinted out from behind Minako, and hopped onto Ronin’s chest. She pawed around his torso until she found something that she had smelled right when he got in. She tossed back his jacket with her nose, and pointed to it, and looked to the others.
What Luna had found was a small gun tucked into his belt, right on his hip.
“Oh, man…” Usagi said as she continued to rub her throat, and could still feel Ronin’s grasp.
“I think we lucked out… this could have been a lot worse than it already was.” Michiru mentioned.
“You’re right, Michiru.” Ami said, from a little further away.
“Ami, do you know what could have caused this?” Luna asked, still standing on Ronin’s stomach.
Ami nodded, solemnly. “Yes.
“Meian called me earlier on this morning, and told me that she was going to leave today. She also warned me that something like this would happen. What he has is Intermittent Explosive Disorder. I read up on it after she hung up, and it’s an Impulse Control disorder, which causes the sufferer to have episodes of aggression, and completely loses control of themselves. Usually there’s something that causes it, and it’s no doubt that Meian leaving caused his condition to relapse, and this is what she was afraid of.”
“But why would he attack Usagi?” Hotaru said, unusually concerned for the passed out young man.
“He knows that Meian was hanging out with me a lot. It was probably easier to blame me and take out his anger on me instead of Meian, since he wasn’t able to find her after she left with Saeryn-Italus.” Usagi said, who was seated against the wall and hugged her knees, then began to speculate as she looked to Ronin. “He probably depended a lot on her. I think I’d go a little crazy if someone lied to me, then disappeared without even a reason.”
“We should get him to the hospital. Haruka probably really hurt him.” Minako suggested.
Haruka did a little movement and flex of her arm, agreeing with her. “You got that right.”
Since that day in the Tsukino household, there were no more sightings of the Kindred, nor for Lady Saeryn or Sailor Illargia. However from the newspaper article which Sahkyo wrote, they were very much active, and on their own agenda.
With the knowledge that Meian and Saeryn-Italus might some day return, the senshi will try to live out their lives as best as they could until that day.
End of Arc Two.