This is a reposting of the first two chapters of Eternity's Tears... I
lost the original queries for a repost when Yahoo wiped out my storage
for exceeding my 3MB limit. As usual, I really like C&C/MST, but then,
who doesn't? Flames are welcome too; the heaters aren't working well
in the dorms and it's cold. =^_^=

Three worlds in chaos.

Three universes trapped in the never-ending struggle between good and
evil.

Seven young girls with indescribable power walk the earth, the Seven
Seals that bind the worlds together through the boundaries of space
and time.

The time of reckoning has begun, for the Overfiend has awoken from his
millennia-long sleep to possess one man - and possess eternity.

The fate of the worlds rests in one young man, a man with the blood of
a demon and the soul of an angel; the man who can sever the bonds of
Destiny.

May the Gods protect us all.

Tora-chan Productions, Ltd. presents:

*~* Namida no Tokoshinae - Eternity's Tears *~*

Book I: Shinketsu no Akuma - Demon's Blood

Chapter 1

	Meio Setsuna drew her futon close to the shattered remains of the
window and slowly lowered herself down into a sitting position on the
cushion. Nighttime had descended over the remains of Tokyo; the waving
branches of new trees and foliage highlighted the landscape as they
grew around the broken buildings that had once composed the city. The
breeze that whipped through the makeshift curtains rippled through her
glossy hair. Fresh aromas of bright new grass and blooming flowers
filled the room with Nature's own potpourri. Japan's rebirth . . . if
only it hadn't had to come about the way it had. She felt her chest
grow slightly warm as the seed of hope reassured her that everything
had turned out for the best. The Senshi of Time let her stoic facade
rest and relaxed in the glories of the earth's renewal.
	Her eyes had just begun to droop shut when a dagger of pain suddenly
wormed its way through her heart. Setsuna bolted upwards, her mouth
gaped open in a wordless cry of agony; a flood of images and memories
from a hellish future that should never be seared themselves into her
mind. *The Time flow . . . it's changing . . . what can be doing this
. . .?* She suddenly doubled over on her futon, clutching her chest as
hot tears began coursing down her cheeks. *No, not this . . . not this
. . . ! Not . . . not . . . .*
	"I'm afraid so, Setsuna." A pair of gentle hands touched the woman's
chest; the pain slowly began to subside into a dull, throbbing ache. 
Startled, she quickly wiped away the traces of her tears.
	"You don't have to hide your pain from me, Setsuna-chan," the
feminine voice admonished. She moved to the window; the faint
moonlight played across her features and highlighted the colors in her
ornate robes. "It's beautiful, isn't it? Tokyo, I mean. It wasn't but
a month ago that you couldn't see the stars clearly for the smog and
pollution. Now the nation is purified, a verdant paradise for man to
start over in . . . ."
	"Poetic tonight, aren't we, Tsunami?"
	The Jurian demi-goddess shrugged her shoulders, brushing aside a
stray lock of her light blue hair. The now defunct Moon Kingdom and
the planet Jurai had held a long-standing alliance with one another
for hundreds of years before Serenity-hime's birth. Jurai's "senshi,"
the magnificent tree-ships that flew under the watchful eye of Tsunami
herself, had tried, without much success, to aid the Senshi during the
kingdom's final days. Queen Serenity gave her last bit of life to bind
together the souls of the future Senshi; Tsunami then had combined
some of her power with Setsuna's to send them to the Earth, to waken
only when danger threatened them again. The two had shared memories
and feelings during their ritual that most siblings never knew,
binding the two into an eternal sistership. "I thought the nightmare
had ended with the banishment of the Aragami back to their realm. You
know the sheer strength of the beasts yourself."
	The Senshi of Time nodded. When the demons had first appeared in
Tokyo, the Inner and Outer Senshi had immediately rushed out to
attack. All the Senshi's attacks had been ineffective; even Super
Sailor Moon's greatest attacks had failed to do more than scratch the
monster's hide. Setsuna had, had to whisk the entire group away before
they were destroyed. "It took me ages to convince them that it was not
their place to battle the Aragami. Haruka and Makoto," and she sighed
and shook her head, "they went out after the demons anyway when they
strayed into the Juuban district. They're lucky they came out alive,
much less with as few injuries as they had."
	Tsunami nodded and leaned up against the wall. "One cannot interfere
with destiny. It was not their place, nor their right, to fight my
cousin Susano-oh. It had to be the matsuri, the Kushinada's matsuri,
that would banish the Aragami back to their dimension of slumber . . .
."
	". . . and replenish Nature, and restore hope to Japan. I know. It's
just a shame that this peace had to come with a young girl's
self-sacrifice." She sat down heavily on her futon and began picking
at loose threads on the fabric.
	The goddess shifted uncomfortably. "Hai, it is," she said, "but
Kushinada-hime made the decision herself. Not even my cousin Susano-oh
knew the path she would take." *Gomen, Setsuna-chan, but I can't tell
you that the Kushinada still lives. It is not my place nor the right
time to reveal that to you. You are not to be a player in this game
yet . . . .*
	Setsuna noticed her long-time friend's discomfort and quickly changed
the subject. "I don't think you came to wax rhapsodic over the events
in Japan, Tsunami. This has to do with that pain I felt, doesn't it?
Has it begun?"
	"Hai." Tsunami lowered herself down on the edge of the futon and
rested her head in her hands. "That pain . . . the First Seal has
already been taken, Setsuna."
	"What?!? Already??? But . . . but-" Setsuna's face was a grim mask of
horror. "That's why I felt the Time Stream change! What's going on,
Tsunami-chan?"
	She shook her head sadly. "Gomen nasai, but I cannot tell you more.
Watch over the Time Gate well, my friend, for our enemy may try to
destroy that barrier." The Jurian goddess rose, her form beginning to
fade into the shadows. "If the Overfiend is not found and stopped
before he takes the Seven Seals . . . ."
	Sailor Pluto stared at the shadows where her friend had been staring.
". . . Then the Worlds will surely die."
	Tsunami's voice, wavering in the breeze, seemed to float through the
barriers of time and space. 
	". . . Armageddon . . . ."

*~*

	*You've come at last.*
	The iron scent of freshly spilt blood filled the chamber. A
shadow-bound figure trod the wet tatami, reveling in the squishing
noise it made under his boots. Pausing, the man knelt by a woman's
dismembered head and dipped his fingers in the blood that trickled out
of her severed jugular. He brought the crimson fingers up to his face.
"Konban wa, Hinoto-hime," the figure said, licking the blood daintily.
	*Kamui.*
	At the far end of the room, a waiflike figure stirred and sat up, her
voluminous kimono spread out around her. Golden hair flowed down from
ornate hairclips to frame her gentle face. Milky, sightless eyes
fluttered open to stare blankly at the darkness. The Dreaming Princess
that ruled the Japanese government cringed slightly at the odor of
innocent blood that filled her private chamber. Despite her psychic
powers, she had not heard their minds nor felt their absence until
now. *Sohi . . . Hien . . . dead?* her sad voice echoed
telepathically. *Why, Kamui? Why them?*
	He ignored her, stepping over a mangled torso to the second corpse.
"You know," he said nonchalantly, picking up Hien's severed head,
"studying about foreign cultures was one of my favorite subjects in
school. Take, for example, the Inuit, the Eskimos; they have some
*odd* tastes in culinary delicacies. Whale fat and fish eyes." He
flicked out a fingernail, letting it grow out into a sharpened claw.
"I've tried them both; not as good as sushi, but-" A hideous grin
spread across his face. "I wonder . . . do human eyes taste as good as
fish eyes?"
	Hinoto cried out softly as Kamui's mind invaded her dream world; she
"saw" the claw dig into the eye socket and slice through muscles and
nerves . . . saw him neatly scoop the eye out . . . saw him dangle it
by the optic nerve, watching it bob up and down like a yo-yo. Peeling
away the cornea and the lens, he turned it upside down and let the
gelatinous eye fluids dribble into his mouth. "Interesting," and he
smacked his lips loudly, "it's not bad at all." He idly tossed the
remnants of the eye at the princess. She cringed as the wet piece of
flesh struck her face and fell to the tatami.
	Kamui's face twisted into an even more hideous grin; Hinoto could
feel Dark energies surrounding the young man. Stepping over a puddle
of gore, he knelt beside her and turned her face towards him. "Do you
know why I've come, First Seal? Do you have any inkling of why I've
come to this world again?" He stroked her hair with a bloodstained
hand in a sick parody of gentleness. "Don't you remember me at all,
Aitsuchi-ou, one time Queen of the Earth?"
	She gasped with sudden recognition, her mind's voice wavering with
fear. *RAGNAROK?!? But . . . why . . . why Kamui? Why take him as your
avatar?*
	The being once known as Ragnarok chuckled heartily and patted the
princess on her head. "Because, my dearest Hinoto-chan, if I had not
taken this young man, you would have chosen him. And his powers . . .
ah, his powers are great indeed. It was a simple thing to turn him to
the Dark; his mind was already on the edge. I just had to nudge him a
bit." He traced the contour of her cheek with one claw, leaving a
trail of blood as it sliced thinly into the flesh. "It was his
destiny, First Seal; *Kamui,* after all, means 'He who hunts down the
authority of God.'" His voice was smug and self-satisfied. "Give up
your hopes and surrender to me, Hinoto-hime; Armageddon has begun."
	Hinoto shook her head furiously, pushing him away with her slender,
childlike hands. *No! No, I won't believe it! There is still Kamui's
twin star, he-*
	"Fuma?" The voice in her head had changed; she was now facing the
real Kamui, and his voice was so warped with evil that it hurt her to
hear him. "Fuma is gone. Such a tragic accident, really; he should
have known better than to go swimming in chains . . . ." He smirked
and licked the blood from her cheek. "Monou Fuma is dead."
	The princess's heart sank as the truth of his words struck her in the
heart; tears welled up in her milky white eyes and began flowing down
her cheeks. *Then who can champion the Light? Who . . . ?*
	Ragnarok/Kamui smirked. "No one can now. This battle was over before
it began, Hinoto-hime, for I am the Chojin, the Overfiend, the one who
will destroy the Worlds and recreate them in My own image!" Tilting
her head to one side, he remarked, "I wonder . . . would the flavor of
the eye be better if still warm?"
	And the claw descended . . . .

*~*

	Urd glared at the sleek surface of Yggdrasil, her face twisted into a
scowl. "Obstinate piece of junk," she muttered under her breath as she
turned away from the celestial computer. 
	The Kami realm was in an uproar. Urd's younger sister Skuld had been
running herself ragged trying to keep up with the insane number of
bugs that had been popping up all over Earth and Heaven. Smoke marks
from the bug's corpses stained the celestial computer, while empty
cartons of 131's Ice Cream were strewn over the entire realm.
Belldandy had been helping her for a while before being called into a
meeting with Kami-sama himself; Skuld had then promptly coerced the
goddesses' brother Christopher Angel into joining her anti-bug
crusade. The rest of the gods . . . well, they had their own crises to
handle. Sighing, Urd picked up an empty bottle of sake and glared at
it before tossing it aside again.
	"Still not responding, eh?"
	The goddess looked over her shoulder to see Chris towering over her.
"I don't understand it! I've tried everything I can think of, and
Yggdrasil *still* refuses all input!"
	"Let me try something." The towering God of Moments screwed up his
concentration, and a monitor slowly melted out of the computer's
surface, followed by a glowing keyboard. He began typing; his face
quickly settled into a heavy frown as three shimmering words appeared
on the screen:
	*~*IT HAS BEGUN*~*
	Urd grabbed a half-empty bottle of sake and took a long drink from
it. "That's all it will say. Nothing I've tried had gotten a different
response. I even tried the reboot preliminaries!"
	"That was a stupid thing to do, Urd. Rebooting Yggdrasil will mean
Armageddon!" he snapped, instantly regretting it. "Sorry, Urd. I
haven't had a chance to sleep in over a week, what with the bug
problem and the other abnormalities in the Kami plane-"
	"It's all right; I don't think *any* of us are exactly paragons of
sweetness and light right now." She paused. "Except for Belldandy, of
course, and she's reaching her limits." She drained the bottle and set
it down on the floor, sighing. "All that matters now is that an insane
number of bugs are screwing *everything* up on Earth, and we can't fix
the problem until we can find out why Yggdrasil isn't responding!"
	"I think I know why." The duo turned to see a weary Belldandy
standing behind them. "Kami-sama wants to see us. Now."

	Skuld was waiting for the trio outside of God's office when they
arrived. The teenage goddess was leaning on her mallet and devouring a
bucket of Mint Chocolate Chip ice cream; she looked up at the group,
exhausted. "What's going on now, Oneesan?" she asked Belldandy.
	Before she could answer, the double doors opened, letting the group
inside. The office was spotlessly clean, with glistening walls and
plush green carpet. The gumball machine by the oak desk was empty; on
top of it was perched a thick sheaf of papers. A lone figure stood
against the far wall; all four knelt in front of Him.
	Kami-sama turned towards His children. He was in His Judeo-Christian
mode, with long, flowing grey hair and a thick beard. The dark navy
business suit He wore was rumpled; He pulled out His leather swivel
chair and sat down heavily. "Please, get up from there and sit down,"
He sighed, waving towards the array of chairs in front of His desk.
	They all did as they were told, their faces caught in worry. "What's
wrong, Boss?" Chris finally ventured.
	He raised His head and stared at them; His normally cheery grey eyes
were overridden with concern. "My children, it has begun."
	Urd and Belldandy glanced at each other. "What is it? What has begun?"
	God sighed and picked up a tiny globe off of His desk. Cradling it in
His hands, He said softly, "It has begun . . . . Armageddon."

Jess, the LilTigre =^_^=




==
Romantic Gesture #345: Packing your boyfriend's severed arm with you
       wherever you go. Just be sure to keep it in a cooler.

               *~* Tora-chan Productions, Ltd. *~*
      -Proudly presenting BlueSeed fanfiction since 1997!-
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