This is a fic I'm forwarding to the list for a friend of mine not currently
on it. If you have any comments, please mail them to mbnesons@uli.it.
Thanks.
Ja ne,
Rob
-- Listar MIME Decryption --------------
-- Name : Walk.txt
-- Decode : from BASE64...
�
LH
by Emanuele 'Bona' Bonamico
with the unescapable help of Studio Yogipigs
FOREWORD
Well, this is the usual foreword that every (or most) fic has, so go on with it!
All characters portrayed here have their respective owner (too much to list them all), and all rights reserved, as the old saying says.
This is basically a sidestory to my 'Magic Knight Rayearth: a Trilogy of the Aeons', setting during the first book. It could be read without reading the main story first, but I suggest you to do it... As a side note, it locks even with Ukyo's Quest, but this is another story (indeed, it is!).
Being a crossover with various anime and mangas, I leave to you the fun to discover them all (the truth is I don't have the time to do it).
"" This stands for talks
<> This stands for thoughts
This stands for songs
If you want to send comments, critics, or anything else, you're welcome!
HP: http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/garden/5779
E-Mail: mbnesons@uli.it
Or try with the Studio addy:
studioyogipigs@egroups.com
* * *
The sun glittered on the sea, crawling its way up and flooding the day with light; as its intensity grew, more and more people awoke. Someone stirred in a completely sprawled futon, and groaned, forcing his eyelids to lift. "I have to..." he thought, not completely sure of which parts of his brain were already working. A yawn showed his windpipe's inner beauties. A new day was beginning for Nemo.
"Here I am" he said smirking at the mirror. Ready to go, he picked a note from the table and panted. "A simple delivery, uh? Simple a heck! If this thing's goin' to break the lab boys'll skin me alive; next shipment is scheduled in a couple of months, at least."
A small, unlabeled brown-paper package was laying on the table, too. Nemo put it under his arm and opened the door, throwing away the note. As the gust of wind swept inside died, the little piece of paper landed on the floor, face down; on the other side was wrote: "Don't worry 4 delivery. We'll send man."
He peeked outside: all silent; last thing he wanted was running into one of his co-residents. Usually they weren't so bad, just a bunch of sake-happy pals, but this time it was better if nobody saw him going out. As a good side note, they hadn't decided to pass the night partying in his apartment. He silently walked throught the wooden corridor up the door, then put down the package and slipped his shoes on. When his eyes went upward again, they met the gloomy icy gaze of a tall, black man.
Nemo found himself holding the wall at the other end of the corridor. "Yotsuya...what are you doing?"
"And you?" a female voice coming from very near him asked.
He turned and discovered he was not holding *right* to the wall, but to something *softer*. He jumped away, again. "A...Akemi!" He swallowed.
Yotsuya, without losing a gramme of his temper asked: "What are you doing so early in the morning, trying to sneak away?"
"Me...? Nothing." Nemo said candidly.
"Maybe it's this box" Akemi wondered placing her ear on it and shaking.
Nemo went pale.
"Mmmmmm" Yotsuya smirked. "What is our new co-resident trying to hide?"
"I said nothing!"
"Akemi, maybe we should open it" the tall man continued still smirking.
"Yes, maybe" the redhead said absently.
"Akemi" Nemo suddenly slid near her raising his left eyebrow. "You know your bra is wonderfull?"
"What bra?" she asked puzzled, staring at her usual, completely transparent nightgown. When she raised her eyes again, Nemo was already in the garden, running with the box under his arm, and trying to avoid Soichiro's greetings.
"That guy is strange" she commented when finally he was out of sight.
"Yes, it is" Yotsuya added. "I think I'll speak of it to Kyoko."
* * *
"Brrrr..." Nemo quivered closing his raincoat; the weather had got better in the past days, but giant puddles still reminded of the recent storms. But right now that wasn't his worst problem: he was lost, totally and hopelessy. After getting at Tokyo with the train, damn those guys who said it was safer if he lived away from the operative center, he began to head for the Tower but he had walked so much that he couldn't exactly tell where he was, and asking for directions to a boy with a muntain backpack, an umbrella and a yellow bandana had been of no help. Time was running, and at the Tower everyone was waiting for the package to begin the experiment.
He was now walking down an alley when a group of students crossed his path. "Mmmmmm..." he frowned. "Nothing worse for fragile boxes..."
But he had to pass directly in front of the school gates, so he got a deep breath and crossed them. Safe. He sighed in relief, before someone pulled him by the raincoat right when a car splashed the sidewalk with muddy, cold water. Nemo turned dripping and found a girl bowing deeply, blushing. "I'm really, really sorry sir. Please forgive him."
"Thank ya" said a *dry* boy in red tang and black ponytail.
Nemo groaned something inarticulated and left, just in time to hear the girl yell in anger: "Ranma, you baka, come HERE!!!" And a beg: "No...Akane...aaaarrrggghhhhh!" as the ground was shook by the impact, cushioned by a human body, of a gigantic mallet.
"The day is *not* going to be a good one" Nemo mumbled getting away from that place, and the sooner the better, no matter if he was to long the way. "At least it's waterproof" he said checking the package.
To avoid other stupid incidents he stopped and waited until he was sure it was too late for students to hang around; He passed near a bus stop and turned into an hallway, nearly falling in an open manhole cover. "What the heck!" he thought crouching to look down in the darkness.
Two girls were running at full speed in his direction.
"C'mon Usagi, we can't be late even today!" said the first.
"Yes Minako!" replied the other. "Ready to jump?"
Nemo got just time to see the edges of Usagi's skirt fly over him, and not realizing well what it was he stood up; bad move, as Minako was already in midair. Her slipstream caught him unprepared, whirling him. Flailing his arms, he managed to get back balance a moment before falling. A cat of a strange hue of blue with a yellow mark on her forehead then jumped from above a wall using Nemo as a step. Momentum did his part, and with a last blink he disappeared into the dark.
* * *
He was walking away from the river he left; after falling in the sewers, he had kept swimming against the stream for nearly an hour, before getting sucked into some secondary drainage pipe and from there spit into a small river near Tokyo's outskirts. The only good thing that happened today was the package still intact, and no alarming sounds coming from inside.
He was still totally lost, so he stopped a policeman for information. "Tokyo Tower?!?" the man asked puzzled stopping his bike. "It's a long *walk*, indeed. We're pretty outside the city."
Nemo sighed. "What's the shortest way, anyway?"
"You could wait for the bus, just an hour. Or" the policeman said seeing the other man's frowning face "you could try crossing the wood. There is only one road, you cannot get the wrong way, but..."
"But..."
"Nobody here uses it; it's said the wood is haunted by an evil spirit."
"Thank you, sir" Then, when the policeman had disappeared from sight, Nemo passed a hand over his face: "*Evil spirit, see if I care.* The Lead Scientist is not even human and they think a little umbrella with one eye can frighten me." Shaking his head he strode for the wood.
The dark green wall of vegetation blocked him; tall pine trees watched over the entrance like sentinels, put there to be sure nothing could came *out* of there. No little animal scurried the limbs, no leaf moved. A single, disrepaired road led into the dark depths of that creepy place.
Taking a long breath <Maybe going inside is *not* a good idea...> he stepped in the shade, singing softly to build up his courage. A hundred yards later he was howling like a wolf.
"I've got what you need"
"hunger I will feed" he roared at the end of a jump.
He stopped suddenly, feeling something was not right; he smelt. "What's this stink?! Looks like rotten fish."
Two drops of a viscous fluid rained from above on his sleeve, a great vaguely-human shadow swallowing his own; his eye twitched as in his mind a dim idea of what was towering him formed. Looking up he met the gaze of three yellow-gleaming eyes, set in an abominable dog's muzzle full of terrible two-inches long teeth, dripping saliva; dirt-white horns protouded from the forehead.
A scream of terror, horror and despair echoed in the silent wood, deadening slowly.
The oni was closing on Nemo, at every step its clutches nearer.
<How much can it run?> Thought Nemo giggling mentally, dodging a claw that shattered a rock. He had to move his mind, quicker than his legs. <Ahhhhhh...why the Ogre Slayer shows up only when there are cute girls around?>
He felt the slipstream of a blow at the base of his neck and a tree at the edge of his field of vision crumbled and fell. The situation was getting worse than expected, and he had to be careful not to endanger the package.
An eerie laugh rose from behind. "Are you still trying to outrun me, human?"
"What's your opinion?"
"That you're getting me too hungry to talk!"
The roar was so powerful, and so smelly, to literally throw Nemo some meters away.
<Edge> he thought realizing the fiend's error; he suddenly smiled and stopped running, letting himself slide on the barren ground for a couple more of meters, planting his feet apart and using them for a jump point to the oni's face.
It opened wide its maw, but too late to counter Nemo's hurricane kick. Hit by a combo of four blows at the side of its head, the creature fell, flunged against a tree. But Nemo was not over yet and closed his eyes, concentrating; arms crossed on his chest, fists clenched.
The oni was pulling itself up.
Azure, tiny lightnings of ki began to crawl over Nemo's fists, building in intensity as he fueled his next attack.
The oni snarled and slobbered his bloody revenge.
The slow breathing ceased, and his eyes opened, shedding a terrible dark blu light on the raging oni, waiting until the foe was near enough, and the energy powerful enough.
The oni flunged on him, terrible claws reaching for his flesh in a killing frenzy.
In the same moment Nemo cried unleashing all the ki: the wood was lit by an incredibly shiny white light, that engulfed the trunks, the rocks, everything into a blinding shimmer; at last even the dark frame of the oni sunk into it, disappearing with a last death-cry. When the energies of his aura faded, all left of the demon was grey ash on the ground.
Nemo, panting, kicked it to the wind and got the box, with all cares, from ground, noticing with disappoinment that the envelope was scratched. "Heck! See what I had to stumble across..."
Far away, on the roofs of Nerima, an old Amazon rose her head in the direction of that blast. <Strange> Cologne thought stopping. <This is not young Saotome's ki; and nobody I know, either.>
Something, a memory of her youth, surfaced, but she shook her head and jumped away on the next roof.
* * *
He had been keeping walking all the way from the haunted wood, and time was passing mercilessy; even the hot of the sun could damage the his precious cargo. But he hadn't had a decent breakfast, either. "Yes, I could use something hot" Nemo said spotting in the distance the *Ucchan's* banners. After all he had gone throught, a stop-eat-and-go was right what he needed. Sliding the door open, he was surprised Ukyo was at home and not at school. The first time he stopped there in the morning, he found that Konatsu; pretty enough girl.
"Hello, Ukyo!" he said when their eyes met.
"Hi, Nemo! What brings you here?"
"Oh, nothing..." he sitted and put the box near him. "And you? Shouldn't you be at school now?"
"No" she shook her head. "Ranma and Ryoga blew it this morning."
He sweatdropped. "Remember me *not* to meet them."
"They are not so bad when you know them well, especially Ran-chan" she cooed. "So" returning to her usual tone "What do you want?"
"Do as you please, I'm too hungry to complain."
As she prepared her spatulas and heated the plate, Ukyo's eyes roamed to the package, then to Nemo's weary shape. "What's the matter?"
He was caught unprepared, and gasped a while before answering. <I can't tell her anything about the Tower and the experiment.> "Call them *job problems*."
"I don't think so" she snickered. "You look like someone who got *girls problems*."
"Since when are you so skillfull in this matters?"
"You know, in Nerima this kind of things happen all the time."
He giggled. <A lot of strange things hapen in Nerima. People sent into orbit, ki-based fights, girls that turn into onis...>
"Why are you so unwillling to speak of it?" She asked when she glimpsed sadness in his eyes.
As answer, he bit the okonomiyaki to have an excuse to be silent.
Understanding she had been a little too curious, she turned to hide her blush and asked if she could do anything else for him.
He spoke at last. "Do you know how to get to Tokyo Tower?"
"Sure." And as he finished eating, she scratched a couple of notes for him. "Here it is."
"Thanks Ukyo" he said getting up and leaving some coins on the table. "Excuse me but I'm in a hurry, I must leave."
"Bye."
* * *
He opened the map and smiled; the first good thing of that day. He strolled down the way, enjoying the warm touch of the sun and the cool breeze. Six meters later he jolted when *something* passed at his side. A huge black shadow lumbered over him for a second, then dodged with innatural quickness, leaving a trail of women underwear. A fading maniacal giggle of joy could be heard among the approaching screams of anger.
<Screams?> Nemo thought as he turned just in time to see a dust cloud rushing in his direction; actually, rushing directly over him.
When he got his senses back, he felt being trampled by rhinos, maybe a little worse; he pulled himself up and patted the dust from the foot-printed remains of his coat.
<Mental note: next coat must be an armored one. Now the b...>
His hand grabbed nothing. Nothing. All his dizziness disappeared as a thought flashed in his mind like hot slug. <*I can't lose it!* That thing is too important, too rare, too dangerous. What if someone open it? I must...>
He sighed of relief, seeing it was there, on the street, just out of reach.
"Yes!" he chirped, and jumped over it, hugging the weared box like a baby.
"Hiya!" a lavanda-haired chinese girl shouted before a bike passed over his face.
<How far is that damn'd Tower...> Nemo mentally growled as he crawled away.
* * *
At last the Tower was in front of him, projecting its gigantic artificial shadow over him. He quivered. "Why we had to build this place...?"
He walked up to one of the concrete basements, to a small maintenence room. When he was inside he sticked a black keycard with the blu-and-green globe simbol in an hidden slit. After a short metallic noise a secret door cut in the wall door opened on a white elevator that brought him many floors under the Tower.
The alien black Lead Scientist was already there to greet him; from his pants, Nemo deduced he was not expecting visits. "What's the matter?" he asked producing th box from under his devastated coat.
The Lead Scientist looked surprised. "Sir" he began puzzled with a hiss "why did you brought *it* here? It has been dangerous."
"When we are supposed to do another test? Next month?"
"No, but...the note said we were sending a car to pick the stuff up."
Nemo face dropped in despair. "Really?"
"Really." He nodded. "On the back of the note."
Nemo's scream of anguish and despair rose from the deepths of the earth and echoed on the Tower, on Tokyo, on Japan, on Earth.
Fade to black.
* * *
Suddenly, something like a sword slash cuts the dark curtain, and Nemo jumps out wearing a golden armor, with a white, gold-trimmed cloak.
"You wasn't expecting to *know* what there was inside the *box*, don't you?"
THE END
.
"Good day" he replied. "Did my guest arrived?"
"YeFrom ashita@cchono.com Wed Jan 20 04:24:28 1999
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Subject: [FFML] [fanfci][Ranma/Ogre Slayer]Pain can change people
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This is a fic I'm forwarding to the list for a friend of mine not currently
on it. If you have any comments, please mail them to mbnesons@uli.it.
Thanks.
Ja ne,
Rob
-- Listar MIME Decryption --------------
-- Name : Pain.txt
-- Decode : from BASE64...
�
L�l
by Emanuele 'Bona' Bonamico
and the interchangeable help of Studio Yogipigs
FOREWORD
Well, this one is slightly different from my previous fics as I tried a more dramatic story, one that would not make you laugh (at least not all the time). For this I used Ukyo, the Ogre Slayer and Nemo (okay, okay, go on blaming me for this...nothing will change! ^_^), but its centered Ucchan's feelings, for she is the real pillar of the story.
This is definitively not a darkfic.
Oh...I was forgetting: this is only the tidbit of a bigger saga, so hang on to see what happens to Ukyo and all the Nerima bunch.
All characters portrayed here have their respective owner, and I'm using them without written permission (and this applies even for new characters). Any reference to living people or oni is pure coincidence.
"" This stands for talks
<> This stands for thoughts
This stands for songs
If you want to send comments, critics, or anything else, you're welcome!
HP: http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/garden/5779
E-Mail: mbnesons@uli.it
Or try with the Studio addy:
studioyogipigs@egroups.com
* * *
Night, rain; lonely streets lit by lightning and lashed by the wind. Someone running, splashing her bare feet into the puddles, brown hair soaked, falling tears mixing with water.
She fell sobbing. "Why me?" she cried silently. "Why I must suffer for him? Why he still refuses me? Ranma... *I* love you! Your other fiancees do not...*cannot* feel what *I* feel for you. What...Who is keeping you from taking a decision? Why can't we share our love?"
A lightning lit her pain-twisted face. She knew the answer.
"Akane...It's all HER fault! Yes, this is the only possible answer! She's the obstacle between us! But what had she done to you? Why don't you rebel? Is she using some enchantment like that Chinese meddler? I must find a way to erase her from your life...and to be happy together..."
A lightning eeriely lit her face.
All had began some days before, when, returning home after another of Ranma's refuses, she fell crying to the floor, unable to stop her sorrow, looking for a way to offload it. Then she had heard it the first time: a whisper, not more than a soft, sweet breath, too soft to distinguish words. She had startled, but looking around, realized that nobody was there; yes, nobody, like always.
"I'm too edgy in this period" she had said discarding the thought from her mind.
But the whisper went on; and gained strenght. Every time it was clearer, and more understandable. And more painful, too: it kept repeating the terrible word, *Ranma*, and that he could be hers.
She had thought to be going nuts, and had ignored that noise as much as she could, masking quivers when the voice hit her like dagger-stabs in the middle of the night, or when working, or at school. She had not the strenght to endure all that for long, so she closed the shop and stopped going school, hoping that her mind would let her in peace. All vain; all got worse. Now the whisper had turned into a haunting screech, and she began to see shadows were nothing should cast them, or red, twin glitters in dark corners. The *voice* said that it could make Ranma hers for eternity, for free; she had just to say yes, and the *voice* would care for all.
She wanted it to stop, but wanted Ranma with all her heart, and was really going insane with that story, until that evening she came back after the umpteenth failure and found the *voice* waiting for her; she gave on and, as the first lighting lit the darkening sky cried: "Yes, I, Ukyo Kuonji, want Ranma with all my streght, and I'll do anything to get him."
All she felt was a prickle near the back of her neck and an image, a foretell of what she had to do to have his love.
"NO!" she had cried horrified running away, under the rain.
* * *
The rain had stopped...no, only over her; something was protecting her. Turning, Ukyo saw the smiling (and a little groggy, too) face of a gaijin with green-brown eyes and wet-growing chestnut hair holding an umbrella over her.
"A girl should not go around with such weather -hic-...ahem...sorry for that."
Ukyo stared at him, unsure on what to do next, wiping her cheeks.
"C'mon, then, do you have a name?"
"...Ukyo..." she said mechanically, standing up on shaking legs.
"Nice to meet you, Ukyo-sama. I'm...Nemo. Do you have a home or something?"
"Y-yes"
"Perfect, then. I'll take you there; show me the way."
Still dizzy for the shock, Ukyo got close to Nemo-san and began to walk home, taking advantage of that moment of peace to make order in her mind. After all, that stranger seemed in good faith and, more important, she had not the courage to go back home alone, without being *completely* alone.
"Your parents must be waiting for you" suddenly said the stranger.
"I...live alone" Ukyo replied, and didn't understand if what gleamed on Nemo-san's face was care or compassion, or both.
"And, if I'm not indiscreet, what were you doing in the middle of the street?" He *forgot* to mention that she was actually crying.
"Well..." she began "...I don't want to speak of it."
Nemo-san nodded in assent and kept on walking. Until Ukyo stopped in front of her house.
"So you live here?" the gaijin said.
She nodded and stepped inside, in the dark, with the chilling fear of hearing the *voice*; and what if the stranger...<If it's only in my mind how could he hear it?> But right now she was unsure about what was real and what wasn't. She turned and saw Nemo-san's slightly dizzied expression. Silence.
"What that sigh for?" asked the stranger. "Anyway, farewell, Ukyo-sama. And dry you off, or you'll catch pneumonia."
"No...come inside, the weather's too bad..." She needed company, *human* company.
"I don't know..." he began, but a rumbling thunder made him jump inside. "Offer accepted, thanks."
* * *
An hour later they were talking in the shop, Ukyo with a new, dry dress and a towel wrapped around her head, Nemo sitted on a stool trying to keep consciousness.
"Are you sure you don't want a towel or something?" she asked, again, glancing at her guest's damp clothes.
"No, thanks Ukyo. Cold water is not a problem for me." (They had already forbid such formal addressing like -san or -sama) "Do you like to know something useful?" he asked suddenly rising his dizzy eyes to look into hers. "Never, I say, *never* rent a room in Maison Ikkoku! If you happen to be in that parts, turn back and run away. It's an alcoholic suicide -hic-...sorry...(blush)...That's how I happened to roam this streets in such a terrible night." He paused to hear the gale-wind blowing outside. "Yesterday I was so tipsy that when I got out of the pub I began to walk in a random direction, without realizing that I was lost...besides, where I am , now?"
<Reminds me of some bandana-loving boy> Ukyo thought answering: "Nerima."
"Ahhhh, Nerima..." he repeated without grasping its meaning.
"Nemo" said Ukyo wanting to make her guest comfortable "would you like an okinomiyaki?"
"Eating?" he wondered aloud. "At quarter past eleven? Why not; maybe it'll make me sober."
"Perfect!" She flashed, reading spatulas and heating the plate. "What would you prefer? I'm pretty good at any recipe."
Outside, under the rain, a ritmical *splish-splash* of shoes stopped in front of Ukyo's house; a boy watched one window from where threads of light escaped, muffled sounds coming from inside. He cleared his eyes from the black, dripping bang and smiled when he heard a crackle from the bag on his back.
"It's here" he said dryly.
* * *
The morning brought the sun, and it was already shining over the wreck left by the half tornado of the night, over the still puddles and over the black-hair girl that was jogging in the streets of Nerima, like all days, at the same hour.
Ukyo was waiting for her; hidden behind a corner, she had been there for nearly half an hour, sure she had to pass by there. The noise of running steps echoed in the empty alley.
"It's time" she clenched the fist. "It's time to do it." Her eyes fell to the ground: "How I can?"
A voice, like a whisper in her ear, answered back: "Do not worry, just let *me* do it for you, and will be all right."
"I can't let you" Ukyo said without even opening her mouth.
"How can you say this?" The words were flowing like honey in her head, hitting right at the heart. "How can you lose your love? I told you, this is the only way Ranma can be yours..."
"Y-yes" she said at last, letting *the voice* do what had to. She was no more Ukyo, but a red-lit eyed creature, with only the evil-twisted features of the girl; for her it was like watching herself through a blood-reddish fog. <Now Akane will pay...>
A hand dropped on her shoulder. "Hi Ukyo!"
It was Nemo's voice, and she barely recognized him before turning, her face normal again. "Good morning. W-what are you doing here?"
"When I awoke nobody was at home, so I came after you to tell I was going away; just this. And, thanks again for letting me sleep in the guests' room last night."
Inside, the *voice* roared: "Noooooo! Don't let him ruin my plan, send him away!"
Behind, Akane passed running, not even noticing them.
"I must thank you for yesterday..." she began to speak, but her head was split by a searing pain, like hot metal passing through her; she kneeled holding her temples.
Nemo startled: "Ukyo...what's wrong?"
Inside her, the *voice* was screaming its anger, and it was painful for the girl not succumb to the violence and death that was flowing in her thoughts. "Kill him!" she heard. "Nobody must stop us! Kill all that stand in our path! You can! You *must*!"
"No...nothing" she murmured, barely managing to contain the omicidial impulse.
"Maybe you should go to a doctor."
"No...I'm fine...thank you." But her smile was clearly plastered on the cold sweat and pain-twitches.
"If you say..." Nemo eyes narrowed suddenly and rolled aside to spy the far end of the street, where someone with a male black school uniform was hiding behind a corner. A tingle of danger echoed in his mind. Turning a little, without letting Ukyo notice, he got a better view of him, and saw he had a big and narrow bundle on his back; that gave forth a tiny energy crackle.
A miniature SD of himself smashed the mallet on the gong that shook Nemo's head like an earthquake.
"Excuse me Ukyo, I'll be back in a moment." <Hope in one piece> he added mentally.
When Nemo got around the corner where the stranger had hidden again he found a boy, roughly the same age of Ukyo, maybe one or two years older, leaned to the concrete wall, unwrapping a four-feet-long katana. "Hi, Onikirimaru" he greeted.
"Hi, Nemo" said back the other.
* * *
Ukyo was still fighting to regain control of her actions. Luckily, Nemo had gone away, so she could calm the *voice*, still screaming for revenge.
"*KILL KILL KILL KILL KILL*" was all she heard.
The red fog was coming down on her again, but she had to keep it at bay; letting the *voice* kill Akane was right ("no" something tingled in her heart), but she couldn't attack innocents. She grabbed the nearest thing avaible and pulled herself up, slowly enough to avoid falling again.
"*KILL KIll kill k...*" the rage was dying.
Then she realized she was covered with sweat, and panting heavy.
* * *
"What are you doing here?" Nemo asked the Ogre Slayer; he blinked. "Okay, stupid question; but what's the matter?"
"Ukyo" the other said quietly.
"Ukyo? That gentle cute girl? Are you sure, I mean, really sure?"
Onikirimaru sighed bored. "There were two people in that street: Ukyo and you. Draw your conclusions." The sword was bare and gleaming.
"No, no, wait!" Nemo blocked him the way rising his arms.
"Why should I wait?"
The other opened his mouth, but words choked.
"I'm going to slay the oni, no way." Resolution was in the Slayer's eyes.
"And what if Ukyo should die?" This time words came out clear, hard, piercing.
"This is not my problem, she shouln't have answered the oni."
Nemo's arms fell. "Nothing will stop you, (sigh) I know. But wait, wait till we know if there's a way to eliminate the oni without harming <too much> Ukyo."
"Right, then, Nemo. But remember that she had not already killed someone by *sheer coincidence*." His voice was harsh like sandpaper.
"Don't worry, I have an idea buzzin' here" he patted his stomach. "We'll meet tomorrow at 5 p.m. one block away from Ucchan's."
Onikirimaru nodded and walked away. "I will slay the oni anyway."
"Monomaniac" Nemo hissed under his breath.
* * *
Ukyo saw him coming back from a sideway with a mix of anger and concern on his face; she moved away from the wall and when she saw his face again, it was occupied by a great, warm smile.
"Sorry Ukyo, but I thought there was an old friend of mine. How are you?"
"Fine, thanks. I need only rest."
"Yes" said Nemo "and immediate, too. Go home, take some sleeping pills and stay in bed until tomorrow. I'll take you home."
She tried to protest, but the man had turned overprotective, or maybe, as she noted, just overinterested in seeing her locked in house for the longest time possible. Anyway, she didn't cared to much, as the advice was a good one, and she needed time to think about all that story, about her, the *voice*, and the price for Ranma's love.
"Can I come back tomorrow to see how you are?" asked Nemo stopping in front of Ucchan's home.
"Not a prob" she smiled getting inside as quick as possible.
When the door closed Nemo turned away. "Why I must always find *this* kind of oni and never one like...who knows...Lum?"
* * *
"You're...late" whispered the dark figure of a sword-bearing boy.
"Got last minute problems at the Tower" said Nemo without stopping, heading straight to Ukyo's house.
Onikirimaru joined him. "What is your *plan*?" he asked with a hint of bored anger.
"An easy one. We go to see her, and you get an idea of what kind of oni we are dealing with, so we will be able to save Ucchan. Questions?" The last word's tone undelined that there shouldn't be.
"*Might* be able" corrected the ogre hunter. "Besides, when this became your problem, too?"
"Just say that's my kind of gratitude."
"For what? Sometimes I can't really understand you."
"Actually, few people can." And for a second, his mind flew to a now-elder Amazon he met in China. The street lamp in front of Ucchan's brought him back to reality.
"It's here" said Onikirimaru.
"Yes, I saw" grunted Nemo massaging his nose.
"Hello, Nemo!" Greeted Ukyo when they opened the door.
"Hi Ukyo!" Cheered Nemo. "Here I am. I brought a friend of mine, too; hope you'll not mind."
"Of course not! Come inside, sit here."
They took a stool each, Onikirimaru putting down the sword *very* near his hands.
"How are you today?" Inside, Nemo knew the sad, real answer.
"Fine, thanks. Do you want something to eat? All on the house."
"Yes, you do the best okinomiyaki in the world." He turned to the slayer: "Hey, do you want one too?"
He just slightly shook his head.
"You don't know what your missing..." said Nemo; then to Ucchan, rising a brow: "Forgive him; he's just a little...how can I put this...shy."
In the rest of their visit Nemo tried to concentrate her attention on himself, letting the hunter do his job in peace. During all the time he sat there on the stool, watching Ukyo with cold brown pools instead of eyes, eager to end the existence of the ignoble creature that inhabited her body. The desire of killing it outright was strong, and more the fact that it could not react if he moved swiftly, but Nemo had sitted right in the way, dead sure he did it on purpose, and he seemed to care much about her; otherwise, they would have already got rid of it.
One hour and a half later, and five okinomiyaki, they went away, with Nemo still trying to get all her attention, and walked for a good while before stopping to talk about the oni.
"Well" Nemo began shifting to an inquisitive tone "what about Ukyo?"
The slayer waited for second before answering: "She can be saved."
Nemo sighed with relief.
"But" he continued "separating her from the oni will not be easy; the little vicious creature has grown inside her, and I cannot tell how big it is now, and gets its power from her feelings, more than on her flesh, so we must make it come out or..."
"...or convince her to to reject it" Nemo ended the sentence crossing his arms and closing his eyes ponderatively. "Let me speak when we're in front of her."
"Do you think you can do it just with words?"
"Would you like to do it just with sword slashes?" replied Nemo.
Onikirimaru did not respond, but turned away.
"Where the heck are you going now?"
"Away, I have other matters to settle; but don't worry, I'll be back."
So they disappeared into the maze of streets.
* * *
Ukyo was washing her spatulas, chanting softly in the fading sun's orange light; she was at peace with herself, and, she must admit, even a bit happy. "Here's what a friend can do" she said under her breath. Sigh. The spatulas were clean, they were to be dried; she turned to take the towel, but went death-pale.
"Hi, Ucchan, do you remember me? Do you remember what you want?"
"Go away, please" she begged. "I can't bear it." The answer was a like a fireball igniting her brain with evil; she had to cling to the wall to avoid falling. "I...said...go away! I do not need you!"
"*Yes, you NEED me*" the *voice* gargled like an ooze puddle. "Do not be stupid, Ucchan..."
The mental pression was incredible, her will was going to be crushed soon; she had to resist, she couldn't let the *voice* kill Akane. A drop of sweat ran down her temple.
The *voice* laughed from inside a mist of blood and Ukyo found herself sobbing in a dark corner of her mind, watching her body taken over by a little, fleshy creature perched on her heart, wrapping it with its poison-dripping claws.
* * *
The finished instant ramen cup went into the nearest garbage can, with the rest of its fellows. "Twentieth" belched Nemo, shifting his position on his bicycle to a more comfortable one. He had been lurking near Ukyo's house from the very moment Onikirimaru went his way, just to be sure she was not going into *sleepwalk*.
"Music always helps..." he said hitting the *play* button on his walkman.
Ukyo's door slid open, no light coming from inside; someone moved inside the dark frame as the first, daunting notes of "A night on Bald mountain" (say, Fantasia's big devil's song) stroke Nemo's ears sending a premonitory shiver down his spine.
"If that's Ucchan I'm Santa...and all of his reindeers!" He chocked on his words as the fanged, clawed, and redlight-shedding eyes version of the girl snarled under the light of the street lamp. "I must find Onikirimaru, the situation is far worse than I imagined!" The tyres screeched as they got a grip on the asphalt propelling the vehicle with unnatural speed.
* * *
The bubbling mass of a dissolving oni fell to the ground in a puddle of smoking fluid; towering victorius over it was a boy, no more than 16 or 17, dressed in a black school uniform, unsheating his katana. A girl came towards him, cheeks streaked with tears: "Who are you?" she asked in trembling voice.
"I have no name..." he replied, a slight veil of sadness covering his face "...just this sword: Onikirimaru, the ogre slayer!"
Something too fast to be seen clearly surpassed them and disappeared in a dark alley with sounds of overturned garbage cans. A bead of sweat formed on their forehead. Nemo staggered in the light panting like a compressor with plasters on many parts of his face. "How...the heck....you got...to...*Yokohama*...by feet!?"
"What's the matter?"
"Guess" said Nemo recovering the bike and discarding the melted brakes. "C'mon *there-can-be-only-one*, we have to time to lose."
"When it happened?" asked the slayer straping the sword on his back.
"Seven minutes ago *something* with her body walked out of her home..."
* * *
"Where does she lives?" The *voice* was literally whipping her after it got lost in Nerima and she refused to tell it the right way. "Talk!" Whiplash. "Talk!" Whiplash. Something attracted the oni's attention, a sort of distant whistle that was gaining strenght; suddenly it jumped in time to avoid a supersonic object that left a charred trail before wrecking in a wall. Someone had jumped from it, and landed brandishing a gleaming katana; another one crawled from the rubble and freed himself of the twisted scrap that once were a bike.
"Who are you?" hissed the oni.
"Ukyo, can't you really recognize me?" A hint of real care flowed in Nemo's words.
"She is no more a human" Onikirimaru shifted into a battle-ready stance. "That is an oni."
"*YES*" roared the creature rising its arms to the night-sky "and you can do nothing to stop me."
"Leave Ukyo now, and we'll let you go!" Ordered Nemo.
"What are you saying?" replied the hunter. "It will not escape my sword!"
Nemo passed a hand over his face: "Maybe it was going to swallow it..."
The oni produced a crackling sound. "Idiots...prepare to die!" and humps formed behind its shoulders, growing till the dress was torn open, revealing two greenish appendages, very much like spike-tipped tentacles or, better, scorpion tails sprouting from the flesh.
Inside herself, Ukyo screamed: "No! What are you doing?! Leave them!" Another slash came as answer, but she went on: "They have done you no harm...please..."
A whisper silenced her: "So you didn't understand yet..."
"Ukyo" the voice of Nemo echoed even throught the red mist "I know you're still there inside, and we want to save you, but we cannot kill the oni until it's rejected from your body. If we don't manage to take the sludge out the guy here will slice you, and, really, I don't want to see you turned into a bunch of tomato okinomiyaki."
"There is no more Ukyo here" roared the oni beginning to flail its tentacles.
<Here's where you're damn wrong, nothing can delete someone like her> smiled Nemo; the sting dug a hole in the wall where there had been his head.
Onikirimaru parried an attack. "Are you sure you can do it? The oni has got powerful."
"Don't worry about it, that's my problem. Ukyo, you must not feel guilty, you had done no harm! Try to fight the oni away! It feeds on your emotions more than on your flesh...aaaahhhh!" One of the bony spikes hit him, sinking in the forearm; the blood spilled.
Ukyo shuddered and turned to the image of the oni clinging to her heart: "Stop it! Stop it now!" The creature laughed. She clenched her fist and shuddered again, but of anger; this was not what she wanted, the *voice* had turned her love into something perversed and evil, something that couldn't even be called a human feeling. It toyed with her for its own selfish ends, all those sweet words were only shit, a bait, and she had swallowed it whole without realizing what she was doing.
She stood up, fierce even if battered.
The oni laughed again, but it felt the flow of precious torment fade. "What are you trying to do?"
"Send you to hell!"
She was slapped backward, falling again in the dark corner.
Outside, the oni nearly froze, uncapable of holding two fights at the same time, swaying the tentacles to keep attacks at bay. The two had noticed the strange behaviour.
"What's..." began Nemo, holding the wounded arm tigh.
"She's challenging the oni in her own body; from the outcome of the struggle we'll know if she can be saved or not."
The oni was getting an edge over the girl; even without food, the beast was still able to overpower her with ease. Ukyo had now turned her sorrow into blind anger, but that was not enough; she knew that was not the right way to beat it, and nevertheless she was not going to give it up. No, because the oni had wronged her; no, because that would mean more suffering for people she cared for: Ranma, Akane, Nemo...
"Resign, *Ucchan*" the last word was caustic. "There is nothing left in your heart that can save you...I know it well..."
Perhaps it was right...
A *voice* from outside, Nemo's voice, was crying something: "Ucchan, just remember what happiness is made of!"
There was a flash of bright light, and the girl was invaded by a warm feeling, something that she felt rarely: it was like resting safely on the lap of someone that cared about her, really and unselfishly.
The oni chirped in fear as a spatula of light formed in Ukyo's hands.
"Now" she said "go away."
Her body convulsed and crashed on the ground, tentacles writhing; then a mass of green flesh erupted from her back shredding clothes and flying upward.
Nemo's eyes narrowed: "It's yours."
Onikirimaru sort of smiled and throwed his sword to the oni, hitting it right between the terror-stricken red eyes; it dissolved in the cool breeze of the night with a last gargle. When the slayer recovered his sword, Nemo was already over the fainted girl. "She has strenght" he said.
"Yes" replied the other with a warm smile. "This was no easy fight to win." Saying so he produced out of nowhere a white blanket and wrapped her body in it.
"You can go Onikirimaru, I'll bring her home."
"All right, Nemo."
When the slayer disappeared from sight, he turned to Ucchan's worn, but at last peaceful, face. And sighed.
THE END
sure of your real intentions and dispositions, and I must say you mTFrom ashita@cchono.com Wed Jan 20 04:26:03 1999
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Cc: "Bona" <mbnesons@uli.it>
Subject: [FFML] [fanfic][SM/Lovecraft]Blood in the dust
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-- Listar MIME Decryption --------------
-- Name : Bloodust.txt
-- Decode : from BASE64...
�
L�
by Emanuele 'Bona' Bonamico
and the unnameble help of Studio Yogipigs
FOREWORD
Here it is another part of 'Magic Knight Rayearth: a trilogy of the aeons'. A simple sidestory? Not really; I more properly call it a prelude to the second episode 'The Second Coming' (sorry for the pun) mainly because there is not trace of CLAMP's work here; it is more a Sailor Moon/Lovecraft crossover (maybe crossbreed). Anyway, I'll leave you to the dark tones of this fic, and to the darker *legal disclaimer*.
All chacters pictured here are either property of their owners or mine. All reference to people, entities and such is pure coincidence.
"" This stands for talks
<> This stands for thoughts
This stands for songs
If you want to send comments, critics, or anything else, you're welcome!
HP: http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/garden/5779
E-Mail: mbnesons@uli.it
Or try with the Studio addy:
studioyogipigs@egroups.com
* * *
Holidays
"At last we can go away, and take a little vacation" Haruka joked, preparing her passport.
"I see you're on a good mood, aren't you?" asked her blue-haired love Michiru.
"Sure I am!"
They paused for a moment while the agent checked their documents. "Teno-san, Kaio-san, you can go."
"Sure I am" Haruka continued after surpassing the airport's metal detector. "We have just saved the world, little Tomoe, and discovered in that Usagi a real princess! What else could I want?"
"Some time together in a long and very relaxing trip to the States" laughed Michiru entering the aircraft gate.
The hostess greeted them with a bow.
"Yes, this is right what we deserve" mumbled Haruka putting away her baggage and finally seating on her love's side.
Shortly after, the plane took off from Narita Airport to Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, Texas. The two former Sailor Senshi watched as their homeland, Japan, became a green-brown patch in the corner of their window, its shape visible through the clouds.
"It's like on the atlas" said Haruka, more to herself than to her partner.
But Michiru answered anyway. "Yes, it is. And we have saved it."
A smile of peace and happyness crossed their faces.
"And all the other charts, too" finished the azurehead in a soft laugh, leaning her head on Haruka's shoulder.
It was a wonderful feeling for them; being there, normal women. The world saved, no more war, no more Army of Silence. All the sacrifices they had done, their pains, had come to an end; all they were prepared to sacrifice, their life and the lives of others, had been retuned back to them.
Their thoughts flew back to Usagi and the other senshi.
"All's well that ends well says the poet" Haruka quoted.
The other was surprised to hear that; "When you started such readings?"
"Michiru, you're not the only one with a culture; I could like cars and motorbikes, but this means nothing."
"Oh, really?" replied the other. "Maybe one day you'll discover I can drive better and faster than you."
"Do you?"
"Not at all."
And they laughed, for the past and for the future, for goals accomplished and for those to accomplish.
* * *
"So, these are the United States" cried Haruka, stepping out of Fort Worth Airport's exit. "What are we going to do?"
"I think it's better if we rent a car, and then we'll see."
"All right, but *I* choose the car."
"No Haruka, the cars you like are too much expensive, we cannot afford them."
"But, Michiru, aren't we here to get some fun?"
At last, the two found a reasonable agreement on a rust-red coup� of the times that had been, and decided to have a ride in the great Texas desert, like in all those movies they had seen on TV.
"One thing I have learned in the past months is that we have got only one life, and it's worth the effort to see or do as much as possible" Haruka had said just before hitting the ignition and darting on the volcano-hot asphalt, under the sun, with nothing around to block her sight for miles and miles.
The hitcher
It was on the third day of their travel. After spending the night in a motel, and checking the car (Haruka did it herself), they had decided to head for the other coast. Even if that was not a real coast-to-coast on route 66, for them it was quiet good.
So they were there, on the road, like the past days. So there was a hitch hiker over there, like many they had seen before, and like before they were going to leave him where he was.
Maybe not.
When they passed near him, Haruka and Michiru jolted at once and the car stopped screeching.
"Did you felt it too?" Haruka asked.
"Yes" the other answered without watching her.
Even the hitch hiker was upset, petrified on the spot with his arm stretched and his thumb up, staring hypnotized at the coup�, and at the two heads inside.
"Could it be?" Michiru frowned.
"I don't know."
Haruka slowly went into reverse and got back enough to let them see the stranger.
"No..." he said in a mock-desperate way. "It can't be you..."
"*We* should say that!" cried Haruka with a flash in her eyes.
"What are you doing here, Nemo?" Michiru asked freezing him with an icy glare.
"Spending my holydays, can't I?" His brown-green eyes were evasively rolling right and left to avoid watching the two girls directly.
"Do you really take *holydays*?" Asked Haruka dryly.
"Well, after saving the world, I think I should deserve some rest."
"Actually" Michiru interjected "you did nothing."
"But I would had" he stated jumping on the car and sitting, very uncomfortably, behind the seats. "Man, couldn't you rent a decent car to make a change?"
"What meant *I would had*?" said the two at once.
"D'you remember the first time we met?"
"Yes, even too well" Haruka spat.
Evidently, they had a grudge with him; something that happened before the war with the Army of Silence.
That day, they were looking for clues, looking for pure hearts, when they saw him walking down a street like a normal folk. But he was all but normal, and they both knew it, at once.
Could he have been an enemy? Was he stalking the city for victims? Had he a heart so pure they could feel it that distance? For sure not the latter.
So they followed him for a while, waiting for the right moment, until he was in a lonely halley, alone.
"Stop!" Sailor Uranus and Neptune had ordered to him. "Who are you?"
He was not too much surprised, bad sign, and made the same question. In the past, the two senshi were not so flexible, and people were divided into two categories: possible victims and enemies. That man fell into the latter in their view, and his reactions were a proof to them.
And his superior powers were upsetting, too.
He had neutralized all their attacks with little effort. And without attacking, until he got bored and pinned them to the ground exploding a ball of blue energy in midair.
"So" he had said in an amused way. "Could we talk more politely, now?"
Uranus and Neptune didn't trusted him, but the edge was not theirs, so they heard what he had to say, and found it interesting. He, Nemo, was not involved in the war, he said *their war*, a term the two didn't liked, but he understood the danger for the planet.
"So you'll help us" Michiru had asked.
But they were deluded: he was no ally. Instead, he was only *concerned* for the situation and wanted to know more about it and about them to take the necessary steps.
He was saying that was letting them to their own devices. No more, no less; he understood and approved what they were going to do and how they were going to do it, so he was not needed.
Before leaving, he had told them that if the situation would have got out of their control, *he* was going to settle things down to normality.
"And you never showed up!" accused Haruka. "Never."
"You never needed any help" he replied shrugging.
"We all nearly died" Michiru said, caustic.
"Don't be so catastrofic! All's well that ends well."
They were still watching him like vultures.
"Anyway" Nemo changed subject waving his hand "Can't we go away, now? It's hot here."
"Wait a sec" Haruka growled. "Did you said *we*?"
Nod. "You are not going to leave me alone in the desert, are you?" he cried understanding Haruka's glance.
"Why not" Michiru wondered aloud.
"Tell them, Yorick" Nemo produced a skull from his backpack and changing his voice to more gloomy one. "*Yeah, right, it would be inhuman.*"
"You're disgusting" Michiru shivered. "Do you always bring that thing with you?"
"Nope" Nemo aswered throwing it away. "I found it along the way; I think it was a hitcher's."
"Ok" Haruka at last growled.
"Haruka?" Michiru said in did-the-sun-blasted-your-brain way.
"Don't worry, we'll bring him to the nearest city, then leave him."
"Thank you" Nemo chirped. "Hope I'll not bother you too much."
"We too" Haruka said rocketing away on the searing hot asphalt.
* * *
Later that day, everything was the same. Sun, desert and both them. Only their passenger broke the silence of the sands and of their intimity.
<At least he's a good singer> Haruka thought glacing at her side.
Michiru was there, enjoying the music. Of the two, she was the more sensitive to such art; to say the truth, she played violin and had more a taste for classical music, not the random range of styles, sounds and vocals Nemo's cassette had poured for hours from the car radio. From Chopin to Will Smith and back to Irish pop, Native American music and Italian opera side-to-side with Aerosmith and Black Sabbath.
He always kept singing.
<He's bashing my head> Haruka mentally snorted. <I prefer the engine's roar. *That* is music for me.>
She glanced at her side again. Michiru seemed to appreciate it.
Nemo's raspy and angry voice brought her back to reality; he was still in his music-induced trance, but the song now was haunting. Notes hit the ears as jagged edges, the melody breaking into waves from the deepest depths of fears. She now listened with more attention, subconscious alerted at the prophetic words.
"Fearless wretch!"
It was the chorus, no doubt. Like in a prayer.
"Insanity!"
"He watches"
"Lurking beneath the sea!"
"Timeless sleep"
"Has been upset"
"He awakens"
"Hunter of the shadows is rising!"
Immortal!"
In madness you dwell!"
An uneasy feeling clawed at Haruka's stomach. The words were disturbing, eerie, somewhat alien. They sounded like a reduction from some of the ancient texts on the Army of Silence she and her dear Michiru had read. Books from past ages, of dark unholy knowledge.
Music faded for a second before returning to her mind.
"Not dead which eternal lie"
"Stranger eons death may die!"
From the rearview mirror, she sould see Nemo crying to the sky with his open arms.
"Drain you of your sanity"
"Face the thing that should not be"
The last word, born like a roar of devotion, chocked into sputtering coughs sincronizing with the car.
"Be-be-be-be-be-beee....."
All silence.
"*Heck!*" Haruka yelled punching the steering wheel. "The car's dead."
"What's wrong?" Michiru asked worried.
"I fear everything" the other answered angry jumping off.
* * *
"How's going down there?" Nemo called at Haruka like she were at the bottom of a pit.
"Shut up!" was the answer.
"I simply can't understand what's wrong with her" he said shrugging to Michiru.
"I think it's you."
Bead on sliding down his brow.
"Did you found the problem?" the azurehead asked hiding her smile.
"Yes." Haruka crawled from under the car and snorted. "Seems everything's broken down there. We're stuck here. *What are you doing?!*" She suddenly cried.
"Nothing" Michiru answered warmly leaning to her love to clear her face from the grease.
Haruka blushed slightly.
"What's the matter?"
The blonde hinted with her head in Nemo's direction.
"Don't worry about him" the azurehead whispered as she leaned closer and closed her eyes.
"*A-hem.*"
The desert wind whistling. Nemo in the middle of the street; Haruka petrified where she was; Michiru, cherry-red, at the other end of the coup�.
"We have to move" Nemo pressed. He began to walk away.
"Wait a sec, you" Haruka called, with a pissed tone.
"What?"
"Come and push."
Snort of resignation.
* * *
Drops of sweat fell on the ashpalt, evaporating instantly; heavy panting.
"How...much...still...?"
"Shut up...and...work, Nemo."
"Haruka, don't squabble with him. He's helping us, after all."
"Why she isn't pushing?" Nemo glanced at Michiru walking at their side.
"D'you want a punch?" Haruka growled.
The azurehead *mpf*ed. <She didn't let me. I love such tendernesses.>
They had kept moving the car for hours, looking for a place to rest and to repair it. Hours under the implacable sun; nothing in sight. Sure it was a desert, but it could not be *so* deserted!
"Hey!" Michiru chirped. "A roadsign!"
"Cool" Nemo breathed, stopping.
"Don't use that word again or you'll regret it" Haruka threatened, stopping too.
"It says *'Mistery Hamlet', 4 miles*."
Mistery Hamlet
The creaking car made its way on the dusty road, cold biting night approaching. Few sounds actually came to them, giving the impression of a cute, tidy, small, ghost city. Only the wind, distant cattle and low murmuring coming from the shut homes hinted at any life there. Along the main, and only, road, stood lined houses weared ans scorched, a freshly-painted two-story building and at the end, a stone-grey presbiterian-style church.
"Look, an inn" Michiru said pointing the green -Open Book Inn- sign on the big building.
"Okay then" Haruka said. "We'll park the car here, rent a room and look for a mechanic."
"At last" were Nemo's words before collapsing to the ground.
* * *
The bell tingled as the inn's door opened.
"Good evening" Haruka said in a rather good English entering the well-kept 'hall', no more than an anteroom with a bench. A door was labeled *private*, at the other end of the hall another was *eating room*; stairs lead to the rooms.
"Good evening to you" a woman in her fourties replied from behind the counter.
"We would like to rent a room for the night" Michiru said.
"Perfect" the woman took a green-binded book full of signatures. "Everything you have to do is put your signature here."
"If it's all here..." Haruka said putting away her documents and taking the pen the innkeeper was offering.
"Even the other lady" she said when Haruka had finished. "Excuse me, but you come from far away, don't you?"
Michiru had finished. The woman continued.
"You know, not many strangers come here, so when someone...Asian?"
"Japanese" Michiru corrected, glancing at the rows of signatures.
"Japanese, interesting" her eyes flashed. "I hope we could have a chat at dinner; you have about one hour to rest."
"Yes, maybe" both answered.
"Perfect" the innkeeper said handing the key. "Your room is the number 4."
* * *
"Hey, someone's here?" Nemo asked walking in the yard of what could be a mechanic's, telling by the amount of cars, pickups and metal junk.
"Yeah" a voice answered from inside.
"I'm here because my car's broken." He stopped at the entrance, spotting a man in blue worksuit busy around some tools.
"I've no time now" the mechanic replied without turning. "Tomorrow I'll give it a look. Go rent a room fo' tonight."
"Thank you" Nemo strolled away.
"Now I've got work..." his voice died away in a childish singsong. "Work to-do, to-do."
And he kept cleaning his tools from fresh red blood.
* * *
The bell tingled as the inn's door opened under Nemo's run.
"Hello."
"Hello!" replied the woman, showing all her joy from such abundance of visitors.
"My friends should have already been here...two Japanese women."
"Yes" she nodded. "If you could put your signature here..."
"Oh, sure" Nemo leaned to take the book and the pen. As soon as he finished, the drowsy silence of the town was wakened by the mournful sound of church bells. Once; twice; thrice. And stopped.
"Strange" Nemo commented. "It's not three 'o clock."
"You are wrong, sir" the woman explained. "This is to remind of religious celebrations."
"Oh, sorry."
Dark night
"Did you hear?" Michiru asked jumping from the bed.
"Yes" she replied stopping just outside the shower. "It scared the hell out of me."
"I felt something strange" Michiru added staring out of the window to the black squat shape of the church.
"It's all over now, come here" Haruka invited her loved one sitting seductively on the bed.
Michiru hesitated.
"What's the matter?" the other laughed. "We are alone *now*, nobody..."
"*Nemo*!" they both cried remembering.
Knocks at the door and Nemo's muffled voice. "Are you presentable?"
Haruka flew into whatever clothes she could find; Michiru opened the door: there were Nemo and the innkeeper.
"What you did to your face?" he suddenly asked.
Michiru feared she hadn't been able to mask her concern for the bells.
"Oh, nothing" Nemo waved his hand and giggled. "I'll never get used to it."
From the room appeared Haruka's I'll-punch-you smiling face just over her lover's shoulder.
"You should rent another room" the innkeeper explained. "Unless..." She maybe hinted at some relationship between Nemo and one of the girls.
"No" he replied badly hiding his slyness. "Not *that* kind of thing you are thinking."
* * *
Later, at dinner, in front of a dish of stew and potatoes.
"Then?" Nemo asked.
"'Then' what?" Haruka replied cutting the meat.
"About your *premonitions*" he added atmosphere with a low creepy voice.
"Don't kid" Michiru advised taking a sip of red wine.
A feeble female voice interjected "Mom asks if you want anything else." A pretty crystal-eye child was waiting for the answer.
"Nothing, thanks" Haruka answered. She scurried away to her brothers and sisters hiding in the kitchen.
Nemo took the chance "So, look. What frigging dangeorous things you see here?" He began to enumerate helped by its fingers. "Good cooking, good prices, good people."
Michiru shook her head. "I felt something unnatural. I'm sure."
"And she's better than you in this kind of things" Haruka added brandishing her knife.
"You're hopeless" he horizontally cut the air in front of him. "You don't need a vacation, just a good analist. This town is perfect; if we were in a Stephen King book, I would run out of here as fast as hell,but we aren't." And with this, he finished his dinner.
Footsteps warned of the aproaching innkeeper.
"I hope everything was of your liking" she said smiling.
* * *
"Time to sleep" Nemo said waving a hand in the couple's direction as they got upstairs.
"Yeah" Haruka replied.
Michiro looked him up and down. "What's up now?" the other asked opening the door.
Nemo grinned; the other two prepared for the bad joke coming. "I said *time to sleep*, and I meant that I want to sleep tonight; I'm in the room next to yours. Understood?"
And he barely managed to dodge the blonde's uppercut hiding in his room.
When she turned her head, Michiru was by the bed undressing seductively. "Michiru?"
"What."
"Do you know what I mean." She closed and locked the door.
"You are not caring for that Nemo, are you?"
"No, it's just that I..."
The azurehead drew her best sweet voice. "C'mon, this is even a chance to give him tit for tat."
"Michiru" she suddenly said. "You are tempting me, d'you know?"
* * *
Later; everybody sleeping in the warm night.
Michiru woke with a half-chocked gasp of terror, staring in the black of the room.
"What's the matter, honey?" Haruka whispered worried at her hear.
"I...I..."
"Are you all right? Do you want a glass of water?"
"No, I'm fine..."
Visible lie for Haruka.
Michiru threw away her sheets and walked up to the window, opening it. The other followed.
"The sea it's stormy tonight" the azurehead breathed.
A soft cold breeze blew once. In the distance, from the church, something rose.
A prayer, a chant, a dirge. Michiru and Haruka frowned and quivered at the low tones, flowing in the air like the scent of a poisonous flower.
"I think we should leave" the blonde stated.
"The quicker, the better" her lover said.
Dark day
The two had found their breakfast ready on the table, downstairs. And this hadn't pleased them.
"This thing is getting *too* strange for my tastes" Haruka commented after finishing her coff�.
"Yes."
They had searched, but nobody was at home. The only thing they had found was a note near their breakfast saying the whole family was out for some commissions.
"I hope Nemo will wake soon" Michiru mumbled.
"Yeah. And pray the car to be working."
The stairs creacked, someone yawned.
"Nemo, it's you?" Haruka asked, a bit of fear in the voice.
"No, it's the babau." Nemo sitted at the table and poured coffe in his cup. He sipped once and, noticing the gazes of the other two he giggled. "It's all right with you two?"
"Have you heard nothing tonight?" Michiru asked.
"No, I was *sleeping*, unlike you two."
They decided not to get offended in any way; other matters pressed.
"Really nothing?"
"Nothing." Gulp.
"Michiru and I had been woken by some kind of chanting coming from the church."
"So?"
Michiru stopped her love. "Nemo, we don't like these place; we want to go away as fast as we can. Period."
"If you want to..." Nemo finished his coffe. "I'll go chek the car."
"Thank you" both said before he was out in the street.
* * *
"Anybody's home?" he asked walking throught the yard full of dead cars. He got no answer and called again.
Silence.
<Creepy.>
He walked up to their car; it looked fine, so he got nearer. "Anybody?" he called for the last time. Nemo shook his head and opened the hood. <Let's see what kind of wor...>
There were only wrecks in it. Everything had been broken, smashed, bent.
Something clanged.
Nemo quivered and walked around the car, getting hit by a terrible stench, coming from a black shape on the floor. A man in a pool of black frozen blood.
"What the..." he whispered closing and putting an handkerchief on his lungs and mouth. Kneeling, Nemo found him dead from at least a day, the head beated into pulp with something heavy.
Clang.
<Haruka and Michiru were right, something weird's happening here.>
Footstep.
A blink, a reflecting on a steel surface, enough to make Nemo's reflexes go into automatic. The monkey wrench whizzed an inch or so from his head as he jumped backwards, landing in a defense-ready stance.
It was the mechanic.
<What...>
The man laughed and an evil snicker mixed with his empty expression; shambling toward Nemo, he licked his wrench before raising it and...
...*BANG*...
...falling to the ground.
The sheriff was, there, holstering his gun. "Man, I can't b'lieve" he said approaching the two corpses. "Are you all right?"
"Yes, thank you. What was wrong with him?" He pointed the madman.
"I don't know, I don't really know. I knew him for years now, but..." his face was mask or worry and impotency.
"If I can, what's going on here?" Nemo asked hoping to get some enlightment.
"Horrible things, here's what." He paused. "Two days ago, two tourists found dead in their car just outside town. Yesterday, some kids found the grocer's head in the trash. And this morning, we have found the remains of a child in the pig pen; now this. God."
Nemo shivered. "I think it's better if me and my two other friends stay out of trouble for a while."
"Yeah, it is" the sheriff said swiping his forehead. "Better if you ran away from this place."
"No problem, sheriff." And he strolled away, a dark brood coming down his mind.
When he was out of sight, the sheriff panted. "I must find out who or what is doing all this. Yes. Yes...but...but first, a little snack." And he bent down on the dead.
The church of Our Lord Dispenser of Secrets
Michiru stopped in the middle of the empty street. "Do you still think leaving Nemo out of this has been a good idea?"
"Yes" the blonde answered. "The best thing is to investigate now, *alone*. I still don't trust him."
"Look at the town" Michiru changed subject. "There's nobody."
Wind whistled raising a cloud of smoke. Silence.
"Creepy" Haruka breathed. "Move on."
Their steps crackled in the dead calm, the sandy road amplifying subtle sounds usually drowned. A door creacked in the distance, but they coulnd't tell if it was at their side or at other end of the town.
"The church." Haruka's phrase was affirmative, not a question.
The other nodded.
The wooden double-doors stood before them, sporting a bronze plaque reading *Church of our Lord Dispenser of Secrets*; it was ajar.
Pushing, they were hit by the pleasantly cool air rushing out, and as soon as their eyes got used to the shade, the oddity of the architecture stroke them. Being not very familiar with western churches, they were expecting to find a classic naved style, not a *perfectly circular hall*. Big enough to house all town people, it was surrounded by seven pillars of black stone, obsidian maybe, and it was dominated by an altar, but it was too high to be an altar, and even if it was circled by a wooden railing, it was obviously too big to be a pulpit.
All was quite as a tomb.
Michiru pointed with a nod at the altar, and Haruka preceeded her up the small steep steps; the only way to get there. It was empty, and clean. The only thing was a black stone reading desk, invisible from downstairs for some perspective game, supporting a ponderous leather-bound book. No names and no pictures hinted at the nature of the book, but both felt something hanging over it. A power, sleeping or latent, powerful and deceitful.
No words between them, thought; a glance was all they needed.
"Can I do something for you?" a high pitched voice screeched from behind them.
Suddenly turning, both women saw a man wearing priest's garments exiting a door so well-concealed in the wall that even they had missed it. He warmly smiled at them and stepped completely out of the doorframe, letting it close before talking.
"Who are you, little sisters?"
Another glance. "We" Michiru began "were having a walk and got curious about this church."
Haruka nodded.
"Well, my dears, what do you want to know?" He got closer and closed the book.
Michiru went on: "We come from very far away..."
"Japan" the priest interjected, and it wasn't a question.
"Err...yes" Haruka feigned surprise instead of revealing her suspects. <The town is little, news spread quickly; I don't trust him.>
"My dears" the priest continued at their reaction. "Our Lord Dispenser of Secrets grants our comunity many gift, and this is one of them."
"Could you explain better?" Michiru played dumb. "What kind of gifts?"
"For example, we have no secrets. Our comunity is blessed for this."
"Don't everyone need to have some little secrets?" Haruka asked ignoring the azurehead's glance of don't-ruin-everything-now.
The other smiled as before and stepped closer. "Secrets only hide crimes. We don't commit crimes, we don't need secrets."
"Really?"
"Yes, my little sister." He got closer. "There is one more thing Our Lord gave us. Do you want to know that, too?"
No answer from them.
"It is death and madness" the priest whispered wrenching his face in a psicho-like grimace, his hand emerging from the tunic wielding a pointed cross like a knife.
Haruka and Michiru's expressions changed suddenly from the happy turist of before to the cold glare of warriors. They were expecting something to happen.
The priest jumped forward screaming, trying to stab at Michiru's chest, missing as she sidestepped. Crashing on the wall, he growled something inarticulated.
"Who are you?" Haruka asked in defensive stance.
Answer was a slob and a second attack. Haruka didn't dodged, it's not her fighting style; she tripped him, easily avoiding the blade and grabbed the scuff of his neck sending him flying over the railing to the church's floor below. In midair the body collided with one of the pillars, before hitting the ground with a wet *crunch*.
The main door faintly creacked open, letting a sunbeam filter inside. "A...anybody's here?" a voice called.
"Nemo" both women said leaning to the railing. "What are you doing here?"
"I could ask you the same thing. I think it's safer if we leave this place at once; seems everybody's going nuts."
"Yeah" Haruka panted. "We've got a good example right here."
Nemo *mpf*ed of wretch when he saw the body in a growing pool of dull-red blood. "He's dead" he said at the two's inquisitive gazes. "Now?"
"Come here" Michiru called.
"What's the matter?" he run upstairs visibly nervous.
"There is a b..." she stopped when their eyes set on the empty reading desk.
"What *b...*?"
"That" Haruka pointed in the mid of the church, not appreciating the humor. On the ground, surrounded by some crimson flecks, lied the book.
"It must have fallen with the priest" Michiru explained; the others stared at her badly concealing their skepticism.
"What kind of book is?" Nemo asked as a foreseeing shadow crossed his face.
"We don't know" Michiru wondered. Her voice changed to thoughful: "But one thing is sure: the halo of darkness it radiates is far too strong to be a normal book."
Haruka's voice broke the silence tie: "*What are we doing still here? Get away from this place*!"
The church shook; creacks snaking from the opening book into the pillars.
"Girls..." Nemo squeaked grappled to the railing "...do something!"
"Sailor Neptune make-up!" and "Sailor Uranus make-up!" at arose with sparkling blue and yellow cocoons of light.
"What?" Sailor Uranus asked as a cold wind shuffled the written pages.
"I think is time to do something *serious*" Sailor Neptune commented as another quake shattered the pillars and mined the churche's very structure.
Both Sailors prepared mental and phisical energies to unleash their powers to stop whatever was to happen, but their glowing power was frozen with their blood by one of the most obscene sounds they have ever heard. The Army of Silence coulnd't conceive such *thing*; Pharaoh 90 couldn't.
A howl, come from the open, blood-shed book, was not human, beast, plant, for even plants in taunted dreams have voices, nor all them, still having a part of them. It was coming from a primal, ancestral source that pre-dated everything, from a place that was above and over the very concept of time itself.
It was saying "*Hello*."
The ash of the now-pulverized book were scattered as a black smoke gayser-erupted from the floor, gurgling as a living being, shaping *into* a living being. One worthy of its *sounds*. The three gasped at the shifting mass of clawed limbs attached to a vaguely human scaly body. But the worst thing were the eyes, mirror of the soul.
Haruka squeezed her love's hand to squeeze away fear.
The creature had no eyes; the creature had no head. It had only a disgusting purplish wet-looking tentacle, that flailed the air before setting towrads the group's direction.
"Who dared summon me?" It said with a more tolerable voice, yet reverberating in every plane of existence.
Nemo swallowed and stuttered: "W-we did, o Crawling Caos."
Neptune was astonished: "How you know this...entity?" She asked having trouble to find a word to define the beast.
"I..." But another voice spoke instead.
"Let me explain, my old friend."
"Hang on" Nemo spat visibly offended. "I'm no friend of a fiend like you."
The tantacle's muscles twisted; a smile? "I am Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Caos, Harbringer of Madness, Messenger of all Outer Gods and of the Lord Azathot..."
"Stop with the crap" Nemo shouted, and hushed a second later.
"*RESPECT*" Nyarlathotep bellowed, shaking all the building. "I am, as I was telling you..."
"Stop with the crap" Uranus repeated. "*What are you?*"
"How unpolite" it replied.
"Answer" Neptune said dryly.
"Don't you know me? You should. I am surprised, as you are some of the mortals that banished my master from Earth."
A drop of poisonous doubt insinuated in the Sailors' minds.
"Azathot, the Sultan Demon" Nyarlathotep explained. "But you know it better as Pharaoh 90."
"Oh, my..." was Michiru's whisper. "It isn't over yet?"
"Be prepared to fight!" Uranus readied a glowing ball in her hand.
"No, no" the Crawling Caos dismissed the fight with a wave of one of its many claws. "I'm not here to do battle with you, and my master has no wish to return to this part of the Universe; at least not in the next couple of millenniae."
"Then why are you here? What evil plan bring you here?" Michiru said with Haruka.
Nyarlathotep like suddnely convulsed at their words and outstretched the head to the black ceiling, gaving forth the chilling call of moments before. "Uhhh, you speak like assholes."
"This' enough" Uranus snarled, and the ball in her hand grew to full size and power. The *World Shaking* raced to the Crawling Caos, before exploding on the wall behind it.
"I'm sorry, miss" it said with a hint of amusement. "But your summon was not powerful enough to fully materialize me. I can't harm you, but the same goes for you."
Nemo stepped closer to the railing. "What you did here?"
"Me?" It candidly asked. "Just what I did from the beginning of human history, and getting not very far. The Army of Silence has been one of the best plans I have ever devised, and you ruined it so easily."
Uranus and Haruka shuddered with anger. Neptune was colder: "And your *master*?"
"Who, that sluggish heap of protoplasm? I wouldn't give a heck for him, but it is so powerful when it gets pissed, that I thought seeding a group of people mad enough to call it to Earth was the best way to erase humanity. This happened I don't remember how many eons ago, but that's not important right now; you want to know 'bout the present, pretty normal for a mortal. Here's the answer: the Curse of Insanity."
Nemo quivered. Uranus and Neptune noticed; they had never seen him quiver in that way.
"I understood" he slowly said. "Don't expect us to do nothing."
"I'll enjoy your efforts" Nyarlathotep cooed. "I know about you, but will the two mortals be able to resist?"
Nemo gave a quick glance in the Sailors' direction and faintly smiled. "Yes, they'll make it."
They had the impression of the evil entity to deflate or sigh. "I'm going to lose" it said at last. "But remember my words: my victory is near. Madness will rule the world; at last, nightmares will come true as the lost island shall awaken" it threw back its tentacle, dissipating into a dusty grey cloud. "*The stars are right!*"
The horrible screech was sucked and died in a hole in the ground along with its master's form.
Neptune touched Nemo's jolting shoulder. "What is the Curse?" The tone was that of a melting glacier.
"We need to get out of this place" Nemo turned without giving away any explanation. "*Quickly.*"
Uranus blocked the stairway. "We're not moving."
He panted. "The Curse of Madness is one of the worst things dark magic has spawned; it's like a psychovirus, and you can guess its effects."
"Infectious?" Neptune pushed on.
Nemo shrugged. "Who knows? The last research team that tried to study it blew itself to bits. But I guess watching its effects will suffice to drive a person nuts. Now out of this doomed town."
Blood in the dust
They left the wrecked church, the burned book and the dead priest. The sun blinded their eyes; a maniacal laugh froze their hearts. It had came from nowhere, echoing in the empty town. It wasn't horrible as the Crawling Caos' gibber; yet it was in another way: it was human.
Nemo's face was wax-like.
"Where we're going now?" Uranus frowned rolling her eyes in search of danger.
"The car?" Neptune asked Nemo.
"Gone."
"Are you sure we can't do something for this people?" Uranus voice was broken with hope.
"Kill them" he said.
Sadly, it wasn't a joke; Haruka knew Nemo enough to understand when he was kidding. She had the urge to punch him, but dismissed the idea as she couldn't hurt him more.
"Are you ready to run?" Nemo asked breaking the silence.
Both nodded.
"Are you ready to run, without turning to watch?"
Both nodded.
What happened next was like a dream: the air was smeltering, liquid, burning them more than the sun; like a fever it scorched their lungs, weakened their legs, blurred their sight. The dust chocked them. And no matter how fast they were running, the town seemed to never end. Just like a twisted dream where something is stalking you, too fast to be left behind, but not enough to catch you; and you run, run, and pant, and anguish, until it gets you and you scream, scream.
Shots, laughs and cries blocked their escape; the sounds came from somewhere and everywhere in town, piercing the rarefied air.
Nemo began to pant like steam engine.
"What...was that" Uranus chewed in her dust-filled mouth.
"Firearms" Neptune guessed. "Probably shotguns."
"Sorry ladies" Nemo interjected. "We have no time for such disquisitions, unless you want to check those weapons *personally*."
All of a sudden something crashed above them; a window broke under an impact; a bloodthirsty howl followed the fall of a little white sack. They watched it in a surprised trance fly through the air, and hit the ground. All three wretched at the wet crunch that arose in that very moment.
Uranus stepped closer, and saw in horror as the white clothes were flooded with red. She kneeled, but a hand touched her shoulder: Michiru.
"No" she shaked her head. "There is nothing you can do."
She was looking down, filled with such pity other people would say impossible, and said: "It is the Curse. This is something man can't do." And turned her hazel eyes to Neptune.
"No" she replied. "It isn't." And turned in her turn to Nemo.
"No, it isn't" he repeated.
The wind blew more sand around them. When it died for a moment, it revealed shapes shambling under the sun without aim but kill. Leaving the cold little body behind, the Sailors and Nemo decided to try sneaking away from town, and hid in an alley flattened between two pale-green-painted houses.
* * *
When the firearms shots and cries increased the tension to unbearable, they decided to come out of hiding and find a way out. As soon as they stepped in the light, dust swirled around them chocking and blinding.
They had stepped right into a mob; a dozen or more townsfolks had their hollow gazes fixed on them. Some of them were wounded, some of them simply blood-smeared; some were bare-handed, some had bloodied weapons: knives, sickles, axes, picks. All were preparing to tear them apart.
Nemo dropped into attack stance; Uranus and Neptune prepared a back-to-back defense. "Prepare to fight" Nemo announced.
"Try not to harm these people" Neptune said as a farmer rose his axe.
"You should worry for *us*" Nemo chuckled in mock-irritation before striding and knocking out the nearest one with a five-punch-combo in the chest.
Uranus too jumped in the melee, hitting the axe-bearer at the shoulder with a kick and then on the stomach with a knee-blow. Neptune docked a punch and tripped the aggressor with a split kick, slid from his reach and dodged another couple of attacks; the whole action ended with the two Sailors still back-to-back; still surrounded. Not far from them, Nemo was slamming two heads together.
"Are you ok?" he cried over the sounds of battle.
"Yes" dryly replied the Sailors at once. "They are too many! We can't fight the whole town."
"You're right" he sidestepped an axe chop and broke the weapon with a kick. "We must breach and escape!"
The answer didn't come, or was drowned in the noise. The Sailors had to defend themselves from a virtually endless flow of psychotic enemies; it was very different than fighting lone daimons, whatever their power could have been, and they couldn't use their special attacks against them. All in all, they have become more soft-hearted after knowing Usagi.
Some cutting edge made its way thought their defenses, and whizzed past Neptune's leg, leaving a red and painful trail. There was a yellow flash, a crackling of energy, and the culprit was thrown away and landed on a window.
Uranus appeared at Neptune's side with still-glowing hands. "How are you?" she sweetly asked. The other didn't answered, but smiled and gently dismissed the wound with a wave of her hand.
Nemo grabbed a new enemy, and using all the momentum avaible, he lifted the body over his head in Hulk-Hogan-worthy stance, bellowing like a grizzly. At all impressed, one of the mob stepped closer and threw two amazingly strong punches on Nemo's face, stunning him completely. Without realizing, Nemo left his prisoner crush on his foe and fell to the ground.
Now that Neptune was safe Uranus turned to fight again; something metallic sticked thought the mass of bloodthirsty folks, the sun glittering briefly on it. Neptune's eyes went wide open as she recognized a double-barreled shotgun.
Quickly calculating the line of fire, she gasped in horror as she saw Uranus back unprotected; instinct over mind: she jumped to save her love's life.
The shotgun fired, breaking the chaos with a shard of silence.
Uranus had just the time to hear it and feel the contact of Neptune's back on hers; and understand. <No...>
Nemo flew out of nowhere in that very moment outstretching his arms, open palms ouward. The air tinged with green and smelt of ozone as the pellets hit the mid-air-created protective field. He finished his jumpd crumpling on the ground.
Neptune's senses returned after that chilling seconds. The metallic shine, the shot, the blaze, the fear, the surprise of being still alive.
<Yes, the shine!> She focused, and a soft pure white light formed in her hands together with the Deep Aqua Mirror.
"Neptune" Uranus squeaked having grasped little of what happened "what are you doing?"
The answer was an incredible bright light. The power of the sun itself unleashed on the mob, blinding and frightful. She had used the sun's reflection on the Deep Aqua Mirror.
Now the crowd was moaning defeated, but the Sailors understood it was only matter of time. "Run away" Uranus ordered; Neptune stopped her: "Wait!" The cry was alarmed.
Nemo was still on the ground holding his chest; a small red puddle was slithering beneath him.
"Nemo!" Uranus gasped kneeling. "Are you alive?"
"No" he coughed. "I'm a walking dead."
"Don't seem you're going anywhere, though."
"Haruka..." Neptune urged half pissed and half wary. People were recovering sight.
"No time to *talk*" Uranus changed her tone to absolute resolution; then half-amused: "No complaints." And lifted Nemo over her shoulders to carry him away; he only growled something surprised.
Fire
They were far outside town now. Their hearts were heavy, but their minds were clear of the blind terror they had witnessed. Only Nemo sometimes groaned, but the Sailors couldn't tell if it was pain or anguish.
They nearly jolted when he spoke: "Haruka, you can let me down now." His voice was weak, but firm.
"Are you sure?" Neptune asked.
Faint groan. She was really worried about his wounds; in the middle of that sun-blasted plain, medical care wasn't likely to come.
He was covered with drying and rusty-smelling blood; from the now-blackening sweatshirt to the rivleted pants. His hands were so dirty to look disgusting. But even pale and panting, Nemo was recovering; he could already stand up by himself and his eyes were filled with inner energy.
"I must do a last thing" he said, more to himself than to the Sailors.
"What do you mean?" Neptune asked following his gaze; silently gasping as she followed it up the cursed town, far and silent.
"What are you going to do in that shape?" Uranus intejected.
"I heal quickly" he answered with a bit of sadness. "I must stop the contagion." The tone was of an unquestionable order.
"But..." Michiru stopped recalling Nemo's words...*kill them*... "You can't!" she sprang.
"What!?" Uranus was more surprised than Nemo.
"You can't kill them all!" she cried again. Uranus launched an icy glare at the man.
Nemo gave them just a quick it's-sad-but-true glance.
"How are you supposed to do it, anyway?" Uranus remarked. "You can't go there and do the dirty work by yourself."
"Or you plan to hire some muscles to raze the town?" Neptune spat full of poison.
"Please, understand me..."
"No, we can't understand this way of thinking. No more" Both were aware of the change in them; and they knew it had been for the better.
At that unexpected resistance Nemo seemed to reach at some hidden well of strenght to roar in that way, with that fire in his eyes: "*You can't understand!*"
Silence. He went on.
"*Can't you understand that this is the only way to end that slaughterhouse! There are people still alive there, and if I can save them some pain I will!*"
The Sailors were shocked by his reaction; and deep into their hearts knew he was right. <What could Usagi have done in that same situation?> they wondered. <Maybe cry and plead; or sacrifice her own life to save the town.>
"Ok" they said at last. "Make it painless."
Nemo thankully smiled and faintly nodded, then turned to face the town and kneeled on the sand. He left some fresh blood run on his hand, and begun evoking something using a language Michiru identified as Latin.
"Ego te voco" he began drawing a circle "Ignis Principem Cthuga, cum potentia primae tubae" lines now crossed the circle. "Ego offero meummet sanguinem fame tua; permittis ignis tuum alere esse essentia mea, permittis ignem urere quid ego cupio" the circle, now complete with strange simbols, began to glow and heat. "Pactum signatum est." In a flash, the sand around the circle and melted.
The sky grew red from horizon to horizon; the wind blew around the town a last time. Then it exploded with the brightness of the sun, a hellish bubble of white heat engulfing and consuming everything. It gorged itself a bit more, before leaving this world hurling in the heavens and disappearing toward a star low on the horizon that the skilled eye could name Formalhaut in the Piscis Austrinus constellation, evilly shining though the noon sun.
When they opened their eyes again, the town was gone; only a scorched crater half-mile in diameter had been left behind.
The Sailors were terrified; never they wondered Nemo had such power. He now lyed on the ground, again, strained and sweating.
"It's over now" Uranus commented with relief and pity as Nemo stood up again.
"No" he said. "This is only the beginning. The Crawling Caos' words were not a bluff; if the stars are *really* right, then Earth is on the edge of the darkest abyss of the universe."
THE END
rds were not a bluff; if the stars are *really* right, then Earth is on the edge of the dar (?OvFrom kunoichi@thekeep.org Wed Jan 20 04:39:45 1999
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From: Caroline Seawright <kunoichi@thekeep.org>
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Good job! It has all you usual romantic and lemon flair plus it has Ryouga
Thank you! ^_^
and Akari together.
Shh! You're not meant to tell people till AFTER they read the 'fic! ^_~
Kun-chan...
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