A Sailormoon story
Decoy
Walk a Mile
Yuuchirou's Lodge
Saturday, 2000 December 23
Whap!
"Eek!" yelled a startled Usagi as she whirled around and put her back
to the door she had been about to open. "Rei!" she complained, "you
almost hit me!" The snowball that had impacted the wall above her
crumbled slowly and enveloped her in a cloud of snowflakes that
glittered in the sunlight. Nervously brushing traces of the snow off
of her jacket, she turned with a grace that had begun to develop since
she and her friends had graduated from high school a few years before.
Her poise slipped for a moment as she briefly struggled with the door,
but she quickly opened it and slipped inside, her face lighting as she
caught sight of Mamoru, now her husband of just over a year.
Minako popped up next to where Usagi had just been and lobbed another
snowball back at Rei, the shot going wild as she let go before she
stopped moving. "Ha! I will avenge Usagi! Take that Rei!" she shouted
and grinned.
The snowball shot through the air and hit Yuuchirou directly in the
face, knocking him backwards. "Yuuchirou!" Rei shouted as she looked
at him. As his arms and legs started flailing, she turned back to
Minako and continued yelling. "You! Take this!" She cut loose with a
trio of well placed snowballs.
As the counter-fire began, Rei let out an "eep" herself and ducked,
letting some of the snowballs hit the landscape behind her, this just
missed Yuuchirou who had cleared the snow out of his face and sat up.
Unfortunately, the tree next to them had taken one too many hits and
finally dumped its load of snow right on top of Yuuchirou and Rei.
"Yay!" Minako crowed, throwing her arms into the air and giving a
little dancing hop. "I wi-" a loose snowball exploded in her face and
cut off her exclamation. She sputtered out some snow and wiped her
eyes clear, and her jaw dropped at the sight.
"_Ami?_ How- you- _what?_" sputtered Minako.
Ami shrugged at her even as a small smile twitched at her lips. She
turned to look at another person, who had taken partial cover a bit
farther away.
Hotaru dropped her arm in a signaling motion, and Rei, Yuuchirou and
Ami all cut loose with a full barrage of snowballs.
"No fair!" Minako complained, and desperately tried to shield her face
with her arms. She stumbled backwards around a corner of the lodge,
and the other four gave chase.
A moment later, the quartet shot back, dodging and running for cover
as their fortunes reversed. Minako ran around the corner, screaming
"Charge!" as she led Makoto, Gurio and Shingo, all fully armed with
snowballs, back towards the others. Gurio had lost some of his
youthful clumsiness, though he still relied more on enthusiasm and his
really thick glasses. Shingo, the youngest of the quartet, now stood a
head taller than Makoto and brought a similar degree of firepower to
the group, although he lacked similar experience.
The lines of the battle shifted back and forth as one side or the
other briefly got a better position. Laughter mixed with squeals and
shouting regardless of fortune.
A few minutes later, the door to the lodge opened and Usagi stuck her
head out. "Hey! Where is.... Uh oh." She grinned weakly and froze
momentarily. A second later she screamed and ducked back inside,
getting the door shut about a half second before eight snowballs
thudded into it and the surrounding wall.
_________________________________________________________________
"Move it you. Make some room for me."
Luna grumbled as Artemis squeezed up next to her by the window. She
cracked one eye open and glared at him, then shut it against the early
morning sunlight. "It's too early to fight," she muttered.
"Hush," Artemis said quietly. "I just want to get some sun too....
While I can."
Luna cracked an eye to look at him. "You think there's going to be
trouble?"
Artemis continued to face the window, ignoring her for a moment. He
looked down from the slowly brightening landscape and flicked a glance
at Luna. "Nah," he said, "not really." He fell silent for a moment,
with his tail twitching.
Luna had started to doze off when Artemis spoke again. "It's just that
most of the times we see all of them together like this something
happens. Or it sure seems like that."
"Be quiet and worry somewhere else," Luna snapped, having opened both
eyes to glare at Artemis. "I'm not going to let you ruin my day."
Artemis turned on the sill.
"And don't ruin theirs either; this _is_ a vacation."
Artemis settled down on the sill and watched out the window.
_________________________________________________________________
Narita International Airport
Juliana Metzdorf's normally bright contralto snapped "you!" harshly
(in English). She had just gotten clear of customs and stopped for a
second when she saw who was waiting for her. Juliana was slightly
above average height, with shoulder length reddish brown hair and a
rather dark tan. She was dressed casually in slacks and a sweater;
just warm enough for the current season.
A warm tenor voice responded. "Hi Jules, nice to see you again. I've
got a black pen on me this time just in case. I have to admit; you
were right about trying to draw wards with a crayon." Randall Widler
grinned at Juliana as he answered in accented Japanese. He shifted the
cane he was using to walk to his left hand and offered his right to
Juliana. Randall was a tall, black man with a medium build and a crew
cut. He was wearing a trenchcoat and boots were visible below that.
Juliana grit her teeth and ignored Randall for a moment. "Don't call
me 'Jules'," she grated out, but relented and briefly shook his hand.
The two of them started walking through the terminal, collecting
Juliana's luggage and heading down to the trains. Randall leaned
heavily on his cane as they walked. "I'm kind of surprised to see you
here, considering how that last 'incident' went." Juliana broke the
silence and glanced down at his knee. As they had started walking,
Randall had untied his trenchcoat and it had parted to reveal his
legs. A light brace was obviously on his knee under his pants.
"Crystal Consulting is not a large company, you know. I was about the
only person that could work on something like this." Randall
explained, pausing as they entered the train.
"Yeah, you or the other two stooges," Juliana shot, referring to the
other two people in Randall's sub-department. Randall gave her a dirty
look.
"You can drop the hostility any time now." Randall said as they took
seats a little distance away from the other passengers on the train.
"As I was saying, I'm also the only one in the area that's free right
now; Agnes is tied up in other company business."
"That leaves me here, as your mentor, and you as the magical mystery
girl." Randall's gaze softened a bit. "And we're going in now."
Juliana looked startled. "What?"
"It's started already. We'll have maybe an hour at the last stop for
you to warm up, then it's showtime."
"Darn it! I wanted to go sightseeing first."
"It'll have to wait. How much did you get in your briefing."
"You're the briefing; I just got e-mail with a reservation and orders
to get here, and very little time to pack."
"Ah, well," Randall began. He looked around to see how close the other
passengers were, switched to English and lowered his voice a bit. "Two
months ago, there was a break-in at the university in London. Dr.
Graham's office was ransacked and several of her papers on Egyptian
hieroglyphics were stolen. Two weeks ago, that got put together with a
number of other crimes with the same m.o. And the targets were all
occult or paranormal related. We took the list to Dr. Graham, and two
days ago she figured out what the thieves were- are after.
"There's apparently a... demon of sorts sleeping or some such in a
cave or chamber near our destination. And there's an ancient ritual
for using that kind of demon as a power siphon. Dr. Graham believes
that the thieves intend to use this to drain the Tokyo area of either
life energy or-"
"Whoa!" Juliana interrupted Randall. "Wait a minute! A demon? Draining
the _whole_ Tokyo _area_?" She frowned at him. "Do you really expect
me to believe this?"
Randall shrugged. "As I recall, you said something similar about the
poltergeist."
"That was before we found out it could barely lift a paperclip," she
said rigidly.
"Yes," drawled Randall, "so what's your point?"
Juliana paused for a moment and frowed at Randall. "So the company
has, what, eleven people in our department-"
"Fourteen if you count my office," Randall offered helpfully.
Glaring at him, Juliana continued, "Eleven people with some magical
talent and it took Agnes decades to find that many. She's the most
powerful of us, and it takes her _fifteen minutes_ to light a match.
And all of this just barely makes us competetive with the big
strategic planning firms in London. _Everything_ naturally magic is
just barely measurable, and the _one_ supernatural thing we've seen
was only a little bit more powerful.
"And now, we're here on a wild goose chase because somebody put two
and two together and came up with the atomic bomb? How can CC justify
this?"
"Because," Randall responded mildly, "this little side venture is not
on company time, or budget. That doesn't start until Tuesday." Juliana
stared at him incredulously. "The only thing we sort of got from the
company on this was all the tea leaf and tarot card readers and
whatnot _volunteered_ some time to do an augury for us.
"Oh yeah," he added, "since you're the only one that got shanghaied
into this, Agnes and I are covering your expenses until work starts on
Tuesday; don't spend it all in one place."
Juliana's face had darkened when Randall mentioned 'shanghaied', and
she now glared at him as though she were about to explode. Hurriedly,
Randall continued. "But getting back on topic, it was our department
that, in the process of doing all the readings, came up with the
'atomic bomb' rating for this thing - as a result, we're taking it as
a given that this thing is real, and will be released.
"So, given the excessive power level of this demon, we'll need a
Sailor Scout to take it down."
Juliana interrupted. "Wait! Randall, the Sailor Scouts are a hoax! And
even if they did exist, they'd be aliens or constructs or something
like from that Galaxy TV thing in '95, and you couldn't rely on them
anyway. I mean, there's _nothing_ on Earth that could give them the
powers the stories say they have."
"And the world is flat," Randall stated, earning a glare from Juliana.
"The Scouts are _real_. There're too many consistently weird and,
admittedly poorly, _documented_ things going on in Tokyo for there not
to be something supernatural. Besides, we have solid evidence on
Sailor V."
Juliana looked startled. "You do?"
"Mind you, it's evidence only to someone who's mystically sensitive,
like the near-dozen in department five, but the authorities don't
recognize magic items even when they're bitten by them. So Agnes got
them."
"Them?"
"Sailor V's boots."
Juliana blinked, then started laughing. She covered her face with her
hands, muffling the sound and rocked back and forth with the force of
her laughing. A few passengers noticed and looked in her direction.
Randall looked at her with concern. "Are you okay?" he asked after a
moment.
Juliana lifted her head and inhaled. Tears were streaming down her
face from laughing so hard. "Evidence," she giggled. After a few more
seconds she got a hold of herself and wiped her face. "Do go on," she
said with a silly grin on her face once her breathing was back to
normal. She dabbed at her face with some paper tissue.
"I hadn't realized the idea was so humorous," Randall said dryly.
"It just-" Juliana began, still grinning. "Nevermind."
"Um, yeah," said Randall, skeptically. "Well to make a long story
short, Agnes figured out how to... weave the enchantment on the boots
inside out. Basically, the boots wear _you_, and make you fit _them_.
They'll turn you into Sailor V as long as they're on, for up to about
six hours; after that the enchantment gets unstable. So you," he
pointed a finger at Juliana, "are going the take on a demon."
"Er," said Juliana, no longer smiling, "why couldn't the Sailor Scouts
do this?"
"Unfortunately, we don't have any reasonable way of getting in touch
with them. As for the original Sailor V, no-one has seen any sign of
her in years. We _know_ the demon is going to 'wake up' tomorrow; we
don't know if the legendary Sailor Scouts are anywhere nearby. Better
safe than sorry."
"Why me?"
Randall shrugged again. "Some fighting experience, and spell-casting -
well, wards at least - under pressure. Our best assessment of Sailor V
is that she was a combat mage."
"Oh come on! _How?_ Agnes is the most powerful mage I've heard of on
three continents, and she can barely light a match. You expect me to
believe there are people around who are orders of magnitude stronger?
Where's everything in between then? Huh?" Juliana demanded.
Randall shrugged. "Given what I saw of Sailor V in London, that's the
only reasonable explanation." He paused for a second and amended his
comment. "It bugs me too. Hopefully we'll have an explanation
someday."
Scowling at the whole situation, Juliana exhaled noisily. "Okay, I'll
play along for now. So, I have one- no, two questions. First, what
_did_ you see of Sailor V in London? This is the first _I've_ heard of
it. And what happens after six hours?"
"I saw about five seconds of one of her battles, where she cast a
'Crescent Beam'." Randall tapped the side of his head, right next to
one eye.
"Did your usual trick of seeing how to..." Juliana trailed off, and
looked a little pale.
"Yep, and I'll show you how to work it later. However, nobody, not
even Agnes, normally has enough power to get even a shadow of an
effect from trying it. I did show Agnes and Dr. Graham how it worked,
but they're _still_ trying to make sense of it.
"And as for what happens after six hours; I have no idea," admitted
Randall. "Agnes only felt the magic getting unstable after wearing
them about that long, but didn't leave them on to see what would
happen."
"Bwah?"
"Worst case is 'Certain Death', but that's unlikely. It would probably
just be 'Most Unpleasant', but survivable. Kind of like the situation
with my knee."
Juliana winced.
"Oh, yeah," added Randall, "you can only use them once, Agnes found
out _that_, too."
"...'Most Unpleasant'..." Juliana echoed, with a scowl on her face
that said 'I'm going to scream real soon.' "...fight a demon too..."
she added, muttering under her breath.
After an uncomfortable pause, Randall changed the subject. "So, how
was your time in Brazil?"
During the rest of their trip, Randall told Juliana a few more
details. Near dawn, the two of them reached a small shelter a little
way up into the mountains. It wasn't much, but it did provide some
walls and a roof, and a place for Randall to offer some final training
to Juliana before her mission started.
"Okay, then you move your hands like this." Randall demonstrated the
gestures of Sailor Venus' 'Crescent Beam'.
"Like this?" Juliana tried to imitate him.
Randall frowned. "Almost," he stepped beside her and reached for her
hands. She stiffened for a moment and then let him guide her hands.
"More like... this," he guided her through the pattern, repeating
twice to be sure she had it.
"And you've got the trigger down, I'm sure." Randall stepped away from
her and grinned.
Juliana offered a small smile in return. "It's kind of hard to forget.
'Crescent Beam!'" she pseudo-shouted, grinning at the idea of an
ordinary phrase being a magic word.
"Where _does_ her power come from?" she asked after a second.
"Nobody knows," Randall said. "I don't think we can even guess."
The two of them were silent for a moment.
"Well, I guess I'm set." Juliana sat down and pulled off her boots.
Randall pulled out a pair of calf-high girl's boots sized
approximately for a thirteen-year old and handed them to her while
commenting. "Remember, once you get these on you have six hours to get
back." He held a wristwatch in one hand and added, "I'll start the
timer for you. The alarm will go off with fifteen minutes to spare.
"We never did pinpoint when the attack will occur, but we did narrow
it down to somewhere within a mile or two- excuse me, two or three
kilometers of here, so you'll probably get the best results from a
varying patrol.
"Also, if you spot any groups of 'innocent bystanders' try to keep an
eye on them. The bozos behind this mess are likely to try to use them
as their initial target."
"Where did Agnes get these anyway?" Juliana asked as she finally got
to look at the boots she had heard about the night before.
"Sailor V used them as a decoy during one of her numerous capers in
London," explained Randall. "I guess she forgot to collect them
afterwards. Jeff pulled them out of the rubble after things quieted
down and brought them in."
"Well," said Juliana as she started pulling on the boots, "the moment
of truth arrives."
Her foot slid into the boot. There was a little resistance at first as
her adult-sized foot had to be squeezed into the opening, but once her
heel touched the edge of the boot, her foot slid in without
resistance. Both of them stared at the odd sight of her bare foot
against the much smaller booted foot.
"The fit's just right," Juliana said after a second, her voice
quavering. She stuck her bare foot in front of her booted foot and
completely obscured it. Then she reached down, brushed off her bare
foot, and pulled on the other boot.
When her heel hit the bottom of the boot, the world shifted around
her. She _shrank_. The boot, her boot now, was suddenly larger in her
grip. Her eye level moved down by about a handspan making the sight of
the boot suddenly pop forward. Her chest flattened somewhat. The spot
on the bench where she was sitting felt like it had been warmed by
someone else, a larger someone else. Her coat and clothes changed too,
leaving her dressed in a light sailor fuku, but the cold seemed to
have receded to the background as well.
Sailor V inhaled sharply, held it as she was reminded of the
difference in her now narrower shoulders and torso, and exhaled
slowly. She let go of her boot and stared at her now gloved hands and
arms, noting their new shape and lighter skin color.
An errant puff of air teased a bit of her longer hair over her
shoulder into view. Sailor V started to brush it back with one hand,
then grabbed it to stare at its now blond color and new length.
"Houston," she said shakily in _someone else's voice,_ "we have now
entered the twilight zone."
Randall handed the watch to Sailor V after a moment, and she fumbled
it into place, pausing for a second after it was secure. She looked up
at him. "Godspeed sailor," he said after a second, and saluted her.
Sailor V sloppily returned his salute, froze for a second, then
whirled around and rushed out of the shelter.
As she raced up the trail, Sailor V accelerated into her new
abilities. Within two steps, her strides changed to leaps and she
bounded higher each time. Each insane leap made the air tear past her
ears in a peculiar pattern. _Whooo_oooo_ooosh_, went the air past her
ears, then her feet touched the ground and her legs cushioned the
impact and she leapt again and the air went _whooo_oooo_ooosh_.
A wide grin split her face as she looked at the ground several times
her own height beneath her. "This is unreal!" Sailor V informed the
sleeping countryside as she leapt again.
Randall stepped to the entry and watched Sailor V leap up the
mountain. Then he stepped over to their pile of stuff, and tossed it
into a duffel bag. He grabbed his trenchcoat from a bench, bundled up
against the chill, slung the bag over his shoulder, and started
trudging up a side-trail, leaning heavily on his cane.
_________________________________________________________________
A hint of sunlight warmed Makoto's face as dawn greeted the day. After
a few seconds, she sneezed in reaction and startled herself awake. She
muttered something to herself even as the scraps of the dream from
which she had been awakened faded from her mind.
Makoto stood and stretched in the light, arms above her head and eyes
wide open to greet the day. She froze in mid-stretch as a silhouette
flitted across her field of view outside. A second later she was at
the window, looking out over the landscape painted by the not quite
risen sun.
Half-awake, her train of thought derailed when she reached up to
finish rubbing the sleep from her eyes. She shrugged at herself a
second later, and went to get dressed for the day's outing.
A clatter came from elsewhere in the lodge as Usagi tumbled over a now
unidentifiable pile of stuff. She lay on the floor a second and
mumbled something quietly, still more asleep than awake.
A pair of hands reached down to help her up. "Are you okay, Usako?"
Mamoru asked as he helped her up. Usagi nodded to him as she was
helped up, the dream already forgotten.
The scent of breakfast drifted into the room the two were sharing, and
there was a sudden vacuum as one of the two occupants rushed to
investigate.
"She'll never change," Mamoru commented quietly to the air and smiled
wryly.
The others also gradually woke over the next hour and joined the
informal breakfast. Quiet conversation in two's and three's dominated
the time, until a simultaneous lull struck. Then Minako spoke up into
the silence.
"So, Ami, did you figure out who was aiming for Usagi yesterday?"
All attention focused on Ami, who shook her head. "Just that it wasn't
you, me, or Makoto."
Attention snapped back to Minako.
"I noticed that Rei and I both aimed for the same spot on the wall,"
Minako replied.
Most of the spectators returned their attention to Ami. Usagi,
however, stopped as her gaze passed Shingo. She focused on her
brother, and narrowed her eyes at him.
"Hmm," Ami responded to Minako. She started to turn to Rei, when
Hotaru spoke up.
"Gurio was still packing another snowball when we all attacked, and I
_think_ Yuuchirou was aiming for the wall too. And it wasn't me...."
Gurio nodded, "Yup, Hotaru was aiming for the wall, too."
There was a brief silence in the room, broken only by a padded
staccato thumping as Artemis suddenly raced into the area, through the
middle of the group, and out another door. Most of the group ignored
him, though Minako briefly turned to see where he went. She turned
back to the group after Artemis reached a window and hopped up on the
sill.
Hotaru, who had been resting her head on Shingo's lap, tilted it back
to look up at his face.
Ami's gaze had changed from a look of concentration aimed at no one in
particular to a calm look directed at Shingo.
"Shingo!" Makoto broke the silence.
"How could you?" said Rei at almost the same time. "I mean, your own
sister?"
Mamoru handed a throw cushion to Usagi, who promptly threw it.
Artemis glanced back at the sudden pillow attack on Shingo, then
returned to looking out the window.
The sun was now well over the horizon, though still low, and long
shadows were draped across the landscape. Artemis ignored the view,
and focussed on the branches of a tree a short distance away.
Something moved, high up in the branches though still hidden from the
daylight. The cat strained his eyes, trying to identify it and
absently chittered at it in concentration.
Suddenly, the figure leaped from the tree, heading for a different
tree a bit farther away, and momentarily exposed itself to the direct
sunlight. Artemis locked his eyes on the motion and....
"There you are, silly cat!" Minako sprang on him and scooped him up.
She looked out the window to try to see what he was looking at;
nothing but the landscape was apparent. She scratched the cat behind
the ears and queried him. "What were you looking at, anyway? Birds? 'A
bird in the bush is worth a half dozen of the other.'" She paused.
"Wait.... Is that right?"
Artemis managed to look dazed.
A few moments later, Yuuchirou looked up from waxing a ski and
grinned. Minako had turned on the CD player and loaded a CD carefully
held on one finger. She scooted back next to Rei, who was starting to
look worried.
Music blasted from the speakers, but not so loud that normal
conversation couldn't be heard. Minako bestowed a wide grin on
everyone.
"Is this new? I haven't heard it before." Usagi declared, a puzzled
frown on her face. "What is it?"
Makoto twitched. "Hey!" she exclaimed. "That's Rei's voice!"
"It is? It is!" Usagi said in surprise.
"That's Yuuchirou's band?" Shingo asked. "They're not bad."
"Gee, Rei," said Usagi a moment later, "how did you get your voice so
deep? You sound like a guy in this part." Yuuchirou's voice flowed
from the speakers.
Rei stuck out her tongue briefly at Usagi, who started to respond in
kind and then burst out giggling.
Yuuchirou carefully set down the ski he had been working on and zipped
out of the room. He made a 'later' gesture to Hotaru who had started
to say something to him.
Leaning over a bit, Minako spoke to Rei too softly for the others to
hear. Rei became a tiny bit more red.
"What did you say, Minako?" Hotaru asked
"Uh..." Rei nervously started, leaning forward to get in Minako's way.
"She said- ah-_choo_!" Rei sneezed, and paused for a second with a
startled look before diving for the paper tissue.
"All of her fans must be talking about her!" laughed Makoto. Rei
honked her nose into the tissue.
A trace of concern crossed Ami's face as laughter at Makoto's comment
bounced around the room. "You're not coming down with anything, are
you Rei?" Rei shook her head before sneezing again, this time into the
tissue.
Gurio sneezed, briefly looking surprised and then reaching for the
tissue.
"Oh great, Rei," Usagi moaned, "now you've gotten everybody started."
Mamoru cleared his throat. "I think it's only yawning that works like
that, Usako."
"Really?" said Usagi, just before yawning.
Rei flashed her tongue at Usagi. "Now who's star-..." she yawned.
A wave of yawns shot around the room, punctuated by the occasional
sneeze. This was interspersed with a wave of good-natured complaints
directed at Usagi and Rei.
Yuuchirou re-entered the room and started passing out unmarked CD
jewel cases. "Hey everybody, have a CD!" He waved one in the air
before handing it out.
As he passed through the room, Minako waited until his back was turned
to her, then caught Makoto's eye and pantomimed yawning. Makoto
accepted the CD that Yuuchirou was handing to her and broke into a
yawn. However, Yuuchirou had already turned to someone else and missed
it.
"Are these copies of what's playing?" Gurio asked, looking at his
unlabeled CD.
"Yup," Yuuchirou affirmed.
Minako tried again to get someone to yawn in front of Yuuchirou.
"Why is this such a funny color?" Usagi asked, holding the gold
colored CD up to the sunlight.
Ami tried to explain. "It's a limited printing; it's not
mass-produced."
Usagi stopped playing with the reflections from the CD for a moment,
and her lips threatened to break out into a grin as she continued.
"But why is it such a funny color?"
"Because they make it differently?" Ami told her in a questioning
tone.
"Ohhh," Usagi exagerated her response as her grin broke loose. Her
eyes twinkled merrily a second later as Ami recognized the imitation
of themselves from when they had first met. Ami smiled back at Usagi,
and Usagi continued to play with the light from the CD.
Minako tried yet again to get someone to yawn in front of Yuuchirou.
This time she got a barrage of pillows back from her previous victims.
Yuuchirou turned around to see Minako getting buried. "Did I miss
something?" he asked as another pillow fight broke out.
After Minako surrendered, and Yuuchirou declared the last of the skis
ready, the group began to move outside.
"Hotaru, can I talk with you for a second?" Minako asked the younger
girl.
"Sure, Minako, what's up?" Hotaru replied as Minako took the
opportunity to steer the two of them a bit apart from the rest of the
group.
"What did you think of Yuuchirou's CD?" The two women glanced over to
the lodge where Yuuchirou was laughing at something Shingo had just
said.
"Well... I kind of liked it...."
A grin split Minako's face at this, as Hotaru had been the first to
ask for Yuuchirou's and Rei's autographs, and she hadn't sounded as
though she were joking.
"What do you think of getting them to do a show at your college?"
Hotaru froze and stared at Minako. "That'd be great!" she enthused
after a second, now grinning herself.
"I thought you might like the idea. Heh. Do you know who I can call on
campus about setting this up?"
"Well.... No, not really." Hotaru's expression shifted from a grin to
a mixture of that and a thoughtful frown. "You should ask Shingo about
that. He's taking Journalism and I think that bunch knows the campus
staff better that I do." She paused for a second, and her expression
shifted to a more pure grin. "Did you just want to set up Yuuchirou's
band? Or were you thinking...."
"Something like a whole show. I know a few other bands I can get, and
I can _easily_ be the announcer." Minako winked at Hotaru. "Maybe I
can even go into that full-time."
"But Minako-chan," Hotaru was mock surprised. "I thought you _liked_
your PR job at that bank."
Minako flashed her tongue at Hotaru, who responded in kind. "Oh
great," Minako opined, "we're turning into Usagi and Rei."
Over by the lodge, Rei's face scrunched up as she suppressed a sneeze,
while Usagi, a few steps away, was not so fortunate.
Usagi sniffed briefly, then smiled as she looked around at the view.
"Oh, Umino-kun, I wish Naru-chan were here to see this."
Gurio blinked behind his thick glasses. "She should be here tonight;
tomorrow at the latest if her office has _too_ much work left."
Usagi smiled sadly. "Oh, I know, but it just won't be the same without
her here, and it won't be the same," she made a sweeping gesture at
the surrounding countryside. "Um..." she trailed off.
Gurio nodded after a second, and turned to look where Usagi had
gestured. Brilliant sunlight on the snow and trees produced a view of
intense green, brown and glittering white. The tops of the trees
rippled and swayed in a wind not present at ground level, and lent a
soft shushing sound that blanketed the whole area.
The wind started to pick up then, and the rustling sound from the
trees got louder. A high, keening sound started up from the air
rushing over a few rocks and outcroppings beyond the trees, and became
audible to the people standing around the lodge. The keening got
louder, and went up in pitch, causing a few people to cover their ears
in pain.
The noise reached a crescendo, and shifted into something more like
the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard. The wind itself suddenly
moved into a circular flow above them, tearing bits of snow and
evergreen needles from the tops of the trees. As the group on the
ground fought the pain from the noise, a funnel dropped from the
spinning air and hit ground a few paces from everyone.
The funnel sucked up a bit of snow, and then detached from the moving
air above it, which went back to its normal flow. With an even louder
screeching, the funnel collapsed in on itself and formed a humanoid
whirlwind.
Mercifully, the noise stopped.
The snow-monster screeched with the fingernails-on-a-chalkboard sound,
though it wasn't as loud as before, and lumbered toward Rei and
Shingo, who turned to run.
Minako and Hotaru looked at each other, then simultaneously reached
down and grabbed a handful of snow. Neither paused to pack their
snowballs, and, as though synchronized, threw their loose wads at the
humanoid whirlwind chasing Rei and Shingo. Minako's snowball went
through the monster's "heart", while Hotaru's was a perfect "head"
shot.
The apparition cut loose with its piercing screech as the snow passed
through it. Both snowballs were ripped to dust by their passage
through the thing and only had the visible effect of making it stop
and look to their point of origin.
"I think we got its attention," Minako said.
"I think you're right," Hotaru said.
The humanoid snowstorm started moving toward the pair, who turned to
run.
"Hey! Wait a minute!" Minako snapped. "We should-"
"Halt!" a young girl's voice shouted from atop the lodge. Obligingly,
the monster stopped and turned to look.
Sailor V posed and pointed angrily at the whirlwind. "Winter and snow
are for vacationings and frostbite," she yelled with an odd accent,
"not for terr- terr- scaring inn- inn- nice people! For your crimes I
shall punish you!"
"..." said Minako as nervous perspiration beaded on her head.
The obake screeched again and a wavering, screeching distortion
erupted from it heading towards Sailor V.
At the same time, the girl on the roof shouted "Crescent Beam!" and
fired off a bolt at the obake.
The two bolts collided in mid air and detonated in a brilliant
explosion of light and sound. The obake immediately jumped up toward
Sailor V, cutting loose with a screeching attack.
Sailor V leapt over the monster to the ground just a little distance
away from everyone else. She turned to face the obake again, but it
was already firing another bolt at her. Immediately, she leapt over
the blast, which tore up the ground where she had been standing.
Landing further away, Sailor V didn't even pause to look, but
immediately dodged into the trees. The bolt that the obake had fired
at her back just barely missed and it followed up by running after the
girl and away from the lodge.
The group around the lodge listened to the noise of the battle for a
moment, tracking the location of the two by the repeated screeching.
Then there was a shout of "Crescent Beam!" and the screeching went
silent.
A few seconds later, the sound of a tree crashing down reached the
group, but by then, no one was listening.
"Oh man, you'd better have Hotaru take a look at that!" Yuuchirou
shouted over the ringing in Mamoru's ears. He handed a rag to Mamoru
who used it to dab at one ear and his nose. "That was _loud_,"
remarked Yuuchirou. The rag came away from Mamoru's face with red
spots on it.
Over by the lodge, Minako, Rei and Shingo, under Hotaru's direction,
were carefully helping carry Ami back into the lodge. Ami was weeping
quietly and clutching her head as tears streamed down her face. Hotaru
had a rag pressed to Ami's left ear. Makoto reached the door and held
it open for Ami to be carried into the lodge.
Sitting back against the wall of the lodge, Gurio was clutching his
head and had tears streaming down his face, although he did appear to
be in better shape than Ami. Usagi was crouched next to him and looked
torn between staying with Gurio and going to be with Ami. Then she
caught sight of Yuuchirou and Mamoru walking back to the lodge.
"Mamo-chan!" Usagi yelled and shot to her feet and rushed to him. She
latched onto him and started helping clean up his face with the rag.
Yuuchirou stepped out of the way, and went to help Gurio.
In a moment, everyone was in the lodge again, and caring for the
injured. Hotaru had wiped Ami's face clean, and was giving her some
aspirin, while Usagi had gotten Mamoru's face clean and was now
producing more tears than Ami or Gurio had. Gurio, for his part, was
also downing some aspirin and sitting with his head in his hands while
waiting for it to take affect.
"I'll be all right," Ami insisted quietly.
Hotaru shook her head. "Ami, you, um...."
"Tossed her biscuits?" Minako offered.
Rei coughed. "That was close enough that it must be a sign of the
end."
"I'll be okay," Ami insisted again. "The sound the monster made when
it arrived was just the right frequency to cause a disturbance in the
equilibrium of my inner ear."
"What?" This came from Usagi.
"The noise made her dizzy," translated Gurio. "And me too, but not as
bad, I think. Now I just have a headache." He put his head back down
into his hands and rubbed at his temples.
"But Ami!" Usagi persisted. "Your ear..." she dabbed again at Mamoru's
ear.
"I think that was just because it was so loud," Rei offered.
"Usako," Mamoru held Usagi's hand, "we should all be fine in a few
hours." He held her to him, and she sniffled against his chest for a
while.
Makoto returned to the room with a steaming bowl of soup. "Here you
go, Ami. This should make up for, um, outside." She and Hotaru
rearranged things so Ami was now sitting up against some cushions.
Shingo returned to the room then, with a limp black bundle in his
arms. "Um, sis?" he tentatively began. "I think your cat got hit,
too."
"Oh, no! Luna!" Usagi wailed, and she and Mamoru gestured for Shingo
to bring the cat over to them. He did so and set the cat into their
arms. Luna meowed piteously.
"I'm sure she'll be okay, Usako. I think she's just dizzy, too."
"Oh no!" exclaimed Minako. "Artemis!" She rushed out of the room.
Minako raced around the lodge. "Artemis! Artemis!" she called for the
cat. After a few moments, she stopped in a room and paced around while
muttering to herself. "He must have gone outside to see where that
monster came from, and to look for 'Sailor V', whoever she really is."
Minako stopped and started to gesture.
"Minako-chan!" Usagi's voice stopped her. "Did you find Artemis?"
Minako called back and started back to the group. "No, I think he's
outside." She rejoined everyone.
Ami was looking much better, having finished the soup Makoto had given
her, and she, Mamoru and Gurio were now acting as though the aspirin
had started to take affect.
Yuuchirou was standing by the entrance, looking uncomfortable in his
boots but making no move to take them off. He waved down Ami's
apologies for what happened outside. "Don't worry about it, Ami. Rei
and I are in a rock band, so it's not like I haven't seen this after
parties."
Rei narrowed her eyes at Yuuchirou. "Are you trying to imply
something?"
Yuuchirou looked confused, "No?" he said, as though asking 'imply
what?'
Shingo looked between the two of them. "Are we still going skiing? I
mean, Sailor V got rid of that thing so it should be safe again."
"Was that really Sailor V?" Makoto asked. "I mean, that Senshi looked
like she was thirteen or fourteen, and I thought Sailor V was that old
in '91."
"Maybe her growth was stunted or something," Hotaru said.
"Like yours?" Shingo teased. Hotaru did her best to stuff a pillow in
his mouth.
"I can't help how-"
"Short," someone's voice overrode Hotaru's.
"I am." Hotaru looked around and glared between Rei and Makoto.
"Maybe they have a Senshi Union, or something," Mamoru tried to
redirect the conversation.
"If we're going to ski, we can talk about it outside." Yuuchirou
pointed out.
Minako coughed. "I think Artemis is outside, so I'm going out to find
him."
"Oh!" Usagi exclaimed from where she was petting Luna, who had started
to purr. "I hope he's okay. Maybe we should all go look for him."
Ami stood up. "We should at least walk around to speed up the aspirin
taking affect."
"Okay, but don't strain yourself," Hotaru warned Ami.
Ami smiled at her, "I'll take that under advisement, nurse Hotaru."
Hotaru smiled back. "See that you do, doctor Ami."
Yuuchirou stepped back outside, and was quickly followed by everyone
else.
_________________________________________________________________
Randall bullied his way through the snow, relying heavily on his one
good leg. The cane he was using barely helped, and his trenchcoat was
dragging in the snow.
He was gradually making his way to where the last shout of 'Crescent
Beam!' had occurred, but his heightened exertion was now making the
red stain on the strip of cloth around his head get larger.
After a few minutes, Randall found a clear area where a tree had
recently fallen. He dropped the duffel bag he was still carrying and
limped over to a spot by the upper branches of the tree. Somehow, he
managed to kneel and check the unconscious Sailor V. She was still
breathing, but her feet were partially caught under the tree.
Randall tossed his cane onto the duffel bag, and picked up Sailor V
under her arms. "C'mon, kid. Let's get you out of this mess," he
muttered.
His one good leg straining, Randall lifted and _pulled_ Sailor V. Her
feet remained stuck in the tree branches for a few seconds, then with
a _snap_ and _crack_ she popped free.
Randall fell back on his rear and froze in agony. When he could focus
again, he could see that the brace on his leg was _bent_, and his knee
was at a very wrong angle. However, his first concern was for Sailor
V. He looked to where she had fallen, and his blood ran cold.
Reddish brown hair spilled on the snow around a tanned woman's face.
Juliana lay on her back on the snow with one foot bare, and the other
wearing an impossibly small boot.
Randall crawled forward to Juliana and checked her condition, which
was much the same as before. He snared the cane on the duffel bag and
dragged it to him. From the bag, Randall pulled out Juliana's boots
and put them on her to keep her feet from freezing. That done, he
leaned back against a branch with one of the pair of Sailor V's boots
and muttered. "Now what?" He glared at the other boot, which was still
stuck under the branches.
_________________________________________________________________
Artemis hopped onto a log and ran the length of it. At the end, he
carefully sniffed the air, swinging his head from side to side and
twitching his nose with the effort. A faint hint of freshly broken
evergreen needles still wafted through the air from ahead of him.
After a moment, he took a few steps toward the source of the scent,
then abruptly froze. His ears flattened against his head and he
instinctively crouched. All around him the wild animals went silent as
they, too, felt a _wrongness_ growing stronger second by second.
A roaring crackling noise assaulted Artemis from ahead of him. It
sounded much like bonfire, but it was louder and somehow wrong.
Within seconds, the noise was briefly drowned out by a shout of
"Crescent Beam," and Artemis could hear the noise of battle ahead of
him. The roaring crackle, sounds of crashing around and a shout of
"Crescent Beam" mixed chaotically. He started toward the battle, but
then it moved toward him.
The crackling thing bounded into view then, and Artemis was sorry it
had. It was vaguely humanoid, and ape-like at the same time. Its exact
appearance changed from second to second in a twisting, writhing
manner, and its flesh quivered as its bones shattered, rearranged
themselves and set even as the oni threw a large branch at Sailor V
and dodged a Crescent Beam. It had one eye, then many. Its mouth
changed from fanged to tusked to nonexistent in the blink of an eye.
The skin of the oni was green, then red, then other colors melting
into each other in an eye-wrenching way. Its hair was tangled and
matted, except when it was scaly.
And, disturbingly, there were moments when it appeared as an
androgynous, impossibly perfect human.
It bounded over Artemis, heading straight for the lodge, and in the
roaring, crackling scream that came from no mouth and many, all his
thoughts fled.
"Crescent Beam!" screamed Sailor V again. The bolt struck the oni
again, making it stumble and earning Sailor V yet another thrown
branch. She dodged, stumbling a little herself and using one arm to
deflect some of the twigs. She was stumbling now - somewhat drunkenly
- as the noise from the oni assaulted her. She could _feel_ the noise,
it twisted and churned in her gut and pounded in her head. Each tiny
crackle scraped against her nerves and her limbs were trembling from
the punishment.
The oni ignored her and continued running toward the lodge.
Sailor V leapt, fired, dodged and continued to repeat the pattern she
and the oni were setting. It, for its part, continued to mostly ignore
her as it raced toward the lodge ahead of them. With every dodge,
Sailor V came closer and closer to being hit.
An urgent desire to warn the crowd around the lodge shot through
Sailor V's mind as she leapt to get closer to the oni. Skipping her
usual shot on landing, Sailor V took two more leaps and managed to get
ahead of the oni. "Crescent Beam!" Hoarse now, the shout erupted from
her throat just as her feet were hitting the snow. The bolt slammed
right into the oni's... face and flipped it over onto its back.
It was back up in less than a second, and for a change the oni threw a
rock instead of the usual branch. It was a fairly large rock, and
probably massed about three times Sailor V's teenage body.
Sailor V ducked, reached, and _grabbed_ the rock as it flew by her.
She kicked off the ground as she did so, and then propelled herself
from the rock toward the lodge.
Away from the oni now, Sailor V's head cleared a little. She landed
just past the last of the trees in the open area around the lodge.
There was a crowd of skiers there, of which the members were well on
their way to taking cover in the lodge.
"Get out of here!" Sailor V screamed as she leapt to the top of the
lodge. In the middle of her arc, she could see there was a light show
hidden from the others by being behind the lodge. In the light show,
Sailor V could just discern the figure of a posing woman. Concluding
that 'the cavalry' was still teleporting in, Sailor V twisted to land
facing the oni.
"Crescent Beam!" she shouted, making the oni pause. "If it touches
you," she tried to warn them, and paused to fire. "Crescent Beam!
It'll kill you!"
People started to move away from the lodge, but the light show behind
Sailor V hadn't finished. The oni moved again, ignoring the dodging
people and Sailor V's Crescent Beam. An icepick of realization stabbed
through Sailor V's mind as she noticed the oni was heading straight
toward the light show. "Crescent Beam!" She moved between the oni and
the woman in the light. "Crescent Beam!" Her voice was almost gone,
and the oni was still trying to reach the light show.
"Crescent Beam!" Sailor V's voice was a sobbing whisper. Every bolt
she fired tore her soul, and involuntary tears streamed down her face.
The bolt she had just fired slammed into the oni and pushed it back a
step. Sailor V held her shaking arms in position, and began to
gesture. "Cres- Cres-"
The oni leapt.