Please 'cc' replies to delusion@cyberspace.org
Long time no hear! I've got a bit of an update to one of the things I've
been working on, and thought I'd let you all have a look. It's not done yet,
so feel free to flame away.
As always, more prereaders are welcome!
--
Delusion of Reality
--------
A Sailormoon story
Decoy
Walk a Mile
Yuuchiro's Lodge
2000 December
Whap!
"Eek!" yelled a startled Usagi. "Rei! You almost hit me!" She nervously brushed
traces of the snowball off the jacket that Mamoru had bought for her a week ago
and slipped into the building behind her. Her face lit up with the memory even
as another near miss sprinkled more loose snow over her head and shoulders.
Minako popped up next to where Usagi had just been and lobbed another snowball
back at Rei. "Ha! I will avenge Usagi! Take that Rei!" she shouted and grinned.
The snowball shot through the air and hit Yuuchiro directly in the face,
knocking him backwards. "Yuuchiro!" Rei shouted at him. As his arms and legs
started flailing, she turned back to Minako and continued yelling "you! Take
this!" cutting 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 Yuuchiro
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 Yuuchiro 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, Yuuchiro 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.
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
Juliana Metzdorf's normally bright contralto snapped "you!" harshly (in
English). She had just clearing customs at Narita 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 looked down at his knee; a
light brace was obviously on it 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 everyone's souls; the
translations describing the demon were a little ambiguous.
"Given the excessive power level of this demon, we'll need a Sailor Scout to
take it down."
Juliana interrupted. "Wait, I thought the Sailor Scouts were just an urban
legend!"
"Oh, they're real all right. There's too many consistently weird things going
on in Tokyo for there not to be something supernatural. Besides, we got solid
evidence of 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.
"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, their existence is still only rated as probable, and 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. "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 added, "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 what happens after six hours?"
"No idea," admitted Randall.
"Bwah?"
"Worst case is 'Certain Death', but that's unlikely. It would probably just be
'Most Unpleasant', but survivable.
"Oh, yeah," added Randall, "you can only use them once."
"...'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. Nobody even has any theories."
They both looked thoughtful for a second.
"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
14-year old and handed them to her, 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 15 minutes to spare."
"Where did the company 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.
Randall stepped to the entry and watched Sailor V leap up the mountain, each
leap covering more and more distance as she adjusted to her new abilities. 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sailor V leapt up the mountain. Each jump left her breathless with her new
ability; she felt as though she were in a videogame, arcing forward into the
air with the wind rushing past her, she stared down at the ground several times
her own height below her. Then the ground ahead of her rushed up to her and her
feet touched and her legs cushioned the impact and she was up in the air
again...
A half-hour of leaping gave her a good overview of the area she needed to
cover. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but there was a private lodge in use
that had the heaviest concentration of people in the region.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yuuchiro's Lodge
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
Yuuchiro was aiming for the wall too. And it wan'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 stacatto
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 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 asked 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.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sailor V paused in her patrol of the area to check her watch. She was high up
in the branches of a tree near someone's lodge; apparently the highest
concentration of people in the area. The countdown timer on her watch read 4:41
- a half hour later than the last time she checked it and about as long since
she had been any closer than 20 meters to the ground.
"What a rush!" she grinned at her ability to do this, and leapt for another
tree.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yuuchiro looked up from waxing a ski and grinned. Minako had turned on the CD
player and loaded a bare 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 and exclaimed, "hey! 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 kleenex.
"All of her fans must be talking about her!" laughed Makoto. Rei honked her
nose into the kleenex.
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 kleenex.
Gurio sneezed, briefly looking surprised and then reaching for the kleenex.
"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," he said.
"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.
Yuuchiou 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, Yuuchiou had
already turned to someone else and missed it.
"Are these copies of what's playing?" Gurio asked, looking at his unlabled 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."
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.