[Segment 6 of 6]
--**--
"What do you think they'll do?" asked Uranus.
"Well, one thing Dhiti-chan isn't, is subtle. If it was just her, I'd
expect something very obvious ... but she can be hard to stop once she
gets going, and she's very fast. I'm not sure about Venus, though. She
always seems so unpredictable ..."
"Yes." Uranus remembered the sight of Venus standing on top of a crane
in the warehouse yard. "She likes to take people by surprise, I think.
Maybe from above."
Jupiter thought about it. "Yeah, that does sound like her, doesn't it?
I'm not sure about Dhiti, though. She's not a great jumper ... You
know, I think we should be on the alert for a split attack. One from
above, and one from the side."
"Well, yes. That would be the sensible thing, wouldn't it?" Uranus
said, as if puzzled that Jupiter had taken so long to work it out.
Jupiter blinked at her, then said, "That just leaves Mars. I don't know
if we can expect much from her, though. She, umm, doesn't seem to have
much control over her powers --"
"Itsuko was teaching her hand-to-hand. She may be more threat than you
might think."
Jupiter snorted. "Right. I've forgotten ten times more about fighting
than she could pick up in a couple of hours. And that's just in _this_
lifetime."
"Oh?" Uranus raised her eyebrows politely. "The history books say you
had a reputation as a martial artist."
"Oh, boy. Don't mention those history books --"
"Five minutes," Itsuko called from behind them. "Your turn to move in,
ladies."
"Right." Jupiter gave Uranus a quick, confident grin. "Don't worry
about it, Suzue-chan. We'll paste 'em."
She saw Uranus nod. Then the two turned and stepped in among the trees.
Silence enveloped them. There were no birds singing; even the insects
seemed to have fallen mute. Jupiter felt a prickling sensation down her
spine: excitement, and fear. She was in enemy territory. This was just
an exercise ... but all the same, it occurred to her that her and
Uranus' uniforms would be very visible through the trees.
She tried to expand her senses, listening in all directions around her,
straining to detect the slightest movement. She did her best to walk
quietly, but every breaking twig or crackling leaf beneath her feet
seemed ten times louder than normal. Uranus, not far behind her,
sounded as if she were driving a bulldozer through the bushes.
No birds singing. But had they stopped as she and Uranus had entered
the forest, or had they already been silent? She could hear her own
breathing; it almost seemed to drown out the distant trickling of the
stream.
[This is ridiculous!] she told herself. [It's just a game!] It was a
comforting thought; but then she remembered that it was a live-fire
game. She told herself that Itsuko and Artemis were out of their minds.
A pity that she hadn't thought to tell them that before.
They moved on. The constant rustling and snapping of twigs underfoot
began to get to her; she had been able to do much better once, she
thought, irritated. The idea made her pause. [Well, why not?]
There was a gap in her mind, a hole that Artemis had opened in her
memory. It had narrowed since then; but still, her last life lay just
beyond the gap. Her last life, and the one before that, and maybe even
others, further back yet, if she dared to look. Three lives were more
than enough to remember, though; enough to know that she had roamed the
giant forests of Callisto as a child, millennia before.
After a minute or two of concentration, she recalled the knack. It was
surprisingly hard to force her body to move in the way she recalled.
Her arms and legs felt stiff, heavy; her muscles complained at being
forced in unfamiliar ways. She remembered what Artemis had been saying
about using skills without the training to do them. Maybe the cat had
had a point.
After another minute or two, she found that she was moving more easily.
Not silently, but more quietly, at least. The sound of Uranus behind
her seemed to redouble, and she wondered for a moment if she had seemed
as noisy to the other girl.
Somewhere far away, a bird called. She jumped, then forced herself to
relax and carry on. Not far ahead, between the trees, she caught a
glimpse of the stream. Thick bushes lined the water. She turned to
signal to Uranus -- and in that moment, she saw a flash of white from
the corner of her eye.
There! High in a tree, almost hidden by thick foliage. And a glimpse
of orange; it was Venus, sure enough.
She stepped back into cover and waited. When Uranus joined her, she
pointed to where she had seen Venus and made a 'V' sign. The other girl
nodded, and Jupiter whispered, "Circle around. Cover me from the side.
I'll take care of Venus."
Uranus nodded again and slipped away. Jupiter waited for a minute to
give her time to get into position, then started forward again.
She walked past the tree slowly, holding her breath, waiting for the
moment. Then it came: a sudden stirring in the branches above and
behind her, and a voice shouting, "VENUS LOVE-ME CHAIN!"
At the first sound, she was already moving. A quick dodge to the left,
and then she whirled and shouted her own attack: "SUPREME THUNDER!" At
the last moment she remembered to keep it low-powered.
A startled yelp came from above. The Love-Me Chain went wide. Then --
oh, satisfying sight! -- Sailor Venus fell headlong from the tree,
clutching her leg. She twisted in mid-air, trying to land on her feet,
but did not quite make it, and hit the ground in a flurry of flying
limbs.
Jupiter hurried up to her, the exercise momentarily forgotten. "Are you
all right --" she began.
Another voice shouted from above. A huge bolt of ice struck the ground,
bare centimetres from where she was standing.
When she could breathe again, she looked up into the tree. Sailor
Mercury was grinning down at her. She must have been standing in the
tree, hidden behind Venus, all along, Jupiter realised faintly.
"Bang," said Mercury. "You're dead, Hayashi."
And so she was, she realised, chagrined. Venus had let herself be seen
deliberately, as bait to draw her in. Taken out like an amateur! She
shook her head. "You got me," she admitted.
(But where was Uranus? She must have backed off when she saw Jupiter go
down so easily. Not a bad idea ... she hoped. And what had happened to
Sailor Mars?)
"Three against one, now," Venus said to Mercury, sounding very pleased
with herself. "That should be easy."
Excuse me? "Two against one," Jupiter told her firmly. "I took you out
too, remember."
"Hey, I'm still okay!"
"Oh? Try standing up, then tell me that."
Venus got up, an indignant look on her face. Then she squawked, and had
to grab the tree to stay on her feet. "What did you do? I can't feel
my leg!" she complained.
"Low-power shot," Jupiter said with a satisfied nod. "Give it half an
hour and you'll be fine."
Mercury snickered. "Looks like a mutual knock-out." She clambered down
out of the tree, a little awkwardly. "C'mon, let's get you two corpses
back to the clearing. Then I can come back and beat Sailor Uranus."
"Right." Privately, Jupiter hoped that Uranus would give her a surprise
of her own, but she did not say so.
They made their way out of the bushes, Jupiter and Mercury helping Venus
walk. As they emerged, Itsuko raised an eyebrow, checked her watch, and
made a note on a sheet of paper. For some reason, Jupiter found that
particularly annoying. Her expression must have shown it; she saw
Itsuko's lips twitch.
She and Venus sat down in the grass. Venus was still rubbing her numb
leg. "Just leave it," Jupiter advised her. "When you get a king-sized
case of pins and needles, you'll know it's almost better."
"Gee, thanks." Venus made a face at her.
"Well, wish me luck," Mercury told them. "I'll be back with Uranus in
just a few minutes." She strode jauntily back into the bush.
Venus and Jupiter exchanged glances. They rolled their eyes as one.
Twelve seconds later, Sailor Mercury marched back out of the bush. Her
hands were in the air. Sailor Uranus was right behind her, her finger
pointed at Mercury's head in a 'gun' shape.
"This isn't fair!" Mercury protested as they emerged.
"Why not?" asked Uranus reasonably. "You made so much noise, it would
have been hard to have missed you. All I had to do was wait for you to
come back."
"But -- but --"
"Yes?"
"Nuts." Mercury lowered her hands gracelessly and flopped to a seat
beside Jupiter and Venus. In the background, Itsuko made another note.
--**--
As Sailor Uranus walked back into the trees, she had every expectation
of finding Mars within a few minutes. After all, the other girl had
been pretty hopeless at the warehouse on Wednesday, and no better during
the vitrimorph attack the following day. The attack that had brought
down the Opal seemed little use against people. Uranus rather thought
that as soon as she found her, the game would be over.
The trouble was finding Mars. It was proving to be absurdly difficult.
The exercise area that Itsuko had indicated was not that large -- no
more than a hundred metres wide at its largest -- and she was sure that
she had covered it thoroughly within ten minutes. It should have been
easy; after all, a girl in a red-and-white sailor costume ought to have
stood out like a sore thumb.
It wasn't working out that way. The bushes along the edge of the
clearing and down the stream bank were not all that thick, but she had
covered them carefully all the same. She had looked up into the
branches of every tree that seemed climbable. After half an hour of
searching, she had run out of places to look; and there was no sign of
Sailor Mars anywhere.
Well, she must simply have missed something. Patiently, Uranus turned
and started to search all over again. In her mind's eye, she divided
the area into small squares, and began to check each one off as she
finished it. She could not help thinking, a little resentfully, that
this would have been far easier if Itsuko had picked a more reasonable
training spot.
Why bring them all out into the wilderness like this? Itagaki Suzue did
not really approve of the countryside. It seemed pointless, and rather
wasteful. If people wanted grass and trees, there were plenty of parks
and gardens in Third Tokyo. She supposed that a certain amount of land
was needed for growing crops, but apart from that, why not just build
more cities?
Shaking her head, she moved on, patiently looking up into another tree
and checking that there was nowhere among the branches where a Senshi
could have stood unseen. Something brushed her leg and she looked down
hastily, her heart pounding. A stalk of grass. She made a moue of
annoyance. That was at least the fifth time. She was beginning to
really detest these woods.
Nearly half-way through her second sweep, and still no sign of Mars.
How could the girl be hiding so well?
She reached the stream, patiently checked in the bushes, then started
back again. It occurred to her that Mars was actually rather good at
going unnoticed. She always seemed to hang back, not taking part unless
she had to, not even speaking unless someone spoke to her first. She
might be rather good at hiding, too.
Well, no matter. She was still a Senshi. She was still dressed in
white and brilliant red. And Sailor Uranus was still going to find her.
--**--
"Well, the sneak attack was Venus' idea," Mercury replied. "But it was
my idea for both of us to do it, so I could take you out while Venus
kept you busy. Worked pretty good, too, huh?"
"I suppose," said Jupiter grudgingly. "What happened to Mars, anyway?
I never saw her at all."
"I'm not sure, actually," said Mercury. She was lying spread-eagled in
the grass, looking totally relaxed. "We headed into the woods, found a
good tree ..."
"And when we looked around, she was gone," Venus finished. "She's
pretty good at that. At the warehouse the other day, I couldn't see her
at all." She rubbed at her leg as she spoke. "Hey, I think the
feeling's coming back."
"Lucky old you," Mercury answered lazily. "Just in time for the next
exercise."
"Oh, thanks."
Mercury smirked at her. "At least this time, maybe you won't be taken
out with a single shot."
"Oh?" Venus eyed her for a moment. "And maybe this time you won't need
helping up a tree, either."
Mercury sat bolt-upright, a glint in her dark eyes. "And maybe," she
said carefully, "we'll even be on different teams next time. Just so we
can, y'know, see what's what. And who's who."
Venus gave her a long, thoughtful look in return. "Wouldn't that be
interesting?" she said.
"Are you sure you two don't want me to get you boxing gloves right now?"
asked Jupiter, half-amused.
"What?" Mercury looked around with a start. "Oh! Hayashi." She
visibly collected herself. "Don't be silly, I quit the boxing club ages
ago. You know that."
"At the request of all the other members, wasn't it?"
"That ... is a base libel, Hayashi --"
"You were in the boxing club?" asked Venus. The tension was gone from
her body, and her grin looked real now, Jupiter noticed with relief.
"Well ... not for very long. I was the only girl, and it was really
hard to get any of the guys to fight me."
"She tended to lose her temper and hit below the belt when any of them
touched her," added Jupiter helpfully.
"That is not true! Only once!"
"Three times, Dhiti. Three."
"That's just a rumour Mizumoto spread! He was mad because I wouldn't go
out with him --"
"They were sparring," Jupiter told Venus in a stage-aside. "He gave her
a black eye, then asked her out with the next breath."
"Wow," said Venus. "Real romantic guy, huh?"
"I think he meant it as an apology."
Mercury sniffed. "That's what he said afterward, sure. Anyway, after
that I quit, and tried to join the sumo club instead. They were even
more unreasonable about the whole idea --"
"Sumo club?" said Jupiter. "I never heard about that."
"Don't you have the wrong, umm, build for that?" added Venus.
"Hey, I could have bulked up if they'd let me in!"
"Dhiti-chan, you couldn't bulk up if you went on a pure chocolate diet."
"Mm, chocolate. What an endearing idea, Hayashi."
"So what did you try after sumo?" prompted Venus, leaving back on one
elbow.
"Oh, that was just last week. I haven't had a chance to try anything
else yet. I was thinking about ikebana."
Venus choked. "Flower-arranging?" she said, laughing. "You want to go
from sumo to flower-arranging?"
Mercury shrugged. "Well, I haven't tried it before. It might be
interesting, who knows? Anyway, I've had enough of martial arts for a
while. Fencing was fun, but most of the rest were kind of dull."
"Fun! You know, Hishida-sensei was really upset when you left the
fencing team," Jupiter told her seriously. "You were one of the best in
your grade, and the competition with Yonjugo School is coming up in
another two weeks."
"Yeah, but ..." Mercury sighed. "It was getting old, Hayashi. I'd
been doing it for -- what? Nearly a year and a half. That's forever!
I was suffocating. Anyway, I needed the time to practise my
oil-painting ..."
Venus was laughing again. "Is there anything you haven't tried?" she
asked.
Mercury grinned back; but there was a wry, half-rueful look on her face.
"Far too much, Sailor Venus. Far too much. There's never enough time
in the day ..."
"Actually, speaking of time --" Jupiter glanced at her
communicator-watch. "It's been over an hour. Whatever's keeping Uranus
and Mars?"
"What? Wow, it has, too." Venus hopped to her feet, waving to Itsuko.
(Her leg, Jupiter noticed, no longer seemed to trouble her at all.)
"Hey, Itsuko-san!" she called. "How much longer are you going to let
them go?"
Itsuko was standing over at the other side of the clearing, talking to
Artemis and Bendis. At Venus' shout, she looked up, then nodded and
walked slowly over to join them. "We've just been talking about that,"
she admitted. "I never expected anything like this. What do you think,
Sailor Jupiter?"
"Me?" Jupiter was taken aback for a moment. Then she looked pleased.
"Oh! Well ... I think you may as well call it off. If Uranus hasn't
found Mars yet, we could be waiting forever."
Itsuko nodded. "That's what I was thinking. Though --" she smiled for
a moment -- "I don't think that Sailor Uranus is going to be too happy
about it."
--**--
Two hundred metres away, Sailor Uranus was standing in the midst of the
trees, looking around and trying to keep from swearing at the top of her
voice. She had not felt so frustrated in years. She had searched
everywhere -- everywhere -- three times over, and there was simply no
sign of Sailor Mars. She was beginning to think that the girl must have
crossed the stream and left the contest boundary; and if that turned out
to be true, Uranus was going to grab her skinny throat and --
Itsuko's call came as quite a relief. Uranus looked around and saw the
woman standing at the edge of the woods, beckoning.
"Come on back," Itsuko ordered. "We're calling the exercise off."
Uranus gave a resigned wave to show her understanding. She was glad to
hear the command; but at the same time, the words made her feel worse
than ever. One way or another, they meant that she had failed.
"Sailor Mars!" Itsuko added, beginning to make her way into the bush.
"Can you hear me? Uranus, you haven't seen her at all?"
"No!" Uranus replied angrily. "She just vanished somewhere. I think
she might have --"
There was a rustling sound behind her. Uranus froze. Then,
reluctantly, she turned around.
A girl was crawling gingerly out from under a bush that Uranus was
certain she had checked several times. She was brushing a heap of
piled-up leaves and bark chips off her legs. Against her skin -- which
was already rather dark, Uranus realised dismally -- they made excellent
camouflage. All the same, the girl would have stood out boldly, and
Uranus would have spotted her in a moment, if it hadn't been for one
thing.
She wasn't Sailor Mars.
"You detransformed," Uranus whispered. Kodama Iku looked up quickly, an
uncertain look on her face. Uranus noticed that she was wearing
dull-coloured, rather drab clothing, fairly old and well-worn. It, too,
blended into the background rather well. "You ... you cheated!"
Iku shrank away from the anger in her voice. Hardly aware of what she
was doing, Uranus took a step toward her, fists clenched -- and froze as
a hand touched her shoulder.
"Cheated?" said Itsuko softly. "How is that, Sailor Uranus?"
"What?" Uranus looked around indignantly. "She detransformed! She
isn't Sailor Mars any more! She -- she --"
"And how is that cheating?" asked Itsuko.
Uranus stared at her, speechless.
"Rather a clever idea, actually," Itsuko went on musingly. "I wonder
why I never thought of it myself? I can think of half a dozen
situations when it would have helped, back in the old days. The
surprise factor alone would have made it worthwhile ..." She waved Iku
over as she spoke. The girl approached cautiously, keeping a wary eye
on her fellow Senshi's face.
"Maybe," Uranus said grudgingly. "But ..."
She wanted to say, "It isn't fair!" A glance at Itsuko's face,
half-smiling, showed her exactly how far that would get her. Iku had
simply out-thought her, she realised dismally.
"We were going to call the exercise a draw," Itsuko went on. "After
all, the winner was supposed to be 'the last team standing,' wasn't it?
But I don't know ... at the rate you were going, you might never have
found Iku at all. Maybe we should declare her the winner."
Both girls' eyes widened. "But --!" Uranus burst out.
Itsuko laughed, and waved her silent. "Well, maybe not. After all,
neither of you actually beat the other, did you? I think we'll call it
a draw after all." She sighed, still chuckling. "Goodness knows, not
much else today has gone to plan."
"Yes, Itsuko-san," said Uranus in a subdued voice. Iku echoed her
words.
"Now come on, let's get back to the others. It's getting late, and we
need to be heading back to town before too much longer."
As they walked back to the clearing, Itsuko pretended not to hear
Uranus' sigh of relief.
--**--
Venus and Mercury broke into applause when Itsuko led the two girls out
of the trees. They cheered louder when they heard how Iku had eluded
Sailor Uranus. Uranus herself kept a tight-lipped silence. Iku looked
as if she wanted to hide again.
Jupiter was less sanguine about the moral victory that the others seemed
to think Iku had won; but she did not say so aloud. She wondered,
though, what Itsuko was going to have to say about the exercise in
private, after they got home.
Behind her, Uranus said, "They're right. I lost the match."
She turned, and saw not Uranus, but Suzue. "It was a draw," she
corrected.
Suzue shook her head. "No. Suppose it was real, and we'd been hunting
an enemy? I couldn't find her, which means she got away with the heart
crystals, or star seeds, or whatever."
Jupiter thought about it, shrugged, and changed back to Miyo. "This
enemy isn't after heart crystals."
"Still. She out-thought me."
"So you'll get her next time, then." A sudden thought made Miyo grin.
"Anyway, why worry? You don't have to be smart. That's Sailor
Mercury's job."
As one, they turned to look at Dhiti. Then Suzue gave one of her slow,
rare smiles. "That's not exactly a comfort."
Miyo smiled back. "I know."
--**--
"So what do you think?" said Artemis to the woman standing at his side.
"They've got a lot of work to do," Itsuko replied with a grimace.
"Oh? I thought they were rather promising, actually."
She sighed. "Yes. They are."
He looked up, read her expression, and did not press the point.
"Suppose we give them a few more minutes to unwind, then start back
home?" he suggested instead. "You just drive. I'll handle analysing
and debriefing them as we go."
Itsuko nodded. "Thanks." He started to walk off, but stopped as she
said, "Artemis? They are promising. Really. I ... I'm just a bit
tired, that's all."
The cat nodded. "Sure," he said.
--**--
"Did you see the look on Uranus' face?" Dhiti crowed for the third time.
"Oh, that was good! You really saved our bacon there, Iku-chan."
She, Beth and Iku had detransformed and were sitting by the drinks
cooler. Beth and Dhiti were leaning back, nursing cups of orange juice.
Iku had a cup of her own, but she was paying little attention to it.
Instead, she was looking vastly uncomfortable at the attention the
others were paying to her.
"Yeah," Beth agreed. "That was a good move. Suzue's pretty smart, and
we might have had trouble surprising her. But --"
"What, are you saying I'm not smart too?" challenged Dhiti, sitting up
sharply.
"Umm ..." began Beth. "You did kind of walk into her trap."
"I -- well, yes." Dhiti huffed in irritation. "But you'd have done the
same thing if it's been you!"
"Er. Actually, I think Sailor Venus would, um, have her own way of
doing things."
"Huh? You know, sometimes you talk like you and Sailor Venus are
different people."
Beth looked surprised. "I do? I hadn't realised --" She broke off,
looking at something over Dhiti's shoulder. "Whoops," she said,
sounding relieved. "Bendis wants me. Talk to you later ..."
She rolled to her feet in one smooth, easy motion and jogged off toward
the cat. Dhiti watched her go, a faint frown on her face. Something
about the way the girl had gotten up bothered her. Then, with a shrug,
she put it from her mind. This was too peaceful a moment to spoil.
Instead she leaned back on one elbow and said to Iku, "So, what do you
think of it so far?"
Iku stared at her. "Of what?" she asked at last.
Dhiti shrugged. "Being a Senshi. Training this afternoon. Whatever.
I just wondered. I mean, none of us got a choice about this, did we?"
"I don't know. I ..." Iku was silent for a few seconds. Then she
said, "It doesn't matter."
"Oh?"
"No. I ..." Iku bit her lip. She looked as if, somewhere inside, she
were wrestling with herself. "Bendis did ask me," she said in a low
voice. "She asked if I wanted to stay knitting for the rest of -- No.
It doesn't matter." She fell silent, then added, "I'm sorry."
"You say that too much," Dhiti said absently. Then she said, "Knitting?
You knit? I've never tried that. Is it fun?"
There was no answer. She looked at Iku, saw the confusion on the girl's
face, and burst out, "What is wrong with you, anyway?"
Iku opened her mouth to reply, closed it again, and then said,
"Sharma-san, I --"
"Dhiti."
"Dhiti-san. I --" She stumbled to a stop. Then, taking a deep breath,
she said, "Why do you keep talking to me?"
Dhiti eyed her for a moment. Then she said seriously, "Don't you like
it?"
"No -- yes -- I --" Again, Iku faltered to a halt. She could not meet
Dhiti's eye; she stared fixedly at the ground. "I don't know," she said
miserably after a few seconds. "Usually nobody else talks to me. Why
do you?"
Dhiti did not answer at once. At last she said, "You know, you've got
four new friends now. You're allowed to talk to your friends. It's a
good thing; trust me on this." Iku did not answer, and she added slyly,
"Besides, there's something about your smooth and easy-going manner that
I just can't resist ..."
"Beth says she's my friend," Iku said slowly, completely ignoring this
last. "But she hardly ever talked to me, before."
"Yes, but there's something you've got to understand," Dhiti told her
solemnly. "McCrea is a space alien from the planet Yorxtl. Hadn't you
noticed that she's not like all the other girls?"
There was a long pause. Then Iku said, "Neither are you."
Dhiti blinked. "Excuse me," she said, "but was that an attempt at
humour? Because if it was, I have to tell you that you're not allowed
to do that. It's in the by-laws. I have it in writing from Hayashi and
Pappadopoulos. I'm the funny one, and you're the one who can't talk
without stammering."
"Beth is funny sometimes," said Iku cautiously.
"Yes, but McCrea is a space alien. Remember? C'mon, repeat after me:
'McCrea is a space alien.' Come on, you can do it!"
"'M-McCrea is a space alien.'"
"There, now. Doesn't that feel good?"
"I ... no," Iku admitted. "I need to know, and you just keep making
jokes."
"Hey," Dhiti said seriously. "Jokes are what I do. Don't knock it, all
right? Everything's easier if you can keep a sense of humour." She
sighed. "Look, I -- I don't know, that's all. Maybe I'm just looking
for a good straight man. Hayashi doesn't really fit the bill any more.
Maybe you were so shy I thought you were irresistible. Maybe I just
thought you could use a friend. Maybe ... maybe a lot of things. Does
it matter?"
Iku thought about it for a little. "Maybe," she said.
Dhiti grinned. "That's the spirit! Just remember, I _still_ intend to
get you up singing karaoke before long. I want to see the expression on
McCrea's face ..."
Plus, she did not add, there was the matter of a small wager with
Bendis. But perhaps it would be best not to mention that part.
--**--
"So what did you want?" asked Beth.
Bendis paced restlessly to and fro in the grass. It was a mannerism
that Beth had come to recognise: the cat was trying to work out how to
say something awkward. "I've been talking to Artemis," she said at
last.
"_Oh_." Beth remembered, all too well, what had happened the last time
the cats had spoken. "Was he being nasty to you again?"
"Um. Not exactly. He asked me something." Bendis took a deep breath
and said, "Beth-chan, would you mind if I don't come home with you
tonight?"
"What! Is he trying to dump on you again --"
"No, he isn't!" the cat snapped. Beth stopped, looking at her in
surprise, and Bendis went on, "He wants me to -- to do something for
him. It'd just be for tonight ... well, maybe a couple of days,
actually. But that's all."
"Do what?" asked Beth suspiciously. She'd had a very high opinion of
Artemis, once; but that had changed shortly after she'd met him.
Bendis stopped her pacing and sat down, gazing levelly at Beth, the tip
of her tail twitching to and fro. "I _told_ him you'd want to know,"
she said in a satisfied tone. "Well, apparently there might be someone
spying on the Olympus. It seems that ..."
She told Beth about the bug Itsuko had found in her office, and the
device that fed a false signal to the eavesdroppers. "So we're safe,
for now," she finished, "but still, Itsuko wants someone to snoop around
and find out who's doing it. And naturally --" Bendis was positively
preening now -- "she wants a cat to do the snooping."
Beth frowned, taking it in. "Why you?" she asked. "Why not Artemis?"
"Because Artemis is too easy to recognise. Especially when everyone
knows there're Senshi in Third Tokyo!"
"But nobody'll recognise you, is that it?"
"Right!" Bendis gave a haughty sniff. "Worse luck for them!"
Beth thought about it for a minute. Posturing aside, the cat did not
seem too upset at the idea of returning to the Olympus. "Bendis-chan
... do you _want_ to do this?"
"Something that Artemis can't do himself ... and the chance to show him
that I _can_?" Bendis showed her teeth. "What do _you_ think?"
Beth smiled. "Give him hell."
--**--
"I believe," said Itsuko quietly, "that we need to have a little talk,
you and I."
Suzue cocked an eyebrow at her. "I suppose we do," she said.
They were standing off to one side of the clearing, well away from
everyone else. It was quiet; the sound of the others' voices seemed
distant. The sun, beginning to drop near the horizon, cast the pair's
shadows far behind them across the grass.
"'Show me the error of my ways,'" quoted Itsuko.
"You're wrong about her, Hino-sama."
Itsuko snorted. "Big words. Which one of us actually _knew_ her?"
"She was your friend." Suzue's voice was soft, reflective. "Perhaps
that's why you can't accept the truth."
"Are you _trying_ to be insulting?"
"You think of your friend, and don't see the wider picture," Suzue told
her earnestly. "She was wise, and merciful, and gentle. She fought for
love and justice. When the world was frozen, she restored it; and when
her followers died, she raised them from the dead. Can you deny any of
this?"
"Of course not." Itsuko shook her head impatiently. "We already talked
about all this, last week. But your half-baked interpretation --"
"Lady Hino," said Suzue quietly, "someone who can do all of that ... in
what way is she different from a goddess?"
Itsuko sighed. "I knew you were going to try that one, sooner or later.
Look, it's not that simple ..."
She broke off. When she went on, it was in a different tone: quiet, no
longer angry. "Wisdom, mercy, love, justice ... those are all _human_
things, Suzue-chan. They're attributes we admire, and aspire to, and so
we seek them in who we worship. Buddha. Allah. Jesus. Kuan-yin. But
the truth is that they are all attributes we can find in ourselves. And
the best of humans -- the ones we look up to, the ones we love -- are
the ones who stand for those things, who stand for what we would like
to become. The ones who embody our dreams.
"Queen Serenity, Tsukino Usagi, she was one of those. Wise, merciful,
gentle ... she was all those things, and more. But Suzue-chan, you must
not stop there. You who would deify her, it's you who don't look at the
whole picture. You don't see the girl who could trip over her own feet
on flat ground. You don't see the mother who wanted to feed her baby
chocolate milk, until Luna convinced her it was a bad idea. You don't
see the queen who, to the end of her life, never mastered kanji."
Itsuko's voice had become rough; she had to clear her throat. "You
don't see, however powerful she became, how _human_ she remained."
There was a long, awkward silence. Then Suzue whispered, "You miss
her."
"More than anything in the world."
The two stood in silence for some time. The sun had sunk noticeably,
and a cool breeze was beginning to blow.
"I wonder, though," said Suzue at length. "You talk about how human
she was ..."
"Yes."
"Gautama Buddha was human. So was Jesus Christ. But did that lessen
what _else_ they were?"
Itsuko sighed. "You aren't going to let this go, are you?"
"Would you?"
"I suppose not." She glanced at her watch, and sighed again. "Come to
the Olympus sometime. Call me first; I'll work out something to keep
Miyo out of the way. We'll talk more about this, if you want."
"Yes."
"All right, then." Under her breath, Itsuko muttered, "It's been a
while since I've had to act as a priestess."
Suzue cocked an eyebrow at her. "Personally, it's my first time," she
said dryly. Itsuko had to laugh.
"Actually," Suzue added suddenly, a faint glint in her eye, "maybe I
should get you to come to the Temple, instead. There are meditation
rooms there; we could use one of them. You could even stay for one of
the services. It might do you good."
Itsuko gave her a dirty look. "Don't push your luck, kid."
Suzue shrugged, smiling.
"Oh, and by the way," Itsuko added. "As it happens, I am well aware of
some of the ... nomenclature your little church has chosen to adopt. I
just want to say one thing. If I ever, and I mean ever, hear you refer
to me as 'Saint Hino,' I am going to hurt you. Is that clear?"
"Yes, Hino-sama," said Suzue demurely.
--**--
At length, Itsuko called Miyo away from where she was talking to
Artemis. They packed up the cooler and the remainder of the picnic
gear, and loaded them into the van. It took little more time to round
up the girls, who were beginning to look anxiously at the setting sun,
and load them as well.
As the van started to bump its way back to the road, its headlights
making dark shadows of the surrounding trees, a cheerful chatter began
to fill the rear section. Before the passengers could get too
side-tracked, Artemis decided to bring them back to business.
He leaped up and balanced precariously on the rear of the front seat.
"All right," he announced. "I want to talk about what we managed to do
today. Itsuko and I have made a few notes on your progress, and I think
we --"
He was rudely interrupted by a rolled-up jacket that hit him in the
chest and knocked him to the floor. Ignoring the laughter, he climbed
back onto the seat back and stared at them suspiciously.
Miyo was not laughing ... quite. "Artemis," she said, "we're all tired.
Can we skip the blow-by-blow, please?"
He studied her balefully. She still had her own summer jacket, though,
so it could not have been her.
"Yeah," added Dhiti. "Look, cat, we know we've got stuff to work on.
Okay? But save it for the next time, huh? It'll make more sense that
way anyway." She had her jacket, too.
"I'm too hungry to think," added Beth ingenuously. "Obaasan, is there
anything left?" She did _not_ have a jacket. But had she worn one in
the first place? Suzue didn't have one either ...
"I don't hear you," carolled Miyo back. "My ears must be too _old_ to
hear you."
"Oh, come on, Miyo-chan --"
Artemis stole a sidelong glance at Itsuko. She was smiling as she
drove. Perhaps, he reflected, that was good enough.
****************
Early on Monday morning, the 'S' Division team gathered in the disguised
command post behind the Olympus.
It was the first time they had all been together in more than three
weeks. The futility of the cat-search, the raid on the Hoseki Property
Group, and the general loss of morale from being kept on a mission that
they all knew was ludicrous, if not actually insane, had spread them far
and wide. Now, a sudden, urgent call had brought them back.
Hiiro looked up and gave a casual nod of welcome as Kuroi and Masao
climbed into the van. "Morning, Ryozo," he said to Kuroi. "Morning,
Kitada. Glad to see you're on time today."
Masao gave him a mock-salute. "Hi, Captain. I was going to be late
just for you, but --"
Kuroi snorted. "Cut the crap," he said shortly.
Masao ignored the surliness with easy familiarity. He and Kuroi had
been working together for several weeks now. He had learned that the
burly, perpetually-bestubbled man was invariably harsh, rude and
unfriendly. On the other hand, his manner was completely impersonal; he
treated everyone, including his superior officers, that way. After a
while, somehow the rudeness ceased to register; because Kuroi was also
one of the most completely competent people Masao had ever met.
Consider how much of a change he had worked in Masao himself. Six weeks
ago Kitada Masao had been a mild-mannered accountant who'd been two
hours late for his first meeting with 'S' Division because he had been
throwing up in terror at the very idea. Today, instead, he was relaxed,
confident, and felt ready to handle anything.
Kuroi would say that just showed how far he had to go. Masao concealed
a grin at the thought. And cut the crap.
"What have you got?" he asked instead. "Don't say someone's actually
_found_ the cat."
"Don't be silly." Hiiro looked up as the van door opened once more and
added, "Captain Aoiro. Morning. Good; the gang's all here."
"So what _is_ it?" demanded Kuroi impatiently. "Damn it, your message
didn't say a friggin' thing about what this is all --"
"Not my message," Hiiro said mildly.
"Mine," said a voice from the back of the van. They looked around and
saw Mitsukai, seated as always at her computer station. Masao's eyes
widened at the sight of her.
She looked a mess. Her eyes were bloodshot; her hair, wild and unruly,
was clearly unwashed. So were her clothes. Her pale face made the dark
circles under her eyes seem deeper and darker than ever, giving her a
cadaverous look. She was gaunt and haggard, and Masao, remembering how
tired she had seemed when he'd met her the day before, guessed that she
hadn't slept since then, either.
But she moved with a restless, jerky energy, and her voice was sharp and
crisp. "Take a look at this," she said, moving to the desk along the
side of the van and laying down a sheaf of papers.
They studied them for a few moments. Then Aoiro said, "What the hell?"
"I see it," said Kuroi, at almost the same moment. "Damn. That's good,
Mitsukai. Very subtle. How the hell did you ever pick it up?"
"The Hoseki files," Mitsukai answered shortly. Masao, glancing up at
her, almost thought that she smiled for a moment. Almost.
"_I_ don't get it," he said, looking back at the papers. "A bunch of
property transfer deeds? Why? Isn't this one --" he pointed -- "the
one we found in the 'S' Division files, a few weeks ago?"
Hiiro tsked. "So it is," he said reprovingly. "Shouldn't have been
removed from the file room, Mitsukai. Very naughty." He picked up the
papers and grinned at her. "Very good, though."
She smiled back this time. Definitely.
"So," said Hiiro, leafing through the documents. "Someone has falsified
the records for the Olympus building. Pappadopoulos-san didn't buy it;
she inherited it. Some clever fellow took a random second deed, changed
a few details, and substituted it for the real Olympus deed in our
computer systems. Very clever fellow, hmm?"
"They couldn't get to the original paper document, though," added Kuroi.
"And they couldn't insert the fake into the Hoseki systems as well. Too
bad for them that we decided to raid Hoseki to check."
"EE," muttered Masao. "Electronic espionage."
Hiiro shot him an amused glance. "Right," he said. "Maybe. The
question, of course, is: why? Why did she want to hide the way she
inherited the building? And how did she manage to break into the 'S'
Division systems to do it?"
"Assuming it was her, of course," Aoiro commented. "Mitsukai, anything
funny about the inheritance?"
She stared back at him, heavy-lidded. "That," she replied, "is where it
gets _really_ interesting."
She went back to her computer and tapped a key. A succession of new
documents appeared on the screen. "Pappadopoulos inherited the Olympus
building from Ochida Junko in 4179. A distant relative, apparently.
Pappadopoulos was born in Greece; she didn't actually come here to take
possession until 4183."
Kuroi shrugged. "So?"
"Very few details on her background, and no birth certificate on file in
Thebes. That's not surprising, though; Hellenic records are pretty
chaotic. But the earliest passport I could find was 4176, and that was
filed in Third Tokyo, not Thebes."
Hiiro and Kuroi exchanged glances. "Before she even came here in the
first place," said Kuroi. "Bingo."
"False identity," agreed Aoiro. "The Greek thing is a cute touch, too;
nice and hard to follow. Good work, Mitsukai."
"Right," said Hiiro. "So. Our mysterious Pappa-san shows up in '83,
converts --" he glanced at the screen again -- "a dojo and public
meeting hall into a gymnasium, and settles down quietly to help fat
people get thin. Nice for her. Who was she before, though, and what's
she _really_ up to?"
"There's more," said Mitsukai. "I checked the back-history of the
property. It was acquired in 4122 by a woman named Someya Izumi. It
was a housing section, then. In '38, she knocked the houses down and
put up the current Olympus building. She died in '41, and it was
inherited by a distant relative, Umari Yuko. Umari passed away in '60,
and left it to Ochida Junko, who was --"
"A distant relative?" enquired Aoiro. She glanced at him and nodded.
There was a long silence. "A lot of distant relatives," remarked Hiiro
thoughtfully.
"What the hell is going on here?" demanded Kuroi. "Every twenty years,
the owner dies and leaves it to a female relation? Is this some kind of
secret society thing, or what?"
Mitsukai tapped another key on her computer. A picture appeared on the
screen. "Pappadopoulos Itsuko," she said unnecessarily. Another key,
and another picture: a woman with shoulder-length black hair. "Ochida
Junko," she said. Another picture: a redhead with a pony-tail. "Umari
Yuko." And one more: a blurry picture in black and white. "Someya
Izumi." She touched the keyboard and the four pictures were arranged
in a rectangle.
Aoiro whistled. "That's one hell of a family resemblance," he said.
Apart from hair colour and style, the four were eerily alike.
"You know," he added after a moment, "seeing them all together ... they
almost remind me of someone. Now I wonder who ..."
Mitsukai touched her keyboard again. A fifth picture appeared in the
centre of the others. A famous one. From the history books.
"Oh, no," said Aoiro.
"Oh, shit," said Hiiro.
"And now we know why we saw Artemis hanging around," Mitsukai murmured
quietly.
Kuroi spat out a curse. "You're saying that Hino Rei -- the original
fucking Sailor Mars -- is alive and well, and living in Third Tokyo?
Oh shitodamn."
"Changing her identity every twenty years," said Hiiro. "Pretending to
die, going away for a few years, then coming back and picking up where
she left off."
"She must really like that building," said Masao. The others stared at
him. "Sorry."
"No, you're right," answered Hiiro. "But why would she need to -- no,
scratch that. Of course she wouldn't want everyone to know who she is."
"But ... she died, seven hundred years ago!" Masao protested. "It has
to be a coincidence, it has to!"
"Yeah," snarled Kuroi. "Just like Artemis was. Come on, Kitada, you
saw the damn cat yourself!"
"But --"
"The real question," said Aoiro, "is -- what do we do about it?"
Nobody answered for a long time.
"Do we have to do anything?" asked Masao. "I mean ... it's the same as
with Artemis, isn't it? If they're living here ... is it any of our
business? Can't we just let them be?"
"It's not that easy now, though," said Hiiro reluctantly. "Kitada, why
did we come here in the first place?"
"Well ... to look for a missing cat."
"But why _here_?"
"Because I saw that poster --" Masao trailed off, eyes widening.
"A poster advertising a missing cat, matching our description, written
on official Olympus stationery," said Hiiro. "Seems pretty likely now
that Pappadopoulos -- or Hino -- put it up herself, don't you think?"
"And took it down when we started getting interested," said Aoiro.
"Yes, but --"
"Oh my God," said Kuroi suddenly, in a strange, tight voice. "I don't
believe it. Shit, forget Sailor Mars, I just do not believe it --"
"What?" Hiiro looked around. Kuroi was staring out one of the narrow,
darkened windows on the side of the van. Just ahead of the van, walking
casually down the narrow back street, was a small figure.
A tabby cat. The circular mark on its forehead was clearly visible.
The one they'd been hunting for nearly six weeks.
Hiiro reacted instantly. "Open the back door," he hissed to Kuroi.
"Aoiro, pass him the net gun. Quietly! Ryozo, when it goes past, get
ready to hit it. The rest of you, keep down."
Smoothly, Kuroi came to life again. He silently eased the rear door
open a little. Then, taking the proffered weapon from Aoiro, he hunched
back, as far out of sight as possible. The others followed suit.
"Wait for it," whispered Hiiro. Outside, the cat had stopped; it was
sniffing curiously at the nearby charging station, and the fraying cable
that led from it to the van. Then it moved on. "Okay, ready. Wait a
minute, what's it doing now --"
They all heard the tiny thump as the cat leaped smoothly in through the
half-open door. It stared around at the equipment lockers, the monitors
and the computers. "Ah-ha!" it muttered, sounding pleased with itself.
"Found it!"
Then it looked up, and saw the five people staring down at it. Its eyes
widened. "Whoops," it said.
The firing angle was all wrong. Hiiro saw it and burst out of his
niche, lunging for the cat. It stared at him for a fraction of a
second, huge-eyed, then whirled and shot out of the door again. At just
the right moment, as the cat passed through his sights, Kuroi fired.
His aim was thrown off a fraction by the shifting of the van as Hiiro
moved. That, combined with the narrowness of the gap he was firing
through, was just enough. One end of the net caught on the lower edge
of the door. The far end actually dropped over the cat's hindquarters;
but, even as they watched, it struggled free again and raced away.
With a snarl, Kuroi burst out of the van and sprinted after it. The
others watched him go.
"Well," said Aoiro. "That could have gone better."
Hiiro just shook his head silently. Two or three minutes later, Kuroi
returned to the van, his face dark with anger. "It ran into the
Olympus," he reported angrily. "Straight in the main goddamn entrance!
I followed it in, but ..." He shrugged, scowling. "The whole bottom
floor is all shops and cafes, and half of them are just opening up.
Damn cat was already out of sight."
"Of course it was." Hiiro sighed. "Still, I don't think there's much
question any more about what we're chasing, is there? Or why."
He closed his eyes for a moment in thought. "All right," he said.
"We've blown our cover. Well, it can't be helped. Mitsukai, call for
backup, will you? There's not much chance we can catch the thing in a
place that size, but we'll give it a shot. And while you're at it, call
headquarters. Tell them what we've found."
He glanced over at Masao. "Sorry, Kitada," he said. "We've got no
choice now. We've got to report it all."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
S A I L O R M O O N 4 2 0 0
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E N D O F C H A P T E R T E N
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NEXT: A ghost from the past, a flight, and an unexpected saviour.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Author's Notes
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Took a while, didn't it? Sorry about that.
It should, I hope, be unnecessary for me to say this; but all religious
opinions expressed within this chapter are those of the characters, and
not of the author.
Oh, and ... yes, the wombat references are a John Biles tribute. Sorry;
won't happen again. :)
My thanks to the following for their valuable commentary: Helmut Ott,
Steve "Komodo" T, "Z", Jed Hagen, Douglass Weeks, Marcus Fong, Joshua
Stratton, Chris Angelini, Bert Miller, LaShawn Wanak, David McMillan.
Without you all, the chapter would have been significantly worse.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sailor Moon 4200 web-page:
http://shell.ihug.co.nz/~macspon/fanfic/sm4200/sm4200.html
Draft version: 29 December 1999 - 3 June, 2002.