I've done some revamping on the first chapter of Eternity's Tears; mostly
I just embellished on plot points and added some details into the story.
This part has gotten even darker, so consider yourself warned!



Three worlds in chaos.

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

Seven young girls with indescribable power walk the earth, the Seven Seals
that bind the worlds together through the boundaries of space and time.
 
The time of reckoning has begun, for the Overfiend has awoken from his
millennia-long sleep to possess one man - and possess eternity.


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


May the Gods protect us all.


Tora-chan Productions, Ltd. presents:


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


Book I: Shinketsu no Akuma - Demon's Blood


Chapter 1


	Meio Setsuna drew her futon close to the shattered remains of the
window and slowly lowered herself down into a sitting position on the
cushion. Nighttime had descended over the remains of Tokyo; the waving
branches of new trees and foliage highlighted the landscape as they grew
around the broken buildings that had once composed the city. The breeze
that whipped through the makeshift curtains rippled through her glossy
hair. Fresh aromas of bright new grass and blooming flowers filled the
room with Nature's own potpourri. Japan's rebirth . . . if only it hadn't
had to come about the way it had. She felt her chest grow slightly warm as
the seed of hope reassured her that everything had turned out for the
best. The Senshi of Time let her stoic facade rest and relaxed in the
glories of the earth's renewal.

	Her eyes had just begun to droop shut when a dagger of pain
suddenly wormed its way through her heart. Setsuna bolted upwards, her
mouth gaped open in a wordless cry of agony; a flood of images and
memories from a hellish future that should never be seared themselves into
her mind. *The Time flow . . . it's changing . . . what can be doing this
. . .?* She suddenly doubled over on her futon, clutching her chest as hot
tears began coursing down her cheeks. *No, not this . . . not this . . . !
Not . . . not . . . .*

	"I'm afraid so, Setsuna." A pair of gentle hands touched the
woman's chest; the pain slowly began to subside into a dull, throbbing
ache.  Startled, she quickly wiped away the traces of her tears.

	"You don't have to hide your pain from me, Setsuna-chan," the
feminine voice admonished. She moved to the window; the faint moonlight
played across her features and highlighted the colors in her ornate robes.
"It's beautiful, isn't it? Tokyo, I mean. It wasn't but a month ago that
you couldn't see the stars clearly for the smog and pollution. Now the
nation is purified, a verdant paradise for man to start over in . . . ."

	"Poetic tonight, aren't we, Tsunami?"

	The Jurian goddess shrugged her shoulders, brushing aside a stray
lock of her light blue hair. The now defunct Moon Kingdom and the planet
Jurai had held a long-standing alliance with one another for hundreds of
years before Serenity-hime's birth. Jurai's "senshi," the magnificent
tree-ships that flew under the watchful eye of Tsunami herself, had tried,
without much success, to aid the Senshi during the kingdom's final days.
In the end, Tsunami had combined some of her power with Setsuna's;
together, they had sent the souls of the Senshi to the Earth, to waken
only when danger threatened them again. The two had shared memories and
feelings during their ritual that most siblings never knew, binding the
two into an eternal sistership. "I thought the nightmare had ended with
the banishment of the Aragami back to their realm. You know the sheer
strength of the beasts yourself."

	The Senshi of Time nodded. When the demons had first appeared in
Tokyo, the Inner and Outer Senshi had immediately rushed out to attack.
All the Senshi's attacks had been ineffective; even Super Sailor Moon's
greatest attacks had failed to do more than scratch the monster's hide.
Setsuna had, had to whisk the entire group away before they were
destroyed. "It took me ages to convince them that it was not their place
to battle the Aragami. Haruka and Makoto," and she sighed and shook her
head, "they went out after the demons anyway when they strayed into the
Juuban district. They're lucky they came out alive, much less with as few
injuries as they had."

	Tsunami nodded and leaned up against the wall. "One cannot
interfere with destiny. It was not their place, nor their right, to fight
my cousin Susano-O. It had to be the matsuri, the Kushinada's matsuri,
that would banish the Aragami back to their dimension of slumber . . . ."

	". . . and replenish Nature, and restore hope to Japan. I know.
It's just a shame that this peace had to come with a young girl's
self-sacrifice." She sat down heavily on her futon and began picking at
loose threads on the fabric.

	The goddess shifted uncomfortably. "Hai, it is," she said, "but
Kushinada-hime made the decision herself. Not even my cousin Susano-O knew
the path she would take." *Gomen, Setsuna-chan, but I can't tell you that
the Kushinada still lives. It is not my place nor the right time to reveal
that to you. You are not to be a player in this game yet . . . .*

	Setsuna noticed her long-time friend's discomfort and quickly
changed the subject. "I don't think you came to wax rhapsodic over the
events in Japan, Tsunami. This has to do with that pain I felt, doesn't
it? Has it begun?"

	"Hai." Tsunami lowered herself down on the edge of the futon and
rested her head in her hands. "That pain . . . the First Seal has already
been taken, Setsuna."

	"What?!? Already??? But . . . but-" Setsuna's face was a grim mask
of horror. "That's why I felt the Time Stream change! What's going on,
Tsunami-chan?"

	She shook her head sadly. "Gomen nasai, but I cannot tell you
more. Watch over the Time Gate well, my friend, for our enemy may try to
destroy that barrier." The Jurian goddess rose, her form beginning to fade
into the shadows. "If the Overfiend is not found and stopped before he
takes the Seven Seals . . . ."

	Sailor Pluto stared at the shadows where her friend had been
staring. ". . . Then the Worlds will surely die."

	Tsunami's voice, wavering in the breeze, seemed to float through
the barriers of time and space. 

	". . . Armageddon . . . ."


*~*


	*You've come at last.*

	The iron scent of freshly spilt blood filled the chamber. A
shadow-bound figure trod the wet tatami, reveling in the squishing noise
it made under his boots. Pausing, the man knelt by a woman's dismembered
head and dipped his fingers in the blood that trickled out of her severed
jugular. He brought the crimson fingers up to his face. "Konban wa,
Hinoto-hime," the figure said, licking the blood daintily.

	*Kamui.*

	At the far end of the room, a waiflike figure stirred and sat up,
her voluminous kimono spread out around her. Golden hair flowed down from
ornate hairclips to frame her gentle face. Milky, sightless eyes fluttered
open to stare blankly at the darkness. The Dreaming Princess that ruled
the Japanese government cringed slightly at the odor of innocent blood
that filled her private chamber. Despite her psychic powers, she had not
heard their minds nor felt their absence until now. *Sohi . . . Hien . . .
dead?* her sad voice echoed telepathically. *Why, Kamui? Why them?*

	He ignored her, stepping over a mangled torso to the second
corpse. "You know," he said nonchalantly, picking up Hien's severed head,
"studying about foreign cultures was one of my favorite subjects in
school. Take, for example, the Inuit, the Eskimos; they have some *odd*
tastes in culinary delicacies. Whale fat and fish eyes." He flicked out a
fingernail, letting it grow out into a sharpened claw. "I've tried them
both; not as good as sushi, but-" A hideous grin spread across his face.
"I wonder . . . do human eyes taste as good as fish eyes?"

	Hinoto cried out softly as Kamui's mind invaded her dream world;
she "saw" the claw dig into the eye socket and slice through muscles and
nerves . . . saw him neatly scoop the eye out . . . saw him dangle it by
the optic nerve, watching it bob up and down like a yo-yo. Peeling away
the cornea and the lens, he turned it upside down and let the gelatinous
eye fluids dribble into his mouth. "Interesting," and he smacked his lips
loudly, "it's not bad at all." He idly tossed the remnants of the eye at
the princess. She cringed as the wet piece of flesh struck her face and
fell to the tatami.

	Kamui's face twisted into an even more hideous grin; Hinoto could
feel Dark energies surrounding the young man. Stepping over a puddle of
gore, he knelt beside her and turned her face towards him. "Do you know
why I've come, First Seal? Do you have any inkling of why I've come to
this world again?" He stroked her hair with a bloodstained hand in a sick
parody of gentleness. "Don't you remember me at all, Aitsuchi-ou, one time
Queen of the Earth?"

	She gasped with sudden recognition, her mind's voice wavering with
fear. *RAGNAROK?!? But . . . why . . . why Kamui? Why take him as your
avatar?*

	The being known as Ragnarok chuckled heartily and patted the
princess on her head. "Because, my dearest Hinoto-chan, if I had not taken
this young man, you would have chosen him. And his powers . . . ah, his
powers are great indeed. It was a simple thing to turn him to the Dark;
his mind was already on the edge. I just had to nudge him a bit." He
traced the contour of her cheek with one claw, leaving a trail of blood as
it sliced thinly into the flesh. "It was his destiny, First Seal; *Kamui,*
after all, means 'He who hunts down the authority of God.'" His voice was
smug and self-satisfied. "Give up your hopes and surrender to me,
Hinoto-hime; Armageddon has begun."

	Hinoto shook her head furiously, pushing him away with her
slender, childlike hands. *No! No, I won't believe it! There is still
Kamui's twin star, he-*

	"Fuma?" The voice in her head had changed; she was now facing the
real Kamui, and his voice was so warped with evil that it hurt her to hear
him. "Fuma is gone. Such a tragic accident, really; he should have known
better than to go swimming in chains . . . ." He smirked and licked the
blood from her cheek. "Monou Fuma is dead."

	The princess's heart sank as the truth of his words struck her in
the heart; tears welled up in her milky white eyes and began flowing down
her cheeks. *Then who can champion the Light? Who . . . ?*

	Ragnarok/Kamui smirked. "No one can now. This battle was over
before it began, Hinoto-hime, for I am the Chojin, the Overfiend, the one
who will destroy the Worlds and recreate them in My own image!" Tilting
her head to one side, he remarked, "I wonder . . . would the flavor of the
eye be better if still warm?"

	And the claw descended . . . .


*~*


	Urd glared at the sleek surface of Yggdrasil, her face twisted
into a scowl. "Obstinate piece of junk," she muttered under her breath as
she turned away from the celestial computer. 

	The Kami realm was in an uproar. Urd's younger sister Skuld had
been running herself ragged trying to keep up with the insane number of
bugs that had been popping up all over Earth and Heaven. Smoke marks from
the bug's corpses stained the celestial computer, while empty cartons of
131's Ice Cream were strewn over the entire realm. Belldandy had been
helping her for a while before being called into a meeting with Kami-sama
himself; Skuld had then promptly coerced the goddesses' brother
Christopher Angel into joining her anti-bug crusade. The rest of the gods
. . . well, they had their own crises to handle. Sighing, Urd picked up an
empty bottle of sake and glared at it before tossing it aside again.

	"Still not responding, eh?"

	The goddess looked over her shoulder to see Chris towering over
her. "I don't understand it! I've tried everything I can think of, and
Yggdrasil *still* refuses all input!"

	"Let me try something." The towering God of Moments screwed up his
concentration, and a monitor slowly melted out of the computer's surface,
followed by a glowing keyboard. He began typing; his face quickly settled
into a heavy frown as three shimmering words appeared on the screen:

	*~*IT HAS BEGUN*~*

	Urd grabbed a half-empty bottle of sake and took a long drink from
it. "That's all it will say. Nothing I've tried had gotten a different
response. I even tried the reboot preliminaries!"

	"That was a stupid thing to do, Urd. Rebooting Yggdrasil will mean
Armageddon!" he snapped.

	"It didn't work, so it doesn't matter!" She drained the bottle and
set it down on the floor. "What matters is that an insane number of bugs
are screwing *everything* up on Earth, and we can't fix the problem until
we can find out why Yggdrasil isn't responding!"

	"I think I know why." The duo turned to see a weary Belldandy
standing behind them. "Kami-sama wants to see us. Now."


	Skuld was waiting for the trio outside of God's office when they
arrived. The teenage goddess was leaning on her mallet and devouring a
bucket of Peanut Butter Fudge Ripple ice cream; she looked up at the
group, exhausted. "What's going on now, Oneechan?" she asked Belldandy.

	Before she could answer, the double doors opened, letting the
group inside. The office was spotlessly clean, with glistening walls and
plush green carpet. The gumball machine by the oak desk was empty; on top
of it was perched a thick sheaf of papers. A lone figure stood against the
far wall; all four knelt in front of Him.

	Kami-sama turned towards His children. He was in His
Judeo-Christian mode, with long, flowing grey hair and a thick beard. The
dark navy business suit He wore was rumpled; He pulled out His leather
swivel chair and sat down heavily. "Please, get up from there and sit
down," He sighed, waving towards the array of chairs in front of His desk.

	They all did as they were told, their faces caught in worry.
"What's wrong, Boss?" Chris finally ventured.

	He raised His head and stared at them; His normally cheery grey
eyes were overridden with concern. "My children, it has begun."

	Urd and Belldandy glanced at each other. "What is it? What has
begun?"

	God sighed and picked up a tiny globe off of His desk. Cradling it
in His hands, He said softly, "It has begun . . . . Armageddon."