An Inevitable Outcome Production
In Association With
Naoko Takeuchi
and
CLAMP
Tomaranai mirai o mezashite
Having the infinite future in mind
Yuzurenai negai o dakishimete
Embracing the dream that I will never surrender
THE INFINITE FUTURE
An Alternate History of
The Together Again Universe
Chapter Two
April, 1994
Whenever Mizuno Ami was called on to do this sort of thing, she always
made a mental note that she should really ask Minako where exactly she had
gotten her hands on her set of bugging equipment. Unfortunately, things
usually wound up going haywire between her note-making and her next meeting
with Minako, which caused her to put asking off. As a result, she had a
large stack of mental notes which would probably have been taller than she
was, if they were actual instead of virtual.
She added a mark to the bottom of *this* mental note, saying `I *mean*
it,' and underlined it.
"Minako?" Ami whispered through her wrist communicator.
"Approaching the doors, now," Minako's subvocalized response came.
A moment later, the sound of a doorbell was heard, and then the low
squeal of hinges. "Yes?" came a polite female voice.
"Hello and good morning!" Minako said loudly. "My name is Aino Minako,
sixteen years old, ninth grade, Juuban High School. I'm collecting for the
Azabu-Juuban Syndrome Relief Fund."
"The what?"
"As you may know from reading the newspapers, for the last two years,
there have been a rash of unexplained mass hallucinations and cases of
people losing consciousness in the Azabu-Juuban district. A number of
local businesses, concerned for their customers, have started a Relief
Fund to pay for the medical expenses of anyone who suffers from Azabu-
Juuban Syndrome, in hopes that a cure can be found. But of course, they
are also very happy to accept private donations."
Minako and Ami had tried this particular scam on several homes that
they'd had to bug over the years. It usually let them get a bug into the
main foyer of the house, which in turn let them know when it was empty and
thus safe to bug more completely.
"Azabu-Juuban syndrome? Oh my! My best friend's daughter suffered an
attack of that last year! Please, please, come in! I'd like to do
anything I can to help people find a cure for that perverse malady!"
"Uh, gee, thanks!" Minako said. The next sound was that of the door
closing behind her. "Well, I'm in," she subvocalized.
"Anata, this is ... Aimo Nimako, wasn't it? She's collecting for
people who are trying to cure Azabu-Juuban syndrome."
"Azabu-Juuban syndrome?" a startled male voice exclaimed.
"Yes, do you remember how I told you about Azashi's daughter?"
"The one who said she was attacked by a giant ping-pong ball?"
Ami blinked. That didn't sound like anything *she'd* ever fought ...
"Frankly, I think the whole thing is more a matter for psychologists
than physicians," the male voice continued, and Ami could hear the sound of
a newspaper's pages turning.
"Well, some of the people involved in the project *are* working from
that angle, sir," Minako improvised.
"Really? Good. That's the place all the *real* monsters come from,
you know, from the mind. Not from mysterious demon-worlds like in bad
anime. Oh, good morning, Umi-chan!"
A feminine voice that was too soft for Ami to hear clearly murmured,
"Good morning, father. Good morning, mother."
"This is our daughter, Umi," Ms. Ryuuzaki introduced. "Umi-chan, this
is Namigo Aema-san. She's collecting to help out all the people in Azabu-
Juuban who think they've been attacked by monsters."
No sound came through the link. After a moment, there was the sound
of cereal crunching.
"So ... I'm so sorry! I completely forgot to introduce myself! I am
Ryuuzaki Eiko, and this is my husband Shin. Anata, do you think we can
afford to make a donation to Anima-san's cause?"
"Hmm. Well ... there really are psychologists trying to work on this
problem, Anima-san?"
"Yes, there are a few, Ryuuzaki-san. There *are* more physicians than
psychologists, but there's a goodly number of both."
"Then I think we can afford to make a small donation to the cause.
Would 2,500,000 yen be a help?"
Ami heard Minako make a squeaking noise, which she covered with a burst
of coughing. Ami wasn't much less shocked; from all appearances, the
Ryuuzaki family was fairly well-off, but to be throwing that kind of money
around -- without even confirming their bona fides!
There was a clattering noise, and the sound of a chair being pushed
away from a table. "May I be excused?" Ryuuzaki Umi asked softly.
"Of course, Umi-chan," Ms. Ryuuzaki replied.
"Pleased to meet you, Aema-san," Umi continued.
After a moment, Ms. Ryuuzaki said, with an apologetic note in her
tone, "I'm sorry, Manila-san. Umi-chan has been very ... abstracted
these last few weeks."
"What do you mean? Has she been wandering around in a daze or
something?"
"Exactly that," Mr. Ryuuzaki replied.
"You know ... that's not that disimilar to the symptoms of --"
"Oh, we have a fairly good idea of what's wrong with her," Ms.
Ryuuzaki interrupted.
"We think ... SHE'S IN LOVE!" they chorused.
<These people are insane,> Ami thought.
* * *
As she approached the front door of her home, she heard her parents
exclaim "SHE'S IN LOVE!" behind her, and flinched. <It's hard to be the
child of parents who have no sense,> she thought, self-pityingly.
Umi wandered aimlessly, until at last she came to a bridge over a flood
drainage channel, and paused to stare at the water flowing it.
<I can't really blame them,> she thought as she watched the water
flowing lazily along. <After all, if a fourteen year old girl is upset,
it's probably going to be because she's in love and the boy doesn't know
it, and he's being an idiot. Or because he doesn't know it, and doesn't
know she exists. Or because she's in love with another girl, and she's not
sure how she feels about that.>
<It wouldn't normally be caused by the girl being guilty over being a
murderer.>
She flinched as she remembered it. They had triumphed. Evil had been
vanquished, and now good would flourish.
But first they had to kill the one they had thought they were
rescuing, because that had always been their true purpose.
And Umi, cradled within the gigantic robot formed from the three
Mashin, had felt Princess Emeraude's body flinch once as it hung, impaled
on its terrible sword.
The horror had not been in the difference between this death and that
of the dozens of monsters she'd slain. It had been in the *absence* of
difference. And that was what had broken her heart, that at the end, she
wasn't just a murderer. She was a mass murderer.
A vague memory passed through her mind, inspired by some movie her
parents had watched, and she had tricked them into letting her stay up
late to watch with them. She had fallen asleep midway through it, and
hadn't understood much, but she'd woken up briefly to watch one scene.
The hero -- perhaps -- was about to slay the villain -- perhaps --
when their mutual love interest -- perhaps -- threw herself between them,
and the hero's energy blade disintegrated her body instead. There
followed a surreal scene where the woman raved about humanity would one
day breach the limits of time itself. And then, the hero murmured, "I've
done something that I can't take back ..."
And Umi, six-year old Umi, thought to herself, <Baka. How is this any
different from all the other people you've killed?> And slept, secure in
her knowledge that she would never be that dumb.
"Baka," she muttered to herself.
"Indeed," hissed a voice whose source she couldn't identify.
Umi looked up, and stared at the thousands of spiky, almost icy teeth
that glimmered in the grinning mouth of the water-formed monster that had
grown out of the river flowing beneath her.
"Majiku ... Neitou ..." it hissed again.
Umi, understandably, panicked.
* * *
Minako flinched involuntarily as the high-pitched scream echoed
through the earplug communicator. "Ami, what was that?!" she
subvocalized.
Ms. Ryuuzaki blinked. "Is something wrong, Okanimu-san?" she asked.
"Well, no ... it's just that, while I really do appreciate you giving
me a tour of your house --" <And thereby plant a ridiculously large number
of bugs all over it ...> "-- I have a few other houses that I'm supposed
to visit --"
"Mina," Amy's terse voice broke in, "the target is running back to
the house -- pursued by a water monster of some kind, GET READY!"
"-- but I suppose they can wait for tomorrow," Minako concluded.
The door slammed open, then shut quickly after. Minako and Ms.
Ryuuzaki turned from where they stood in the front foyer to see Umi
leaning against the door, her eyes wide and her breathing ragged.
"Umi-chan," Ms. Ryuuzaki said severely, "didn't I ask you to stop
slamming the door? Whatever is the matter?"
"Youma," Umi whispered.
And then a high pressure column of water exploded through the door just
above her head. The column flowed onto the floor, and began to assume the
form of a vaguely reptillian humanoid from the feet up -- and then began
to walk towards where Umi had crumpled to the floor of the foyer.
Minako risked a quick glimpse at Ms. Ryuuzaki, and was startled to
realize that the woman had fainted dead away. <An unusually strong
reaction to an Un-Veilled youma, but I'm not complaining,> Minako thought.
<Now, when Umi passes out -->
And then Umi's wimpering pleas reached Minako's ears.
"I'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorryI'msorry --"
It was a litany that Minako knew very well indeed. There had been
weeks when she had pushed herself to her limits of body and mind alike to
keep awake ... to keep away from the nightmares where all the youma and
daimons and androids and mimets and everything else that she'd slain down
through the years returned to exact restitution.
No one should have to suffer like that.
Especially not when they were awake.
The pen was in her hand before she realized it, and the words burst
from her throat. "VENUS COSMIC POWER -- MAKE-UP!"
The brief shining of molten gold drew the creature's attention away
from Umi, who in her own turn stared at the shining figure in a different
level of panic.
"You have terrorized this girl and her strange-yet-basically-nice
parents! For this, even if Wes Craven forgives you, I won't! The pretty
soldier of love and passion, Sailor Venus -- is here!"
"Sensshi," the creature hissed.
"Bingo," Venus said cheerfully, and smacked the first two fingers of
her right hand to her lips. "Venus Love and Beauty -- SHOCK!" she cried,
and a stream of golden hearts slammed into monster, making it howl -- and
turn completely away from Umi, and launch itself towards her.
Minako grinned, and met the beast's charge with a spin kick --
-- that went right through its midsection without seeming to
inconvenience it at all.
<I may have a problem here,> Minako realized as the creature descended
on her.
* * *
<Now what on Earth,> Umi thought confusedly, <is a Sailor Senshi doing
in my house?>
<Aside from fighting the youma, that is.>
<Aside from *ineffectively* fighting ...>
Her first instinct, as she got her wits back together was to grab her
mother, go find her father, and run for the hills, leaving Sailor
whichever-one-of-them-it-was to deal with the monster. After all, being
mass murderers for the common good was *their* job, right? Of course
right.
The problem was, the Senshi didn't seem to be able to hurt the youma
with her hands or feet, and it was pressing her too hard for her to use
one of her magical attacks.
Also, her mother was on the other side of the fight from where Umi
was.
<Well, then, time to cut your losses, Umi-chan,> a cheerful voice
spoke from the darkest pit of her soul. <Our parents live on in us, so
just focus on getting yourself out! Don't be a hero! A hero is nothing
but a zero with the wrong katakana!>
And then one of the claws of the water-monster's hand scraped across
the Senshi's chest, leaving blood dripping in the gashes of the suit, and
the girl let out a hollow shriek.
Time slowed down.
It wasn't an RPG. It wasn't an anime. Real people were being hurt.
Her parents, weird and nonsensical, but always loving and supportive.
This girl -- who couldn't be much older than Umi herself -- who had
come to save her, of all the miserable people in the world.
<You know, I hate feeling like a murderer,> Ryuuzaki Umi said to the
voice in the darkest pit of her soul. <But I hate being afraid all the
time even *worse*!>
She stood up.
<So whaddaya gonna do, Umi-chan?> the voice said right back. <This
isn't a game, and you aren't a hero -- you don't have any -->
She ignored the voice.
And then another voice, one she'd never thought to hear again, spoke
out of her memories.
<Magic comes from the heart.>
Her heart had been broken.
<Magic comes from the heart.>
But hearts could mend.
Umi swam down into herself, grabbed the part of her that was the
Knight of the Water, and dragged it up from the depths of the ocean that
was her soul -- the ocean of the dragon-blossom.
Water exploded around her. She felt a sudden, unexpected shift of
weight, and realized that the armor that she had grown in Cephiro had
formed around her. For a moment, she was startled -- and then the
comforting feel of the armor returned.
<This is what it's like to be invincible,> she thought, half-smiling.
The Senshi and the youma were both staring at her. For a moment, Umi
considered making a short speech -- then rejected the idea. "Come and get
it," she said to the youma.
"MAJIKU NEITO!" it shrieked in frustration, and half-leapt/half-flowed
towards her.
She was more than ready. "AOI ... TATSUNAKI!" she called, sending the
column of swirling water towards the creature. It was slammed back into
the staircase leading up to the second floor.
The blonde-haired Senshi stared at the bubbles where the youma had
hit, and then turned back to look at Umi in astonishment. "Niiiice," she
said, plainly admiring.
Umi flushed with pride.
And thus was startled when the creature surged *out* of the staircase,
looking rather damaged, but still capable of wreaking havoc.
Blue-gloved arms extended over Umi's shoulders. "SHABON SPRAY
FREEZING!" a soft voice called out, and thousands of bubbles streaked
towards the youma -- and popped, covering it in a sheath of ice.
Umi turned around to see another Sailor Senshi, one with blue-black
hair, standing behind her -- on tip-toe -- with her arms resting on Umi's
shoulders. The Senshi flashed her a quick, almost shy smile, and stepped
back, folding up one of her gloves to reveal a golden watch, which she
pressed. "Cancel that call for back-up," she said quietly. "The
situation is under control."
"The monster?" an electronically distorted voice inquired.
"We have a captive," the Senshi confirmed.
"All right. I'm coming through. Are we clear?"
The blonde Senshi stood up, and dusted herself off, showing no sign of
the injuries that had startled Umi into action. She looked out of the
hallway into the living room. "Tell her that we've got two civilians,
both fainted, and," she continued, turning to flash a smile at Umi,
"another one who doesn't count as a civilian anymore."
"Did you catch all that?" the blue-haired Senshi said into the watch.
"Affirmative. Coming through --"
A circle of red light came into being on the wall beside Umi and the
blue-haired Senshi, and then a woman stepped through, saying "-- now," as
she did.
She was not a Sailor Senshi. The red-haired woman was about the same
age as the other two, but her costume was nothing like a school uniform.
It was instead a strapless blue gown, accessorized by the large, black
iron crown that she wore on her head. In her left hand, she clutched a
staff of the same metal that made up her crown.
The woman stared at the icy form of the youma, and smiled a vaguely
predatory grin. "Good work, ladies," she said. "Now, to make sure it
can't escape."
She hefted her staff, and pointed it at the statue. "I bind thee,"
she said, and Umi became aware of an uneasy vibration in the air. "To
that form, I bind thee. It is your prison -- to leave it is death. I
bind thee. In the names of the Powers, so mote it be. In the name of my
true name -- BERYL -- so mote it *be*!"
Black light surged from the staff, and slammed into the ice statue.
There was a short, inhuman howl from within it ... and then silence.
The red-haired woman nodded. "Good. Now we can get some answers
about what's going on here."
"Umm ... Beryl?" the blonde interjected nervously. "We can get
answers a lot easier than that." She pointed in Umi's direction.
The woman called Beryl blinked, and turned to look at Umi for the
first time. She blinked when she saw the armor.
Umi shifted a bit self-consciously under the woman's gaze.
"Ryuuzaki Umi?" she asked.
"Uh ... yes," Umi replied. "Do I know you?"
The woman stared for a few more seconds, then shook her head. "No.
No, I don't know you at all. But I think that I will, before all this is
over." She turned back to look at the blonde. "Can you handle it?"
"Sure!" the Senshi replied enthusiastically. "Easy as pizza!"
"Pie."
"That too," the Senshi said calmly.
'Beryl' appeared to be giving the matter some rather intense second
thoughts, but then she shook her head. "All right. Let me know what
happens." She gestured at the statue with her staff, and it began to move
through the air, following her directions. She guided it through the red
circle, and then both the woman and the statue -- and shortly after, the
circle -- vanished.
"Sorry about that," the blonde said to Umi. "She can be a real --"
"'Wicked witch'?" Umi asked flatly. Then her attention was drawn to
her mother, who was still crumpled on the floor. "MOM!" she cried. The
armor vanished, and she dove to her knees beside her.
"It's okay!" the blonde assured her. "She's just suffering from the
reaction that people call Juuban syndrome -- only it's not really a
syndrome, it's a ... a ... what is it again, Mercury?"
"A psychological response to the sight of beings that feed on human
suffering," the blue-haired Senshi -- Mercury, Umi guessed -- replied.
"Your mother will probably forget everything that happened after a certain
point -- probably around the time that you ran back into the house."
Umi blinked. "You know about that?"
Mercury smiled. "We've been watching you." She closed her eyes, and
let out a breath. In a twinkling of blue light, her costume vanished,
leaving her in ordinary street clothes.
Off to the other side, the blonde did the same -- revealing her to be
the girl that Umi's mother had introduced to her ... it felt as though it
had been hours ago, but it couldn't have been more than a few minutes.
"You've been watching me?" Umi asked, confused. "Why?"
"We were hoping you could tell us," the one who had been Mercury
asked. "Our opponents seem to be pursuing you, and we'd really like to
know why. So ... what happened a week ago at the Tokyo Tower?"
TO BE CONTINUED
Author's Notes
The scene that Umi is remembering is none other than the death of
Lalah Sun, at the hands of Amuro Rei, in the third Gundam movie. Her
reaction was more or less inspired by mine, I'll admit.
If the various messed up versions of Minako's name that Ms. Ryuuzaki
uses mean anything, I don't know about it and I don't want to, either.
"Sailor Moon" was created by Naoko Takeuchi and brought to North
America by DiC and Mixx Publications. "Magical Knights Rayearth" was
created by CLAMP and brought to North America by Mixx Publications. This
story, while incorporating elements of motion pictures and magazines held
under copyright by others, is copyright 1998 by Chris Davies.
Chris Davies, Advocate for Darkness, Part-Time Champion of Light.
"WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?"
-- Death, in "Reaper Man", by Terry Pratchett.
http://www.ualberta.ca/~cdavies/hmpage.html