Here's a really quick fic...sorta blah...oh well.
I need SOMETHING to get back in here...

-- -- --

"Useful"

      a quick-fic by Sklathill (diamante@gonzaga.org)

   Sailorsaturn stumbled a bit as she tread across the crystalline
rubble which littered the area.  She clenched her glaive tightly as
she surveyed the destruction which had been dealt the island.  A quick
flick of the wrist thrust the weapon into the ground.  She held the
glaive tightly as she walked around it, looking carefully at the
horizon for the man-made landmarks which dotted the landscape.

   She blinked once.

   She completed another revolution of the upturned weapon, continuing
her careful watch of the Tokyo skyline.

   She blinked again.  And again.

   She proceeded into a third, slow orbit of the Silence Glaive.  She
listened closely to the sound of her boots crushing the crystalline
litter which was layered on the ground as she gazed intently on the
horizon.

   For once in her life, her stature and vantage point were not
detrimental to the sight which she saw.  And wanted to see.

   And did not want to see.

   "Such a beautiful thing to be useful..." she said to the barren
horizon.  She heard Haruka say that a long while ago, back when she
was still a teenager...no...not that recently.  She heard that phrase
uttered back when she was just an infant...yes, she was sure of that.
Such a beautiful thing to be useful, she thought as she unearthed her
blade.  With glaive in hand, she walked toward where had once stood
the palace from which life had emanated.  With each slow stride, she
paid close attention to the solid, deafening crunch of boot on
diamond.  Diamond was supposed to be one of the hardest minerals on
earth.

   The simple thought of being able to crush it with a footstep eased
the churning in her stomach.

   Ninety yards of walking south passed until the ground elevation
started to rise sharply.  Twenty yards of rise accompanied thirty
yards of run.  Then, thirty yards or rise accompanied fifteen yards
of run.  She repeatedly dug the butt of her Silence Glaive into the
earth so as to prevent herself from tumbling the fourty yards down
the slope of the hill, which soon became eighty, then one hundred-
twenty yards.  Once the distance to the ground reached one hundred
yards, the hill decided to level off, suddenly becoming a mesa under
Sailorsaturn's feet.

   She thrust her glaive into the ground and looked defiantly at the
mid-day sun.  She squinted her eyes so as to stare almost directly
at the yellow ball of flame.  "How dare you," she muttered as she
clenched her glaive.  "How dare you shine now!"  Normally, she would
have turned her head away from the bright glare, but at this moment,
she had nothing but thoughts of anger, thoughts of usefulness in her
head.

   "Such a disgusting thing to be simply used..." she said in as close
a voice to Haruka's as she could muster.  She twisted her glaive upward
and out of the ground and continued walking south, the sound of
grinding diamonds filling the beautiful silence which strangled the
air.

   Twenty yards had passed, and Sailorsaturn noticed that one of her
steps was rather muffled.  She turned around and saw a small area on
the ground that was free from the glistening shards that surrounded
her.  She stomped on the area a bit with her right boot.  Much to her
chagrin, her stomping elicited a small grunt from the ground below
her.

   With little thought of what or who was causing the sound, she
stood directly over the area where the groans came from.  With
minimum arm movement, she thrust her glaive into the ground between
her feet.  She removed it quickly and examined the blade.

   "No blood..." she said to the blade, angry that it had not fulfilled
its job.

   She moved 6 inches to the right and quickly thrust her weapon into
the ground.  Pulling it out, she looked upon the blade, nodding her
head in agreement to the small trickle of blood which tarnished the
dull edge of the blade.

   "Three inches to the left," she muttered to herself as she shifted
her foot placement and thrust the Silence Glaive between her feet a
third time.  She grinned at the short grunt she elicited with her
blow.  With the blade still in the ground, she twisted the weapon three
whole revolutions.  She then ejected the glaive from the ground.

   A smile appeared on her face as she saw that the blade was drenched
in blood.

   "I'm useful," she said to the light wind which blew through her dark
hair.

   "I'm useful," she informed the weapon she wielded.

   She turned around and faced the far too bright summer sun.  With all
the voice that she could muster out of her light frame, she shouted
out, "I am useful!"

   She ambled down the sparkling hill, positively enthralled by the job
she had taken.

   And always had.