[Segment 3 of 6]
--**--
When Sailor Mars saw Uranus arrive, she let out a long breath that she
had barely realised she was holding. Her allies were coming at last.
She had been afraid that the man had already carried out his threat and
killed them both.
Her moment of relief lasted until Venus came into sight. She gasped,
and felt the man holding her stiffen as well. Venus was acting like a
... a wild thing. And at school she was usually so quiet ...
She tore her eyes away with a shudder. Her captor was distracted. She
had to do something; the other Senshi didn't know how dangerous their
enemies were!
She struggled wildly, her heart in her mouth. The arm about her
shoulders tightened for a moment, then seemed to slacken. Then,
unbelievably, she was free.
She stumbled away from her captor, her chest pounding. She had no time
to lose. The enemy leaders were turning away from Sailor Uranus and
looking at her. One of them said something. Probably an order to kill.
"BURNING MANDALA!" she shouted desperately.
Lines of fire traced themselves on the ground, startlingly bright in the
darkness. They began to turn in a spiralling pattern about the men's
feet, winding inward, faster and faster until they met at the centre --
There was a smoky *foof*.
One of the men yelped, and clutched his foot. His shoe was smouldering
slightly. "Ow, dammit!" he shouted.
After a moment the other man started to laugh.
It was no good. It was never any good. She was supposed to wield the
fire of Mars, but all she could produce was this pitiful forgery. She
was a sham of a Senshi; a hopeless also-ran ...
There was an unexpected thumping sound. Mars looked up, startled, and
saw the two lying crumpled on the ground. Sailor Uranus was standing
over them. She was holding their arms in what looked like quite a
painful grip.
"Don't make a move," the brown-haired girl told them sternly. "You'd
regret it." There was a strange, frightening look in her eyes: a cold,
unwavering anger that spoke volumes. If they tried anything at all, she
would make her threat good.
"S-sailor Uranus ..." whispered Mars.
For a long time, there was no response. At last, Uranus seemed to relax
a fraction. "Yes," she said. "Yes."
She took a deep breath, looked once more at the men she was holding, and
let go of them with a contemptuous gesture. "Oh, get out of here," she
ordered wearily. They stared up at her, scrambled to their feet, and
ran for it.
As she watched them go, Mars became aware once more of what was going on
around her. The man who had been holding her was climbing hastily back
into the Opal. The two whom Venus had been chasing were just behind
him. Venus herself appeared to have called off the chase, and was just
running up to join Mars and Uranus. The last two men, freed by Uranus,
were frantically dashing after their colleagues.
Her stomach knotted. "No," she said softly in dismay. Then, louder:
"No! We can't just let them go ..."
Venus cocked her head. "Why not? They're nothing. Harmless."
"They're 'M' Division," Uranus agreed. "Nothing to do with the enemy.
Or a trap," she added, glancing at Venus.
"No, you don't understand!" Mars insisted. It was wrong to contradict
them, she knew, but -- "They're ... they're not 'M' Division. They
said that was a disguise ... they were from the Sankaku Clans." She saw
the others' eyes widen. Emboldened, she finished in a rush, "And they
said they have Jupiter and Mercury prisoner on that Opal!"
But even as she spoke, she knew it was too late. The deep hum of the
Opal's field effect suddenly grew in volume, and its running lights
began to blink in sequence. She looked around in despair, just in time
to see it lift into the air.
She had failed again, as always.
--**--
"No!" Venus groaned, watching the Opal rise. But it was too late, too
late; they had gotten away, and Sailor Venus had blown it again. She
had been having so much fun that she had forgotten to _think_ about
what she was doing.
It was exactly like last Saturday, when Lady Blue had beaten her so
effortlessly. "If she'd been thinking about what she was doing, she
might actually have had a chance," her enemy had said. But today, faced
with enemies who were so obviously harmless, she'd fallen instantly into
the same trap.
"Having fun is more important," Bendis had told her once; and Beth had
answered, "But maybe we can defend the world too?" And Bendis had
agreed. [But I sure didn't remember that for long, did I?] she asked
herself bitterly.
Then she heard Sailor Uranus shout, "MUSIC OF THE SPHERES!" and realised
that maybe they hadn't failed yet.
[Too much angst makes a very pretentious hero,] she thought. A moment
later she wondered what _that_ meant. After another moment, she told
herself to shut up and get on with it.
If Uranus' attack made any sound, it was drowned out by the hum of the
Opal. It was visible, though; a faint, almost invisible beam leaping
from her palm to strike the base of the Opal squarely. At the same
time, Venus felt a tingling sensation over every bit of uncovered skin
on her body. Her teeth ached.
The Opal absorbed the attack quietly. Its path through the air never
wavered.
"It's too big, too solid," Bendis said from nearby. Venus nodded
absently. Maybe if she could wrap her Love-Me Chain around the Opal,
and let it carry her after it? She'd done it before. But she'd never
be able to keep the chain up for long enough; and besides, they'd be
sure to notice ...
"BURNING MANDALA!" shouted Mars. A ripple of fire swirled over the
Opal's shell --
In complete silence, its running lights went out. The drone of its
field effect cut off suddenly. The Opal lurched in the sky, and began
to fall.
The three Senshi watched, open-mouthed, as it crashed into a building a
few hundred metres away. A shower of glass splinters and fragments of
wood hailed down on them a few seconds later. Around the ruins of the
aircraft, flames began to burn.
"Hmm," said Bendis. "Now that's an unexpected side-effect."
Sailor Mars stared at her hands, dumbfounded. Her lips moved silently.
"They'll all be killed!" cried out Uranus, her voice filled with horror.
"We've got to try and --"
"No, wait!" Venus interrupted. "Look there."
There was movement amid the wreckage. Two figures staggered free; then
three, five. But surely --
She fumbled at her communicator. "Sailor Mercury!" she shouted. "Can
you hear me? Are you hurt? Did you and Jupiter make it out?"
For a moment there was no response. Then the tiny screen lit up with
the face of a dark-skinned girl who said, "Um, what ...?"
"She's all right!" Venus told Uranus and Mars excitedly. Looking back
at her communicator she gabbled on, "Thank goodness! When the Opal
crashed, we were afraid you'd be killed or something! Did they have you
and Jupiter locked up inside, or just tied up, or what?"
"Opal ... crash." Dhiti seemed dazed. But then, Venus realised,
she'd just been through a lot. "Wait a minute, did you say --"
"Are you hurt?" Uranus' voice suddenly joined the conversation. "You
didn't hit your head, did you? It looked like you came down pretty
hard." Venus glanced up and saw Sailor Uranus talking on her own
communicator, Mars at her side.
"Er. No. I'm just a little ... staggered." Dhiti closed her eyes for
a moment. "Locked up, you said? No, I -- I mean, _we_ managed to break
the holding cell open. It was, uhh, damaged in the crash."
"Do you need help?" asked Uranus. "What about Sailor Jupiter?"
"No, no, we're fine," answered Dhiti hastily. "Um, just a little woozy.
From the crash. Er --" She looked away for a moment. "Jupiter seems
kind of shaken-up. Maybe I'd better get her home." She paused. "Err,
how did you three get onto this, anyway?"
"That was me," Venus said proudly. "When Jupiter stopped answering her
communicator on Monday, I realised you two must have walked right into
the trap."
"Of course you did. I should have realised." Dhiti nodded, several
times. "Umm, well, thanks a lot; you saved our bacon. Ahh ... look,
I'd better take Jupiter on home and make sure she's okay. The rest of
you should head off too, before anyone comes to investigate the ...
crash. I'll see you all later, okay?"
"Right," said Venus crisply. She tapped her communicator off, looked
over at the others, and said, "_Yes_! Mission accomplished!" She let
out a whoop of glee.
Uranus smiled back. "You know," she said, "I was actually starting to
think we were off on some wild-goose chase. Thank goodness I listened
to you instead."
Even Mars was smiling weakly. "I'm glad they're safe," she said in a
small voice.
Venus nodded magnanimously. "Thanks," she said. "Listen, Mercury was
right. We ought to head off, there'll be fire trucks coming soon. Just
remember --" She gave them all a 'V' sign. "We did it! We rescued
them, and we beat the enemy too. That'll show obaasan we're not just
some kind of Johnny-come-latelies!"
They shared a last victorious smile, and then separated. Venus picked
up Bendis and started for home, bounding lightly across the roof-tops.
If the evening had tired her at all, she gave no sign of it.
"Quick-witted girl, that Dhiti," remarked Bendis.
"What?" Venus was not really paying attention. She slowed to a halt, a
pensive look on her face. "Listen, Bendis, I've been thinking. Maybe
... maybe I should drop the whole 'cat' business. Or, well, tone it
down a little, at least."
Bendis ran a paw through her whiskers. "If you say so," she said.
--**--
Dhiti sat in her room, staring at her communicator, for several minutes.
At last she called Miyo. Her friend answered a few seconds later.
"'Lo, Hayashi," Dhiti said, grinning wickedly. "Listen, I've got some
really interesting news. Guess what you and I've been doing?"
--**--
Iwahashi pushed his way out of the rubble and stood up with a groan. He
staggered away from the flaming wreckage, clutching his back. When he
had put a good twenty metres between himself and the Opal, he turned and
looked back at the remains. He thought about how much an Opal cost, and
compared that figure to his salary.
However he looked at it, this was not going to be easy to explain to his
superiors.
He heard another groan, not far off, and saw Mitsuzuka approaching. The
other man looked almost as bad as Iwahashi felt.
They stood together for a time, watching the building burn. The fire
trucks arrived and started to get the fire under control. After a while
Iwahashi suddenly remembered whose idea the whole deception had been.
He shot Mitsuzuka an accusing look and said, "Here's another fine mess
you've gotten me into."
Mitsuzuka groaned back.
Once the fire was out, they went back into the warehouse and removed the
burglar alarm without a trace. And they had no trouble at all.
****************
Dhiti went to bed still snickering to herself. The poorly-concealed
triumph in Venus' voice, and the concern in Uranus', had been so utterly
delicious. She couldn't decide whether it would be funnier to tell them
the truth, or let them go on thinking they'd scored a great victory.
Hayashi wanted to forget all about the incident. Itsuko wanted to bang
some heads together. Artemis, when they asked him, had become virtually
incoherent. Dhiti wished she'd been able to see that. She fell asleep
with a blissful smile on her face.
Her alarm clock went off at one o'clock in the morning, and she sat
bolt-upright, staring around wildly in the pitch blackness. Then she
remembered what she'd been planning.
She dressed quickly in dark clothing, taking care to be as quiet as
possible. There was a small bundle of tools on her desk; she slipped it
into a pocket. When she opened her bedroom door, the house was silent.
All clear. She made her way cautiously outside.
It was a warm July night. The streets were nearly empty at this hour;
in the pale blue glow of the street-lights they looked eerily
unfamiliar. She jogged along at an easy pace, ducking out of sight when
cars approached.
At last she reached the house she was heading for, and stood looking at
it uneasily for some time. The whole plan seemed a lot less simple, and
definitely a lot less sensible, now that she was actually here and ready
to act.
On the other hand, she wasn't one to back out on a plan just because she
had last-minute jitters. She made up her mind, and slipped through the
gate and around into the back yard. The rear of the house was a mass of
solid shadow. She stepped up to it carefully and pressed her ear to the
wall.
Silence.
She took a deep breath and hunkered down in the shadow, still listening.
It was late, or rather early; but she wanted to be sure that everyone
was asleep before she went to the next stage.
For at least the twentieth time, she told herself that this was a stupid
idea. It was almost certain to fail, and very possibly get her into
serious trouble. She might well be in serious trouble even if she
succeeded. Her father, in particular, would be furious if he discovered
she'd been out this late without permission -- and on a school night.
Still, it had seemed like such a _good_ idea, when it had occurred to
her at school the previous day. And if she did succeed, she would have
scored a really marvellous coup that she'd be able to boast about for
months to come.
[I'll show that Sailor Venus who's the wild one around here,] she
thought irrelevantly.
Besides, it was to help Hayashi. That was an important consideration.
She preferred not to admit it, not even to herself, but Hayashi was,
well, someone she liked to help. A friend. The closest friend Dhiti
had ever had, truth to tell; even Kin was not as close, and Kin could
match wits with Dhiti a lot better than Hayashi ever could.
She wasn't sure if it was because she and Hayashi were both Senshi or
not. Maybe that was part of it, though. Dhiti tended to leave friends
behind the same way she abandoned hobbies. She was pretty sure that
ordinarily, she'd have been getting bored with Kin and Hayashi's company
by now. But since she'd picked up her henshin stick -- since she'd made
the commitment -- things had seemed different.
She remembered that time, a couple of weeks before, in the dressmaker's
shop. She'd been in trouble, and she'd called for help -- and Hayashi
had come. That had been a strange feeling.
She had always been alone, before. Active, gregarious, the centre of
attention, sure -- but alone, never attaching herself to anyone for long
because she'd never met anyone who held her interest for long. She had
been as slippery as ice. Then, suddenly, she had been offered an
incredible chance: the opportunity to fly further, higher than she had
ever dreamed. How could she have said no?
But there was a price, and in an unexpected coin. By accepting, she had
bound herself, all unrealising, to Hayashi and Iku and the others. She
had made herself part of a team, and the really strange thing was that
it didn't bother her in the slightest.
She sighed, and shook her head impatiently. This was going nowhere; she
was getting maudlin. She had to concentrate on what she was really here
for.
She checked her watch again. One fifty-five. That meant it was
probably one fifty; the communicator-watches seemed to gain about five
minutes a week. She'd used her computer once to try and work out why,
but she hadn't quite believed the answer. Something about the day being
shorter, when the communicators were made? She vaguely remembered that
the Earth's rotation was supposed to be gradually slowing; but for the
communicators to gain that much, they would have to have been made so
long ago that --
No. That was silly.
Another glance at the watch. Two o'clock, near enough. That was good
enough, she decided. Time to get to work.
She stood up gingerly, rubbing her legs, and slipped out of her pool of
shadow. She'd thought the night was warm, before. After sitting here
for half an hour, though, she felt damp and frozen. She wished she'd
brought a jacket; but all her jackets were brightly-coloured.
The bulk of the house, looming above her, blocked almost all light from
the street lamps. With a smirk, she reached up and activated her visor.
A week before she'd finally worked out how to make it appear when she
wasn't in her Sailor Mercury form. Now, she watched the darkness become
as bright as day, and smiled again as she made her way silently to the
rear door.
It was locked, of course. Time for her second secret weapon.
She pulled out the Mercury computer and tapped at it briefly. Her visor
flickered, and then flashed up a scan of the lock. Helpful annotations
showed the positions of the pins and how far she'd have to move each
one. Really, she could almost get to like this computer.
She'd spent a few hours practising with the locks at home after school,
while her parents were out. It was fiddly work and she'd taken a while
to get the hang of it; but her hands were nimble, and with the computer
showing her exactly what to do, it was actually quite easy. It occurred
to her that, if this Senshi business didn't pan out, she could always
try another, rather more lucrative occupation.
Her hands kept slipping; she was shivering from the cold. Each time,
she had to start over, probing patiently with a long bent needle. It
took her nearly twenty minutes before she felt the last pin lift, and
the screwdriver she'd pushed into the lock turned smoothly.
She let out a long, silent breath, opened the door, and stepped inside.
Into the former home of Hayashi Miyo.
The reality of what she was doing began to sink in as she closed the
door again. Burglary; there was no other word for it. She had come
here to rob the house, and that was that.
On the other hand, the things she'd come to take didn't really belong
here any more, did they? [I don't exactly have a lot to my name any
more,] Hayashi had said that afternoon. When her family had thrown her
out, she had been left with almost nothing.
Dhiti planned to change that.
Still, creeping around someone else's house in the middle of the night
was ... kind of unnerving. She found herself wishing she'd thought
twice about this particular bright idea.
[Oh, well, I'm here now,] she thought to herself at last, quashing the
doubts fiercely. She was Sharma Dhiti, and nothing got her down.
Nothing. Definitely.
Now, where in the house was she? She'd never come in through the back
door before; she was lost ...
Finally she remembered to switch her visor back to night-vision mode,
and recognised the rear hallway. Let's see; that meant that Hayashi's
old room ought to be right through that door over there ...
She opened it silently, stepped through, and stopped, cursing silently.
She really _was_ turned around. This was the kitchen, not Hayashi's
room. She turned around to go back into the hall --
-- And bumped into someone.
She heard a startled gasp, and could not restrain her own squeak of
surprise. A hand reached out and grabbed her shoulder before she could
break away.
A voice, shrill with fear, quavered, "Who's that? Who's there?"
Dhiti twisted, trying to break free. She could not make out her
captor's face. Another hand, waving blindly, clipped her visor and
knocked it off her face, leaving her sightless in the dark. She lashed
out with an elbow and felt the impact; she heard a startled grunt. The
hand came loose from her shoulder.
She dropped to the floor, fumbling around for her visor. Her head
struck something hard and cold. She said, clearly, "Ow."
Her hand fell on her visor. She snatched it up, just as her attacker
turned the lights on. She winced away from the sudden light and banged
her head again. The fridge, she realised hazily. How had this all
gone so wrong so fast?
Finally, she looked up.
A boy, perhaps a year younger than her, stood looking down at her, his
face a picture of surprise. Hayashi's little brother, Fujimaro. "Wh--
Dhiti-san?" he said incredulously. "Is that you? What ... what are you
doing here?"
Dhiti stood up slowly, rubbing her head with one hand. With the other
hand, she made the visor disappear, hoping he hadn't noticed it. "Um,"
she said feebly. "Hi, Fujimaro-kun."
A silence fell. For once, Dhiti could not think of anything to say.
This was one of Hayashi's family; one of the ones who'd thrown her out.
She ought to feel angry at him, or contemptuous, or something, surely?
Instead, seeing him standing there blinking at her in his pyjamas, she
realised that he simply looked rather pathetic. She looked up at his
face again, started guiltily when she saw him staring back at her, and
studied her feet intently. "Um," she said again.
They both heard the creaking floorboards from the corridor. Somebody
was coming. Dhiti stiffened, automatically looking around for somewhere
to hide. To her surprise, Fujimaro pointed to the open door. She
blinked, then leaped over and flattened herself behind it.
The footsteps halted on the other side of the door. Dhiti held her
breath.
"Fujimaro?" she heard. "What on earth are you doing? Do you know what
time it is?"
"Sorry, otousan," Fujimaro answered. "I was getting a glass of water,
and I banged into the door. Sorry. I didn't mean to wake you --"
It was Hayashi's father, Dhiti realised. Her _father_. The man who'd
disowned her. The man who'd learned that his daughter was a Senshi, and
had responded by throwing her out of the house.
A peculiar black mist seemed to descend before her eyes. She clenched
her teeth. She wanted to throw the door back into his face. She wanted
to become Sailor Mercury and ... and do something. Something violent.
To the man who'd hurt her friend so badly.
"I was already awake," she heard Hayashi Hitomaru say. "I couldn't
sleep." He sighed. "Never mind that. Keep it down, will you?" There
was a muffled sound: a father patting his son on the shoulder. "Good
night, Fuji-chan."
Fujimaro mumbled something that Dhiti couldn't make out. She heard
Hitomaru pad off down the corridor again. For a wild moment she wanted
to follow and scream at him: [You can't sleep? You do that to my
Hayashi, and you can't _sleep_?]
Then Fujimaro pulled the door away from her. She stared at him, still
furious, and her expression made him flinch.
"Why did you come here?" he whispered. "To burn the house down?"
She thought about it. "Maybe," she said, only half-sure that she was
joking.
"Go ahead," he said bitterly, no longer bothering to keep his voice low.
"Maybe you'd be doing us a favour."
Dhiti hesitated, not knowing quite how to take that. "What?"
He stared at her for a moment longer, then looked away. "Never mind,"
he said; and at the sight of the weary resignation on his face, her
anger suddenly faded. "Just ... never mind. It doesn't matter. What
are you doing here, anyway?" he asked. "How did you get in?"
She started to answer, then stepped past him suddenly and closed the
door into the corridor. If they were going to talk, there was no sense
in waking anyone else. Then she started wondering what to tell him.
Best to keep it straightforward, perhaps.
"I came to steal some of Hayashi's old stuff, and take it to her,"
she said.
She watched his face as she spoke. His expression was quite satisfying.
When he had finished spluttering, she said, "So, all you have to do is
shout, and I'll probably end up in jail. What are you going to do?"
"Can I help?" he asked.
Dhiti blinked. "Er," she said.
"How were you going to get it all out of her room, anyway?" he asked.
"Just hope that Miliko doesn't wake up?"
She felt the blood rush to her face. "Er," she said again. Somehow
she'd managed to forget that Hayashi had shared a room with her little
sister. Maybe she should forget that career as a burglar after all.
He smirked at her, and Dhiti suddenly remembered why she was glad she
didn't have a brother. "You don't need to worry, anyway," he said. "My
father moved all of her things out, days ago. It's all in cartons in
the basement." The smirk suddenly vanished, so quickly that she
realised that it had never been genuine in the first place. Without it,
she could see the baffled pain and anger in his face. "Miliko cried for
hours," he said quietly. Almost inaudibly, he added, "So did I ...
later."
Dhiti hesitated, then dared to ask, "Why? Why did he do it? Why did he
just -- throw her out?"
Fujimaro closed his eyes for a moment. "I don't know," he said softly.
"He ... he won't talk about it. He won't even say her name. But he
can't sleep at night. He never smiles any more. And my mother ...
she's worse. She's like a ghost; she drifts around the house all day
and ... and ... And Ichiyo, he tries to pretend that he doesn't care,
but he does, it's breaking him up, and Miliko thinks it's all her fault,
because she was the one who told everyone that --"
He stopped, biting his lip, a sudden wariness in his face. After a
second Dhiti realised what he'd been about to say: that Hayashi was
Sailor Jupiter.
"And what about you?" she asked coolly.
He made a face. "I just want her back!" he burst out. "I just want my
sister back again."
He drew a long, shuddering breath. "I saw her a few days ago," he said
quietly. "She said ... she said it was _my_ fault. Because I didn't
say anything, I didn't do anything to try and stop it. And maybe she
was right." He looked up at Dhiti, his eyes glimmering. "But I don't
care," he said. "I just want her to come home again. But she can't do
that any more ..."
Dhiti shook her head, wishing she were somewhere else. Anywhere but
here, in the middle of a family crisis she had no business with. At
last she said, "So, let's go see what's in the basement. I can take a
load tonight, at least."
He closed his eyes. "Someone already did take some of her stuff, you
know. A woman. I don't know who she was. She came here, the night
when ... you know. She and otousan ended up shouting at each other, but
she did take a lot of clothes away with her." He looked up suddenly.
"Who was she?" he asked. "You must know that much. Can you tell me
where Miyo's staying, at least? At first I thought maybe she was
sleeping at your house, but ..."
She cleared her throat. "My house?" she said dryly. "I definitely
don't think _my_ father would appreciate that. He and Hayashi don't ...
um." She bit her lip. "I don't think I should tell you where she is,
though. Not without talking to her first."
[Not because of you, though,] she added silently. [Because of me, and
Itsuko, and all the others. You already know about Hayashi, but that
would be risking too much ...]
"No," he said sadly. "I guess she's not my sister any more, but she's
still your friend, right?"
"Maybe," she said. "I'll ... I'll talk to her."
"Just ... just tell her I'm sorry. And I want to be her brother again.
Please."
She nodded, wishing once again that she had never come here. "The
basement?" she prompted him hopefully.
Fujimaro sighed. "Yes. All right. Come on then ..." He paused, and
shot her a quick look. "Are you one of them too? Like her?" he asked.
Dhiti froze. He _had_ seen her visor, then. Damn.
"I don't know what you're talking about," she said woodenly.
He nodded, as if satisfied. "Come on, then," he said, as if nothing had
happened. Puzzled but relieved, she followed him down to the basement.
--**--
Two and a half hours later, Dhiti was in the Olympus building, kneeling
beside the door to Pappadopoulos' suite. This night was turning out to
be hell. She was starting to wonder if she'd ever get any sleep again.
There was a large bag on the landing behind her. It was filled almost
to bursting with clothes, books and a really fascinating collection of
knick-knacks which she had been bursting to paw through -- if only
Fujimaro hadn't been watching when she'd packed them. It was heavy as
hell, too. Carrying it to the Olympus had been murder. By the time
she'd remembered that it would have been easier if she'd changed to
Sailor Mercury, it had been pretty much too late.
Now, she was wearing her visor again, and tapping away at her computer's
keyboard. This door had an electronic lock; her screwdriver and bent
needle would not be any use. Instead, she had to persuade her computer
to 'talk' to Pappadopoulos' security system. It was depressingly
difficult, though she wasn't quite sure whether this was because the
security computer was too stupid or too intelligent to cooperate.
She could always just knock, she supposed. Pappadopoulos and Hayashi
would understand, once she showed them why she was here. But, damn it,
she wanted to do this right. Simply showing up at the door, handing the
bag to Hayashi, saying "Hi, this is yours" and then leaving ... just
didn't seem right. Not Dhiti's style.
How much more satisfying, instead, if Hayashi should simply wake up in
the morning, mysteriously surrounded by her own things. The surprise,
and then the look of stunned gratitude on her face. "What angel did
this for me?" she'd say ...
Dhiti blinked, misty-eyed. Okay, the angel part was a bit much. Still,
the scene at Hayashi's house had been something of a disaster; at least
she wanted to get this end right.
Almost as if in answer to her thought, her computer bleeped and flashed
a combination onto her visor. She stared at it woozily for a moment --
it really had been a long night -- and then punched the numbers into the
keypad. The door clicked.
[Well, what do you know?] she thought. [Maybe I _could_ be a burglar.]
She would have to suggest it to her father sometime; see what he thought
of the career choice. Perhaps to the school vocation guidance
counsellor, too, if only to see the man's expression.
Still grinning at the idea, she put her computer away and stepped
inside, closing the door softly behind her. Then she sighed, opened the
door again, and went back to collect her bag from the landing. She'd be
forgetting her own head next.
Okay, let's see. Miyo's room was just down the hall, and ... through
_that_ door. She stepped through, and found herself in the kitchen.
She blinked. This was becoming suspiciously familiar.
A little unnerved, she shouldered her bag and turned to leave. As she
did so, she bumped into somebody. "Oh, no, not _again_," she blurted
out loud.
"Oh, no, not _again_," said the other person at the same moment.
They stared at each other.
"Who are you?" Dhiti asked. She didn't recognise the voice. "Er, this
is the Pappadopoulos suite, isn't it?"
"Aizawa Ochiyo," said the other. "Um, who are _you_?"
Belatedly, Dhiti remembered that she was still wearing her visor. Well,
it was too late to remove it now.
She struck a pose. "They call me ... the Masked Avenger!" she
announced. Inwardly, she patted herself on the back. [That was pretty
good,] she thought, pleased. [I wonder what I'll say next?]
"Are you here to burgle Pappadopoulos-san again?" asked the girl
nervously.
[Again?] Dhiti paused, startled. Fortunately, her mouth started
working before her brain had quite caught up. "Um. No. Actually, I'm
very sorry about burgling you before, so this time I've decided to leave
things instead of taking them. All right? Here."
She handed the bag to Ochiyo, who took it, startled. Dhiti made the
most of the moment, and ran for it.
--**--
The next day was pure hell; Dhiti could hardly stay awake during school.
The teachers all noticed and had a great deal of fun at her expense.
Also, Hayashi cornered her at lunch-time and tried to throttle her, and
then hugged her soundly.
So it had all been worth it after all.
****************
Suzue took off her apron and sat down with a sigh. Home Economics was
over at last. There were days when she enjoyed the class, but today was
definitely not one of them.
She stared at the articles on the plate before her. They were supposed
to be takoyaki. After a minute, she picked one up and took an
experimental bite. It wasn't nearly as bad as it looked.
A hand stretched over her shoulder and took another ball. She looked
around to see her partner, Shoda Keiko, popping it into her mouth. The
other girl chewed for a few moments, her face expressionless. Suzue
waited for her verdict in silence.
Keiko swallowed, several times, and finally nodded slowly. "Y'know,
Suzue-chan, I hate to say this, but you're a really ... indifferent
cook."
Suzue nodded, still silent. She already knew that.
"Could be a lot worse, though. You saw what a mess Aizawa made?"
She smiled faintly. "That was an accident, though. She tripped."
"Yeah, and spilled that pot all over Yamaguchi -- Oh, never mind. At
least I got you to smile." Keiko brushed her hair back from her eyes,
looked down at the plate again, and said, "Come on, toss that stuff in
the bin and let's get out of here, okay?" She took another ball, as if
in defiance of her own instructions, and stuffed it into her mouth.
Suzue picked up the plate and headed for the bin obediently, ignoring
the fusillade of coughing that broke out behind her. As she returned,
Keiko was hurriedly setting down an empty tumbler.
The two headed out of the building. When they paused to put their shoes
on, Keiko said, "Actually, you've been pretty quiet all day, Suzue-chan.
All week, really. Something bothering you?"
Suzue hesitated, biting her lip.
"Boyfriend trouble?" Keiko prompted her.
"No!" she blurted out, then blushed. "Minoru and I are ... getting
along fine, thank you."
"Well, good. Y'know, I used to worry about you, until -- never mind.
So what _is_ the problem, then?"
Suzue remained silent for a minute longer. At last she said, "It's not
a problem, exactly. I've had something on my mind, that's all."
Keiko raised her eyebrows. "Oh? What?"
"That ... would mean discussing a topic we agreed that I'd never mention
to you again."
"Oh," Keiko said in quite a different tone of voice. "Um. Never mind,
then."
She nodded, and the two of them walked outside in complete silence.
Suzue had tried to talk to her friend about her beliefs, once, a few
years before. Their friendship had been strained over the matter for a
long time afterward.
Nevertheless, she could see a train of thought start in Keiko's mind.
Her friend started to speak several times as they walked, each time
catching herself before the first word escaped. Her face was a picture
of frustration. It was unkind, Suzue knew, but she enjoyed the irony of
the moment anyway.
"What is it?" she asked when she thought Keiko had suffered enough.
Keiko flushed. Then, defiantly, she said, "Oh ... it can't hurt to talk
about it, can it? Just this once," she added, a trifle guiltily.
"Of course not," Suzue murmured ironically, too low for Keiko to hear.
"Well, I couldn't help wondering ... you know, with these new Senshi
showing up, what you people thought about it," Keiko stumbled out. "I
mean, I'd have thought the Loon-- the Church of Serenity would be all
excited and, you know, shouting about it to the newsies, and so on."
['You people',] Suzue thought to herself. ['Loonies.']
"So ... isn't this supposed to be like the end of the world, or the
Rapture, or something?" There was, remarkably, no mockery on Keiko's
face. "I was just, you know, wondering."
Suzue sighed, shaking her head. "Nobody's really said anything. I
think they're still trying to make their minds up, actually." She
thought for a moment. "Everyone was expecting the Blessed Lady --"
"Suzue-chan!"
She flushed. "-- Sorry. They were expecting S-- Sailor Moon to appear
first, or maybe right after Sailor Venus. But there's no sign of her
yet. The College of Intercessors are trying to decide what it means.
Last week, Elder Kurita said that we --"
Seeing Keiko's expression, she broke off. "Umm. Maybe you don't want
to hear that part."
Keiko shook her head, a wry grin in her lips. "Sounds like you guys are
just the same as everyone else, really," she said. "Just waiting to see
what happens." A moment later she added, "Y'know, Suzue-chan, you take
all this stuff way too seriously."
"Maybe." Inwardly, Suzue thought, [If you didn't want to hear about it,
why did you ask?] She didn't say it aloud, of course.
They walked on. Keiko changed the subject, talking at length about one
of the boys in their class who she was sure liked her. She tried, none
too subtly, to get Suzue to tell her how far she'd gone with Minoru.
Suzue took it in good part, deflecting the more personal queries and
even prodding Keiko back a little. The awkwardness was gone once more,
to her relief.
All the same, something about Keiko's words bothered her. [You take all
this stuff way too seriously ... You're just the same as everyone else.
Waiting to see what happens.]
[But I'm not the same as everyone else, am I?] she asked herself
angrily. [I'm a Senshi -- one of the Blessed Lady's appointed.]
With a sudden shock, she thought, [Maybe I shouldn't be waiting, then.]
She became aware that Keiko was speaking to her. "-- hear a word I'm
saying," her friend complained. "Are you all right, Suzue-chan?"
She blinked; then, slowly, she smiled. "Yes. Yes, I'm fine," she said.
"You've been a big help, Keiko-chan. Thank you."
"I have?" Keiko gave her a baffled look. "Oh. Good. Don't mention
it. Umm, are you going to tell me what I did?"
Suzue thought for a moment, then shook her head. "I think I'd better
not," she said. "See you, Keiko-chan!" Suddenly light-hearted, she ran
out the school gate, having to resist an impulse to skip like a child.
Keiko stood, looking after her. "Don't mention it," the girl repeated.
With a shrug, she added, "Whatever it was."
****************
On Thursday night, another vitrimorph attacked. The download unit at a
local music store suddenly came to life, a few minutes before closing
time. It rampaged around the store for a while, destroying equipment
and injuring several people, before breaking out through the front
window and lurching into the street, firing razor-sharp silvery metal
discs at the passers-by.
The Sailor Senshi arrived before anybody was killed, and eliminated the
menace in a pitched battle that ended when the unit exploded in a
crystalline burst. The Senshi departed the scene quickly.
There were five of them now, the newsies reported gleefully that
evening. Venus, Jupiter and Mercury had been joined by Uranus (who was
rumoured to have appeared once before, two weeks previously in a battle
at a theatre) and a newcomer, Mars. There was still no sign of Sailor
Moon.
****************
Beth pushed the book aside with a sigh. It was Friday afternoon; she
should have been out enjoying herself. Spending time with her friends.
Maybe catching a movie, or window-shopping, or ... or something.
Instead she was cooped up in her room with nothing to do but read a lot
of books that, to be honest, were extremely boring.
She could be out with Eitoku, she thought dreamily. If only he'd hurry
and get up the nerve to ask her! Or bumming around with Nanako was fun;
but Nana-chan had said she couldn't make it. That only left Iku; and
the thought of hanging out with Iku was, well, ridiculous. And Beth
didn't _have_ any other friends to speak of.
There were the other Senshi, she thought half-heartedly. But while they
seemed nice enough, she really hardly knew them; they weren't exactly
what she could call _friends_ yet. She wasn't totally sure she
remembered all their names, to be honest.
She reached for her communicator to call them anyway; but her nerve
failed her at the last moment. She reached for her book again, feeling
wretched.
This one was a textbook about modern building design. Beth knew next to
nothing about architecture, and she was finding it heavy going. She
managed to wade through another three pages -- taking a fresh sheaf of
notes on points to look up the next time she was at the library --
before giving up, her mind a weary maze of half-digested facts about
foundation depths, air flows, sewage and electrical systems, and vital
feng shui considerations.
[I'm never going to need to know this stuff,] she thought grouchily.
[And who cares, anyway?] She'd gotten the book out thinking that it
might come in handy if she had to fight in any more office buildings in
the future; but, as with many of her other recent reading experiments,
she had seriously underestimated the technical detail involved.
She looked at the next book in her pile, hoping that it would be easier
going. It was the one that Bendis had been pressing her to read, she
realised: "Secret Warriors: The Women Who Built Crystal Tokyo."
History. Great. Like she didn't know this stuff already. After all,
she'd seen it all on the viddy, hadn't she?
She blinked suddenly, and checked her watch. The program had started
five minutes ago. Getting up from her desk, she hurried through to the
living room. She found Bendis already there, sitting in front of the
viddy, transfixed.
Beth rolled her eyes. [Oh, no, not again.] The cat had finally gotten
the hang of working the controls with her paws, and was fast becoming a
video junkie. It was quite a funny sight, actually.
"Um," she said. "I wanted to watch ... um."
The cat flicked her tail at Beth in irritation, not taking her eyes from
the screen. Queen Serenity was just climbing into an improbably-shaped
mecha, as Sailor Jupiter and Sailor Asteroid cheered her on.
"... Um." Beth sat down beside Bendis. Within moments, she was as
deeply immersed in the program as the cat.
****************
Somewhere in Third Tokyo ...
The leaders of the Sankaku Clans gathered. More than sixty men and
women came together, by ones and twos, in an unremarkable hall in an
unremarkable building. A sign in the foyer showed that the facility had
been reserved for an advertising convention.
Those who attended the meeting were not in the very highest ranks of the
Sankaku. They were one or two levels from the top, though not all of
them knew this. Nevertheless, security was very tight, if unobtrusive.
The identity of every person who arrived was checked, in multiple ways,
before he or she was allowed to enter. By the time the meeting began,
the security team on duty were confident that there were no more than
two 'S' Division informers present.
Okuda Jiro was one of the security team. He kept a close eye on the
double agents as the meeting progressed; and when it was over he would
be the one responsible for keeping track of their movements and who they
spoke to. If anything too important was said at the meeting, he would
also be responsible for making sure that they did not have a chance to
repeat it.
For now, he sat with his colleagues in the little A/V room that
overlooked the main hall. They had fitted the room out as a monitoring
station. The lights were dimmed, and the rows of monitors -- showing
views of the hall, the surrounding corridors and the streets outside the
building -- lit up their faces with a flickering glow. Other monitors
tracked radio activity, vibration patterns and ultra- and infra-sonic
audio frequencies. The Clans had learned through experience to be very,
very cautious.
Jiro still managed to keep half an ear on the actual proceedings of the
meeting.
"-- Have to be concerned at what they're up to," one of the delegates
was saying. "'S' Division have been jumpy for weeks. _Somebody_ must
have done something to set them off."
"Surveillance levels have gone through the roof in the last three weeks,
in particular," someone else complained. "And then there was that raid
on Hoseki Property --"
"Not just Hoseki," another woman interrupted. "They raided Hashi
Finance and Kantera Investment Services, too."
"Yes, but they put a lot more effort into Hoseki. It's obvious which
one they were really interested in ..."
"That's what they want you to think," a fourth voice said. A ripple of
laughter ran through the room.
"Seriously," said the first voice. "Have any of us been doing anything
to set this off?"
There was a long pause. At last, a new woman's voice said, "Niji Clan
have not been taking any unusual actions in the last two months."
"Nor have Shinpo clan," said a man. His voice was reluctant, as if he
had not wanted to speak.
There was another long silence. Then a young man with a sharp, crisp
voice said, "Paradise Clan have been ... monitoring recent events
closely. But we have begun no new actions."
"So what _has_ got the Serries in a panic, then?" asked the second
voice. "This cat-hunt of theirs, I suppose?"
There was more laughter. A new voice said, "I thought we had agreed
that the cat search was connected with the reappearance of the Senshi."
"_Probably_ connected," someone else corrected.
"Very well, then. We are carrying out our own cat-search, of course,
though I doubt that it is making any more progress than 'S' Division's
own. But I fail to see how a search for a missing cat could connect to
the raid on the Hoseki Property Group ..."
Still listening, Jiro hid a grimace. He had a very good idea of how the
cat-search was connected to Hoseki. A little over three weeks before,
he had had an unexpected call from an old friend.
He had first met Pappadopoulos Itsuko twenty-five years before -- though
she had been using a different name then. She'd been a dabbler in the
underworld, a small-time fence and smuggler with a knack for being in
the right place at the right time. He'd been fairly new on the wrong
side of the tracks himself, then, and Itsuko had done him a number of
important favours. In return, he had been able to put her in contact
with someone when she'd needed to adopt a new identity, papers and all.
She had apparently gone straight after that, and he was fairly sure that
she didn't know that he was now Sankaku; but still, he had been happy to
help her out when she'd called. The nature of her request, though, had
been unexpected.
She had wanted her business de-bugged; but who would want to bug a
gymnasium in the first place? Jiro had been curious. Was his little
Itsuko-chan still involved in something dirty after all?
His men had installed a system for her, to feed a false signal to the
bugs. It had been very easy to add a little something at the same time:
an extra system that broadcast the true signal ... to Jiro. He had
listened to the results with great interest.
He had gotten far more than he had bargained for. Itsuko-chan was
involved in something, all right, but it wasn't anything dirty. His old
friend Itsuko was a good deal older than he had thought. It was no
wonder that she needed a new identity now and then; and no wonder that
she didn't seem to have aged, in all the years he'd known her.
Jiro was left with an awkward decision to make. He knew that Itsuko was
really Hino Rei of Crystal Tokyo; and that her young ward was the reborn
Sailor Jupiter. After the long meeting a week ago, he knew who all the
other Senshi were, too.
He had made sure that he was the only one to hear what Itsuko and her
friends were saying. But what should he do with the information?
The most obvious answer was to do nothing. Personally, Jiro was all for
the new Senshi -- though he knew that, ultimately, they were bound to be
against people like him. Still, he remembered his history lessons; he
knew what the Senshi had done for humanity, and he was not inclined to
oppose the heirs of Crystal Tokyo.
(Well, not unless they ended up working with the Serenity Council. But
the Serries had announced just recently that the Senshi had turned down
their offer to meet. All three Sankaku Clans had breathed a collective
sigh of relief.)
Nevertheless ... he suspected that he and Itsuko were the connection
between Hoseki and the cat-search, though the details were a little hard
to fathom. 'S' Division had started getting nervous right after he'd
visited Itsuko; and of course he was also one of Hoseki's security
consultants. It was even possible that 'S' Division had been the ones
to bug the Olympus in the first place, though he had no idea why.
So what was he to do? He ought to tell his Sankaku superiors what he
suspected. But that would probably mean giving Itsuko's secret away.
If he tried leaving that part out of his story, someone would get
suspicious. In the Clans, that was inevitable.
Thus far, he had kept silent. But if the pressure from 'S' Division got
too much greater, he might have to talk -- purely to save his own neck.
It was not a decision that he relished.
Shaking his head slowly, he turned his attention back to the monitors.
It sounded as though somebody was making some firm decisions at last.
"-- Have to get some answers," a man was saying. "Increasing our
penetration of 'S' Division headquarters should give us new answers.
Maybe" -- he gave a quick grin -- "even tell us what the cat-hunt is all
about."
"I'll have a couple of our moles inside 'S' activated," a woman
responded. "We should get some useful feedback within a week."
"Good. Also ..." The man referred to a sheaf of notes on the table in
front of him. "Shinpo Clan report that their cyber division is ready
to try another crack of the Opal communication net. If we can finally
break that, we'll have a direct line into 'S' Division's operations."
A loud murmur of agreement and anticipation filled the hall. Jiro was
no longer paying attention, though. As the man had spoken, a message
light on Jiro's comm remote had started to blink.
'S' Division's two double agents had just heard too much. Jiro was
going to have a little extra work to do, once the meeting was over.
****************
[End of segment 3 of 6]