Absence - By Kirika
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Chapter 4 - Fresh Starts
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*MEEP! MEEP MEEP MEEP!!*
Rei was awoken by the sounds of gridlocked traffic, as she was every other morning since she arrived here. Rei cracked open an eyelid and tried to see what time her clock was showing. 7.28am.
Urrg, its always the same time! It's too damn early for this crap! Rei pulled her pillow over her head, trying to muffle the sounds of the people heading to work.
This was Yokohama, second largest city in all of Japan, a population of over three million. A person could easily get lost here... which was exactly what Rei wanted.
Rei squirmed in her bed, pulling the pillow tighter around her head. She didn't want to get up yet.
The one day I get the afternoon shift and I can't even sleep in! Rei kicked the bed sheets in frustration.
Rei had arrived in Yokohama a week ago. She had picked this city because it was big and that the train journey from here to Tokyo only took a half-hour. Plus she had heard that its Chinatown district was a sight to see. It took her nearly all day once she arrived to find an apartment, if you could even call it that. It was more like a slightly large walk-in closet. It didn't even have a kitchen or a bathroom; it was basically a shoebox she was living in. At least it had a wardrobe and came with furniture. Albeit very little furniture. There was a single bed, a bedside table, a desk with a mirror and a chair, and finally another small table was at the end of her bed with a fan that only worked on the low setting. All of the furniture was jammed into the little room; it was enough to make a person claustrophobic. The rent was cheap though, which was good, Rei didn't have much money. Actually, she was probably lucky to even find an apartment at such short notice in a city this
big. Okay, so it was a shoebox... but it was home now.
Rei had also gotten a job as a waitress at an Anna Miller's restaurant. The pay was good, but it was slightly degrading at times when otaku fanboys just came in to ogle her and the other waitresses. Well, it was an Anna Miller's. She had convinced the manager to pay her in cash instead of cheques as well... she had no I.D. to backup her new name if she opened a bank account after all.
Just as Rei began to fall asleep again, there was a pounding on her door. "Hey, Megumi! Your gonna be late for work!" That was her new name, her new identity... Megumi Tsukino. Rei had cursed herself for choosing that surname, for indulging in fantasy... she had came here to forget about Usagi, not mope around holding on to a false hope. But she couldn't help but use the name.
Rei pulled her head out from under the pillow, "God damn it Tsubasa you idiot! I said I don't have to go in this morning! Now shut up and let me sleep!" Rei shoved her head back under the pillow. Tsubasa was her annoying neighbour from across the hall and was Rei's constant target for abuse as soon as she moved in. It was like it was his mission in life to antagonise her... and remind her of how she used to interact with her odango atama.
Rei heard Tsubasa chuckling and then his footsteps as he walked away. She breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully she could fall asleep now. She loved to sleep; it was an escape for her, an escape from reality. For a few hours she could be in blissful oblivion and those few seconds after she woke up were also free of any memory of her problems. Rei didn't know whether to be thankful or disappointed that she rarely dreamed about her princess.
Rei squirmed a little more in her bed. That idiot. Because of him I can't get back to sleep Rei found blaming Tsubasa for just about anything easy.
Rei pulled her head out from under her pillow again and opened her eyes. She looked at the picture on her bedside table, which she had brought with her from Tokyo. It was of her and Usagi when they were younger, in the days when Tuxedo Kamen was just a mysterious stranger who showed up at the right time. Rei missed those days... everything just seemed so much simpler back then.
That's probably because back then I only thought of her as a good friend Rei reminisced.
Rei never knew exactly when her feelings for Usagi changed from mere friendship. It was like one day she looked at her and not only saw her best friend, Sailor Moon, and the princess, but something more, greater than all of those things put together. Usagi was the reason, the reason why Rei fought as a Sailor Senshi. She didn't do it because it was the right thing, or because the world was in danger... Rei did it for her. Usagi deserved to live in a world that was free from evil. In the times that Sailor Moon wasn't needed, Usagi Tsukino should be able to live a normal, peaceful life and not worry about being accosted by some hell-beast from another dimension while walking to school. Rei fought to protect her, and to protect the innocence and compassion that made her so beautiful.
Rei sighed. She shouldn't be thinking like this. All it did was make her severely depressed. She should put that picture away and just get on with her life. Of course she thought that every day she looked at it but could never bring herself to remove it.
The first week in Yokohama tested her will power to its maximum. Everyday Rei woke up and felt like she had made a horrible mistake, that she should go back to Tokyo, to her princess immediately. But then she remembered the pain that was waiting for her back there as well. The pain of rejection, the pain of seeing the one you love in the arms of another. That thought was enough to keep her in Yokohama. Everyday the cycle was the same. Rei had tried to take her mind off Usagi by going out and exploring the city. She had found a free gym where she practiced her martial arts to keep her skills sharp. Rei was thankful that Sailor Senshi healed fast so she could practice. She had gotten full use of the left arm back after a few days... her ribs were still a little tender though. Despite the effort to occupy herself, Usagi was never far from Rei's mind.
Rei rolled out of bed and stretched. She had several hours before she had to go to work. There had to be something out there to occupy her mind with until then.
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It was late when they approached, the light of the full moon threatening to reveal their ghost-like movements. The car factory in Yokohama's industry district was just ahead; they could both see the solitary security guard patrolling in the distance. They moved closer to the oblivious guard, his back turned to them. Closer still they moved, until they were right behind him. At that moment the guard sensed something behind him and turned...
"Yah!" cried out the guard, raising his hands in defence, "oh... its you two... you could have called out to me!"
The man and woman in front of the guard both sighed.
"Well its about time you're here," said the guard, "I could lose my job for this you know!"
"You idiot," said the man, "this is the reason you have this job in the first place!"
"Yes, well..." the guard trailed off.
"Lets just get on with it!" growled the woman in impatience, "if we fail here all our lives are forfeit."
The guard nodded and unlocked the large sliding door to the factory, whistling a happy tune. The woman narrowed her eyes at him.
"You've been acting far too... human... recently," she sneered.
The guard stopped whistling and turned to her. "Force of habit. You know I've had this job for awhile, I had to act human to blend in... wait, what are you implying by that?!" he said accusingly.
"Enough!" said the man, "the time draws near..."
The three quickly entered the factory and moved to a clear spot on the floor.
"You brought all the stuff?" asked the guard.
"Of course," replied the man, pulling out objects from a bag hanging on his shoulder, "we don't want a foul-up like that last debacle." He passed a piece of chalk to the woman.
"Mmm, Pfhaeroid was always headstrong... he was one of Khairephon's after all," said the woman, taking the chalk. She got on her knees and began to draw an intricate pattern on the floor.
"The fool thought himself to be invincible, he was warned that this plane, this planet had defenders... these... Sailor Senshi... he should have waited for us," said the man in disgust, placing candles at various points on the floor.
"Still... I heard he did kill one of them," said the guard, leaning against a forklift, "one less enemy to worry about."
The others nodded in agreement and focused on their task. After a short while, the woman finished drawing the pattern on the floor and the man had set up all the candles and lit them.
"Get into position," ordered the man.
The three got into a triangular formation around the circular pattern on the floor and began to chant in a guttural tongue no human could ever understand or even utter. As they chanted, the candles slowly began to rise off the floor. They continued to chant, undisturbed by this phenomenon. The air seemed to grow thick and hazy above the pattern, the lines drawn inside beginning to shimmer. Still they chanted, and the lines slowly moved outwards, joining the circular boundary. Without warning the floor inside the pattern just simply wasn't there, instead there was darkness, darker than the blackest night. The black disk coalesced into a straight line inside the pattern, and then shot vertically upwards, forming a dark half-oval gateway in the air.
The three ceased their chanting and watched the gateway expectantly. Abruptly a figure burst through the gate and landed in a crouch, its head moving quickly, taking in its surroundings. It appeared human, a male in his early twenties, his red hair spiked upwards. He was dressed like some common street punk, in leather with various chains and metal studs in places. Standing upright, he smirked and looked back at the gate as another figure came through, carefully this time. A dainty foot, clad in a silk slipper was seen first, followed by a young, classically beautiful, pale woman clad in several shades of pink layered silk, her long dark pink hair falling over her shoulders in waves. Looking at her surroundings, she wrinkled her nose cutely and moved forward, away from the gateway. Two figures came through next. One was a man in his thirties with close-cropped brown hair, immaculately dressed in a grey suit. The other figure was an old grey-bearded man, dressed in robes and
slightly hunched over with age. He seemed to put a lot of his weight on the gnarled staff he carried.
"At last," said the suited man, adjusting his tie with a black, gloved hand, "we have arrived."
"I don't know..." said the pink-haired woman, placing a finger on her chin, "I expected something a little less... drab."
"Gaa, you say that about everyplace we go!" said the punk.
"This world is ripe..." the old man wheezed, ignoring his siblings, "it has few defences... and they are weak... it is prime for the taking."
The conversation was interrupted by a multitude of youma trying to squeeze through the gate. Some screamed bloodthirsty battle cries while others attacked their fellows for a better spot to get through the gate. Some did both.
"No, you fools! I said to wait on the other side, it is too early!" yelled the suited man.
But it was too late. The gate abruptly snapped shut into a horizontal line and disappeared, the candles falling to the floor. The remains of any unfortunate youma partially through the gate fell to the floor in a grisly display of gore before slowly beginning to disintegrate.
"It doesn't matter," said the pink-haired woman, carefully avoiding the splattered blood, "better the stupid ones are weeded out now."
"Yeah, but I don't think we can send you back," the punk said with an evil sneer.
The pink-haired woman crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes. "I thought you were supposed to be the brain dead barbarian of the group, Khairephon?"
The suited man rubbed his temples as his brother and sister began to throw insults at each other. He hated working with his siblings. Khairephon and Laodameia were always at each other's throats and he constantly had to defer to the old buzzard Thrinakie. Why the senile old bastard wouldn't just die already was beyond Makareus. The way he talked really grated his nerves.
Makareus was brought out of his thoughts by a pathetic sounding voice. "Erm... my masters... and erm, mistress... I welcome you to Earth," said the security guard, who had been prodded forward by the man and the woman.
Makareus looked at guard, seeing past his human fa�ade.
A youma, one of Thrinakie's. His are always the snivelling wimps thought Makareus.
"Ah yes... you have done well in summoning us here, Kolkhis," Thrinakie croaked, "I see I... was wise to choose you... for this quest."
Kolkhis swelled with pride at his master's words. And because he remembered his name.
"Yeah, yeah," said Khairephon rudely, breaking off his insult match with Laodameia, "where's Pfhaeroid? This was supposed to be a joint thing."
"I regret to inform you that your follower was killed by the defenders of this world," said the man, Makareus' youma, Iason, "the Sailor Senshi... however he did manage to kill one of them."
"Killed huh?" said Khairephon, unconcerned, "I knew he'd meet his match one day... at least he took one of those `senshi' with `im right?" Khairephon smiled at the thought of such a great fight. Pfhaeroid had been no easy opponent.
"Yes, the Sailor Senshi. They seem to be active around the city known as Tokyo. It is a ways south of here," said Aiaia, the woman.
"Enough talk," said Makareus, "we should get this operation underway."
"Your brother is right..." said Thrinakie, forcing out the words, "we... are wasting time... Khairephon, you will stay here... in this human city... and use this gate... and others you find... to establish a youma support group... while your brother and sister... and I... go to this Tokyo and use the... larger gates...to deal with these... Sailor Senshi..."
"Oh come on!" shouted Khairephon, "support?! I'm to be support?! No way! Not when there are actually worthy adversaries where you're all going!"
"Silence. You will do as Thrinakie says," stated Makareus. He had had enough of his little brother's moaning. Plus separating him from his sister would save Makareus from experiencing migraines every five minutes.
Khairephon lowered his head and crossed his arms, muttering curses under his breath.
"Good.... now let's be... off," said Thrinakie.
Everyone bar Khairephon began to leave the car factory.
"It won't be the same with out you, Khairey-dear," chuckled Laodameia, not able to resist a parting shot.
Khairephon just scowled.
Part five |
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