Absence (part 6 of 60)

a Sailor Moon fanfiction by Kirika

Back to Part 5
Rei paced anxiously back and forth along the small length of her 
apartment, frowning hard down at the worn wooden floorboards. She had 
hardly slept at all last night after returning from her little 
‘encounter’. Once the magnitude of the situation she was faced with had 
set in, the Fire Senshi’s mind had been in a near constant state of 
restlessness. Not to mention worry, which served to keep her tossing and 
turning until the early morning hours. There was a youma. Here, in 
Yokohama.

Rei supposed there had to be youma in other places of the world besides 
Tokyo, but still, for some reason it just didn't sit right with her. 
Though maybe that specific youma had merely been a rogue... some left 
over monster from a group that had come into this world via Tokyo for 
the usual diabolical purpose. Maybe it had, instead, wised up and fled 
to avoid getting destroyed by the Sailor Senshi like its fellows would 
have been. Yokohama was close to Tokyo and it was reasonable to imagine 
that any number of youma could have migrated to the harbour city instead 
of hanging around in the capitol; the Sailor Senshi were not active 
there after all. At least, they hadn’t been until Rei arrived. Yes, 
there were plenty of valid reasons for such a creature to be in 
Yokohama. There was nothing to be concerned about...

There was a knock on Rei’s apartment door, disturbing the raven-haired 
girl’s train of thought. "Megumi! Are you decent...?" called Tsubasa 
from behind the door, opening it a crack. A single brown eye appeared in 
the narrow gap.

Rei pulled her door open sharply, causing her peeping neighbour to 
stumble forwards into her apartment and nearly fall flat on his face. 
"You hentai! You're not supposed to ask that, then open the door 
anyway!" the Fire Senshi scolded loudly.

Tsubasa regained his footing, and then grinned unrepentantly at the 
riled miko. "Yeah, yeah," he said, brushing off Rei’s reprimand easily. 
He then nodded towards the open door. "Come on, let's get going."

Rei spared a last glance at the picture on the bedside table of Usagi 
and her and then left her apartment with Tsubasa leading the way. She 
and her annoying neighbour had breakfast together sometimes before they 
went to their respective jobs. Tsubasa worked as an assistant chef in a 
sushi bar close by the restaurant where Rei was a waitress, which meant 
it made sense for them to get a bite to eat together before heading off 
to their jobs. Or at least, that was the explanation Tsubasa had given 
the Fire Senshi. She did rather enjoy the company a little bit however, 
though she would never admit that fact to Tsubasa.

Rei had been all alone in a big city until she had met the brown-haired 
man, for which she had been glad; it made her feel better to at least 
know someone in Yokohama. Plus Tsubasa was quite friendly and easy to 
talk to even if he was sort of a loser. One of the main things Rei 
appreciated about him was that he didn’t usually ask too many prying 
questions, even though she could tell he was curious about why she had 
left Tokyo and about her past. She had omitted just about all of the 
relevant details about her motivations for leaving and of her life when 
he had inquired.

Tsubasa looked at Rei as they walked side by side down the hallway 
together. "Hmm... you look like hell today," he remarked plainly.

"Gee, thanks for the compliment," Rei replied acidly.

"Late night?" Tsubasa asked, unconcerned by the girl’s tone. He was used 
to the fiery miko’s temperament and by now even expected some sort of 
caustic comment from her.

"Something like that..." Rei murmured thoughtfully, the fight with the 
youma returning to her mind.

Tsubasa was quiet for a while and the Fire Senshi believed that he had 
abandoned his questioning. However, he then inquired carefully; "With 
a... guy?"

Rei’s head snapped to her neighbour sharply. "*No*. Not that it's any of 
your business," she denied tersely.

Tsubasa held up his hands in a pacifying gesture while he continued to 
walk with the miko. "Just curious," he explained ruefully. Searching for 
a change in topic that wouldn’t provoke the hot headed girl, he said, 
"You should be careful walking home tonight. I read in the paper that 
some homeless lady was attacked by a rabid animal."

"Yeah?" Rei deadpanned, clearly uninterested.

"Yeah... but some masked guy saved her... brought her to the hospital 
and everything. I thought that kind of stuff only happened in Tokyo." 
Tsubasa smiled and looked at Rei... only to find that she wasn't there 
anymore.

Tsubasa turned around and saw that Rei had stopped walking, appearing a 
little shell-shocked. "Megumi? What's the matter?"

Publicity. That was all Rei needed. Thank goodness she had had the 
foresight to change her senshi fuku’s appearance, or Sailor Mars would 
have been magically resurrected in the newspapers this morning, ending 
the raven-haired girl’s self-imposed exile indefinitely. Rei wouldn’t 
have been surprised if her friends back in Tokyo had been the ones to 
bang on her apartment door instead of Tsubasa if things had turned out 
differently.

"Hey, you okay?" Tsubasa asked, who had walked back to her, clearly 
worried with Rei’s silence and rather startled expression.

"Um, yeah, I'm fine," Rei said quickly, before nervously laughing off 
the man’s concerns.

Tsubasa blinked at Rei for a second. "You want me to wait for you 
tonight after work? I can walk you home if you want... you know, with 
rabid animals and all running around; it’s even more dangerous for a 
young girl to walk the streets alone at night," he offered in a timid 
voice, looking down at his feet.

"Oh, that's alright," declined Rei. "I'll be fine." She then smiled at 
him reassuringly, hoping to put his mind at ease... and to prevent any 
further propositions. It was best for Tsubasa to keep his distance from 
her for his own safety; there might be more youma out there in Yokohama 
that she would have to deal with.

"Well... if you're sure," Tsubasa said, sounding a little disappointed.

Rei nodded and the two resumed their walk out of the apartment building.

******

This was it. He had to make this shot. The fate of the world, no, the 
very *universe* depended on it. He could not afford to fail. He slowed 
his breathing and took careful aim... then fired. The rubber band 
bounced off the rim of his coffee cup and landed beside the other missed 
shots littered around the mug.

"Damn it!" Sanjuro Watanabe sighed and leaned back in his chair with his 
hands behind his head, while putting his feet up on the desk. His job 
really sucked. He was a junior reporter for the Yokohama Daily, one of 
the more popular newspapers for the city. Sanjuro should have been glad 
that he had gotten a job at such an illustrious paper... except that he 
had been here a year and was still only a lowly junior reporter. He got 
stuck with all the lame stories nobody else wanted to write about. 
Usually boring human-interest stories like a grandmother finding a long 
lost cat or some rot like that. Sanjuro idly contemplated quitting for 
the tenth time that morning. He had thought that being a reporter would 
be full of excitement, not this lacklustre drudgery. The discontented 
man was brought out of his thoughts suddenly by a paper bag landing on 
his stomach, causing him to let out a grunt.

"Hard at work as usual I see," smirked his colleague, Ryoji, as he took 
a seat on his desktop. "You're a inspiration to us all, Sanjuro."

Sanjuro ignored the sarcastic man and opened the bag, taking a whiff of 
his breakfast. All he wanted was to report on the good stuff; the 
scandals, government cover-ups, corporate espionage... basically 
something, *anything*, exciting.

"I've got something that's going to interest you..." Ryoji said, a 
knowing smile coming to his face.

"A new job offer at a rival paper?" Sanjuro guessed in a monotone voice, 
paying more attention to what his friend had gotten him for breakfast.

Ryoji tossed a newspaper at the spiky-haired man’s chest. "Better. Turn 
to page five," he said.

Sanjuro picked up the paper and followed his colleague’s instructions. 
He scanned the page until his eyes caught a headline that interested 
him.

"'Mysterious Masked Hero Saves Woman'..." he read out loud, before 
proceeding to read the story. "Whoa... cool..." he breathed once he had 
finished.

"I knew you'd like that," Ryoji smirked.

"Damn, who got this great story?" Sanjuro asked, rereading the short 
article one more time.

"No one. It's from the Telegraph. The editor is pretty pissed none of us 
managed to pick it up," Ryoji explained.

Now *this* was the kind of story that piqued Sanjuro's interest. How he 
wished he could get an exclusive like this. But wait... maybe he could. 
He could do a follow-up story or something. The editor would love that 
for sure... maybe Sanjuro would even finally get promoted. But how would 
he know when and where the masked stranger would show up next?

"I know what you're thinking and you should forget it," Ryoji said.

"Huh?" Sanjuro said, his thoughts interrupted.

"You want to investigate this, don't you? I would advise against it. The 
incident with the animal took place in a bad neighbourhood in the Hikodo 
district. It's gangland. I don't think even you would be dumb enough to 
go there."

"Yeah, but come on man, this is great stuff! If I came through with the 
story first I would be promoted, get a pay raise and everything! Oh, I 
could get pictures as well! They'd sell for a packet! Don't tell me you 
don't want in on this?!" Sanjuro eagerly babbled.

"Go into the Hikodo gangland? You've got to be kidding. People disappear 
from that area and are never seen again, you know. Shigeru is doing an 
exposé on it for god's sake."

"Fine, be that way... I'll go myself. Just don't come bitching to me 
when I get the story of the year!" Sanjuro punched the air 
enthusiastically, his mood shooting up to an all time high, especially 
for this time of the morning.

Ryoji slid off of Sanjuro's desk and waved a hand in a dismissing 
gesture, and then began to walk over to his own desk. "I'm not looking 
for your body if you don't come into work tomorrow," he called back over 
his shoulder.

Sanjuro answered by flicking a rubber band at Ryoji's retreating back.

******

Rei was once again walking home late in the evening through the same 
decrepit, seedy, district of Yokohama she had traversed the previous 
night. It was not because she wanted to, but rather because she had to. 
The Senshi of Fire had to make sure that the youma she had fought 
against was a renegade and that there were no more in the area. Oddly, 
Rei was glad for this distraction. She felt that she had a purpose 
again. Besides, someone had to guard this neck of the woods while the 
other senshi watched over Tokyo.

Rei was taking an even longer route through the neighbourhood to 
increase her chances of spotting any youma activity. She was also well 
aware that she had to be careful of the more mundane dangers known for 
the area. The miko cursed the fact that Tsubasa had told her over their 
breakfast that people had disappeared in this district; the ‘Hikodo 
gangland’ it was apparently labelled. Now Rei found herself looking 
warily at every dark shadow she saw, half expecting some mugger or an 
even worse unsavoury type to jump out at her.

Rei’s nervous thoughts ceased when her ears picked up the noise of what 
sounded like people talking softly, broken by the occasional bark of 
laughter. It came from inside a desolate warehouse across the street. 
Turning to the source of the sounds, she saw light shining through the 
smashed and partially boarded up windows. It was probably just some poor 
homeless people, but Rei decided that she had better investigate anyway.

Rei quietly crossed the run down, litter-strewn street and pressed 
herself against a wall beside one of the warehouse's broken windows. The 
Fire Senshi took a discreet peek inside and could make out about five, 
somewhat sleazy looking men dressed in rather thuggish attire, all 
sitting around a weather-beaten square table playing cards. Two more 
were strolling casually about the warehouse floor, occasionally pausing 
to spare a glance at the game their companions were currently involved 
with. Those two men carried makeshift weapons loosely in their hands; 
one had a length of chain, the other, a rusty metal pipe. Rei pursed her 
lips distastefully. It looked like it was just gang members on a break 
from doing whatever nefarious deeds gangs did. She had better get out of 
here before she was spotted.

Rei was about to leave when her astute senses suddenly gave her the urge 
to look up. A dark shape passed in a flash of motion overhead, blotting 
out the moon briefly, then disappeared onto the roof of the warehouse. 
It had been too big to be a bird. Rei felt a rush of dread come over her 
body, causing her to shiver. It couldn’t be; there couldn’t be any more 
youma here. Why here, of all places? Were they just attracted because of 
the derelict environment and seamy atmosphere? Or was there another, 
more heinous reason?

Rei quickly looked back into the warehouse window. The gang members were 
still playing their card game, with their two friends still wandering 
around them, but... the raven-haired girl let out a sigh. It had to be 
just her imagination. She had had youma on the brain for most of the 
day; it was not surprising her normally sharp instincts were a little 
off. There were no more youma here.

Suddenly there was a crash from the warehouse’s ceiling above the card 
players and a winged beast fell down through a partially shattered 
skylight, its glass raining down with the creature. The monster landed 
right on the table where the now startled gang members played, buckling 
the legs and causing it to collapse. It was a youma. It appeared 
humanoid, but had large black-feathered wings sprouting from its back. 
The rest of its body was also covered in dark feathers, looking coarse 
and unkempt. The youma’s beady eyes flicked to the stunned thugs and 
then let out a loud 'caw' from its beak-like mouth, angling its head 
skywards.

The winged youma's cry caused another youma to smash through some empty 
crates at the far end of the warehouse, sending splinters of broken wood 
flying in all directions. It was short for a youma, just below Rei's 
height and had pasty yellow skin. It's bulbous head seemed to share 
considerable resemblance to that of a shark, but it didn't possess any 
of the wicked teeth the sea creature had as far as Rei could tell.

Another youma appeared behind the second one. It was even shorter than 
its yellow companion, but that was probably due to the fact that it 
knuckle-walked like a gorilla. It had a pale blue skin tone and long, 
unruly dark blue dread-locks that almost hid its wild features. It 
growled and drooled, gnashing sharp needle-like teeth as it jumped up 
and down. The youma looked positively feral.

The gang members hastily stood up and backed away from the table, some 
pulling out knives, and others, guns. The winged youma reacted inhumanly 
fast however, slicing at the throat of one unfortunate man with a 
halberd it held in its taloned hands. The man staggered for a second, 
then toppled like a fallen tree, blood spurting obscenely from his 
severed artery.

The feral youma let out a shriek and charged across the warehouse floor 
at the gang. Meanwhile, the yellow one coughed and hacked, as if it was 
trying to regurgitate something, and then a light seemed to shine from 
its open mouth. It then spat the light out, which formed a ball of 
crackling white energy. The sphere flew in the direction of the men, who 
dove desperately out of its path. However, one was not so quick and his 
leg was hit as he tried to leap to safety. He cried out in agony and 
convulsed, seeming to be violently electrocuted.

Rei scowled, her expression turning grim as she took in all that was 
happening in the warehouse. Youma. And people were dying. The Senshi of 
Fire had to help those men. They may have been society’s undesirables, 
but they were still human. Rei had to act.

"MARS CRYSTAL POWER, MAKE UP!"

As Rei transformed, she willed her fuku to change in its appearance. 
However, this time she wanted something that was flexible. The miko 
wanted good manoeuvrability for the upcoming fight. She would need it 
with that winged monstrosity waving around its long weapon.

Once the transformation was complete, Sailor Mars gave herself a quick 
look over. She was in something flexible all right; a black bodysuit 
that reached halfway up her neck. It didn't leave much to the 
imagination. Well, she *did* want something flexible... at least she was 
still wearing a coat and veil like the previous time. Mars definitely 
wanted anonymity now more than ever dressed like this. She doubted that 
no one bar a fellow Sailor Senshi would recognise her as Sailor Mars.

After taking a short moment to steel herself for the confrontation 
ahead, Sailor Mars leapt through the window and into the fray.

******

Sanjuro couldn't believe what he was witnessing. He had been wandering 
around the Hikodo gangland for a while, hoping to encounter the masked 
stranger... and avoid being murdered by some random thug. Instead, the 
reporter had found a bunch of gangers hanging out in a warehouse. 
Thinking that he could sell photos of them to Shigeru for his report, he 
had snuck inside and hid behind some crates. Thankfully he had been 
quiet enough that the men hadn’t noticed... most of them had been too 
engrossed in playing cards. But then all hell had broken loose. Monsters 
were flying in from everywhere and people were being slaughtered right 
before his very eyes! Sanjuro didn't know whether to run, take photos, 
or pee his pants. Maybe he should just do all three.

At that moment another figure appeared from the right, dressed in 
black... and wearing a crimson veil. It was him! The masked stranger 
from the article in the Telegraph! He was dressed a little differently 
than how the report had described him, however. His fear forgotten, 
Sanjuro excitedly began to snap photos of the mysterious hero... then 
frowned as he noticed a few things. That man certainly had long, 
lustrous hair, and when his coat fluttered open... whoa, he had quite a 
body for a--wait a minute. That wasn’t a guy; it was a girl! Sanjuro 
blinked for a second, lowering his camera. This was even better than he 
had imagined. The mysterious hero was a hot babe! He couldn’t make out 
her face because of the veil she wore, but Sanjuro just knew she was!

Now more eager than ever to get his photos, Sanjuro decided to stick 
around and take the second option. Though as the horrible monsters 
started to scream in their otherworldly voices and more gangsters 
dropped, he thought that perhaps the third option wasn’t out of the 
question either.

******

Sailor Mars burst into the warehouse just as the feral youma had made it 
to one of the men. It leapt on him, gripping his throat between its jaws 
and sinking its many teeth into the soft flesh. The gang member 
frantically used his metal pipe to try to beat the rabid creature off, 
but it just seemed to ignore the blows.

"FIRE SOUL!"

A fireball burst from Mars' fingertips and collided with the youma, the 
impact causing it to fly off the thug and slide along the floor, its 
back a scorched mess. Unfortunately it was too late for the man; he lay 
still on the floor, a pool of blood growing out from under him.

"Shit, another one!" cried one of the gang members, pointing anxiously 
at Mars. "Fire god damn it, FIRE!!"

One of the thugs still standing nodded fearfully and started spraying 
bullets all over the place from an Uzi he carried, only narrowly missing 
Sailor Mars as she madly scrambled for cover. Typical. She was trying to 
save them and they shot at her!

The winged youma took a couple of wayward bullets to its midsection, 
causing it to let out an indignant squawk. It bounded into the air, 
beating its black wings as it took flight, then soared directly for the 
shooting man. The gang member panicked, emptying the entire magazine of 
the weapon wildly at the charging creature. However, with his erratic 
aim, the majority of the bullets missed their target. The winged 
creature flew past the thug, but impaled him on the end of its halberd 
in a bloody display as it went by, taking the doomed man with it into 
the air.

In the meantime, the yellow youma had hacked up another light ball and 
had spat it at Sailor Mars. The Fire Senshi dove nimbly to the side, and 
then rolled back onto her feet, only to be set upon by the feral youma. 
The creature clamped its maw over the girl’s right arm as she brought it 
up to defend her carotid. It growled like a wolf as it got a taste of 
her blood. Sailor Mars let out a shout of pain at the piercing contact, 
frantically shaking her arm to try and loosen the thing’s hold.

Meanwhile the winged youma had landed. It lowered its halberd, letting 
the skewered corpse slide sickeningly off of the blade. Another gang 
member confronted it, levelling a pistol at the monster. The youma, 
moving like lightening, grabbed the barrel and thrust the butt of the 
weapon against the man's face, ramming his nose bone up into his brain 
and killing him instantly.

"RUN! Let’s get the hell outta here!" The remaining gang members' morale 
broke and they began to scatter in all directions, leaving their fallen 
comrades behind to fend for themselves... the ones that weren’t already 
dead.

The yellow youma hacked up yet another ball of energy and fired again at 
Sailor Mars. It looked like the creature really had it in for the 
raven-haired girl.

Meanwhile, Mars had desperately resorted to physically prying open the 
feral youma’s jaws from her arm with her free hand, or at least 
attempting to. However, as she saw the energy ball come sailing towards 
her, she smirked. Mars had a plan. At the exact moment when the ball was 
just a few feet in front of her, she swung her bitten arm out with all 
her might, breaking the wild youma's grip at the cost of several layers 
of flesh. It was hurled into the path of the globe of light, the sphere 
smashing into its already charred back. The youma instantly screamed as 
it jerked and shook, its internal organs cooking.

"FIRE SOUL BIRD!"

A phoenix crashed into the shuddering youma, frying its outsides to 
match its insides. It collapsed in a smoking heap on the floor, 
completely roasted. Shortly after, its body began to decay at a rapid 
rate.

Sailor Mars ducked as a sharp blade chopped at her neck. She dove 
forward, curling into a roll and ending up on her feet. Mars whirled 
around quickly... just in time to see the winged youma stab at her with 
its blood stained halberd. The Fire Senshi angled her body so that the 
sharp point would miss her, and then jumped backwards, trying to give 
herself more room to manoeuvre. The creature’s weapon had some reach on 
it.

"FIRE S--" Sailor Mars’ attack was interrupted by the smell of ozone 
reaching her nose.

She moved on instinct, rolling hastily to her left as a white energy 
ball crackled past her. Just as Mars was about to send the yellow youma 
a ball of her own, the winged youma swiped downwards at her. Sailor Mars 
rolled again to dodge the slash and the youma's halberd took a chunk of 
cement out of the floor instead. Great, they were tag teaming the miko.

Sailor Mars looked anxiously around the warehouse, trying to think of a 
plan. The winged youma glared malignantly at her and took flight, its 
wings stirring up waves of dust from the floor as they flapped. It 
lowered its halberd and flew at Mars, letting out an ear-piercing shriek 
as a war cry. The Fire Senshi retreated until she felt her back touch a 
stack of solid crates behind her, inspiration at last striking her when 
she needed it the most. She only had one shot, and if her timing was 
off... she was a kebab.

The youma pulled its halberd back and lunged at Sailor Mars, trying to 
disembowel her. But Mars was quick. She darted aside, the halberd’s 
point piercing through the crates behind her. The Fire Senshi 
immediately countered by raising her right leg and with a defiant shout, 
brought it down hard on the weapon’s wooden shaft, splintering it in 
half.

The winged youma dropped to the floor and looked at the end of its 
broken weapon in disbelief. But before the youma could hardly even 
register this new information, Sailor Mars fluidly spun on her heel, 
following up her first move by delivering a crushing kick to the 
creature’s bird face. It stumbled backwards, holding its broken beak as 
all sorts of fluids gushed out of it, staining its black feathers odd 
colours.

"BURNING MANDALA!"

The youma shrieked in pain as it was horribly burned by a myriad of fire 
rings, but once again took flight, despite its grievous wounds. Sailor 
Mars prepared to continue her offensive, but the monster quickly flew 
upwards and out of the warehouse through the skylight it had first 
arrived from.

"Yeah, just fly away, you coward," sneered Mars, looking after her 
fleeing enemy.

Sailor Mars then turned her dreaded gaze to the yellow youma. The 
creature looked nervously left and then right, seeking a way to escape. 
Mars walked purposefully towards it, the malevolent glint in her eyes 
directed straight at the creature.

Seeing the Fire Senshi approach, the youma hacked up a light globe and 
spewed it out at the girl.

However, Sailor Mars easily evaded it, the attack’s flight path simple 
to predict now with no other distractions in the area to divert the 
miko’s attention.

"FIRE SOUL!"

The short yellow youma took the flames full in the chest and fell 
backwards, writhing as its flesh blistered under the scorching heat. 
Sailor Mars walked up to the prone creature and stomped one booted foot 
on its chest and ground her heel into the burns, snuffing out some of 
the small fires that were still alight on the thing’s torso.

"Talk. Why are you here? Who sent you?" Sailor Mars demanded sharply.

The youma shook its big head forcefully, to which Mars responded by 
mercilessly grinding her heel in its wounds a little more.

"Wargh! I talk... I talk..." choked out the grimacing youma through its 
excruciating anguish. "I collect... humans... for my lord and 
master...."

"Who? Who is your master?!" spat Sailor Mars.

"A being... of power... great... power. Lord Khairephon..." the yellow 
being gasped out.

"And where can I find this, 'Lord Khairephon'?" Mars persisted.

The youma opened its mouth a little to reply, but suddenly convulsed 
spasmodically before falling limp. Its skin began to flake away, 
followed by its muscles and finally its bones. It was dead.

"They always die before they tell you everything," muttered Sailor Mars 
to herself, removing her foot from the rotting carcass, absent-mindedly 
kicking off some of the disgusting matter clinging to her black boot.

The Senshi of Fire looked over to where the cooling bodies of those gang 
members who were struck down lay. Mars sighed. She hadn’t managed to 
save the ones injured, but at least some had escaped. It was better than 
nothing, she supposed. The miko looked down at her bitten arm, checking 
to see the extent of the injury. It stung quite painfully. She should 
get back to her apartment and treat it before it became infected. Who 
knew what diseases that wild youma was carrying.

Sailor Mars let out another sigh. All this battle had done was give her 
more unanswered questions. At least she knew now that something really 
was going on in Yokohama and that there was an organization to the 
youma. But Mars was all alone... there were no other Sailor Senshi to 
back her up... it was just her, all by herself. What could she do alone? 
It was different when there was a threat back in Tokyo, there was always 
at least one other senshi to help out... but now... the Fire Senshi 
would be taking on all of them unaided... including this 'Khairephon', 
whoever that was.

Glancing once again at the corpses of the gang members, Sailor Mars knew 
she had no choice. She had to for the people of this city. If Usagi were 
here in her place, she would fight on alone. And Mars would do the same. 
She would make her princess proud of her. Sailor Mars gazed out of 
broken skylight windows of the warehouse, looking at the moon. She would 
make Usagi, her love, proud.

Sailor Mars then left the warehouse, heading for the apartment 
building... unaware of the shadow that followed her.

******

Khairephon tapped his fingers with impatience on the armrest of his 
steel chair. Where were they? The latest raiders were due back hours 
ago. He idly kicked the human he was currently abusing before his feet. 
It whimpered and curled into a ball, clutching its stomach protectively.

There was a scraping sound as Isrufael pushed off the metal covering on 
the floor, not bothering with the password. He staggered towards his 
master, one hand holding his broken and badly bleeding beak. The youma 
dropped to his knees in front of Khairephon, almost crushing the human 
laying nearby, the pathetic being unnoticed by the injured creature.

Khairephon took in Isrufael’s appearance and lack of allies. He raised a 
single red eyebrow. "Report...?"

"A human female..." gasped Isrufael, his voice strange coming through 
his destroyed beak, "...ambushed us... killed Giberl... I barely 
escaped...."

"A human female?" questioned Khairephon in a disbelieving tone. "You 
mean one of these?" He reached down and grabbed the hair of the wretched 
human at his feet, hoisting the battered creature to its knees as it 
babbled for mercy.

"No... she possessed powers... fire... fire came from her hands..." 
Isrufael gestured to his burnt body, the patches of feathers missing 
from it now replaced by scorched flesh.

Khairephon let the human drop to the floor and settled back into his 
chair, frowning in thought. Thrinakie must have been wrong when he had 
said that the Sailor Senshi were the only defenders of this world. He 
knew his brother was getting too old for this sort of thing.

"You have done well coming here to tell me this," said Khairephon, 
gesturing for Isrufael to rise.

"Th-Thank you, my lord..." the youma stuttered.

"However, you fled from a battle and abandoned your allies," Khairephon 
went on, looking at his youma in contempt, his eyes becoming pools of 
liquid fire.

"N-No master! Yeslick was already d-dead! I swear!" Isrufael begged, 
falling to his knees once again.

"You lie," Khairephon stated coldly.

He lashed out with his fist, pulverising the youma's skull in a single 
blow, grey matter splattering over the cowering human near his chair. 
Isrufael's body collapsed to the floor and began to melt away. No loss 
there.

"Rodoth!" Khairephon called, shaking the gore off of his hand.

"Yes?" one of Makareus' youma replied, stepping out from the shadows of 
the room. Khairephon smirked disdainfully. Lousy sneaks.

"There is a threat here in this human city... a human female with the 
powers of fire... you will find her for me," Khairephon commanded.

"Yes, Lord Khairephon..." the youma acquiesced.

Khairephon smiled with glee, but in truth the expression held a lot more 
wickedness than joy. Things had just gotten a lot more interesting....

******

To be continued....


Author's ramblings:

There's the sixth chapter. I hope it's still good. I want the other 
senshi to stew for a while thinking Rei is dead.

hentai = pervert.
halberd = A pole weapon. It usually has an axe blade and also a 
spear-like tip at one end.

Onwards to Part 7


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