-Kanto, Japan, 1923- The group of men and women gathered in the castle basement as the four nude women finished drawing the chalk designs on the floor. The castle, dating back to the Edo period, looked from the outside to be dead at this time of night. The candles and incense burning inside, however, told otherwise. As the one nude acolyte finished drawing out the circle in the center of the room and a second was finishing up inscribing the combination of Japanese, Greek and Hebrew letters around a triangle drawn outside the circle, the other two women left. The group of men and women who had been observing all silently now began to disrobe. As the last article of clothing was discarded, the two acolytes returned with large jars of ink and brushes. They began to write and paint talismans and other occult symbols on the group. Meanwhile, the first two acolytes stood up and left the rooms to obtain the tools for the ritual, returning a short time later with a small table alter on which a double-sided blade, a long wooden rod, and several small whips were laying. The oldest member present, a man in his late forties who was slowly balding, addressed his twelve companions. "Ladies and gentleman." he began, an upside-down pentagram recently brushed onto his forehead in black ink, "What we are about to try has never been attempted before. We are about to attempt to create a dimensional vortex that will bridge the gap between the world of the seen and the unseen. Natsu here," he said, motioning to the young woman who'd just finished inscribing the last of the three other acolytes with the ink-drawn hieroglyphs and who herself had none on her bare flesh, "Has agreed to be the sacrifice." All turned and bowed reverently to Natsu. The young maiden bowed back. "As you know, the ancient Syrian texts speak of an ancient kingdom on the moon, and princesses who ruled over the planets of the solar system. Other ancient tomes speak of a future golden age when these young princesses will be reincarnated to create a utopia, and men and women will never die. We have waited for this momentous eon long enough! Tonight, we force the hand of fate. We will bring about the incarnations of the princesses through the ritual we perform tonight. So it shall be!" "So it shall be!" the others shouted. A half hour later, The circle was full of the sounds of whips smacking against flesh as eleven of the thirteen present, whips in hand, self-flagellated themselves while chanting ancient forbidden words over and over again. The youngest acolyte, Natsu, lay on the small alter with her arms and legs dangling off and touching the floor. As a steady spray of blood from the flagellators fell to the floor and the sacrifice closed her eyes, the High Priest held his knife high, staring intently at the now glowing triangle in front of the circle. With every painful lash of the whip, the others released more and more energy, willing it all over to the High Priest. A dark blue mist of pure kinetic energy began to whirl around the participants within the circle, as static electricity caused tiny sparks to go off and everyone's hair to stand on end. Finally, as a small sphere of pure white light formed in the center of the triangle and levitated in midair five feet above the ground, the magus spoke. "We command you open." he said, now gripping the knife above his head with both hands, "We command you , dimensional gates, open! We command you, gates of time, open! We command you open!" A sudden downward thrust, followed by a high pitched scream, signaled the climax of the ritual. All stopped whipping themselves to look down at the sacrifice. The knife was still resting in her heart as blood sprayed out and ran in little rivers down her chest and arms onto the stone floor. Her lifeless eyes stared off blankly up at the ceiling as her mouth hung open. Members of the group then turned from the ghastly sight to look at the orb of light within the triangle, which was growing brighter and larger by the second. The magus smirked at the orb as it continued to enlarge, "Oh fates, O old gods, we call upon you to..." he stopped when he saw something disturbing. The light, which was slowly taking on a purple color, was now expanding outside the confines of the triangle. A woman's form appeared within the light, holding a staff with a garnet orb near the top of it. The others within the circle looked fearfully from the form within the triangle to their High Priest, hoping he knew what was happening or at least was still in control. The sheer terror evident in his face, however, left little doubt that he was just as frightened as the others. Trying to regain some measure of control over the proceedings, he stumbled over to where the wand was lying on the floor and pointed it at the apparition. "I...In the name of... of the Tetragrammaton, I... I com... mand you, to... to..." The woman scowled at him and the others within the circle as she pointed her own staff back, causing the High Priest to drop his wand in fear. "Dead Scream!" she shouted. All within the circle were sent hurdling out of it into the back wall, the sacrificed young woman flopping like a rag doll against the wall and down to the floor. The circle, now broken, released massive amounts of dark magikal energy which, combined with the woman's scream, caused a devastating chain reaction as the ground began to shake and the walls collapsed on the magicians. In all, some one hundred and forty thousand men, women and children died during the Great Kanto Earthquake of September first, nineteen twenty-three. Most were claimed by the earthquake itself, while others were killed by the fire caused by it. It is remembered to this day as one of the worst earthquakes in human history. To this day, only one person is even aware of the story behind the disaster. And even now, after all these years, it still haunts her. "Setsuna-mama, are you okay?" Meiou Setsuna sat across the breakfast table from her adopted daughter Tomoe Hotaru and smiled sadly. "I'm sorry. I'm fine, I guess." she said, clutching onto her coffee mug. Hotaru tilted her head a bit as she studied the Senshi of Time. "No, you're not." she said as she put her spoon back in her cereal bowl. She got out of her chair and walked over to Setsuna's side of the table. She gave her Setsuna-mama a warm, loving hug. "I don't know what's wrong, but I'm here for you if you need me." Setsuna smiled affectionately at Hotaru as she returned the hug. "I know." she said, "Thank you." Just then, a doorbell broke up the tender mother-daughter moment, followed by the front door opening. "Hello!" a familiar husky voice called out, "Where is everyone?" "Haruka-Papa!" Hotaru called out. Rushing from the kitchen, she practically tackled the sandy-blond racecar driver. Tenoh Haruka, who was still holding onto two pieces of luggage at the time, practically had the wind knocked out of her. "Oof. Hey, easy firefly. Wait until I set the bags down at least." she joked. As Hotaru let her go and took her luggage up to her parent's room for her, Haruka turned around to go back out and get more. Setsuna came into the living room just as Haruka's wife Kaioh Michiru entered carrying two bags of her own. "Here, let me help you with that." Setsuna offered, taking the bags from the violinist. "So how did your third anniversary trip go?" she asked. "Oh, where to begin." Michiru began with a smile, "We went to Australia, performed a duet at the Sydney Opera House..." "That's funny," Setsuna broke in, "I didn't even realize the two of you could sing." "Har har, very funny." Haruka said from the door. She was carrying two more cases in as Hotaru came bounding down the stairs. "Michiru-mama!" she squealed as she hugged the aqua-haired beauty. "How was your trip?" "I was just telling Setsuna-mama here all about it. We played a concert, went on a tour of the outback, and had a romantic weekend at the hotel we stayed at." "And we received a rather interesting call from Ami." Haruka added. Both Setsuna and Hotaru noted the change in tone of Haruka's voice. "Papa?" Hotaru asked tentatively, "What is it, what's wrong?" "She called to inform us about a recent press conference presided over by something called the International Astronomical Union." Michiru said in a low tone, "Apparently, they believe they've discovered a tenth planet."
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