She should have looked utterly ridiculous to Rei Hino, the
blonde haired girl walking up the shrine steps towards her. The school
uniform looked fine, but her hair was oddly styled, tied up on her
head into two balls and leaving two streamers of hair flowing
backward.. The strangest thing was what she carried on her back, what
looked like a wooden practice sword.
Rei's eyes widened as she grew nearer, and the girl with the
long black hair realized that it was a real katana that she carried!
"Rei Hino?" the blonde asked her softly.
"Yes?" Rei asked her cautiously.
The blonde smiled wryly at her tone. "My name is Usagi
Tsukino," she bowed slightly, "and I need your help."
Rei bowed back, more from instinct than anything else. Quite
carefully she asked, "And what can I do to help you, Tsukino-san?"
"Usagi," she corrected her gently. "I need someone with your
special talents," Usagi explained, "I need a miko."
Rei gaped at her silently, then she shook her head angrily. "I
don't know who you've been talking to," she said angrily, "but..."
Usagi's head came up suddenly, as if something had gotten her
attention. Just visible over her shoulder the hilt of the sword began
to glow softly, a soft golden light. She grasped the hilt and drew the
sword smoothly, the light shining brighter.
"What... what in the," Rei stammered, stepping backwards.
"where are you?" Usagi muttered, turning about. As she moved
the sword glowed brighter, shining the most when pointed towards the
shrine buildings themselves. "Come out," she cried out, "I know you're
in there!"
The door smoothly slid open and a slim, blonde haired man
stepped outside, dressed in a gray jacket and matching pants. He could
be handsome, almost, if you chose to ignore the coldness that was
clearly evident in his blue eyes.
"Jad," Rei blinked at him in surprise. She hadn't expected to
see the assistant her father had hired to work at the shrine standing
there so calmly.
"I'm sorry Miss Rei," the blonde haired man tipped his head to
her respectfully, "but that's not my real name. I'm Jadite." He looked
at Usagi, a slight smile pulling at his lips as he said, "I didn't
expect you to find me so soon, Princess."
"Don't call me that," Usagi said softly.
Jadite laughed softly, even as a scarlet power began to rise
up all about him, like waves of heat. "But why not? You are surely
your mother's daughter," he mocked her. His form began to swell even
as the dark power grew, until finally his body seemed to explode
outward.
'Why didn't I sense any of this from him before now?' Rei
wondered, backing away from the massive creature.
Gray, leathery skin covered him from head to toe, his formerly
handsome face twisted and fanged. Muscles bulged along the creatures
body, and fearsomely clawed hands stretched out, ready to be used to
rend or kill.
Usagi charged, her sword blazing, even as she cried out,
"Luna! Protect Rei!"
The small black cat had remained waiting in the shadows before
her cry, but hearing Usagi's command she moved like the wind, "Yes,
mistress!" The cat slid to a stop in front of Rei, shimmered faintly,
and a black haired woman stood in the cat's place.
"What's going on?" Rei asked plaintively.
Luna turned, giving Rei a feral smile as she said
reassuringly, "The mistress can handle him easily enough. There's no
need to fear."
Jadite charged, trying to slice Usagi open, but the blonde
simply wasn't there. With a single leap she threw herself over him,
her sword swinging down in a shining crescent. He howled, black blood
splattering the girl.
Trying to recover Jadite raised his hand, casting forth dark
power against the deceptively delicate girl. Usagi simply raised her
blade in a guard position, shining a white-gold like moonlight, and
the shadow split around her.
With surprising grace Usagi moved, her shining blade skimming
close to the ground as she ran right at the much larger figure. Jadite
uselessly tried to defend himself, but in a single graceful sweep of
the blade she cut him in two. Black ooze sprayed her as the pieces
fell to the ground and then gradually began to dissolve.
"Ptou! Pou!" Usagi spat, trying to get some of the black gunk
out of her mouth. "Why do I always get slimed," she complained
bitterly.
Rei stood there, swaying slightly.
Usagi noticed her and quietly asked, "Excuse me, but do you
have someplace where I could clean myself up?"
Rei looked at the black covered girl leaning tiredly on her
sword, at the cat-woman standing there, then finally at the dissolving
body of her father's helper. Bonelessly, she fell over in a dead
faint, only prevented from hitting the floor by Luna's quick reflexes.
"She fainted," Luna said needlessly.
"The you'd best take her in," the calm voice said from behind
them. The short, bald headed man looked at them calmly, but his eyes
widened as he took in the blade that Usagi carried. "So," he said
softly, meeting Usagi's eyes, "you've come at last."
Ignoring that comment for now, Usagi took one end of the girl,
Luna took the other, and they carried her into the shrine.
Rei groaned softly, feeling a gentle hand resting on her brow.
"Good, you're awake," he said as he smiled down at her gently.
"Grandfather," Rei murmured softly. Her eyes widened, she sat
up and the looked around wildly. No sign of any blondes or cat-girls,
thankfully. "You wouldn't believe the dream I had," Rei smiled at him
happily.
There was a bit of regret on his face as he said, "It wasn't a
dream."
"No it wasn't," the little black cat agreed, a crescent moon
glowing on it's brow.
Usagi walked in, wrapped in a towel and drying her hair from a
quick wash. "I'm really sorry," Usagi bowed deeply, "I didn't know one
of the youma had beaten me here. If I had, I would have approached you
very differently."
"Youma," Rei echoed, looking between Usagi, the cat and her
grandfather, who seemed to be taking this all in with suspicious
calmness. There was a bit of an edge to her voice as she asked them,
"What exactly is going on?"
"I don't know, at least not entirely," Usagi answered her,
having settled down to sit by Rei's mattress. She reached behind her
and grasped the sword, laying it across her lap. She looked down at it
as she softly said, "All I do know is that the youma have been freed
from their prison, and that I'm the one who has been chosen to fight
them." She looked up to meet Rei's gaze, looking at her with those
shockingly blue eyes, "And I need your help."
Rei thought of the monster, the danger that Usagi had faced,
and felt a stab of fear in her gut. Almost unwillingly she asked, "And
why should I help you?"
"But, we need you," Luna asked in surprise.
Her grandfather looked startled by the question, "Rei, our
shrine has had a long tradition of battling the supernatural forces of
darkness. You would bring us dishonor if you..."
Usagi held up a hand, silencing him. She looked over at Rei
and explained, "I tried to avoid all this, too. When I was first
offered this sword, I refused it." Her eyes darkened as she looked
down at the sword, and softly said, "And it was those that I loved
that paid the price."
There was a long beat of silence, no one quite sure what to
say.
"Don't do this because I ask it of you, or because it's the
right thing to do," Usagi said softly as she looked over at the short
older man sadly, "do it to protect him and everyone else that you hold
most dearly."
It wasn't long afterward that Usagi was walking back down the
shrine steps in a borrowed dress. Luna was perched up on her shoulder,
and a scowling Rei Hino walked along beside her.
"I'm only helping you until the monsters are defeated," Rei
said intensely, the miko adding, "as soon as this is over, I'm going
home."
"Good enough," Usagi nodded firmly. She felt the hilt of the
sword bump her head as she looked up into the sky. A black haired
young man's face appeared in her mind's eye and she silently vowed,
'Mamo-chan, I will save you.'
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