I could feel her evil, like a dark blob in the depths of the metropolis choking off and sucking up its lifeblood. She was here, in Tokyo sewing seeds of destructive power unlike anything I thought possible, and far darker than those horrific years in the Silver Millennium.
Women in the courtyard
Children on their knees
Everybody knows them
No one is looking for me
Make way for the kings of the world
Make way for the kings
Yes, they still are here
It’s only a game
We’ll come back again
To this time and the kings of the world
(Mississippi)
Tokyo
Old Quarter
“Sparks; get Fujimori, Shia and the forensic team down here, now!” I barked into my communicator. “Fucking gangland wars are on again, and all this weird shit I don’t need,” I mumbled, glowering at the flying mirrors and the stream of obsidian girls floating like glittering ballerinas to the ground and moving towards the western region of Tokyo; others too were pouring out of them like coffee into a cup.
‘Damn, I was craving a coffee real bad.’
“Anyone know if Lady Napalm is still setting fire to those fucking monsters? I could sure use her help right now. We’re all losing our marbles or Tokyo is a huge gag perpetrated by the Japanese Film Industry, or I’m freaking off my rocker… ignore that Aiko, just spacing out here, I’ll be all right in a minute or two.”
“Sure thing Chief,” she said, stifling a giggle.
I grinned and winked at her before turning to survey the crime scene one more time.
I had ordered that the body bags - most filled with dust and rags, and the other charred remains of kamis only knew what these things were, be stored in an abandoned warehouse located several meters away until the hazmat team could secure the area for the scientist to do their thing.
“Y-yes sir,” Aiko said, handing me a holographic stylus and stepped back, lifting herself onto the bonnet of her police car, crossing her jean-clad legs and scanned her digital touchpad for any communications from the Japanese government or military.
She looked up, shook her head and offered me a small smile. She as a lifesaver, her pleasant nature, good humor and pretty face lit up what otherwise was proving to be a rather bleak investigation.
---
I was glad for the facemasks we were wearing. The stench of decay and death here resembled a charnel house. Corpses lay everywhere, riddled with bullets, others dismembered, food for rats and other vermin. People had dropped their weapons and tried to escape, this I had gleaned from the positions of many of the bodies lying on the sidewalks and inside the entrances to buildings and laneways in what must have been one hell of a battle royal. I knew that some of the dead were taken alive by these freakish creatures and torn apart, perhaps eaten, but the forensic people would determine that.
I guess these sorry sons of bitches must have been fighting each other for days, weeks even, then the youma had come and they panicked, as they were no match for the supernatural onslaught, poor bastards.
“Here… get us all some bagels, nobody’s in there but leave the yen on the counter, food is essential if we’re to function.” I placed the money in her small hand and she nodded.
“Yes, sir,” she said, the tail end of her plait, braided, falling from her mouth, a strange yet endearing habit I thought as I liked how she did that as if chewing a pen – made her look cute.
Sliding off the car with grace and poise, taking the money from my hand, and racing to the shop, which had its doors and windows ripped off, by somebody, or something, she still managed to make the setting look much more appealing. Aiko’s exuberance was infectious; I thought she was the brightest star in all the doom and gloom that was clinging to everything like a clammy mist. Aiko helped me get through this in one piece. I like her, a lot.
Wiping my brow with a handkerchief, I walked across the road to a coffee shop and Aiko poured me a cup. I could see the staff was comatose, curled up on tatami mats, rugs and sleeping bags to the couches lining the back wall of the storeroom; they were all okay.
“I used to work at Starbucks in Hawaii last vacation Chief.”
“Thank the kamis somebody around here knows how to brew a half-decent cup of coffee, arigatou. Now, to work… has the medical examiner arrived yet, or is she asleep, literally on the job?” I chuckled as Aiko nudged me in the ribs and rolled her eyes.
I tugged on her pigtail, a little. She turned to face me; our noses were almost touching. She giggled and looked down, smiling shyly.
Dream Realm
The world had turned inside out. Nothing made sense to me.
‘Am I dead, dreaming or what?’ she did not know. Sunedra told her it was the world of dreaming, a parallel or multiverse conundrum. I was crying again. Were all my friends in danger, could I help them?
Tokyo
Yakuza Warehouse dispatch Center
The newspaper seemed ready to vacate the veranda, its inky pages open like pigeons about to open their wings and take flight. I didn’t believe the headlines, though I actually did believe; it just seemed comical, something that made me want to cackle, burst into hysterics, get as drunk as possible, and keep having sex with Tetis.
I would place those articles in a scrapbook, these were better than any video game, movie or anime I’d ever seen and it was better simply because it was all too real. I liked that.
I continued to massage her lower back winning a sigh of approval and a kiss as she turned so fast onto her back, like an otter, how she did that so smooth and sensual; opening up much like a butterfly made of light always blew me away.
I was proud of her, as she had managed to overthrow the hierarchy of the Yakuza, no easy task, and she’d done it without anyone knowing about it, until it was over and she declared her hand.
“So, my darling, you are the leader albeit new leader of the Yakuza. Why doesn’t anyone ever tell me these things?” I said, stroking those tender places around the webbing of her wings as she giggled and arched her back and rose to meet my next thrust.
“I wanted to surprise you, Ace, darling… so, where were we?”
---
Tetis was amazing and I was her guy. Our lust spent - at least for now. We sat talking, she snuggling up close as lovers do during the afterglow of sex that opens up the mind, heart and spirit, and the lines of communication on a deeper level than is otherwise possible between a man and woman.
Princess Usagi and her entourage would be reporting in soon, they’d had a little trouble with the spooks and Tetis was going to help. I didn’t know much about the occult but thought I’d just observe from a safe distance.
I kissed her back at that sensitive point between her graceful wings, cupped her breasts, and massaged her substantive handfuls. She then activated the holographic projection system and grinned as I pinched her rosy nipples. She sighed and leaned back against my chest as we watched the images taking shape below our love-loft.
“Now Ace, my darling, for the local and overseas news, a bulletin of mammoth proportions.”
“Oh yeah?”
I arched an eyebrow. She patted my hand as if explaining something to a small child, smiling.
Tetis was showing me this for my benefit; she knew all the latest news via the bracelet she wore that transmitted live feed direct to her brain. I thought it such a cool concept that T-net would love to embrace and market as the next big thing in intralink communication through the brainstem to switch onto for millions of enthusiastic subscribers.
I turned my attention back to the holo-images finding myself stunned by what I saw, a most impressive presentation to be sure. If War and Peace by Tolstoy is your thing, this was definitely a real showstopper. I watched as the Japanese military might combining its land, sea and aerial forces, coupled with its Asian allies and other world powers engaged Metalia’s planetary armies - all combatants caught up in a titanic tug of war, if you’ll excuse the pun.
We continued to watch as the images of the underworld’s ragtag infantry, if an appropriate term to use here, entered the fray in the fair city. The people of Tokyo slept as the fighting continued day and night.
Tetis’ ability to martial these underworld thugs into a coherent fighting unit with the help of the Shitennou and the senshi from the future took great skill. I knew she had supernatural powers, but she was also a skilled tactician, the best. She planned and executed the maneuvers with pinpoint precision. When the order came to engage the youma of Metalia and her field officers, mutants of some kind that stood out like freaks from a horror movie like Hell Raiser, the tide had shifted in our favor.
To my surprise, even the dreaded Shachihoko were split, and that would piss off Metalia no end, but she had bigger ambitions and the Shachihoko, as useful a tool as they were counted little in her grand scheme.
The obsidian dolls, the spirits of the dead having once served the Dark Kingdom, were back to claim their revenge, and punish Metalia. Tetis would help push the balance towards the light.
The battles were moving back and forth as both sides fought for every inch of ground. I could hear machinegun fire even high-tech mechs were engaging the invaders through tornado-like apertures located outside the major cities and the war was spreading to Asia and elsewhere on the planet.
Kunzite and Zoisite impressed me no end, as had all the Shitennou, the little I had seen of Neph's abilities gave me a hint of what I could expect from all four of them on the battlefield. Nephrite, Kunzite and Zoisite were formidable as was Hino Rei's Jadeite.
I have news for you, people; The Four Kings are quite real. I’ve seen them in action and you just don’t want to mess with those guys.
I know Neph and he is my best friend, yet these other guys were incredible, a magical powerhouse. Little did I realize that our city, our world was slipping into an inter-dimensional nexus, this would become obvious once the webs appeared at dawn and the sunlight had faded to a veritable shadow of its former glory.
Warehouse District
We stood looking up at the moon, wind in our faces, and another storm on the way. I didn’t stop to ask myself the how, why and whatever else I could have; I just looked down at myself and gasped.
“Nephrite, Kunzite, Zoisite, it has been much too long.”
“Yeah, and now we are all together like old times, save the Dark Kingdom influence, perish the thought… but how?” I said, feeling the surge of power, the light of the moon moving through me. I was a silhouette in a phantasm of sensory overload. Was it a dream?
The mirror moved at speed and we were keeping pace with it, almost shadowing it. I thought this most odd. I shuddered to think how I would have coped with all this if Tetis hadn’t opened the door, if Inari hadn’t plunged my comrades and me into the fucking twilight zone. There was nothing to be done about it now.
I could see an ocean, a living luminous ocean, and waves of light of differing color washing over the stylized landscape. We were no longer in Tokyo, or at least the one I was familiar with anyway. I had not a clue where the fuck we were, but for the shadow city below that resembled Tokyo, it clawed at my aura like a hungry sick beast, my Shadow enveloped me in a silvery-golden mist to protect me and the light extended to my companions and the mirror.
“Those webs, they look like the strands of a giant metal spider, they’re imprisoning the sleeping city. I get a sense of something evil and yeah, I’m shitting myself.”
“Hold off on that Neph, that could be rather messy old boy,” Jad chuckled and I growled and grinned back. “I think our worlds are conjoining. That of the Earth with The Dark Kingdom and Elysian and several other realms… look to the horizon guys!” Jadeite cried out, amazed at the marvels on the wing and land borne.
“Yeah,” Zoisite managed and Kunzite kept opening and closing his mouth, speechless for once. I smirked and he arched an eyebrow as we continued our flight high above the setting below.
Old Quarter
Industrial District
Having lost so much I intended to perform a memorial concert as my tribute to those I love and lost to that bitch, Nehelenia and her overseer, Metalia. If the city ever woke up that is.
I was scared, yes, but I was pumped and allowed my warrior strength, courage and fear and dogged determination, to drive me forth into the fray. I am Sailor Mars, and I was chapping at the bit for a good fight.
I could hear the thunder grumbling in the distance growing louder by the second, the cold stone façades of the buildings flanking me as I ran impassive, silent witnesses to what was about to go down.
I was going to die this night, of that I had no doubt as Metalia, Nehelenia and the youma were going to do all in their power to stop me but I would take one if not both those bitches down with me.
The night is my witness; I would incinerate all challengers as the full power of the Martian Fire flowed through me. I was a lethal weapon out of control. History was preparing to record the events of this evening with cold detachment; a battle that may yet see the streets run with blood, youma blood and probably mine, too.
Walls lined with graffiti and torn posters, some advertising pop cultural events such as Jpop concerts, and public notices and sales pitches by the retail sector glared back at me almost accusingly, as if I were responsible for placing the capital in a deep slumber. I observed the many-parked cars crouching, as if awaiting the impending doom that drenched this urban wasteland to fall upon them reminding me of the siege on the Moon Palace all those eons ago. I shuddered at the memory but brushed it off and turned down another silent unlit street, the fire around my body lighting my way.
I shook myself, pushed on past the warehouses, shops, dark lanes, and crypt-like parks.
“Badlands is a good word for this place,” I muttered, flames dancing over my lips, their bright blue hue like luminous fog, I laughed at the incongruity of it all, the Jpop whore, dancer, and warrior, a senshi purged of all obscurations standing against the horrors of the Underworld.
---
Surveying my surroundings, the chill grew more intense despite the flames encasing me. I walked past a nearby bus depot filled with more sleeping citizens as the fluorescent lighting made them look as if they were mannequins showing off the season’s latest fashions on sale, it was so surreal. Papers, leaves and other debris dancing across the flagstone the only movement as I continued onward into the darkness.
Another front had swept in from the east; the weather seemed as if it was on replay the grumbling thunder like herds of sky beasts on the march upon the accursed metropolis locked into stasis. Then I cried out and stood stock still as steel-like spider’s webs, spun out of the clouds and incased Tokyo in a cage, but for a few apparent weak points where I guessed the Sakura Jinja and other sacred sites were able to resist Metalia’s evil power, for it must be her responsible I figured.
Shrouded by the darkness I almost missed it; the taillights of a huge semi-trailer winked at me signaling that the vehicle was backing out of a delivery bay.
“So, you people aren’t sleeping, therefore you’re either lucky, or working for the Dark Ones…, or-“
I stepped over several sleeping citizens, the youma having shown no interest in the men, women and the children curled up under the trees and on wooden seats and inside shop doorways wrapped in blankets or huddled together in small groups sound asleep wherever shelter was available.
I could now see the tiny lights running the length of the truck, the vehicle shrouded in dark-green canvas concealing its contents had piqued my curiosity. Then I saw them, men with machine guns, some with their weapons pointed at the entrance, they were wearing gasmasks.
I ducked behind a dumpster as a beautiful red fox materialized out of nowhere, her eyes burning bright silvery-red. I recognized her immediately, who wouldn’t, that was if a Shinto devotee. Inari, the Goddess but she had vanished almost as soon as we’d made eye contact.
---
The youma descended from the darkened buildings upon me. Like shadowy ravens, screeching, grotesque leathery wings flapping as they launched their attacks.
In the distance, I could hear the discharge of light artillery, cannons, rocket launchers and loud explosions, screams and cusses even some aircraft flying overhead now and then added to the surreal montage of this dystopian setting.
Enlivened by the bloodlust they came. I was ready for them, willing, able and pissed off in a way I had never been in my life before.
The truck moved off along the laneway, bamboo torches fixed to the walls of the buildings and attached to power poles and other fixtures were burning with a silvery-green incandescent glow. The youma would not go near these for some reason, were they actually afraid?
“Pay back’s a bitch, scum, die… all of you! Wheels of Fire Obliterate!”
I let them have it, the audacity of the enemy acted as an ignition point for my onslaught. Circlets of fire: purples, violets, green to gold even hot-pink flowed from my hands, the power I was wielding was like drawing upon the corona of several thousand stars and hurling these at the monsters trying to bombard me with their fangs, talons, venom, fire and noxious gases, but they came off second best well before they could reach me.
One pathetic creature was infused into the half-melted dumpster, the thing cocooned in bright red still as its death rows and screams rang out over the bruised streets of the Old Quarter.
---
More of the floating mirrors were appearing and there were obsidian dolls and other visitors pouring through and filling the district. I could see the flashes of fork lightning doubling in the darkened glass as the dream mirrors drifted like cumulonimbus pregnant with fork lightning across the city.
I gazed upon the ghostly visages, glowing fiery skulls, youma of every possible configuration, as if Geiger had scripted these having grown bored with his monsters from the Aliens films. I was no Sigourney Weaver; I was a magical girl, a soldier, a senshi of the past and of the future kingdoms to come. I would draw upon all my power to defeat the enemy, and rid the world of these dark parasites and their legions.
Youma were lurking in shadow avoiding the dolls. I had never seen youma afraid before until this night, not in the Silver Millennium and not within the confines of the shrine when that snakehead chose to attack my Ojii-san. They would not approach the torches; the Yakuza knew how to ward off the youma, so the Turf Wars were not propaganda after-all but the real deal.
---
I smiled as I looked up; Jadeite and the other Shitennou were standing atop the warehouse adjacent to the one the semi-trailer was leaving, looking down upon the youma hordes. I noticed the Shitennou uniforms were luminous white, trimmed in gold and silver.
I smiled at Jad. He raised a hand in greeting, his impish smile fading as he returned his focus to his assigned task. He was part of a unit now, and he and I would, kamis allow, be able to enjoy each other’s company once this dreadful night was behind us, or at least, that was the plan anyway.
The warriors appeared different to how I remembered them, or re-remembered them from the Silver Millennium.
The youma were terrified and backing away as the mirror appeared behind the ancient kings.
I watched, mesmerized as the doll-like sirens poured out of the shiny obsidian portal. I gasped at senshi I didn’t recognize now standing with the guys, at the feet of one of the girls a small cat with a crescent upon its brow. These girls were dressed in uniforms almost like my fuku. I would love to talk to one of them, but they seemed as if somnambulists, not making a single sound but for their footfalls as they moved towards the youma. I gasped, as another figure appeared, a girl with long pink locks, tied in the odango way, like Usagi. I realized this young woman was Sailor Moon of the future. Chibi-Usa all grown up, I smiled, tears pouring down my face as she smiled back razing a gloved hand in greeting then she too vanished.
“What is going on here?” I whispered finding myself confused by all that was happening right now.
Something was pulsating on the rooftop where Sailor Moon of Crystal Tokyo had stood only seconds before; then I saw her, Nephrite’s Shadow. She was fierce, ten feet high; daggers, with dragonfly wings flying from her body like swarms of wasps towards the stampeding monsters in the streets looking up and launching their energy attacks and volleys of obsidian arrows from black marble bows... The fight was on, and the gloves off as I began a new series of attacks.
I was resolved; my aim true. Swirls of fire arced around my hands and drifted in tiny blue tendrils along my forearms. I breathed out a long flame without any real effort, a dozen youma falling over a truck lying upon its side had caught alight, the smell of acrid youma flesh off-putting but the screams served as an anthem as the vehicle exploded in a tumbleweed of red to golden flames and black smoke.
I repeated the action; setting more youma alight, my full rage unleashed upon the foot soldiers of the bitch Metalia. I had no regard for the pathetic pawns of that abomination; she too would know my wrath soon enough. I would not let this rest. I would finish this in a blaze of fiery fury and not feel the least bit guilty for taking out that bitch Nehelenia as well as the menace that started all this long, so long ago.
I had dispatched hundreds of youma but there were more coming from the south of the city, these were different to Nehelenia’s armies. I realized this game was being played on several levels and much higher stakes than I suspected.
The image of Tetis, her beauty and obvious freaky wings caught my eye, and a man, a human being by her side, her lover no less I guessed and later had that confirmed. They were looking my way.
“Sailor Mars, we stand with you against Metalia, and her youma a, my forces are on our side – come join us!” Tetis declared as the senshi I’d seen earlier pushed back their hoods to reveal the senshi of the future and there she was, Sailor Moon of Crystal Tokyo beaming.
“All-right, but you better not cross me. I have never trusted youma, and I’m not going to let down my guard, but perhaps this might work… okay, let’s kick butt!” I said, keen to make my position clear, Tetis nodded and raised her hand in a victory sign.
“Welcome aboard, Mars,” Sailor Moon said, as she launched a Moon Quake Attack.
“Good, to… be part of the team… woman!” I shouted, and then launched a fiery breath incinerating dozens of youma mages and warlords.
