Chapter Eight: Soldier of Fire, Part II The rumors about the evil six o’clock bus were still running rampant when Usagi entered her classroom the next morning, making it just in time before the bell rang. Everywhere she looked, her classmates were excitedly discussing the latest kidnappings and offering their own theories about what had happened. At another time, Usagi probably would have been right in the thick of things, putting forth her opinion and eager to hear what others might have to say. Along with eating, sleeping, and video games, gossiping was one of her favorite pastimes. However, after her visit to the Hikawa shrine and meeting the beautiful miko who lived there the previous day, she had no desire to join in on the eager speculation. Usagi couldn’t forget the hurt in the girl’s eyes when they had overheard those two women with the missing daughters talking about the suspicions surrounding the shrine. It had upset her more than the miko had been willing to let on, and to engage in the same behavior, even if Rei wasn't around, seemed incredibly mean. Resting her chin in her hands, Usagi sighed. Hino Rei… She was an enigmatic person. Usagi didn’t know quite what to think of her. Rei had seemed kind enough -- except for when she had mistakenly tried to exorcize her -- and she was without question one of the most beautiful girls she had ever met, but Usagi’s budding senses as a senshi warned her that she shouldn’t immediately trust the miko. It was possible that she might an enemy, especially considering the bus disappearances that had occurred near her family’s shrine. Usagi hoped not, though. Even though she didn’t know Rei very well, Usagi wanted to become friends with mysterious miko. Rei was everything she was not -- attractive, elegant, calm, dedicated. A person like her would be great to have as a friend. Maybe some of Rei’s poise would rub off on her… Behind her, Usagi felt the sharp jab of a pencil eraser in her back, breaking the blonde from her thoughts. “Moshi moshi, Usagi-chan,” her best friend Osaka Naru whispered as their teacher warned the students to be careful on their way home. “Is something bothering you? You’re really out of it today, even more than usual.” Usagi shook her head, turning around in her desk to face the pretty redhead. “No, nothing’s wrong,” she lied, wishing not for the first time she could tell Naru about her secret life as Sailor Moon. “I guess I was just thinking about the phantom bus.” “Yeah, I know. It’s on everybody’s mind.” “I think it’s a kidnapping ring, don’t you, Usagi-chan?” a nearby Umino, who, as always, was eavesdropping on their private conversation, asked. “I don’t know what to think,” Usagi said softly, unusually subdued in the presence of her friends. Naru and Umino exchanged confused looks at the blonde’s behavior, but before they could ask what was really bothering her, Miss Sakurada announced it was time for class to begin, so the three turned back around in their seats and passed forward the previous night’s homework. The rest of the day passed by in a fog, a blur of classes and tests that might as well have been in Greek for all the attention Usagi gave them. Walking outside to meet Luna after switching shoes once the final bell had rung, she cringed to think of how badly she did on her kanji test. There was another failing grade for sure. Her mother would be mad, but at the moment, the wrath of Tsukino Ikuko was only a faint worry in the back of her mind. She had more pressing matters to concern herself with. “This is suspicious,” Luna declared as Usagi walked up to her and gathered the feline in her arms, not even bothering to say hello or to ask how school had gone. Apparently, the black cat had been having the same thoughts that had plagued her all through the day’s classes. “I sense the enemy may be at work. I think we need to investigate these disappearing buses a little more closely. Let’s go to Sendaizakaue and meet with that miko again. I get a strange feeling from her. Perhaps Rei-chan might be one of our allies.” Usagi frowned, starting down the street. “Or Rei-chan could be working for the enemy,” she suggested, remembering her thoughts from earlier. “A lot of people think the Hikawa shrine has something to do with the disappearances, although I don‘t want to think that…” Impressed, Luna looked up and winked. “Wow, you’re getting better,” she complimented. “You’re starting to sound like a true senshi.” Her nose wrinkled in distaste, Usagi shook her head. She hadn’t realized it before, but Luna was right. She *was* talking and thinking more like a proper senshi. That cat was starting to become a bad influence on her. “I do, don’t I?” she lamented. “When did that happen?” “Don’t sound so depressed about it, Usagi-chan. This is a good thing. You’ve finally begun accepting who you are.” “But I don’t wanna be Sailor Moon!” she whined. “It’s no fun at all -- nothing like the Sailor V games. The only good things to come out of this whole cosmic fiasco is meeting Ami-chan and Tuxedo Kamen-sama, and even then, I still don‘t know who he really is.” Usagi's heart gave a little thump-thump as her tuxedo-clad protector’s masked face appeared in her mind. She wondered what he really looked like behind that white domino mask. He certainly cut a dashing figure, but what if underneath it all, Tuxedo Kamen was nothing more than a geek like Umino? No, her hero would definitely be a handsome prince, she decided. There was no doubt about that. There was absolutely no way she would continuously put herself in danger only to discover her dream man was a nerd. She simply would not allow it! “Hey, Usagi-chan, here’s the bus!” Luna said as they approached the bus stop at the corner of the street. “Huh?” Usagi grunted, breaking her thoughts away from a certain mystery man at the cat‘s words. She looked up at the oncoming bus and vigorously began shaking her head in refusal. “No way! Getting on the bus is scary! I don’t want to, Luna.” “Would you rather walk all the way to Sendaizakaue? It must be a good five or six blocks away from here. Besides, this will be a good chance to investigate.” “But don’t you think we should have Ami-chan come with us? She’s probably much better with this kind of thing then I am.” “There’s no time. Just get on board. You’ll be fine.” Usagi didn’t trust the cat’s promise, but swallowing her fear, she boarded the bus which had stopped in front of them and made her way to an empty seat in the back near some guy in glasses with his nose in a thick textbook. “If anything happens, Luna, it’s your fault,” she told the feline. “It’s okay, Usagi-chan. It’s only five o’clock, and supposedly, it’s the six o’clock bus which disappears. You should contact Ami-chan with your new communicator and tell her--” Abruptly, the black cat stopped talking and began wiggling wildly in Usagi’s arms, meowing as if she were trying to tell her something. Usagi tilted her head in mild confusion at the cat, wondering what was going on to make Luna act so crazy. It wasn’t as if anybody was listening to their conversation. The dork in the glasses was too absorbed in his book to pay attention to anything they had to say. “What’s wrong, Luna?” she asked. “What are you trying to say?” “Yes, Luna,” a deep voice beside her echoed. “Do speak up.” Slowly, Usagi turned her head to her left and wished she would die right then and there. The dork had finally put away his schoolbook, and much to her complete chagrin, she recognized him as none other than her frequent tormentor and nemesis, the man she had used as a human trashcan on the day she met Luna. “What?! You again!” she shrieked. “Don’t use such a shrill voice, odango-atama,” the man said, coolly peering at her from over his glasses with cobalt blue eyes. “We seem to meet often. If I didn’t know better, I would think you were following me.” Usagi huffed and folded her arms over her chest. The nerve of that man! “Don’t flatter yourself, pretty boy. I have better things to do with my time than to follow a jerk like you around, thank you very much,” she declared. “And don’t call me that horrid name. What are you doing here, anyway?” “I always take this bus home from school.” “No way! You’re a normal junior high student like me?” “I’m obviously in high school,” he said dryly, reaching into his book bag. He pulled out his student ID and held it up for her to read. “Here, need proof?” “’Chiba Mamoru, Moto Azabu High School, junior class,’” she read aloud. So his name was Mamoru. Funny how she never thought to ask before now, but then again, why would she want to know the name of the arrogant jerk? She could think of a million other names, most of them inappropriate for polite conversation, that suited him more. “Well, I guess if you take this bus, you know about the evil six o’clock bus.” Mamoru slipped off his reading glasses and placed them in the pocket of his school blazer. “Yes, I am aware of the rumors,” he said. “It’s this route, right? Strange things are always happening in this area… Odango-atama? Odango-atama?” Usagi barely heard his words, staring at her companion’s profile as her heart gave a familiar thump-thump. Without his glasses, Mamoru was remarkably handsome -- not that he wasn’t before, of course. His deep sapphire eyes shone with intelligence and ink black hair fell attractively over his forehead, giving him an air of mystery. He reminded her of somebody. He reminded her of Tuxedo Kamen. A deep, scarlet blush painted her cheeks and nose at the thought. What was she thinking? Chiba Mamoru was not her secret protector. He was too mean to be her knight in a black tuxedo. She was just imagining things because of what she had been thinking about before she and Luna boarded the bus, that’s all. It wouldn’t be the first time she had mistaken real life for a daydream. But then why was her heart beating so fast? Why did she feel so warm? Noticing Mamoru was staring at her as well, Usagi shook her head and pushed the thoughts away. He probably figured she was some kind of lovesick schoolgirl and knowing Mamoru, he would use her behavior as ammunition for future insults. She prepared herself for another sarcastic remark about her having some kind of crush on him, but surprisingly, Mamoru said nothing, continuing to stare just at intently at her as she did him. To be honest, he was beginning to creep her out. Usagi wiggled uncomfortably in her seat. What kind of lewd thoughts were going through that guy’s head? Her father always did say high school boys only had one thing on their mind… “Soldier of justice…” Usagi nearly jumped out of her school uniform at the words, and in her lap, Luna’s fur stood up like the needles of a porcupine. He knew?! How could he possibly know she was Sailor Moon? “WHAT?” she shouted a little bit louder than she had meant. A couple of people near the back of the bus where they were sitting turned around to see what the fuss was about, but they returned to their own little worlds when they saw it was nothing more than a girl talking to a guy. Mamoru covered his mouth with his hand, a faint blush forming over the bridge of his nose. “Uh, nothing…” he said. “It was nothing.” Nothing? Out of the blue, he suddenly calls her the “soldier of justice” and it was nothing? A slip of the tongue? Usagi didn’t believe him for a second. If it was nothing, then why did he seem so embarrassed by it? The bus driver took that moment to announce they had reached the next stop. Fortunately, it her stop, Sendaizakaue, right in front of the Hikawa shrine. Usagi couldn’t get off the bus fast enough, a blur of yellow and blue as she shot to the front, and she didn’t even bother to say goodbye to Mamoru, wanting to get as far away as possible from the perceptive man with the beautiful blue eyes. How could he have known? “Th-That startled me,” Usagi stuttered as she and Luna watched the bus drive away. She was short of breath and her heart pounded loudly against her chest. “How did he know, Luna? He couldn‘t possibly know who I am, could he? Maybe it was just a lucky guess or maybe he simply saw a Sailor V poster…” “I don’t know; he’s pretty sharp,” Luna commented. “I think you should contact Ami-chan on the communicator. She might be able to gather some information on this Chiba Mamoru-san. He might be an enemy.” Or he might be Tuxedo Kamen, Usagi thought to herself, remembering what she had been thinking right before Mamoru had called her the soldier of justice. She didn’t dare tell Luna that, though, knowing her guardian cat wasn’t exactly trustful of the masked man either. “I’ll call Ami-chan later,” Usagi promised, starting up the long flight of steps leading to the shrine, the black cat right at her heels. “She’s probably in one of her cram school classes right now, and I shouldn’t interrupt unless it’s absolutely necessary.” Luna agreed, and the two of them made their way up to the shrine, where they found the beautiful miko talking to a trio of patrons. One of them Usagi remembered as Mrs. Akiyama, the mother of one of the young girls who had supposedly disappeared on the evil six o’clock bus a few days ago. They were just close enough, though hidden from view, to hear the heated discussion going on between the worried mother and Rei. “We want you to use your special powers to predict where our daughters are, Rei-chan,” Mrs. Akiyama said. “Please, we’re begging you. With your gifts, I’m sure you could find them for us.” From their spot, they could see miko’s amethyst eyes were filled with regret. “Akiyama-san, I know you’re worried about Mii-chan and want to find her, but I’m afraid I can’t help you,” Rei informed the parents. “I can’t always control when my powers will work. If you want to find the girls’ specific location for certain, it is best to leave it to the police instead.” “But the police have no real leads. They are as baffled by this case as we are.” “I’m sorry,” Rei apologized. “I wish I could do more to help, I really do, but I can’t. All I can do is offer prayers to the kami-sama for the safe return of your daughter and the others.” Mrs. Akiyama was not satisfied with that answer. “Can’t you be more agreeable at a time like this?” she snapped, her hazel eyes narrowing in anger. “Our family contributes a large amount of money to this shrine. The least you can do is help us in our time of need.” “Gomen nasai, Akiyama-san…” “We came all the way to this shrine to ask for your help and *this* is how we are treated?” By that time, the mother was nearly hysterical, though Rei somehow managed to keep a calm exterior. “With all the strange powers your family has, I wouldn’t be surprised if you did have something to do with the disappearances. I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but now I’m not so sure. I bet you know exactly where Mii-chan and the others are and you won‘t tell us.” Rei‘s hands balled into tight fists at her side. “I assure you that is not the case--” “I don’t want to hear it, Rei-chan. If you and your family have nothing to do with the kidnappings, then help us!” “I told you I can’t!” the usually polite miko shouted, apparently reaching the end of her rope. She pointed toward the torii, anger burning in her gaze. “If all you are going to do is throw accusations at me and ojii-san, then leave this holy shrine! Go!” “Why, you rude little girl!” “Go!” With an indignant huff, Mrs. Akiyama turned to leave, the couple with her following right behind, as Rei ran off somewhere to calm her temper. Usagi and Luna waited until the parents were gone before they stepped out from their hiding place behind the torii. “Poor Rei-chan…” Usagi murmured. It wasn’t her fault she wasn’t able to help locate the missing girls. She couldn’t imagine the pain the miko was going through at the moment. It must be tough for her to deal with the accusations. Usagi felt horrible for thinking Rei had anything to do with the enemy. Luna, however, wasn’t so easily persuaded. “I still don’t know if Rei-chan is an ally or enemy,” she said. “And if the enemy is at work here, I can’t read their intentions. What purpose would our enemy have for a group of schoolgirls? Why aren’t they searching for the Ginzuishou?” “The enemy wants the Ginzuishou, too?” The black cat sighed. “Yes, they do, and we must find it before they do, or the entire world might be in danger.” Oh, great, Usagi thought as they began their investigation. Yet another thing they had to worry about... ***** From her seat on the steps leading up to the porch, Rei hid her face in her hands and exhaled. It didn’t do much to soothe her anger, but it was better than nothing. She was so tired of this! When would the suspicions and accusations stop? Even people who had once been their strongest supporters, like the Akiyamas, were beginning to question their innocence. She couldn't understand it. What had they done to earn their suspicion? Why were people so willing to believe-- “Hino, there you are,” a familiar voice said, interrupting her thoughts. “We’ve been looking for you.” Cringing, Rei looked up from her hands at the unfriendly voice, finding a group of girls standing a few feet away from where she sat. Their green-haired leader stood at the forefront, hands on her hips and a distasteful expression on her face, while the rest formed a formidable line behind her. Rei couldn’t help thinking they were like a small army preparing for battle, and she sighed. Could her day get any worse? “Tanaka-san, what are you doing here?” Rei asked, slowly standing from her seat on the stairs. Sayo tossed her hair over her shoulder, regarding the miko with a hard eye. “Certainly not for tea and cookies, I assure you,” she said. “This was hardly my idea, but ojii-sama said you had something to tell me, so spit it out so we can leave. I don’t want to spend a second longer here at this creepy shrine than necessary.” Oh, the apology… Rei inwardly groaned. Somehow, she had hoped last night’s conversation with Minoru and her grandfather had only been some kind of horrible dream. She still felt no need to apologize for her actions the previous day, but she *had* promised. Might as well get it over with before she recovered her dignity. “Yes, there is something I wanted to tell you,” Rei said, walking over to the girls. She was purposely slow in coming, trying to decide if there was some way she could apologize for slapping Sayo without *actually* apologizing. Mai, Sayo’s purple-haired sidekick, rolled her eyes. “This ought to be good,” she muttered. “Now, now, Mai-chan, let Hino speak,” Sayo said, holding up a finger. “I think, for once, she might say something I actually want to hear.” The miko drew in a deep breath to calm her simmering temper and bowed low toward her adversary, utterly humiliated. “Tanaka-san, yesterday I did something I shouldn’t have done and I would like to offer you a humble…a humble…” Rei stumbled over the words. She couldn’t say it. The words were on the tip of her tongue, but her voice refused to say them aloud. Slowly, she rose from her bowing position and stared Sayo straight in the eye. “Come on, Hino, spit it out already,” Sayo ordered, glancing down at her watch. A leather-clad foot tapped impatiently against the cobblestone walkway. “We don’t have all day, you know. I have better things to do than waiting for you to apologize for your behavior yesterday. Just say you’re sorry so we can go.” “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid you came here for nothing,” Rei finally said, her voice cool as ice. “If you were expecting an apology from me for what I did, then you will have to deal with disappointment, because there is no way I will ever apologize to you. The only thing I’m sorry for is that I didn’t hit you harder when I had the chance.” Satisfaction filled her heart as Sayo’s mouth dropped open in shock and a loud murmur rose from the other girls. They evidently were not expecting that. “You do know what will happen if you refuse to apologize, don’t you, Hino?” Sayo asked, once she recovered from her the blow. Blue eyes narrowed in anger as she crossed her arms over her chest, trying to look threatening. “Ojii-sama will have the police to press charges against you, causing a huge scandal for your already dishonored family.” “Yes, I’m well aware of his threats, Tanaka-san,” Rei said, flipping her own hair over her shoulder in a perfect imitation of her rival. “Too much of a coward to face me yourself, I suppose, crying to your grandfather to get him to fight your battles. How pathetic.” “At least my ojii-sama isn’t a dirty, perverted old man,” Sayo shot back. “Say that again and I’ll give the police a real reason to arrest me!” “No need, Hino. If you aren’t apologizing, then we are out of here.” Sayo pivoted on her heel, motioning for her groupies to follow. “Come on, girls. Let’s get out of this place before we become their next victims. The next bus should be here soon.” Watching the girls leave, Rei felt the desperate urge to kick something, hard. Either that, or else breakdown into uncontrollable sobs. How could she have even considered apologizing to that girl? The only thing Tanaka Sayo deserved was black eye and a broken nose. However, remembering what she had been taught, Rei forced herself to take a couple of deep breaths to compose herself before heading back inside the living quarters. She was officially taking the rest of the day off. If she had to deal with one more accusation by a visitor, she would not be held responsible for what she did. Saburo would understand. It wasn’t as if they had many customers anyway, thanks to the rumors. They had lost over 50% of their usual business since the kidnappings began. Perhaps what she needed was to meditate in front of the sacred fire for a while. That usually managed to calm her when she felt like bursting into flames. Deciding that was a good idea, she entered the prayer room and took a seat in front of the flickering blaze. Almost immediately, Rei felt her anger begin to burn away to ashes. There was comfort to be found in the pyromatic beauty of the fire in front of her. While most people felt fear toward the most destructive of the four elements, Rei learned long ago that fire was nothing to be scared of, only respected. As long as one respected the flames, no harm would come to him. It was a lesson that stayed with her as she slowly closed her eyes and paid honor to the spirit of fire. "Rin, pyou, tou, sha, kai, jin, retsu, sai, zen." The fire responded to her prayer, wrapping the young miko in the usual blanket of warmth, but something was different this time. Her heart burned, too. It felt as if her entire chest was filled with flames, infernal heat coursing through her veins. She had never experienced such ecstatic power before, but it somehow felt familiar. The feeling, unfortunately, did not last for long. Another power, the special gift with which she had been born, took over, filling her with a sense of foreboding. Something was horribly wrong. She fervently prayed to the kami of the fire, asking for assistance. Her prayer was answered in the form of a vision. In the middle of the dancing flames, the face of a handsome blond man appeared. Something tugged at her memory at the sight, but before Rei could decipher his identity, the vision changed, showing the man trying to choke a young school girl. The girl wore a Juuban Middle School uniform and her golden blonde hair was styled strangely, pulled into two odango ponytails. Rei gasped in recognition. It was the girl she had met the day before, Tsukino Usagi, and if her vision was correct, Usagi was in huge danger. Rei didn’t think twice, standing from her kneeling position in front of the fire and sprinting to the front door. A brief glance at the clock before she left showed it was two minutes past six. That meant the phantom bus had probably claimed a new group of victims. Rei prayed it wasn’t too late and ran out to the street. She made it just in time to see the bus pulling away, but determined, Rei continued running after it, her heart almost bursting as she strove to keep up with the vehicle. There was no way she would let another bus disappear if she could do something about it. It was time for the mystery to be solved once and for all, for her grandfather’s sake. “I have to catch that bus!” she panted. “Please, don’t let it disappear!” Much to her surprise, instead of speeding up as it had done the last time, the bus began to slow down as if to let her on board. Rei stopped running and stared into the front window, stunned. Behind the wheel, a man with short blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes smiled fiendishly at her. The driver was the man she had just seen in her vision. With a loud screech, the bus came to a halting stop and the doors swung open, inviting her to come on board. Though her brain said it probably wasn’t a good idea, her legs thought differently. Rei felt her sandal-clad feet move toward the bus, almost as if they were under some kind of spell, and no matter what she did, she couldn’t make them stop. “Come on board, pretty girl,” the driver said, reaching out to her. “This bus is headed to our castle.” Rei stumbled up the bus steps, confused. “Castle? What castle? Where are you taking me?” “To another dimension, my dear. You and all these other energy-filled school girls.” With a grand sweep of his arm, he motioned toward the bus’s other passengers, and Rei gasped. There must have been at least twenty or thirty other girls on board, all unconscious and sprawled across the seats. Some she even recognized, including a beautiful green-haired girl who sat near the front, her head resting against a pane of glass. “Tanaka-san!” Rei cried out. The kidnapper chuckled. “Good, I see you have friends on this bus,” he said, reaching out to her once again as negative power formed in the palm of his hand. “You’ll have company in death then. Why don’t you join them now?” A blast of energy came toward her, and though she tried to ward it off, it was too late. Rei collapsed into the man’s arms, too weak to continue standing, and the last thing she remembered was him carrying her to an empty seat before everything went black. ***** “It’s almost six o’clock, Luna,” Usagi said, flipping open the new communicator on her wrist to check the time with a sigh. They had been loitering around the Hikawa shrine for the past thirty minutes or so trying to find clues about the kidnappings with little success, and she was ready to leave. “Maybe we should call it a day.” It appeared their investigation so far had been a complete waste of time. Usagi had been hoping to have the chance to talk to the mysterious miko again, but ever since the ugly scene with Mrs. Akiyama and the other parents, Rei was nowhere to be found -- not that she really blamed her. After what had happened, Usagi didn’t fault her for being unsocial. However, it didn’t help them get any closer to finding out who was behind the kidnappings. “Maybe you’re right,” the black cat said, though she didn’t sound too thrilled with the prospect. “It doesn’t look like Rei-chan will be coming out of the shrine any time soon. I suppose we’ll just have to come back tomorrow and see if she’s more willing to talk.” Pursing her lips together, Usagi gathered her pet in her arms as she started back down the stairway. “I don’t think Rei-chan will be willing to talk to us at all about the kidnappings, Luna. She’s really defensive about the whole thing, and who can blame her? Almost everybody thinks her family has something to do with the missing girls.” “Maybe they do.” “You don’t really believe that, do you?” The cat shrugged. “You were the one who suggested Rei-chan might be working for the enemy in the first place, Usagi-chan.” “I know, I know,” Usagi replied, blushing faintly. She was still a little ashamed about that. “But I know in my heart Rei-chan is a good person.” Luna smiled mysteriously. “I do, too…” “What’s that supposed to mean?” Usagi asked. “Oh, nothing. Just a feeling I get,” Luna said quickly. A little too quickly, Usagi thought, but before she could get Luna to let the cat out of the bag, in a manner of speaking, they saw a bus approach the shrine and pick up some passengers. “Hey, doesn’t the phantom bus always come at six?” Usagi asked, watching a green-haired girl wearing the same school uniform Rei wore the day before climb on board. Luna nodded, and Usagi could tell the black cat was having the same exact thought as she was. “Yes, it does, unless the enemy has decided has suddenly decided to change their strategy. This day may not be a waste after all. Let’s follow it and see where it goes.” Running down the rest of the steps, and miraculously not tripping even once, Usagi headed toward the end of the street, ahead of the loading area. She knew once the bus started moving again, it would be difficult to keep up with it, so she wanted to be in a prime position to attack. A voice at the back of her mind was again telling her she was starting to think like a real senshi, but Usagi ignored it. There would be plenty of time to bemoan her destiny later. She had to make sure those girl were alright. “Usagi-chan, look at the bus!” Luna ordered. “Something’s wrong. The lights are flashing red instead of showing the destination.” Usagi whipped her head around just in time to see the bus pass them by. She wasn’t able to see much, as it had begun to speed, but she did catch a look into one of the back windows. A girl with raven black hair had been leaning against the glass pane, her eyes, which Usagi knew were a deep purple, closed as if she were asleep, and the blonde gasped in recognition. “Rei-chan! Rei-chan is on that bus!” she exclaimed. “We have to help her, Luna!” Usagi began hopelessly running after the bus, her guardian cat following right on her heels. It was going too fast to catch up, but she couldn’t leave, knowing Rei was in danger. Her legs pumped as fast as they could as she tried to come up with some kind of plan. “Come on, Usagi, think!” she muttered to herself. The bus gained even more speed as an ominous black portal appeared before it. Usagi skidded to a stop, realizing it was no use to keep running, and watched in horror as the bus began to slowly disappear into the swirling mass of nothingness. There was no doubt about it; it was the same bus behind the rest of the disappearances. But what could she do to save Rei and the other girls who where undoubtedly also on board? She had to do something. In a burst of sudden inspiration, she pulled out the Luna Pen and tossed it into the air. “Moon Power! Transform me into a stewardess!” Usagi yelled. A blinding burst of light covered her body, and when it disappeared, her trademark blonde pigtails had been shortened to only two odango and her clothes had been exchanged for a sexy, black stewardess’s uniform complete with a cute matching hat and high heels. “Usagi-chan?” Luna panted as they once again took after the bus, this time aided by magic, which increased Usagi‘s speed even in her high heels. “Why a stewardess?” “Because protecting the passengers is my mission,” Usagi answered, grabbing onto the back of the bus and hanging on for dear life. “Besides, don’t I look cute?” Luna rolled her eyes and managed to grab onto one of Usagi’s legs just as the rest of the bus was about to pass through the portal. Unfortunately, being a cat, she couldn’t hold on for very long without scratching her mistress with her claws. When the bus hit a small bump, Luna lost her grip and fell. “Luna!” Usagi yelled, looking back when she noticed the weight missing from her legs. “Luna, where are you?” She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw her guardian cat had been saved from a potentially dangerous fall by the masked man in a tuxedo chasing after the bus as fast as he could. Usagi didn’t know when Tuxedo Kamen had appeared, or even how he knew she was in danger, but she was glad he had come. “Arigatou, Tuxedo Kamen-sama!” she called out, reaching for the hand he held out to her. “Grab on! Quick! The bus is disappearing.” Tuxedo Kamen stretched out his hand until their fingertips nearly touched, but it was too late. The second she felt the fabric of his white glove brush against her skin, the rest of the bus disappeared into the portal. Tuxedo Kamen, along with Luna, faded from her sight into the darkness. She was all alone… Usagi tried not to cry, but it was hard not to be scared when she was hanging onto the back of a bus as it sped through some kind of strange dimension. It was so dark and cold, like something out of a nightmare. She bit down hard on her bottom lip and tried not to think about where the bus might be heading, fearing what might await her when they reached their destination. Usagi had never fought by herself before. Luna, Tuxedo Kamen, or Ami had always been with her during the other battles, and the thought of having to depend on her own skills as a senshi, which by her own admission were mediocre at best, was more frightening than even being caught outside in a thunderstorm. At least then she knew the probability of being struck by lightning was like one in a million, but if she had to fight another one of those ugly creatures without assistance, the odds were strongly against her. “What am I going to do?” she whimpered, tightening her grip. “I wish somebody was here with me…” The bus eventually came to a stop, but the landing was rough, and Usagi was violently thrown off, unable to keep her grip. For a moment when she hit the ground, she was dazed, unsure of what happened. Then she sat up and realized she was in front of a large stone castle, looming in front of her like a set from a horror movie. The bus was no where in sight. “Where’s the bus? Where’s Rei-chan?” she asked aloud, stumbling to her feet. “I have to find them, but without the others…” Usagi tried to regain her composure, wiping away the tears that threatened to fall. This was no time to be crying, not when Rei and the other girls were in danger. She was Sailor Moon, the soldier of justice, and it was time she started acting like it. They needed her. She was their only hope. Remembering Luna had fixed the watches she had won at Crown into communication devices, Usagi pressed the button that contacted Ami, hoping Luna had gone to tell her what had happened. It was a long shot, and she knew the signal might not even reach them if she was stuck in some kind of alternate dimension, but she prayed it would. “Come in, Luna! Ami-chan! Can you hear me?” Much to her relief, Luna answered her. Never had she been so glad to hear that cat’s voice in her life. “Usagi-chan, is that you?” she asked. “Where are you?” “I’m not sure, Luna. After going through the hole, I found myself in front of this creepy castle, and I don’t see the bus anywhere.” Usagi sniffled, looking around the vicinity. “Nobody else is around. What should I do? I‘m so scared…” “Usagi-chan, you need to transform. Those girls are counting on you. You have to save them.” “Right.” The answer was so obvious, Usagi wanted to kick herself for not thinking about transforming sooner. She reached for the brooch pinned in the center of her bow on her uniform and called out “Moon Prism Power, Make-up”, causing her to again be bathed by blinding light as she transformed. Once the transformation was complete, she was dressed in the fuku of her alter ego, Sailor Moon. Another sailor-suited girl appeared soon after, clad in the contrasting blues of pure water. “Ami-chan!” Usagi exclaimed, ecstatic when she saw her ally. She ran over and enveloped the girl known as Sailor Mercury into a tight hug that almost cut off her circulation. “Boy, am I glad to see you! How did you get here? I thought I would have to do this all by myself. I was so scared, Ami-chan!” “Luna managed to transport me here using my transformation power,” Ami explained, giving Usagi a small smile. “You know we wouldn’t let you fight alone unless it was impossible for us to be with you. We‘re a team. Now, tell me what happened. Luna was only able to give me a short explanation before you called.” Quickly, Usagi filled her in on what had happened up to the point when she fell off the bus. Ami, too, thought it was strange that the bus had simply disappeared and began analyzing the area. “They couldn’t have vanished. The laws of physics say matter cannot be created or destroyed, only changed into other forms, so the bus has to be around here somewhere if you are certain it landed in this dimension. Unless…” “Unless what?” Usagi asked, almost afraid to hear the answer. She barely understood the question as it was. Ami frowned, looking up at the castle. “Unless the bus was transformed into this fortress. I haven‘t had much experience with magic, but if our enemy is as strong as Luna says, then I suppose it could be possible.” “If you’re right, then the girls and our enemy must be inside!” Usagi said. “Let’s go check it out.” Ami nodded. “Right.” The two headed inside the castle, the sound of their boots clicking against the marble floor and echoing softly throughout the vacant halls. At first, it appeared Ami’s theory was incorrect. All the opened rooms they passed were empty, and there was not a victim or youma in sight. Usagi didn’t know whether she should be worried or relieved at their absence. But then a deep voice reached their ears, sending chills along their skin. “Do you hear that, Ami-chan?” Usagi asked, reflexively grabbing her friend’s arm. The blue-haired girl nodded as she came to an abrupt stop and motioned Usagi to do the same. Ami placed a finger to her lip, signaling silence, before cupping her ear in order to better hear what was being said. “So beautiful,” the voice said. The words were spoken softly, like the sweet nothings of a lover, but the acoustics inside the stone palace amplified the man’s voice so they could be easily understood if one paid close attention. “I’ve wanted her since the first time I saw her. This girl…” “I think it’s coming from that room,” Ami whispered, pointing in the direction of an open archway. “Let’s go. The missing girls are probably being kept in there.” Following Ami’s lead, Usagi tiptoed behind the girl genius to the entrance of the room. “Hehe, I feel like a spy,” she said, careful not to speak too loud. However, she couldn’t hold back a tiny snicker as she remembered the James Bond movie she and her little brother Shingo had watched a few nights previously. “I’m Moon -- Sailor Moon. Hey, maybe I should use that for my introduction this time instead of the usual speech…” “Usagi-chan, be quiet. He’ll hear us,” Ami scolded. There was the faint trace of a smile on her lips, though. “Oops, sorry!” When they finally made it to the room, the girls popped their heads inside, one on either side of the archway. As Ami suspected, the floor of the spacious room was practically an ocean of bodies, all unconscious and seemingly drained of their energy. In the very center of the room was a blond man dressed in a gray uniform, his back turned toward them as he gently caressed a girl’s face. His chosen victim wore the familiar robes of a Shinto miko, and Usagi gasped as she recognized the girl, realizing too late that she had unintentionally given away their presence. “So, you’ve finally come, Sailor Moon,” the man known to her as Jadeite said, turning around. “I’ve been waiting for you.” ***** Rei didn’t know how long she had been unconscious. One minute, she had been in the imposter bus driver’s arms as he carried her to an empty seat, and the next minute, she was caught in a headlock by that same man, no longer on the bus, but in a castle that looked like something right out of a gothic novel. Everything that happened in between was a complete blank -- though she seemed to faintly recall a gloved finger tracing her cheek and a hauntingly familiar voice speaking to her right before she awakened… But now was not the time to think about that. The man’s hold was slowly choking her, making it increasingly difficult to breathe, and Rei gasped for air, struggling to escape from his iron grip. She tried to recall some of the self-defense moves her grandfather had taught her, but the lack of oxygen impaired her memory. Everything was so fuzzy and unclear. She could barely make sense of what was going on around her, much less figure out how to get free. “Let go of Rei-chan!” a girl’s high-pitched voice called out. “I won’t allow you to imprison these innocent people here. In the name of the moon, I will punish you!” Rei managed to look up when she heard the voice, struck by the familiarity of it. She had heard it somewhere before, but where, she could not remember. She just barely made out its owner, a blonde girl with strange pigtails dressed in a scandalously short sailor outfit and a mask, before everything was covered in a thick fog, cold as ice. Another voice, one unfamiliar to her, called out, “Usagi-chan, save Rei-chan while the fog lasts!” Usagi? The girl was Tsukino Usagi, the ditzy blonde she had met the day before? What was she doing there and why in the world was she wearing such a ridiculous costume? Rei didn’t have much time to ponder her questions. The man who held her captive tightened his clutch around her throat as he used his free hand to send out a blast of energy. “How cute,” Jadeite laughed drolly. Usagi and the other girl, also wearing a sailor fuku, were shocked when the fog around them crystallized into tiny ice crystals and fell to the ground. “He’s using the fog,” Usagi said, speaking into her watch as tears formed in her eyes. “He’s freezing them into tiny pieces of ice. It won’t help. What should we do, Luna?” “Don’t cry, Usagi-chan!” someone, presumably Luna, ordered. “If you cry, you’ll make your supersonic waves come again. It’ll cause a disturbance, destabilizing the other dimension, and you won’t be able to save everyone. Use your Moon Frisbee!” Usagi wiped away her tears and nodded. “Okay, I’ll try.” In absolute awe of what she was seeing, Rei watched Usagi remove the golden tiara from her forehead and somehow form it into a discus. The girl then released it with a powerful swoosh, shouting “Moon Frisbee!” at the top of her lungs. The Frisbee came flying toward her and her captor, surrounded by a golden light, and Rei tightly closed her eyes, preparing for the pain that would be soon to follow. However, instead of pain, she felt nothing but the cold floor under her hands as the man finally released her and pushed her aside. The man -- for some reason, she wanted to call him Jadeite -- had managed to stop the attack, catching the tiara as if he truly was playing a game of Frisbee. “Hey, this is fun,” he said with a cackle, examining the tiara he held in his hand. “What is this? Some kind of little toy? I’m rather disappointed. If you want to defeat me, Sailor Moon, you are going to need a much better weapon than this junkyard reject.” “That’s what you think,” the voice from Usagi’s watch said. “We’ve got you.” The Frisbee in Jadeite’s hand suddenly expanded and trapped him, wrapping around his arms and torso so he couldn’t move. An icy glare flashed in his eyes, angry at being bested, and although his arms were useless, he was still able to send the two senshi flying through the air, causing both to hit the ground with a thud. Alarmed, Rei stumbled to her feet, knowing she needed to do something, but unsure of what. Perhaps one of her ofuda scrolls would work… The mysterious voice of Luna again came from Usagi’s watch as Rei reached inside her robe for one of her wards. “Ami-chan, use the pen I gave you,” she said urgently. “It’s our only hope! Everything’s riding on it!” The blue-haired senshi pulled out a red stick from a subspace pocket, looking unsure of what to do with it. With a shrug, she finally decided to simply throw it in the air. Rei paused, wondering what she was doing, and both of the other girls gasped. It was then when Rei noticed something was burning on her forehead -- the brand of the astrological sign of Mars. The pen Ami threw began glowing brightly, and before Rei could understand exactly what was happening, her robes had disappeared and her body was being consumed by rapturous fire. ***** Meanwhile, back at Hikawa, Saburo arrived home after completing his errands, only to find the police combing through the shrine grounds. It didn’t take long for him to figure out another bus had disappeared while he was gone, and his heart fell. Not again. “Kondo-sama, we’d like to ask you some questions, if you don‘t mind,” a detective in plainclothes said, flashing his badge as he blocked Saburo‘s path. He was a burly man named Takahashi, the main detective in charge of the missing bus case, and they had spoken before on several occasions since the kidnappings began. “There’s been another kidnapping.” Shifting his heavy grocery bag to his other arm, Saburo nodded. “Yes, of course, Takahashi-san,” he agreed. “I will try to aide the investigation as best I can, but I’m afraid I’ve been gone most of the afternoon. If anyone can give you any information about what happened today, it would be my granddaughter. Have you spoken to Rei-chan, yet?” The detective frowned. “Your granddaughter is not here, Kondo-sama.” “What do you mean?” Saburo asked. “Of course she is. She was supposed to be working in the office this afternoon selling charms and fortunes, as she does every day after school.” “When we arrived, we found the place deserted, sir. The office was closed, and when we knocked on the door to your living quarters, nobody answered. We assumed no one was home.” “Impossible…” the priest muttered, pushing past the detective to enter his house. It wasn’t like him to be so rude, especially to a person in authority, but manners were the farthest thing from his mind at the moment. He had a bad feeling. His granddaughter wasn’t the type to walk out on her responsibilities. Ignoring the detective’s orders not to tamper with the “crime scene”, Saburo ducked underneath the yellow tape placed across the front door and slipped inside. There he found another police officer, this one dressed in uniform, standing in the middle of the living area, writing notes on the legal pad he held in his hand. He also told the priest to go back outside, but Saburo again disregarded his warning and continued to the back of the living quarters, still wearing his sandals and carrying the bag of groceries. The young police officer insisted on following him. “Rei-chan!” he called out, sliding open the door of her empty bedroom. “Rei-chan, where are you?” “S-Sir, you really must leave,” the rookie said. “This is an official criminal investigation by the Keishichou and you are compromising potential evidence.” Sighing, Saburo turned around to face the young man. “Look, I’ll save you the trouble and tell you there is absolutely nothing in this house related to the crimes that have recently taken place,” he said. “Why is the Keishichou even considering Hikawa a crime scene? They have never bothered looking for evidence here before. Do you even have a search warrant?” “We were asked to search the premises by Superintendent Tanaka-san, sir. Apparently, his great-niece is one of the missing girls, and according to the girl’s parents, she and a few of her friends were on their way to visit a miko who works here after school.” The police officer didn’t have to tell Saburo who the superintendent’s great-niece was. Memories of last night’s conversation with Minoru reminded him that Rei was supposed to have apologized to Tanaka Sayo that afternoon in order to avoid assault charges. Things were getting worse by the minute. They didn’t say as much, but Saburo suspected the police, or at least the girl’s powerful family, thought Rei had something to do with the young woman’s disappearance, which would explain why they were searching the living quarters for evidence. He became even more determined to find his granddaughter. “Rei-chan!” Saburo uncharacteristically yelled, resuming his search through the other rooms despite the rookie’s protests. “Rei-chan, this is no time to be playing games! I want you to come out right this minute, young lady, and answer this kind officer’s questions.” “Sir, I’ve told you nobody else is here. You really must--” “Rei-chan!” The last room he checked was the prayer room, hoping against hope that Rei was simply in one of her deep trances and had not heard all the commotion. When his little fire mistress fell into one of her meditative states, sometimes it took nothing less than World War III to wake her out of it. However, when he slid open the paper door and stepped inside, all Saburo saw was the sacred fire burning brightly, untended by the miko. The bag of groceries fell from his arms, and as the old priest dropped to his knees in the doorway, Saburo began to weep, the reality of the situation finally hitting him. Rei was gone, another victim of the phantom bus. ***** Keitaro leaned back in his chair, satisfied with the work he had just completed. It had taken some effort on his part, but he finally managed to come up with a suitable compromise to a hotly debated bill in the Assembly. He was fairly certain it would pass with only minimal opposition this time and was glad that he had finished with it before leaving the office. With his work completed and some rare free time on his hands before his final meeting of the day, Keitaro set aside the revised bill and turned around to face out the window. It was an end to yet another beautiful Tokyo day, with the sky a canvas colored with rich hues of blues, purples, and reds as the sun dipped into the horizon, but Keitaro could not bring himself to enjoy it. Earlier that morning, he had received a full report on the mass kidnappings taking place in Sendaizakaue. The police still had no leads, and it was beginning to look as if they might never find the missing children. Keitaro was at a loss as to what was happening. To think that so many people could simply disappear without a trace... Suddenly, the door to his office burst open, breaking him from his thoughts. Startled, Keitaro turned back around to see Miss Katsuki blocking the doorway with her body, her cheeks red from frustration. "I tried to stop him, Hino-sama, I really did, but he wouldn't--" "Out of my way!" roared an all-too-familiar voice as Tanaka roughly pulled the secretary away from the door and strode into the office, eyes blazing. The door slammed shut behind him. "You're done for it this time, Hino!" Unsure of what was going on, Keitaro rose from his chair and met the irate politician's gaze. "Tanaka-san, I don't know why you are here, but if you must see me, I would appreciate it if you treat my employees with at least a modicum of respect. There was no need for you to--" "She's fine," Tanaka insisted. "You, on the other hand, I'm not so sure about." "What is it this time?" Keitaro asked, not even trying to act polite toward his rival as he resumed his seat. Two visits in just as many days by Tanaka Yoshiyuki was enough to irritate even the most patient of people. "Yesterday, you come in here, threatening to have my daughter arrested and to ruin my career, and now you visit me again with even more threats? To what do I owe this pleasure?" "You mean you haven't heard?" "Heard what?" "This," Tanaka said, reaching for the remote sitting on his desk. "It's all over the news channels." His rival pointed the control at the television set sitting on one of the office's built-in shelves and clicked to one of the cable news stations. On the screen, a distinguished, older gentleman was sitting behind the news desk, reading from the sheet of paper in front of him, and a headline of "Kidnapped Kids" was displayed prominantly in the corner. Keitaro's eyes widened slightly as he turned his attention to the report. "Turn up the volume," he ordered Tanaka, who, for once, willingly obliged. "--disappeared at approximately 6:00 this evening," the reporter droned as his voice became more audible. "Although it has yet to be either confirmed or denied by Superintendent Tanaka-san, preliminary reports seem to show that among the missing is the superintendent's great-niece, fourteen-year-old Tanaka Sayo-san, who was to visit the Hikawa shrine sometime around the time of the kidnapping with friends. Tanaka-san is also the granddaughter of prolific politician and former gubernatorial candidate Tanaka Yoshiyuki-sama. We are expected to know more--" "See?" Tanaka bellowed, blocking the reporter's voice as he violently pointed toward the television set. "My granddaughter is missing, and this is all your family's fault!" Keitaro held up a finger, signaling his rival to quiet as he listened to more of the report. A sinking feeling was already settling in the pit of his stomach. Not again... "Oh, we have some more breaking news concerning the Sendaizakaue bus disappearances. Channel 44 has just learned that also among the missing is the daughter of Governor Hino Keitaro-sama. Fourteen-year-old Hino Rei-san is a miko at the nearby Hikawa shrine, which is owned by her grandfather and legal guardian, Kondo Saburo-sama. At this time, it is unclear if Hino-san was a passenger on the bus that disappeared a little over an hour ago in Sendaizakaue, but the police are investigating the possibility." "Rei-san?" Keitaro breathed, unsure if he had heard the reporter correctly. Turning off the TV with a click of the remote, Tanaka huffed. "Well, what do you know? Your daughter's gone missing, too," he said, not sympathetic in the least. "I would bet good money that Hino-san decided to leave on her own free will, knowing it was only a matter of time before the police learned the truth behind the kidnappings. Funny, I wouldn't have pegged her as the kidnapping type, but considering what happened between Hino-san and Sayo-san yesterday morning at the Academy, I wouldn't put anything past that freaky witch daughter of yours. I always thought there was something strange about her." "Tanaka-san, you don't honestly believe a teenage girl is somehow involved in these kidnappings?" Keitaro asked in disbelief of what the man was suggesting. "Listen, I know you are upset about your granddaughter's disappearance, and I am terribly sorry you are going through this, but to insinuate that Rei-san is behind all this..." "Is completely reasonable," Tanaka said, abruptly cutting him off. The portly man placed his hands on the surface of Keitaro's desk and glared threateningly. "And if my suspicions do happen to be correct, then I assure you, your daughter *will* be prosecuted to the furthest extent of the law." "Get out, Tanaka-san," Keitaro ordered, his face calm and impassive even as he felt his blood boil with anger. "Leave now, or I will be forced to call security." Tanaka scoffed but finally relented. "Fine, I'll leave, but if your family has anything to do with what happened to my granddaughter, this will certainly not be the last time you see me. I will destroy you, Hino; I swear to you I will!" With that threat, Tanaka stormed out of the office, slamming the door close behind him. The force of the slam was so hard, it rattled the glass covering a nearby picture, the only one that hung upon the walls, and caused the frame to slip from its hook. As the glass shattered upon impact with the floor, Keitaro walked over to clean up the mess, his anger turning to sadness as he took the picture in his hands. It was the family portrait he usually kept in his home study but had decided to hang in his office a couple of days after Rei had called nearly a year ago to ask him about Kaidou's engagement. Keitaro wasn't sure why he had did it, but he wished he had kept it in its secret drawer, for staring at the photograph after the news he had just received was almost too much for him. "Rei-san..." he whispered, hugging the picture to his chest. "Please be safe." ***** Rei could scarcely believe what was happening to her. Her entire body was covered in flames, but strangely enough, she felt no pain. Ironically, though she knew she should have been dead, charred beyond all recognition from the raging inferno surrounding her, Rei never felt more alive. It was the same ecstatic feeling she felt before, when she was doing the fire reading. Her heart was burning and her blood had become lava, coursing through her veins. She didn’t want it to stop. But then suddenly the fire disappeared and Rei glanced down at her body, surprised when she discovered she was unharmed and amazed when she saw what she was wearing -- a red and purple sailor suit, almost identical to the ones Usagi and Ami wore. What was going on? What had happened to her? Above her, the familiar caw of two black crows circling above her head broke Rei out of her stupor. She should have been surprised to see Phobos and Deimos in the strange dimension, but she wasn’t. They were supposed to be there, her faithful guardians who always protected her. “Phobos! Deimos!” Rei called. “Get him!” The birds, following their mistress’s orders, attacked the man trapped inside Usagi’s tiara. Had the situation not have been so serious, Jadeite’s high-pitched screams and curses as Deimos pulled at his hair might have been funny, but Rei felt no pity toward him. Instinctively, Rei formed a ball of fire in her hands and sent it toward the enemy. “AKURYO TAISAN!” she shouted. The fire completely consumed Jadeite, his body writhing horrifically in pain as the flames melted his skin away. After a few minutes, there was nothing left but his charred remains. Unfortunately, her attack must have caused a disturbance in the fabric of the alternate dimension, for a small tremor started to shake the ground. Luna quickly told them to gather all the other victims and somehow, the three sailor-suited girls managed to teleport them out of there, though Rei had absolutely no idea how. They all arrived safely back at the bus stop in front of Hikawa, the victims still unconscious, but otherwise fine. “Okay, what just happened?” Rei demanded to know once she regained some of her bearings. She stared at her gloved hands in confusion, remembering how she formed the ball of fire and defeated the evil man. Had she really done what she thought she had done? “These clothes…that power?” “Rei-chan, you are a soldier under the protection of the planet Mars,” a voice said. “You fight with the power of fire.” Rei glanced around, searching for the owner of the voice, but found nobody else around -- who was conscious, anyway -- except for Usagi and Ami. “Who said that?” she asked. “I did,” Luna said, jumping into her mistress’s arms. “I’m Luna, the guardian cat of Sailor Moon and the other senshi. It’s nice to finally meet you, Sailor Mars. We‘re so happy we‘ve found you.” Rei didn’t even blink, the sight of a talking black cat not disturbing her at all. Considering what had just happened, if she could produce fireballs with her hands and help teleport over a hundred people home from another dimension, then why wouldn‘t a cat be able to talk? It made perfect sense, in some weird, fantasy world way. “Me, a senshi? Sailor Mars?” she breathed, the news beginning to sink in. Usagi smiled brightly. “Yeah, you’re our ally, Rei-chan!” she said. “This is so cool. Now there are three of us.” “We’ve been looking for ally soldiers like you,” Ami explained. “We’re the soldiers of justice, sworn to protect this world from the enemy and to find our princess and her crystal.” It was all a little too much for Rei to understand at the moment. Princess? A crystal? The enemy? It sounded like a storyline right out of a magical girl manga, but she couldn’t deny it was real. She had felt the power in her very hands. They had to be telling the truth. “I’m Sailor Mars?” Rei repeated, again inspecting her new form. “Then the reason I have powers different from other people…is because I’m a senshi? This is all so strange.” “You’ll understand in time, Rei-chan,” Luna assured her. “For now, you three better transform back. These girls will be waking up soon, and some of them might need medical attention.” The three senshi nodded and in a flash of light, transformed back to their normal forms, Rei in her miko’s robes and Usagi and Ami in their school uniforms. The blue-haired girl then volunteered to call the ambulance while Usagi and Rei attended to the victims who were slowly regaining consciousness. Most of the girls were physically fine, thankfully. There were a few from the first batch of kidnapped girls who would probably need to go to the hospital to be treated for exhaustion, but the rest were remarkably healthy considering, up and walking around within minutes of waking up. Rei was especially glad when she saw Mii and Taiyouko were okay, giving each girl a huge hug and telling them how happy their parents would be to have them home. Their biggest problem was trying to explain to the confused victims exactly what happened. After about the ninth or tenth time of hearing “What in the world happened to us?”, Rei, Usagi, and Ami, who had come back over to help after calling for the ambulance, decided they would pass themselves off as fellow victims and told the girls the closest thing to the truth they could manage: they had been kidnapped by an evil man from another world but were saved by three girls in sailor suits. The younger girls accepted the story as the truth without question, already familiar with the exploits of the mysterious Sailor V, but some of the older girls didn’t seem quite as convinced. Still, since nobody else offered any better theories, most just decided to let the subject go and forget about it. The important thing was that they were safe, so who cared what really happened? Even Tanaka Sayo seemed to be willing to forget her previous accusations against Rei and her grandfather. The green-haired girl and her groupies were among some of the last victims to regain consciousness, since they were the last to be put under Jadeite’s spell, and when they did, Rei insisted on dealing with them herself, telling Usagi and Ami they were classmates of hers at the Academy. “Are you okay, Tanaka-san?” Rei asked softly, kneeling beside her awakening rival. There was no trace of harshness in her voice, only concern. Despite their history, she still felt bad for the girl, as she did for the others, having to go through such an experience, and she truly did hope she was okay. “Hino-san? Is that you?” Blue eyes blinked as Sayo tried to focus. “Where am I? What happened?” “The bus was attacked,” Rei answered, reciting the cover story she and her new allies had told the others. “I know it sounds crazy, but the bus driver was some kind of monster from another world and he took us to another dimension. We were finally rescued by some girls in sailor suits.” “Us?” Sayo groaned, struggling to sit up despite her dizziness. “Correct me if I’m wrong, Hino, but didn’t we leave you at the shrine? I don’t remember you being on the bus.” Luckily, Rei had been prepared for that very question. With the others, it had been easy to say she had been on another bus than the one they had ridden, but Sayo and her clique knew better. Rei simply decided to tell her the truth. “I came on board after your bus had been attacked. You were already unconscious.” “But why? Certainly with your weirdo powers, you must have known it was dangerous, if what you say is true.” “Because I wanted to prove to you and everybody else that ojii-san had nothing to do with the kidnappings,” Rei said. Her hands involuntarily clenched the fabric of her robes at the memory of what Sayo had said that day at school, and she lowered her gaze. “He was innocent, and I thought if I could somehow stop the kidnapper from taking another batch of victims, I would be able to clear his name. It was stupid, I know, but I had to try!” Much to Rei’s surprise, when she finally looked back up, Sayo was staring at her not in contempt, but in actual admiration. Or at least, what Rei thought was admiration. It was hard to tell when she had never seen that kind of expression on Sayo’s face. “You mean you were willing to risk your life just to salvage your grandfather’s reputation?” Sayo asked in disbelief. Rei nodded, a small smile crossing her lips. “Of course. He‘s very important to me, and I know he would do the same for me if I ever was in a bad situation.” Sayo frowned, staring off into the distance with what could only be described as sadness in her dark blue eyes. “It must be nice, having somebody to care about you that much,” she murmured. “My ojii-sama only cares about me when it is convenient to him. Oh, sure, when he heard about the incident between me and you, he was all ’poor baby’ and ’I’ll make that mean girl pay for hurting you’, but then I found out all he wanted was to get revenge on Hino-sama. He didn’t even want me to give you the chance to apologize so he could go on and continue with his plans when you didn‘t. In fact, until the other girls decided to tag along with me, I had been planning to tell ojii-sama you had apologized, even if you hadn‘t, just to get back at him for using me in his silly political games.” Dumbfounded, Rei didn’t know what to say. Was it possible that Sayo really did have a heart somewhere underneath her nasty exterior? Perhaps it had only been her grandfather’s influence that caused Sayo to be so mean toward her. “I’m sorry, Tanaka-san,” Rei finally said, offering a hand to help Sayo stand back up. “Here, let me help.” Once on her feet, the green-haired haired girl shook her head and smiled sadly. “That’s okay, Hino-san. You don’t have to apologize,” Sayo said. “I should be the one apologizing to you for what I said about your grandfather yesterday. It was unacceptable. I really shouldn’t listen to ojii-sama when he talks about your family. He was the one who suggested… Well, he was the person who put that idea in my head. I’m very sorry for what I said, and I hope you can forgive me.” Sayo bowed deeply, and it was all Rei could do from stopping herself from pinching herself in the arm. Surely, this was all a dream. First, she found out she was some kind of magical girl and now her long-time rival was actually apologizing to her? It was unbelievable. “H-Hai, I forgive you, Tanaka-san,” Rei managed to stutter, still somewhat in shock. Sayo stood back upright, wearing the usual haughty expression that Rei knew well. “Arigatou,” she said, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “But don’t think just because I apologized, we’re going to become all buddy-buddy now. I still think you’re a freak.” Ah, there was the Tanaka Sayo she knew and well... could understand. Recognizing the familar challenge, Rei echoed her sentiments, although without the usual animosity. “And I still think you’re a snob.” “Good. So we understand each other, then, right?” “Right.” By that time, the rest of Sayo’s clique had recovered from their ordeal and were clamoring around their leader, fussing over her and asking what happened. Rei took that as her cue to leave and walked over to where Usagi, Luna, and Ami were standing. “Are your friends okay, Rei-chan?” the kind-hearted blue-haired girl Rei now knew to be Mizuno Ami asked when she came over. Rei nodded and looked up at the moonlit sky. It was getting rather late. They must have been trapped in that dimension for longer than she thought. “They’re fine,” she said distractedly. “That’s good,” Usagi said, craning her neck up to the sky as well. “Pretty sky tonight, isn’t it? Hey, what are you looking for, Rei-chan? A constellation?” “Flying pigs.” Ami and Usagi looked at each other, then at the miko staring at the stars. “What?” they exclaimed in unison. Giggling, Rei shrugged her shoulders and petted the talking cat in Usagi’s arms. One out of two wasn’t that bad, she supposed, remembering what she had said the night before. “Oh, nothing. I guess you just had to be there…” ***** The sound of the telephone ringing faintly in the background sometime later finally brought Saburo back to his senses. He wasn't certain how long he had been crying, but he noticed that the police had finally left, apparently deciding there was nothing more they could do without more evidence. Wiping the sleeve of his robe across his watery eyes, Saburo headed toward the phone in the living area and attempted to pull himself together. "Moshi moshi, Kondo Saburo speaking," he said, his voice slightly wavering as he brought the receiver to his ear. "Who is this?" "Kondo-sama, this is Rei-san's father," the caller answered. "I heard about what happened." "Oh, Hino-sama." Saburo closed his eyes and silently berated himself for not thinking to call Keitaro sooner. Despite Saburo's personal opinions of the way he treated Rei, Keitaro hadn't deserved to learn of his daughter's disappearance from the news or the police. He should have been the one to deliver the news. "Is it true?" Keitaro asked. "I heard about it on Channel 44. They've been covering the latest kidnapping, and one of the reports--" "Hai, it's true," Saburo quickly answered, not wanting to hear the rest of the sentence in fear he would break down again. He deeply exhaled before continuing. "Rei-chan... Rei-chan is gone. I don't know where she is." There was a moment of silence as both men let the news sink in, the act of actually saying the words aloud making it suddenly all the more real. Saburo could barely remain standing, the urge to fall to his knees and weep once more almost overwhelming. Somehow, though, he managed to keep his composure as Keitaro finally found his voice again. "What happened? Was she on the bus? Was she forcibly taken from Hikawa? The reports are so vague. All they are saying is that she is missing." "I'm sorry, Hino-sama," Saburo apologized, wishing there was something more he could tell his son-in-law. "Nobody knows anything. I wasn't here when it happened, although now I wish I had been..." "Don't blame yourself, Kondo-sama. It wasn't your fault. I know you would never intentionally put Rei-san in danger." Saburo wished it was that simple, but the fact remained that he did partially blame himself for Rei's disappearance. He never should have left Rei alone at the shrine, especially when he was aware of the weird things that had been occuring in the area near their home. What had he been thing? "I'm sorry," he whispered again, realizing how pathetic those words must sound considering the circumstances. On the other end of the line, there was a barely audible sigh. "It's okay, Kondo-sama," Keitaro said softly with about as much tenderness as Saburo had ever heard in the governor's voice. It was faint, but there if he listened closely enough. "We'll find her. The Keishichou are working overtime on the case, and we've added another search party to the group looking for the girls. Everybody is doing the best they can to bring those children home where they belong." "Thank you." After that, there really wasn't much more to say, so the two of them awkwardly said their goodbyes. Then, once he had hung up the phone, Saburo went back to the prayer room and did the only thing he could do in that kind of situation. He prayed. Time seemed to lose all meaning to the Shinto priest as he sat in front of the sacred fire and chanted, the familiar heat wrapping around him yet never quite warming him up. He felt cold, so very cold. Not even the comfort of the flames could chase away the shivering fear that had come over him. He couldn’t lose Rei. His precious granddaughter was all he had left in the world. It was her alone who allowed him to live again after losing his wife and daughter, and to lose her as well would be unbearable. Surely life would not be so cruel as to take away his little Rei-chan, the one person he lived for, as well. “Please tell me where my granddaughter is,” he prayed to the cackling fire in front of him. “Please show me. Show me she is safe.” It took a few moments, but the dancing fire eventually began to respond to his prayers. However, the vision he saw was not what he had expected. First, he saw the shrine. Phobos and Deimos were being mischievous as usual, swooping in the air as black feathers fluttered in the air like raven snow. They seemed agitated by something. By what, he could not see, but Saburo understood it to be his granddaughter’s disappearance. The crows were very protective of Rei, and he had noticed when he came home that evening they had been acting strangely, although the meaning of their behavior had not become clear to him until now. The two in the vision continued flying erratically in the air for a few minutes until they quite suddenly disappeared in a bright red light. Then the vision changed. The fire grew dimmer, matching the rather gloomy scene it was showing him. It appeared he was seeing the inside of some kind of large room, but the darkness made it difficult to know for sure. All he could really make out was the outline of bodies on the ground and a small group of people standing in the center. Three of the silhouettes looked to be a trio of girls, while their taller companion was most definitely a man. One of the girls managed to form a ball of fire in her hands and threw it toward the man, causing his entire body to erupt in flames. The fire allowed Saburo a quick glance at one of the girls wearing a red-and-purple sailor suit, but before he could identify her face, the vision changed again. The last vision was one he was familiar with, though it had been quite a while since he last received it. The astrological sign of Mars shone a dark red, its glow more intense then ever. Saburo almost had to shield his eyes, it was so bright, but before he could, the vision abruptly vanished. The fire soon settled back down to its normal state. “Ojii-san?” The voice sounded so small and faint, at first, Saburo almost thought he had imagined it. He didn’t dare to get his hopes up. Still, he felt his heart involuntarily give a little leap of joy and tears filled his dark eyes as he slowly turned away from the fire to the entrance of the room. There, standing in the doorway, was a beautiful raven-haired miko, her pink lips curled into the tiniest of smiles. “Rei-chan?” he breathed, almost afraid to say her name aloud in fear the vision would disappear. “Rei-chan, is that really you?” The vision nodded and her smile brightened as she stepped forward into the room and kneeled down beside him. Taking his shaking hand, she brought it to her cheek as if to prove she was really alive and not some ghost. Her soft skin felt wonderfully warm. “Yes, ojii-san, it’s me,” she whispered. “I’m home.” “Thank the kami-sama!” Saburo threw his arms around his granddaughter and drew her close, rivers of tears streaming down the crevices of his wrinkled face. Words alone could not express the relief and joy he felt to hold Rei in his arms again when he feared he might never would. He rocked her back and forth as one would a baby, murmuring half-coherent prayers of thanks, and gently stroked her hair. “My dear child… I was so afraid I had lost you, Rei-chan,” he said. “When I came home, the police were here, and you were gone. They said there had been another bus disappearance, so I immediately thought the worse…” “It’s okay, ojii-san. It‘s over now.” She hugged him tighter, as if wanting to reassure him that this would never happen again. “The nightmare is over, and your name has finally been cleared. I’m safe, and so are all the other girls. There won’t be anymore kidnappings. It’s over now. I promise.” “But how? Who was behind the bus disappearances?” Saburo asked, finally disengaging himself from their embrace. “Did the police capture the perpetrator?” Rei shook her head, her eyes focused on the ash-covered hardboard floor beneath her almost as if she was afraid to look at him. “He’s dead, ojii-san.” “Dead?” Saburo repeated, again pulling her close. “Oh, Rei-chan, you didn’t see…?” “He was killed during our rescue, burned to death.” Her voice betrayed no emotion at all as Rei looked over his shoulder at the sacred fire, but Saburo could feel her body tense in his arms. She wasn’t telling him something; he could feel it. “Rei-chan, what is it?” he asked softly, rubbing his hand in a circular motion down her back. “You know you can tell me anything.” “It’s nothing,” she insisted. “Are you sure?” She nodded, sitting back up. “I’m fine, ojii-san,” she said, taking his two hands in her own. “Really, I am. You don’t have to worry about me.” Saburo chuckled, wondering what had suddenly brought up that subject. “I’m your grandfather, Rei-chan. Of course I’m going to worry about you. It’s my job.” “I know, and I love that about you,” Rei said, bringing one of his hands to her lips to kiss his knuckles. “But try not to worry too much, okay? I can take care of myself.” “Rei-chan…” Before he could respond, Rei was back on her feet. “It’s been a long day,” she said, stretching her arms above her head. “I think I’m going to take a long soak in the tub and then go to bed, if you don’t mind. Oyasumi, ojii-san.” “Oyasumi, Rei-chan.” Saburo sighed as he watched his granddaughter exit the prayer room. Why did he have the feeling that Rei wasn’t telling him the whole story about what had happened? And why did he suspect it had something to do with the visions he had seen in the sacred fire? DISCLAIMER: Sailor Moon is the propery of Takeuchi Naoko.