Down to business

Setsuna (aka Sailor Moon)

Frankly, both Betties would just LOVE to hear what exactly is going on here with that….

I can tell this even as I concentrate on . . .easing my magical seeking of any telltale mystical/magical . . .hells, ANY sign we can use to track down something to differential the myriad of dimensional connections the Hellmouth has to it’s name and give us a clear path.

Yes, yes. The residual mystical radiations that the Master has exposed himself to with his rather ill advised endeavor with his "chronostatic circuit" and his TARDIS (re: 8528) gives me something to work with—what with it having (in theory) a unique "signature"—but this will take a bit of time. IF it will work at all, I should add.

But IF it works we could wrap up this Quest in almost one fell swoop and be DONE with it.

Frankly, that would be a blessing in my book for many reasons but foremost on my mind is that the situation here on the Sunnyvale side of the Hellmouth cannot stay much longer as they are for Snyder outside shall soon enough shall STOP trying to get IN here to yell at us and just report our presence to his master: the Mayor.

. . .

What will happen after THAT is the big question but we (hope) nothing overt shall be tried until nightfall, and then we will be facing vampires trying to break in but with Buffy here guarding . . ..

"AAaaah!" a young woman’s voice shouts, derailing my train of thought (and pretty much ruining my divination efforts).

I had NOT been expecting anything from those quarters!

Yukiko

"This is . . .good," I whisper, looking down at the slice of pizza my sisters had finally convinced me to consume. I did so reluctantly because every time before—few though they were—I had to consume food produced from the flesh of dead animal tissue had tasted . . . horrid. Horrid as in the sense that it tasted brackish and . . .most disagreeable! Yes, I maintained a vegetarian diet due in large part for that very reason: meat and meat products tasted horrid to my taste buds. Bottom line, I was a vegetarian because I could not tolerate the taste of meat.

That and because I found I rather disliked the color red: the color of blood. I . . .find I am not so adverse to the color now, come to think of it. I mean I have a sister (!!) who has red colored hair (and wings . . .and clothing) and it looks VERY striking on her.

. . .

How DOES she get her hair styled like that? It is magnificient and makes me feel VERY conscious now as how my pageboy is rather . . .sloppy. Almost wolf-like in its messiness, really.

And of course you ask just how come the apparent tangent with appearance t was that and not due to any squeamishness on my part to the thought of how much blood must have been spilled in the killing of farm animals to bring food to my table.

Squeamishness in an EVA pilot? Especially one who had gone through—I can recall it quiet vividly now from my first incarnation as "Rei I"— desensitization training aimed to make me MOST unsqueamish to the spilling of blood. Blood is what must be spilt to stop the alien race we called Angels from destroying every last human being on Earth so by Heaven I had been trained to not be shy about spilling blood.

. . .

God only knows how much blood would and could flow from those gigantic menaces from space, those alien invaders who we at NERV called the Angels. God only knows how much blood I shed during my life in helping that witch, Dr. Ritsuko Akagi perfecting . . .

"Child!" The Master interrupts my chain of thought. "While I must say that the pizza pie that your sister did kindly share—I did rather find myself a bit peckish after that ordeal we all had before arriving HERE—is a bit better than the standard American fast food fair . . ."

Has way too much garlic in it . . .but what with real vampires around I can see a delivery man using it as an impromptu weapon, Reika comments from the side, picking at her piece half heartedly. Frankly, I’ve had MUCH better myself back on Terra Prime.

Oh, right. Vampires are in Western folklore prone to being driven back by cloves of garlic. I had run across such data whilst researching such things to better understand the Angels, especially the Angel Lilith. I had felt it could help me understand my place in the grand scheme of things: my purpose with my Eva and all that "rot".

Hm, it even plays MUCH more into certain things happening here and now, really. Now and . . .

Ah, but the Master is still speaking.

" . . .But I must say I find it rather not good enough to act like it’s manna from the heavens," the evil Time Lord finishes, chuckling slightly in consternation and regarding me in . . .a manner I find rather annoying.

He looks at me as if I am a small, slightly slow child. I am almost certain of it and I find . . .I rather do not care for it.

"Unless . . .it had all to do with her ‘ascension’ into a her present state," he then adds, his snide smile contracting as a thought occurs to him. "Some part of a monastic dietary requirement for it to work, perhaps? Something to pass into the ranks of the ‘magic girl’ team and all that, what with there . . .actually being magic. . .a real Sailor Scout from that Japanese anime?"

He looks like he cannot believe he is actually saying that aloud. Yes, he appears to have at least some familiarity with Japanese culture (at least pre-2nd Impact) and perhaps somewhere in his misdeeds he garnered some knowledge about anime. Where or why I will not even TRY to guess, but still he seems to know about enough to realize the situation.

Odd.

"I ask because . . .I find myself rather desiring to get the ‘lay of the land’ I find myself thrust into here," he continues, after the moment’s pause. "Being adrift at sea does not appeal at all to me, you know!"

He sighs and then squares his shoulder, shaking off the odd feeling and soldiering on.

"I guess that would make you Sailor Mars?" he adds, looking at my elder sister, Rei. "What with Sailor Moon looking more like Sailor Pluto I suppose it should not be surprising you look more like Sailor Mercury ."

"And maybe the same could be said about the mode of clothing some of you seem to take whilst in your civilian forms" he adds, thoughtfully (and perhaps with a touch of admiration) glancing at the travelling outfit that Reika is wearing.

. . .

You know, up until this momment in time I have never felt for wanting more for clothing? My school uniform had been most adequate for whatever casual wear needs I would and could face while not either swimming in a pool (which required a swimsuit) or piloting an EVA (which called for a plugsuit).

Now, looking down at the rather plane (but no longer ripped) school uniform that my sisters had so kindly magically fixed I find myself . . .wanting something better.

Well, we shall redress that soon enough I shall wager. Soon enough...

But glancing back I see that the Master has stopped in his reflective musing and now looks rather bemused. He is now blinking when he sees his unwillingcompanions giving him the oddest looks at that admission. For some reason it seems to make him uncomfortable.

"I had to. . .acquired some familiarity while gaining some needed resources from a . . .Black Market contact in Japan. Man refused to do business with anyone not a fan of Sailor Moon," he explained quickly, waving a hand in protest before turning back and shaking his head at the memories he had brought back to the front of his mind.

"But my, what an odd duck that bloke had been," he muttered to himself, shaking his head at the memory of the dealing with the eccentric dealer.

"Good God, I can hum a few bars from that tune myself," I here my sister’s husband, Fred, mutter to himself. "Over the years most of them were normal, but some of them had fetishes that . . ."

He shivers as he seems to recall some of the less desirable ‘fetishes’ in question, or so I believe. He had said that he had been cursed with immortality, doomed to watch everyone and everything he would come to care for age and die eventually. He had also mentioned to have to stay out of unwanted attention from authorities he had to get new identities from time to time and that meant dealing with shadowy types from organized crime. Usually.

That flashed through my mind before I turn back to listening to the Master as he talks with my sister, Rei.

"I suppose your last name happened to be Hinoh before you married Takahashi over there," he says, gesturing towards Fred standing off to the side.

And we see that the man can put two and two together and get five, Lilith snickered mentally. He overhead us talking and got CLOSE, but not totally on the mark!

Who is Rei Hinoh, perhaps Sailor Mar’s civilian identity? O perhaps just some other companion for Sailor Moon at a guess but someone I have as of yet to meet I guess.

"I fear that you are mistaken in some of your assumptions sir," I say softly, drawing his attention away from my elder sister and back to me. "While I do admit to having existed in a 'monastic' state in diet as well as many other ways, I did that before out of the simple fact I could barely tolerate the taste of meat before my transfiguration...."

I flex my wings to emphasize exactly what I mean by the word "transfiguration".

"With this and other changes to my physical body of course It is just I find it tastes so . . .good now," I finish, turning and again looking down at my slice in amazement. "Food never TASTED so good before…"

"And it is not like her and our wings are just for show," Rei puts in, drawing the Master's attention back to me. "We can fly with them, unlike some Victoria Secret’s lingerie models and because of that the Spartan diets they might get away with to stay trim and presentable for their line of work just won’t do. They probably can and do stick with ‘rabbit’ food, but for those like myself and my sisters? Well, we need macro-vitamins and such found in meat and meat products. Else we’ll look rather like walking skeletons, really.

"Ah! But back to you’re not quiet unasked questions!" Rei says, shaking her head ruefully and continuing before the Master (or anyone else for the matter) can interrupt. "No, I am not and never have been a Sailor Scout, much less Sailor Mars. Point in fact I and my sisters only came into magic AFTER our transfiguration."

"Before coming into being able to cast magic and magery, which is NOTHING like what you see in most anime shows for the record, more like AD&D with a touch of Paladium books than anything else really.

"But before that we all had actually come from worlds which reflects Neon Genesis Evangelion , which while an anime and YES one could lump it into the pile of Japanese ‘Giant Robot’ animes that have flooded the market, it was more of a ‘coming of age’ anime. Albeit a really MESSED up ‘coming of age’ anime. . ."

"But that aside! Myself and in each we had been created to be--if only until the end of the Angel Wars—to be clone soldiers. Clone child soldiers in fact to pilot the only weapon system able to defeat the invaders, more on that in a moment!"

"Instead let us turn to the world we are in and perhaps a suggestion to take a page from their book on certain matters! THIS is Buffy the Vampire reality, where the very survival of all life on this Earth is endangered what seems like on a weekly basis and that is what plays in part why the Master’s threats did not have quiet the punch they should have. They’re too jaded to be easily cowed by such things as even something of M’s level of danger."

The Master blinks at that and then blinks again as he sees the Scoobies nodding their heads in agreement at that one. He then finds himself nodding, as if seeing how that could have rather squashed any benefits he normally would/could have otherwised gained at his failed attempts at cowing them.

"A more thorough background to their world can be found in the data pad here with the links later offworld," Reika adds, putting down several data devices on the table before the newcomers. "We’d go into fuller details ourselves on the matter but frankly . . .too much has been revealed and too many hurtful things have been said by both sides here for comfort. However, read up on the episodes ‘Halloween’. . . ."

http://www. Imdb .com /title/ tt0533437/

"This place is kind of a redo story which came about from events in . . .this episode you can read about at your leisure soon enough," Rei says from the side, not wishing to needlessly antagonize Willow and the Scoobies here and now.

http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki /The_Gift_( Buffy_the _Vampire _Slayer)

What had been said and done had been done for all the right reasons and in the end Willow’s soul had been saved but I dare say even I can see it had hurt a LOT of people in the process. Nothing for it but still a LOT of people had been hurt in the process.

"But all that said maybe the best bet here for anything approaching a workable relationship for all of us is to take a page from the Scoobies book about . . .this enviroment you've been chucked into here unwillingly," Rei finally adds, putting down her cup of Earl Grey tea. "Namely, just try to accept the idea that there ARE entities and creatures here who call themselves demons, dods, and other supernatural critters that go bump in the night! Doesn't stop the Scoobies here from going out and fighting those things for the right to humanity's continued existence, for God's love!

"Myself, I and my sisters religious beliefs are . . .our beliefs and we're not going to force them on any of you," Lilith adds from the side. "Just saying that there are a LOT of entities out there with 'godlike' powers, some of whom bill themselves out as 'gods' but just aren't; pretenders to the throne as it were.

"Just call 'em aliens who are putting on airs like that one Star Trek episode with the floating space Apollo head and you'll be fine!" Xander adds, seeing the somewhat disgruntled looks that stacy had been giving throughout this whole discussion.

Both Betties had been oddly quiet through it all, wanting to keep their peace and not cause waves. Good on them, really.

Myself, while I had only existed and 'coasted' through life, never really interacting more than the minimum with those at NERV and the classroom at school, I could not help to notice that there are some out there who just cannot help but give their view on things. Some going so far and trying to brow beat you into agreeing with their views as being the right and only proper view on things.

"Yeah, that could work couldn't it?" Stacy asks the other women of her group, who nod at that and look a bit more at ease with the situation.

"As for us," Rei continues. "My group is a bit . . .different from most. But before we go introducing and giving names let it be known that we . . .do not mean any harm here and are trying to prevent a complete and utter disaster to Sunnyvale here with the Hellmouth."

1. “You’ve got to close it off and seal this breach in reality to other realms before it blows up and wipes Sunnyvale off the face of the planet! Why are you taking so long?!”

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree