Title: SIU - The Sailor Investigation Unit Part 37 Author: Dark Day For Anime (Mark A Page) Email: ayanami@merlin.net.au ICQ: 9845111 IRC: DDFA on DALnet #AJAS Fic Rating: R (Some gore content) -------------------------------------------------------------------- THE GREAT GOV.AU BLOCKADE 1999 READ ALL ABOUT IT!!! http://www.cmetech.com.au/minister_for_ignorance_technology.html -------------------------------------------------------------------- S.I.U. - The Sailor Investigation Unit by DARK DAY FOR ANIME (Mark A Page) Disclaimer - all characters pertaining to the series Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon and Silent Mobius are owned by Takeuchi Naoko, Kia Asamiya, Michitaka Kikuchi, Bandai, Studio Tron, Kadokawa and Kodansya. All other characters were thought up by me. Part Thirtyseven Elementary Elementals -------------------------------------------------------------------- The first thing that struck Aoi, about the entrance hall of the Coven's headquarters, was how very grand-guignol it all looked, perhaps even gothic. She hated gothic. As far as she was concerned, this was Japan, and gothic had absolutely no place being here. The ceiling was so high up that she was sure there wasn't one.... That the darkness up there was the sky. Surrounded by doors and mirrored windows, reflecting her underwhelmed presence, she waited as Kaji negotiated with the guards, through the window of the adjoining office, to let them into the heart of the Coven. Aoi did her best to suppress any nervousness she felt about the cult group. Pagan, despite his efforts to introduce himself as a member of the Coven, had not actually described what the internal machinations were like. Word of mouth, passed along from one cop to another, about past investigations into cult group activities and raids on cult headquarters had usually been tainted with the lurid and the horrific. Visions of young, naked men and women, chained to the walls of every corridor, being flogged and starved and molested, filled her tired mind. She yawned. It had been a long time since she'd had any decent sleep, and thus was slow in registering Kaji's calls to her. She turned to him as he gestured for her to come to him, pointing to an open door by the guard office. "They say we can go in, but only on visitors passes." Kaji grumbled as she stepped alongside him. "Better than nothing, I suppose." Aoi whispered as one of the guards stepped out through the door, eyeing them over. "Who is the woman?" The guard, a tall, pale figure, gestured to Aoi. "Is she important to you?" "Well, you can say she is." Kaji harrumphed. "She is my partner." The guard turned to Aoi with an expression of contempt. "Your partner? As in matrimony or otherwise." Both Aoi and Kaji almost facefaulted. Seeing the expressions on their faces, the guard doubled back. "I'm sorry, but we have to ask these questions. The powers that be are most concerned with blood lines and pair bonding. If she were to be found to be suitable...." "If I WAS to be found suitable, my dear friend, I certainly wouldn't choose to be some brood mare for your two-bit organisation!" Aoi snarled, giving the guard the finger before Kaji stepped in front of her, trying to suppress the situation. "I can assure you, as far as I know she will not be... suitable for your purposes." He sweated under the guard's glare. "Are we to meet with someone in authority?" "You will be guided by a special officer, to the limits of your entry." The guard gestured to the doorway. "Please step through and wait for their arrival in the anteroom." Kaji stared at the doorway, the corridor beyond lit only by the light from the guard office. "Why do we have to wait there? I met with... who was it? Kuniko... Yes, that was it.... I met Kuniko-san here the last time I passed through here." Kaji crossed his arms as Aoi stuck her tongue out at the guard, over Kaji's shoulder. The guard turned away, icily. "You can either wait in the anteroom or leave. It is your choice." He looked as if he was about to step back through the doorway before Aoi brushed past both he and Kaji, huffing. "What is it with all this unspoken threat stuff? Are you people drinking in the bitters, or what?" She stopped by the doorway to the office and peered in at the second guard. "So do we get nice little badges with 'outsider' marked on them, so we can feel REALLY subconscious about being here?" The guard ignored her, making her puff up her cheeks in frustration. "HEY, FATBOY! I'M TALKING TO YOU!" "He's only qualified to reply to his superior." The first guard followed her through the doorway and stood over her in a rather intimidating fashion. Aoi looked up at him, unimpressed. "And who might his superior be?" "I am his superior. He shall only speak when I let him." "You're running a right little fascist state here, aren't you? No talking unless your superior allows you to...." Aoi lifted up a finger and flicked the guard across the nose. "Tell fatboy to speak. I can't stand the way he just sits there, ignoring me." Kaji was cringing through this little display, and was fully expecting the guard to bite her head off at any given moment. Certainly, he was making strange little noises as he stared down at her, his body shivering with what Kaji could only interpret as anger. He knew Aoi would play up like this, at some stage, just not so soon. He was already beginning to accept the possibility that they would be turfed out the front door, when the first guard spoke. "Niki.... Please give the lady and her friend their badges, and see that they are comfortable whilst they await Kuniko-san's arrival." The guard was sweating, his face contorting as if the words were being forced from his throat. His partner turned and stared at him. "Sir...? "Just do as I say. Or she'll... She'll..." Aoi smiled, wickedly at the tormented guard, patting him on the shoulder. "There's a good boy." She turned to Kaji. "So, are you coming in or not?" Kaji stared at her and the guard in disbelief, his legs moving by themselves as he stepped through the doorway to join them. The first guard broke away from Aoi, staggering through the doorway into the office as if he had just been placed under an immense strain as his subordinate picked out a couple of badges from a cabinet, stepping past his partner with a concerned expression to hand them over. "Umm.... Please wear these wherever you go through the complex, and stick only to level one security zones. The main security office tends to be pretty heavy on people who trespass into places they shouldn't be." Aoi pinned her badge on the front of her top. "I'm quite sure we understand the drill. We ARE police officers." She smiled at the second guard, making him giggle, nervously. ----o "PRINCESS! GET AWAY FROM HER!" Setsuna cried, trying to follow her, but finding she was unable to move her legs. Setsuna looked down at her legs, wondering what was holding them back. Visions of nightmares, of being unable to run away from horrible things of the id, entered her mind as her feet slowly dragged across the floor towards the one person in the world she had dedicated herself to protecting, feeling weak and impotent as the figure of Minako floated towards Usagi. Usagi, for her part, started to glow, as the waves of energy struck her with increasing force. Her clothes exploded from her form, being replaced with ribbons that emanated from the locket on her chest. With another wave, she was no longer Usagi, but Serenity, covered in the flowing white robes that represented the ancient and future princess, her hair fading from gold to silver in seconds. Her hands rose, to accept Minako in her arms. "Come to me, Venus." She said in soft tones. "I will make you better." "Prin... cess...." Minako smiled, wrapping her arms around Serenity's form as waves of consuming energy surrounded them, mixed with a bright white light that blinded the others. Setsuna held a hand across her eyes in horror. "PRINCESS!" She cried out, in grief, as both figures disappeared within the glowing energy. Then there was a cry, and the energy exploded outwards, literally blowing the room wide open. Cthulu went rolling out into the courtyard, beyond, letting out burbled cries of fear and terror as Nobuhiro and Michelle, having grasped hold of his sides, rolled along with him. Only Setsuna was able to stand her ground as the blast subsided. At the center of the blast, a figure fell to her knees. Setsuna took her hand away, and was stunned to see that the figure was that of Usagi. She tried her legs once more, finding them to be free of whatever invisible bond that held them, and she ran over to Usagi before the girl fell back, catching her naked form in time. The cement dust that filled the air was blown away in the wind, causing Usagi to cough as her eyes fluttered open. "Minako- chan..." She whispered, registering Setsuna's presence, as if for the first time. "Pluto...." "Princess." Setsuna swallowed. "Why do you ALWAYS put yourself into danger, time and time again?" Usagi put a hand to Setsuna's face, thinking the woman was about to break out into tears. "I'm sorry." Usagi whispered. "It was Minako-chan. I had to go to her. She's my friend." She paused. "It WAS the reason I came here. To rescue her from these people." "I told you... It is too late for her." Setsuna looked around, nervously. "Maybe not now. What did you do just then?" "I performed a Moon Healing Meditation on her. I could hear her voice, calling out to me.... She wanted me to rescue her, from what was happening to her. It was the only thing I could think of." Usagi swallowed. "Where is she? Where is Minako-chan?" Setsuna shivered, trying to avoid eye contact. "She's dead, Princess." A long silence followed that statement. Usagi looked away, an odd smile coming to her face. "You're kidding me, right? I cured her. It's what she wanted me to do. It's what I should have done from the start. She should still be here." Usagi tried to sit up on her own, but found she was too weak to move. "Right? I did the right thing, yes?" "You... did the right thing." Setsuna took a long breath. "You saved her from the pain of the transformation." "So she should still be here." An edge of panic crept into Usagi's voice. "I couldn't save Mako-chan. But I had the opportunity to save Minako-chan. SO WHERE IS SHE?" Usagi started to wriggle, trying to look around. "MINAKO-CHAAAAAN! MINAKO- CHAAAAN! WHERE ARE YOU?" She shouted. "Shhhh. Not so loud, Princess! We might be discovered..." Setsuna placed a hand over Usagi's mouth, but was thrown away by a sudden burst of violent energy, Usagi's reserves now starting to return. She crawled away from Setsuna, who did not follow her, not knowing how to react in this situation. "MINAAAAKOOO-CHAAAAAAN!" Usagi's voice started to crumble, emotion creeping in. "She can't be dead. She just can't be. I healed her. I SAVED her." "You healed her of something that was intrinsically a part of her being. All the cells that made up the part of her that was, essentially, alien, were destroyed. With them went her human cells, scattered to the four winds. She's DEAD, Princess. She evaporated the moment you healed her." Setsuna stood as Usagi looked into the now-muddied waters of the swimming pool. "She might be in the pool. In that water, somewhere. We've got to help her." Usagi turned and looked at Setsuna. Her eyes were tinged with an air of madness, of someone grasping at straws. "We've got to do something. It's better than just sitting here, isn't it? WELL ISN'T IT?" Tears cascaded from Usagi's eyes as Setsuna looked away. "The best you can hope for... is that her essence returned, somehow, to Nemesis. It's happened before." Setsuna started to walk away, pausing briefly. "Until you have some clear sign that she is alive, we have to accept the fact that she is dead, and is never likely to return." "I CAN'T ACCEPT THAT POSSIBILITY! I WON'T! I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE!" Usagi got up on her knees. "I just can't accept... that friends of mine... are dead... just like that. They've died before, but have come back." She paused, wiping tears away from her eyes. "I CURED HER, PLUTO! SHE IS ALIVE! SHE IS SOMEWHERE AROUND HERE! SHE IS... SHE IS..." Setsuna watched as Usagi stared at her hands, shivering uncontrollably. Slowly, she lifted those hands to her face, and she screamed, again and again, thumping her fists into the ground. Blood was drawn as she ripped, tore and rended at what remained of the concrete and tiles of the poolside. Setsuna registered the presence of Nobuhiro, Michelle and Cthulu, watching nervously over the rubble remains of the rear wall, Usagi's throes of temporary madness. "What's gotten into her?" Michelle gestured with her hands, still cuffed. "I don't expect you to understand." Setsuna crossed her arms. "It's something that runs far deeper than your very shallow, human spirit and experience." "Sorry I asked." Michelle huffed. "If she continues with that, she'll bring a million people with hostile intentions down upon us all." "Well, you tell her that." Setsuna stuck her nose in the air. "I doubt you'd be any more successful than I." "She says 'I' a lot, doesn't she?" Nobuhiro whispered aside to Michelle. "Says something about her opinion of herself." Usagi started to settle, curling up into a ball, sobbing. Setsuna ignored her watchers and made her way to her side, lifting her head into her lap, concerned at the injuries that Usagi had committed against herself. She gently stroked Usagi's hair as the girl sobbed. ----o "What was all that about?" Kaji pointed back towards the guard office as they were left in the anteroom by themselves. Aoi, ignoring him momentarily, looked what appeared to be a small, comfortable waiting room over, and flopped down into one of the thickly-padded seats, looking up at Kaji with a smile on her face. "What do you mean?" She sat back, placing her hands in her lap. Kaji rolled his eyes and sat down in the opposite seat, leaning forward. "You know what I mean. That guard went all weird when you gave him the evil eye.... What the hell was that all about, Aoi?" Aoi feigned indifference, waving him away. "I really don't know WHAT you're talking about, Kaji.... I asked him to do something, and he obliged. Hardly surprising." "It was a miracle he didn't deck you, the WAY you asked him. It's a bloody miracle we're still in here, even." He paused. "His reaction was NOT normal, Aoi...." "So what?" Aoi shrugged. "Next thing you know, you'll be going on like Pagan about my having some weird kinda power...." Aoi paused, putting a finger to her mouth. "I wonder if they'll recognise me, here.... They were, supposedly, interested in me." Kaji frowned. "We're taking a risk, coming here.... You know that, of course?" "Oh, of course." Aoi said, dismissively. "There would be a few questions asked if anything were to happen to us, you know?" "Actually..." Kaji paused, then sat back in his seat, saying nothing more. ----o She licked her lips as she watched the men in the suits sweating nervously around the long table. Not that it was hot in the room, or anything, in fact quite the opposite. But when plans you have made start to come unstuck, then you are bound to feel a little nervous. "Adachi Toran, the President of the Kutamata Corporation, one of this nation's largest manufacturers of electronic hardware." She turned to Dietman Manakuto. "Kitamaki Wasaki, the Diet's minister of Foreign Trade. Kumabuto Hitomaru, General Manager of the Kuto construction firm, which has won contracts for some of this country's largest building projects, including the bridge system to the southern isles and the new plan for the Tokyo Supertower. Watabara Shinichi, the General Secretary of the Federal Resources Department...." "I see you know your bigwigs." Manakuto adjusted his tie, nervously. "You are acquainted with these gentlemen in some way, I take it?" Mercury placed one of her hands on the darkened window of the anteroom and tapped the side of her nose with a finger of the other. Manakuto got the message quickly. "So, a lady has to keep some of her secrets, does she?" "Lady?" Mercury laughed out loud. "You just be careful what you call me." She turned back to the window. "What little nest of vipers have these darlings attempted to wipe out that has suddenly made them all so worried?" She paused. "The Sacred House, maybe? On the orders of someone within the Coven of Atrocity.... As they are all members of that dishonorable little group. Or, perhaps, associate members, who became such because the Coven uncovered secrets they'd preferred to have kept silent...." "They are members of the Coven, such as myself." Manakuto cleared his throat. "You are right that they may not all be willing. I, however, am." "And you're the one who converted these gentlemen over to your cause, no?" Mercury stood and stretched. "Well, shall we be acquainted? Much as I like the concept of voyeurism, it gets rather boring after a while if interesting things stop happening." ----o There was a whirling, wind-like noise as Fitchner found himself tumbling along a long, multicoloured tunnel. At the other end was a well-lit loungeroom, with a young, light-haired woman lying asleep, or unconscious, in a large-ish armchair. He hit the carpeted floor of the loungeroom with a solid thump, and lay there, dazed and confused, before taking in the fact that he was no longer in the comforting surrounds of his own house. He looked up at the young woman... She was as pale as her white, albino-like hair. Deathly pale. For a moment, Fitchner considered the possibility that she was, in fact, dead, before he saw, much to his relief, that her chest was rising and falling. He immediately chided himself for taking notice of her chest for longer than was necessary, getting to his feet and taking in his surroundings. Well, it was SOMEBODY'S house, wherever it might be. There was an element of the religiously clean about the place. He didn't like the anal retentive sorts who would keep their homes absolutely spotless, neat and just so, so he immediately felt well put out by it all. He then stepped over to the young woman and stared into her face, wondering if this was the person that Sherilyn Meehan was talking about. The girl who was capable of producing large quantities of what she described as 'bad blood'. As far as Fitchner was concerned, it didn't look like this girl had enough normal blood to suffice, let alone large quantities of the bad stuff. He thought it best to check the place out before he decided to nab this girl and drag her back with the recall device. He looked at the small object, sitting in his hand. In the greater light of the loungeroom, it looked even stranger than it did in his own. Almost as if it were a living thing, the resin-like surface pulsing with the button light. But that was impossible, of course.... No inanimate object, device, could really be imbued with a form of life, could it? With what he'd seen and heard in the last half an hour, he was willing to believe almost anything. Moving out of the loungeroom, he peered into what was, obviously, the kitchen. The light was on, but there was nobody there. There was a door at the far end, obviously leading out into whatever constituted a back yard, but it was shut. He stepped over and tried it, to find it locked. Shaking his head, he moved back out of the kitchen, through the lounge and turned right, into a small hallway. There were two doors leading off the hallway, before it turned right, leading to a bathroom. The light was on in the bathroom, and he could see a dark red stain, like blood, running from what had to be the bathtub, across the bathroom floor, into the hallway and disappearing in the far bedroom door. Blood. He paused, swallowing.... Like a body, being dragged from one room to another. A freshly murdered body.... He didn't know if he wanted to see any more, but horrified fascination wouldn't allow him to back away. He moved down the hallway, towards the bedroom. On the floor of the bedroom, he could see towels, all bloodied, dumped in a pile beside the door. There was a soft, repeated, wheezing sound coming from deeper within the bedroom, and he could see light, cast across its far wall. A bedlamp. Fitchner stopped by the doorway. There was the figure of a very pretty young woman, lying on the bed, roughly dressed in a red and black kimono. For one horrible moment, Fitchner considered the possibility that the red in the kimono was.... He put that thought out of his mind as he turned his nose up at the smell of the reeking towels. The wheezing noise was the labored breathing of the young woman. Her hands were crossed over her chest, as if trying to hold it down. As she did so, there was a soft cracking noise, like leather under pressure. The cracking was accompanied by a squelching that he found quite stomach-turning, mostly since the noise seemed to be coming from the young woman. Then she spasmed, her back arching, and there was an almighty crack. She settled back onto the bed and relaxed, breathing much more easily. Fitchner wondered if he should step into the bedroom when the young woman opened her eyes and turned to look at him, smiling. "Hello." She said, sweetly. "Hello." He found himself saying back, almost automatically. The girl giggled. "Who are you?" The open innocence of her tone belied the bizarre nature of the situation. Fitchner looked around, trying to find the words to say. "I'm... er...." He stammered. "My name is Martin Fitchner. Sorry to bother you like this." "Oh, it's no bother. I'm just rearranging a few ribs. They can get all out of shape when my chest opens up. Makes it really hard to breathe, you know?" "I... would imagine so." Fitchner felt like he was going mad. "Umm.... You said your chest opened up...." "Hai." The young woman patted her chest. "It's something that happens every so often. Not very pleasant, but it seems to be necessary. Why, I don't know. An affliction I was born with, probably." "Tell me.... Do you bleed a lot when your chest opens up?" Fitchner asked the question with deliberate slowness. The girl seemed surprised. "Yes, as it happens. That's the reason my chest opens up. A lot of bad blood fills up these pouches in my chest, and they just have to be emptied. How do you know?" Fitchner strode into the room, feeling a little more confident. "A friend of yours asked me to bring you to her. She said you would be someone who produces lots of what she termed to be 'bad blood'." He put a hand behind the back of his head. "I know this must sound kind of silly. I don't really understand what is going on, here, myself." "Ah, I see." The young woman looked away, thinking. "And who might this friend of mine be?" "She said her name was Meehan. Sherilyn Meehan." Fitchner held out the recall button. "She asked me to make contact with you, and bring you back using this device." The young woman took a breath and swung her legs over the side of the bed, sitting up and studying the device. The action was so rapid that it surprised Fitchner. "Very interesting device you have there, Fitchner-san. Lucifer Folk bioengineering." She smiled. "A form of living technology. Single function, of course. Gating retrieval. I wonder if it is able to think as we do...." Fitchner looked at the device in his hands. "You mean to tell me that this is a living thing?" "Of course it is alive. Can't you see its heart beating?" The young woman stood. "Ano.... I haven't introduced myself. My name is Hayakawa Arisa." She bowed, politely. "You would be the father of one Michelle Fitchner." "You...." Fitchner paused. "Yes, of course you would know who she is." He sighed, closing his eyes. "It's too much to think about." "Of course, Fitchner-san.... Sherrie Meehan could not have given you such a device." Fitchner opened his eyes, staring at her in surprise. "Why forever not?" "Because, Fitchner-san.... Sherrie Meehan is dead." She paused. "Or, at the very least, has had her essence sent to Nemesis. It is extremely unlikely that she would have been able to return in such a short space of time." "Well, tell her that." Fitchner put the device into the pocket of her coat. "She seems to have a lot to talk with you, about." "And I look forward to meeting with this person." Arisa tilted her head. "But first.... Will you do the honors, Maria?" Fitchner didn't know what she was talking about, until he felt something come down on the back of his head. Of course, he thought as he fell to the floor, there had to be someone else in the house. In seconds, he was out like a light. END OF PART 37 -------------------------------------------------------------------- Next Chapter - "Cellular Rejection" _________ / @ \ DDFA (The Right Dishonourable Mark A Page) / / ^ ^ \ \ darkdayforanime@hotmail.com /\ Chief Propoganda Officer, Keeper of \/ \/ the Tapes and Co-Founder of the Saitou-chan \___________/ Appreciation Society - Adelaide Japanese /_/ \_\ PU Animation Society VERSION 1.0 - Friday, 28th May 1999