A new dream had invaded his sleep. One even more surreal than all the others.
He had found himself surrounded by a heavy black haze, alone save for the distant whisper of zori.
As the sound grew closer, a faint wisp of a figure parted the blackness, ghostly white and as formless as the surrounding haze, save for a single glistening obsidian eye. No sooner had the figure's presence registered than it was gone again, the whispering zori retreating into the heavy murk.
Scrubbing a hand through sweat-matted hair, Mamoru glanced at the clock on his nightstand. 3:45. Far too early to get up—especially as he had only gone to bed two hours before—but it was unlikely sleep would come for him again.
Time, then, to prepare for another dreary Monday morning.
//Mysterious lights were witnessed in the sky above Tokyo Tower late last night. Investigations revealed nothing out of the ordinary, but a witness with high-end digital video recording equipment managed to capture a puzzling image of what appear to be two individuals flying high in the sky. One of the two wore a costume similar to those worn by the recently-discovered 'Sailor Senshi'. Many believe it to be a hoax, but many others are convinced a fierce battle was waged high above Tokyo in the dead of night...//
Aino Michie shook her head and turned down the volume on the television. "Tokyo has become so strange..."
Mina judiciously declined to comment.
* * * * *
Usagi yawned hugely as she shambled downstairs.
"Ohayou, Usagi-chan," her mother called from the kitchen.
"Ohayou," Usagi half-replied, half-yawned.
"Mou, Usagi-chan," Ikuko groaned. "You didn't stay up all night reading manga again, did you?"
"Iie," the teen replied listlessly, plopping heavily at the table. "I just had a lot on my mind...couldn't get to sleep."
Ikuko frowned as she began serving her daughter breakfast. "You've been saying 'I have a lot on my mind' so much lately..."
"Just worried about a new friend, is all," Usagi said with a tired smile. "Not everyone has it as easy as us, Mama."
"Easy, huh?" Ikuko echoed, an eyebrow raised. "You're really that casual about how hard your poor father works to give us the life you call 'easy'?"
Usagi shot her mother a piercing, almost withering look. "Papa isn't one of those salaryman who works until midnight, we're not in debt up to our eyeballs, and we have a very nice home and everything we want. In Japan, what else do you call that?"
Ikuko paused in serving the rice, frowning. "Lucky," she admitted in an almost-grumble. She bustled off to the kitchen once again; Usagi shook her head and smiled. She then began toying with a piece of smoked fish on her plate, lost in thought.
She had indeed had trouble getting to sleep; she didn't even bother trying until she'd gotten word from Rei. Mars' report troubled her; the Senshi would need to have a planning meeting about the device at Tokyo Tower, and soon.
But the outcome of Mars' expedition to the Tower was not the only thing which had perturbed her. Once she'd finally managed to go to sleep, she'd had an incredibly strange and unsettling dream. She knew that getting worked up over a dream was silly, but somehow, she couldn't quite shake it off. The mysterious figure in the fog, the echoing clack of geta...
It was just too strange.
With a heavy sigh, Usagi began eating half-heartedly, barely even tasting her food.
* * * * *
"You look like hell, Jadeite."
Jadeite glowered up at the effeminate Shitennou from where he sat nursing a cup of coffee. "Thank you ever so much for that assessment, Zoicite."
Zoicite laughed. "For you, it's an improvement." He waved a hand airily. "Rough night?"
"My encounter with Mars did more damage than I realised," Jadeite admitted, taking a large sip. "It seems her fires have a delay factor. I spent most of the night concentrating on healing."
Zoicite winced. "That could be trouble." He then nodded at Jadeite's cup. "You know, that human garbage probably isn't helping."
Jadeite shrugged. "The human world and its vices have a certain appeal. Especially after a rough night."
"Well, don't get too attached," Zoicite admonished. "We can't afford to lose sight of our objectives, now can we?"
Jadeite snorted. "Coming from you..."
Zoicite's laughter echoed as he disappeared, leaving only a spray of flower petals to mark his passing.
* * * * *
Police gathered around the entrance to TV Shishiuri; uniformed officers struggled to enforce a cordon as a crowd of spectators gathered along the street.
An unmarked car pulled up to the scene, a small red globe light on the dashboard. Two officers saluted a portly, brown-suited man who emerged from the car. "Keibu!" they greeted.
"He's in there, then?" the police inspector grunted, fixing an irritated glare at the gaudily-decorated studio doors. For all the animosity in his gaze, one might think the enormous plush cartoon lions flanking the entrance had personally offended him.
"Hai," one of the officers said. "Supposedly he has a gun and at least three knives. We got the station manager to kill the transmitter feed before this nut could get on the air, but he's holding the employees and at least three celebrities hostage."
The inspector grimaced, massaging his temples. "What are his demands?"
"Anou...about that..." one of the officers hedged.
"The thing is..."
* * * * *
"KOOOORRRAAAAAAAAAAA!! GET THAT TRANSMITTER RUNNING AGAIN OR I'LL PUT A NEW ASSHOLE IN YOU!!"
The station manager bowed several times, mopping sweat from his brow. "Moushiwake arimasen! We're having a problem at the antenna! There's nothing I can do about it from here!"
The menacing figure advanced threateningly, crazed eyes twitching, a knife held threateningly in one hand. "You'd better not fucking be lying to me, you little prick!"
"H-hai! I swear I'm telling the truth!" The terrified manager waved his hands placatingly. He paused, then added hesitantly, "I—I can get the outside monitor back up and running, but that's—"
"DO IT, THEN! SHIT!!"
"H-hai...!!"
* * * * *
Ami had just departed the train station. A crowd was milling around in the street in front of a TV studio; she frowned in annoyance. The worst part of the route to Tokyo Tower was being forced to pass by that insipid studio every day, with the chittering nonsense blaring from the big, expensive LCD monitor above the entrance...
//LISTEN UP, NINGEN FUCKERS! I'VE GOT ALL THESE PEOPLE IN HERE, AND THEY'RE ALL GONNA DIE!!//
Ami glanced up and rolled her eyes in disgust. *They're promoting another one of those stupid Death Note shows...*
"How the hell—? I thought you said they cut the transmission!"
"H-hai, keibu! The receiver at Tokyo Tower is off, we've confirmed it! Someone inside turned on the external video—"
"GET IT SHUT OFF, NOW! The last thing we need—"
//YOU HEAR ME, YOU NINGEN FUCKERS?! THEY'RE DEAD IF YOU DON'T DO WHAT I SAY! YOU THINK I'M JOKING? DO I LOOK LIKE I'M JOKING?!//
Ami paused, frowning, and turned to look around more attentively.
There were police everywhere. The building was cordoned off with yellow tape. Onlookers were pressing in, gawking up at the screen. Which now displayed a slim, furious-looking figure wearing a ridiculously tight black leather outfit covered with criss-crossing straps, big silver buckles, and lots of chains and safety pins. He had a feather boa wrapped around his shoulders, his face was painted a disconcerting shade of bluish-grey, he was wearing needle-sharp costume teeth, and he had three wickedly sharp kitchen knives gripped in his right hand. In his left, he was holding the neck of a pudgy, sweaty, balding man in a black suit; his hostage's eyes were bulging with terror.
//YOU KNOW WHAT I WANT, NINGEN FUCKERS!! GET THOSE LITTLE SAILOR BITCHES UP HERE NOW, OR THIS LITTLE PIECE OF SHIT DIES AND YOU GET TO WATCH ME SLICE HIM UP!//
"Like we're supposed to know how to do that?" the police inspector grumbled. "Is SWAT on the—"
Ami slipped quietly away from the crowd, eyes hard behind her glasses.
* * * * *
"KOOOORRRRAAAAA!! YOU SURE THIS THING'S RUNNING?" the knife-wielding freak roared, pressing a blade to the throat of the station manager.
"H-hai! It's on! Everyone outside is seeing you!"
"Then they're gonna see you bleed!" The maniac drew back his hand, allowing his victim to see the gleaming edges of the three deadly knives...
...abruptly shatter with a ringing, snapping sound.
"I think that's enough of that," a quiet, cold female voice said.
The leather-clad psycho spun, eyes wide, mouth open in a manic leer. He tossed his hostage aside, forgotten. "Sailor Senshi!" he roared, cackling madly. "So, you show yourself at la—"
A gloved hand clamped around his throat. "What business do you have with us?" the Senshi asked, ice-blue eyes cold and angry.
The maniac pulled a gun from behind his back and jammed the muzzle into her chest. "I'd back off if I were you," he rasped.
The Senshi glanced down at the gun, raising a slender eyebrow. Calmly, she placed her free hand on the barrel. It quickly froze over with an ominous crackling sound. The punk gasped in pain, releasing the gun and shaking his suddenly numb hand.
Tossing the frozen weapon aside, the Senshi hoisted the leather-clad freak off the floor. "Maybe I should show everyone watching what a frozen corpse looks like. Does that sound good to you?"
"Ah...n-no...p-please..."
"Pathetic," she hissed coldly, tossing the maniac to the floor. She extended both hands; a torrent of ice-cold water gushed forth like a fire hose, washing over the terrified punk. He shivered as the impromptu shower washed away his makeup, revealing a pasty, pimply, sunken-cheeked man of no more than nineteen or twenty years, with dark circles under his blotchy eyes.
"P-please..." he stammered. "J-just wanted...m-meet...S-sailor S-senshi..."
"A pleasure to meet you," the Senshi retorted frostily, sketching a mocking bow. "The police will be up to deal with you momentarily."
Before anyone could react, she was gone.
* * * * *
The crowd on the street had fallen silent during the entire incident. Then, abruptly, they broke into cheers and applause.
The police stared dumbly at the screen. The inspector's mouth gaped, giving him a striking resemblance to a fish. At length, he managed to stammer out, "Well...you men should get up there and arrest him..."
"Ah...hai..."
Unnoticed at the edge of the crowd, a schoolgirl picked up her bookbag, adjusted her glasses, and quietly left the scene.
* * * * *
Mamoru quickly skimmed one of the many leaflets scattered on his kitchen table, committing the details to memory.
A rather gaudy tiara, the Tears of Diana, was being stored in a secure vault at a local bank. Many jewels comprised the thing: rubies, sapphires, pearls, diamonds.
And the keystone, the centrepiece of the entire thing...
Mamoru left for school, body going through the motions mechanically while his mind whirled with plans to get his hands on the Tears of Diana.
* * * * *
Usagi, Ami, and Makoto stood clustered around one of the telescopes on the observation deck, pretending to take turns looking out at the view of Tokyo.
"Mars was unable to destroy the device," Usagi whispered. "It's rigged with a trap."
"That figures," Makoto replied. "So what do we do?"
"According to Luna, the trap is designed to kill every living thing in Tokyo if the device is disabled or destroyed," Usagi said, playing with the knobs on the telescope.
"And the trap itself? Can it be disarmed?" Ami asked.
"No," the tea-haired girl answered with a shake of her head, stepping out of the way; Makoto took her place at the telescope.
"We can't just let them keep usin' that thing to drain people," the tall girl grumbled. "So what do we do?"
"There's only one thing we can do," Usagi said with a frown. "Destroy it anyway."
Ami glanced up sharply. "And kill everyone in Tokyo?"
"Of course not," Usagi snapped.
"Then how do you propose we destroy the device without causing millions of deaths?"
"We use the Ginzuishou."
Ami blinked. "The Ginzuishou. Which we do not, at present, possess. Or even know the location of."
"I never said we were gonna blow the damn thing up right now," Usagi said.
"So how's usin' the Ginzuishou any different?" Makoto asked.
"Well, according to Luna, we can use it to make a barrier around Tokyo Tower. Once the barrier's set up, we blast the thing, it blows up, and the barrier stops the trap from working."
"A containment field," Ami summarised, brow furrowed in thought. "That seems feasible, even given what little we know about the alleged crystal."
"But we've still gotta find this Ginzuishou thing, right?" Makoto pointed out. "And it sounds like it ain't gonna be easy."
Usagi sighed. "Yeah, that's the real problem. For now, the only thing we can do is follow that tuxedo nut around. Who knows, he may actually wind up leading us right to it."
"It does seem that our options are limited," Ami said. Stretching, she walked away from the other girls, already focused on her ever-present exam prep manual.
"Is she a fuckin' robot or somethin'?" Makoto asked, watching the short girl leave. "I've never seen anyone just switch gears like that, especially with what we were just talkin' about."
Usagi laughed mirthlessly. "You get used to it."
* * * * *
By noon, the Shishiuri incident had leaked into every media outlet in Tokyo.
At Mugen Gakuen, an excited girl with a web-enabled phone was running around, showing everyone an article about it, with accompanying amateur video.
Once Mina had seen the video, she turned to catch Rei's eye. The miko had a pained grimace on her face. Making sure everyone was too distracted by the girl with the webphone to pay her any attention, the blond walked over to Rei's desk. "You saw?"
"Hai."
"Funny, I didn't peg that Mizuno chick as being that theatrical."
Rei frowned. "Nor did I. Perhaps it was because she knew there was a camera in the room..."
"Maybe. Or maybe it's just something about being a Senshi that makes us act a little more...well, strange." Her cheeks pinkened slightly. "I know every time I've transformed, I've felt a little flighty." She smirked. "Same goes for you, and I don't mean the wings."
Rei winced. "Please don't make such horrid puns."
"Sorry."
"And what precisely is...aberrant...about my behaviour as Mars?"
"Well, the first time you changed, you started talking like you had a Bible stuck in your throat. You don't talk like that normally."
The miko blinked. "I...do not recall anything about that."
"I'll be sure to bring a tape recorder next time."
Rei coughed softly. "In any event, this incident is somewhat disconcerting. If there are people willing to go to such extremes to lure out the Senshi..."
Mina frowned. "Yeah." She shrugged. "Eh, it's just one weirdo. Probably won't happen again."
* * * * *
Ami had just finished lunch and had returned to her preferred reading spot on the roof of Foot Town when a shadow fell across her book. She looked up, ready to snap at whoever was standing in her light...
And her biting retort died at the expression on Tsukino Usagi's face. And the fact that her eyes were like glowing sapphires.
The tea-haired girl spoke only one word:
"Shishiuri."
Ami found herself fighting an urge to flinch. "The media wastes little time."
"Explain."
"I happened to be passing the studio en route to Tokyo Tower when the incident occurred. He had hostages. He was demanding the police send in the Senshi. I calculated the risks of taking action versus ignoring the situation." She locked a matching icy stare onto the one Usagi had pinned her with. "I did precisely what you would have done, Tsukino-san."
Usagi sighed softly. "Of course I'd have done what you did. But there are two major mistakes you made."
"Oh?"
"One," Usagi began, raising a finger to illustrate, "You didn't tell me about what happened. This is exactly the kind of thing I need to know about before it's all over the Internet and the terebi."
"I certainly see the logic in that, as you are ostensibly our leader," Ami replied dispassionately. "And the other?"
"You could have relied only on speed and strength to take that idiot down. Instead, you used your ice powers. On camera."
Ami adjusted her glasses. "I fail to see the error in that."
Usagi's piercing glare returned. "Ami-san...remind me, again, exactly how you killed Saegusa."
The shorter girl's dark eyes widened. That Usagi had caught a glaring flaw in her logic that she herself had overlooked...
"It won't take the media or the police long to connect what happened this morning to what happened with Saegusa. You just gave us yet ANOTHER problem we really didn't need."
Ami bowed her head. "I...suppose I did."
Usagi was silent for a long moment. Finally, she said softly, "It probably would've happened sooner or later anyway. I just don't want the government deciding to declare war on us or something when we already have so much to deal with."
"That would be...troublesome."
"The only thing I'm really upset about, though, is that you didn't tell me about this," Usagi said. "Just promise me, if something like this happens again, I'll find out about it before it shows up on television, alright?"
"Hai."
* * * * *
The usual murmurs and noise abated somewhat as the teacher entered for English period. Mina blinked as King entered a moment later, looking somewhat the worse for wear and gingerly favoring one leg. The teacher looked up from the lesson notes, and blinked twice at King. "King-san? Are you alright?"
The handsome teaching assistant smiled somewhat painedly. "I've been better."
"What in the world happened?" the teacher asked.
King waved a heavily bandaged hand absently. "Just a little garage accident. I was tuning up my bike when the lift gave out. I kinda caught it by the engine, and it was kinda running at the time..."
The teacher, along with most of the class, winced.
"And then I twisted my ankle rolling out from under it," King continued, shrugging.
"Should...you go home and rest?" the teacher asked, eyebrow raised dubiously.
"Nah," King replied dismissively. "I've taken worse than this. The burns aren't even all that bad, but my hands are a bit tender, and unhealed burns can get infected, so...that's why the bandages." King favoured the class with a roguish grin. "Don't worry about it, I'll be good as new by tomorrow."
The teacher frowned doubtfully, but sighed. "Alright then, let's get underway..."
* * * * *
Mina stood on the outside lane of the track that dominated Mugen Gakuen's sports field, stretching. Beside her, Rei was similarly warming up for phys-ed. As she went through a series of squats, Mina grimaced. "These stupid shorts...I don't know if I'll ever get used to them. They ride right up my arse."
Rei reddened slightly. "Mina-san, that is perhaps slightly too forthright..."
The blond rolled her eyes. "Like you've never gotten a wedgie from these things."
"That is not the issue, I simply—" Rei trailed off, staring past Mina, toward the opposite end of the pitch. "What in the—"
Mina followed her gaze, and her eyes widened. "A youma? Here?!"
"No, I do not sense the presence of a youma, but..."
The air filled with shrill screams and a mad cackling.
Mina's mouth set into a thin, grim line. "Find cover. Transform."
"Un." The two girls raced toward the bleachers, casting worried glances at the rising dust cloud growing nearer...
* * * * *
King was relaxing in the staff room, reading the newspaper, when the halls began to ring with the din of students shouting, yelling, and running. "Huh? What the hell?"
"Is there a fire or something?" one of the teachers asked, setting aside a cup of coffee.
"No alarms went off..."
A herd of students suddenly charged past the staff room door.
"HEY! No runn—"
"I don't think that'll work," King said. Standing with only the slightest of winces, the teaching assistant walked over to the door, snagging a passing student by the arm. "What's going on? Everyone sounds so excited."
"It's terrible! Some kind of monster is rampaging on the track!"
"Rampaging?"
"Hai! The junior high second-year girls are out there now, it's a real mess!"
King frowned, letting go of the student, who quickly rejoined the stampede. "I'm checking this out."
* * * * *
"What the hell's going on here?" Mina asked, scowling as she crouched behind the bleachers with Rei.
The dark-haired miko frowned. "I'm not sensing the aura of a youma. I do not believe this is—"
"Of COURSE it isn't a youma, Rei!" Mina snapped. "He's wearing a rubber suit from one of those retarded Sunday morning kiddie shows!"
"There is always the possibility a true youma or other similar creature would be beneath that mask," Rei pointed out, somewhat defensively.
"Well...okay, that's a good point, but..."
Several of their classmates ran past, screaming. A laughing, roaring figure resembling a cross between pile carpet, a grizzly bear, and a marimo chased after them, waving around a scythe.
"This is getting ridiculous," Mina grumbled. She absently reached down and adjusted the gold bracelet on her wrist. "Venus Po—"
"Matte," Rei hissed, clamping a hand firmly on the blond's wrist. she inclined her head at the opposite end of the field. Mina looked up, and blinked.
"What the hell's HE doing here?"
* * * * *
King surveyed the scene, mouth set in a grim line. "This is..."
The teaching aide limped over to an equipment rack on the sideline, examining the various sports implements. With a nod, King selected a field hockey stick, testing its heft and taking a couple of practise swings.
The "monster" was menacing several terrified girls with a scythe. As the pursuit raced down the sprint lanes near the equipment rack, King calmly stepped onto the track. As the monster rushed past, scythe flailing, King struck low and hard with the hockey stick, nailing the rubber-suited menace in the shin. It went down with a howl of pain, mossy green tendrils of foam rubber and crepe flailing.
"Simmer down, ugly," King said in English.
The monster stood, howled inarticulately, and lashed out with its scythe. King calmly sidestepped, then tagged the green monstrosity twice in the lower torso with the edge of the stick. After another clumsy, overextended swipe of the scythe, King hooked the shaft of the weapon just beneath the blade, then twisted the hockey stick and yanked hard. The scythe was ripped from the assailant's hands and sent flying.
King then landed a vicious slap of the stick to the suited figure's chest, before ducking low and sweeping its legs. The "monster" howled in surprise and rage as it crashed to the turf.
King placed the edge of the hockey stick to the throat of the suited assailant. "Give up now."
Applause broke out from the girls who had been chased; a moment later, the headmaster jogged into view, panting slightly from the exertion. He removed his glasses and idly wiped sweat from the lenses, then approached King and the downed attacker.
"Kouchou," King said calmly. "We have here an idiot to hand over to the police."
The headmaster nodded. "Excellent work, King-san." He crouched beside the assailant, and none too gently removed the suit's mask. He frowned. "High school class 3-F, Sonozumi-kun."
The pimple-faced, bespectacled teen inside the suit paled, sweat plastering his stringy, greasy hair to his forehead. "K-kouchou, I..."
"I'm going to call your parents. And the police." The headmaster's glasses gleamed brilliantly with reflected sunlight; the effect seemed to cast deep shadows across his face. "But before that, we are going to have a VERY long talk."
Sonozumi fainted.
King smirked. "Bets on whether or not he pissed himself just now?"
The headmaster chuckled.
* * * * *
"We look forward to your business, Chiba-sama."
The bank manager and two tellers bowed repeatedly as Mamoru left the office.
Once he had returned to his car, he reached into his pocket and pulled out an iPhone he had personally modified and reprogrammed to serve as a two-way link for the small cameras he had planted underneath the tellers' counter.
The screen lit up with a grainy but serviceable image of the bank vault and the rows of safe deposit boxes within.
The cameras and the uplink each had 64 gigabytes of storage; more than enough to ensure he'd discover which box his next target would be in.
Smirking, he pulled away from the curb and headed for home.
* * * * *
Rei had been unusually pensive on the walk to the bus stop. Once she was certain nobody would overhear them, Mina asked, "What's on your mind, Rei?"
"Hm? Ah...that is..."
"Something's bothering you," Mina interrupted flatly. "Tell me."
Rei sighed. "I was thinking about King-san."
Mina raised an eyebrow. "Wow, the stoic priestess isn't immune to the opposite sex after all?"
"Not like that!" Rei replied sharply, flushing. "What I meant was, those injuries."
The blond grimaced. "Yeah. Poor guy."
"I am...somewhat doubtful of his explanation for the burns on his hands," Rei said softly, looking down at her bookbag.
Mina raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
"We witnessed his attack on the delinquent this afternoon. Despite an obviously injured foot and the bandaged burns which he claims came from a motorcycle."
"Yeah, and...?"
"In my report of last night's mission, I did not go into detail about how I escaped Jadeite." Rei paused. "He had grabbed hold of my leg and tried to use his weight to force a fall. I surrounded my body with an aura of fire. I made him release me by burning his hands. He fell at least two hundred metres."
Mina blinked. "Wait, wait. Hold on. You're not..."
"Have you not noticed a physical resemblance between King-san and Jadeite?" Rei asked pointedly.
The blond frowned. "Now that you mention..." She trailed off, and gave an exasperated sigh. "Rei, you should know better than that. How many people think I'm Sailor V just because I'm blond?"
Rei cast her gaze down, frowning. "You are right, of course. It appears I am guilty of very much the same faulty logic that led to this afternoon's incident."
Mina patted her friend on the shoulder consolingly. "It's okay, Rei, don't worry about it. Besides, at least you had more to go on than just hair colour. The burned hands...anyone would be suspicious of that, under the circumstances."
Rei smiled. "Arigatou, Mina-san."
* * * * *
King stretched lazily and sat down at an absent teacher's desk in the staff room. "Saa, Kouchou," the aide drawled lazily, "what was up with that stupid mess this afternoon, anyway?"
The headmaster sighed heavily. "Sonozumi-kun was trying to meet the Sailor Senshi," he said.
King raised an eyebrow. "Sailor Senshi?"
"Aa." The white-haired man toyed absently with a pencil. "He thought at least one of them went to this school, so he figured if he pretended to be a monster..."
"Unbelievable," King muttered. "And why, exactly, did he believe such a thing?"
"The British girl, Aino-kun," the headmaster replied. "Sonozumi-kun figured she had to be Sailor V—"
"—because she's blond," King finished with a snort of disgust. "That particular rumour is getting way out of hand."
"Mm." The headmaster frowned. "You don't suppose there's any chance it's true, do you?"
King chuckled. "I doubt it. I saw her and her friend, that really quiet girl, hiding behind the bleachers during the whole thing. If she were really Sailor V..."
"Sou ka."
* * * * *
"Sir," the officer shouted into his megaphone, "Please, come down from the ledge. Whatever's wrong, we'll get you some help. Nothing is worth giving up on life!"
The sweating, trembling salaryman flattened himself against the window behind him, looking down at the crowd of police and rubberneckers below. His foot slipped; he swallowed nervously...
"Problems at home?" a young, female voice asked inches from his ear.
He yelped and nearly slipped; a gloved hand latched onto his collar and reeled him in with a strong grip. Below, people began to cheer.
He turned to face his beautiful, tall, brown-haired, green-eyed saviour.
"Oh, thank you," he sighed. "I was hoping—"
The Senshi smiled sweetly. "That one of the Senshi would happen to come along and 'save' you, so you wouldn't have to actually jump?"
"Ah...eh...something like that," the man stammered.
The green eyes narrowed...
The crowd shrieked as the salaryman suddenly sailed off the ledge, screaming. The police tensed up, too stunned to react...
A thorny green vine shot out from the ledge and wrapped itself around the falling man, halting his descent. He was swiftly and none too gently reeled back up the side of the office building.
Back on the ledge, he found himself hanging upside down and face to face with a supremely unhappy Senshi.
"Now, we're not going to try something this fucking stupid again, are we?"
"I..iie..."
"Good."
* * * * *
"Keibu, we've finished processing the crime scene and interviewing the witnesses."
"Nn. Good work." The inspector sat down at his desk with a fresh cup of coffee, reading a sheaf of reports.
A slightly older man, tall with broad shoulders and a weathered face, sat down across the desk from him, taking a long drag from a cigarette as he swirled his own cup of coffee in one hand. "Warui na," he said gravely, his voice harsh and rasping. "Looks like your turf's turned into a carnival sideshow lately."
The police inspector grunted, not looking up.
"Is that the incident report from the Saegusa case?"
"Nn."
"Any particular reason—"
"You saw the report on this morning's incident. The Sailor Senshi that subdued the suspect..."
"Seemed to be able to freeze things."
"Exactly. With this new information, the Saegusa case can be reopened."
The older man swallowed half his coffee in one gulp, then ground out his cigarette in the ash tray on the inspector's desk. "Why bother?" he asked.
"A man was murdered. Even if the reason was self-defense, even if he deserved it, justice demands that at the very least, the truth has to come out."
"Naruhodo. So this is that twitch of yours acting up? That you can't sleep at night if you know there's an answer to a puzzle?"
"This is purely professional," the inspector replied sourly.
"Hai, hai." The older man stood, crushing his empty cup and tossing it into the wastepaper bin. "Don't waste too much energy on a pointless investigation." He raised a hand in salute as he left the office. "Ja na."
The inspector watched him for a long moment, then returned to studying the reports from the freezing death of the serial child molestor. "Pointless...I wonder..."
