Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Neptune: Year One ❯ IV ( Chapter 4 )

-Neptune: Year One-

Disclaimer: I don't own the series Sailor Moon or the character Sailor Neptune. Both are the property of Naoko Takeuchi.

Author’s Note: Naoko Takeushi seems to have a thing with naming villains after gemstones. Therefore, I named my villain Zultan after the gemstone zultanite.

--

-IV-

Michiru was able to forget the night's conversation for the brief time she walked to her homeroom with her sempai, but once there the conversation rushed back into her consciousness. So destiny had chosen her for this 'crusade,' eh? Well, she didn't chose it, especially not after she'd contemplated all the implications of what Pluto had told her. She wanted to be a great concert violinist and to be a recognized artist. That was kind of hard to do when she was now expected to find the carriers of the talismans necessary to create the Holy Grail. Pluto wasn't simply asking her to follow some order from the fates, nor was she simply being asked to help stop the end of the world.

Pluto was asking her to give up her dreams. To set them aside perhaps forever in order to fight this battle. And why was she expected to fight it for her? Why couldn't Pluto fight her own battle? More importantly, couldn't she just as well give this henshin wand to anyone in order for them to become her agent? She could think of plenty of girls who were older, taller and stronger than herself who would probably jump at the chance to become Sailor Neptune. And, perhapse, they'd be able to live with being accessory to murder easier than she could.

Michiru was therefore resolved. She would not use the wand; in fact she'd refuse to use it. Her life was already quite fulfilled enough, thank you, without being complicated by something like this. And when the opportunity again presented itself, she would hand Pluto her wand back and tell her so to her face.

At lunch, Michiru once again sat at her usual seat at the popular table. Of course, when the school season began, she had no idea of the geographic divides that invisibly separated off this area of the cafeteria from that. She didn't know this was the jock's table, or that was for the geeks. She simply chose the seat because it was by the window and afforded an unobstructed view of the small fenced in field behind the school. Because of her good looks and obvious graceful bearing the other occupants of the table simply accepted her as one of them. She was finishing her milk when the conversation at the table turned once more to Aya's death the previous day.

“I still can't get over it,” one of the girls said morosely, “I mean, she was in my French class. I never hung out with her or anything, but…”

“You know,” Miki said, the brunette lowering her voice as she leaned over the table as if she were passing on state secrets, “I think there might be a story here.”

“Miki,” the sophomore's sempai said exasperatedly, “You're a reporter for the school newspaper. You always think there's a story.”

“Yeah,” another girl agreed, “She had a bad heart, and it gave out. End of story. Not everything's a conspiracy. Isn't that right, Michiru?”

Michiru frowned. This was most definitely not the kind of conversation she wanted to be having right now. “Well…”

“Michiru-chan.”

Mic hiru turned to see her roommate Takayo coming over with some fellow freshmen. “Michiru-chan, I was telling some of my friends about that trick you showed me with your violin, and they wanted to see it for themselves.”

Under other circumstances, she might not have been comfortable performing the trick in the middle of a crowded school cafeteria, but then it would get her out of this conversation. “Very well,” she said as she stood up from the table. She opened her violin case, being careful not to let anyone see the want hidden in the case as she took out her violin and bow. Looking around the table, she saw one of the seniors with an unpeeled orange on her lunch tray, and smiled.

Meanwhile, Michiru's sempai Miyuki was just entering the cafeteria lunch line with her tray, the young gymnast deep in a discussion with two other juniors. “Really Akiko, I don't understand you sometimes.”

“What's not to understand?” the other girl asked. “Class elections are just around the corner after all, and I think I can do things for this school. There's power involved in being student body president. The kind of power someone like myself could use to achieve ends others can't.”

“You're starting to sound like the villain of a bad shoujo manga,” the third girl said, a curly haired blonde with glasses. Akiko gave her a dirty look as Miyuki snickered.

“In all seriousness,” Miyuki said once she was done laughing, “We have more pressing issues at hand. Isn't that right Beniko?”

“Right,” the blonde responded, “The play.”

“Have they decided on what it will be yet?” Akiko asked as she pushed her light purple bangs out of her eyes.

“It's to be 'The Passion of Joan of Arc.'” Beniko answered. “We have 'till Christmas to come up with a cast and produce the show.”

“Hmmm…” Miyuki said thoughtfully. “Of course the hardest part is casting the lead. Joan's supposed to be a young maiden, and…” her voice died off as the sounds of several hands clapping could be heard accompanying violin music. The three juniors all exchanged glances as they followed the music around the corner. There, surrounded by her classmates, Michiru was playing her violin, bouncing an orange up and down on the edge of the instrument in rhythm to the tune. As the light from the sun shone through the large window and illuminated her aqua hair, Akiko smiled. Turning to Beniko and Miyuki, she crossed her arms triumphantly.

“Girls,” she announced, “I think we just found our Joan.”

--

The school library at the St. Agatha Girls' Academy was a large two story building nestled between the main gym and the greenhouse. The librarian's office was on the first floor, to the right as students and teachers came in. Principal Ichi knocked on the office door, the nun wishing to be shown the spot once more where poor Aya had collapsed.

The office door opened, and a young nun in the robes of a novice answered. "Yes, Ichi-sama?"

Principal Ichi expressed surprise. "You're not Sister Philomena," she said, "Where's the normal librarian?"

"She's... out," the young nun answered with a smile. "Perhaps I can help you though."

"Perhaps you can. You're new here, I haven't met you before."

"Yes," the novice answered. "I only just arrived a little less than two days ago. My name is Sister Traditor."

"Traditor?" Sister Ichi asked. Her Latin was rusty, but something about the novice's name made her uneasy. "I see. Well, Traditor, since you're here perhaps you could show me again where young Aya had her attack."

"Of course, Reverend Mother," Sister Traditor said as she exited the office and headed for the stairs, "Follow me."

--

"Kaioh Michiru-san?" Beniko asked. "I'll agree she's pretty enough, but isn't she a little, oh I don't know, stuck up?"

"Her onee-sama Miyuki doesn't seem to have any problem with her."

"Akiko, she's only been my kohai for two days," Miyuki argued, referring to the term used to describe the younger girls in the school's mentoring program.

"Oh please," Akiko said as she waved away the response, "Have you seen how she acts when you're around? It's obvious the girl idolizes you."

While the three juniors continued their discussion, Michiru smiled proudly as her audience clapped for her. She was just about to reach the finale, when she became aware of a strange noise. Her smile disappeared and the orange fell to the ground as she found herself involuntarily focusing on it. It was a soft noise, and she felt it more than actually heard it. As the girls around her shook their heads and made their disappointment known now that the show was over, she suddenly realized what the sound was.

It was the sound of waves breaking against the shore.

--

“This is the spot,” Sister Traditor said as she led her to a dark corner of the library’s second floor, surrounded by bookshelves containing stories of the Saints. “She said she wanted to learn from the Saints’ examples, to be pure and holy. She had a very pure heart.”

“Yes,” Principal Ichi said with a heavy heart. “She’d once confided in me her wish to join a convent herself.” Taking up the rosary she and the other nuns always had hanging at their sides, she made the sign of the cross. “Come, let us pray for the repose of her soul.”

“Praying for the dead?” the novice asked with a sneer. “How sweet. To think so highly of someone who’s already stiff is surely a sign of purity, ne?”

A chill ran down Principal Ichi’s spine as the sense of unease returned. “Sister Traditor, what do you mean by such a remark?”

“I mean,” she answered as she stalked closer, “ That such a pure heart might be just what I’ve been looking for.” She then held up her own rosary. Instead of a crucifix, a black five pointed star hung at the end of the stringed loop of beads.

Sister Ichi's eyes widened in shock. "Traditor... Of course! Now I remember, 'traditor' is the Latin word for betrayal!"

Sister Traditor simply laughed as she pointed the end of her rosary at the principal of St. Agatha's Academy...

--

"Michiru-chan?" Takayo asked, concerned by the strange look in her roommate's eyes, "Michiru-chan? What's wrong?"

"The sea is stormy."

"Huh?" Miki asked, the reporter looking just as confused as the others surrounding the violinist.

Michiru looked down at her violin case containing her henshin wand. She tried to ignore the sudden surge of adrenaline and the way the hairs were standing up on the back of her neck. She tried to remind herself of her earlier resolutions even as her pulse started racing to the point where it was drumming in her ears in rhythm to the waves crashing in her head and throughout her being.

She tried, and failed.

"Gomen," she said, holding the neck of her violin and the violin bow with one hand as she grabbed the case with the other hand and ran past her fellow students for the exit.

"Well," one of the older students smirked, "she didn't have to act like that just because she dropped the orange."

"I don't know..." Takayo said thoughtfully, "I think that was more than just embarrassment."

--

Michiru ran as fast as her legs would take her, across the parking lot and past the greenhouse until she breathlessly reached the library. As she ran up the steps, a nun in a novice’s habit burst out through the door.

“Thank the Lord you’re here!” the nun cried. “Quick, run to the nurse’s office in the administration building. Principal Ichi has collapsed!”

“No!” Michiru gasped. “But… But wait, was there anyone else… that is,” the violinist struggled to catch her breath as she tried to get her sentence out. “Did you see anything or anyone unusual around her?”

“What?” the novice asked irritably. “This is no time for questions. Go, run!”

Michiru nodded, but as she ran she resolved to come back and look around herself later. There was something about the novice that she didn’t trust.

As the nun watched her run away, she smiled. "Heh, I didn't even need my daemon this time."

--

For a student to suffer a heart attack is considered a fluke and a tragedy. For both a student and the school principal to seemingly suffer the same medical emergency within twenty-four hours of each other was enough to cause a panic. After Principal Ichi was rushed by ambulance to Tokyo General, the school campus was put on lockdown. Obviously there was something more than congenitive heart conditions at work. While a possible gas leak was suspected, none of the administrators or students were to be allowed to leave their buildings until the mystery was solved.

Michiru watched the sun slowly set outside the window of her dorm room. As the campus was slowly cast into shadows, she went into her closet and pulled out her fall coat. Takayo’s gym class had been cut short, and she and her fellow students had been ushered out and back to their dorm rooms before they could shower. As her roommate continued washing herself, Michiru quickly stashed her wand in her coat pocket and silently stole out of the room and out the back of the building.

Trying to stay hidden amongst the shadows, she ducked behind a rose bush, then dashed for cover behind an oak. As she made a dash for the cherry tree half a football’s field length away, she was unaware that a disapproving pair of eyes saw her from within one of the higher classmen’s dorm rooms.

At last reaching the cherry tree, a surprise was waiting her. “Miki!”

“Michiru?” the school reporter asked, “What are you doing out here?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” Michiru responded as she crossed her arms and stared down at the other girl.

“Well, I mean, come on; this is the biggest news story ever!” Miki declared. “And if I can get the inside scoop, my future as a reporter will be secured. But why are you out?”

“Let’s just say I have my reasons,” the violinist answered evasively. “Look, if we’re both going to investigate, we’d best get moving before we’re discovered, ne?”

Miki nodded, and the two were off once more. A few minutes later, both freshmen reached the front of the library. As they started slowly up the stairs to the door, a hand grabbed Michiru by the arm. The girl quickly turned her head, where yet another surprise greeted her. “O- Onee-sama!”

“Michiru-chan, what are you doing?” the junior asked. “I looked outside my window five minutes ago just in time to see you running around the campus grounds.”

Before she could respond to defend herself, the library door opened. The sounds of breaking surf once more rang through Michiru’s body as the same novice she’d seen earlier looked down at her and her two fellow students. “What is this?” she asked. “Don’t you know you’re not supposed to be out tonight?”

“G… Gomen,” Miyuki said as she bowed to the nun, “Michiru-chan was outside, and I followed. As her sempai, her behavior and conduct are a reflection on me. Gomen.”

Michiru looked at her sempai, and felt ashamed at having caused her to get in trouble like this. “Onee-sama…”

“Look,” Miki blurted out, “We know there’s something going on here, and we want to know what.”

“Ah, I see,” the nun smiled. “Three young girls, filled with a pure-hearted search for the truth. Come,” she said, ushering the three girls in. “Don’t just stand around, get inside before someone else catches you.”

The three girls looked at one another and warily went into the building. “Come in, my little kittens,” the novice said, her voice suddenly sounding sharper than it had when they were outside. “Just remember though,” she said as she suddenly locked the library’s double doors, “Curiosity killed the cat.”

“What?” Michiru asked, the waves within her psyche suddenly swelling up into a typhoon.

The nun pulled out her rosary and pointed the black star dangling from it at Miki. The girl screamed as a black beam struck her. As Michiru and Miyuki watched on in horrified shock, a crystal came out of her chest and the would-be reporter collapsed to the floor.

“Michiru,” Miyuki ordered, “Run!” the junior then tried to rush the nun, only to shriek out in pain and fear as the black beam struck her.

Michiru didn’t wait for her sempai’s crystal to materialize. She knew that if she was going to be able to do anything she had to put distance between her and the novice. She ran for the stairs, tripping once on the way over the carpet and badly scraping her shin. She could hear her onee-sama’s body fall to the floor behind her as she reached the second floor and hid between two rows of bookshelves.

“Kitten,” a voice called. “Come on out, kitten. You can’t get away.”

Michiru didn’t move. Below, Zultan of the Witches Six removed her nun’s habit and put her hand to her forehead. “Shit,” she grumbled as she pushed a stray light blue lock of hair behind her ear, “I guess I’m going to have to release the daemon again after all.” Turning to a janitorial closet by the library entrance, she unlocked it to reveal a glaring monster, with dark midnight blue eyes and long red claw-like nails. It wore what looked almost like a blue nun’s habit, but with a gold upside down cross on the back of its costume.

“Go,” Zultan ordered as she pointed towards the stairs. “Get the girl.”

“Saintu, Saintu!” the daemon cried, leaping like a frog to the foot of the stairs.

From her hiding place, Michiru could hear the daemon bounding up the stairs towards the bookshelves. Swallowing hard, she knew it was now or never. She pulled her henshin wand out and held it over her head.

"Neptune planet power, make up!"

-To Be Continued-