Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Suspicions ❯ Youma Guts ( Chapter 1 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

"Suspicions"

CHAPTER ONE: Youma Guts

The voices were all around her, screaming for her, calling her name.

At least shethought it was her name. She'd been hit in the head so many times this evening that she couldn't be entirely certain of anything…

They were still calling her, panic clear in their voices, and she sighed, knowing she couldn't stay down forever. They needed her, these warriors of hers, and she had a duty to fulfill as their leader. That duty would not allow her to wallow on the ground while her soldiers finished this battle for her, and, in any case, she had a reputation to uphold. She lifted slender arms, groaning as she finally began the slow process of pulling herself from the pile of rubble that had fallen on her only seconds before. The rocks, of course, were far heavier than she'd expected, and her muscles immediately began to burn under the strain. The sounds of the battle teased her ears even as fire arched along the limbs now struggling to remove the boulders blocking her way, and she was almost embarrassingly grateful when help finally came. "Need a hand?" queried a clipped, impatient voice, and Mina grinned up at the raven-haired senshi who'd come to aid her.

"Only if you're not busy," she replied flippantly, pushing the pain from her voice as she waited for her friend to come to her rescue.

Raye snorted, using her perfectly manicured hands to remove the largest piece of stone covering Mina's torso. She was still shaking her dark head as she helped the golden senshi pull herself free of the last bits of rubble, but her mulberry eyes glinted with a trace of dry humor. "Why is it always you who gets thrown across rooms?" she asked, scowl still in place over her features as she helped Mina climb to her feet. "The rest of us are just as much in the thick of things as you, but you're always the one to go flying. Why is that?"

Mina shrugged, allowing Raye to help her steady herself. "Just lucky, I guess," she replied laconically, already focusing her attention on the fight rather than this irrelevant banter. Raye rolled her eyes at her friend's lack of true attention, but Mina chose to ignore the fire senshi's semi-permanent irritation as she turned back to the battle. "Okay," she said, jerking her head towards their two opponents, gaze narrowing as the remainder of her team continued to dodge the enemy strikes. "Which one do you want--the ugly one…or the really ugly one?"

Raye cocked her head to one side. "Can you actually tell the difference? They're both pretty hideous." She shook her head suddenly, and the genuine curiosity that had been in her face abruptly vanished. "You know what? Never mind. I'd rather not know what goes on in that head of yours."

Mina chuckled dryly, blue eyes flashing as she watched a green-eyed teammate dart beneath the legs of a tall, horned monster with no fewer than four arms. "Afraid I'm going to rub off on you?" she teased, never turning her eyes from the battle. "Believe me, Raye-I share the sentiment." She sighed, reaching down with one tired hand to grasp the chain she wore at her belt. "Come on, Mars," she said, pulling the chain free and wrapping it loosely around her fingers. "Let's dust these things." She grinned suddenly, lips twisting in unadulterated mischief as her slender body assumed a battle stance so perfectly efficient that Raye could never hope to match it. "You can have the one with the tentacles," Mina laughed.

Raye winced, but Mina was already gone, sprinting almost furiously towards their mutual enemies. The chain was slack in her fingers, and she lifted one arm as she ran, spinning the metal over her head like a lasso. Then, with a shout half rage and half sheer mad joy, she let the coils fly, darting back into the fray with the enthusiasm only she was truly capable of summoning in a situation like this.

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Mina pushed the door aside as quietly as she could, but the sound of the latch seemed to echo through the empty hallways of her home, and she found herself praying that she would not be discovered. She glanced at a nearby clock as she slipped across the threshold, praying that her parents would not still be awake. They were, she knew, the type of people who never stayed up late, even on weekends, but they were becoming so suspicious of her actions lately that she no longer knew what to expect from them. Had they known she was gone, and so stayed up to wait for her? She truly hoped not, for all their sakes; necessity had made a fairly prolific liar of Mina, but even she would not be capable of explaining away the dried youma entrails now matting her blonde hair.

Mina sighed. Even assuming her parents had gone to bed, she didn't quit trust herself to be as quiet as she needed to be to keep from waking them. Tired as she was, she couldn't even control the tread of her feet against the hardwood floor. She closed her eyes for a moment, fighting a dizziness that came from the sheer exhaustion she was experiencing. She'd been too tired, in fact, to sneak directly through her second-story bedroom window as she usually did, and even the stairs, at this point, might be too much for her. She groaned softly, lifting one hand to wipe the flaking youma blood from her cheek as she gently shut the door behind her. Then, almost shaking with weariness, she moved as silently as possible towards the stairs leading to her bedroom.

She hadn't gone more than two or three steps into the hallway before she froze, senses kicking into overdrive. Her well-honed instincts told her that she was not alone, and her body automatically tensed as she slowly lifted her head to gaze almost fearfully into the darkness at the top of the stairs. She stared into the gloom, cringing as her eyes adjusted to the lack of light and she could finally make out the two figures above her. Her parents were sitting on the top step, identical frowns marring their faces. Their hands were locked together in what might have been a gesture of mutual support, but their eyes were blank and emotionlessly cold. Mina stared up at them from the base of the steps, one hand lingering on the rail and her eyes frantically blinking back the weariness. This, she thought, can't possibly be good. How long have they been sitting there? Are they going to ask me where I've been, and will I be able to lie well enough to convince them?

They were still staring at her, but she could not detect any accusations in their faces, and she hated not knowing their thoughts. Her father's face was especially empty, and he coughed politely, capturing her attention with a gesture that seemed silly. She gazed almost sheepishly back at him, wondering how she could possibly get herself out of this…

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Her mother hadn't stopped pacing for nearly an hour, and Mina was starting to get dizzy from the older woman's constant motion. "Something has to change, Mina," her mother said, the harshness of her voice not quite able to conceal the underlying worry as she stared down at the slender, golden-haired girl now perched behind the kitchen table. "We've tried not to interfere in your life, tried not to make your decisions for you, but we always thought you had enough common sense to care for yourself. You've done so well until now, and we can't understand why you would be so stupid. Tokyo isn't safe, and you should know better than to be running around alone at night."

Mina sighed. "I wasn't `running around', Mom," she retorted. "I was at Raye's temple, perfectly safe. I'm sorry that I forgot to call-I was just so busy that I didn't think about it. It won't happen again," she muttered, knowing that it would and wondering if her mother would embrace the lie as easily as she had in the past.

Mina's mother was unappeased, and the look in her eyes caused her daughter's face to fall imperceptively. "You still should have called." She grimaced, hearing the curtness in her own voice. "Besides, I just don't understand, Mina. Why would Raye need help cleaning her temple this late at night? What was so important that she couldn't wait until morning?"

Mina shrugged, knowing she had already won the argument and grateful that her mother was so completely oblivious to reality. "Those storage rooms were trashed," she explained, miraculously patient for one who'd already gone over this lie at least ten other times. "Raye didn't want to drive off the tourists with the mess she knew we'd make cleaning them out. We had to do it while everyone was gone, and since she couldn't afford to close the temple, we had to wait until after dark." She grimaced, picturing the monster guts still in her hair and wondering why her mother hadn't thought to question the gunk covering her daughter. Was her mother really buying this, or was she only hiding her own suspicions in an attempt to catch Mina off guard?

Her mother was still pacing, and Mina cast a single, longing glance towards her bedroom, feeling the pounding in her head increase as she subtly lifted one finger to her temple. How long was this going to continue? She'd been hoping to catch a few hours' worth of sleep before school the next day, but she was beginning to think that would not be a possibility. Her mother was not showing any signs of ceasing, and she didn't think this ranting would be letting up any time soon. Mina sighed again, telling herself to be patient. This discussion was not the worst thing she'd endured this evening, and she should just be grateful that her mother was so far from the truth that Mina need not fear discovery.

Her father reached across the table, taking Mina's hands in his own. Mina allowed her eyes to meet his, glad that she could finally see some emotion in his face. He was still angry, she realized, but he had stopped hiding that anger, and, beneath everything, she could also see the true concern he felt. "We're worried for you, Mina," he confessed gently. "Tokyo hasn't been a safe place to live since those…things…arrived, and we can't understand why you'd be willing to risk yourself so often. Why would you want to stay out all night, knowing the dangers?"

Mina winced. "I didn't have a choice," she murmured, voice so soft that neither of her parents heard. She looked up at him, meeting his eyes with a frankness not truly characteristic of her. "I know the risks, Dad," she told him, "but I can't live my life always in fear of those creatures. We can't predict where or when they'll appear, and I won't hold myself back just on the off chance that I might get hurt one day. I won't live like that, and you can't expect me even to try."

Her mother finally stopped her incessant motion, bringing one slender hand to her lips as she chewed nervously on a fingernail. "We're not asking you to be a hermit, Mina," she retorted. "We just want to know that you're safe. Is it so much to ask? We don't want you to get hurt."

Mina's snort was both disbelieving and quiet enough that her parents couldn't hear. Getting hurt comes with the job, she thought, irritated. If I didn't get pummeled every night, I'd probably get worried and think I wasn't accomplishing anything worthwhile. She groaned silently and pulled her hands from her father's, mentally cursing as she realized that her parents would not accept her excuses much longer. She had won this time, but what about the next? Even her oblivious parents, she knew, could not have failed to notice how often she was hurt, how often she was found at the scene of a youma attack. She always had perfectly-or at least somewhat perfectly-plausible reasons for her involvement, but Mina wondered how long she would have before they began to understand the truth. She only had so much time, she knew, before her parents realized she was lying constantly, before they started demanding answers, and she knew she could not give them those answers. What would they say, she wondered, if they knew just what she was doing each time she left? How would they react to the knowledge that their only daughter snuck out every evening to battle the minions of evil? She really hadn't survived this much only to give her parents heart-attacks by confessing something they could never handle.

They let her go a few minutes and a few empty promises later, and she gratefully climbed the stairs to her room, pausing only long enough to shower. Artemis was waiting for her the moment she slipped back through her bedroom door, and she bent to scoop the tiny white cat into her arms. She buried her face in his fur, feeling her skull rattle with the strength of his purrs. "They're getting closer to the truth, Art," she murmured. "Maybe I should lay low for a while, wait for this to clear up. It's the only way to ease their suspicions." She sighed, climbing wearily onto her bed. The cat curled up against her side, offering her the comfort she so badly needed, and they stayed that way, both wide awake and unhappy, until nearly dawn.

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He watched her leave her home, watched the panic grow on her face as she sprinted at breakneck speeds in the direction of her school. "Artemis!" she shouted angrily at the cat now desperately hanging to her shoulder, its claws threaded into her shirt as though the material was a lifeline, "Why did you let me sleep in again!? I'm never going to make it on time now, and I can't take any more detentions! You stupid guardian!"

That was odd, he thought, not attempting to follow the crazy girl now pelting down the street. Does she always talk to her cat as though she expects it to understand? He sighed, waiting until the girl was completely out of sight before sliding out of his car. He shoved his hands in his pockets, walking briskly across the street to the small house the girl had just bolted from. She'd left the door slightly ajar when she'd left, too much in a rush even to close it properly behind her, and he reached out and knocked lightly on the wood.