CHAPTER 35
Lita did not sleep much that night. All she could remember was walking into Mr. Katsugi's office and seeing those two men lying there unconscious.
"What happened?" she had said.
"They are apparently from the mob, they offered to get rid of my opponent in exchange for some embezzling deal or something. You know I would never accept a deal like that, no matter who I was facing. Then one of them pulled a gun on me, I fortunately was able to knock him out with a punch and deal with his friend before they could hurt me," Mr. Katsugi said.
"Oh..thank goodness," Lita said. There was a sound of sirens and cars screeching to a halt. Several police officers ran into the room.
"Are you all right Mr. Katsugi," the leader of the group said.
"Fine, just a little spooked, you just don't expect to almost be a victim of violence," Mr. Katsugi said.
"Yes sir," the cop said.
"What about you?" the cop asked Lita.
"She just walked in, she didn't see anything," Katsugi said.
"Very well, you can leave any time you like ma'am, but we have to ask you some questions Mr. Katsugi."
"Of course. Why don't you go home Lita. We'll talk tomorrow," Katsugi said.
"Yes sir," Lita said and had hurried out. That scene she kept playing out in her mind.
She stood up and walked to the window of her room and looked out.
Why did that disturb me so much? She wondered.
"So you told him that it was to protect him from the negaverse?" Mina asked at lunch that day.
"Seemed like a good idea," Lita said. "He trusts Sailor Jupiter doesn't he?"
"Well..yeah, but will he believe her, ahem..you?" Serena asked. "I don't mean to be critical, but you three dumped your boyfriends pretty hard."
"It was not our finest hour," Raye said.
"We'll probably have to prove it to them at some point," Mina said.
"But we can't right now..we still need to them to stay away," Lita said.
"Love shouldn't be this annoying," Raye said.
"Yeah," Mina and Lita muttered.
"Worry about proving it to them once we've defeated Jaedite, okay..." Serena said.
"You know we could always tell them who we are," Raye said.
"What?" the other four girls at the table said.
"It would explain things wouldn't it?" Raye said.
"I'm not sure we should," Lita said. "We don't even tell our parents that, and while it's true Jaedite already knows who we are..I'm not sure we can trust the guys with that kind of information."
"We'll probably have to tell them soon, maybe after we beat Jaedite, but right now it's risky," Mina said.
"It's not a bad idea Raye, but it is very risky right now..." Amy said. "Rick doesn't seem to be very rational."
"You're right of course. He could tell everyone," Raye said.
"Then we'd be world wide celebrities," Serena said happily. "We'd be famous and have people buying us things, and sit in floats during parades, and have rich handsome guys asking us for our autographs!"
"Serena...we'd also lose our effectiveness as warriors," Raye muttered.
"Though I wouldn't mind a parade or too," Mina said. "And the way things are going, we may need those rich handsome guys..to be our new boyfriends."
"Oh I'm not knocking the idea of it all...I'd get a recording deal easy..." Raye said.
"They'd have to accept me to the culinary arts academy," Lita said dreamily.
"Anything we wanted could be ours," the four said.
"Unfortunately that's not an option," Amy said bluntly.
"We know," the other four said and sighed.
"You're saying we should just leave them alone?" Rick asked in shock sitting at his own table.
"That's what Sailor Jupiter said," Steve said. "She says that the girls are avoiding us because the negaverse has been targeting them for some reason and that they are just trying to protect us."
"Interesting way of doing it," Mike said bitterly still smarting from his fight with Patterson the day earlier.
"Yeah...if the girls were protecting us, why dump us so hard..and why would Sailor Jupiter know about it," Rick said suspiciously.
"Well.if it involves the negaverse," Steve said.
"That's a good point, but still..they slapped all of us...I mean..they treated us like dirt," Mike said.
"Besides...given all that, if the girls are in trouble we shouldn't run away," Rick said.
"We can't do anything Rick," Steve said.
"The heck we can't," Rick said.
"Rick, calm down, let the Sailor Scouts handle this," Steve said.
"I don't think I can," Rick said.
"Rick....I think Steve has a point," Mike said after a little thought.
"I don't think Steve has any point," Rick said. "In fact, this has gone on far long enough." He stood up and headed for the girl's table.
"Rick, don't," Mike said.
"Rick, be reasonable," Steve said.
"I've been reasonable, I want the truth," Rick said and kept walking.
"Oh no," Serena said in surprise as she saw Rick heading their way.
"Rick's coming," Lita said worriedly.
"Raye! It's time for the truth!" He shouted.
"Let me try and cool him off," Lita said and hurried to stop him.
"Out of my way Lita, it's Raye I want to talk to!" Rick shouted and literally pushed the girl aside. Lita used all her resistance to keep from striking him back. Rick was stopped again when he was grabbed on the right arm. He spun away and came face to face with Steve.
"Don't you try and stop me Steve!" Rick said.
"Back off Rick!" Steve shouted.
"Back off this!" Rick shouted and pushed Steve backwards. Steve hit Mike and the two fell to the ground.
"Bad move Fujimori," Steve said standing up.
"Not my last either," Rick said and swung his fist. Steve knocked it away and punched Rick in the gut.
By now the entire lunch plaza had converged on the area to see someone fight someone. Rick recovered his wind. Steve waited.
"Rick, sit down," Steve said.
"Sit down this!" Rick shouted.
"Sit down this?" the entire lunch plaza echoed in surprise at the dumbness of the remark.
"Shut up!" Rick said and tried his spin kick. Steve stepped backwards and punched Rick in the gut again.
Raye had had enough. She got up and stood between the two.
"That's enough Steve," She said.
Steve nodded and walked back to his table. Mike followed.
"This just gets better and better don't it?" Mike muttered.
Raye meanwhile had pulled Rick by the hair up and dragged him around to another side of the school.
"Just what are you doing?" Rick shouted.
"What is your problem? Why are you so obsessed with me?" Raye asked.
"What? Obsessed? Hardly," Rick said.
"I think you are. Ever since I dumped you you've changed, you've become aggressive, violent and downright a terrible person. Sure Steve and Mike became partly the same way, but now....you've gone insane."
"Don't you understand Raye! I need to know why you dumped me! No girl has ever dumped me without telling me why! How am I supposed to keep from making the same mistakes if I don't know what I did wrong! Do you know how many sleepless nights I've had wondering just what made you throw me away for that jerk Chad? I need to know and you won't tell me and now I'm supposed to believe this is all some way to protect me from the negaverse! The heck if I will. That can't be it. Now tell me! What did I do wrong?"
"You didn't do anything wrong!" Raye said. "This is to protect you from the negaverse!" Raye shouted.
"Liar! I have nothing more to say to you, but I will be back! I will have my answer!" he said and ran away from the school.
"I can't believe this. What has happened to him?" Raye asked herself.
Back at the lunch plaza, Lita and Mina were standing at Mike and Steve's table.
"Listen guys, we did the wrong thing. We should have told you the truth," Lita said.
"Yeah," Mina said.
"We didn't want to offend your sensibilities, we didn't want to make it seem like you couldn't handle yourselves."
"We're sorry, we didn't mean anything we said," Mina said.
"Didn't want to offend our sensibilities.." Mike said. "You ripped into us at every time, and made us feel like dirt, and now it's supposed to magically change. Do you realize what your asking us to do?"
"Yeah..I mean..I'm going on the word of Sailor Jupiter, but I'm skeptical," Steve said.
"We're asking you to just keep away from us until the Sailor Scouts can beat the negaverse, then we'll talk again, hopefully things will have been worked out," Lita said.
"Please?" Mina said.
"All right..I'll wait, but if this was to ever happen again," Mike said.
"Yeah," Steve echoed.
"We'll see you around then," Lita said. Mina just smiled and the two walked off.
"We actually agreed to that," Mike said.
"Yeah," Steve said.
"I have lost my sense of reality," Mike said.
"Me too," Steve said.
"Oh well," the two said and sighed.
Later.
"Ah...Lita, I've been waiting for you," Mr. Katsugi said as she walked into his office.
"I'm sorry about yesterday, something came up and I couldn't get here," Lita said.
"It's all right. Things happen. Besides if you had gotten here any earlier, you may have met up with those evil Yakuza people."
Yakuza was the equivalent of the mafia in Japan.
"Yeah," Lita said.
"Are you feeling all right?"
"Uh...I'm fine," she said.
"You don't look it. Let's get some air."
The two were soon walking along a sidewalk away from his headquarters.
"I realized that high school entrance exams are coming up soon and I was worried that you might not be able to work for me anymore," Katsugi said.
"I should be fine, if it follows that schedule you gave me," Lita said.
"It should. I'll be travailing all over the country, and I'd hardly expect you to follow me, but when I'm here I'm glad you could help. We've got a few more rallies before the election."
"Umm..sir....are the police going to allow them after the riot?"
"I'm sure they can be convinced, and after all it was my opponent's supporters who started it. We were behaving ourselves," Katsugi said.
"That's true," Lita said.
"You look like you've got something on your mind. Is it anything I can help you with?"
"I don't think so," Lita said. "I appreciate you asking though."
"Trouble at home? I would hope not."
"No. Nothing like that. It's very complex."
"Ah....we'll leave it at that then."
"Thank you."
"But if I can help..please say so," Katsugi said.
"I would, trust me," Lita said.
"Anyway, you've been doing a good....." Katsugi began to say before a car screeched to a stop next to them. It was black limo with tinted windows. A door opened.
"Mr. Katsugi, your presence is requested," a sinister voice said from inside.
"Is it?" Katsugi said. Lita's eyes widened in surprise. This must be those Yakuza again.
"I'll come," he said and got into the car.
"Grab her too," the voice said and before Lita could get away she was pulled into the car which then sped off.
"Leave her out of this!" Katsugi shouted as Lita was pinned down to the seat by a couple of goons.
"I think not, one she saw us and two, she could be useful," the sinister voice belonging to a very well dressed man with slicked back black hair said.
"The boss did not appreciate..how shall we say, a rejection of our terms," the man said.
"Now you're going to get to have a private meeting with him."
"I warn you, if you don't let her and myself go now, well...you're going to regret it," Katsugi said.
"Oh, really," the sinister man replied.
"Yes," Katsugi said.
"Heh, I'll take my chances."
The car soon stopped in a stereotypical dark alley and Lita and Katsugi were led inside. In a darkened room filled with cigar smoke stood a group of similarly sinister people. At the end at a desk was pudgy man with a cigar in his mouth.
"Ah...Katsugi," the man said. "It's time we had a little chat."
"I have nothing to say to you," Katsugi said.
"And who is this?" he asked looking at Lita.
"She was with Katsugi when we picked him up," the sinister man said.
"Ah I see," The Yakuza leader said.
"Let me make it plain to you Katsugi. Without us you would have never made it past being mayor of that dinky little town you used to live in. You owe us and so far you've been repaying us quite well, but now you seem to think that you have a choice in these matters. This concerns me greatly."
"I don't need you anymore," Katsugi said. Lita sat in stunned silence realizing that her idol had done what she had always believed were just stories made up by the opposition.
"Tell you what Katsugi, let's put it plainly. You help us out, or your political career comes to an abrupt end."
"I think not," Katsugi said. "You have no idea who you're dealing with."
"Don't I? Well then, let me put it another way. Either you become our candidate our your young girlfriend here becomes a permanent fixture at the bottom of Tokyo Bay."
"Don't you dare hurt her!" Katsugi shouted.
"Well then do we have a deal?" the Yakuza leader said.
"Yes," Katsugi said. "Now let her go."
"Oh you misunderstand, we're going to keep her, as insurance."
"You wouldn't dare," Katsugi said.
"Our means are much greater than you'd expect. We can keep her hidden for years, if necessary and depending on how long you're prime minister, well...that could be what we have to do."
Lita tensed.
"Enough!" Katsugi said and to everyone's shock he began to glow.
"What the?" the Yakuza leader said. Katsugi raised his hands and energy shot out from them knocking down most of the mobsters. He turned and knocked the mobster guarding Lita down. Soon all the Yakuza were lying unconscious.
"Run Lita! I can't control him!" Katsugi shouted and suddenly Lita saw she was looking into the face of Malachite.
"I'll get you Jupiter!" He shouted.
"Lita! Go!" came the voice of Katsugi and the man seemed to be struggling with himself. Lita, scared out of her mind, dashed out the door and ran out of the alley into the street. Back in the room, Katsugi crumpled to the ground and beside stood him Malachite.
"Now she knows," he said in frustration. "You are a foolish man Katsugi."
"Maybe..but...I won't let you hurt her," Katsugi gasped lying on the floor.
"She'll end up like the rest in time," Malachite said and then reabsorbed
himself in Katsugi's body.
"There it is," Raye said. She, Amy, and Serena were standing at the end of the street peering around a building at the menacing structure of Jade Corporation tower.
"Maybe we should try and sneak in there and see what's going on," Amy said.
"Are you sure about that? That place is negaverse central," Serena said.
"We'll have to fight them sometime," Raye said. "Still, maybe we can get in for a look around."
"Maybe we should get the others," Amy said.
"Lita and Mina are both busy I hear. Besides, this is just a scouting mission," Raye said.
"I might be able to save you the trouble," Came a voice behind them. They turned to see Nephlite standing there.
"What are you doing here Nephlite?" Raye said more suspiciously then she would have liked.
"This is where my headquarters is, don't you remember that Sailor Moon?" Nephlite asked.
"Oh, yeah...well..I've had a lot of things on my mind," Serena said.
"Why don't you come inside and I'll show you around," Nephlite said.
"I'm not sure we should," Amy said.
"Come now, Amy, if I was going to attack you, you'd already be in trouble, you know you couldn't fight both me and Jaedite at the same time anyway. What have you got to lose?" Nephlite asked.
"I'll wait out here, you two can go," Amy said.
"Where'd this paranoid streak come from Amy?" Serena asked.
"I'm just being careful," Amy said. Besides with our new powers we could probably take both of them. She thought.
"Fine, we'll go," Raye said and she and Serena entered the old building. Nephlite lead them up the stairs to where a couple of humans were sitting at some video monitors watching things.
"Who are they?" Raye asked.
"These are some volunteers from the army," Nephlite said. "I've had to modify them a little so they don't know who I really am, don't worry, it's only temporary."
Serena and Raye glanced at each other with slight worriment.
"See..what Jaedite doesn't realize is that I've ringed Jade Corp tower with cameras. If anyone leaves I know about it," Nephlite said.
"What about the sewer?" Raye asked.
"I've got that covered," Nephlite said.
"So you gave us those warnings didn't you?" Serena said.
"Yes, I've been keeping an eye on things," Nephlite said. "Needless to say it hasn't been easy, I think Jaedite suspects something, but he hasn't found me yet. I figured working so close to his headquarters would throw him off."
"Good strategy," Raye said.
"So you girls are planning on going in? It'll be dangerous, but I think there are ways. Jaedite has surveillance everywhere, but it's not perfect," Nephlite said.
"So..how would we get in if we tried?" Raye said.
"Well, the ideal way is to stop one of their trucks and then sneak in that way," Nephlite said. "There should be one leaving in a few minutes."
"Well how do we stop it?" Serena asked.
"Be creative," Nephlite said and walked towards the door.
"Where are you going?" Raye asked.
"Anti Negaverse Task Force meeting. I'm sure you girls can handle this by
yourselves," Nephlite said. "Feel free to use my HQ as long as you like," and
walked out. The girls left a minute later and with Amy they waited outside for a
truck.
"There!" Jaedite said in realization sensing something.
"Sir?" Argosante asked.
"Where are the dark warriors?"
"Various places sir."
"Get them!"
"Yes sir."
"No trucks yet?" Raye muttered.
"Ehhh..how long have we been waiting? An hour?" Serena asked.
"Fifteen minutes," Amy said looking at her watch.
"Oh," Serena muttered.
What? Raye thought seeing a strange vision in her head.
"Duck!" She shouted and pulled the other two girls down. Three colored blasts flew over their heads and slammed into a building across the street. The three whirled around to see the three dark warriors standing there.
"Hah," Red Warrior said. "Look what we found?"
"Heh," Green Warrior said.
"Time for lunch," Gold Warrior said.
"We're not going to eat them," Red Warrior snapped.
"Oh.." Gold Warrior said. "Prepare to die!"
"That's better!" Red Warrior said.
"Run!" Serena shouted and the three girls dashed down the street. The three warriors sighed and jumped. Once landed they stood at the other end of the street waiting for them.
"This way!" Amy shouted and ran inside a building on the street. The other two followed. It just happened to be a motel.
"Dang them!" Red Warrior yelled and ran to the entrance. The other two followed.
"Where'd they go?" Gold Warrior said.
"Right here!" The three Sailor Scouts shouted leaping at them from behind the
manager's desk.
Mina laughed when she saw herself on television for the first time. Sylia was showing her campaign staff aid. There Mina was, supposedly working in a school while a voice over said how much Sylvia was committed to education. Then the ad went on. When it was over most of the staff headed home. Mina left as well, but realized halfway home she had forgot something.
"Ah..where's my book?" She realized and hurried back to the HQ. The door was still open. She moved to take the book and then headed out noticing that Sylia was still working in her office. She headed out the door and down the stairs. As she walked out she noticed Mr. Katsugi getting out of his car and rushing inside.
"Where is he going?" she asked herself and slowly followed. Katsugi walked right into Sylvia's office. Sylia stood up.
"What are you doing here?" she asked snidely. And to Mina's shock who could see her through the window. Katsugi transformed into Malachite right in front of her.
"Malachite," Mina gasped. "What is he doing here..Sylia's in danger!"
But Malachite didn't zap her. Instead Sylia began her own transformation into someone Mina couldn't help but recognize. Her eyes widened in horror.
"Sylia is Zoicite," She gasped