(Steve Stachowicz)
gerrek@hotmail.com
(Matthew Frey)
MAFREY@charter.net
Webpage: http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/shores/2307
New Swords of Destiny
By
Eric Thorsen and Stacko
LEGAL STUFF:
** The characters and concepts used here are the property of those people and companies
holding the copyrights to the respective storylines, series, and movies. The only
exceptions are those created by the demented minds of authors of this story. The use of
this material should be seen as the sign of respect that it is. Besides, suing either of us
would be a waste of time since we don't have any money to begin with.
CHAPTER FOUR
It was a bright, sunny afternoon at the school that Chibi-Usa, Sasami, and Hotaru
go to. That day, they had showed their teacher the progress they had made in the week
since they had received the assignment. They showed their teacher the scabbard and the
notes they had received from Scott and what he had told them when they got the
scabbard. The teacher congratulated them on their progress and left to talk to the other
students.
When Sasami had to step away for a while, Chibi-Usa and Hotaru both dropped
their happy faces and went back to talking about what they had found out about Scott,
Sasami, and Miyuki a couple of days ago. Discovering that Scott was really the adopted
first Prince of Minerva was a little hard to take. What really got to the girls was finding
out that Scott was immortal, that he had been alive since the fall of the Silver
Millennium, over two thousand years ago. What scared both of them the most though,
was when Scott told them the price of immortality; having to kill others in order to stay
alive.
Then they found out a little more of the cause that made Sasami have her panic
attack several days ago. Finding out that she was kidnapped when she was around nine
years old and tortured because she was just a member of her family was surprising. Then
her family in trusts Scott with looking after her, making her like an unofficial daughter of
his. Then there is his official daughter, Miyuki. Finding out that she was originally a
male that had a gender changing Chinese curse was just as surprising as all the other
things that they were told a couple of days ago. But after being separated from her male
half, she is a member of a group of people that watch Immortals and record their lives.
Both of them were still coming to grips over all that was said to them.
"You know, I can't believe that Scott-San is from the Silver Millennium, and has
been alive since its destruction." Hotaru said, wonderingly.
"It mustn't have been easy for him to be around waiting for the Senshi to be
reborn while other people were out to kill him," Chibi-Usa said, thinking of all the years
that he had been alive.
"Yeah." Hotaru replied, agreeing that it must have been difficult for him. They
stopped talking about it when Sasami returned and they resumed working on the class
project.
* * * * *
Before school had started, Hotaru had asked Sasami if she wanted to spend a few
nights over at her house for a sleepover. Sasami told her that she had to ask Scott before
she could say yes. Hotaru agreed with her and said that they could stop at the shop to ask
Scott after school. Sasami agreed and told both Hotaru and Chibi-Usa that she would tell
them what happened to her that caused the panic attack.
So during a time that Sasami wasn’t near them, Hotaru and Chibi-Usa talked
about how they were going to react to what Sasami was going to tell them, since they
already knew what some of what happened due to the meeting at the shrine. Chibi-Usa
told Hotaru that they should act surprised when Sasami tells them. Hotaru reluctantly
agreed and any further discussion about it was stopped when Sasami showed back up.
At the end of school, the three of them met at the gate before they would head to
Scott’s shop. While Hotaru was waiting for the others to show, she noticed that the
classmates that would usually pick on her weren’t bothering her as they usually did.
Once Chibi-Usa and Sasami showed up, they left for the shop.
About halfway back to the shop, the three of them heard a commotion and the
clanging of metal. The three of them looked at each other and slowly made their way to
the commotion to see what it was. As they got closer, they could hear a female and a
male arguing with each other between the clanging of metal. As they peered around a
corner, they saw a man with his back towards them, holding a sword, standing in front of
a girl holding an iron bar.
When the man moved around, Sasami recognized who the man was; he was the
man that had attacked Scott before he ran off. So when the man was going to attack the
girl again, Sasami’s anger peaked and rushed out from the corner before Chibi-Usa and
Hotaru could stop her. They quickly called the others to let them know what was going
on. Sasami ran until she imposed herself between the two people.
“You leave her alone!” Sasami yelled at Daryl. Then suddenly the girl wrapped
her arms around Sasami, pinning her arms to her sides.
“Please help me, don’t let him hurt me.” The girl pleaded at Sasami.
“Whaa, huh, hey.” Sasami was saying as she tried to free her arms but the girl
was holding onto her to tight.
Daryl smiled evilly as he approached Sasami. Sasami looked up at Daryl and
realized that she was in trouble. Daryl lifted the sword up and Sasami closed her eyes to
wait for the coming blow. Daryl swung the sword down and used the hilt of the sword at
her temple, knocking Sasami unconscious. Once Sasami limply fell to the ground, Daryl
was about to reach for Sasami when he felt a kick to his side that had him land a few feet
away. He looked back and saw Sailor Saturn and Chibi-Moon standing nearby.
“We will not let you harm anymore innocents.” Saturn yelled out. Daryl stood
back up and smiled evilly at the both of them.
“And what are the two babies of the Senshi going to do?” Daryl asked.
“We are not babies.” Chibi-Moon yelled at him.
“You both fell into our trap like babies.” Daryl smiled.
“Whaa?” Chibi-Moon asked confused.
Just then, Chibi-Moon heard a zap next to her and turned to the sound as she saw
Saturn fall to the ground unconscious. It was at that time that Chibi-Moon realized what
was going on as she felt an electronic zap on her side and her world went dark.
* * * * *
The girl put the Stun-Gun away as Chibi-Moon collapsed to the ground, and
Daryl walked up to her with a smile on his face. He nudged both of the Senshi with his
toe to see if they were really out cold. Then he put his sword away and looked to the girl
for instructions on what he should do next. When he didn't receive a response he
shrugged.
"We better get going, Annie," Daryl said. "Knowing these two, they probably
called the others,"
"Yes. We don't want to confront the other Senshi just yet." Annie replied.
Annie reached in her pocket and grabbed a folded piece of paper, a small
throwing knife, and some tape. She went over to the three unconscious girls and cut a
lock of hair off each girl and taped the hair to the inside of the folded paper and stuck the
paper to a pipe by the knife.
"Let's go, Daryl." Annie said as she picked up Chibi-Moon while Daryl picked
Sailor Saturn and Sasami up.
"What about the Glaive over there?" Daryl asked.
"Leave it." Annie said as they left through a portal that she created.
* * * * *
A couple of moments later, several girls with different brightly colored skirts
arrived in the alley and looked around.
"Where are they?" Jupiter asked, looking a little worried.
"They are not here, or anywhere near here. I'm picking up that there was a
Negaverse portal here, and the Silence Glaive is near, but not Sailor Saturn. Other than
that, I'm not picking anything up," Sailor Mercury said as she scanned the area.
"Hey, over here!" Sailor Mars shouted.
"What is it?" Sailor Moon asked, as she got closer to where Sailor Mars was
standing.
"I found the Silence Glaive. There was also a note near it," Sailor Mars replied.
"What does it say?" Venus asked.
"<>" Sailor Mars finished.
"That's it?" Jupiter asked.
"Yes, except for a lock of Chibi-Moon, Sailor Saturn, and it looks like Sasami’s
hair," Sailor Mars replied.
"Noooooooo!" Sailor Moon wailed.
"It's all right, Sailor Moon. We'll get them back safely," Sailor Neptune said as
she tried to comfort Usagi.
"And when we do, the kidnappers are gonna pay dearly." Sailor Uranus grated
angrily.
"Well it looks like we better tell Scott what happened; he does have a right to
know. I think we are going to need his help on this." Sailor Neptune said.
"It's only four in the afternoon, so Scott's shop is still open. We can't go to his
shop like we are now though; we would attract too much attention to Scott and ourselves.
Since he doesn't seem to know our normal identities, we can't go that way. Our best
choice is to call him, but then, it would take awhile to get to a phone much less convince
him we are who we say we are. But we still need to tell him what's going on." Sailor
Mars said, trying to think of a way they could contact Scott without calling attention to
themselves.
"I'll go and talk him," Sailor Mercury volunteered quietly, with a small blush on
her cheeks. All the Senshi turned and gave her a surprised look which caused her blush to
deepen. "We are only a few blocks away from his shop and time is of the essence. Like
Sailor Mars said he doesn't know our normal identities. But if one of us has to reveal
their identity, the rest are still safe."
"Or is it that you remember you were engaged to him once, and you want to see
him again," Sailor Mercury blushed even more when Venus said that. She knew Venus
was only teasing, but that was really close to the reason that she wanted to go.
"That's enough Venus, stop teasing her," Sailor Moon said angrily. "You're right,
Sailor Mercury, time is of the essence. You go talk to Scott, we'll wait for your call at
Mar's temple," Sailor Moon said once Sailor Mercury had regained her composure.
"Thank you Sailor Moon," Sailor Mercury said as she detransformed and grabbed
the note from Sailor Mars and made her way to Scott's antique shop.
"Are you sure we should let her go to see Scott alone?" Sailor Mars asked.
"She's in love. I know what it's like to lose someone you loved during the Silver
Millennium and then be near them again. So I'm letting her find her love again," Sailor
Moon replied, smiling at the look on Sailor Mars' face.
"All right. She really needed someone in her life anyway," Sailor Mars agreed
finally.
"Well, we better start heading back to Sailor Mars' shrine to wait for Sailor
Mercury's call," Sailor Uranus said, slightly bored as she grabbed the Silence Glaive and
waited for the others.
They detransformed and made their way to Rei's shrine. En route to the shrine,
Michiru decided to see if she could use the Aqua Mirror to find any answers. The pictures
that the mirror showed confused her. It showed a man fighting a different man in out of
date clothing. The other scenes that it showed were of the same two men fighting with
swords in different clothing and in different eras and locations.
Haruka saw the confused look on Michiru's face and went up to her. She put one
of her arms around her shoulders to comfort her and asked her what was troubling her.
Michiru looked up at her and told her that she had asked the mirror to help locate the
three girls, and all it showed were two men fighting with swords throughout other eras. It
didn't show her where the three girls were or anything about them. Haruka told her that
they would try to piece it together at the shrine while they waited for Ami's call.
* * * * *
Scott was working on some paperwork dealing with the transfer of some of his
antiques when the phone on his desk beeped.
“Yes, Hiroshi?” Scott asked after he picked the phone up.
“There is a girl here that she says that she must talk to you urgently.” Hiroshi
replied. Scott looked at the time before replying.
“Show her the way back to the office and have you seen Sasami come in yet?”
Scott asked.
“No sir, she has not come through the front door.”
“Okay thanks Hiroshi. When its closing time, just lock up the main door and go
on home, I’ll finish locking up when I’m done talking to the girl.”
“Okay sir, thanks.”
“No problem Hiroshi.” Scott said and then hung up the phone.
So Scott waited for a few moments and he saw the girl approaching. She was
dressed in a girl's high school uniform, and had bluish colored hair that came down
almost to her shoulders. She reminded him a little of Sailor Mercury, and from what he
could tell, she looked a little hesitant to be in the shop. Once the girl was in his office, he
offered her a seat and waited until she was seated.
“Now what can I help you with?” Scott asked and then saw as she tried to say
what she wanted to say.
Scott could see she was nervous and had a slight blush to her cheeks, so he just
waited patiently until she was ready. After several unsuccessful attempts to begin with,
she reached into her school bag and handed a piece of paper and a knife over to him. He
looked at the knife and couldn’t place any significance to it, so he looked over the note.
When he opened it, the first thing he saw was the three locks of hair taped to it and
recognized that one of them matched Sasami’s. He then read the note and realized what
it meant after he was done reading it.
“Well, this explains why Sasami is late coming home from school.” Scott said,
and then looked up at the girl. “But it doesn’t explain how you came to posses these
things.”
Ami could see that Scott was getting angry and she started to get worried, so she
said the only thing that came to her mind.
“I’m Sailor Mercury.”
Scott’s anger suddenly changed to surprise as pieces started falling into place.
His mind placed the images of Meriel, Mercury, and the girl in front of him and they all
looked the same.
“Meriel?” Scott asked and saw the girl nod her head slowly. “This now explains
some things. The other two are Sasami’s friends, Hotaru and Chibi-Usa, correct?”
“Yes.” Ami replied quietly.
“Why did you come alone and not with the others?”
“The others were a little nervous revealing their identities, so we thought it was
better if only one of us came to talk to you for help.”
“Why would you need my help with this, other than Sasami being involved?”
“The last communication we had with Hotaru and Chibi-Usa, they described a
man with a sword attacking another person. We figured it was another ‘Immortal’ and
you are the only person we know that could help us.”
“I see, but I would like to know why you were the one to come and talk to me?”
“Um … well … I figured I would be ‘collateral’ for your help.”
“’Collateral’? Never mind, we’ll talk about that later, I have to make a call right
now.” Scott said and then picked the phone up and dialed a number. “Miyuki, it’s me …
where are you at … good, is Ziggy still there … keep him there … Sasami and two of her
friends have been kidnapped … apparently after school. We’ll be there as soon as we can
… I’ll explain when we get there, later.”
After Scott hung up the phone, he turned to face Ami. “I hope you don’t have
anything to do for the rest of the night?”
“Why?” Ami asked.
“We have a small journey to make and since you are my contact to the rest of
your group, you’re coming with me.”
“Okay.” Ami replied when she realized that he did have a point.
So Scott had Ami follow him out of the office, after he collected the paper and
knife and handed them to Ami to put in her school bag. He locked up his shop and
escorted Ami to his car.
As they drove down the highway, Scott started a discussion after a long silence
that started just after they left his shop. He started talking about their past relationship to
see how much she remembered.
"What do you remember about us from the Silver Millennium?" Scott asked,
trying to get a feel for what she remembered without giving too much away.
"Not much really. Mostly what I remember is feelings, and some of the times we
were together," Ami replied, blushing a little.
"I'm surprised you even remember me at all," Scott said self-consciously running
his hand through his hair.
"Why do you say that?" Ami said, confused.
"Through the years of talking to people about what they knew about
reincarnation, it didn't look too promising that you would remember anything of your
previous life at all," he responded, trying to gauge her reaction.
"We don't remember all that much about our lives in the Silver Millennium unless
something triggers the memory," she said, then looked at him closely. "It must have been
hard for you, going through all the years, always thinking about me. Not knowing when
I'd be reborn."
"Yes it was. It took over 200 years and continual talks from my first Immortal
friend before I tried having another relationship with someone else." Scott replied softly.
"What happened?" She asked curiously.
"We were attacked and she was killed in a painful and extremely degrading way,
five days before our wedding," he replied.
"Oh, my..." Ami gasped, shocked at the images that his statement conjured up.
"Because of that, I began what I call my 'Dark Times'," Scott said, ignoring her
gasp.
"'Dark Times'? What do you mean by that?" Ami asked nervously, wondering
what he could have done to make him call them that.
"I became a ruthless killer for almost 200 years. It wasn't until I killed a
defenseless young child that I snapped out of it. That and severe counseling from others
of my kind that took sympathy on me. I've been punishing myself ever since," Scott said
the last sentence quietly that Ami almost didn't hear it.
"Don't punish yourself too much. I mean you realized what you were doing was
wrong and you regret it. That means you are still good at heart," She said, smiling
reassuringly.
"Thanks Meriel, I appreciate it," Scott replied, smiling back at her.
"Ami, my name is Ami now,"
"Ah yes, I see," Scott replied, nodding as he realized that she was giving him her
present name.
"What are your feelings towards me now?" Ami asked, trying to be as nonchalant
about the question as she could be.
"To tell you the truth, I'm scared," Scot replied. "When you died, a part of me felt
like it had died along with you. I have attempted to have a total of three serious
relationships since you died, but they all ended with her death shortly before we got
married. I've been in love with you all these years, and now that I find you alive again,
I'm scared to death of what might happen to you, with us, with everything. It took me a
long time to admit that I loved you at all the first time, but now I don't want you to get
hurt just because you're around me. I'm still in love with you, Ami, and I don't want any
harm to befall you."
After that, silence fell for a while inside the car. Scott turned to look at Ami and
saw that she was deep in thought. He decided to leave her to her thoughts as he
continued driving towards their place of destination. After a few minutes, Scott was
about to say something when he felt a hand on his left arm. He turned and saw Ami with
a small smile on her face.
"Hello, I'm Ami Mizuno," Ami said. After she saw his confused look on his face,
she explained. "If we're going to have a relationship now, it would be best if we started
from a new beginning."
"You do know what you will be getting yourself into, don't you?" Scott asked,
worried. “My life now is not really a safe one to be around me with.”
"If I didn't, I wouldn't have said what I just did," Ami replied confidently.
"Okay, sounds good enough to me," Scott said as he smiled in reply. "Nice to
meet you Ami, I'm Scott Schwartzstern."
"Hello, Scott," Ami replied, smiling back shyly.
“Now that we have that out of the way, what did you mean that you would be
collateral for what was going on?” Scott asked.
“Um … I really wasn’t thinking straight at that time. I was nervous and afraid of
what happened to out friends that I just blurted it out. I’m sorry if you had taken it the
wrong way or something.”
"We'll be arriving at Ziggy’s soon." Scott said after shaking his head ruefully at
what she had said.
Ami looked out the window and saw that they were driving towards a German
castle. She recognized the castle from one of her history books. "We're going there?"
Ami asked surprised.
"Yes, this is one of the many houses Ziggy owns around the world." Scott
replied.
Scott pulled up to the gate guard and then continued on up to the castle when the
guard let him through. Upon reaching the front part of the castle, he parked the car and
got out of the car and saw that Ami was still in the car starring at the castle. He walked
around the car and opened the door for her.
"Would M’lady care to go inside?" Scott said formally.
Ami snapped out of her trance and looked at Scott. She saw him standing there
with his hand out, looking like he was waiting for her to do something. When she
remembered the words he'd just said, a small blush came to her cheeks as she took his
hand and stepped out of the car. Scott placed her hand on his arm as he led her to the
door, then he knocked on the door twice and waited. Shortly, there could be heard the
sounds of the lock being undone and then the door being opened. When the door opened,
there stood an elderly man, around his late fifties, and dressed in a butler outfit. When the
man saw Scott, he smiled.
"Good evening, Master Scott," said the man.
"Evening, Jervis. Is Kevin here?" Scott asked.
"Yes he is, sir. He's in his study right now with Mistress Miyuki; I believe you
know the way?"
"Yes I do. How are the grandkids?"
"They are doing well sir, thank you for asking. Jaina loved the gold necklace you
gave her for her birthday. She refuses to take it off."
"I'm glad, please tell her I said hello. We will see you later then Jervis."
"Very Good, Master Scott," Jervis replied, and then returned to the work that he
had been doing before they arrived.
So Scott escorted Ami around the castle until they came to the study. When Scott
opened the door, before he was able to let Ami into the room, Miyuki was upon him to
find out what was going on. Scott told her to calm down and said that he will explain
more to her in a moment. It was then that Miyuki noticed Ami standing behind him,
looking nervous.
“Who’s that?” Miyuki asked.
“Well, now that you’ll let me, I’ll introduce her.” Scott replied.
“Sorry, it’s just …”
“I know, but my shy partner here is Ami Mizuno. Ami, you already know
Miyuki.” Scott said as he introduced everyone. He noticed Miyuki’s confused look at
him, but he ignored her and continued on. “And the person over there looking all smug is
Kevin O’Connell.”
“That’s the name on the note that …” Ami started to say, but was cut off by
Miyuki.
“Hey, Old man, I’ve never met her before.” Miyuki said.
“Yes you did, she also goes by Sailor Mercury.” Scott said which surprised Ami
that he would give out her identity. She then looked over at Miyuki and saw her looking
at her like she was being analyzed.
“I see.” Was all Miyuki said as she turned to face Kevin as he came near them.
“So what is this about a note you were trying to talk about?” Kevin asked.
Ami reached into her bag and pulled out the note and knife and handed them over
to Kevin. Kevin took a look at the knife and then read through the note. Once he was
finished reading, he gave a small chuckle as he folded the note back up and handed it
back to Ami.
“Seems this note is trying to make me look like the bad guy here.” Kevin said.
“But it’s signed by a Seigmund Drakkar.”
“I also go by that name sometimes.” Kevin replied.
“How …” Ami started to ask.
“Kevin is also an Immortal.” Scott explained to Ami.
“Oh.” Ami said quietly.
“Seems like Annie has joined with the group that Damian has formed.” Kevin
said. “It’s her hand writing and one of her knives so I would recognize it was her.”
“Seems Damian is gathering up all of your enemies.” Scott said.
“Seems so.” Kevin replied then silence fell in the room.
“What are we going to do to save Sasami and her friends?” Miyuki asked when
the silence got to her.
“Miyuki.” Scott said calmly.
“I know, this is an ‘Immortal’ deal and I can’t interfere.” Miyuki said. “But I can
still ask around for any leads on my end. I’ll see you all later then.” Miyuki then
grabbed her cell phone and then left the room as she started dialing.
“What about us?” Ami asked.
"Well, I know someone to ask." Kevin replied, getting a phone number from the
Rolodex on his desk.
"Really, who?" Ami asked.
"Can't tell you, it's a secret." Kevin said regretfully. Then he made a phone call.
After setting up a meeting, he hung up, and called Jervis into the room.
"Where is this place we're going?" Scott asked as they walked to Kevin's garage.
"It's a bar in Roppongi, one of those out of the way kind of places." Kevin replied
getting the keys to a rather beaten looking car.
"Ah, I see," Scott said recognizing the car as the one his friend called his 'stealth
getaway car'.
"So when do we go?" Ami asked looking uneasily at the ratty interior of the little
car.
"Um, it's one of those places where it's also not a safe place for a girl to be either,
especially one in a school uniform." Kevin said trying to get Ami to stay behind.
"I'm going." Ami said, glaring at the two men sternly.
"Scott, help?" Kevin asked, looking to see if Scott would help him dissuade the
girl.
"Sorry, Ziggy. I've learned over the years to never argue with a woman. Besides,
I'll be there to watch out for her." Scott said reassuringly.
"All right, I know when I'm on the losing side of a battle." Kevin said, defeated.
Walking up to the car, Kevin noticed that Scott and Ami were holding hands as
they walked. He smiled because he realized that they were getting closer, he just
wondered what they talked about to get Scott to start seeing someone again after all this
time. When they got to the car, Ami climbed firmly into the back seat while Scott and
Kevin got into the front. They then headed to the dark depths of Roppongi.
* * * * *
All three of them were standing outside the bar called ‘The Snake Pit’, waiting for
Kevin to tell them what he wanted them to do.
"I'll go in and ask my contact if he knows anything about this. You two wait here
until I come back." Kevin said, with a warning look at them both.
"Okay," Scott and Ami both replied in synch.
After Kevin went into the bar shaking his head, Ami looked like she was nervous
about something. She looked over at Scott and saw that he was standing quietly against
the car. She was wondering how he could be so calm waiting like this, so she decided to
find out.
"How can you be so relaxed, knowing that someone has been kidnapped, and that
you are relying on someone who would go to a place like this to know something about
where they could be?" Ami asked.
"I'm not calm. I've just learned to be able to hide my feelings very well," Scott
said, as he walked over to Ami and placed a hand on her shoulder. "I'm just as worried as
you are, Ami. I don't fully trust this contact that Ziggy is here to see. But I do know that
when a friend of his is in trouble, Ziggy will do everything that he can to help. We just
have to wait patiently."
"Okay." Ami said looking up trustingly at Scott.
Scott looked down at her and leaned in to kiss her.
Ami was caught off guard for a moment when Scott started kissing her, but she
quickly got into the kiss. They were very deep into the kiss when they heard someone
clear their throat. Both of them quickly broke off the kiss at the sound, then blushed a
little at being caught. They turned to the sound of the voice, expecting Kevin, but saw
four men that looked like gang members, standing there near the car.
"My, wasn't that a lovely scene," said the man that appeared to be the leader.
"What do you want?" Scott asked as he stood in front of Ami.
"We want your money, and your girlfriend." The leader said.
"I don't think so." Scott said angrily, subtly opening his jacket to get his arms a
little more room.
"So you want to do this the fun way, huh? Good." said the man with a smile as the
other men pulled out knives and he pulled out a pistol.
"Ami, get out of here," Scott said as he got ready to fight.
"But …" Ami said as she was thinking of a way to change and help.
"Get out of here!" Scott yelled at her. She turned and ran into the bar, hoping to
get Kevin before those gang members could kill Scott.
* * * * *
Inside the bar, Kevin walked around while he looked at the place. The place
hadn't changed much since the last time he had been here. The biggest room was full of
pool tables that were all being used, off to the right side was the bar, the other side was
the table and benches and booths. There were a few video games and slot machines
scattered about the place, and the air was filled with cigar and cigarette smoke. Kevin
made his way to one of the booths where a lone man was sitting drinking a beer and
smoking a cigarette. He sat down across from the man and waited. A few minutes later,
the man spoke.
"So what brings you around this time?" asked the man, not looking at Kevin.
"I'm looking for a certain person," Kevin said, studiously following the man's
example.
"Who might this person be?"
"A female, around twenty years of age, dark red hair, sometimes has an extremely
deadly temper. Do you know of anyone that fits that description?"
"I know of one person that fits that description. The person has recently been
buying up property in Osaka."
"Anything else?"
"Not much. The person has been known to disappear strangely when they are
done with business."
"Thanks. Great talking to you again."
"One more thing, do you happen know a girl that is dressed in a high-school
uniform, with bluish hair, about your age?" The man asked, looking over Kevin's
shoulder in mild surprise.
"Yes, what of it?" Kevin replied, a little confused by the change of subject.
"I think she needs some help. Behind you."
Kevin looked behind him and saw that Ami was being hassled by a group of men
by the pool tables. Kevin sighed and got up from the booth to go rescue Ami. As Kevin
left the table, the man glanced at his watch, its face covering the inside of his left wrist,
concealing a Watcher tattoo.
* * * * *
Ami found herself surrounded by several men when she came in looking for
Kevin. The men gathered around her and were trying to get her to go somewhere with
them, while others were feeling her up. She was trying to get by them, but they kept
pulling her back towards them. She started to cry from fear because of all the strange men
around her when she heard a familiar voice.
"Why don't you leave the lady alone?" An angry male voice growled from behind
the men surrounding her. "She obviously doesn't like your company." Everyone turned
and saw Kevin standing there with a pool stick in his hands.
"What's it to you?" one of the men asked looking at the 'kid' messing with his
friends.
"She happens to be a girlfriend to a friend of mine." Kevin replied.
"Then where is this 'friend' of yours to protect her?" another man asked, smiling
nastily.
"I would like to know that myself," Kevin muttered to himself then continued
louder. "I would like it more if you would just stop doing what you're trying to do, and go
on about your business."
"And what would we have been doing? This?" said the man directly behind Ami
as he reached for the front of her shirt and ripped it open, revealing her light blue lace
bra. The man then groped one of her breasts, fondling it with a challenging look in his
eye. All the other men laughed as they watch what was happening and at Ami trying to
get out of the man's grasp.
"That was a big mistake, neighbor." Kevin said flatly looking at the man grimly.
"What are you going to do about it, boy?" The man who was fondling Ami asked.
He bent down and licked her neck.
"Not too much, really." Kevin said smiling evilly.
With that, Kevin moved quickly and hit the man that was fondling Ami in the face
with the pool stick, breaking his nose. Blood spurted all over, some of it getting splattered
on Ami's back and neck, and some on her face. When the man released his hold on her,
she dove for cover and hid among the pool tables.
When Kevin smiled at the sight of the man on the ground holding his nose, the
man's friends tried to gang up on him. He ducked under two pool sticks from opposite
sides, resulting in the two men hitting each other. As both men fell, Kevin went on to the
next opponent. He smiled as he clubbed the next man with the butt end of the broken pool
stick, dropping the man and breaking the rest of the stick in the process.
Then two men suddenly grabbed each of Kevin's arms to hold him down. Kevin
saw a third man approaching with a look of pure hatred for Kevin on his face. Kevin
broke himself out of the hold the two men had on him, and elbowed the man that had
held his left arm in the gut. As the guy folded over in pain, Kevin brought his right knee
up and hit him in the head. Kevin then quickly kicked the other guy in the head with the
same leg. Both of the men then fell to the floor unconscious. He then heard a gunshot
outside.
He saw the third man approaching and he grabbed two pool balls from a nearby
table, and threw them at the man's chest. The first one hit while the man blocked the
second one, so Kevin threw a third at the guys left knee, which the man failed to block.
When the ball hit, there was a sickening crunch as the man went down on his other knee.
Kevin threw a fourth ball and hit the guy in the head, causing the man to fall to the
ground, unconscious. He looked around and saw that only two more men were willing to
stay and fight him.
Kevin saw that they were standing close together on the other side of a pool table.
So he just ran towards them and jumped over the pool table and pushed off from it to get
more momentum. Then he did a flying kick at one of the men and sent him rolling over
the pool table that was behind him. The man landed on his head knocking himself out.
Kevin then landed on the pool table, and after rolling away from the cue stick the man
tried to hit with did a spin kick, hitting the other man in the chest. That sent the man
reeling back until he tripped over one of the bodies on the floor and hit his head on a pool
table, knocking him unconscious. Kevin looked around and saw that no one else wanted
to fight, so he went looking for Ami.
He found her hiding underneath one of the pool tables at the far end of the room.
He helped her out from under the table and saw that she was blushing from
embarrassment because of what had happened to her. He saw her trying her best to keep
covered with the remains of her blouse.
"What are you doing in here?" Kevin asked, smiling reassuringly at her look of
acute embarrassment.
"I came to get you." Ami replied.
"What for?" Kevin asked, surprised.
"When you left, we were attacked by some gang members. Scott is still outside,
fighting four armed men." Ami said, remembering her original reason for coming into
the bar.
"Okay. Let's go see if we can help." Kevin said as he noted the fear in her voice.
As they ran to the door, Kevin smirked a little when he noted that Ami was barely
managing to keep her blouse together as she tried to keep up with him.
* * * * *
Earlier, outside the bar, the small gang wasn’t too happy with what Scott had
done.
"That wasn't smart, telling her to leave. Now we have to hurt you more." The
leader said as he saw Ami run into the bar.
"You can try, but I don't go down very easily." Scott replied, firmly.
"That's just the way we like it." The leader said, cheerfully motioning the other
gang members to move forward.
Two of the four men came charging in to slash at Scott with knives. Scott dodged
both of their attacks and pushed them away. The closer of the two men turned and thrust
his knife at Scott. Scott side stepped the thrust then grabbed the man's wrist, and twisted
it until it broke. The man fell to his knees, holding his broken wrist, screaming in pain.
Scott then hit him in the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.
The second guy came at Scott again, swinging his knife wildly. Scott dodged the
best he could, but he could feel the knife hit him twice in the arm. After the last thrust
that the man attempted, Scott grabbed his arm and yanked. The man shot by Scott and
Scott added a little push, which sent him into the wall behind him, head first. The man
landed on the ground out cold.
Scott turned to the last of the men to see what they were up too. He saw that the
leader nod to the other man, and the man smiled as he pulled out two more knives and
stepped forward.
"You were lucky to defeat those two. Not many people have been able to do that.
Now you will face me, and I have never lost." The other man said. The man threw one of
his knives towards Scott, but Scott just ducked under it.
"Strike one," Scott said as he stood again. The man got mad and threw the second
of his knives. Scott just swatted it out of the way. "Strike two," The man got furious and
threw a third one. Scott just caught the knife and looked at the man. "Guess what? Strike
three."
Scott knew the man threw with his right arm, so he threw the knife back and it
stuck into the man's right shoulder. The man screamed in pain as he tried to remove his
knife from his shoulder. Scott walked up to him while he was distracted and punched him
in the gut. When the folded over his fist, Scott hit him in the back of the head, knocking
him out.
Scott then turned to the leader just as he heard a gun go off. He felt a sharp pain in
his left shoulder. He smiled at the leader evilly when he saw that the barrel of his gun was
smoking then looked down at his shoulder, seeing a large red spot growing there.
"You're not so tough," The leader said as he walked up to Scott and pointed the
gun at him. "So, what are you going to do now?"
The leader saw a glint of light that reflected off something and felt something hit
his gun. When he looked down at his gun and saw that it was now in two pieces, cut right
above his hand. He looked at Scott and saw that he had a katana in his right hand.
"What? How did you get that sword? Where did it come from?" The leader asked.
"One of life's many secrets," Scott replied as he hit the man in the Solar Plexus
with the hilt of his sword. When the man bent over, because of the hit, Scott punched him
in the head, with the hand that held the sword. The man was out cold shortly there after.
"And one you'll never know."
Scott looked around and saw all of the men lying on the ground unconscious. He
decided to move them so the police could find them. Then he realized that he was
regaining the use of his left shoulder. He put his sword in his sub-space pocket and lifted
the leader over his right shoulder. He carried him to a dumpster and threw him in. Scott
then threw the other three men in there and closed the lid. He then sensed the presence of
another immortal nearby, turned around and saw that Kevin and Ami were coming out of
the bar in a hurry.
When Scott took a look at Ami, he realized that something had happened. Ami
was walking behind Kevin, like she was trying to hide something. Then he saw that there
was blood splattered on the left side of her face, neck, and shoulder. He also saw that she
was trying to hold her blouse together in the front. Then Kevin and Ami walked up to
Scott.
"Hey Scott old buddy, what were you doing?" Kevin asked.
"Taking out some trash. Why?" Scott replied.
"I thought you said that you would watch the kid here." Kevin said.
"What happened?" Scott asked.
"She got attacked by some of the scum inside while she was trying to find me."
Kevin replied.
"What!" Exclaimed Scott as he looked over at Ami and saw her looking at the
ground with a dark shade of red on her cheeks. He was about to continue when he heard
Ami gasp. He looked at her again and saw she was starring at his shoulder.
"Oh my God, you've been shot!" Exclaimed Ami as she went up to him.
"Uh, Ami, it's all right," Scott said trying to down play his injury.
"No it's not! You're probably just going into shock," Ami said.
"Ami, it's all right," Scott said one last time but failed as she ripped open his shirt,
over the wound, and inspected the wound. Scott noticed that when she went to rip open
his shirt, she lost her hold on her blouse all together and he got an eyeful of her chest.
"How can that be?" Ami asked, as all she found was a little red mark where the
bullet apparently hit entered. The mark slowly faded from view as she watched.
"I tried to tell you, but you seem to have forgotten that I heal quicker than any
normal person. Also I really enjoy the view, but I don't think you want anyone else to see
that. Besides you might catch a cold." Scott said, chuckling softly as she started to blush
even more. Ami realized that her blouse was hanging open, showing off her chest. She
blushed even hotter at both comments. She quickly covered herself up, and turned when
she heard Kevin snickering.
"This isn't funny!" Ami yelled at Kevin. Kevin quit chuckling, but you could tell
that he was still laughing on the inside. Ami suddenly felt something resting on her
shoulders. She looked behind her and saw that Scott had covered her with his jacket.
"Here, use this to cover yourself," Scott said calmly. Ami quickly put the jacket
on and closed it up. She suddenly realized that something was missing from his jacket.
"Where's your sword?" Ami asked, confused.
"In my Sub-space pocket," Scott replied.
"Hate to disturb your private moment there, you two, but we've got to get out of
here," Kevin interrupted, motioning to the car.
"Where are we going now?" Ami asked, still blushing at the earlier comment.
"To my penthouse in Ginza," Kevin replied nonchalantly. Ami gasped then
looked at Scott for confirmation.
"Okay, let's go," Scott said, unconcerned. As they headed to Kevin's car, Kevin
smiled when he saw that Scott put his arm around Ami while they walked together.
* * * * *
At the penthouse, Ami stood looking out a window overlooking downtown
Tokyo. She saw Tokyo Tower in the distance. When she had entered the penthouse,
thankful for private elevators, she was surprised at the size of the rooms. The penthouse
covered the entire top floor. She couldn't see how anyone could afford all of that space in
this district.
"How can you afford all of this?" Ami asked, gazing wonderingly at the
expensive furnishings.
"Well, if you live 700 years, placing money in banks and leaving it there for
awhile, and then placing some in stocks and not panicking, after awhile you can acquire
an obscene amount of money," Kevin replied smiling at her reaction.
"Oh my," was all Ami could say to that.
“Come on Ami, I’ll show you a bathroom you can wash up in and we’ll see if we
can find a shirt for you to wear.” Scott said, directing Ami to follow him.
“Thank you.” Ami replied still blushing over what had happened to her.
Kevin watched as Scott escorted Ami towards the bedrooms as he headed over to
the kitchen area to get something to drink while he waited for Scott to return. While he
was waiting, he checked his answering machine and found a message from Miyuki
saying not much more then what he had already found out. After several minutes, Scott
returned, wearing a new shirt also, and joined Kevin at a table and caught the bottle of
beer that Kevin tossed him. After he sat down and took a drink from the beer, Kevin
started talking to him.
“So what is up with the kid?” Kevin asked.
“I don’t know, Ziggy.” Scott started saying since he knew what Kevin was
talking about. “My feelings are jumping around. I’m still coming in terms that my first
love has been reborn. Even though I knew she was going to come back, but I’m still
uncertain about starting our relationship back again.”
“From what I can see, she is also questioning her feelings. I say talk to her about
it, since it also involves her.”
“We did a little bit when we came to see you, but I know that we have more to
talk about.”
“Speaking of the kid, where is she?”
“Taking a shower and informing her friends of the latest news.”
“I’m sensing something more here.”
“Before we came to see you, she was offering to be ‘collateral’ until we find
Sasami and her friends. I think she has it in her head that the Senshi are at fault for
Sasami being kidnapped.”
“I’m sensing you want something from me.”
“Well, I was going to ask you if you can keep an eye on her for me.”
“I don’t know. With what is going on lately, I have my own agenda going on
right now. Since most of the attacks are going on in Tokyo right now, I enrolled myself
in a local school so I could keep an eye on what is going on.”
“I see, so then don’t worry about it.”
“So what school does the kid go to by the way?”
“I think she said Juuban High.”
“Hmm … I may be able to help you after all.”
“How?”
“That is the school I enrolled into, so I should be able to help you out.”
“Okay.” Scott said and all further discussion stopped when they heard Ami
approaching.
* * * * *
After Scott left her, she grabbed the shirt he handed her and some spare toiletries
and walked into the bathroom. Once she entered the room, she stopped in surprise at
what she saw. The bathroom was almost bigger then her whole apartment room where
she lived. It had all the parts that were in a normal bathroom, but on a larger and a more
extravagant scale. The bathtub was large enough you could almost swim in it. There was
a Jacuzzi style tub near by and a shower next to that. When she looked at the shower she
was surprised at what it looked like.
She was surprised to see that it had three nozzles and only one faucet, and then
realized that they all worked together. After turning on the water and while she waited for
the water to heat up, she looked at the stall, and noticed a set of five small hand pumps
set in the wall. On further investigation they turned out to dispense soap, shampoo and
conditioner. It was then she decided she better call her friends, so she set her stuff down
and paged the others. After a short wait, Usagi's face appeared on it.
"Ami, we've been wondering what happened to you. I've been worried that
something bad had happened." Usagi said.
"Well …" Ami tried to talk but was interrupted by Usagi when Usagi noticed the
blood on her face.
"Oh my God Ami, is that blood?" Usagi said noticing the stains on Ami's clothes,
and getting really worried. "Oh I was right, something bad did happen to you, didn't it."
"It's really..." Ami said as she was interrupted again.
"Are you hurt? Are you okay? Who did that to you?" Usagi asked.
"If you give her a chance to speak, she'll tell you," Yelled Rei over the
communicator.
"Sorry Ami," Usagi said.
"That's okay Usagi. I'm all right, this is someone else's blood that got splattered on
me," Ami said.
"What happened?" Ami heard Makoto say.
"I'll tell you guys later. Right now we need to worry about Sasami, Hotaru and
Chibi-Usa," Ami said.
"What's up?" Rei asked.
“I found the Kevin McConnell that the note was talking about, and he said that he
may know where they are at." Ami said.
"Really, where?" Usagi asked.
"Somewhere in Osaka at the moment, but they are looking for the exact location."
Ami replied.
"What!?!" everyone exclaimed.
"We all need to get together and plan this out. We're dealing with another
immortal here." Ami said. “We should meet after school to plan out what we are going to
do, but I have to get going”
“Why?” Makoto asked.
“Scott and Kevin are waiting for me and I’m supposed to be taking a shower to
wash this blood off of me.” Ami replied.
“Okay, we’ll talk to you tomorrow.” Rei said.
After she got done talking to her friends, she went to take her shower. After she
was done taking the shower, she got dress back in her clothes that she could and held up
the shirt she was going to wear. It was a black silk shirt with black laces down the front
to almost mid-chest. After she put it on and tied the laces, she realized it was plenty big
enough; it almost completely covered her skirt. After some thought, she didn’t care about
it and she then left the bathroom carrying her bloodied shirt and found Scott and Kevin
sitting with a bottle of beer, talking about something. But when she got there, they
stopped talking and looked at her. After a moment of silence, Ami started to talk.
“What should I do with my shirt?” Ami asked.
“Do you have another shirt at home that you can use?” Kevin asked.
“Yes.” Ami replied.
“Then leave that one with me and I’ll see if a friend of mine can take care of it.”
Kevin said.
“Okay.” Ami replied as she handed over her shirt and Kevin set it down next to
him. She then went and sat down next to Scott and he was going to make a comment
about it but decided not to.
“Has Miyuki found out anything?” Ami asked hopefully.
“Nothing we’ve already don’t know.” Kevin replied.
“Oh.” Ami said depressed.
“Don’t worry, we’ll find them.” Kevin said as he saw that Ami was looking
depressed.
“But for now it’s getting late.” Scott said getting up and then faced Ami. “I’ll
drop you off wherever you want.”
“Okay.” Ami said getting up and followed Scott out of the room and had him
drop her off at her apartment complex.
* * * * *
Next day at school, Ami’s friends started asking her how her time with Scott was.
Ami was in a constant state of blushing as her friends keep asking her embarrassing type
of questions. The saving grace she had was when the teacher entered the room and her
friends had to go to their desks. The teacher did roll call and then announced that they
had a new student and called the student in.
Most of the students were surprised when the new student came in. They realized
the new student was a foreign exchange student since he wasn’t Japanese. There was one
student that was surprised to see the new student because she knew who the new student
was. Ami was surprised to see that Kevin had showed up at her school as a new student.
“Class, this is Kevin McConnell and he is an exchange student from Ireland.”
The Teacher said. Ami heard her friends gasp in surprise when they heard his name.
“There is an open desk near Ami, you can sit there. Ami, please raise your hand.”
Ami raised her hand and Kevin walked over to the empty desk, giving Ami a
smile as he sat down. Ami wanted to ask Kevin why he was there, but she had to wait
since the teacher started the lesson for the day. During the lesson, Ami quickly wrote a
note and passed it to Kevin. She waited until Kevin read the note and wrote a reply to it.
It was only a moment before Ami receive the note back and she read the reply. She
found out that Kevin was there because he was looking for clues to find the people that
were killing his friends off. He was also there as a side duty of keeping an eye on Scott’s
‘collateral’. Ami blushed as she remembered on how she referred to herself to Scott.
So when break time came, Kevin suddenly found himself surrounded by Ami and
her friends. When he looked at them, he had a feeling that he wasn’t going to like what
was going to happen. It wasn’t long before the girls started asking him questions.
“What are you doing here?” Minako asked.
“Like I told your friend Ami here, I am here looking for clues to find the people
that are killing off my friends.” Kevin said. “I’m also here to keep an eye on her.”
Kevin pointed at Ami who blushed in return.
“So what do you know about the kidnapping of Hotaru, Chibi-Usa, and their
friend?” Makoto asked.
“Well, Cutie,” Kevin said, making Makoto blush at that. “Since you are referring
to the three girls by name and the kidnap letter was calling them a different name, I
assume the rest of you are the members of the same group as Ami here.” The other girls
realized the mistake that they made and slowly nodded their heads. “Good, then I have a
message for all of you.”
“What?” Usagi asked.
“If you can, tell the rest of your group that after school, we are meeting to discuss
what we are going to do to find the girls.” Kevin replied.
“Where are we going to meet?” Minako asked.
“Just have everyone meet at the front gate and we’ll go from there.” Kevin
replied. He then saw the teacher enter the room. “We will talk at lunch more about this.”
“The girls reluctantly agreed and headed back to their desks.”
* * * * *
At lunch time, Kevin sat under a tree and waited until the girls showed up. It
didn’t take long before they showed up, but with two extra girls. When the aqua haired
one saw Kevin, she stopped in surprise. When the blonde next to her asked what was
wrong, she whispered to the blonde what was wrong and the blonde stared at Kevin wide-
eyed. Before he could ask what that was about, the other girls sat down around him
shortly followed by the two new girls.
So through lunch, Kevin answered questions about himself and why he was at the
school. Near the end of lunch, Kevin reminded them to meet him at the front gate after
school and then got up and left. The others then noticed that Makoto was staring at the
retreating form of Kevin, so some the girls decided to have fun with Makoto.
“So Mako-chan, does he remind you of your old boyfriend?” Usagi asked.
“Who?” Makoto replied absently, which surprised all the girls. They all enjoyed
the last of their lunches and returned to school.
* * * * *
At the end of school, the Senshi met at the gate and waited for Kevin to show up.
When Kevin showed up, he asked if they were all there, they told him that they had to
pick up one more and that one was still at work. Kevin said that they would pick the one
up and when they got to their destination they could relay to the one still at work.
Minako asked how they were going to get there, and Kevin replied by Limo.
They all were surprised when a limo pulled up next to them at that moment. They all
gathered in the lime and the girls made sure that Kevin and Makoto were sitting next to
each other. They then went and picked Rei up at her school and continued on their way.
En route, Ami realized they were heading towards his penthouse, which Kevin agreed
was where they were heading. The others looked out and saw they were in Ginza and
they started asking questions. Kevin was answering as best as he could as they continued
on their way to his penthouse.