The only thing more dangerous than the truth
			    is the one looking for it.



The Paranoia Groove
Rated R



	Everything has been said before
	Nothing left to say anymore
	When it's all the same you can ask for it by name
	Babble-babble-bitch-bitch Rebel-rebel-party-party
	Sex-sex-sex and don't forget the violence
	Blah-blah-blah I got your lovey-dovey sad and lonely 
	Stick your stupid slogan and everyone sing along

		-Marilyn Manson, "This is the New Shit"




				-THE PARANOIA GROOVE-

			(a story by his lordship chaos)



	In Crystal Tokyo, only the Enforcers were allowed to openly 
bear swords. Firearms were unheard of. The only guns that survived 
the Neo Renaissance were locked behind glass in the museums, 
antiques of a brutal world purged by The End. The End had come 
swiftly, but not silently, and it had come in the broad daylight 
instead of like a thief in the night. Tokyo alone was spared 
annihilation. Those living within its borders, or lucky enough to 
have been visiting the city proper, stood and watched the skies 
burn and the world they knew turn to ash.
	In Crystal Tokyo, only the Enforcers could walk through the 
street, and command respect instead of reproach for displaying 
their single katana. It was a sign that they had endured the 
training, and were found worthy to bear the honour and 
responsibilities of one who preserved the law. Swords were not 
allowed to be worn by citizens who did not have the uniform of an 
Enforcer. They were allowed to train in dojos, to practice in 
private, but weapons were forbidden out on the streets. This was 
law.
	In Crystal Tokyo, the queen and her king were the law. They 
were benevolent, and merciful, and so their laws were just. But to 
those who defied it, the law was also severe. Punishment came 
swiftly, and it was delivered by the Sailor Senshi. The Enforcers 
served to preserve the peace; their task was of a preventative 
nature, and altogether different.
	"In Crystal Tokyo," said an Enforcer, "we are hollow men with 
hollow honour."
	"I," answered Yurei, "would disagree."
	"You would," sniffed the Enforcer as he walked by Yurei's 
side. "You're one of the elite, complete with palace access, palace 
secrets and the palace's respect."
	He nodded down at the twin katana blades sheathed at Yurei's 
waist. "You're one of the Archangels."
	Yurei did not look down at the two swords he bore. His pale 
blue eyes continued to stare ahead at the midnight streets they 
walked. Streetlamps bathed the way in a soft, silver glow. They 
were the only people on the streets. Even in Crystal Tokyo, there 
were no people outside at such a late hour.
	"Our jobs are no different," he told the Enforcer.
	"Our statuses are."
	Yurei's gaze shifted from the street to the Enforcer. "Only a 
few moments ago you called us both hollow men with hollow honour."
	"That's because we're men." The Enforcer scowled, and his 
eyes were cast down to the ornate handle of his own katana. "We 
will never be Candidates. We never could be Candidates. We will 
never become anything greater than what we already are."
	"Things change."
	"I," answered the Enforcer, "would disagree."
	Yurei smiled a little. Only a little. "You would," he said. 
"You were not there to witness The End. I watched the world tumble 
into infernal darkness, and saw hope when the light was reborn to 
us. In an age where nothing really seemed to change, things 
changed. Everything changed."
	The winds blew at Yurei's blonde hair, and his bangs danced 
over his eyes. It was summer, and the breeze was a welcomed 
reprieve from the heat. Unlike the Enforcers, he did not have to 
wear such an awkward and form-fitting uniform. He walked with an 
overcoat the colour of a raven, its edges dangling down near his 
feet. It helped to conceal his two swords, which brought him more 
attention and scrutiny than he preferred to be under, but in the 
summertime the coat only helped to aggravate the heat.
	The Enforcer failed to be convinced. "We've all seen the 
Queen," he said. "She attends every graduation ceremony for the 
Enforcers. She gives us her blessing by letting us bask in the 
warmth of the Ginzuisho, prolonging our lives."
	"You have yet to see her silver crystal cut through the very 
heart of darkness, when she is holding none of her power back," 
Yurei stated. "I hope you never do."
	"Why?"
	"Because it would be The End all over again."
	The Enforcer fell silent. Yurei knew the man was torn between 
admitting that he almost wanted to see The End, just to tell others 
he had been there; and of admitting the very thought of seeing The 
End terrified him beyond words. Yurei had not the luxury. He had 
not asked to be there for The End. He had not asked to be there 
when a second End almost devoured Crystal Tokyo twenty years ago, 
nor had he asked to decorate the blade of his Angelus sword with 
the blood of someone he loved. 
	He had not asked for many things.
	"Why do you think only girls can become Sailor Senshi?" asked 
the Enforcer. His tone was softer, without the jealous and possibly 
justified frustration his words had possessed earlier.
	Yurei shook his head. "I do not know."
	"There has never been a male Candidate to enter the Academy," 
the Enforcer said. "Not one. Not ever. Every year five or six more 
girls are accepted, and then they train endlessly." He sighed and 
shook his head. "Not that it really seems to matter all that much. 
They haven't even chosen new Senshi to fill the openings we already 
have."
	"They are more than openings," Yurei said. "They are 
callings." The corners of Yurei's mouth were pulled into a smile, 
like it was keeper of a secret no one else seemed to know. "We 
might call it destiny."
	The Enforcer looked at him, a little incredulous. "What? Are 
you saying they don't choose who will become the next Sailor 
Senshi?"
	Yurei shook his head. "I don't believe they have a final say 
in the matter, no. All they can do is find the young women who show 
potential, who have the gift and exhibit the signs and powers of a 
Candidate, and hope."
	That seemed to bring little confidence to the Enforcer. He 
stretched out his arms on either side of his head, pulling taut the 
crimson fabric of his uniform. "I somehow doubt we'll have someone 
being named as the new Sailor Uranus, Sailor Neptune or Sailor 
Saturn in the next few days, Ryuzaki-sama."
	"It's not our place to say," Yurei said. "They are chosen to 
become something far greater, and shoulder the burden of an 
incomparable curse."
	The Enforcer was only half listening, and he missed the 
important half. "So who do you think actually picks which Candidate 
becomes a Sailor Senshi?"
	"I don't know," Yurei admitted. "But I have faith that 
whatever it might be, it knows what it's doing."
	"You don't strike me as the religious type," remarked the 
Enforcer.
	"And how do you see me, Enforcer Arisagawa?"
	The Enforcer shrugged. "Stoic. And enjoying it far too much."
	Yurei glanced over at his companion. "You may just be right."
	They might have let their conversation dance this way all 
night, back and forth in an endless struggle for illumination, but 
they cut their words short as they came to an intersection, and saw 
someone lying in it. It was a young girl; that much was obvious. 
She did not move, and she did not fight back. As far as they could 
see, she had surrendered to the silhouette leering over her quiet 
form.
	There was a hiss, and a shadow, and the sound of blood 
dripping onto the sidewalk.
	The Enforcer began to draw his katana.
	Yurei was already halfway to the shadow, one of his blades 
out in the open air as he ran. He could hear the footsteps of the 
Enforcer behind him, but they were further than they should have 
been. It would become a chase, and perhaps even a battle, and it 
would be only with him and the shadow.
	The shadow fled, and moved faster than anything he had ever 
before seen. It bounded as if gravity held no sway over its form, 
and its every gesture belied a playfulness Yurei did not like 
seeing. He followed it relentlessly, watched as it ducked around a 
corner. Yurei rounded the corner a few seconds later, and found 
himself in an alleyway.
	The alleyway was a dead end.
	No one was in it.
	Yurei stopped running only as he approached the far wall. The 
tip of his katana was pointed at the ground beneath his feet, and 
his other hand wrapped around the hilt of his second sword. His 
head turned to his left, and then to his right, and then back to 
his left again. The shadows were not betraying him, and had nothing 
to hide. Yurei lifted his eyes to the skies above, and saw 
buildings six or seven storeys high. Not a window was broken. 
Nothing was clinging to the walls, trying to be lost amidst the 
starlight. Something had run into a dead end, and disappeared. 
	He listened for a sound, any sound, but all he heard were the 
frantic steps and heated breaths of the Enforcer catching up with 
him. "Damn, you're fast," the Enforcer gasped between lungfuls of 
air. "Where is it?"
	Yurei's shoulders relaxed, and he sheathed his sword. "Gone."
	They returned to the young girl left lying in the streets. 
She was sprawled out, her face resting upon the cement sidewalk. 
Long brown hair spilled down her back in disarray. Yurei knelt down 
next to her, the Enforcer standing behind him. The girl's skin was 
cold when he brushed her hair away from the side of her face, and 
pressed his fingertips just beneath her jaw.
	The moving of her hair revealed a small, ornate marking upon 
the back of her neck, the colour a deep, rich black. Yurei only 
glanced at the mark. The Enforcer leaned down and studied the 
design. It resembled a pair of angel's wings. The tattoo told them 
more than they wished to know.
	With some amazement, the Enforcer remarked, "She's a 
Candidate."
	Yurei's fingers left her neck. "She's dead." 







	Let me see you
	Stripped down to the bone
	Let me see you
	Stripped down to the bone
	Let me hear you
	Make decisions
	Without your television
	Let me hear you speaking
	Just for me

		-Depeche Mode, "Stripped"



				-impossible gods-


	Dawn came to Crystal Tokyo, and Yurei watched it bloody a 
dark and starry sky as he soaked his body in a hot bath. The 
beginnings of what would be a blue morning poured through his 
picture windows. It crept along the wooden ceiling and down wooden 
beams. 
	Yurei always watched the sunrise.
	Even those within the palace knew of this, and respected it. 
That remained the sole reason he wasn't already there with the body 
of the Candidate. He had been the one to contact the palace and 
report the death. He had stood guard over the Candidate's body as 
they waited for the Sailor Senshi to arrive. When they did, they 
found his overcoat ceremonially draped over her.
	There had been the initial reports made, and they were quick 
and numb from the shock of an unnatural death visiting the city. 
Ever since Crystal Tokyo had arisen from The End, only a handful 
had ever died of murder. Yurei did not enjoy the prospect of 
dwelling on the memory of that handful.
	Yurei let himself sink deeper into his tub, his arms resting 
upon the curved, porcelain edges. The entire room was traditionally 
Japanese, but his tub was old and Victorian in style, white and 
freestanding with iron-clawed feet. Sunlight pulled itself over the 
crumbling rooftops of the surrounding towers and fallen 
skyscrapers, and reflected off the end of Yurei's tub.
	He closed his eyes and journeyed back into the night, walking 
the darkened streets once more in his mind with Enforcer 
Arisugawa's voice, word for word, establishing a timeline of 
events. Yurei listened, and watched. Once again, just as before, 
there were no prior indications of what had happened, no warnings 
of attack. Sheer chance had been their only ally, and even then it 
had not given much help.
	Yurei's eyes opened as he felt the warmth of the dawn against 
his skin. The sunrise was as complete as it could get. Soon the 
last tendrils of dark would be driven away, and a blue, cloudless 
morning would greet the people of the last city left upon the 
earth. His bath was finished, as were his meditations. With the 
dawn having come, the palace would now be expecting him. There were 
many things to discuss, all of them regarding the slain Candidate.
	Yurei rose from the warm water, and it flowed off the scars 
adorning his body. He wore them upon his back, some from swords, 
some from claws. He wore them upon his arms and legs. His chest had 
not fared the tests of time any better. The only marking upon his 
body that was not a scar was the black tattoo upon the back of his 
left shoulder. It bore a full moon and six outstretched wings 
reaching away from it: two stretching up, two stretching out, and 
two folding in to wrap the moon safely in their embrace.
	The mark of an Archangel.
	The loft apartment he walked through, a damp towel wrapped 
around his waist, was sparse on furniture. The walls were decorated 
with scrollwork commemorating events, calligraphy artists and 
philosophies. He let them be, and walked the steps of a spiral 
staircase forged from glass and metal down to the main floor of the 
loft. Here the walls could barely be seen amidst the endless 
bookshelves that stretched from floor to ceiling. Yurei stepped 
around a rolling ladder, and let his fingertips brush against the 
spines of the books he walked past.
	He knew each of them by touch and smell, and by the words 
printed within them, but right now he had not the luxury of time to 
sit down and read. The library was left behind, and he journeyed 
into his bedroom. The covers on the futon were messy as always; 
that never seemed to change, and The End itself had been unable to 
convince him to keep it tidy. On the wall opposite the picture 
window were his mirror, and dresser. Yurei opened up a drawer, and 
chose his clothes. He slid into a scarlet, long-sleeved shirt, and 
a pair of black pants. 
	A small, silver ring bound by a silver chain rested upon the 
dresser. Yurei paused and stared down at the ring. When he touched 
it, he heard two voices sharing laughter together. Yurei hung the 
ring around his neck, and tucked it beneath his shirt.
	The cellular phone sitting at the bedside table chimed. 
Someone was calling him, and it was someone important. Only a dozen 
people in Crystal Tokyo had his number; they were either Archangels 
or Sailor Senshi. Yurei extended a hand towards the cell phone, and 
it jumped from the bedside table into his hand.
	He brought the cell to his ear and connected the caller. 
"Yes?"
	"Morning, Yurei." It was Sailor Venus's voice. She sounded 
tense. "I hope I'm not disturbing you."
	"The dawn has already come and gone," Yurei said, glancing 
out at the city beyond his immense windows.
	"Will you be leaving shortly?"
	"Yes."
	"Good." Sailor Venus let out a long, tired breath. "Look, we 
need you to come to the Academy instead of the palace. Is that all 
right with you?"
	"It is." Yurei moved towards the open closet, and slide his 
overcoat off its hanger. "Have the Candidates already learned about 
her?"
	There was a moment of reluctant hesitation. "Yes," Sailor 
Venus answered. "No matter how quiet we tried to keep this, for the 
sake of notifying her family first, the Candidates all seemed to 
know about it before breakfast."
	Yurei nodded his head in understanding, even though he knew 
Sailor Venus could not see it. "They are very close with each other 
in the Academy. They would have noticed someone was missing, and 
some of them have a very powerful gift of perception."
	"I know." Sailor Venus sighed again. Someone on her side 
called out to her. "I've got go. I'll see you at the Academy in the 
next hour. If I'm not at the offices, ask around. And Yurei?"
	"Yes?"
	"Thank you for handling things the way you did last night." 
	The gratitude in her voice did not go unnoticed. However, she 
ended the call before anything else could be said. Yurei tucked the 
cell phone into one of his overcoat's inner pockets. As he pushed 
his arms through the sleeves of his coat and let its weight settle 
onto his shoulders, he approached his bedroom window and stared out 
at the city.
	News of the attack was already spreading.
	Youma attacks were nothing new. The End hadn't even been able 
to change that. But a fatality...that was something new, the first to 
happen in almost a century. And there was something altogether 
different about this one. Yurei pressed his palms against the 
glass, and looked down into the streets. In other neighbourhoods, 
office workers and commuters would already moving across the 
sidewalks, and cars would filling up the streets that had been so 
empty a few hours prior.
	Change was coming once more.
	Yurei left the windows and walked to the wall display where 
his katana rested. He took up the first sword and attached it to 
his belt. The second sword, his Angelus sword, was attached after 
it. Yurei moved back out to the library, and up the spiral 
staircase. The upper level housed his kitchen, bathing room and a 
garden that had once been a guest room with no guests.
	He paused before one of the hanging scrolls: 'Gold from 
Babylon is still gold.' Augustine. Truth was truth, no matter where 
it might be found. Yurei moved into the kitchen and retrieved some 
omochi from the fridge. One riceball still in his mouth, Yurei 
laced up his boots while sitting on the edge of his front landing, 
and deemed himself ready to return to the city. He opened his front 
door, and pulled it closed behind him. In Crystal Tokyo, one did 
not need to lock their doors. Yurei locked his regardless.
	Only a handful of people lived in the area he dwelled.
	Yurei had the entire building to himself.
	The neighbourhoods on the edge of the city proper had 
suffered the worst as the Sailor Senshi had fought against The End. 
Even after the centuries, work was still being done to repair the 
damage, though most of the restoration was concentrated in the more 
heavily populated areas to the west and the north. At the edge of 
the world, broken and crumbling buildings overlooked a gaping 
crater lake where everything east of the Sumida River and Harumi 
Canal used to be. The water was always clear, and revealed beneath 
its surface the murky skeletons of sunken districts. Seagulls 
squawked and fought with each other on the shores of broken rock 
and cement. Ten feet from the edge of the crater a corner of an 
intersection jutted out from the water, raising high a tilting pole 
and traffic light. 
	Yurei put his back to it all, and made his way to the 
Tsukishima subway station. Since The End, it had become the end of 
the line, and seemed to arrive at the brokedown edge of Crystal 
Tokyo only infrequently. The subway trains that did arrive were 
lucky to have a dozen passengers waiting to get off there. It took 
Yurei almost half an hour to reach Tsuikishima by foot, but he 
didn't care. Most of his time was spent watching the sunlight 
filter down through the clouds and dance upon the decayed buildings 
and the lake lurking just behind them. 
	Whether by virtue of luck or conspiracy, a subway train for 
the Oedo Line was patiently waiting at the station when he arrived 
at the platform. The doors of the front car opened invitingly. The 
front cars of every train were cordoned off, reserved for exclusive 
Enforcer or Archangel use. No one else, save for the Sailor Senshi 
themselves, could use those cars. Yurei chose instead to take one 
of the other cars in the train.
	In his car, all the seats were available. Yurei preferred to 
stand instead; it served to better conceal his longswords. He rode 
the subway into the Shinjuku district, and soon the vacant seats 
began to fill up with other passengers. Most paid him little 
attention. A few caught a glimpse of the sheaths of his katana, and 
gave him curious looks.
	At the Harajuku station, Yurei disembarked, and made his way 
into Crystal Tokyo's immense Yoyogi Park. At the park's front 
gates, he merely had to tip forward the scabbards of his swords and 
display their handles to the guard, and he was granted access 
inside. In the past, the entire park had been open to the public, 
but that had changed. Not that the area was lacking for parks, as 
it had been before The End. With the exception of the Shinjuku 
Towers, most of the western Shinjuku district had been restored to 
a green, paradise state.
	They had been expecting Yurei: a personal transport cart was 
waiting on the other side of the checkpoint. Yurei slipped a hand 
into one of his jacket pockets, and drew out an ornate, silver 
pocketwatch. He flipped open the cover, and checked the time. For 
as much as he would have enjoyed the walk, he was on the verge of 
running late. Yurei graciously nodded to the cart's driver, and sat 
down in the passenger's seat.
	The cart wove through winding, erratic trails of asphalt or 
cobblestone. Most of the time they were all but swallowed up by the 
trees, which were in full bloom beneath the summer sun. Yurei said 
little to the driver, and she seemed to know enough not to ask 
anything. A member of the Angelus Order in Yoyogi was almost 
unheard of.
	Soon enough, Yurei could see towers and dormitories rising 
above the treetops. The two Olympic Stadiums once located in the 
heart of the park had been torn down a hundred and eighty years 
after The End, and in their place stood the Academy. The cart 
pulled up in front of the Academy's main gardens, and Yurei stepped 
off.
	The Academy almost resembled any other high school of old: 
three floors of classrooms, labs, indoor gymnasium and outdoor 
running track. At the far end of the campus, closer to the trees, 
were the visitor's quarters, reserved for family members who 
visited sometimes over the weekends. The southeast end of the 
Academy was devoted to the four-floored residences, where somewhere 
between fifty and seventy young girls lived when they were not 
training. There was no way of knowing which of the Candidates would 
be chosen as the next Sailor Senshi, or when one of them might be 
chosen. All they could do was wait. Wait and train so that when the 
time for one of them did come, they would be ready.
	Already there were two destinies waiting to be fulfilled. 
There was debate of a third, but only in certain, secret circles, 
and even then it was doubtful since that Soldier was still alive.
	Yurei made his way along the path, and stepped into the front 
atrium of the Academy's main hall. Secret whispers were silenced, 
and he became the bearer of dozens of eyes resting upon his form. 
They all knew who he was. They all knew why he was there, in a 
place no man was usually allowed, save for the King and Artemis. 
Formal lectures had been halted for the day, though most of the 
Candidates were milling about the classrooms. Uncertain of where to 
go, unwilling to remain still.
	Yurei knew the layout of the Academy well enough, even though 
he had not visited it in years. His last visit had been brief. He 
had chased a rogue youma onto the Academy grounds, and before a 
large crowd of Candidates dispatched it with ruthless efficiency. 
Most of the faces he saw were unfamiliar--newer and generally 
younger Candidates accepted into the Academy since then. Some of 
the faces he recognized, and when he caught sight of their 
expressions, Yurei knew they recognized him. It was hard to forget 
the face of a man who silently left the Academy while he carried 
the severed head of a slain youma by its hair in one hand.
	He walked the corridors and stairwells of the Academy, 
threading his way to the third floor, where the Academy offices 
were located. The expressions he saw along the way shared the same 
emotions: pain, grief, shock, disbelief. Some of the Candidates who 
had been there the longest seemed unable to accept the idea that 
one of their own could be so mortal.
	The offices were busy, but the mood was muted. The staff and 
faculty members working at their desks or moving about wore the 
same emotions as the students. They all remained on Academy grounds 
during the week, even overnight; the fourth floor of the residence 
wing was devoted to making them as comfortable as possible. It had 
been decided that for the safety of the Candidates, the faculty and 
staff should also have limited contact with the rest of the city. 
There were too many secrets that could be told even through a 
casual remark. It was a sacrifice all of the faculty and staff knew 
about before joining the Academy.
	The secretary attending the front desk smiled as best she 
could when he pushed open the faculty office door. The smile was 
drawn and forced at best, and was not successful. "We've been 
expecting you," she said, rising from her chair to bow. Yurei bowed 
to her in the like. "Professor Aino asked that we tell you she's 
currently in the dormitory wing. The second floor lounge. You'll 
need a visitor's pass to get into there."
	"Thank you," Yurei said, and tipped his head in gratitude.
	The secretary rapidly punched a number of keys on her keypad, 
and then bit her lower lip as she saw something flash across her 
screen. "Forgive me for asking," she said, her voice suddenly 
timid, "but this is the first time I've had to do this for an 
Archangel. Do you need to be signed in?"
	"No," Yurei answered.
	She hesitated.
	"If any problems arise as a result, you may contact Professor 
Aino on my behalf," Yurei said. "May I also see the sign-in records 
as you prepare that?"
	The secretary nodded, and handed him a small, portable 
computer screen. Yurei tapped a few buttons on the bottom of the 
datapad, and was presented with an interactive display of the 
Academy's log reports. He began to access the files, starting with 
the previous night. Retinal and DNA matching were a part of the 
screening process for allowing visitors in and Candidates out, for 
whatever varying reasons. Even in Crystal Tokyo, there were 
security protocols to follow where the safety of the next 
generation of Sailor Senshi was concerned.
	The only ones who had signed out were Professors Mizuno, 
Aino, Hino and Kino. As Sailor Soldiers, they taught the Candidates 
during the weekdays and attended to palace matters during the 
nights and weekends. Their names were of no surprise.
	Yurei set the datapad back on the desk. The secretary had his 
pass ready by then, and waited for him to fasten it to the lapels 
of his coat. "The fastest way to the dormitory is to go back down 
the stairwell one floor, turn right and follow the corridor," she 
told him. "There are a few signs to help you if you get totally 
lost."
	"Thank you," Yurei said to her, and bowed his head. He turned 
and began to leave the offices.
	"Sir?" the secretary called after him.
	Yurei paused in the doorway.
	She was almost standing out of her chair. Her eyes pleaded 
with him. "Find out who did this. Please."
	He lingered long enough to let his eyes tell her what his 
voice did not.
	As Yurei descended down the staircase, he was once again met 
by worried glances and secretive whispers he could almost hear. 
Word about his appearance, about the arrival of an Archangel, had 
already spread along the student body. Eyes followed after his 
footsteps, and whatever attempts at a casual life were being played 
out at the Academy slowed to a halt as he walked by.
	He kept silent as he made his way down the corridor. One hand 
swung at his side. The other remained perched upon the guards of 
his katana swords. He made no prolonged eye contact with anyone, 
and did not engage in any attempts at conversation. Asking the 
Candidates would not have amounted to much success anyways.
	When the dormitories were reached, Yurei could feel it in the 
very air. There was an unseen threshold guarded by a powerful, 
unnamed force. And it didn't take very well to uninvited guests. 
Yurei kept still as tendrils of invisible fingers curled across the 
empty corridor and traipsed up his back.
	Something brushed against the pass hanging from his coat 
lapels.
	The solid double doors in front of him unlocked and swung 
open. Yurei breathed in a deep scent of roses, perfume and 
pillowfights. Here the hallways went from functional white to a 
brilliant wood finish. Enormous lancet doors marked each dorm room. 
Most doors were closed, but a few were open enough for Yurei to 
glimpse pairs of beds and desks, splashes of colourful paint, 
pillows and dolls and posters, improvised dressers and racks for 
clothes, and furry mats covering the floor. Music of different 
varieties could be heard competing with each other.
	A Shih-tzu puppy emerged through one of the open doorways. It 
trotted past him without care or worry, and disappeared into 
another room on the opposite side of the hall. Yurei smirked and 
wondered how long it would take before someone saw him and sent up 
the alarm that there was a man in the residences.
	Minako was the first to find him.
	She emerged from the second-floor residence lounge, dressed 
in a red blouse and black skirt. A small stack of books was being 
braced between her hands and her hips. Behind her trailed a small 
group of Candidates. The oldest of them looked to be fourteen or 
fifteen. The entire procession froze when Minako saw Yurei.
	The whispering began again.
	"Yurei-san," Minako exclaimed. She sounded surprised to see 
him even though she had been the one to summon him to the Academy.
	Yurei heard a few doors behind him open up as curious 
students poked their heads out to see what was going on.
	"I regret that I am a little late," he said, bowing formally 
to her.
	"I-It's all right," Minako reassured him, and she let out a 
nervous titter. "I didn't think your pass would let you in this 
far. Why don't you join me in my office?"
	He nodded, and waited for her to glide up alongside him. When 
they were shoulder to shoulder Yurei turned and walked with Minako. 
Her gaze roamed up and down his form as they casually strolled the 
hall.
	"I see you still like your silk," she said.
	Yurei made what might have been a shrug. "Old tastes die 
hard."
	"So do you."
	"It's not for a lack of others trying."
	They reached a closed door. Minako held her palm out to the 
doorknob, and it unlocked for her. Inside was her personal office; 
she was the only Senshi whose office was located inside the 
residence quarters. It resembled an office of sorts, though the 
old, preserved Three Lights posters were a dead giveaway to 
Minako's tastes. On her desk was a small, framed photograph of her 
and what looked to be an upperclassman Candidate. The two were 
smiling and holding hands beneath one of the sakura trees found on 
the Academy grounds.
	Minako and Yurei sat down in a pair of cushy, leather 
armchairs far from her desk. Yurei had to detach his sword 
scabbards from his belt in order tp to sit down properly. The 
windows the armchairs faced looked down into the courtyard; a 
sprinting race had begun on the track between three Candidates.
	"Water? Milk?" Minako offered, and gestured to a small fridge 
sitting near her armchair.
	Yurei shook his head.
	"Beer then?"
	A smile cracked its way across Yurei's lips. "If there's any 
Scotch, I'll indulge."
	Minako smirked and leaned over to the fridge. "Fortunately 
for you, I still have that hundred year-old Bushmills Malt."
	"You're a lady and a saint," Yurei said, and sat back in his 
armchair as Minako poured him a glass. He glanced out at the 
courtyard. The blonde-haired Candidate in the middle lane had won 
the sprinting race. "I was almost expecting the entire Academy to 
be on lockdown."
	"That's not the message we want to send out to the city, 
Yurei," Minako said with a great degree of diplomatic tact. She 
dropped two ice cubes in with his Scotch. "We are not to be afraid, 
and we are not going to close ranks when the rest Crystal Tokyo 
needs our utmost reassurances."
	Yurei accepted the drink she offered him. "A Candidate was 
killed."
	"Candidates aren't supposed to die," Minako said, and sat 
down. She was fidgeting with an unopened bottle of Sapporo-brand 
beer. "Not like that. Not so young."
	The actual aging process of Crystal Tokyo's citizens 
continued in a normal succession until a person's twentieth 
birthday. On that day, they would stand before Neo Queen Serenity 
to receive the blessing of the Ginzuisho, and their lifespans would 
be renewed. Those who stood beneath the silver rays of her crystal 
would look incredibly young for centuries. Death would still come 
for them eventually, and they would die peacefully in their sleep. 
It had been that way for centuries past. Death, however, could 
still come swiftly on silent wings and through unnatural ways.
	Minako lowered her head into her hands, and began to cry. 
Tears streamed down her face and sobs racked her body. Out or 
respect for her mourning, Yurei bowed his head and said nothing. 
When she was finished, she sniffed and flashed him an apologetic 
smile.
	"I'm sorry," she said. "It's just...this is harder on us than 
we're letting on. I taught Yuki-chan's class yesterday. We were 
reviewing the war against the Deathbusters. Yuki-chan thought that 
Haruka-san and Michiru-san should have remained with us in...I'm 
sorry."
	"Has her family been notified?"
	Minako nodded. "They...they were going to visit her this coming 
weekend. Instead they arrived this morning."
	"Are they still in the Academy?"
	"Yes, in the family guest quarters."
	Yurei watched as she set the bottle of Sapporo on the 
endtable between them and left it there untouched and unopened.
	"Please," Minako said to him, "don't...don't talk to them just 
yet. This is harder on them than anyone else. She was already 
talking about becoming an Academy professor regardless of whether 
or not she was chosen."
	The majority of the faculty was comprised of Candidates who 
had completed all the regimen they could, and still had yet to be 
chosen. At the age of nineteen, they were given the opportunity to 
remain as senior Candidates and spend their lives in training, or 
instead become Academy instructors, or create a new life for 
themselves in Crystal Tokyo. Not many left the Academy; to leave 
was to admit that despite everyone's hopes, you were not going to 
be a Sailor Senshi. Those who did were given the opportunity to 
change their names and basic appearances, if they did not wish to 
be known by anyone else.
	Yurei stared down at the glass in his hands. "The barrier to 
the residences is as strong as ever," he said. "I am surprised that 
similar defenses were not raised around the entire grounds of the 
Academy."
	"We considered that," Minako admitted, "but it would have 
been too much of a hassle. For us. For the public. For the 
students." Her eyes, once studying the grain of the wooden floor 
beneath them, now fixed upon his face. "What were you doing there 
last night?"
	"As you know, a part of our duty is to patrol with different 
members of the Enforcers each day," Yurei explained. "I was walking 
with Enforcer Arisagawa at the time, and by chance we encountered 
her."
	"Yuki-chan," Minako said softly. "Her name was Yuki-chan. 
What do you do on your patrols?"
	Yurei took a drink of his Scotch, swallowed and exhaled. It 
was like breathing smoke from a wood fire. 
	"Listen. Evaluate. Teach, mostly. We improvise depending on 
the person and the situation."
	"Did you see who or what did this to her?"
	Yurei set aside his glass, and scowled. "I saw something. I 
saw a shadow."
	"Anything else?"
	In a grudging voice, he stated, "It escaped."
	Minako did not understand the meaning of such an answer, as 
indicated by the furrowing of her brow.
	"I have been one of the Archangels since the beginning," 
Yurei said, "Since before The End came for us all. In that time, 
only on six occasions has something escaped me when I began to 
chase it. Every one of those occasions involved one or more of my 
limbs being speared."
	Those were not memories he enjoyed recounting or reliving.
	Every invasion seemed to leave him with a new set of scars.
	Minako combed her fingertips through her long, golden hair. 
She looked tired all of a sudden. "Another invasion. This will make 
it the sixteenth one this century. They never do end. One keeps 
coming right on the heels of its predecessor."
	Minako let out a long, weary breath and looked out her office 
window. Down in the courtyard, some of the students were practicing 
laps around the track. Like the earlier sprinting race, it was 
something to keep their minds off Yuki's death. "I'm just glad 
Chibiusa-chan isn't here right now. When she and Diana return from 
having fought the Dead Moon Circus, she'll be enrolling in the 
Academy as an official student."
	Yurei understood what she wasn't saying: if the Candidates 
were no longer safe here, how safe would the princess be once she 
joined their ranks?
	"This one is different," he added.
	Minako turned to him.
	"Like most youma attacks of the past," Yurei said, "this one 
relied on subterfuge and stealth. Yuki-san's killer did not want us 
to discover her body until much later. Instead of staying to fight, 
her killer fled. Right now, it does not want to be found."
	"Then it didn't want you to find Yuki's body either," Minako 
said, her eyes turning down to the floor again.
	"No. It wanted her to be found."
	Minako looked up at him, alarm and bewilderment growing in 
her eyes.
	"If Yuki's killer didn't want her to be found," Yurei said, 
"she would have not been attacked in the middle of a well-lit 
intersection. I also believe that had her killer been serious about 
wanting no proof of its existence, Yuki-san's body would have been 
taken with the killer as it fled."
	The pallor of Minako's face grew pale. Her hands were curled 
into fists, and they shook as they rested upon her thighs. "I just 
don't...why her, Yurei? Why did it have to be her?"
	"I don't recall a first victim ever being so high profile 
before," Yurei said. "But this is also the first time a first 
victim has been killed. Invasions have seen fatalities among us 
all, but never this quickly. The initial ones have always been 
spared."
	A few stray tears were trailing down Minako's cheeks. "Can 
you tell me...Yuki-chan...how did she die?"
	"I do not know for certain yet," Yurei admitted, and shook 
his head. "She was taken to the Tokyo Memorial Hospital. And being 
the only doctor in the Angelus Order, Yuichiro will be the one who 
shall examine her."
	Minako cast her reddened eyes and vengeful gaze upon Yurei. 
"Find them, Yurei. Punish them for me."
	Yurei drew himself up and rose to his feet. "I will," he 
said. "However, to properly accomplish this, I will require your 
permission to interview other Candidates, and examine her room."
	The dedication in his voice loosed the tension in Minako's 
expression. She sighed again and sat back in her armchair. "Done. 
Do you want any of the other Archangels with you? I could contact 
Momo-chan and Shingo--"
	"No," Yurei said politely, cutting her off.
	Minako gave him a look that asked why.
	"The entire city will know by nightfall that an Archangel has 
been assigned to Yuki-san's killing," Yurei told her. "That enough 
will raise the level of panic in Crystal Tokyo. Two Archangels 
investigating will only feed those fears. We do not need two 
Archangels yet. Not unless this escalates."
	"Will you play nicely with the others if you do require their 
help?" Minako asked with a sly smile.
	Her smiles always had a way of making Yurei chuckle. "I 
always have."
	The smile faded.
	"Do you still trust me?"
	Minako tipped her head up towards his face. "What?"
	"I was there to witness the attack," Yurei said. "Be it by 
providence or coincidence, it makes for a disturbingly convenient 
alibi. You cannot lie and tell me you haven't wondered if I might 
be the mastermind behind this attack."
	Minako's steady gaze wavered, but she did not look away. 
"It's not my place to ask."
	"For the safety of your Queen, you should ask."
	"Yurei, it's been centuries since you abandoned your shadows. 
I believe in you. You might want to take your cue and believe in 
yourself."
	Yurei turned away and retrieved his swords, which had been 
resting up against the side of his armchair. "I fell once. By 
Serenity's grace I have been given these avenging swords. That does 
not mean I might fall again." He paused as he fastened the 
scabbards to his belt. "We can all be corrupted."
	Minako knew well enough to understand. "How long has it been 
since you last saw her?" she asked him.
	"Long."
	Minako rose from the armchair, and placed a sympathetic hand 
on his shoulder. "Don't give up on her, Yurei. A part of her is 
still there; Serenity-sama is still trying to find a way to dispel 
the darkness that has taken control of her."
	"It is different for me," Yurei said. "She is your friend and 
fellow soldier. For me...matters are more complicated than that."
	"You should still see her again," Minako gently insisted.
	Yurei looked out the windows into the courtyard. A pair of 
students with armloads of books emerged from beneath the shade of a 
tree. "I can't. Not now. Not with what's happened."
	"What has happened is all the more reason to see her now," 
Minako said. "Promise me you will see her before the day is out."
	"The investigation--"
	"She needs you just as much as Yuki-chan does," Minako 
stated. "Hotaru may even be able to help you find Yuki-chan's 
killer. Darkness knows its own shadows. She can look at this with 
eyes different from yours."
	Her blue eyes shone with hope and sincerity. Yurei hated 
being subjected to them, and relented beneath those blue eyes. "I 
will," he conceded. "But first I have work to do. I'll need you to 
show me Yuki-san's room, and give me access to her computer 
terminal."







	And we move round and round in circles
	Round and round again
	Because our mission is the future
	And the future never ends
	We are the future girls

		-Smile .dk, "Future Girls" 



			-generation xx-


	Yurei stood in the doorway of a first-floor dorm room, Minako 
just behind him. The window on the far wall gave him a near-perfect 
view of the outdoor track. Despite the warm weather, the window was 
closed. Beds flanked either side of the doorway, and separating 
them from the work desks and bookshelves at the far end were large 
boudoirs on each side. Between the desks and the far wall was space 
enough for two armchairs and a television set. Next to the 
television sat a gaming console and a helter-skelter stack of 
games.
	"Yuki-chan's side is on the right," Minako said. She turned 
to leave. "I leave the rest to you. If you need me or have any 
problems with the passcode I gave you, ask the office to send for 
me."
	Yurei nodded his acknowledgement, and listened to her fading 
footfalls. He glanced down the hallway, and met with the gazes of 
two Candidates sharing a room further down. They shrank back upon 
seeing his eyes, and said nothing. Yurei stepped into the dorm room 
and placed his palm against the edge of Yuki's mattress. With slow, 
unhurried steps Yurei let his fingers drift against the unmade 
covers of her bed. A trio of throw pillows were sitting in the 
middle of the mattress amidst a tangle of thrown-aside sheets.
	The walls on Yuki's side were decorated by posters of idol 
singers and bands, and magazine clippings from shows or movies she 
had liked. Over the head of her bed hung a wall scroll of some 
animated series he didn't recognize; one of the characters 
displayed held an enormous sword, and resembled some sort of dog-
human hybrid. Smaller clippings were printouts of poetry or quotes 
from novels that Yuki seemed to like.
	By contrast, Yuki's roommate did not share similar tastes. 
The walls on the left side of the room were decorated by large 
scrolls of calligraphy that espoused meditation and Buddhist 
philosophies. Over the head of the bed was a scroll containing the 
pledge of a Candidate: to honour their origins; to defend the 
innocent; to protect the weak; to serve the Queen; to always fight 
and never give up; to remember their duty. He returned his 
attention to Yuki's mattress.
	Yurei's fingers roamed the edges of the bed, and snaked up 
along the boudoir. Beneath his feet, a soft rug muffled the sound 
of his steps. One of the boudoir's doors was partially open, and 
his movements drew it open even more. Light poured down onto a 
cramped wardrobe. Hanging shirts of all styles and colours stared 
out at him. Hanging from a hook on the inside of a door were two 
identical sets of Yuki's Academy uniform. Yurei pushed open the 
other door of the boudoir; hanging from it was a narrow, full-
length mirror. 
	He glanced down at the bottom of the boudoir, and saw crammed 
pairs of shoes jostling for space. There was an opening in the top 
right corner. In all likelihood the place for the heeled shoes Yuki 
had been wearing when she was killed.
	Yurei stepped across the room and pulled open the boudoir of 
Yuki's roommate. Only one Academy uniform was hanging on the 
inside. He closed the boudoir and moved to Yuki's desk.
	The outer rim was a collection of frames and photographs. 
They were of family and friends, and Yuki was in all of them 
somewhere. Yurei learned much as he looked at each picture in turn. 
He learned that she was the middle of three daughters, and that her 
father was a baker; he recognized the bakery in the background of 
one picture. They made good croissants there.
	Yuki's eyes shone in every photograph, and none greater than 
the picture taken of her being received by Sailor Mars into the 
Academy during the formal inauguration ceremony. At the start of 
each school year, the ones newly selected as Candidates would be 
presented to the Inner Senshi and the rest of the Academy. She had 
worn a ceremonial kimono for the occasion, and looked to be 
blushing as she shook hands with Sailor Mars.
	So Yuki had a favourite Senshi after all.
	Yurei's fingertips ran down the glass surface covering the 
photograph, and stopped on Sailor Mars' face. His eyes scoured all 
the pictures to the left of it, and then the ones on the right. The 
remaining pictures he had yet to examine were of Yuki and her 
circle of friends and fellow classmates. Five in total, and they 
looked to range from among the newest Candidates to senior ones. 
	The blonde in one picture he recognized; he had seen her 
running the track from Minako's office. The other three he did not 
recognize. Yurei memorized their faces, and set the frame back down 
in its place amongst the others.
	Aside from the picture of Yuki's acceptance ceremony, none 
were of her life as a Candidate. They were all images captured of 
Yuki, not of a girl training to perhaps one day be the next Sailor 
Senshi. They showed a means of escape, of release. They showed 
Yurei how much she needed it. Her eyes shone the most in the 
picture with Sailor Mars. Her smiles were the greatest and most 
sincere with her friends.
	Yurei took a picture of Yuki with her friends, removed it 
from the frame and slid it into an inner jacket pocket. He left the 
other pictures alone and began to look through her desk. There were 
no secret diaries stowed away inside the drawers. He could find no 
copies of letters to her kin. 
	It was not until he felt underneath the middle drawer of her 
desk did Yurei find something. A small plastic folder had been 
taped to the underside. Hidden inside was a set of printouts with 
questions and only the right answers. There were no grades or marks 
already scribbled down on it. The date posted on it matched 
today's. Yurei carefully set the papers down on the desk, and 
removed one of the spare folders from Yuki's desk. He took a set of 
tweezers from her boudoir and used them to grip the corner of the 
papers as he slid them inside the folder.
	A quick scan of her computer terminal showed Yuki's ongoing 
projects. Three essays due in the upcoming week. Only one had been 
started, and it was half-completed at best. Yurei read the opening 
remarks:

	The strategies of the Dark Kingdom failed because of three 
	basic reasons: their lack of knowledge of the Sailor Senshi 
	and their total numbers; their inability to properly gauge
	the extent of the Sailor Senshi's powers; and their 
	arrogance in assuming the Sailor Senshi could be easily 
	defeated in--

	Yurei closed the file and chose something else to read. The 
thoughts and grammar followed that of a sixteen year-old, and with 
the exception of some choice opinions, everything Yuki wrote 
reflected only what she had been taught.
	This far into the semester, Yuki's midterm grades would have 
already been sent to her. Yurei used her dorm terminal to access 
the Academy files. His passcode also guaranteed that he could look 
into her personal files. What he saw didn't surprise him: Yuki had 
been struggling to keep her grades above a B average. Yurei had 
reviewed the Academy curriculum once, and knew it was more 
difficult than others thought. Some portions he had helped create 
and design.
	Yurei pushed the grades aside and opened the comment files 
made by each faculty member. They all praised her, Artemis 
especially, and encouraged her to pursue the coursework with more 
effort. Even the Sailor Senshi themselves had little to criticize 
her for. They cited how much energy she brought to labs and 
discussions, and how much everyone seemed to like and get along 
with her.
	"Who are you?" 
	Yurei turned his head.
	Standing in the doorway was a young woman no older than 
thirteen. At best, she came up to his shoulders. Curls of brown 
hair framed her pale face and spilled down over her shoulders. She 
pushed her reading glasses up the bridge of her nose and stared at 
him with untrusting, bloodshot eyes. She had been crying. 
	Her green eyes roamed up and down his form, and registered 
recognition. "You're him," she whispered. "You're the Archangel." 
	"I'm an Archangel," he answered, stressing the 'an', and 
closed down Yuki's terminal. "You were a friend of Yuki-san's?"
	"Sumire Asagiri," the girl said. "I'm...I was her roommate."
	The Academy made a point of pairing up older Candidates with 
the newer, younger ones. It was part of the mentoring program, 
meant to foster a sense of community and camaraderie. Yurei glanced 
back at Yuki's pictures. He found Sumire's face in only one of the 
pictures, and it was not a very enthusiastic face, despite Yuki's 
seemingly infectious smile next to it.
	"Do you know where she was last night?" he asked.
	Sumire frowned. "No. They were always up to something, Yuki 
and her friends." She motioned with her chin towards the picture on 
Yuki's desk. 
	Yurei let his elbow rest upon the hilts of his swords. "When 
did she leave her room last night?" 
	She didn't reply, and awkwardly studied the walls. 
	"In the middle of the night, then," Yurei answered for her. 
"Did Yuki-san do this often?"
	Sumire gave an answer, but only after much hesitation. "She 
would sneak out when she thought I was asleep. She did it a lot." 
She quickly added, "I only went with her once, the first time. I 
haven't followed after her since then. I don't want to get caught 
breaking the rules."
	"You never told anyone else about Yuki?"
	"I...I didn't want to get in trouble with the other 
Candidates." Sumire stared down at the floor and in a quiet voice 
whispered, "I like it here. This is my home." 
	Yurei turned away from her, and placed a hand on the 
windowsill. Of all the other rooms he had glimpsed, this was the 
first one lacking any sort of decorations on the windowsill. Yuki 
had used this, and not the halls, as her means of escape.
	"How...how did she die?" Sumire asked.
	He answered with the truth. "I don't know."
	"Will you tell me when you do?"
	Yurei's eyes narrowed as he saw the blonde from Yuki's 
photograph walk across the track. His hand reached for the folder 
on Yuki's desk. "Perhaps. If you will excuse me, Sumire-san."
	Sumire stepped aside, and when Yurei crossed back into the 
hall she quietly pushed the door closed behind him. Yurei gave the 
silent door a casual glance before taking the shortest route out 
into the quad. He found the blonde runner easily enough. She 
glanced in his direction as he stepped onto the green grass 
surrounding the track.
	Saying a brief good-bye to her friends, the blonde Candidate 
left the track, and then the quad. Yurei followed after her, 
keeping an unhurried pace. He trailed after her shadow and 
footsteps as she went into the Academy halls and walked the 
classroom corridors. 
	She led him up one floor, down a hallway and around a corner.
	Yurei took three steps around the corner before pausing and 
letting her make her presence known. She had been attempting to 
lurk against the wall, hiding outside of his peripheral vision. It 
was a good attempt, worthy of an aspiring Candidate. It still 
remained an attempt, and thusly not a success. 
	Yurei did not turn around to face her at first. "I trust," he 
said, "that you are giving us the opportunity to discuss things 
privately away from the ears of everyone else."
	He turned around, and beheld one of the Candidates. Her hair 
was as gold as Minako's or Serenity's, though it barely reached 
past her jawline. She stood as tall as him, and her eyes tried to 
pin him down beneath a hardened stare. He shrugged off her stare in 
the time it took to take a single step. 
	Yurei turned into an empty classroom. She followed.
	"Might I inquire of your name before we continue?" he asked.
	She gave him no confused looks or suspicious glances. Instead 
she gave him what he asked for. "Hikari," she said. "Candidate one-
four-seven. And I know who you are."
	That did not surprise Yurei. "Then you also know why I am 
here," he said.
	She nodded. "Just promise me you'll find Yuki-chan's killer 
before I do."
	"Why?"
	"Because I doubt I will show as much mercy to that youma 
bastard as you might."
	"I do not yet know if it was a youma," Yurei told her.
	Hikari let out a bark of derisive laughter. "The people of 
Crystal Tokyo don't kill."
	"We're all human," Yurei said, his voice lowering. "Human 
beings were and still are capable of killing each other."
	"So what are you saying?" Hikari snapped. Her voice trembled 
not on the verge of despair, but of righteous fury. "That some 
person killed my best friend?"
	"No."
	"Then what are you saying?"
	Yurei watched the sweat trickle down Hikari's face.  "You 
should get some sleep."
	Now she stared at him in confusion. "Aren't you going to 
question me?"
	"I have been watching you push your body to its limits this 
entire afternoon," Yurei said to her. "You are growing more 
exhausted than you care to admit to."
	"And what of it?" she asked, her tone indignant.
	The corners of Yurei's mouth curled into the beginnings of a 
smirk. "Exhaustion leads to heightened aggression. And that will 
not give me the answers I seek."
	Hikari tried to stare him down again, to get him to admit 
what she wanted to hear. She found no such weakness in eyes, and 
yielded. With a defeated sigh she sat down on the edge of the desk. 
"What do you want to know?"
	"You're one Yuki-san's four closest friends," Yurei said. 
"Where are the others?"
	"We're right here," another voice answered for him.
	Yurei turned around, and found three grieving, glaring faces 
looking back at him. Like Hikari, they looked the same respective 
age as Yuki. That made them classmates, though not necessarily in 
the same class. They had also been the ones talking with Hikari 
when she had left the track.
	"What are your names?" he asked them.
	"Do you need our Candidate numbers?" the smallest of them 
asked. Curls of brown hair spiralled down on either side of her 
face and hung at her breasts. She wore a small pair of glasses, and 
her voice was delicate like a wisp of wind.
	"With something as delicate as this," Yurei said, "I need 
faces, not numbers."
	With some reluctance and some defiance, they gave him their 
names.
	One stood almost as tall as Hikari, and looked more European 
then Japanese. It was not entirely surprising, given how many 
tourists and foreign dignitaries had been in Tokyo when it barely 
survived The End. Her long blonde hair was woven into two curious, 
thick pigtails that stuck out almost sideways. "Robin," she said.
	Next to her was, "Yumeko." Yumeko's hair was black like a 
raven's wing, and billowed down her back like a dark cloud. Her 
poise reminded Yurei of ancient aristocracy, and her sharp, green 
eyes reminded him of daggers.
	"Miyuki," said the one with the glasses and spirals of brown 
hair.
	Yurei took in the features of their faces and etched their 
names upon his mind. "Were you with her last night?" he asked them.
	Their eyes came alive in fear, surprise and frantic alibis. 
They looked to Hikari for guidance. Yurei glanced at Hikari in 
turn. Their gazes met, and she knew that he recognized her as their 
surrogate leader now.
	"Where do you think we were?" Hikari said to him.
	"The Academy is our school and our home," Yumeko said, though 
it was a statement that lacked heart. "We're not allowed outside 
its borders at night."
	"I know," Yurei agreed. "But what I am trying to understand 
is why a Candidate was rather far from the Academy grounds so late 
at night. I checked the records; she hadn't signed out, so there 
was no reason for her to be there. They regulate strict curfews, so 
I doubt she was out for official reasons."
	Hikari's stern look began to waver. She bit her lower lip and 
didn't say anything in response. Now all of them were looking to 
each other for a leader who might give them answers. Yurei watched 
their eyes, and found the girls pairing off in seeking a story. 
Yumeko and Hikari. Robin and Miyuki.
	"It must be easier to all be roommates," Yurei told them. 
"You have alibis for each other if the need arises. And you don't 
have to wait until someone is asleep before venturing out." 
	Anger and alarm flashed in Robin's eyes. "What do you know 
about that?"
	"I know you are keeping secrets from me," Yurei stated.
	"Yuki-chan is dead!" Robin shouted at him. Tears were 
beginning to flow down her face. "Can't you leave us alone for one 
moment?"
	Yurei looked elsewhere as Robin began to cry. He locked gazes 
with Hikari once more. "While you shed your tears, whatever killed 
her is still out there, shedding more blood."
	"Isn't that a job for the Sailor Senshi or the 
upperclassmen?" Hikari said, her voice shaky and bitter as she 
watched Robin's sobbing.
	The older Candidates who remained at the Academy, while not 
official Senshi, were still counted among the first wave of 
defenders against any youma attack. They were the new generation 
who stood alongside the heroines of old when the wars would start, 
though their time of true testing had yet to come. 
	Like the other remaining Archangels, Yurei fought in the 
shadows; it was their way, it was their mission. So far, they had 
managed to destroy any threat before it got so large that the 
senior Candidates had to be called into active duty.
	"It is," Yurei agreed. "But my task is to find whatever did 
this to her." 
	"Hikari-sempai," Yumeko said to her roommate in a soft voice. 
"He needs to know." 
	Hikari glared at her. "No!"
	"No," Miyuki chorused. "We don't want to get in trouble."
	"Hikari," Yurei said, addressing her specifically, "I am 
trying to find out what did this to her, and by keeping secrets you 
are helping the very monster you are being trained to fight 
against."
	Hikari tried her best not to squirm beneath his gaze. After a 
minute of resistance, she relented. "It's called The Paranoia 
Groove," she said. 
	Unfamiliar with the name, Yurei arched an eyebrow.
	"It's a rave club," Yumeko explained. She sought out pathos 
and pity in his eyes. "You have no idea what it's like being a 
Candidate--the stress, the training, the homework. You feel the 
pressure always. It's constant. Pushing down on us. We're only 
human, even if we are Candidates. If we didn't blow off some steam 
every now and again, we'd go insane."
	Yumeko held herself with her own arms, and looked down to the 
floor. "Yuki was the one who showed us how to get away. I owe her 
everything for it. I never had anyone to call a friend until I met 
her."
	"She gave me a reason to want to stay being a Candidate," 
Hikari muttered.
	"She made me laugh," Robin said. "You have no idea how hard 
it is to laugh in this place if you're not one of the elite."
	Miyuki was openly forcing back her tears, trying to put on as 
brave a front as the others. "She...she always helped me with my 
homework," she said. "And she was always there whenever I needed to 
talk."
	Their loyalty to their fallen comrade was fierce.
	Yurei saw that not even death could entirely break it.
	"At the Paranoia Groove," he asked them, "did you get 
separated from her in returning home?"
	Yukemo bit her lower lip. Miyuki burst out into sobs, and 
Robin tried to console her without breaking down herself a second 
time.
	"We disobeyed a cardinal rule for Candidates," Hikari said. 
Bitterness ate away at her words. "We abandoned one of our own. We 
were exhausted, excited and..."
	Her voice trailed off.
	"And now we're paying for it," Hikari finished. She stared at 
Yurei with hollow, haunted eyes. "This is our punishment for 
letting her stumble off on her own, and being too damned drunk to 
even notice." 
	"You did not kill Yuki-san," Yurei said evenly. "You merely 
gave a killer an opportunity. I am not here to lay blame." 
	In a quiet voice, Robin said, "You're here to exact revenge."
	"Yes, I am," he agreed, "but not upon you. I may have more 
questions for each of you in the future. Do not be surprised if I 
return."
	He turned away and let his footfalls echo at his back. There 
were other things he had to attend to, Yuki's autopsy being only 
one of them. For now, he had learned all he could about Yuki and 
her friends.
	"What are you going to tell the Senshi?" Hikari asked. "About 
us?"
	About last night?
	Yurei turned back and met her gaze. "You have your own 
absolutions to seek. If I speak of this to others, it will be only 
after Yuki-san's killer is dead."
	"Thank you," breathed Robin.






	i scratch and tear
	until it bleeds
	i only need
	i only need
	i only need...everything i touch i break

		-stabbing westwards, "everything i touch"



			-the useless heart-


	Inside the Crystal Palace, there was a place with no name 
that no one spoke of. It was nowhere. It did not exist. And it had 
a sole occupant. She was sitting upon her single bed, her back 
against the smooth walls, an elbow propped up on one knee, when 
Yurei came before her cell. Her violet eyes were watching the 
buildings of the city through her window. It was a floor to ceiling 
view of the city, and the city could not look back at her. All it 
would see was opaque glass where her cold eyes danced and an even 
colder mind entertained thoughts of wrath and revelation.
	Yurei moved at an unhurried pace, and came to a stop only a 
few feet away from the bars that would hold her at bay for as long 
as she drew infernal breath. His stance was as relaxed as he could 
allow himself to be. Neither of his hands hovered near the handles 
of his two katana.
	"I was beginning to think you had put me out of your mind at 
last," she said. Her eyes were still watching the city beyond her 
window. It remained a city she could never again touch. "To think 
that a living mistake could be so easily erased from your memories, 
when all the mistakes of a distant past haunt you like yesterday's 
sunset."
	Hotaru turned her head, and smiled at Yurei. It was not a 
friendly smile. "I've missed you, Yu-chan. There aren't a lot of 
people I get to talk to these days."
	"You're visited by the Senshi every day," Yurei said quietly.
	"But it's not the same," Hotaru said, and straightened up. 
She slid closer to the edge of her bed, and let her legs dangle 
over the side. She began to kick her feet in the air. "Their 
conversations are always so uplifting and tedious. I get bored of 
them rather quickly. But you, my little ghost, you have such a 
wonderful darkness that follows after you. I cannot help but be 
intrigued by how it has regained its hold over you each time you 
visit me."
	Hotaru slid back further on the bed and spread her legs. The 
pleated skirt of her black dress parted. Yurei saw her panties. 
"Wanna fuck?" she asked, as casual as if they were talking about 
the weather.
	Yurei closed his eyes and turned away. A fist clenched, and 
almost drew blood.
	"There was a time you would have happily taken me up on that 
offer, Yu-chan," Hotaru's voice whispered into his ears. Yurei 
opened his eyes, and found her draped over the crystalline bars of 
her prison. "All those nights spent making love," Hotaru said, "not 
caring if the world and us with it might end the next morning. 
Endless days of secret kisses and hidden smiles. And in the end, 
even though we feared what they might think, the others never 
uttered a word of condemnation when they found out."
	She chuckled, delighting in his silence.
	The near innocence on her face transformed, and became wholly 
malicious. "And then you had to go and end all the fun just when I 
was starting to make the world an interesting place again."
	Yurei stared at her, and his eyes were like ice. "You tried 
to end it."
	The sneer marring Hotaru's lips melted away, and she smiled 
pleasantly. One of her palms stretched out between the bars and 
caressed the side of Yurei's face. "I have missed gazing into those 
eyes of pale blue, of seeing my reflection inside of them," Hotaru 
cooed. "Kiss me. Please. For what we once had, and is now lost."
	Yurei's hands trembled, wanting so much to reach forward and 
take her cheeks in his palms. Her warm breath against his chin sent 
shivers down his spine, and reminded him of midnight trysts and how 
she loved to feel him leave a trail of kisses along her sides. "I 
can't," he told her.
	Hotaru's laughter turned cruel again, and her fingertips 
drifted away from his face. "Afraid of betraying us, Yu-chan?" she 
remarked, gliding back to her bed. "Of betraying what we used to 
be? A kiss need not be so complicated."
	She sat down upon the edge of her bed, propping herself up on 
arms placed between spread legs. "A kiss can mean so many things. 
Kiss me once more, to tell me you love me. I would have given the 
world a genocide kiss."
	Yurei watched her, his heart and his hands fighting against 
each other with urges to kiss and kill. He knew all she could utter 
were idle threats and destructive taunts. The cold metal of the 
collar around her neck kept her powers locked away. She could not 
harm him. She couldn't even leave her cell unless the doors were 
opened by another Sailor Senshi, and she was escorted to some 
secret hall to share a dark and delicious dinner with the King and 
Queen. And so Yurei remained where he stood, wanting to do more, 
unable to do anything.
	It bored Hotaru.
	She sighed and placed her back against the wall once more. 
Her eyes took in the scattered articles in her cell: her bed; the 
private shower stall and toilet; the sink and mirror with its 
various toiletries; the round end table with its stack of reread 
books; the artists' easel and dark, gothic paintings she had done 
in recent days.
	"I do so adore this utopia," she said, "this thirty-first 
century Shangri-La, and the draconian dungeon it has fashioned for 
me. Though it does offer quite the inspiring view, don't you 
think?"
	Hotaru's gaze flickered to the cityscape just out of reach.
	Its continued existence burned her, and she turned her 
attention to something that was far more receptive and interesting. 
"So tell me about the outside world, my love," she asked of Yurei. 
"I hardly ever get to hear anything about it. It's unfair, really, 
that they keep me out of the loop. I'd put so much effort into 
trying to destroy it that you'd think they would be constantly 
reminding me of what my failures have wrought. All I get instead 
are insipid little trivialities."
	Yurei put his back to the bars of her cell, and leaned up 
against them. His hands were growing restless and awkward, and so 
he let them rest inside the outer pockets of his overcoat. "There's 
been a death," he told her.
	"Even in a utopia, death remains," Hotaru replied. She 
remained unimpressed. "The Ginzuisho may have extended all our 
lives, but we all still bleed. We all still die. Sooner or later, 
it comes for us all."
	"This time it's different," Yurei said.
	Hotaru regarded his words with newfound interest. The corner 
of her mouth twitched. "A youma attack?"
	Yurei nodded his head. "It appears so, yes. A Candidate was 
killed."
	The twitch on the corner of Hotaru's mouth became a damning 
smirk. "My my," she said, her voice chiding and matronly. "A murder 
in paradise. And what did our shadowy little youma take as a 
memento from her?"
	Yurei's perfect memory flashed the tangle of dark hair fallen 
over the girl's pale, gaunt face. It had once been a beautiful 
face. "It took her blood."
	"Blood? Is that all?" Hotaru gave an indignant huff and laid 
down on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. "You get my hopes up of 
a good Armageddon, and all you have to offer me is a petty 
vampire?"
	She made a tsk-tsk noise, and wagged her index finger at him. 
"For shame, Yu-chan. You'll have to do better than that."
	Yurei's jaw clenched and unclenched as he turned around to 
face her again. He was growing sick from being so close to her, and 
remained unwilling to leave. But Hotaru was not about to say 
anything else. Her feet danced left and right, and she hummed an 
obscure melody he did not recognize. In visits past, he had tried 
to open his mouth and tell her that he still loved her, that he 
would still be waiting for her when they at last found a means of 
purging the darkness from her.
	He could do that no longer.
	Yurei turned, and prepared to depart.
	"How was her blood extracted?" drifted Hotaru's voice from 
her cell. She was still lying on her bed, looking up at the 
ceiling.
	Yurei paused, and did not look back. "I do not yet know. I 
will be examining her body after I leave."
	"But you saw the body. You were there. I saw it in your 
eyes." She giggled deliciously. "Another soul you could not rescue 
from the tide of demons coming against us all."
	"There were multiple lesions on her chest and face," Yurei 
said. "That much I know. When I know more, I will return and tell 
you."
	He could hear the rustling of linen as Hotaru sat up. "And 
you're not afraid of letting me know such intimate details about 
the latest invasion?" she asked him.
	"There is no risk in telling you any of this," Yurei said, 
shaking his head. "You talk only to those who know what I know. You 
can go nowhere."
	In a low hiss, Hotaru's voice reached his ears: "I am 
nowhere."








	Black black heart why would you offer more
	Why would you make it easier on me to satisfy
	I'm on fire I'm rotting to the core
	I'm eating all your kings and queens
	All your sex and your diamonds

		-David Usher, "Black Black Heart"



			-soul & saviour-

	 
	It was short trip from the palace to the Tokyo Memorial 
Hospital. The hospital stood in the shadow of the palace's towering 
spires, and seemed quite content to remain there. Of all the 
hospitals rebuilt after The End, it had been the first and now 
remained the largest and most frequented. Yurei took one of the 
buses that ran along the hospital route. Throughout the entire ride 
he felt the eyes of the passengers upon his back. Hushed whispered 
echoed from all seats, and they were not about him. Not directly.
	In front of the hospital, Yurei paused and stared up at the 
structure. It stood fifteen floors high, encased in crystal like 
most everything else in this district, and all the other districts 
close to the palace. Tokyo Memorial's emergency room was relatively 
quiet when Yurei stepped inside.
	Aside from accidents, there was little reason for people to 
fear sickness or death. The ones who were seated in the waiting 
areas were there for routine check-ups or consultations. The 
emergency room would see trauma, but it was nothing a handful of 
doctors couldn't handle. A few patients glanced up at him, and paid 
him little attention. They mistook him for just another doctor 
getting ready to begin a shift.
	Yurei slid a hand into his pockets and drew out his silver 
pocketwatch. He flipped the cover open. Numbers and hands told him 
he was early; Yuichiro wouldn't be expecting him quite yet. There 
were other places to go inside the hospital. Other people he could 
visit. Old friends who deserved his respect and time.
	Yurei threaded his way through a labyrinth of whitewash 
corridors and departments. The journey required him to take two 
separate elevators, and walk beneath the sign that read in kanji: 
Long-Term Care Ward. Many people living in the city believed that 
such a place would be relatively empty. Many people had never 
visited Long-Term Care. Yurei knew otherwise. He knew better than 
to assume the idyllic feel of the city permeated everything down to 
its deepest core. There were places, like here, like his apartment 
on the edge of the world, serving as harsh reminders to the price 
that must be paid.
	In the visiting and waiting area, televisions warbled and 
children played. Some of the doors of the room Yurei passed by were 
open, and inside he could see bed-ridden patients who had become 
subjected to unexpected accidents or diseases before the 
Ginzuisho's light could reach them. Sometimes, people (mostly those 
sitting inside Long-Term Care) paused and wondered why the Queen, 
who could prolong death, couldn't help heal their sick and broken. 
Sometimes they wondered if she in fact could, but chose not to.
	There were times Yurei himself wondered.
	Not at whether Serenity could, but at the restraint she had 
to exercise. There were lessons Crystal Tokyo still had to learn. 
Lessons about death, about mortality. About humility and the 
respect for life. 
	One area of the ward was secluded from everything else. As 
Yurei pushed through the dividing doors, the noise of the cavorting 
families and friends behind him was cut short. The air became thick 
with somber reverence. The nurses at the check-in barely even 
glanced up at him. They knew his face and his swords. They knew who 
he was the to visit, and how frequently he did visit. It was never 
spoken to his face, but they liked him for it, just as they liked 
the loyalty the other surviving Archangels showed during their 
regular visits.
	The door to one room halfway down the remainder of the hall 
was open. Yurei glanced up at the name over the door before 
stepping inside.
	Umino, Gurio.
	His room was clean and sunlit. The window next to his bed 
faced the palace. Umino lay beneath the sheets, his eyes closed, 
his face peaceful as he slept. Plastic tubes hung around his face, 
helping air circulate through his nostrils. Wires ran along the 
sides of his arms and legs, carefully preventing his muscles from 
atrophying without further disturbing him. The steady, electronic 
cadence of his heart monitor echoed in the otherwise quiet room.
	At the side of his bed sat a young woman, holding his hand 
with fierce affection. Waves of red hair flowed down over her 
shoulders and back. She didn't turn her head as she sensed Yurei's 
presence, and Yurei could sense the warm smile appearing on her 
face.
	"Umino," she said softly. "You have a visitor."
	Yurei shifted uncomfortably. "I'm not disturbing you, am I?" 
	Naru shook her head. "I visit him every day," she said. 
"Usually we just hold hands, and I tell him how our children and 
grandchildren are doing. Sometimes we just talk. Last week, 
Yuichiro, Momo and Shingo played poker with us." She laughed at the 
memory. "Umino and I won at least half of the hands."
	"I'm sorry I couldn't make it," Yurei said. "There was an 
unavoidable meeting at the palace. I couldn't get here...I'm sorry, 
Naru." 
	Yurei looked away from Umino, letting his gaze rest upon the 
night table next the bed. An old pair of glasses, and framed 
pictures of his family decorated the tabletop.
	It was wrong that someone like him should be reduced to this: 
the body of a warrior wasting away in eternal sleep, trapped inside 
a dreamless void from which his mind might never return. The 
machines helped monitor his brain and heart and body, hoping one 
day for a sign of life to return to him. So far, it had yet to 
come. Umino was still trapped in his come, perhaps forever.
	"You still don't like seeing him like this," Naru said. "Do 
you?"
	Yurei scowled as he looked at her. "This should not be the 
fate of an Archangel, Naru. We either survive, or we die in battle. 
He is the only one confined to a bed like this, trapped here for a 
hundred years already, and not even Serenity's crystal can undo 
whatever accursed darkness has seized hold of his mind."
	Umino and Naru had married soon after the Angelus Order was 
founded. Naru fought with them for thirty years before she set down 
her sword and began raising their newborn son. So long as she had 
children and grandchildren, and soon great-grandchildren, she would 
be a mother before an Archangel. To have to endure this, to see her 
husband like this, was a torment Yurei did not envy or care to ask 
about.
	He understood her situation well enough.
	"I don't know how you can do it, Naru," he said, shaking his 
head. "I really don't."
	Naru smiled as gently as she could for him. "I hope, Yurei," 
she said. "I hope. It is why I can still come to see him every day, 
even though I have yet to spend one afternoon with him without 
shedding any tears." 
	She looked at Umino and squeezed his hand in hers. "You 
should try believing in it one day."
	"I hoped once," Yurei said. "And then I had to cut it down."
	It was a danger they always faced, a constant threat that 
came with the Order. Death and destruction always came for the 
city, but they were among those who met it head-on. They were the 
ones who faced the wrath and fires of annihilation, and sometimes 
didn't walk away.
	Umino had been different from the others. After The End, he 
had become the leader of the Angelus Order. He had been a damn good 
leader. And then a century ago, after some of their closest friends 
had been claimed by the relentless marching of evil, it came for 
him. Something sleeping within the bowels of the earth awoke, and 
it tunnelled its way up to the city looking for a world to devour.
	In the final battle, as Eternal Sailor Moon forced it back, 
it dragged Umino down with it. A desperate chase, followed by an 
even desperate search, and they reclaimed him from the dying 
madness within the Earth. Whatever he had suffered in his ordeal, 
whatever torment had been inflicted upon him, he had yet to wake up 
from it all.
	The ripples from what happened lingered even a hundred years 
later. The Order was still splintered. Everyone worked together and 
acted independent. They were rogues, and no one felt it was right 
to step in so long as Umino was still alive. 
	"I heard about the Candidate," Naru said. She saw the glint 
return to Yurei's eyes. "You don't want me to pry, do you?"
	Yurei shook his head.
	"Why not?"
	"You have a life outside the Order, Naru," Yurei told her. 
"You have a family to go home to at night. You shouldn't have to be 
burdened by the darkness we face."
	Naru let out a deep, slow sigh. "I still lie awake some 
nights," she said, "Afraid of what's out there, afraid of what 
might come to try and take this all away from us. Away from me." 
	"You don't have to fight anymore," Yurei said.
	She met his gaze with an intensity he had rarely seen in a 
century. "If the war comes to me, Yurei, I will take up my sword 
again. When I stood by your side, I fought for the world, for the 
future. If evil comes for us, and I am called upon to fight it, I 
will be more terrible than before. Instead of fighting for 
something as great and epic as the future, I'll be fighting for 
each member of my family. And no one--no one, Yurei--messes with my 
family."
	She turned her attention back to Umino, her fingers caressing 
his face. Umino stirred and seemed to smile. His eyes didn't open.
	"I may have left with your blessing decades ago," Naru said, 
"but I still train with my Angelus sword every morning. And 
whenever I close my eyes, I'm brought back to battles we both 
fought in long ago. I have not forsaken the Order." 
	Yurei answered her in a quiet, understanding voice: "I 
believe you."
	They kept Umino company for a half hour, talking mostly of 
Naru's family and how the other Archangels were doing. Yurei spoke 
little of himself. Naru knew him well enough not to really bother 
asking. He did, however, tell her what he knew about the Yuki's 
murder. 
	"Something terrible is about to happen," Naru murmured to 
herself when he had finished. "If you need me, Yurei, I will return 
to the Order."
	Yurei glanced over at Umino as he prepared to leave. "Stay 
with him, Naru. He needs you more than we do right now. If the time 
comes, I doubt we'll be the ones asking you to come. You'll arrive 
right when we need you."
	Naru smiled. "Hey, someone has to make you guys look good. 
Good-bye, Yurei."
	"Good-bye, Naru." Yurei turned back to the soul resting in 
the bed. "Good-bye, Umino."
	Yurei retraced his way out of Long-Term Care and returned to 
the E.R., silence dogging him the entire way. From there he took 
the elevators down to the third basement level, where the morgue 
was located. For all its white-scrubbed surroundings, the morgue 
had the look of a room that endured long periods of loneliness. 
When someone passed away, they had to be brought to the morgue for 
a brief examination to confer a time of death, and ensure that the 
deceased had in fact died of natural causes. Even though people 
died in Crystal Tokyo, longevity had made death seem quite 
uncommon. 
	A seemingly young man with scruffy brown hair was already in 
the morgue, dressed in hospital scrubs and leaning over a cold, 
metal autopsy table. He glanced over his shoulder as Yurei pushed 
open the double doors and walked inside.
	"Afternoon," Yuichiro said, and nodded to Yurei. "How did the 
E.R. look?"
	"Quiet, like always," Yurei replied, drawing up next to the 
table.
	Yuichiro smiled. "Good. If mass hysteria hits again, they'll 
be swamped, and I'll have to help out. Remember the Dios Cult?"
	A scar on each of Yurei's thighs gave a sudden, involuntary 
throb. "I'd rather not," he said with a scowl.
 	Yuichiro's gaze darted momentarily down to Yurei's legs. "Oh. 
Right. Sorry about that." 
	"It comes with the territory," Yurei said. He sighed and let 
his elbow rest upon the handle of his katana swords. "It's bad 
enough when youma try to kill us, but even in the future human 
beings still try to destroy one another."
	"Well," Yuichiro said, "in their defence, they did believe 
that ritual sacrifices would bring about the birth of a Sailor 
Earth, and she would succeed Serenity as the heir to the throne."
	Yurei shook his head. "Endymion's destiny aside, I still find 
myself objecting to that idea."
	"Of course you would," Yuichiro agreed. "After all, they 
almost sacrificed you. What's in the folder?" 
	Yurei held the folder and its enclosed printouts to Yuichiro. 
"I need these test pages fingerprinted. Run any prints against the 
Academy records."
	"Will I find your fingerprints on there?"
	"In all likelihood. I didn't realise what I had until I'd 
pulled it out of its hiding place."
	Yuichiro cast a glance at the folder. "What was the test on?"
	"The test hasn't been taken yet," Yurei said. "However, Yuki 
already knew what the answers would be." 
	"Even in the future," Yuichiro remarked with a chuckle. He 
strolled over to the counter at the far end of the room and set the 
folder down. "I'll get to it as soon as I can. You'll probably have 
your results by tonight."
	Yurei lowered his head and stared down at the autopsy table. 
Laid out upon it was Yuki, her skin pale and bluish-white, her eyes 
closed. She looked to be sleeping, not unlike Umino. With her 
clothes removed, it was easy to see the points of contact the youma 
had made: there were puncture wounds marking her groin, abdomen, 
chest, neck, forehead and crown. One on each place, with two in 
close proximity to each other on her abdomen, making for seven 
marks in total.
	There were other marks as well, but they had been made by 
Yuichiro during the autopsy.
	"What did you find out at the Academy?" Yuichiro asked.
	"By all accounts, Yuki was selected at random by her killer," 
Yurei answered. "She was also in the wrong place at the wrong 
time."
	Yuichiro smirked. "So I'm not the only one wondering what a 
Candidate was doing off Academy grounds in the dead of night."
	Yurei continued to study the state of Yuki's body. "She was 
leaving from a rave club when she was attacked."
	"Was she alone?"
	Yurei lifted his head.
	"Most girls go to parties like that in pairs or groups," 
Yuichiro said. "I was a regular D.J. at some of them in Crystal 
Tokyo's early club days. Business for Archangels was slow back 
then, since everyone else thought humanity had been wiped out."
	They all needed to pass the time in their own way.
	Yuichiro had his music. 
	Yurei had his books and his solitude.
	"She was with her friends," Yurei said. "They got separated 
from her coming out of the club, though they seem a little fuzzy on 
the details." 
	"That doesn't surprise me," Yuichiro said. "Her blood-alcohol 
level is remarkably high: point-oh-nine. I'm impressed she could 
even walk properly."
	"There were no signs of struggle where we found her," Yurei 
said. "If she was drunk, that would explain why it was so easy for 
a Candidate to be taken down."
	Yuichiro sighed and stretched his back out. "This would make 
for a rather macabre Academy lesson in why not to let your guard 
down. She might have mistaken it for one of her friends, and it 
managed to sink its tendrils into her before she could attack. That 
might account for a lack of defensive wounds."
	Leaning forward, Yurei studied one of the marks on Yuki's 
abdomen. "Hotaru called it a vampire," he said, and reached up to 
grab a gooseneck light and magnifier hanging from the ceiling. 
	"Wouldn't entirely surprise me," Yuichiro said. "After all 
we've seen, I'm not about to say that there isn't some vampiric 
strain of youma out there. You saw Hotaru?"
	Yurei nodded. "At Minako's request."
	"How is she?"
	Yurei didn't look up from the magnifier. "Insane."
	There was a moment of awkward silence.
	 "I'm sorry," Yuichiro said, his voice tinged with regret. 
"If there had been anything I could have done back then--"
	"You did what you had to do," Yurei stated. His gaze shifted 
from the view through the magnifier to Yuichiro. "We all did."
	"Don't talk so casually about it like it was some backyard 
game we played," Yuichiro stated hotly. "We lost three Outer Senshi 
that day. Haruka and Michiru never walked away from that battle, 
and neither did Kyusuke. You're damned lucky to have survived it 
yourself, given what you did. There are only four of us left now, 
Yurei. Naru left the Order to be with her family. Hell, she's 
probably upstairs with Umino right now."
	"She is," Yurei cut in.
	Yuichiro paused, his anger dying down. "Motoki and Unazuki 
were killed by the youma invasion that followed after Nemesis. 
Souchi Tomoe was tortured and murdered for information he never did 
give. And Urawa never survived The End when it came two hundred 
years ago. How long has it been since Neo Queen Serenity knighted 
the last Archangel into our order?"
	Yurei pinned Yuichiro down with an even stare. "Have you 
found any potentials worth recommending to her? Anyone outside of 
the friends and family who were there at The End?"
	Yuichiro scowled and looked down at the floor. "No."
	"We were there as witnesses to The End, and our Order was 
created out of its ashes," Yurei said. "Perhaps we are reaching our 
own end now. Perhaps the advent of Candidates like Yuki-san means 
we're going to be replaced soon."
	"Don't let it get you down," Yuichiro said. "As it is, if any 
of them actually do get chosen, we don't know what to expect. They 
could have the same exact powers as their predecessors, or have 
totally new and different abilities. Hell, we might wind up with 
another guardian cat showing up. We're not obsolete yet, Yurei." 
	"One day, that may just change," Yurei said. "But I won't 
dwell upon it until I myself am dead, or I find myself the last of 
us left standing against the tide of darkness."
	"You're a bastard, you know that?" Yuichiro said with a weary 
sigh, and he shook his head at Yurei. "You're a stubborn, guilt-
ridden bastard who still can't change himself even if the world 
changes around him."
	Something about that remark made Yurei smirk. "And here 
Minako wonders why it's so difficult for me to play with others."
	Yuichiro sighed again. "She obviously hasn't worked alongside 
you the way the rest of us have. So how many details about Yuki are 
going to be made public?"
	"That's not for us to decide."
	The both of them returned their attention to Yuki's body.
	"What can you tell me about the youma that attacked her?" 
Yurei asked.
	"Well, your youma is a Buddhist."
	Yurei arched one of his eyebrows. "Do tell." 
	Yuichiro pointed in turn to the wounds on Yuki's body. "These 
markings are not simply random. They match perfectly with the 
Buddhist belief in chakra."
	"The flow of energy," Yurei said.
	"The head, for example," and Yuichiro pointed to the wound in 
the middle of Yuki's forehead. "It's the Third Eye, and sixth 
chakra point. Chakra itself is linked with the body's seven energy 
centers, which makes our youma either religious or very disturbed."
	Yurei's brow furrowed, and he looked back down at Yuki. "Do 
you think it actually drank her blood, Yuichiro?"
	Yuichiro glanced down at the cuts made along Yuki's chest, 
marking where the autopsy knives had cut. "Her insides show 
considerable stress from the immense pressure used to...extract the 
blood out from her. A lot of her main veins and arteries were 
ruptured, tissue torn apart. Serious internal haemorrhaging. Not to 
mention some of her internal organs were liquefied, like her liver 
and pancreas."
	With a deep intake of air, Yuichiro looked at Yurei. "However 
she died, it might have been quick, but it sure as hell wasn't 
painless."
	"What do you know about the wounds on her?"
	Yuichiro shook his head. "The puncture marks on her body are 
unlike any I've ever seen. They don't resemble teeth marks, and 
show no sign of chewing or biting at all."
	"Any trace?"
	"None. No DNA or saliva, no prints, no loose hairs, nothing 
out of the ordinary. Anything I found belonged to either Yuki or 
the street she was laying on. And here's what worries me: what 
don't you see on her body?"
	Yurei's eyes trained themselves on Yuki's body, and scanned 
her pale form from face to feet. "No bruising," he said after a 
moment, and looked up at Yuichiro. "No cuts--aside from yours."
	Yuichiro gave a concurring nod. "We already know she didn't 
defend herself, in all likelihood due to how intoxicated she was. 
Even still, I have never seen a victim of any youma attack come 
away so clean."
	With a small push, Yurei moved the magnifier aside, giving 
him an unobstructed view of Yuichiro. "You have doubts, then."
	"About why she was killed? Yes, I do." Yuichiro looked down 
at Yuki's face. She looked almost peaceful in this state, if not 
for the gaping hole in her forehead. "This almost doesn't look like 
an attack. This looks like a presentation. Someone wanted her to be 
found. Hell, someone might have wanted you to find it, Yurei."
	"That remains to be seen," Yurei said.
	An Archangel might have an accessible schedule of what 
Enforcer he or she was patrolling with on any given night, but it 
was left up to the Archangel to choose what streets they would 
patrol. However, two Archangels agreeing that Yuki's death was part 
of a presentation made for darker than usual ramifications.
	"Is there anything else?" Yurei asked.
	Yuichiro crossed his arms over his chest and shook his head. 
"No. Her body isn't giving up any more secrets than the street you 
found her in. Her parents have requested she be buried in a 
cemetery not far from the Academy grounds. The funeral will be in 
two days. The ceremony itself will be in the Academy's courtyard. 
Yuki's family is being permitted to stay there until the day after. 
Most of the families of other Candidates who wish to attend the 
memorial are staying overnight too."
	He began to shed his hands of the latex gloves covering them. 
"The Queen has already requested all four Archangels attend as a 
sign of goodwill, and to help quell any growing fears. So where are 
you going to go now?"
	"The Paranoia Groove," Yurei answered. "It's the last place 
she was seen alive by her friends."
	"Retrace her last footsteps?" Yuichiro finished pulling off 
his other glove. "Sounds like fun. It's been a while since I was 
last there."
	Yurei glanced back at Yuichiro. "You've been there?"
	"I play guest D.J. for them from time to time, whenever we're 
not out saving the world," Yuichiro said. He tossed his gloves into 
a nearby garbage disposal. "It's a pretty good place, actually. 
Good drinks too."
	"How's the Scotch?"
	"Passable. I know your standards, Yurei." 
	Yurei stepped back and allowed Yuichiro to draw the cover 
back over Yuki's body. "I'm done here as it is," Yuichiro said, 
"save for a few more tests coming back. There won't be anything 
conclusive for a few more hours yet. Care for some company?"
	"What about the printouts?"
	"I've got an assistant just itching to show me what she's 
capable of," Yuichiro said. "I'll hand her the folder, and once she 
comes back with any viable prints, I can run them against the 
Academy database. So am I invited?"
	 "You know the territory better than I?"
	"Think people will panic if they see two Archangels 
together?" Yuichiro asked.
	"Only if we make it known we are seeking Yuki-san's killer."
	 Yuichiro paused as he shed the white labcoat from his 
shoulders. "I don't think it'll matter. They're panicking already. 
They just haven't realized it yet." 







	"Passion rules us all. And we obey. What other choice 
	 do we have? Passion is the source of our finest 
	 moments: the joy of love; the clarity of hatred; and 
	 the ecstasy of grief. It hurts sometimes more than 
	 we can bear. If we could live without passion, maybe 
	 we'd know some kind of peace. But we would be hollow: 
	 empty rooms, shuttered and dank. Without passion, we'd 
	 be truly dead."

		-David Boreanaz, "Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Passion"



			-pulsepound-


	The Paranoia Groove had carved itself inside the hollow belly 
of an old industrial warehouse in the Sumida district. While most 
of the buildings around it had been renovated with crystal and 
cleaning, the warehouse had chosen to keep its rundown look. It 
remained an icon on the old world, of old values and old pleasures 
that dared to exist and persist, and sometimes even defy the new 
world that had arisen around them. With the coming of night, the 
neon lights proudly blazed scarlet in an otherwise silver city. 
	Its crimson glow bathed the faces of Yurei and Yuichiro as 
they stood across the street from the club's entrance. A line-up 
had already formed, a snake of people worming its way along the 
front of the warehouse and disappearing around the corner. They 
were all patient, and eager. At the doors, three large bouncers 
ensured order and barricaded the way inside.
	The road shivered to the bass beat of a melody masked by the 
walls of the club. Yurei could feel it through his boots. His ears 
could catch fragments of a song and technotronic chords, but they 
seemed nothing more than a dull cacophony.
	"It's loud," he said to Yuichiro.
	Yuichiro grinned. "It's supposed to be. It's what a rave is 
all about: you lose yourself from the world. All your worries, all 
your fears, all your inhibitions."
	"It's nothing more than a feeding frenzy of euphoria and 
forced forgetfulness."
	"Spoken like someone who has never gone to a rave."
	Yurei looked at the crowd of people and scowled at the 
excitement in their faces. "When I lose myself, I find someone I do 
not want to meet." 
	"Everyone has a dark side, Yurei."
	"Not everyone has to live with it."
	Yuichiro casually shrugged off the dark edge in Yurei's 
voice, and began to stroll across the street. Yurei followed 
alongside him.
	"How do you want to do this?" Yuichiro asked.
	Yurei's even gaze met with one of the bouncer's. The bouncer 
frowned, and then saw the two katana swords at his side. With some 
degree of satisfaction, Yurei noticed the bouncer stiffen and 
murmur something to his associates. "Old Napoleonic rules," he 
said.
	"Divide and conquer," Yuichiro finished with a nod of 
agreement. "I'll talk to the DJ and bouncing staff--see if anyone 
saw Yuki while she was alive, and who the last person was to see 
her leave."
	Yurei reached into his jacket and drew out the picture he had 
taken from Yuki's room. "Most of the Candidates in this picture 
were with her. They might have been regulars."
	"That'll make my job easier, at least," Yuichiro said as he 
slid the photograph out from between Yurei's fingertips. "What are 
you going to do?"
	Yurei let his elbow rest upon the scabbards of his swords. 
"There's an old saying that goes, 'you cannot truly know a man 
until you've walked a hundred miles in his shoes.'"
	Yuichiro glanced over at him, and understood. "I'll call if I 
can't track you down inside the club." 
	"Follow Yuki's footsteps once you get outside," Yurei stated, 
"and you'll find me somewhere along the way."
	They reached the front entrance, and had only to wait for the 
bouncing staff to move aside before going inside. They were met 
with no resistance, no questions. Whispers followed after them, 
spreading faster than lightning down the line-up of people waiting 
to get it: Archangels had come to the Paranoia Groove. They moved 
through a narrow corridor filled with darkness and the smell of 
sweat, cigarettes and sensual trysts.
	The corridor abruptly opened up, and Yurei's pupils dilated 
as he was deluged with arcs of swivelling lights. Electric tints of 
red, green and purple swayed in the air. Glowsticks were waved 
about in frantic, erratic gestures. The music exploded in his ears, 
and he could hear very little of anything beyond the drumbeat that 
commanded the ravers to dance into a delirium.
	An ocean of bodies surged and ebbed upon a floor of wood and 
mirrors, and they devoured Yurei the moment he dared to breach 
their ranks. Arms swayed and fingers wiggled. Some people leapt as 
high as they could, almost floating on air. Yurei was pushed, 
jostled and enticed to join them.
	He cut through the ravers like a cold chill, his gaze 
fixating on each face he passed by. Most were masked in shadow and 
smoke. Something sloshed in a cup that was raised into the air, and 
splashed onto the shoulder of his coat. Yurei scowled and moved on. 
His next step found a young woman giggling and lacing her arms 
around the back of his neck.
	"I think I'm in love with you," she cooed, and licked his 
cheek.
	Yurei stared at her for a moment before raising his arms and 
gently moving her aside. The effort was hampered as a rough hand 
seized his shoulder and spun him around. Yurei came face to chest 
with a towering man who glared down at him.
	"Hey," the man snarled, "just what do you think you're doing 
with my girlfriend, asshole?"
	Jealousy heated his words. Drunkenness slurred them.
	Yurei glanced over at the hand upon his shoulder. He lifted 
his gaze and pinned the woman's boyfriend beneath it. Yurei's voice 
was audible enough to be heard over the music by those closest 
around him: "I would not do such things."
	"Bastard!" the boyfriend stated. His free arm drew back, 
fingers balling into a fist. "I'm gonna kick your--"
	And he was holding onto nothing, the floor in front of him 
vacant. Yurei now stood behind the man, and his katana was 
unsheathed. The bladed edge was held upwards against the man's 
chest and cheek, rigid and unmoving. A trickle of blood dribbled 
down the boyfriend's chin.
	"I trust I have your full and utmost attention," Yurei 
remarked into the man's ear. 
	The man swallowed and nodded his head as much as he dared. 
	"I am not here for you," Yurei continued, "nor am I here for 
your lady friend. However, if you so desire, I can see to it that 
whatever parts of you aren't smeared across the walls of this club 
will have to be taken back to your family in many small bags."
	The boyfriend trembled and looked ready to cry.
	"Now then, if our business together is finished," Yurei said, 
"you should go and dance with your lady friend. Should we meet each 
other again in this fashion, I will not show such kindness as I am 
doing now."
	Yurei spun his blade away from the man's face, sheathed the 
sword and disappeared into the flashing lights and dreamlike 
shadows of the rave. He gave the incident no second thought. The 
man left behind swallowed hard and fell to his knees, and was left 
suddenly sober, but intact. 
	A few minutes later Yurei emerged from the front doors of the 
Paranoia Groove. He gulped down the midnight air and welcomed the 
quiet that slowly worked to overthrow the deafening noise inside 
the warehouse. 
	"Is everything in order, Sir?"
	Yurei turned his head. One of the door bouncers was watching 
him with ill-ease and uncertainty. 
	"There isn't a problem, is there?" the bouncer pressed.
	Yurei looked at the street ahead of him. "No."
	He walked away, walked into empty streets and the stillness 
of the night. Being inside had shown him how Yuki and the others 
would have used it as an escape from the Academy. Aside from that, 
he had found little else of use. Outside was where he had to be. 
Outside was where the scent of death could be found.
	There were so many places Yuki and her friends might have 
gone after they left the rave. So many possible streets, so many 
different routes, and so many unknown destinations. Yet they were 
Candidates. Time only afforded them so much of an opening. After 
being in the club, they would have returned home.
	Yurei began the journey to the nearest train station: 
Ryogoku. It was the fastest way back to the Academy, and the only 
way that would have led Yuki and her friends straight to the club. 
The walk took twenty minutes, and it led Yurei along roads lined 
with streetlamps that numbered more than the scattered people he 
encountered. Most were going towards the Paranoia Groove, given 
their attire and conversations.
	When he reached Ryogoku, Yurei stopped and stood before the 
front entrance. The station had been renovated during the city's 
restoration, and glimmered like crystal shards. A rush of wind 
caused ripples to run down his longcoat. Yurei glanced up at the 
neon sign telling him the name of the train station. 
	"What did you find?" he asked.
	Crouched atop the sign, Yuichiro sighed and shook his head. 
"They all recognized her. Hell, they even knew she and her friends 
were Candidates, but they liked the girls so much they kept it 
quiet. Good tippers too, apparently. Everyone saw them leave as a 
group. Everyone saw Yuki alive. What did you think?"
	"Of the Paranoia Groove?"
	Yuichiro shrugged. "Of rave clubs in general."
	"I can see why Serenity does not entirely endorse them," 
Yurei answered. "And why she does not outright condemn and outlaw 
them."
	Yuichiro dropped from the sign. He landed upon the ground 
with a slight bend at the knees from his inertia, and resumed 
walking as if he had merely taken a small jump. "The lesser of two 
evils will always prevail, Yurei. Better to have it out in the 
open, where the Enforcers can monitor it easier, than to have it 
done in secret and do greater harm to everyone involved."
	"And yet there is no sign in that place of anyone caring that 
a Candidate was murdered shortly after leaving there." The disdain 
in Yurei's voice remained unchecked.  "She was followed from the 
club."
	"Are you certain?" Yuichiro asked.
	"A place like that, anyone can blend in," Yurei said. "Even I 
did. No one noticed someone following after Yuki-san and her 
friends, and no one cared to give it a second thought." 
	Yuichiro let out a breath and stared back in the direction of 
the Paranoia Groove. "Everyone's mind is on the party, not those 
leaving it."
	Yurei nodded. "Why wait outside this station for some random 
person to come along, when you can choose your prey inside the club 
and then hunt them at your leisure?" 
	"If that's true," Yuichiro said, "then this youma can mimic 
humans."
	"Youma have always been able to mimic the human form. This 
one's just an improved strain. What worries me is if this youma 
enjoyed hunting her." Yurei gestured with his chin to the stairs 
leading down into the station platforms. "This was where she got 
separated from her friends. She was either walking ahead of them or 
behind them. They stumbled down the stairs, laughing, probably even 
singing. They didn't notice her missing."
	Yurei turned away from the station and stared into the 
skyline of the city. "But the youma was watching. It took its time, 
stalking behind her, waiting for the right moment."
	"You think that 'right moment' was hearing someone else come 
along," Yuichiro murmured. "Don't you?"
	Again Yurei nodded his head. "It was chance that I was the 
one to come across her. It wasn't chance that she was found so 
easily. It fed on her terror until it heard Enforcer Arisagawa and 
I approaching. Then it fed on her blood."
	Yuichiro scowled. One of his hands clenched into a fist, 
squeezed and unclenched. "This one's different from the others," he 
stated. "This one's laughing at us."
	Yurei started to walk away from the station. "It's not done 
yet. And neither are we."
	The memories inside his mind recreated a map of the city, and 
he followed it along towards the street he and Enforcer Arisagawa 
had been patrolling. Yuichiro walked alongside. Neither spoke until 
they came to a stop before a chillingly familiar streetlight.
	"Is this the intersection?" Yuichiro asked.
	Yurei took three more steps forward, and knelt down upon the 
asphalt. "I found her here. She was already dead."
	He let his fingertips drift across the asphalt, and spoke a 
brief prayer for the dead. "May you be granted the peace in death," 
he said quietly, "that you were denied at the end of your life. May 
your journey to Elysian be without obstacles and without regrets. 
May those left behind treasure their memories of you."
	Yuichiro shifted restlessly behind him, slowly turning a full 
circle. "There's something still here," Yuichiro stated.
	Yurei looked up at him, and rose to his feet.
	Among his many talents, Yuichiro was the closest the 
Archangels had to a scryer. He knelt down and placed a palm against 
the asphalt. Yurei stood back and waited. Yuichiro's eyes closed, 
and his jaw tightened. 
	"It's latent," Yuichiro said. "Whatever imprint was left here 
is dying with each passing minute, but something definitely stirred 
to life yesterday." His eyes opened up, and focused on Yurei. 
"Something old. Something powerful."
	"Can you find its name?" Yurei asked.
	After a few moments of trying, Yuichiro pulled his palm away 
from the ground. "No. It's like the wind or a shadow: one moment 
it's there, but it's gone before you can blink. But I can still 
feel Yuki here."
	He sucked in a deep breath and buried his hands into the 
pockets of his coat. "She was scared, Yurei. Drunk and terrified. 
She knew she was going to die." Yuichiro slowly stood back up. "One 
death. No witnesses. No traces or clues. This is turning into the 
worst youma attack I've seen in decades. It could be the prelude to 
the nastiest youma invasion yet. Do you want me to authorize an 
official alert?"
	Yurei shook his head. "No. Leave that to me."
	If this was a new invasion, then Yuki was merely the first. 
They could do little more than issue a citywide warning unless a 
second victim was discovered.  
	Yurei began to retrace their way back to Ryogoku Station. "We 
cannot go back to Yuki-san's body," he said. "We cannot return to 
where she died. And the Paranoia Groove is too lost in its own 
ecstasy to offer us anything else."
	"What else is there?" Yuichiro asked, starting after him.
	Yurei glanced back at Yuichiro from over his shoulder. "We go 
back to where she lived: the Academy. But not tonight. I will need 
that photograph back, Yuichiro."









	Amidst this drop of time gone dry
	My heart is drowning and writhing
	These lies that make me dizzy
	I took them and tore them up
	And with that, I became lost
	In a world of thin darkness

		-Witch Hunter Robin, "Shell"



			-sunshine on sorrow-


	Yurei watched the sunrise spread crimson against the 
starlight from the warmth of his bathtub. There was no noise save 
for the water lapping at the edges of the porcelain tub. He watched 
the world in silence until the skies became blue and life stirred 
in the streets below. Yurei rose from the water, letting it run 
down his scars. There had always been a running joke among the 
Archangels, where they would lay bets at the start of an invasion: 
where would the next set of scars be made upon Yurei's body? 
	He had yet to escape any threat without it leaving a physical 
mark upon him. 
	Every now and again, Yurei won the betting pool.
	Yurei dried himself off and wrapped the towel around his 
waist. He wandered through his apartment, past bookshelves that 
stretched from corner to corner and floor to ceiling, past 
expansive windows and the city of glass and crystal shimmering 
beyond them. The silver ring dangling from its chain was hung 
around his neck. He slid into the sleeves of his shirt, the buttons 
left undone as he continued through his loft. Breakfast was a bowl 
of instant miso soup and some slices of fresh bread. 
	His cell phone rang as he was fixing his katana around his 
waist, the rhythmic chimes muffled from inside the pocket of his 
longcoat. This time he stepped across the hall and fished the 
cellular out from his coat pocket. He pushed a button to connect 
the call, and held the phone to his ear.
	"Hello, Minako," he said.
	"How did you know it was me?" Minako's puzzled voice echoed 
through the earpiece. "Or is this some latent Archangel ability?" 
	Yurei shrugged and removed his coat from its wall-mounted 
hanger. "I have call display. The number's from your office in the 
Academy."
	 "Oh. Are you coming to the Academy again today?"
	Yurei glanced out the nearest window. "That is my intention, 
unless you instruct me otherwise."
	Her voice was as weary as it had been the day before. Being 
the closest of any Senshi to the Candidates, she was feeling the 
blow from Yuki's death the hardest. "No. No, it's fine if you come. 
I just...how is it going?"
	"I have possibilities," Yurei said as he slid his free arm in 
through the sleeve.
	"Anything substantial?"
	"We shall see."
	Minako let out a sigh that laid somewhere between sheer 
exhaustion and partial relief. "Thank you, Yurei. For everything."
	"I will catch this killer, Minako," Yurei stated, switching 
his cellular to his other hand. He pushed his other arm through the 
coat sleeve. "Time may not be on our side, but time is what you 
still need to give me."
	"I know," Minako reassured him. "I know. Yuki's parents are 
going to be at the Academy today; they'll be staying overnight for 
her funeral. If you need to ask them anything, they should be at 
the Visitor's Wing." She paused, mulled over what she had to say, 
and decided it was better just to blurt it out. "Look, the others 
want you to partake in their council session today."
	Yurei's expression did not change, though the taste in his 
mouth did. "I cannot council them on this investigation if I have 
nothing yet substantial to give."
	"I think they just want to know that you're doing everything 
you can. They're not as close to all of this as I am." She sounded 
apologetic.
	"When are they meeting?" Yurei asked.
	"Tonight. I don't know the exact time. I don't even know if 
I'll be able to make it."
	Yurei rolled his shoulders and let the weight of the longcoat 
settle down upon him. The Academy pass still hung from his lapel. 
"Do what you can. We both will." He began towards the front door. 
"If you need anything from me today, you can find me somewhere at 
the Academy. I shall do the same if needed."
	"Yes," Minako agreed. "Serenity be with you, Yurei."
	"And you," Yurei answered, and ended the call.
	Yurei pocketed his cell phone, and made final adjustments on 
the fastenings of his sword scabbards. His phone chimed again. 
Yurei was quick to answer it after seeing the number on the 
display.
	"Did you even get any sleep, Yuichiro?" he asked.
	Yuichiro's laughter came over the line. "Sleep is for the 
weak and the dead, Yurei. Good news. My assistant walked away from 
those printouts you gave me with a slew of prints. Most of them 
Yuki's, not surprisingly. Looks like she was cramming those answers 
for all she was worth before she hit the clubs."
	"Were there any others?" Yurei asked.
	"Yep," Yuichiro said. "Yours, for starters, but only on the 
first page, and the back of the last page. No surprise there. 
However, on the back of the last page we got another Candidate's 
thumbprint. Candidate number one-oh-six; a Sakura Asagiri. 
Upperclassman, from the looks of things. Honour roll, due to 
graduate very soon. Seems to be one of Minako's prized pupils and 
apprentices."
	The corner's of Yurei's mouth twitched as the beginnings of a 
smile formed. "Do you have any pictures of her?"
	That seemed to be the question Yuichiro was just waiting to 
hear. "Go to your computer and log into the Angelus network. I've 
got her latest photo ID waiting for you in your mailbox."
	"Thanks, Yuichiro. I owe you a beer."
	"You owe me two," Yuichiro said. "I'll collect when this is 
over."
	Yurei ended the call and crossed the apartment into his 
office. All that existed between the open doorway and the glass 
windows at the far end was a chair, a desk without any drawers, and 
a lone computer terminal sidled next to a printer. Yurei turned the 
flatscreen monitor on and logged into the Angelus network--a system 
of databases and terminals only the Archangels had access to. 
	What was first waiting for him was an image displaying one of 
the test pages, with the other Candidate's fingerprint highlighted. 
Yurei printed out the copy of the test paper, folded the page up 
and slid it into his jacket.
	It was easy enough afterwards to find the photograph. Yurei 
waited a moment as that image loaded. He found himself looking at a 
girl with short, black hair and eyes of blue like the ocean. Her 
pose was different, but the girl's face was identical to the one in 
the picture upon Minako's desk. Yurei closed the file and turned 
the monitor off.
	The apartment was locked behind him, and Yurei walked out 
into the city. The weather was mild as he made his way to the train 
station. It was still mild as he emerged from Hanajuku Station and 
crossed over to Yoyogi Park.
	The Academy welcomed him as it had before: with sombre, 
subtle quiet. Candidates were wandering the grounds or milling 
around the halls or classrooms. Classes were still cancelled. Yurei 
stayed on the ground floor and entered the dormitory residence. 
Faces poked out of mostly-closed doors, and eyes stared at his back 
and sides. Yurei ignored them once more.
	He knocked at Yuki and Sumire's door, and was received with 
silence. When Yurei tried to open the door he found it locked. 
Yurei lowered his arm, and then stretched out his fingers in a way 
that made his knuckles crack and pop. He gently pressed his 
fingertips against the centre of the door.
	The door swung open without fuss or fight.  
	Yurei glanced back down either side of the hall, staring at 
the Candidates long enough to let them see his eyes. He did not 
want to be disturbed by anyone crowding near the doorway. Yurei 
went inside and pushed the door up against the doorframe, but did 
not let the latch click into place.
	Yuki's room looked no different from the day before. It was 
ready to welcome her back with warm memories and creature comforts. 
Yurei let his fingers trail along the covers of her bed. His touch 
drifted along the various clothes in her closet, and then along one 
of her drawers. He opened up the drawer and found folded sweaters 
looking back up at him. Yurei slipped his hands beneath the 
sweaters and drew something hidden beneath them.
	He had caught two dresses by mistake, but they served enough 
confirmation. They styles of the clothes were too revealing, too 
risqué and too colourful to be her casual clothes at the Academy. 
She had hidden her clubbing wardrobe quite well. 
	"You're back again."
	Yurei turned his head, and saw Sumire standing in the 
doorway. Sudden alarm registered in her eyes as she saw the dresses 
in his hands.
	"What do you want?" she asked, quickly closing the door shut 
behind her.
	"I am not here for you," Yurei said. "Not yet. There is 
something I must retrieve from Yuki's possessions."
	"Those?"
	Yurei began to fold the dresses back up, and slid them under 
the sweaters. "No."  
	Sumire sat upon the edge of her bed, staring down at her 
feet. "Her parents will be in here later today," she said. "They'll 
be cleaning out her room. I won't be here for it."
	"Why not?"
	Sumire turned and glared at Yurei, as if he was responsible 
for the tears streaming down her face.
	 "Do you think I want to see them take away the things from 
my roommate, my friend? The funeral will be horrible enough. It 
shouldn't have been like this. Not for her. Not for a Candidate."
	She sniffed and wiped the tears off her cheek. Yurei could 
see the bravado she was trying to draw out, but there was little to 
be had. Sumire's muted voice whispered, "Do you know anything about 
what killed her?"
	"We have possibilities," Yurei answered over his shoulder. He 
had turned away and was focused on Yuki's desk terminal. Out from 
his pockets a disc was drawn; Yurei began using classified access 
codes to route Yuki's files into a directory that he could burn 
onto the disk. Every keystroke, deleted or saved, was located. The 
wait would take time as the files were pooled.
	Yurei glanced back over his shoulder. "Are you keeping 
anything of Yuki-san's for yourself?"
	Sumire nodded, though she stared blankly down at her feet. "A 
book. She gave it to me the first day we roomed together." Her gaze 
shifted to the bookshelves mounted over the head of her bed. She 
slid across her covers and retrieved a hardcover book from her 
small library. The cover was well-used and well-loved. Sumire held 
it out for Yurei to see.
	Yurei took the book in his hands and examined the cover. 
"'The Miracle Romance'," he read. 
	It was a children's book about Neo Queen Serenity and King 
Endymion, back when they were known as Sailor Moon and Tuxedo 
Kamen. Minako had written it long before the Academy had even been 
a mere concept, as a gift to Serenity on her twentieth birthday. 
The book had somehow managed to find its way into the city and 
remained among the top three most beloved books ever.
	Yurei had read it all the way through. 
	He even had a rare first edition, signed by Minako herself.
	Every now and again he would open it up, make it through the 
first few chapters, and then close the covers shut. Every now and 
again he would remind himself why he didn't like reading that book.
	"What do you think of it?" he asked Sumire as he handed it 
back to her.
	Sumire almost ceremonially cradled the book against her 
chest. "It's been my inspiration. Every time I think about leaving 
the Academy, about giving up or giving in, I read this and find the 
strength to stay. The Sailor Senshi fought so hard for such greater 
causes. I don't want to fall short of them."
	An audible, electronic click came from the terminal. Yurei 
looked at the screen and saw the data pooling was completed. He ran 
through a few more access codes and began the burning process.
	"What is it like?" Sumire asked him. "What's it like to fight 
side by side with them?"
	"Senshi and Archangels rarely fight side by side," Yurei 
answered. "Whenever we do, it's to stop a full onslaught of evil-
something that requires our combined forces to defend the city. The 
Archangels fight the lesser battles the Senshi need not worry 
themselves over. We also fight the dirty ones to keep them from 
getting killed."
	Sumire was silent, as if his words had delivered a heavy 
shock to her image of the world at large. For a moment Yurei felt 
as if he had become a total stranger to her.
	"Oh," she answered at last, her voice subdued. "What do you 
do when you're not defending the city?" 
	The disc finished burning.
	"Live in it," Yurei replied, ejecting it from the terminal's 
drive. He slid the disc into his inner jacket pocket, turned and 
began to walk out of the room. Sumire remained sitting on her bed. 
Her head slowly turned as he passed her by. 
	"Where are you going now?" she asked.
	Yurei paused in the doorway. "Elsewhere."
	He left Sumire to mourn, and threaded his way through the 
hallways and classrooms, navigating his way towards the Visitor's 
Wing. A staircase presented itself, and Yurei glided up the steps. 
Someone sat on the edge of the second floor landing, and her eyes 
stared at nothing. Yurei slowed his pace as he drew closer to her. 
The subtle colour differences in her uniform marked her as an 
upperclassman. Her hair was short and black, and her eyes though 
clouded by grief were a piercing blue. 
	Yurei recognized her; this saved him the effort of asking 
around.
	He stopped just as he would have passed her.
	She continued to stare down the stairwell. "I remember you," 
she said.
	Yurei said nothing.
	She persisted. "You were the one who destroyed the youma in 
front of everyone."
	"I've hunted countless youma," Yurei said, "and killed many 
in front of a crowd."
	That made her laugh, though it lacked any sort of mirth or 
joy. "You showed up and decapitated it in the middle of the quad. 
Before even the most senior of Candidates could realize what was 
happening and react, you were there. No powers, no special attacks; 
you just drew out your sword and cut it down. Do you have any idea 
how much they were talking about you after you walked away without 
so much as a word?"
	Now Yurei slowly turned his head towards her, his expression 
even. It revealed nothing. "That was six years ago."
	She flashed the stairwell an almost rueful smile. "For a new 
Candidate spending her first day at the Academy, a scene like that 
brands itself into your memory. Permanently."
	Yurei turned and leaned against the wall opposite to where 
she sat. His hands slipped into his outer coat pockets. "What's 
your name?"
	"Sakura," she replied. "You're just like I imagined."
	Yurei gave her a quizzical look.
	She could only shrug. "Quiet, imposing and sparing in your 
answers. You haven't changed much from when I last saw you. Are the 
other Archangels like that?"
	"No," Yurei said. He didn't even take a moment to consider. 
"Not really."
	"They say you're the assassins of Crystal Tokyo," Sakura 
said. Her gaze continued to be directed down the stairway. "Did you 
know? Even here, they talk like you're an Order of ghosts, raised 
up to swarm whatever armies might march against us."
	Yurei found himself on the verge of smirking. "Do they?"
	Sakura propped her elbows up on her knees, and rested her 
cheek on her arms.  She turned her head and looked up into Yurei's 
eyes. "Is it hard? Is it hard to kill?"
	Her voice echoed a humanity and reluctance that rarely showed 
in the younger Candidates. Yurei glanced down at her legs, and saw 
faded bruises from countless sparring matches.
 	"A youma has no soul," he stated. "It has no heart. It has 
only a single thought beating around inside its brain: fulfill its 
mission. A youma doesn't care if you die. A youma doesn't care if 
it dies. A youma is there to fight, and to win. They are weapons. 
And weapons are easy to kill." 
	Sakura went back to staring down the stairs. "Is that all we 
are too? Just weapons?"
	Yurei followed her gaze, and they both stared down the 
stairwell. The shadow of a passing student flickered at the base. 
"You are soldiers. No one notices if a weapon is destroyed. Someone 
will notice if a soldier dies." 
	Sakura's chest and shoulders gave a momentary heave as she 
exhaled a long, deep breath. "She was killed because she went 
outside, wasn't she?"
	Any movement Yurei was making ceased. His eyes flitted 
towards Sakura. "You knew?"
	She nodded her head. "I went with them once or twice early 
on. Wasn't my thing."
	"What is your thing, then?"
	She hesitated. 
	"It's not place to give absolutions," Yurei said evenly. He 
reached into his coat pocket and drew out the sheet from the test 
printouts. "I see not everyone gets high marks on their tests by 
studying."
	Sakura stared at the paper. Yurei could see how her mind was 
racing with all sorts of possible explanations and excuses. In the 
end, she ruefully shook her head and tried to pin him down with a 
glare from her blue eyes. "You knew," she said, her tone brimming 
with scorn, with frustration at herself for not having seen it 
coming. "Just like an Archangel: pretending to be a stranger. You 
already knew the answers to any of your questions. So why still 
ask?"
	"To see if your answers matched mine," Yurei said. "We both 
deal in answers, after all." 
	Sakura bit down on her lower lip, and relented. "In some 
circles, it's a profitable form of currency."
	Yurei nodded. "Does Minako know?"
	"No. She thinks I study hard to impress her." Sakura sighed 
and propped her chin up on her arms. "She doesn't know I use her to 
get the answers I want. When you are trusted with a key to her 
office and her room, she doesn't think you will break that trust." 
	She laughed, and again it was void of joy. "This sounds 
insane; here I am confessing to an Archangel in the middle of the 
Academy. I should be saying this to her, and not some total 
stranger with a sword." Their gazes met. "Maybe it's because with 
you, I don't actually have to apologise. How pathetic is that?"
	"You love her," Yurei said. It was not a question.
	Sakura's voice became quiet and fierce. "Yes."
	"The Academy would frown on such a relationship between 
teacher and Candidate," Yurei said. "Even if the teacher was a 
Sailor Senshi."
	Sakura let out a bark of laughter, and while it was bitter 
she was amused. "The Academy is a different world from the rest of 
the city. And even inside its walls, there are three different 
worlds: the one seen by those who rule and teach, the one seen by 
the Candidates who play by all the rules, and the rest of us who 
want to be here but see this place through different eyes."
	Yurei kept his hands resting comfortably in his coat pockets. 
His eyes watched the walls. "Being chosen as a Candidate is 
considered one of the greatest possible honours."
	"No. Being chosen as a Sailor Senshi is," Sakura countered. 
There was a growing hostility in her voice. "Becoming a Candidate 
is only a step bringing you close to that honour. But it's only a 
hope. I was accepted into the Academy when I was twelve; I have 
been here for six years, and in that time I have not seen anyone 
selected to become a new Sailor Senshi."
	She let out a shout of anger and kicked the heel of her foot 
against the stairs. "There are three openings, and a new invasion! 
In our time of need, why has no one been chosen?"
	"I think," Yurei said evenly, "that you should not believe 
everything you are taught."
	The look he was give by Sakura bordered on incredulous. He 
had expected it. 
	"A philosopher and scholar once wrote, 'A good teacher can 
only have dissident pupils'," he said to her. "Do not blindly 
accept everything at face value, Sakura-san, even if it comes from 
your teachers. There are forces at work even they will not tell you 
about." 
	"And what about you?" Sakura shot back at him.
	Yurei remained indifferent. "You should believe me least of 
all."
	He grew acutely aware of Sakura now staring at him. He let 
her ask the question that she so desperately wanted and feared to 
speak. "What are the Archangels?" she asked.
	Yurei watched the wall. "We are the ones who survived The 
End. We were there to witness the beginning of Crystal Tokyo."
	"That's what the books say. That's all the books say. Why are 
there Archangels around despite the presence of Candidates? Why can 
some Archangels be male?" Sakura's voice dripped with envy and 
battered pride. She was accusing him of something, only she didn't 
quite know what. He did. "Why do you have abilities similar to 
ours? Why can your power rival a Candidate's? How is that 
possible?"
	A smile cracked open Yurei's mouth, and Sakura cringed 
beneath it. "First," Yurei said, "you have to watch your entire 
world end. And then, out from its ashes, you must be baptized with 
more power from the Ginzuisho than you could think possible. And 
when all that is finished, you must sacrifice everything you knew, 
everything you have and everything you are, for the safety of this 
city." 
	His shadow bathed her in shades and faded colours, and for 
the first time Sakura took notice of just what he was truly capable 
of. "People will notice if a soldier dies, Sakura-san," he told 
her. "People have yet to notice that over half of the Archangels in 
my Order are gone. You may be a Candidate, but you have no true 
concept of what it means to be a soldier in this war. You stare at 
me with eyes that think they can handle it, with eyes that show no 
fear. Believe me, Sakura-san, if you knew what your calling was, 
you would be afraid."
	Yurei left her there on the steps to sift through his words. 
He continued making his way towards the Visitor's Wing. Only once 
did he have to stop and consult a map in order to regain his 
bearings. The room Yuki's family was staying in was on the ground 
floor. Their door was opened after the second knock.
	Yurei was presented with Yuki's mother, who looked at him 
with confused, puffy eyes. Her long brown hair was tied back, her 
clothes as mismatched as her stance. "Oh," she said, sniffling. 
"You are?"
	Her gaze flitted down to the swords at Yurei's side, and her 
eyes widened.
	"Is it Aino-sensei?" came a male voice.
	The door opened up a little more, allowing Yurei to see 
Yuki's father. His hair was black and slicked back, and he wore the 
pants and unbuttoned shirt of a businessman. He removed his glasses 
off his nose as he beheld Yurei.
	"And you are, Sir?" he asked, his tone weary but polite.
	"Let him in," Yuki's mother said. She turned away and moved 
deeper into the room. "He's the one they said would be stopping 
by."
	Yuki's father sought out the two katana, and found them. "I 
thought you guys would be taller," he remarked. His voice was too 
tired for it to be a joke. "Come inside."
	The Hoshino guest quarters resembled a luxurious hotel suite. 
There were two separate bedrooms, each with a king-sized bed, a 
bathroom and a common area equipped with couches, a mini-
refrigerator and a television set. Yurei glanced into one of the 
bedrooms, and saw two young girls asleep and sprawled out on the 
bed covers.
	"It's the first time they've slept since we...since we were 
told," Yuki's father said as he closed their door. "I don't want to 
wake them. Not for this. Aya-chan especially looked up to her older 
sister, wanted to be a Candidate just like her."
	His restrain began to crumble. "How could this happen?" he 
cried. "My little girl...how could this have happened?" 
	"My questions are for you, not them," Yurei reassured them. 
"Would you like me to send for some tea?"
	Yuki's father blinked at him with unresponsive eyes. "Tea?"
	"I find it sometimes helps," Yurei said.
	Yuki's mother said nothing, though she nodded gratefully to 
him.
	"Whatever you want," Yuki's father said with a laboured sigh. 
He wiped his eyes and slumped down on the couch.
	Yurei was able to contact the kitchen and, given the 
circumstances, convince the staff to make some tea and bring it 
over for Yuki's parents. "I will try to make this as swift and 
painless as possible," he said, sitting down in one of the chairs. 
"Answer me as honestly as you can, even if your answer is that you 
don't know."
	They nodded. Yuki's father sought his wife's hands, and their 
palms clenched each other tightly.
	"How often were you in contact with your daughter?" Yurei 
asked.
	"She would write to us once a week," Yuki's mother said. 
"Usually Saturday or Sunday. It was like her weekly report on what 
was going on."
	"Did she ever mention anything out of the ordinary? Anything 
that might have seemed or sounded strange?"
	Yuki's father shook his head. "No, she was always going on 
about her friends and her classes. She kept talking about how she 
was going to become a Sailor Senshi. There wasn't even a doubt in 
her mind; she never even talked about staying on at the Academy as 
a teacher. For her, it was always a matter of time."
	"Yuki-chan was always such a wonderful girl," her mother 
said. She was squeezing her husband's hand harder now. "Whenever we 
visited, she always made sure we could see her friends again. 
Hikari and Robin and Miyuki, and...."
	"Yumeko," Yuki's father finished for her.
	"Yes, Yumeko-chan. She would bring Sumire whenever possible 
too. She was happy here. It didn't matter what she became. That she 
was able to come here to the Academy was more than I could have 
dreamed for her. It shouldn't have ended like this for her. Not 
like this."
	Yurei debated asking them about the Paranoia Groove, and 
decided against it. They were suffering enough for one day, and on 
the eve of their daughter's funeral it was the last thing they 
needed to hear. "Before Yuki died," he asked, "she invited you to 
stay the weekend at the Academy. Did she say why?"
	Yuki's mother shook her head. "No. She just...she wanted to 
keep it a surprise. She said she had something she wanted to show 
us. She said we would be so proud of her."
	"We thought she had passed her physical exams and wanted to 
celebrate," her father said. "That's why we made sure to get a room 
for all four of us. But then a few days later...a few...dammit!"
	Angrily, Yuki's father smashed the base of his fist down upon 
the armrest of the couch. "What sort of a monster would do this to 
our little girl?" he said, staring at Yurei. "Why her? Why...why 
wasn't there anyone around to protect her?"
	Yurei met the man's gaze, but his eyes were cold and refused 
to give up any answers. The answers would not help Yuki's parents 
find closure or relief. They would not like knowing the Archangel 
who found their daughter was now in charge of finding her killer.
	There were no more questions to ask. Yurei bowed and 
expressed his thanks and condolences, and left. As he walked down 
the corridor, he passed a member of the kitchen staff pushing a 
dessert cart with tea and cakes on it. Evidently the Hoshino's were 
not the only family staying the Visitor's Wing.
	Either a faculty lounge or the library was what he required 
now. With little to go on save for whatever interviews he might 
conduct with Yuki's friends, he had time to read through whatever 
Yuki was working on before she died. There had to be a reason why 
she was chosen, her and no one else. 







	Tell the others
	It's the heart's filthy lesson
	What a fantastic death abyss
	It's the heart's filthy lesson
	Tell the others...

		-David Bowie, "The Heart's Filthy Lesson"



			-nocturnal noir-


	Alone in a library cubicle, Yurei sat before an Academy 
terminal and read the words and thoughts of Yuki as they scrolled 
down the computer screen. Some were academic memoirs: term papers 
and reports and group assignments. 
	The Academy terminals recorded everything that was written 
and saved as a matter of precaution. No one ever looked at what all 
of the Candidates wrote down; privacy was an important foundation 
the Academy had been built upon, and only a select 
few had the codes necessary to access files stored in a terminal's 
memory. Even hackers would find themselves up against fearsome 
firewalls and nasty tracking programs. Being an Archangel, Yurei 
had authority to see everything. Whatever of Yuki's life had been 
left on her terminal, it was now laid bare before him.
	He saw captured in various files a young woman working 
through chemistry, biology, art, literature , maths and physics. 
Many of Yuki's courses focused on history and tactics. There was 
also an entire course devoted to physiology and healing, which did 
explain why many of the Candidates who graduated but did not wish 
to remain at the Academy became doctors.
	Her unique skill that separated her from the normal citizens 
was one of water. While she could not summon water out of nothing 
the way Michiru once had, Yuki could harness any existing water 
around her and control it. Her powers reached to the point where 
she could form animals with the churning water. There were only two 
other Candidates in the entire history of the Academy who shared 
her power. The one who still remained at the Academy was ten years 
her senior, and had become Yuki's personal tutor.
	Yurei moved to her personal chat conversations. The dorm 
terminals were linked to each other, and all chats were recorded 
and stored. He picked a random one dated a month and a half ago.

Hoshino_Yuki: tonight we groove. Still up for it?
Mikage_Hikaru: Y is in.
Hoshino_Yuki: so are M and R.
Mikage_Hikaru: usual time and place?
Hoshino_Yuki: definitely. what about S?
Mikage_Hikaru: nope, said she's busy. study session with someone. 
Hoshino_Yuki: with who?
Mikage_Hikaru: no idea. I think it's a remedial class with Prof. 
Aino
Hoshino_Yuki: *shrug* her loss, I guess. see you by starlight, 
then.
Mikage_Hikaru: as always. what's Sumire doing?
Hoshino_Yuki: bathroom. she's getting ready to crash and sleep
Mikage_Hikaru: Ahhh.

	Even with the assurance of privacy, Yuki still made extra 
precautions against getting caught. Yurei doubted he would have 
entirely understood the code had he not already known about the 
club. He continued to scan through her entries, one at a time 
starting from her most recent. They told of secret woes and long 
nights cramming for exams. Yurei saw more of her life than any of 
her teachers, and probably less than Yuki's friends.
	A voice interrupted his work: "They said you might be here."
	Yurei pushed his chair away from the terminal and glanced 
back. In an otherwise deserted and locked library stood a tall 
young man with a devilish grin and long silver hair. "You always 
did have one hell of an information network, Artemis," Yurei said. 
"How is life as an Academy professor treating you?" 
	Artemis shrugged and found a vacant chair to sit down on. 
"It's nice being able to walk around on two legs every now and 
again. Outside of this place, I'm almost always a cat."
	He and Artemis were on good enough terms. Luna remained for 
the most part aloof with him, though Yurei understood why. Bad 
blood from long ago, before he and Artemis had ever met. Like most 
of the Inners, there was still that shard of doubt in Luna's mind 
that he might one day betray them.
	With a sigh, Artemis propped his chin up on one of his hands. 
"On the other hand, I'd as soon not have to deal with my fanclub."
	"You are the only male professor the Candidates have," Yurei 
concurred.
	"It doesn't help that I'm smart, sexy and single," Artemis 
said, with an exaggerated air. Yurei knew he was only joking, and 
in fact took the matter very seriously. "So far, the count this 
week is twelve love letters from anonymous students. They're 
slacking off from last week, happily."
	"It would be interesting to see what some of them might do if 
you ever stayed overnight in the Academy guest quarters." 
	"That doesn't stop some of them," Artemis said darkly. "I've 
had enough illicit proposals inside my office to warrant removing 
my door altogether. You'd think that my position as Professor and 
Disciplinarian would mean something." 
	From time to time, Yurei wondered why Artemis hadn't left the 
Academy and become one of the Archangels. Luna would never leave; 
Yurei knew that, but Artemis was the type who enjoyed a lot more 
freedom in life. 
	"What brings you here?" Yurei asked.
	Artemis' answer was immediate and straightforward. "Help, if 
I have any to offer you." He leaned back in his chair, the smirk on 
his face fading. He suddenly looked as if he had not slept in days. 
"I've always been a mentor, Yurei. I trained Minako, played 
councillor to the Inner Senshi for years, and now I'm training the 
girls who may be their successors. I've had to see Minako die twice 
already. It's not a fun thing. And I don't like seeing it happen 
all over again to these girls."
	"You want to help," Yurei said.
	Artemis shook his head. "Nothing so noble as that. I want 
payback, Yurei. Even in my human form, I can't fight the way you or 
any of the Senshi can. If information is my best weapon, then I'm 
going to make what I know lethal."
	Something about his open manner tonight made Yurei smile. 
"Should we adjourn to your office?"
	"Depends on what you need," Artemis said. "Anything on 
computer file I can let you access from here. If you want hard 
copies, then we'll have to go to the other wing of the Academy."
	Yurei gave a slight nod of approval. "Tell me about Yuki," 
	"Minor infractions only," Artemis said. "I figured you would 
ask, so I reviewed her file last night."
	He rose from his chair, stepped over to Yurei's terminal and 
brought up a new window. From there Artemis accessed his private 
archives, and opened the file on Yuki. Artemis stepped back so 
Yurei could have an unobstructed view.
	"A couple instances of getting a little too rough with a few 
of the other Candidates," Artemis said over Yurei's shoulder. 
"Nothing out of the ordinary. You'd be surprised at how many fierce 
rivalries they have. Everyone wants to be the best, and most of 
them don't like seeing someone who has more potential than them."
	"Just because someone has a greater potential doesn't 
automatically mean they'll be chosen," Yurei said.
	"I know that," Artemis agreed. "You know that. But tell it to 
them. We have to reinforce that every day. Sailor Moon's our best 
example. I mean, she seemed the worst possible candidate, and she 
turned out to be the strongest one of them all."
	Yurei pointed to one of the misdemeanours on the screen. 
"What about this one?" he asked.
	Artemis leaned forward and studied the screen. "That? Ah, 
that would be from last year. Early into the second semester, Yuki 
and two of her friends tried to sneak out from the Academy on a 
Friday night. As this indicates, their escape attempt didn't fare 
so well."
	"Who else was with her?"
	"Officially, it was just her."
	Yurei arched one of his eyebrows and glanced back at Artemis. 
"Do tell."
	"I happened to be the one who caught her," Artemis said, and 
gave a shrug. "She gave herself up so the other two could escape 
without me seeing them. I tried to find out who she had been with, 
but she wouldn't give them up. All I could do was reprimand her."
	"What was her punishment?" 
	"Kitchen duty for a month. Not that it deterred her in the 
slightest."
	Yurei glanced back at Artemis.
	"She was killed outside the Academy," Artemis said. "Not too 
far from a rave club, to boot. All I managed to do was help her and 
her friends find a better way of sneaking in and out without 
getting caught."
	There was an edge in Artemis' voice that Yurei recognized 
well enough. Artemis was feeling partially responsible, as someone 
who held suspicions of Yuki's activities and yet had been unable to 
prevent her from going out. If he had been there to stop them from 
disappearing that night, how might it have changed their fate?
	"Who else was with her?" Yurei asked.
	"I already told you, Yurei, officially it was just her."
	"And unofficially?"
	"Unofficially, Yumeko and Hikari were there," Artemis said.
	Yurei closed the disciplinary file on Yuki, and swung his 
chair around to face Artemis. "How do you know, if you didn't see 
them?"
	"I'm not a Disciplinarian because I only react whenever a 
situation occurs," Artemis stated. "I keep my eyes on these girls 
more than they think, before and after they get escorted into my 
office. Yumeko and Yuki were really close friends with similar 
personalities; if anyone was going clubbing with her, it would be 
Yumeko."
	"And Hikari?"
	"She's Yumeko's roommate. Yumeko probably cajoled her to join 
them that night--a feat I have to admit impresses me." When he saw 
the quizzical expression on Yurei's face, Artemis added, "Hikari 
and Yuki were rivals like you wouldn't have believed. Three of the 
six scuffles on that record were with Hikari. Minako tried to 
intervene, but neither girl was about to let it go.
	"After Yuki was put in detention, Hikari suddenly became a 
lot friendlier with her. Not an overnight change, mind you, but she 
started hanging out with Yuki and Yumeko a lot more. The fighting 
between then died down considerably too. I think it surprised 
Hikari. The two seemed to hate each other, and even then Yuki 
covered for Hikari when she was caught."
	Yurei murmured to himself, "She gave Hikari a reason to want 
to stay being a Candidate."
	"Hm?" Artemis asked.
	"Nothing," Yurei said, and shook his head. "I'm going to need 
a favour, Artemis."
	"Name it."
	Yurei pulled out the photograph of Yuki and her friends, 
handing it over to Artemis. "I'll need you to pull up any 
disciplinary files on each of them. And I'm also going to need you 
to cross-reference all your records. If Yuki is mentioned in anyone 
else's disciplinary reports, I want to know who they are and why."
	"Easy enough," Artemis replied, handing Yurei back the 
picture. "I know all the Candidates with her there. Do you want the 
files now or later?" 
	Yurei's cell phone chimed. Yurei reached into his coat 
pocket, drew it out and answered the call. "Yes?"
	"Yurei-san."
	It was a voice he knew well enough--a voice he did not 
entirely like, a voice that did not entirely like him back. Yurei's 
eyes narrowed and he turned his attention away from Artemis. "I 
take it the council session will be starting soon," he said.
	"In about an hour," came Rei's voice through the earpiece. 
"We will need you there."
	"What should I expect from this?"
	Rei's reply was delayed, but to the point. "Expect questions. 
A private car will be waiting for you outside the Academy. It will 
take you to the Crystal Palace."
	Yurei ended the call, knowing that on her side Rei was doing 
the same. 
	"Council meeting?" Artemis asked.
	Yurei nodded. "It appears I'll want the files later, 
Artemis."
	"I'll have them available to you on the network by tomorrow 
morning at the latest," Artemis said. He shook Yurei's hand and 
turned to leave. "Try to be a little civil with them, okay? I know 
you don't get along well with them, Rei especially, but we're all 
trying to reach the same goal. We all want whatever did this to 
pay."
	Yurei nodded his head. 
	"Serenity be with you," Artemis said.
	Yurei didn't answer. Artemis hadn't expected him to.
	The library door made an audible sound as it closed behind 
Artemis. Yurei's gaze returned to the screen. His fingers darted 
across the keyboard and closed all the different files being 
cascaded one on top of the other. The disc was removed from the 
terminal drive, and slid into his coat pocket.
	A car was idling on the street for Yurei as he moved out 
through the Academy's front gates. The rear passenger door of the 
black sedan opened up and invited him inside. Yurei slid onto 
leather seats and looked out at a city through tinted windows. He 
pulled the car door shut and let his ride take him to the palace.
	The road to the Crystal Tower was lit with streetlights and 
darkened buildings cloaked beneath towers of crystal. Soon enough 
the ethereal shimmer of the palace's great crystalline tower 
rendered the streetlamps unnecessary. Yurei preferred to look at 
the city than the pinnacle of Crystal Tokyo that threatened to take 
up the entirety of his vision. He could almost make out the epic 
fountain at the very apex of the Crystal Tower, whose waters flowed 
day and night, an eternal symbol of life and sign of hope.
	There were many entrances into the palace; the car took one 
of the roads rarely ever travelled. It was a road meant for special 
dignitaries, and visitors the Sailor Senshi did not want people to 
know about. A number of the establishments across the gardens and 
roads separating the palace from the rest of the city were devoted 
to watchers. Whatever or whomever went in or out, they knew or 
speculated about.
	Yurei had yet to travel through the front of the palace, be 
it by foot or by vehicle. He remained keenly aware that after 
killing Uranus and Neptune, Hotaru had been driven down this same 
hidden road in an armoured ambulance. He had been riding with her, 
one hand holding hers as she lay unconscious and bleeding upon the 
gurney. His other hand had been gripping his Angelus sword, ready 
to finish the task if she awoke and tried to attack them all.
	The car pulled into an underground entrance, and drove to the 
end of a long tunnel that was remarkably clean despite being rarely 
used. The passenger door swung open of its own accord, and Yurei 
stepped out of the sedan. He said no words to the driver, and moved 
towards the elevator. Pristine floors and walls resembling marble 
slabs greeted him. There were only four buttons, even though the 
palace was comprised of numerous floors. Yurei pressed the second 
button from the top.
	The elevator shuddered briefly before beginning its ascent up 
the tower. Yurei listened to the steady hum of the cab. In less 
than half a minute, the ride was over and the elevator doors opened 
up. Before him stretched a grand hall, the only hall on this floor, 
and beyond the diamond doors at the far end was the council 
chamber. Lanterns lined the walls, their pulsing white lights 
looking like fireflies that had been frozen in time. Yurei began 
the slow, long procession down the grand hall.
	On either side, epic columns separated sections of wall, and 
rose up to form towering archways over his head. Inscribed upon 
each column were letters and pictographs even he couldn't 
recognize; ancient Lunarian texts, once held sacred before the 
Silver Millennium was brought to its crashing end. They might have 
been poems, or historical records, or even graffiti. Yurei didn't 
know; he hadn't written it.
	Between the columns the walls were coloured with vivid 
artwork of the past. They all bore the unmistakeable touch and 
texture from Michiru's brushes. Each one echoed a harrowing 
reminder of horrors long passed. Yurei saw a graphic watercolour of 
Sailor Moon standing alongside the spirits of her friends and Inner 
Senshi, as they battled a towering Queen Beryl upon a barren, icy 
plain. He saw the black crystal warships of Nemesis floating above 
a 20th century Tokyo, and the shimmering, hollow eyes of the Death 
Phantom. 
	And then came the vision of the coming Silence, brought to 
chilling still-life with a crumbling city, and a frightening 
glimpse into the alien monstrosity that was Pharaoh 90. Behind 
Pharaoh 90 loomed the silhouette of a woman with long dark hair and 
cruel eyes. Mistress 9. Yurei turned away and looked elsewhere.
	He saw Nehelenia's Dead Moon Circus, and the mythical Pegasus 
horse. He saw Galaxia glare down at him with her sword held aloft 
over her head, and the shadowy darkness of the Chaos entity behind 
her. And after Galaxia came The End. Yurei paused as he saw the 
enemy that came almost five years following her. He remembered that 
one all too well, remembered watching the future nearly end, 
remembered fighting with everything he had alongside the Sailor 
Senshi and the friends in their lives who had banded together to 
help save the last living city upon the planet.
	Urawa had sacrificed his life to give them that last, 
desperate victory.
	One thousand years of dead sleep later, Crystal Tokyo had 
awakened, and him with it. Only he had gone to sleep a mortal, and 
woken up an Archangel. After that, everything was changed. And now, 
two hundred years later, he walked the tomes of history, a ghost 
upon the floor as well as the walls. Even more murals and paintings 
of recent attacks and invasions stared out at him.
	And then abruptly, the paintings stopped, and crystalline 
walls were all that remained. Yurei knew why. Twenty years ago, he 
had drawn his Angelus sword against someone he had loved. Twenty 
years ago, the decision to found the Academy was made in the bloody 
aftermath.
	Yurei stopped roughly fifteen paces from the doors and looked 
to the left side of the hall. A rack for storing weapons on 
display, hand-carved and polished with a dark, lustrous varnish, 
awaited him. Yurei removed his swords and ceremonially placed each 
one upon the display. Custom dictated that even Archangels leave 
their weapons outside of the council chamber.
	The diamond doors swung open without Yurei even needing to 
touch either one. They had sensed his approach and knew his scent 
well enough that there was no need for interrogation. Inside was 
darkness, punctured by glowing orbs of flickering light resembling 
fire. Pitch black clung to the corners and walls, and seemed to 
hiss at being denied the dominance here. Yurei stepped inside and 
beheld the assembled Inner Senshi, Minako the only one absent. 
	They sat on cushions, upon a dais raised a step above the 
rest of the floor. Rei was clad in her miko uniform of red and 
white, and looked every bit the priestess of Crystal Tokyo that she 
had come to be. On either side, Ami and Makoto wore their 
ceremonial kimonos of green and blue, respectively. Yurei knelt 
down before them, and the soft tatami mat sighed beneath him.
	Rei bowed her head towards him. "Thank you for coming on such 
short notice."
	Yurei lowered his head as a sign of polite respect. "I thank 
you for considering me important enough to let me join tonight's 
council." 
	He spoke formalities with neither love nor devotion. All that 
was left in his voice was sincerity.
	"Have you found Yuki's killer?" Rei asked.
	Yurei shook his head. "No. The youma continues to evade the 
Enforcers, and has left little to no trace of itself upon Yuki-
san." 
	Makoto asked, "Do you think this is the start of a new 
invasion?"
	"I do not know," Yurei admitted. "The way in which Yuki was 
killed is different from every other youma attack I have seen and 
studied. Her blood was forcibly removed from her body in a way that 
Yuichiro cannot account for, which rules out any normal person. 
Something had been watching her, waiting for the right opportunity 
to strike. Youma tend not to be so calculated; their master points 
at someone, and they attack. This is too methodical. If I didn't 
know any better, I would almost think it had been personal.
	"And now," he said, "I have some questions for you." 
	Yurei slid the photograph of Yuki and her friends before the 
Inner Senshi. "What can you tell me about Yuki, and these girls 
with her?"
	Ami and Makoto looked at him with some surprise at being 
asked. Rei frowned in consternation.
	"You all teach one or two courses at the Academy," Yurei 
said.
	"We teach a lot of Candidates every year," Rei said. "It's 
difficult to recall every face and put a memory behind it. 
Especially now with enrolment being almost a hundred students."
	Yurei stared at Rei with unnerving calm. "Start with Yuki-
san."
	"Yuki was a third-year Candidate," Ami said. Her voice came 
weighed down with melancholy and fatigue. "Minako taught most of 
her classes.  I only had her for Algebra and Geometry. She was 
always smiling, even if she couldn't get half the answers right 
sometimes."
	"She is...was a wonderful student," Makoto agreed. "In 
sparring, she was among the top three of the third-years. She threw 
as much passion as she could into whatever she did, no matter how 
gruelling the exercise was. I would have been proud to fight 
alongside her."
	Yurei's gaze came to rest upon Rei.
	She stared down at the photograph, and her body shifted with 
nervous energy. She could feel his eyes on her. At last she spoke. 
"I reviewed her grades after...after the incident. She was just-
above-average in scholastics, gifted in sports. Everyone knew her 
for how many friends she had, and how easily she could make new 
friends. Next semester she was planning to run as a junior member 
of the student council. Why ask about the others?"
	"The Candidates you see in this photograph," Yurei said, 
"were her closest friends."
	Rei watched him closely, and then looked down at the picture. 
"How do you know that?"
	"Most of the pictures in Yuki-san's room showed one or more 
of these girls with her. I've already talked with them."
	Rei looked up sharply at him. "What have they said?"
	"That if I fail to find Yuki-san's killer, they will be more 
than happy to take up the cause."
	"That's not what they should be focused on," Rei murmured.
	"One of their best friends was killed," Makoto said. "We 
can't expect them to behave as if this wouldn't affect them."
	Rei turned to her longtime friend and fellow soldier. "For 
the sake of their potential destinies, we have to keep them focused 
on being a Candidate. If they worry about crying or revenge, this 
youma may be allowed to do even greater damage."
	Ami interrupted them. "Wait. I recognize her. Miyuki. She's a 
second-year Candidate. Last year, she was desperately struggling to 
make passing grades in almost all of her classes. Even I thought 
she would fail, but Yuki took it upon herself to become Miyuki's 
tutor. Miyuki's grades may not have been the greatest, but she 
passed all of her courses."
	"I know her," Makoto said, and pointed to Hikaru. "Hikaru, 
fourth-year Candidate and one of the best I've seen in recent 
years. Good grades, unrivalled in physical skills and combat, 
though she's very aloof. She doesn't like people getting close to 
her, Candidates or teachers, even me. Yuki's the only one I've seen 
her even remotely open up to. I've already approached her to see if 
she would be willing to teach some of the sparring classes when she 
graduates."
	Makoto then pointed to Sumire. "And her, though I can't 
remember her name. It starts with an 'S'. This is her first year. 
Last week in Beginning Tactics they were choosing a Sailor Senshi 
to study." Makoto smiled. "She was adamant about choosing Sailor 
Uranus. Thought the world of her." 
	Yurei watched as Rei tore her gaze from him, and forced 
herself to look down at the photograph again. "Robin," she stated, 
and pointed to the corresponding girl. "She's a fourth-year 
Candidate, a pyromancer. I was approached by Robin's teachers at 
the beginning of this semester; they want me to start tutoring her. 
Her abilities have begun to exceed what they are capable of 
teaching. I don't know much else about her other than that."
	Makoto's shoulders stiffened as she scanned the other faces 
in the picture. "Do you think they might be targeted next?"
	Ami and Rei turned to her in newfound alarm.
	"It is too early to say," Yurei answered, "but I do not 
discount that possibility. I would recommend you restrict the 
places the Candidates can go."
	Ami shook her head. "The Candidates aren't allowed outside of 
the Academy without expressed permission from us or a member of the 
teaching staff or faculty."
	"I know," Yurei said. "But Yuki-san wasn't killed inside the 
Academy. However she got out, or was lured out, makes for a 
potential security risk to the others. If more youma start to 
appear, we will need all the Candidates we have to help push back 
the tide."
	Silence reigned for a few moments Yurei watched each of the 
Senshi consider the ramifications.
	"This could be a problem," Makoto agreed. "If the youma are 
going to target the Candidates, then that means they're trying to 
destroy our offensive capabilities before they launch a full 
attack."
	"Should we place the Academy on lockdown to prevent any other 
youma from getting in?" Ami asked.
	"That is for us to decide later tonight," Rei said, rising to 
her feet. "Minako will be arriving in a few hours, and we can 
debate the matter then. In the meantime, I believe we have managed 
to do all we can."
	She turned to Yurei and addressed him specifically. "Yuki's 
funeral is tomorrow. After it is done, I am going to assign all 
four Archangels to finding the youma that killed her. If this is 
the start of a new invasion, I want us to hit them back just as 
hard."
	Yurei bowed his head. "Of course. I assume we should contact 
you all if any of us make significant progress?"
	"Yes, thank you," Makoto said. "If you need to, Yurei, 
contact me in the next few days. We can arrange a time to work out 
a search plan, or at least try to figure out what our new enemy is 
planning."
	Yurei bowed to Makoto, a slight smile on his face. "I would 
appreciate that, yes."  
	They parted ways, Makoto and Ami going down different 
corridors. Rei lingered in the chamber. Yurei waited for her at the 
doorway. Her movements as she stood and glided off the dais were 
saturated with elegant ceremony, and she only stopped when she was 
shoulder to shoulder with Yurei.
	"What is it?" she asked him.
	Yurei spoke in a quiet voice: "You mourned the longest when 
Haruka and Michiru were killed."
	Rei stared down at the floor, and her hands balled into 
fists. "That...that was different."
	"I still remember that night, Rei," Yurei said. "I remember 
seeing the delight in her eyes as you tried to strangle her. Only a 
Sailor Senshi can open the door to her cell. Only you tried to do 
what you are condemning Hikari and the others for wanting. You say 
that vengeance should not be taken, when your own hands smell of 
blood."
	He met her gaze, and his eyes became ice. "You have never 
fully trusted me, Sailor Mars. After that night, I do not fully 
trust you either." 
	Rei's fists were trembling furiously, reverberating with 
silent screams that wanted to strike his face. She wanted to hiss 
at him. She wanted to growl, "Get out." He could see it in her 
eyes, in the way her lips were curling back into a bitter snarl.
	"The youma responsible is still out there somewhere," she 
said. Power and fire flowed through her words, and reminded Yurei 
of how dangerous she was. "You should be out there searching for 
it."
	Yurei bowed his head, and turned away from her.







	One who is samurai must before all things keep 
	constantly in mind, by day and by night...the 
	fact that he has to die.

		-Daidoji Yuzan (16th century)



			-ashes and dust-


	The sunrise bled upon Yurei's bathroom in shades of scarlet 
and yellow. He was not entirely watching it. An elbow upon the rim 
of his tub, his fist propping up his chin, he sat in the warm water 
and let his memories blow haunting scents and sights into his mind. 
He saw Yuki facedown on the asphalt, the markings upon her body, 
the throngs of moving bodies inside the Paranoia Groove. He saw a 
shadow running faster than he could keep up.
	The files from Artemis had been waiting for him on the 
Angelus Network when he had arrived back from the palace. He'd 
already read each of the dockets twice, and found very little of 
anything. Hikari's file had at first been filled with reprimands 
about her aggressive behaviour towards other Candidates, but they 
had tapered off to almost nothing after the incident with Yuki. 
Yumeko had more commendations than reprimands, and Miyuki's file 
had been spotless. 
	The only one of the group who piqued his interest was Robin: 
her recent psyche evaluations for the past year voiced growing 
concerns about her character and moral discipline. They were 
worried her powers were growing faster than she could control them, 
and they were worried she might think she didn't need the Academy, 
and do things her own way in the city. The thought brought a bit of 
a smile to Yurei's face; if he didn't know any better, it made 
Robin sound like an Archangel.
	Yurei lifted himself out of the water, spilling puddles onto 
the floor. He turned his back to the sunrise and walked away as he 
towelled himself off. He neglected his books and dressed in 
silence. The cell phone at the bedside table didn't ring. Yurei 
scooped it up and slid it into his coat pocket. His hand reached 
for the silver ring, hesitated, and finally grasped hold of it and 
hung it around his neck. He walked past the kitchen without much of 
a second thought, put on his shoes and left his apartment. 
	Halfway down the hall, Yurei stopped and turned his head 
towards door 2015. Like all the remaining apartments in the tower, 
it was empty, abandoned for something greater and closer to the 
rest of the crystalline city. The door to 2015 had been closed and 
locked ever since The End had shaken the world to its very 
foundations. No one lived there anymore. Yurei wasn't even sure if 
he would find the skeletons of its former occupants inside. He 
might find nothing at all.
	He took the elevator down to ground level, and was the sole 
passenger inside the cab. Like all the days before this one, Yurei 
walked along the edge of destruction to the Tsuikishima Station and 
boarded the train. Eyes came to rest upon his swords. The whispers 
around him were louder than before. Passengers shifted 
uncomfortably. Yurei watched the cityscape pass him by on the other 
side of the train window, and ignored them all.
	When he arrived at Yoyogi Park, he found that he was not 
alone. Someone else wearing the twin swords of the Archangels was 
standing just outside the main gate. He wore a formal shirt and 
pants beneath a black leather coat, which made his blades stand out 
all the more. The bored expression on the young man's face shown 
how long he had been waiting.
	"About time," he sighed, his back against the iron fence that 
enclosed the park. "Traffic?"
	"As much as one gets on the trains," Yurei replied. "Are we 
the first?"
	"That's why I'm still out here." The Archangel's blue eyes 
gave Yurei a once-over. "I thought you were expected to dress for 
the occasion."
	Yurei tipped his head to one side and stretched out his neck. 
His spine cracked from the effort. "This is as formal as I get." 
	"The unchanging angel safeguarding an ever-changing world." 
From beneath his bangs of brown hair, Shingo favoured Yurei with a 
lop-sided grin. "I'd almost call it poetic, if I didn't know you so 
well." 
	A third Archangel soon joined them, having walked the same 
path from the same train station as Yurei had. Momo's dark hair 
almost looked violet in the light. Her bun had long been lost to 
elegant tresses and a central braid down her back. She wore a 
cheongsam, a slitted Chinese dress, and it was blacker than the 
longcoat she wore over it. 
	"Good morning," she said, addressing them both, and she 
removed the sunglasses from over her eyes. "I guess Yuichiro is the 
last to arrive."
	Shingo let out a wolf whistle as he appraised Momo's dress. 
"I'll still never be able to figure out how you can fight so 
flawlessly in a dress like that," he remarked.
	Momo cocked her eyebrow. "Would you like me to demonstrate?" 
	"Now, now, kids," Yuichiro's voice interrupted them. "Be 
nice. We're in public, remember."
	Yurei looked up, and saw Yuichiro crouched down upon one of 
the lampposts over their heads. 
	"Show-off," Shingo sighed, rolling his eyes.
	"If you think you can keep up with me, you're welcomed to 
try," Yuichiro said. He dropped down from the lamppost, landing 
upon the sidewalk with flawless effort. "Now this is a memorable 
moment. How long has it been since all four of us were together 
like this?"
	Momo cast her gaze to the ground. "Since the last funeral."
	"We always seem to be brought together by death," Shingo 
said. The casualness had dropped from his voice. 
	"Death is what we deal in," Yurei said, and started walking 
down the Academy's main road. The others followed alongside him.
	"Have there been any new leads in Yuki's death?" Momo asked.
	Yuichiro scowled. "None on my end. Yurei, what about you?"
	Yurei shook his head. "Whatever attacked her moves like a 
ghost and leaves no trace. I fear that nothing short of another 
victim will bring us closer to catching and killing it."
	The Archangels fell into silence for a time.
	"Scuttlebutt has it you were asked to sit in on a council 
session with the Senshi last night," Shingo said. "How was that?"
	There were many answers Yurei might, could have given. In the 
end he chose to say, "Brief. What have you been told?"
	"That they may be assigning all four of us to finding the 
youma that killed Yuki, if you haven't tracked it down by tonight." 
Shingo spoke indifferently about the matter, and Yurei knew Shingo 
was indifferent to it. Among the Archangels, there was very little 
politics. The Angelus Order had no hierarchy, no favourites, 
nothing to gain or lose save for the future itself.
	Yurei's eyes narrowed. "They already have."
	"Well, that confirms it," Shingo nonchalantly agreed.
	"You never could get along with them very well, Yurei," Momo 
said. "Except for Minako-sama and Makoto-sama. I guess since they 
didn't know you like the others had."
	"That's one way of looking at it, yes," Yurei agreed.
	Yuichiro pointedly asked, "How was Rei?"
	Yurei recalled seeing her fists so desperately restrained 
from connecting with his cheeks. "Particularly edgy."
	"She was asked by the family to do the eulogy," Momo said. 
"Can you blame her?"
	"Perhaps not."
	Yuichiro managed a slight smirk. "That's my Rei-chan for you. 
Loving her is like wanting to kiss her lips and throw your hands up 
in frustration all at once."
	Shingo threw a curious glance in Yuichiro's direction. "Oh, 
are you two back together again?"
	Yuichiro shook his head. "It's been a hundred and twenty 
years, give or take. I don't think we could go back to that place 
again, even if we wanted to. People change. Everything changes."
	The Academy was at best a tomb, at worst a mausoleum filled 
with wraiths and spectres called Candidates. No one was jogging 
through the grounds. All of the classes had been cancelled. 
Fleeting whispers and shadows rounded the corners and echoed down 
deserted corridors. Yurei led the Archangels up to the 
administration offices to get their ID passes. The offices were 
closed and the passes taped to the doors, waiting for them.
	"Is anyone else getting some seriously tweaked vibes?" Shingo 
said as he fixed his pass to his coat lapel. 
	"The entire Academy is in mourning," Yuichiro said. "Even the 
buildings feel for Yuki's death. The walls cry tears, and the trees 
cry out for blood."
	Shingo stared at Yuichiro for a moment. "Okay, and this is 
supposed to make me feel better how?"
	"Watch your mouth," Momo said as she breezed in behind 
Shingo. Her palm swatted the back of his head. "This is a volatile 
place neck-deep in a volatile situation. Keep your callous comments 
to yourself until we're elsewhere."
	Yurei walked past Shingo, flashed him a warning glance, and 
said nothing.
	"She has a point," Yuichiro said, and followed after the 
others.
	"So do I," Shingo said. His head seemed more wounded than his 
pride. "You've got a place saturated with some sort of ethereal 
power we can barely even name, and everyone is supposed to act 
natural."
	"Would you rather our powers got rescinded?" Yuichiro asked.
	Shingo snorted. "Never implied that, and you damn well know 
it. What we have for our powers is respect and fear. I wonder how 
many of these Candidates regard their own powers with the same 
reverence." He stretched his arms out behind him, but his face was 
kept taut. "They're wielding weapons they know hardly anything 
about, and they seem to think it's fun."
	"Let them continue that way, then," Momo said. "Only two will 
be chosen to become new Sailor Senshi. And they will learn soon 
enough what sort of an awesome and terrible destiny they have 
inherited."
	"She's right," Yuichiro agreed. "Better to let them 
romanticize what it means to have the powers of a Sailor Senshi, 
than to cringe in horror at what might befall them. If it helps 
them to push themselves to be stronger, then it will still have 
served a purpose."
	Shingo let out a low, deep exhale of air. "I still dislike 
the idea of these Candidates taking over our jobs when we finally 
retire."
	"Afraid they'll do a better job if they get hired on as 
Archangels?" Momo asked. 
	Her voice was meant to tease, but Shingo didn't laugh or row 
flustered. He met her gaze with an even, solemn stare. "Only if the 
world ends again. Maybe then they'll understand."
	The Archangels moved from interior lights to sunlight. The 
quad was already set up for the funeral. A raised platform had been 
set up on the green in the middle of the track. Two long sections 
of empty chairs were separated by a central aisle. As of yet, there 
was no coffin.
	Yurei lifted his eyes to the sky, and saw grey clouds 
steadily moving past them. The winds were growing stronger, 
bringing with them the distant scent of moisture. It was going to 
rain before the night was out.
	"Where are we supposed to stand?" Momo asked.
	Shingo flashed her a wayward glance. "Where would you like to 
stand? We may have been invited, but we don't exactly belong. Well, 
you might, Momo-chan. You at least could blend in."
	"Don't be an ass," she stated, and looked as if she was 
refraining from smacking Shingo across the back of his head again.
	"We could stand on the rooftop," Yuichiro said. "At the edge, 
we'd be able to see everything without needing to be a part of it."
	Shingo gave him a pointed look. "What is it with you and 
heights and standing from them?"
	"We can remain here," Yurei said. His statement invited any 
objections or alternatives, but the others had none to give. "If we 
stay along the wall, we will be noticed without having attention 
drawn to us. For a day like this, that is how it should be." 
	A bell chimed, heralding the tenth hour of the morning.
	The funeral would soon begin.
	Yurei stood with the others just offside from the doors. He 
happened to be closest to the doorway, which perhaps was just as 
well. Out of all the Archangels, he was the one the Candidates 
recognized the most. 
	The Candidates came, mostly in pairs and groups, and very few 
were stoic. Many had already been crying or were on the verge of 
crying. They were all wearing their Academy dress uniforms instead 
of their more casual blouses and skirts.
	"I didn't realize there was this many of them," Momo said 
quietly. "How long has the Academy been open?"
	"Roughly twenty years now," Yuichiro said. "From what I hear, 
Chibiusa will be starting here soon, once she returns from the 
past."
	"No wonder there's extra pressure from the palace this time 
around," Shingo muttered. "Any ideas when she's due back?"
	Yuichiro made a helpless shrug. "Only two women know that. 
One's stuck at the gates of time, and the other is Chibiusa's 
mother."
	"It would be nice if the first one you mentioned could show 
up and help us out with this," Shingo muttered.
	Yurei kept his gaze moving across the faces of the assembling 
Candidates. For the first time, the whispers ceased. Their eyes 
barely flitted over the forms of four Archangels standing at the 
back. The entire world revolved around the place where Yuki's 
coffin would stand. 
	"I'm surprised at how many parents and families are here for 
this," Momo murmured. "There was barely any activity at the front 
gates." 
	Yurei answered,  "There was an open invitation for them to 
stay overnight in the Visitor's Wing. I was here last night."
	"I wonder if we'll ever have a turnout as good as this for 
our funerals," Shingo remarked. He was looking down at the ornate 
handles of his swords, and nothing else.
	A hush fell upon the gathered crowd. Yurei glanced at the 
doorway the Archangels stood beside, and saw the funeral procession 
make its way out into the quad. He saw Yuki's mother and father, 
and two sisters, the youngest sobbing into her elder sibling's 
arms. He saw Luna and Artemis, and the rest of the faculty and 
staff, walk towards the front of the rows. He saw the four Inner 
Senshi acting as pallbearers as they carried Yuki's slender black 
coffin towards the platform. Each of their faces was a different 
shade of sadness.
	And behind them marched the rulers of Crystal Tokyo, both 
dressed in unusual shades of black. Neo Queen Serenity glided 
across courtyard, her arms wrapped around her husband's. The 
expression on King Endymion's face was dour, downcast, and filled 
with thoughts of "if only" and "what if". The queen's face was 
almost unreadable save for the pain reflected in her eyes.
	She was in mourning.
	Yurei felt a disconcerting chill in seeing a woman always 
dressed in angelic white suddenly cloaked in black. Seeing Endymion 
in black instead of lavender brought back a flourish of memories 
Yurei did not wish to dwell upon. Endymion glanced at the 
Archangels, and for a brief instant their gazes met and 
acknowledged stoic remorse and a renewed promise for vengeance.
	Yuki's parents took their seats in the front row, and her 
mother broke down in tears as the Sailor Senshi laid the coffin 
down upon the platform. Sailor Mercury, Sailor Jupiter and Sailor 
Venus stepped away from the coffin and ceremonially turned to face 
the assembly. Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion stood alongside 
them.
	Sailor Mars stepped forward to the edge of the stage. She 
stared out at the Candidates, at their families, and momentarily at 
the silent Archangels at the rear of the courtyard. Her mouth 
opened and her voice echoed across the Academy.
	"Today we are here to celebrate the life of Hoshino Yuki, to 
remember her the way we all should be remembered. Yuki died before 
she was given the chance to become a Sailor Senshi. Yet she died 
with an honour just as great as that: she was a Candidate, a chosen 
one, like all of you. I remember Yuki from her presentation 
ceremony: she told me that one day, we would be wearing the same 
uniform. For two and a half years she demonstrated her intent to 
fulfil that promise to me."
	Yurei caught sight of Sumire, who sat in the second row 
alongside Hikaru and the others. Sumire was crying bitter tears, 
her clenched fists on her lap. Hikaru was disturbingly stoic, as 
was Robin. Miyuki was in tears. Yumeko was desperately trying to 
comfort her without breaking down, and failing at it.
	Rei's eulogy continued, carried by words of honour and 
discipline, of destiny and wonder. Random Candidates were breaking 
down in tears. The parents who sat with them tried to wrap the 
girls up in consoling hugs and whisper reassuring words.
	"For everyone who falls," Rei said, "there will be someone 
left standing to remember them by. The greatest dishonour we could 
give would be to forget them. Take your memories of Yuki, of who 
she was and how she laughed, and how she aspired to be a Sailor 
Senshi, and cherish them forever."
	She turned to Yuki's coffin and bowed. "I'm sorry I could not 
be there to see you fulfill your promise to me," she said quietly 
as the tears slid down her cheeks. 
	The Inner Senshi, and even Serenity and Endymion, bowed. 
	One by one, the Candidates stood up from their chairs, or 
stepped forward, and bowed to Yuki's coffin. 
	Neo Queen Serenity and King Endymion moved off the platform 
and left the quad the way they had entered. The Inner Senshi 
followed behind them. The quad grew quiet once more, punctured by 
countless councils and whispers. Yuki's coffin was left upon the 
platform so that others might pay her their last respects. Over the 
next hour, Yurei watched as the Candidates went up in pairs or 
groups to lay flowers down before Yuki's coffin. Sumire was the 
first to lay down her flower and leave. After most of the 
Candidates were gone, Yuki's family laid their flowers atop the lid 
of the casket, mourned her loss all the more, and eventually left 
the quad.
	As he left, Artemis paused alongside Yurei. "Did you get the 
files?" Artemis murmured.
	"Yes," Yurei answered. "Thanks."
	"Anytime."
	It did not surprise Yurei in the slightest that, aside from 
the four Archangels standing at the back, four Candidates still 
lingered. In turn Hikaru, Miyuki and Yumeko laid their roses upon 
the coffin. Robin was last in their procession. Instead of laying 
down her rose, she clenched it in her fist. The flower burst into 
flame and was rendered cinders and ash in seconds. Her lips moved 
to form whispered words. Even though he was too far away to hear, 
Yurei knew what she was saying: she was uttering a promise of 
vengeance and retribution on whatever had done this.
	He still needed to talk with them further, but it would not 
be today. Yurei stepped out of line from the others.
	"Where are you going from here?" Yuichiro asked.
	"There is someplace I have to go," was all Yurei said. 
"Someplace I need to be."
	Yuichiro nodded in understanding. "Give them my regards, 
Yurei. Keep your cell on; if anything new comes up, we'll let you 
know."
	"Thank you."
	He said his good-byes to Momo and Shingo, and put his back to 
the Academy. Yurei's steps led him back to the Harajuku Station. He 
rode the train in silence, as he always had, and listened to the 
people around him. They talked of groceries to buy and movies to 
see, of a Candidate's death and cute boys they wanted to date. They 
saw his swords and whispered words of Archangels and death. A 
little girl no more than six tugged at the folds of his coat. Yurei 
tipped his head down to her.
	"Is it true you don't have a name?" she asked.
	The other passengers stared at her incredulously. The 
innocence of the question gave Yurei reason to smirk. "I have names 
to give should the need arise," he said. "For the most part, I am 
my namesake. I am merely a ghost." 
	The little girl looked confused, but nodded nevertheless. 
"Does anyone know your real name?" she asked as her mother moved to 
retrieve her.
	Yurei paused momentarily, allowing the child's mother to pick 
her up. "A select few do," he told the little girl. "But they will 
not tell you what it is unless you ask really nicely."
	He transferred to the Asakusa Line and got off at the station 
nearest to the Sengaku-ji Temple. Before The End had ravaged Tokyo, 
the temple had been home to a feudal tale of vengeance and loyalty: 
one ruling daimyo, a provincial lord, was goaded by rival daimyo to 
draw his sword in a time when such a thing was expressly outlawed. 
The Imperial court sentenced him to death. Unable to seek revenge, 
forty-seven of that daimyo's now-masterless samurai secretly 
plotted against the rival daimyo. Years later, when the time was 
right, all forty-seven attacked the daimyo's house, beheaded the 
man and presented it to their lord's grave. Then all forty-seven of 
the ronin committed ritual suicide to seal their vengeance and 
their lord's honour.
 	Sengaku-ji Temple was where the forty-seven died and were 
buried.
	The temple had barely survived The End from smashing it into 
splinters, and so beyond its far walls laid a newly christened 
ocean separated from Crystal Tokyo by a line of rubble. It remained 
opened to the citizens. Yurei slipped between the growing crowds 
and followed the temple pathways as far in as he could go. This 
area of the temple had been broken down as the seas tried to pour 
in and drown the city; Serenity had seen to it that as much of the 
temple as possible was rebuilt to accommodate the harsh change in 
the coastline.
	Yurei stopped when he reached a promenade that allowed him a 
view of the clear blue waters that would eventually lead into what 
had once been the Tokyo Bay. Some sixty feet into the water, a 
large mound of grass and earth dared to push above the surface of 
the water. And upon the island stood an enormous black obelisk. So 
many people had paused and looked at it, and wondered what it 
meant. None had ever bothered to search library archives, or do 
anything more than ask family members or other visitors who 
happened to be standing nearby.
	A lull presented itself: the promenade began to empty. Yurei 
walked up to the edge of the walkway and leaned against the 
railing. The black obelisk shimmered in the sunlight, trying to 
blind him. Undaunted, Yurei bent his legs and jumped. He soared 
where other would fall, the folds of his longcoat flapping 
excitedly behind him as he sped through the air towards the island.
	He landed upon the edge, where rich green grass gave way to 
water. His boots sank in the sand. The ocean splashed against the 
lower ends of his coat. Yurei walked out of the water and made his 
way towards the obelisk. Behind the towering monument, cherry 
blossom trees shed pink petals like drops of rain. Yurei slid the 
coat off his arms and shoulders, folded it with great care and set 
it down upon the grass. The twin katana blades he kept sheathed at 
his side. He knelt down before the monument, closed his eyes and 
meditated.
	Time was engulfed in a blur of seconds and eternities. His 
ears caught the rustling of the wind and the relentless beats of 
the tide. The salt water tantalized his nostrils, and the hairs on 
his arms stood up as an unexpected burst of wind rushed past him.
	Yurei's eyes opened up.
	"I thought I might find you here," came Shingo's voice.
	Yurei turned his head, but remained kneeling. Shingo was 
walking towards the memorial, his charming smile gone, his eyes 
cold and serious. Shingo removed his hands from his coat pockets 
and stood beside Yurei.
	"Why did you come here?" Yurei asked.
	"Same as you," Shingo said. "It's been a long time since I've 
attended a funeral like this. She may not have been a fallen 
comrade like them, but she was still a Candidate. It feels all too 
much like we lost one of our own."
	"I thought you disapproved of the way the Candidates looked 
at the world," Yurei said.
	Shingo looked out at the water and how it shimmered in the 
afternoon sun. "What I think and what I feel can be two separate 
things."
	The memorial pulled Yurei's gaze back to the inscription upon 
the obelisk: 'For the fallen angels laid to rest. They gave their 
lives to protect our future.' Beneath the epitaph was a list of the 
Archangels come and died. Even Ryo's name was inscribed upon the 
memorial, though The End claimed him before the Angelus Order could 
be instated. Yurei didn't read their names. He was still haunted by 
their faces.
	The stone was cold as Yurei's fingertips trembled and touched 
the memorial. "What do think they'd say if they were still alive?" 
he asked.
	Shingo shrugged. "'Stop moping, start living'?"
	Yurei couldn't help but give a rueful smirk.
	"They gave their lives for something we all believe in," 
Shingo said. "All that's left is for us to wonder what we could 
have done differently in the last battle, what we could have 
changed so they would be standing with us instead."
	"Death is everyone's fate, Shingo."
	"Funny how you've had more chances at life than all the other 
Archangels, and yet you're the one who reminds us the most about 
that."
	Yurei opened his mouth to counter Shingo, and found himself 
at a loss. He laughed and shook his head. "I hate your logic."
	"You're supposed to. I'm right, after all." Shingo reached 
out and snatched a few sakura petals from the air. "I have to say, 
for that being my first visit there, I didn't mind it all too much. 
What do you think of the Academy?"
	Yurei's smile changed. "I'm choking on the hero worship."
	"You too, eh?" Shingo laughed, and tousled up his own hair. 
"Maybe I'm just a little jaded, since this is my sister and her 
friends we're talking about. Man, the stories I could tell people. 
Only problem is: ghosts can't talk. At least not to the world in 
general."
	Yurei rose to his feet. His elbows came to rest upon the 
handles of his katana. "Do you ever believe that we could be like 
the world in general?"
	"No," Shingo said flatly. "We know too many secrets. We're 
not Sailor Senshi--we don't have their powers or their destinies. 
But we're not like everyone else. The Ginzuisho changed us when it 
saved Tokyo from the end of the world. I don't think we could be 
normal even if we tried."
	"Naru has."
	"Naru is a grandmother, Yurei," Shingo said, "one who spends 
every day knowing that if she wanted to, she could take up her 
swords again and cut down a legion of youma. Her family may make 
her smile. But she still bears the cross we all do: she knows that 
she can never escape being an Archangel. To protect the ones she 
loves, she will make it rain blood."
	He shrugged. "I say, why not embrace it?"
	"It's not so simple," Yurei said.
	"For you, maybe," Shingo agreed, "but your past is a lot more 
complicated than mine. I don't have half the proverbial skeletons 
you do. But for what it's worth, I know where you're coming from. 
Naru was the lucky one. The rest of us are either single, or dead. 
You done here?"
	Yurei tipped his head ever so slightly. Both he and Shingo 
turned towards the monument, and made reverent bows. As they walked 
to the edge of the island, Shingo said, "Something bothers me about 
this."
	Yurei glanced at him.
	"Why make a Candidate the first victim," Shingo said, "and 
openly flaunt it? Of all the people roaming the city, a Candidate 
playing hookey is attacked first? I don't buy into that, Yurei. She 
wasn't some random victim. She was selected."
	"Whatever attacked her followed her from the Paranoia 
Groove," Yurei said. "It waited for her to be apart from her 
friends."
	"I don't mean it that way," Shingo said. "She was selected 
before she even went to the Paranoia Groove that night."
	"Then why her?"
	"I don't know. And that's what's bothering me."
	Yurei's eyes narrowed. "Me too."
	"Want some coffee?"
	Yurei arched one of his eyebrows. They reached the shoreline, 
standing in the sand with the water lapping at their boots. "I know 
this parlour," Shingo said. "Sandwiches aren't bad, but the 
coffee's second to none. I should know; after two hundred years 
I've visited every place in this city that serves coffee."
	"I prefer Scotch myself," Yurei said.
	Shingo shrugged. "To each their vices. There is a pub that 
serves very good Scotch, but better coffee. Mind you, they 
specialize in beer. The salads aren't bad either. You should try 
it, unless you're not finished looking into something." 
	Yurei scowled at the thought of investigating Yuki's death. 
Her chat records had provided him with nothing new. Her filed 
assignments told him little more than how she thought, and he had a 
number of disagreements with her viewpoint. He had yet to review 
Artemis' disciplinary files, and even then he doubted he would find 
anything. The Paranoia Groove had nothing else to give up. Her body 
could tell them no more secrets. Her parents knew less than he did. 
All that remained were the other Candidates; he would wait another 
day before returning to ask them more questions.
	"Right now," he admitted, "there is very little I can do 
until the next sunrise."
	Shingo patted him on the shoulder. "A good answer if I've 
ever heard one. Come on, let's give those gawkers at the temple 
something to talk about."
	Their return to Sengaku-ji Temple was met with shouts of 
surprise. Yurei and Shingo casually stood back up after landing on 
the promenade and walked away. Shingo grinned and flashed a V-sign 
to one couple too stunned to stop their camera from taking rapid-
fire pictures of the Archangels.
	At Shingo's insistence, they hailed a taxi instead of taking 
the trains. It required them to remove their scabbards from their 
sides in order to sit comfortably in the seats. The ride lasted 
almost forty minutes, and Yurei spent most of it gazing out at the 
streets they passed by. People looked into the taxi windows, but 
could not see his swords. They paid him little more than a passing 
glance, not worth a second look.
	Shingo spent most of their trip talking amicably with the 
taxi driver. They discovered a mutual love of soccer, which itself 
was enjoying a cult status among the surviving sports enthusiasts. 
Shingo learned how the driver had a beautiful wife and two 
children, with a third on the way; he was hoping for a girl. When 
the driver broached the subject of Yuki's death, it was a casual 
mention, as if he hadn't noticed the twin swords they had carried 
into the cab. It might have been a honest remark, and the driver 
simply mistook them for Enforcers. Shingo never once claimed to be 
an Archangel, but made allusions to Yurei's investigation, and they 
were all positive ones designed to quell the man's fear.
	It worked.
	"You do realise he will tell everyone he knows or meets about 
what you said," Yurei said after they reached their destination and 
the cab was pulling back out onto the street.
	Shingo was busy waving good-bye to the driver. "That, my dear 
Yurei, was the point. If he somehow didn't clue in we are in fact 
Archangels, he'll spread the good word. People would rather hear we 
are that close to catching Yuki's killer than hearing we've no idea 
what did it, how they did it and why."
	"I'm the one assigned to finding her killer, Shingo," Yurei 
stated. "And what happens if he knew we were Archangels?"
	"He'll still tell others the good word. He will do more 
positive reinforcement for this city tonight than a dozen cheerful 
life-affirming stories on the news."
	Clouds were darkening the skies as they walked into the pub 
of Shingo's recommendation. Trees were turning their leaves up to 
the heavens; it would rain soon. The pub's name, Cuchulainn's, was 
written in blazing, neon red hiragana over the entrance. Yurei was 
half-expecting to walk in and see everything adhering to Japanese 
style and design. Instead he was presented with as English a pub as 
he had once seen before The End.
	"Don't just stand there, you're letting the cold in," Shingo 
said as he brushed past Yurei. He waved to the man standing behind 
the bar, who grinned and waved back. 
	"The usual, Shingo?" the bartender called out in Japanese.
	Shingo nodded. "As always, William-san. Oh, and my friend 
here wants some Scotch. The best you have."
	"All we have is the best," the bartender boasted. "Mary'll be 
right over with them."
	Shingo led Yurei to a booth towards the back of the pub, 
furthest from both the bar and the front door, but right against 
the pub's sprawling front window. "You're impressed," Shingo 
remarked as he sat down. "I can tell. The owners are an Irish 
couple who were touring Tokyo when The End came calling. Since 
their homeland was wiped out, they built this fine establishment to 
commemorate its memory. You should come here on a Friday night; 
they'll still sing the old Irish songs in their mother tongue."
	Yurei looked around the pub. Most of the patrons seemed to be 
in the mood for dining as opposed to drinking. That would change as 
the afternoon changed into evening.
	A tall, slender woman with brilliant red hair strolled up to 
their booth, a cup of coffee in one hand, a glass of Scotch and ice 
in the other. She smiled at Shingo as she set his drink down on the 
table.
	"You're in rather early, Shingo," she said. "Going to be a 
long night?"
	"I sincerely hope not," Shingo replied. He took a sip of his 
coffee and let out a satisfied sigh. "Now that is coffee. Oh, I'm 
in the mood for some of those marvellous chips of yours, Mary-
chan."
	"Give me a few minutes and I can bring you some." Mary tipped 
her head to Yurei. "And who might you be, Sir?"
	Shingo made an exaggerated gesture with one of his arms. 
"Mary-chan, may I present to you the Yurei I keep talking about."
	Mary tried not to stare at Yurei as the recognition in her 
eyes flickered to life. Yurei was immediately suspicious of what 
Shingo had told her, and anyone else within earshot, about him. "Oh 
my, you're him," Mary said, and bowed. "It's an honour having two 
of you in our fine establishment. If you are needing anything, 
don't hesitate to stroll up to the bar and ask for it."
	Mary and Shingo exchanged a few more comments about the 
recent days in each other's lives, and Mary returned to the kitchen 
to coordinate with the cooks. Shingo was already half-finished his 
coffee.
	Yurei clasped the glass of Scotch in his palm and took a 
cautionary swallow.
	"How is it?" Shingo asked.
	"Passable."
	Shingo grinned and spread his arms out across the back of his 
chair. "You're just jaded since you get to drink Scotch that's 
almost a century old."
	"This coming from the man who will only drink Sake if it's 
the Tsukasa Botan brand?" Yurei retorted.
	"What can I say? Archangels have exclusive tastes." Shingo 
took another drink of his coffee. "Comes with the territory. Then 
again, I'd be inclined to say that we deserve some of them, 
considering our line of work. Two hundred years of facing off 
against innumerable youma, and we've got the scars to prove it."
	Shingo raised his cup. "To our fallen comrades. May they find 
the peace in death that our destinies could not afford us in life."
	Yurei hesitated, then raised his glass and tapped its end 
against Shingo's cup. "To the fallen."
	They spent the remainder of the evening at Cuchulainn's, with 
Shingo talking about whatever came to his mind, and Yurei spending 
more time drinking Scotch than speaking. Many of the patrons who 
appeared after the sun had set and the rain began to fall looked to 
be regulars, either waving to Shingo in greetings or not even 
giving him a second look as he went on one of his caustic tangents.
	While he talked very little, Yurei did discover that Mary 
made an impressive plate of chips, and that malt vinegar, while 
possessing a very strange taste, was also surprisingly addictive. 
For a short time, William left the bar and joined them at the 
booth. He and Shingo got into a debate about soccer teams and 
social politics.
	Halfway through Yurei's grilled reuben sandwich, and Shingo's 
third plate of chips, Shingo's cellular rang. With a grimace of 
annoyance, Shingo rummaged through his coat pockets, drew out his 
phone and connected the call.
	"This had better be good," Shingo said. "We're right in the 
middle of some Scotch." His smirk faltered and fell. The relaxed 
posture of his neck and shoulders was lost to sudden tension. 
	Yurei watched him as he listened to the caller.
	"No, he's right here with me," Shingo told the person on the 
other side. "Don't bother calling him...We'll be right there." He 
hung up the cell phone and slid it into his pocket.
	"There's been another death," he stated, rising to his feet.
	Yurei got up from his chair. "A Candidate?"
	Shingo nodded. "As of now, all the Archangels have been 
officially assigned to the case. You were next on the contact list. 
I just saved you the call." 
	"You can thank me by flagging down a taxi," Yurei said, 
already heading for the door. "Who is it?"
	"The who isn't as important as the where," Shingo replied. 
"But she was one of Yuki's friends who went out to the rave clubs." 
He glanced back at the bartender. "William, put tonight's meal on 
my tab. I'll pay you back tomorrow."
	William nodded, evidently more concerned by whatever could 
have sent two Archangels racing out of his pub than with an unpaid 
bill.
	Yurei scowled as he pushed the door to the pub open. "Where 
was she found?"
	"In her bedroom," Shingo said. "She was killed in her own 
house, with her parents just downstairs." 








	"What a dance I am leading"

		-Jack the Ripper



			-lost little lamb-


	It resembled any other Crystal Tokyo neighbourhood, with 
immaculate streets and apartment complexes veiled beneath starlit 
glass. A few streets and corners further were estates hidden behind 
walls and gates and trees. The serenity was torn apart by the red 
and white lights of the Enforcer vehicles pulled up along the curb 
in front of one of the estates.
	"What is this?" the taxi driver remarked aloud.
	The cab slowed to a stop, and Shingo tossed a small stack of 
Yen bills into the man's lap. "Until you hear other people talking 
about this," he told the driver, "you saw nothing."
	Yurei opened his door and stepped out. "We should have taken 
a private transport here," he told Shingo as they fastened their 
katana sheaths to their waists.
	"Yeah," Shingo said. "And a taxi's faster." 
	Yurei glanced up at the second floors of the estates lurking 
behind the walls and gates and trees. He could see bedroom windows 
alive with lights and spectators. Some were groggy, others curious. 
	The Enforcers standing guard were quick to let them through 
the main gate, fear and relief mixed onto their faces. The front 
yard was small and filled entirely with lush, green grass. A 
birdbath stood empty in one corner. Yurei and Shingo followed the 
walkway to the front door.
	Momo was waiting for them.
	"Tonight was going to be the only night any of the Candidates 
who wanted to could spend at home with their families," she told 
Yurei and Shingo. Her expression was as tense as her voice. "As of 
right now, they've all been called back to the Academy. Half of the 
city's Enforcers are wrangling them up as we speak."
	Yurei glanced past Momo, where inside the living room a 
single Enforcer looked out of his league trying to console the 
Candidate's parents. "Who was it?"
	"Yumeko Watanabe." 
	Yurei searched his memory, and saw black hair and sharp, 
green eyes. She had been the one trying not to cry at the funeral, 
when Miyuki had been weeping on her shoulder. She had been the one 
who had first gone out clubbing with Yuki. Yurei clenched his right 
hand into a fist.
	"How bad is it?" Shingo asked.
	Momo grimaced. "Bad. I already have some of the local 
Enforcers searching the area. With you two here now, I can actually 
lead the search."
	"Whatever we're hunting is extremely fast," Yurei cautioned 
her. "It moves like us, if not swifter. And it can disappear almost 
at will."
	Momo glanced at him. "It's not like you to offer advice."
	Yurei scowled and moved through the doorway. "I don't need to 
see another Archangel killed defending this city."
	Shingo exchanged a few more words with Momo before seeing her 
off. Yurei remained in the front entry of Yumeko's house, his eyes 
drinking in the designs of the kitchen, the details of the 
paintings hanging from the walls. Some of them looked to be 
originals dating back before The End, and not mere reproductions. 
The European tea set sitting on the coffee table was elegant and 
expensive.
	Yumeko's mother renewed her hysterics, crying louder than 
before. 
	Yurei stepped further into the house and approached the 
Enforcer, who fidgeted and stared helplessly at the mourning 
parents. "Is anyone up in the bedroom?" Yurei asked.
	The Enforcer shook his head. "No, Sir. It's...no one wanted to 
stay in there longer than they had to."
	"Has anyone touched the body?" Yurei asked. "Have they moved 
or disturbed anything?"
	"No. My partner and I were the first ones here. Afterwards, 
the other Archangel told us that no one else was allowed upstairs 
until you arrived."
	"What happened?"
	The Enforcer glanced at the parents and swallowed. "Her 
father knocked on her door, asking if she wanted something to eat. 
When she didn't answer, he opened it and...and called us."
	Yurei placed a hand on the Enforcer's shoulder. "Good. Remain 
here until I say otherwise."
	He walked behind the Enforcer and down the hall, coming to 
the stairs. The second stair from the top creaked when his weight 
settled upon it. There were four doors lining the upstairs hall: 
three closed, one left open. Yurei moved towards the open one. He 
stopped at the doorway and instinctively winced when he saw Yumeko.
	She looked as if she was sitting on the floor, her back 
braced against the side of her bed. She was staring up at the 
ceiling, her eyes wide in surprise or fear, her mouth agape. 
Something black and blasphemous trickled out from both orifices. It 
bubbled and pooled on the floor around her, soaked into her white 
pyjamas and stained the Keroppe doll sitting in her lap. Her hands 
were laying at her sides. Each wrist had been slashed, and the 
black blasphemy still dripped onto the floor.
	The stair second from the top creaked again.
	Yurei didn't look back as Shingo drew up behind him and 
looked inside the room. The air became charged with Shingo's cold 
rage. "This thing has the most sadistic timing I've ever known," 
Shingo stated. "Not even twelve hours after Yuki's funeral, and now 
this."
	Yurei crossed over the threshold. He avoided Yumeko's body, 
stepping towards her desk instead. There was a stack of three 
textbooks, all from the Academy, and a small datapad left open to 
notes being compiled for a term paper. Yurei turned away from the 
desk and surveyed the bed. The covers were ruffled but not tossed, 
and near the pillow was a manga. His eyes followed the dressers and 
their closed doors, the closet door neatly slid shut.
	Shingo knelt down as close to Yumeko as he dared to get. 
"Serenity have mercy," he said, and shook his head in disgust. 
"Just what is capable of doing this, Yurei? What evil had to be 
dredged up from what level of hell to do this to her?"
	He tipped his head to Yurei when he realized Yurei wasn't 
entirely listening. "What are you looking for?"
	"A knife," Yurei replied.
	"What?"
	"Her wrists are cut." Yurei stared down at Shingo. "There's 
no knife in this room."
	Shingo made a brief sweep of the bedroom. "There's nothing 
with a blade at all in here. Youma do have claws sometimes. It 
might have been that." 
	"So why are the cuts so neat?"
	"They were done after she was subdued?" Shingo slowly stood 
back up. "If so, she was subdued without a struggle. Same as Yuki." 
He frowned. "But Yuki was in the middle of a deserted street. This 
is an enclosed space. How the hell could a youma have gotten in 
without her knowledge?"
 	"Her parents didn't know there was a problem until she didn't 
answer her door," Yurei said. "Whatever did this must have used the 
window."
	Shingo looked at the window. "Path of least resistance," he 
agreed. "Her parents didn't see anything. Any other route, and it 
would have had to gain access through the front or back door, sneak 
past Yumeko's parents and climb up the stairs to reach her. Not to 
mention retracing its route after it killed her. The window is our 
most likely point of entry and exit."
	Yurei carefully stepped over Yumeko's body and checked the 
window. "It's closed, but not locked," he said. He turned and 
looked at the blackness caked onto Yumeko's cheeks.  "And her 
parents never heard a noise. Everything in here is neat and tidy. 
No signs of a struggle, no indications this was a surprise attack."
	He became suddenly aware of Shingo's eyes on him.
	"What are you thinking?" Shingo said, incredulous. "That she 
knew her attacker?" 
	The second stair from the top creaked again. Both Archangels 
turned their heads. Yuichiro stopped in the doorway, large carry-
cases in his hands.  "I came as soon as I heard," he said 
breathlessly.
 	"What did you bring?" Yurei asked.
	"As much as I could without tearing the lab's foundations out 
of the ground." Yuichiro lowered his chin and saw Yumeko's body. 
"She was in the photograph with Yuki."
	Yurei nodded. "And now she's on display for all to see."
	Yuichiro saw the slashes on her wrists, and the darkness that 
had flowed from the wounds. "Is this supposed to look like a 
suicide?"
	"I don't care how torn up she was at the funeral," Shingo 
said. "A suicide sure as hell can't explain what that black stuff 
is." 
	Yuichiro turned to Yurei.
	"We're being sent a message," Yurei stated. "She should have 
killed herself while she had the chance."
	Shingo stepped back, allowing Yuichiro full access to the 
body. "In and out like the wind," Yuichiro said as he knelt down 
next to Yumeko. "This looks disturbingly familiar."
	Yuichiro set down his cases, opened one up and started 
rummaging through the various items and tools in the different 
drawers and compartments. Countless pictures were taken. Once the 
camera was put away, Yuichiro slid his hands into a pair of latex 
gloves and gingerly lifted one of Yumeko's wrists for closer 
inspection. "Well, whatever it is, it looks almost like pitch or 
oil. And it was put into her system before these cuts were made; 
her blood would have coagulated and stopped flowing if she'd 
already been dead."
	Yuichiro set her hand back down on the floor. "She was still 
alive when all of this it happened."
	"Just what is that anyways?" Shingo asked.
	Yurei waited silently as Yuichiro opened up the other carry-
case and pulled out a small, disposable touchpad. He swabbed the 
pad, then place the swab in a plastic storage tube. As he stored 
the container, the pad ran its own analysis of the liquid darkness. 
After a minute, it beeped. 
	Yuichiro pulled out a larger datapad, punched a few keys and 
let the results scroll along the screen. "It's contaminated," he 
told Yurei. 
	Shingo leaned over Yuichiro's shoulder. His eyes widened as 
he read the results. "It's blood? That goo is supposed to be 
blood?"
	Memory of Yuki's corpse, of the tattoo covered by her brown 
hair, flooded into Yurei's mind. He stiffened and looked at 
Yumeko's body with new eyes. "I need that sample tested. Now." 
	Yuichiro stared blankly at him. "Against what?"
	"Against the Academy database." 
	Every Candidate who entered the Academy had bloodwork done. 
Those records were kept in a special archive the Archangels had 
access to.
	"What's gotten into you, Yurei?" Shingo asked.
	Yurei could feel his jaw tightening as he watched Yuichiro
	use the datapad to access the Academy records. The screen was 
a blur of colours and names as the computer ran the blood against 
each Candidate. Abruptly it beeped, and a single name was 
highlighted.
	Yuichiro stared at it, unwilling to say anything.
	"Well?" Shingo pressed.
	With a long, hard intake of breath, Yuichiro delivered the 
results. "The good news is that this isn't Yumeko's blood," and he 
glanced at Yurei, "but you already knew that."
	"So who's is it?" Shingo asked.
	Yuichiro looked down at the datapad, as if he still refused 
to fully believe what it was telling him. "The DNA match came back 
with someone else. It's the blood of the previous victim. This 
is...was...."
	Yurei voiced what he feared, what he already knew: "It's 
Yuki's blood."







	"How did you catch me, Will?"
	"You had disadvantages."
	"What disadvantages?"
	"Passion. And you're insane."

		-Thomas Harris, "Red Dragon"



			-miseria-


	Inside the Crystal Palace, inside a cell that did not 
officially exist, Hotaru's eyes opened up. She slowly turned her 
head to the bars of her cell. Her lips were pursed into a thin 
smile, and she slid over the covers of her bed to greet her 
visitor. "After so many years of avoiding me, you return a second 
time in but a few days," she said. "Either you have come to release 
me, or you are angered. And in the middle of the night, no less."
	Yurei's gaze flickered to the tendrils of orange snaking out 
across an otherwise black sky. The lights of Crystal Tokyo 
persisted to shimmer; in another hour or two, they would no longer 
be beacons in the dark. He returned his gaze to Hotaru. Like it had 
been so many years ago, she did not wear any clothes while she 
slept. He had once enjoyed the feel of her naked back against his 
chest as she curled into him. Now Yurei's jaw tightened as Hotaru 
sat on the edge of her bed and crossed one leg over the other.
	"There's been another attack," he told her.
	Hotaru smirked, as if she had already known. "You mean 
another murder?"
	"A second Candidate is dead."
	"And for that, I mourn, Yurei." The hunger in Hotaru's eyes 
sent shivers down his spine. "I mourn because I could not be the 
one to kill her."
	"I did not come here to trade darkness for darkness, Hotaru," 
Yurei stated.
	Hotaru giggled and leaned back, propping herself up with her 
arms. She kept her legs crossed. "No, you came for vengeance. You 
want me to point the sword in the right direction. Because evil 
always understands evil, isn't that right? Different poisons, same 
fatal demise."
	She let one leg slide off the other. The light from the 
corridor spilled into the darkness of her cell, but only dared to 
go so far. Yurei could make out the silhouette of her body, as 
slender and trim as it had always been.
	"Isn't it beautiful that when I repulse you the most, you 
need me now more than ever," Hotaru remarked. She stretched out one 
of her legs and gazed absently at her toes. "I wonder if I would be 
so useful to you if I revelled in Serenity's pet causes." 
	"It attacked the girl in her own home not a few hours ago," 
Yurei said. "Her family didn't even hear it enter or leave. It took 
the first girl's blood, poisoned it into something black and ugly, 
and injected it into this girl's body. I need to know what this 
thing is capable of and what it might do next."
	Hotaru's violet eyes turned on him. "It's a youma, or that's 
what you'd have me believe. You used to command them once. Use your 
imagination, why don't you? Or does that idea make you afraid?"
	Yurei's jaw tightened again. He said nothing.
	Hotaru didn't seem to care. "We've both gone where angels 
fear to tread," she said. "The only difference was how we were 
incarcerated. You've since been released...and you haven't even found 
absolution yet."
	"You're wrong."
	She gave him a look that contested his words. "Hundreds of 
years, and still you can't convincingly lie. My poor, poor ghost-
condemned by your past, condemned in your present." Hotaru's tongue 
ran along her lips. "Such sweet, delicious suffering. Would you 
like me to call you by your real name? Would it make you shudder 
and remind you of the atrocities of old?"
	Yurei's hand was on the handle of his katana.
	He glared at her once, and then turned away.
	Hotaru's voice persisted in the dim room, creeping across 
shadow and light to tickle at his ears. "How many victims were 
there, Yurei? How many fallen souls must you go on atoning for? Or 
is the only soul left that needs atoning your own?"
	There was a pause.
	Yurei could hear her sliding off the bed and standing.
	"Face me, Yurei," she told him. "You tried to kill me once, 
you owe me that much."
	He dared not. "It is not you speaking such cruelty, Hotaru," 
he said. "It's the evil that still lingers inside of you."
	Hotaru didn't giggle when she heard that. She laughed. 
Blatantly, cruelly laughed. "Ah, then you're atoning for my soul, 
is it? Tell me, how did it feel to first meet Eternal Sailor Moon, 
and realize that your old nemesis had evolved in ways that 
terrified you? Did she hold out her hand of forgiveness to you, and 
you trembling like a child pretend to accept it?"
	She was approaching the bars.
	Yurei could her the sound of her breaths growing louder, 
closer.
	"You were possessed, just as I was once, just as I am again. 
But you've sadly recanted." Hotaru's arms snaked out from between 
the bars, and caressed Yurei's cheeks. He could feel the warmth of 
her naked body through his coat.
	"Ah, the apocalypses we could have rained down," Hotaru 
sighed. "It excites me just to imagine such possibilities."
	The fingertips of one of her hands traipsed down Yurei's 
chest, then grabbed hold of his shirt and yanked hard. Yurei was 
pulled, spun around. He was brought face to face with her, the cold 
crystalline bars separating them. Hotaru was scowling, glaring at 
him for being on the other side. Her scowl melted away, and she 
brought her fingertips up to her lips. She suckled on them. They 
slid out from her mouth, trailed down her chin and neck and 
breasts, and came to rest upon an obvious and long-healed scar upon 
the right side of her chest.
	"It's the only memento of you I have left, Yu-chan," she 
said, and stroked the scar with fond affection. "The last present 
you ever gave me."
	Yurei tried to look away. It proved a difficult task. "I had 
no choice. You were going to let your glaive fall, and start Death 
Reborn Revolution."
	Hotaru nodded. "I remember it well. I remember how you drove 
the blade of your Angelus sword through me. Such exquisite pain I 
felt. Such betrayal."
	She reached out through the bars and took Yurei's hand in 
hers. With loving care she guided his hand through the bars, and 
let his palm rest against the scar. "I killed an Archangel and two 
Sailor Senshi that day," she whispered. "I would have killed you 
next. Let me out of my cage, and I'll finish what I started."
	Yurei could feel the coarse edge where her skin ended and the 
scar began. He could suddenly see Yuki lying facedown in the 
street, Yumeko staring up in terror at her bedroom ceiling. The 
sharpness in his eyes returned.
	"The youma, Hotaru," he stated. "How strong do you think it 
is? What does it want?"
	Hotaru continued to hold his palm against her scar.
	"Do you know why Neo Queen Serenity visits me every day, 
Yurei?" she asked. "It's because she still believes that deep down, 
some little innocent child can yet be reached. She's seen it banish 
the darkness from me once before. Now she's deluded herself into 
believing it might yet happen again. Darkness is inherent in 
everyone, though. Mine just happens to be darker than dark."
	She smiled again, and tightened her grip on Yurei's hand. 
"But you don't visit me because you believe my darkness can be 
banished," she said, and yanked him up against the bars. 
	Yurei grimaced as he was pulled against them, and saw 
Hotaru's gleaming eyes right next to his. "You," Hotaru stated, 
"visit because you believe in pain."
	"I do not delight in pain," Yurei said.
	Hotaru smiled, leaned forward and licked his cheek, and then 
let him go. Yurei stepped back and immediately made sure he was 
still in possession of both his swords. Hotaru had already 
retreated into the dimness of her cell, and was making large, 
childlike pirouettes. 
	"You delight in love, Yurei," she told him. "Love is pain. 
Love is what has brought us here, where we stand on different sides 
of this cage, gently nursing the lingering torment from our old, 
deep wounds." 
	She twirled and let herself fall onto the covers of her bed. 
Her eyes watched the ceiling, and her ears listened to the beating 
from Yurei's heart. "The beauty of the world can only be 
appreciated because of the ugliness that stands beside it. You love 
me. And yet you cannot kill me. That's the strange thing about 
love, isn't it? It only hurts when you believe."
	Hotaru turned her head and made certain he was still watching 
her.
	"I won't tell you what's happening, Yu-chan," she said. "Not 
yet. Not until the next girl's body surfaces. And believe me, there 
will be a third one."
	Some innate fear crept into Yurei's mind, and Hotaru's 
riddles gelled into one frightening truth. He stepped towards the 
bars and leaned against them, peering into the darkness. "How do 
you know it's going to be another Candidate?" he called out.
	Hotaru didn't answer.
	"What are you hiding from me, Hotaru?" he said, his voice 
growing louder, angrier. "What do you know that you're not telling 
me?"
	But Hotaru was not going to answer him. All he could see 
inside her prison was darkness, and a pair of violet eyes staring 
at him from somewhere inside the darkness. She was merely waiting. 
Waiting and drinking in his pain and doubt with every breath he 
took. She delighted in it.
	Yurei fought back the urge to slam his palm against the bars. 
He knew that would only encourage Hotaru and delight her. "Damn 
you," he hissed, then turned and left. 
	When the security doors at the far end of the hallway were 
sealed shut behind him, Yurei took out his cell phone. He dialled a 
number at the Academy, and had to wait for a few rings before he 
got a response.
	Minako's shaken voice answered. "Yurei?"
	Yurei didn't wait for any greetings. "Put the Academy on 
lockdown, Minako. Now."
	In the background he could hear someone else whispering quiet 
words to her. He recognized Sakura's voice, and said nothing 
regarding it.
	"Why?" Minako asked.
	"Because whatever's doing this isn't finished with the 
Candidates," Yurei answered. "And we need to stop it before it can 
try again."
	He left the details and arrangements with her; Artemis and 
Luna were still patrolling the Academy as a safeguard, and the 
other Senshi would rally to the Academy soon enough. When the 
Archangels were called in was up to the others. He left that 
decision with them, and walked the labyrinthine corridors of the 
Crystal Palace. There was an exit that would take him a half hour 
of walking to reach, but it was an exit far from the prying eyes of 
the photographers who always watched the palace.
	Yurei did not make it to the exit.
	Somewhere along the way, he turned a corner and beheld a lone 
Sailor Senshi standing before him. She was tall, incredibly tall, 
and her black hair flowed down her body like a waterfall. Her skin 
was tanned and dark, and in her hands was held a key-shaped staff 
with an orb at its head.
	Her magenta eyes burned into him, and Yurei felt an unusual 
impulse to shiver. He felt through the fabric of his shirt and 
found the silver ring dangling around his neck.
	"We need to talk," Sailor Pluto told him.
	Yurei made a slight nod, reached into his coat and turned off 
his cell phone. "Yes, we do."










	"Oh don't talk of love," the shadows purr
	Murmuring me away from you
	"Don't talk of worlds that never were
	The end is all that's ever true	
	There's nothing you can ever say
	Nothing you can ever do..."
	Still every night I burn
	Every night I scream your name
	Every night I burn
	Every night the dream's the same

		-The Cure, "Burn"



			-symphonic inquisition-


	She called it the Hundred Gate.
	Time, at least the linear coils of it locked away inside a 
confining fourth dimension, was not so easy to manipulate as others 
mistakenly believed. Time was more fluid than that, more complex 
and unpredictable, like Mobius skeins ever rotating around one 
another. Simply because one was the soldier of time--and time was 
both infernal and eternal--didn't mean she automatically knew every 
little detail about the future. Setsuna didn't know every last 
little detail about the past either for that matter, and the best 
way to keep up with events of the "present" was to skim through a 
variety of newspaper subscriptions.
	She and Yurei walked through a realm that could only be 
described as existing "out of time." Such human concepts as 
temporal "laws" or "physics" did not apply to it.
	There in the Hundred Gate, Yurei witnessed Time parading all 
around, and it was rarely ever definitive, linear or easy to 
glimpse. There was very little to look at in terms of basic design. 
The gate itself was nothing more than a world where the skies were 
painted black and the ground beneath their feet was covered in a 
thin veil of mist, and somewhere in between were the hundreds of 
mirrors absently floating around.
	They never bumped into each other, never veered dramatically 
aside at the last second to avoid a collision. There was an odd, 
helter-skelter ballet to the way they glided through the air, 
leisurely turning this way or that and carrying on in a different 
direction. It was very easy to grow bored of staring at a realm 
comprised of darkness and ambling mirrors. Staring into the mirrors 
themselves, however, was another story.
	It was a scattergore perspective on time.
	"What are they?" Yurei asked.
	"Each mirror randomly shows me events from pasts that were, 
present situations happening anywhere, and future events that might 
be or would be," Setsuna explained. "I count myself lucky to have a 
mirror show me something for more than ten seconds before it 
flickers and decides to switch to some other era and location."
	Yurei caught a glimpse of a revolution in some nameless 
jungle, and then the reflection in the mirror he saw changed and 
became a Tokyo from before The End. With it he realized the great 
and terrible responsibility held by the solitary Soldier of Time. 
Her destiny intertwined with Time itself.
	"It's my duty to stand here and study the mirrors," Setsuna 
went on, "watching and waiting for clues that help me fit together 
the pieces that become the shape of whatever might threaten the 
Earth. The more I watch, the more I see and understand."
	"Do you ever see any definitive outcome to a battle?" Yurei 
asked.
	Setsuna shook her head.
	"Those occasions are rare. It's near impossible even for me 
to see the ending of any battle in exact detail. Most often I'll 
know the basic outcome, but everything else in between is anyone's 
guess, even mine."
	Yurei began to wonder if she had actually made educated 
guesses and extrapolations about the future more often than she let 
on to her friends and fellow soldiers. It wasn't his place to ask, 
and so he kept that to himself.
	"When this began," Setsuna said, "all I could hear were the 
dissonances echoing through a distant time and space. I saw a body 
in the streets, but not a face. Believe me, I have searched as hard 
as you to locate her killer...but I have seen little else. All the 
mirrors have shown me are the ways the two girls were mutilated."
	"This is why you haven't told me anything about this youma," 
Yurei said. "Isn't it?"
	"I've seen fragments of death, nothing else." Setsuna cast 
her eyes to one of the floating mirrors. "I'll be honest with you, 
Yurei: I myself do not know how these mirrors work. They were here 
long before she had arrived, and they are unseen and untouchable 
windows. All I can do is watch. I cannot pass through them and 
intervene. I cannot command them to show me whatever I want. I 
cannot get answers, only ciphers."
	She returned her gaze to Yurei, and her magenta eyes burned 
with a distant dread that made Yurei's skin crawl. "I fear more 
will die," she said quietly, "and unless something changes, tragedy 
will befall the entire future."
	"How?"
	"It will end."
	Yurei almost rolled his eyes as he let out a near disgusted 
sigh. "Not again."
	"It's the way of the world, Yurei," Setsuna told him. "There 
is light and there is darkness, and they do not like each other 
very much. The light drives back the dark, and the dark swallows up 
the light. Where there is the greatest light also lurks the 
greatest shadow, and there the fiercest battles will be fought."
	"Evil's always going to be attracted to the purity of Crystal 
Tokyo," Yurei summed up. "And here I thought the Tokyo Tower just 
happened to be a lightning rod for youma invasions."
	His wry remark made Setsuna smile. "I know the feeling. If 
anyone does ask, tell them I'm doing what I can. But I wanted to 
show you this place, to show you that even Time remains a mystery 
to the one who guards it. Time is a possessive creature, and does 
not like to give up its secrets easily."
	"And so you wander the Hundred Gate," Yurei said. He did not 
add what other thought came to his mind: 'and you entertain 
yourself with snapshots of the world in which you cannot live.' 
There was no sense in pushing the knife that was her destiny even 
deeper into her heart. Yurei had seen the pain enough times in her 
eyes whenever Setsuna did visit the palace or the city. She did not 
like being alone. 
	Her Timestaff held in one hand like an old, faithful walking 
stick, Setsuna turned to a mirror and glimpsed the world as it 
floated by. Their eyes saw many things: tourists standing atop the 
Tokyo Tower's observation deck, staring out at the grandeur of a 
crystal city; a masquerade ball from the ancient Silver Millennium; 
a distant war fought by feudal English mercenaries.
	"When did you first know about this?" Yurei asked.
	"When something is wrong, the mirrors start to chime out of 
alignment," Setsuna answered. She pointed up to the air, silently 
asking for Yurei to listen to the melody of the Hundred Gate. 
"Their perfect, synchronous harmony is disrupted by something that 
should not be, by something that threatens our world. The discord 
grows more severe the closer the event comes to pass. 
Unfortunately, the closer we get to the event actually happening, 
the more I begin to see as Time unravels beneath it." 
	A mirror lost its synchronicity.
	A chime resonated apart from the others, coarse and 
foreboding.
	Setsuna paused, her brow furrowing. Slowly she turned her 
head, her expression not one of surprise, as if this had somehow 
impossibly snuck up on her, but one of immediate and solemn focus. 
Every thread of her being was drawn to that single mirror out of 
alignment, her concentration narrowing to that single, chilling 
sound.
	She took careful steps, moving in between the floating 
mirrors, her keen ears sifting through the noise to find the source 
of her newfound worry. Yurei followed after her, saying nothing. 
Within a few minutes she located the mirror. It was still 
displaying the reason it no longer resonated with the others.  
	Something was moving down a street in Crystal Tokyo. 
	"Do you recognize this?" Setsuna asked.
	Yurei nodded. He had walked down that street before. "Yuki-
san was killed a few blocks away. This was the route she took when 
she got separated from her friends."
	The unpleasantness of the mirror echoed in their ears as the 
past played itself out before them. Yurei saw Yuki, drunk on 
alcohol and euphoria, stumble and fall on the street. A silhouette 
emerged from behind her. The mirror suddenly became disoriented, 
distorted, and instead of a clear picture everything came crashing 
down in a cascade of blurred and out-of-sequence images.
	Yurei caught glimpses of Yuki's face contorted in laugher and 
screams, her mouth wide open as her blood was taken. Her limbs 
thrashed about. Pieces of her clothes were torn away. The 
silhouette stood in darkness, an arm outstretched and commanding 
something. The street beneath her was dark and without mercy. Yuki 
convulsed and spasmed. Her eyes were wide and terrified. 
	"What is that?" Yurei muttered.
	Setsuna shook her head. "I don't know."
	For as appalling as it was to witness Yuki's death all over 
again, Yurei watched for fragments of the silhouette. Now it was 
bounding down the street. He was giving chase. The silhouette 
darted this way and that. It leapt over streetlamps and raced 
alongside the walls of buildings. It disappeared.
	"It doesn't move like any youma I've ever seen before," Yurei 
said.
	"I don't believe it's a youma," Setsuna stated.
	Yurei slowly turned his head and looked at her. Setsuna 
continued to watch the image in the mirror with deep, haunted eyes. 
"Then what is it?" he asked her.
	Setsuna's gaze never wavered from the mirror. "It's 
dangerous, Yurei. And it's local."
	"What?"
	"As an Outer Senshi, I can sense if a new threat has come 
from beyond our solar system, much the way an antibody can sense a 
foreign virus in the body. I have had no such premonitions. 
Whatever is doing this came from within our system. It may even 
have originated here." 
	The reflection in the mirror suddenly became a distant 
rainforest alive with the flitting wings of butterflies. Setsuna 
turned away from it. "Evil runs deep," she said quietly, "even in 
the blood of the earth."
	She lifted her head, as if seeing Yurei in her domain for the 
first time, and said, "You must go. Time still flows around us, 
even though this place is out of Time. It's almost dawn in Crystal 
Tokyo. I can drop you off anywhere you want to go."
	"My apartment," Yurei said. "I'm guessing you know where it 
is."
	Setsuna nodded her head. Her gaze was drawn back to the 
mirrors drifting around them. "No matter how this ends," she said, 
"it's reached a point where it won't end well. I fear that one of 
us will die."
	"I can assure you, Setsuna," Yurei stated, "that it will not 
be me."
	Setsuna turned and flashed him a chilling look. "I cannot 
share in your confidence, Yurei." 
	Yurei's fingers gripped the hilt of his Angelus Sword, but 
his expression remained neutral. "If you learn anything new, let me 
know."
	Setsuna nodded. "Serenity be with you, Yurei. 








	I've been looking for the ultimate crime
	Infinite victims, infinitesimal time
	And I'm so guilty for no reason or rhyme
	So now I'm just looking and killing some time
	Endlessly searching for the ultimate crime

		-Meatloaf, "Original Sin"



			-pretty maids all in a row-


	Sunrise spilled over Crystal Tokyo in shades and silhouettes 
of blood and gold. Yurei stepped into his bathroom and saw the dawn 
already dripping from the walls and the dry, claw-footed tub. He 
stared down at the bathtub, and glared out at the rest of the city. 
He could not bring himself to linger there, and so Yurei turned and 
walked through the rest of his loft. He had not yet slept, nor 
eaten, nor cared.
	His eyes refused to read from any of the texts and 
manuscripts lining his bookshelves. His fingers refused to be still 
and allow him to wait for tea to boil. He could not sit down, and 
even when he stood his feet demanded that he pace the floors 
without rest.
	Yurei left his sanctum.
	He stalked down the deserted hallway, stopped in front of 
door 2015 and kicked it down. The locking mechanism was ripped 
violently from the wall, and the door swung open with one final 
raspy protest. The apartment was abandoned, ancient pieces of 
furniture and appliances still clinging tenaciously to form and 
existence. Dust and debris littered the floor. A solitary mouse 
squeaked as it heard the sound of his boots. It fled into an unseen 
hole.
	Yurei followed the maddening impulse in his mind across a 
living room, and stairs that almost collapsed when he was halfway 
up. He stopped in the doorway of the bathroom, where glass framed 
the far wall. The city looked beautiful and bloody, inviting him to 
close his eyes and rest in the bosom of tranquility. Yurei was 
scarce aware of how erratic, how fierce his breathing had become.
	He moved up to the window, and with one sharp kick from his 
boot shattered the glass panel before him. Shards rained onto the 
empty streets below, becoming nigh invisible halfway down. Yurei 
brought himself to the edge and stared down at the sidewalk. At 
twenty floors up, the cold wind crashed into his face and beat at 
his clothes. Despite each stinging blow, Yurei could feel nothing.
	His blue eyes watched the ground.
	His weight shifted forward.
	And Yurei let himself fall, plunging closer and closer to the 
ground. His longcoat became like the plumage of a bird's tail as it 
shook violently behind him. Yurei stayed silent as the details 
turned into blurs of colour and the wind stung his eyes. In his 
last few moments of descent, adrenaline shifted everything into 
perfect clarity, and Yurei saw the sidewalk rushing up to greet 
him. 
	He landed on both legs, bending at the knees and absorbing 
the full force of his inertia. The cement shuddered and splintered 
beneath him. The ends of his coat toppled down and were cut apart 
by the jagged pieces of erupting sidewalk. The fall should have 
killed him. It would have killed any other person.
	Yurei simply rose back up and walked away. 
	"Nice exit," he was told. Yurei turned his gaze to the other 
side of the street and saw Momo standing there. Her cheongsam had 
been replaced with black dress slacks and a scarlet blouse with a 
styled Chinese collar. "You keep doing that, and sooner or later 
you're going to run out of windows," she said. "You slept yet?"
	"No. What are you doing here, Momo-san?"
	"We," she replied as she crossed the road, "are going to the 
Academy."
	"We?"
	She nodded her head, her eyes daring him to try and protest 
otherwise. "Yumeko's death is already news all over the city. 
People are starting to panic; they're afraid they might be next."
	"This thing is only hunting Candidates."
	"And what happens when it's finished with all the Candidates? 
Who will it come after then?" She sighed and handed Yurei a 
newspaper. "You were around before The End, so you'll appreciate 
the dark humour in this. Evidently someone else working at the 
paper was around then too."
	Yurei barely needed to scan the paper for the article Momo 
was referring to. It was screaming out to him in thick, black 
letters.

		TARO THE RIPPER: SECOND VICTIM DISCOVERED!

	Yurei's stomach twitched in revulsion. "And Serenity hasn't 
stopped this, why?" he said, dropping the newspaper at his feet.
	"She might yet, once it's brought to her attention," Momo 
said. They began walking to Tsuikishima Station, the edge of 
devastation at their side. "The entire palace has been run ragged 
all night; I only just noticed the headline as I was coming here to 
pick you up."
	"You could have sent a car."
	Momo shrugged. "You turned your phone off. We had no idea if 
you were even here." She glanced out at the line of broken 
buildings and crumbling walls. "Such devastation. I still can't get 
over why you'd spend a good century living here on the edge of 
Crystal Tokyo." 
	"It reminds me of what we fought for in the very beginning," 
Yurei replied. "What the price is for forgoing constant vigilance. 
Every day, I sit and watch the sun rise over this city, and I 
wonder if it will be the last one for me, if it will be the last 
one for the city itself."
	"You did always like a good brooding," Momo remarked. "I 
guess this place would fit your mood better than any other 
neighbourhood."
	Yurei glanced down at her. "What about you?"
	"It may be a warehouse loft," Momo said, "but at least my 
place is in the middle of the city. I don't have to go out of my 
way to actually find other people."
	"We both still live alone," Yurei said.
	Momo had no easy way of responding to that. "Yeah, we don't," 
she agreed with great reluctance, and then changed the subject.  
"Yuichiro should be done with the autopsy and any processing. 
Shingo spent the entire night discussing the situation with the 
Inner Senshi."
 	"How did your search go?" Yurei asked.
	"We caught nothing," Momo said, and glared at the sidewalk as 
if it were responsible. "I hear that after you left Yumeko's house, 
you were ordered to stay at the Academy for the rest of the night."
	"I did."
	"So where did you vanish to?"
	"Don't push it, Momo-san. I am not in the mood."
	They followed Yurei's traditional route through the train 
lines, and were granted access through the front gates of the 
Academy. This time they were greeted with the auspicious presence 
of armed Enforcers at the checkpoint. The Academy itself was 
silent, hushed and afraid to speak. Its very walls seemed to quiver 
in fear of something it could not yet name. The Candidates were 
nowhere to be seen in the classrooms or the corridors connecting 
them. Yurei looked out one of the windows in a hallway, and saw a 
few of them clustered together outside in the courtyard.
	Momo drew out her cell phone and dialled a number. Her call 
was picked up after the first ring. "Yeah, it's me," she told the 
other person. "I brought Yurei, we're at the Academy...Her 
office?...Third floor, right...See you there."
	They made their way to the third floor, with Momo stopping 
them in front of the appropriate door. It could only have been 
Makoto's office at the Academy. The shelves in behind the desk 
housed collections of books on philosophies of war and combat, and 
training records and regimens of each Candidate. Hidden almost 
entirely behind the desk was a small stack of old romance novels.
	Upon a raised platform, a Zen sand garden sat in the middle 
of the sitting area, surrounded by couches and chairs. Yuichiro was 
sprawled out on one of the couches, for the most part dozing off. 
He stirred and lifted his head when Momo opened the door.
	"Morning," Yuichiro yawned. "You look like hell, Yurei."
	"I may just be feeling like it too," Yurei said, and took a 
seat for himself. 
	Momo sat next to Yuichiro. "What did you find?"
	"Not much of anything," Yuichiro said. He tossed a set of 
stapled papers over the sand garden. Yurei caught the papers and 
skimmed through the coroner's report. 
	"The cuts on her wrists were definitely made while she was 
alive," Yuichiro said. "But the lacerations themselves are so fine 
and precise, I can't even figure out what sort of blade did it. I 
don't even know if there's a blade out there that's capable of 
making those cuts."
	Yurei glanced up from the report. 
	"How did Yuki's blood get into her body?" Momo asked.
	"I don't know," Yuichiro answered, and he hated it. "That was 
almost wholly Yuki's blood too. We've all been around a long time, 
and I sure as hell haven't seen anything like this. It extracted 
Yumeko's blood, and injected someone else's with barely any strain 
showing on the outside of the body. Sure, the pressure made a mess 
of most of her insides, but this is completely new territory for 
me. You'd need a large machine and a lot of needles and tubes to do 
anything comparable to what we saw."
	His face screwed up into a black scowl and he kicked at the 
corner of the desk. "You couldn't haul that sort of heavy equipment 
through a girl's window without somebody in the house noticing it. 
Dammit, I'm at a loss. For the first time ever, I'm at a complete 
and utter loss."
	Yurei let the report spin through the air into Momo's waiting 
hands. Then he rose and turned to leave.
	"Where you headed?" Yuichiro asked.
	"Returning to where I began with all this," Yurei answered. 
"If anything comes up, call me."
	"Will your phone be on this time?" Momo asked, a wry smirk on 
her face.
	Yuichiro chuckled.
	Yurei nodded his head. "Yes, it will be. I'll see you in an 
hour or so, Yuichiro, unless something comes up." 
	"The cafeteria's serving uudon today for lunch," Yuichiro 
said.
	Yurei smiled. "Sounds tempting." 
	He closed the door to Makoto's office behind him, allowing 
for Momo and Yuichiro to discuss whatever they wanted to. His own 
mind retraced recent memories and faces. His feet retraced the 
pathway through corridors and down stairways, bringing him back 
into the dormitory.
	Most Candidates were secluded in their rooms, or possibly 
with their families in the Visitor's Wing. Yurei had no idea if the 
families were to remain at the Academy like the Candidates, cut off 
from the rest of the city until the matter was resolved. One 
Candidate poked her head out of her room, saw Yurei and panicked. 
She disappeared back into her room, and her door slammed shut. 
Yurei could hear her fumbling with the lock.
	Any other Candidates he met along the way treated him in the 
same manner, save for one. Sakura had a towel draped over one 
shoulder, and in her hands were soaps and bottles of shampoo. Her 
hair was still wet from her bath.
	Sakura slowed her pace, stopping only for a brief few seconds 
as she drew up shoulder to shoulder with Yurei. "Get the bastard 
who did this," she whispered. "Promise me."
	He nodded. "You have my word."
	After some effort, Yurei managed to locate one of the common 
rooms. The room was spacious enough, with countless tables and 
couches, a few television sets and gaming consoles. A pingpong 
table stood alongside a fooseball table and a pool table. Currently 
there were only four occupants of the common room, and they were 
all at the pool table.
	They looked like good friends and behaved like sisters. 
Divided into teams of two, they were playing a generic game of 8-
ball. And currently it appeared that there was some dissension in 
the ranks of one of the pairs.
	"Hey, give that back, Jun!" the Candidate with curls of 
whitish-blue hair protested. She reached for the pool cue that had 
just been snatched out of her hands. "PallaPalla wasn't done sizing 
up her shot yet!"
	The taller of the two stuck her tongue out at her roommate. 
Her hair was remarkably long, and just as remarkably green. "Not a 
chance, Palla," she said. "It's mine now. You take too long to make 
any shot."
	"She does have a point," concurred the Candidate with a long 
braid of red hair. 
	Her partner nodded in agreement. "We're going to be here 
forever at this rate. And they're serving uudon today for lunch. 
You know how fast that goes."
	At this, the blue-haired one began to throw what Yurei could 
only describe as a hissy fit. "Ves, Ceres!" she exclaimed.
	Yurei sensed someone drawing up behind him. He turned away 
from the pool game, and saw Minako standing behind him. "I know 
what you're thinking," Minako said, managing a slight smile. "You 
don't think they'll make good Senshi."
	"The thought had crossed my mind," Yurei remarked.
	"It's not for us to choose, ultimately," Minako said. 
	She led him away from the common room and down the hallway. 
Whenever they crossed paths with a Candidate, Minako did her best 
to flash them a reassuring smile. For the most part, it worked.
	"Where are you headed?" she asked.
	"To see Hikari and the others," Yurei said. "A second of 
their circle of friends is dead. I want to know why."
	"You think this all has something to do with them?"
	Yurei frowned and shook his head. "I don't yet know. If it 
does, they might not even know why themselves. But I'd rather find 
out before a third one is dead."
	"May I go with you?"
	Yurei glanced over at her. "I'm surprised you'd even ask, 
given the circumstances."
	"Are you saying you'd rather question them alone?" she 
challenged.
	"They might have secrets they'd rather not tell you."
	"I already know about their club-hopping, Yurei," Minako 
said. "Miyuki broke down last night when she heard about Yumeko. 
She told me the whole thing."
	Her ease at talking about it almost disturbed Yurei, but the 
situation they now found themselves in made it understandable. 
There were greater things to worry about. "Are you going to punish 
them?" he asked.
	Minako shook her head. "Someone already seems to be doing 
that. No one deserves this sort of punishment, Yurei. No one."
	She led him into another section of the dormitory. Not 
surprisingly, Robin and Miyuki's dorm room was on the ground floor. 
Minako knocked before letting the door slide open. She and Yurei 
were met with a conversation being abruptly cut off.
	Like most of the other dorm rooms Yurei had glimpsed, each 
side reflected the individuality of the Candidates. Robin's side 
was decorated with plants and small gardens placed upon makeshift 
shelves. Miyuki's side was decorated with teddybears and pictures 
of her friends & family.
	Robin and Miyuki sat on their respective beds. Hikari was 
also with them, sitting in Miyuki's desk chair, her arms crossed 
over her chest. Yurei wondered how difficult it was for Hikari to 
stay in her room, knowing her friend and roommate was dead. He also 
wondered if she had stayed the night here with the others.
	"Is it all right if we come in?" Minako asked them.
	Miyuki's saddened face brightened up when she saw Minako. The 
hope began to falter as she glimpsed Yurei's shadowy form behind 
Minako.
	Hikari saw Yurei and made a disgusted roll her eyes, as if 
she had been expecting his arrival. Robin said nothing, and did not 
look at them.
	"I...I know how hard this is," Minako said. "Yumeko-chan is...
she was...Yurei has some questions he'd like to ask you."
	She stepped aside and sat down on the edge of Miyuki's bed. 
Miyuki shuffled closer and hugged her. Watching from the chair, 
Hikari's fists clenched tighter until she could not longer remain 
seated. Hikari got up and moved towards the door.
	"Where are you going?" Miyuki asked.
	"Out," Hikaru said. "Getting some air is better than sitting 
in here and doing nothing at all." 
 	"Don't go too far," Yurei told her as she brushed past him. 
	"How can we?" Hikari muttered, her voice bristling. "We're 
under lock and key now."
	Minako moved to follow after Hikari, but Yurei shook his 
head. 
	"So what did you want to ask?" Robin asked. Her voice had 
dropped any pretences of civility. She didn't even look to care 
that Minako was present to hear it.
	Yurei glanced at her, and knew she was watching him even if 
her eyes weren't. "You have somewhere you need to go?"
	"Line-ups for lunch start early," Robin said. "I don't like 
waiting."
	"I hear the uudon's quite good here," Yurei said evenly.
	Robin smirked. "I didn't know you cared."
	"I like good food. Maybe I'll stay around and have a bowl." 
He turned to Miyuki, who was starting to try and smile once more. 
"I'll be brief, so you can get a good place in line. Was there 
anything Yuki-san said to you that night?"
	Confusion clouded Miyuki's expression. "What about Yumeko-
chan?"
	"Right now," Yurei said as gently as he could, "I am asking 
about Yuki-san."
	Robin sat on her bed, her back against the wall, watching a 
small spark dance in her open palm. "She wanted to celebrate."
	"Anything special?" Yurei asked.
	"No," Robin answered. "She never did say."
	"She said she wanted to keep it a surprise for later," Miyuki 
said. "But she wanted all of us to go out."
	Yurei returned his attention to Miyuki. "Did Sumire know 
about this?"
	"I guess so," Miyuki said.
	"Yuki-chan had mentioned it to her," Robin said, "but you 
know Sumire. Too terrified of getting caught, so she declined."
	Robin closed her palm into a fist, and snuffed out the spark. 
She slowly turned her head and stared directly at Yurei. "It's 
coming for us now, isn't it? First Yuki-chan, now Yumeko-chan."
	Miyuki let out a whimper of fear.
	Yurei glanced at Minako, and she saw the near certainty in 
his eyes. That still didn't stop her from drawing a breath and 
stating as confidently as she could, "The Academy has its 
safeguards up. Nothing unauthorized can get in or out without 
setting off alarms. At least two Sailor Senshi and two Archangels 
will be patrolling the grounds at all times until this has ended. 
This is the safest place in the world for you."
	A scream pierced the eerie quiet of the Academy.
	Everyone's head snapped towards the direction of the scream. 
Before any of the Candidates in the room could jump to their feet, 
Minako was already at the door. Yurei had already thrown open the 
window and leapt outside. The Candidates who were able to catch a 
glimpse of him saw only a blur of darkness shooting across the 
courtyard. He landed on the ground only once and then leapt back 
into the air once more.
	He fell to the earth next to the last thing he wanted to see.
	Sumire was shaking where she stood, her eyes wide in terror. 
She was beginning to hyperventilate. At her feet was another 
Candidate, sprawled out across the track. Where the young woman's 
chest should have been, there was a round, precision hole carved 
into the left side of her ribcage.
	Yurei dropped to one knee, and with one rapid motion stripped 
the longcoat off his body and laid it down over the corpse. For as 
fast as he was, Yurei wasn't able to hide the young woman's face 
before Sailor Venus dropped down from above and saw the third 
victim. All she could do was scream.
	"Sakura-chan!"







	I've got your kiss
	Still burning on my lips
	The touch of her fingertips
	This love so deep inside of me, baby

		-The Cult, "Painted On My Heart"



			-hardcore helter skelter-


	Yurei stood with his back against one of the infirmary walls. 
Not four steps away, Sakura's body laid upon a gurney. The eyes 
that had been wide open in anguish and terror he had mercifully 
closed before any of the other Candidates had been able to see it. 
A white cloth covered her body from the neck down. The section of 
cloth over the left side of her ribcage was tinted scarlet. 
	Yuichiro was scrambling to bring the necessary equipment from 
the hospital to the Academy. Because of the lockdown, he had to 
wait at the front gates; not even the ambulance was allowed inside. 
The Candidates who hadn't already broken into hysterics upon seeing 
Sakura were gathered in the cafeteria, feeding on dread. Soon they 
would be escorted back to their dorms.
	The infirmary was deserted, the door to his left slid shut. 
No one else was allowed inside unless they were Archangels or 
Sailor Senshi. Those who could enter had more than enough to deal 
with. Yurei had said nothing as the first wave of hysteria rampaged 
through the Academy, spreading from the quad to the dorm residences 
like a hydra. No words as Yuichiro barked out orders for the 
infirmary's gurney to be brought down, as the sobs and screams of 
young girls pierced the foreboding air, as he held Minako back from 
hugging the body of her pupil and lover.
	The Academy was unravelling at the seams. Candidates would 
soon want out. Their parents and families would want in. Everyone 
wanted answers no one could give.
	The cell phone in his hand chimed. Yurei lifted it to his ear 
and connected the call. "Yes?"	
 	"I've got what I need, I'll be up there in two minutes," came 
Yuichiro's voice over the sound of a cart motor.
	Yurei's free hand slid into the pocket of his pants and drew 
out his pocketwatch. He flipped open the lid. "I'll still be here 
when you arrive," he told Yuichiro, and ended the call.
	He slowly walked around the gurney, his hand gliding over the 
sheet, his fingertips steering themselves around the crimson patch 
over her chest. Sakura told him nothing. The whispers left behind 
in the wake of her life could not be heard. Her body was not giving 
any secrets up to him.
	Yurei turned his head as the infirmary door slid open, and 
Yuichiro appeared behind a wheeled table covered with boxes and 
medical equipment. Yurei stepped around the gurney and helped 
Yuichiro wheel the table to a vacant corner.
	"Thanks," Yuichiro said, and wiped the sweat from his brow. 
"You stayed with her the entire time?"
	"I owe her that much, Yuichiro."
	Yuichiro glanced at Yurei's longcoat, now draped over the 
side of a chair. Under the infirmary lights, slick patches of 
Sakura's blood shimmered like an unnatural mirage. "I'll see what I 
can do about getting that cleaned for you," Yuichiro said.
	"Don't bother," Yurei said. "It won't get cleaned until this 
is over. We won't even have the chance to breathe, let alone wash 
the blood out of something as inconsequential as a coat." 
	"None of us even saw this one coming," Yuichiro muttered 
darkly. "Inside the Academy, no less. How many Sailor Senshi were 
here when it happened, Yurei? How many of us?"
	Yurei stared at the corpse hidden beneath the sheet. "Let us 
hope," he said, "that Sailor Pluto is having better luck tracking 
down this youma."
	"One can hope," Yuichiro said. Then with a sudden ferocity, 
he kicked one of the waiting chairs across the infirmary. "Why 
isn't she here yet anyways? Of anyone, she should have already 
shown up by now."
	Yurei shook his head. "All she can see are glimpses of the 
past, present and future. They're always changing and mixing 
themselves up. She'll have to keep watching until she sees enough 
small pieces come together and form the entirety of the puzzle."
	His palm pressed against the silver ring hanging around his 
neck. "Contrary to popular belief, the Sailor Senshi are not gods."
	Against his desire, Yuichiro was forced to nod. "Even the 
Senshi have their limitations." 
	Yuichiro lifted the sheet and saw for the first time how 
extensive Sakura's wounds were. "Serenity have mercy," he breathed, 
and set the sheet down. 
	Yurei's eyes narrowed. "Happily, I'm not in the business of 
mercy the way she is."
	"What do you plan on doing, Yurei?"
	"Whatever I have to."
	Yuichiro returned to his table, and began moving boxes aside, 
clearing a place to set up. "This is going to take some time," he 
said. "You should be elsewhere." He laid a hand on Yurei's 
shoulder. "There's nothing else here you can do for her."
	Yurei scanned the various items on the table, picked up a 
small spray bottle filled with a clear liquid. "I need to borrow 
this."
	"What for?"
	"I have to check something."
	Yurei walked out of the infirmary, leaving his coat and 
Yuichiro behind. The door was slid shut behind him. For as close as 
the infirmary was to the cafeteria, it was still a long enough walk 
through places Yurei knew he would not entirely be welcomed. He did 
not go any further than the cafeteria's main doors, leaving a brief 
message with one of the bleary-eyed Candidates to pass along.
	He retraced his steps, following a staircase and an empty 
corridor that should have been alive with the sounds of footsteps 
and gossip and questions about the night's homework. All Yurei 
could hear were the echoes of his footfalls. He found the Guidance 
Councillor's office easily enough--two senior Candidates stood 
guard outside the door. They stiffened as he approached, and their 
eyes did not regard him as a friend.
	"I need to speak with her," he said to them.
	The taller of the two continued to watch him with unbridled 
suspicion. She looked ready to turn him away or start a fight. 
Yurei placed his hands behind his back and let a short burst of 
cold air flood past the two Candidates. Suddenly they knew he was 
an Archangel. Suddenly they knew he had enough power flowing inside 
his body to kill them both with very little fuss or resistance.
	Grudgingly they let him through.
	The guidance offices consisted of three separate offices 
linked by a waiting area filled with magazine racks and pictures 
with uplifting messages or quotes scrawled across them. All three 
office doors were closed. Yurei knew without looking where he 
needed to go; he only had to follow the crying.
	Yurei opened up the door to his far right. Inside was an 
empty desk and an empty highback chair. The visitor's couch, 
however, was taken up by Sumire's trembling form. Clutched to her 
breasts was a pillow someone had fetched from her room. She jumped 
as Yurei opened the door, cringing and trying to push herself into 
the cushions of the couch. Her posture relaxed only slightly when 
she saw it was Yurei.
	"You," she said, and sniffed.
	Yurei sat down on the other side of the couch, allowing 
Sumire to calm down and venture out from her side. She only moved 
as close as the middle cushion. 
	"I need you to hold out for your hands for me," Yurei told 
her. "Palms up."
	Sumire complied. Her hands trembled furiously and almost 
recoiled at his touch. Yurei gently turned one of her hands over, 
then let it go. He held up the spray bottle, and applied one spray 
to each of Sumire's hands. There was no reaction. He gave a quick 
spray to the front of Sumire's uniform, and nothing happened.
	"Wh-What does it do?" Sumire asked.
	"It gives me answers," Yurei said as he set the spray bottle 
aside and handed Sumire a towel. "What happened, Sumire-san?"
	Sumire stared at him, horrified.
	"Go back earlier," Yurei said when he saw that would not 
work. "Where were you going?"
	In a very quiet, subdued voice Sumire answered, "The 
cafeteria."
	"Were you the only one around?"
	She nodded.
	"Did you see anyone leaving the track, or anyone crossing 
through the hall windows?"
	Sumire shook her head.
	"Did you touch Sakura or move her when you found her?"
	Sumire made to shake her head, and then her jaw began to 
tremble. The panic in her eyes exploded, and she began to weep. 
Yurei stayed where he was as she curled up into a ball, crushing 
her pillow between her face and her knees. Between her cries he 
could hear fragments of her journey. 
	"Going early...there she was...staring...staring at me!" She lost 
control and buried her head into her pillow. "Sakura-sempai's gone! 
She went with us to the club sometimes. And now she's gone, and 
it's going to come for me too! I went with them!"
	"Only once," Yurei said.
	"But I still left the Academy!" Sumire exclaimed, her voice 
climbing in hysterics. "I'm going to be next!" 
	She flooded her pillow with tears. Yurei stepped back and 
placed the spray bottle upon the desk, giving Sumire the room to 
mourn without the feeling of being watched. When she could cry no 
more, she lifted her head and stared helplessly at him. "If I was a 
Sailor Senshi, I could stop this," she said. "I could master the 
winds like Haruka, or command the oceans like Michiru, or hold life 
and death on the edge of a knife like--"
	"Stop." Yurei did not turn his head towards her, but he now 
glared at the window behind the desk. Clouds were gathering. It was 
going to rain soon. "Go no further."
	"But Sailor Saturn was the strongest of them all," Sumire 
protested. "Second only to the Queen."
	Yurei's fists clenched and began to shake violently.  
"Don't...don't speak as if she's dead," he told her.
	Sumire stared at him in naïve bewilderment. "But she is," she 
said. "Our textbooks say so. About twenty years ago, a new invader 
managed to kill almost all of the Outer Senshi. If I had been a 
soldier then, maybe I could have--" 
	Yurei turned his head, and turned against her.
	"You would have been as helpless as the rest of us." He spoke 
with fierce finality. "Don't talk about wars you were not witness 
to. The power you desire is not necessarily the power you want." 
	The confusion clouding Sumire's eyes were transforming into a 
chilling dread. "What are you talking about? What happened?"	
	"You dream about being a Sailor Senshi, about glory and 
honour," Yurei said. "All you dream of is romance, Sumire. You and 
everyone else here! You have no idea how much torment we endure 
with each passing war, how much torment they endure."
	Sumire grew defiant against the accusing in his voice. "How 
can you say that? You're an Archangel! The Senshi have made this a 
better world, a better future! Because of them, there is no more 
war."
	Yurei's eyes narrowed. "And what do you think they wage every 
day?"
	"But to be a Sailor Senshi is the greatest honour--"
	Yurei cut her off with a low, menacing hiss. "What honour is 
there in watching them murder each other?"
	The chill working its way through Sumire's system took hold, 
and she trembled before a secret not meant for her ears to hear. 
"Wh...what?"
	The shadow Yurei cast upon her seemed to grow blacker. His 
one hand was upon his Angelus sword. His knuckles were white. All 
the rage of days, of decades and centuries past, was churning 
through his blood, threatening to overtake him.
	"Listen closely, Sumire-san," he growled. "This is a history 
lesson you will never find in any of your textbooks. Twenty years 
ago, a new darkness attacked the city. It possessed Sailor Saturn, 
irrevocably linking its life force with hers. It turned Saturn into 
a demon. It made her crave only destruction and despair. She almost 
ended the world...and Hotaru killed Haruka and Michiru when they 
tried to stop her."
	Sumire blanched.
	Her mouth opened and closed, desperate to say something, 
anything, any argument against him. But pinned beneath the cold 
edge of his eyes, she could do nothing. Before a small, young 
Candidate, Yurei showed no mercy.
	"Do you really want to be a Sailor Senshi?" he said. "Are you 
willing to lose everything for the sake of protecting this city? 
Are you ready to lose your life? Are you ready to lose your soul? 
And for what...for people who will forget your name, forget that you 
existed, and look only to which of them will get to take your 
place?"
 	Sumire stared down at her pillow. 
	"Sailor Saturn isn't dead," she said in a muted voice. "Is 
she?"
	The kireru threatening to consume Yurei's mind found its hold 
loosening beneath the memory of a smile he could not longer trust. 
He remembered kisses and gentle caresses, and how he enjoyed 
running his hands through her hair while she slept. Yurei's 
shoulder slumped in defeat.
	"Even the power of the Ginzuisho can't save her," he said. 
"She remains locked away in the palace, forgotten by almost 
everyone and feared by those who know of this secret. Not even 
Serenity's daughter knows about this." 
	He brought himself to look at Sumire, to meet the newfound 
uncertainty in her eyes.
	"I loved her. I still do. And she smiles at me with eyes of 
darkness. It is all she knows anymore. Hotaru is dead, but that 
monstrosity still lives on inside of her. One day, Sumire, that may 
be your fate. One day, I may be called upon to drive my Angelus 
sword through your chest to protect the city that you have 
forsaken. Can you tell me now that you are ready to accept such 
responsibility?"
	Sumire could only stare, unable to cringe, unwilling to run. 
She looked stunned when the tears began to fall down her cheeks. 
Then she burst into cries of despair and sorrow, burying her head 
into her pillow.
	Over her sobs, Yurei heard a knock at the door. He first 
picked up the spray bottle, then opened the door and let two 
Candidates inside. 
	"You sent for us?" Hikari said, a set of fresh clothes for 
Sumire in her arms. Her face was more grim than fearful, unlike 
Miyuki's. Miyuki clung to Hikari as if Hikari was the only thing 
separating her from unimaginable terrors.
	Yurei glanced back over his shoulder, where Sumire was 
sobbing uncontrollably into her pillow. "Take care of her. The last 
thing she needs right now is to be isolated from everyone else."
	He waited until Hikari and Miyuki were inside and sitting on 
the couch with Sumire, then closed the office door behind them. He 
was met with more resistance as he left the guidance offices and 
found the two Candidates glaring daggers into his back.
	"Just what are you doing here anyways?" the taller Candidate 
asked. "You're not doing any good walking around this place. You're 
not helping anyone."
	Yurei heard the challenge in her voice. The rage within him 
surged, and was pushed back. He turned and appraised her slender 
figure and long, curly black hair. "I could ask you the same 
question," he said. "Why linger in this place, if you doubt your 
own chances at becoming that which you so desire?"
	The Candidate glared at him, and Yurei knew she did indeed 
doubt. "At least I'm trying to do something," she snapped back at 
him. "At least I'm not letting my friends die!"
	The menace of her words caused her partner to utter a slight 
gasp, and earned her Yurei's full attention. He turned himself 
around and stared at her, waiting patiently until she began to 
crumble beneath his gaze. Then he raised aloft one of his arms, 
letting her see the jagged scars criss-crossing with each other in 
a grotesque, almost beautiful design.
	"I have bled more times than I care to count," he told her. 
"The scars I wear number more than the years you've lived. And even 
now, I am still fighting to keep all of you alive. What are you 
doing, aside from trying to look imposing and failing miserably at 
it?"
	He turned and stalked away, leaving the two Candidates to 
their ideals and inexperience. He moved back down the staircase and 
found Momo waiting for him at the base.
	"I was looking for you," Momo said.
	"And here you've found me," Yurei replied.
	Momo's eyes narrowed at the edge in his voice. "Makoto's 
waiting for us."
	They made their way to the third floor, returning to an 
office with a desk and records of Candidate training records, and a 
Zen sand garden. Sailor Jupiter, dressed in her official Sailor 
battle uniform, was approaching the office from the opposite end of 
the corridor.
	"Good, you found him," Jupiter said after letting out a weary 
sigh of relief.
	Yurei looked from her back to Momo. "I did keep my phone on 
this time. You could have called."
	"I'd rather not risk any Candidates hearing things they 
shouldn't," Jupiter said as she unlocked her office door. She 
gestured for Yurei and Momo to enter first. "Step inside." 
	Jupiter did not sit behind her desk, instead collapsing onto 
one of the chairs around the Zen garden. Momo took a place upon one 
of the couches. Yurei sat in a chair opposite to Sailor Jupiter. 
	"Okay, let's start with what's happening right now," Jupiter 
said, trying not to sound overwhelmed or grim. "Sailor Mars is 
actively patrolling the dorm residence as we speak. I just came 
from seeing Sailor Mercury. We also have a number of Academy 
graduates patrolling the rest of the wings, all in groups of two or 
three. We've practically shut down the academics building; almost 
all the classrooms are sealed off. The only exceptions are the 
guidance and faculty offices, and if someone needs to get anything 
from there, they go with an escort."
	She made a point of meeting with Yurei and Momo's eyes in 
turn. "Once we're done here, I've got areas I want the Archangels 
to patrol. There's a lot of open space in the park to cover, and 
I'd feel better knowing you guys were the ones doing it." 
	"What about Minako?" Momo asked.
	Jupiter winced and reluctantly shook her head, choosing to 
stare down at her garden of sand rather than look at Momo. "She's 
in no condition to help, not right now. This is hitting her worse 
than the girls." 
	Jupiter lifted her head with renewed determination. And 
vengeance. "Serenity herself is coming to the Academy. She and 
Endymion are going to remain here until this ends. I can't talk 
them out of it, and I don't want to see anything happen to them, or 
any more of these girls." 
	They turned their heads as Yuichiro slid open the office door 
and glided inside. Yurei jiggled the spray bottle in his grip and 
handed it over to Yuichiro.
	Left without anything else to say, Sailor Jupiter sighed, her 
shoulders slumping. She looked ready to collapse where she sat, or 
start taking her frustrations out on some unfortunate part of the 
wall.
	For as much as Yurei did not want to ask it, he knew there 
was a question that had to be answered. "Makoto-san, you've been at 
this longer than any of us," he said. "Have you ever seen anything 
like this before?"
	Jupiter hesitated and shook her head. "No. I've never seen a 
youma behave like this. If anyone's got any ideas, I'd love to hear 
them."
	"I might as well state the obvious," Momo said. "Our killer's 
accelerating."
	Yuichiro flopped down in the nearest chair. He looked ready 
to pass out from exhaustion in a few short seconds. "From a few 
days into a few hours. The next Candidate might be dead before 
nightfall."
	He let out an exasperated growl and tousled his own hair in 
frustration. "Dammit, just how did it get onto the Academy grounds? 
The barrier's up. Only the Senshi or the Archangels are allowed in 
or out. Even the faculty's not allowed to leave."
	All eyes turned to Sailor Jupiter.
	"Ami's looking into that right now," she replied. "She may 
have to rip the Academy's defensive systems from the ground up and 
do a complete overhaul."
	"What about Sumire?" Momo asked. 
	"Is she under suspicion?" Jupiter asked sharply.
	"There was no blood on her at all when I found her," Yurei 
said. "I've also scanned her hands and clothes, and came up with 
nothing." 
	Yuichiro sighed. "A murder like that, it would be impossible 
for anyone to remain spotless."
 	"I mean," Momo said, "did she see anything? Does she remember 
hearing anything?"
	Yurei shook his head. "Not that I've been able to find out. 
She's in shock. Miyuki and Hikari are with her now. From what I am 
able to gather, she was heading towards the cafeteria to get a good 
place in line, and came across Sakura's body."
	Jupiter's office door slid open, and Shingo stepped inside.
	"You don't want to be out there right now," he sighed as he 
closed the door behind him. "They are freaking out. Half the 
Candidates are going to barricade themselves in their dorm rooms, 
and the other half are planning to travel everywhere in large 
groups. Looks like lunch is cancelled too. No one's hungry."
	"Wish they'd asked us first," Yuichiro muttered. "I could use 
some uudon right about now."
	"They don't seem to be liking us very much either," Shingo 
added. "Maybe it's because they don't know us well enough, maybe 
it's because they hold us responsible for letting this Ripper 
character kill three of their friends."
	"It might also be because Sumire's scream drew half the 
Candidates into the courtyard," Momo said, fixing her gaze on 
Yurei. "And no offense, Yurei, but you were the first person most 
of them saw standing over her body."
	Jupiter glanced at the door. "I hate to say it, but we all 
can't be in here. Someone needs to be out patrolling the grounds; 
they can be brought up to speed later."
	"I'll patrol," Momo offered. "They may not be as hostile 
since I'm a woman."
	"I wish I could say that sounded sexist," Shingo remarked, 
and gave Momo a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "Thanks, Momo-chan. 
And good luck, you'll need it out there with this crowd."
	Momo bowed to Sailor Jupiter, then politely excused herself 
from the room.
	Yuichiro waited to speak until the door was closed again, in 
case there happened to be anyone else in the hallways who might 
hear. "I might as well tell you what my preliminary examination 
found. Either this youma has discovered a new way to remove 
someone's heart in record time and with no fuss--"
	"They do say the fastest way to a person's heart is through 
their chest as opposed to their stomach," Shingo glibly remarked.
	Yuichiro ignored it. "Or Sakura was killed elsewhere and 
brought to the sprinting track."
	Sailor Jupiter arched one of her eyebrows. "What makes you say 
that?"
	Yurei searched his memory of the scene, and found the answer.
	Shingo spoke before he could. "Blood," Shingo said. "There 
wasn't enough of it on the grass. While I don't speak from 
experience, cutting a person's heart out is rather messy. The place 
we found her was pristine: no footprints, no scuffmarks or signs of 
a struggle, no blood except for what got on her uniform."
	"Most of that was after the fact," Yuichiro said. "It was 
already coagulating around the wound, and that only happens to 
blood after you die."
	"There was also nothing on Sumire either," Yurei added. 
"Whatever did this took most of Sakura's blood along for the ride."
	"What I don't understand are the ways the Candidates are 
dying," Shingo said. "Each time it's different, and the only thing 
in common they seem to share is that the same edged weapon is doing 
all the cutting. By why this way? Why take the blood out of Yuki 
and put it back into Yumeko? And then why take out Sakura's heart? 
It makes no sense."
	"Maybe it's not supposed to," Jupiter said. "This youma might 
be completely insane, and just does whatever it fancies on a whim."
	"That's a distinct and disturbing possibility," Yuichiro 
muttered. 
	"So here's the question then," Shingo said. "Were all three 
Candidates killed by one youma, or by three different ones? 
Different youma explains the different ways they were killed." 
	Yuichiro shook his head and sat up slightly. "I doubt it. I 
scryed all three places where their bodies were found. Each place 
was marked with the same...feeling. Power. However you want to call 
it. It's old and it's been around for a while."
	He eased back down on his couch, staring up absently at the 
ceiling. It was bothering him more than he tried to let on. "Same 
three vibes from three different scenes. We're only looking at one 
youma. It's getting bolder and it's getting stronger."
	Yurei let out a burdened breath and leaned forward in his 
chair, his brow furrowed as he stared into the sand garden. "I'm 
not discounting anything," he said, "but there could be a 
mastermind behind these attacks, and the youma is merely its angels 
of death."
	"You don't think whatever's doing this is an actual person, 
do you?" Jupiter asked incredulously.
	"I honestly don't know," Yurei said. His voice became 
strained, tensing up. "If anything, Hotaru is proof that incredible 
darkness can work through a human host. It happened to her father, 
it's happened to her twice now. Youma are usually footsoldiers; 
they don't know much else besides attacking. These acts are too 
calculated."
	"Look, nothing has changed," Shingo said. "We still have a 
killer we know nothing about, save that it moves fast and can 
escape any of our detection. It can breach the Academy's defences. 
It selects Candidates for reasons we don't yet fully know, and 
kills with a weapon we can't even pinpoint."
	They all could hear Sailor Jupiter mutter something vicious 
under her breath. "What's next?" she asked.
	"Whatever it decides to do, it'll be more personal," Yurei 
said. "This thing is taunting us as it draws ever closer to 
whatever it ultimately wants." 
	"All this talk about 'it' is making me dizzy," Shingo sighed. 
"As much as I hate to say it, let's stick to calling it the Ripper. 
Makes it easier to identify who we're talking about. Sound good?"
	Yuichiro shrugged.
	Yurei gave a slight nod.
	"Fine," Jupiter sighed. 
	"There's something else too," Yurei said. "There is something 
too ritual about all of this. Yuki-san was left in a place she 
would be easily found. Yumeko-san was the same way. And Sakura-
san's body could not have been left in any a more obvious place. 
The Ripper want these girls to be found. And I think the Ripper 
wants us to be the ones to find them first."
	"So Sumire finding Sakura's body was a mistake?" Shingo 
remarked.
	Sailor Jupiter nodded her head. "Makes sense. We were doing 
active patrols all over the Academy. This Ripper would have known 
we'd start guarding the quad as everyone headed towards the 
cafeteria."
	"Why us?" Yuichiro said. "Why does it want us to find them? 
Regular people finding the bodies would generate a better 
hysteria."
	"That is what escapes me," Yurei said. 
	Sailor Jupiter scowled, and in a quiet voice asked, "Is it 
being thrown in our faces that we can't protect the next generation 
of protectors?"
	No one could give her an answer.
	They parted ways shortly after. With no other ideas to give 
or theories to debate, all that remained for them was to wander the 
Academy in the hopes that someone might stumble across someone or 
something. Yurei waited until he and Sailor Jupiter were alone in 
her office before asking one last favour.
	"There is something I need to do first," Yurei said. "Someone 
I need to see."
	Jupiter frowned at the thought of their patrols being short 
an Archangel, but in looking into Yurei's eyes, she knew where he 
was going. "Later tonight," she said. "During dinner, when 
everyone's in the cafeteria, Serenity plans to spend extra time 
helping them through their grieving. That gives you a two, maybe a 
three-hour window. But I need you to be back here as soon as you 
can."
	She paused and quietly added, "We need you as much as she 
does, Yurei."
	"I know," Yurei said, and turned away. "Thank you, Makoto-
san. I owe you." 
	"Catch the Ripper," Sailor Jupiter told him, "and I'll 
consider us even."







	Love come quickly
	Because I don't think I can keep this monster in
	It's in my skin

		-Savage Garden, "Gunning Down Romance"



			-sliver of darkness/shadow of night-


	Hotaru stared out her window as Yurei came to stand before 
the bars of her cage. Her hands were casually clasped behind her 
back, and she rolled back and forth on the balls of her feet. She 
wore a scarlet dress, and looked like she might be an idol singer 
getting ready for a stage performance.
	"Lost your coat, did you?" she remarked. Her eyes stayed upon 
the city just out of her reach. "The temperature is dropping and 
the trees are reaching towards the heavens. You might catch your 
death of cold in the rain."
	Yurei's right hand came to rest upon the handle of his 
katana.
	Hotaru giggled as she caught the scent of his despair. "Did 
you fail again, Yu-chan? Did you fail to protect a third 
Candidate?" Hotaru turned her head and flashed him a teasing smile. 
"The storm is coming," she told him. "It's always fun to watch the 
darkness swallow up the remains of the day. And there will be 
lightning too, and I can watch the future tremble beneath it."
	Yurei watched her with eyes that tried not to feel, that 
sought the grotesqueness behind her smile. He kept his distance 
from the bars, kept himself out of her reach. "This one attacked on 
the Academy grounds itself," he said, "in what might as well have 
been plain sight."
	Hotaru tipped her head ever so slightly to one side. "From 
what I hear, the Academy barrier is nigh impenetrable, save for the 
Sailor Senshi. And maybe you. Oh, and let me guess: her heart was 
removed."
	Yurei lifted his head. "How did you know that?"
	"This isn't anything new. Your new adversary is simply 
repeating the old." Hotaru relaxed and leaned back against the 
window, staring out at a city slowly falling beneath a blanket of 
grey clouds. "I hear they even have a name for this monster now: 
Taro the Ripper. Strange how everyone in the city is afraid of 
being next, when our dear Ripper is only keeping to a select few."
	She turned and flashed Yurei a sadistic grin. "I can smell 
their collective terror even in here. It makes me dance in 
euphoria."
	Yurei placed his palms against the bars and leaned closer. 
"What do you know about the heart, Hotaru?"
	"Only that it is a useless beast," Hotaru replied with a 
shrug. "People like to believe it pumps emotion instead of blood. 
The human heart is as dark and twisted as it is beautiful. This 
world is filled with strange and terrible things people don't 
understand. Most of all, themselves." 
	Yurei could feel his lips curling back to form a snarl. He 
struck the bars with his fist. The sound caught Hotaru's attention. 
"No more riddles, Hotaru," Yurei stated. "No more games. What do 
you know about the Ripper?"
	"You're thinking with too narrow a mind, Yurei," Hotaru 
stated, her tone laced with acid overtures. She was enjoying 
herself, enjoying watching him flounder before her. "All this time 
you've been seeking for answers inside the question, and yet you've 
been asking all the wrong questions. It's not what I know about 
your dear Ripper--it's what I know about the world. And the world 
is not made up of right and wrong, Yurei, not good and evil."
	She pushed away from the wall and sauntered towards him.
	Her tongue glided across her upper lip.
	"The world is the way it is because of power," Hotaru said. 
"Who has it; who doesn't; who benefits from it; who would kill to 
get it; and who would kill to keep it out of the hands of others."
	Yurei met her gaze with equal ferocity. "Power isn't 
everything." 
	Hotaru giggled again. "No, but having it is. Your dear Ripper 
is showing you her power, though she would rather have others to 
tremble before her. Your presence in the whole matter is simply 
incidental."
	But Yurei had barely heard half of what she said. "'Her'?" he 
said.
	"Yes, her," Hotaru concurred with a nod. She frowned in 
disappointment. "I'm disturbed by this development, Yu-chan. You of 
all people should have noticed the emerging pattern here. It's 
almost childlike in its simplicity. It even caters to your own past 
experiences. Unfortunately, it's a simplicity that makes it the 
work of an amateur rather than a genius."
	"The victims are tied together because they all went to the 
same club," Yurei said, almost mumbling through the possibilities. 
"The Ripper may have been haunting that spot, looking for the 
perfect victims. And then one night she followed them home, 
followed them to the Academy."
	Hotaru let out a derisive snort. "Hardly. Don't you see? They 
who were once candidates to become deities have now been reduced to 
mere victims. The arrogant into the helpless."
	"I already know this," Yurei said. "They're being attacked 
because they're Candidates."
	Hotaru rolled her eyes at him. "No, they're being attacked 
because they're bad Candidates. Someone doesn't think them 
deserving to wear those happy little tiaras, and is showing the 
dark secrets of these little girls to the rest of the world. 
They're being punished, and it's quite the spanking they're 
getting. But what you should be asking yourself is not simply why, 
but why in this fashion?"
	Hotaru performed another pirouette and flopped down on her 
bed. In the dying light Yurei could still see the viciousness of 
her smile.
	"It's getting closer to them," Hotaru said, her voice a 
malevolent whisper. "From a Candidate outside the Academy, to a 
Candidate inside her family's home, and now inside the Academy 
itself. Our dear Ripper is demonstrating how no one is safe from 
judgement, how no one is safe from her holy wrath. I expect you'll 
find the next girl dead in her dorm room, killed by someone she 
would not have expected."
	Yurei froze as he listened to those last words. He found 
himself staring down at the floor, his mind frantically racing 
through faces and memories. And then he realised Hotaru had pressed 
herself against the bars. She leaned her face close to his ear and 
relished the revelation she whispered: "Who else has the power to 
kill these girls in the ways you've described? Who else would hate 
them for not taking their duties seriously? Who else would not want 
them to become Sailor Senshi? And who would know where they went, 
what they did, what their dirty little secrets were? Your Ripper, 
Yurei, either lives or works at the Academy--a wolf among the 
lambs."
	Yurei's head lifted sharply, and he backed away from the 
bars. His hand was hovering over the grips of his katana. Hotaru 
remained where she was, her body draped against the bars in a 
coquettish fashion, one of her shoulder straps having fallen down.
	"You already suspected it was a human, did you?" Hotaru said. 
She almost sounded sympathetic. Almost. "A shame you didn't suspect 
the killer might have been closer than you expected."
	"You knew from the beginning," Yurei said. "You knew who the 
Ripper was."
	Hotaru's predatory expression melted away and became one of 
deep concern. She reached out one of her arms, as if her only 
desire was to caress his face and reassure him that all was well 
with the world. Yurei did not move any closer; he still saw the 
bloodlust in her eyes.
	"Such pain in your useless heart, Yurei," Hotaru whispered. 
"If only you would cast in aside as I have." Her vicious smile 
returned. "We could make such sweet blasphemy. Alas, you can't open 
these doors; you're not a Sailor Senshi."
	She cast a sidelong glance at the far doors of the corridor. 
"It seems I have no end to unexpected visitors today."
	Yurei turned and saw Sailor Mars beholding him with cold, 
violet eyes. She was not about to move any further inside. She was 
expecting him to come to her. Yurei rested his elbow upon the 
handles of his swords and began to leave.
	Hotaru called him back to her with a cry of urgent need. "Yu-
chan!"
	Against his better judgement, Yurei changed his direction and 
cut back to the bars of Hotaru's cell. He looked for an 
explanation, and instead received a kiss. Hotaru's hands snaked 
between the bars and clasped the sides of his face as she took all 
the passion that still lingered somewhere inside of her, and 
brought his lips against hers. Then she let him go, and let her 
callous laughter echo across her prison.
	Yurei tried to glare at her, but couldn't. He tried to 
imagine how much he wanted to drive his sword through her and 
mercifully end this suffering for them all, but he could not bring 
himself to see it. He wanted to walk away and never return. He knew 
it was impossible.
	He left her prison, her giggles traipsing along after him.
	Sailor Mars closed the outer door to Hotaru's prison behind 
them. Disapproval radiated off her body. Yurei was beyond caring 
about that.
	"Why are you here?" he asked, looking into her eyes.
	"I came here to bring you back to the Academy," Mars replied 
coolly.
	"How did you know I was here?"
	"Makoto told me."
	Yurei reached into his pants and drew out his pocketwatch. At 
the Academy, the dinner hour was on the verge of finishing; Neo 
Queen Serenity would only just be starting her session with the 
Candidates. "I still have time," he told Mars.
	"Not as far as I'm concerned," she countered. "Every hour you 
waste elsewhere is an hour where that youma wanders free around the 
Academy."
	"I think," Yurei said, "that a youma is not responsible for 
this."
	Sailor Mars regarded him with surprise and suspicion. "Then 
who?"
	He met her gaze. "One of our own."
	The shock on Sailor Mars's face could not have been any more 
obvious. He might as well have slapped her. Her mouth opened and 
closed, but no words came out. Her eyes sought out the moment where 
he might laugh cruelly and tell her it was a joke, or that she had 
simply heard him wrong.
	"Wh-What makes you?" she stammered. "How can you say that?"
	"This killer is someone with access to the Academy," Yurei 
said. "Someone who could stalk Yuki and her friends unobserved. 
Someone with otherworldly power capable of subduing and killing 
them in grotesque ritualistic ways--be it an Archangel, another 
Candidate...or a Sailor Senshi."
	The inability to speak fell from Mars's throat. "Impossible!" 
she exclaimed. "Why would any of us do something like that?"
	"I don't know," Yurei said. "Jealousy, perhaps. Eliminating 
the competition. Someone may have finally succumbed and become a 
part of the evil that plagues us every day."
	Sailor Mars vehemently shook her head against the idea. "We 
would never betray our own, Yurei. What you're talking about is 
madness."
	"And what about Hotaru?" Yurei snapped at her. "Why is it 
she's locked away, and we all pretend she's dead to the world?"
	"She is dead to the world!" Mars shot back. "That beast in 
her cell may wear her face, and it may have her voice. But I saw 
you in there, Yurei. I know even you can't bring yourself to 
believe it's still her."
	Yurei felt his heart quickening. The air began to spark with 
the charge of centuries of mistrust and unforgiven sins. "They why 
hide her from the rest of the city?" he demanded. 
	"You may not realise this," Sailor Mars said, "but Crystal 
Tokyo is a city fuelled by trust--trust in its Queen, and in the 
Sailor Senshi. For them to know that even we can be undermined, 
corrupted, would cause that trust to crumble. This city would 
fall."
	"I know that," Yurei said.
	Sailor Mars growled and stood defiant in his face. "No, you 
don't!" she snapped. "You're an Archangel. The Archangels rule by 
fear. Haven't you ever noticed how people move away from you, how 
they whisper behind your back? Haven't you noticed how they never 
want to believe you exist. They know the fury and wrath of an 
Archangel, but they have yet to see the fury of a Sailor Senshi."
	"I've lived for more than two hundred years," Yurei said. 
"I'd have to be blind and deaf to not have noticed by now."
	"You should understand then," Mars said. "The Sailor Senshi 
are their champions and their soldiers."
	"The Sailor Senshi are like everyone else," Yurei said. "They 
share the same flesh and blood, the same humanity and weakness."
	Sailor Mars glared at him with unabashed rage. "And what about 
you, Yurei? What darkness hides behind your eyes?"
	"I know what you would say," Yurei said. "Hotaru is locked 
away, so it cannot be her. Because of my past, I become the most 
likely suspect." 
	She nodded in agreement; the idea had already tempted her. "I 
could arrest you now. I could have you imprisoned alongside 
Hotaru."
	The cold reality of her words slowed Yurei's heartbeat. The 
ice returned to his eyes. "And when another Candidate dies, what 
would you do then?" he asked. "Still keep me locked away? We've 
never liked each other, Rei. We've never been able to trust each 
other."
	Sailor Mars turned away from him, and Yurei knew she was 
unwilling to let him see how close she was to crying. In a low, 
heart-wrenching voice she whispered, "You let my grandfather die."
	"He stood between us and the hordes of youma," Yurei said. 
"He willingly sacrificed himself so the rest of us--you and me 
included--could escape to higher ground. If there was any man I owe 
a greater debt to, it was him. And I have been ever mindful of that 
for two centuries. If you cannot bring yourself to accept me 
because I was the one who had to drag you away from him as The End 
came marching towards us, then so be it. Better it was my arms 
around you than Sailor Moon's. Better you hate me than her."
	Something he said caused an abrupt change in Sailor Mars. The 
vulnerability was washed away, and her full, imposing stance 
returned. Her eyes were still bloodshot, but Yurei could not deny 
the authority she projected. 
	"I do not want any mention of this sort made," she stated. 
Her voice and her terns were non-negotiable. "Not to the Senshi, 
not to the Candidates, not even to the other Archangels. That one 
of our own could be killing these girls is absurd, and I will not 
tolerate you spreading such lies and fear."
	"Fear will spread, with or without my help," Yurei told her. 
"It already has."
	Sailor Mars looked torn between punching him in the face and 
breaking down into tears. Her jaw clenched and relaxed, and she 
looked elsewhere. 
	"Leave."
	Yurei bowed his head. He turned his back to her and walked 
down the corridor towards the elevator.
	"Yurei." 
	He paused, but did not turn or look back at Sailor Mars.
	"It is becoming evident that Hotaru is poisoning your mind 
against us," she said. "You are not to talk to her again. Not until 
we have found the youma responsible, and stopped this invasion."
	"As you wish." 
	Yurei was in the elevator heading down to the parking garage 
when his cell phone chimed once more. It was Shingo. 
	"You'd better get down to the Academy. Another girl's dead," 
was all he said.







	We have eyes and we have nerveses
	We have tails we have teeth
	You'll all get what you deserveses
	When we rise from underneath.

		-Neil Gaiman, "Coraline"



			-darkest state of grey-


	The rain began to fall as Yurei bounded across the treetops 
of Yoyogi Park. Before him the Academy stood, lit up and inviting, 
as if nothing was wrong. Yurei dropped to the ground and pushed 
against the earth harder than before. His swift ascent  catapulted 
him into the air, where he landed upon the rooftop of the dorm 
residence. He raced across the roof, small puddles being tossed 
into the air in his wake.
	For as fast as the private car had driven him all the way to 
the Academy gates, for all the red lights it had run and speed 
limits the driver had violated, Yurei knew he had lost precious 
time.
	He dropped off the edge of the building and fell to the grass 
below. The soft earth sank beneath his impact, leaving the 
impressions of his feet. Yurei ignored the mudprints left on the 
floor tiles as he found the nearest door and stepped into the 
dormitory. The halls within were quiet, the air laced with choruses 
of secret whispers made by secret soldiers. 
	Yurei followed an empty corridor to a corner, and turned into 
a small gathering of Archangels and Sailor Senshi. Momo was 
standing in the hall, her arms crossed over her chest and her 
expression as dark as the skies outside. A flash of light from a 
camera went off inside one of the dorm rooms. Yurei moved past the 
open door and saw Yuichiro kneeling down over Hikari's body.
	She was laid out upon the floor, head tilted back, her arms 
and legs bent in a way that looked as if she had gone down fighting 
to her very last breath. All around her were scattered signs of a 
struggle: a wall-mounted bookshelf had been torn down, textbooks 
and paperback novels spilled everywhere. The sheets of Hikari's bed 
were tossed and twisted. Her swivel chair had been overturned. The 
window was cracked, and rain was leaking in. Small, crimson 
spatters marked the furniture and walls.
 	Hikari's face was stained with blood.
	Her eyes had been cut out.
	Yurei stopped in the doorway, but said nothing, leaving 
Yuichiro to perform his necessary tasks.
	"She's been dead for about an hour," Momo said. "The other 
Candidates are being kept inside the cafeteria. They don't know 
yet. At least we think they don't. The Queen is still with them. 
Shingo stayed there so we wouldn't create a panic." 
	"Do you think she died when the Ripper took her eyes?" Yurei 
asked, and glanced at Momo.
	"I don't know," Momo said quietly. "I honestly don't know 
anymore. There's blood all over the place; I think she was alive 
when it happened."
 	The skies outside the window of Hikari's room erupted in a 
flash of light, and the ground trembled beneath them. Momo didn't 
seen to notice. "What is this thing, Yurei? When is it going to 
stop?"	
	Yurei caught a glimpse of the empty, scarlet sockets in 
Hikari's face. His stomach stirred, unsettled. "How much time do we 
have before they finish?"
	"Another hour, maybe." Momo shook her head. "It all depends 
on Serenity."
	Yurei looked back at Momo, waiting for his gaze to pull hers 
away from Hikari's body. "I need you to return to the cafeteria, 
Momo."
	"Is this all about you doing things your way again?" Momo 
asked. She was too tired to make the charge as biting as it could 
have been.
	Yurei shook his head. "If three Archangels are gone too long, 
they'll start to notice."
	"Why don't you go to the cafeteria?" 
	"Because I'm too involved in this now to simply walk away."
	Momo saw was not about to bend on the matter and muttered 
something under her breath. "Just watch yourself, okay?" she said 
before disappearing down the corridor.
	Yurei turned his attention to the other two people in the 
hallway: Sailor Mercury and, much to his surprise, King Endymion. 
He was about to broach the distance between him and Mercury, but 
with Momo gone she approached him. Endymion lingered, but stayed 
behind and kept his distance.
	"I knew you'd want to talk with me," Sailor Mercury said. Her 
voice was directed to Yurei, but her eyes could not be drawn away 
from the macabre scene inside Hikari's dorm room. 
	"Did you find her?" Yurei asked.
	Mercury nodded.  
	"I thought everyone was supposed to be in the cafeteria."
 	"She was," Mercury said. "I mean, she was there when dinner 
started. There were a few groups being escorted to the bathrooms. 
She must have slipped away somehow."
	Of her skill at that, Yurei had no doubt. If Hikari could 
sneak out of the Academy to go clubbing regularly, escaping from 
the cafeteria was a simple feat. And it seemed he had not been the 
only one to see that.
	"When did you notice she was gone?" he asked.
	Sailor Mercury continued to hold herself, her gaze almost 
blank as she watched Yuichiro photograph the more gruesome aspects 
of Hikari's murder.  "Sometime right after Serenity began her 
session with the Candidates. We did another headcount after the 
meal, and found out she was missing. I slipped out and began 
checking everyone's rooms, trying to find her. First her roommate, 
now her."
	She tried not to shudder. It didn't work. "I failed, Yurei," 
she whispered. "I'm supposed to be the smartest of all the Senshi. 
I should have figured this out by now. I should have stopped her 
from dying." 
	"We all share blame in this," Yurei said. "Don't horde it all 
for yourself." 
	"You don't understand," Mercury said. "I fixed the Academy's 
security systems earlier today. The only people it could let in or 
out were Archangels or Sailor Senshi. We would have known the 
instant a Candidate tried to leave, or if a squirrel tried to sneak 
in. But there was nothing. No warning."
	Her words tapered off into a dark, rueful laugh. "Maybe Mako-
chan was right. Maybe we should have fixed the Candidates with 
trackers right after Yumeko was killed." 
	She looked ready to cry or punch the wall in utter 
frustration. She turned her gaze back to Yurei, and there was 
something in her eyes he did not like. "Where were you when this 
happened?" she asked.
	"At the palace," Yurei answered. "Sailor Mars sent me back 
here. Why?"
	Mercury looked up at him, ready to ask, but then looked away. 
Yurei suddenly knew she did not trust him, not entirely. He was 
still under suspicion. Yurei turned and walked away, walked towards 
the king. Endymion smirked and held out a towel.
	"You're soaked," Endymion remarked. "Did you run all the way 
here in the rain?"
	"Not all the way," Yurei said, and draped the towel over his 
shoulders. He glanced back at Sailor Mercury, who still lingered in 
the corridor. "You shouldn't be here."
	"All the more reason for me to be here," the king said.
	Yurei scowled. "What about you, then? Have you come to take 
away your trust in me?"
	Endymion shook his head. "Everyone falls, Yurei. Even me. 
There was a time when I almost killed my wife, when I was ready to 
strangle the life out of her lips. And yet she still dared to 
believe in me, to believe that I could be reached. Her compassion 
is her power, Yurei. If not for that, neither of us would be here 
right now. Her trust in you remains unshaken. And so is mine."
	Yurei found himself smiling. It was the first sincere smile 
in what felt like decades.
	"Tell me what I can do," Endymion said. "I want to end this 
just as much as you. We owe each of these girls that much."
	Yurei was silent for a moment as he considered what options 
they had left.
	"Go back to the cafeteria, be with your wife and the 
Candidates." He drew out a photograph from the back pocket of his 
pants. It was damp and creased in a few places, but the image of 
six grinning girls was still there. Yurei showed it to Endymion, 
and pointed to three faces in turn. "Miyuki. Sumire. Robin. Make 
sure each of them are there, where they can be protected. The 
chances are good they will be next. If you can't find them--"
	"I have your number," Endymion finished. He looked at the 
photograph, studying each of their faces. "Strange how they look so 
eager to embrace a destiny we, at times, would have gladly walked 
away from if given half the chance."
	"Nothing will ever prepare them to wear the scars we have," 
Yurei said. "They will only ever learn each time their bodies are 
marked."
	Endymion slid the photograph inside his lavender jacket. 
"Scars heal, if given enough time. You should visit us again one 
day, Yurei. I know Serenity can use the Ginzuisho to take the scars 
off your body."
	Yurei shook his head. "No. I may hate them, but they remind 
of who I am, of who I once was. They're my sins and my absolution 
all at once. You should be going; the Candidates are definitely 
going to notice if their king is gone for too long."
	"You should still visit," Endymion said, and placed a warm 
hand on Yurei's shoulder. "Old friends do that."
	"That they do," Yurei agreed, then smirked. "Maybe I'll take 
you out for a beer."
	Endymion let out as loud a laugh as he dared. "So long as I 
don't get recognizes, that sounds good to me. Shingo's talked about 
this Irish place for ages, and Serenity and I still haven't had the 
chance to visit there."
	"It's worth visiting," Yurei said, then stepped back. 
	Endymion walked the hall, pausing as he drew up next to 
Sailor Mercury. The king wrapped a consoling arm around Mercury's 
shoulders, and let her burrow her head into his jacket and cry. The 
muffled sobs of a Sailor Senshi still echoed down the corridor long 
after they had disappeared around one of the corners.
	Yuichiro's voice cut into the silence. "Yurei, it's just us 
here. I'm going to need some help getting her onto the gurney."
	Yurei glanced into the room. "Where will you take her?"
	"I don't know yet," Yuichiro admitted. "Maybe the infirmary. 
I can do a preliminary exam before we take her to the hospital. I 
just don't want her in here when the others come back. It's easier 
to lock a door than try to keep others from seeing inside an open 
one."
	"You must have already tried scrying the room. Find 
anything?"
	"Same as before." Yuichiro frowned. "Something very old, very 
familiar. But I can tell you one thing: whatever it is, it's 
stronger than ever before. And it hated this girl with a passion I 
can't even fathom. Can you get the stretcher for her?"
	Yurei retrieved the gurney from where it sat against the 
corridor wall and pushed it into the entrance of Hikari's room. 
Yuichiro remained inside, whereas Yurei stood with the gurney 
between him and the body. The two Archangels reached out a hand, 
their palms directed at Hikari. They made no fanciful gestures or 
movements, uttered no cryptic chants or commands. At their silent 
behest, Hikari's body was picked up, hovering in the air between 
them.
	Carefully they guided her onto the gurney, rotating her onto 
her back before she was laid down, her arms and legs tucked in 
straight. The task was finished as Yuichiro pulled a white sheet 
over Hikari, covering her face last of all. He stood back from the 
gurney and sucked in a deep, tired breath. When he looked at Yurei, 
it seemed like he had only just noticed Yurei standing there, 
dripping water onto the floor.
	"Looks like we should have gotten your coat dry-cleaned 
earlier today after all." He sounded apologetic, and it sounded 
silly. Yuichiro glanced around the dorm room. "Looks messier than 
the other ones. Think the Ripper's getting sloppy?"
	Yurei shook his head and began to pull the gurney out into 
the hall. "No. It was meant to look like this. The way everything's 
been thrown down and scattered looks too deliberate. A spiral of 
chaos, and Hikari is here at its epicentre." 
	"What's the message this time?" Yuichiro took a step towards 
the door and surveyed the damage. "This Ripper can fight--and more 
importantly, win."
	"She's showing off," Yurei growled.
	Yuichiro glanced at him, one of his eyebrows arched. "She?"
	Yurei didn't give him the answer. "I'm going to get the 
others on the line, Yuichiro," he stated. "I want all the 
Archangels in the Guidance Office in five minutes."
	"What about Hikari?" Yuichiro said. "There's the autopsy, and 
the tests. We still don't know exactly what killed her."
	"Take her up to the infirmary, and lock the door behind you. 
Bring whatever files and images you've got. We'll have the 
ambulance at the front gates for you in an hour. But right now it's 
time we end this."
	Yurei left Yuichiro with Hikari's body, and weaved his way 
through the maze of corridors up to the guidance offices. The main 
door was locked when Yurei tried the handle. He didn't bother 
showing the doorknob his palm; he kicked the door open, and nearly 
sent it pinwheeling off its hinges. 
	The other Archangels arrived one by one within the next few 
minutes.
	"I see you got in the old-fashioned way," Shingo remarked as 
he strolled inside. "Momo's on her way; we figured leaving 
separately would look better."
	Momo arrived a few minutes after. "You have me go back to the 
cafeteria, then call me away from it fifteen minutes later," she 
sighed when she appeared. "Make up your damned mind, Yurei."
	Shingo smirked.
	Yuichiro was the last to arrive, and he said nothing as he 
stepped through the doorway. Yurei brought them all into one of the 
offices, where a large conference table in a darkened room awaited 
them. Upon sensing the movement inside the room, the lights turned 
on. Yurei pushed a number of the rolling chairs aside, and waited 
to speak as Shingo and Yuichiro went over to the other side of the 
conference table.
	Yurei held out an arm, and Yuichiro handed him a file 
brimming with images and reports. Once in his grasp, Yurei dropped 
the file and began pulling out the pictures of each of the dead 
girls. One by one they all stared down at the grotesque scenes left 
behind for them to decipher. Momo winced once or twice. Shingo made 
a face when he saw the images of the gaping hole carved into 
Sakura's chest. Yuichiro's jaw clenched when he saw the cuts on 
Yumeko's wrists and the blasphemy oozing out from her nose and 
eyes.
	Yurei stared at the other Archangels, making certain he had 
their full attention. "Hotaru said that the Ripper, that whoever 
the hell's doing this, is merely repeating the old," he stated. 
"There's a pattern to this ritual insanity. We're here to find it." 
	He pointed to the first cluster of photographs. "First 
victim: Yuki Hoshino. Found by me in the middle of the street, not 
all that far from the Paranoia Groove. Attacked with all her blood 
drained from her body."
	Shingo pointed to a facial shot of Yumeko's face. "Second 
victim: Yumeko Watanabe. Found in her family's home, in her 
bedroom. Her own blood was removed and pumped full of Yuki's blood, 
which was somehow contaminated and black."
	Yuichiro tipped his chin at the images of Sakura sprawled 
across the quad. "Third victim: Sakura Asagiri. The only one who 
didn't frequent the clubs as often as the others did. Found on the 
Academy grounds in the courtyard. Heart removed."
	Momo rested her hands on the edge of the conference table, 
staring down at the last set. "Fourth victim: Hikari Mikage. Found 
in her dorm room at the Academy. Her eyes were taken."
	There was a moment of dark silence shared between them.
	"We still don't know anything about the weapon used for all 
this, do we?" Momo asked.
	Reluctantly, Yuichiro shook his head. 
	"The weapon may be incidental," Yurei said. "It's the 
presentation of each of their bodies I'm concerned with. They've 
been killed in a way that somehow links them all together, and left 
in places where they would be on display for everyone else to see."
	"Let's go with the obvious, then," Shingo said, pointing to 
each set of photographs in turn. "Blood out. Blood in. Heart. Eyes. 
The first three are all related to blood circulation, but the eyes 
are something altogether different."
	Yurei arched one of his eyebrows. "Vital organs, perhaps?"
	"I'd understand if everyone had something taken from them," 
Shingo said, "but Yumeko's murder is what's throwing me off. She 
had Yuki's blood somehow pumped into her. Nothing else was taken."
	"Yuki had all those puncture marks on her too, didn't she?" 
Momo said. "It resembled something out of Buddhist chakra."
	Yuichiro sifted through the pictures and produced one with an 
entire view of Yuki's body. "Her blood was extracted from seven 
puncture marks, each one coinciding with the main energy centres 
according to Buddhist principles."
	Yurei studied the image of Yuki's body as it laid next to 
images of Yumeko and Sakura. A chill ran down his spine. Suddenly 
he understood the connection. And by understanding the first one, 
more personally than anyone else, he began to understand the 
others.
	He pointed to the photograph of Yuki, and then to the image 
of her corpse. "Blood," he stated. "It's our life force, our life 
energy. Yuichiro, you said the markings on her were consistent with 
the chakra centres. Chakra is all about the flow of life. Yuki's 
blood was taken through the chakra centres. Her life force was 
sucked out of her."
	Shingo stared blankly at him. "And?"
	"The Dark Kingdom sucked the energy out of its victims in the 
hopes of using it to resurrect Queen Metalia," Yurei said. "Trust 
me on this one, I know what I'm talking about."
	One by one, the eyes of the other three Archangels widened as 
they considered Yurei's words, and looked back down at the 
photographs.
	Yuichiro pointed to the photo of Yumeko's bedroom. "Yumeko's 
blood was contaminated. Poisoned."
	"The Black Moon family attacked key points in the city in 
order to control them in the future," Momo finished. "They poisoned 
the energy of anyone at those points in the process."
	Shingo was looking down at the photographs of Sakura's body, 
his jaw clenching. "Pure hearts. Extracted by the Deathbusters to 
feed their Messiah of Silence."
	"Serenity help us," Yuichiro said. "It's a copycat. The 
Ripper is symbolically replicating all the enemies the Sailor 
Senshi have faced in the past."
	"But the eyes?" Shingo said, confused. "And dream mirrors?" 
	"The eyes are said to be mirrors into our souls," Momo 
answered. "You look into a person's eyes, and you can see into 
their dreams, even their secrets. To gain power, the Dead Moon 
Circus tried to steal into people's dreams in search of Helios."
	"And our copycat is trying to gain power in a similar 
fashion," Yuichiro added.
	Yurei placed his hands on the edges of the table and looked 
at the other Archangels. "The next victim will be killed in a 
fashion similar to Galaxia taking out the starseeds of her 
enemies."
	Shingo shifted uncomfortably. "We've already had a heart 
removed, so that won't be missing. What else is there?"
	Yuichiro considered the possibilities, then abruptly winced. 
"Consider the word on a literal basis. A woman's seed of life and 
birth." 
	Shingo gaped at him. "The Ripper wouldn't actually go after a 
Candidate's... would she?" 
	Momo cut off an answer. "So we know what the next scene will 
look like," she stated, "but that still doesn't bring us any closer 
to finding out who the hell is doing this. We know Candidates are 
being targeted."
	"They're being targeted by either one of the Sailor Senshi, 
or another Candidate," Yurei said.  
	That earned him the amazement and disbelief of the others.
	"How do you know?" Shingo asked.
	Yurei made certain not to avoid their gazes. "Hotaru told 
me."
	"And you trust her on that?" Yuichiro said pointedly.
	Yurei nodded. "On this, without question. She adores the idea 
that one of the city's protectors is killing the next generation of 
potentials. The more people know about it, the more the city 
spirals into paranoia. It's exactly what she feeds on. She's just 
waiting for the catalyst to fire.
	"And," he added, "I can see no other explanation for the why 
the Ripper has been killing these girls in this sort of fashion."
	Momo looked down at the pictures of the four victims, and 
shook her head in revulsion. "So...she's destroying some of the best 
Candidates to make sure she becomes chosen as a Sailor Senshi 
instead? That's ridiculous! Some other force beyond any of our 
control chooses who will be the next soldiers."
	"But look at the victims," Yuichiro said. "With the exception 
of Sakura, all the murdered Candidates were disobeying the rules. 
Yuki and her friends were sneaking out to clubs and rave parties." 
	"Sakura was trading exam answers," Yurei said. "She told me 
before Yuki's funeral. And our Ripper found out about it somehow."
	Shingo gave a shrug. "Maybe she was listening in you and 
Sakura talking."
	Yurei thought back to those moments spent on the stairs. 
"That's definitely a possibility," he admitted. "We were in a 
stairwell. Anyone could have listened in. I didn't realise it 
before."
	A rumble of thunder caused the floor to shake. The pounding 
of the rain upon the rooftop was growing louder.
	"There's something else," Yurei added.
	He tried to go on, but his tongue refused to obey. 
	"What aren't you telling us, Yurei?" Momo asked.
	Yuichiro looked into Yurei's eyes, and saw. "We're also 
suspects," he said grimly. "We all had free access to the Academy 
when Sakura and Hikari were killed. The other two were killed 
outside its walls, which is our domain."
	Everyone looked around the table, seeing each other with new 
eyes.
	And what they saw wasn't pretty.
	"So much for teamwork," Yuichiro dryly remarked. 
	Momo was shaking her head. "No...Yurei, you can't possibly 
think...but what about you? Even you become a suspect!"
	The sound of Shingo's fist hitting the table jarred them all. 
	"So, now we can't even trust each other?" Shingo snarled. He 
glared at each of them in turn, his most venomous one directed at 
Yurei. "Well, fuck that, people! We've been in this together for 
two hundred years. Two hundred years of blood and laughter and war! 
I am not about to throw that away to some latent pang of paranoia. 
Three days ago, I would have trusted all three of you with my life. 
That still hasn't changed."
	"It's not your life that's in jeopardy," Yurei said.
	"You keep talking like that, it just might be," Shingo shot 
back. "Has it even occurred to you, Yurei, that maybe Hotaru is 
telling you this just so she can sit back and enjoy watching 
dissention rip our ranks apart?"
	"She would love that as much as she would knowing the Ripper 
is a Senshi, a Candidate or an Archangel," Momo agreed.
	Shingo placed his hands on the table and leaned over, his 
gaze fixed solely on Yurei. "You've always been the distant one, 
always aloof and just out of reach. For as long as I've known you, 
your life has been lived in recluse and repentance. It's time to 
stop living in the sins of long ago, Yurei. It's time to stop the 
sins of tomorrow from happening."
	Yurei was silent.
	"Two hundred years," Yuichiro said, his arms crossing over 
his chest. "We don't deserve to be Archangels if it takes one 
little fear of betrayal to unravel it all."
	Momo nodded her head. "You really should be a motivational 
speaker in your spare time, Shingo."
	Shingo shrugged it off. "The pay might be better, but where 
else can I carry a pair of really cool swords?" He glanced at 
Yurei. "You in, or are you going to walk away?"
	Yurei could not help but have his gaze drawn to the images of 
Yuki, Yumeko, Sakura and Hikari. Their spirits cried out through 
the photographs; they would not rest until he brought it to an end. 
There were things greater than suspicion. There were risks worth 
taking amidst betrayal. There was something he had sworn to do, 
something he had sworn to each of those girls that he would finish.
	Yurei lifted his head. "I'm in."
	Yuichiro, Shingo and Momo all let out a relieved breath.
	"So if the Ripper isn't any of us," Yuichiro asked, "then who 
else is there?"
	"It can't be any of the Senshi," Momo argued. "Can it? I 
mean, Hikari was murdered when all of them were inside the 
cafeteria. I was there. I saw each of them!"
	Yurei's eyes narrowed. "Did you see them in the cafeteria the 
entire time?" 
	Momo's defensiveness came to an abrupt halt. "What?"
	"Sailor Mars came to see me at the palace as I was with 
Hotaru," Yurei said. "If Hikari was killed roughly an hour and a 
half ago, it's possible Sailor Mars did it and appeared at the 
palace to create an alibi for herself." 
	"You do realise that sounds insane," Shingo stated. "Of all 
of them, Sailor Mars is the last Senshi I would expect to snap like 
this."
	"I agree," Yuichiro said. "She pushed them, yes, but I don't 
think she'd kill anyone who didn't meet her expectations." 
	Yurei was not entirely convinced. "So where is she now?"
	Momo tried to answer, but couldn't, and Yurei knew that 
Sailor Mars had not yet returned from the palace.
	"Let's not rush into accusations here," Yuichiro said with a 
degree of caution, and turned to Momo. "Was there anyone else 
unaccounted for in the cafeteria?"
	Momo shook her head. "At the end-of-meal headcount, everyone 
else was there. Only Hikari was missing"
	"Could someone else have left during the meal, killed Hikari, 
and then returned to the cafeteria before the headcount?" Shingo 
asked. 
	"It's a possibility," Momo agreed. "But Hikari would not have 
left without sufficient cause."
	"She could have been lured out," Yuichiro offered.
	Shingo scowled, and re-examined the image of Hikari's body in 
the room. "Why the hell would she leave the safety of the crowd?"
	"Because she wants to avenge her friends," Yurei said. "The 
Ripper knew this. The Ripper knew how to lure her away from the 
others, and where the best place was to kill her." 
	Yuichiro crossed his arms over his chest. "What are you 
thinking?"
	"A note, maybe?" ventured Momo. "Something telling Hikari 
where and when to meet to learn who killed her friends. Hikari 
wouldn't have back down from something like that out of fear for 
her own life. She would have disappeared on her own, and the Ripper 
would have as well. It's easier to miss two people sneaking out 
separately as opposed to together."
	"If it was a note that lured her out," Yuichiro said, "then 
the Ripper took it when she left. I didn't find anything."
	Shingo sighed and set the photo back down. "Hikaru still 
walked into a trap."
	"But who set it?" Yurei asked.  
	"In the past two days, I've looked over the records of each 
Candidate," Momo said. 
	"So have I," Yurei said. "None of them had the sort of 
grievance with these girls that would explain this."
	Momo nodded. "And none of them have ever displayed any sort 
of power capable of carving these girls up like this."
	"Maybe someone was saving this for a surprise," Shingo said.
	Yuichiro snorted. "Some surprise."
	Yurei, however, stopped and looked at each of the 
photographs. He saw the impossible cuts on their bodies, the 
unnatural neatness of each scene. Then he saw from a memory the way 
the Ripper had first escaped him.
	In and out like the wind....
	Suddenly, he knew who the Ripper was, and why she had killed 
the others.
	And even worse, he now knew what she had become.
	Yurei gripped the edge of the table, and looked up at the 
other Archangels in alarm. "Where are the Candidates right now?" he 
demanded. "Where are they?"
	Momo stared at him. "They should still be in the cafeteria."
	"Have any of them left the cafeteria?" he said. "When was the 
last headcount?"
	She could only shrug helplessly. "I don't know, we've been 
locked up in here for the last twenty minutes to a half hour."
	All Yurei needed to hear were the words, "I don't know", and 
he was pushing open the door. The latent power of the Gizuisho 
surged through his body and blood, and after throwing one of the 
hall windows open he leapt across the quad of the Academy. 
	The others raced after him, and the rain beat down up
on them all.
	"Yurei, who is it?" Yuichiro exclaimed over the storm. "Who's 
the Ripper?"
	They landed upon the grass, large puddles of water surging up 
around their boots. Yurei was about to run towards the cafeteria, 
but his cell phone rang. He drew it out from his pocket and 
answered the call.
	"I've searched the entire cafeteria three times now," came 
Endymion's voice. "I even had Makoto double-check the bathrooms and 
dorm rooms. One of them is missing."
	Yurei listened as Endymion gave the names of the two he had 
found. Slowly he lowered his cellular, despite Endymion calling to 
him over the line.
	"We're too late," Yurei muttered. "She's already gone."
	"Gone where?" Shingo hissed.
	"To claim her next victim."
	Momo looked around the campus. "Yurei, almost everyone is in 
the cafeteria. The Ripper would have to get through us and the 
Sailor Senshi first if she wanted to attack any of the Candidates." 
	Yurei's eyes narrowed, his grip around his Angelus sword 
tightening. "It's not them she wants, Momo. Not anymore. There's 
someone else she wants to punish. And I led her right to them."









	Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand, 
	Blood and revenge are hammering in my head.

		-William Shakespeare, 
		     "Titus Andronicus" (Act II, Scene iii)



			-apotheosis psychosis-


	Inside the Crystal Palace, there was a place with no name 
that no one spoke of. It was nowhere. It did not exist. It had a 
sole occupant, and was about to receive a visitor. Hotaru heard the 
far door to her prison open up, but did no turn her head away from 
the window. She kept her gaze fixed upon the glowing lights of a 
midnight utopia. 
	"I smell the wind upon you," she announced to her visitor, 
"but I've already killed my Haruka-poppa. You must be the new one. 
And you've been a very naughty girl."
	Slowly Hotaru turned her head, and beheld the new Sailor 
Uranus.
	Sumire was staring at her with cold eyes fit to kill. "You're 
one to talk, Sailor Saturn."
	"Oh, but when I'm naughty, I revel in it," Hotaru said. A 
mocking smile crept its way across her face. "You try not to enjoy 
yourself and hide behind this guise of moral piety. Killing fellow 
Candidates who ignore their responsibilities, who betray the code 
and fall short of what a Sailor Senshi should be. Such a pity you 
can't enjoy your work. You should giggle over corpses more often, 
child. It's quite therapeutic."
	Hotaru drew up closer to the bars, and Sumire caught a glint 
from the metal of Hotaru's collar. "You can't use your powers, can 
you?" she said. Her voice had become smug, almost triumphant.
	Hotaru remained unconcerned. "Not especially. Serenity feels 
it safer for the world at large that I remain in this neutered 
state. A shame, really. You would have enjoyed the way the 
starlight dances across my Silence Glaive. One day we really must 
go for a stroll across the city and decorate its crystalline walls 
with the blood of the unworthy."
	Sumire looked at Hotaru with the utmost contempt. "You think 
I've done all this just to earn your respect?" she spat.
	Hotaru began to laugh. It made shivers skitter up and down 
Sumire's spine. "No," Hotaru said, her giggles tapering off. "But 
you've at least earned my restraint."
	"What?"
	Hotaru leaned forward, and as she came into the light her 
eyes were very hungry. "I haven't killed you yet, have I now?"
	Sumire tried not to cringe, tried to stare defiantly into 
those eyes. She was not succeeding. "The Archangels should have 
killed you and been done with it," she stated.
	Hotaru regarded her with newfound interest. "Oh, so you have 
been talking to Yurei?" she said. "How else could you know about 
me, then? It's very considerate of him to tell you about my little 
hideaway. I don't get many very guests here, and most of the ones 
who do pay their respects are rather dull."
	Hotaru strolled along the length of her cell, running her 
fingertips along the bars. "You have to understand that Yurei and I 
were once lovers. It wasn't easy for him to drive his sword through 
me, but oh, how magnificent it was to lick my own blood off his 
face. In the end he couldn't bring himself to kill me."
	And Hotaru flashed Sumire a wicked gleam. "That's love for 
you. But you don't love. You don't even care. All you ever wanted 
to be was a Sailor Senshi, all you ever wanted was the glory, to 
finally be raised above the others and recognized for who you are."
	She moved towards the bars once more, stalking closer and 
closer to Sumire. "Well," Hotaru asked, "how is it now that you've 
seen beyond the romantic veil of chivalry and honour? Is it 
everything you'd hoped for? Is it everything you'd killed for? Do 
you thrive on seeing the Senshi wallow in their own petty 
insecurities and self-doubt?"
	Sumire instinctively took a step away from the bars as Hotaru 
came out into the light again. Hotaru's eyes were even hungrier 
now.
	"The Sailor Senshi are still, and at their very core, human," 
Hotaru said. "But not us, not you and I. We are something else. We 
have bloodied our hands. We have murdered for the sheer delight of 
it, for revenge and all other things unsavoury."
	"Shut up!" Sumire screamed at her. "I am nothing like you!"
	Sumire's protests only earned scornful giggles from Hotaru.  
"Oh my dear, deluded Uranus. Your eyes have been opened so much and 
yet you can't see a thing. You are nothing but a puppet who thinks 
it is its own master. And you don't dare lift your head to look up 
and see who is pulling the strings."
	Hotaru leaned against the edge of her cell, her hands gliding 
along the bars like they were strings of a harp. "What was it that 
Yuki said to you? What finally set you off?"
	Sumire refused to respond, refused to even look at Hotaru. 
Her fists were tight, shaking at her sides. Her jaw was clenching 
and unclenching. 
	That was all Hotaru required to glean the truth from her. 
"She was chosen too, wasn't she?" Hotaru said, a new vindictive 
delight in her voice. "That's why you killed the first one. She 
told you she was Sailor Neptune."
	Sumire's entire body was beginning to tremble furiously.
	"The sigil had appeared during one of Yuki's showers," she 
hissed. "She had been chosen." She lifted her head and glared at 
Hotaru. "Her! Chosen! That reckless little hypocrite, one of us? 
What made her so damned special?"
	"Indeed," Hotaru agreed. Her tone was more savage than 
soothing. "How dare some unknown Powers-That-Be bestow upon her 
such a marvellous honour?"
	"I would be damned if I would be partnered to someone like 
her!" Sumire exclaimed.
	Hotaru nodded her head in dark approval. "So you already knew 
about being Sailor Uranus. So much for a grand entrance. So much 
for your grand illusion."
	Sumire looked away. 
	After her first month there at the Academy, she'd had a 
dream. She couldn't remember what it had been about, but when she 
had woken up, the sigil was glowing upon her forehead.
	And where had Yuki been when it happened?
	Out clubbing with her friends, where else?
	And so Sumire had simply waited for the perfect moment to 
come out and show everyone, to show them how they failed and she 
had succeeded. Her plans had been to reveal herself during the 
graduation ceremony for the first-years. And then one night no so 
long ago, Yuki had taken her aside and told her a little secret: 
Yuki had just been chosen to be a Sailor Senshi. 
	It had taken every ounce of her being to stop from killing 
Yuki right then and there. That someone as irresponsible and 
reckless as Yuki would be chosen; that she would have to be 
partnered up with someone like Yuki! In that moment of despair and 
doubt, Sumire had realized what she must do.
	The Powers-That-Be must have made a mistake.
	She would erase that mistake, and wipe the slate clean again.
	There was also the matter of whether or not Yuki had told any 
of her friends, any of the other ones who were as frivolous and 
unreliable as Yuki. Killing Yuki was an easy enough task; all 
Sumire had had to do was silently follow after them as they danced 
and drank at The Paranoia Groove. The task was ridiculously simple 
now with her powers as Sailor Uranus.
	The right opportunity had presented itself when Yuki got 
separated from her friends, and drunkenly wandered off down the 
streets. Yuki couldn't even defend herself, even with her powers as 
Sailor Neptune. It almost made Sumire smile at how easily it had 
been to knock Yuki to the street, and use the powers of the wind to 
cut open Yuki's flesh and drain away her blood.
	Her abilities at harnessing the very air itself allowed her 
to pool the stolen blood into a sphere, where nothing could touch 
or tamper with it. The air itself kept the blood safe from harm. 
And then she had almost been caught. Though random chance, that 
proved to be the first of many run-in's with that damned Archangel. 
	He had almost caught her that night. Only her skills as a 
Sailor Senshi kept her from being chased into a corner. Oh, how 
amazing it was to feel the wind against her face, to leap across 
and up buildings and leave the perplexed Archangel behind. She was 
so much better than him, better than any of the other Candidates.
	But things couldn't be left alone.
	Yuki's body had been found, and just as Sumire had hoped, the 
truth about Yuki's clubbing was found out. The Academy learned what 
one of its star pupils was really like. They learned that no one of 
such careless calibre should be allowed to be a Candidate, let 
alone a Sailor Senshi.
	But at the funeral, everything had gone wrong. Instead of 
condemning Yuki for her faults, they could only praise her and lift 
her up. Yuki became a martyr, a posterchild for the Academy. What 
insanity was that? Why couldn't they see Yuki for what she really 
had been? And so the tears Sumire had shed at the funeral were 
bitter and resentful. There had been no regret or sadness in her 
cries.
	She set about killing the others too: Yumeko, Sakura and 
Hikari. Each of them were guilty of shirking their duties, of 
wasting their time on indulgences when they should have been 
devoting themselves to the code. It was also a safety precaution, 
just in case any of them also knew about Yuki's little secret. 
	No one would ever know that Yuki had been chosen. The ideal 
would remain that only the best, the brightest, the most devoted 
would be chosen.
	Killing Yumeko had been easy enough. A few pebbles tossed 
against her bedroom window, and Yumeko had invited her right in. As 
Sailor Uranus, she made little effort of using the wind to hoist 
Yumeko into the air, drain out her blood, and inject Yumeko with 
the now-polluted blood of Yuki's. She'd slipped out the window, a 
sphere of Yumeko's blood in her possession, and used the wind to 
close the window behind her. Yumeko's blood was funnelled down a 
sewer grate, never to be discovered.
	Sakura had been the unexpected one, and also one of those she 
enjoyed exacting revenge upon. It was no secret to her that Sakura 
dealt in test answers, that Yuki and Sakura had a lucrative deal 
going. She had been Yuki's roommate after all; you can hide very 
little from a roommate.
	After following behind that Archangel and hearing Sakura 
confess, she'd known that it was time to act. She'd met up so 
innocently with Sakura in the quad, pretending to be wanting to 
join her in the cafeteria line-up. With her power to control the 
winds at its peak, Sumire had wasted no time cutting Sakura's heart 
out where she stood. Sakura was dead before she even fell backwards 
and hit the ground. 
	The winds tore the heart apart into miniscule pieces, 
catapulting it and the ensuing blood deep into Yoyogi Park. All 
she'd had to do afterwards was scream and look terrified. And the 
Archangels had believed her.
	Hikari had proved the difficult one.
	She'd lured Hikari out of the cafeteria with a note promising 
to reveal the identity of the Ripper, promising Hikari brutal and 
swift revenge. However, it was her revenge to be taken, not 
Hikari's. How dare that girl think that after sneaking out of the 
Academy to visit clubs and drink, she was still in the right! How 
dare the others allow Hikari to crave revenge for the others!
	Sumire had shown Hikari no mercy that hour.
	Hikari had arrived in her dorm room, and Sumire had been 
waiting for her. She'd slammed the door shut behind Hikari with her 
powers, and used the winds to lock it tightly. And then Hikari 
learned what she had become, learned that even a skilled Candidate 
cannot hope to fight against a Sailor Senshi and win.
	Sumire left the broken room with Hikari's eyes and used the 
wind to tear them to ribbons. The remains were scattered across the 
quad, where the rain would wash away any trace. Being a Sailor 
Senshi, sneaking back into the cafeteria gave her no problems. 
	She had originally planned to kill Miyuki and Robin tonight 
as well, but then something unexpected had happened. Something she 
could not leave alone.
	The cold ferocity in Sumire's eyes remained directed at 
Hotaru. Hotaru seemed not to care much at all. 
	"And then I learned about you, that you weren't dead," Sumire 
told Hotaru. "That you're even worse than any of them! You 
abandoned everything we believe in!"
	"In my defence," Hotaru said, "I am currently possessed by 
some ancient, nameless darkness. But then again, I quite enjoy the 
freedom of being unburdened of my conscience."
	She let out a weary, exaggerated sigh and sauntered over to 
her bed. She sat down on the edge, kicking her legs in the air. 
"But really now, when are we going to start killing each other?  I 
am starting to get rather bored by all this."
	Sumire shot her a smug look. "That collar around your neck 
prevents you from tapping into any of your powers as Sailor 
Saturn."
	One of Hotaru's hands gingerly caressed the cold metal of her 
collar. "So it does," she agreed, smiling and quite unafraid. "And 
now that you are a Sailor Senshi, you are one of the few people who 
can open these bars."
	Hotaru's smile turned sadistic. "But with me, my dear Uranus, 
it will be impossible to keep your hands clean. The winds won't 
save you from getting bloody. I'm not like the others."
	Sumire stepped away from the cage and drew out her henshin. 
Hotaru watched in casual silence as Sumire called forth her powers 
and transformed into Sailor Uranus. The cell door recognized her 
immediately, and as Uranus gestured with her hand, the lock came 
undone and the door swung open. 
	Hotaru regarded the open door, then strolled over to her 
chest of drawers. She drew out garments in shades of grey and 
black, clothes she had not worn in years. They still fit her. She 
took her time, her movements graceful as she slid her arms through 
warm, soft sleeves, and fastened her black, pleated skirt around 
her waist. She remained barefoot, and as she tied her hair back 
with a scarlet ribbon, Hotaru glanced over her shoulder at Sailor 
Uranus.
	Uranus had yet to move at all.
	"Well?" Hotaru said. "Are you coming in? Or will it make this 
easier for you if I step out?" 
	Sailor Uranus hesitated, and then crossed the threshold into 
Hotaru's cell. They stood on opposite sides of the chamber, Uranus 
tense in every way imaginable, and Hotaru acting as if she was 
about to go out for an evening stroll.
	"Did you know," Hotaru said as she turned around the face 
Sailor Uranus, "that when I slaughtered your predecessor, I licked 
her blood off the edge of my glaive? It tasted so delicious, so 
tainted. What about you, my dear? How did the blood of your victims 
taste? Is a Candidate as yummy as a Senshi?"
	Uranus' eyes widened in rage.
	With a shout, she unleashed World Shaking upon the cell. The 
attack tore through the floor and spat debris in its wake. Hotaru 
didn't even flinch as it came roaring towards her. She didn't even 
scream as it slammed into her chest, lifted her into the air and 
smashed her against the wall.
	The wall buckled and crackled, a spiderweb of brokenness left 
behind as Hotaru tumbled out of the crater, bounced off her dresser 
and crumpled onto the floor. She had not even the time to lift her 
head; Sailor Uranus charged across the cell and kicked Hotaru in 
the side, lifting Hotaru off the floor.
	Hotaru let out a startled gasp for air.
	There was no more hesitation in Uranus' movements. There also 
was no mercy. As Hotaru rolled onto her back, arms clutching at her 
chest, Sailor Uranus lifted her boot into the air and drove it down 
onto Hotaru's stomach. And lifted and drove it back down again. And 
again. And again.
	Hotaru coughed up blood.
	She tried to roll over and curl up into a ball.
	Uranus refused to give her even that smallest of refuge. She 
reached down and seized Hotaru by the hair, dragging Hotaru across 
the floor. Hotaru mumbled incoherent insanities, her limbs 
struggling feebly in protest. Uranus hoisted Hotaru up to her feet, 
and then levelled a punch right across Hotaru's cheek. Hotaru 
pinwheeled, stumbling across the floor. She struck the bars of her 
cell face-first, her entire body shuddering from the impact.
	"How dare you mock me!" Sailor Uranus' voice echoed violently 
across the cage. "All I ever wanted to be was a Sailor Senshi! And 
here you have thrown it all away! I hate you! I hate everything 
about you! Why did you have to become a Sailor Senshi?"
	Hotaru slumped to the floor, her back against the bars, her 
head tipped down and the bangs of her hair covering her eyes. She 
looked broken, subdued.
	"I hate you!" Uranus shouted, on the verge of lunging and 
strangling Hotaru with her own two hands. "You're what's wrong with 
this world! The worst kind of people get all the good things, and I 
have to struggle to be noticed by anyone! You don't deserve to be a 
Sailor Senshi! You don't deserve to live! I hate you!" 
	Despite her wounds, despite the bruises scattered across her 
body and the blood dribbling down her chin, Hotaru's lips curled 
back into a malevolent grin. "This girl was torn from it all," she 
whispered between ragged gasps for air, "and as I dragged her into 
darkness, she went kicking and screaming the entire way. You, my 
dear, threw it away in the name of ambition and dreams. I may be a 
killer, but I'm a tragic one. But you...you're just a killer with 
fancy claws."
	Sailor Uranus' entire body quivered, her breath quickening. 
Her eyes lost whatever cold gleam they had, engulfed in vengeance 
and blind madness. She clenched her fists and stared murder at 
Hotaru. The air around her crackled with electricity, arcs of her 
power snaking across the cage. 
	"You...bitch!" Uranus screamed. "World Shaking!"
	Hotaru tipped her chin up ever so slightly as the blinding 
light from Uranus' attack came rampaging towards her. The shadows 
veiling her eyes were dashed to nothingness, and in that moment 
there was only a terrible delight.
	The World Shaking showed Hotaru as little mercy as its 
mistress had. Hotaru was caught up in the attack, her back smashed 
against the bars. The orb of light and energy refused to abate, 
grinding Hotaru into the bars. With a piercing shriek, the bars 
gave way, and Hotaru was catapulted across the prison and smashed 
into the far wall. The floor trembled beneath them, and the cell 
was enveloped in a cloud of dust and steam as the pipes hidden 
inside the walls ruptured.
	The last thing Uranus saw was Hotaru falling lifelessly to 
the floor, and staying there. A satisfied smile appeared on Uranus' 
face. "Now," Uranus stated, "you see how justice never sleeps. In 
the name of my guardian deity, I have punished you."
	Uranus turned to leave the cell.
	And then Hotaru's voice drifted across the smoke and air: 
"Wonderful speech. Very inspiring."
	Sailor Uranus whirled, staring in disbelief across the room 
at a silhouette slowly getting back to its feet. "Impossible!" she 
cried out. "That should have killed you!"
	Hotaru's silhouette began to walk through the mist, and was 
momentarily lost as a cloud of dust swallowed her up. "You talk so 
passionately about responsibility and duty," her voice remarked. "I 
wonder...if you'd met Usagi-chan when this all began, would you have 
killed that little, blonde crybaby too?
	Uranus looked to her left and right, her confidence falling 
at her feet and crawling away. Something altogether new was 
creeping in through her skin, and it made her tremble. She was 
being contaminated by fear.
	Hotaru pushed through the smoke, and sparks erupted from her 
neck. Her inhibitor collar had been reduced to jagged pieces of 
wire and metal. It fell from around her neck and clattered onto the 
ground. 
	Uranus stared down at the broken restraint in unbridled 
surprise and horror.
	Hotaru absently kicked her collar aside. "I always hated the 
cold feel of it around my neck," she said pleasantly. "Thank you 
for helping get it off; I couldn't have done it without you. Now 
then, if you're ready to continue."
	Something cold and dark swept into the prison where they 
stood. The light cowered before it, and everything sank into 
shadows. Sailor Uranus found herself engulfed in darkness and 
cloud. She could barely make anything out through the glow of the 
city trickling in through the windows. Yet in the chilling quiet of 
the cell, she heard Hotaru's voice.
	"Saturn Planet Power: Make-Up."
	There was a flash of light, a surge of power unlike any 
Uranus had felt before, and suddenly she was slammed against the 
windows of Hotaru's prison. Her feet were hoisted off the ground, 
dangling helplessly in the air. Something had her by the neck, and 
it felt like immovable iron.
	It was Sailor Saturn's left hand.
	Her other hand was behind her back, and it grasped a long, 
slender glaive whose U-shaped blade gleamed wickedly in the dim 
light. Saturn's pleasant smile was still upon her face as she 
leaned her head forward and stared right into Uranus' terrified 
eyes.
	"If you'd been half as smart as you are lethal," Saturn 
whispered, "you would have been able to call forth your Space 
Sword. That, at least, might have been able to kill me."
	Tears began to stream down Sailor Uranus' face. "Wh-What are 
you going to do?" she whimpered.
	Saturn's lips curled back into a savage smile. "I always did 
like an audience. It's time to go to the place that has the answers 
to every question my Yu-chan had. It's time to finish what I 
promised him I'd do when I was freed of my infernal cage." 
	The air around them both began to glow, ethereal light 
swirling and churning around their forms. Uranus felt the world 
blur and shift, and before she was caught up in the teleportation, 
the last thing she saw was Sailor Saturn's maniacal grin, 
surrounded by the flames of death and destruction.








	Somewhere beyond happiness and sadness
	I need to calculate what creates my own madness
	And I'm addicted to your punishments
	And I'm your master, and I am craving this disaster

		-Papa Roach, "Getting Away With Murder"



			-bleed the sunrise-

 
	The Archangels turned their heads as the distant explosion 
lit up the midnight storm in colours of red, yellow and black. Over 
the rain, the roar was but little more than a dull buzz. 
	"That came from the direction of the palace," Shingo said.
	"That was the palace," Momo stated, pointing through the 
storm to a black column of smoke pouring out the side of the 
Crystal Tower. "What the hell happened there?"
	Yurei pushed his soaked bangs of blonde hair away from his 
eyes, shaking his head in disbelief. "She couldn't have been so 
stupid, even for a Candidate."
	Yuichiro glanced over his shoulder at Yurei. "What the hell's 
going on, Yurei?"
	"She's coming," Yurei answered. He turned to the other three 
Archangels. "The other Senshi will have already sensed it. Get to 
the cafeteria now and help them evacuate the Academy."
	Shingo looked from the smouldering palace back to Yurei. 
"Who's coming?" he said. "The Ripper?"
	Yurei's hand grasped the hilt of his katana, and drew it out 
of its scabbard. "No. Hotaru."
	Shingo and Momo turned in alarm.
	"She's loose?" Shingo exclaimed.
	"Serenity save us all," Momo muttered.
	Yurei favoured their hesitation with a cold glare. "Go, now!" 
he shouted. "There's over a hundred victims for her to kill when 
she gets here!"
	"And what are you going to do, Yurei?" Yuichiro said quietly.
	Yurei's gaze became drawn down to the blade of his sword. A 
stray bolt of lightning in the skies overhead flashed across its 
length. "Finish what I started twenty years ago. Get the Candidates 
out of here, Yuichiro." 
	"You know you can't stand against her and have any hope of 
winning," Yuichiro stated. "It was blind luck you managed to 
survive last time. All you'll do now is buy everyone else some 
time."
	"Then I'll see you in hell," Yurei stated, and began walking 
across the quad.
	He had only taken six or seven steps when the air itself 
detonated. The windows enclosing the Academy quad shattered, 
spewing glass in all directions. A cold, pulsing shockwave crashed 
into Yurei and hurled him into the air. He tumbled and rolled 
across the wet grass, his katana lost from his grasp. 
	Seconds later the other Archangels were caught up in the 
blast and sent spilling across the Academy like empty paper cups. 
Momo rolled onto her shoulder, and barely managed to come back up 
in any sort of stance. Shingo was sent through a window. Yuichiro 
was bashed against the walls and crumpled to the ground.
	The world reeling about in dizzying sensations of pain and 
raindrops, Yurei staggered to get back on his feet. His hands 
fumbled through puddles and mud, desperate to find solid ground.
	As Yurei turned to the epicentre of the blast, he saw Sailor 
Saturn, restored to her full power and insanity. Caught in her grip 
was Sumire, and the girl was adorned in the battle uniform of a 
Sailor Senshi. He knew those colours. He had buried the woman who'd 
previously worn them.
	A familiar set of gloved hands came up beneath his arms and 
helped Yurei back to his feet. "So now you show up," Yurei remarked 
weakly. "About time, Setsuna."
	 Sailor Pluto cracked a hint of a dark smile as she made sure 
Yurei could stand of his own accord before letting go. "Oh, you 
know me, Yurei: I'm always one for the dramatic last-minute 
entrances."
	"And where the hell were you before?"
	"I had to stop at the palace first. We need Sailor Mars for 
this battle, and it does us no good if she's halfway across the 
city."
	Yurei coughed and spat out a mouthful of rainwater. "So what 
finally tipped you off? The explosion or the sudden reappearance of 
Saturn's power?"
	"Both." Sailor Pluto's magenta eyes focused on Sailor Saturn. 
"When this all began, all I could hear were the dissonances echoing 
through a distant time and space. They began to die, one by one, 
and all I could see were their faces. Moments ago, I glimpsed 
Hotaru-chan standing in this very place, and understood. Everything 
is reaching its crescendo. I know this is where I must be; this is 
when I must appear."
	"Did I ever tell you how much I hated your fourth-dimensional 
ciphers?" Yurei said.
	Whispers and cries and shouts were surfacing over the noise 
of the falling rain. Yurei looked back, and saw the Academy doors 
flung open, the doorways filled with the stricken faces of 
Candidates. He saw their faces looking through broken windows. Some 
of the senior Candidates had even dared to venture outside.
	"They shouldn't be here," Yurei said.
	"None of us should," Sailor Pluto agreed. 
	With a casual nonchalance, Sailor Saturn let her gaze sweep 
across the faces of the Candidates, revelling in the dawning 
realization that came to each one in turn. They recognized the 
uniform she wore. Her delight grew as the Sailor Senshi themselves 
raced out into the quad, her bloodlust roaring in her ears.
	"Hotaru!" Jupiter and Venus called out.
	"Hotaru-chan!" shouted Mercury.
	She turned her head towards Yurei and smiled. "You're late," 
she stated, ignorant of how much Uranus was trying to squirm out 
from her grasp. "I thought you'd have figured it out by now, 
Yurei." 
	Her gaze flickered over to Sailor Pluto, and Saturn's smile 
broadened. "Did you miss me, Setsuna-momma? For that matter, did 
you see this coming from your quaint little hideaway? Did you come 
here to help, or to die like Haruka-poppa and Michiru-momma?"
	"Put Sumire down, Hotaru," Yurei coughed. His stance was still 
shaky from the shockwave heralding her arrival. "She's of no concern 
to you."
	"I agree," Saturn concurred, and carelessly threw Uranus 
across the field. Sailor Uranus' body careened across the ground, 
bouncing and unable to stop until she collided with the campus 
walls.
	"I'd thank her for freeing me of my cage," Saturn remarked. 
She started twirling her glaive beside her. "But I doubt she'll 
survive the next ten minutes. For that matter, I wonder how long 
you'll last in my new apocalypse." 
	Yurei glanced at his katana, which lay at a greater distance 
from him than he would have preferred. "You'll kill everyone, 
Hotaru. Including yourself."
	Sailor Saturn rewarded him with a girlish giggle. "Yu-chan, 
when it comes to matters of Armageddon, I never think that far 
ahead."
	She began moving towards them. 
	"Setsuna," Yurei murmured, "Where are they? Where are the 
King and Queen?"
	Pluto was already looking, and found them. "They're outside."
	Yurei's head snapped around. He beheld Neo Queen Serenity 
standing in one of the doorways, her silken dress clinging to her 
body as the rain struck her. Her eyes were alive in fear and 
concern, for Hotaru as much as for the others there to witness 
Saturn's resurrection. Endymion stood alongside her, his posture 
defensive, a long black staff gripped in his hands like a sword.
	Flanking them were Luna and Artemis, both looking grim.
	Sailor Mars dared to stand between them and Saturn.
	"Shit," Yurei hissed. "Go look after them, Setsuna. This 
won't be pretty."
	"I know," Pluto said. "And I know what you have to do, 
Yurei."
	Yurei's eyes narrowed as he watched Sailor Saturn leisurely 
stalking towards them. "How much did you see looking through your 
mirrors?"
	"Death," was all Pluto said. She backed away from Yurei, 
leaving him to stand alone against Sailor Saturn. "Serenity be with 
you, Yurei." 
	Yurei failed to cringe beneath Saturn's maniacal gaze. He 
refused to cower before the daunting aura that radiated from her 
body. Yurei walked out onto the track field to meet her. He held 
out one of his arms, and the katana laying upon the grass leapt to 
his call. It arced through the air, and as it passed Yurei he 
caught it with one hand.
	Sailor Saturn came to a stop when they were but five paces 
from each other. She lifted her head to the skies above, her eyes 
closing as she savoured the feel of fresh rain coursing down her 
face. Her raven hair was soaked against her skin, her uniform 
dripping with water. 
	"This brings back fond memories, doesn't it, Yu-chan?" she 
said. Her voice carried across the winds, echoing in the ears of 
the Candidates. Saturn opened her eyes and looked at Yurei. "Here 
we stand upon the threshold of twenty years ago. It's as if we 
never left. It's as if you never tried to kill me, as if you 
actually forgave yourself for being willing to go that far."
	Yurei could feel the eyes of the Academy burning against his 
back, feel the questions of the Candidates who could not understand 
what she spoke of, or why she was even there. The rain spattered 
upon his arms and back, numbing his skin and trying to dull his 
reflexes. The adrenaline alone from having Sailor Saturn stand 
before him, to have himself stand between her and the royal family, 
was enough to counteract whatever the rain sought to accomplish.
	She was so close now, drawing closer with every infernal word 
she spoke.
	"Tell me how you want me to kill you, Yurei. Do you want one 
last kiss, one last caress? One last memory of how things were 
before the darkness closed in around both our hearts? I can permit 
you one last glimpse of the beauty that was, Yurei. I can let you 
look into these eyes and see only her. Is it a kiss you want, 
Yurei? A kiss is a terrible thing to waste, after all." Saturn 
licked her lips in dark anticipation. "Or does the blood roaring in 
your ears want me to shut up and come at you?"
	Yurei closed his eyes to her image, closed his heart to her 
taunts. He clawed through memory, searched through recollections he 
had for so long tried to forget. Somewhere in the past, he found 
her: a pale, beautiful face framed by ravenwing hair, tainted with 
spatters of the blood of Haruka and Michiru. He'd shared dinner 
with them earlier that evening. He had made love to Hotaru an hour 
before she came to wear an inhuman smile. 
	Yurei's eyes opened back up.
	He met Sailor Saturn's gaze, then dropped to one knee and 
drove his katana into the mud and grass. The blade sank with little 
effort, disappearing almost all the way up to the hilt. Yurei left 
it there and rose back his feet. His hand reached for his Angelus 
Sword.
	"Such wonderful eyes, Yurei," Saturn purred in approval. "No 
defiance, only determination. An Archangel to the end, and a lover 
only second."
	Yurei grasped his weapon, and slowly, ceremonially, began to 
draw it out. The one-sided blade shimmered in the Academy lights. 
When half its length was out of its scabbard, Yurei quickened his 
speed and drew the remaining end out in the span of a heartbeat. 
The curved tip was released from its sheath, loosed from its 
chains. It stirred from its slumber and ignited.
	A pillar of fire arose from the Angelus Sword, swift and 
abrupt. The Candidates jumped back. The Sailor Senshi braced 
themselves, and the other Archangels kept their hands near their 
own Angelus Swords.
	"Forged from the flames of the heavens," Saturn spoke aloud. 
"Found after The End ravaged the world. Refined by the Ginzuisho 
into steel. An angel's weapon, a queen's retribution." 
	Yurei knew all too well what she spoke of: the comet that had 
come for Earth in the last hour of their war against an endless 
army of youma, where inside its ice and rock laid an unspeakable 
evil that had no name. The harbinger that had marked The End, and 
almost obliterated Tokyo as it burned the world with fire, then 
covered it for a thousand years in ice. Only in that last, 
desperate hour did Eternal Sailor Moon shield Tokyo from utter 
destruction, but at a cost.
	The survivors slept for a millennium.
	The ones who had been standing in plain view of the 
Ginzuisho, the ones who would one day become the Archangels, were 
given a power that did not make them Sailor Senshi, but not 
altogether human either.
	From the unearthly materials found where the comet had 
crashed, the Angelus Swords had been created. Whatever darkness 
inside that essence had been purged; whatever great and terrible 
power had existed was left alone. It was a poison to fight poison, 
a darkness with which to tear apart the other shadows threatening 
the planet. 
	The flames of the Angelus Sword faded, smoke fizzing up 
amidst the rain. The unearthly white glow of the blade refused to 
abate.
	Saturn took her eyes off the sword and leered at Yurei. "One 
last 'I love you', and then oblivion for us both."
	Yurei lowered his Angelus Sword and assumed an offensive 
stance. Sailor Saturn twirled her glaive once more, bringing it to 
a stop at her side. She gripped the polearm effortlessly with one 
hand. For an eternity and a heartbeat they were motionless as the 
rain plummeted down around them.
	Abruptly they charged at each other, and met somewhere amidst 
a fury of clashing blades and bursts of sparks. The Angelus Sword 
roared with each strike it made against Saturn's glaive. The 
Silence Glaive howled in heat as it defied the Angelus Sword with 
every attack, refusing to break against its blade.
	Yurei drove his sword down upon her face, and Saturn parried 
with the shaft of the glaive. As they were locked together, she 
lifted her leg and rammed the heel of her boot into Yurei's 
stomach. The air was stolen from Yurei's lungs, the steadiness of 
the ground beneath his feet gone as he was lifted up and sent 
stumbling backwards. Saturn chased after him, using both arms now 
to spin the glaive like a monstrous scythe. Yurei found himself 
besieged on both sides, barely managing to block any of her 
attacks.
	The tip of her glaive carved a slender gouge across Yurei's 
right arm, drawing blood. Yurei flinched and sidestepped another 
lunge meant to impale him in the chest. He swatted the glaive aside 
with the flat of his blade, spinning around and aiming for Saturn's 
left hand.
	Saturn released the glaive a second before her hand would 
have been lobbed off at the wrist, her weapon dropping with a 
splash into the mud. Yurei stormed forward and tried to plunge his 
Angelus Sword into Saturn's throat. She jerked her head aside at 
the last possible moment, the sword singing a few stray, black 
hairs. The length of the blade passed by her, Yurei unable to stop 
his inertia. Saturn waited until the grip was within reach; she 
locked her right hand around Yurei's wrist, pinning him there.
	Off-balance, Yurei was at Saturn's mercy. Even after twenty 
years of pacing the small confines of her cell, she hadn't lost any 
of her speed or agility as a Sailor Senshi. Saturn's left leg 
kicked Yurei across the side of his head. And then kicked him 
again. And a third time across the jaw.
	Yurei spat blood out from between his lips.
	Saturn seized the moment and pulled him even closer to her. 
With her left hand she levelled a punch to his stomach that tore 
Yurei's grip from his sword. He slid backwards in the mud, dropping 
to his knees and clutching at his chest. Ragged gasps racked his 
entire body.
	With a careless toss over her shoulder, Sailor Saturn cast 
aside Yurei's sword. She stepped forward, edged the tip of her boot 
under the pole of her glaive, and effortlessly kicked the Silence 
Glaive out of the water into her awaiting hand.  The glaive was 
twirled around her body a few times, and then Saturn brought the 
base of the glaive arcing down like it was a golf club. Yurei was 
caught across the ribs and catapulted into the air, soaring across 
the quad. When he reached the third floor wall of the Academy 
dorms, he went straight through it. Dust, stone and drywall were 
thrown up in a cloud of debris in his wake.
	Saturn didn't even wait to see if he had survived the impact, 
aiming the wicked curve of her blade at the gaping hole in the 
dormitory. "You sentenced me to rot in a cage instead of killing me 
like you should have, Yurei!" she shouted over the wind at him. 
"Silence Glaive Surprise!"
	Yurei heard her voice as he picked himself up off broken 
stone and the corner of a bed. Then he sensed the darkness 
filtering through the air. He turned his head towards the hole in 
the far wall, and saw everything around him disappear in a 
tumultuous flash of light. There was no need to ask what was about 
to happen, about what he needed to do.
	Yurei turned and ran.
	Sailor Saturn unleashed her attack, and the dormitory was 
cleaved apart. One slender cut sliced the building in half with 
frightening precision. Yurei threw himself through the door of the 
dorm room as the floor behind him erupted in splinters and sticks. 
He stumbled to the ground, the door falling off its hinges and 
bouncing off the floor, and he leapt as far and as fast down the 
hallway as he could.
	Chasing after his heels, Saturn's attack roared its way into 
the corridor and reduced the broken door to smoke and cinders. 
Seconds later, her surprise blew the entire residence apart. For as 
fast as he could move, Yurei was still caught up in the blast. 
Flames licked at his clothes and skin, smoke turning everything 
black around him. He was picked up and launched through wall and 
rock, through rooms and air, the world reeling in a dizzying spin.
	Oblivion overtook him.









	'Cause love, like an invisible bullet has shot
	me down and I'm bleeding - yeah I'm bleeding
	And if you go, furious angels will bring you
	back to me

		-Rob Dougan, "Furious Angels"



			-neverworld-


	Outside, the air became littered with smoke and shrapnel as 
charred debris and mementos from each of the Candidates rained down 
from above. Screams pierced the roar of the explosion, their cries 
overlapping each other in a cacophony of hysteria. Candidates fled, 
some seeking shelter indoors, others running in any direction away 
from the explosion.
	Saturn watched them scatter in blind panic, smiled, and began 
stalking towards the nearest girls, her glaive being twirled by her 
side.
	And somewhere in the midst of the cries and chaos, Sailor 
Uranus died again, and became only Sumire. Her powers left her. Her 
uniform flickered away and became that of a mere first-year 
Candidate. Trapped and alone on the grass of the quad, Sumire 
scuttled backwards on her hands and feet, tears streaming down her 
cheeks as she watched the Academy burn. "It wasn't supposed to be 
this way," she whimpered, ardently shaking her head. "You weren't 
supposed to be that strong. You were just supposed to die."
	Sumire came to an abrupt stop when she ran into someone's 
leg. She lifted her head, and her eyes beheld another Candidate. 
"Robin," she whispered. 
	Robin's fists were clenched. She seemed oblivious to the fire 
raining down around them. All that she could see was Sumire and the 
uniform of Sailor Uranus. "You," she said, her voice distant and 
wrought with betrayal. "You did it, didn't you? You killed them 
all. And you released that...that monster!"
	Sumire tried to protest, tried to defend herself. She could 
only babble, and it did not please Robin in the slightest. Robin 
reached down and grabbed Sumire by the collars of her Academy 
uniform. She pulled Sumire off the ground, and glared right into 
Sumire's face.
	"Why, Sumire?" she shouted. "Why did you kill them? Was it 
because we didn't meet up to your standards? Was it because you 
didn't want us to be Sailor Senshi too? You lied to us. You 
betrayed us. You murdered my friends! If this is what it means to 
be a Senshi, then I want no part of it!"
	A stray fragment of fiery debris threatened to fall from 
above and take off Robin's head in the process. Before it could 
even touch her face it erupted in a piffling display of ash and 
sparks. Robin hadn't even glanced at it.
	Sumire was struggling, squirming in Robin's grip. Desperate, 
she tried to pull away. She tried to cry out, to run and hide and 
never be seen again. "Robin, please!" she pleaded. "I'm sorry! 
I'm...just give me another chance, please!"
	Robin leaned even closer into Sumire's face.
	"There will be no other chances for you," she hissed.
	There was no mercy in her eyes.
	Sumire screamed as the edges of her uniform caught fire. 
Robin pushed Sumire away, leaving Sumire to fall to her knees on 
the ground and shriek as the sparks became flames, and the flames 
became an inferno. Robin turned and walked away, heedless of the 
stares of her friends and fellow Candidates. The crackling of the 
blaze cut off Sumire's wailing. Within seconds, there was no body, 
no melted remains. Sumire became a pile of ash and dust that was 
scattered by the wind and the rain before it even had a chance to 
fall to the earth. 
	The glint of eyes upon her back caused Robin to whirl and 
look wildly around the quad. She caught a momentary glimpse of 
Sailor Saturn. Saturn was in turn watching her, and grinning in 
approval. But it was only a momentary smile; seconds later the 
Archangels came for Saturn.
	Yurei never saw what became of the Ripper.
	Lost somewhere in the fires and crumbling ruins of the 
Academy dorm, Yurei discovered much to his surprise that he was 
still alive. He tried to stand, but his legs were buried beneath 
rubble and rock. Blood covered half his face, and his right arm 
refused to move unless horrific amounts of pain were involved. He'd 
broken his arm.
	Yurei sat up as far as he could go, and glared at the rocks 
pinning him to the ground. The rocks rattled, trembled and then 
burst into dust. Getting up was easy, but a slow and painful 
process. His shirt and pants were virtually reduced to ribbons with 
scorched ends. Blood flowed from his side, and at best he limped. 
His breathing was erratic, his lungs burned, his vision clouded. He 
had to cradle his broken arm against his chest.
	He still made his way back to the quad, back to Sailor 
Saturn.
	Everything had spiralled into madness.
	Candidates were still running in circles. Some had fled into 
the Academy classrooms and were nowhere to be seen. Some had been 
driven into corners or against the walls, a few alone, others in 
larger groups; they all huddled together and prayed for a messiah. 
Yuichiro, King Endymion and Sailor Mercury were racing from one 
wounded Candidate to the next, shouting across the field to each 
other and at the nearest Candidate who could help pull their 
comrade out of danger. Setsuna, Artemis and some of the senior 
Candidates were rallying together, and slowly but surely leading 
whom they could to safer grounds. 
	Sailor Venus and Luna were desperately trying, to no avail, 
to have Neo Queen Serenity leave the Academy. Cradled against 
Serenity's chest was Sailor Mars, who looked to have taken the full 
brunt of the dorm explosion in protecting the royal family. Yurei 
knew there would be no way of knowing if Mars had actually survived 
until the battle was over. 
	The clash of metal against metal resonated over the 
pandemonium that had swept over the Academy. Yurei looked out to 
the track, and saw that Sailor Jupiter, Shingo and Momo had engaged 
Sailor Saturn in battle. He could also make out three or four 
Candidates lying still upon the ground--one without her head.
	Sparks flew as Shingo and Momo repeatedly drove their Angelus 
blades at Saturn's body. Again and again the slashed at her chest, 
lunged for her heart. Again and again she blocked their strikes and 
dodged their attacks. Momo had to duck before her own head was 
taken off her shoulders. Shingo came at Saturn from behind while 
Saturn was busy with Momo.
	He raked his sword down with the intent to cut Saturn across 
the back. All his blade met with was the base of Saturn's glaive. 
Saturn glanced back at him, and flashed Shingo an amused smile.
	"Your toy really doesn't work unless you draw blood," she 
informed him.  
	Sailor Jupiter stepped in behind them. "Saturn!"
	Saturn shoved Shingo aside, and turned her attention to 
Jupiter. 
	"Maybe you can handle swords," Jupiter stated, "but let's see 
how you handle this: Jupiter Oak Evolution!"
	With a smirk, Saturn stretched out her hand and waited for 
the attack. Jupiter's Oak Evolution came to a crashing halt against 
the palm of Saturn's hand, held at bay and thrashing about 
furiously. 
	"No," Jupiter whispered.
	Saturn sneered and fired the Oak Evolution back at Sailor 
Jupiter. Her own attack smashing into her, Jupiter was sent 
careening through a wall and into a classroom.
	"Jupiter!" Shingo shouted.
	His attention was elsewhere. He was off-guard. Saturn forced 
Momo back with a sharp kick to the chest, and lunged at Shingo. 
Shingo saw her come for him in the peripherals of his vision. He 
lifted his sword to block her blade, but Saturn was aiming the edge 
of her glaive elsewhere.
	Shingo howled in pain as Saturn lobbed off his sword arm at 
the wrist.
	Sailor Saturn swung the base of her glaive around and knocked 
Shingo's feet out from under him. As Shingo fell to the mud, 
Saturn's shadow loomed over him. Shingo stared up at her, at the 
rain flowing across the surface of her blade and dripping profusely 
from its edge. He didn't cry, didn't sob or flinch. Shingo kept 
watching her and braced himself for death.
	Saturn hoisted the Silence Glaive over her head and plunged 
it towards Shingo's face. 
	Suddenly a wall of fire came between them, the flames 
snarling and snapping at Saturn's body. Saturn stopped short, 
jerking away from the defiant inferno. She looked around in 
surprise, in amusement, and saw Robin standing in the middle of the 
quad. The unimpressed look on Robin's face could not have been any 
more evident. 
	"Oh, so there is yet a Candidate who does not run when hell 
itself comes for her?" Saturn said. She twirled her glaive and took 
a step towards Robin. Unwavering, Robin held her ground.
	Yuichiro and two other Candidates appeared and pulled Shingo 
back into to the nearest door of the Academy. The wall of fire 
continued to burn.
	Saturn sniffed the air and smiled. "I smell the cinders of 
your sister-in-arms upon you. Tell me, child, how did it feel to 
destroy her? Did it make your heart beat faster in your chest? Did 
you get all warm and tingly inside? Do you think it makes you 
better than her?"
	Yurei had listened to enough. 
	"Hotaru!" he bellowed.
	Saturn paused and glanced over her shoulders. "Oh, are you 
still alive, Yu-chan? I'm rather surprised that didn't outright 
kill you, but I suppose we have your prolonged exposure to the 
Ginzuisho to thank for that. I've killed you so many times already 
I think I've lost count."
	"Your fight is still with me," Yurei stated. 
	"My fight was always with you," Saturn said simply. She 
turned away from Robin without so much as a second glance. "They've 
just been distractions."
	"We still haven't finished this yet," Yurei said. "If you 
want any of them, I have to fall first."
	Sailor Saturn's cruel smile spread across her face. "I like 
that proposition, Yu-chan. I would much rather prefer to watch your 
eyes when I slide my blade through your heart."
	Yurei lowered himself onto one knee, and pressed his good 
hand against the wet earth. He could sense Saturn moving towards 
him, moving with the full intent to destroy him with a single 
attack. The sounds of her glaive cutting through the wind as she 
twirled it rang in his ears. Yurei ignored the noise and let it 
remain a dull buzz. He stared at the ground, his mind sharpening, 
his call going forth across the Academy.
	His Angelus Sword answered his summons.
	Saturn whirled as the sword came spinning wildly at her from 
behind. Hastily she swung around her glaive and struck the sword 
moments before it would have sank its blade through the back of her 
head. The Angelus Sword ricocheted off her glaive, still spinning 
with a ferocity and will of its own. It arced around the quad, 
moving lower to the ground, until it was caught up by Yurei's 
outstretched arm.
	Sailor Saturn turned to him, the smile on her face fading 
away into oblivion. "You Archangels and your little bags of 
tricks," she growled. "That almost drew blood, Yu-chan. And if it's 
one thing you never do, it's scar a girl's face."
	She came at him even faster than before, and Yurei had to 
scramble to get up. With only one arm able to hold his sword and 
defend himself, Yurei could do little to meet her attacks. His 
Angelus sword rattled in his hand. Pain shot through his ribs and 
legs.
	Saturn let him block one of her attempts to cleave his head 
open, then hammered his broken arm with the base of her glaive. The 
blow sent Yurei stumbling sideways, and he cried out as the searing 
pain overtook everything he knew and sensed. Saturn was upon him 
before he could raise his sword. She kicked him in the chest, and 
sent Yurei into the air. 
	The Academy churned around Yurei as he spun and fell back to 
the ground. His hand still clung tenaciously to his weapon. As he 
lifted his head out from a puddle, he could see Neo Queen Serenity 
and King Endymion directly behind him. If he fell, there would be 
next to no one left to stand between them and Saturn's rampage, 
save for Luna--and he knew she would not last long in battle. 
	But there was still a way.
	Yurei rose to his feet once again. Saturn was coming, coming 
for him, coming for them all. He began to limp away from Serenity 
and Endymion, drawing Sailor Saturn away from them, drawing her 
after him. He chose where he would stop, and then made his way out 
to meet Saturn.
	"Such honour-bound bravado," Saturn said as she watched him 
approach. "It's a shame you're only an Archangel. They would have 
written amazing ballads about a hero like you. But all you'll ever 
be is a name etched upon a memorial, hidden away on an island very 
few will ever see or visit. You will be remembered, but not by 
those who matter. Not by the ones you've saved countless times 
again and again."
	Yurei lifted his head, and stared into her eyes. All he saw 
was a darkness delighting in his bloodied and broken form. "You 
know what I hate the most about you?" he snarled. "You talk too 
damn much."
	Saturn chided him with a shake of her head and a tsk-tsk. 
"Has the love so easily left our relationship, Yurei?" she mocked 
him. "Have you now come to despise what you so enjoyed making love 
to every night years ago?"
	"Not you, Hotaru," Yurei stated, and stared even deeper into 
her eyes. "I'm talking to the thing inside you, to whatever 
parasite has you at its mercy."
	Saturn let out an amused peal of laughter. She lashed out, 
striking Yurei across the face. As Yurei stumbled sideways, the 
silver ring slipped out from beneath the tattered remains of his 
shirt. A flicker of reflecting light brushed across Saturn's face, 
and with ruthless speed she had the ring in her fist. With a savage 
yank she tore the chain from around Yurei's neck, and let her prize 
dangle in front of her face.
	"After all this time, you still dare to keep hope alive with 
such a petty trinket of love and eternity," she remarked. She 
stared down at him, and her smile was grotesque. "It is me now, Yu-
chan. We have become one. She and I are as intertwined as a 
heartbeat. I have become her heart and she has become my soul. Your 
queen's silver crystal can't even unbind us. You kill me, then she 
dies too and you lose. You spare us both, and whether we're trapped 
in another cage or ruling the rubble you call a planet, you still 
lose."
	It was the first time in years that Yurei had heard It speak 
with It's own voice, and not hers. It sickened him to his stomach. 
Yurei raised his arm, ready to drive his Angelus blade against 
Saturn's side.
	Saturn saw the attack coming, and with ridiculous ease swung 
her Silence Glaive to parry against it. The two opposing blades 
connected and clashed in a shower of sparks and lightning. Despite 
his injuries, despite the overwhelming desire to close his eyes and 
fall to the ground, Yurei pushed against her.
	A loud, wrenching crack resonated across the Academy.
	And the blade of the Angelus Sword snapped in half.
	Sailor Saturn giggled maniacally as her glaive forced its way 
through and broke Yurei's weapon. As Yurei stumbled, she lifted her 
leg and drove her heel into his chest again. Yurei was pushed onto 
the ground, the momentum from her kick sending him hydroplaning 
over the quad in a torrent of water and mud. Yurei was on his side 
when he at last slid to a stop. He had curled into a ball to 
protect himself, but now he was trembling furiously. 
	Shock and exhaustion were starting to creep into his body and 
take hold.
	He fumbled with his good arm and managed to push himself up 
on one knee as Sailor Saturn stalked towards him. She towered over 
him, the silver sheen of her glaive catching the light of a 
solitary lightning bolt from above. Yurei looked up, and saw the 
sadistic edge of her blade poised over his head.
	She didn't see Yurei's working arm behind his back. His 
kneeling stance blocked her eyes from his fingers wrapping 
themselves around the hilt of his second katana, the one he had 
driven almost completely into the ground at the start of their 
battle. An Archangel always had a contingency plan. An Archangel 
always carried two weapons.
	"It ends," Saturn stated, and drew back the glaive in 
preparing to deliver the deathblow.
	Yurei saw the opening, and seized it.
	He didn't pull his katana out from the ground. He cut through 
it in a single, vicious arc. The water and mud gave no resistance, 
and his blade didn't slow down as it erupted from the earth. Sailor 
Saturn gave a startled gasp as the blade sank into her chest. The 
strength in her fingers was sucked away, and the Silence Glaive 
slid out from her grasp. It fell to the earth behind her, standing 
straight up as the blade held fast in the ground.
	Saturn reeled and stumbled back. The sword remained lodged in 
her chest; all she could do was pull herself along the blade, 
leaving a slick, crimson stain along its length. She brought her 
fingers against her uniform, where scarlet trails were running down 
the white cloth.
	"You bastard," she whispered. "You did it to me again. Must I 
suffer this indignity twice now?"
	Yurei forced himself to his feet, his good arm still gripping 
the katana.
	"Yurei!"
	It was Neo Queen Serenity's voice.
	It was pleading with him to stop.
	Yurei glanced over his shoulder and saw Serenity racing 
towards him. He turned back to Sailor Saturn, who watched him with 
eyes that showed no fear, no remorse.
	"I'm sorry, Hotaru-chan," he whispered to her.
	Saturn tipped her chin down and hissed into his ear. "For 
Queen and city. For death and vengeance. Finish it, Yurei!"
	Yurei closed his eyes and drove the blade of his Angelus 
Sword upwards through Saturn's chest. Saturn screamed as the blade 
cut bone and flesh, erupting in a spray of blood as it sliced 
through her collarbone. Yurei pulled the katana away from her body, 
and she fell backwards onto the mud and grass.
	Serenity was screaming, crying out Hotaru's name.
	Yurei saw her out of the corner of his eye, and held out his 
sword, blocking her path. Serenity stopped before she would have 
tripped against the blade. Her blue eyes were wide in horror as she 
watched the onslaught of rain wash Saturn's blood off the katana.
	"What have you done, Yurei?" she whispered. "What have you 
done?"
	"What you couldn't bring yourself to do," he answered. It was 
impossible to tell if the water running down his face was rain or 
tears. "That's why there are Archangels in this city."
	Serenity looked at him, and realized how much of Saturn's 
blood had sprayed across Yurei's face and body. "I can still save 
her!" she pleaded. "The Ginzuisho can still bring her back! It's 
restored Sailor Senshi who've died before!"
	She tried to step forward, and Yurei levelled the length of 
the katana with her neck. "You do," he stated fiercely, "and that 
monstrosity will be resurrected along with her. You will only bring 
back a demon. You will have accomplished nothing."
	"I can't let her die!" Serenity shouted at him. 
	"She's already dead," Yurei said.
	Serenity threw herself at him, and Yurei dropped his katana 
as she pounded her fists against his chest. "Why?" she sobbed. "Why 
won't you let me help her? You love Hotaru-chan as much as I do. 
Why?"
	Yurei turned his head and saw Saturn's body lay quiet in the 
mud. Then her body twitched. Something was stirring beneath her 
skin. He turned back to Serenity, and with his good arm tipped her 
chin up.
	"I would rather give her peace in death," he said, "than a 
second life filled only with torment. There's nothing more we can 
do for her."
	Serenity peered around him, and saw something black burbling 
to the surface of Saturn's body. It ran out from her eyes and nose 
and mouth. It pushed itself out through the pores of her skin. It 
was black and chattered insanities in their ears. A cloud began to 
form, pulsing with shadowy tendrils. Eyes began to open up 
everywhere, staring in a hundred different directions and at a 
hundred different faces it hated.
	Yurei glanced to his left and right as he saw others slowly 
approach. Endymion was the closest, followed by the Sailor Senshi 
and Archangels who could still stand and walk. Robin was among 
their ranks. Behind them trailed only a handful of Candidates.
	Yurei stepped away from Neo Queen Serenity, his vengeful gaze 
focused solely on the radiating cloud of profane darkness. 
	"Destroy that thing," he told the queen.
	As Neo Queen Serenity stepped out to face the creature, it 
whirled and let out a loud, incoherent shriek. Serenity stretched 
out her hands and summoned the Ginzuisho. A stunning silver crystal 
appeared hovering between her open palms. Endymion drew up behind 
her, his suit changing into plates of regal armour, and he placed 
his hands on her shoulders.
	Serenity looked out at the darkness, and cast it from her 
presence.
	The light of the Ginzuisho filled the Academy quad. It bathed 
those around it in a warmth they had never before known. But the 
eyes of the pulsing darkness rolled back in their hundreds of 
sockets. The monstrosity began to convulse. It screamed and 
screeched, writhing beneath the relentless light of the Ginzuisho. 
Without a body to hide within, without a host to bind itself to, it 
was helpless and exposed.
	It became cleansed.
	Purified.
	Obliterated.
	With one final cry, it became nothing, and the writhing 
darkness and its eyes and tendrils was no more. The light of the 
Ginzuisho faded, and Serenity let out a deep sigh as a wave of 
fatigue washed over her. The rains continued to fall over everyone.
	"Is it dead?" Momo dared to ask.
	Serenity nodded her head. "When Hotaru-chan died, it had no 
place to hide from the Ginzuisho. We will never see that thing 
again."
	"And Hotaru?" Sailor Mercury asked.
	"She's gone," Yurei stated. His voice was as empty as his 
heart.
	He was barely aware of Sailor Pluto drawing up between him 
and Neo Queen Serenity. "There is a way," Pluto said. "But you must 
wait."
	"What are you ranting about now?" Yurei almost snarled.
	Pluto ignored the tone of his voice. "We have to be sure," 
she stated. "We have to be certain nothing of that entity still 
lingers or hides inside of her. And then we can bring her back."
	Yurei's head snapped around, his gaze fixated on Sailor 
Pluto. "What?"
	"I told you I saw death," Sailor Pluto said to him. "I told 
you one of us would die, and there she lays. You killed her. But 
now Time moves again, ever in tangled circles, and life is given 
anew. She had to die by your hands in order to be set free. To be 
given a second chance, she must place herself in the hands of our 
Queen."
	Yurei looked down at Saturn's bloodied body, and a wild hope 
dared to beat within his chest. All he could do was look at her as 
the rain dripped off his hair and face.
	"Setsuna," Endymion murmured, "The longer she's dead, the 
harder it will be to bring her back."
	"A little more," Pluto insisted.
	"You're gambling with her life!" Serenity exclaimed.
	Sailor Pluto turned to their queen. "Please. Believe in what 
I'm saying. The Hundred Gate has given me hope, given us all hope, 
but impatience will destroy it for everyone."
	They waited for another tense minute, all watching the slain 
body of Sailor Saturn. Nothing else crawled out. No other darkness 
emerged.
	Holding in her breath, Sailor Pluto turned to Serenity. "Do it."
	The Ginzuisho's light swallowed up the Academy once more, its 
warmth focused solely on Sailor Saturn. Yurei had never seen a 
Sailor Senshi resurrected before. He had no idea what to expect, 
but he knew what he hoped for. He could feel his heart pounding 
painfully against his bruised ribs, not daring to breathe, almost 
daring to believe.
	The light dimmed, and the rain overtook them again.
	The uniform of Sailor Saturn was gone. All that remained was 
Hotaru. She wore elegant black clothes, and in her hair was the red 
ribbon she had been wearing when the darkness first overtook her--
only now they were all torn and tattered from her fight against 
Sumire. She looked remarkably peaceful, almost angelic, and Yurei 
knelt down next to her.
	With a trembling hand, he touched her forehead and wiped away 
the rain that fell upon her face. Hotaru's eyes fluttered open at 
his touch. As her vision cleared, and she beheld Yurei, she managed 
a weak, tired smile. 
	"Jadeite..." she whispered, and tried to lift a palm up to his 
face. 
	Yurei gently grasped her hand and pressed her palm against 
his cheek. "It's all right, Hotaru-chan," he said to her. "I'm 
here."
	Hotaru stared up at the sky, groggy and uncomprehending of 
the other faces around her. She looked exhausted, and her arms slid 
around Yurei's waist.
	"I had such a terrible dream," she whispered, on the verge of 
tears.
	Yurei held her tightly with his good arm. "It's over now, 
Hotaru-chan. It's over now."







	so this is where I say goodbye
	this is where my story ends
	and if there's one thing I've
	learned from life
	it's that it gets you in the end

		-Stabbing Westwards, "Goodbye"



			-31st Century Shangri-La-


	They sat at a window booth in Cuchulainn's, waiting for their 
orders. It was early afternoon, and the storm that had overtaken 
Crystal Tokyo for days had blown itself out earlier that morning. 
The streets were as damp as the rest of the city, but at least 
there was a sun blazing down from above, and the clouds were at 
worst scattered and small.
	"Just how many of those are you going to drink?" Momo 
remarked.
	Shingo finished his third cup of coffee and carefully set it 
down with his left hand. His right arm was still wrapped in tensor 
bandages and held in a sling. There was no hope of reattaching his 
hand, but Ami was optimistic about having the prototype of a fully 
functional and articulated, artificial one within the next year. It 
had been a pet project of hers now for twenty-six years running.
	"It's good coffee," Shingo insisted. "Good coffee deserves to 
be drunk before it gets cold. Otherwise it's a waste and an 
insult."
	Momo rolled her eyes. "You and your coffee."
	The cuts on her face and arms were healing, but slowly. 
	Across from the two of them, Yuichiro leaned back against the 
booth and stared out the window. Pedestrians moved in front of the 
pub at their own paces, early or late for their own appointments, 
acting as if everything was right with the world. 
	The newspapers were only just starting to hear rumours and 
accounts of what had happened a few nights ago, when the Academy 
burst apart in the dead of night. Serenity had not given any 
official statements until last night, giving the Candidates the 
chance to return to their families. There were details omitted, but 
they would be revealed in time as the rest of the city digested 
each new and dark revelation. Better they hear the admissions from 
the palace than from some of the near-hysterical Candidates. 
	Momo's cell phone chimed.
	She answered the call, and the ensuing discussion was very 
brief.
	"It's official now," she said as she ended the call. "Robin's 
been expelled from the Academy." 
	The issue had come down from Serenity herself a few hours 
prior, giving Robin the chance to pack her belongings and leave 
before the word spread to the rest of the Candidates. Not that 
anyone would find out quickly; the Academy was closed indefinitely 
until the repairs on the dorms were completed. During the interim, 
the Candidates were back with their families.
	"I can't say I'm entirely surprised," Yuichiro said. "Half 
the Candidates watched her incinerate Sumire."
	Shingo slammed his fist down on the table. "Dammit, Sumire 
was the one killing everyone!" he exclaimed angrily.
	His outburst caused the few patrons inside the pub to turn 
their heads.
	Yuichiro scowled in disapproval, and waited for the onlookers 
to return to their beer or food. "That doesn't matter," he told 
Shingo. "Serenity has openly denounced these acts of violence. 
Everything's going to change at the Academy. Things are going to be 
stricter. They're going to be more careful. She's not going to 
stand by and watch more Candidates murder each other in a bid for 
power. That's not why they're being trained."
	Shingo let out a sigh of his own disapproval, and sat back. 
"So there are still two openings for Sailor Senshi after all this?"
	"Three, actually," Yuichiro said. "When she was resurrected, 
Hotaru lost her powers as Sailor Saturn. Yurei told me before he 
left."
	Shingo mulled that over. "Odd. That never happened when they 
fought Beryl. From what I hear, my sister brought them all back 
even after they had died hours beforehand."
	"Different circumstances back then," Yuichiro said. "Sailor 
Moon used the entirety of the Ginzuisho's powers in order to do 
that, resetting the clock even for herself. She didn't do that with 
Hotaru."
	"There's also the fact that Hotaru was prisoner to that...that 
thing for twenty years," Momo added. She reached for her cup of 
green tea and took a sip. "For twenty years it slowly sucked the 
humanity out of her. Maybe in the eyes of whatever Powers That Be 
are out there, she'd been dead for decades."
	Their appetizers arrived, delivered by William himself. 
Yuichiro and Momo shared a plate of brushetta bread. Not 
surprisingly, Shingo was hoarding a plate of chips for himself. 
Much to his delight, his coffee cup was refilled.
	"Maybe it's just as well," Yuichiro said between mouthfuls of 
bread and tomato. "She's been psychotic for twenty years now. Would 
any of us really trust her if she went back to being Sailor 
Saturn?"
	Shingo had to shake his head. "No. Hate to say it, but I 
wouldn't."
	"They hope to reopen the Academy in another month," Yuichiro 
went on. "Imagine if she was still Sailor Saturn, and had to teach 
all the Candidates she'd just terrorized."
	"Some of the families of the Candidates she did kill are 
wanting some kind of reparation," Momo said. "Any of you heard how 
Serenity plans to negotiate that?"
	Yuichiro shook his head. Shingo did the same.
	"I don't even know how she plans to handle the fallout from 
Sumire killing her own classmates," Shingo admitted. "Her family's 
going to have to live with that stigma for the rest of their lives-
-and that may be for a very long time."
	"Robin won't be much different," Momo said. "She killed 
Sumire, and now she's been expelled from the Academy. She may be 
problematic as a result. Do you think she'll play fairly from here 
on in?"
	Shingo shrugged. "It'll be like having another Yurei."
	They all fell silent for a few moments.
	"Do either of you know where he is?" Momo asked quietly.
	Yuichiro shook his head. "When he left with Hotaru, he never 
said where they were going. They might be halfway across the world, 
living quietly in a forest for all I know. Hell, they might still 
be somewhere here in the city, creating new lives and new 
identities for themselves."
	"Do you think he told anyone else?" Momo asked.
	"I doubt it," Yuichiro said. "Everyone in the palace seemed 
surprised when Hotaru disappeared."
	"But you knew," Momo insisted. "You're the only reason Shingo 
and I know. You saw them leave together. You knew he was going to 
do that."
	Yuichiro nodded. "I've fought beside him for over two hundred 
years now, Momo. I know when he's reached his breaking point. 
Hunting for the Ripper exhausted him, and the fight against Saturn 
did just as much damage to his psyche as it did to his body. And 
now...now he has Hotaru again. I think it's what they both want: to 
just disappear and let things cool down. It's been twenty years. 
They have a lot of catching up to do."
	Shingo finished swallowing a chip, and washed it down with a 
mouthful of coffee. "He'll be back," he casually stated.
	Yuichiro looked at him from across the table. "You're sure of 
that?"
	Shingo nodded. "Yeah. He may be a bit of an intolerable 
bastard, but you can't deny his loyalty to the cause. We may be 
only three Archangels now, but he'll come back when he's ready. Him 
and Hotaru. If she still has any latent powers left over from being 
Sailor Saturn, she might become an Archangel herself."
	"We seem to be an Order of the strangest group of misfits and 
dissidents the future has ever seen," Momo remarked.
	"You know, I've always wondered, just what exactly separates 
a Sailor Senshi from an Archangel," Shingo said. "Other than 
destiny and that outfit, of course."
	Yuichiro was staring out the window again, at the people 
walking past the restaurant. So many of them going about their 
lives, and not one having really given a second thought to how 
close they all had come to annihilation.
	"Mercy," Yuichiro answered. "The Senshi can and have bestowed 
mercy and grace upon those whom they choose, even their worst 
enemies. Mercy is a luxury we cannot afford to have. We are meant 
to be the soldiers without mercy. We are their divine justice and 
retribution. That is why we wield the Angelus swords. That is why 
Yurei was willing to kill Hotaru. The Sailor Senshi are life. 
Everything they are, everything they represent, revolves around the 
preservation of life. But as for us, we're the embodiment of 
death."
	His eyes caught a glimpse of someone very familiar, someone 
they had been waiting for. Yuichiro turned his head to Shingo and 
Momo. "She's here."
	"Hope she didn't have too much of a problem finding the 
place," Shingo remarked.
	The front door to Cuchulainn's opened up, and Robin stepped 
inside. Behind her was a decent-sized box of luggage being pulled 
on wheels. She looked out of place, and in all likelihood felt out 
of place too. William gave her a curious look when he saw her.
	"It's all right, Will!" Shingo called out to him. "She's with 
us. And could you bring a menu over? We'll be ready to order the 
rest of our meals in a minute."
	Robin saw the Archangels, and headed towards them.
	Yuichiro slid out of his side of the booth, and stood to 
greet her. "Thanks for coming," he said. He glanced down at the 
single piece of luggage with her. "Is that it?"
	Robin nodded. 
	Shingo shrugged and reached for his coffee. "Light packer."
	"Almost everything I had was in the dormitory when it was 
destroyed," Robin said. She ran her fingers through her hair, and 
Yuichiro glimpsed the bare skin upon her neck where a Candidate's 
marking had once been. "This is all I have left. My parents wanted 
me to buy me some replacement clothes, but...it's just better this 
way."
	"You can contact or visit them whenever you want to or need 
to," Momo said. "Don't worry, you're with friends. Not to mention, 
I've got more than enough stuff at my apartment for the both of 
us."
	Robin still looked uneasy as she placed her suitcase against 
the wall, and looked for where she might sit.
	Yuichiro gave her a warm smile, and gestured to the empty 
space on his side of the booth. "Welcome," he said, "to the Angelus 
Order."









For the ones who've been there for me through the long haul: 
Greenbeans, Meara, blue, Luna the Sage, Don, Yumeko, Sei no Bushi, 
the Fic Bitch, Aphrael, Dejana, and most of all, Andrea. Some have 
gone before, others have come after, but all of them have equal 
places of affection within this writer's heart.

Sailormoon and all it's related people, places and plots are 
copyright of Naoko Takeuchi. I make no claim on this world as my 
own. I hold no compunctions about giving full credit where full 
credit is due, and full credit for Sailormoon should be given to 
her. However, I would be very much displeased to one day stumble 
across a fanfic online that bears a frightening resemblance to this 
one, only without my name attached to it. The world herein is 
Naoko's; the story being based within it is mine. I give credit 
where credit is due. I expect you to do the same.

I would also like to request that if you decide to make a critique 
or review of this story, please refrain from revealing the 
identities of Taro the Ripper or Yurei. I always hate it when a 
good story is spoiled for me; please don't ruin it for other 
readers. "Twists" can be mentioned, but not the names, please.

The quote, "A good teacher can only have dissident pupils" comes 
from E. Chargaff, though in this story Yurei does not accredit his 
name to it. 

'Taro the Ripper' is a bit of a Japanese play upon Jack the Ripper. 
In England, the name 'Jack' was one of the most common names, so 
they used that in creating a name for the Ripper. In Japan, 'Taro' 
is a common name of the same variety, substituting in for 'Jack'.

The term "kireru" means 'a sudden act of rage'. This sort of 
violent rage explodes without warning, and usually from people who 
would not be expected to lose all control in this fashion. 
Psychologically speaking, it appears to occur in individuals who 
bottle up their feelings, good or bad, and never openly express 
them. What they're repressing becomes too much to handle, and one 
day all their emotions are violently unleashed. It is, in fact, a 
major source of concern amongst the Japanese today, as the number 
of 'kireru' incidents are on a dramatic rise.

Wherever possible, I tried to stay as real to the present-day Tokyo 
streets as I could. This includes the train lines, stations and 
various neighbourhoods & wards. Certainly there are limitations to 
whatever my research was able to find, not having been to Tokyo 
myself. So if there are any glaring contradictions let me know.  


His lordship Chaos can be reached at: hislordshipchaos@hotmail.com


















	Dawn came to Crystal Tokyo, and Yurei and Hotaru watched it 
bloody a dark and starry sky as they soaked in a hot bath. The 
beginnings of what would be a blue morning poured through a set of 
picture windows. It crept along the ceiling and down along the 
walls, and reflected off the silver ring worn on Yurei's hand. 
	"It's beautiful," Hotaru murmured, her eyes half closed. She 
was more content to rest her head against Yurei's chest than watch 
the sunrise. Yurei was content enough to have her there with him.
	"What are we going to do when it's finally morning?" Hotaru 
asked.
	Yurei stared out at the city, and its quiet potential that 
would begin to stir in a few hours. "Whatever we want to," he 
answered.
	The apartment was theirs now. It wasn't an abandoned building 
located on the edge of Crystal Tokyo. In fact, it was in the middle 
of a sprawling ward, and they were surrounded by neighbours, but 
for now neither of them had any complaints. With his connections, 
it had been easy for Yurei to get them a new home without raising 
any notice from the palace. He wanted it that way. She wanted it 
that way.
	It was better they be ghosts together, if not forever then 
only for a few years.
	He had little doubt that the Sailor Senshi would have stormed 
his old apartment by now, in a frantic attempt to locate either of 
them. All they'd have found was a series of empty rooms. His plan 
had been set in motion days before he'd helped Hotaru disappear out 
of the palace infirmary; all of his furniture and books were 
elsewhere the night they vanished together. Regrettably, he'd had 
to leave the bookshelves and most of the kitchen appliances behind, 
but they were only things. Only objects. They could be replaced.
	The lover in his arms could not. 
	"I was thinking," Hotaru said, and tilted her head so she 
could look up at him. The warm water lapped at the ends of her 
raven hair. "It might be fun to run an old-style ryokan for a 
little while."
	Yurei smirked. "Somehow the concept of a former Archangel and 
Sailor Senshi running a traditional Japanese inn seems a 
contradiction in ideas."
	"I can see I've piqued your interest," Hotaru teased, and 
winked at him. She laid her head back down and looked out at the 
dawn as it hungrily ate at the darkness of the sky. "Are you really 
okay with this, Jadeite? With leaving them behind like this?"
	"They're old enough to handle themselves." Yurei's eyes 
narrowed. "They had better be."
	"It's...just different for you, I guess," Hotaru said. "I've 
lost almost all my powers. I can't even summon my henshin or 
transform anymore. But you still have your powers. You could still 
be an Archangel, and you've walked away from them."
	Yurei lifted his arm, still in its cast, from the rim of the 
tub and placed it around Hotaru's back. The bruises upon his body 
had yet to fade, and his ribs were still incredibly sore, but he 
enjoyed the warmth of her skin against his.
	"I haven't walked away from them, Hotaru-chan. Consider this 
a long-overdue vacation. Yuichiro's promised to keep me apprised of 
any new developments in the city. He's the only one who has the 
number to my new cell phone." 
	"There's still only three of them now."
	Yurei shook his head. "Serenity's actually found a new 
Archangel for the Order."
	"Anyone I know?"
	He nodded. "Robin. You met her that night at the Academy. She 
stopped you from killing Shingo, and burned Sumire to cinders."
	Hotaru's eyes began to slide closed again. "Serenity always 
did believe in second chances, even for killers like you and me. 
Will there still be any second chances left for people like us?"
	"I don't know, Hotaru-chan." Yurei stared out at the fading 
silhouettes of the surrounding towers. "But we're here, whether the 
rest of the city likes it or not."
	"Jadeite?"
	"Mm?"
	"Kiss me. Please."
	They turned their backs to the sunrise, and their hearts to 
each other.






	Remember when you said, "Mine?" and I said, "Forever."
	You said, "Only forever?"
	It's forever now.

		-James O'Barr's "The Crow"