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Rei woke up from a sound sleep and looked around wildly. She saw that candles were dimming and brightening rapidly.
"There is some power at work," Rei whispered, as she got out of bed.
She walked outside and saw the Hikawa Shine was flashing silver and indigo. A column of indigo light shot off into the air and turned to meet six other beams of light that were in the other colors of the rainbow. The light beams shot downward to somewhere in Tokyo.
"What was that all about?" Rei asked aloud, not expecting an answer.
"I was hoping you could tell me," a voice said near her.
Rei spun around and looked around. She saw a black cat sitting and looking up at her. The cat had a crescent moon on its forehead.
"Greetings," the cat said in a female voice. "I am Luna."
Rei pulled out a spirit ward and slapped it on the cat's forehead and recited a chant. The cat just sat there and pulled the paper off her head.
"I'm not an evil spirit," the cat said with a chuckle. "Nor am I possessed."
The cat back-flipped and a red and gold pen appeared in mid-air and dropped. The cat put one paw on the pen and looked at Rei.
"You are the Senshi of Fire: Sailor Mars. Use this pen and shout Mars Power Make Up to transform."
"I am not having this conversation," Rei said.
"This is no dream. Those beams of light proved that there are weird things going on."
_______________________________________________________________________
Rei sighed and brought her mind back to the present and the two visions she had received. She finally accepted that Luna wasn't going to be leaving anytime soon.
'Talking cats, light beams, and an angel? What next?'
Rei felt a cold chill go through her and she looked around. She saw herself wearing a costume resembling Sailor V's. The other her was also semi-translucent. The ghostly image smiled and pointed with two fingers, before fading away.
'Things are getting really weird,' Rei thought and went in the direction that the ghost pointed.
Up on a roof, Sailor Moon was holding a glowing red light in her hand. The compact on Sailor Moon's chest had the red crystal lit up. The ghost Sailor Mars appeared before Sailor Moon.
"My younger self is now curious about where I pointed. Are you sure you want to do it this way, Usagi?"
Sailor Moon bowed her head. "I can't be sure of anything. I just want your other selves to be stronger for the confrontation with Galaxia."
Both Sailor Mars and the red light faded away, as the red crystal dimmed.
"Sailor Teleport," Sailor Moon said.
Sailor Moon glowed white, as she teleported away. The Rei of the present time was soon in front of a fortuneteller's house. She felt dark emanations coming from the house. Gritting her teeth, Rei Hino entered the house. When she did so, she noticed that the place was done up in the stereotypical gypsy setup for fortune-tellers. Rei silently snorted, as she tried tracing the dark energy she felt. Her eyes rested on the fortuneteller herself.
"Greetings, I am Lady Bamu," the woman said. ""Let the cards predict your future."
"I can do my own fortune-telling," Rei said. "I was just curious about the building."
"I insist. It won't take too much time," Lady Bamu said.
Rei hesitantly nodded. "There's a question that's been preying on my mind. I'm trying to figure out if I misread my prediction. Do I do something or not?"
"Concentrate on what the question, and I will do a reading. You don't have to tell me what you are deciding to do," Lady Bamu said.
Rei concentrated on her transformation pen and whether or not to use it. Lady Bamu laid her tarot cards into two-column spread. She flipped over the cards in one column.
"If you choose to make that choice. The Ten of Wands say you will have many battles which will lead to Magician and increase of skills and you shall face Judgement that will lead to the World."
"And if I don't?" Rei asked.
Lady Bamu flipped over the cards in the other column.
"At first, everything will look bright as The Sun, but the Four of Swords shows that death and ruin will soon follow and that shall lead to...."
Both Rei and Lady Bamu stared at the card. It was the Judgement card. The eyes of the two met as Lady Bamu flipped over the last card: The Tower. Rei stood up and headed for the door.
"I have to go," Rei said quickly.
Lady Bamu puled a card from the promotional stack and handed it to Rei. "Keep this card with you as good luck."
Rei took the card and headed outside. She gazed at the card she was given. It was the Ace of Wands. She dumped the card into her bag and headed home. Inside her office, Lady Bamu stared at the spread of cards.
"That has never happened before," She said, as she put the cards back together and started counting them.
She found that she had seventy-eight cards. She flipped the deck over and tried to find out which card she was missing. Every card in the Tarot deck was there, but the second Judgement card was nowhere to be found.
Lady Bamu muttered, "It must be a big choice if the cards will change like that. It's of no real consequence."
A good-looking blonde haired man appeared behind Lady Bamu. Lady Bamu felt the man appear and she turned around and quickly kneeled.
"Master Jadeite."
"How goes the energy harvesting, Bamu?"
"Other than the last customer, everyone who has entered the store is wearing a card that shall provide energy for Queen Beryl."
Jadeite's right eyebrow raised. "Oh? Why would the last customer not wear the card?"
"I forgot to tell her to wear the card. I was a little shaken by reading her fortune. The cards changed in response to telling her fortune."
Jadeite frowned when he heard that. "I see. One person won't make much difference."
At the Hikawa Shrine, Rei was still shaken by what that Tarot reading showed. She took the Tarot card she was given and took it into the shrine. The flames dimmed as she approached the sacred fire. Eyes narrowing at the faltering flames, Rei put the card in front of the fire and did another reading.
"Show me Lady Bamu," Rei said to the fire.
The image of Lady Bamu appeared in the flames. It then metamorphosed into the visage of a monster. The flames showed that several cards were pulling energy from those who wore them and sending the energy towards the demonic version of Lady Bamu. Rei took the Ace of Wands card and slapped a spirit ward on it and lit the card with the sacred flames. She tossed the card outside the shrine, as it started glowing black. As soon as the card hit the ground, it exploded into black flames and sent a column of dark smoke upwards. Rei stared at the spot where the card had exploded.
Pulling out the transformation pen, Rei thought, 'A choice to make? Battle or total ruin? It looks like my first fight will be with Lady Bamu. I will wait until tonight.'
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(Posted Wed, 22 Jun 2005 04:25)
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