Setsuna was adrift in her own mind, her consciousness unmoored and drifting about her greater mindscape. It was actually quite relaxing, provided one wasn’t concerned about doing things like waking up and interacting with the rest of existence. If the Time Senshi could rouse herself from the warm fuzziness enveloping her psyche, she’d come to in a few minutes. Until then, it was Comatown, population: her.
Or it would be, had a gateway not opened up five “feet” in front of her and disgorged another iteration of her who slapped the present her awake.
“Zahuh?”
“Still the epitome of eloquence, I see,” smiled the newcomer.
“Ugh…Erinye, coffee.”
The other Setsuna gave a low whistle. “You were out of it. Erinye’s been dead for more than ten thousand years.”
“Wha? Oh…oh, that’s right.” The awakened gave a shake of her head representation. “What happened?”
“A violent shift in the balance of power,” replied the awakener. “I don’t know who or how, but a decent portion of our/your/my power been yanked away. You reacted in a rather explosive release of energy that briefly retarded the passage of time in a localized area.”
The still groggy Setsuna repeated the “our/your/my,” which was actually a pronoun she’d created specifically for those times when she was both speaker and audience. She finally recognized the “voice” of her rouser. “We/You/I aren’t at the Time Gates. We/You/I aren’t in any actual physical location.”
“I know. I got some help from Sailor Pisces.” The apparently future Setsuna moved a bit to the side so the present one could see the portal. On the other side were her body and another. It was largely silhouetted, but gave a wave.
“How—?”
“Pisces is the Senshi of Dreams. We combined powers so I could use the Gates to travel through both time and metaspace.”
“I don’t suppose you’ll tell me where we find Pisces or her Amulet?” Present-Setsuna asked hopelessly.
“Of course not. I am here to dispense a piece of information, though.”
“What?”
“I already told you. Now go wake up.” Future-Setsuna turned and went back through the portal, fading to transparency as she reunited her own mind and body.
“Damn cryptic hints,” muttered Present-Setsuna. “It’s never any fun when you’re on the receiving end.”
“I’d imagine.”
“Eh?” The Time Senshi looked around. Rather than the swirling, coruscating mists of her own mind, things seemed decidedly more solid and extant. She didn’t recognize the speaker. She was in full Senshi regalia, her skirt, collar, and accents were a rather unremarkable brown, the shade of pretty much any fabric if worn long enough. The skirt was really more of a hakama, though, tailored as such and going to the ankle. The strange Senshi also had a sword, but it wasn’t like Uranus’s. This was simple and absent of any gems or other embellishments. Just a sharpened piece of metal attached to a grip, designed for swinging at and, if at all possible, through the enemy. “Who are you?” Setsuna asked finally.
The Senshi, who had been getting a tad uncomfortable with the prolonged stare she’d been receiving, answered. “It’s me. Motoko. Though I suppose I’m Sailor Capricorn when I’m like this.”
Given permission, Setsuna could see through the disguise field and realized that this was indeed the case. “Ah. Excellent. Go on ahead, I’ll catch up.”
“I don’t actually know where to go.”
Setsuna gave the younger girl a bemused look. “Follow the trail of destruction until you get to the flashing lights and crashing sounds.” She raised her henshin wand. “Pluto Planet Power, MAKE UP!”
Dominus was not pleased. This is a common reaction to getting blindsided by a Talisman-fueled magical attack. Still, the disparate darkling had thought he’d been doing rather well. To go down without permanently removing at least one Senshi from the picture was, at this point, unacceptable.
Of course, first he’d have to get by Uranus and Saturn, who were playing bodyguard while their comrades recuperated. “This,” he said aloud, “is what minions are for. Forward!”
He had been busy. Hundreds of zombie-like people shambled towards the Senshi. It was not unlike the time the sailor-suited Warriors of Love and Justice accidentally stormed an anime convention, except that these drones were generally thinner, cleaner, and mercifully absent of cosplay versions of the Senshi themselves.
“We’re surrounded!” cried Saturn. “What do we do? These are innocent people?”
“We mow them down,” Uranus declared firmly. She noticed the expression on her foster daughter’s face and amended, “gently.”
So, the flat of the Space Sword and the bludgeoning regions of the Silence Glaive were put to use, clubbing back the marauding hordes. Unfortunately, even when bedecked with costume jewelry, a blade or polearm is still rather heavy. Even when swinger and swung are both magically enhanced, the former is going to get tired. Both Senshi knew this, but they pressed on.
Several minutes into the zombie bashing, Capricorn arrived. “I guess this qualifies,” she said to Pluto, “even if there aren’t any flashing lights.”
“They’re conserving their strength,” explained the Senshi of Time. “Magical blasts are potent, but draining if you fire them indiscriminately.”
Capricorn nodded. “In any case, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with zombies. Nor the first instance where decapitation is not an option.” She noted Pluto’s incredulous look. “Su tried to make a real-life version of Resident Evil once.”
“Ah.”
In the center of the battle, Uranus stumbled. To give her time, Saturn let loose. “SILENCE GLAIVE SURPRISE!”
Capricorn’s eyes widened. “You…you had not mentioned Princess Saturn had awoken.”
“Mokoto?” Pluto recognized the signs of past life remembrance.
“No longer.” The Senshi of Will drew her blade. “Guarding the Lady Teleute is my sworn duty, and that of those before me. I have sworn, in the name of Capricorn, to defend Saturn and His royal family to the death, so that the powers of Death and Rebirth need never be unleashed.” Capricorn slipped the capital letters in flawlessly. Her blade and body began to glow with a tan aura. “For Teleute! For Saturn! IRON WILL!”
Surprisingly, no shaped light, no elemental burst was released. Instead, the swordswoman simply charged into the fray, dealing incapacitating blows en masse. She moved in an inward spiral, dealing blow after blow without any sign of tiring. In an astonishingly short amount of time, she had laid low every one of the mindless beings, and had not even broken a sweat.
Then the aura faded, and she fell to her knees, gasping for breath. Her gaze was directed towards Hotaru. “My Liege…you are unharmed?”
The younger girl, unused to the degree of reverence being shown to her, mutely nodded.
Capricorn grinned. “Then I have done well.”
Uranus interrupted the moment. “How come she doesn’t have one of these ridiculous skirts?”
“Because I would not back down,” answered the skirtless one, “unlike certain princesses who surrendered the second their favorite cruiser was threatened.”
A vague memory tickled the back of Haruka’s mind. “Boreas?”
There came a reptilian cough. “As much as I hate to disrupt this lovely air of nostalgia,” called Dominus, “you aren’t done.” Indeed, the bodies that Capricorn knocked down were getting up again. “You ain’t never gonna keep ‘em down,” Dominus taunted Chumbawumbically.
“Now what?” asked Uranus testily. “We can’t kill them, we can’t knock them out, and we can’t dezombify them.”
Pluto, who had always been good at parallel processing, brightened up. “That’s it!”
“We aren’t doomed?” asked the blonde.
“Anything but. I have a plan.”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Animethropologist
(Posted Sun, 06 Apr 2008 00:32)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.