“I was revived,” explained Pluto, “by my future self and Sailor Pisces. They combined powers to access my mind while it was in a comatose state.”
“While I like the idea of waking up Neptune,” Uranus commented, “we haven’t found Pisces yet.”
“Pisces isn’t the key here. What is is that Planetary and Zodiac Senshi can unite powers for synergistic effects.” Pluto turned to the newest member of the team. “Capricorn, do you remember how to unite your powers with those of your mistress?”
Saturn squirmed. “I’m still uncomfortable with this whole ‘mistress’ thing…”
The swordswoman blanched. “I was trained in the technique but…I was told that to unleash such power would be to invite disaster. It was to be used only as an absolute last resort, in a state of complete emergency!”
Uranus raised an eyebrow and, with a sweeping gesture, indicated the nigh-unstoppable zombie horde that surrounded the heroines. “And what,” she asked, “do you call this?”
Capricorn sighed. “Very well. May the gods forgive this folly.” This said, she stood behind Sailor Saturn, placing her hands on the shorter Senshi’s shoulders, and intoned “Conjunction.”
Both tiaras glowed. The Senshi of Destruction gasped as the stone on her headgear darkened to a smooth, flawless onyx. Power coursed through her veins. It felt like Mistress 9 all over again, only all at her command. She raised the Silence Glaive, which left a glowing trail as it sliced the very molecules in its path. The energies within her made her fuku flutter in the resultant air currents. As she brought her glaive down, the strongest weapon in the Solar System said only two words: “THE INEVITABLE.”
Darkness surged forth from her form. The black dome expanded, enveloping every shambling minion, and continued. It broke the hemispherical shape and swept through the building like dilute tar, washing through corridors, lapping against stairs, filling every crevice.
Dominus’s hiding place, the security room, was no safer than anywhere else. It did, however, offer him the chance to track the fluid magic as it wound its way towards him. He smiled. “It flows like water,” he murmured. “Surely it is that which flows in the banks of Styx.” He opened the door to the security office and stood, arms outstretched. “Come to me, mightiest water in all the universe! Let me feed on your power!”
His wish was granted soon enough. A torrent of the stuff knocked him off his feet. Then, he discovered he had made an unfortunate assumption, and learned an important lesson: Just because it moves like water doesn’t mean that it is water. No, this was the power of death, the inevitable force that awaited every living being, made material. It was not some potent poison, the touching of which would instantly kill a man. No, this was slow and insidious, the gradual withering of old age, basic biological entropy. That, however, made it no less effective.
Soon enough, Dominus found his form regressing to the hunk of dried meat he had first possessed. Desperately, he escaped from the cracking mouth, even as he felt the grains of himself planted in his legions surrender their final ember of vitality. His own nebulous form on the verge of collapse, he ran to his subdimension.
About half a second later, the torrent of liquid death subsided and vanished. Sailor Saturn kneeled, catching her breath. She too had felt the particles of darkness crumble, and had cut off the flow of her power then and there. It had taken a moment for that to register with the spell, but once it had, it was done.
The other Senshi stood agog. They had been protected by a small dome that had, for most of the attack, appeared to be submerged in ink.
Uranus broke the silence. “Me next!”
Elsewhere, Osaka slept.
That is to say, the girl known as Osaka, also known as Ayumu Kasuga, slept. The city of Osaka also slept, but it had slept for centuries and had no intention of waking up any time soon. To be fair, neither did the girl, but she would be awakened nonetheless come the next morning.
In any case, Osaka slept. As was her wont, she dreamt.
It was a familiar dream, with Osaka watching as Chiyo-chan happily flew above her, kept aloft only by the flapping of her pigtails.
Osaka, well enough versed in aerodynamics to know that this shouldn’t be, called to the younger girl. “Chiyo-chan, how can you fly?”
“I’m only eleven years old!” came the reply.
Ah. The answer was clear. Only an eleven year-old could possess the cunning needed to get airborne by pigtail power alone.
“Excuse me, Kasuga-san.” Osaka turned to behold a vaguely feline entity. It raised one of its noodly forelimbs. “Yo.”
Something about this fellow stood out in the girl’s mind. “You didn’t call me Osaka,” she said in wonder.
“I am a cat,” the being explained. “I call people by their proper names.” Osaka accepted this. She had never heard a cat say anything before. Who was to say what speaking conventions they possessed?
He continued. “Because you are a friend of my daughter, I will take you to someone special.”
Osaka paused. She didn’t remember anyone who looked like this apparently-a-cat. Well, not except the stuffed animal Sakaki got Chiyo-chan for her birthday. “Your daughter?” The cat only pointed. Osaka turned and beheld Chiyo-chan, in the midst of performing loop-the-loops. “Oh, you’re Chiyo-chan’s father.”
“Yes. Please, come with me.” The cat started on his way, hovering a foot or so above the ground. Osaka followed, waving goodbye to Chiyo-chan as she left.
Osaka and Chiyo-dad traveled across many strange places and met many strange people. They passed a pumpkin-headed scarecrow who placed tiny mountains on the horizon and felt the tremors of the earth as the peaks settled in miles away. They went by two houses, one wide and squat, the other tall and narrow. Outside the houses were two men who reminded Osaka of Tomo and Yomi. The girl and cat went by an impressive mountain where, unnoticed by either, a woman who was neither young nor old watched them pass.
Finally, they came to a gigantic house. To Osaka’s eyes, it was like some sort of giant version of Chiyo-chan’s estate. Hmm… “Do you live here, Sir?”
The cat may have been surprised. His expression didn’t change, but his body started changing colors in a psychedelic fashion. “Why do you ask?”
“Well,” reasoned Osaka, “if Chiyo-chan lives in Chiyo-chan’s house, then maybe Chiyo-chan’s father lives in Chiyo-chan’s house’s father.”
The cat ceased to fluoresce, returning to his original yellow. “Ah, very clever. However, it is sadly not the case. Still, we shall meet the man who does live here.”
Osaka simply nodded at this, and the two came to the front gate of the massive house. To the girl’s astonishment, there were three giant doorbell/intercoms surrounding the gate. Each had a fearsome-looking beast engraved on it above the speaker.
“Who is it?” This came from the intercom above the gate displaying a draconic creature.
Before either traveler could respond, the winged horse intercom answered the question. “It is one of the Watchers who are sent to observe those who interest our Lord.”
“And the dreamer?” inquired the speaker below the avian bas-relief.
“One of my charges,” replied Chiyo-chan’s father.
The guardian intercoms seemed to accept this. The door opened. “You may enter,” proclaimed the horse. They did so.
Once inside the grand dwelling, Osaka encountered a floor plan that seemed to be the end result of a drunken evening spent brainstorming between Frank Lloyd Wright, M. C. Escher, and Rube Goldberg. Chiyo-chan’s father had no difficulty navigating the perplexing layout, and Osaka made certain to stay close to him.
After traveling through a number of strange passages, the two came to a grand room. Its dimensions seemed larger than the building, even its grandiosity, could have allowed. Unseen things skittered in the dark shadows of the distant corners. In the center of the room were a desk and a chair. Osaka recognized both on sight.
“When did Yukari-sensei move her desk here?” she asked bemusedly. “What happened to the classroom?”
“The shape of my throne is determined by the one who sees it.” A thin man walked into visibility from the far reaches of the room. “To you, Kasuga Ayumu, this is the seat of ultimate authority.”
Osaka nodded. It made perfect sense, after all. What seat could possibly hold greater importance than that of Yukari-sensei? The very concept seemed unpleasantly bizarre. She noted something odd. “You didn’t call me Osaka either.” She pondered this. “Are you also a cat?”
The thin man smiled. “Sometimes.” He sat. “I have an important mission for you, Kasuga-san.”
“Oh?” An important mission! Perhaps she would break Chiyo-chan out of the sinister grip of her pigtails!
“Very soon, you will be fighting in the waking world as my champion,” elaborated the thin man. “Some of your friends will be fighting alongside you. I task you with this: Alert your friends to their fate in their dreams, so that they do not encounter their destiny unaware.”
Osaka slowly nodded. She wasn’t very confident about her own combat prowess, but she knew from experience the strength of her friends. Her solar plexus was still sore. As she began to wonder if there was a lunar plexus, a nasty realization reared its head. “How do I do that?”
Dream smiled. “Come with me.”
Read the comments on this episode
See other episodes by Animethropologist
(Posted Mon, 07 Apr 2008 02:51)
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.