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Dr. Tomoe was still busy at work when Hotaru left for school.
She was a new student to Crossroads Junior High. She hated being a new
kid. It always made her uncomfortable to be around people she didn’t know.
And her strange ‘talents’ often made people shun her.
Hotaru grabbed her bookbag, shook her head to loosen her jet-black
hair, and started walking down to the school.
“Serena, detention,” Miss Haruna said simply when Serena arrived
at the school ten minutes late. Serena’s shoulders sagged, and she hobbled
to her seat. That’s when she noticed that short, skinny, pale faced girl.
“Hi!” Serena said to the girl cheerfully, “You new around here?”
“Yes,” the girl said quietly.
“I’m Serena,” Serena stuck out her hand in greeting.
“I’m Hotaru,” the pale girl returned shaking Serena’s offered
hand.
“Pleased to meet you Hotraru!” Serena chirped.
The last bell rang. The students exited the school in the traditional
fashion: a chaotic mob.
Serena was running as fast as she can, wanting to get home in
time to watch a new Sailor V episode. She tripped over her own feet and
stumbled head over heels and crashed onto the pavement.
“WAAAA!!!!” came the predicted response.
“Serena, you’re hurt,” Hotaru said, crouching beside the wailing
Serena. Hotaru closed her eyes, gently placed her hands over Serena’s leg
where it the skin had been peeled off when she hit the ground. The wound
was bleeding slightly, but Hotaru’s hands started to glow and so did the
wound. In a matter of seconds, the torn skin had sealed up, and when Serena,
who had stopped crying when Hotaru’s hands started glowing, wiped the blood
away, she gasped.
With the exception of the smeared blood, there was absolutely
no trace that Serena had ever been injured.
“Whoa, cool trick!” Serena said, wide-eyed.
Hotaru sat down beside Serena, gasping for breath. The healing
technique had taken its toll on the frail Hotaru. “That ‘trick’ often makes
others scared of me.” Hotaru whispered.
“Why should anyone be scared of that?” Serena couldn’t help but
ask. “You can heal people. That’s an awesome trick!”
Hotaru looked up into Serena’s big blue eyes and smiled. No one
had ever said anything that nice to her in her life.
Dr. Tomoe worked quickly. He didn’t have much time. His deadline
was coming. The company that had invested in his experiments demanded that
the fusion generator be completed by the end of the week. Already Tomoe
had a working prototype. But this one had one flaw. It couldn’t run for
any length of time. He tried and tried, but couldn’t get the generator
to stay active for more than thirty seconds. That just wasn’t good enough.
And he was running out of time.
The Guardian had spent the day sitting patiently within the boughs
of the tree in front of Raye’s temple. A Scout meeting had been set right
after school. Raye, Mina, Rini, Artemis, and Luna were already here. He
didn’t make his presence known. He figured that he had best wait for the
rest of the Scouts to get here before making a move. He continued to sit
quietly.
Serena, Amy, and Lita all arrived at the same time; Darien came
by a few minutes later.
I guess I better get moving, Guardian thought. He slipped out
of the tree, landing on the cobbled path without a sound. He fell in step
with Darien, remaining a few feet behind him. Even though it was broad
daylight, no one could see him as he slipped into the shadows.
Finally the Guardian stepped out into the light.
The first time he made his presence known was when he attacked
Serena. But it was too dark for humans to see his striking features. Luna
was able to see recognize him because cat eyes are more adaptable to darkness
than human eyes. And when he met the other Scouts that same night at the
temple, they couldn’t see his features either since it was dark as well.
He barely reached five feet, had a wild mane of jet-black hair,
a cleft chin, and a slender, tight-muscled body. His most striking features,
however, were his eyes. His right eye was a shining, bright gold. His left
eye was shimmering, luminescent silver.
Mina and Lita both caught their breath.
He’s cute, they both thought, Those eyes…
Guardian ran a slim hand through his black hair, pushing it back.
“So, Luna, why did you call me back here? I thought I explained everything
last night,” he said gruffly.
“I want to know who your employer is,” Luna said sternly, not
appreciating his tone of voice.
“That is none of your concern,” Guardian replied, “It is the
concern of the Shadow Hunter Council,”
“Always the loyal soldier,” Artemis mumbled under his breath.
Guardian glared at the white cat. “Better a sldier than a fool,”
“Hey!” Artemis said in defense. Mina couldn’t help but snicker.
“What? You’re siding with him too?” thw white cat snapped at Mina.
“Look, just tell us who hired you…” Luna started. Guardian cut
her off with a wave of his hand.
“I am under a Blood Oath not to reveal that information,” Guardian
replied.
“What’s a Blood Oath?” Darien asked.
“A Blood Oath is an oath that a Shadow Hunter makes before the
Shadow Hunter Council that he will not, under any circumstances, reveal
who hired him or her, or who gave the location of a certain target. To
break the Blood Oath is to have the Super Elite Hunters track down and
eliminate the offending Shadow Hunter. The Super Elite is a special Shadow
Hunter task force assigned to only the most dangerous missions, as well
as the elimination of false or offending Shadow Hunters.” Guardian said,
eyeing Darien with his strange gold-and-silver eyes, daring him to ask
any more questions about the Shadow Hunters.
Guardian’s glare put Darien off balance. It had been an honest
question, but the Guardian obviously wasn’t in the mood to talk about the
Shadow Hunters.
“Besides,” Guardian continued, “I never met my employer. The
Council told me to seek out and eliminate Sailor Moon. You don’t ask questions
about your assignments in the Shadow Hunters. I accepted the assignment
and went out to do it. No questions asked.”
“Pretty strict,” Rini remarked. Guardian nodded.
“So, basically, where no where near to solving this mystery than
we were a few minutes ago,” Luna said, “And there is still the matter of
the two mysterious Sailor Scouts seen after the Wiseman’s destruction.”
“Two new Scouts?” Guardian asked, one eyebrow arched in a perplexed
expression. “The Council said something about there being Five Inner, Four
Outer…”
“Inner and Outer?” Artemis asked.
“The Outer Scouts?” Luna sounded shocked. She slapped her forehead,
as if she was berating herself. “I should have known! The Outer Scouts
are still alive! How could I have been so stupid!”
Artemis decided to make one big mistake at that particular moment.
He said, “It’s not that hard for you to be stupid,”
Luna glared at him and clawed his face, knocking him to the ground.
The others laughed at Artemis’s expense. Guardian looked on, stone-faced.
The apprentice, the ever-loyal servant, looked on into the floating
ball in front of him. He studied the image within the ball. It was the
Guardian. He wanted to find out more about this particular Shadow Hunter.
He broke the one rule that set the Hunters apart from other assassins-
he made friends with those who were not Hunters. He studied the Hunter’s
sharp, striking features. He also studied the young man’s stance- the stance
of a trained warrior. He knew that he had been alive for over one thousand
years, he had lived to see the Silver Millennium, after all, and still
possessed the appearance and vigor of a young man just entering adulthood.
“Half-god, half-hero,” the apprentice muttered. A young man who
is really one thousand years old is definitely not fully human, and an
assassin is definitely not all-hero.
“Half-god, half hero,” the apprentice said again, smiling evilly.