InuYasha Fan Fiction / Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ Prismatic ❯ Convergence ( Chapter 2 )

It had been less than a day, but humans were so predictable. They were simple, greedy creatures now, just as they had been back then. Even as their fellows began to drop around them, drained by the baubles they'd flocked to and fought over, they continued to scrape for more. Human nature, so fraught with greed and self-interest, made it all the more simplistic of a task to lure them in.

They so eagerly succumbed to a mere glimpse of materialism, pushing one another aside in their frenzy to claim the chance for such wealth and a symbol of status for themselves. They were little more than feral beasts.

Queen Beryl would be pleased. The energy gathered before him would be a feast for the Great Ruler.

Suddenly, the flow of energy slowed, and Jadeite turned to the orb, eyes narrowed. For a moment, he wondered if it were simply the late hour of the human city, but a glance at the time made him frown. It was evening, but the hour was only just nearing the time most human shops would begin to close for the night. Morga wouldn't have shut down operations so soon, even to keep their cover intact.

Not that there was anything they needed to maintain such a flawless cover for. Human authorities were no threat to them, even if they ever were to stumble upon the sense to discover their true nature. The fools wouldn't even know what it was they had found.

Still, Jadeite could not shake the sense that something was wrong. While it was surely nothing, the general was struck with the need to reassure himself and reached out to the growing mass of energy, letting it rest in his palm. The warmth of the humans' energy filled him as he wove his own through the mass to make the connection.

"Morga…" The order to report died on his lips when the power in his hands suddenly brightened and expanded. His eyes widened at the sudden heat of it and his skin tingled as he rapidly cut the connection. The force of it knocked him back, and he could only watch as the mass of energy that they'd gathered vanished in a burst of light. Clutching his hand, Jadeite grit his jaw at the lingering tingle of energy that crawled over his skin. He didn't fully notice the trembling of his hands as he narrowed his eyes, knowing his servant must have been slain for the link to break so violently. "You screwed up…you idiot."

Pressing a hand to his head to steady himself, the general closed his eyes and took a breath. It seemed they had something to maintain a cover for after all.

---

"A-ah, who? Y-you must have me mistaken for…for someone else!"

'Yep. That's Usagi-chan, alright.' She'd already been pretty sure, but the nervous attempt at deflection had Kagome certain. It seemed Usagi realized that she hadn't bought the excuse, because she looked down at the cat crouched by her feet and whispered, pointlessly given her volume, frantic.

"Luna! You said nobody would be able to tell!"

If the night had not already been so strange, Kagome might have been surprised when the feline calmly spoke back.

"They shouldn't be able to…quick, Sailor Moon-"

"Wait!" Realizing where this was going, Kagome held out her hand peaceably. Strapping her bow back in place for good measure, she held out her palms one more time before slowly lifting one upwards. She hooked a finger over the fabric of her scarf and, inwardly thankful that the power in the shop seemed to have blown out after the fight inside, tugged it down so the other girl could see her face. "Usagi-chan, it's me."

The blonde's eyes widened, and Kagome wasn't sure if this had been a good or a bad idea when the other girl suddenly leapt backwards, more panicked than she had been before. The girl landed atop a display case, pointing dramatically at her and only further confirming her identity.

"Uwaah! Kagome-chan?!"

"Yeah." Smiling a little to reassure her, Kagome straightened, relaxing her posture when she realized the other girl was no longer about to bolt. "I'm not sure what exactly-"

"Waah! Luna, you promised!" Usagi's sudden wail cut her off, and Kagome blinked at the dramatics. "Now Kagome-chan will think I'm… weird!"

"S-Sailor Moon, please!"

'Oh…so that's what she's afraid of.' Softening, Kagome ignored the cat's glare as she approached the pair. Usagi didn't notice her through her panicked sobs but halted her dramatics to look at her with a blink when Kagome caught her gloved hand between her own.

"You're not weird, Usagi-chan. It's okay." Usagi looked ready to either protest or burst into tears again, possibly both, and Kagome quickly shook her head. "It's okay. It means we're the same."

If nothing else, it seemed to confuse Usagi enough to distract her from being upset but the cat -Luna- wasn't so easily diverted. Glancing around to be sure none of the creature's victims had woken up, Kagome met Usagi's gaze meaningfully, and the other girl stood at attention at the serious look on her face as she lifted a finger to her lips for quiet.

The creature was defeated but the cursed jewels it had used to feed on the crowd still remained to be dealt with.

Turning her back to the two, Kagome inwardly thanked her grandfather for his foresight as she fished an ofuda from her pocket. It wasn't quite as easy to channel her energy into the paper as it was with her bow and arrows, but she'd gotten better in controlling it using other sources throughout their travels, if only out of a few moments of desperation. The paper charm in her hand glowed softly at first and Usagi's quiet gasp of surprise almost broke her concentration, but it held. She let it build, brighter and brighter still until the warmth of her purification was a tingling sensation at her fingertips and she let it go with a breath as it washed over them.

The freshly spent token crumpled in her hand, floating away on the air in a glittering burst of purity as she purified the shop. She barely caught herself on a display case as her balance wavered, but Usagi was thankfully on point. Kagome's lips quirked upwards as she looked at her friend, the other girl still frazzled and staring at her wide-eyed even as she held her up with a supporting grip of her shoulders.

"Thanks, Usagi-chan…" Righting herself with a wince, Kagome took out another ofuda. Thankfully, this one didn't have such a draining purpose. Usagi hovered behind her closely, looking torn between curiosity and fear that she would have to catch her again and Kagome giggled. "Don't worry…this one isn't so dramatic. I need the practice with these anyway."

Pressing the fresh paper charm into the wall, it gave a little hum of energy before going quiet. At least the creatures shouldn't be able to return.

"Enough! What are you? Even the other sailor soldiers can't see through the glamour!"

Looking down at the feline with a sigh, Kagome peered back up at her friend and smiled tiredly. "Can we go talk somewhere else?"

---

Once Usagi had calmed enough to transform back, despite Luna's hesitancy, they wandered back to the park that they'd chatted in only a few hours earlier. It was empty for the most part, with only a few people milling about in the distance paying no mind to a couple of middle school girls in the picnic area.

There was an awkward silence for a moment as they both stared at each other, uncertain what to say before Kagome broke the quiet. "So, um…Usagi-chan, what exactly were you-"

"I believe you were going to offer an explanation, not Usagi."

Well, the cat stayed on topic at least, Kagome thought with a huff. Then, she sighed and shook her head, her ire fading as quickly as it had risen. "You're right, sorry."

Usagi scowled at Luna but didn't say anything, instead opting to turn to watch her when Kagome sighed again.

"Where to start…well, I guess I should tell you about the Shikon first." Thankfully, the cat did not interrupt her again once Kagome launched into the story of the jewel's origins. Even before her trip through the well she'd have been able to recite this particular tale. Her grandfather had always adored the story that their shrine had been built upon and in that moment, as she found herself reciting it just as he had, she wondered if he had always known.

"I…don't understand, Kagome-chan. What does this have to do with…whatever it was you did back there?"

Realizing she had trailed off once she'd gotten to the tragic end of what had been between Inuyasha and Kikyo, Kagome drew herself back to the present and shook her head with a weary smile. "Ah, that's just the story of the jewel…or its origins anyway. You see, I…on my fifteenth birthday, a demon appeared in our well house."

Usagi's eyes widened, and she sat up straight. "A-a demon? Like…that thing back there?"

"Well, I'm not sure, actually." Kagome furrowed her brow at the admission, setting her chin in her palm thoughtfully. "It felt like one but…also kind of different to the ones I've seen before."

Kagome was not surprised when the ever-astute Luna narrowed her eyes at that. Rolling her own, she sat upright to continue. "Anyway, this demon leaped out of the well and pulled me down demanding the jewel, and…well, I kind of panicked."

The story that followed only seemed to beget more questions than it served to answer as well as the occasional look of surprise or fright from Usagi when she described certain events. Luna at least, to her credit, remained calm and attentive through the tale, even though her composure seemed to waver briefly at the revelation of Kagome's role in the matter and the long-awaited answer of exactly what she was. Usagi on the other hand leaned forward, not so restrained in showing just how enraptured she was by the story.

"So, you're a priestess? Is that why you could see who I was?"

"I think so. It's only been a little while, so I'm still pretty new to this stuff myself, but I think it's something to do with my reiki as a priestess like…the way I could see the spiritual energy from the Goshinboku at the village or the way I can see the shards."

"Shards?"

Grimacing, Kagome recounted the action that was surely her greatest folly. So many lives had been ruined, lost, because of her impulsive decision. She had saved one child and stopped one demon from absconding with the jewel at the cost of dooming so many others. She wasn't sure how any of her friends in the feudal era had ever forgiven her, but she still brightened as she described each meeting to Usagi.

"Things were going pretty well for a while. We were finding shards pretty quickly but… we weren't the only ones looking for them and…people started figuring out that I could sense them." There was a sudden lump in her throat and Kagome shifted uncomfortably. She still had the occasional nightmare about what had unfolded with the sorceress. "Urasue didn't know about me at first. She thought she could revive Kikyo to force her to locate the shards of the jewel for her."

"But…how could she revive Kikyo if you were supposed to be…"

Usagi trailed off without even finishing the question, the slow widening of her eyes telling Kagome that she had figured it out. Nodding her confirmation, she clenched her fingers around her skirt beneath the table where Usagi wouldn't see. "That's right…when she couldn't reanimate Kikyo the first time, she kidnapped me and used some ritual to…pull the soul from my body and put it into the one she had created for Kikyo. I…got most of it back but, Kikyo purified Urasue and escaped when the others got there to save me."

"But if you pulled your soul back, how could she…"

"I didn't get all of it back." Usagi and Luna both looked startled at the admission, though Usagi was a bit more alarmed despite Kagome's attempt to smile reassuringly. "But let me tell you the rest…you'll like Sango-chan."

Diving headfirst into the remainder of the story, Kagome recounted the meeting with Sango fondly, animatedly describing the slayer's interactions with the monk and his lecherous habit. She shared a girlish giggle with Usagi when she described the way Kouga had so dramatically declared his intent to pursue her, as well as Inuyasha's resulting irritation, and sobered a little when she finally reached the more recent events regarding the brief heated battle with Naraku's newest incarnations, Juromaru and Kageromaru.

For Usagi's sake, she moved on from that quickly, distracting the other girl with a dramatic display of her own annoyance as she recounted the resulting argument she'd had with the half-demon over his carelessness for Kouga's life in the fight before she'd stormed home. "And, well…here we are now, I guess."

Usagi was still gaping at her with thinly veiled awe when Luna finally sighed. "That is…quite a story you've told us, Kagome-chan."

"Yeah…I still don't believe it myself sometimes." Deflating a little, Kagome sighed and didn't see the softer expression that the feline watched her with before she perked back up with a renewed smile. "But, hey, it looks like it's at least meant I've learned a few useful things."

Calling up her energy to her fingertips, Kagome turned to the two with a grin as the tiny wisps of power coated her hand. When Usagi leaned forward to get a better look, as Kagome had suspected she would, the priestess brushed a finger over her cheek.

Despite her former composure, Luna could not help the look of awe that widened her eyes as the tiny scrape the girl had earned in the previous fight slowly faded. Usagi was even more thrown, her hand darting up to her cheek to feel for the little wound that she had forgotten about. Then, reminded of the injury and how she had gotten it, she dimmed a little and looked at Kagome through her bangs.

"You're…amazing, Kagome-chan." Kagome flushed rapidly at the praise and opened her mouth to rebuff the comment when Usagi sniffled. "I don't want to fight…I'm scared…"

Protest dying on her lips, Kagome softened and looked down at the girl, hunched over in a dejected heap of blonde pigtails and quiet sniffles. While she hadn't fallen to pieces quite so easily, Kagome knew the sentiment very well. If not for her family's support here on this side of the well, she probably would have crumbled a long time ago. Frowning, she pursed her lips and looked Usagi over thoughtfully, suddenly struck by the realization of exactly what the other girl's newly acquired responsibilities on top of the pressure and judgment she already faced would mean for her.

Making her decision at that moment just as hastily as she had made it that afternoon, Kagome stood suddenly, the abrupt movement making Usagi jump and look up at her in surprise. "Well, I don't know what this sailor soldier stuff is about but…you're not alone, Usagi-chan."

Usagi blinked, the tears rimming her eyes forgotten as she gaped up at the priestess. "What do you mean?"

"I won't let you fight by yourself, Usagi-chan. Mama and the rest of the family, Souta and Jii-chan, all know already, so you wouldn't have to hide and, well…I might not be a master or anything, but I can teach you what I've learned." Grinning, Kagome felt a little sense of déjà vu when Usagi only gaped at her in surprise and winked for the girl's benefit. "I'm already helping you study, aren't I? What's one more subject?"

Usagi stood, tears budding in the corners of her eyes anew before she launched herself at the priestess. "Waaah, Kagome-chan!"

Kagome barely managed to keep them upright at the impact, but only giggled and patted the top of the girl's head as she cried into her chest. "Let's go home, Usagi-chan."

---

Still awake hours later, Luna watched her sleeping charge as she attempted to wrap her head around the events of the evening. Awakening Sailor Moon had not gone quite as expected, even after anticipating a rough initial fight. Although looking down at the little blonde as she snored quietly, she supposed that Tsukino Usagi had not been quite what she had expected either.

That was to say nothing about Higurashi Kagome.

'A true priestess of all things…even Mars never really was…' Luna winced, her head aching as she thought on it all. It was much more than she had intended to find that day. That girl, the priestess, did seem to have a decent head on her shoulders though, and Usagi was receptive to her. If her stories were true, and she could not help the instinct that insisted they were, she had been through a great many things for a girl her age and in such a short amount of time.

She wasn't entirely sure what might have become of Usagi without the interference in that fight.

A pang of guilt gnawed at her as she looked down at Usagi once more, now thinking of what she had drawn the girl into, of the fate she had forced upon her. She had no choice, she tried to reassure herself. Their mission was to defeat the Dark Kingdom at any cost. Queen Serenity would not risk the lives of innocent girls without good reason, even if they had been reborn from the sailor soldiers of the Silver Millennium. Her queen wasn't so cruel. Another twinge of pain made her close her eyes with a sigh and Luna supposed she ought to at least try and sleep.

Dwelling on what had already been set in motion would do no good. Now, she could only hope to prepare them.