Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Dark Successor ❯ The Attack of an Oni ( Chapter 6 )

Chapter 6: The Attack of an Oni

 

"Supreme Thunder!" called out Sailor Jupiter from out of nowhere. A jolt of electricity knocked the black lighting away from Mars before it could hit her.

 

"Shabon Spray Freezing!" Sailor Mercury called out, crossing her arms and creating an attack of bubbles which she fired at Arro. They hit, and it began to be coated by ice.

 

"Your attacks are worthless!!" taunted Arro, shattering the ice by charging its electric powers, creating a dark aura of static.

 

"Moon Tiara Action!" announced Sailor Moon, heaving her frisbee at the beast. It aimed its lightning at the attack, but the projectile suddenly swerved out of the way, bounced off a wall and launched straight into the Oni, launching it backwards and injuring it notably.

 

"Wow, Sailor Moon!" Venus commented. "I didn't know you could do that."

 

"I've been practicing," Moon said humbly.

 

The Oni stood to its feet. "Who do you think you are?!" it hissed.

 

"I know exactly who I am, thank you!" she said, posing. "I am Sailor Moon! Defender of Justice! In the name of the moon, I'll punish monsters who disrupt the, er, importance of classroom studies! *cough* So consider yourself punished!"

 

The Oni's eye twitched. "You describe yourself so wonderfully, like you're something special. That's nothing but a silly act. I've got real power, and real title! I am Arro, the new lord of this miserable world!"

 

"Get real," said Venus dryly. "You really think we'll let you take over anything?"

 

"You too?" Arro asked. "You're all full of yourselves, which means you're full of nothing! This talk is worthless, I'll show you what real force is!!"

 

The Sailor Senshi braced defensively as the Oni's rant finished. It threw its arms up into the air and slammed them into the ground, emitting a shockwave of black lightning. "Real Force Blaster!!" it declared authoritatively.

 

"I think he made that name up for the circumstance..." Artemis noted. Luna ignored him and watched.

 

The electric surge broke into five streams. It shot in their general directions along the floor, then launched up towards them, wrapping around each like a ring. None of them could move their arms above the elbows. The lassos of energy then began to weaken them, sending the girls one by one to their knees.

 

"Ngh... What to do now?" groaned Sailor Jupiter. Mercury's visor activated, and she started scanning the attack. "I'm not sure how we should get out of this, but I'll continue examining..." she said in a tone struggling to hold optimism.

 

"Now I'll blow you all away!" growled the Oni, its lips not hiding its glee. It outstretched its arm and began welling up massive energy...

 

Just then, a rose flew in from nowhere, striking the Oni in the wrist, sticking into its skin. Its hand shook and the attack dissipated.

 

"Tuxedo Kamen-sama!" Sailor Moon cried out.

 

Reclining in a windowsill sat Tuxedo Kamen, another rose balanced between his fingers. "Destruction will never bring power, only make enemies of the world around you," he said thoughtfully. "I'll be your enemy if you make it so."

 

"Who do you think you are?" the Oni snapped, jumping at the window aggressively. Kamen hopped out of the way, leaving only the rose to be sliced in two by the beast's nails.

 

Kamen, somehow inside again and behind the Oni, made himself known. "I am Tuxedo Kamen, and I will always aid the Sailor Senshi as they protect a world of peace and decency!"

 

Arro neglected to add to the banter, instead turning and immediately clutching Kamen's body with its long arms. "The Senshi will have a bloody heap of skin for a friend!" it amusedly declared. Kamen winced as the creature began constricting its grip, crushing the masked hero.

 

"I've got it!!" Sailor Mercury shouted. "Everyone jump!"

 

"Jump?!" Moon wondered. By the time she had asked this, Mars and Mercury had already hopped upwards, and the ring of lightning vanished. The other three followed, and now they were all free.

 

"Tuxedo Kamen-sama!!" Moon screamed, this time horrified at the danger he was in.

 

His teeth gritted, sweat running down his head, Kamen pulled back from the Oni as much as he could. His top hat tumbled off his head and drifted downwards. Managing to pull his arm from the beast's terrible grip, he swiftly struck the side of its head with his cane. Arro's jarred skull jerked forcefully to one side, and its grip loosened. Tuxedo Kamen dived away and insisted, "Now! Take care of him!"

 

"Venus Love Me Chain!" called out Venus, as she directed her golden chain towards the Oni without having to touch it. It lashed across the beast's body fiercely, leaving a red line.

 

"Burning Mandala!" called Mars, spreading her arms and creating a series of symbol-shaped flame rings. They hurtled forward and dashed into Arro one after another, searing its body.

 

Arro let out a scream of agony as the attacks struck him. Sailor Moon readied her scepter. She waved it through the air as the called out, "Moon... Princess... Halation!!"

 

In a radiant display of cosmic energy, the Oni was reduced to nothing, except a small, round stone resembling a marble. It hit the ground and rolled around aimlessly.

 

Everyone caught their breath and looked to each other.

 

"What was that?" Venus asked.

 

"It was... Hitomi-sempai?" offered Jupiter.

 

"It was not him, for sure," Mercury insisted. "Mars, what happened?"

 

"An oni," Sailor Mars said a bit distantly. "That was an oni."

 

"Aren't oni the kind of thing you're trained to seal away?" Moon asked of Mars.

 

"Yes, but that one was nothing like oni of lore," replied Mars in dismay.

 

"So what happened?" asked Jupiter, attempting to get Mars back on track.

 

"There's someone here," Mars explained. "Called himself Mazarin. He went to this Toji guy and told the Oni he was releasing it. The thing came out of Toji and Mazarin told it to do what it pleased. That's what happened."

 

"Reminds me of what we've seen in the past," Luna noted, "but I'm afraid I don't know anything about it."

 

"This is really weird..." Moon sighed. "I thought this kind of thing was over."

 

In walked Mazarin, making no grand entrance. The Senshi quickly noticed him.

 

"Is that the guy?" Venus asked Mars, who nodded.

 

"I saw that guy earlier in the halls!" Jupiter recalled.

 

"Did you?" Mazarin replied. "The tall girl?"

 

"I... uh..." Jupiter stammered. "Great."

 

"Doesn't matter to me who any of you are..." he said, though his eyes shifted a little. He made his way over to where the blue stone had landed.

 

"Wait! What did you do here?" demanded Sailor Moon.

 

"Just what it seems that I did, I did." He looked at her with his eyes that glowed faintly. She looked back, keeping her cool with all her will, but the strange sensation his gaze gave her made her want to shiver.

 

"Just who are you?!" Jupiter yelled.

 

Mazarin did not answer. He stooped down and snatched the ball.

 

"What is that?" Mercury asked, not as harshly as her comrades.

 

"You're all so full of questions," he commented. His voice kept coming out with a bland, nearly emotionless tone, unwavering from situation to situation, as if he were voicing someone else's opinion, not his own. "I don't feel like talking to people I don't know," he told them.

 

Mazarin walked towards a closed window. Mars ran after him.

 

"I won't let you get away!" she warned, readying an ofuda. She jumped before him and placed the small piece of paper on his head, declaring "Aku ryo taisan!!"

 

Mazarin was still, and Mars started to let out a sigh of relief. Before she could finish, he reached up and removed the paper, pitching it over his shoulder as he walked towards the window and suddenly faded from sight. It only made about a foot of distance in its flight before it had fluttered its way to the ground. Mars looked down at it disappointedly, only to see it catch fire and dissolve to nothing in the next few seconds.

 

"I still don't get who that was, or what happened, or why we had to jump..." Sailor Moon admitted, looking to the others for explanations.

 

"The lightning he was using was ordinary electricity," Mercury stated, "however it was bound by magical energy, forced to betray its natural course of action, which is 'find a path to the ground'. The magic fooled the lightning into thinking it was going to reach the ground, when it was really in an endless loop, but when we jumped, we lost our link to the ground and the lightning stopped trying. Does that make sense?"

 

"Well... I wish I hadn't asked," Moon sighed.

 

"I'll tell you this much," Artemis said as he hopped onto a desktop. "This guy Mazarin's an enemy, and he has power over creatures called Oni... and Toji was his first victim."

 

"But definitely not the last..." Tuxedo Kamen predicted.

 

Sailor Moon looked to her masked hero, asking, "Are you alright?"

 

He nodded, putting his hat back on. "I'm quite fine, but I'm going to have to go now. You girls have a mess here to clean up after, and I have things to do myself."

 

"We're cleaning this?!" yelled Jupiter as Kamen climbed out the window.

 

"I think he meant in a more figurative sense..." Mercury explained. "We'll need to change back and come up with alibis, and make sure everything's okay."

 

"And I need to get back to school, fast!!" Mars realized. She closed her eyes, and in a brief swirl of colors, she was Rei again. The other girls followed her lead, and everyone went their own way, Rei running off to get back, Usagi looking for Naru, Ami and Minako slowly walking and talking as they tried to figure out where to go, the cats hopping out the window before they were noticed... but Makoto lingered a little, looking back at Toji. He lay there unconscious, his glasses off his face, the remnants of a shinai a few feet from him.

 

"Hitomi-sempai..." she said softly. Kneeling down, she carefully put his glasses back on his face.

 

"Hitomi-sempai, you alright?" she asked, budging his shoulder with her hand. "He's not... dead, is he?!"

 

"Uhhh..." moaned Toji, his shut eyes trembling.

 

"Hey!"

 

"What..." He opened his eyes to see Makoto beside him. "It's you... that girl, um... Mako..."

 

"Makoto, yeah, that's me... what?! Is that all the better you know my name?" she barked, sounding offended.

 

"Sorry... my brain's not working right." He sat up as his body regained some strength. "Kino Makoto. Yes, I know you. You come watch me at kendo meets sometimes. We talk now and then..."

 

"Hitomi-sempai... don't you even remember what you're doing here?"

 

"Well, I feel awful... I don't know how I got here, no."

 

Mako felt a strange feeling, like anger and relief at the same time. "So I guess it wasn't you who did all that... but..." Her gaze narrowed into an angered scowl as she knocked Toji in the head.

 

"You're too full of yourself!" she said fearlessly. "You always have been. Today you went too far."

 

Toji's eyes were wide and his mouth hung slightly open, unable to make the words he wanted it to.

 

"That's why... you have to change! Picking on new students and kids in lower grades... You're a cool guy, Toji, you don't need to force people to like you, cause they'll... they'll just like you if you just get to know them." Her speech started to waver and trail a bit here and there, but she delivered it solidly enough.

 

"Did you just call me Toji?" he asked.

 

"Um!" She looked away. "Yeah, I guess I did, sorry. I know you don't like that."

 

"No... that's the first time you've ever called me that... but I like it... I've been Hitomi-sempai for too long. From now on, I'll just be Toji-kun."

 

Mako laughed. "Toji-kun... it's like your age went back two or three years today."

 

"Naw... I think I just grew up a little."

 

"Hmm... yeah."