Sailor Moon Fan Fiction ❯ The Revolution Prophecy ❯ The First Real Fight ( Chapter 3 )

The First Real Fight

 

"Moon Crystal Power, Make-Up!", Chibi-Usa called out. As her transformation sequence began, she felt the same sadness that she did before as her mother's outfit melded to her body. There was no pose, no excitement as there once was when she was Sailor Chibi-Moon. In the last two weeks, she lost almost everything she held dear, and the weight of the mantle of Sailor Moon and the responsibility to free the people of Earth weighed heavily upon her shoulders.

"I am Sailor Moon now...", she thought to herself slowly as the transformation continued. "No... Not Sailor Moon. No one could replace Mama as Sailor Moon. I'll called myself Neo-Sailor Moon."

A brief smile turned her lips as she felt a swell of determination flood into her spirit. "Yes!", she continued to think inwardly. "I am Neo-Sailor Moon, the new champion of justice! I will fight in remembrance of Usagi, and Rei-chan, and Mako-chan, and Minako-chan, and Ami-chan!"

Her transformation sequence finished, and she almost blushed as she forgot that Hiro had been watching, for her clothing disappeared when she transformed, even as Sailor Chibi-Moon. She looked at him, and he smiled shyly. She smiled back and began talking to him.

"Well, I suppose we had better start with the training. It won't be too long before youma realize that I am back.", she said. He merely nodded in reply and walked with her back to the ruins of the Crystal Palace.

Over the last few days, Hiro had set up a training ground for her to brush up her martial arts skills and to learn how to aim her Moon Tiara Action. Nothing flashy, but a wooden figure for her to practice simple punches and kicks, and some wooden targets to aim at.

She looked at his hands, which were covered in older calluses, along with some newer bruises from his handiwork. She grabbed his hands and looked up at him, and when he realized that she was staring at his hands, he self-consciously tried to pull them away from her. She smiled in response, hugging him briefly and whispering a small thanks into his ear.

He grabbed a book from his bag and sat down against a wall, starting to leaf through the pages. She looked at him intently, standing and staring with a smile. When he noticed that she wasn't moving, he looked up slowly.

"Why aren't you practicing?", he inquired.

"Do you think I'm going to fight all by myself?", she replied.

"How am I supposed to help you?", he responded in kind. "I am not a Sailor Guardian like you nor our parents. I am barely proficient with my walking staff to protect myself, let alone fight monsters."

"Well, you better get some practice in with that staff you're not so good with!", she replied cheerily.

He looked back down to his book as he replied with, "I can't. It's back at the house. He sighed complacently as he felt that familiar stare fix onto his forehead. He couldn't help but to smile. His Serenity was the same as she always had been, only older and more beautiful now. The smile faded as he thought of all the horrors burdened upon her kingdom that she thankfully did not have to experience first-hand.

He looked up at her, ready to say something back to her in humor when he saw the look in her eyes. Her eyes that told him that she could not bear to face this alone. "Why am I so slow in assisting her in every way that I can?", he thought to himself. "I need to be here for her now. She can't do this by herself... but what can I do to help her? Her powers protect her in so many ways that I can't compare to. I have no powers..."

She interrupted his rambling thoughts with a light touch to his arm, saying, "It's okay. Just watch me aim for now, and you can show me what I'm doing wrong... okay?"

He nodded silently, standing off to the side and watching quietly as she repeatedly flung her tiara at the makeshift targets that they had put together for the day's practice session. He was openly impressed at her aim, and said so.

Pausing between throws, Chibi-Usa turned to him and smiled. "I don't know what it is... I'm not even really aiming all that much."

Hiro smiled and said, "Well, the ability to just toss it from wherever and however you want to and it flies straight to the target should help you in battle. Let's just hope you never find your hands on a crossbow."

She laughed quietly, an act of such rarity these days that Hiro's jaw fell wide open. Regaining his composure, he continued on. "You know, Serenity, I have missed you very much."

She looked at him for a moment. An air of awkwardness settled between them until Hiro cleared his throat. "Yeah... well, we should probably go back to the house and grab my would-be weapon, I suppose."

Grateful that he had disspelled the silence, she nodded quickly. Smiling, she motioned with her finger for him to turn the other way. Blushing slightly, he did so as she reverted her transformation.

They began walking back to the house together once Chibi-Usa was back in her normal clothing. Hiro could not help but to gaze at his homeland that now was beginning to see the first traces of sunset. He had not seen an actual sunset in years, and motioned to Chibi-Usa to stop.

They sat down on the ground and watched as the sun slowly began to disappear below the horizon. Other people came around, their reluctance to leave their homes slightly diminished since the prophecy that the rising sun would herald the birth of their Messiah.

Suddenly from behind them, Hiro and Chibi-Usa heard a woman scream. They leapt to their feet and whirled around, watching as a daemon snatched the woman's teenage son out of her protective grasp. The boy began to struggle and fight back, which enraged the daemon, who promptly broke the boy's back over it's knee. It tossed the boy to the side afterwards, and the boy hit the ground with a sickening thud.

Hiro could only watch helplessly as the woman raced over to her son's body, but was stopped short by the daemon, who began to steal her life energy. He did not even notice Chibi-Usa run into a small cluster of nearby trees...

Once inside the shelter and privacy of the trees, Chibi-Usa called out...

"Moon Crystal Power! Make-Up!"

... and began to transform. This time, her mind was not focused on her mother, but on the daemon terrorizing the innocent people. She was awash with rainbow-colored light, and she felt the familiar rush of power pulse through her body as her transformation took place. She held out her arms and watched as the ribbons wrapped around them, and then as they formed into her new knee-length boots. As she finished, she was shocked to notice that instead of Sailor Moon's normal colors, her outfit was splashed with muted pastel colors, including the now-pink orbs fitted to her odangos.

Hiro ran over to one of the terrified men, who was holding on to a solid wooden stick, presumably taken along to defend himself should something like this happen. Hiro grabbed the stick and faced off against the daemon, who upon seeing Hiro approach, threw the woman next to her son.

"Foolish mortal, you would fight me instead of running away? How deliciously unpredictable!", it crooned. "Maybe there are some of you around here with a backbone for me to feast upon!". The daemon pulled a fearsome broadsword from its place in the belt around the waist.

"Have at you, ignorant insect.", the daemon growled. "I'll rip you into pieces so that I may offer you to my omnipotent master for the next week."

Hiro began to run towards the daemon, holding the stick in a reckless attack position when he heard...

"Hold it right there!"

Both Hiro and the daemon forgot about each other for a moment and faced in the direction from which the voice had come from.

"How dare you attack these people enjoying the sunset! For love and justice, a pretty soldier in a sailor suit, Neo-Sailor Moon, will punish you in the name of the Moon!"

Neo-Sailor Moon jumped out of the foliage with her tiara in hand and threw it at the daemon, crying out...

"Moon Tiara Action!"

The daemon swung the broadsword at the oncoming tiara, barely missing it, but still stepping to the side in time enough to avoid the attack. Neo-Sailor Moon leaped in and attacked the daemon with as many punches and kicks as she could manage before the daemon slapped her with the back of its hand and sent her flying.

"Serenity!", Hiro screamed as he brought the thick wooden staff across the back of the daemon with a home-run swing. The daemon howled in pain and lost its firm grip on the broadsword for a moment, giving Hiro enough time to bring the staff down on the hand trying to regain its hold on the heavy weapon, knocking the sword to the ground.

The woman who watched her son broken by the daemon produced a small hunting knife from beneath her ragged skirt and lunged at the daemon, who had stopped trying to get his weapon back in favor of simply trying to kill the boy who was attacking him with the staff. She attempted to plunge the knife into the monster's side, but found the skin nearly inpenetrable. The daemon hurled its arm at her face, its fist leaving a large indentation in her head near the temple. The woman was spared the pain of her grievous injuries by shards of her shattered skull entering her brain and subsequently ending her life.

Hiro hefted the daemon's weapon in both of his hands while it was distracted by the now-dead mother and swung it in a wide arc at the monster, cutting the daemon deeply at the waist. It fell over, howling in pain. Hiro brought the massive weapon down, plunging it through the daemon's torso and pinning it to the ground. He turned to Neo-Sailor Moon, who had just gotten up, and screamed, "Now, Sailor Moon!"

Neo-Sailor Moon removed the tiara from her forehead again, taking a few seconds to charge it with some extra power before she flung it at the daemon, calling out...

"Moon Tiara Action!"

The tiara slammed into the daemon's face and the pent-up energy radiated from the headpiece, incinerating the monster instantly.

Neo-Sailor Moon walked over to the ashes and picked up her surprisingly unblemished tiara, replacing on her forehead before walking over to the now-conscious boy, who struggled to drag his paralyzed waist and legs over to his mother. She fell to her knees when she saw the look in his eyes when he saw his mother's mutilated form.

She grabbed him and wrapped her arms around him tightly, whispering, "I'm so sorry. I should have saved her... Please... I'm so sorry."

He looked at her, wiping his tears away. "Don't be sorry, Miss.", he said quietly. "She must be in heaven with Queen Serenity now. I'm only sorry I can't be there with her."

Two men came up to her and took the boy in their arms. "We owe you our lives, Neo-Sailor Moon. Thank you so much for rescuing us. You truly must be our new Messiah."

Neo-Sailor Moon couldn't say anything. She was trying as hard as she could to control her overwhelming emotions. The new Enemy was devastatingly brutal, and she had seen first-hand that this time around, they were hell-bent on inflicting death and destruction. "No quietly trying to steal energy this time...", she thought to herself. "This time, it's personal. How can I do this alone?".

She was silently grateful as Hiro walked up and placed his arm around her, leading her away... back towards the house that looked out upon the shattered remains of her former home, the Crystal Palace. Once inside, she couldn't help but to think that the ruins of the palace looked surprisingly more intact than her confidence felt.

In a dark room, a figure sat and stared at a large crystal ball that showed one of her lesser minions being impaled on his own sword and then vaporized. The shadowy figure let out a sigh of irritation as the image faded and the darkness of the room disappeared.

As the lights returned in the room, but the throne where the shadowed figure sat remained concealed in the darkness. A woman with short black hair walked in.

"Your Highness, we have just heard startling news!", the woman said. "In addition to those others, a new Sailor Senshi has appeared near the ruins of the old Imperial Palace. From her description, she must be none other than Princess Serenity."

"Fool!", the figure screamed, jumping up from the throne and entering the light. It was a woman in a black dress that stretched to the floor. Her hair went down to her waist, and it, too, was black. In fact, only her beautiful skin was the only thing about her that was not black.

"Of COURSE it is Princess Serenity! There is no other who could assume the identity of Sailor Moon! Get out of my sight!", she continued. The black-haired female ran from the room quickly.

"Yes...", the woman in the black dress said. "Princess Serenity has finally returned to her home. But there is nothing left for her here. She is alone, and there is no way she can defeat me."

She sat back down on her throne, and even in the darkness, her evil smile could be seen. "That's right... for I have tapped into the greatest power in the universe.", she continued. "I am a goddess now, and nothing will stop me from gaining control of everything."

The room lapsed into blackness again as the crystal ball in the center glowed back into life. Five human figures could be seen in the hazy view of the ball.

"Not even you, outsiders...", she said quietly.