Part Three : The Start of a New Friendship? Everyone Finally Meets
Listen to Kaze wa Mirai ni Fuku
Shakaku walked into the small apartment and threw her keys on the kitchen counter. There were a few dishes in the sink that Kaichuu had left from the morning, and she began washing and drying them. As she did this, she pressed the button on the message machine to see if anyone called. She had to check since the only time Kaichuu checked for a message was when she was expecting a call from Kaboku.
“One new message,” the message machine spoke out, and Shakaku continued washing as she listened to what the message had to say.
“Hey, guys, it’s Ami,” Ami’s steady and mature voice rang out. “The girls and I really need to talk to you. Give me a call back when you get home. Bye.” There was a pause and then the sound of a click as Ami hung up the phone. Shakaku was puzzled as to why the other senshi would want to speak with them, but she knew it was important because Ami never called unless it was.
Shakaku picked up the phone, and she dialed Ami’s number. It only took a few moments for Ami to answer the phone. “Mizuno residence,” Ami said.
“Ami,” Shakaku said, glad that she was able to contact the senshi and find out what was troubling her.
“Hey, Shakaku,” Ami said. Although her greeting was cheerful, the tone in Ami’s voice indicated that she was worried about something. “I called because we really need you guys to meet with us today.” Shakaku nodded even though Ami could not see the small gesture. There was a pause, and Shakaku waited for Ami to continue.
“Kaboku needs to come as well,” Ami finished. Shakaku took a deep breath and let it out slowly. All the senshi had agreed from the very beginning that Kaboku was not to attend the senshi meetings, even between the Constellations, so Shakaku was confused as to why they required him to go this time.
“He needs to go?” Shakaku asked, making sure that she hadn’t misheard.
“Yes,” Ami confirmed. “We know the risks in his coming, but he really needs to be there.” Shakaku knew then that the inner senshi had conversed about this prior to the phone call, so she could only respond that Kaboku would be there.
The two girls hung up after a few more minutes of discussing details. Soon after, Hades, Kaichuu, and Kaboku walked into the apartment. Shakaku was in her room when they arrived, so she walked out into the living room to confront them.
“You guys don’t have plans for this afternoon I hope,” Shakaku said as she walked into the living room.
“No. Why?” Kaichuu asked; Shakaku never asked about the couple’s plans.
“Ami called, and she said that we need to go to the temple,” Shakaku said, noticing the confused look on Kaichuu’s face. Even without looking, Shakaku could tell that Kaboku was also confused, so she turned to him. “That includes you.”
Kaboku widened his eyes and opened his mouth to protest. “They never let me go,” he reminded her.
“I know that,” Shakaku said as she rolled her eyes. “I didn’t ask questions, they just said that you needed to go.”
Kaboku and Kaichuu exchanged glances, uncertain why the senshi would call on them. “Better get ready while I call the others,” Shakaku said, picking up the phone again to call the other Constellations.
“This can’t be good,” Kaboku whispered to Kaichuu.
Kaichuu smiled reassuringly. “If they wanted to hurt you, they would have already done it.” Kaboku took in Kaichuu’s words, and he couldn’t help but feel better.
“I take it this isn’t a meeting for me,” Hades said as he flew over to the recliner and sat down.
Shakaku looked at him and smiled. “No, it’s just between the girls and him. Luna and Artemis won’t even be there,” she replied.
Hades face lit up sarcastically. “Great! The three of us can play peeping-tom on you girls,” he said.
“You? A peeping-tom? Isn’t that a sight for the imagination!” Shakaku said as she glanced over her shoulder to her guardian. Hades smiled innocently, and he curled up into a tighter ball on the recliner.
All of the inner senshi were present when the Constellations- Kaichuu, Shakaku, Hoshi, Dorei, and Enzeru- and Kaboku walked into one of the temple rooms. Instantly, the inner senshi threw Kaboku threatening glances, but he tried his hardest not to notice them.
The Constellations chose to sit on one side of the room, while the inner senshi stayed on the side that they had chosen.
“This is a change,” Makoto said, noting Kaboku’s rare presence at a senshi gathering. Kaichuu squeezed Kaboku’s hand in reassurance, but it didn’t help him as he couldn’t help but notice the girls each throw their own share of warning glances.
“So to what do we owe the honor of this meeting?” it was Hoshi who first broke the silence. The Constellations, as well as the majority of the inner senshi, did not know the real reason as to why they had been called, and they were anxious to find out.
“Let’s just say someone’s other girlfriend is back,” Rei said, but she tried hard not to look directly at Kaboku.
“Kerai?” Enzeru asked. “But she was destroyed just like the rest of the Dark Realm.” Kaboku had never heard of Kerai’s fate, but he felt certain that this conversation would tell him all that he needed to know.
“No, Enzeru, she wasn’t,” Rei corrected the younger girl. “She got away remember?” Kaboku’s heart skipped a beat; now he knew why the senshi wanted him to attend the meeting.
“I had a dream last night that involved Kerai, but something about it led me to believe that she wasn’t alone,” Rei explained. “Didn’t Kyuuteki send messages through dreams?” She looked at Kaboku directly for the first time, and the rest of the senshi followed her gaze. Even the Constellations turned to look at Kaboku who was sitting on one side with Kaichuu.
“That was his preferred way, yes,” Kaboku finally spoke. “But he’s dead.” Although Kaboku had not heard the entire story, he was certain of this one fact.
“Is he?” it was Ami’s turn to speak. “Didn’t someone say that as long as the Dark Realm stands, Kyuuteki is still alive?”
“And it’s still standing,” Shakaku said in realization. Kaboku glared at the senshi of fire. She was the only one who knew about that, and it was just like her to blurt out such information.
“So what’s to keep us believing that you won’t go back to him? You could very well be a spy,” Makoto said, catching onto the villain’s plan.
“It’s nice here,” Kaboku said, giving the girls reason to believe that he liked living on earth. It was true, Kaboku had loved living on earth since he first arrived, but he understood the girl’s hesitation to believe him.
“That’s not what you said a few days ago,” Makoto spat back, her green eyes firing up with a new determination. Kaboku looked at all of the senshi, stopping when he saw the smirk on Shakaku’s face.
“And you think this is what I deserve?” Kaboku asked her hatefully.
“Naturally,” she hissed, narrowing her eyes at her enemy. The inner senshi looked at Shakaku, and they all wondered what her opinion was considering she had hated him to most out of everyone.
“What do you think?” Minako’s voice broke through the tension. “Do you support him?” Shakaku looked at Minako suddenly, and then she looked at Kaichuu, whose pleading eyes were fixed on her. Shakaku couldn’t help but notice that Kaichuu’s grip on Kaboku’s hand had tightened once again. That’s when Shakaku’s gaze met Kaboku’s, which almost clearly stated how much he didn’t want her to answer the question.
She turned back to the inner senshi, and she closed her eyes briefly. “No,” she whispered. “I don’t support him, and I don’t think I ever will.” The inner senshi were shocked that Shakaku would openly admit that, and the other Constellations each took in a deep breath. Unity had almost been achieved between the senshi, and now this might be a roadblock in that development.
“Then why are you allowing this?” Rei asked. Kaboku tilted his head in Shakaku’s direction, also wondering the same thing. Shakaku looked around the room again, hoping that her answer wouldn’t make the other senshi mad.
“Let’s just say I can’t do anything until he does,” she said firmly, looking at Kaichuu as she said this. Kaboku had no idea what Shakaku was talking about, so he looked confused as the other senshi looked at him for an answer.
“Which he won’t,” Kaichuu said, trying to convince her partner that Kaboku was a good person. “It would be good if everyone would just leave him alone.” With that, the inner senshi looked at each other. It was obvious that Kaichuu had accepted him, but Shakaku could not. Who was right?
“Oh yeah, we’ll leave him alone. Just like he did when Kyuuteki was around,” Makoto blurt out. “It amazes me how he stuck by Kyuuteki, and the second he’s gone, Kaboku just decides to come over to earth. I doubt that’s a coincidence.”
“It is!” Kaichuu said, standing up in anger. Why couldn’t they just learn to accept his past and think about his future as she had? Kaboku had yet to prove her wrong, but that was the only card she was playing.
“She does have a point,” Shakaku said, looking at the couple sitting next to her. The warm look that Kaboku had acquired over time suddenly turned to ice, and the look he had on his face made her freeze. The look reminded Shakaku of when he was still with the Dark Realm. Shakaku knew that the monster still lived inside, but now her suspicions had been confirmed.
She backed away on the floor, distancing herself from Kaboku and Kaichuu. “What’s wrong?” Ami asked as she noticed Shakaku’s sudden look of fear. Shakaku couldn’t remove her gaze from Kaboku; it was obvious that something was wrong.
“Shakaku,” Minako said, wondering what could make such a strong person suddenly look frightened.
Usagi watched the small battle quietly, trying to make up her mind about the former Dark Realm follower. She decided however, that he deserved more of a chance. She took the moment of silence to speak, and she turned fully in Kaboku’s direction.
“Just know that you’re welcome. You’re not welcome with open arms, but you are welcome,” Usagi said as she looked at Kaboku, her pure blue-eyed gaze settling on him gently. Kaboku didn’t respond, but he nodded slowly, unsure as to why the leader of the senshi would make that announcement.
He turned to look directly at Shakaku, who still had her fearful gaze on him. He didn’t understand what he had done to make her suddenly afraid of him, but he noticed that she had rolled her sleeve back, and he could clearly see the garnet stone on her transformation bracelet.
“Shakaku,” Kaichuu said sternly, not amused by Shakaku’s readiness to fight. “That’s enough.” Shakaku looked at her partner, but she watched Kaboku out of the corner of her eye. Kaichuu clearly didn’t know what Shakaku knew, but she was going to keep her from worrying for as long as possible. What if Shakaku was wrong after all?
“You know,” Kaichuu said, turning to all of the senshi, and they looked ready to hear what she said. “In America we have this thing that says that everyone is innocent until proven guilty.” The inner senshi looked at each other, and the Constellations also looked at each other in confusion. “Prove to me that he’s guilty,” Kaichuu dared them. The look in her eyes was determined, and everyone remained silent. No one spoke; everyone knew quite well that there was no evidence to prove that Kaboku was still loyal to the Dark Realm. Not even Shakaku could make a good response to this statement.
After the meeting, Rei decided to pray to the fires for answers. She was the last to leave the main room where the senshi had been, and she went to her room to change into her robes. She could pray to the fires in her school uniform, but it just felt right to change into her formal praying robes.
After helping Yuuchirou with some visitors, Rei went into one of the meditation rooms, the same one, as luck would have it, that she and Yuuchirou had found her grandfather in the previous night.
After making herself comfortable, Rei began to go through her normal prayer routine. At first there was no response, but she was able to sense a small bit of energy from the fire. Once this energy had settled, Rei noticed a dark figure playing with the fire. The figure was small at first, but it soon grew to be a prominent size.
Just as Rei was beginning to understand the figure, it disappeared in the fire, and Rei was left with nothing. Rei blinked, not believing that she almost had a vision, but it vanished like a thief in shadow.
Suddenly the vision returned, and Rei felt sick to her stomach. She began sweating uncontrollably as she looked at the even larger figure in the fire. However, the feeling of darkness did not come from the fire, it came from the doorway behind Rei instead. She turned slowly, and she widened her eyes in shock as she stared eye-to-eye with Kaboku, whose steely gray gaze looked down on her from the doorway.
“Does that count as evidence?” Rei asked as she grabbed onto her stomach tighter to ease the pain. Kaboku looked at her, truly wishing that there were some way that he could get her and the other senshi to accept him.
“That was just a coincidence,” Kaboku said, calmly, although he knew that Rei was most likely going to tell the other senshi about this experience. Rei closed her eyes, and the pain in her stomach eased a bit. She had never received such a powerful reaction from getting a vision in the flames, and she wondered if he was in fact still evil enough to cause that.
“That’s never happened before,” she hissed. “So that must mean something.”
Kaboku let out a sigh slowly, knowing that there was almost no way to convince her. “If I wanted to do anything, I would have already done it,” he said after taking a few minutes to think about it. It was funny to him since Kaichuu had used that line to explain the senshi’s feelings to Kaboku; now Kaboku had to explain himself to the senshi.
Rei thought about Kaboku’s word, but she still couldn’t believe him when he had spent so long supporting the Dark Realm. “The Dark Realm was my home,” Kaboku said as if reading Rei’s thoughts. “No other place had accepted me, and I was ready to fight to protect it.”
Rei had never thought about this, so she took a moment to do so. Could it really be that Kaboku had only served the Dark Realm because he had nowhere else to go? “You could have come to earth,” she said, still trying to ease the throbbing pain in her stomach.
Kaboku rose an eyebrow and grinned. “And has earth accepted me the way that the Dark Realm did?” Rei froze. He had a point. And she hated that.
Kaboku worked on the math problem even more, trying his best to concentrate on what was directly in front of him. But no, he wasn’t able to concentrate, and his mind continued to wonder toward the situation that he was now in. The Calculus problem in front of him meant nothing as he sat back and thought about the encounter with Rei. As he thought, he looked around the apartment, trying to find something to think about.
His apartment was lavishly furnished, where everything was a dark brown wood accented with black. Everything was neatly put away and in proper order. Kaboku had even managed to learn how to use the kitchen, and it was also clean and stacked with the things he needed. His room was set to the far right of the living room, and the door was open to let some air in. The same could be said about the balcony door, which had vertical blinds and led to a small but comfortable balcony.
But none of that mattered to Kaboku. He stretched his legs out on the recliner where he was sitting, but that didn’t help at all to ease the tension.
He closed the book an got up, deciding to go for a walk to make himself feel better. Unlike before, the crisp afternoon air made him feel more relaxed, and he often chose to walk when he had stuff to think about. He grabbed his coat from the closet, walked out of the apartment, and locked the door behind him.
He watched as a group of kids played in front of him in the hall, and they moved to the side as he passed them. “I’m going to be like him when I grow up,” one little boy said, noting Kaboku’s tall and muscular frame.
“I’m gonna marry him when I grow up,” the little girl said with dreamy eyes as she watched Kaboku go down the hall. Kaboku smiled as he heard her comment. As least the little kids accepted him even if the senshi didn’t.
He walked down the stairs slowly, choosing to use them instead of the elevator to have some more time and distance to walk.
As he got to thinking, Kaboku smiled to himself. He liked the way his life had turned out. He was a third year student at the best high school in Tokyo, he had a wonderful girlfriend, and he had a healthy relationship with almost everyone that he knew except for the senshi who still regarded him with evil glares whenever they saw him.
But who could blame them? Kaboku thought to himself. He had spent his whole life serving the Dark Realm and suddenly he was placed on a strange planet. He had, however, made the most of it.
Kaboku reached the first floor, and there was an extra bounce in his step as he walked out of the apartment. However, he lost his good temper when he noticed a young man no older than himself standing outside of the apartment building Kaboku had just stepped out of.
The guy had an icy green gaze that made Kaboku certain that he had seen this person before. He was tall with a frock of white hair that went to his shoulders, but it was tied back in a low ponytail. Kaboku took note that he was taller than the other man, and he knew that the other had noticed the same thing, but it did not whip away the confident look on his face.
“Long time no see,” the man spoke out in an icy tone that matched his eyes. Kaboku stepped back, knowing instantly who this was.
“Kash,” Kaboku said as he narrowed his eyes. The two stood silently for a moment watching each other.
“Having fun on earth?” Kash asked, but his tone was mocking and rude.
“It’s a good thing Kyuuteki’s gone,” Kaboku said, knowing that Kash was going to bring up the subject.
“He’s only gone because of traitors like you,” Kash said, his voice rising in anger. Kyuuteki had treated Kash like a brother, and Kash was not going to forgive Kaboku for letting Kyuuteki be defeated.
“He had the wrong ideas,” Kaboku said firmly. “Just like you do.” Before Kaboku could say any more, his ears picked up the slight sound of footsteps coming from the apartment. However, he still kept his eyes locked with Kash’s. He hoped that nothing would happen as he saw Kaichuu and Shakaku walk out through the corner of his eye. If things happened as usual, Shakaku would make a comment that would land all three of them in hot water.
Kash took notice of the two girls, and they froze when he turned in their direction. Shakaku knew instantly that something was wrong, noticing the tension between the two males, but Kaichuu could only take a guess as to what was happening. Kash looked at Kaichuu, wondering who she was, but he could sense that she and Kaboku were connected in some way.
But Kash stopped when he looked at Shakaku. The depth of her obsidian eyes made him think that he had seen her before. It took a few full seconds before he realized that this was Sailor Phoenix. “Making friends with Constellations, are we?” Kash suddenly spoke, turning to Kaboku, who sent Shakaku a warning glance.
When Shakaku stepped forward, Kash looked back at her, his icy green gaze settling on the senshi before him. “I remember,” Kash continued, turning slowly back to Kaboku, “When there was a time when a certain senshi almost killed one of Kyuuteki’s followers.” Kaboku remembered what Kash was talking about quite clearly, but he chose not to think about it.
“It’s not like that anymore; people change,” Kaboku replied. Shakaku widened her eyes and stepped forward in protest. It wasn’t like that at all as far as she was concerned.
Kash noticed the slight movement, and he grinned. “She doesn’t seem to think so,” he said with a tilt of his head in Shakaku’s direction. Not waiting for a reply, Kash turned around and walked away.
Shakaku watched Kash leave, still wondering the same thing as Kash. Had they met before? She was so busy thinking about this, that she hadn’t even noticed Kaboku move toward her. In a quick, sudden movement, Kaboku was in front of Shakaku, and he firmly pushed her against the wall of the apartment building. Shakaku’s eyes shot open, and she found herself looking directly at a resident of the Dark Realm.
“Aren’t you the one who’s always talking about unity?” Kaboku said dangerously, and he let his nails dig into her shoulders.
“She didn’t mean anything bad,” Kaichuu said, determined to stop a fight that was almost guaranteed to happen. Shakaku forced Kaboku’s hold off of her, and she walked to the door.
Before she entered, she turned around and sent Kaboku a venomous glare. “Or maybe I did,” she said, clearly angered at Kaboku’s rough threat. “You’re wrong, though; we have unity.” With that, Shakaku walked through the doors, leaving Kaboku and Kaichuu looking at each other in amazement.
Back to Part Two ~
On to Part Four